A History of Organized Felony and Folly - The Clarence Darrow ...

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A History of Organized Felony and Folly their rightful share of graft received. In a case where there were competing utilities in the city, it appeared that one utility had paid extortion for an exclusive francliise while its competitor was held up for a franchise that violated the terms of the first agreement. In other words, it was impossible to buy the thieves so that they would stay bought. In all the big deals, Ruef received the money, kept his own share and turned over the supei'\isors' share to Gallagher, who distributed it. It was also alleged that Ruef paid the Mayor's share directly to him, but Schmitz escaped conviction on tliis charge, largely as the result of a teclinical flaw in the indictment. The confessions of the supervisors were used to sweat a confession from Ruef, which he afterward repudiated in part, but on their confessions he was convicted and sentenced. At the time of the investigations and trials, it was pleaded in behalf of the members of the administration that they had been seduced by offers of bribes from corporation officers. As a matter of fact, long before the crimes invohing large sums w^ere committed, everyone in the city who wanted anything from the admanistration was held up. If a man was arrested for public intoxication, he had to see Ruef. If he wanted a permit to place a hitching post in front of his house, he had to see Ruef. Bribes ran as low as fifty cents. In connection with the plea of seduction, it may also be pointed out that the members of this crew owmed a building, known as the "municipal crib," in the red-light district. It was a large structure, divided into small rooms, where public women worked and paid the owTiers as high as $5 for an eight-hour sliift—a good union-day's work. It can hardly be pleaded in extenuation that these inmates seduced the administration of San Francisco or its members to erect this structure. After the supervisors confessed, Ruef was estranged from his hirelings, and when the plea was repeated to him, he is alleged to have replied: "Seduced? Those union bums would eat the paint off a house!" And "paint-eaters" has become a term of derision for union members in San Fran- cisco to this day. 24
A History of Organized Felony and Folly The efforts of the prosecution were bent on the conviction of corporation officials, but they were unsuccessful and for this reason all the important culprits except Ruef escaped prison terms. Thus ended the country's most thorough experiment in municipal government by union labor. Union Defense of Mooney Organized labor has always alleged that Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings, serving life sentences for a crime that resulted in ten deaths and fifty maimings and injuries, were acting as individual anarchists and not in behalf of union labor. Before considering the evidence bearing on this allegation, it will be desirable to recite briefly some union history leading up to the crime. Patrick Calhoun, as president of the United Railroads, and Thomwell Mullally, his assistant, waged the only successful fight that had been made at that time against union labor in San Francisco by breaking the Carmen's Union in 1907. Although Calhoun was under indictment for bribery, many honest business men believe that, for his services to the city, a monument might properly be erected to his memory in Golden Gate park. From that time the cars of the United Railroads were operated by non-union men. In 1913, Tom Mooney and his wife, Rita, made an unsuccessful attempt to organize them and precipitate a strike. The bomb that cost so many lives was originally intended for a detachment of non-union carmen, led by Thomwell Mullally who afterward commanded a regiment in the world war, the carmen forming a division of a Preparedness Day parade, in July, 1916. Mooney and Billings had filled a suitcase with explosives and slugs with a clock device set for 2:06 p. m., the hour when the carmen would have passed, but to make more certain they first carried the device to the top of a building where it could have been thrown on the marchers. There they learned for 25
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