Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-23
REMOVE MAYOR HARPER
nRocEEDINGs for the recall ol

iieNeu many volunteers for this work
will be found among citizens.
The Municipal league has made a
request that all persons who are will
ing to take copies of the league petit
tion communicate with the league.
either by telephone or through the
mails. Any names that may be sent
or telephoned to The Herald Office will
be reported promptly to the league.
In order to make the petition ef-
fective 5000 names will be needed. The
league will try to obtain at least 10000
signatures. To get that number will
require from three to five weeks. Great
care will be taken to assure accuracy.
All signatures which are not self-evi-
IDENTIFY and unquestionably correct will
be verified.
The petition which demands the re-
moval of Mayor Harper and the cleo
tion of a successor recites the reasons
for the step. Among them is the fact,
discovered by The Los Angeles Herald,
and in the course of it's duty to the
people of Los Angeles, made public by
| this paper, that Mayor Harper and
certain Of his appointees on the police
| commission have been active promoters
and are large holders in business enter
prises whose stock has been system
| atically marketed among the very
people and interests which that COM
mission is called upon to regulate and
| control. This is one of the most re-
markable facts which The Herald in
the course of its painstaking investi-
cation into the subject of the protec-
tion of vice in Los Angeles unearthed
and verified.
Evidence secured by The Herald
showed that beyond reasonable doubt
the stock of companies in which the
mayor was interested was peddled
among liquor dealers, to whom it was
presented for purchase with the init
nation Enthusiastically conveyed that it
would be good policy to invest in it.
The Herald has never asserted that
holders of liquor licenses are not "re-
spectacle" but on the contrary has
stated that many respectable dealers in
liquors and cigars were practically
coerced into buying stock in the sale
of which the mayor was interested pc
cuniarily, and into buying cigars in
which he was interested on account of
pointed by him. 1t has also shown
that Mayor Harper and his appointees
on the police commission sold stock to
unspeakably disreputable persons and
to people engaged in immoral avoca-
tions. This was a most objectionable
and outrageous offense against public
decency.
The famous Lexow investigation,
which tore the concealing cloak Of Of
fetal corruption and hypocrisy from
the shame of New York, never revealed
anything more distinctly subversive of
the interests of good government or
more inimical to the welfare of the
community than this species of wrong
doing which has been officially. counte-
nanced and encouraged in Los Angeles.
Think of it! Here is a get rich quick
scheme alongside of which the basest
devices of the frenzied financier who
traps fools become by contrast merely
amateurish. Men are appointed to re-
Sponsible positions in which the pub
lie moral health is the prime object of
consideration. The police commission
should be the guardian of the conduct
of the community, the moral board of
health. We do not mean to say the
commission should attempt to "regu-
late'' the city by procuring the enact
ment or enforcement Of blue laws. We
do say it should be vigilant in seeing
to it that the letter and the spirit of
the regulations now in existence should
be respected. In the course of its duty
to the public the police commission is
called upon to discountenance every
species of disorderly conduct and all
modes Of life that are disorderly. The
word ''disorderly'' we do not need to
define. It covers a wide range, and
every citizen who has cut his wisdom
| teeth is aware Of the nature Of the
evils which come within that range.
| Now behold the plight of Los An
geles, boasting to the world of her
virtue as well as her beauty, and ask
| ing citizens of other parts of the
| United States to forsake their bleaker
homes and come to sit under her vines
and fig trees! She promises, nay guar
antees, an atmosphere of morality.
Apart from other considerations she
would not dare act the hypocrite, and
urge responsible men with families to
care for and educate to come to a place
where snares would beset the souls of
the children. WE DON'T INVITE
PEOPLE TO LOS ANGELES IN OR
| DER THAT THEY MAY BE DE-
| GRADED. We proclaim to the world
that this is city of sunshine, sweet
ness and light. 1t is monstrous that
officeholders, men who derive their
power from us, the people, should use
that power to betray the best interests
of Los Angeles, which are the home
interests, the family interests, the
church interests, the school interests,
| the interests Of our affairs and our
hearth fires. And, thank God, there are
citizens of Los Angeles who by using
the recall upon wicked and unfaith-
full public servants. will strike a blow
for their affairs and their fires.
The mayor and his fellow officials
! implicated with him in the betrayal
of Los Angeles must not mistake the
temper of the family men of this city
with regard to the conditions which
confront them. These family. men,,
protectors of wives and mothers, of
sons and daughters, are red hot with