The San Francisco call., 1908-03-10

7 Dr. Nieto- Dr. Nteto then sald 10 me III
NIETO FOR PUNISHMENT
Il do not care to get publicly mixed up in
the Ruef case, because. among other things.
/ am not a particular friend Of Ruef.s and am
not interested in the matter an individual.
but only in the welfare Of this community
think that Ruef has grieyously sinned against
this community and that he can do a great
deal to undo the wrongs which he has com
mitted and TO clear up the situation, ana
have told him that It is his duty 20 himself nssh
to do 80. / want you TO understand MI Heney.
chat have not. come here to ask you to LEI let
he ought to be punished. and l think he ought
to- give. a large part of the money which ne PC
improve its streets. He ought to give 100000
for that purpose. but huef thinks more OF
hs eeng ae aed think Sf ms he WOULD
to the pentehtiary than give up any very
large amount of it,.
Nieto said but he talked at length along these
lines, and he made no suggestion or statement
whatever expressing any contrary view pur
pose intention in regard to Ruef. He IN
sisted and repeatedly stated that ne nad no
that he thought the a ocas Of the
which had been bribing the supervisors were
trying to make scapegost OF huef, ana sa,f ,nsl
interest, as well matter of duty TO his
family and his city, ought to expose all the the
facts and assist in Furnishing his accomplices
who were just guilty as he was .
In this conversation said to Dr. Nieto, In
SUBSTANCE.
Doctor Mr. Burns tells me that Ruef insists
upon the terms of complete immunity as a con-
dltion precedent to his turning states evidence:
want to say to you thar VIII never consent ,
to any such terms. The only reason ! am Will
ing TO discuss the question of partial immunity
En Il e nef At the @ S t1 Rs Is ha The
Is boodler, and nearly all his appontees VINO
hold important positions commissions sre
posed of boodlers and the repairing of our
streets is being conducted in a shameful manner
The ns board % Of pnee beash Is is
not corrupt. and / believe that the majority OF
1t are corrupt. Gross abuses exist at the aims
house and at all other public institutions. The
| sheriff is in sympathy with Ruef and Schmitz.
and he and his deputies acted in an outrageous
manner at the Temple Israel the day after Ruef
had himself appointed district attorney, as you
! remember. The police commission is corrupt.
are corrupt and that department is being used
to help Ruef at this time The members OF
the board OF supervisors are al ooodlers RS ana
to I'LL the vacancies and he will do so with the
same kind of men II we Indicted or removed
the members of any Of the commissions Schmlfz
can hll the vacancies and will put back the
same kind Of men. Dinan has been under IN
nor the police commission win do anything TO
remove him. II Ruef pleads guilty In this ex-
and IL we convict him we can get rid of all the
boodlers at and the city from the
terrible condition in which il new is. We al
ready have a complete case against Schmitz In
the extortion case. however. and If Ruef does
not plead guilty immediately and thus enable
us to 60 to trial with sehm;iz az ones ! VII
meyer discuss the question Of partial Immunity
Win him again. and as soon as We Enlsh The
extortlon case against Ruef which is now on
case and Immediately thereafter l will start in
trying Ruef on these bribery cases and will not
quit until | have convicte~ him on at least one
of them"
MADE OTHER VISITS
II is my best recollection that DR.. Nieto was
at my office on at least one other occasion
alone before he appeared there with Dr. hap
f, Ian. but that he was afterward there SO many
times that it is not possible for me to fix the
exact number the exact dates.
On one OF these occasions prior to April Il,
1907, l said TO DR.. Nieto in substance:
II am told that Ruef thinks that am actu,
ated by feeling of personal anmosity toward
him The fact is Doctor that have known
Ruef for great many years and always liked
him and admired his ability, although l always
about the statements he made about me at the
time of the last election. because they were
desperation. l am actuated solely by a sense
of duty and of responsibility to the public. The
facts as they have been disclosed 10 US demon
strate that the corruption which exists IN San
Francisco is but a type of that which exists in
all large cities. The political boss joins hands
with vice the one hand and the public serv-
ice corporations the other to make money on
the public, and as long as business Is good the
people stand for 1t. and even seem to Ike H.
Occasionally then the boss becomes intoierabie
in his actions and gives poor government. as the
people call It, by letting the streets get dirty and
remain out of repair, or something OF that kind
the people become aroused and endeayor TO
break his hold on the city by putting up
nonpartsan ticket. The officials OF the public
service corporations thercupon get together ana
make suggestions to the nonpartisan convention
and have ticket nominated. which the people
think represents good government and which In
reality represents the same men and the same
corpora tions who were behind the political boss
whom the people trying TO get rid or Now
consider that the greatest benent whlch we
will have done this city and this country Oy
these prosecutions will be the insight which we
will have given them into the causes OF corrup-
tion In ali large cities. and into the methods by
which this corruption Is maintained The testi-
naony of the members of the board or supervisors
throws great light on this question: ana ,aet mue,
lesson TO the world, II he would do So The
only way we can stop this kind of corruption Is
by enlightenng the people as TO its causes ana
by thereafter endeavoring to remove; the tempta-
tion which causes evil by proper remedial iegis-
lation and in order 10 impress this object lesson
on the people strongly enough to accomplish
much rood we must punish the principal men
who have been involved in II. DO not imagine
this is a pleasant task to me: II is Iar from
being So 1t involves men like Frank Drum,
whom | liked and respected as friend for
years and who has quite recently paid me a
good attorneys fee for services peTiGr,nsd nor ,ot
Patrick Calhoun socially, aud greatly admire MS
ability and found him to be man OF very
agreeable, attractive manners wish there
was some other way to secure proper deterrent
effect without causing these men snd .theif
innocent families to suffer- but unless me ne laws
I III
government cannot continue very long IL Is
not sufficient to punish the poor man who mas
no friends or influence. The people will lose
resnert for the courts and for the law unless
the rich and powerful can be made TO obey the
laws.
AFTER OBJECT LESSON
..It has greater deterrent effect, In my
opinion to put rich and inIuentlai man
in prison than to put thousond poor ones
there 1t would do no good 10 SEND rev
miserable ignorant supervisors to the peni
Tertiary Others Of the same kind would
soon take their places. and the carnival OF
crime would continne as before u We can
nut Rifef in the psniteptiary II will have .
wholesome effect upon other political bosses Tor
the pext decade at least And II we can put
few. captains Of industry there with him, and
particuiarly q few Of the head officials OF pub
! lie service corporations. il Will have greater
deterrent eject against bribery OF public Of
hcials than putting 500 of such officials in the
pen niteptfarr l think would lose much OF
fhe deterrent effect, however OF sending public
service officials TO the penitentiary II we per-
mitted Ruef to 20 absolutely free. He Is not
an ordinary political boss, as you know. he
was not the tool OF these men, He NJ highly
intelligent and is masterful, controlling spirit
among men, and ne Initiated these crimes with
these public service corporation officials More
! over he is an attorney at law and he has
prostituted the license which he has to practice
law to these base uses, and IL would be almost
criminal on our part to permit him to continue
to practice that profession In this city or state
For ms part I will consent to do so.
If he Is willing to tell sll he knows about all