Recall of public officers, p. 38 |
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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
Object Description
Title | Legal research regarding the history of the Los Angeles charter, 1879-1930 (2a of 3) |
Description | Frederick L. Bird and Frances M. Ryan. The recall of public officers: a study of the operation of recall in California. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1930. Colophon, title page, pp. 1-55, 226-249 (chapters 1. General aspects of the recall; 2. The adoption of the recall in California; 3. The recall in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland). PART OF A SERIES: A critical component of the Commission's investigation centered on the idea that governance of the LAPD was shared between the Office of the Chief of Police, an administrative body, and the Board of Police Commissioners, a citizen body. To better understand the dynamic between these two entities, the staff of Heller, Ehrman, White, & McAuliffe researched the history of the Los Angeles City Charter, focusing primarily on its provisions regarding the distribution of power and the structure and organization of the LAPD. Included in the series are reproductions of reports, dissertations, article clippings, excerpts from city documents, and charter amendments related to the charter's conception and development over time. The series also includes several summaries of expert witness interviews regarding the effectiveness of this structure. |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Los Angeles |
Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | USA |
Coverage date | 1879; 1880; 1887; 1889; 1890; 1892; 1896; 1899/1914; 1916; 1917; 1920; 1921; 1923/1928 |
Creator |
Bird, Frederick L. Ryan, Frances M. |
Publisher (of the original version) | The MacMillan Company |
Place of publication (of the original version) | New York, New York, USA |
Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
Date issued | 1930 |
Type | texts |
Format | 41 p. |
Format (aat) | chapters (layout features) |
Format (imt) | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
Series | Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe |
File | Legal research regarding the history of the Los Angeles charter |
Box and folder | box 21, folder 5, item 1 |
Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
Filename | indep-box21-05-01 |
Description
Title | Recall of public officers, p. 38 |
Format (imt) | image/tiff |
Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
Full text | 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 |
Filename | indep-box21-05-01~38.tif |
Archival file | Volume67/indep-box21-05-01~38.tif |