ANOTHER PHASE OF SAN FRANCISCO'S CALAMITY.
Just after the fire in San Francisco, two leading political rivals were said to have agreed that, for the purpose of united action in rebuilding the city, there should be no more politics in connection with the city's administration for ten years. But there are evidently some parties who are not abiding by the dictum of these two "bosses." The millions of dollars in the relief fund now being distributed, and to be handled for the next year or more, is a tempting bait for experts in the manipulation of public funds. It is now stated that three chief financiers have been appointed with salaries of $6,000 a year each—equal to the salary of the governor of the state; that each of these has an assistant on high salary, at least one receiving $5,000 a year; and many other helpers are being paid at political rates for services requiring only the ordinary political energy. Where there are so many good, capable, trustworthy people in the ranks of those who are temporarily out of employment, it would seem that the people's donations might be handled a little more economically. Such administration, together with the speculative sale of donated flour, and the attempted theft of hundreds of donated blankets by an ex-convict who succeeded in getting a position as chief of a relief camp, is calculated to check the flow of popular sympathy toward the stricken city. It does seem almost incredible that the avarice of men who move in respectable circles should lead them to prey upon the charities of the public and the donations to the needy at any time, much less in the face of such cumulative suffering and want. But it is a sign of the times, an indication of the downward trend toward a general moral collapse, as "in the days of Noah," and "in the days of Lot," which the Lord cites as samples of the condition of the world at His second advent. See Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-30. These great calamities are great developers, both of human sympathy and of human cupidity and depravity.