Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-16
MAYORS TREACHERY

A RTHUR c. HARPER has capped
N the climax of his igHoble career
- and has rendered most impera-
lively necessary his retirement from
public life by his extraordinary and
most outrageous attempt to interfere
between the people of Los Angeles and
the passage of consolidation legislation
in the form and shape satisfactory to
Los Angeles and not to the corpora
tons.
The meddlesone mayor, apparently
not satisfied with the amount of mis-
chief of which he has already been the
cause, not satisfied with having
dragged the name of Los Angeles
through the mire, not satisfied with
having caused his Disguised fellow citi-
zens to resort to drastic methods in
order to get rid of him, must needs
HE to Sacramento and with all the
unblushing odium of the Recall thick
upon him he precipitated himself, I'M
invited, into the thick of affairs and
tried to BETRAY LOS ANGELES by
foisting a compromise measure on the
consolidation workers. The Mayors
latest vagary or eccentricity bears
marks of mental perturbation and
Dockweiler was probably telling the
blunt truth when he blurted: ''You
know Harper is in the midst of a
Recall campaign, and it will be a ire
mendous help to him if it be made
known that he came up here and sue
ceeded in bringing about a compromise
of this character through his own eff
forts''
Now, what was "this character?''
What was the nature of the compro-
mise? The mayors reasoning powers
led him to believe he would be making
political capital for himself by betray-
ing the people to the Southern Pacific
while he was pretending to help the
people. He wished to please the ma
chine. He wished to fool the people.
His latest cantrip would give color to
the suggestion that in his heart he
thinks we people of Los Angeles are
"a bunch of rubes.' The outlook for
the railroads measure advocated by
Savage was becoming gloomer and
gioomier, and the senate had been
brought to a point where the passage
of the original Mccartney bill was as
sured, when Harper appeared on the
scene. Since he is still mayor of Los
Angeles the message he brought was
by some regarded as official in char
cfn 70 hka or
long as Los Angeles could not get g
law permitting consolidation by q
majority vote it would be willing tt
meet the railroad forces half way
compromising on a % per cent petit
ton and a So per cent vote, with the
stipulation that if the question should
be defeated it should not be raised
again for two years! The members OF
the. Los Angeles delegation cannot
break their convention pledges which
commit them to a majority vote, and
they will stand by the original Nc
CARNEY bill. Harper's attempt to
wreck the consolidation program
failed, and unless some senator alb
sents himself today or goes back on
his solemn pledge the senate will
stand by the people asE against the
Southern Pacific railroad and it's ma
chine mayor and faithful servant, A.
c. Harper. If Harper were actually in
the pay of the railroads, if he had
actually received a fee for his serv-
ices, he could not have attempted to
do more to injure Los Angeles than he
attempted yesterday. 1t is fortunate
for this city that soon it will be per-
manently rid of the unfaithful public
servant whose official record is a Sc
ries of betrayals of his constituents
and whose GROWING act of duplicity
perfidy and apostasy, if he had been
successful in carrying his plans
through to a conclusion, would have
been one OF treachery to consolidation.