The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-18

| ABOUT. he asked me If | knew his
| connection with the labor unions of the
city. l said l did. Well, he said.
"a week before the bonds are to be
bid for [ will call the biggest strike
| that this city has ever seen. I will
tie up every street car line in San Fran
cisco and we will have sympathetic
strikes from every union This will
brighten the bankers off. Do you think
that anyone would bid on the bonds
under those conditions? and YOU IL be
the only ones to know the real truth
| about it. It's a cineh.'
- asked him if he really meant to
| bring all this misery upon the city for
| the sake of the money he would make;
| if he would be responsible for the
trouble and the bloodshed that would
follow and the misery of the working
men who trusted him2 Then he said
that he.was only joking, and left
- After that I thought the time had
come when men with any regard for
decency should take hold and work for
| the prosecution of such rascals. | went
out immediately after my interview
with Ruef to a luncheon with two
friends, one of whom was Fremont
Older, editor of the San Francisco Bull
letln, paper that had long been fight
| ing the grafters. | told them what had
| happened, and we discussed the mat
| ter. We had long discussion con-
| corning the securing of detectives to
! hunt down the evidence and investi-
gate, but soon found that the various
| great detective agencies were mainly
| in the employ of the enemy, of the
race track interests, and, directly or
indirectly, IN the pay of the great cor
porations. The city police we could
not turn to; they were directly under
the enemy and we would be betrayed
| at once.
81 discussed this matter frequently
with Mr. Older, who called on me once
and asked me if he could secure an
honest public prosecutor and a thor
oughly reliable detective would I take
hold of the matter / promised him
that I would, and then he mentioned
the names of Francis j. Heney and Mr.
Burns, then engaged in prosecuting the
Oregon land fraud eases. Mr. Older
suggested calling on the President in
the matter | agreed to pay the ex-
penses of the men if they could be Sc
cured, and Mr. Older went to Washing
got the services of Mr.. Heney and Mr.
Burns. I arranged with Mr.. Heney to
drop all his private practise and bust
ness and devote himself entirely to the
graft prosecution, and | want to say
that there is no man so deserving of
gratitude and support from all honest
| men as Mr.. Heney is.
"He barred the facts for me, asked
me if [ were really willing to devote
my money and my time and possibly
my life's blood to this work? / told
him that / was in earnest and would
carry out every promise ] had made
'Then,' said Mr. Heney, Il would be
a poor citizen, indeed, if [ were to
place any price upon my services in
this work. / love San Francisco as
much as you do, Mr.. Spreckels. | will
go into this prosecution without price
and without pay From that day on
Mr. Heney has never received one cent,
and has been vilifed, maligned and at
tackled. That is the example he has
set me, and I am determined to follow
it and carry on tins work to its logical
conclusion
A Life's Work.
Mr.. Spreckels then outlined what he
proposed to dedicate his life's efforts
to, the organization of national league
for the education of the people of the
| United States along the lines of COM
mon honesty. He himself had disposed
of every share of public service cor
pOration stock he owned and never in
tended to own another, in order that
no one would be able to accuse him
of Interior motives in his work. What
had happened in San Francisco with
the grafters and in New York, where
the looting had been carried on to such
an extent that the tax rate was two
per cent on full valuations confisca-
tory rate-would happen everywhere
where the people did not exercise a
constant vigilance. He urged the PEG
pie to use the same common sense in
selecting their public officials as they
did in selecting employees for their bust
nesses, where they looked into a man s
fitness and character and then watched
him after he had been selected
EOur public officials are seldom
selected with any view as to their char
acfer. They get the endorsement of
a political party and the voter has lit
tie to say in the choice and he is often
confronted with a choice between two |
evils, a Republican and a Democrat and |
one possibly as bad as the other.
We must get back to the old prin7
eiples of honesty he continued, "and |
not only for the other fellow. Prac
tise it on yourself; analyze your bust
ness; stop cutting corners; cut out this ,
business of giving a commission to a
man just because he has the giving out |
of of 10 nf h0nnStV
to the man of ignorance and build up
a free country.
''The only reason why socialism is
on the increase in the United States,
he said further on in his address, sis |
because the socialist leaders need only |
get upon the platform and state what !
is the absolute truth. that the govern |
ment of this country is no longer rep, |
- 80 Inn u