OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9187, Issue XLI, 11 April 1910, Page 2

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

OPEN DOOR TO CHINESE FAVOURED. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23. Chinese and Japanese are more desirable immigrants than Italians or Greeks in the opinion of the Chamber of Commerce of Ltos Angeles, California. This body has adopted a report in which it states, "We should open the doors of California to the Chinese and the Japanese. For the handling of the citrus fruit industry and for the raising of vegetables and apricultural products California needs tho Chinese and the JapanSo it appears that even in California, where the anti-Asiatic sentiment nearly brought the United States. into armed conflict with Japan a year ago, opinion is divided. Undoubtedly in the farming communities as a rule Asiatics are m favour; as labourers they are far more reliable than the southern Eurcpears, or even the Irish. In the cities of tho Pacific coast, however, the feeling continues very bitter against the Japanese, and to a less degree against the Chinese. It is a Californian legislator, Congressman Hayes, that has introduced at Washi ington a- Bill to exclude. Japanese labourers from the United States. STRANGERS TO THE TUB. "More than a million persons among New York's tenement house poor arc strangers to tho bath tub," reports Lawrence Veiller, director of the Tenement House Committee, of that city. "New ■ York's tenements arc without parallel in the world. There are ten thousand tenements of antique type, with neither sunlight nor fresh air; there are a hundred thousand living rooms without a window. Three million persons in New York live in buildings that arc in constant danger from fire." It is not very hard to understand why city-bred families die out in three generations. JUDGE BECOMES PROSECUTOR. A unique situation in San Francisco. Patrick Calhoun, president of the big tramway company, the United Railroads, has been once tried on tho charge of bribing former Mayor Schmitz and his city fathers to grant concessions to his company. The jury disagreed, and ho is to be tried again. Now the public prosecutor is Charles M. Fickett, who was elected in November on the understanding that ho would not press the trial of Calhoun. Last week he asked to have the case dismissed on the ground that there was not sufficient evidence to make a conviction possible. His request was refused by Judge Lawlor, who thus became himself the prosecutor in oppositio nto Calhoun's lawyers. The judge was forced to make the. motion for setting the date of the trial himself. It is possible that he may appoint some outside counsel as special prosecutor if he sees that Fickcrt does not intend to try for a conviction. HARD ON THE FARMER. The hubbub over tho high cost of living in America has brought forth some excellent stories. Here is one from Salem, New Jersey: —A farmer killed two hogs, and a Salem butcher agreed to buy them. The farmer said he'd like to have the hams and shoulders, and again the butcher agreed. Tho farmer put the hams and shoulders on his cart, and asked : "Well what's the balance coming to me?" Tho butcher figured a moment and replied, "There's nothing coming to you; you owe me two dollars 85 cents." The farmer was obliged to pay. The butcher had bought the whole hog at wholesale price, and had sold the limb pieces at retail. The agitation against tho high prices of food looked for awhile as though it would produce some appreciable effect. Great results were expected from the boycott on meat; but tho movement has weakened, and tho meat trust —as if to teach the people to bo more careful in future —has just announced a new rise in rates. It has been ascertained that the price of Chicago beef in New York is 2<l to lad a pound higher than in London.

A GOVERNOR RETIRES. Governor C. E. Hughes, of New York State, has announced that he will not be a candidate for re-election at the close of this year. His principal reason is that he cannot live on the salary paid. He finds himself obliged to spend £5000 a year, and he gets only £2000. The majority of the newspapers consider his refusal final, and may urge that the salary be increased. Hughes is famous throughout the na.tion for the honesty of his administration, and for his uncompromising attitude on questions of public interest. Ho has often, by appeals to the electors, compelled the State Legislature to pass measures to which the members were almost unanimously opposed. The one thing which, it is thought, may induce him to again run for office, is the recent revelation of the widespraed corruption in the State Senate arid Assembly. The alleged bribery occurred in 1901, but the accused legislators still hold office. The investigation is still proceeding, but already there is strong evidence that in 1901 Senator J. P. Allds and. Assemblyman J. L. Burnett accepted bribes from bridge companies to induce them to amend a Bill relating to the construction of bridges. Senator Allds is loader of the Republican party in the Striate. As Governor Hughes is also a member of that party, it is just possible that he may consider it his duty to try to retain the Governorship so that he may see to it that the whole gang of "grafters" is ousted from power. MERELY A MURDER, "Conboy's got two men on the jury. Sergeant Mogan told m 6 that." So said one of the reporters on the "police beat" in San Francisco last week. He was speaking of the jury that tried Police Captain Michac] Joseph Conboy on the (charge of murdering a youth, Bernard Lagan. At the time of this speech the jury was in retirement considering its verdict, and no one was supposed to know what the result of the deliberation would be; but the police reporter knew. Next day it was announced that the jury had disagreed; ten were for conviction and two for acquittal. The two had refused to give any reason to their fellow jurymen for their refusal to convict; they had answered every argument with the one statement, "I vote to acquit." But there was not any scandal in the newspapers about the "plant" on the jury; everyone know there was a "plant," and everyone know equally well that it would be impossible to bring to justice those responsible for it. Captain Conboy was himself so sure ho would not be convicted that he would not even admit, while on the witness stand, that he had been drunk at the time he shot Lagan. By pleading drunkenness ho could have assured himself against anything more than a manslaughter verdict ; but he know that was not necessary. And besides, if he had admitted being intoxicated it would have spoiled- his chance of being reinstated in the police force, as he expects to be when his present little trouble has blown over. FAILURE TO CONVICT. The proof eeemed so clear that Judge Dunne, one of the few honest judges in San Francisco, remarked in discharging the jury that any twelve honest men ought to have had no difficulty in reaching a verdict. The testimony of the prosecution was that Conboy was Tying helplessly drunk on a, sidewalk about 1.30 a.m. on June 23. The youth Lagan came' up to assist him. The Captain, , who was in civilian dress, pushed Lagan away, shouting , that ho was a "pickpocket and a thief." Ho continued to shout thus after Lagan, who was leaving him to avoid trouble; the boy became angry at the accusation and carhe back to the captain, who was now standing, supporting himself against a lamp-post.

Lagan began pulling his coat off. Captain Conboy shot at him three times with a police revolver, and the last bullet inflicted a wound that resulted in death after months of suffering. , No defence was offered except this unsupported statement of Conboy's made in. a plaintive tone: "Well, I thought ho was going to kill me." It sounded so weak after the defendant's own evidence of the boy's pulling oft' his coat —that tho crowd in tho courtroom tittered; and up to that time , no sign of hostility to Conboy had appeared. After hearing the story of his carouse, the jury failed to convict him of. manslaughter. So anothqr monument is raised to America's remarkable jury system, so carefully devised to protect me innocent. But some of the circumstances of this trial seem to show that San Francisco is advancing to an appreciation of the injustices wrought by a political police force, political judges, and political prosecutors. Many people expected that the police judge would dismiss the charge against Conboy at the preliminary trial; such outrages as that are no longer possible. Tho utmost that tho judge dared to do was to admit the defendant to bail—an utterly illegal proceeding in a murder case. Then again it has been found that one of_ the witnesses called by Conboy committed perjury—that he could not possibly have witnessed the shooting which ho pretended to describe. And the lie has not been winked at, as would have been expected in tho good old days. A charge has been laid against tho man. _ Moreover the public prosecutor is looking into the records of the.two jurymen who voted for Conboy's acquittal. In tho times when San Francisco was really a free city people did not worry about such trifles.