he Labour boss
came into power, Spreckels in the San Francisco Gas Company and Ruef in San Francisco, they met. Mr. Spreckels has told tinder oath the story of that meeting. He says:
“Ruef was brought into my office by Mr. Charles Sutro and introduced and left there, and he stated to me that he thought he had legal ability and could be of service to the corporation ‘otherwise.’ He suggested that he be employed as counsel for the company.
To have the political representative of Labour offer to represent a “hated capitalistic corporation shocked Mr. Spreckels, the capitalist, no more than it did citizens or the workingmen themselves. That was old and, as newspaper men understand, it is news, not evil, that stirs men. Mr. Spreckels declined Ruef’s offer, but let it pass without a protest. When, however, a little later, the boss came back and proposed to him to use Organized Labour as a “capitalistic club” in the interest of a capitalist, Mr. Spreckels was aroused. That was news. Mr. Spreckels has recounted this experience also under oath:
“Mr. Ruef called on me at the time of the issuing of the city bonds,” Mr. Spreckels’s affidavit reads, “ and he asked me to get up a syndicate for the purpose of taking them over. He said it could be guaranteed that the bonds would be
