Half an hour later, when Kennedy's vote was necessary to enable the machine to continue the deadlock on the Direct Primary bill, Kennedy turned up to do his part in that not very creditable performance.
In this way did the machine element secure the passage of the Change of Venue bill. It was a question of good generalship, or, if you like, trickery. Perhaps trickery is the better name for it.
[74] Black's Senate bill, 1,144, came very near being defeated in the Assembly by similar "good generalship." The measure in effect prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors within a mile and a half of Stanford University. Assemblyman Bohnett was in charge of the bill.
Bohnett, the day that the bill was to come up, was called from the room to attend a committee meeting. Immediately did the Assembly show astonishing activity in consideration of the file. So fast did they go that the Stanford bill seemed destined to be reached while Bohnett was out of the room. Had it been reached with Bohnett away it could have been dropped to the bottom of the file, where it would have been lost, so far as the session of the Legislature of 1909 was concerned.
Charles R. Detrick, of Palo Alto, happened to go to the Assembly chamber at this critical moment and took in the situation at a glance. He accordingly hunted up Bohnett, who got back to the Assembly chamber before the bill could be reached on file. For once "good generalship" had failed at the legislative session of 1909.
[74a] In 1907, the Change of Venue bill was slipped through the Assembly, but in a form not to affect the San Francisco graft cases. In the Senate, however, it was amended to apply to Ruef, Schmitz and their associates. The exposure of this turn raised such a storm that the bill was not brought to vote. However, on the night before adjournment, the measure was slipped through the Senate as an amendment tacked on another bill. But the trick was discovered in the Assembly and defeated.
[75] Governor Gillett's reasons for vetoing the bill are set forth in footnote 1, Chapter 1.
[76] The Assembly vote on the change of venue bill was as follows:
For the Change of Venue bill - Barndollar, Beatty, Black, Cattell,
Coghlan, Collier, Collum, Cronin, Drew, Feeley, Flint, Gibbons,
Griffiths, Hammon, Hans, Hawk, Hayes, Hewitt, Hinkle, Holmquist, Johnson
of Sacramento, Johnson of San Diego, Juilliard, Lightner, Macauley,
Maher, McClellan, McManus, Melrose, Mendenhall, Moore, Mott, Pugh, Rech,
Schmitt, Silver, Stuckenbruck, Telfer, Transue, Wagner, Wheelan, and
Wilson - 42.
Against the Change of Venue bill - Baxter, Bohnett, Butler, Callan,
Cogswell, Dean, Gerdes, Gillis, Kehoe, Otis, Polsley, Preston, Sackett,
Whitney, and Young - 15.