Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-23
BREAKUP OF TIE BOODLER'
Ernm the san FrnncIsco nnIIetIn.

rancisco Bulletin.
elected Schmitz again and again by in
crea asinp ma atorities. After the election
of November, 1905, the cause Of decency
looked hopeless. It seemed as thouEh
tbe people deliberately preferred bood-
lers to honest men. They would not
beed the evidence; their zeal Tor
schmitz was a blind fury, an invincible
faith.
A. .bo commencement Of his third
torn, scbnttg for the hrst time tOund
himself the complete master OF Tue
ndmtnistratIOn. All the hOld0Ver CON-
missiOners and the ittle .,ns A. n a
stood so long in HIS way were Out %
Office. Schmitz was firmly IN she SUI u,
dies and he proceeded 20 riue ihst n.' W,
TuriousIy, and, as the event has proNe"'
TO fall. ~
t1mboldened by success and continued
security Schmitz and Ruef became
reckless I'm their operations and grew
enormously rich The whole city knew
what was going on, but 1t seemed I'm,
possibIe to break through the ring ana
overcome the conspiracy of silence. IN
every case some link In the chain OF
evidence necessary for a conviction was
lacking ,.o--,--,-
At the darkest hour Rudolph SpreCkeIs
stepped forward. He was deeply stirred
by the depraved condition OF the CITY
government. He felt the ire OF an
honest man against the grafters ana
he resolved that he could not do inner
public service than to give his fortune
and his time to the work of saving the
city of his birth.
TO his confidants Mr.. Spreckels an
nounCed at the first that he had no
political ambition. that he was abso-
iutely single-minded in his purpose,
that he would hew to the root, and that
he would spare neither friend nor Zoe
who might be caught.
His first act was to enlist for the
war William j. Burns, the celebrated
and brilliant chief of the field forces OF
the United States secret service, and
Francis j. Heney, the fearless, honest
lawyer, well known IN
San Francisco, where his home was,
and famous as the prosecutor or the
land swndlers in Oregon. Heney ana
Burns had worked together on many
cases for the government; the one as
lawyer, the other as inquisitor. Their
team work is extremely clever. with
such a lawyer and such detective TO
guide him, Spreckels knew that his
fight was won: that victory was only
a matter of time; for every fight, like
every other difficult enterprise, is merely
a question of finding the right men for
the job.
To divert the public and give the ad-
something to think about,
Heney had Schmitz and Ruef indicted
for the French restaurant holdup. He
knew that he could convict them on
that charge, so that he was not vast
ing his time or the time of the court;
but his main purpose was to center
public attention on those cases while
Burns plotted and worked quietly in
the background. 1t was perfect gen.
The administration was COM
oletely deceived by the strategy. Burns
Lunneled under the mountain of graft
at leisure and laid his mine while the
ooodlers looked the other way. They
lid not discover his operations until
Yesterday, when he marched fifteen
trapped supervisors into the grand jury
'oom, and there Heney elected from
hem full confessions.
And now Rudolph Spreckels, the man
without whose help the exposure prob
ably could never have been made, re-
terates his resolve that no guilty man,
however high, however rich, shall
escape. "The bribe-giver is worse than
the bribe- taken" says Spreckels; "send
the bribing corporation managers to-
the penitentiary." And so say Heney
and Burns.