ous, and in order to make such a fight it was necessary to back a candidate outside the Southern Pacific ring.

It was a delicate situation. However, I reasoned that I could count upon a certain indifference to purely local affairs on Herrin's part, and I believed that if I could find the right candidate I could make the fight successfully.

At this time I had never met Phelan, but I knew that he had taken considerable interest in civic affairs. He had been a director of the World's Fair at Chicago; he had made some contributions of works of art to San Francisco; he was a good public speaker, and a very rich man. I felt that his being wealthy would prevent him from following the corrupt practices that had always been in vogue in San Francisco, would enable him to make a fight against the Republican machine, and would leave him free, if elected, to give the city an independent government.

With these things in mind, I called upon Phelan in his office and introduced myself. I told him that my name was Older, that I was managing editor of the Bulletin, and that I thought he ought to run for mayor.

He looked at me sharply and said, "Why, what put that in your head? What gave you that idea?"

I said that I understood that he was a man of leisure with an interest in civic affairs, that he had ability, that he would give the city a good, clean government. I made a

strong plea to him to run for the nomination. I told him that I knew it would be very difficult to persuade the owner of the Bulletin, Crothers, to permit the paper to support any one not a Republican, but I thought it could be accomplished if he would ask a friend of his who had great influence with Crothers to talk with him.

Phelan was noncommittal, but I saw that I had made an impression on his mind.

A few days later Phelan's friend called at the Bulletin office and talked with Crothers.

After he had come and gone I approached Crothers myself and urged that the paper support Phelan. At first he demurred at leaving the Republican party and supporting a Democrat, but I insisted that the election was only local. We could still be Republican nationally and in state affairs; we could go so far as to be Democratic locally and it would not be held against us. I argued strongly that a successful city campaign would largely increase our circulation and aid in putting the paper on its feet. I minimized the possibility of resentment on the part of the railroad.

Finally he reluctantly consented, and on the following day I published the first article suggesting Phelan for mayor. His being a millionaire, of course, made him popular at once. All the politicians felt it would be a fat cam

paign and there was much enthusiasm for him.

This feeling permeated Crothers' mind also. He felt that our scant finances should be somewhat improved by our support of Phelan. I feared this thought in Crothers' mind because of the public-spirited attitude I had taken with Phelan. I felt ashamed that Phelan should ever know that we would take money from political candidates or from any source other than the so-called legitimate sources.

I hoped to convince Charley Fay, Phelan's manager, to accept the same plan in Phelan's fight that I used in the McKinley campaign; that is, to get Phelan to buy a certain number of extra Bulletin editions. I suggested the idea to Fay that if I could be allowed several 10,000 editions of the Bulletin in addition to our regular circulation, for which we would charge $500, I thought I could hold the paper in line throughout the campaign.

Fay agreed to the plan, and it was understood that a certain number of Saturday nights would be selected for this extra Phelan edition of the Bulletin. I promised him that we would have our regular carriers distribute them and the cost to Phelan would only be 5 cents each, our regular retail price on the streets.

This arrangement seemed to me quite legitimate. trusted that it might meet Crothers' hope that some money would flow in from Phelan. As the campaign progressed this sum did not entirely satisfy him. It was not the custom at that time to give something for nothing in political affairs, and he felt that the Bulletin's support was worth more than an occasional $500.

His pressure upon me for more money finally became so strong that I called on Charley Fay and told him that I would have to get out another extra edition to the number agreed upon between us. Otherwise I was afraid that Crothers could not be restrained from sending some one from the Bulletin office to make a demand upon Phelan personally. Fay agreed to allow me to get out the extra edition, and by doing so I prevented Phelan from being directly importuned for money. We got through the campaign with no other contributions from Phelan except the payments for these editions.

For years a great many people believed that Phelan had subsidized the Bulletin. Many thought he owned it. These amounts, however, were the only sums paid the Bulletin by Phelan through that campaign. He was elected and, as I had hoped, the fight gave us some standing in the community and materially increased our circulation. Many of our readers believed that we were a free newspaper, as free, that is, as any newspaper could be.

The campaign had not been so seriously opposed by the

Southern Pacific as to disturb our place on its payroll, and up to this time nothing had appeared in the paper to indicate that the railway was controlling us. I felt that I had handled a difficult situation with a great deal of ability and finesse. A situation was coming, however, that was much more difficult to meet.

MY DIFFICULTIES IN THE CHARTER FIGHT

S

AN FRANCISCO, of course, was locally controlled by the corporations, which, while they worked in harmony with the Southern Pacific machine, had their own separate organizations in the city. The labor unions were quite strong and were gaining in strength, but as yet they had made no determined effort to dispute the power of the corporations.

So far as I had any attitude toward labor unions at that time I was against them, because they annoyed the paper with demands, and, in my narrow view, made our success more difficult. They insisted upon more money than I thought we could possibly afford to pay.

When we put in linotypes the work seemed so simple and easy that Crothers regretted that we were compelled to pay men four dollars a day. "It's a girl's work," he said. "We could get women to sit there and tap those keys for $1.50 a day. That would be ample. Think of those creatures getting $4 a day for that." I had been a printer in my younger days and had sufficient trade sympathy with the men to resent this suggestion. In the main, however, I held at this time the employer's views on union labor.

It was Phelan's administration that gave me my first social sense. It was not a conspicuously revolutionary administration, but it was conventionally honest, and Phelan felt a genuine desire to serve the people and safeguard their interests.

A Board of Supervisors had been elected with him who responded to him and were incorruptible in the sense of not taking bribes, as nearly all boards prior to this time had done. The administration was based on economy and upon constructive work for the city, for beautifying the streets, building, parks and playgrounds, putting up fountains. Phelan had a deep love for San Francisco and dreamed of making it a clean, beautiful city, worthy of its magnificent natural advantages, its hills and its great bay.

Nearly every step brought him into contact with the old regime. For example, the gas company in lighting the streets charged excessive rates, and the more lights there were the more money flowed in. Naturally it had put in as many gas lamps as it could possibly plant. Phelan in one stroke eliminated 600 of them, cutting the gas company's

revenue in proportion. For this he was ostracised by the Pacific Union Club, which could not tolerate as a member a man who had torn up 600 gas lamps to save money for the people at the expense of the gas company.

However, he continued to watch the people's interests, building better streets, better pavements, striking at graft wherever it showed its head, scanning city contracts closely, and keeping the railroad's hand out of the Board of Supervisors as much as possible.

I began to admire his attitude greatly. Up to this time I had concealed from him and his followers the fact that the Bulletin was not free, that we were on the payroll not only of the railroad, but of the gas company and the water company. I wanted Phelan to think that I was an honest newspaper man. Of course, I dimly realized that I was not, because part of my salary came from these corporations. However, I had it in mind to try to eliminate these subsidies if I were ever able to do so. Meantime my earnest effort was to keep them from coming to Phelan's knowledge.

Then Phelan began his fight for a new city charter. He had found that the old charter was inadequate for the reforms he contemplated, and he proposed the election of a Board of Freeholders who would draft a new one. His administration was popular with the people, and their support was behind the plan for a new charter.

The railroad immediately came into the fight with a nominated Board of Freeholders, known as the Martin Kelly Board, but in reality controlled by Herrin. The Bulletin supported the board nominated by Phelan and it was elected.

The Phelan board drafted the charter, and then came its election. By this time the railroad was really fighting in earnest. The new charter, as drafted, spread political power too much for the Southern Pacific's purposes. It provided for many commissions-the police commission, election commission, and others-which would be difficult to control.

The fight had barely started when Crothers came to me and said that W. H. Mills, who handled the newspapers of California for the railroad company, had agreed to raise the Bulletin's pay from $125 to $250 a month if we would make only a weak support of the new charter.

I saw that it would be almost impossible for me to maintain my reputation for honesty with Phelan and his followers and at the same time not offend Mills to the point of his withdrawing his subsidy.

I went ahead desperately, doing my best to satisfy both sides, and daily feeling more self-contempt. Phelan, expecting me to be loyal to the charter, forced me by his very expectation to run several editorials supporting it. I was checked by Crothers, who told me that Mills had complained.