Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-04
THE CALHOUN CASE

WHE approaching trial of TREY L.
Ford of general counsel for the
a United Railroads company of San
Francisco brings up the case of Patrick
Calhoun, the president of that cor
poration, as he is held under an indict-
ment exactly similar to that covering
the Ford case and based upon identical
testimony. 1t is commonly understood
that Langdon and Heney have evil
dence in these cases that cannot fail C
conviction, and that though the su-
preme court should rule the action of
the grand jury which found the indict-
ments to be invalid, still the cases
would be brought before new grand
jury and conviction is almost certain.
Patrick Calhoun, by reason Of his
personality and the friends he has
made in high places, represents that
class of our people against whom the
prejudice of the masses is always ar
rayed, and the fact that the great
limelight of national publicity is turned
on the trial to come will remove all
unfair or unjust acts from it's conduct.
More than any man in the list of the
indicted, Calhoun is culpable, for no
one of them could act but with his
knowledge and consent, and that his
corporation bribed the supervisors with
great sums of money is certain of legal
proof. This will convict him, and once
he is convict he will be the most
powerful exemplar of the supremacy
of law ever held UP to the nation.
Patrick Calhoun has been, and is, a
prominent figure in the professional,
social and club life of San Francisco,
and consorted always with the so-called
upper ten" of the coast, working
through such agencies to fasten the
collar of the street railroad combine on
the people and crowding the laboring
element to the wall in his work. That
organized labor, through it's rowdyism
and ruffian tactics, forfeited the good
will of the people, in no manner excuses
Calhoun's devilish methods that drove
them to it; and while we can honor the
rights, as against the strikers, we must
detest the unscrupulou5 and criminal
methods in his piratical onslaught on
the general public, and shall welcome
his conviction and sentence as proofs
of the supremacy of law over the thiev-
ing policy of corporate power.
The facts that Glass, Halsey, Ford, |
Calhoun ct al. are men of homes and |
families and are counted as among our
best citizens, while yet unconvicted, |
only magnifies their mean crimes for
they all lack the incentive of the
smaller thief who daily risks his liberty |
for small sums of money. BY every |
law of justice and humanity these men
are more culpable than the common
thief, and should be made awful ex-
amples Of the power of outraged law,
in order that the Pacific coast may be
rid of the present burden of shame
which is likely to ruin her) standing
among good men everywhere.
Calhoun always elected force to do
his dirty work; the force of money, of
position, of power in politics, of per-
sonal prestige, in short the dominance |
inherent in money and all it can buy; |
it now remains for him and his CO.
to be met with the power
Of the outraged law, and while The
Herald bespeaks for them all the bene-
Ats of reasonable doubt we demand the
fullest recompense to a suffering peo-
pie compatible with law, If they are
proven guilty.