The following, issued on May 17, is a fair sample of the statements which Mr. Calhoun gave out during the period of confusion in San Francisco, in the spring and summer of 1907:
“To the American People—The newspapers of this city published yesterday afternoon and this morning contain sensational statements purporting to give the testimony of Mr. Abraham Ruef before the Grand Jury yesterday afternoon. It is alleged that he confessed that the United Railroads, through some of its officials, bribed the Supervisors to grant the permit for the overhead trolley over certain of its roads. I do not know if Mr. Ruef made any such statements. If he did, they are untrue. I repeat with renewed emphasis my former declaration that no official of this company ever bribed any one, authorized Mr. Ruef or any one else to bribe anybody, knew of any bribery, or approved of any bribery.
“I charge the Prosecution with having prostituted the great office of the District Attorney to further the plans of private malice in the interest of a man who organized the Municipal Street Railways of San Francisco on the 17th day of April, 1906, the day before the earthquake and fire with a capital stock of $14,000,000, of which $4,500,000 were subscribed for as follows: Claus Spreckels subscribed $1,900,000, James D. Phelan subscribed $1,000,000, George Whittell subscribed $500,000, Rudolph Spreckels subscribed $1,000,000, Charles S. Wheeler subscribed $100,000. Ten per cent of the amount subscribed, or $450,000, was paid in cash, as shown by the affidavit of the treasurer of the company, James K. Moffitt, duly filed in the County Clerk’s office.
“I charge that, in furtherance of the plans of the private prosecutor to assure evidence that would involve the United Railroads, the District Attorney has been willing to purchase testimony with immunity contracts, purporting to grant immunity to self-confessed criminals, which contracts I am informed were placed in escrow with the private prosecutor, and through which he controls a majority of the Board of Supervisors who, as a member of the prosecution has declared, are ‘dogs’ to do his bidding.
“I charge that the District Attorney was in consultation with the members of the self-confessed criminals on the Board of Supervisors in regard to the passage of the resolution holding up the Geary street railroad company, providing for the forfeiture of its license, unless it yielded to the demands of its striking employes.
“I charge that while the best element in this community was seeking to preserve law and order the District Attorney was in secret conference with self-confessed criminals, giving aid and comfort to the strikers. Shall his great office be prostituted to the support of lawlessness?
“The officials of this company are ready to meet their enemies in the open, and before they are through, they expect to show to the whole country the infamy of the methods of the prosecution, the baseness of the motives of the private prosecutor, his readiness to grant immunity to self-confessed criminals, and the willingness of the prosecution to aid the strikers, even if it involved this community in disorder and bloodshed, provided it furthered the private prosecutor’s personal ends.
“The organization of the Municipal Street Railways of San Francisco, the attacks upon the officials of the United Railroads, the immunity granted to self-confessed criminals, the strike of the carmen, the hold-up of the Geary-street Railroad Company, the forfeiture of its license to operate, all seek one common end, the injury of the United Railroads and its officials, and the advancement of the personal schemes of the private prosecutor.
“I ask from the American people fair play, and a patient consideration. I ask them to withhold their judgment, freed from the bias naturally created by sensational charges. The contest in which I am engaged is grave, and I cannot afford now to disclose the whole strength of my hand, but before this contest is over, I confidently expect to defeat alike the machinations of Rudolph Spreckels, the private prosecutor, with his corps of hired detectives, and Mr. Cornelius, president of the Carmen’s Union, the leader of anarchy and lawlessness, and to see firmly established in this community the principles of American liberty, and the triumph of truth and justice.”
On May 21 Calhoun issued a statement directly charging the lawlessness in San Francisco to the Prosecution. He said: