San Francisco Call, Volume 72, Number 37, 7 July 1892 — OAKUMS BAD BLOT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OAKLAND’S BAD BLOT.

The Ruthless Railroad Runs the Town. MORE WATER-FRONT INIQUITY. The City Council Under Which Our Neighbors Stagger. A HARD HANDICAP TO PROGRESS. The Whole State of California Feels It and Protests. Three Lonely Honest Councilmen Who Have Struggled in Vain Against Most Shameful Jobbery. The little tin gods of Oakland—that is to say, the Mayor and City Councilmen—are beginning to have some respect for the wishes of the people who put them in office. "The railroad has run the town long enough," say the people, "and we propose to take a hand in municipal affairs ourselves." The Call's efforts on behalf of the citizens are greatly appreciated across the bay. It was a surprise and a pleasure for the Oaklanders to note that there was one city paper that has Oakland's Interests at heart and recognizes the fact that the City Coun-

cil of Oakland is a bar to the progress of the State, owing to its peculiar position geographically and the fact that it has had an ear only for the voice of the railroad and none for the voice of the people. The Call is determined to see that the little tin gods shall do no further mischief to the State, and proposes to watch their movements and make them accountable to all California for their acts respecting the Oakland waterfront.

That water front is the key to the railroad situation.

Without it no competing railroad can reach San Francisco through Oakland—the only satisfactory way of approach that wood admit of adequate terminal facilities. That strip from Emeryville to Brooklyn has a most peculiar history.

It is a black history, too. It is a history in which greed and covetousness play a most striking part. It is an ugly history. Trickery, jobbery—jobbery, trickery repeat themselves over and over again. Arch Conspirator Carpentier pulled the strings and the little tin gods moved their arms and legs and made scratches with the pen as he willed.

If Carpentier wanted anything he got it. If he wanted the town of Oakland incorporated he had it done.

If he wanted a charter election it was ordered.

If he wanted to carry the election he did it.

If he wanted a grant of the whole water front he made his own terms for it. A little frame schoolhouse was not too small an equivalent for what is now ten millions of property.

If he wanted to fix things so that he could be undisturbed in his stealings he had an ordinance passed so fixing them.

If anybody tried to take the title of the water front or any part of it into court he got the little tin gods to send out for the attorney on the opposite side and call him off and squelch the litigants. How did he get his hold on Oakland affairs so firmly?

He was a shrewd, sharp, pioneer lawyer, the brainiest man in Oakland in early days. When he began his stealings he counted noses in Oakland and found only 35 people to deal with. These people were all thinking about how to mind their own little affairs and make a living amid the oak trees. They did not see away ahead and discern the dim outlines of a second Brooklyn on the bay shore. But Carpentier did. He must have danced a Wild West jig of joy when he saw what he had sketched out made perfect by the finishing touch of the schoolhouse bargain. That was a dark day for Oakland. She sold her great water front, the one thing she had of most value to herself and to California, for a mess of pottage— a little schoolhouse.

A picture of the insignificant building is presented in The Call to-day. It was the most costly schoolhouse ever erected in California, if not in the world. But about that document given to Carpentier by the first set of little tin gods? What was it?

Arch Conspirator Carpentier says it was a grant— a feoffment to him forever. Tbe only surviving member of the Board

of Town Trustees that gave the document, whatever it was, says that it WAS a lease for 27 years. If that be the case, then the people of Oakland have been dispossessed of their property unlawfully for a very unlucky 13 years. Whether it be true or not, there is not a shadow of a doubt in the mind of any fairminded Oaklander that jobbery has deprived the city of its right in the waterfront property for a long time. But its rights remain. Nothing has invalidated them. The title to the property vests in the city, and the City Council is encouraging and fostering a rank fraud by not making some attempt to secure possession. The court that would not give the city possession would be a very good court to drop very suddenly into the broad, blue bay. It would be a railroad court—a Carpentier court. And that is the worst that could possibly be said of it. A BAR TO PROGRESS. Oakland's Tin Gods Are Responsible for the Great Wrongs That Have Been Done. The Call's efforts on behalf of the people of Oakland, and, in fact, of the whole State, to prod up the City Council of Oakland that it may do something for the people in the water-front matter and no longer stand in the way of California's progress as a railroad State, have met with great approval across the bay. A good deal has been said by The Call of the iniquitous Carpentier deal, by which Oakland has been dispossessed of her valuable water front, but the half of it has not yet come out. It is a very ugly story, put it all together. It may be well to look into the history of the matter a little closer. A good deal of public interest centers upon the document by which Horace W. Carpentier obtained possession of the seven miles of water front. As a matter of fact it was not seven miles in length, as dealt with by the first Board of Town Trustees. They could give nobody the right to such an extent of territory, as the town limits were at that time more circumscribed than they are at present. Nobody knows how Carpentier managed to have his possessions stretched to cover the whole present water front, and that is a matter which will take further investigation. How did Carpentier get as much of the waterfront as the Town Trustees had to give away back in 1852? It was by virtue of the following ordinance:

The Board of Trustees of the Town of Oakland do ordain as follows: Section 1. The exclusive right and privilege of conducting wharves, piers and docks at any point within the corporate limits of the town of Oakland, with the right of collecting wharfage and dockage at such rates as he may deem reasonable, is hereby granted and confirmed to Horace W. Carpentier and his legal representatives for the period of 37 years; provided that the said grantee or his representatives shall within six months provide a wharf at the foot of Main street at least 20 feet wide and extending towards deep water 15 feet beyond the present wharf at the foot of said street; that he or they shall within one year construct a wharf at the foot of F street or G street extending out to the boat channel; and also within 20 months another wharf at the foot of D street or E street, provided that 2 per cent of the receipts for wharfage shall be payable to the town of Oakland. Sec. 2. With a view the more speedily to carry out the intentions and purposes of the act of the Legislature, passed May 4, 1852, entitled an act to incorporate the town of Oakland and to provide for the construction of wharves thereat, in which certain property is granted and released to the town of Oakland, to facilitate the making of certain improvements; now, therefore, in consideration of the premises herein contained and of a certain obligation made by said Horace W. Carpentier with the town of Oakland, in which he undertakes to build for the said town a public schoolhouse, the water front of said town, that is to say the land lying within the limits of the town of Oakland, between high tide and ship channel, as described in said act, act together with all the right, title and interest of the town of Oakland therein, is hereby sold, granted and released into the said Horace W. Carpentier and to his assigns or legal representatives, with all the improvements, rights and interests thereunto belonging. Sec. 3. The president of the Board of Trustees is hereby charged with the duty of executing on behalf of the town of Oakland a grant and conveyance in accordance with the provisions of this ordinance.

A. MARIER, President of the Board of Trustees. F. K. SHATTUCK, Clerk of the Board of Trustees. May 27, 1852.

All of which action was conceived in fraud, born in fraud and carried out in fraud.

At the time Oakland was incorporated a census of the town would not have shown 40 persons as citizens. Carpentier, who was a sharp lawyer, went to the Legislature, then sitting at Benicia, and presented a petition for incorporation, together with an act he had drawn up for that purpose. The act was passed on May 4, 1852, and one of its special provisions was the granting and releasing of the lands "between high tide and ship channel" from the State to the town. Carpentier had a charter election called. It was held on the 9th of May. Only a few votes were cast, the people being surprised to learn that a town was to be made of Oakland, and not knowing or caring much how it was done and by whom. At the charter election Carpentier was elected one of the five Trustees. He did not qualify, as that would spoil the scheme he had hatched to gobble the water front. The Board of Trustees was organized on May 12. On the 17th, thirteen unlucky days after the incorporation, the trustees held their first business session, and passed the ordinance giving Carpentier control of the water front in consideration of the building of the schoolhouse. A Call reporter hunted up the schoolhouse yesterday. It is a little frame building on West street just south of Seventh, though it originally stood on Fourth and Clay streets. The rear portion of it is just as Carpentier built it, but the front has been remodeled and modernized. The building is used as a tenement. This is what Carpentier described in a communication to the Trustees as a "substantial, commodious schoolhouse." It was erected in 1853, a little over a year after the water-front infamy was perpetrated. In that same year Carpentier sold a one-

fourth interest in the water-front property to a New York relation. In 1854 Carpentier became the first Mayor of Oakland. He got back the one-fourth interest and conveyed the whole water front to Harriet N. Carpentier. Then the property was reconveyed to J. B. Watson. Then it came back to Carpentier again. Oakland kept growing and she acquired some very desirable citizens, among them some bright lawyers who studied Carpentier and studied him so carefully that he began to squirm. They made an attempt to get the waterfront property back into the hands of the city. This was a hard job. Carpentier fought them and kept on fighting. There was also other litigation and much excitement. At one time there was a small riot, but Carpentier and his friends still held the fort. It was then just as it is now—three or four individuals holding out against the whole of the rest of the population. The litigation hung fire until 1868. In that year the Oaklanders were raised up into the seventh heaven by the advent of the railroad. They thought that Oakland was going to be made another London by the putting down of some strips of iron. They lost their heads and gave up the fight. The Oakland Water Front Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $5,000,000. Its directors were H. W. Carpentier, E.R. Carpentier, Leland Stanford, John B. Felton, Lloyd Tevis and Samuel Merritt. To this company the water-front property was conveyed, and the railroad people gained control of it, never to lose their grip up to the present day. Various suits were brought against the Water Front Company and the corporation replied by a suit to quiet title, which, however, was never settled. The attitude of the City Council has been hostile to the city's interests from the start. The Council is composed of 11 members. The railroad has run it ever since it laid its tracks into Oakland. There have been honest Councilmen who have worked hard for the people, but they have always been in the minority. A SOLID EIGHT. The City Councilmen Who Stand in the Way of Progress. The City Council of Oakland is composed of 11 members. The Mayor is not a member. It is a notorious fact that eight of these Councilmen are creatures of the railroad.

They have put themselves on record as being in favor of nearly every Southern Pacific scheme that comes up. Against these are arrayed a lonely three. These are the men who have stood up for the rights of the people: J. E. Johnson, J. W. Nelson, Dr. George C. Pardee.

They have shown by their actions and their votes that the railroad does not own them, and they have been supported by the independent press, particularly the Enquirer, which has done good work for the people. Here is the way Dr. Pardee talks and it is also the way he votes: “The water front belongs to the city of Oakland," he said to a Call man yesterday, "and the city should get it back." "Do you think it could be done?" “Yes, if a suit were begun and properly managed." "Why do you think so?" "From the actions of the Water Front Company, if nothing else. It has never allowed a suit against it by the city to go into court."

"How could it keep such a suit out of court?" "Well, the City Council orders the suits dismissed. It was so when A. A. Cohen and Judge Hoge tried to help the city out in that way. A suit was commenced and the Council called a special afternoon meeting— a most unusual proceeding—and ordered it dismissed, which was done. If the railroad had any title, how did James G. Fair and company get possession of the narrow-gauge property on the water front, for which the Southern Pacific afterward paid a big sum?" Referring to the Water Front Company's lack of enterprise in late years, Dr. Pardee said:

“The Water Front Company never improves its property. It never lets any of it go out of its hands unless there is a string to it. It is a clog to the wheels of progress in Oakland.

"I had it from a man known to serve the railroad in politics that the Southern Pacific Company controlled eight of the 11 members. 'There’s no use of your fighting us,' he said; 'we've got eight of them on our side. You might as well fall in with the rest.'"

"What did you tell him?" "That I would never permit myself to fall so low as to be bought by any corporation." "The people of Oakland seemed used to railroad rule in the Council?" "Yes. It seemed strange to me at first that the Oakland citizens should look upon it as an unusual thing that there was a Councilman who would not sell himself to the railroad."

"Are you hopeful of victory in the cases brought to settle individual claims to waterfront property?" “Very. This Fortin case decision has strengthened the people's side. It will greatly influence future decisions." "You serve the railroad professionally do you not?" "Yes; I am the official oculist and aurist of the hospital service of the company. But that does not keep me from doing my duty as a Councilman. The railroad people cannot buy me and they know it. "This is not going to be a short fight. The Water Front Company will go the whole length and will take the suit to the Supreme Court of the United States if necessary. But the people will win in the end. I am convinced of it." IT IS TIDE LAND. A Definition of the Term "Water-Front Property” in Oakland. "Water front," as understood by the Oakland authorities, is tide land and bay bottom up to certain limits.

It means not merely the land where the water is shallow, but, in the case of the estuary, all of the land under water at ordinary high tide, including a portion of the channel.

At one time the Water Front Company set up a claim to the whole channel— it would claim the whole bay and the broad Pacific itself if it thought it could make a successful fight for them. The company wanted the water and baybottom between the stone retaining-walls built by the Government, and even the walls themselves. It is not modest. The grounds on which it rests this claim, which were as unstable as the muddy baybottom, were that the Government retaining walls were built on its property. It made a novel and characteristically liberal proposition to the city. It would donate a channel 400 feet wide between the retaining walls and keep the other 400 itself. Strange to say the City Council objected. There was, it seems, a limit to its capacity for jobbery. By the advice of City Attorney Vrooman it placed itself on a pedestal of virtue—11 pedestals in fact— and refused to consider the donation. There was no occasion for this pedestalizing. The Federal laws covered the case. Nobody could get inside those retaining walls with the corner stakes—not even the Oakland Water Front Company with the railroad to back it. There is now what is known as the "engineer’s channel line," beyond which no one Is permitted to construct a wharf or pier. The estuary and its bordering lands are

officially diagrammed in a way that makes the description of them an easily understood matter. They are as follows: High land. Outer boundary of marsh (which is also the outer boundary of the water front). Marsh. High-tide line. Channel. Engineer's channel line. Middle line of channel. Engineer's channel line. Channel. High-tide line. Marsh. Outer boundary of marsh. High land. The Oakland Water Front Company, so far from “giving up" anything, keeps on adding to its territory. It controls seven miles of water front from Emeryville to Brooklyn, and has lately added considerable land on the Alameda shore. NOT A JURY OF JUNIORS. Names and Ages of the Men Who Decided the Fortin Case. It is an interesting fact to note that the ages of the jurors who decided the Fortin case were nearly all more than three-score years. The others only lacked a few years of it, and the average age was 63. Here is the list of names, with the age of each juror:

James Lentil, 74; Newton Sewell, 70; Peter Baker, 54; P. C. Waldenbaugh, 53; M. Hilgard, 63; W. G. Tripp, 53; A. D.

Pryal, 55; O. Button, 65; Philip Thorn, 60; W. E. Bryan, 71; H. C. McCune, 68; G. H. Tilley, 70. FORTIN JUBILANT. He Has Commenced the Erection of a Permanent Bulkhead. V. L. Fortin has commenced the erection of a permanent bulkhead on his waterfront property and will fill it in with 1500 loads of macadam, to be taken from Fourteenth street when the railroad company begins to break ground for its electric road. Fortin is jubilant over the verdict evicting C. B. Taylor from his land. He states that within a few days he will close a lease with a big firm, which proposes to erect a warehouse for carrying on a grain trade with Central and South America.

John L. Davie is also pushing matters on his lease near Webster street and expects but little further trouble with the Water Front Company. Ben Morgan has volunteered his services to conduct a suit for the city to recover possession of the water front, taking no fee unless he succeeds. The "ring" in the City Council is now afraid to meet for the transaction of its regular business. The cause of this fear is due to the fact that the members of the "combine" are between two fires. The honest element of the city has demanded that the right of Oakland to its water front be asserted by granting the application made for a lease by it of certain piece of land on the front. This demand, however, is recognized by the "ring" as being especially distasteful to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of Kentucky, alias the Water Front Company, and as the

ringsters have a deep regard for the wishes of that company, they dare not grant the application. Hence the fear to meet. Tuesday night was the regular meeting night, but the frightened patriots secured a reprieve by staying away and preventing a quorum. The members who were present then adjourned to last night, whereupon the ring mustered in strength, and immediately after reading the minutes carried a motion to adjourn for a week, leaving a fortnight's business untouched. What the end will be if these tactics are continued is not difficult to foresee. The Ordinance and Judiciary Committee met after the Council adjourned and Eagan's application for a lease on the water front came up for consideration. In connection with it a letter was read from the City Attorney stating that the city could make a lease only at public auction to the highest bidder. The committee tabled the application.

OAKLAND'S "WATER, FRONT.

Diagram of the estuary.

Carpentirr'a nchnolhouae.