242
THE RECALL OF PUBLIC OFFICERS
executive, but because he had proven loyal in the support
of these popular enterprises.51
The reactionary opponents of the Cryer regime, headed
by the local utility corporations and their affiliated interests and acting through their spokesman, Mr. Harry
Chandler and his Los Angeles Times, persuaded Judge
Benjamin F. Bledsoe of the United States District Court
to resign his post and enter the mayoralty race against
Cryer. Judge Bledsoe, an able apostle of one hundred
per cent. Americanism, attracted warm commendation
and support because of his willingness to relinquish the
security of the bench for the uncertainties of active politics; but the fact that he was the protege of the enemies
of municipal ownership proved his undoing. Despite his
repeated assertions that he stood firmly for the development of the city's water and power system and for the
construction of a high dam at Boulder Canyon, he could
not shake off the suspicion that arose from his support by
Harry Chandler, the Times, and the power companies.
This doubt, popularized by the slogan, "Harry calls him
Ben," resulted in Mayor Oyer's reelection.
The following two years of Mayor Oyer's administration were not eminently successful. While there was no
suspicion of irregularity in his personal or official conduct
he appeared to follow the line of least resistance instead
of providing vigorous leadership. He was in constant
trouble over his appointments, certain members of his
administrative commissions were suspected of profiting
personally from their official connections, his police commission was accused of condoning a serious laxity on the
part of the police department in the suppression of underworld activities, and he was reputed to take orders
21 For an interesting sketch of Mayor Cryer see John T. Morgan,
"Mayor Ceorgo E. Cryer of Los Angeles." National Municipal Review,
Vol. XVII., No.  1.    (January, 1928.)
THE RECALL IN LOS ANGELES
243
from his friend, the local "boss." 2i The popularity of
the administration was being further lowered, moreover,
by the rapidly mounting burden of special assessments
for public improvements, which were becoming too heavy
for the small property holder to carry.
The councilmanic campaign of the spring of 1927, in
which the same conflicting interests were at work as in
1925, did away with a boss-controlled council and left
the administration with only three or four dependable
votes out of the fifteen. Friction over the mayor's ill-
judged police, harbor, and other commission appointments, with the prospect of serious clashes of policy,
was the immediate result.
22 The following editorial represents the attitude of many of the
mayor's critics:
"Instead of appointing the right kind of men to his police commission
Mayor Cryer appoints either brainy bad men or ignorant or incapable
good men.
"And he appoints these men as the result of the manipulation of the
politicians who are in alliance with the graft collectors who control the
police department in the interests of gambling, prostitution and the
disposal of stolen diamonds and other stolen property.
"Morally good men who are weak, incompetent, incapable of grasping the situation or incapable of accomplishing anything, are just as
valuable on the police commission to the crooks as are those who find
a way to personally profit from their positions by business deals with
those who seek police commission favors or as are those who are just
morally bad and use their positions to protect them in their immorality.
"A commission thus made up is manipulated by the shrewd politicians
who manipulate the Mayor and through the commissioners and the
Mayor manipulate the conduct of the police department.
"Los Angeles is different from Chicago and New York in that we
have fewer gang murders.
"In our own city commercialized vice is so firmly under the control
of one gang that any would-be rival gangs do not get a chance to
obtain power.
"In Chicago and New York there are rival gangs of great strength
and they fight among themselves not for the control of the police department, which accepts dictation from any of them, but for the control
of the gambling and prostitution privileges in given territory.
"In our own city the prostitution rights are controlled by one man,
the gambling rights by another, the stolen property rights by another,
and all of them in turn are controlled by the master politician who
manipulates the machinery of government." (Hollywood Citizen July
5, 1928.)
I