“Mayor Taylor’s choice of men for the new Board of Supervisors will fortunately not meet universal approval. It will satisfy all honest men who regard public office as a public trust and not as a private snap, but it will not satisfy those who are accustomed either to actually corrupt public servants or to use a secret pull to obtain private and undue advantage. It will not satisfy the criminal element who thrive by the wide-open town, and who abhor a Board of Supervisors who will back up an honest and capable Mayor.
“The board which the Mayor has selected may be safely accepted as the leaders of the people. All interests are recognized except that of the boodlers. The city has many knotty problems to solve. Somebody must work them out. Probably no two capable and honest men would resolve the various doubts which will arise in precisely the same way, and yet out of all the possible ways in each case some particular way must be chosen. And it will be the duty of the Mayor and Supervisors, in the light of much more information than the majority of us can obtain, to select that way. And when it has been determined all patriotic citizens must get behind them.”
Heney’s attitude toward the bribe-givers is expressed in an affidavit filed in the case of The People vs. Calhoun et als., No. 823. Heney in setting forth a statement made to Rabbi Nieto says:
“I consider that the greatest benefit which we will have done this city and this country by these prosecutions will be the insight which we will have given them into the causes of corruption in all large cities, and into the methods by which this corruption is maintained. The testimony of the members of the Board of Supervisors throws great light on this question, and Ruef could aid considerably in making it an object lesson to the world, if he would do so. The only way we can stop this kind of corruption is by enlightening the people as to its causes and by thereafter endeavoring to remove the temptation which causes evil by proper remedial legislation, and in order to impress this object lesson on the people strongly enough to accomplish much good we must punish the principal men who have been involved in it. Do not imagine this is a pleasant task to me. It is far from being so. It involves men like Frank Drum, whom I liked and respected as a friend for years, and who has quite recently paid me a good attorney’s fee for services performed for a company represented by him. I have met Patrick Calhoun socially, and greatly admire his ability and found him to be a man of very agreeable, attractive manners. I wish there was some other way to secure a proper deterrent effect without causing these men and their innocent families to suffer, but unless the laws are enforced, Doctor, our republican form of government cannot continue very long. It is not sufficient to punish the poor man who has no friends or influence. The people will lose respect for the courts and for the law unless the rich and powerful can be made to obey the laws. It has a greater deterrent effect, in my opinion, to put one rich and influential man in prison than to put a thousand poor ones there. It would do no good to send a few miserable, ignorant Supervisors to the penitentiary. Others of the same kind would soon take their places, and the carnival of crime would continue as before. If we can put Ruef in the penitentiary it will have a wholesome effect upon other political bosses for the next decade at least. And if we can put a few captains of industry there with him, and particularly a few of the head officials of public service corporations, it will have a greater deterrent effect against bribery of public officials than putting five hundred of such officials in the penitentiary.”
“I subscribed to the Graft Prosecution fund,” said one capitalist whose own skirts were clean of the graft scandal, “but before the investigation was over I had to exert myself to prevent my own attorney going to jail.”
The manner in which every indictment increased the circle of opposition to the prosecution is well illustrated by the following selection from the San Francisco Chronicle of March 25, 1907:
“The indictment of Louis Glass, former vice-president of the Pacific States Telephone Company, for bribery, on testimony given to the Grand Jury by E. J. Zimmer, who was the auditor of the company under Glass, and is now vice-president of the reorganized corporation, has caused consternation in certain fashionable circles, in which Glass was one of the most popular men.
“At the clubs of which the indicted telephone magnate was a member, much sympathy is expressed for him. He was extremely popular because of his affability and good-fellowship, and he has a host of friends, who are loth to believe that he has committed a crime which may put him behind the bars of San Quentin for fourteen years.