“Q. What papers? A. Only one.
“Q. What paper was that? A. Chronicle.
“Q. How much was paid to it? A. $10,000.
“Q. What were the terms of that employment? A. The object of paying that money was to educate the people to the idea of a competitive telephone system. There seemed to be a prejudice among everybody, or a great many people, as to the value or necessity of another telephone system, and we could not obtain the assistance of any newspaper in that work without paying for it. Some required it in the shape of advertising which we did not need—don’t do any good—others wouldn’t take it in that way; the Chronicle wouldn’t take it that way and we were forced in order to have some newspaper assist us in that work, to pay the price which was $10,000.
“Q. Did they give editorial work for that? A. No. They were supposed when the matters came up before the Board of Supervisors to write it up favorably, that is to say, talk about the advantage of a competitive telephone system in the way of keeping out a monopoly, and doing away with the poor system of the Pacific States.”
The Chronicle’s reports of the work of the Graft Prosecution are models of the journalism which strikes in the dark. When, for example, the defense called Rudolph Spreckels to the stand in its efforts to disqualify the Grand Jury, The Chronicle, while in its editorial columns condemning such proceedings, reported the incident in its news columns as follows:
“Spreckels, who had been keeping in the background, came forward, glancing furtively at Heney, whose lips were moving nervously.” In the column from which this quotation is taken, Heney is represented as replying “nervously” to charges made by attorneys for the defense, and Spreckels, when a question was put to him as looking “appealingly” to the attorney representing the prosecution. But observers of the proceedings recall no perceptible nervousness on Heney’s part, nor “furtive” nor “appealing” glances from Spreckels.
The Cosmopolitan, issue of July, 1911.