The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JUne 22, 1909. THE 'FRISCO GRAFTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 147, 22 June 1909, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JUne 22, 1909. THE 'FRISCO GRAFTERS.

For the cause that lacks omittance. For the wrong that neejlg resistance, For the future in the distance, Aim} (he good that we can co.

The trial of Mr. Patrick Calhoun, on a charge of corruption at San Francisco, marks another stage in the long and fierce struggle between the "grafters " and the reformers in the capital of the Western States. Calhoun was President of the United Railways Investment Company., a wealthy financier who, five years ago, took over the consolidated interests of the San Francisco street railways, and proceeded to deal with the city on the most approved "graft" principles. The stock of the company was "watered" till it amounted to several times the cost of construction, and Mr. Calhoun determined that San Francisco must pay him dividends on his watered stock- He decided to take out the electric cables and put in the overhead trolley system, which for many reasons was cheaper for his purposes. A large number of residents in the best part of the city protested against the overhead wires as dangerous and unsightly, and Mr. Calhoun's request for a franchise was refused. But in 190;> the "Labour" party—Schmitz and Ruef and their friends —came into office, and Mr. Calhoun's prospects improved. For it was notorious that the city officials were prepared to sell the required franchise, and the " deal" would have been brought off quietly enough if opposition bad not arisen, in an unexpected quarter, and brought Calhoun into conflict with the man who has been the head and front of the reform movement in San Francisco ever since, and is directly responsible for the unpleasant ordeal through which Calhoun has just passed.

Mr Rudolph Spreckels has played a prominent part in the Sehmitz-Ruef prosecutions, and as we have explained on other occasions, he has not only paid all the expenses of the "anti-graft" campaign himself but he has been the chief ally of Heney, the lawyer, and Burns, the detective, who have tracked down and brought to justice so many of the gang of "boodlers" who so long fattened on the spoils of San Francisco. It was in 1905 that Spreckels joined with a number of friends and neighbours to oppose Calhoun's overhead trolley scheme. Calhoun and his friends began by asserting that they objected to the underground cables only because the conduits in which they were laid could not be kept dry; and Spreckels met that difficulty by offering to bear the expense of draining them himself. Then Calhoun had severar personal interviews with Spreckels, and offered him various inducements to withdraw his opposition. Calhoun suggested that the new system should not be installed oj» Pacific-avenue—where Spreckels tadi then a* jr«*.»ed to. fix th« most

important transfer station at a point where Spreckels had a large amount of property. But Spreckels absolutely refused to sacrifice his fellow citizen* to his own personal advantage. He knew that these offers were deliberate bribes, and he told Calhoun that he would light. He organised an opposition street railways scheme on the underground cable system, to prove that Calhoun's arguments about the difficulties of this system were groundless. Then, in April, 19015, came the great earthquake, and, in the general chaos that followed, Spreckels dropped his private schemes and worked manfully with Schmitz and every ally he could secure to help to restore order and rebuild the city. For the moment even Schmitz and Ruef were shamed into honesty. But when the recollection of this great tragedy began to fade, the reign of graft began again. Calhoun took advantage of the political and municipal confusion to force his franchise through by the arguments that Schmitz and Ruef understood so well; and Spreckels then made up his mind to prosecute his fight with Calhoun to a finish.

But Spreckels and his friends had by this time decided that Calhoun was only one comparatively unimportant character in the great drama of political corruption tiiat has been played so effectually in the Western States.. Years before Ruef in the earlier days of his career as "Boss of San Francisco" had deliberately made Spreckels an offer to sell him the help of the Labour organisations, so as to "knock out" a number

of rival capitalists and seize a large issue of city bonds. Spreckels saw then that there must he. some elaborate system of corrupt influence behind the-' scenes in California; and all the political conditions of the State go to prove it. The "Boss of California" was W. F. Hcrrin, a Democrat who, in spite of his professed politics, had succeeded in getting himself acknowledged leader of the Republican party in the State,'and held the Legislature apparently in the hollow of his hand. And the secret of Herrin's influence was not that he is a political genius, but that he represents "the'prin- , oipal source of corruption in the Statk— ' the Southern Pacific Railroad." For behind this railroad combine is the great ! E. H. Harriman, with all the omnipotentauthority of a railroad king; and Calhoun, along with Herrin and Ruef and Schmitz, came in only as subsidiary details in the picture. And so Spreckels and bis allies, beginning with an attempt to convict the Mayor and City Council of San Francisco for selling public privileges and trading on the vices of the community, have been gradually forced into conflict with one of the most powerful influences for evil that dominate America to-day. The failure to secure a conviction against Calhoun is, of course, nufortunate. But neither Spreckels, who is paying the enormous bill, nor Heney, who has recently been shot down in open court, show any sign of faltering, and the spectacle of these brave men risking their lives and fortunes in the cause of public morality is, perhaps, the most encouraging object-lesson th.a.t American public life affords us to-day.