Gallagher testified that he had been Ruef’s representative on the board; that Ruef had told him that the Parkside franchise was to be held up and delayed; that later Ruef had stated that each Supervisor would receive $750 because of the Parkside deal; that finally, after the fire, Ruef had told witness that the Parkside people wanted the franchise in a new form, and that the $750 to each Supervisor would be increased to $1,000; that he (Gallagher) had conveyed this information to the Supervisors. Supervisors testified to having been given the information by Gallagher.
Ruef offered no testimony. The jury was out forty-three hours. By a vote of 6 to 6 the jury failed to agree. Again a graft trial had ended in discouraging failure for the prosecution.[387]
After the disagreement of the jury in the Ruef Parkside case, to judge from most of the San Francisco public prints of the time, the prosecution was utterly discredited in San Francisco. But there is a surer means of estimating public opinion—namely, by the votes of the people.
Much of the graft defense’s abuse and vilification was heaped upon Judges Lawlor and Dunne, who had stood firmly for enforcement of the law regardless of who might be affected. Judge Dunne’s term as Superior Judge was to expire in 1909. He was, at the November election of 1908, a candidate for re-election.
Judge Dunne was frankly fought by the graft defense, and supported by those who approved the work of the prosecution. The Republican county convention refused to nominate him, and hissed his name. The Union Labor party convention received his name with a turmoil of hoots and jeers. A letter to the last-named convention from the Good Government League urging his nomination was thrown into the waste-paper basket.
On the other hand, when given opportunity for expression The People gave Judge Dunne encouraging endorsement. The Good Government League proceeded to have his name put on the ballot by petition. For the petition 1,765 signatures were required. Over 3,000 persons signed it the first day. The press—outside San Francisco—following the graft trials closely, was practically a unit in urging Judge Dunne’s return to the bench.[388] And in spite of the costly contest of his election, The People of San Francisco re-elected Judge Dunne.
Thus again were the contentions of the graft defense repudiated at the polls.
Another important endorsement of the prosecution came from the Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors provided in their annual budget $70,000 to meet the extraordinary expenditures because of the graft cases. Burns and the men who had theretofore been paid out of the fund controlled by Rudolph Spreckels, became regular municipal employees operating under the District Attorney.
The criticism of the defense had been that it was shameful that a privately-financed prosecution should be tolerated. Their cry now was at the shame of wasting the public funds on Burns and his staff. Action was instituted, through William H. Metson, to prevent the municipal officials paying Burns and his associates out of this fund. For months the salaries of those affected were held up. Although eventually the opposition to the prosecution lost in the contest, and the men were paid the amounts due them, the suit was an annoyance and a handicap.
But in spite of the tremendous opposition which the graft defense was working up, the prosecution went steadily on with its work. Ruef was put to trial for offering a bribe to Supervisor Furey to vote for the permit giving the United Railroads its overhead trolley franchise.