Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-19

| position. Even the profit of the hotels
and restaurants from the great crowd
that we would assemble would accrue
only after San Francisco had exhaust
ed all her accommodations. Oakland
| has been called the bedroom of San
Francisco; during the progress Of an
exposition in San Francisco oakland
would be the second table, or perhaps
| worse than that, for San Rafael and
Del Monte would probably get served
! from San Francisco's 'groaning board
before the steerage passengers in Oak
land were permitted to feast upon the
metropolitan leavings."
TO say that the Oakland mans
creditors were astounded is but put
! ting it mildly. The San Franciscans
were visibly shocked. They drew away
! from the Oaklander as they would
| have shrunk from the contamination
of one infected with a. dangerous dis
ease.
as that your idea of civic pride.
public spirit and the get-together no.
tion of the patriotic booster?" re-
proachfully questioned one OF the san
Franciscans.
mo, 1t isn't" declared the man from
across the bay mot II you are dis
cussing this question from the senti-
mental point of view, but If you are
discussing 1t from the standpoint OF
dollars and nickels / must put my
civic pride in my pocket with the dol
lars. l can only ring up my public
spirit on my cash register, and 1 can
only get together to boost for my
own town. That's what you are all
doing when you come down to the
brass tacks of the proposition. Civic
patriotism, as you call 1t, is all very
we'll when 1t chimes with the jingling
of the guinea, but when it doesn't it's a
discord to out tom tom the discord of
q Chinese orchestra. Sentimentally
am i'm favor of San Francisco for the
exposition, but my sentiment is not so
deep-rooted in my heart of hearts as
TO bear blossoms to make horal
wreath for the brow of him who robs
my TILL"
Sentiment and Business
There wasn't much more to say after
this suburban outburst. The San Fran
ciscans were too polite to remind the
Oakland man that he was in truth a
part of the citizenry of San Francisco;
| the Los Angeles contingent was Sc
cretly rejoiced that they could recon-
cile their sentimentality with their
business principles, and the San Die
gans laughed in their sleeves.
AS a matter of fact even San Fran
cisco is not unanimously eager to
/
tremely doubtful if a popular sub
scription of a million dollars to eX-
position stock could be raised in San
Francisco between now and the open
ing of the exposition. What San Fran
cisco is doing in opposition to the San
Diego exposition is wholly in the hope
that If San Diego can be pushed out OF
the running San Francisco will get all
the state and federal appropriations.
Those are the prizes that San Fran
cisco is playing for. 1t was put to me
the other day in a nutshell by a we'll
known San Francisco business man
when he said: "If we don't get the ap-
propriations we don't want the fair
we are Jim .Dandies when 1t comes tc
spending the other fellows money, but
we are the tightest of tight wads when
it comes to putting up our own money.
We must have millions for rehabilita-
tion, but we haven't one cent for the
exposition"
1t must be admitted. however, that
San Francisco has achieved wide pub
licity through her effort to monopolize
this exposition. Some of this publicity
has reacted on the metropolis with lu-
dicrous effect For example, some
grave and reverend signer of the mul-
! titude of committees" conceived the
idea of asking the navy department of
the nation to donate" a warship in
which a select band of boosters might
| leisurely circumnavigate the globe
genially boosting for the San Fran
cisco exposition. Perhaps it wasn't a
properly conceived idea after all; per-
| naps it was an inspiration like some
of those vouchsafed to Joaquin Miller
or the Sweet Singers Of the Berkeley
Halls of Fame. In idea or inspiration
however, it was not only funny in it.
| self hut provocative of funny thoughts
in others-ike fat Jack Falstaff's wit
/ 1t certainly inspired the secretary OF
/ the navy to the composition of "a
brochure of humor surprising anything
that has recently been written by
Mark Twain, especially in the subtle
| irony that turks between every line
! Read it again O We lovers of the re-
tort courteous and the quip modest
read it again and reVel in the joyous
flavor of it, the exuberant persiflage OF
the merry tale.
The request was certainly another
/ instance of what San Francisco pro-
poses to do for her aggrandizement
/ and emolument on somebody else'S
money. What a Jolly junketing party
that would have been If only Secretary
Meyer had chosen to look upon the
petition seriously! How the glasses Of
convivial reciprocity would have
clinked from Senegambia to Shimone-
seki; how the glad hands would have
extended across all the seven seas
But, alas, it is not to be, and the
junketers are mourning like Rachel fol
her children-lilSe the whangdoodle IL
the mountains of Hepsidam, with spe
ciai emphasis on the last syllable OF
the mountains. AS one of the mos
eminent journalists of San Francisco
| III CT Of c,tI hi