The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-02-04

M outside the Pacific coast
Il cities had heard little or
nothing of Patrick Cal
houn the president of the United
Railways of San Francisco, whose trial
on the charge of bribery has begun in
that city. OF Ruef and Schmtz-the
boss" and the mayor of San Fran
cisco-and their docile pack of super
visors much has been printed. 1t is
in connection with Calhoun's alleged
payment of 100000 to Ruef and
Schmitz and the city council as bride
in order to get franchise permitting
the traction system to be changed
from cable to overhead trolley that
Calhoun is on trial
Wall Street will watch this trial
the calling to the bar of justice of Pat
rick Calhoun, the traction lord, the
man of millions, the strengthened hun
ter with the Wall Street pack-with
an interest such as has attended no
criminal prosecution in America for
many years. Half the people in Wall
Street know Calhoun. His Office is in
No. 80 Broad street, and from there
he directs the great interests of which
he is the head. Wall Street credits
him with being the biggest influence
in California affairs next to Hartman,
and the street has the same respect
and fear for each of them, for both
Hartman and Calhoun are magnifi-
cent fighters and never give and never
ask quarter.
TnIl l. fx, l1sr ,1,s Nf ,k,,
Francis j.. Heney, the man who drove
United States Senator Mitchell into
disgrace and felon's garb; who also
scared with the lash of the law the
great timber thieves-rflen of standing
and substance, but who nevertheless
were shameless plunderers of the
treasures of the vast public domains
in the west and northwest, He put
Eugene Schmitz in state prison and
made Abe Ruef a dweller in cell
clothed in. a convicts striped suit.
After the "Real Bosses"
Heney says that in prosecuting
Schmitz and Ruef he dealt only with
the hired hands" of the corruption
lists of San Francisco, but that in pros
ecuting Calhoun he will be going after
one of the real bosses. Heney ascribes
to Calhoun the same political mastery
over San Francisco and the same po-
litical corruption that the world at
large ascribes to the Union and South
ern Pacific railroads in relation to the
whole state of California. If man
like Calhoun is to be prosecuted as a
criminal because business has made
1t necessary for public service cor
porations to be intimate with political
bosses and the gangs that trail at
their heels, wherein is business man
safe these days? asks Wall Street
That is what Wall Street would like
to know, and that is why Wall Street
is nervous over the case and is watch
ing the Calhoun trial with SO much
interest.
Patrick Calhoun is one of the most
forceful and interesting characters
that has been lifted into prominence
in the past few years in the course oil
the exposures of municipal corruption
that have been going on in severa
cities. Whether he is much malignet
man or one of the biggest wolves of {
predatory pack is something that his
trial may throw light upon, though
1t may not decide it definitely.
Grandson of Great Man.
He is a grandson of that great Souti
Carolinian, John C. Calhoun. and the
most noted of that famous statesman
defendants. Indeed he seems TO pos
sess in his intellectual equipmen
many of the strong traits of his dis
tinguished ancestor. Patrick Calhoun
is a remarkable man as a none!
maker and financier.
Calhoun is said to have an unerrinl
scent for money, like all the grea
financiers. In the early eighties tn,
trail led him to Cleveland, o. Thos'
were boom" days all over the United
States, and especially in Cleveland
Euclid avenue, which is the fashion
able thoroughfare Of that city--cor
responding to Fifth avenue in New
York-was quite dormant so far a
real estate speculation was concerned
Calhoun saw that lot of people II
Cleveland were likely to get ricl
quickly and need handsome homes
He decided that there was mint o
money to be made in real estate alon
the thoroughfare named after tn
father of geometry. So he went afte
Il and hunted out the punches OF do