Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-16
RUFF DECIDES
TO ADMIT ALL
CONTINUED from Page one,

In the course of a long and frank
conversation this afternoon with a
representative of the Associated Press
| in a room in the house, 2S49 Fillmore
street. which for the last month or
more has been his prison, Ruef said:
"T changed my plea to guilty in court
today, yes; but pledge you my SOL
emn word that L am as innocent as
you are. 1 have been guilty of con-
niving at the corruption of municipal
officials by corporations, but in these
French restaurant cases 1 am not
guilty.
Since my action of this morning
can have no motive in misleading you
on this point. l shall not mislead you.
Never, never in the wide world could
1 have been convicted on this charge.
No one knew this as well as myself.
Then why, you ask, did 1 plead
guilty? 1 pleaded guilty to save the
lives of those who are nearest and
dearest to me on earth. I am not
overstating the truth when I tell you
that if my father, my mother and my
sister had been compelled to endure
the strain of my trial, lasting at least
two months and possibly longer, 1t
would have cost their lives"
Eyes FIJI with Tears
Ruef's eyes were filed with tears
when he said this. He turned and for
full moment gazed out of the window
unseeingly. 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 I could. Why,
night after night-every night-my
father and my sister have come up
here into my room and sat for an hour,
saying nothing, seeing nothing.
could not stand it any longer" Again
the tears and the choking and the long
look out of the window. Last night
L gathered my family about me in this
prison house of mine and prepared
them for the act 1 had determined
upon That would mean one day of
sorrow. To go on would have meant
months of agony and-deatf.
II don't know what my sentence will
be. For myself I do not greatly care.
L say to you now, and you can Judge
if / boast, shat no man possesses ply |
steal nerve more than I do. 1 could
face a crowd of 5000 men, of 10000 men.
every one with a rope in his hand and |
clamoring for my life.
"I could face them calmly and meet
my end without flinching. But the suf-
fering of those 1 love l could endure
no longer. 1 say 1 do not know what
my sentence will be. If it be five
years across the bay can meet that
when it comes. I believe that with
my personality and leaving out of con-
sideration the feelings of those who
love me and have stood by me | could
spend five years in San Quentin almost
as comfortably as in a hotel at Napa
Springs. But If the step / took this
had meant five years, or four |
teen years, or fourteen hundred years,
the fear of that would not have de-
tered me.
Will Shield Friends
ST have made no confession. 1 know
much. Some things l shall tell; some
things / shall not tell. Whenever an
innocent man has been forced into cor
ruption against his will that man l
shall protect. Whenever a man, be he
high or low, has entered into corrup-
ton willingly with his eyes open, that
man l shall expose.
Il 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. l will say |
this: I wanted to break away from |
Schmitz before his reelection year |
ago last November and said to him: i
am sick of the whole thing and l want |
TO get out. Cdil Sleillu lVA OIL bAiSsN |
labor union buns you have gathered |
around you and will appoint. They |
would eat the paint off house. In
answer the mayor begged me to stay |
with him and put up the argument that |
these fellows must be allowed their |
share or we could never hold the |
machine together.
There was all too much truth IN |
that.
IT stayed with Schnitz and I stayed |
with the machine that 1 at great labor
and pains had built up and assembled. |
1 found then that | had taken a step |
away from the high and clean ideals
with which, / earnestly assure you, | |
originally entered the political field. l |
found, in short, that to hold this ma
chine together l had to permit and |
connive at corruption. In the state of
affairs existing, it was necessary. But
1 myself never asked dollar of any |
man, never took a dishonest dollar from |
the public. The things 1 did were
things that hurt no one.
Threatened Supervisors
Before the Doodle board of super
visors was elected I warned them
against crookodness in office. Imlne-
diately after their election L got them
together, and / said to them: Now.
you - - -, IL dly OlIC VI JOu
take a dollar I'll prosecute you my
SELF and meant it. l was in earnest.
But l found ] could not carry out my
threat and keep the machine from go
ing to pieces. Schmitz was right about
that.
.'And so much of this corruption was
needless Needless. 1 mean, from the
siver's end of the deal. Take, for in
stance, the trolley franchise. Every
body wanted the street railways cleo
.rified. There would have been no op-
position if the application had been
merely and customarily laid before the
board. 1T would have been granted.
but the press of San Francisco had
Taught the public to believe that every
office holder was a crook; that the
whole city government was rotten from
skin to core; that no privilege could be
until it was paid for 1t is
strange that those systematic attacks,
though frequently founded on nothing
more tangible or truthful than personal
suspicion in private quarters, should
have led the corporations astray as to
the real situation.