Mayor Schmitz in his statement, said:
“If Claus Spreckels can see his way clear to carry out his great purpose, the fact stands that he must be known more than ever as he has been known in the past, as the greatest public benefactor of the West. I will say, if he can see his way clear, reservedly, for I doubt that any citizen of this city or State can point to any understanding that he has announced he would accomplish, that he has failed to accomplish. Not only is his determination, but within his control is the money to carry out his determination, and I have yet failed to find the man that can say that any object can fail of accomplishment when determination and money walk hand in hand.
“If Mr. Spreckels can carry out his announced desire to network San Francisco with railroads operated by the underground conduit system, I can only say that through his wonderful ambitions of purpose San Francisco will take a stride forward that is wonderful to contemplate. Such action upon the part of Mr. Spreckels would place San Francisco not only in advance of any city in America, but would place it in advance of any city in the world in the battle for public control of utilities operated for the public benefit. The offer of Mr. Spreckels is not only one that must awaken the amazement, but the approbation of every public-spirited citizen. While the rest of the great cities of the world (as well as San Francisco before Mr. Spreckels made his offer) are puzzling to find means through which they can accomplish the great purpose of municipal ownership, Mr. Spreckels has come forward and has offered, for the good of the people, to demonstrate the efficiency of a system that will mean that not only shall the beauty of San Francisco be not sacrificed, but that the public desire for rapid transit shall be fulfilled. Backed with the millions he controls, his offer is significant, and is one that we cannot contemplate lightly.
“As Chief Executive of the city I can only express the hope that something will happen that will permit Mr. Spreckels to carry out his object. At one stride this would place San Francisco at the head of the world in the titanic struggle now waging between the people and the corporations for the control of those utilities in which the people are interested for comfort and the corporations for profit. Great as is his offer, it adds not only enthusiasm, but rekindles hope in my always expressed desire that my administration would mark the first victory of the municipality in its fight to control those things that are theirs.
“The people are on the eve of winning for themselves those things that are theirs. If the offer of Mr. Spreckels can be carried out, and I see no reason why it cannot, the battle is ended. Not only will San Francisco be the victor, but from the battle she will emerge, her beauty unmarred and her railways standing as exemplifications of the fact that what in science is possible is capable of actual and practical accomplishment.” (See San Francisco Call, March 24, 1906.) But in spite of this approval, after the organization of the new company was assured, Rudolph Spreckels found the Mayor’s door closed to him when he attempted to secure an interview. (See Rudolph Spreckels’ testimony at the Calhoun trial.)
The purposes of the incorporators were brought out at the graft trials. At the Calhoun trial, when James D. Phelan, former Mayor of San Francisco, and one of the incorporators, was under cross-examination, Calhoun’s attorney referred to other public utility ventures in which Claus Spreckels had been interested, and asked:
“Q. You knew of the matter of the rival gas or competing gas lines, and the rival and competing electric lines, and the rival and competing steam railroads down the valley at the time you went into the corporation to put in the People’s Street Railroad? A. I knew, and I know the effect they had; they reduced rates in both cases; and if our system accomplished the purpose of bringing Mr. Calhoun’s railroad to a realization of the public desire to have a conduit system, our purpose would have been accomplished. It was the last resort. I looked upon it, as an incorporator, as the last resort. We had negotiated in a friendly way for months, and I saw the fruit of all the conferences fade away and believed that arrangements had been made by Mr. Calhoun with the city administration, and the only resort left to us to do was to build a road of our own to demonstrate that it was practicable and possibly profitable—a conduit system.”