The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 15, 1900, Page 1

The VOLUME LX XXVII—NO. 46. SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1900. PRICE FIVE CENTS. DESPERATE PLAN TO CONVERT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT INTO A GIANT AGENCY OF CRITE iH [l T | I rn{fl’///%%M ‘ ”', g guid- icy and can fc blic disgrace. re than playthi ho does not g of a pledge it some personal prop- | 1u- | general public, believing in his in- interests of the city. as an officer of independent While pos-]| free to choose whom he actior 1 for public office and ed only by his judgment of at was best for San Francisco, waited until he received the es of the men who are now Police To the nar Commissioners. y of purpose and freedom of was a high-minded, ed executive; to the blacklegs who had the Police Department of s city as the price of their in-| Aluence he was a fellow of their| own kind, ready to make a bar-| he ic-spirit 1 smear his hands in the me pool of politics. To the i anc ing the ng that only the be chosen.” To| public ackmailers who had pur- the Police Department as an instrument for the better ma- ipulation of their plans he was 1g for the, names he had| nised to announce as those of | o choosing. He was| the coil of his| He pleaded the| privilege of appointing R. H. . il 1s been said, and he ed the assertion, that he Police Commission-|” the ir appointment to la for Chief of Phelan did not e from them, be-| n yor in own making. °r to do so. e Commis- 1 not dare 1 sold the Po-| for certain! per support and he ed to accep! rtment was | t the crmse—l es of his corrupt bargain. ‘ to what tremendous | | s the Police Depart- scruples ir be put, he silenced his| ers to the men who had chosen 1 the cries of his ambi-| Frederick L. Esola, alias Fred- tion and bartered away the best|erick Harrington, for Chief of | serious import in the history of |gambling and criminal classes|to find ostensibly honorable men | within the limit. Joyd as a member of the com-| mission. His pleadings were met | with sneers. “We want Dr. Mc-| Nutt,” he was told, “and we will have him. We know what he will do and we do not know what Lloyd may do.” And the pleading ceased. He had given the Police | Department and all its vast 1:n\v-' Mayor’s Po! SC ice. ] his as he may, he must give his pound of flesh. fee dis that he smarts under the sting of licity. He knew when he an- nounced the names of the Com- pu | missioners that he was in the po- sition of a stuffed jury rendering a verdict in which it took no part. f Mayor Phelan had an- nounced in his campaign speeches that he intended to make Frederick L. Esola Chief of Police, does he believe that he | would have won the votes of rep- utable who value their homes and prize the good name of their city? Does he believe that if he announced that his Chief of Police would appoint J: J. Callundan, alias Worthington, Chief of Detectives that he would men | have secured the votes and the active support of the ‘Hallidies and the Brittans? Does he think that the votes would have been the same if decent men knew that he was bartering away their rights, driving bargains with criminals and making capital out of the institutions for which he professed such ostentatious care? He did not dare to come into the open then and his Police Commissioners should not permit him to make them his catspaws now. On Saturday night Mayor Phelan looked upon this grave matter as an occasion for amuse- ment. A sober second thought may convince him that it is an affair without parallel perhaps in | Since perhaps he is ready to dine Fred- erick Lawrence Esola, alias Har- rington, and Jules J. Callundan, alias Worthington, at his home in honor of the dignities with which | he intends to clothe them. Perhaps the Police Commis- sioners are ready to do the same. They cannot honestly or consist- ently decline a social equality with men with whom they intend to establish an honorable official relation. They cannot refuse an association of their own choos- ing. In common justice they can- not force upon their equals some- thing which they are not ready to accept themselves. An effort has been made to prove ‘that the solemn protest which has been voiced against the plot of Mayor Phelan has its origin in a newspaper contro- versy, and is inspired by some personal objection to Esola. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only interest which The Call has in exposing the crooked compact of the Mayor is to prevent if possible the accomplishment of a social crime, the betrayal of the city and its people into the clutches of its criminal classes. As for the personality of Fred- erick L. Esola, it is practically a matter of no concern. It is not what he is or was that makes the evil; it is what he represents the le to re- What his past may | have been is not a matter of mo- ment to the people of this city. What boyish pranks or what more serious may have clung in memory to his name form no | part of the issue. to-day is the figure-head of influ- ences that will mean disaster and death to some of the best inter- ests of San Francisco. Esola is the creature of a corrupt bargain and will be the tool of a worse policy in public affairs. He represents« the elements | unremitting vigilance. He is schooled to the principles of men who would throw the city cpen to the raid of gamblers and their It might be no exaggeration, un- as he would give, to see nickel- in-the-slot machines on every post in City Hall Park. It seems strange that at the be- ginning of a new era for San Francisco, when the trumpets of reform are blaring forth their promises, when schemes of civic improvement are shouted at ev- ery turn, that the most important and practically the only candidate for one of the vitally important offices of the city government must clear his skirts of the mire of scandal before he may be chosen for the high office he seeks. It is a sad commentary upon the pledges that were given and the promises that were made der a police administration such | And now Mayor Phelan|San Francisco. The interests of|that are behind him in encourage-| bound to elect a man with an alias| uirms at the consequences of | every reputable class in the city | ment and support. Charges have corrupt bargain, but squirm |are at stake, but the Mayor is mis- | been preferred against him and !mken when he thinks that he can | an attempt has been mac It is not that he | gamble them against the hazard | fute them. s new moral scruples at the|of his personal ambition. | 1onesty of his compact, but|he looks so lightly upon the issue The Esola of | that are kept in check only by| rout of criminals of both sexes. | NEW SAN FRANCISCO BOWED BY THE SHAME OF SCANDAL. To carry the fraud still fur- to a post of the greatest trust 3nd‘ ther, the physician’s report of ex- responsibility. | amination shows that Callundan With each day new evidence of ’ is 29 years of age. The report of the desperate plot to turn the Po-| the clerk of the board shows that lice Department over to criminal | he is 33 years of age. So one influences is coming to light. It|may take his choice and then has already been shown that|turn to the register of voters of Esola selected J. J. Callundan, |the Third Precinct of the Forty- alias Worthington, to be Chief of | first District and find that in reg- Detectives. Callundan was not | istering in 1898 Jules J. Callun- even then in the Police Depart-|dan swore that he was 35 years ments More than that, he was|of age. The conclusion is inevit- ineligible to become a member | able that somewhere he has lied. Jut the plot had been formed to| Do the Police Commissioners convert the entire department|need this new evidence to dem- into a corrupt and corrupting | onstrate to them that they should machine. It mattered little what | not make this man a Chief of De- the record of Callundan was and | tectives? Do they need more to his ability was not a question for | open their eyes to the scandalous discussion. | plot that has been hatched to The first step was taken when | make a thieves’ den of the police Ree? on January 4 he was smuggled office? | Callundan’s | able series of discrepancies which, into the department as a patrol- man under the old commission, | which was then on the eve of| leaving office. The records of petition, examina-| tion and election reveal a remark- Callundan is Esola’s choice. Callundan represents and typifies to Esola his ideal of detective ad- ministration and both Callundan and Esola represent what the Mayor of San Francisco plotted in secret and now forces upon | however, are not the most serious pSan Francisco with an insolent | elements of the fraud. Under a law of the old commission no one who was not between the ages of | command that it must be ac- cepted. The Mayor called upon newspaper critics to come irom 21 and 30 could be elected a|their towers, so that he might member of the department. This| talk to them. They are now talk- rule was established by the old|ing to him and telling him that commission and had the full ef-| he cannot smear the mire of his fect of law. When Callundan | political compacts upon the insti- filed his petition he declared that | tutions of this city; that he can- he was born in July, 1865, mak-| not force the people of this city ing him over 34 years of age and | to pay the price of his dishonora- ineligible. But the charter pro-|ble bond to blacklegs and to reap vides that any man between the | the dread harvest of evil, the seed ages of 21 and 35 years of age is| of which he sowed in the dark eligible, so Callundan was still| places of a disreputable cam- lpaizn-