The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 16, 1902, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1902 UNIVERSAL IS THE DEMAND THAT GAGE EXPLAIN FURNITURE SHIPMENTS —_— Evades the Question in Reply to | Charges, Governor Admits and Denies in Same | Breath. ‘ OVERNOR GAGE is quick in casting aspersions on | G:M judici of the State, and as handy as a hoodlum in heaping insult on lawyers who can give him poiats but he is the clumsiest and slowest of mortals comes to the true .business of explaining to the ngs of the furniture factory at San Quentin. papers and public men of the State express the uni- ntiment that it is time for Gage to present an ex- t will explain the shipments of furniture from ary he wo INOR GAGE has at last been goaded by the pressure T sentiment, through ewspapers, into giving ociated Press a state- me 1 reply to the charges made by The Call maikes no denial of the y of the numerous ship- published In fac simile by it deny any of The to other shipments to the Gage ranch at Quentin prison. Hence 1 the shipments to the number om the State prison e Governor's ranch ed by him to have nly of the shipping receipts ffer any real explana- was for a chair ection to office, r ir presented to t named Larrabee, which i to receive and im- e returned. As to ernor’s g receipts were for er shipping re- factory explana- orated, but which d 1n had 10 be taki denial with public beg half of” members of while denying that received or caus- self any convict- But must not the of the shipments and otner ar- his home, and, responsible rsonally ordered and r shipping receipts are “susceptiple lanation too long to be rated his statement, ‘“‘but tch would been fully explained in court had Spreckels and Leake not evad- ed,” etc.? 1f the Governc any satisfactory cxplana o make of these shipments, it was d imself and the public to s statement, which satis only two shipping re- e than a score. 1f the to any statement at all, i complete. But Gage in what way all for readers at the manufacture for prison of any articles bags, save for the State, strictly forbidden by law. And the likewise forbids the acceptance by officer or employe of the State of a ct,” making the accept- use for removal from as no very great virtue Gage in returning to Con- i de by the lat- the part c vict Larrabee the chair if Warden Aguirre n Quentin bestowed he family of Gage, responsibility { the Governor’s famil goods from the War- nowledge and consent of h officials are culpable the State law forbid- acture and sele at San ods other than jute nager, r spectively, be- the Justice of the . will not help him in if Gage wants a vin- s, why does he at Bacramento or at San Fran thin convenient reach of all the witnesses and the documentary d evidence in the matter, and ple facilities for all He seems to fancy ng merely “with Spreckels iile the truth is the public claim to consideration with the charges that have cramento Bee. pot bring that he snd Leake, has the f ectio Defeat of Gage Foreshadowed. Neither side is in 2 position to be un- duly elated over the results of yester- day's election. The result foreshadows the defeat of G but it is not so over- whelming a defeat as the facts justify. In the State at large Governor Gage has car- ried San Francisco with a smaller and Los Angeles by a larger majority than was expected. He has carried Sacramento overwhelmingly, where the anti-Gage forces hoped for a fighting chance. In San Jose he has sustained a crushing an: in Fresno a substantial defeat. Stockton, San Diego and nearly all the other con- siderable cities, as well as most of the country, are against him. He will evident- Iy go into the convention with less than ) votes, about half enough to nominate him, and with no hope of largely increas- ing this vote. This will defeat him, but it will not repudiate him with as much force as the dignity of the State properly demands. Locally, the anti-Gage ticket was vie- torious in the Sixty-first by a large ma- jority and was narrowly defeated ¥s to iwo members and tied as to the third in the Sixtieth. Outside of the city the anti- Gage sentiment seems to be unanimous, It can be safely assumed that at least by or on behalf of members of | nd consent, the | fab- | the Governor has brought | in | | who made the harness snd carved the Governc | fourteen of the seventeen votes of Fresno | County will be piedged against Gage, and as the other three are ostensibly ‘‘un- pledged,” the defcat of their colleagues | has taken away the principal pretexts on | which they proposed to vote for Gage,| | Perhaps these votes, too, will be cast with | those of the remainder of the delegation. | Since, without the anti-Gage agitation of | the past week, the whole of Fresno | County would have been quietly delivered to the State machine, these facts consti- tute a decided victory for the anti-Gage cause a decided justifice movement by which it was gained. If it had been possible to draw the iss with entire in every voter's d, 1 would have been more a very compact or- | ganization to fight and in the face of in- dustrious confusion of the haps remarkable that victor 8 % been gained at all. At any rate, much | has been gained, though more would have been d able, and we may count on hav- ing a strong delegation from Fresno County to participate on the right side in | the momentous strugglé to unshackle | California politics.—Fresno Republican. — e | Gage Keeps the People Waiting. ! The Call seems determined to go after | Gage, or no libel suits. The fact t ernor has filled two new compla‘nts for libel against the owner | and manager of that paper ‘only spurs it | to renewed effort. The fcllowing is The | Call's latet statement of what it pro- to_publish, without a trial: Call is also prepared to prove that | y set of double harness was made r Governor Gage at San Quentin prison. The Call has the names of the convicts s monogram out of ivory for the ly after The Call made its ex-| | pose of the corruption at San Quentin | c double set of harness was shipped | | from Angeles County back to San Quentin prison, and proof will be produc- ed by this paper of that transaction. Stnce Wednesday morning last The presented proof to the people of showing that a gigantic busi- been carried on in San Quentin prison in the making of costly furniture, the material for the same being illegally | purchased and fraudulently charged to the jute mill account. “The Call is prepared to prove that large quantities of leather, purchased for belting for machinery in’the jute mill, was used in making dress suit cases and trunks for a relative of Governor Gage. “The Call is prepared to prove that rden Aguirre kept a number of con- at work in San Quentin prison painticg chinaware, intended for Gover- nor Gage.” It has certainly got to a point where the pecple will no longer be content with Gage’s general denfal policy. The Call specifies time, place, goods, etc.,, and Gage should meet the accusations, in court or out of it, with equally as spe- cific proofs of The Call's rascality. If Gage wants renomination he should come before the people with clean hands. As it is, he wants the people to take him on trust, not only for his honesty, but for Dbis assertion that Spreckels and Lezke are liars when they accuse him of knowingly receiving stolen goods, for that’s what the charges in plain English amount to. Gage wants 10 try the cfises in the court of his choice, when he pleases, and while keeping the people ting for proofs of his innocence against the proofs of his guilt, published broadcast, wants them to take his unsupported wogd for it, that he it a badly libeleld and mbich abused man, Unfortunately, Governor Gage's record as Governor does not tend toward giving the people the faith in him that they weuld have in a man who appointed hon- est men, instead of known boodlers, to positions of tr Sen Bernardino Sun. | | Gage’s Weak Denial. | rnor Gage's letter of denial of the ed charges of the San Francisco disappointed his friends and wide another avenue of attack to s enemies, None of the receipts for goods shipped, as published by The Call, show shipment direct to Governor Gage, but the consign.- ments are all made either to relatives of the Governor or men employed by him. | What the people wanted from Governor Gage was a denial that he, or any of his immediate family, had received directly Gove; 1i; el suits against The Call's | | | | | | ernor, and if the machine is all powerful or indirectly through his employes or his friends or acquaintances any prison-made goods. In other words, that neither the Governor nor any of his family have, or have had, in their possession any goods manufactured in the penitentiaries. con- tr: to law. ¢ * * While the Sun hon- estly believes that Gage has not ‘even the ghost of a show for renomination, still, should the machine, by methods best known to itself, succeed in gaining con- trol of the convention, Gage would be slaughtered at the polls by the voters and would, in all probability, drag down a part, if not all of the ticket, with him. The Republicans of California, outside of the office-holders and office-seekers, do not want and will not haye Gage for Gov. enough to control primaries in certain places and thus get control of the conven- tion the voters will fevérsé their action at the polls.—San Bernardino Sun. . The Machine Smashed. The Republican nawspapers of Pomona may well congratulate themselves on the victory they have contributed to win for better things in their own party. There are two Republican newspapers PR EE and one Burns-Gage newspaper in Po- 7T mona. The - Burns-Gage -paper has been re- mitted to the “‘demnition bow-wows.” Its editor, who opposed the adoption of anti- Gage resolutions in the Fourth Ward cau- cus, was promptly sat upon by the caucus which. adopted such resolutions. The Burns-Gage machine has been slaughtered all around the horizon. The delegation from this city to the county and district conventions, as nomi- nated and as it will undoubtediy remain, s composed of good men, who can be de- pended upon to put into effect the letter and spirit of the instructions of Saturday night’s caucuses and the almost universal will of the Republicans of this city and valley. Gage can now resume business at the old #tand in Los Angeles, He was a sus- cess as a lawyer, but he was a dead fall- ure as a Governor.—Pomona Progress. T The Unfortunate Gage. ‘What the Express desired was a plain Yes or No. This paper has endeavored to treat Governor Gage with all fairness, as it has all other gubernatorial pre-conven- tion candidates, and it belleved it was do- ing the Governor a kindness in giving him opportunity to counter against The Call, It was argued that a direct denial could in nowise prejudice his case in the courts, while it might aid him immeasurably be. fore the people. Unfortunately, Mr. Gage did not view it in the same light. He positively refused to make categorical denial, but contented with elating that i charges were false and merely reiterated those previously made, for which he should seek remedy in the courts. Beyond this he would not ‘aver.—Los Angeles Ex- press. Pt o LS Telltale Shipping Receipts. The Call has closed its case against the Governor of California and to one entire- ly disinterested, unbiased and unpreju- diced, the Governor stands convicted, at least, of alding and abetting illegal acts on the part of the Warden of San Quen- tin Prison. Shipping receipts showing that furniture made in the prison was upon several occagions sent to Governor Gage's ranch, places the chief executive of this State in a position that reflects Cell'c j upon met auly the dignity of the affice charges of corruption against him b tedpWillewo dournal, & | May Have Charitable Feelings for convics. ! ARSI b Suggestion of Fair fo Sell Prison but upon his honor as a man, He has to-day quite a following who want to see him re-elected and with the aid of the Democratic push of San Francisco—and ‘Willows—he may yet get in.—Willows Journal. i Charges of Corruption. The Call published yesterday some in- teresting matter that looks criminating to a great degree. The shipment of napkins at 3550 per dozen, ladies’ night dresses, etc.,, for the Warden's house, all show conclusively that the management at San uentin was anything but honest and the Governor is In no hurry to have the inves- - Products. ROM every county in the State comes the word that the people are -zmxiously awaiting Governor Gage's expl‘tl- nation of the shipments of furniture from San Qu.en:‘m to his farm in Los Angeles County. His quibbling half de- nial produces profound apprehension in Ehe mu}rls of men who have been contending all along that The ( 11 could not sustain its charges touching the ?candalcus. mismanagement of affairs at San Quentin prison. The leading newspapers of California and even the journals controlled by 1ner'nls of the Governor deem his vague denial more .damaging to his cause than the deplorable evasion which preceded it. | who, as the Governor recently gracefully | | are called upon to leave the hospitable | walls of the penitentiary, where so many | ulation than Downey—such, for instance, e L 4 L T has occurred to us that there may | possibly be a more satisfactory ex- planation of the remarkable furri- ture business which is asserted lu‘ have sprung up during the past few years between San Quentin, )Iarln‘ County, and Downey, in Los An-| geles County, than the one furnished by | Governor Gage in his letter published a few hours before the primary clection, and that possibly the Governor 1s holding | back this further explanation as a bomb- | shell to be firsd off at the trial of one| of his celebrated suits against Messts. | SprecKels and Leake of The Call, should ! any one of those projected suits, which appear to be steadily increasing in num- Dber, ever reach the stage of actual trial| in court. It is difffcult to conceive that the largs number of asserted packages of assorted furniture and other articles, asserted by The €all to have been shipped during the past few years from San Quentin to Downey, as per _shipping receipts, of which facsimiles have been publ!shtd»t') the number of no less than fifty-five separate crates, boxes and bundles, con- taining so far as the shipping manifests purport to state, lounges, glassware, | plants, bird cages, bike stands and other articles unnamed, were designed for use at the gubernatorial home place, near the | village of Downey, for such a great ag- gregation of articles of utility and “vir-| tu,” as the dealers say, would surely overstock, incumber and impede locomo- tion in any but a palatial residence. What, then, could have been the ob]ec{ of the importation of these carloads of | assorted furniture and other goods, to the | village which boasts of its 1mmen<§ pumpkins, its large-uddered kine and its indifference to the strident voice of the 12 2 e e emmon practice amons charit- ably inclined people to occasionally hold fancy fairs, where articles of various de- scription, manufactured by philanthropic jadies, are sold at good prices by beauti- ful and charming young ladies to suscep- tible persens of the opposite sex for tne benefit of various charitable and philan- thropic_institutions, such as homes for decayed gentlewomen, refuges for lost| dogs or something of that kind. Now, is | it not possible that these importations of assorted furniture and otner - articles, | useful and ornamental, from San Quemmi Prison to the village of Downey, regard- ing which the finger of suspiclon and | scorn has been pointed at the Governor of the State, have really been intended | to serve a philanthropic and benevolent | purpose? May it not be that it has been | the intention of Warden Aguirre and of Governor Gage—who, we believe, is re-| lated to Mr. Aguirre by marriage—to | open, when the proper time arrives and" when a sufficlent further number of as- sorted articles of utility and ornamenta- tion shall have been gathered together, | a fancy fair in the village of Downey, where charitably inclined citizens might be invited to assemble and yield them- selves up to the blandishments of Dow- 1Ley's fairest daughters by paying out a | good round sum for a birdcage, potted Talm or bike stand, the proceeds to be piaced in the treasury of San Quentin Penitentiary, in trust, for those men, | stated in his explanation—which some un- | kind people say does not thoroughly ex- | plain—are “unfortunately restrained” of their “liberty,” the money to be handed to them when their time is up and they luxuries are supplied, and once more take up the battle against a cruel, cold and unsympathizing world? Surely, the a: sisting of convicts to make an honest liv- ing for themselves after they come out of prison is one of the most worthy forms of charitable enterprise that could be imagined. 1f, as we have suggested, this is the true inwardness of the largs importations of assorted furniture and other ~articles from San Quentin to| Downey, then, surely, Governor Gage, | instead of being, as some people have | ventured to assert, an unworthy official, should be classed as one of the noble | army of martyrs, for has he not silently | borne all these attacks without saying a | word in reply, except to summon Messrs. Spreckels and Leake to the village of Wilmington, and to contribute, on the | eve of the primary election, an explana- | tion to the public, which, as we have al- | 1eady sald, some suspicious and uncharit- | able people are inclined to say does not | explain very much? If this is the true | explanation of the asserted furniture in- | dustry that has sprung up between San Quentin and Downey during the past two | years, then, indeed, those who have been | firing aceusations at Governor Gage may | well hang their heads in shame. | It may be remarked by some that such | a fancy fair for the benefit of the con- victs as we have suggested would prob- | ably be more successful if held in a city | of somewhat larger proportions and pop- as San Pedro, San Francisco or even Los Angeles. However, Downey Is the center of a section inhabited by a well-to-do farming folk, and is easily reached from | Los Angeles in a journey of thirty-nine | minutes by the Southefn Pacific Rallroad. Then, again, the Governor may have been inspired by the public, spirited idea of helping his Downey neighbors by bring- ing a number of people from the outside world to see and admire the large pump- kins and lush growth of alfalfa, for ‘which Downef' is celebrated. Even granting this explanation to be true, however, there is vet one more lit- tle matter which would have to be ex- plained by the Governor before his expia- nation could be generally accepted ase thoroughly explanatory and satisfactory. It happens that the California law (seoc tion ffi, page 408, Statutes and Amend- ments 'to the Codes of California, 1589) declares, among other things, “at San Quentin no article shall be manufactured for sale except jute fabrics.” aw, if these articles asserted to be imported to Downey are intended to be sold it would | manifestly be in contravention of a law of which Mr. Gage, as a Governor and lawyer, can scarcely plead ignorance. The law does not say that articles other than those made of jute shall not be manu- factured at San Quentin, but t " Se manufactuzed far qd-.l'l';ycw L Iy it appears that it might be per- Hiesible for the convicts in San Quentin to be permitted to manufacture furniture and other articles for presentation as gifts to various parties outside the prison walls, but surely it will readily be admit ted—it has, indeed, been so admitted D: the Governor himself in his gracefully worded epistle addressed nearly two years ago to Mr. Convict Larrabee—that for a high official of the State to accept pres- ents from men whose welfare depends largely upon his attitude toward them should be the height of impropriety. Thus it looks as if the Governor were placed pon the horns of a somewhat robust and vicious dilemma. However, Messrs. Aguirre 1y perhaps claim that article ufactured by con- he those convicts at a fancy fair is not really a case of seli- ing, in the s 2 ide parties for the purpose of profit. is true, is a somewhat Machiavelia of argument, but then ‘‘charit T, is more correctly translated, love— a muiltitude of si: ' and the people of the State will not be inclined to split legal straws over the actions of men who are inspired with such a commend- able desire to lighten the burdens of thoss men who are nfortunately restrained of their libe There is, one more small sup- plementary e> on which it seems to us Governor Gage may be called upon to make in connection with this affair. The furniture factory which was in operation at San Quentin previous to 1889 was closed down by the State Legislature in aceorc nce with a reguest c i of the labor unions which objected to such competition prison-made furniture with the product of free labor. Now, it seems to us that Gov- ernor Gage will probably be called upon by his friends and admirers, the members of the labor unions, to expiain how it is that, according to his own admission, he has permitted members of his family to purchase such convict-made goods. This, we fear, would be regarded by t! labor leaders as a set-off to the Governor's claim to their gratitude as the man who “settled the San Francisco strike'—after the strikers had been beaten to a finish— unless he can show, as we have pre- sumed, that his statement in regard to the purchase of prison-made goods by members of his family is only intended as a mask to hide his real purpose of hold- ing a fair for the benefit of the San Quentin convicts. In this view of the case we have taken it for granted that these fifty-five crates, boxes and bundles of asserted and assort- ed lounges, chairs, glassware, plants, bird cages, bike stands and other articles as- serted to have been shipped from the State penitentiary at San_ Quentin, in Marin County, #o the residence of the Governor at ' Downey, in Los Angele County, are really intended to be used a a fancy fair for the benefit of the San Quentin convicts, and that the Governor's explanation as furnished to the public on the eve of the primary election to the ef- fect that some of the articles specified by The Call were “purchased by or on behalf of members of my family” is to be taken in a Pickwickian sense, or for the sake of temporarily withholding from the public gaze the charitable and benevolent senti= ments which impelled him to cause oe permit to be forwarded from San Quentin to Downey the various asserted and as- sorted useful and ornamental articles which he, with the true modesty of a man who lets not his left hand know what his right hand doeth, now refers to as haying been purchased by or on behailf of members of his family. We trust that the friends of Governor Gage will accept these few suggestions in the same spirit as that in which they are offered.—Los Angeles Times. ety Good Name of the State. When the charges were preferred against the management of San Quentin Prison Governor Gage should have or- dered an investigation by the prison board, the proper authority. It was a | duty he should have performed without delay, even though it may smirch a friend and appointee. He blundered when he failed to grasp the situation and the failure cost him many votes in the coun- ties where primary elections were held. The proofs presented through The Call are of such a nature that they cannot be ignored. The people who read and judge for themselves are satisfied that there has been crooked work at the prison and | the threats of a libel suit will not ehange the opinion already formed. If Gage did not receive any of the numerous articles sent from San Quentin prison to his farm in the name of the man in charge it would have been an easy matter to say se ever his signature. But he has not denied. the charges or explained why the harness, furniture and other goods were shipped from the prison to his farm at Downey. He is a servant of the people and as such he owes to them a plain duty in a case such as the charges openly made. If he will not promptly meet the charges and defend the good name of the State and her institutions the people have a right to doubt his sincerity if not his honesty.—Ma; ville Demaocrat. B > T 8 Direct Statement Desired. It the pending suits for libel are not settled before the State convention meets thén it will be advisable for the.Gov- ernor to make a direct statement to the geople of all the facts connected with the an Quentin alleged shipments. This he owes to his administration. If the peopla are to be invited to indorse him in con- vention or at the polls they must not be eXpected to do so blindly. That would be placing too much confidence in human rature.—Los Angeles Express. Striking Pictures in the Wasp. The Wasp cartoons the Gage libel case this week and depicts Justice inviting the Governor into court. “If you are as in- nocent as you protest you are why should you be afraid to step in and hear your case heard,” asks the stern goddess. Henry has himself lashed to a stout post, marked ‘“legal technicalities,” with a strong rope to prevent the possibility of his being dragged into court. The car- toon hits the nail squarely on the head. The Wasp also pictures the Pythian dem~ onstration very fully this week in several pages of fine halftones of the procession and_the striking night scenes. It is a ‘goog nu!l:ber to fsnd l;) Eastern friends 0 give them an idea of what San Fran- 8i5e9 Jeaks Uks thls weelt