Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-25

L
shall not mention his name because he
is a very modest man, this gentleman;
but II ever any man has performed
great and memorable duty to the public
in this crisis, it is that man.
Now, look here, my friends, I don't
need to read you the names Of these
men that have been aScertained &C
curately by The Herald. They are
saloon keepers. They are keepers of
worse than saloons There are plenty
of pretty good men keeping saloons.
/ have known a lot of them, and some
in this town that are decent men in
their way. 1t is not exactly your way,
perhaps, nor my way, but in their way
they are honorable and upright men,
and do what they think is the square
thing, whether it be the good or the
best thing or not.
Now, I am not blaming these men
particularly-that is, the saloon men
but / intend to ask you, my friends.
I suppose there are business men in
this crowd? I believe the morning
Times says we are mostly long-hatred
hypocrites Qaughter), and one thing
and another. But 1 beg pardon for re-
ferring to that. There are business
men here, I know.
II want to ask you business men if
you were organizing a corporation you
would send out your agents to sell
stock, that is, If you were getting up a
real corporation-a corporation which
was q corporation, that meant business,
and was got up for business-would
you send out your agents to sell stock
to Goings and to Chowder House Jim
and whole helPs mint of just such
stuff as that?
Would you be willing to sell the
stock of your corporation to such men
and meet them by and by around the
round table Of your executive board
carrying on the business of your corpo-
ration? There is not any of you that
would not Just as soon think of stick
ing his hand in the fire. OF course you
would not do 1t. I need not ask the
question.
Not the Worst
Neither would the mayor have done
it If it was a real corporation that was
affected. But that was not the worst.
Let us suppose it was a real corpora
ton. 1 do not know but what 1t was.
They may be making tons and tons Of
sugar, and they may be taking out all
sorts of oil, fusel oil, and all kinds Of
But why were these men appealed to
to buy this stock? My friend Judge
Works the other evening characterized
it as being an invitation on the part Of
the seller of the stock to the other
party to bribe him or bride the mayor;
that it was asking to be bribed, in 9TH
er words, and that the men who bought
the stock were bribing. There is hard
ly any element Of that kind in it.
"It was simply BLACKMAIL, old
fashioned BLACKMAIL. (Great cheer
ing).
"You have got your deadfall down
here. You have got the place down
here where the vices that Turk in dark
ness find their resorts. There are places
here where children still in short
dresses are inveigled and made drunken
and dehauched, where the little girls
with plated hair hanging down their
backs have entered, where their feet
took hold on hell.
Buy this stock How long do you
suppose Goings would have hesitated
upon an invitation Of that sort to buy
stock?
But what is the meaning Of 1t? If
he had sent his police next day and
taken out all he found violating the
law there it would have been bad
enough.
But we are told a newspaper re-
porter could go in with perfect i'm
punity and take a point of view there
where little girl was seen to come in
and sit down by a table. Two whiSkies
were given her in rapid succession,
and then she was carried aloft by a
male companion.
"Of course that might have happened
once, and. it might just have happened
the newspaper reporter was there on
just that one occasion when it hap
pened But do you believe that? And
when that thing was published, have
you heard of any raid being made or Of
any stop being put to that sort of
thing? Of that other place over here
called the Manhattan hotel.
There has not been any raid except
Eddie NOrT-iS' Mo
at once APPEALED to A. c. you know.
Call up A. c., and he'll turn us all
loose!'
Now, my friends, this, you say, is
the moral aspect of it. Yes; and 1
want to say to you the government Of
a fair city like Los Angeles has more
than one aspect, that it has moral
aspect. (Cheers.) And the largest as
pect, after ALL is its moral aspect. We
have an able and conscientious Judge
sitting up in the court house devoting
his life and his heart and his soul to
the effort to save the erring boys and
girls in the parental court he has es-
tablished there, and this, if he achieves
nothing else in his life, shall give him
honor till the last hour of his days.
(Cheers.)
But, cui bono? What good, when
there is upon every corner and between
corners scoundrels lurking, lying in
THESE
dens of infamy and iniquity these same
untaught, helpless and erring children
that Judge Wilbur is trying to save up
at the court house?
Duty as Citizens
I'VE. have got to work with both
hands. 1t is all right to take care of
your economics. 1t is all right to guard
these tWenty-odd millions of dollars
that we have voted to bring the water
down here, my friends, and nobody
VIII help you any more zealously than
l viii. 1t is all right to count the
three or four millions of dollars that
pass through the same hands outside
of that fund.
There are other economic purposes
In this recall movement. It is more
than right; it is our sworn duty as
citizens to follow out to it's end our
announced purpose. And let us not
forget for one hour in the twenty-four
that we are sworn to do it.
But let me tell you that it is Just as
imperative, just as obligatory upon us
to SAVE THE CHILDREN Of this
town from the ruination and the temp
tation of the practices which have been
carried on here by the permission of
the constabulary and the executive of
this city as it is to care for economics.
cloud and prolonged cheering, renewed
again and again)
Now, my friends, do you believe
that if Mayor Harper is removed from
his office we cannot get a man in
this town who has no stock in the
same corporations with those neonIe
who are carrying on this mischief and
conducting these hell-holes in this
city? That we cannot at least put
some limit upon this fragrant viola
ton Of the law?