The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 14, 1900, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXVII— SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1900. Tall., PRICE FIVE CENTS. PHELAN SORE IN DEFEAT TAKES REVENGE ON BIGGY Complete Collapse of the Mayor's Ante- Election Conspiracy to Elect Frederick| L. Esola, Alias Harrington, Chief of Police. Police Commission Reorganized, William J. Biggy Removed, William T. Wallace and D. I. Ma- honey Appointed and Colonel William P. Sullivan Jr. Named as the Successor of Lees. PreSoc0n0O0Cvoowwm = BOON R POCAD DENAGEOIO BRI D ADO DB BIOOADEDDOOONOOCO OO OO0 R cfi;oononeno@ronnoovvoovoooo COLONEL WILLIEM P. SULLIVAN JR., NEW CHIEF CF POLICE. W. P. SULLIVAN JR has lived in this city a bookkeeper o is a the new Chief of Police, 1 his life. I G In this posttion k isciplinarian and a capable « Co e League of the Cross Cadets, and it was due that the league was brought to its high st its commanding oft When e chose Sullivan for his secretary, e. @+t fe i ei i eb et e i@ n b artment of Polic ain th dmitting his guilt, de- on, sneering at oublic ving from office the man even the Mayor of this throw open the town to crim- of decent men and hon- and bring the city to humilia- nd dishonor. is man and his designs tc de- He has pillory of AYOR JAMES D. . Wit rem: into who rises immeasurably In by his retirement under vor 1s Willlam J. o prevented the per- of the Mayor's outrage. It was eléction of a mar ent for the position ical crime and of a v cy against the terri and criminal officialism. Phelan justified, in the L fof the pe part he played, the worst fears : rl\! ;Mh B‘-W_O who de- of the people of this city. The Y ';_ & "lfl‘" «"’»;m not make in obeying its obligations to a oo e rancisco pay the awful price he demanded for his own on. And it was Biggy, laundry- he is, who refused to wash the Mayor's dirty linen. Mayor Ph 1 been disobeyed and he exacte v, even though that exact him stranded on the beach of pub) tempt He had no motive for his action. He had no n but to satisfy the demand of those who had been cheated of their prey and insisted upon revenge. not even the unsafe foundation of an ex- cuse for his outrage and was forced to manufacture one with deliberate equivo- cation and falsehood. And &s he sinks in the estimation of the people he has de- ceived and betrayed Biggy rises for a manly struggle in be! | for an act t is pre. est In his public life a | best of good will and the gratitude of the people of San Francisco. It is because of the struggle of Biggy that we are not cursed with an Esola and it Is as an ex- Commissioner of Police that Biggy has won his triumph. He has received the splendid tribute of being an uncomprom- ising opponent to Phelanism in San Fran. volities and morals. In removing Biggy Mayor Phelan per- mitted his rage to overrule his judgment He gained nothing and lost much, and what he is pleased to call his reasons for t community, has exposed Mayor Phelan as a rascal, a characterization is @ libel upon a respectable private . or upon an honorable public offi- all 1s now compelled in duty »r Phelan as a revengeful been caught in a brazen 1 away from the people of protection which the m. He has acted as n gamblers, thieves, outcasts and the ckmatlers would feed upon the excrement of municipal life. He has placed himself upon a plane of | wship with the criminal and preying classes of the city. He has been gu offenise which the laws make a fe . in binding himself by ante-election dges and seeking to force honorable share the shame of his pr He has tried to dellver into un: an instrument which can be ine of the greatest crime. To pan- to his lust of ambition he has sought place the young men of the the | of scheming blacklegs the wom He litan 1ife and then with a sneer taken refuge behind the screea of | at authority which the people of this | tgnorant of his criminal selfishness, placed in his hands. fon le eminently the great- 1 which merits the and within the claws of social has winked at the evils of cis he hes lost the power to blurch in | the removal prove the fact. The shame of public scorn he feels still the first reason for removing sting of rage that prompts to revenge. | because the ex-Police Baffled in his unworthy desire to barter | Commissioner refused to do what the Police Department away in exchange | the Mayor commanded him to do, r newspaper patronage, he has abused | “The Mayor shall from time to time,” says Phelan, quoting the charter, ‘“rec- ommend to the proper officers of the dif- ferent departments such measures as he vented the consummation of his crime. his power to punish the man who pre- He bas removed from office the man who f of the public andy PP S S S S S P S O board. B B e D e e B SR 2 o (“&=—_1718 afternoon between 5 and 6 o'clock I recelved a brief note from the Mayor notifying me that 1 had been removed from the office of Police Commissioner ‘‘for the causes specified in a communication of this date to the Board of Supervisors." No copy of the communication was fur- nished me. The office of the board was then closed and I could not see the com- munication. I learned of the alleged cause at a late hour to-night, through other sources. I deem it due to the pub- lic as well as to myself to reply to the charges without delay and as fully as’the lateness of the hour permits. The charges are a mere pretext. The real reason for my removal is that I defeated and overthrew the conspiracy between Mayor James D. Phelan and An- drew M. Lawrence, the managing editor of the Examiner, to make Frederick L. Esola Chief of Police of San Francisco. It was to revenge himself upon me for ing his infamous bargain, which, if i out, would have put a bad and incompetent man in office for purposes which the other newspapers have al- ready made pla The first charge is that I made it impos- sible for the board to hold executive ses- sions. This Is absolutely false. The board has held two executive sessions since the meeting of January 26, 1800, referred to by the Mayor, at which ali the Commission- ers were present. 1 never revealed any of the transactions of any of the execu- tive sessions, except the single matter of my stand on the Esola trial, and that this was justified I think w amply demon- strated in my communications published in The Call and Chronicle January 27 1900. I will not go over that discussion again now. I could not allow the commis- sion to tie my hands and tongue and mis represent my position. Messrs. Thomas and MoNutt wanted to keep the fact dark that they were pledged to Esola and meant to stand by the pledge. 1 had been represented by the Examiner as having found Esola as not gullty on all the charges and as having found him to be competent and fit to flll the position of Chief. This was not true, and I had to set myself right. After that expose in the papers of January 2 the commission met Monday, January 29, and not a word of criticism nor comment was made by the board or any member upon my conduct in that matter. Subsequently, at the meeting of January 30, Mr. Thomas introduced his resolution to remove me from the position of zcting Chief, and when Mr. Newhall refused to support it Mr. Thomas then for the first time made complaint about my published statement of the real situation of the Esola affalr. Ha then had already re- signed, though bis resignation had not been accepted. He further stated that that resolution to remove me from the po- sition of acting Chief was urged upon him by Mayor Phelan personally, as a meas- ure to pave the way for my removal from the commisslon. It is not true that the commission re- fused to sit In executive session with me. It is not true that the other three Com- missioners informed me that, when execu- tive sessions were held, they would sit by themselves without me. It is true that I revealed in the public press and over my signature on January 27, 1900, certain of the proceedings of the board relative te the Esola affair. It {s true that I asked permission of the board so to do, which was denied. But I leave it to the public to decide whether as an honest man and & man of honor any other course on the facts as they were was open to me. The Examiner had totally misrepresent- ed the nature of he verdict of the com- mission on Esola. Two of the commission wanted to keep their position secret, but I refused to allow myself to be bound hand and foot and misrepresented with- out a protest. The Mayor says that he was informed by the three other Commissioners that my published statement was untrue. He does not point out in what particular it was untrue. I doubt whether his state- ment is trué that he was so informed. I know that my statement was absolutely | : i } f i i ; : i ; HON. WILLIAM J. But it is worth while to call particular attention to one man whose election materially aid good government, even if he did not have a single honest associate on the He is the sort of man who could make himself felt If he were in the minority he would meet every corrupt scheme with an opposition so vigorous, persistent and disturbing that he would at- tract the attention of the whole community.—Examiner, October 4, 1896. We refer to ex-Senator Biggy. whether he stood with eleven or alone. 'Ousted Commissioner Plot to Elect Esola Chief of Police. Reveals the true, and T ask Mr. Newhall, who, with me, was opposed to Esola, to point out a single misstatement of fact In my state- ment. It is not true that I violated any pledge of secrecy as to the meeting of January 26, or any pledge given to Mayor Phelan on that occasion. He does not state what the pledge was. How can I deny such indefinite charges? All I can say is that what he asked me to keep secret I did keep secret. If it leaked out that he was getting tired of Esola and suggested the feasibility of substituting Colonel W. P. Sullivan as his candidate it was not I who gave the information to the papers. It was town talk a half hour after the com- mission adjourned and it was not I who made it public. The Mayor has never called me to task for this and has never in any way made these charges against me, either alone or before others, in any way, so that I might defend myself. The Mayor says that while acting as Chief of Police, without authority and without Instructions from the commis- sion I began a series of unauthorized acts on my own initiative and that this conduct on my part culminated in a de- cision of the other three members of the commission to rescind the resolution ap- pointing me as acting Chief. This is sim- ply a deliberate falsehood. No such de- cision has ever been made. I appeal to the records of the board. It is true that Mayor Phelan asked Mr. Thomas to In- troduce such a resolution and it Is true that Esola’s two friends, Messrs. Thomas and McNutt, were willing to vote for It, but as Mr., Newhall refused to do 70 it failed of the necessary three votes. There never was, either by the. board or by any member, in session or else- where, the slightest criticism on any of my acts as Chief. "What I did was what the Chief is authorized to do. Acting as Chtier I performed the duties of Chiefto the best of my ability. It is true that I closed up the notorious Hotel Nymphia and the gambling dens of Chinatown. Does Mayor Phelan complain of that work? The com- mission never did. The Mayor says that the day before the Police Commission was appointed I made personal application and appealed to him for the place, to which he yielded. Ap- parently the Mayor regards this as a cause for my removal. Like the main parts of the rest of his statement it is absolutely false. 1 a1d ndt ask Mayor Phelan for the posi- tion and he did not give it to me in real- fty. It was given to me.by Andrew M. Lawrence, managing editor of the Exam- iner. The truth is, and the public ought to know it, that it was Lawrence and not Phelan who selected ail four of the Cém- missioners. Mr. Phelan totally abdicated his functions in that respect in favor of Mr. Lawrence. The facts of my appoint- ment are as follows: Friday night, January 5, 1900, Mr. Irvine, a reporter of the Examiner, met me as I was leaving the Columbia Theater and told me that he had been hunting all over for me, that Mr. Lawrence wanted to see me at the Examiner office. I called on him forthwith and found him in his office in the Examiner building. He said he had been. In company with the Mayor during the evening consulting about the Police Commission; that the Mayor had given him the four positions to fill with his own friends; that his principal object was to have Frederick L. Esola chosen Chief of Police; that Mayor Phelan knew this and was agree- able to the selection; and he asked me then and there to take one of the com- missionerships. 1 refused at first, saying that I pre- ferred a place on the Bodrd of Public Works, as I thought I was better fitted for that position and the work was mors congenial. He then suggested that a va- cancy was lkely to occur soon on the Board of Public Works and that then I could be switched over from the Police Commissfon. I partly consented and at his uest called next day. Then he in- formed me that my colieagues would be Newhall, Thomas and McNutt. He told me he had selected them himself. I then told him I would accept. He then spoke of Esola for Chief of Police and praised his qualifications. PG e et et e @ 1 BIGGY. would f e R e e e e e e e e e e o ] WILLIAM J. BIGGY LAYS BARE THE: PEREIDYOF - THE MAYOR Workings of the T said I never had met him. Esola was sent for and we were Introduced. 1 was favorably impressed by him. I told Law- rence that I would be glad to vote for his friend if his qualifications were as repre- sented, but I added, “Mr. Lawrence, the man I vote for for Chief must be a man that I can back with my honor.” That afternoon for the first time I called on Mayor Phelan. I did not then, nor ever before, ask him for the position of Police Commissioner. He already knew that Mr. Lawrence had selected me. I told the Mayor that I much preferred the Commission of Public Works, but that I would accept the Police Commission as tendered. Mr. Phelan then sald he was very glad to have me on the board. He spoke fur- ther about the importance of the duties of the office, and I replied that I under- stood that and that I would perform those duties, fearlessly, conscientiously and ag- gressively if necessary, and that if my father came from his grave he could not influence me to depart from the path of duty. I used these very words. Mr. Phelan apparently did not believe then that I meant what I said. He probably does now. He then gave me the card of a gentleman whom he desired to have ap- pointed to a position under the board and asked me to bring the matter to the no- tice of the other Commissioners, saying he proposed to make me his personal rep- resentative in such matters. Mr. Phelan repeatedly tried to influence | me to vote for Esola after the Investiga- tion was concluded, but I steadily refused on the ground that Esola was unfit and incompetent, and on the further ground that Esola had committed dellberate per- jury in his testimony before the commis- sion when he stated that he could not remember being present at the meeting | when the Commissioners called at the Mayor’s office Sunday, January 7, 1900, and there met Mr. Lawrence, the Mayor and Esola. ‘When I referred to Esola’s perjury as a matter known to the Mayor and all of the commission personally, Mayor Phelan made excuses for him and said Esola so testifled in order *“to shield the commis- sion.” This was in Mayor Phelan’s office on Monday afternoon, January 22, 1900, the Esola investigation having been completed the previous Saturday night. I repeat it, Mayor Phelan himself per- sonally excused Esola’s perjury to me, and again and again urged me to vote for Esola. I always refused. This is the true and only cause of my removal. Conscious of my own upright- ness of purpose, I leave it to the people of San Francisco to say whether that re- moval i{s a disgrace to me or to Mayor Phelan. I repeatedly stated in the public prints that I would cheerfully vote for Colonel William P. Sulllvan or any other good man whom the Mayor might recom- mend for Chief of Police. I only refused to vote for Esola. And it was my refusal so to vote and my refusal to allow my position on the Esola trial to be misrepresented by the Examiner that led to the expose and over- throw of this monstrous conspiracy to turn the Police Department of San Fran- | cisco over to bad, incompetent and un- worthy hands. _sola is defeated and the men behind him are defeated. I am content. I have done my duty. I shall not seek by an ap- peal to the courts to be restored to a po- sition which has no attractions for me. | 1 could not afford to abandon my post and allow the conspirators to triumph by the appointment of a servile tool in my place. Now that the conspiracy is defeated I am content to return to the private station. The rectitude of my intentions and my conduct I leave to the determination of my fellow-citizens. No judgment of a court is necessary to prove that Mayor Phelan bargained away the Police De- partment to the managing editor of the Examiner and that the combination made a mistake In choosing me as an instru- ment to do their nefarious work, or to prove that I was removed from office {l- legally, unjustly and arbitrarily upon charges based upon falsehood and without a trial R I R R e R e o Chief Executive, False Accusations, Biggy, Relieved From THE NEW MEMBERS OF Bcv i o e dedosebed s may deem beneficial to public interest.” This authority applied to the Police Commissioners as Mayor Phelan under- stands thefr duties may be very clearly stated. His Honor had entered into a criminal ante-election compact to -deliver the Police Department of this city to the manager of a local newspaper in ex- change for the support of that news- paper. One of the terms of this com- pact was that Frederick Lawrence Esola, allas Harrington, a notorlous incompe- tent, was to be elected Chief of Police and that Jules J. Callundan, alias Worth- ington, a blackleg, was to be elected chief of detectives. The Mayor considered these elections as “beneficial to public interest,” only recommended them but demanded them. Biggy rebelled. He declared that he was willing to vote for any man of the Mayor’s choosing on condition that the candidate was a decent man. That is the explanation of the Mayor's first reason for removing Willlam J. Biggy. But his Honor is not at a loss for rea- sons. He says that he found it necessary to remove Biggy in order to restore the PP oo dissensions In the Board of Police Com- misstoners. The Mayor rightly considers that Biggy was an obstacle; but so was George A. Newhall, who stood manfully in opposition to the Mayor's indecent pro- | posal. the character of those dissensions. New- hall and Biggy positively refused to lift the Mayor's bemired favorite into tke chalr of the Chief of Police. Willlam Thomas resigned rather than tar himself with the Mayor's brush, and to escape from the odious pledge which he had glven to obey his Honor. The Phelan pill had not only been bitter, | but it was poisonous, and the stomach of Mr. Thomas rebelled. The only chattel of the Mayor on the board was Dr. Me- Nutt. That was the dissension which the Mayor says he cleared away by removing Biggy. His Honor's friends should advise him that the first lesson in false logic Is not | the statement of a lie. It avails him | nothing to assert something which the | people of this city know to be untrue. It | was he ana not Biggy who was the | breeder of dissension in the Police Com- mission. It was the Mayor who made dissension and divided the commission against itself by demanding a dishonor- sons in private morality and public honor from other sources than the Esolas of the city. He knows as well as every reader of a newspaper knows that when his scheme, dishonorable as it was, had faifled that Biggy and Newhall stood ready to vote for Colonel Sullivan as Chief of Police or for any other reputable man if the Mayor had another on his list. The dissension in the Police Commission had ended when the Mayor withdrew his discredited creat- ure from the race for the coveted prize. On several occasions in public and pri- vate, in the newspapers and in conversa- e diction. Call. He was asked: executive session? was not only unauthorized but and not | efficiency of the Police Department, which | had been seriously disturbed by internal | The public Is very familiar with | able act. His Honor should take his les- | (Gross Misrepresentations of the City's Made to Bolster His Bitterly Resented by Commissioner Newhall. Obligations of Secrecy, Exposes the Entire Shameful Plot to Deliver the Police Department of San Francisco Into the Hands of Scheming Blackmailers. Eaaa ol oo b e b e b e o ot S o e da s da e o do o i ot i ot ¥ -] i eG e b e b e R R e I o L X g THE POLICE COMMISSION. e e e . | tion, Biggy announced that he was ready & to vote for Colonel Sullivan. So much fog that “reason” submitted by the Ma It means that his Honor aged at failure of a shameful conspiracy, had dee termined to punish the man who had de- feated his plan But Phelan has not resources of artifice ¥ esenta- tion. He declares that Biggy had mads it impossible for the Police Commission to hold executive sessions:; that the other Commissioners had complained to o Mayor because of Biggy's ged viola- | tlon of secret session promises and re- | fused to sit with him any longer; that to correct these abuses and to prevent the commission from being reduced to three members Biggy had to be removed. These “reasons” have no more and no I a | value than the others already given. Biggy insisted once upon defending him- self from a gross misrepresentation of his vet exhausted his Continued on Second Page. |SULLIVAN SAYS HE IS UNPLEDGED New Chief Has Not Fixed on a Captain of Detectives. Colonel W. P. Sullivan Jr. was at the Mayor's office when his nomination as Chief was made. As soon as he had been elected he was overrun with callers and congratulations. In answer to questions | as to his plans, he said: “I enter upon my duties as Chief of Po- lice absolutely unpledged to any person. I have not as yet decided whom I shail appoint Captain of Detectives. So far as | I am concerned there no foundation for | the rumor that Lieutenan appointed to important have not outlined a course whic | pursue. I will be guided la conditions as I find them f observation. Before anything of import- ance Is done I shall have a thorough un- | derstanding with the Commissioners. In other words I feel that the commussion is responsible to the Mayor and the citi- zens of this city for the proper admin: tration of the affairs of the department and that I am only the executive officer of that commission. And before any steps of a radical nature are taken they will be fully and freely discussed between | myself and the Commissioners and, hav- | ing arrived at a conclusion, work dectded upon will be prosecuted vigorously and effectively. “I have had sixteeen years’ experience in the National Guard and the military knowledge thus obtained will stand me in | good stead in bringing the department up to that degree of efficlency that I think the Commissioners desire and that I know the people of the city would like to see. I take charge in the morning.™ Q0000 edededededrsteisibeded e edeie® COMMISSIONER NEWHALL CONTRADICTS MR. PHELAN OME statements in Mayor Phelan’s notification to Supervisors that he had ousted Police Commissioner Biggy are so at variance with the facts that they cannot be passed without contra- As some of them concern the actions of Police Commissioner Newhall they were called to that gentleman's attention last night by The the Board of | Q.—Did you complain to Mr. Phelan, as he stated in his noti- fication to the Supervisors of the ousting of Mr. Biggy, about Mr. Biggy giving out the secrets of the executive sessionP A.—I made no complaint whatever. | Q.—Did you tell the Mayor, as he has stated, that you had informed Mr. Biggy that you would not sit with him any more in A.—My answer to that question is that I have always sat in open and executivo session with every member of the commis- sion. I did not inform Mr. Biggy that I would not sit with him. Q.—Did you tell the Mayor that the statement issued by Mr. Biggy regarding the compromise report on Lieutenant Esola untruef ' A.—I did not say so in so many words. I told him that we all agreed to sign the report. W. J. BIGGY. | @-iririviisisirivivieiririiiiriciinbiriribiririi bl it