The San Francisco call., 1908-03-05
Sad to See Men Rated as Decent and Moral
Condoning Sins Of Bribe Givers

TO be tempted, or they may have been thor
oughfy corrupt or they may have deliberately
started out with the determination to use their
poltlcal- power for purposes of exploitation.
Since 1t takes two parties to commit the crime
OF bribery, they could have achieved nothing rs
Inc plea that the desired municipal franchises
could not be obtained without bribe giving is no
stronger than the plea of the seller already re-
ferred to. who with. equal Justice could claim
that the prospective orders not obtainable
without bribe giving.
Society would not have been injured if the
corrupt seller failed to get the desired orders.
utility corpora tions honorably paid millions for
franchises that they bought illegally for hun
dreds of. thousands.
Both the commercial and political bribe gvers
committed serious crimes but by far the more
serious was the crime of corrupting public Off
cials, because the tendency of this crime is to
undermine the very dations Of the state.
thus leading TO the ultimate destruction Of
democracy.
ofncials OF the public utility corporations do
when they found themselves faced with the
cnoice OF raising corruption found or Of largely
destroying the value Of the vast property In
trusted to their care?
If you find yourself faced by "holdup''
man, who demands your money your life
chances Of being killed, or are you going to
tfon7
The law of self.preservation will naturally
prompt u.s. when there Is no choice, to ming our
Of the outlaw, but at the first opportunity we
VIII hasten to make an outcry. to set upon his
we can to bring the thief to Justice and to
place him where, for time, at least, he can
If 1t be True that the officials of these public
utility corporations We're held up' and robbed
to protect themselves by trapping the Offenders
as the prosecution trapped some of hemf Why
DID they not lodge Information with the proper
officials at the earliest moment as PROOF that
they were most unwilling victims, and TINS
show their abhorrence of the crime committed
and their readiness to do all In their power to
aid In bringing the wrong doers TO justice!
DENIED BEING HELD UP
did the corporate representatives fail to bring
information to the authorities, but when off,
cially questioned they stoutly denied having been
held up or called upon to spend one penny
for Illegal or bribe giving purposes. Is this the
attitude of innocent men who by force have
been. compelled to hand over their property to
We are also further told that it is a manifest
unfairness and shows spirit of malice and
revenge and is in the nature OF vendetta on
the part of the prosecution to permit ON the one
hand the French restaurant proprietors, for G ex
victims of extortion, were practically bribe
givers and, on the other hand to prosecute
the public utility officials for the alleged COM
| do not think it can be denied that the
keepers of rhe so called French restaurants,
In giving money TO public officials TO secure
renewal of their licenses, committed sub
stantially the same crime that charged
against the managers of the public utility
The difference between them, however. lies
in this, that when the keepers OF the French
restaurants were questioned By the prosecu-
tion. they readily acknowledged the facts and
offered to testify to them in open court, thus
making i possible to ,, convict and brng 70
the public corporation managers, according 70
the prosecution, admitted nothing and testi-
fed to nothing, thus forcing the prosecution
10 bring them to justice by such evidence as
ayziiable from other sources.
You and l have heard it said that 1t Is a
shame and outrage to prosecute the men
who have shown push and pluck and enterprise
in the upbuilding of the city and to let go
suckers who as unconvcted felons sat in the
San Francisco board Of supervisors. The city
built up by push and pluck and enterprise that
has for its foundation graft is doomed as was
Sodom and Gomorrah. Push, pluck and enter
honest push and honest pluck and honest en-
terprise. In the end 1t is a disadvantage, IL
not a calamity, to a city If the spirit OF prog
ress behind its growth is dishonest spirit
Push, pluck and enterprise backed by graft,
and aided by graft, inevitably corrupt all who
come in touch with 1t.
zenship and more especially corrupts youth, and
soon the city built by enterprlsing grafters
decayed. with the days Of its growth and
prosperity numbered, and its name a byword
among the peoples Of the earth Better by far
that city shall sacrifice push, pluck and enter
prise than to obtain these at the cost Of the
character of Its citizenship.
ACTUAL LOSS RESULTS
city lacking in enterprise but peopled by
With clean hands and clean hearts will at
rupted energy and unholy enterprise must in due
time crumble and fall. San Francisco could
much better have afforded TO sacrifice the, very
temporary advantage gained by the public en-
terprise of those charged with bribe giving
than to have suffered the shame, the humlia-
ton and the loss of confidence to which 1t has
been subjected because of such bribery, all of
which injured the city in the end by keeping
away desirable newcomers and foreign capital.
SO much for the value Of the vaunted energy
and enterprise of these captains of industry,
who stand charged with crime.
AS to the matter of letting the grating SUI
pervisors go scot free, what else was there to
Whence was to come the testimony to convict
them? 1t has already been pointed out that the
corporate officials refused to admit that they
had been .'held up" robbed, or called upon
to pay q penny for bribery Ii footpad holds
you up and makes you disgorge and there are no
witnesses to the crime and you not only refuse
to testify, but even deny that you have been
held up" tell me, pray, how is 1t possible to
convict the aforesaid footpadf
Finding 1t impossible 10 get sufficient test-
mony to convict the IA thieving supervisors the
prosecution showed great generalship in at least
securing their testimony with which to convict
their influential partners IN crime and in place
go free, the prosecution is entitled TO commenda-
tion for its cleyerness in securing them wit
nesses in the interest of justice.
Public utility corporations, a rule, place
their holdings the open market and invite
the public to invest. What right has the ad-
ministration of such public utility corpora
ton without my knowledge or consent, to use
my money as an innocent stock holder, with
which to bribe public officials. thus Indirectly
making me party TO a serious crime! Should
/ not on the other hand, stock holder con-
denim such wrong doing committed in my name
and with my money, and should not A de-
cent citizen use my best endeavors TO aid public
prosecutors in ufnging such wrong doers to
Justice even though 1t should mean to ma
terial loss?
Yet the sad and deplorable picture has been
presented Of we'll to do stock holders and bond