Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-22
NO BOUQUETS

Tl HE good church people ana thelr
ministers are not to be blamed
= for thinking of Governor Gillett
as a great and good man. In their
first flush of joy over the Punishment
of the prize fight from California all
else is forgotten. and resolutions of
praise are passed that do great credit
to their hearts if not to their heads.
They overlook the objectionable tardi-
ness of the governor, and the very
important fact that in stopping the
fight here he did not thereby stop it
in Nevada, where his master, the
Southern Pacific railroad. will make
more money out of it than if it were
held in California.
The Herald has refused to pass any
bouquets to Gillett after weighing his
theatrical action. The press of the
country is beginning to put his deeds
in the scales also and to reach the
same conclusions. The Pittsburg Dis
patch says editorially:
A more unflattering inference is
presented by the governors state
ment that "the district attorney of
San Francisco has informed me
that he does not propose to inter
fere in the matter" If, as the gov
ernor now contends the fight would
be a felony, what action does he
propose to take regarding the dis
trict attorney who informs him
that he does not propose to inter
fere with the commission of that
felony? The death of Mccarthy in
the Moran fight, the reported bru-
talities in the Wolgast-Nelson fight
and the Conley- -Attell fight, cited
by the governor as evidence of the
felonious nature of these exhibit
tions. surely called for action just
as strongly as the Jackson-Jeffries
match. What is being done to pun
ish the participants in those cases?
His discovery that the whole
business is demoralizing, corrupt
ing and offensive and should be
abated as a public nuisance and the
offenders punished would have been
vastly more commendable had it
been made at the proper time. The
liberation of which the governor
complains as having made the
state a mecca for prize fighters
greatly to our discredit' could be
more vigorously reprobated from
some other quarter.
The expression of the Pittsburg pa
per, printed far from the scene of hos
tilities and free from any bias that
may exist here, is that of a commenta-
tor whose judgment is worthy of Sc
rious attention. Quite so, it appears to
us, is also the verdict of the Salt Lake
Telegram, which sees "a kink of mean
ness in the governors order. Speak
ing of the difference between the gov
ernor and the mayor, that paper says;
The truth is that Governor Gill
lett has lost all the glory he would
have won by not stopping the fight
originally. Now there is a kink of
meanness apparent in his order,
for he has permitted those people
to go on and make heavy expendi-
lures of money in preparation for
the scrap. He must have got his
orders late.
If the governor had acted promptly;
if he had really succeeded in stop
ping the fight instead of merely trans
ferring it, and thus shown his indie
pendence of Southern Pacific domina-
tion. none of these criticisms would
hold. AS it is, all the circumstances
must be weighed. After the fight has
been "pulled off, in July the good
people will conclude that it were bet
ter if we had an executive who long
ago had served notice to all the world
of pugilism that it must give Cali
fornia a wide birth, and promptly set
the seal of disapproval of his great
office on all ring battles. If he had
done those things the fight might never
have been held here or anywhere else.
The people who deserve the credit
are the church people themselves, who
forced the hand of the governor.