“But if Older has turned ‘right about face,’ Heney, the other member of the firm, has not. He remains the unforgiving, snarling, short-haired bulldog, with his hand against every man, and every man’s hand against him.”
Such is the character of the publicity campaign to release Ruef from prison.
When in 1914 Governor Johnson became candidate for re-election, extraordinary efforts were made to compel him to pardon, or to consent to the release of Ruef on parole. So persistent were Ruef advocates, that the Governor found it necessary to issue a statement of his position regarding Ruef. That statement will be found in full on page xxviii of the Appendix.
The San Francisco Argonaut, one of the principal apologists for the Graft Defense, in its issue of November 23, 1912, said of the suggestion of Mr. Phelan’s name for the cabinet: “Ex-Mayor Phelan, of San Francisco, would be in line for cabinet honors if our local war of the roses were not so recent and if its unfragrant memories and resentments could be set aside. But this is not yet.”
The Fresno Republican in its issue of December 7, 1912, pays the following tribute to the graft defense’s “get-together” plans:
“They are going to hold a ‘burn the hammer’ celebration in San Francisco on New Year’s eve, for the cremation of knocking.
“It is a good idea, and one worth going the limit on. By all means, burn the hammers! But the only effectual way to get that done is for each fellow to burn his own. Unfortunately, when we begin knocking the knockers, the hammer we are after is usually the one with which the other fellow knocks us. There is no boosting way to dispose of the other fellow’s hammer. If we go after it, we knock it, to the further multiplication of knocking. But if we begin at the other end, with our own hammer, that is real boosting. Besides, it gets the thing done. What we do to the other fellow’s hammer may not succeed, and if it does, it is merely more knocking. But when we burn or bury our own, then we know that at least our part of the knocking is ended.