Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-07-05
PROSPERITY
and BOODL|NG
A, San FRANCISCO EXAMPLE
WORTHY OF notice.
Can a CITY Better Afford to COndOne
NuniCipal Robbery Than to De-
mand Clean Government? Business
Interests Must Unite for an Hone st
Administration.

We have received the following
communication from the Good Gov
ernment League of San Francisco:
During the past three years San
Francisco has undertaken to punish
her criminals, high and low, rich and
poor, without prejudice. In doing
SO she has reached into the highest
circles social and financial. Men high
in the business world have been in
dicted and prosecuted with great
vigor.
"The argument has been used that
these prosecutions are hurting bus1-
ness. and that therefore they should
be discontinued. We are therefore
desirous of obtaining consensus OF
national opinion, and are writing to
a number of editors in various parts
of the country for the purpose OF as
certaining the editorial attitude OF
their respective papers on this vital
subject, with particular reference to
the following:
I-Does the prosecution or
wealthy persons charged with civic
crimes injure business; or does 1t inn
proye the financial standing of a
city in the eyes of outside investors?
Why?
"2-Would San Francisco profit fl
nancially by abandoning the present
prosecution; or would 1t be to the
permanent material advantage OF the
city to prosecute to a final determin-
alton the indicted "higher-ups," So
called? Why?
It ought to be possible to get COM
prehensive commercial evidence on
this point. We have nothing ut
hand except the bank clearings which
are only single line of evidence
and which yield no clear result SO
far as we have looked at them.
Pittsburg has been Furnishing it's ras-
calls and Boston has been. Philadel-
phia has attempted no recent prose-
cution of its boodlers, and 1t has
not even resisted them at the polls
seriously for nearly four years. The
bank clearings in this city last year
were III per cent. less than the
year before. In Pittsburg they fell
further in arrears, being 24.S be-
hind the previous year, but in Bos-
ton they were only 9.S per cent. be-
hind in 1907. In the shrinkage OF
bank clearings the city that has had
no house-cleaning stands midway
between the two which have been
trying to punish the boodlers.
For five months this year the
bank clearings in this city were 1921
per cent. better than a year ago;
those in Pittsburg were only Al bet
ter than year ago, while those In
Boston were 2O.2 per cent. better
Again Philadelphia ranks between
Boston and Pittsburg, and all we
can saw is that the iron business
was badly hit by the recent depres-
sion.
The pretense that the prosecution
of boodlers hurts business is in all
probability the most impudent false
hood ever invented by the corrupt
and criminal politicians to scare on
prosecution. Is any merchant more
likely to buy goods in city where
boodling goes unpunished than in a
CITY which sends its rascalS to the
penitentiary? Is any grown-up man
so unsophisticated as to accept the
absence of prosecutions as evidence
that there is no political crime? Is
there any manufacturer or merchant
who. in seeking location, would
prefer one in which corroupt Coun-
cilmen are never exposed and pun
ished?
To ask these questions is to an
swer them. The men who are try
ing to avert prosecutions on the
ground that they hurt business are
afraid of being prosecuted. Not one
of them would dare to give frank
and rational answer to these ques-
tions. We have here men who depre-
cate the prosecution of political ras-
calls, but they are careful not to
give their reasons in detail. If they
are correct, honest business depends
upon dishonest politics and we do
not believe this for a minute. We