“To the Calkins Syndicate,” replied Mr. Hellman.
The presence of President Calhoun at an Olympic Club dinner in July, 1907, met with strong objection. Calhoun was not a member of the club. He had, it was charged, been brought there by one of the employees of the Southern Pacific Company, who was a member. His appearance led to open protest. It was finally arranged that objection should not be made to him, on condition that he would not attempt to make an address. But the defense claque had evidently planned otherwise. A demonstration was started for Calhoun. He began a speech which brought members to their feet in protest.
“I object,” said Dr. Charles A. Clinton, one of the oldest members of the club, “to the presence here of Mr. Calhoun and I protest against his making a speech on the ground that the gentleman has been indicted by the Grand Jury for a most heinous offense; that he has been charged with bribing and debauching public officials, and should not be a guest of the club until he can come with clean hands. I do not pass upon this man’s innocence or guilt, but feel that until his hands are clean he should not come to the club.”
The outcome was that, by action of the Board of Directors, Dr. Clinton was expelled from the club. The course was generally denounced. “The Olympic Club of San Francisco,” said the Sacramento Bee, “has shamed itself in the eyes of every decent, honest, manly, self-respecting citizen in this State by its recent act, through its Board of Directors, in expelling Dr. Charles A. Clinton from membership. The offense of Dr. Clinton was merely that he protested, as every other honorable member of the Olympic Club should have protested, not so much against the plotted appearance in that club at a banquet, of Patrick Calhoun, indicted for high crimes, as against the subsequent effort on the part of some members of the Olympic Club to force Calhoun to make a speech and become the hero of the affair.”
When the American battleship fleet visited San Francisco in 1908, much opposition developed over the efforts of upholders of the defense to have Calhoun invited to the banquet given in honor of the visitors. Calhoun’s representatives finally overcame the resistance, and Calhoun was invited.
Calhoun’s social and other activities during this period resulted in much newspaper discussion. “The action of Patrick Calhoun,” said the Examiner, “in appointing himself, Thornwell Mullally and William Abbott, all under indictment on bribery charges, as delegates to the Industrial Peace Conference caused such indignation and protest on the part of the other delegates that a committee on arrangements last evening demanded that Calhoun withdraw the names of himself and his two subordinates and substitute others.” Mrs. Eleanor Martin gave a dinner in honor of Congressman and Mrs. Nicholas Longworth on the occasion of the visit of President Roosevelt’s daughter to San Francisco. Mrs. Martin ranked as highest of San Francisco’s so-called social leaders. The alleged fact that neither Calhoun nor Mullally was present on that important occasion was made subject of much curious newspaper comment. The “social side” of the graft defense not infrequently furnished saving comedy for an overstrained situation. It was, however, most effective in breaking down the prosecution. “Socially” the defense had decidedly the better of the situation. Calhoun, for example, became a member of the Olympic Club. There was a deal of newspaper protest at the club’s action in admitting him, and defense of the club and other comedy. But Calhoun wore the “winged O” emblem of the Olympic Club on his automobile, nevertheless.
One of the most amusing experiences which the writer had during this period was in listening to a woman, prominent in Episcopalian Church affairs, as she voiced her indignation because of a slight put upon her at an important social event of her church, at which daughters of one of the graft defendants had place in the receiving line.