“Mr. Heney’s record as a remorseless and indefatigable prosecutor of official rascals is known. He will have the assistance in his new work of Mr. William J. Burns, who did so much to bring to light the Oregon land frauds. Those crimes were surrounded and protected by fortifications of political influence that were deemed impregnable. When the inquiry was first undertaken nobody believed it would ever come to anything. It was a slow business, even as the mills of the gods grind slowly, but if fine the grist of the criminal courts of Oregon is large and satisfying.
“The people of San Francisco have been sorely tried. Fire and earthquake we cannot help, but the unhappy city has been made the prey of a set of conscienceless thieves who have done nothing since our great calamity beyond promoting schemes to fill their own pockets. Our streets, our sewers, our schools and our public buildings have been neglected, but the sale of permits and franchises, the working of real estate jobs and the market for privileges of every variety have been brisk and incessant. Officials have grown rich: Some of them are spending money like a drunken sailor. It is time for housecleaning and a day of reckoning. Heney and Burns will put the question: ‘Where did they get it?’”
Bishop Montgomery, of the Roman Catholic Church, in an interview in the San Francisco Call, October 20, 1906, said in reference to the San Francisco graft prosecution:
“Mere accusations have been so long and so persistently made that the public has a right to know the truth; and, above all, those who are innocently so charged have a right to a public and complete vindication. Nothing now but a thorough and honest investigation can clear the atmosphere and set us right before the world and with ourselves.
“I have such confidence in the courts of California that I believe no innocent man needs to fear that he will suffer from them, and no guilty man has any just right to complain.
“I believe the investigation has been undertaken in good faith for the best interests of the city, and that it will be conducted thoroughly and honestly.”
Mr. Spreckels’ statement was contained in an interview printed in the San Francisco Call, October 28, 1906. It was as follows:
“This is no question of capital and labor,” he said, “but of dishonesty and justice. There is no association of men, capitalists or others, behind what we have undertaken, and it cannot be made a class question. No one knows that better than Ruef. And it will be impossible for him to fool the workingman by these insinuations.