The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-04
REUF NEARING
 TIME WHEN HE
 MUST DO TIME
Especial from United Press. )


 San Francisco. March +Though Abe Reuf. former political boss of San Francisco. has been granted a seven days stay before he begins ser vice for his IA year term for bribery the end of the case Is now in sight. Reuf has appeared to appeal his case to the highest court in the country but tine concensus of opinion here is that he will be compelled to serve out his sentence.
 Francis J. Heney, the famous graft prosecutor. whose activities were re sponAble for the conviction of Reuf, has given the United Press the follow ing statement regarding the action of the California Supreme court in re- versing itself and the significance of that action.
 By Francis J. Heney.) The fact that the Supreme court of sustain the conviction of Abe Reuf, is considered as a sign of the times indicating that the people are begin ming to rule. It is important that criminals in all stations shall be pun ished but it is more important that tration of justice. There is peculiar irony and tremendous significance in the fact that Reuf asserts a teachni- cality forced the Supreme court to re- verse itself.
 On former occasions technicalities have weighed only in favor of defend ants in the graft cases. Schn1itz was freed because the indictment upon which he was convicted failed to state that he was Mayor of San Francisco at the time the crime of which he was convicted was committed. The Su- preme court unanimously refused the people a hearing on the merits of the SchTnftz case on the fiimsy technical ity that the fact that Schmitz was Mayor was not mentioned in the brief accompanying the application of the people for a hearing.
 Reuf was granted a rehearing on technical grounds. The court then reversed itself because the attorney general called attention to the fact that one concuTring justice was out of the State when the order was signed.
 Why did the four members of the court first sign and then reckon this point?
 This awakening of the people comes in time to work against Reuf. That vas all ai5 Probably t Rd,, t the e,s. b,tserest m rest go to jail while more powerful conn panions in crime go free. There is bitterness in that fact to all right thinkers. yet the conditions produced by these gross niscarriages of justice
 
 worked toward permanent good. The prosecutions of rich law breakers, while they failed. of their immediate purpose. were wholly successful in their ultimate purpose. which was to expose the causes behind the corrup- of the courts for criminal corruptions and to show the people the necessity of controlling their own government.
 Reuf says he would not have been convicted of bribery had MT. Heney not. been shot. This. may be par other causes would have resulted in that end. AS a crime the shooting was not so dangerous to society as the other crime committed during the course of prosecution. Jury tamper-- ing. bribery of witnesses. control of strike at the foundation of our Amer ican institutions. The open shooting worked @ quick. but temporary. awak- enfng of the public; the exposure of other secret crimes. committed by ex- ceedingly clever and adroit criminals, worked towards a gradual but per manent awakening.
 Many honest citizens of California are today supporting the new pro- gressive administration who openly opposed the work of the graft prose- cutors. These persons do not realize that their present mental and moral attitude towards the administration of public affairs in a large measure is due to what they saw and came to understand during the course of the graft prosecution. That is the point.
 Reuf goes to jail. It is right and just that he should go. but the fact itself is not the real triumph Reuf was sent to jail by the court which freed Schmitz on flinsy technicality and such a technicality later appar- ently freed Reuf from the penalty of imprisonment for the crime of which he pleaded guilty.
 Public opinion is beginning to con- tTol the courts of California in the interests of justice. That is the sig niffcance of the Reuf decision and those opposed to the application of the recall to the judiciary seem to fear that public opinion always will do this.
 LADIES' NIGHT AT " NJ C A