Heney, in his address on the work of the Graft Prosecution, October, 1908, paid Langdon the following high tribute:
“Mr. Langdon, as soon as we laid the matter before him and convinced him it was in good faith and not to serve private interests, said: ‘Yes, I will appoint Mr. Heney assistant in my office and give him full sway to make a thorough investigation, on one condition, and that is that I am kept personally in touch with everything going on at all times. I am District Attorney and I propose to be District Attorney and to act upon my own judgment.’ And there never has been a time that Mr. Langdon didn’t have absolute sway over all matters, and did not wholly consent to what was done, and he has had the final say in everything, and I wish to say that there is more credit due to him than to any of us. He had a greater personal sacrifice to make.
“The first thing he had to take into consideration was that he had gone into office as the candidate of the Labor party, and he knew he would be called a traitor and denounced if it appeared that any man who had been on the same ticket as he had been elected upon had been grafting. He had to possess more moral than physical courage, and a higher kind of moral courage, and that courage was exercised to the credit of San Francisco as well as to the credit of Mr. Langdon.”
The Graft Defense labored without success to make it appear that Heney was compensated for his service. Out of the Prosecution fund, the expenses—rental, clerical hire, etc.—of offices, so far as they were maintained especially for the work of the Graft Prosecution, were paid. These were known as “Heney’s offices.” When Rudolph Spreckels was on the stand at the Calhoun trial, he testified under Heney’s announcement that the Defense could ask him any question it chose and no objection would be made. Earl Rogers, for Calhoun, endeavored to make it appear that Heney was getting pay.
“Mr. Spreckels,” Rogers asked, “in addition to paying Mr. Heney’s office expenses, amounting to five or six hundred dollars a month, have you paid other expenses for Mr. Heney?”
“No, sir,” Spreckels replied.
Heney, the testimony all through shows, received not a dollar to compensate him for his services to the city; moreover, it shows that he had given up business which would have brought him large fees, that he might be free to conduct the Graft Prosecution. See transcript Calhoun trial, pages 3837 and on, 3746, 3743, etc.
The efforts of well-compensated attorneys for the Defense to make it appear that Heney was paid for his work, furnish one of the amusing features of the graft trials.