sold to my syndicate. I asked him how he
could possibly guarantee such a thing when it
(the bond issue) was open to public bidding.
Ruef said that was easy. They could call a
strike on the street-car system of San Francisco,
and with every street-car line tied up, he would
like to see the capitalists or bankers, other than
the (inside) syndicate, that would bid.”
That was the incident which fixed the deter- mined mind of Rudolph Spreckels upon political reform. His present enemies — business men, who cannot conceive of a business man taking part in public affairs except for a business motive — date Mr. Spreckels’s interest in his city from 1906, when, they say, he failed to get a certain street railway franchise that he wanted. But this bond issue experience was two years before that, in 1904, and from his interview with Ruef that day, he went straight to a luncheon where to several men of his acquaintance (who remem- ber) he told the story and declared he was going to employ detectives, investigate the government and present eyidence to convict the men that ran the city and 1 abour. He talked to others about it. Professor Loeb, the biologist, recalls that Mr. Spreckels talked of his plan to him on an overland train in September, 1904. So there are witnesses for those who doubt, but I happen
