The San Francisco call., 1910-05-09
CIVIC CONDITIONS DENOUNCED

CIVIC CONDITIONS DENOUNCED
Doctor Parker said in part:
The deplorable civic conditions
of San Francisco might be COM
pared to a bed of quicklime, into
which our young people fall and
are consumed. 1t is stain on our
name that these denS of vice
should exist in our midst to men
ace the lives of our children.
Without criticising the admins
tratlon of our mayor, / can not see
how we could possibly expect
other conditions to prevail when
the man appointed head of our po-
lice commission has already been
indicted for alleged infractions of
the law.
There is a prize fight law on the
state statutes that, were it invoked,
could put a ban on the disgraceful
spectacle that is planned for the
fourth of July in Emeryville. Our
state authorities, in defiance of
nation wide protest, are indiffer
ent to this brutalizing spectacle:
We must see the undesirables of
both races drawn to this city. The
ideals of our national holiday are
to be subverted for public indie
cency and public brutality.
The resolutions were then drawn uI
to be sent to the district attorney OF
Alameda county and the governor OF
the state.
Flaying the promoters of the John
son-Jeffries prize fight and declaring
that the public conscience of the state
was drugged and debauched, Rev. Z. r
Ollie, pastor of the Central Methods
Episcopal church, at Franklin anC
OFarrell streets, delivered 20 min
ute prelude to the regular sermon las
night on The Prize Fight-California'
Disgrace; San FrancisCo's Infamy.
During the course of his remarks h'
called upon Governor Gillett to take
action.
In an arraignment of Harry p. Elan
merry, the indicted former president o
the police commission, DR.. Ollie ac
cused him of throwing open the doors
of the Paris of America" and making
the city nest of criminals. He de
clared that Flannery was the patroi
saint of the dives" In part he said:
We are all justly proud of our
city's achievement on the fourth an
niversary of the great calamity
the raising of $4,000, 600 in two hours
for the exposition. Surely a peo-
pie who can do that splendid thing
can stop the prize fight, which will
do more harm to San Francisco
than the exposition can counteract-
But in the midst of our self-gratu-
lation we are compelled to apollo
gize for being citizens of San Fran
cisco First we had the Flannery
incident, byproduct of Mayor Nc
Carthy's Paris of America, fea
ture of the tenderloin extension
scheme.
Talk about a thief being set to
catch thief; about a wolf being
set to guard the sheep fold. The
climax of sinister paradox is the
appointment of the king of the ten
derloin, the patron saint of the
dives to be president of the police
commission sport and saloon
keeper to be guardian of San Fran
ciScoS morals.
But now another woe follows
quickly. The prize fight which is
which even frontier and Mormon
Utah spurns, is welcomed here by our
men of light and leading. Cover
nor Gillett says If we wait for him
to interfere we will wait a long
time, and that he does not care
continental about the prize fight;
that he is in more important bust
nesS-advertising the exposition.
Yes, governor, and by your atti-
tude in q matter so vitality affect
ing public morals your are also ad-
vertising the fact that you are
a statesman, that. expediency and
not principle is your guiding star,
and that material things have more
weight with you than moral ideals.
Your kowtowing before the Royal
Arch furnished us with your meas
ure. If you had the backbone of
Governor Hughes of New York or
of former Governor Hanley of In
diana that burning shame to our
fair state, the Jeffries- Johnson
fight would be prevented if you
had to call a special session of the
Legislature to make law against
it and then to call out the militia
to enforce the law