There were no more personalities.
Incidentally his argument was fast bringing out the fact that every worker in the crowd was going to vote for Heney. The effect of it was important. Suddenly from somewhere there appeared a new man to do his part in molding public opinion.
The new-comer went through that crowd with the assurance of a practiced football player through an aggregation of amateurs. In less than five minutes he had addressed every man of the group. But he had none of the marks of a worker, and nobody thought to ask for his “card.” His was the pasty face and the pudgy neck and the soft, unclean hand of the cadet. His argument was curious and even ridiculous, but it was most effective. It at least scattered the crowd.
“Of course Calhoun is a grafter,” he said in effect. “They are all grafters. Spreckels is a grafter. Of course, Fickert is Calhoun’s man, just as Heney is Spreckels’s man. They are all out for graft. But if we are to have grafting, let’s keep the graft in our own class. Why should you vote to let Spreckels’s men do the grafting? You have a candidate of your own. Vote for him. It is only a fight between millionaires anyhow, and a toss-up which is right. Let us vote for the man of our class.”
The effect of this running fire of words was immediate. The electrician lost the attention of his associates. The discussion came to an end with murmurs of approval of the newcomer’s position. That he should have changed a vote with such argument seems incredible. But that he had created a doubt in the minds of those workingmen was apparent to all who saw. He left them well prepared for the anti-prosecution workers who would meet them at the polls the next morning.
But the laboring element was not the only “class” forced into opposition to Heney. At the exclusive clubs, fashionable hotels, social functions, support of Heney was denounced as treason to the exclusive, fashionable, social class. It was quite amusing to hear first generation descendants of honest steerage immigrants decrying the prosecution of rich men trapped in bribe-giving on the theory that to do otherwise “would be treason to our class.”
Thus, Mr. Heney was called upon to meet the “class” opposition of the laborer and the magnate. On the other hand, the unafraid, intelligent people of San Francisco, who recognized no “class” issue, rallied to Heney’s support. But they were without the concerted plan of action which the other side had perfected. The San Francisco press, with the exception of The Bulletin and Daily News, gave Heney no editorial support, but the country press, which had no circulation in San Francisco, earnestly urged his election.[455]
Good citizens throughout the country wrote urging Heney’s election. “To rout the forces of the prosecution at this juncture in San Francisco,” wrote Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York, “is to hoist the red flag of anarchy, to proclaim that law and order are not always enforceable, or that such enforcement is not always profitable.”
But Rabbi Wise was in New York. His influence did not, unfortunately, extend, in any important degree, to San Francisco.
On the day of election, the writer visited many voting places in the districts in which the labor vote was strong. Working men by the scores were taking less than a minute to mark their ballots. It was evident that they were voting by means of the party circle. Every Labor Union party vote of this kind was a vote against Heney. The last hope that Heney would get this support was gone. One did not need wait for the counting of the ballots. It was plain that Heney was defeated.