The San Francisco call., 1908-12-02
.COGHLAN MAY GET
UNSOUGnT HONOR
Forty-first District Orator to
Lead San Francisco Dele
CATION Again
Perine's Friends Deny That He
Is Angling for Chair
manship
By George Van Smith


cisco legislative delegation. which gos-
sip has hopscotching around between
George NJ. Perine. of the forty-fourth,
and Dominic j. Beban, of the forty
third. may find its way back to Nat
Coghlan. of the forty-f first, whose un-
terrified oratory has made him one OF
| the most feared gladiators in the ranks
OF the machine regulars, for half a
! dozen years
Coghlan does not seek the honor of
leading again the San Francisco dele
| cation. which by force of numbers,
II nothing else, is one of the most i'm
portant committees in the California
legislative scheme Coghlan is not un-
mindful of the honor which attaches to
the marshal of the San Francisco
| legion, and he realizes that he wore
those honors most gracefully, not to
say vigorously, two years ago. But
| Coghlan is both blase and modest.
Honors are as nothing to him. He has
| tired of them and henceforth they must
| seek him. Also there is just the least
] bit of a crouch in the system of the
statesman from the forty first. The
| chalrmanship of the San Francisco
! delegation has not been offered to him
| In the right way yet, and his friends
and admirers intimate that until some
sort of reparation is made by the field
| officers of the machine, Nat Will be
! the real austere person.
1
OWES MACHINE NOTHING
They say that Nat owes the railroad
machine nothing this time Indeed
they go further and declare that john
| ME Lynch, who resigned from the bank
| commission TO become Herrins chief
Hessian in San Francisco objected to
Coghlan's nomination, on the ground
that Nat could not win. More than
| that they assert that after Coghlan
! Ing tod ha
money for his campaign. Coghlan
wanted the senatorial nomination to
| succeed Johnnie Nelson. Lynch bowled
! him out of that and threw the nomi-
nation to Lester Burnett, who. in
| Lynchs opinion. could show a clear
| on Pacific heights. Cow Hollow stuck
to Coghlan for denomination to the
assembly in spite of Lynch.
| Coghlan's race for reelection was
| walkaway. while Burnetts title TO the
silk stocking vote showed serious
flaws. He managed to squeeze through
by the skin of his teeth, in a district
poll about 60 per cent of the whole
| vote. If Coghlans friends had not
been held down they could and would
have trimmed Burnett without turn
ing hair and the returns showed IL.
| Coghlans friends, and they are the
point to the returns as the most con-
elusive vindication of the prowess of
the matchless orator from under the
hill.
Then when the powers that be
should have been around begging
Coghlan to assume the leadership OF
the San Francisco delegation again,
malicious tongues were whispering
that there was a serious objection to
Coghlan because "he represented cor
porations." Not bad that.
PERINE MENTIONED
George M Perine, assemblyman elect
| from the forty fourth. a businessman
of considerable prominence and whose
exalted positions in secret society cir
cles had given him a state wide ac-
quaintance. was mentioned for the
4 place. Perine gave a dinner to the
members elect of the delegation and
invitations are out now for banquet
to be given by him at the Fairmont
on December s. Those dinner invita-
tions gave Perine the complexion of an
active candidate and Coghlan's friends
promptly presented the name of Domi-
mic J. Beban, a Ruef veteran, re elected
: in the forty third, Coghlan gave it
out that he was not candidate to
succeed himself and that he wanted
, Beban to have the honor of which he
had tired.
Nanny Strauss county committee
man from the forty fourth who put
the honor of an assembly nomination
away, that it might be conferred on
Perine, and who assumes to speak
for Perine, Indignantly denies that
Perine is trying to hook the delegation
chairmanship with banquet bait, or
any other bait. NANNY who always
speaks by the card and who expects
to let Perine put him on the legislative
aspirant for the chairmanship and that
his banouets are given simply as a
means to the end that the San Fran
ciscans may become acquainted before
they take up the burden of statecraft
Beban Is not making a vigorous cam
paign for the place. for which, by tenn
permanent, experience and afiliation
Coghlan is the logical and best fitted
member of the local host. All OF
which. to the minds of many of the
politically wise. indicates that Coghlan
may be induced finally not to abandon
San Francisco and her statesmen pilot
less on the stormy sloughs of Sacra-
mento.
BANQUET DATE CHANGES
The Perine banquet was originally
planned for December 8, but the Com
monwealth club expressed desire to
meet the Legislators at dinner on that
evening and Perine. instead OF aban-
doning his dinner, decided to give the
Fairmont the prestige of entertaining
the local statesmen twice and Just
amended his invitations to read Be
cember 8.
A caucus may be held after or before
the Perine dinner for the discussion
of purely local legislation. The pres
ence of the democrats will probably
|, preclude topics hinging on orgni-
zation.
u SAN FRANCISCAN KILLED