The San Francisco call., 1906-12-27
New Evidence Is
Gathered for the
Grand Jury

when the Grand Jury resumes it's
sitting IL will be given opportunity
10 consider evidence the gathering of
which was completed yesterday by de-
tectfveS of the District Attorneys Office
concerning one Of the most systematic
and extensive fields of graft yet ex-
plotted in San Francisco.
This concerns the wholesale theft of
ole metal fn the burned districts graft
which involves members of Abe Ruefs
Police Department from the upper Of
fee down TO the patrOInen on the
streets, and which is declared to have
given birth 10 a school of crime for
boys and resulted in widespread official
irreguInrity.
The evidence amassed by detectives
of the graft prosecutors shows that the
city has been systematically districted
and the privilege to steal farmed out
with the connivance of the police, who
kept books in which daily records of
the traffic were entered, so that there
could be no subsequent disputes about
the extent Of the official ''rakeoff."
Impetus 10 the investigation was in
creased directly after the ruins Of the
Academy Of Sciences had been raided by
protected looters and the police had re-
fused to act. Armed with the details
Of this raid. the graft investigators
were able to add TO the information in
their possession and TO secure evil
dence that puts a questionable signifi-
canoe on the reluctance of police court
magistrates to convict in cases relating
TO the theft Of junk that had been
forced upon them by indignant prop
erty owners.
BOYS TAUGHT TO STEAL
In the water front district. south of
Market street, the investigators have
the name OF one firm which has served
as the official depot for stolen prop
erty and which has conducted it's opera
tions with amazing effrontery-
No questions have been asked of per-
sons who brought old metal to this es-
tablishment, and for months lines of
boys have been seen every afternoon
at its doors with sacks of copper and
brass stolen from the ruins. In time
the thievery became so profitable for
boys that it led TO wholesale truancy
from the public schools in the district
and turned into the streets an army
Of young looters who would let nothing
stand in their way. Property owners
have been stoned and driven from their
own premises by these and older
thieves, and the action Of one or two
Police Court Judges, when arrests have
LQlAOHEQs mas DCCu AAll4C SAOAN "a RAC-
posterOus.
The graft in time reached such pro-
portions that it attracted operators
from as far east as Minneapolis and
Chicago. The smelling works protect
ed by the police finally became unable
10 handle all the stolen property, and
three or four other firms were then
taken in on the graft.
The policemen on duty in the districts
in which these firms were located took
daily notes Of the amount of loot re-
ceived by them. These records were
in turn handed up to the captains of
the districts, who passed them still
higher up. In this way account was
kept of nearly every ton Of old metal
stolen in the city, and the profits"
were divided with an exactness that
could scarcely be improved upon by
double-entry system of conventional
accounts.
POLICE ACQUIRE JUNK
with characteristic enterprise and
inventiveness, the official grafters hit
upon way Of adding to their profits.
New firms were .'let in'' as receivers of
stolen property, and a stipulated fee
exacted for the privilege. They would
be allowed to operate for time, when
the police would swoop down upon
them. claiming that complaint had been
lodged against them as fences for
plying the graft too raw" In this
way the police amassed a great deal OF
junk themselves. What they did with
il they will be given an opportunity TO
explain to the Grand Jury.
Expert testimony from some of the
junk dealers driven out of business by
the police because they would not pay
tribute will be among the interesting
revelations made before the Grand Jury
in connection with this graft.
Besides the police and police court
magistrates involved in the investiga-
tion, the testimony to be given before
the Grand Jury concerning il will add
TO the burden Of at least one man al
ready indicted al a CRATER.
The police have allowed the thievery
TO continue because they have been
obeying instructions from the power
that makes or breaks them. It has
been a graft that has worked both
ways to their supreme satisfaction, and
that an inquisitive Grand Jury should
spoil it will be regarded by them as
notable Illustration of oficiousness.