Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-11

PUBIC FUNDS can be used IOr tIldt pur-
pose. The work cannot be well done
unless 1t Is properly and generously
financed. Great reform movements In
other places have always been Sc
backed up. 1t is well known that the
cleansing of San Francisco, for IN
stance, is due almost entirely to the
generosity and patriotism of Rudolph
Spreckels, and the recent revelations
of municipal graft in Pittsburg, which
undoubtedly will result eventually ~
good government for that city, could
not possibly have been made unless an
immense secret service fund had been
guaranteed and created beforehand.
know of only one citizen in Los
Angeles who has shown willingness
to spend thousands of dollars IN sucn
work. 1t is not right or desirable that
the load should be borne by one mar
and If the work is to be done here as II
should be done number of men who
can afford 1t should collectively agree
to contribute the necessary funds.
VIII Encourage Reform
The announcement that this perma-
nent fund has been raised for the pur-
poses named should have a wonderful
ly encouraging and stimulating effect
upon the forces for good government
in our city, and a correspondingly de-
pressing effect upon the forces for evil
which have long recognized the weak
ness of reform movements on account
of their general lack of financial sup
port. while venal politicians have no
difficulty in securing large con ,,,I,noo
lions from predatory and privilege
seeking interests.
IT is not contemplated that the
Good Government fund shall do any
thing more than raise and dlspurse
money. The actual work to be sup
ported would be done, as at present
by other organizations.
Viewed strictly as a business propo-
sItion. the raising and wise expendi-
ture Of such fund would pay. From
a moral and patriotic viewpoint 1t Is
at least equally important. Men do nor
hesitate to give large annual SubscrlF
tions and endowments to charitable
and philanthropic institutions, but the
important benefits to the state arising
from the liberal support OF govern
mental reform seem not to be general.
that crime. poverty and disease be pre-
vented as 1t Is that the unfortunate
victims be assisted after the event.
listen to what that great weekly,
the New York Independent. says:
.iThe political chiefs of American
cities have for hundred years SO con,
Quoted government that 1T destroyed
babies lives, poisoned milk, manuIae-
tured sickness and Industrial lnefn-
cheney. because neither these oft1cials
themselves nor their blind partisan FOL
lowers nor the forces of righteousness
have realized the connection between
and wretchedness,
sickness. crime, poverty and Industrial
disorders"
Fiaures Of Expenses
rhara has been such gross, willful
instrumentation on the part OF tne
press concerning inc
a amount of money used in Los Angeles
that | feel sure the facts in this con-
nection will be interesting.
The first partisan city campaign
cost about $4,000. several thousanas
of which had to be raised after the
election, for a dead horse. some Oh
you may know how easy IL Is u se'
that kind of money.
About an equal amount or money
was spent in the Lincoln Roosevelt
league campaign in Los Angeles coun-
ty in a period of activity extending
through a whole year, and this, not
the fact that 1t was
charged by the push" in their cam
paign literature that our expenditures
amounted to several hundred tnou-
sand dollars; and the expenses Oh the
expense of procuring the signatures
for the recall petition and the nom
mating petition for Mr.. Alexander
amount to just about the same figure.
In each one of these three great
contests it cost just about $4,000 10
make the race. But this was with
strict economy. Considerably more
than that is really required to make
the right sort OF a campaign in the
city of Los Angeles, every cent OF
which can be used legitimately. And
I want to say in passing that in all
the political work 1 have spoken of,
not one penny has been used for any
questionable purpose; and I speak
from personal knowledge.
Loss Necessarily Heavy
To the uninitiated, $4,000 may look
like a whole lot of money to spend ON
a political campaign, but when 1t Is
that there are 1S9 precincts
In the city of Los Angeles alone and
$50 in the county of Los Angeles, and
that we have total registration in
Los Angeles city of over 10000, and in
the whole county of about 100000 and
that it costs several thousand dollars
to circularize the voters of this county
by mail one time, we begin to realize
how much money is required for the
necessary purposes of a political cam
paign in city of S07,322 Inhabitants.
In reading q morning paper l notice
that the president of the chamber of
commerce is quoted as saying that he
estimates the increase of population OF
Los Angeles as 10 per cent per annum,
and that we ought to have 100000 pop
ulation in ten years.
Mr. Booth forgot to use his COM
pound interest table when he figured
his 10 per cent. An increase of 10 per
cent each year in ten years would
to an increase of 100 per cent.
which would give us in that time
population of 100000.
The city of Los Angeles has tripled
in population in the last three dec
AIDES, and I can see no reason why it
should not do the same in the next ten
years, and with the important devel-
opments going on and the great addi-
ton of population which will come to
Los Angeles through its territorial Elk.
pansion and consolidation with ada
cent towns think it very safe to say
that we will have a population of
million in 1920.
sary to organize again for the NUM-
cipal election to be held in December.
For Coming Contest
/ have already suggested the or
ganization of Good Government
league. and l hope to see some such
perfected. Undoubtedly,
in the next campaign and in all sue
ceeding campaigns, there will be the
usual opposition to the forces of good
and while / do not be-
lieve that the contest will be any more
difficult than the one we have just
been through, there's many slip
'twixt the cup and the lip, and po-
litical contest is never won till the
votes are counted.
We rullst ramamher however, that in