The San Francisco Call, in its issue of June 10, 1907, said of Schmitz’s continued hold on the Police Department:
“The Call has never attached much importance to the well meant efforts of the various citizens’ committees to persuade Mayor Schmitz to reorganize the police force and the governing commission of that body. It is easy to understand that Schmitz might engage in some such transaction or bargain if he could be shown his own advantage therein, but that he would surrender control of his most valuable personal asset at this time or, indeed at any other time, was scarcely conceivable in view of the character of the man. This is said advisedly. It is notorious that Schmitz all through his long session in office has treated his control of the police not as a public trust for the common good, but as so much personal property to be used to the limit for his private advantage. Therefore, when Schmitz, in the first instance, gave a committee some sort of pledge that he would comply with its desire or requests, there was a very natural suspicion that the terms of the bargain as a whole had not been disclosed. There was the insistent inquiry, ‘What does Schmitz get by the bargain?’
“That question has never been answered from the inside and probably will not be answered, but the committee very shortly quit in disgust, realizing, doubtless, that Schmitz wanted something it could not grant as a consideration for his abandonment of power.
“A second committee that took up the work now finds that Schmitz is deaf to its requests for a reorganization of the police force. The lack of discipline in that body has become a public scandal. At its head is seen a man under indictment for felony, the associate of criminals and accused of tampering with veniremen called to try Schmitz—an accusation whose truth he admits. Governor Gillett has expressed the common knowledge that the Chief of Police is incompetent. He might have used a harsher word. But Dinan suits Schmitz. He is the ready and unscrupulous tool. An honest man in the same place would be of no use to Schmitz!”
When, through the good offices of a committee of citizens, the difficulties of the iron trades were finally adjusted, The Call took occasion to urge an ending of the stiff-necked policy which kept other employers and employees apart.
“In the car strike,” said The Call in its issue of June 1st, “in the telephone strike, in the laundry strike, there is nothing that cannot be disposed of by the same method and through the same agency as those that ended the iron trades controversy. There is no reason why all those disputes cannot be settled reasonably. The conciliation committee stands for public opinion. It voices the demand of the public for peace. No employer can afford to refuse its offices, nor can any representative of the employed afford to decline its offers of mediation. And if this committee, standing as it does for public opinion, could speak with conviction to the iron masters and their striking workmen, it should be able to deal even more effectively with the car strike and with the telephone strike. Those disputes concern public utilities. Street-cars are run and telephones are operated under and by virtue of grants and privileges made by the people, wherefore the people have the right to intervene when the grantees of those privileges are at war with their employes. The people have the right, at least, to mediate for peace. Mr. Cornelius and Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Scott and the leader of the telephone strikers may refuse to listen to the pacific overtures of the conciliation committee, but if they do they must understand that the price of refusal is the loss of public sympathy and support—elements without which ultimate victory is impossible.
“San Francisco has had about enough industrial warfare. The city wants peace, lasting peace. No sane man wants a fight to a finish between labor and capital, or if he does he is San Francisco’s enemy. The adjustment of the iron-workers’ strike is a hopeful sign. It points the way to an end of all bitterness and contention. It augurs an early return to the harmonious relations of those who earn and those who pay wages, relations which are essential to the progress and prosperity of any community. It is the best news of this stormy, stressful month.”