Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-05-16
RUFF IN CONFESSION
'Frisco's Political Boss Tells
His Reasons For Pleading
Guilty to Charges
DOES so TO SAVE DEAR ONES
Declares He Cares Not for Himself or
the Sentence to Be Imposed - Says
Strain Of Trial Would Have Killed
Father, Mother and Sister Tells
About the BoodIng Machine.


San Francisco, Cal, May 16.-Abra-
ham Ruef, the acknowledged advisor
of Mayor Schmitz and once the rec
ognized dictator of municipal affairs
in San Francisco. created great SEN
sation when he pleaded guilty to the
charges of extorton in Judge DUNES
court yesterday afternoon. Sentence
will be pronounced upon him two
weeks hence.
After private conference with his
four attorneys and after they had
| Withdrawn from his case because OF
the reason he had taken to change his
plea and avoid trial, Ruef, to the utter
/ astonlshment of the prosecution, arose
in court and announced In dramatic
address that after long and earnest
consideration he had detertained to
Withdraw his plea Of not guilty and
! enter plea of guilty. He asked that
the jury be dismissed and the trial
abandoned.
| Ruef read his statement from man
uscript which he had prepared in the
presence of his attorneys a few mo-
ments before Judge DUNES cham
bers opened. He showed in his voice,
in the expression on his face, in his
4 quiet and gestureless attitude, and by
the tears that again and again over
| flowed his eyes, the great emotion and
cutter humiliation that he suffered. The
pathos of the scene was communicated
1 TO the crowd that thronged the court
i room Tears sprang to the eyes OF
4 veteran newspaper men, who have been
lifelong acQuaintances and whose pa
pers have conducted against him and
/ his political associates a long and bit
ter campaign for the publication lof
municipal affairs.
i The accused man was several times
all but overcome by emotion. When
!. he reached the final words of his adj
4 dress: Il desire to withdraw my plea
4 of not guilty and enter the contrary
4 plea his voice Was sunk to whisper.
4 But so intense was the silence that It
/ reached to the far corners OF >the
room.
Tho Abram Ruef has formally de-
!, clared himself to be guilty of the
a charge on which he was, about to be
tried. he nevertheless proclaims his in-
Innocence He confesses that he Is guilty
of having connived in the corporation
lin municipal affairs, but he denies with
(. all the emphasis in his position that<f1e
can command that he is guilty of the
crime of extortion charged against him.
! He declares that his solemn motive
! ~, h r1cp n
Ito save the lives of those who are near
est and dearest to him. his aged father
and mother, his maiden sister and a
niecei
4 In the course of a long and frank
conversation with the Associated Press
Representative, Ruef said with empha-
isis In regard to his declaration of in
nocence in connection with the French
restaurant cases Il pleaded guilty"
Y he said, ito save the lives of those who
are nearest and dearest to me on earth.
I am not overstating the truth when
tell you that If my father, my mother
s and my sister had been compelled to
endure the strain of my trial, lasting at
least two months and possibly longer,
it would have cost their lives"
Ruef's eyes were filled with tears
.
full moment gazed out of the win
dow. When he had mastered himself
he turned and with wet eyes but a
steady voice, went on:
you don't know what they have
suffered in these last few months, and
: I would not tell you if 1 could Why,
night after night-every night-my
4 father and my sister have come up
i h,or. X Pow \,
saying nothing, seeing nothing. I
could not stand it any longer"
4 Again the tears and the choking and
the long look out of the window.
Last night gathered my family
about me in this prison house of mine
E and prepared them for the act I had
determined. That would mean one day
of sorrow. To go on would have
meant months Of agony and-death.
Il don't know what my sentence
will be, for myself L do not greatly
care. I say to you now, and you can
judge if I boast, that no man pos
sesses physical nerve more than I do.
could face a crowd of 5000 men,
often and with rope in their hands. I
could face them calmly and meet my
end without finching. But the suf-
fering of those I love could endure
no longer
He said he would not say whether
Mayor Schnitz is guilty or innocent,
but he was willing to say that he
wanted to break away from the
mayor before his reelection a year
ago, but Schmitz begged him to stay.
He stayed. and built up the machine,
he said.
Before the Doodle board Of super
visors was elected I warned them
against crookedness in office: lmmed-
! lately after their election l got them
} together and said to them:
h Now, you -, il any one of you
take dollar, I'll prosecute you myself
J and l meant it. I was in earnest. But
couldn't carry oht my threat and
keep the machine from going to
!. pieces" He declared there was no
, necessity for the use of Doodle in Sc
curing. the trolley franchise, because
/ it would have passed anyway He de-
4 MED he had ever taken a dollar from
any one for securing a position, nor
had he ever requested office holders
to contribute dollar to campaign
fund.
A chiId's Reasoning.
"Pa," said little Egbert, who had ac-