The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 5, 1903, Page 1

VOLUME XOII-NO. 935. SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, MARCH 35, 1903. PRICE ;E CENTS. SENATE COMMITTEE FINDS PILOT COMMISSIONERS PRATT AND ALEXANDER GUILTY, REFUSES TO ACQUIT LEALE, AND COMMENDS TUGBOAT COMPANIES FOR RELIEVING COMMERC e he Committee which investigated the charges of corruption made by The Call against'the San Francisco Pilot Commissioners filed its report with | the Senate yesterday. convicted by the testimony of witnesses of attempiing to sell positions. notwithstanding the efforts put forth by his friends to have him cleared. FORGER OF DEED;TO M'CARTY LOTS KNOWN AND POLICE ARE ON TRACK Luke Carty, Who Left City Immediately After Fraudu- lent Transfer, Is Man Who Posed as Owner of the Realty Belenging to Orphaned Children CHARLES FI5HER. twrro NEGOTIRTED 7HE ~ NoTARYS AcK NOWLED GEMEN T Q HOIVAS of. /T NBGHRTON THE PMAN WO BOYGHT THE LoTs ON THE FORGED DEED. » (AR s oY hEsroy B =B L Bee . | B \ et As [y CART 11 \ t i SIonATURE Ty B i \ On FORGED DEED. [ - £ X L - — X4 FOR( I.I..'ri 71- D TO PROPERTY BELONGING TO McCARTY MINORS; PURCHASER OF LOTS, WHO THOUGHT ! DOCUMENT WAS GENUINE; AGENT WHO NEGOTIATED THE SALE, GUARDIAN OF THE CHILDREN AND MAN WHO VOUCHED FOR FORGER. ! e Botias - HE police of this city know the name of the man who forged the ‘deed to the lots of the McCarty | said to be in Los Angeles; the other is | fornia Title Insurance and Trust Com- | John Weston, at one time a prominent | pany. | liquor dealer in San Francisco, but now, | “We'll make an arrest as soon as we minors and are seeking for him. | because of financial reverses, a real estate | can get at the bottom of the conspiracy He left San Francisco immediately | broker in a small way. Carty is the‘and locate the man who posed as the »fter the forging of the deed. The others | man who falsely claimed ownership of | owner of the lots,” says Captain of De- the lots. It was Weston who made him known to the firm of Joost, Fisher & Co., o are connected with the transfer are most unenimous in an attempt to cast e entire burden of the crime upon the | so it is claimed. ssing man | POLICE LOOKING FOR CARTY. tectives Martin. ‘“‘Detective Cody has had the case in hand for some weeks and is still working on it.” . Charles C. Fisher, who negotiated the sale of the lots to McNaughton, is no It m | went there and applied for the title in- BULGARIANS FAGE TURKS ON FRONTIER ClashThat May Be- gin War Hourly Expected. Sultan Moves Troops to Camps on the ; Boundary. | General Rising of Macedo { nian Rebels Has Already Begun. Special Dispatch to The C LONDON, March 5 5 a. m.—A dispatch to the Morning Leader from Sofia says | that the civil Governor of Haskove dis- trict has telegraphed to the government that the Turks have moved troops to the frontier at Karaktatschen. The Bulgarian troops there are standing to arms and a collfston is hourly expected. CONSTA TINOPLE, March 4.—Increas- | ing numbers of Bulgarian revolutionary bands are operating in Macedonia and tne frequency of stiff encounters bal\veeni them.-and the Turkish¥Upces is regarded ! here as indicating that a general rising | bas been begun already. The inhabitants | appear not only to be sheiltering these | bands, but to be informing them of the‘ movements of the troops, thus enabling | the revolutionists to evade pursuit. The | | telegraph wires are being cut by the rev- | olutionists, who are 'determinedly oppos- | ing the troops whenever they encounter them. The aggregate losses on both sl\les‘ have been heavy. @ i he negotiated the sale of the lots and that | he believed him to be the owner of them. Joost claims he never saw Carty until Weston brought him i the office. | J. J. Clarke, the guardian of the Me-| minors, is not worrying. He says ill belong to the McCarty es- tate and will continue to belong to it, though a dozen fraudulent sales of ‘them were made and a dozen men went to the State prison for making them. One of | the most amusing things about the bold | forgery is the fact that the property is| the fraudulent sale and could not be ‘sol® without order of court. | FISHER TELLS HIS STORY. “As far as I am concerned,” said Charles C. Fisher when seen at his omce{ yesterday, ‘‘there was no conspiracy in| the Luke McCarty transaction. If there | was any conspiracy it existed between | John Weston and Luke Carty, whom I was led to belleve was the real Luke Mec- | Carty. | “It was John Weston who brought Luke | Carty to the office of Joost, Fisher & Co. | and introduced him as Luke McCarty. He | introduced this man to Mr. Joost and in- formed him that Luke McCarty hag| some property to dispose of. I teok the supposed Luke McCarty to my notary, | Holland Smith, and had him identified as the owner of the property. The notary took my word for the man's identity. I did not go to the California Title Insur- ance and Trust Company and have the title insured. It was Luke Carty who surance. “When I was first introduced to the man who represented himself as Luke McCarty and was-informed that he had certain property to dispose of, I straight- way tried to sell it to Isaac L. Bailey, | the man who resided next to the prop- erty. He would not buy it, but he intro- duced me to Thomas McNaughton, whom he expected would to become his son-in- law, and induced him to buy it." ° “Previous to Weston's bringing Luke Carty to the office of Joost, Fisher & Co. I had ‘never met, the man. Weston in- formed me that Luke McCarty had been krown to him for fifteen years. Carty was quite an old man. He must have been at least 60 years of age. I wish the police would find this man McCarty or Carty. I thought of having him arrested myseif. I asked J. J. Clarke, the admin- istrator of the McCarty estate, if he would stand by me if T went ahead and had him arrested. He refused to do so.” J. J. Clarke emphatically denies that Fisher ever made any offer to have Luke Carty arrested. “Fisher told me that the affalr was ‘a bad fix,’ " said Clarke. “He never spoke of having Luke Carty arrest- ed, but he told me that Carty could be produced.” WESTON RECEIVED ONLY $15. ‘Weston resides at 43 Garden avenue in the Western Addition. He is short of stature and gray. He said he was ready Two ‘more names appeared in the case| Carty is absent and the police have yesterday. One is that of Luke Carty, | been looking for him ever since the formerly a resident of this city, but now | forgery was reported to them by the Cali- longer in partnership with Joost. He has no office now. He declares he never knew Carty until to tell everything Lo knew about the Continued on Page 4, Column 1. still in probate and was so at the time of | : The members find Commissioner Alexander, by his own confession, guilty of taking a bribe, and Commissioner Pratt is | The Committee furthermore refused to exonerate Commissioner Leale, LIFORNIA WRITES HER VERD PILOT COMMISSION COMMITTEE OF THE S = | “ RS, THE FI ATE NOT MEETING WITH APPROVAL. I1SCO TING | AGAINST THE SAN FRA DINGS OF THE INVESTIGA ALL HEADQUARTERS, SACRA- 'MENTO, March 4—The Committee on Commerce and Navigation, which has been engaged in investi- gating the charges made by The Call against the members of the Pilot Commission, filed its report with the Sen- ate this morning. Upon motion of Welch, chairman of the committee, the report was ordered printed in the Journal and will be taken up under a special order to- | morrow morning. The report is a lengthy one and deals | s who ap- with the testimony of witne: peared before the committee. mary and conclusions of the committee are also given. The committee exonerates Dan O'Callaghan and E. C. Conroy from any knowledge or complicity in any cor- rupt knowledge or dealings with the Pilot Commission. . It also finds that the John D. Spreckels & Bros.' Tugboat Company and the Mer- chants’ Tugboat Company have been the means of partially relieving the commerce of this State from the oppressive burden of an excessive charge of pilotage and also commends both companies for their action. The committee states that Commis- sioner Alexander, by his own confession, stands convicted of taking a bribe, and that Commissioner Pratt, by the testi- mony of many witnesses, stands convicted of the charges of attempting to sell the appointment of pilot under the commis- slon. The committee refused to ‘exonerate Captain Leale, despite the efforts of his friends to have him found innocent of any knowledge of the illegal transactions of his brother members on the Board of Pilot Commissioners. REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 1~ The report s as follows; The, sum- | “To the President and Members of the Senate: “Your Committee on Commerce and | Navigation, to which was added specially |for the investigation Senator E. | Emmons, bég leave to report as follows: ““That the sald committee went to San | Francisco and there on Saturday, Feb- ruary 14, 1803, in the chambers of the Po- | lice Gommissioners of San Francisco pro- ceeded to take testimony relative to the | charges embraced in the San Francisco Call’s publications and the resolutions un- | | der which your committee was authorized to act, and we find the followlyg facts: | “In regard to Pilot Commissibner Alex- ander, he testifled before your committee that he recéived the sum of $4230 for and in consideration of appointing a pilot, the said appointment being within the power of the commission, and as testified to by | Captain Hall, being within the particular | power of Commissiéner Alexander. The ‘said sum of $420 was pald in cash by Captain Eschen, and the said Captain | Bschen testified that when he received | | that sum of money. he was instructed to pay it to Commissioner Alexander fof the appointment of Pilot Tyson. This we find to be corroborated by Captain Eschen, and ‘to the committee seems conclusive of the fact that Commissioner Alexander did receive‘the sum of $4250 for the pur- pose and in consideration of appointing |a pilot. The testimony of Captain . Es- chen and Commissioner . Alexander and cthers shows ‘that after the sum of $125 | was.paid the appointment of Mitchell Ty- son was made. MONEY FOR POSITIONS. “In regardgo Commissioner Pratt, Cap- taln Hall testifies that he was acquaint- ed , with Commissioner Pratt, and that bout three years ago he had a conver- J. | versation with Commis | cording to Mr. sation with the said Commissioner, the sald Captain Hall attempting to secure a position as pilot through the 1 ence of Commissiorer F Captain Hall stated that in that conversation Commis- sioner Pratt told him that it would Jbe necessary for him (Captain Hall) to pay the sum of $3000 for the position. Captala Hall further testified that the money was ready to be put up a he request of Com- missioner Pratt. That Captain Hall was to get the position held theretofore by Captain Haskell. That Captain Hall went away to Coos Bay, and that in pursuance of the contract made with Commissioner Pratt, a telegram was sent him (Captain + Hall) to ¢ me back to San Francisce, and everything would be all day. That Captain Hall got back on Friday before the Monday named 1in the telegram and saw Commissioner Pratt, and Commissioner Pratt said it was all off. right on Mon- “That Commissioner Pratt stated to Captain Hall that it was Commissioner Alexander's appointment, and Commis- oner Pratt further stated that $5000 had been offered to Commissfoner Alexander for the appointment, and therefore (Captain Hall's bid), ‘had been raised out of sight.” The testimony further sk that Captain Hall never did receive appointment as pilot, although fully qual- ified for the position DAMAGING TESTIMONY. Mr. Thomas Kirkpatrick testified that he was well acquainted with Commis- sioner Pratt and that he had had a con toner Pratt about he the the time the frst pilot was to be ap- polated, under Commissioner Pratt's ad- ministration. This was within the last four years. Mr. Kirkpatrick went to Commissioner P and spoke to him in reference to the appointment of Sloane, | and asked Commissioner Pratt the foi lowing question: “Now, what is it you want me to do in the way of getting my friend in as a pilot?” The] answer, ac- Kirkpatrick, was that it would be necessar: tion. Mr. Kirkp his testimony, said that he (Kirkpatrick) went over the town and worked for three days on the petition, and got up, as he stated, d very Mr. Kirkp further stated that ented the pet tion to Commissioner Pratt and Commis- sioner Pratt “asked me who.my candi- date was.” Mr. Kirkpatrick informed Commissioner Pratt as to who the candi- didate was, and the Commissioner stated it would be well to bring the candidate around and introduce him to the Pilot Commissioners. Mr. Kirkpatrick followed | opt the suggestion and introduced Cap- tain Sloane to Commissioner Pratt and Commissioner Alexander, and they had a talk in regard to the appointment. “Mr. Kirkpatrick’s testimony shows that about one day before the P Commissioners were to meet and appoint a pilot, Commissioner Pratt came into the store of Mr. Kirkpatrick and called Kirkpatrick upstairs, and Commissio: Pratt sald: ‘Well, we will have our meet. ing to-morrow,’ and in answer Mr. Ki patrick said: ‘Now, you understand the situation; you have got that petition; you have seen the captain—Captain Sloane. Now, Is everything going to be all right” Commissioner Pratt replied: ‘No, it will require a little money.’ Kirkpatrick said “‘The man has no money,’ and Commis- sioner Pratt said: ‘Well, I cannot help it' Commissioner Pratt further stated to Nir. Kirkpatrick that $3000 would be re- quired. The testimony of patrick then shows that he made ar ments to borrow this amount of money, and wen: to Dan T. Cole, the colner of the mint, and stated to Mr. Cole the reasons for his request and the comtract he had made with Commissioner Pratt. Mr. Kirkpatrick further testified that ‘At the time that I made this agreement with Commissioner Pratt in regard to the ap- pointment of my friend, Captain Sioane, and was informed by him that it would take $3000, I knew my friend did not have the money and I went to Dan T. Cole and tcld him about the matter and made ar- rangements with Mr. Cole to get the | money.” —_— Continued on Page 5, Column 1.