MUNICIPAL THIEVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 30 March 1907, Page 2

MUNICIPAL THIEVES.

Tho news of the committal for trial of Eugene Schmitz, Mayor; of San Eran-| Cisco, and Abraham Kuef, who has been the power behind tho nefarious mayoral throne, will be welcomed by all who have a knowledge of the extent of the criminality openly practised in San Francisco, particularly smce the earthquake. On (November 23rd last .the" Grand Jury of the State of California returned true hills in charges of extortion preferred against Schmitz, who is tho Laborite Mayor of Sau Francisco, and Abe Ruef, the San Francisco "boss." Schmitz was charged with obtaining sums of £2OO and £3OO by holding out ■threats of withdrawal of saloon-keepers' licenses. In 1004 ho was an orchestra player; in November last he was said to be worth half a million sterling. The municipal authorities were accused of owning an unspeakable den, yielding profits amounting in one year to a hundred thousand sterling, tho proprietors of other dens baring been ousted in order to destroy competition. The New York correspondent of the ''Times," writing on November 23rd, reported that the Labor Union in San Francisco was paramount. It had raised wages by onehalf, or 50 per cent., since the earthquake, and the city was full of desperadoes, engaged in robbery and murder, so that during the night-time the hotels had to provide armed guards for their customers. On January 23rd the London ''Times" printed a iong article endorsing the San Francisco newspapers' denunciation of tho city officials as individually and collectively thieves, bribe-takers and black-mailers. The "Times" declared that the Labor Union municipal government of Ban Francisco is the most terrible corrupt administration America has produced, and denounced Abraham Ruofj, who controls Mayor Schmitz, as the most cunning and' unscrupulous "boss" in America. The article asserted that, these "grafters" are responsible for the delay in the rebuilding of the city. It is to be hoped both of the rascals will be convicted and kept out of the way of honest people for a long term of years.