The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-14
GOING FOR THE
REFORMERS
The San Francisco Reform
Pendulum Swings
Backwards.
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin)

SAN FRANCISCO, May 29-The
majority of the people of San Fran
cisco are good, honest folk, who are
/ still needing the voice of that civic
conscience which commands the city
to purge itself of the guilt of the stu
pendous corruption of the Ruef -Schmitz
era of graft. But civic consciences,
like human consciences, are sometimes
TO be lulled to sleep-sometimes to be
befuddled by false issues. One of the
blacklist crimes in the history of gov
ernments is now Deqng attempted in
the city of San Francisco. 1t is the
effort to make the people forget the
guilt of the grafters by falsely repre-
senting the purposes of the prosecution.
The story of the shameful prostitution
of the power of office by Mayor
Schmitz and his administration, the
story of the wicked boss rule of Abe
Ruef, the story of the downfall of the
grafters from high official position
these things have been toftl to every
American who reads a newspaper.
But not even San Francisco realizes
to the full extent the meaning of the
present campaign of innuendo which
aims to restore some of the chief crimi-
mails of the black era of graft to their
old position of responsibility, and to
destroy the men who have been fight
ing to bring the grafters to justice by
covering them with unjust infamy.
Newspapers, bank presidents, "re-
Specialize citizens, men of high social
position, and even men of high church
position are actively engaged in cam
paign of abuse and ridieule which has
for its victims Francis J. Heney and
his associates in the presentation of
the criminals who debauched the city s
honor At the same time they apollo
gize for some of these men whose guilt
is as well established as is the fact of
the existence of the men.
Desperate efforts are being made by
business men who believe themselves
honest to create a sentiment in favor
of dropping the prosecution of these
criminals because the "reports of the
trials in the newspapers will injure the
reputation of the city with people
abroad They seem not to remember
that the outside world expects the
honest people of San Francisco to bring
the criminals to punishment. They
seem to forget that if these grafters
go scot free that other grafters are sure
to arise and pursue their careers in
confident expectation of the protection
of the respectable business element of
the city
Some of the newspapers in San Fran
cisco ridicule everv move made by the
district attorney and his assistants.
They impugn the motives of Rudolph
Spreckels. who made the graft prose-
cution possible. They gloat over the
difficulties thrown about the prosecu-
tors by the hosts of thugs hired by the
grafters of the Ruef stripe. They
laugh at the arguments advanced by
those who are seeking justice. They
cartoon and lampoon Prosecutor Heney
and Detective Burns.
The first thing one of the self-styled
respectable business men, says to
the stranger within the gates of the
city is: ''Well, there are two sides to
this graft question. If he is asked
to name the two sides he replies: COZ
course Ruef and that gang of labor
union officials were pretty bad. but then
there is graft in every city. 1t is
human nature. San Francisco is no
worse than any other city. There al
WAYS will be grating. We can t help