“I trust that you will not hesitate to say that I may do so. Again and again thanking you and your friends, I am,
“Very sincerely yours,
“E. E. SCHMITZ.”
Ruef at once availed himself of the opportunities which his position offered. He accepted regular “retainers” from public-service corporations. He testified before the Grand Jury that he was employed by the United Railroads through Tirey L. Ford, just after the first election of Schmitz, at $500 per month, and that he gave receipts to Ford for this money, during Schmitz’s first term of office, but received the money always in Ford’s office in currency; but that after the second election of Schmitz, he (Ruef) refused to give any more receipts for this money, although he continued to receive it from Ford the same as before with receipts, and that after the third election his salary was increased to $1,000 per month, which was paid in the same way by Ford without any receipts.
Ruef further testified that he was employed by the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, immediately after Schmitz’s first election, through T. V. Halsey, and that Halsey paid him $1,200 per month in currency without any receipt.
E. S. Pillsbury, general counsel of the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, testified that he never heard of Ruef’s employment until after the indictments were returned against Halsey, and that he, Pillsbury, attended to all of the legal business of the company during the entire time Ruef was under employment. Pillsbury received only $1,000 per month for his own services, and testified that he would have objected to the payment to Ruef of a larger salary than he was getting.
Pillsbury was a stockholder to the amount of $500,000 in his own right, and was a member of the executive committee of the board of directors of the company.
At the trial of The People vs. Tirey L. Ford, No. 817, I. W. Hellman, one of the most prominent of California bankers and at one time a director of the United Railroads, testified: “Some five years ago (the Ford trial was in 1907, which would make the date about 1902) Mr. Holland, who was then the president of the United Railways, came to me to ask my advice whether Mr. Ruef should be employed as an attorney for the United Railways, stating that by employing him peace could be secured with the labor unions, that he had great influence with them, and there would be general peace, and it was to the benefit of the railways company to have such peace. Mr. Ruef then was an attorney of high repute, recognized as a good lawyer, and I said if that could be accomplished it would be for the benefit of the railway company as well as for the public, and I advised yes. Whether he has been employed or not I do not know, because I afterward sold my interest in the company and I never have inquired whether he had been employed or not.”
In this connection, it is interesting to note that Ruef in his latest confession, the publication of which was begun in the San Francisco Bulletin in May, 1912, states that his employment by corporations as attorney did not begin until after the second Schmitz election—that is to say, in 1903. Hellman’s testimony would indicate that his employment by the United Railroads dates from 1902. Compare with footnote [77], page [74].