Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-17
THE HERALD AND THE
GRAND JURY

| Wv contemporary on yesterday said
Grand jurors, some Of them,
were incensed at the raw and blunder-
ing attempts OF the Evening Express
and the poor outwitted Herald to in
! ttmidate them into bringing in a report
| finding vice officially protected in Los
Angeles it fell into q very radical
error, as far as The Herald is con-
cerned.
The Herald has never attempted
to 'intimidate the grand jury
into bringing in report finding
vice officially protected in Los
Angeles for the reason that
The Herald has never for mo-
ment doubted that the evidence
which it has reason to know the
grand jury must have received,
provided the witnesses that were
called by it were properly .ex-
amined, must have convinced it
so fully upon this matter as to
make it unnecessary for any per-
son or newspaper to attempt to
intimidate its members into any
line of action.
The Herald has for ten days past
been engaged in giving publicity to GER
tain FACTS relating to the admins
tration Of city affairs by Mayor Harper
and some OF his official appointees.
These facts have not been denied, nor
To x1-iT1 ha faI
for the reason that there is absolutely
nothing upon which to base q denial.
Inasmuch as The Herald has noted from
the list of witnesses called before the
grand jury as they have appeared day
by day in the columns Of the news
papers that the very persons who fur
nished 1t the facts which it has pub
Jury as witnesses, 1t cannot doubt
that the grand Jury received the same
information upon which The Herald's
publications have been based.
To doubt this would be to suppose
that Captain Fredericks the district
attorney, and his deputies who exam
ined these witnesses had not done their
to base such a supposition.
Furthermore, The Herald has reason
to believe that the grand jury obtained
much evidence that The Herald was
unable to obtain and of a graver char
acter than any that The Herald has
been able to produce. It believes this
from the fact that its investigations
have convinced it Of the existence Of
this evidence, but not having the in
quisitorial powers Of the grand jury
and the district attorney for forcing
the production of evidence it has been
unable to secure evidence which 1t is
morally certain exists and which it is
forced to presume that the district at
torney and grand jury secured by
virtue Of the superior means of pro-
ducing it which their powers confer
upon them.
It is true The Herald has heard the
rumor that it has been quite extern
sively circulated that one of the con-
siderations for Mr.. Kern's appointment
by Mayor Harper was an agreement
that certain political machine influences
would be brought to bear to secure a
whitewash Of his administration by the
grand jury. The Herald, however, has
not believed that rumor; in fact, 1t has
felt very much like reserting 1t, believ-
ing as it does that the members Of the
grand jury are honorable men and hav-
ing no reason to believe that the dis
trict attorney and his deputies would
prostitute their offices by becoming a
party to the carrying out of any such
disreputable deal.
We repeat again that The Herald has
not considered it necessary to attempt
in any way to influence the grand jury,
because it has never had any doubt rs
to what that part of the grand jurys
report dealing with Mayor Harper's adj
ministration would be when it was
made public.