New-York tribune., 1907-05-16
RUFF ADMITS GUILT.
Continued from first page.

No one knows what they have suffered in
these last few months, and would not tell II
could Why, night after night. every night.
! my rather and my sister have come up here
| into my room and sat for hour, saying moth
| ing, seeing nothing. 1 could not stand it any
| longer.
Again the tears and the choking and the long
look out Of the window
-, Last night gathered my family about me in
thls prison house of mine and prepared them
| lot the act had determined upon. That wOuld
| mean one day of sorrow To go on would have
| meant months of agony and-death.
don't know what my sentence will be- For
| myself do not greatly 1 say now that
no man possesses physical nerve more than
40 could face a crowd OF 5000 or 10000
! men, every one with rope in his hand and
! caIlng for my life. l could face them calmly
ana meet my end without hnching. But the
! longer
l say do not know what my sentence will be.
| II II be hve years in prison, l can meet that
| when it comes. l believe that with my per-
! Sonahty, leaving out of consideration the feel
| ings of those who love me and have stood nv
| me. could spend five years in San Quentin
! prison almost as comfortably as in hotel at a
summer resort But if the step took this
! morning had meant five years, or fourteen
| years or ,4oO years. the fear of that would
not have deferred me
l have made confession I know much
some thlngs shall tell; some things l shall not
! tell Whenever an innocent man has been forced
INTO corruption against his viii, that man shall
protect whenever q man, be he high or low
has entered into corruption with his eyes open
that man shall expose.
WANTED TO BREAK FROM sCHMITz.
I will not say at the present moment that
Mayor Schmitz Is guilty of the charges that
have been brought against him, or that he IS
innocent VIII say this: l wanted to break
away from Schmitz before his re- election wear
ago last November, and said 10 him: Il am
SICK of the whole thing, and want TO get out.
cant stand for all these labor union buns
You nave gathered around you and will appoint
They would eat the paint off a house.
In answer the Mayor begged me stay with
MN. ana put up the argument that these fellows
must be allowed their share could never
hold the machine together. There all too
much truth I'M that.
l stayed with Schmitz and stayed with the
machine that | at great labor and pains had
punt up and assembled. found then that
had taken step away from the high and clean
litical field
found, in short that to hold this machine to-
gether ! had 10 permit and connive at corrup-
ton In the state of affairs existing il was
necessary But myself never asked dollar
OF any man never took dishonest dollar from
the public The things that l did were things
that hurt one
Before the Doodle Board of Supervisors was
elected I warned them against crookedness in
office. Immediately after their election i got
them together and I said to them: Now. You
If any one Of you takes dollar I'll prosecute
you myself And meant II. was in earnest.
But found that l could not carry out my
threat and keep the machine from going TO
pieces Schmitz was right about that
And so much Of this corruption was needless
NtedleSS, 1 mean, from the giVeTS' end the
deal Take for instance, the trolley franchise.
Everybody wanted the street railways electri-
fed There would have been opposition II
the application had been merely and customar-
lily laid before the board 1t would have been
granted. But the press Of San Francisco had
taught the public 10 believe thai every ofi~e-
holder was crook; that the whole city gov
ernmeut was rotten from skin 10 core. that
no privilege could be obtained unless it was
paid for.
1t was strange that those systematIcaI at
tRcks' though frequently grounded on nothing |
more truthful than personal suspicion in pri-
Na'e quarters, should have led the corporation |
astray as 10 the real situation The officers. of |
course are not bad men. They do not belong To |
the criminal class. They no more desire 10 |
commit the crime Of bribery than the news |
papers the public desire that IL should be |
permitted But franchises are necessary TO the |
conduct Of their business. and when they are |
taught 10 believe that such privileges cannot be |
obtained without the exercise of dishonest in |
nuences, they frequently do commit the crime Of |
bribery rather than fnTego the thing they desr |
And so It goes. suppose that the United Rail- !
roads sent word that there was $1,000 or So. 900 |
apiece Tor the supervisors If the supervisors |
would call at the United Railroads office; and |
suppose that those supervisors trooped up there |
one by one and took the dirty money. such an |
arrangement would mean almost instant expos |
ure, and scandal and absolute defeat of the end |
sought But suppose that the United Railroads |
came to me- a lawyer and political leader and |
asked me to accept fee to manage the matter
for them2 Suppose | refused. Suppose then
these supervisors got wind that there money
TO be had and found out that they meant to
get II. Would still refuse to handle the mat
ter for them" and see my machine smashed, or
would accept tho fee and connive at the cor
ruption?
THE NEWSPAPER CONFEDERATION"
Il do not say that Patrick Calhoun or Thorn
wall Mullalley the officers of the two tele-
phone companies or anybody has committed the
crimes charged. | have not made any confess
sion. But ! repeat: Some of the many upon
whom has fallen the SCOT of the newspaper con-
fagratiOn We're innocent of evil intent, but be-
came involved by COmpulSiOn. and these men
shall not be compelled To suffer further shame |
there are who went into the smoke with their |
eyes open, knowing full well what they were
about and as to these l shall speak freely and
fully when the times comes.
Mr. Burns. of the prosecution. has just now
aSked If | willing TO go before the Judge |
this afternoon and tell all" l told him / was |
certainly not don't fear the grand jury When |
have shaped my course and made up my mind |
In every particular TO how l shall act, then
I'll be willing to go before the grand jury or |
before William j. Burns, or Heney, or anybody
they may appoint and tell them what l have
decided to tell
have no doubt that my action to-day my
TO face about, and my future ac-
tiOns in this regard, Will serve with many per-
can only declare and maintain that my motives
are good / aware that l have many
mics. bitter and powerful l hope that
l have too. some friends
I never have pulled a down. I have
helped many a up. There 5000
persons in this city now occupying posi-
tions gained for them through my help. which
are paying higher salaries than ever they be-
fore knew anything about. No one of them
ever paid me dollar for the service rem
dered them: no one of them ever contributed
at my request or by my cause single dollar
TO campaign fund.
never asked a favor. I never sought fee
never took a dollar from the public have