“Nothing that has occurred within the past few weeks has in any way complicated the situation as far as the prosecution is concerned or has tended to weaken our position. The original plans of the prosecution are to be carried out just as we have always intended to carry them out. The Ruef case will be tried immediately, and every other defendant under indictment will be brought to trial just as quickly as the courts are able to dispose of the cases. We shall not falter in our duty. I can promise that while the present District Attorney is in office this battle will be fought out to the end of the last case.
“The fact is that at the present time we have the tactical advantage over all the defendants, who have allied their interests for mutual protection. They know we have this advantage and that is why they are shouting so loudly from the housetops. We do not answer the attacks that are made because we are trying law cases and our every energy is bent to the prosecution of those cases. We are entirely satisfied, however, with the position in which we stand at this time and are prepared to fight our battles in the courts to a finish.”
The following are extracts taken from Mr. Weinstock’s address:
“After all, the saddest thing is to find men who are rated as decent, law-abiding, intelligent, presumably high minded and moral, condoning the sins of the bribe givers and deploring their indictment and prosecution.
“Both the commercial and political bribe givers committed serious crimes, but by far the more serious was the crime of corrupting public officials, because the tendency of this crime is to undermine the very foundation of the State, thus leading to the ultimate destruction of democracy.
“If the spirit of the respectables, fighting and condemning the graft prosecution, is to become the common spirit, then must we bid farewell to civic virtue, farewell to public morality, farewell to good government and in time farewell to our republican institutions and to civic liberty.”
A very good example of this is shown in a memorial from Sonoma. The memorial read as follows:
“Sonoma, Cal., March 18, 1908. To William H. Langdon, Francis J. Heney, Rudolph Spreckels and others engaged in the graft prosecution in San Francisco. Gentlemen: It appearing that a portion of the press of this State is engaged in belittling the efforts of those engaged in the prosecution of the graft cases in San Francisco, and is endeavoring to impute improper and unjust motives to all who have such prosecution in charge; and we realizing that it is the duty of all honest people everywhere to uphold the hands of the prosecution, and to encourage them to proceed in all lawful ways to continue in their efforts to bring all law breakers to justice,