The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 29, 1899, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, ATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1899. 'HUNTINGTON AND SCHWERIN EMPLOY WASHINGTON LOBBYISTS TO PROTECT THE DISHONEST CHINESE PASSENGER TRAFFIC OF THE PACIFIC MAIL om Washington nd startling auses of the dis- chief of posi- e Call, in it > glaring abu v reau, the and to-day it will corporations which Ch ly edith in his ma- Bureau of practical barrier to the uninter- Chinese coolies to the f the bureau are ex- est, efficient and vigi- ests the vitally enforcing the exclu- venting the degrad- n enter- Mere was dis Fed F i the bureau the in ne serviee Southern. Paocifl ssal L mo- ers and vehement Meredith rein- novel means a body nese passenger traffic Mail Company.” His re plied did all he could traffic cated and after ment prohib- coolies had championed aded hordes of cheap meant cause d his st with which to injure Amer- his lieuter Huntingtc He nt ngmen. When he r P ents at Huntingt quick and ders en and succession. Huntington to David A “attorneys’ Company at was not owing dis- did and how he dith from the April 28.—David A. > regular ashing- Southern Pacific ters, was asked in having inspector and Bureau. He ested ks ago I received a let- g that Mere- that he had been 1 by CoHector Jack- ored. 1 went to v Howell, who EOROE LUMBE "o into | re- | R COMBINE that Meredith had been £ negligence and collusion ong Suey Wan to escape uld have been held as a pr ss and therefore Howell em- phatically declined to take any further action in the By ‘our 1 do you refer to thern Pa inquired The plied Mr. Chambers. 3 ¢ that nothing could be done Department expects J. R ive in San Francisco in to take charge of the Chinese eau, vacated by Meredith. Collector Jackson will not have super- sion over it as reported some time | The foregoing dispatch is doubly sig- ficar It shows that the Southern | Pacific Company and the Pacific Mail, lied powers of corruption, are en- ed in using their tremendous power to defeat the purpose of the exclusion act and to flood the country with coolie laborers. The dispatch shows aiso that Collector Jackson will have nothing to the Country With Coolies. nearly 4000 per annum. The first of these measures and one that brought consternation to the coolie brokers was the appointment of Chinese Interpreter Rev. John Endicott Gardiner, D. D, as a Chinese inspector. last man in the world that Jackson or | Meredith had spoken in the most con- | temptuous manner about him and to | him on one occasion threatening.phy- | sically to kick him out of the office. Jackson was known to have a dispar- aging opinfon of the reverend gentle- man also. Inspector Lynch was equally disliked by Meredith, and Lynch and Gardiner had been the two Gardiner was the | | Meredith wanted to see in the bureau. | although | come members of the most active and successful members of | three men the Collector and Meredith seriously alarming fact that the Secre- | tary of the Treasury was fully in- formed of the mismanagement of the bureau, and that he -had resolved to put an end to it, no matter whether a major or a general was to be displaced thereby. The fact alsv that the ap- pointment was made without consult- ing either Jackson or Meredith, or ask- ing them for a letter of recommenda- tion, was another disagreeable element of the episode. This was followed short- ly after by the appointment by the Se retary- of Chinese Inspectors Tippitt | and Barbour, sent from the East to be- bureau at San selection of these Francisco. In the and that is that the department has de- termined to manage the bureau from Washington and in its own way, the bureau to be independent of the Col- lector, and the bureau and the Collector heing a check upon the lapses and er- rors of each other. Furthermore, that the department will not tolerate the methods heretofore pursued in the bu- reau which permitted that office to be made the rendezvous for Chinese brok- »od that Custom r Spear, who has charge of the im- ants on the Mail dock, will be al- lowed to prevent gangs of highbinders from visiting the (mmigrants and scheming with them to secure their il- Sur- Leadin I+ N SN = R.L. ScHwE V\ O e SCS do with the administration of a depart- 7 ment that has been frequently sullied ) / by scandal and mismanagement since '///7 its establishment. The history of Mere- ‘n dith’s regime in the Chinese Bureay| 4 // may indicate in a measure why C.| . / / P. Huntington and R. P. Schwerin were | | 1//1 so anxious to have him retained in of- | Wi fice | i The final turning down of Meredith | * /// nd his backers, the Pac 7 // 8 mship Company, Collector Jacks ¢ ':’,/// and other of kindred sentiment by the | ¥ KA Secretary of the ury, will be hail- | * ‘//A ed with delight by all the friends of la- | ® 1 bor in the United States, particularly | ¢ c e Pacific Coast. During the period | ¢ of two years in which the affairs of the | ¢ Chinese Bureau were ‘“managed” by |® Meredith and Jackson the number of | ¢ Chinese immigrants, including those | returning to this State, jumped to a|® re more than double that under|® idministration, even when Dick | ¢ s stood at the gates and made a | for himself and his pals out of | ¢ the business of being a member of the | ¢ Chi Bureau * It is noteworthy that about the first | © flicial act of Custom Collector Jack- | ¢ sc assuming his office was the an- | ¢ I 7 ne to the members of the| s %) pr - had confirmed Mr. Wise's | ¢ \ppointr Meredith as chief | ¢ of the Chinese Bureau, and it is equally | & noteworthy that during the two vears | ¢ of Mr. Jackson's administration of the | Chinese Bureau Mr. Schwerin and the | ¢ other officials and friends of the Pacific | ¢ Mail Steamship Company felicitated | ¢ them when they read in the daily | 4 | papers that the number of Chinese im- | 4 migrants arriving and settling in Cali- | ¢ fornia had increased from 1700 annu-| | : which was the number under the | | L administratio; ) 3 under the Jackson-Meredith adminis- | t ion. Itis ot ally noteworthy | [ that since the Secretary of the Treas- | | | ury kicked Meredith out of office, th ; % | business of the Chinese broke: s |1 ; fa to a minimum. b n lawyers who almost made | 4 the bureau their home when Mr. Mere- | | / dith disappeared from | J ]’ building and are look- | | | ing for an clients. Certain at- "' taches of other offices in the same| | i building who were wont to go into the il i vault and examine papers in Chinese | J i cases every day are now conspicuous | | ] by the rarity of their presence. The| ¢ i lodgings maintained by the steamship | ¢ '/ compa in" it Mail dock for | ‘ — - ‘/'-, housing Chinese immigrants await- | # = CRHUNTINGTON :/4// ing a landing are no longer — %'a overcrowded, and the abuse of| ¢ keeping those unfortunate creatures | L O e O O O S R OO six months on the dock before being | granted a hearing has been stopped. But it is noteworthy, also, that the abuse was not abated by any initiatory step taken by Jackson or his friend Meredith. It was done at the sugges- tion of Special Agents Linck and Smith, who, when th arrived here | looked into the matter of the gross | mismanagement of the Chinese Bureau, | made such representations as to bring | about a general and speedy clearing up of the Mongolian debris. The laborers of California owe | debt of gratitude to the firmness and | clearsightedness of the Secretary of the | Tr who refused to be influenced at corporation and who was vd to be misled by the lies told | both here and in Washington in Mere- | dith’s behaif to waver for an instant | in adopting heroic measures to protect | the people of the United States from this flood of yellow paupers coming in through the Golden Gate at the rate of { g=l | MAY COLLAPSE Competition Enters the Field and Big Firms Seek to Resign. Another local combination of lumber the throes of dealers is ir collap Time after time the dealers in lumber | { in this city have attempted to organize for what they b interests, and each time the effort has been followed by failure, Competition has been so keen that one by one there have been defections from the combina- tions, and then each dealer entered the competitive fleld for himself. Prices ved to be their best | | have fallen until the necessity for or- ganization again asserted itself, and again combinations were formed. Some time ago the Pine Manufactur- ers’ Association was formed in this cit The organization was established by several of the more influential firms, and as usual the organizers overlooked | the importance of firms that were not taken into the compact. These firms have been working quiet- ad =i ped | Orient to This Port. X r Ackson S | R R SO S Figures in the Exi)ose of the Pacific Mail B o S OOl T S R SO SO S SN S DM SN D SN D \‘&\ H o e ® Four Men Who Are Thoroughly Informed on the Trafiic in Chinese From the T the bureau, Jackson refused to appoint either one to the head of the bureau | | when the place was vacated. The cold | shoulder extended to the inspectors named might be interpreted, in the ab- sence of a more plausible theory, as an intimation that virtue was to be its own sweet solitary reward in the bureau. In other words, that Gar- disliked because they were too zealous in the discharge of their duties. Hence the totally unexpected ap- pointment of Dr. Gardiner to a position where he would be untrammeled in the discharge of those duties with which for the coolie ring. It also revealed the 1y but effectively and thev have won their reward in seeing the first mate- rial signs of disintegration in the ex- clusive association. The Pine Manu- facturers’ Association met a few days | ago to discuss the affairs of its mem- | bers. Trouble had been brewing and an effort was made to silence the dis- | content, Outside firms had been cut- ting prices and securing trade which belonged to them. At the meeting held to consider the matter the following firms were repre- sented: Tacoma Mill Company, Pope & Talbot, D. H. Bibb Lumber Company, Holmes & Co., E. B. Dean & Co., Bel- lingham Bay Improvement Company, Gardiner Mill Company, Pacific Pine Company, E. S. Slade Lumber Com- pany, Clatsop Mill Company, Grays Harbor Commercial Company and | Simpson Lumber Company.- | Shortly after the meeting opened the | representative of the Gardiner Mill { Company asked permission of his asso- ciates to that it was impossible for his firm to hold its own patrons unless prices were the members of the association believed | E. K. Wood Lumber Company, Renton, | withdraw. He announced | | of the bureau without previous notice diner and Lynch had got themselves | he had been intrusted was a bitter dose | fai fel Tt fal i [al fef fal [ef Bed Red- Bui fel Jai [al faf fal ful-Tal Pt Poif-fal 1 | own people at competitive rates on con- had no voice whatever. They had to | accept what they received in a spirit | of resignation or indignation, which- | ever suited best their official moods, and no vote of thanks has yet appeared on record for the same. But the hardest blow of all was the appointment of James R. Dunn as chief to the Collector. More than that, the fact of the appointment was known to | the Washington correspondent of The | Call and was announced in the columns | of The Call long before Collector Jacks son admitted that he had heard any- thing at all about it. These acts on the part of the Treasury Department are susceptible of only one interpretation, reduced to meet the competition which had entered the local field through ouc- | side fisms. The application of the firm | was placed upon the table and then | more trouble followed. The representa- | tive of the E. K. Wood Lumber Coni- | pany also announced the wis firm to withdraw. It was the Pine Manufacturers’ Asssociation was going to pieces and some remedy, even if it were only temporary, must be devised. Under the authority of a resolution | | the Gardiner Company was given per- mission for two weeks to sell to its dition that the company withdrew its resignation. The Wood Company was allowed to sell for the same period, at the best rates it can command. The | other members of the association will | strive to maintain prices and wait for results. There is a growing fear, how- ever, that the association will not be able to withstand the serious defections from its own rank: ————— VASE AND ORNAMENT DAY. Some articles cut 60 per cent. Some articles cut 50 per cent. ODDS_AND ENDS, HALF PRICE. | STRANGE GREAT AMERICAN IMPORTING TEA CO. Stores Everywhere. legal landing in this State. It will be remembered by The Call's readers that about the middie of last September Sur- »r Spear issued an order to the cus- inspectors at the gate that no permit 1o visit the Chinese on board the steamer or on the dock should be recognized unless countersigned by This action was taken by the crder to stop a grave abuse visiting privilege, whereby the eftorte of henest officials to prevent the iliegal importation of coolies was thwarted. For instance Mr. Spear came into possession of passes issued by Meredith for four persons to visit one immigrant—two ‘white men and two Chinamen. When Collector Jackson’s HORORORONCECE BCROBCHE DECLARE THAT THEIR SISTER IS INSANE ACTION AGAINST MISS MARY DEFFEBACH. Friends of Miss Mary Matilda Deffebach think they see in a recent application for guardianship over her an attempt to rail- road her to an asylum for the insane. The application was made by Michael Flood, who was joined by the brother and sis- ters of the young woman. r. is the trustee of rding to her friend her s ha ey . 1y handled it is claimed that it will be worth $75.000 In time. The only allegation in the complaint against Miss Deffebach is that she author- ized the sale of some property that her relafives thought should be held for a higher price. The property was sold to safisfy a pressing mortgage. The com- Hebbard on May Durst, Stevens and Knight are attorneys for Miss Deffebach. e Railroad Officials Sightseeing. Sir Willlam Van Horne and the party accompanying him are being extensively The Dismissal of the Chief of the Chinese Bureau of This City Reveals a Gigantic Plot of the Steamship Company to Flood said that the permit was proper, the four persons being no doubt the white lawyer, the Chinese client, the Chinese interpreter and a white photogr On the very next day Mr. Jackson is- sued an order proclaiming that no per- mits should be recognized, except such as bore the signature of Meredith, thus nullifying the order issued by Mr. Spear and leaving the management of th tained Chinese in the hands of Me dith. When the Collector was asked | der issued by Mr. Spear he r he, the Collector, was the person des ignated by law to handle the Chinese. premises. Chinese at the Mail dock by virtue of his official position and still exercises the function of jailer. It is understood that under the new method of conducting the bureau, a Chinese interpreter in the service of the Government will be present at every in- terview with a Chinese immigrant seek- ing to land and that highbinders and coolie brokers v be no longer al- lowed to ply their nefarious avocation safe keeping of the Chinese prisone | attention was called to the matter he| the pher. | gone to r cent upheaval in the good of the service. An exposition was held last summer in Omaha and among the conce: was one of the Mee Village A: bureau for the ciation, a Chinese company, which re- produced a Chinese village on the grounds and gave theatrical and acro- batic entertainments. About five hun- dred men and women of more or les generally less—virtue were imported from China to take part in the village show, and they were admitted under a special privilege granted by the United States, under the ter of which the actors, acroba hopkeepers and at- tendants were to return to China at the expiration of three months after close of the exposition. It was found that before the exposition closed | about 200 women, mostly of the boat- men’s class, had ft Omaha and had ide in different es in the Union, San Francisco getting the most of them. This becom known, the why he had practically revoked the or- | raid, but f and that Spear had no authority in the | they Yet it is the fact that Mr.| the Federal posse in Spear always has had custody of the | and the whole of Ct under the noses of the Federal officials. | the w Mr. Spear, who is responsible for the|a Government ordered Mz ganize a raid upon the Chinatown bagnios in this cit the purpose of arresting and deporting the runaways. son detailed a large force ectors to assist in the | or some reason never made °d that | public the police were informed of the ontemplated movement and were sta- tioned in the houses to be where were found a half-hour later by full p ion atown advised of 1s going on. The Federal posse were detained at the istom- awaiting the order of Jackson t Notwithstanding the public the affair about twenty n women without certificates were captured. Among the number taken to the Pres- byterian Chinese Mission Sacra- mento street was a middle-aged woman what ws « ouse start. given to = named Fong Suey Wan, a notorious procuress of cons le wealth and of the partner of Little Pete, noted Chinese boss and slave deceased by the gr deal at at the Mail dock, will be allowed to take | binder's bullet in a Chinatown barber such measures as he may deem nec shop. sary to insure their detention until le-| When the being ques- gally landed. | tioned at the ameron, Much good will be accomplished by | the matron, ocur | the new mode of enforcing the exclu-|and informed ity. sion act. The head of the bureau will | Meredith orde detained | no longer be the creature of the Cc notwitk rtificate in | tor, and will be therefore more ind due form w ented for pendent in the performance of his du- | inspection. fu was done . He will be directly responsible to | by Meredith to hgld the woman. He of the Treasury for what- | filed no com 1t 1st her, he did ver mistakés he may make, and there | not even inform the 1 States Mar- | will be no collectors and ex-collectors | shal, the Attorney or any one | to intercede for him and furnish ce else in a that prop to tificates of character to zave him place any gainst her. On the [the departmental wrath. He must | next Arth \tto, | stand upon his own feet, and his ct a reporter, warned edith that the | acter must speak, not through hear- | woman would be « 1 on pre- | say certificates, but through his official ation of her certif before Court | ac The trouble with Meredith has | Commissioner Heacock if Meredith did | been that his certificates of character [not file a complaint her wit | don’t dovetail with his official mistakes | being a procuress. repli | which, unfortunately for hi if they | that it € ‘\m-,r mistakes, were on the wrong side. | up “a | They were invariably on the side of the [ next morning the [ Pacific Mail Steamship Company and | before Commissioner | the slave dealers and against the in- |same floor as the Chinese B ! terests of the exclusion act and the|about _five feet distant, a | Government. No merchant will keep a | certificate being produced, the court clerk who makes mistakes in giving |stated that he would Tecommend her | change against his employer or who | discharge, there being no complaint ac- | doles out good coins for counterfeit. | cusing her of any off he was then | Again, if, after Mr. Jackson shall |taken to the office of the United States have retired from office to rest upon | Marshal, directly unde th the office | such laurels as he may have won, a |of the Chinese Bureau, and kept there | bad man, working in the interest of the | until 2 o'clock in the afte m, when | Pacific Mail Steamship Company, | she was brought bef nited tes | should receive the appointment as Col- | District Judge de n and dis- | lector of the Port, the head of the Chi- | charged. Then she disappeared | nese Bureau will be an eye of the Gov- | Meredith could offer no reasonable hernmrnt glaring upon him. If he al- | explanation as to why he had allowed |lows a Chinaman to enter without be- | the woman to escape nd publ ing entitled to the privilege, the China- :lamor was raised, the episode savor- | man will be arrested and the act of the | ing too strongly of corruption to be Collector will be reviewed by the bu- | passed by in silence. Special Agent reau and the court. Thus there will | Moore, in pursuance of instructions be an effectual check upon the Colle tor; and on the other hand, if the cific Mail Steamship Company foist into the bureau another Meredit punish fraud or criminal mistakes. stently with their pa mendacity and low cunning, Meredith and his backers have made use of mi representation and prevarication their unsuccessful and shameles | to hav sition a in effort him reinstated into his old po- chief of the Chinese Bureau. ¢ have circulated a report that he | was dismissed, not because of any nes | lect of duty, but because he used in- | sulting language to a reporter of The | Call and to Dr. Gardiner. They argued both orally and on paper (from the of- fice of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- pany) that his offense arose from great provocation and that, after all, all that | he was guilty of was giving way to h | temper. He was not dismissed because Fong Suey Wan escaped, they said, and the ass cause of his dismissal they declared to be an oral slander and a printed libe A letter written by Collector and exhibited by Meredith’s fri so worded as to befog the subject. The circulaticn of such false statements is not calculated to do the Pacific Mail Steamship Company any good, for the Secretary of the Treasury knows why Meredith was let go. In order to set the matter right, it is necessary to re- capitulate briefly the nature of the in- vestigation which resulted in the re- nds is { in a four-in-hand and were driven through the city and shown the principal points of inter with which they expressed themselves as highly pleased. —_— ' In the Wasp. “Comedy Without a Comedian” is the | subject of the Wasp's theatrical criticism | this week. Overcapitalized Hawaiian | stocks of the mushroom variety, which have been put on the market quite recent- acteristic style: The Wasp’ tures for tax-payers are calculated | make property owners thoughtful and | City Hall employes anything but chee { ful” The Wasp's cartoons and photo-en gravings are admirabie this week. e S 1\ Wanted to Go to Manila. | James Holmes, a bright boy. 13 years | of age, was found wandering around the | Policeman Bailey. ‘He interrogated the | boy_and ascertained that he came from Buffalo, N. Y., with Company H of the | Thirteenth Infantry and was golng with them to Manila, but the transport sailed without him. He was hungry, and after Bailey had fed him he sent him to the ertion that her escape was the | shall | affidavit: h, | sent his repc | the Collector may act as a check upon | about the time that the chief, and may take such measures | was looking into the report ex-Collector as may be calculated to expose and | Wise appear 1 t record of | correspondents a | | | | | CECEOECHORCECECECECEOROHOEOBO B BOE! | | | | | ly, are commented on in the Wasp’s char- | Annie Smith puzzle pic- | shares to to [ and Kate Ca | plaint against her will be heard by Judge | water front early yesterday morning by | from W tion, e ington, made amining witn of all partie rt to taking He and department and concerned. Washington the d in Washington and told people and the newspaper the Treasury fairy story to the effect that the woman was allowed to ge because Major Moore and Mis Cameron had asked that Fong Suey be allowed to return to China. As a matter of justice to Mr. Wise it of must be said that he knew nothing the case of his own knowledge, his information had been deri Meredith and his friends. Then charges were filed against Special Agent Moore for making an assault upo employed in his office d the Secretary of the ¢ of Moore's disgrace, se ity to be verifie Linck and Smith. were re-examined and 1ey Wan report was sent ngton once more. It was upon this report, which dealf with the Fong Suey Wan incident alone, that Meredith was dismissed. Subsequently the special agents sent Jackson | a supplemental report to Washington atter of Mere- ve language to porter of The ched the Sec- in connection with the dith having used abu: Dr. Gardiner and a T been dismi 5 That is why Meredith's applicatio: for reinstatement was found to hav no force, for he utterly failed to show that he was innocent of the charge of having allowed the noted procuress to walk out of his han BOBOECE | entertained during their visit to this city. | Harbor station. Bailey took the boy to | Yesterday Sir William Van Horne, W “hief Lees, and later the Chief wired to | (director in the Canadian Ps his father Rt oy il ay Company), Hon. . ALV street, Bu antime the boy will be (counsel) and Dr. J. P. Roddick (consult. | Kept in th Erigona Slotsen ing surgeon of the road) left the Palace el Estates in Probate. The will of Arthur A. Hooper of the firm of Hooper & Jennings, who died August 5, 1898, leaving te of un- known ue, was filed for probate yester- | day. The entire est is dev to Martha S. Hooper, mother of the testa- tor The will of Peter J. Cana , who died a few days ago, was also filed. De- cedent bequeaths his personal property to and his —_—————————— Columbia Council’s Ball. On Tuesday evening next Columbia Council No. 5, Y. M. 1, will give an en- tertainment and ball in Pioneer Hall. The following excellent programme has been arranged for the evening's pl ure: Overture, Hynes' Orchestra; rema: Presi- dent Thom: Harney; tenor solo, W. J. O'Brien; recitation, J. R. Bockman; ' soprano sol fiss_C. Stanley: banjo, duef, Arthur Black and William M barytone solo, B. Georges; sop J. Klein; the Cadenza Mandolin Club, under the direction of Professor J. Lombardeéno; fancy dances, Ar- nold Grazer.