Arizona republican., 1911-09-08
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
A New Champion for Ruef.

A New Champion for Ruef.
 An argument for clemency for Abe Ruef is made in the Survey by Ere
 mont Older editor of the San Fran cisco Bulletin. When it is remem- bered that it was the fearless ex- posures of San Francisco graft made in the Bulletin by Older which led 10 the graft prosecutions; that it was the public sentiment created by the Bulletin which enabled Heney and Spreckels and Burns 10 bring Ruef and Schmitz and other rogues to the bar of justice and that it was Older's daily denunciations of Ruef which enabled the prosecution finally to bat ter down his walls of defense. it is rather surprising to find MT Older now advocating the proposition that Ruefs sentence of fourteen years should be shortened to one year.
 Here is the gist of MT Older's ar gument for clemency:
 If the graft fight Tn San Francisco served no other purpose it proved of great educational value both to the people in whose interest it was waged and to the men who led the move ment True, Abraham Ruef was the only man indicted who reached the penitentiary, but, speaking as one of the men prominent in bringing aDou: the exposure, I do not regret that more were not placed in the stripes of infamy. I do not regret it because I have ceased to believe that our economic difficulties are going to be solved by sending men to prison The cure lies deeper. Men are too weak to withstand the temptations that lie in their way. So long as public necessities are controlled by private corporations there will be civic cor ruption."
 It cannot be successfully denied that a partnership comprising public ser vice corporations, professional political bosses, and the agencies which thrive on vice accounts for much of the graft in American cities. But more often than is generally imagined this part nership. so far as the corporations are concerned, is not a voluntary one. It is forced upon them by the bosses Apparently it is MT Older's theory that the men who frame up' or ganizations for graft are weak" not criminal, and that instead of punish ing them society should bestir itself to remove temptation from them by taking possession of all public utili- ties. Also, we suppose. Mir. Older has arrived at the conclusion that while it is hopeless to expect the masses to maintain enough interest in public affairs to prevent government by bosses in the cities, the public own ership of public utilities would some how work automatically to make everybody honest and public spirited and to secure a regeneration of man. kind. and that there would be no further opportunity for the crook.
 There are some forcible arguments in favor of the public ownership of some public utilities in cities, but the automatic protection of the public through such ownership from the ma chinations of the grafter will be found only in dreams-none of the new fangled systems of government will operate mechanically to relieve the citizen of his individual responsibility or to protect him from the results of his own laziness and indifference to the public welfare.
 In the case of Ruef. It has never been pretended, we believe. that he was weak and fell to temptations held out to him by the officers of the public service corporations in San Francisco. On the contrary, all the facts show that he deliberately built up a machine for blackmailing the dens of vice and for the purpose of matchmaking every corporation ~hlch might have occasion to enter into contracts with the public. Indeed it was the revelation of the operations of his machine which caused a re- vulsion of public sentiment in San Francisco in favor of the indicted of ficers of corporations and which made it impossible to convict them. The public had become convinced that these officers. far from voluntarily of fering bribes to secure franchises which the public interest required should be granted, were held up by Ruef and forced to pay blood money to him and Schmitz.
 There never was a more deliberate