Chapter 12

[36]James D. Phelan is a native of San Francisco. He is one of the largest owners of real estate in San Francisco and in California. From his youth he has taken keen interest in public affairs. He was chairman of the Charter convention of 1900 which framed San Francisco’s present municipal Charter. He was Mayor of San Francisco from 1896 to 1902. After the San Francisco fire he headed the Relief Committee and was largely instrumental in directing the work of rehabilitation. President Roosevelt designated him by proclamation to receive funds for the relief work, and to use the United States Mint as depository. In 1900 the Democratic minority in the State Legislature gave him complimentary vote for United States Senator. In 1914 he was elected to the United States Senate, being the first Federal Senator from California to be elected by direct vote of The People. Senator Phelan has for many years been close friend and business associate of Rudolph Spreckels. He was one of the heaviest backers of the graft prosecution.[37]Rudolph Spreckels testified at the trial of Patrick Calhoun:“I suggested to Mr. Calhoun one thing, that if it was a question of the length of the franchise, of the length of life of the present franchise, standing between the people getting the system which I believed it was entitled to, I would personally be glad to do whatever was in my power to have the Charter amended so that they might enjoy a longer term of franchise, to work out the difference in cost; but that I believed it was all important that San Francisco should have the very best of street-car service obtainable.”United Railroads officials objected to the conduit system on the ground that the conduits would fill with water. Spreckels suggested that property owners agree to drain the conduits without expense to the United Railroads, thus demonstrating their practicability, on the understanding that if the conduit system were found to be practical it should be installed. But in this the United Railroad officials would not acquiesce. (See testimony taken at the Calhoun trial.) The following is taken from Charles S. Wheeler’s testimony given at the Calhoun trial:“Mr. Heney: Q. Did not the property owners on Sutter street and the property owners on Pacific avenue, Mr. Rudolph Spreckels and Mr. Phelan in particular, state that they would not oppose the United Railroads obtaining a franchise or permit for the underground conduit on Sutter street?“Mr. Stanley Moore: That is objected to, if your Honor please, as calling for the conclusion of the witness and the mental mind and statement and hearsay of other persons.“Mr. Heney. I am not asking for their mental mind. I am asking about direct statements at these meetings of committees of the Board of Supervisors.“The Court: I will overrule the objection.“Mr. Stanley Moore. We take an exception.“A. I have [heard] both of them make such statements; Mr. Phelan in substance before the Board of Supervisors, and I have heard Mr. Spreckels make it in the Supervisors’ chambers.” (See Transcript of Testimony, page 3197.)[38]Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, had several conferences with Rudolph Spreckels on the questions involved in the street-car situation. Of these conferences Spreckels testified at the Calhoun trial:“Mr. Calhoun stated that he was very anxious to obtain the overhead trolley privilege, that he understood that I was actively opposing it, and he wanted to know whether I was open to conviction on the subject. I told him that my mind was entirely free, that if he could prove to my satisfaction that the underground conduit was not feasible that I would have no objection. I told him that the arguments that he had presented, namely, that the Sutter street system could not be converted into an underground conduit system because of the accumulation of water at some number of points—I think 16 were mentioned—was hardly worth while urging since Mr. Holland, a former president of the United Railroads, had, together with Mr. Chapman, urged that reason, and I related to Mr. Calhoun that I had questioned Mr. Chapman and Mr. Holland at length in regard to it and had satisfied myself that their reasons then urged were not legitimate or reasonable; that during the conversation with Mr. Holland I had asked him to state all of the reasons that he had for desiring the overhead and urging against the installation of the underground conduit; that Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman had both assured me that the only reason was the fact that it was an engineering impossibility; that the accumulation of water in the conduits during the rainy season would prevent the successful operation of the cars, that there would be repeated interruptions and general dissatisfaction as the result. I then proposed to Mr. Holland, I said: ‘If that is the only reason and you can convince me that that is true I have no objection to withdrawing my opposition, but I want to propose this: Suppose I, or the property owners on the system involved, agree to pay the expense of the proper drainage of those conduits, and succeed for a period of twelve months in treating the conduit drained at those points you indicate, and succeed during that entire term to keep them free from water, so that you and your engineers will be obliged to admit that there was not one hour during the twelve months during which you could not successfully operate an underground system, will you then agree to install that system?’ Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman looked at one another and finally said ‘Well, no, we cannot do that.’ Then I said: ‘Gentlemen, you are wasting my time and your own because your argument is not the truth and is not the only reason you are urging, or that is prompting you to object to putting in that system.’“Mr. Holland then proceeded and asked me how I proposed to insure that result and I told him I was not an engineer, but that common sense told me and indicated to me that it might be possible to carry off the water at those points through an ordinary stone sewer-pipe and distribute the accumulated waters to the various streets running parallel to Sutter street, and in that way carrying it off and keeping the conduits free from water. Mr. Calhoun said: ‘Well, there are other reasons—the question of a uniform system.’ He urged very strongly that it would be a very desirable thing to avoid transferring, or it would be an exceedingly nice thing if a man could go to his home without transferring, and have a uniform system of cars operating over all of the system. I told Mr. Calhoun it was hardly a possible thing, that no man would want to stand at any street corner and wait for fifteen or twenty cars to go by until some one car of a particular brand would come along which would take him to the particular part of the city he cared to go to. Then Mr. Calhoun wanted to know if the matter couldn’t be compromised, whether I would be satisfied, if the United Railroads would agree to construct an underground conduit system on Sutter street from Market to Powell. He wanted to know also about constructing an underground conduit on Market street, and I told him no, that this did not enter into my calculations, that I was looking to the welfare of the city of San Francisco, that it did not involve merely getting what I wanted in front of the particular properties in which I was personally interested, and I told him that the reasons that had been urged against the granting of an overhead trolley—that it was unsightly, dangerous and noisy and not the most modern system, was my objection, and that it held good for the entire city and not alone on the streets in which I was interested as a property owner. Mr. Calhoun urged further the desirability of the overhead trolley, that it had given satisfaction elsewhere, and I suggested that he might first make the street cars then operated by the overhead trolley in San Francisco a success and satisfactory to the people; that I felt that it was far from a success, and personally, as one of the largestproperty-ownerson Ellis street, I would emphatically prefer the ordinary cable system to the electric lines that they were then operating. Mr. Calhoun asked for another appointment and it was had I think on the following morning, a meeting at the same place, at the Canadian Bank of Commerce; I think our meeting on that occasion was held in the office of the manager, Mr. Kains.“Q. What was said there? A. I will not be absolutely certain as to whether all that I have related occurred at the first interview, or whether some that I will relate as having occurred now, did not occur on the first interview. The two meetings were close together, and the subjects that I will relate may have occurred, some of them in the previous meeting and some in the latter. Mr. Calhoun proceeded to ask me about Pacific avenue. He said: ‘Would you be satisfied if we agreed to operate the underground conduit system on Sutter to Powell, on Market to Valencia, running it, if we changed the system on the Pacific avenue line—to agree to put in the conduit there, otherwise maintaining the cable?’ And he also proposed that it might be a nice thing to withdraw the entire street railway system from Pacific avenue, making of that street a boulevard, and placing overhead trolley on Broadway where there was no car line. He said, ‘Of course, Mr. Spreckels, you are an owner of carriages and automobiles, and I suppose you don’t use the street-cars, and it would be more desirable from the standpoint of a property owner to have your residence under those circumstances on a boulevard than on a street having a street-car service with the attending objections.’ I told Mr. Calhoun that my fight was not a selfish one, that I did have carriages and automobiles, that I did not use the street-cars and had no need for them, but that I had in mind the rights of other people living on the street—that there were many people living on the street who were not so fortunate as I, who did not own carriages and did not own automobiles and had undoubtedly been brought to buy their property on Pacific avenue because of the fact that it had a street-car service there. Mr. Calhoun also in one of these interviews said that he would tunnel Powell street hill commencing at Sutter and make that the most important transferring point in San Francisco. I asked Mr. Calhoun at the time whether it was because I was interested in property at the corner of Sutter and Powell. Mr. Calhoun expressed surprise and said he didn’t know that I was an owner of property there. I think that in substance was the conversation as I remember it.”[39]Patrick Calhoun, Tirey L. Ford and Thornwell Mullally were among the officials representing the United Railroads at the conference. At the meeting, first mention of $200,000 in connection with the proposed chance in the street-car system was made. Citizens had contended that the objection of the United Railroads in opposing the conduit system was the difference in the initial cost of installation. This point came up, and President Calhoun stated that he would, if the trolley system were allowed, give the difference between the cost of installing the two systems, for any public purpose. This difference, Calhoun stated, would be about $200,000. Turning to James D. Phelan, of the Adornment Committee, Calhoun stated that the money could be used in extending the so-called Park Panhandle, part of the Burnham plans, and a matter in which Phelan was greatly interested. Phelan replied that San Francisco would not accept money for any such purpose, and was able to construct the Park Panhandle if the people wanted it. (See testimony of James D. Phelan at the trial of The People vs. Patrick Calhoun for offering a bribe, page 2750.)[40]The Chronicle in its issue of March 23, in referring to Mr. Calhoun’s letter practically charged him with lack of good faith. The Chronicle said:The alleged ‘inaccuracy’ of the Chronicle’s interesting report of the compromise reached by the United Railroads and the Society for the Adornment of the City proves to be that the electric conduit in Sutter street is to stop at Powell street instead of extending to Polk street, as proposed, and which is the least which should have been accepted if any compromise whatever was to be made. We shall be greatly surprised if when the changes are finally made there is not a great deal less conduit than Mr. Calhoun now seems to agree to. We gravely doubt whether Mr. Calhoun expects to construct a foot of conduit in this city. However, he does agree to do so under certain conditions and we shall see what we shall see.... It does look as though some settlement of the matter would be reached, as the United Railroads have receded from their iron-clad determination not to consider the electric conduit at all. When that is accomplished we shall speedily see the last of the cables south of California street, a consummation as devoutly wished by the people as was the introduction of the cable in place of the horse-car a quarter of a century ago.”[41]It was openly charged that money had been used to put this franchise through the preliminary steps necessary for its granting. The Examiner in its issue of March 10, some five weeks before the fire, said:“The Supervisors owe it to themselves to bring back the telephone franchise order for further consideration. Since the hasty vote on the ordinance last Monday ugly rumors have been the measure. The regard of the Supervisors for the good name of the Board demands that they should clear the record of the SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES that surround the vote on the order.“The present Board of Supervisors was elected on a platform that pledged its members to a municipal ownership programme. Among the purposes specifically announced was the ACQUISITION OF A TELEPHONE PLANT to be owned and operated by the city.“Yet the FIRST ACT OF THE BOARD in dealing with a public utility question is to favor an ordinance granting a franchise for fifty years to a private corporation without proper compensation to the city and WITHOUT ANY CONTRACT that would enable the city to buy out the plant at a just appraisement when the time comes to acquire a municipal telephone system.“The bill was introduced after a brief hearing and passed to print on the 26th of February. On the 5th of March it was passed to a vote in the Board of Supervisors without discussion. One of the members of the Board who rose to explain his vote was shut off with such indignity that he left the Supervisors’ chamber. Nor, indeed, did all the members know what they were voting on; for one of the Supervisors later in the session asked if the telephone franchise was not to be called up, and was surprised to be told that it had already been passed upon.“This sort of ‘gum-shoe’ legislation will not do for San Francisco. It inevitably rouses the suspicions of crookedness that have been hawked about the streets since Monday last.“A telephone franchise is not a matter to be treated lightly. It is an affair of more moment than passing a street or even of fixing a water rate. It deserves the deepest consideration, for the division of service between two companies creates a confusion in business that should be taken carefully into account. It is only the wretched service given by the old company that has brought the backing of a certain popular support to the advent of a new company. The manner in which the obvious evils of a division of service can be lessened requires much more thought than has yet been given, and many changes in the ordinance should be made unless the last state of the San Francisco telephone service is to be worse than the first.“It is the duty of the Supervisors to recall the ordinance, answer the rumors of crooked work by seeing that everything is carried on above board and in the open, and treat the franchise in accordance with their anti-election pledges to the people. They cannot afford to rest under appearance of evil that now surrounds the late vote on the order.“We do not wish to believe that any undue influence was used, but the Supervisors must have heard the rumors that are frequent in the streets, and they must realize that they have made the mistake of acting as a bribed Board of Supervisors would have acted. They have broken their pledge, but happily it is not too late for them to correct the gross error.”[42]Mr. Calhoun’s second letter, as introduced as evidence at his trial for offering a bribe (page 2775, Transcript, The People vs. Calhoun), was as follows:“San Francisco, March 23.—Messrs. James D. Phelan, R. B. Hale, Herbert E. Law, Rufus P. Jennings and others—My dear Sirs: You will recall that the only condition on which I consented to even consider the introduction of an underground conduit on Market street from the ferries to Valencia, and on Sutter from Market to Powell, was to secure harmony and unanimity of action in the development of San Francisco. You will further recall that I distinctly stated that ‘if all sides to this controversy are not willing to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject, the United Railroads prefers to urge, in the interest of the development of San Francisco, a uniform system of overhead trolley operation.’“The development of the last few days, the threatened litigation against my company, and the action of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club, demonstrate that harmony and unanimity of action, so much to be desired, cannot be obtained, and that the United Railroads cannot expect all parties to the controversy ‘to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject.’ On the contrary, if the people should elect to put an overhead on Sutter street, the address of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club distinctly states ‘we pledge ourselves and promise to provide the necessary counsel to maintain our position in the courts.’“In view of these facts, I desire to inform you that the United Railroads will proceed to prepare a plan for the improvement of the transportation of San Francisco. The essential feature of which plan will be a modern, up-to-date, efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion, through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the streets of the city will permit. When this plan is perfected it will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration. We will be very glad to go over it with you. Under the circumstances, it will be useless for me now to furnish the preliminary plan of which we spoke.“In conclusion, permit me to express my appreciation of the motives which led you to seek a conference with me, and the earnest desire of every gentleman who participated in that conference to reach a basis of harmonious action in order that the development of San Francisco might not be obstructed and delayed.“Very truly yours,PATRICK CALHOUN, President.”[43]The Chronicle commented upon Mr. Calhoun’s new position as follows:“The letter written by Patrick Calhoun of the United Railroads to the committee of citizens who have sought to induce him to change his attitude on the subject of overhead trolleys was not in good taste. It exhibited corporative arrogance in its most exasperating form. Mr. Calhoun is too well bred, or perhaps too cautious a man to tell the public to be damned, but every line of his communication breathes the spirit of the insolent utterance of William K. Vanderbilt, and the community will take it that way....“There is an ill-concealed menace in Mr. Calhoun’s declaration that the United Railroads has a plan in preparation which, when perfected, ‘will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration.’ As he plainly tells us that this plan provides for an ‘efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the city will permit,’ the announcement is equivalent to a notification that ‘the proper authorities of the city’ will be appealed to for permission to carry out such a scheme, whether the people like it or not. His defiant attitude suggests that he feels pretty sure that the authorities will be on the side of the United Railroads against the people, but he may be mistaken on that score. There is a point beyond which even complaisant authorities would not wish to press the matter to oblige a corporation which shows so little regard for the desires and needs of a community from which it extracts over eight million dollars annually.” (See San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 1906.)[44]Mayor Schmitz in his statement, said:“If Claus Spreckels can see his way clear to carry out his great purpose, the fact stands that he must be known more than ever as he has been known in the past, as the greatest public benefactor of the West. I will say, if he can see his way clear, reservedly, for I doubt that any citizen of this city or State can point to any understanding that he has announced he would accomplish, that he has failed to accomplish. Not only is his determination, but within his control is the money to carry out his determination, and I have yet failed to find the man that can say that any object can fail of accomplishment when determination and money walk hand in hand.“If Mr. Spreckels can carry out his announced desire to network San Francisco with railroads operated by the underground conduit system, I can only say that through his wonderful ambitions of purpose San Francisco will take a stride forward that is wonderful to contemplate. Such action upon the part of Mr. Spreckels would place San Francisco not only in advance of any city in America, but would place it in advance of any city in the world in the battle for public control of utilities operated for the public benefit. The offer of Mr. Spreckels is not only one that must awaken the amazement, but the approbation of every public-spirited citizen. While the rest of the great cities of the world (as well as San Francisco before Mr. Spreckels made his offer) are puzzling to find means through which they can accomplish the great purpose of municipal ownership, Mr. Spreckels has come forward and has offered, for the good of the people, to demonstrate the efficiency of a system that will mean that not only shall the beauty of San Francisco be not sacrificed, but that the public desire for rapid transit shall be fulfilled. Backed with the millions he controls, his offer is significant, and is one that we cannot contemplate lightly.“As Chief Executive of the city I can only express the hope that something will happen that will permit Mr. Spreckels to carry out his object. At one stride this would place San Francisco at the head of the world in the titanic struggle now waging between the people and the corporations for the control of those utilities in which the people are interested for comfort and the corporations for profit. Great as is his offer, it adds not only enthusiasm, but rekindles hope in my always expressed desire that my administration would mark the first victory of the municipality in its fight to control those things that are theirs.“The people are on the eve of winning for themselves those things that are theirs. If the offer of Mr. Spreckels can be carried out, and I see no reason why it cannot, the battle is ended. Not only will San Francisco be the victor, but from the battle she will emerge, her beauty unmarred and her railways standing as exemplifications of the fact that what in science is possible is capable of actual and practical accomplishment.” (See San Francisco Call, March 24, 1906.) But in spite of this approval, after the organization of the new company was assured, Rudolph Spreckels found the Mayor’s door closed to him when he attempted to secure an interview. (See Rudolph Spreckels’ testimony at the Calhoun trial.)[45]The purposes of the incorporators were brought out at the graft trials. At the Calhoun trial, when James D. Phelan, former Mayor of San Francisco, and one of the incorporators, was under cross-examination, Calhoun’s attorney referred to other public utility ventures in which Claus Spreckels had been interested, and asked:“Q. You knew of the matter of the rival gas or competing gas lines, and the rival and competing electric lines, and the rival and competing steam railroads down the valley at the time you went into the corporation to put in the People’s Street Railroad? A. I knew, and I know the effect they had; they reduced rates in both cases; and if our system accomplished the purpose of bringing Mr. Calhoun’s railroad to a realization of the public desire to have a conduit system, our purpose would have been accomplished. It was the last resort. I looked upon it, as an incorporator, as the last resort. We had negotiated in a friendly way for months, and I saw the fruit of all the conferences fade away and believed that arrangements had been made by Mr. Calhoun with the city administration, and the only resort left to us to do was to build a road of our own to demonstrate that it was practicable and possibly profitable—a conduit system.”[46]As early as April 3, 1906, a petition was circulated for signatures among residents and property owners on Bush street, asking the Board of Supervisors to grant a franchise to operate street-cars on Bush street under the electric-conduit system.[47]The San Francisco Examiner of March 31, 1906, set forth that “an important feature (of the plans for competing street railways) was that the city should have the right at the end of ten years or any shorter period that might be preferred, to take over the system and operate the same itself, the terms of the transfer to be such as would be just both to the builders and to the municipality.”Among the purposes for which the Municipal Street Railways of San Francisco was formed, was set forth in the articles of incorporation the following: “To accept and acquire franchises for street railroads, elevated railroads and subways, containing provisions for the acquisition thereof by the City and County of San Francisco, or such other conditions as may be lawfully inserted therein.”[48]See Keane’s testimony in The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, Part 3, vol. 1, page 455.[49]See footnote41,page 43.[50]Supervisor Gallagher testified in the case of The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, that about a week before the fire “Mr. Ruef stated that the United Railroads wanted to secure a permit to use electricity upon their lines and asked me to speak to the members of the Board of Supervisors about it and let him know whether it could go through the Board, and about what amount of money it would take. I told him that I would do so.” (See Transcript on Appeal, page 850.) Similar testimony, to show that the United Railroads was dealing with Ruef during the month preceding the fire, was brought out at trials of other defendants in the “graft” cases. This would make the date of Ruef’s activity on behalf of the United Railroads about the time of Mr. Calhoun’s announcement that he would proceed to present plans for the trolley system, to the “proper representatives” of the People (the Supervisors), who were even then, through Ruef, receiving bribe money from public-service corporations.Gallagher testified further (see same transcript, page 853) that within a week after the fire Ruef stated to him that the United Railroads still wanted its electric permit, and directed that Gallagher find out whether such a permit could be put through the Board. Gallagher testified that he saw members, put the question to them, and reported back to Ruef that in his judgment the permit could be put through by paying each member of the Board the amount which Ruef had specified, $4,000.[51]Supervisor Gallagher testified at graft trials that Ruef had told him the payment of this $75,000 to the Relief Fund was a good thing, as it would tend to shut off adverse criticism. But the Home Company people had asked that the money be not turned over to the Relief Fund until such time as the ordinance granting the franchise had been approved or the matter definitely determined.[52]As early as May 5, C. E. Loss, a railroad contractor, came out with the proposition that the city should abandon all idea of conduit systems, because the cable slots had been closed by the earthquake. In this, Loss was disputed by City Engineer Thomas P. Woodward. Woodward, in an interview printed in the Examiner on May 5, 1906, said:“I think Mr. Loss was mistaken when he said the earthquake closed the cable slots. I have not made a careful examination of the various roadbeds in San Francisco, but from what I have seen as I have gone about the city, I am inclined to think that no injury was done the cable slots by the earthquake.“The lines on Sacramento, California, Geary, Sutter and Haight streets appear to be all right outside the burned district. Where the metal was subjected to the intense heat, the slots are warped out of shape, and in some places closed.”Loss’s allegations called forth the following editorial comment in the Examiner of May 5th:“Even an earthquake shock and a conflagration do not long obscure the vision of certain wealthy gentlemen where there is a chance to turn a calamity to their individual account.“Before the catastrophe, San Francisco had indicated with great emphasis to the United Railroads that it would not permit the reconstruction of the cable system into an overhead trolley, but would insist upon a modern up-to-date conduit electric railroad, the safety, utility and efficiency of which had been demonstrated in New York and other Eastern cities.“The emergency created by the destruction of the traffic systems in the city has compelled permission for a temporary trolley line because it could be constructed more quickly than any other.“It is not intended, and the United Railroads must be made to realize that it will not be permitted, that the unsightly poles and dangerous wires will be allowed to cumber the new and more beautiful San Francisco, any more than it will be permitted that the rough shacks and sheds which temporarily shelter the people in parks and streets and otherwise vacant lots shall remain after the emergency which called them into being has ceased.”[53]A. D. Shepard, vice-president and secretary of the Geary-street Railroad Company, gave the following statement to the Examiner as to the condition of the Geary-street roadbed:“We can run cars as far as the road goes, but the power-house is not ready for business. The smokestack at Geary and Buchanan streets must be built up to comply with the ordinance of the city before we can get a permit to build fires under the boilers. The smokestack should be repaired by the end of this week, and cars will probably be run over the road then. I cannot say just what day we will begin to run cars. All depends upon the smokestack and the Board of Public Works.“Our line was not injured by the earthquake, and we ran cars for some time after the shake. It was the fire that drove us out of business. The heat warped the slot, making it narrow in places and wide in other spots, but this is easily remedied.” (See Examiner, May 30, 1906.)[54]Sharon’s affidavit was introduced at the graft trials. It was as follows:“State of California, City and County of San Francisco—ss.“Frank E. Sharon, being first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says: That he was for many years prior to April 18, 1906, the superintendent of cables and stables belonging to the United Railroads of San Francisco, and situate at the corner of Market and Valencia streets; that on the property situate at said Market and Valencia streets were located what is known as the Market and Valencia Power House and Shops, consisting of power-house, stables, machine shops, special machine shops, mill, offices, store-rooms, sheds, etc.; that he was such superintendent on April 18, 1906; that on the morning of April 18, 1906, immediately following the earthquake he proceeded to the above described premises, arriving there at about 8 a. m.; that none of the buildings above described were materially damaged by the earthquake; that the walls of all the buildings were standing and intact; that the roofs of all the buildings were on and uninjured by the earthquake, with the exception of the roof of a portion of what is known as the power-house, which was damaged by reason of a small portion of the chimney adjoining the power-house on the west falling thereon; that the greater portion of said brick from the top of said chimney fell toward the south or east into the driveway; that extending from the base of said chimney to the crown thereof and on the east and west side thereof are cracks which were in said chimney for many years prior to the earthquake of April 18, 1906, which cracks were opened somewhat by said earthquake; and the boilers in said power-house were not injured to any extent and steam was kept under said boilers for some time after the earthquake; that in his judgment the building as a whole was intact and the machinery not injured in any material part of the earthquake; that the building caught fire from the adjoining buildings on the east and southeast late in the afternoon of April 18, 1906; said buildings were not dynamited nor backfired for any purpose.“F. E. SHARON.“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of August, A. D. 1906.“CHARLES R. HOLTON.“Notary Public in and for the City and County of San Francisco, State of California.”[55]The loss included $25 damage to two engines which cost new $24,000; $2,000 damage to six boilers, new cost $30,000; $210 water-tank, cost new $350; $500 damage to pipes, valves and fittings, which cost new $10,500; material in store-room worth $2,000, a total loss; $4,800 loss of two tension carriages used for taking up slack of the cable. These tension carriages could very easily have been restored. This loss, $4,800, and the $2,000 stock loss, deducted from the total of $9,375, leaves a total loss of $2,575 to the machinery of a plant estimated to have cost $115,842.[56]As late as November 13, 1906, seven months after the fire, the San Francisco Call published an editorial article on the trolley permits which showed that even then their nature was not fully understood. The Call said:“The insolent disregard of public rights in the streets by the United Railroads is inspired, of course, by ulterior purpose to entrench the corporation in the possession of privileges, permits or franchises granted at a time of stress and confusion whose legality may and probably will be questioned later.“The Call does not desire to assume an attitude of hindering or hampering progress. We recognize fully that every new street-car line adds materially to the value of property within its tributary territory. In a word, the growth of a city or a neighborhood is, to a considerable degree, dependent on facilities for urban transit.“But it does not follow from these considerations that franchises should be granted for nothing to any and every applicant who is able to construct a street railway. The right to use the streets is the most valuable privilege possessed by a municipality. It should be made to yield a corresponding revenue.“All this might seem so obvious as scarcely to require statement, but in practice the principles here laid down have been virtually disregarded in San Francisco. In no instance was there more flagrant disregard of public rights than in the wholesale grants of permits or franchises to construct overhead trolley lines made after the fire.“The United Railroads at the time professed to regard these permits as merely temporary, but that profession was not very long maintained. The company now declares that many, if not all, of these permits amount to absolute franchises in view of the capital invested in making the necessary changes. That is the explanation of the outrageous disregard of public rights shown in tearing up some five or six miles of streets at once and in different parts of town. This process is obviously wasteful as a financial proposition, and is calculated besides to arouse general indignation. We find these weighty considerations disregarded on the advice of the corporation’s lawyers, to bolster up an invalid claim to the possession of franchises obtained by trick and device in an hour of public confusion.“What the extent of the corporation’s claim under these permits may be we are not advised, and there is no immediate means of finding out as long as the administration which granted these hole-and-corner permits remains in power. The same influences that made the Mayor and Supervisors so complaisant to the will of the United Railroads are still operative. It was only the other day that another permit for a street-car line was granted, and granted illegally. This administration stays bought.“Therefore, the streets are torn up in a dozen different parts of town and left in that condition untouched for months with the full consent of the administration. But this political condition is not permanent. Some of these people will go to jail. They will all be ousted at the next election. San Francisco has had enough of them.“The United Railroads is endeavoring to fortify one wrong by committing another. These things will not be forgotten in a hurry. We are convinced that the corporation is pursuing a shortsighted policy. Costly litigation must ensue to test the validity and extent of the overhead trolley permits. The people will not consent to see their most valuable property traded away by a lot of conscienceless boodlers, and if it should prove that the United Railroads has been able to make two wrongs constitute one right, it is very certain that a movement of irresistible force will follow for a reduction of street-car fares.“We are convinced that it will pay the United Railroads to be fair and decent with the people of San Francisco. The present policy is neither fair nor decent. The service is bad, public rights in the streets are outraged, and, worst of all, the corporation is the most malign, corrupting influence in the politics of our municipal government. There will come a reckoning.”[57]See statement printed in San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1906.[58]Calhoun’s letter to the Supervisors read:“United Railroads of San Francisco.“President’s Office.“San Francisco, May 14, 1906.“To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of the City of San Francisco—Gentlemen: The United Railroads of San Francisco respectfully represents that, notwithstanding its urgent and earnest efforts to provide adequate street railway transportation on the lines being operated, constant pressure is being applied and innumerable requests are being presented to it to increase its transportation facilities.“The company is anxious to please the people, and is willing to do its part in the immediate upbuilding of the Greater San Francisco, but owing to the unavailability of material and machinery for operating its cable systems, as well as the great length of time necessary to rebuild destroyed power-houses and reconstruct its cable conduits, a long time would necessarily elapse before the cable systems could be operated so as to give the required relief to traffic congestion.“If your Honorable Board will permit the use on the cable lines of a standard electric system such as is now used on the company’s other lines, we will be glad to put all of our lines in commission, and will agree to have them in complete operation wherever grades will permit as rapidly as the most liberal expenditure of money and the largest possible employment of men will accomplish. The necessary expenditure for labor and materials to do this work will run into the millions, and will afford much-needed employment to several thousand deserving men.“We believe the prompt reconstruction of your lines of transportation will inspire confidence in all investing capital and greatly aid in the prompt rebuilding of your city.“We submit these suggestions for your consideration at the request of many of our citizens from every walk of life.“Respectfully,             “PAT. CALHOUN, President.”[59]The trolley permit was passed to print on May 14. The Examiner, in its issue of May 15, said:“The United Railroads, with the rapacity for which it has ever been noted, is seeking to capitalize the city’s woe to its own advantage.“Before the disaster of April 18 it had been balked in its purpose to make San Francisco a trolley town. The protests of citizens who knew that the underground system is better than the cheap, unsightly trolley system and had been proved safer, had blocked the United Railroads project. And it seemed certain that the scheme to cumber Market street and Sutter street with poles and wires was definitely stopped.“The emergency which demanded the swiftest possible establishment of a transportation system, gave the United Railroads its opportunity to revive the discreditable scheme. As an emergency service nobody could object to the overhead trolleys. But it was understood that the service was absolutely temporary in its character and should only obtain during the pendency of present conditions.“Yesterday, however, there appeared out of the void of forbidden things an ordinance that was hastily passed to print, granting a franchise to the United Railroads to trolleyize its whole system.“It was expected evidently that this iniquitous measure could be sneaked through under cover of the present stress and excitement without people realizing until it was too late what had been done.“When the scheme was flushed it was still attempted to make it appear that this was a temporary measure, a representation absolutely varying with the language of the ordinance.“But the scheme has not succeeded yet.“It was to be expected that, like the looters who have to be kept from other people’s property by soldiers and police, San Francisco’s misfortune would bring out a horde of corporate ghouls eager to snatch privileges during the time of disorder. But it was likewise to be expected that the city administration, which has been so alert to protect private property, would be equally alert to protect the precious possessions of the city.“The railroads can only do what the city permits, and a strong official scrutiny of the ordinance which was yesterday passed to print should result in its final defeat.“No matter what other claims an administration may have to the gratitude and respect of the citizens of San Francisco, it cannot afford to be known as the administration that put trolley poles on Market street.”[60]The day that the ordinance granting the trolley permit was ordered printed, Mayor Schmitz stated in an interview as published in the Examiner:“The proposed franchise is merely a temporary measure. It does not mean that the United Railroads can indefinitely operate their cars by the overhead trolley in Market street, or in the streets formerly occupied by cable roads. It is necessary now to have transportation. The cable roads cannot be repaired, I am told, for some time. Meanwhile, the franchise to string overhead wires has been granted. It can be revoked.”[61]At the Calhoun trial, William H. Sanderson testified to having been introduced to Calhoun by Ruef at a public meeting, a few days before the trolley permit was granted. He was then asked:“Q. What, if any, conversation then ensued between yourself, Mr. Ruef and Mr. Calhoun? A. Well, I stated—Mr. Calhoun was at that time sitting at a large table in the room, where the committee had held its session, and he rose out of his seat, and the three of us held a conversation following that introduction. I stated to Mr. Calhoun—I asked him when the people of North Beach were or might expect railroad facilities, that the population was coming back to that portion of the city, and that other portions of the city were provided with facilities, and that we were compelled to walk through miles of burned district in order to get anywhere; and Mr. Calhoun said in reply, that if the people of San Francisco desired railroad facilities, they should co-operate with the railroad company that was here to provide them with the same; and I said to Mr. Calhoun that I thought that we were ready to do anything that the company desired us to do, and asked him what in particular he wished us to do, and he said: ‘There is that trolley privilege matter before the Supervisors; that comes up next Monday, and you people of San Francisco ought to come down before that Board, that the people of San Francisco, or you, are vitally interested in the matter of this trolley permit.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘Come down before the Board next Monday, Sanderson, and make a talk on behalf of your organization in favor of the trolley permit. We will see that you get the privilege of the floor. A number of citizens of San Francisco will be there, and we propose to show the press that the people of San Francisco are behind this permit.’ I said to Mr. Calhoun: ‘The papers tell me that this is a very valuable franchise and you ought to pay the city something for it.’ And Mr. Calhoun said in substance that he thought that the company would be paying all that the privileges was worth if it built the road. Then I suggested to him that perhaps that sentiment which objected to the disfigurement of Market street and Sutter street by the erection of poles and wires, ought to be placated to some extent, and I asked him why he would not at least put the feed-wires under ground; and he said that that would entail an expense which the company at that time was not or did not think it advisable to meet. And then I asked him why he would not put the poles 200 feet apart instead of 100 as—or 200 feet apart, as was done in European cities, and he said that the 100-foot system was the more advisable in his opinion. And then Mr. Ruef said to me: ‘The passage of this permit will mean immediate work for 5,000 men. We will be able to take them out of the camps and put them at work.’ And I said to Mr. Ruef: ‘That is all very well, Mr. Ruef, but it seems to me that there is another side to this question—a political side. The people of San Francisco are at last all behind your administration. What they need in this crisis is leadership, and we will have to take such leadership as you give us; and now that everybody is with you, and even the Bulletin has quit, it is not good policy on your part to stir up another newspaper war. The Examiner has been your friend ever since Schmitz was first elected, and it will not swallow the trolley proposition in its present form, and it is charging your administration with corruption. If it persists in its fight it will eventually break your back. It seems to me that it would be a comparatively easy matter to placate this opposition by exacting some compensation for this permit, either in the way of cash or by way of a percentage of the proceeds of the road, or you might limit it as to time; give them a permit for five or ten years. You have them at your mercy and they are bound to accept whatever terms you prescribe.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘To hell with the Examiner, no public man can afford to swallow that paper. This thing will go through on Monday. It is all settled.’ And then I said: ‘You don’t need me then,’ and Mr. Calhoun said: ‘I don’t think we do, Mr. Sanderson.’ That is all the conversation, or that is substantially all the conversation that took place in regard to that matter.”

[36]James D. Phelan is a native of San Francisco. He is one of the largest owners of real estate in San Francisco and in California. From his youth he has taken keen interest in public affairs. He was chairman of the Charter convention of 1900 which framed San Francisco’s present municipal Charter. He was Mayor of San Francisco from 1896 to 1902. After the San Francisco fire he headed the Relief Committee and was largely instrumental in directing the work of rehabilitation. President Roosevelt designated him by proclamation to receive funds for the relief work, and to use the United States Mint as depository. In 1900 the Democratic minority in the State Legislature gave him complimentary vote for United States Senator. In 1914 he was elected to the United States Senate, being the first Federal Senator from California to be elected by direct vote of The People. Senator Phelan has for many years been close friend and business associate of Rudolph Spreckels. He was one of the heaviest backers of the graft prosecution.

James D. Phelan is a native of San Francisco. He is one of the largest owners of real estate in San Francisco and in California. From his youth he has taken keen interest in public affairs. He was chairman of the Charter convention of 1900 which framed San Francisco’s present municipal Charter. He was Mayor of San Francisco from 1896 to 1902. After the San Francisco fire he headed the Relief Committee and was largely instrumental in directing the work of rehabilitation. President Roosevelt designated him by proclamation to receive funds for the relief work, and to use the United States Mint as depository. In 1900 the Democratic minority in the State Legislature gave him complimentary vote for United States Senator. In 1914 he was elected to the United States Senate, being the first Federal Senator from California to be elected by direct vote of The People. Senator Phelan has for many years been close friend and business associate of Rudolph Spreckels. He was one of the heaviest backers of the graft prosecution.

[37]Rudolph Spreckels testified at the trial of Patrick Calhoun:“I suggested to Mr. Calhoun one thing, that if it was a question of the length of the franchise, of the length of life of the present franchise, standing between the people getting the system which I believed it was entitled to, I would personally be glad to do whatever was in my power to have the Charter amended so that they might enjoy a longer term of franchise, to work out the difference in cost; but that I believed it was all important that San Francisco should have the very best of street-car service obtainable.”United Railroads officials objected to the conduit system on the ground that the conduits would fill with water. Spreckels suggested that property owners agree to drain the conduits without expense to the United Railroads, thus demonstrating their practicability, on the understanding that if the conduit system were found to be practical it should be installed. But in this the United Railroad officials would not acquiesce. (See testimony taken at the Calhoun trial.) The following is taken from Charles S. Wheeler’s testimony given at the Calhoun trial:“Mr. Heney: Q. Did not the property owners on Sutter street and the property owners on Pacific avenue, Mr. Rudolph Spreckels and Mr. Phelan in particular, state that they would not oppose the United Railroads obtaining a franchise or permit for the underground conduit on Sutter street?“Mr. Stanley Moore: That is objected to, if your Honor please, as calling for the conclusion of the witness and the mental mind and statement and hearsay of other persons.“Mr. Heney. I am not asking for their mental mind. I am asking about direct statements at these meetings of committees of the Board of Supervisors.“The Court: I will overrule the objection.“Mr. Stanley Moore. We take an exception.“A. I have [heard] both of them make such statements; Mr. Phelan in substance before the Board of Supervisors, and I have heard Mr. Spreckels make it in the Supervisors’ chambers.” (See Transcript of Testimony, page 3197.)

Rudolph Spreckels testified at the trial of Patrick Calhoun:

“I suggested to Mr. Calhoun one thing, that if it was a question of the length of the franchise, of the length of life of the present franchise, standing between the people getting the system which I believed it was entitled to, I would personally be glad to do whatever was in my power to have the Charter amended so that they might enjoy a longer term of franchise, to work out the difference in cost; but that I believed it was all important that San Francisco should have the very best of street-car service obtainable.”

United Railroads officials objected to the conduit system on the ground that the conduits would fill with water. Spreckels suggested that property owners agree to drain the conduits without expense to the United Railroads, thus demonstrating their practicability, on the understanding that if the conduit system were found to be practical it should be installed. But in this the United Railroad officials would not acquiesce. (See testimony taken at the Calhoun trial.) The following is taken from Charles S. Wheeler’s testimony given at the Calhoun trial:

“Mr. Heney: Q. Did not the property owners on Sutter street and the property owners on Pacific avenue, Mr. Rudolph Spreckels and Mr. Phelan in particular, state that they would not oppose the United Railroads obtaining a franchise or permit for the underground conduit on Sutter street?

“Mr. Stanley Moore: That is objected to, if your Honor please, as calling for the conclusion of the witness and the mental mind and statement and hearsay of other persons.

“Mr. Heney. I am not asking for their mental mind. I am asking about direct statements at these meetings of committees of the Board of Supervisors.

“The Court: I will overrule the objection.

“Mr. Stanley Moore. We take an exception.

“A. I have [heard] both of them make such statements; Mr. Phelan in substance before the Board of Supervisors, and I have heard Mr. Spreckels make it in the Supervisors’ chambers.” (See Transcript of Testimony, page 3197.)

[38]Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, had several conferences with Rudolph Spreckels on the questions involved in the street-car situation. Of these conferences Spreckels testified at the Calhoun trial:“Mr. Calhoun stated that he was very anxious to obtain the overhead trolley privilege, that he understood that I was actively opposing it, and he wanted to know whether I was open to conviction on the subject. I told him that my mind was entirely free, that if he could prove to my satisfaction that the underground conduit was not feasible that I would have no objection. I told him that the arguments that he had presented, namely, that the Sutter street system could not be converted into an underground conduit system because of the accumulation of water at some number of points—I think 16 were mentioned—was hardly worth while urging since Mr. Holland, a former president of the United Railroads, had, together with Mr. Chapman, urged that reason, and I related to Mr. Calhoun that I had questioned Mr. Chapman and Mr. Holland at length in regard to it and had satisfied myself that their reasons then urged were not legitimate or reasonable; that during the conversation with Mr. Holland I had asked him to state all of the reasons that he had for desiring the overhead and urging against the installation of the underground conduit; that Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman had both assured me that the only reason was the fact that it was an engineering impossibility; that the accumulation of water in the conduits during the rainy season would prevent the successful operation of the cars, that there would be repeated interruptions and general dissatisfaction as the result. I then proposed to Mr. Holland, I said: ‘If that is the only reason and you can convince me that that is true I have no objection to withdrawing my opposition, but I want to propose this: Suppose I, or the property owners on the system involved, agree to pay the expense of the proper drainage of those conduits, and succeed for a period of twelve months in treating the conduit drained at those points you indicate, and succeed during that entire term to keep them free from water, so that you and your engineers will be obliged to admit that there was not one hour during the twelve months during which you could not successfully operate an underground system, will you then agree to install that system?’ Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman looked at one another and finally said ‘Well, no, we cannot do that.’ Then I said: ‘Gentlemen, you are wasting my time and your own because your argument is not the truth and is not the only reason you are urging, or that is prompting you to object to putting in that system.’“Mr. Holland then proceeded and asked me how I proposed to insure that result and I told him I was not an engineer, but that common sense told me and indicated to me that it might be possible to carry off the water at those points through an ordinary stone sewer-pipe and distribute the accumulated waters to the various streets running parallel to Sutter street, and in that way carrying it off and keeping the conduits free from water. Mr. Calhoun said: ‘Well, there are other reasons—the question of a uniform system.’ He urged very strongly that it would be a very desirable thing to avoid transferring, or it would be an exceedingly nice thing if a man could go to his home without transferring, and have a uniform system of cars operating over all of the system. I told Mr. Calhoun it was hardly a possible thing, that no man would want to stand at any street corner and wait for fifteen or twenty cars to go by until some one car of a particular brand would come along which would take him to the particular part of the city he cared to go to. Then Mr. Calhoun wanted to know if the matter couldn’t be compromised, whether I would be satisfied, if the United Railroads would agree to construct an underground conduit system on Sutter street from Market to Powell. He wanted to know also about constructing an underground conduit on Market street, and I told him no, that this did not enter into my calculations, that I was looking to the welfare of the city of San Francisco, that it did not involve merely getting what I wanted in front of the particular properties in which I was personally interested, and I told him that the reasons that had been urged against the granting of an overhead trolley—that it was unsightly, dangerous and noisy and not the most modern system, was my objection, and that it held good for the entire city and not alone on the streets in which I was interested as a property owner. Mr. Calhoun urged further the desirability of the overhead trolley, that it had given satisfaction elsewhere, and I suggested that he might first make the street cars then operated by the overhead trolley in San Francisco a success and satisfactory to the people; that I felt that it was far from a success, and personally, as one of the largestproperty-ownerson Ellis street, I would emphatically prefer the ordinary cable system to the electric lines that they were then operating. Mr. Calhoun asked for another appointment and it was had I think on the following morning, a meeting at the same place, at the Canadian Bank of Commerce; I think our meeting on that occasion was held in the office of the manager, Mr. Kains.“Q. What was said there? A. I will not be absolutely certain as to whether all that I have related occurred at the first interview, or whether some that I will relate as having occurred now, did not occur on the first interview. The two meetings were close together, and the subjects that I will relate may have occurred, some of them in the previous meeting and some in the latter. Mr. Calhoun proceeded to ask me about Pacific avenue. He said: ‘Would you be satisfied if we agreed to operate the underground conduit system on Sutter to Powell, on Market to Valencia, running it, if we changed the system on the Pacific avenue line—to agree to put in the conduit there, otherwise maintaining the cable?’ And he also proposed that it might be a nice thing to withdraw the entire street railway system from Pacific avenue, making of that street a boulevard, and placing overhead trolley on Broadway where there was no car line. He said, ‘Of course, Mr. Spreckels, you are an owner of carriages and automobiles, and I suppose you don’t use the street-cars, and it would be more desirable from the standpoint of a property owner to have your residence under those circumstances on a boulevard than on a street having a street-car service with the attending objections.’ I told Mr. Calhoun that my fight was not a selfish one, that I did have carriages and automobiles, that I did not use the street-cars and had no need for them, but that I had in mind the rights of other people living on the street—that there were many people living on the street who were not so fortunate as I, who did not own carriages and did not own automobiles and had undoubtedly been brought to buy their property on Pacific avenue because of the fact that it had a street-car service there. Mr. Calhoun also in one of these interviews said that he would tunnel Powell street hill commencing at Sutter and make that the most important transferring point in San Francisco. I asked Mr. Calhoun at the time whether it was because I was interested in property at the corner of Sutter and Powell. Mr. Calhoun expressed surprise and said he didn’t know that I was an owner of property there. I think that in substance was the conversation as I remember it.”

Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroads, had several conferences with Rudolph Spreckels on the questions involved in the street-car situation. Of these conferences Spreckels testified at the Calhoun trial:

“Mr. Calhoun stated that he was very anxious to obtain the overhead trolley privilege, that he understood that I was actively opposing it, and he wanted to know whether I was open to conviction on the subject. I told him that my mind was entirely free, that if he could prove to my satisfaction that the underground conduit was not feasible that I would have no objection. I told him that the arguments that he had presented, namely, that the Sutter street system could not be converted into an underground conduit system because of the accumulation of water at some number of points—I think 16 were mentioned—was hardly worth while urging since Mr. Holland, a former president of the United Railroads, had, together with Mr. Chapman, urged that reason, and I related to Mr. Calhoun that I had questioned Mr. Chapman and Mr. Holland at length in regard to it and had satisfied myself that their reasons then urged were not legitimate or reasonable; that during the conversation with Mr. Holland I had asked him to state all of the reasons that he had for desiring the overhead and urging against the installation of the underground conduit; that Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman had both assured me that the only reason was the fact that it was an engineering impossibility; that the accumulation of water in the conduits during the rainy season would prevent the successful operation of the cars, that there would be repeated interruptions and general dissatisfaction as the result. I then proposed to Mr. Holland, I said: ‘If that is the only reason and you can convince me that that is true I have no objection to withdrawing my opposition, but I want to propose this: Suppose I, or the property owners on the system involved, agree to pay the expense of the proper drainage of those conduits, and succeed for a period of twelve months in treating the conduit drained at those points you indicate, and succeed during that entire term to keep them free from water, so that you and your engineers will be obliged to admit that there was not one hour during the twelve months during which you could not successfully operate an underground system, will you then agree to install that system?’ Mr. Holland and Mr. Chapman looked at one another and finally said ‘Well, no, we cannot do that.’ Then I said: ‘Gentlemen, you are wasting my time and your own because your argument is not the truth and is not the only reason you are urging, or that is prompting you to object to putting in that system.’

“Mr. Holland then proceeded and asked me how I proposed to insure that result and I told him I was not an engineer, but that common sense told me and indicated to me that it might be possible to carry off the water at those points through an ordinary stone sewer-pipe and distribute the accumulated waters to the various streets running parallel to Sutter street, and in that way carrying it off and keeping the conduits free from water. Mr. Calhoun said: ‘Well, there are other reasons—the question of a uniform system.’ He urged very strongly that it would be a very desirable thing to avoid transferring, or it would be an exceedingly nice thing if a man could go to his home without transferring, and have a uniform system of cars operating over all of the system. I told Mr. Calhoun it was hardly a possible thing, that no man would want to stand at any street corner and wait for fifteen or twenty cars to go by until some one car of a particular brand would come along which would take him to the particular part of the city he cared to go to. Then Mr. Calhoun wanted to know if the matter couldn’t be compromised, whether I would be satisfied, if the United Railroads would agree to construct an underground conduit system on Sutter street from Market to Powell. He wanted to know also about constructing an underground conduit on Market street, and I told him no, that this did not enter into my calculations, that I was looking to the welfare of the city of San Francisco, that it did not involve merely getting what I wanted in front of the particular properties in which I was personally interested, and I told him that the reasons that had been urged against the granting of an overhead trolley—that it was unsightly, dangerous and noisy and not the most modern system, was my objection, and that it held good for the entire city and not alone on the streets in which I was interested as a property owner. Mr. Calhoun urged further the desirability of the overhead trolley, that it had given satisfaction elsewhere, and I suggested that he might first make the street cars then operated by the overhead trolley in San Francisco a success and satisfactory to the people; that I felt that it was far from a success, and personally, as one of the largestproperty-ownerson Ellis street, I would emphatically prefer the ordinary cable system to the electric lines that they were then operating. Mr. Calhoun asked for another appointment and it was had I think on the following morning, a meeting at the same place, at the Canadian Bank of Commerce; I think our meeting on that occasion was held in the office of the manager, Mr. Kains.

“Q. What was said there? A. I will not be absolutely certain as to whether all that I have related occurred at the first interview, or whether some that I will relate as having occurred now, did not occur on the first interview. The two meetings were close together, and the subjects that I will relate may have occurred, some of them in the previous meeting and some in the latter. Mr. Calhoun proceeded to ask me about Pacific avenue. He said: ‘Would you be satisfied if we agreed to operate the underground conduit system on Sutter to Powell, on Market to Valencia, running it, if we changed the system on the Pacific avenue line—to agree to put in the conduit there, otherwise maintaining the cable?’ And he also proposed that it might be a nice thing to withdraw the entire street railway system from Pacific avenue, making of that street a boulevard, and placing overhead trolley on Broadway where there was no car line. He said, ‘Of course, Mr. Spreckels, you are an owner of carriages and automobiles, and I suppose you don’t use the street-cars, and it would be more desirable from the standpoint of a property owner to have your residence under those circumstances on a boulevard than on a street having a street-car service with the attending objections.’ I told Mr. Calhoun that my fight was not a selfish one, that I did have carriages and automobiles, that I did not use the street-cars and had no need for them, but that I had in mind the rights of other people living on the street—that there were many people living on the street who were not so fortunate as I, who did not own carriages and did not own automobiles and had undoubtedly been brought to buy their property on Pacific avenue because of the fact that it had a street-car service there. Mr. Calhoun also in one of these interviews said that he would tunnel Powell street hill commencing at Sutter and make that the most important transferring point in San Francisco. I asked Mr. Calhoun at the time whether it was because I was interested in property at the corner of Sutter and Powell. Mr. Calhoun expressed surprise and said he didn’t know that I was an owner of property there. I think that in substance was the conversation as I remember it.”

[39]Patrick Calhoun, Tirey L. Ford and Thornwell Mullally were among the officials representing the United Railroads at the conference. At the meeting, first mention of $200,000 in connection with the proposed chance in the street-car system was made. Citizens had contended that the objection of the United Railroads in opposing the conduit system was the difference in the initial cost of installation. This point came up, and President Calhoun stated that he would, if the trolley system were allowed, give the difference between the cost of installing the two systems, for any public purpose. This difference, Calhoun stated, would be about $200,000. Turning to James D. Phelan, of the Adornment Committee, Calhoun stated that the money could be used in extending the so-called Park Panhandle, part of the Burnham plans, and a matter in which Phelan was greatly interested. Phelan replied that San Francisco would not accept money for any such purpose, and was able to construct the Park Panhandle if the people wanted it. (See testimony of James D. Phelan at the trial of The People vs. Patrick Calhoun for offering a bribe, page 2750.)

Patrick Calhoun, Tirey L. Ford and Thornwell Mullally were among the officials representing the United Railroads at the conference. At the meeting, first mention of $200,000 in connection with the proposed chance in the street-car system was made. Citizens had contended that the objection of the United Railroads in opposing the conduit system was the difference in the initial cost of installation. This point came up, and President Calhoun stated that he would, if the trolley system were allowed, give the difference between the cost of installing the two systems, for any public purpose. This difference, Calhoun stated, would be about $200,000. Turning to James D. Phelan, of the Adornment Committee, Calhoun stated that the money could be used in extending the so-called Park Panhandle, part of the Burnham plans, and a matter in which Phelan was greatly interested. Phelan replied that San Francisco would not accept money for any such purpose, and was able to construct the Park Panhandle if the people wanted it. (See testimony of James D. Phelan at the trial of The People vs. Patrick Calhoun for offering a bribe, page 2750.)

[40]The Chronicle in its issue of March 23, in referring to Mr. Calhoun’s letter practically charged him with lack of good faith. The Chronicle said:The alleged ‘inaccuracy’ of the Chronicle’s interesting report of the compromise reached by the United Railroads and the Society for the Adornment of the City proves to be that the electric conduit in Sutter street is to stop at Powell street instead of extending to Polk street, as proposed, and which is the least which should have been accepted if any compromise whatever was to be made. We shall be greatly surprised if when the changes are finally made there is not a great deal less conduit than Mr. Calhoun now seems to agree to. We gravely doubt whether Mr. Calhoun expects to construct a foot of conduit in this city. However, he does agree to do so under certain conditions and we shall see what we shall see.... It does look as though some settlement of the matter would be reached, as the United Railroads have receded from their iron-clad determination not to consider the electric conduit at all. When that is accomplished we shall speedily see the last of the cables south of California street, a consummation as devoutly wished by the people as was the introduction of the cable in place of the horse-car a quarter of a century ago.”

The Chronicle in its issue of March 23, in referring to Mr. Calhoun’s letter practically charged him with lack of good faith. The Chronicle said:

The alleged ‘inaccuracy’ of the Chronicle’s interesting report of the compromise reached by the United Railroads and the Society for the Adornment of the City proves to be that the electric conduit in Sutter street is to stop at Powell street instead of extending to Polk street, as proposed, and which is the least which should have been accepted if any compromise whatever was to be made. We shall be greatly surprised if when the changes are finally made there is not a great deal less conduit than Mr. Calhoun now seems to agree to. We gravely doubt whether Mr. Calhoun expects to construct a foot of conduit in this city. However, he does agree to do so under certain conditions and we shall see what we shall see.... It does look as though some settlement of the matter would be reached, as the United Railroads have receded from their iron-clad determination not to consider the electric conduit at all. When that is accomplished we shall speedily see the last of the cables south of California street, a consummation as devoutly wished by the people as was the introduction of the cable in place of the horse-car a quarter of a century ago.”

[41]It was openly charged that money had been used to put this franchise through the preliminary steps necessary for its granting. The Examiner in its issue of March 10, some five weeks before the fire, said:“The Supervisors owe it to themselves to bring back the telephone franchise order for further consideration. Since the hasty vote on the ordinance last Monday ugly rumors have been the measure. The regard of the Supervisors for the good name of the Board demands that they should clear the record of the SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES that surround the vote on the order.“The present Board of Supervisors was elected on a platform that pledged its members to a municipal ownership programme. Among the purposes specifically announced was the ACQUISITION OF A TELEPHONE PLANT to be owned and operated by the city.“Yet the FIRST ACT OF THE BOARD in dealing with a public utility question is to favor an ordinance granting a franchise for fifty years to a private corporation without proper compensation to the city and WITHOUT ANY CONTRACT that would enable the city to buy out the plant at a just appraisement when the time comes to acquire a municipal telephone system.“The bill was introduced after a brief hearing and passed to print on the 26th of February. On the 5th of March it was passed to a vote in the Board of Supervisors without discussion. One of the members of the Board who rose to explain his vote was shut off with such indignity that he left the Supervisors’ chamber. Nor, indeed, did all the members know what they were voting on; for one of the Supervisors later in the session asked if the telephone franchise was not to be called up, and was surprised to be told that it had already been passed upon.“This sort of ‘gum-shoe’ legislation will not do for San Francisco. It inevitably rouses the suspicions of crookedness that have been hawked about the streets since Monday last.“A telephone franchise is not a matter to be treated lightly. It is an affair of more moment than passing a street or even of fixing a water rate. It deserves the deepest consideration, for the division of service between two companies creates a confusion in business that should be taken carefully into account. It is only the wretched service given by the old company that has brought the backing of a certain popular support to the advent of a new company. The manner in which the obvious evils of a division of service can be lessened requires much more thought than has yet been given, and many changes in the ordinance should be made unless the last state of the San Francisco telephone service is to be worse than the first.“It is the duty of the Supervisors to recall the ordinance, answer the rumors of crooked work by seeing that everything is carried on above board and in the open, and treat the franchise in accordance with their anti-election pledges to the people. They cannot afford to rest under appearance of evil that now surrounds the late vote on the order.“We do not wish to believe that any undue influence was used, but the Supervisors must have heard the rumors that are frequent in the streets, and they must realize that they have made the mistake of acting as a bribed Board of Supervisors would have acted. They have broken their pledge, but happily it is not too late for them to correct the gross error.”

It was openly charged that money had been used to put this franchise through the preliminary steps necessary for its granting. The Examiner in its issue of March 10, some five weeks before the fire, said:

“The Supervisors owe it to themselves to bring back the telephone franchise order for further consideration. Since the hasty vote on the ordinance last Monday ugly rumors have been the measure. The regard of the Supervisors for the good name of the Board demands that they should clear the record of the SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES that surround the vote on the order.

“The present Board of Supervisors was elected on a platform that pledged its members to a municipal ownership programme. Among the purposes specifically announced was the ACQUISITION OF A TELEPHONE PLANT to be owned and operated by the city.

“Yet the FIRST ACT OF THE BOARD in dealing with a public utility question is to favor an ordinance granting a franchise for fifty years to a private corporation without proper compensation to the city and WITHOUT ANY CONTRACT that would enable the city to buy out the plant at a just appraisement when the time comes to acquire a municipal telephone system.

“The bill was introduced after a brief hearing and passed to print on the 26th of February. On the 5th of March it was passed to a vote in the Board of Supervisors without discussion. One of the members of the Board who rose to explain his vote was shut off with such indignity that he left the Supervisors’ chamber. Nor, indeed, did all the members know what they were voting on; for one of the Supervisors later in the session asked if the telephone franchise was not to be called up, and was surprised to be told that it had already been passed upon.

“This sort of ‘gum-shoe’ legislation will not do for San Francisco. It inevitably rouses the suspicions of crookedness that have been hawked about the streets since Monday last.

“A telephone franchise is not a matter to be treated lightly. It is an affair of more moment than passing a street or even of fixing a water rate. It deserves the deepest consideration, for the division of service between two companies creates a confusion in business that should be taken carefully into account. It is only the wretched service given by the old company that has brought the backing of a certain popular support to the advent of a new company. The manner in which the obvious evils of a division of service can be lessened requires much more thought than has yet been given, and many changes in the ordinance should be made unless the last state of the San Francisco telephone service is to be worse than the first.

“It is the duty of the Supervisors to recall the ordinance, answer the rumors of crooked work by seeing that everything is carried on above board and in the open, and treat the franchise in accordance with their anti-election pledges to the people. They cannot afford to rest under appearance of evil that now surrounds the late vote on the order.

“We do not wish to believe that any undue influence was used, but the Supervisors must have heard the rumors that are frequent in the streets, and they must realize that they have made the mistake of acting as a bribed Board of Supervisors would have acted. They have broken their pledge, but happily it is not too late for them to correct the gross error.”

[42]Mr. Calhoun’s second letter, as introduced as evidence at his trial for offering a bribe (page 2775, Transcript, The People vs. Calhoun), was as follows:“San Francisco, March 23.—Messrs. James D. Phelan, R. B. Hale, Herbert E. Law, Rufus P. Jennings and others—My dear Sirs: You will recall that the only condition on which I consented to even consider the introduction of an underground conduit on Market street from the ferries to Valencia, and on Sutter from Market to Powell, was to secure harmony and unanimity of action in the development of San Francisco. You will further recall that I distinctly stated that ‘if all sides to this controversy are not willing to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject, the United Railroads prefers to urge, in the interest of the development of San Francisco, a uniform system of overhead trolley operation.’“The development of the last few days, the threatened litigation against my company, and the action of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club, demonstrate that harmony and unanimity of action, so much to be desired, cannot be obtained, and that the United Railroads cannot expect all parties to the controversy ‘to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject.’ On the contrary, if the people should elect to put an overhead on Sutter street, the address of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club distinctly states ‘we pledge ourselves and promise to provide the necessary counsel to maintain our position in the courts.’“In view of these facts, I desire to inform you that the United Railroads will proceed to prepare a plan for the improvement of the transportation of San Francisco. The essential feature of which plan will be a modern, up-to-date, efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion, through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the streets of the city will permit. When this plan is perfected it will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration. We will be very glad to go over it with you. Under the circumstances, it will be useless for me now to furnish the preliminary plan of which we spoke.“In conclusion, permit me to express my appreciation of the motives which led you to seek a conference with me, and the earnest desire of every gentleman who participated in that conference to reach a basis of harmonious action in order that the development of San Francisco might not be obstructed and delayed.“Very truly yours,PATRICK CALHOUN, President.”

Mr. Calhoun’s second letter, as introduced as evidence at his trial for offering a bribe (page 2775, Transcript, The People vs. Calhoun), was as follows:

“San Francisco, March 23.—Messrs. James D. Phelan, R. B. Hale, Herbert E. Law, Rufus P. Jennings and others—My dear Sirs: You will recall that the only condition on which I consented to even consider the introduction of an underground conduit on Market street from the ferries to Valencia, and on Sutter from Market to Powell, was to secure harmony and unanimity of action in the development of San Francisco. You will further recall that I distinctly stated that ‘if all sides to this controversy are not willing to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject, the United Railroads prefers to urge, in the interest of the development of San Francisco, a uniform system of overhead trolley operation.’

“The development of the last few days, the threatened litigation against my company, and the action of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club, demonstrate that harmony and unanimity of action, so much to be desired, cannot be obtained, and that the United Railroads cannot expect all parties to the controversy ‘to faithfully and loyally abide by what the people of San Francisco may determine on this subject.’ On the contrary, if the people should elect to put an overhead on Sutter street, the address of the Sutter-Street Improvement Club distinctly states ‘we pledge ourselves and promise to provide the necessary counsel to maintain our position in the courts.’

“In view of these facts, I desire to inform you that the United Railroads will proceed to prepare a plan for the improvement of the transportation of San Francisco. The essential feature of which plan will be a modern, up-to-date, efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion, through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the streets of the city will permit. When this plan is perfected it will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration. We will be very glad to go over it with you. Under the circumstances, it will be useless for me now to furnish the preliminary plan of which we spoke.

“In conclusion, permit me to express my appreciation of the motives which led you to seek a conference with me, and the earnest desire of every gentleman who participated in that conference to reach a basis of harmonious action in order that the development of San Francisco might not be obstructed and delayed.

“Very truly yours,

PATRICK CALHOUN, President.”

[43]The Chronicle commented upon Mr. Calhoun’s new position as follows:“The letter written by Patrick Calhoun of the United Railroads to the committee of citizens who have sought to induce him to change his attitude on the subject of overhead trolleys was not in good taste. It exhibited corporative arrogance in its most exasperating form. Mr. Calhoun is too well bred, or perhaps too cautious a man to tell the public to be damned, but every line of his communication breathes the spirit of the insolent utterance of William K. Vanderbilt, and the community will take it that way....“There is an ill-concealed menace in Mr. Calhoun’s declaration that the United Railroads has a plan in preparation which, when perfected, ‘will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration.’ As he plainly tells us that this plan provides for an ‘efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the city will permit,’ the announcement is equivalent to a notification that ‘the proper authorities of the city’ will be appealed to for permission to carry out such a scheme, whether the people like it or not. His defiant attitude suggests that he feels pretty sure that the authorities will be on the side of the United Railroads against the people, but he may be mistaken on that score. There is a point beyond which even complaisant authorities would not wish to press the matter to oblige a corporation which shows so little regard for the desires and needs of a community from which it extracts over eight million dollars annually.” (See San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 1906.)

The Chronicle commented upon Mr. Calhoun’s new position as follows:

“The letter written by Patrick Calhoun of the United Railroads to the committee of citizens who have sought to induce him to change his attitude on the subject of overhead trolleys was not in good taste. It exhibited corporative arrogance in its most exasperating form. Mr. Calhoun is too well bred, or perhaps too cautious a man to tell the public to be damned, but every line of his communication breathes the spirit of the insolent utterance of William K. Vanderbilt, and the community will take it that way....

“There is an ill-concealed menace in Mr. Calhoun’s declaration that the United Railroads has a plan in preparation which, when perfected, ‘will be presented to the proper authorities of the city for their consideration.’ As he plainly tells us that this plan provides for an ‘efficient and uniform system of electric propulsion through the introduction of the overhead trolley system wherever the grades of the city will permit,’ the announcement is equivalent to a notification that ‘the proper authorities of the city’ will be appealed to for permission to carry out such a scheme, whether the people like it or not. His defiant attitude suggests that he feels pretty sure that the authorities will be on the side of the United Railroads against the people, but he may be mistaken on that score. There is a point beyond which even complaisant authorities would not wish to press the matter to oblige a corporation which shows so little regard for the desires and needs of a community from which it extracts over eight million dollars annually.” (See San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 1906.)

[44]Mayor Schmitz in his statement, said:“If Claus Spreckels can see his way clear to carry out his great purpose, the fact stands that he must be known more than ever as he has been known in the past, as the greatest public benefactor of the West. I will say, if he can see his way clear, reservedly, for I doubt that any citizen of this city or State can point to any understanding that he has announced he would accomplish, that he has failed to accomplish. Not only is his determination, but within his control is the money to carry out his determination, and I have yet failed to find the man that can say that any object can fail of accomplishment when determination and money walk hand in hand.“If Mr. Spreckels can carry out his announced desire to network San Francisco with railroads operated by the underground conduit system, I can only say that through his wonderful ambitions of purpose San Francisco will take a stride forward that is wonderful to contemplate. Such action upon the part of Mr. Spreckels would place San Francisco not only in advance of any city in America, but would place it in advance of any city in the world in the battle for public control of utilities operated for the public benefit. The offer of Mr. Spreckels is not only one that must awaken the amazement, but the approbation of every public-spirited citizen. While the rest of the great cities of the world (as well as San Francisco before Mr. Spreckels made his offer) are puzzling to find means through which they can accomplish the great purpose of municipal ownership, Mr. Spreckels has come forward and has offered, for the good of the people, to demonstrate the efficiency of a system that will mean that not only shall the beauty of San Francisco be not sacrificed, but that the public desire for rapid transit shall be fulfilled. Backed with the millions he controls, his offer is significant, and is one that we cannot contemplate lightly.“As Chief Executive of the city I can only express the hope that something will happen that will permit Mr. Spreckels to carry out his object. At one stride this would place San Francisco at the head of the world in the titanic struggle now waging between the people and the corporations for the control of those utilities in which the people are interested for comfort and the corporations for profit. Great as is his offer, it adds not only enthusiasm, but rekindles hope in my always expressed desire that my administration would mark the first victory of the municipality in its fight to control those things that are theirs.“The people are on the eve of winning for themselves those things that are theirs. If the offer of Mr. Spreckels can be carried out, and I see no reason why it cannot, the battle is ended. Not only will San Francisco be the victor, but from the battle she will emerge, her beauty unmarred and her railways standing as exemplifications of the fact that what in science is possible is capable of actual and practical accomplishment.” (See San Francisco Call, March 24, 1906.) But in spite of this approval, after the organization of the new company was assured, Rudolph Spreckels found the Mayor’s door closed to him when he attempted to secure an interview. (See Rudolph Spreckels’ testimony at the Calhoun trial.)

Mayor Schmitz in his statement, said:

“If Claus Spreckels can see his way clear to carry out his great purpose, the fact stands that he must be known more than ever as he has been known in the past, as the greatest public benefactor of the West. I will say, if he can see his way clear, reservedly, for I doubt that any citizen of this city or State can point to any understanding that he has announced he would accomplish, that he has failed to accomplish. Not only is his determination, but within his control is the money to carry out his determination, and I have yet failed to find the man that can say that any object can fail of accomplishment when determination and money walk hand in hand.

“If Mr. Spreckels can carry out his announced desire to network San Francisco with railroads operated by the underground conduit system, I can only say that through his wonderful ambitions of purpose San Francisco will take a stride forward that is wonderful to contemplate. Such action upon the part of Mr. Spreckels would place San Francisco not only in advance of any city in America, but would place it in advance of any city in the world in the battle for public control of utilities operated for the public benefit. The offer of Mr. Spreckels is not only one that must awaken the amazement, but the approbation of every public-spirited citizen. While the rest of the great cities of the world (as well as San Francisco before Mr. Spreckels made his offer) are puzzling to find means through which they can accomplish the great purpose of municipal ownership, Mr. Spreckels has come forward and has offered, for the good of the people, to demonstrate the efficiency of a system that will mean that not only shall the beauty of San Francisco be not sacrificed, but that the public desire for rapid transit shall be fulfilled. Backed with the millions he controls, his offer is significant, and is one that we cannot contemplate lightly.

“As Chief Executive of the city I can only express the hope that something will happen that will permit Mr. Spreckels to carry out his object. At one stride this would place San Francisco at the head of the world in the titanic struggle now waging between the people and the corporations for the control of those utilities in which the people are interested for comfort and the corporations for profit. Great as is his offer, it adds not only enthusiasm, but rekindles hope in my always expressed desire that my administration would mark the first victory of the municipality in its fight to control those things that are theirs.

“The people are on the eve of winning for themselves those things that are theirs. If the offer of Mr. Spreckels can be carried out, and I see no reason why it cannot, the battle is ended. Not only will San Francisco be the victor, but from the battle she will emerge, her beauty unmarred and her railways standing as exemplifications of the fact that what in science is possible is capable of actual and practical accomplishment.” (See San Francisco Call, March 24, 1906.) But in spite of this approval, after the organization of the new company was assured, Rudolph Spreckels found the Mayor’s door closed to him when he attempted to secure an interview. (See Rudolph Spreckels’ testimony at the Calhoun trial.)

[45]The purposes of the incorporators were brought out at the graft trials. At the Calhoun trial, when James D. Phelan, former Mayor of San Francisco, and one of the incorporators, was under cross-examination, Calhoun’s attorney referred to other public utility ventures in which Claus Spreckels had been interested, and asked:“Q. You knew of the matter of the rival gas or competing gas lines, and the rival and competing electric lines, and the rival and competing steam railroads down the valley at the time you went into the corporation to put in the People’s Street Railroad? A. I knew, and I know the effect they had; they reduced rates in both cases; and if our system accomplished the purpose of bringing Mr. Calhoun’s railroad to a realization of the public desire to have a conduit system, our purpose would have been accomplished. It was the last resort. I looked upon it, as an incorporator, as the last resort. We had negotiated in a friendly way for months, and I saw the fruit of all the conferences fade away and believed that arrangements had been made by Mr. Calhoun with the city administration, and the only resort left to us to do was to build a road of our own to demonstrate that it was practicable and possibly profitable—a conduit system.”

The purposes of the incorporators were brought out at the graft trials. At the Calhoun trial, when James D. Phelan, former Mayor of San Francisco, and one of the incorporators, was under cross-examination, Calhoun’s attorney referred to other public utility ventures in which Claus Spreckels had been interested, and asked:

“Q. You knew of the matter of the rival gas or competing gas lines, and the rival and competing electric lines, and the rival and competing steam railroads down the valley at the time you went into the corporation to put in the People’s Street Railroad? A. I knew, and I know the effect they had; they reduced rates in both cases; and if our system accomplished the purpose of bringing Mr. Calhoun’s railroad to a realization of the public desire to have a conduit system, our purpose would have been accomplished. It was the last resort. I looked upon it, as an incorporator, as the last resort. We had negotiated in a friendly way for months, and I saw the fruit of all the conferences fade away and believed that arrangements had been made by Mr. Calhoun with the city administration, and the only resort left to us to do was to build a road of our own to demonstrate that it was practicable and possibly profitable—a conduit system.”

[46]As early as April 3, 1906, a petition was circulated for signatures among residents and property owners on Bush street, asking the Board of Supervisors to grant a franchise to operate street-cars on Bush street under the electric-conduit system.

As early as April 3, 1906, a petition was circulated for signatures among residents and property owners on Bush street, asking the Board of Supervisors to grant a franchise to operate street-cars on Bush street under the electric-conduit system.

[47]The San Francisco Examiner of March 31, 1906, set forth that “an important feature (of the plans for competing street railways) was that the city should have the right at the end of ten years or any shorter period that might be preferred, to take over the system and operate the same itself, the terms of the transfer to be such as would be just both to the builders and to the municipality.”Among the purposes for which the Municipal Street Railways of San Francisco was formed, was set forth in the articles of incorporation the following: “To accept and acquire franchises for street railroads, elevated railroads and subways, containing provisions for the acquisition thereof by the City and County of San Francisco, or such other conditions as may be lawfully inserted therein.”

The San Francisco Examiner of March 31, 1906, set forth that “an important feature (of the plans for competing street railways) was that the city should have the right at the end of ten years or any shorter period that might be preferred, to take over the system and operate the same itself, the terms of the transfer to be such as would be just both to the builders and to the municipality.”

Among the purposes for which the Municipal Street Railways of San Francisco was formed, was set forth in the articles of incorporation the following: “To accept and acquire franchises for street railroads, elevated railroads and subways, containing provisions for the acquisition thereof by the City and County of San Francisco, or such other conditions as may be lawfully inserted therein.”

[48]See Keane’s testimony in The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, Part 3, vol. 1, page 455.

See Keane’s testimony in The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, Part 3, vol. 1, page 455.

[49]See footnote41,page 43.

See footnote41,page 43.

[50]Supervisor Gallagher testified in the case of The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, that about a week before the fire “Mr. Ruef stated that the United Railroads wanted to secure a permit to use electricity upon their lines and asked me to speak to the members of the Board of Supervisors about it and let him know whether it could go through the Board, and about what amount of money it would take. I told him that I would do so.” (See Transcript on Appeal, page 850.) Similar testimony, to show that the United Railroads was dealing with Ruef during the month preceding the fire, was brought out at trials of other defendants in the “graft” cases. This would make the date of Ruef’s activity on behalf of the United Railroads about the time of Mr. Calhoun’s announcement that he would proceed to present plans for the trolley system, to the “proper representatives” of the People (the Supervisors), who were even then, through Ruef, receiving bribe money from public-service corporations.Gallagher testified further (see same transcript, page 853) that within a week after the fire Ruef stated to him that the United Railroads still wanted its electric permit, and directed that Gallagher find out whether such a permit could be put through the Board. Gallagher testified that he saw members, put the question to them, and reported back to Ruef that in his judgment the permit could be put through by paying each member of the Board the amount which Ruef had specified, $4,000.

Supervisor Gallagher testified in the case of The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, that about a week before the fire “Mr. Ruef stated that the United Railroads wanted to secure a permit to use electricity upon their lines and asked me to speak to the members of the Board of Supervisors about it and let him know whether it could go through the Board, and about what amount of money it would take. I told him that I would do so.” (See Transcript on Appeal, page 850.) Similar testimony, to show that the United Railroads was dealing with Ruef during the month preceding the fire, was brought out at trials of other defendants in the “graft” cases. This would make the date of Ruef’s activity on behalf of the United Railroads about the time of Mr. Calhoun’s announcement that he would proceed to present plans for the trolley system, to the “proper representatives” of the People (the Supervisors), who were even then, through Ruef, receiving bribe money from public-service corporations.

Gallagher testified further (see same transcript, page 853) that within a week after the fire Ruef stated to him that the United Railroads still wanted its electric permit, and directed that Gallagher find out whether such a permit could be put through the Board. Gallagher testified that he saw members, put the question to them, and reported back to Ruef that in his judgment the permit could be put through by paying each member of the Board the amount which Ruef had specified, $4,000.

[51]Supervisor Gallagher testified at graft trials that Ruef had told him the payment of this $75,000 to the Relief Fund was a good thing, as it would tend to shut off adverse criticism. But the Home Company people had asked that the money be not turned over to the Relief Fund until such time as the ordinance granting the franchise had been approved or the matter definitely determined.

Supervisor Gallagher testified at graft trials that Ruef had told him the payment of this $75,000 to the Relief Fund was a good thing, as it would tend to shut off adverse criticism. But the Home Company people had asked that the money be not turned over to the Relief Fund until such time as the ordinance granting the franchise had been approved or the matter definitely determined.

[52]As early as May 5, C. E. Loss, a railroad contractor, came out with the proposition that the city should abandon all idea of conduit systems, because the cable slots had been closed by the earthquake. In this, Loss was disputed by City Engineer Thomas P. Woodward. Woodward, in an interview printed in the Examiner on May 5, 1906, said:“I think Mr. Loss was mistaken when he said the earthquake closed the cable slots. I have not made a careful examination of the various roadbeds in San Francisco, but from what I have seen as I have gone about the city, I am inclined to think that no injury was done the cable slots by the earthquake.“The lines on Sacramento, California, Geary, Sutter and Haight streets appear to be all right outside the burned district. Where the metal was subjected to the intense heat, the slots are warped out of shape, and in some places closed.”Loss’s allegations called forth the following editorial comment in the Examiner of May 5th:“Even an earthquake shock and a conflagration do not long obscure the vision of certain wealthy gentlemen where there is a chance to turn a calamity to their individual account.“Before the catastrophe, San Francisco had indicated with great emphasis to the United Railroads that it would not permit the reconstruction of the cable system into an overhead trolley, but would insist upon a modern up-to-date conduit electric railroad, the safety, utility and efficiency of which had been demonstrated in New York and other Eastern cities.“The emergency created by the destruction of the traffic systems in the city has compelled permission for a temporary trolley line because it could be constructed more quickly than any other.“It is not intended, and the United Railroads must be made to realize that it will not be permitted, that the unsightly poles and dangerous wires will be allowed to cumber the new and more beautiful San Francisco, any more than it will be permitted that the rough shacks and sheds which temporarily shelter the people in parks and streets and otherwise vacant lots shall remain after the emergency which called them into being has ceased.”

As early as May 5, C. E. Loss, a railroad contractor, came out with the proposition that the city should abandon all idea of conduit systems, because the cable slots had been closed by the earthquake. In this, Loss was disputed by City Engineer Thomas P. Woodward. Woodward, in an interview printed in the Examiner on May 5, 1906, said:

“I think Mr. Loss was mistaken when he said the earthquake closed the cable slots. I have not made a careful examination of the various roadbeds in San Francisco, but from what I have seen as I have gone about the city, I am inclined to think that no injury was done the cable slots by the earthquake.

“The lines on Sacramento, California, Geary, Sutter and Haight streets appear to be all right outside the burned district. Where the metal was subjected to the intense heat, the slots are warped out of shape, and in some places closed.”

Loss’s allegations called forth the following editorial comment in the Examiner of May 5th:

“Even an earthquake shock and a conflagration do not long obscure the vision of certain wealthy gentlemen where there is a chance to turn a calamity to their individual account.

“Before the catastrophe, San Francisco had indicated with great emphasis to the United Railroads that it would not permit the reconstruction of the cable system into an overhead trolley, but would insist upon a modern up-to-date conduit electric railroad, the safety, utility and efficiency of which had been demonstrated in New York and other Eastern cities.

“The emergency created by the destruction of the traffic systems in the city has compelled permission for a temporary trolley line because it could be constructed more quickly than any other.

“It is not intended, and the United Railroads must be made to realize that it will not be permitted, that the unsightly poles and dangerous wires will be allowed to cumber the new and more beautiful San Francisco, any more than it will be permitted that the rough shacks and sheds which temporarily shelter the people in parks and streets and otherwise vacant lots shall remain after the emergency which called them into being has ceased.”

[53]A. D. Shepard, vice-president and secretary of the Geary-street Railroad Company, gave the following statement to the Examiner as to the condition of the Geary-street roadbed:“We can run cars as far as the road goes, but the power-house is not ready for business. The smokestack at Geary and Buchanan streets must be built up to comply with the ordinance of the city before we can get a permit to build fires under the boilers. The smokestack should be repaired by the end of this week, and cars will probably be run over the road then. I cannot say just what day we will begin to run cars. All depends upon the smokestack and the Board of Public Works.“Our line was not injured by the earthquake, and we ran cars for some time after the shake. It was the fire that drove us out of business. The heat warped the slot, making it narrow in places and wide in other spots, but this is easily remedied.” (See Examiner, May 30, 1906.)

A. D. Shepard, vice-president and secretary of the Geary-street Railroad Company, gave the following statement to the Examiner as to the condition of the Geary-street roadbed:

“We can run cars as far as the road goes, but the power-house is not ready for business. The smokestack at Geary and Buchanan streets must be built up to comply with the ordinance of the city before we can get a permit to build fires under the boilers. The smokestack should be repaired by the end of this week, and cars will probably be run over the road then. I cannot say just what day we will begin to run cars. All depends upon the smokestack and the Board of Public Works.

“Our line was not injured by the earthquake, and we ran cars for some time after the shake. It was the fire that drove us out of business. The heat warped the slot, making it narrow in places and wide in other spots, but this is easily remedied.” (See Examiner, May 30, 1906.)

[54]Sharon’s affidavit was introduced at the graft trials. It was as follows:“State of California, City and County of San Francisco—ss.“Frank E. Sharon, being first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says: That he was for many years prior to April 18, 1906, the superintendent of cables and stables belonging to the United Railroads of San Francisco, and situate at the corner of Market and Valencia streets; that on the property situate at said Market and Valencia streets were located what is known as the Market and Valencia Power House and Shops, consisting of power-house, stables, machine shops, special machine shops, mill, offices, store-rooms, sheds, etc.; that he was such superintendent on April 18, 1906; that on the morning of April 18, 1906, immediately following the earthquake he proceeded to the above described premises, arriving there at about 8 a. m.; that none of the buildings above described were materially damaged by the earthquake; that the walls of all the buildings were standing and intact; that the roofs of all the buildings were on and uninjured by the earthquake, with the exception of the roof of a portion of what is known as the power-house, which was damaged by reason of a small portion of the chimney adjoining the power-house on the west falling thereon; that the greater portion of said brick from the top of said chimney fell toward the south or east into the driveway; that extending from the base of said chimney to the crown thereof and on the east and west side thereof are cracks which were in said chimney for many years prior to the earthquake of April 18, 1906, which cracks were opened somewhat by said earthquake; and the boilers in said power-house were not injured to any extent and steam was kept under said boilers for some time after the earthquake; that in his judgment the building as a whole was intact and the machinery not injured in any material part of the earthquake; that the building caught fire from the adjoining buildings on the east and southeast late in the afternoon of April 18, 1906; said buildings were not dynamited nor backfired for any purpose.“F. E. SHARON.“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of August, A. D. 1906.“CHARLES R. HOLTON.“Notary Public in and for the City and County of San Francisco, State of California.”

Sharon’s affidavit was introduced at the graft trials. It was as follows:

“State of California, City and County of San Francisco—ss.

“Frank E. Sharon, being first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says: That he was for many years prior to April 18, 1906, the superintendent of cables and stables belonging to the United Railroads of San Francisco, and situate at the corner of Market and Valencia streets; that on the property situate at said Market and Valencia streets were located what is known as the Market and Valencia Power House and Shops, consisting of power-house, stables, machine shops, special machine shops, mill, offices, store-rooms, sheds, etc.; that he was such superintendent on April 18, 1906; that on the morning of April 18, 1906, immediately following the earthquake he proceeded to the above described premises, arriving there at about 8 a. m.; that none of the buildings above described were materially damaged by the earthquake; that the walls of all the buildings were standing and intact; that the roofs of all the buildings were on and uninjured by the earthquake, with the exception of the roof of a portion of what is known as the power-house, which was damaged by reason of a small portion of the chimney adjoining the power-house on the west falling thereon; that the greater portion of said brick from the top of said chimney fell toward the south or east into the driveway; that extending from the base of said chimney to the crown thereof and on the east and west side thereof are cracks which were in said chimney for many years prior to the earthquake of April 18, 1906, which cracks were opened somewhat by said earthquake; and the boilers in said power-house were not injured to any extent and steam was kept under said boilers for some time after the earthquake; that in his judgment the building as a whole was intact and the machinery not injured in any material part of the earthquake; that the building caught fire from the adjoining buildings on the east and southeast late in the afternoon of April 18, 1906; said buildings were not dynamited nor backfired for any purpose.

“F. E. SHARON.

“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of August, A. D. 1906.

“CHARLES R. HOLTON.

“Notary Public in and for the City and County of San Francisco, State of California.”

[55]The loss included $25 damage to two engines which cost new $24,000; $2,000 damage to six boilers, new cost $30,000; $210 water-tank, cost new $350; $500 damage to pipes, valves and fittings, which cost new $10,500; material in store-room worth $2,000, a total loss; $4,800 loss of two tension carriages used for taking up slack of the cable. These tension carriages could very easily have been restored. This loss, $4,800, and the $2,000 stock loss, deducted from the total of $9,375, leaves a total loss of $2,575 to the machinery of a plant estimated to have cost $115,842.

The loss included $25 damage to two engines which cost new $24,000; $2,000 damage to six boilers, new cost $30,000; $210 water-tank, cost new $350; $500 damage to pipes, valves and fittings, which cost new $10,500; material in store-room worth $2,000, a total loss; $4,800 loss of two tension carriages used for taking up slack of the cable. These tension carriages could very easily have been restored. This loss, $4,800, and the $2,000 stock loss, deducted from the total of $9,375, leaves a total loss of $2,575 to the machinery of a plant estimated to have cost $115,842.

[56]As late as November 13, 1906, seven months after the fire, the San Francisco Call published an editorial article on the trolley permits which showed that even then their nature was not fully understood. The Call said:“The insolent disregard of public rights in the streets by the United Railroads is inspired, of course, by ulterior purpose to entrench the corporation in the possession of privileges, permits or franchises granted at a time of stress and confusion whose legality may and probably will be questioned later.“The Call does not desire to assume an attitude of hindering or hampering progress. We recognize fully that every new street-car line adds materially to the value of property within its tributary territory. In a word, the growth of a city or a neighborhood is, to a considerable degree, dependent on facilities for urban transit.“But it does not follow from these considerations that franchises should be granted for nothing to any and every applicant who is able to construct a street railway. The right to use the streets is the most valuable privilege possessed by a municipality. It should be made to yield a corresponding revenue.“All this might seem so obvious as scarcely to require statement, but in practice the principles here laid down have been virtually disregarded in San Francisco. In no instance was there more flagrant disregard of public rights than in the wholesale grants of permits or franchises to construct overhead trolley lines made after the fire.“The United Railroads at the time professed to regard these permits as merely temporary, but that profession was not very long maintained. The company now declares that many, if not all, of these permits amount to absolute franchises in view of the capital invested in making the necessary changes. That is the explanation of the outrageous disregard of public rights shown in tearing up some five or six miles of streets at once and in different parts of town. This process is obviously wasteful as a financial proposition, and is calculated besides to arouse general indignation. We find these weighty considerations disregarded on the advice of the corporation’s lawyers, to bolster up an invalid claim to the possession of franchises obtained by trick and device in an hour of public confusion.“What the extent of the corporation’s claim under these permits may be we are not advised, and there is no immediate means of finding out as long as the administration which granted these hole-and-corner permits remains in power. The same influences that made the Mayor and Supervisors so complaisant to the will of the United Railroads are still operative. It was only the other day that another permit for a street-car line was granted, and granted illegally. This administration stays bought.“Therefore, the streets are torn up in a dozen different parts of town and left in that condition untouched for months with the full consent of the administration. But this political condition is not permanent. Some of these people will go to jail. They will all be ousted at the next election. San Francisco has had enough of them.“The United Railroads is endeavoring to fortify one wrong by committing another. These things will not be forgotten in a hurry. We are convinced that the corporation is pursuing a shortsighted policy. Costly litigation must ensue to test the validity and extent of the overhead trolley permits. The people will not consent to see their most valuable property traded away by a lot of conscienceless boodlers, and if it should prove that the United Railroads has been able to make two wrongs constitute one right, it is very certain that a movement of irresistible force will follow for a reduction of street-car fares.“We are convinced that it will pay the United Railroads to be fair and decent with the people of San Francisco. The present policy is neither fair nor decent. The service is bad, public rights in the streets are outraged, and, worst of all, the corporation is the most malign, corrupting influence in the politics of our municipal government. There will come a reckoning.”

As late as November 13, 1906, seven months after the fire, the San Francisco Call published an editorial article on the trolley permits which showed that even then their nature was not fully understood. The Call said:

“The insolent disregard of public rights in the streets by the United Railroads is inspired, of course, by ulterior purpose to entrench the corporation in the possession of privileges, permits or franchises granted at a time of stress and confusion whose legality may and probably will be questioned later.

“The Call does not desire to assume an attitude of hindering or hampering progress. We recognize fully that every new street-car line adds materially to the value of property within its tributary territory. In a word, the growth of a city or a neighborhood is, to a considerable degree, dependent on facilities for urban transit.

“But it does not follow from these considerations that franchises should be granted for nothing to any and every applicant who is able to construct a street railway. The right to use the streets is the most valuable privilege possessed by a municipality. It should be made to yield a corresponding revenue.

“All this might seem so obvious as scarcely to require statement, but in practice the principles here laid down have been virtually disregarded in San Francisco. In no instance was there more flagrant disregard of public rights than in the wholesale grants of permits or franchises to construct overhead trolley lines made after the fire.

“The United Railroads at the time professed to regard these permits as merely temporary, but that profession was not very long maintained. The company now declares that many, if not all, of these permits amount to absolute franchises in view of the capital invested in making the necessary changes. That is the explanation of the outrageous disregard of public rights shown in tearing up some five or six miles of streets at once and in different parts of town. This process is obviously wasteful as a financial proposition, and is calculated besides to arouse general indignation. We find these weighty considerations disregarded on the advice of the corporation’s lawyers, to bolster up an invalid claim to the possession of franchises obtained by trick and device in an hour of public confusion.

“What the extent of the corporation’s claim under these permits may be we are not advised, and there is no immediate means of finding out as long as the administration which granted these hole-and-corner permits remains in power. The same influences that made the Mayor and Supervisors so complaisant to the will of the United Railroads are still operative. It was only the other day that another permit for a street-car line was granted, and granted illegally. This administration stays bought.

“Therefore, the streets are torn up in a dozen different parts of town and left in that condition untouched for months with the full consent of the administration. But this political condition is not permanent. Some of these people will go to jail. They will all be ousted at the next election. San Francisco has had enough of them.

“The United Railroads is endeavoring to fortify one wrong by committing another. These things will not be forgotten in a hurry. We are convinced that the corporation is pursuing a shortsighted policy. Costly litigation must ensue to test the validity and extent of the overhead trolley permits. The people will not consent to see their most valuable property traded away by a lot of conscienceless boodlers, and if it should prove that the United Railroads has been able to make two wrongs constitute one right, it is very certain that a movement of irresistible force will follow for a reduction of street-car fares.

“We are convinced that it will pay the United Railroads to be fair and decent with the people of San Francisco. The present policy is neither fair nor decent. The service is bad, public rights in the streets are outraged, and, worst of all, the corporation is the most malign, corrupting influence in the politics of our municipal government. There will come a reckoning.”

[57]See statement printed in San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1906.

See statement printed in San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1906.

[58]Calhoun’s letter to the Supervisors read:“United Railroads of San Francisco.“President’s Office.“San Francisco, May 14, 1906.“To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of the City of San Francisco—Gentlemen: The United Railroads of San Francisco respectfully represents that, notwithstanding its urgent and earnest efforts to provide adequate street railway transportation on the lines being operated, constant pressure is being applied and innumerable requests are being presented to it to increase its transportation facilities.“The company is anxious to please the people, and is willing to do its part in the immediate upbuilding of the Greater San Francisco, but owing to the unavailability of material and machinery for operating its cable systems, as well as the great length of time necessary to rebuild destroyed power-houses and reconstruct its cable conduits, a long time would necessarily elapse before the cable systems could be operated so as to give the required relief to traffic congestion.“If your Honorable Board will permit the use on the cable lines of a standard electric system such as is now used on the company’s other lines, we will be glad to put all of our lines in commission, and will agree to have them in complete operation wherever grades will permit as rapidly as the most liberal expenditure of money and the largest possible employment of men will accomplish. The necessary expenditure for labor and materials to do this work will run into the millions, and will afford much-needed employment to several thousand deserving men.“We believe the prompt reconstruction of your lines of transportation will inspire confidence in all investing capital and greatly aid in the prompt rebuilding of your city.“We submit these suggestions for your consideration at the request of many of our citizens from every walk of life.“Respectfully,             “PAT. CALHOUN, President.”

Calhoun’s letter to the Supervisors read:

“United Railroads of San Francisco.“President’s Office.“San Francisco, May 14, 1906.

“To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of the City of San Francisco—Gentlemen: The United Railroads of San Francisco respectfully represents that, notwithstanding its urgent and earnest efforts to provide adequate street railway transportation on the lines being operated, constant pressure is being applied and innumerable requests are being presented to it to increase its transportation facilities.

“The company is anxious to please the people, and is willing to do its part in the immediate upbuilding of the Greater San Francisco, but owing to the unavailability of material and machinery for operating its cable systems, as well as the great length of time necessary to rebuild destroyed power-houses and reconstruct its cable conduits, a long time would necessarily elapse before the cable systems could be operated so as to give the required relief to traffic congestion.

“If your Honorable Board will permit the use on the cable lines of a standard electric system such as is now used on the company’s other lines, we will be glad to put all of our lines in commission, and will agree to have them in complete operation wherever grades will permit as rapidly as the most liberal expenditure of money and the largest possible employment of men will accomplish. The necessary expenditure for labor and materials to do this work will run into the millions, and will afford much-needed employment to several thousand deserving men.

“We believe the prompt reconstruction of your lines of transportation will inspire confidence in all investing capital and greatly aid in the prompt rebuilding of your city.

“We submit these suggestions for your consideration at the request of many of our citizens from every walk of life.

“Respectfully,             “PAT. CALHOUN, President.”

[59]The trolley permit was passed to print on May 14. The Examiner, in its issue of May 15, said:“The United Railroads, with the rapacity for which it has ever been noted, is seeking to capitalize the city’s woe to its own advantage.“Before the disaster of April 18 it had been balked in its purpose to make San Francisco a trolley town. The protests of citizens who knew that the underground system is better than the cheap, unsightly trolley system and had been proved safer, had blocked the United Railroads project. And it seemed certain that the scheme to cumber Market street and Sutter street with poles and wires was definitely stopped.“The emergency which demanded the swiftest possible establishment of a transportation system, gave the United Railroads its opportunity to revive the discreditable scheme. As an emergency service nobody could object to the overhead trolleys. But it was understood that the service was absolutely temporary in its character and should only obtain during the pendency of present conditions.“Yesterday, however, there appeared out of the void of forbidden things an ordinance that was hastily passed to print, granting a franchise to the United Railroads to trolleyize its whole system.“It was expected evidently that this iniquitous measure could be sneaked through under cover of the present stress and excitement without people realizing until it was too late what had been done.“When the scheme was flushed it was still attempted to make it appear that this was a temporary measure, a representation absolutely varying with the language of the ordinance.“But the scheme has not succeeded yet.“It was to be expected that, like the looters who have to be kept from other people’s property by soldiers and police, San Francisco’s misfortune would bring out a horde of corporate ghouls eager to snatch privileges during the time of disorder. But it was likewise to be expected that the city administration, which has been so alert to protect private property, would be equally alert to protect the precious possessions of the city.“The railroads can only do what the city permits, and a strong official scrutiny of the ordinance which was yesterday passed to print should result in its final defeat.“No matter what other claims an administration may have to the gratitude and respect of the citizens of San Francisco, it cannot afford to be known as the administration that put trolley poles on Market street.”

The trolley permit was passed to print on May 14. The Examiner, in its issue of May 15, said:

“The United Railroads, with the rapacity for which it has ever been noted, is seeking to capitalize the city’s woe to its own advantage.

“Before the disaster of April 18 it had been balked in its purpose to make San Francisco a trolley town. The protests of citizens who knew that the underground system is better than the cheap, unsightly trolley system and had been proved safer, had blocked the United Railroads project. And it seemed certain that the scheme to cumber Market street and Sutter street with poles and wires was definitely stopped.

“The emergency which demanded the swiftest possible establishment of a transportation system, gave the United Railroads its opportunity to revive the discreditable scheme. As an emergency service nobody could object to the overhead trolleys. But it was understood that the service was absolutely temporary in its character and should only obtain during the pendency of present conditions.

“Yesterday, however, there appeared out of the void of forbidden things an ordinance that was hastily passed to print, granting a franchise to the United Railroads to trolleyize its whole system.

“It was expected evidently that this iniquitous measure could be sneaked through under cover of the present stress and excitement without people realizing until it was too late what had been done.

“When the scheme was flushed it was still attempted to make it appear that this was a temporary measure, a representation absolutely varying with the language of the ordinance.

“But the scheme has not succeeded yet.

“It was to be expected that, like the looters who have to be kept from other people’s property by soldiers and police, San Francisco’s misfortune would bring out a horde of corporate ghouls eager to snatch privileges during the time of disorder. But it was likewise to be expected that the city administration, which has been so alert to protect private property, would be equally alert to protect the precious possessions of the city.

“The railroads can only do what the city permits, and a strong official scrutiny of the ordinance which was yesterday passed to print should result in its final defeat.

“No matter what other claims an administration may have to the gratitude and respect of the citizens of San Francisco, it cannot afford to be known as the administration that put trolley poles on Market street.”

[60]The day that the ordinance granting the trolley permit was ordered printed, Mayor Schmitz stated in an interview as published in the Examiner:“The proposed franchise is merely a temporary measure. It does not mean that the United Railroads can indefinitely operate their cars by the overhead trolley in Market street, or in the streets formerly occupied by cable roads. It is necessary now to have transportation. The cable roads cannot be repaired, I am told, for some time. Meanwhile, the franchise to string overhead wires has been granted. It can be revoked.”

The day that the ordinance granting the trolley permit was ordered printed, Mayor Schmitz stated in an interview as published in the Examiner:

“The proposed franchise is merely a temporary measure. It does not mean that the United Railroads can indefinitely operate their cars by the overhead trolley in Market street, or in the streets formerly occupied by cable roads. It is necessary now to have transportation. The cable roads cannot be repaired, I am told, for some time. Meanwhile, the franchise to string overhead wires has been granted. It can be revoked.”

[61]At the Calhoun trial, William H. Sanderson testified to having been introduced to Calhoun by Ruef at a public meeting, a few days before the trolley permit was granted. He was then asked:“Q. What, if any, conversation then ensued between yourself, Mr. Ruef and Mr. Calhoun? A. Well, I stated—Mr. Calhoun was at that time sitting at a large table in the room, where the committee had held its session, and he rose out of his seat, and the three of us held a conversation following that introduction. I stated to Mr. Calhoun—I asked him when the people of North Beach were or might expect railroad facilities, that the population was coming back to that portion of the city, and that other portions of the city were provided with facilities, and that we were compelled to walk through miles of burned district in order to get anywhere; and Mr. Calhoun said in reply, that if the people of San Francisco desired railroad facilities, they should co-operate with the railroad company that was here to provide them with the same; and I said to Mr. Calhoun that I thought that we were ready to do anything that the company desired us to do, and asked him what in particular he wished us to do, and he said: ‘There is that trolley privilege matter before the Supervisors; that comes up next Monday, and you people of San Francisco ought to come down before that Board, that the people of San Francisco, or you, are vitally interested in the matter of this trolley permit.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘Come down before the Board next Monday, Sanderson, and make a talk on behalf of your organization in favor of the trolley permit. We will see that you get the privilege of the floor. A number of citizens of San Francisco will be there, and we propose to show the press that the people of San Francisco are behind this permit.’ I said to Mr. Calhoun: ‘The papers tell me that this is a very valuable franchise and you ought to pay the city something for it.’ And Mr. Calhoun said in substance that he thought that the company would be paying all that the privileges was worth if it built the road. Then I suggested to him that perhaps that sentiment which objected to the disfigurement of Market street and Sutter street by the erection of poles and wires, ought to be placated to some extent, and I asked him why he would not at least put the feed-wires under ground; and he said that that would entail an expense which the company at that time was not or did not think it advisable to meet. And then I asked him why he would not put the poles 200 feet apart instead of 100 as—or 200 feet apart, as was done in European cities, and he said that the 100-foot system was the more advisable in his opinion. And then Mr. Ruef said to me: ‘The passage of this permit will mean immediate work for 5,000 men. We will be able to take them out of the camps and put them at work.’ And I said to Mr. Ruef: ‘That is all very well, Mr. Ruef, but it seems to me that there is another side to this question—a political side. The people of San Francisco are at last all behind your administration. What they need in this crisis is leadership, and we will have to take such leadership as you give us; and now that everybody is with you, and even the Bulletin has quit, it is not good policy on your part to stir up another newspaper war. The Examiner has been your friend ever since Schmitz was first elected, and it will not swallow the trolley proposition in its present form, and it is charging your administration with corruption. If it persists in its fight it will eventually break your back. It seems to me that it would be a comparatively easy matter to placate this opposition by exacting some compensation for this permit, either in the way of cash or by way of a percentage of the proceeds of the road, or you might limit it as to time; give them a permit for five or ten years. You have them at your mercy and they are bound to accept whatever terms you prescribe.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘To hell with the Examiner, no public man can afford to swallow that paper. This thing will go through on Monday. It is all settled.’ And then I said: ‘You don’t need me then,’ and Mr. Calhoun said: ‘I don’t think we do, Mr. Sanderson.’ That is all the conversation, or that is substantially all the conversation that took place in regard to that matter.”

At the Calhoun trial, William H. Sanderson testified to having been introduced to Calhoun by Ruef at a public meeting, a few days before the trolley permit was granted. He was then asked:

“Q. What, if any, conversation then ensued between yourself, Mr. Ruef and Mr. Calhoun? A. Well, I stated—Mr. Calhoun was at that time sitting at a large table in the room, where the committee had held its session, and he rose out of his seat, and the three of us held a conversation following that introduction. I stated to Mr. Calhoun—I asked him when the people of North Beach were or might expect railroad facilities, that the population was coming back to that portion of the city, and that other portions of the city were provided with facilities, and that we were compelled to walk through miles of burned district in order to get anywhere; and Mr. Calhoun said in reply, that if the people of San Francisco desired railroad facilities, they should co-operate with the railroad company that was here to provide them with the same; and I said to Mr. Calhoun that I thought that we were ready to do anything that the company desired us to do, and asked him what in particular he wished us to do, and he said: ‘There is that trolley privilege matter before the Supervisors; that comes up next Monday, and you people of San Francisco ought to come down before that Board, that the people of San Francisco, or you, are vitally interested in the matter of this trolley permit.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘Come down before the Board next Monday, Sanderson, and make a talk on behalf of your organization in favor of the trolley permit. We will see that you get the privilege of the floor. A number of citizens of San Francisco will be there, and we propose to show the press that the people of San Francisco are behind this permit.’ I said to Mr. Calhoun: ‘The papers tell me that this is a very valuable franchise and you ought to pay the city something for it.’ And Mr. Calhoun said in substance that he thought that the company would be paying all that the privileges was worth if it built the road. Then I suggested to him that perhaps that sentiment which objected to the disfigurement of Market street and Sutter street by the erection of poles and wires, ought to be placated to some extent, and I asked him why he would not at least put the feed-wires under ground; and he said that that would entail an expense which the company at that time was not or did not think it advisable to meet. And then I asked him why he would not put the poles 200 feet apart instead of 100 as—or 200 feet apart, as was done in European cities, and he said that the 100-foot system was the more advisable in his opinion. And then Mr. Ruef said to me: ‘The passage of this permit will mean immediate work for 5,000 men. We will be able to take them out of the camps and put them at work.’ And I said to Mr. Ruef: ‘That is all very well, Mr. Ruef, but it seems to me that there is another side to this question—a political side. The people of San Francisco are at last all behind your administration. What they need in this crisis is leadership, and we will have to take such leadership as you give us; and now that everybody is with you, and even the Bulletin has quit, it is not good policy on your part to stir up another newspaper war. The Examiner has been your friend ever since Schmitz was first elected, and it will not swallow the trolley proposition in its present form, and it is charging your administration with corruption. If it persists in its fight it will eventually break your back. It seems to me that it would be a comparatively easy matter to placate this opposition by exacting some compensation for this permit, either in the way of cash or by way of a percentage of the proceeds of the road, or you might limit it as to time; give them a permit for five or ten years. You have them at your mercy and they are bound to accept whatever terms you prescribe.’ Mr. Ruef then said: ‘To hell with the Examiner, no public man can afford to swallow that paper. This thing will go through on Monday. It is all settled.’ And then I said: ‘You don’t need me then,’ and Mr. Calhoun said: ‘I don’t think we do, Mr. Sanderson.’ That is all the conversation, or that is substantially all the conversation that took place in regard to that matter.”

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