The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 1, 1899, Page 3

\V THE SAqN FRANCISCO €ALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 1899. THERE ARE PURCHASABLE Telephone Company Has a Gigantic System of ESpionage. Every Conversation at the Dis- posal of the Talker’s Bus- iness or Social Rivals. RELLO: A\ Sl \ | H\"j 1 "1 WoNT BE HOME To DINNER DEARY HE law safeguar ¢ th inviolal the mai be broken ters sent of stat- protection raph. Tha e defined peril of telegraph the ofit of 1d rece them oth han person sending n, is made a f 1 4 receiving th intere n are now rn methods of 1, the tele that any violation « y either method 1 itself, but by s er offenses, m sible acce! a great variety of crimes. edful that the law prote of letters and of telegr ph wires, which offer s for tapping by the ir ng them on the des- reaches ov is much more v stand guard over P e in millions of homes for com- tween members of th ,» and in that re rries eve ssages of domestic confidenc which disclose ) rmoil. It is used in confidential lcation and between busine correspondents, agents and It is profitably employed b; press in gathering news, in sending orders to reporters and correspondents for exclusive Information, the folate ership of which is a valuable considera- tion to a ne So universal has be- the en ient of t telephone is the public confider mor le serfous offense t : opening of ers unlawfully or the tapping of tele- wires. Telegrams can he sent in nd letters can be written in cryp- But ne > not talk In cipher. lephone is carried on h the parti 8 imic as freely $ thoug stood face | to face. The possibHity of a leak in the tele phone carries disquiet and consternation into every home, public office and busi- ness establishment where the use of that instrument become a necessity. A telephone com is an important trus- tee of the whole community patronizing it, and a violation of that trust is an of- »f such aggravated criminality as to re the most drastic reprisals. Through_ being the victim of such betrayal of this trust The Call has been led to use the means or demonstrat- ing that the phone company in San Franclsco 1§ cor- Tupt to the core and its service a gigantic &py eystem and organized betrayal of its e in f its use that it is safe to ation of is a| Iministration of the tele- | | customers for the political, amator enemies or riv benefit ot their social, official business willing to pay cr of priva. The first offense which attracted the at- tention of this office was commitied by an employe of the telephone company at Sausalito. A Call reporter had sent in exclusive information of the attempted murder on tne Chispa, and immediately the telephone operator repeated it to the Examiner correspondent. On investiga- tlon the operator admitted this offense vas discharged. This incident caused a quiet and searching investigation into e methods of the Pacific Telephone and | Telegraph Company and its subordinate | corporation, the Sur hone and Compa Telegraph | handles the local b o, the latter all out of town bu 5 The result of this investigation will startle the community and spread abroad | & feeling of distrust and unsafety. Sev- | eral sporadic leaks were found, but on | chasing them down they were found to be no parts of the main system. They consisted in the results of chummy gossip between an occasional woman reporter and some of the telephone girls. In fol- lowing them up it was discovered, how- ever, that there was a regular system of kage, as extensive as any one wished to have it who was willing to up.’ | At last it was found to be in the Exam- ner office. An employe of that paper de- | vised it, and when Le had it in working order was instructed to g0 on and per- fect it. For that purpose he was sup- plied with theater tickets, money for sup- pers and entertainments. His work was to secure control of the operators and convert the switchboard into an adjunct of the Examiner office. His newspaper work consisted in sitting with a telephone to his ear and listening to messages which were leaked on to his wire by simply bringing its “plug” into contact with the | wire tha: he wished to tap. In this way 1ews reports to the other papers were tolen, private conversations between | busi men, politicians, public officers, | men women, husbands and wives, | have taken off, written down and | kept in the Examiner office for use in the kind of journalism practiced theré, A prominent State official had a conver- ttion over the Sunset wire with the | Warden of San Quentin relative to Dur- rant while that noted prisoner was there. Fach official was alone at his end of the wire. But the operator at the switchboard leaked every word onto the Examiner wire and the conversation appeared in | that paper next day, | ‘The public recalls the difficulty en- | d in the final disposition of Dur- {Tant’s body. The yndertaker in charge | of it received a Sunsdt message from the ] sadena crematory that it would be re- celved there and incincrated. Within five minutes an Examiner raporter was at his office asking when the bidy would be sent to Pasadena, and when the undertaker been l_ I} i cccceece ceccdee eCreerer e ‘ INER i E)&AegoRIE'R : sought to evade the question the reporter | public distinction that might come to]to the connection in which it -was to be sald: “You have just had a telephone | him. In a few minutes an Examiner re- | used. message from Pasadena.” | porter appeardd at the gentleman's house | The city editor of the Examiner under The Call telephoned a gentleman in fund asked why The Call wanted his| whom the system of leakage was devised, pleture, and demanded it for his own | for motives of revenge and reprisal on Oskland for his photograph, expecting to use it in connection with a contemplated | paper and tried to extort information as| Mr. John P, Young of the Chronicle, took —— SPIES IN MANY HOUSEROLDS or ganized Betrayal of Its Cus- tomers Carried on for Pay. The Most Confidential Messages Leaked the Offic Directly Into B of the Examiner, BUT CoME a leak of every telephone message to and | from that gentleman and sought such use of the information so obtained as would be harmful to Mr. Young. When the T. C. Walker blew up in the | San Joaquin The Call service gave it a | prompt and full account, upon which 1t | issued an extra. The Examiner force was summoned to get out an extra, also, but | the grafter who had charge of the tele- phone leak proposed to find out what The Call was going to do, and was at once plugged on to The Call's wire at the switch board, and heard the orders i~ sued for an extra, down to the minutest detall, even to the complaint about the slow action of the pot for melting the stereotype metal. The time lost In this eavesdropping let the Examiner pressman | get away, so that no extra could issue from that office. Extending the examination The Call found that three decoy conversations hew | between the Call office and different peo- ple were accurately leaked on to the | wire held by the inventor of the Exam- | iner's method of violating the confidence | and betraying the trust put in the Pacuic | Telephone and Telegraph Company. It was found that messages over the | De wires of that company were as much at | Del.. $1000 the disposal of an enemy or rival of the | sender or the receiver as if they were shouted from the housetops or posted on | the public billboards. It was found that the instruction given | to the operators who handle the out of | town business over the Sunset wires is to take down verbatim every conversation | held over those wires, and that every con- | versation is transcribed, indexed and pre- served in the telephone office. pany cannot plead that this is for the | purpose of determining the fee due from | the sender of the conversation for use of | the wire, because the rate is fixed by tne | time occupied and not by the nimber of | | words used. This is a portentous record when one re- | flects that it is indexed and in the poss: slon of a corporation which puts the®m sages sent over its wires at the service of any one who wants them plugged to | his phone. It is disquleting to thousands | to know that the switchboard of the cor- poration is as public and open to buy- ers who have no right to what they get | as the meat block of a butcher's stall in | the California Market. It is alarming | that any and every message is subject to | leakage and that there is no privacy nor confidence possible, and that this is not the result of accident, of induction of cur- rents or chance contact of wires, a regular system devised and hourly car- ried out by the employes of the company and under the noses of its officers. Many patrons of this telephone com- pany, out of abundant caution, have pri- vate wires and phones, and to make se- curity doubly sure some have these un- der assumed names, for the purpose of complete seclusion from their business or officlal cares, and yet controlling such communication as they wish. But The | | “ALL RIGHT -GEORGE. | Versatavich, $3000 The com- [ | section he has labore but of | e A HOME EARLY." : are these devices proof against the Ex- amirer’s invention of this graft. How do Mayor Phelan, Governor Budd and other prominent officials like to know that they have not had privacy for a single message they have ever sent under the suppose security of these wires and pseudonyms? ESTATES IN PROBATE. Three Wills Placed on File With the County Clerk. The will of Franz Joseph Metzler, who died December 13, was filed for probate s y. The testator directs that an $3000 be distributed at children. of Joseph A. Morgar who dled wtly leaving property valued at $10,000, has been filed for probate. The testator gives his widow, Rebecca Morgan, a life and at her death estate in the property directs that the estate be distributed among tliree children. The last will of Eleanor .. Carlisle, who died December 25, has been filed for probate. An estate valued at $20,000 is dis- yosed of as follows: .To Mrs. Georgie C. e to Mrs. Abner Doble, 2 B. McComb of Wilmington, to Berge Jenkins and Irnest M. Jenkins, $4000; to the children of the te Sarah Brink, sister of her late hus- and, $2000 each:’ to the children of the late 'David Carlisle, 32000 each; to the | children of the .ate Horace Carlisle | the sum of _$2000; _to the children of the late Maria' Demmon of Wil- mington, Del.. $2000, and the residue of the estafe to the California Women’s Hos- | pital. ————————— Lieutenant Price Laid Up. Lieutenant Willlam Price of the Seven- teenth street police station, who had re- $500; to Fm cently been appointed by the Chief of Police to take charge of the unruly Chi- namen in th Mongolian section of the city, is laid up at his residence with a se- he contracted in driv- cutthroats and all- which binders, vere cold, ing the I | round thugs into the sewers of China- town. Since Price w: ¢ and night in of his duties until at the taken {ll he had succeedd ¢ blackleg out of the Chi- and the entire section had become as peaceful as though there never was a drop of human blood shed by the wielding of a Mongolian hatchet. ice is looked upon by the Chinese out- it the discharge time he was in driving e nese stronghold law the enly man on the police force who is not afraid to wade right into their strongholds and scatter them. He has overtaxed his strength and through want of sleep he had to take to his bed a few days ago and temporariily give up his work. ——————— The Insane Cause Litigation. Many suits recently instituted by the State Lunacy Commission against the relatives and estates of insane persons to recover $15 a month for each inmate dur- ing the entire time of confinement are now on hearing before Judge Coffey. An aggregation of lawyers representing the | various relatives and estates are confi- dent that the State’s claims will be de- Call is prepared to show that in no case | clared invalid.