The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1907-08-17
BAD AS EARTHQUAKE
SAN FRANCISCO'S INTERNAL
STRIFE RENDS CITY.
The Rivalry of SpreckeLs and Cali
houn Has Divided tie Town Into
Two Camps and for Months the
Battle Has Ragged.

San Francisco correspondence:
Time alone will reveal the full truth
Of the extraordinary intrigue and war
fare, class feud and personal vendetta,
that involve the graft investigation in
San Francisco and that have filled this
city's cup OF bitterness and strife-a
more disastrous visitation, indeed, than
that OF earthquake and fire.
San Francisco, the falrest and great
est of cities on the Pacific coast, in
.comparably favored by natural advan-
tage with illimitable resources behind
her. and the trade of the Orient facing
her, destined to be one OF the greatest
ports In the world. has been yeXed and
torn more by internal strife and dis
order than by the calamity which start
ed at 5:15 o'clock Wednesday morning,
April Is, 1906, shaking her foundations,
and by the consequent fires devastating
| four square miles and destroying five
| hundred millions worth Of property.
In San Francisco today the fight is
rot merely the old one of capital
against labor, although that is still be-
Ing waSed tiercely and without quarter,
but the opposing forces of two captains
Of industry, two Of the heaviest capt.
talists in California, are drawn in n
struggle to the death. For some months
the lines of battle have been clearly
drawn, and while, outside of San Fran
cisco, public attention has been con-
centrated upon the dethronement OF
Eugene Schmitz, thrice mayor Of San
Francisco, ard the surrender of his
partner and manipulation, Abe Beuf,
here the fcud between Patrick Calhoun,
president of the United Railroads. and
| Rudolph Spreckels, the largest property
holder in San Francisco, has been most
closely watched
Patrick Calhoun, Tho Is a grandson
Of John c. Calhoun, and is a man of
great ability, impressive force, and who
has built up a great fortune, controls
street railroads in Pittsburg, as we'll as
in San Francisco. Five years ago, the
United Railroads, in which Mr., Cal
hOun is the heaviest stakeholder, alb
sorbed most of the street railroads in
San Francisco, and set about vast im-
provements of the system. Shortly be-
! fore the disaster of April, 1906, the
United Railroads commenced the cleo
itriciZatiOn of it's system. After a long
and embittered controversy, in which
Calhoun and Spreckels first Joined is
sue, Mr.. Calhoun decided on adopting
the overhead trolley system. Spreciels
and his colleagues, of whom the chief
was ex-Mayor James ID. Phelan, had
insisted that the United Railroads
adopt the underground conduit system.
The Merchants Association employed
William Barclay Parsons, OF New
York, whose conclusion was positive
that the best way Of meeting the trans
portatiOn problems Of San Francisco
was to convert the cable roads into the
overhead trolley. His report was Wig
Orously assailed by the Spreckels group
of theorists, who, disappointed in their
obstructive tactics, organized the Mu-
nicipal Street Railway Company, with
S14OOO.0O0 of capital stock. lncorpor-
alton papers were filed the day before
the great disasrer-and the war WAS
on.
The earthquake and the fire occa'
stoned the temporary pOstponement OF
the Spreckels- Phelan street railroad
plans, but Immediately afterward they
were found concentrating their efforts
on attacking and hecklng the United
N
Spreckels carried his opposition 30 far
that in the famous Committee of Fifty,
which took charge of the city's affairs
after the fire, he objected to the United
Railroads resuming car service, advane-
ing the fanciful view that the operation
OF the cars might cause further contia-
grafton. Despite the dire need OF the
suffering people, the service was
stopped for several days, and the gen.
eral manager Of the United Railroads
was threatened with arrest. The Uni
ted Railroads agreed to carry the peo-
ae free of charge. This permission
WINS finally granted, but again Mr.
Spreckcls interviewed. claiming that the
free TRANSPORTATION caused such over
crowdlng of the cars that business men
willing enough to pay their fares, could
not find accommodation.
Thus the fight progressed. until final
ly there came the graft investigation
In the course of which Spreckels man
aged to have Calhoun indicted on the
charge of brfbing officials with 100000
Calhoun and his colleagues proclaim
their innocence of the charge OF bribery
md axnress their willingness to meet