Had the 1909 primary law prevailed in 1907, Langdon’s re-election could have been, and almost to a certainty would have been blocked, and the Graft Prosecution brought to an end two years before it was.
At the 1909 Primary election, Heney’s name, although he was the choice of the anti-machine element of all parties, did not appear on any of the primary ballots.[449] Nevertheless, 4594 Republicans wrote Heney’s name on their primary ballots. But this was not sufficient to give him the nomination. Fickert, whose name appeared on the Republican ballot, as a regular candidate, received 12,480 votes, which gave him the Republican nomination.
On neither the Democratic nor Union Labor primary tickets did the name of any candidate for District Attorney appear. The McCarthy element urged that Fickert’s name be written in by Union Labor party voters. They carried their point, Fickert being nominated by the Union Labor party by 3308 votes. But even here there was registered protest at what was going on. Union Labor party voters to the number of 617 wrote Heney’s name on their ballots.
In the same way, a determined effort was made to give Fickert the Democratic nomination also. He received 2298 votes. But the pro-prosecution Democrats rallied to Heney’s support, and nominated him by a vote of 2386. Thus out of a total of 28,967 who voted for nomination of District Attorney, no less than 7597, or more than 25 per cent., wrote Heney’s name on their ballots, in protest against the partisan conditions which made his regular nomination impractical.
The law was new; the election, the first held in the State under the Direct Primary. It was difficult to make the electors understand they could vote to nominate Heney by writing his name on the ballot. Of the 38,385 who voted at the primaries only 28,967 voted for District Attorney. Unquestionably, a large percentage of those who did not vote at all, would have written Heney’s name on the ballot had they known that such a course was permissible. But they did not know, and more than 25 per cent. of those voting did not vote for District Attorney. As the Rev. Charles N. Lathrop put it: “They have Heney sewed up in a bag, and the bag is the partisan features of the Direct Primary.”[450]
Out of this confusing primary election, Fickert came with two party nominations, the Union Labor and the Republican, while Heney had one nomination, the Democratic. This meant that Fickert’s name would be printed twice on the final ballot under partisan designation, while Heney’s would be printed but once. Thus, for every chance Heney had for a “party circle” vote Fickert had two.
The prosecution forces had supported Byron Mauzy for Republican nomination for Mayor, but Mr. Mauzy[451] was defeated by William Crocker, who received the Republican nomination. The Democrats nominated Thomas B. W. Leland for the mayoralty office, while the Union Labor party named P. H. McCarthy. The mayoralty-district attorney tickets were, therefore: Republican, Crocker and Fickert; Union Labor, McCarthy and Fickert; Democratic, Leland and Heney. But the issue before San Francisco, continuance of the Graft Prosecution, had no partisan significance at all. It was supported and it was opposed by members of both parties. The whole fight was over the election of Heney. But never had candidate for office opposition which had more at stake.[452]
Men with apparently unlimited means at their disposal, realized that Heney’s election would in all probability mean for them a term in the State prison. They were fighting for their liberty. The commercial interests were warned that, in the words of I. W. Hellman, Sr., the banker, the Graft Prosecution was hurting business.[453] The anti-Graft Prosecution press insisted day after day that bribery of public officials, while bad, is the most common of crimes and the most difficult to prove; that San Francisco had tried to convict, had failed and might as well give up. So-called “improvement clubs” went so far as to adopt resolutions not only protesting against further prosecution, but demanding that the Supervisors withdraw support given the District Attorney’s office in its efforts to land bribe-givers behind the bars.[454] And finally, the large business interests opposed to the prosecution, threw strength to McCarthy; not that they liked McCarthy—they united against him two years later—but because the election of McCarthy would go far toward the defeat of Heney. Members of the labor unions were, to a large extent, supporters of the prosecution. Their votes had made Langdon’s election sure in 1907. During the 1909 campaign, and down to the very day of election, the sentiment among laboring men was to vote for McCarthy and Heney. But Heney’s name did not appear on the Union Labor ticket.
Labor’s support of Heney was vigorously opposed. Appeal was made to workingmen to stay by their class; to vote for the labor candidates, McCarthy and Fickert. On the Monday night before the election, the writer, with Professor George H. Boke of the University of California Law School, joined a group of working men who were discussing the merits of the several candidates. Apparently all but one of them were for McCarthy and Heney. The exception was for Leland and Heney. He was defending himself, when the writer joined the group, against the charge that in voting for Leland he was “voting outside his class.”
This Leland advocate was a most noticeable young man. He declared himself to be a member of the electricians’ union. Well under thirty, clear-eyed and forceful, he was prepared to stand his ground. When his immediate opponent became personal, the electrical worker, without raising his voice, without excitement, or boast, or display, remarked quietly: “Do not resort to personalities, for if it comes to personalities, what chance have you against me?”