FEVERISH SAN FRANCISCO

Evening Star, Issue 17227, 17 December 1919, Page 2

FEVERISH SAN FRANCISCO

AS SEEN BY A NEW ZEALANDER. “LIFE THE CHEAPEST THING THERE.” Said lie: San Francisco and its bay towns were in a ferment when I got there in October, and the position was no calmer at the time I sailed by the Moana. The main excitement was over the strikes. Shipbuilders, jailors, watersiders, ironworkers, and some others were “out” —200,000 of them. Such vessels as were being worked did so by free_ labor, largely consisting of negroes, Chinese, and Japanese, with some whites. Each vessel to bo worked is drawn into a wharf, at which a covered shed gives shelter against the hostile crowd, and there are strong guards of police, nobody being allowed to use the side of the street that gives on to the shed. The trouble comes when the gang knock off. Pickets lie in wait to eiw deavor to convert them into strikers. On Saturday, 15th November, a big Swedish steamer left, and as a result of the attempts at conversion and other questions that arose there was a shindy in which eight men were killed and 120 had to be taken to hospitals. I saw the demonstration,procession just before the mayoral election in which. Rolph and Schmitz were the candidates. It was quite peaceful. Labor had charge. There were eight bands, and the procession took 45 minutes to pass a given point. To. ® New%Zealander the lawlessness is terrifying. At the corner of Third and Market streets one day, when nothing particular was happening, a man sprang out from the crowd, killed a policeman with a blow from a length of gaspipc, and at once disappeared. No arrests. The same afternoon a woman saw her husband walking with another woman in front of the Palace Hotel in Market street and shot her dead. Two days afterwards the Chronicle ’ published an interview with the slayer, and from the tone of the article one could only infer that the dominating feeling in her mind was surprise that more people had not interested themselves in her case to the extent of calling to ask how she was getting on. Whilst I was there a feud was afoot between two gangs of Chinamen, and four of the combatants were killed in one night, their bodies being laid out openly in the roadway. No arrests. Two men walked into an hotel and engaged a room, and when the landlord took them upstairs they killed him m the lift, took his keys, ransacked the safe, descended without any concealment, and quietly vanished. No arrests. One didn’t feel at all safe to be on the streets after dark, especially if he was. a Britisher. The feeling against the British uas very bitter. It found expression in. many ways. I could not help noting the ostentatious preparations for a welcome to He v alera. Some of the newspapers predict that the enmity to Great Britain will lead to war. This seems to be a common Western view. The people there don't know the mind of the Eastern ctates. Living is very dear and verv chean. Looms m thq chief hotels, without board, cost from sdol to lOdol per An ordinary breakfast cannot‘be got for Less than 80 cents. But if one is ready to do his own housekeeping he can buv ‘food cheap enough m the markets. One of my fellow-passengers bought for 25 cents an opplo tart that, did him and his wife for two meals. A tremendous lot of cooked food is sold in these marketsroast meat, poultry, and such things as pies, bread, and cakes—and they are sold in small quantities. The enfetavia is much in vogue. Here the diner is his own waiter. He enters a long passage sup-’ plied with various counters. He is Mven n plate, and walks on, purchasing, “gay a chop at one, potatoes or other vegetables at another, a bit hero, and a bit there till he has on his plate all that he fancies, and at the last counter the cashie” reckons up the cost and sends him out to a table where he can get salt and pepper and oil and so forth. Most of the restaurants are run by Greeks or Japanese, the latter having the cheaper establishments. r Export business in San F#anoisoo was in October last only 30 per cent, of the volume it reached in October of 1913 Ihe reason was the high rate of exchange/ OD non 811 1 left was estimated that 40,000 persons were waiting for passages to Australia or New Zealand, and some March” n ° °* lanca or " booking till

lipping is twice cursed: it curses him that gives and him that takes.” The American Waiters’ Union declare that accepting tips is essentially not American, and places the stamp of servitude iipen the dining room salesman’s profession The “dining room salesman” for v ', al^e j ls the finest stroke of democratic absurdity; it is far better than “public assistance’ for “pauper relief,” or than the young ladies” of the scullery or the shop. But the stamp of servitude is to be removed by; blackmail, as usual. The tip is to be replaced by a fixed charge of JP per cent, on the bill, which is, in plain hnghsh, that everybody is to be forced to tip, however bad the service, and that nobody is to be thanked. The lattdr con. sideiation, however, is ithifjiaterkl. as thanks are generally oMitted Stfetidi*. being “a .ikvLtudfiil ‘