The San Francisco call., 1910-11-19
REVIEW OF CLUBS
WORK At POLLS
Recommendations of Civic AS
sOciatiOns Followed on 33
Out of 3S Amendments

The charter amendment election last
Tuesday demonstrated clearly the es-
TEEN in which the judgment of the
civic bodies was held by the people OF
San Francisco.
In 3S cases out of 3S the recommend
ations of the "Get Together commit
tee" of the Civic league improvement
clubs Merchants association, Down
town association and Real Estateiboard
were followed.
In no case where these bodies strong
! ly advocated an amendment was that
i amendment lost; in no case where an
amendment was strongly opposed was
| that amendment carried, excepting in
! the case of amendment 19. The five
amendments that went contrary to the
4 recommendations of these bodies either
were not material or were amendments
upon which these bodies sepa rately had
/ been divided.
The amendments that went contrary
! to recommendations were either won
or lost by very narrow margins.
Amendment No. 6, although disap-
| proved by the Get Together commit
tee" had been approved by the Civic
! league. The amendment was conceded
TO contain many excellent features, but
! the provision compelling legislation to
| be submitted to the people upon petit
| ton of per cent of the electors was
deemed unwise.
NOT A GREAT DEFEAT
Amendment No. 1S, raising the age
limit for certain persons in the fire
department was not important. Amend
ment 19 is the only important amend
ment carried contrary to the recon-
l1Ss af 10 In vii,
of the strong sentiment in favor of
municipal ownership the carrying of
this amendment by $500 votes was not
| a great defeat
The committee believed that the
| carrying of this amendment would pre-
vent the lettering of transportation
facilities. Amendment &c. having ref
erence to salaries in the assessors Of
| flee, was defeated by 507 votes. This
amendment was recommended upon the
| representation that most of the depu-
| ties in the assessors Office were en-
| gagged upon the personal property rolls
! and only one man assigned to view and
value real property and that the en-
ployment of extra men for this purpose
would increase the revenue of the city
more than the expense.
Amendment 3S was approved by 297
votes This amendment is good if it's
terms apply only to laborers upon pub
| lie work, but it was the belief of the
| committee that the scope of the amend
ment was much broader than intended.
| The force of the recommendations is
seen In the fact that while all other
salary raise amendments failed by
large majorities Except assessor's).
amendment 35, raising salaries in the
recorders office, carried.
This amendment was recommended
| because, while it increased salaries of
| deputies and clerks, it reduced ex-
| penses for copying, resulting in net
saving.
CIVIC LEAGUES PLAN
The Civic League of Improvement
clubs, consisting of delegates from 81
Improvement organizations, has a reg
ular standing committee upon charter
amendments and ordinances. To this
lcommittee was referred the proposed
charter amendments.
This committee made it's report to
the executive committee. After a long
discussion the executive committee
adopted a report. After two long ses-
sions the general body, acting upon
the report of the executive committee,
adopted a report. It was then moved
that the officers and charter amend
ment committee represent the Civic
| league and endeavor to get unity
among the various civic bodies upon
the charter amendments A Joint COM
mittee of the Civic league Merchants
association, Downtown association and
Real Estate board met and compared
the recommendations of the various
bodies.
1t was found that they agreed in
most respects. After two or three meet
ings the joint committee got together
upon all the amendments excepting
that the Civic lea que overruled the
I Of he i0in wit -
spect to amendments No. 6 and No. %.
The Get Together committee then ap-
pointed a finance committee to solicit
subscriptions. Copies of the joint
recommendation were published in
every paper for five days prior to the
election. Every voter in San Francisco
received a copy of the recommenda-
tions. The names of the Improvement
clubs composing the Civic league must
have had considerable weight with the
members of those clubs and the voters
of the city.
More good was accomplished for San
Francisco through the election by the
expenditure of nominal sum than has
been accomplished in the past by the
expenditure of a vast amount of en-
ergy and hundreds of thousands of
dollars This illustrates the difference
between a constructive and a destruc-
tive policy. 1t typifes what can be
done when the personal element is
eliminated. -
Special credit can be given to no or
ganization. Each did its part. The
same may be said of the members com
posing the Get Together committee"
The members of the committee were:
F. w Fennimore, DIR. George W. Mer-
ritt. Robert Roos, Leslie Burkes, M. II.
Robbins Jr., George Tay, Josiah r.
Howell. NJ. Turner M. Hecht, Henry
Marshall. Byron Mauzy, William Den
| man, NJ. Aronson, Horace M. Allen,