Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-26
OUR DISTRESSED CON-
TEMPORARY
lust at present the most amusi

morning Republican contemporary ap-
pears to have been reduced by the very
successful administration with which
Mayor Alexander-the recall mayor, be
it borne in mind--is favoring this city.
The morning exponent of Republican
partisan politics as applied to city gov
ernment has probably never sustained
a more acute disappointment in all its
existence than 1t has met with in the
record which Mayor Alexander is maxi
ing. After making all sorts of pre-
dictions as to inability on his part to
do anything in the short time that he
would have to serve If elected; after
all sorts of slurring remarks about his
age and lack of ability-to be faced
with the incontrovertible fact that in
his intelligent care for the welfare of
the people of this city; in his success
in saving the city's money and in what
he has accomplished within the short
time that he has been in office toward
lifting the government of the city from
the sloual of corruption and ineffi-
cheney into which it had fallen to the
position of the highest honesty and eff
fectiveness--Mayor Alexander has ac-
complished very wonderful results
must be gall and wormwood Of the
bitterest sort to this opponent of the
recall. To the jaundiced eyes of our
sorely disappointed contemporary,
nothing that the mayor has done ap-
pears worthy of praise or commenda-
ton.
If the mayor saves the city more
than $4,000 in the purchase of two
sites for fire engine houses, this act is
sneeringly referred to as 1.-The mayors
real estate deal"
If he attempts to have abolished the
positions of five deputies of the tax
and license collector. who are wrong
fully drawing several hundred dollars
per month of the peoples money from
the city treasury and by their ineffi-
cient meddling with duties which the
law of the city assigns to the police
force are preventing the collection OF
thousands of dollars each month of
licenses due the city, our contemporary
can only see in such action upon the
mayor's part "a scheme to drive five
deputies of the tax and license colleo-
tor out of their offices by abolishing
their positions"
If the mayor vetoes an ordinance
giving to the Southern Pacific company
a. long-term franchise to put four
tracks on grade across one Of the city's
streets where these tracks would be
perpetual menace to the inhabitants OF
the city and would at the same time
inf1ict great injury on the property
upon this street, our contemporary can
only see in such an act refusal to the
railroad company Of the right to place
spur tracks across a street where there
are already tracks and where addition
al facilities were needed for handling
the great crowds during the Elks'
week" And this, notwithstanding the
fact that the mayors veto was sus-
tained by the council which had passed
the ordinance after he had called the
councils attention to the vicious ele-
ments in 1t, and the mayor in his veto
message recommended that the rail-
road company be given a temporary
permit for laying down such tracks as
were necessary to accommodate the
crowds incident to the Elks' celebra-
tion. It should be borne in mind, also'
that when the railroad company found
that it would not be granted fran
chise of many years duration, under
the excuse of temporary necessities in
cident to the week of the Elks' visit,
it announced its ability to provide for
the crowds on other
portions of its existing tracks.
Even when the mayor vetoes an or
dinance repeating a city law requiring
the bakers of the city to deal honestly
with their customers, our very much
discounted and distressed contempor-
airy endeavors to deprive him of any
credit TO which this veto may entitle
him, by claiming that the ordinance
protecting the purchasers of bread
which was afterward framed and
passed by the city council in accord
ance with the suggestion contained In
the mayors veto message, was the
product of a member of the council
for which the mayor should receive no
credit.
Our contemporary winds up recent
very weak editorial effort to criticise
the mayor by asking How did Los
Angeles ever get along without Uncle
Aleck?"
Purely for the purpose of fewarding
our. contemporary's search for knowl-
edge and disclaiming any desire to add
to it's very evident distress, we will en-
deavor to submit a short answer to
this question:
While the city of Los Angeles was
without Uncle Aleck' for the past
two years it got along:
BY having it's police force officered
by men who were accepting as graft
the most infamous money that human
beings can touch;
By having a lot of city officials who
used their power over certain busi-
nesses in the community to force con-
tributions in the form of stock sub
scriptions in business enterprises in
which they were interested and to col
lect graft in various other forms;
BY having men who were grafters
appointed to some of the most impor-
tant positions in the gift of the city,
where their penchant for grating
could have been exercised in a way
that would have cost the city not only
many thousands, but probably many