The San Francisco call., 1908-10-18
WHY DOES MR.. EGAN
WANT FRANCHISE! +!
Promoter Appears Before Super
visOrs and Asks for Privilege
to Operate Street Railway
Fails TO Make Satisfactory Ex-
PLANTATION Regarding Financial
Backers and His Intentions

Who is John J. Egan, who would have
the voters of san Francisco give him
franchises TO 24o miles of street rail-
ways in this city?
Is he is a visionary who would en-
tangle the city in a monumental pre-
dicament fastening upon it an absolute
monopoly of street railroads?
Is he an agent of the United Rail-
roads?
Is the list of alleged hackers he pre-
sents authentic?
Egan, the promoter who would have
the voters Of San Francisco commit to
him street railroad franchises on 240
miles of the city streets, was asked to
explain his proposition to members Of
the board Of supervisors and the execu-
tive committee of the San Francisco
labor council yesterday afternoon, and
10 answer in substance the above ques-
uOns. Egan applied to Andrew ]. CAL
lagher, secretary of the council, for aid
in his campaign, and Gallagher asked
Supervisors Daniel c. Murphy and
Ralph McLaren, and Michael Casey,
president of the board of public works
Richard Cornelius, president of the car
mems union. and Charles L. Schilling.
chairman Of the executive committee Of
TIE EOQuCll- 10 meet Win the promoter.
Egan could not make a satisfactory
showing before the conference. Super
visor Murphy showed that If Egan Sc
cured the rights he asked fo- he would
hold for himself and assigns a streetcar
monopoly of gigantic proportions which
might easily become affiliated with the
United Railroads and would then abso-
lutely prevent competition during the
25 year term Of the franchise, unless
the municipality should secure portions
OF the line.
HAS BIG BACKING
Egan declared that he had behind
him the backing of IS of the largest
financial institutions and fnanciers of
New York. In strict confidence he sub
mitted to the council committee a list
of names purpOrting to be his hackers
While some Of the committee seemed to
accept Egan's prOtestations. others de-
claFed almost pointblank that the list
of names presented was fraudulent.
The committee viii take the matter un-
der advisement and report to the labor
council on next Friday night.
Egan insisted that the United Rail-
roads had nothing to do with his
project, but the silence Of that cor
poration in regard to Egan's operations
has aroused the susbicions of members
OF the council He offered to make a
covenant with the committee that he
would not assign his holdings to the
Calhoun corporation, but that was
shown TO be an impossibility.
Egan is an engineer by occupation
and is somewhat of an inventor. He
has never operated nor promoted any
street railroad nor other large enter
prise. His occupation during the last
three years has been unsuccessfully to
present more or less fantastic PROPOSE
tiOns for local streetcar franchises to
the supervisors. He is native of this
city, and has a brother, Frank Egan, on
the police force. He lives at 1928 Fell
street
The magnitude Of the proposition
which Egan advances is shown by the
figures he gave yesterday. He esti-
mated the entire cost at S24, 900, 900. OF
this sum he admitted that he could put
up about $4,000 He said that he had
on hand $4,000 which he was TO spend
in newspaper advertising between now
and election time. Three or four DAYS