Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-07
EXPLAINS WHY
CAUSE WAS LOST
SAN FRANCISCO MAN TELLS OF
DEFEAT
ASKS NEW ADMINISTRATION BE
GIVEN CHANCE
Head of Bay City Good Government
League Tells the City Club
OF Hard Fight for
Decency

of a glorious victory" said Mr.. Ja-
cobs, "but instead I must tell you of
glorious defeat. Glorious because
through it all the Good Government
forces stood steadfastly for right and
truth,
referring to the result of the recent
election in San Francisco, the Good
Government league elected the re-
corder, the treasurer the city attorney,
the tax collector and the public admin
1strator, also six supervisors out of the
eighteen. The balance of the offices,
twenty, were elected by the Union La
Dor party. We were Overconf1dent, be-
lieving that the moral consciences of
the people were aroused and that 1t
would find expression at the polls. We
were mistaken, but when we consider
it we find that the result is not so
surprising, considering the circum-
stances. The power Of money in con-
trolling elections was demonstrated in
the recent election. IT Is estimated
that nearly a million dollars was spent
by special interests, acting in conjunc-
tion with the vicious elements, to elect
p. H. Mccarthy mayor, Mr.. Fickert
district attorney and board of super
visors.
by this do not necessarily mean
that the officials elected will prove dis
honest
''It is our duty TO bow to the will of
the people and give them a fair trial.
but this vast amount of money was
spent to defeat Francis j. Heney. DR..
Leland, who was the only mayoralty
candidate who openly espoused He
ney's stand and the members Of the
present board of supervisors, who had
most actively been continually pro-
tecting the peoples rights as against
the aggressions of the public service
corporations.
Will Await Developments
"It is neither fair nor right to crit
icise the people of San Francisco and
take ii for granted that they want bad
government. / firmly believe that a
large majority of our people want to
do right, but they have been and are
subject to erroneous influences that
lead them in the wrong direction.
"The most important thing that con-
tributed in San Francisco to the defeat
of Francis ]. Heney and the Good Gov
ernment forces was the partisan fea-
ture of the direct primary law. :
We intend to introduce a charter
amendment, so that We may have a
direct primary election law similar to
the one you have in Los Angeles. This
will, of course, be fought by the spe-
ciah- interests, the corrupt political
bossesH and the political machines, who
no doubt will desire to retain the par
tisan features of the direct primary
law, and thus be able to continue to
divide the forces of deceney and good
government by appealing to the party
spirit or voters
Had we a non-partisan primary cleo |
tion law Francis j. Heney would have
been elected district attorney and the
Good Government forces would have
been victorious. although we had other
and more formidable obstacles to over
Nayynt. in tho hfefortr Of
lean municipalities has more money
been spent on a municipal election or
a more bitter fight made or a more di-
rect fight by special interests.
Lacked Newspaper Support
I'VE only had one daily paper advo-
eating the election of Francis j. Heney
and the Good Government ticket; the
others We're either silent or directly an
tagonlstic The San Francisco Chron-
icle and the Globe-Post, the latter
owned directly by the special interests |
were both strong advocates. editorially |
and otherwise, of the defeat Of Heney |
and the Good Government forces. The |
San Francisco Examiner was entirely !
silent on the subject and never men, |
toned a single word at time when, |
II they had advocated good govern |
ment, results might have been diff !
ferent.
"The San Francisco Call, which pre-
tended to stand for better things, never |
uttered q word edltorially in favor of |
good government, but in their news |
columns had articles written by their |
political writer's which tended to divide |
the decent vote by intimating that the |
large Republican registration meant
victory for the Republican ticket, and |
thus leaving the inference that party |
lines would necessarily be drawn, etc. |
The Chronicle and the Globe-Post ad- !
vised Republicans to stand by their |
party and vote the straight Republican |
ticket, although it was known that the |
Republican party in local politics was |
absolutely dominated by the special in |
terests through a corrupt political ma |
chine. These two papers We're abso- |
lutely the advocates Of the corrupt po- |
litical machine and played the usual |
game Of advocating straight party vot- |
ing in municipal elections TO divide the |
forces of decency, while at the same |
time all the Republican machine lead |
ers were quietly throwing all their |
strength to the election of Mccarthy |
the Union Labor candidate. Then up |
ward of 100000 pieces of literature |
were mailed to the voters during the |
last week appealing on every imag- |
Unable ground to voters to support Nc |
Carthy, Fickert and the straight ma
-hine tickets Many of these circulars |
were drawn in such way as to ap- |
peal to different interests and classes.
Campaign of Deceit
"In fact, it was campaign of de- |
ceit from start to finish and the people |
were misled and ca1oled by the vast |
expenditure of money and deception. |
1t is a question how long the corrupt |
forces in the community acting in con- |
cert with the purchasable and con- |
trolled press will be able to dominate |
public opinion. Before Los Angeles |
criticises San Francisco it had better |
wait and see If its people viii be fooled |
by the combination of predatory |
wealth, newspapers dominated by cor |
porations and the vicious element, or
whether they are sufficiently aroused |
and educated to rise above the cam
paign of deceit conducted by political |
party machines and realize that in mu-
nicipal affairs partlsanship has no
place, 1t behooyes the people to be-
come interested in civic matters and |
thereby elevate politics and politicians. |
When decent citizens interest them
selves in politics then we will get good
government, for then the forces of al
lied corruption, together with a cor
rupt press, enormously influencing the
public mind, will no longer be effective 1
but the people will rule and be su-
preme and corrupt public service cor
DOratiOns will he relegated to the DlaCa II