The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-01-11
SAN FRANC|SCO'S REAL STRUGGLE
BEGINS WITH CALHOUN TOMORROW
GRAFT FIGHTERS WILL REACH
THE "HlGHER-uPS" AFTER
TWO YEARS BITTER FIGHT,
PUNCTUATED WITH CRIME
AND AWFUL TRAGEDY.
Special Correspondence to The Press


bribing city official.
Maybe the attorneys of the local
street railway president will be
able to secure a brief respite, ward
off for a few days the actual prose
cution. That will make little diff
ference.
The big thing for the city of San
Francisco and for the nation will
be that after more than two years
of prosecutions, Francis j. Heney
and the little band of graft fighters
associated with him, will have
fought their way stubbornly
through an army of petty grafters,
thieves, bribers, prostituted law
yers, perjurers, thugs, dynamiters,
kidnaperS assassins; through
threats intimidations. insults, ridi-
Guile, until they are now within ac-
tual striking distance of the rich,
clever gang that supplied the
money and the brains to cover
crime with crime, to turn public
Indignation into deadly apathy
through published lies and insults
in subsidized newspapers.
These rich criminals They are
guilty as HE'LL says Heney.
Now he has the chance to prove
it. He has fought for two years
for that chance. The prosecution
today stands face to face with the
millionaires. The trial of Patrick
Calhoun will be the crucial chapter
in the story of the prosecutions in
San Francisco, the climax of
desperate, pitiful, terrible tale of
exposures, home wrecking, attempt
ed assassination. suicide violent
death and concerted attempt to
thwart the laws of our land and
clog the wheels of justice.
Shortly after the great fire and
earthquake of 1906, when Francis
J. Heney, William ]. Burns and Ru-
dolph Spreckels announced that
they had come to rid the city of
its grafters, people gave thanks.
The crookedness of Mayor Eugene
sE Schmitz, his political boss and
pirate captain, Abraham Ruef, and
the Sohmitz-Ruef board of super
visors was known to the citizens.
Everyone, even the wealthy bribe-
givers, declared they wanted to see
these men sent to prison. But He
ney and Burns knew that the real
elimination of grating meant the
conviction of the corporation law
breakers.
When it became known that De-
teetive Burns had forced Abe Ruef
to confess, the wealthy bribe-givers
who could be sent to the peniten-
tiary on his testimony, scurried for
cover. The fear of God was in their
hearts. They banded together for
a common defense. =,
When the state appellate and
supreme courts freed the convict
ed Mayor Schmitz and the self con-
fessed criminal, Abe Ruef, Ruef,
imbued with new courage, repudiat-
ed his confession, Joined hands
with the "higher-ups" to wage
desperate campaign against the
prosecution, which resulted in one
Of the greatest waves Of brutal
crimes with the inevitable sequel
of pitiful tragedies that ever
shocked San Francisco.
Ruef and Schmit8 were indicted
November is, 1906 In quick sue
cession followed the indictment of
IA supervisors and many corpora
ton men. t-
On November %, 1906 Super
visor w. w. Sanderson, who had
heard that some of his boodling
colleagues had been trapped by De-
tective Burns and had confessed,
made two unsuccessful attempts to
kill himself in Los Angeles hotel,
Later he was compelled to testify,
His wife recently divorced, sued
him for maintenance and a few
months ago he was sent to Arizona
by his physicians. who gave him
up, hopeless victim of tubercu-
losis.
On January 26, 1907, Heney's
bodyguard, Oscar J. Kendall, died
suddenly in San Francisco under
suspicious circumstances. Detec-
tive Burns believes that he was
the victim Of knockout drops ad-
ministered by friends of the
grafters.
Driven to shame by the exposure
Of his wrongdoing, his home wreck
ed and he himself fearful of facing
his friends, Supervisor Thomas F.
LOnergan, the one supervisor now
spoken of as the man who was
''shamed enough to die" passed
away on January 6, 1908, of
broken heart.
Louis Glass, manager OF the
local telephone company, was con
yicted and sentenced to Ave years
for bribery. His home was wreck
ed and his family dragged from
social prominence.
"Big Jim" Gallagher. leader of