As Heney put it, the Empire Construction Company received the most benefit from the granting of the Home Telephone franchise. The Empire Construction Company furnished at least part of the money that went into the fusion campaign fund in 1905. Investigation showed that 25 per cent. of the stock of the Empire Construction Company belonged to men who were in the construction solely, while 75 per cent. was in the hands of men who were financing the enterprise. This last block of stock at the time of the investigation was divided among James H. Adams and Thomas W. Phillips of the Adams-Phillips Company, A. B. Cass, Gerald S. Torrance and A. K. Detweiler. Detweiler could not be found. Adams, Cass and Torrance, after answering some of the questions put to them, availed themselves of their constitutional privilege, and refused to make further answers. The books of the Adams-Phillips Company disappeared and employees of that company undertook to evade answering questions regarding the disappearance, on the ground that they might incriminate themselves. But a sharp order from the Superior Court brought out their testimony. However, none of them gave testimony that led to the discovery of the missing volumes. But the general trend of the testimony went to show that the responsible agent for the Empire Construction Company and the Home Telephone Company in San Francisco was A. K. Detweiler. The testimony showed Detweiler to have been at Ruef's office in consultation with Ruef and Supervisor Gallagher; he was active in every move that was made on behalf of the Empire Construction Company and of the Home Telephone Company in San Francisco, and had the disbursing of the funds. Incidentally, through the testimony of Dr. Fred Butterfield, a representative of Adolphus Busch, the brewer, the Grand Jury learned that a third telephone company, the United States Independent, seeking a franchise to do business in San Francisco, would have bid for the franchise which the Home Company received, had not the franchise been so worded that only the telephone system controlled by the Home people could be operated under it. Butterfield stated that his company, made up of responsible capitalists, considered the franchise worth something over a million dollars, and was prepared to bid up to a million dollars, if necessary, to get it. The Home Company paid San Francisco $25,000 for the franchise. Butterfield testified that his company had intended to invest $4,500,000 in the San Francisco enterprise, and that Ruef knew of the extent of the company's plans. With such testimony, the assertions of Ruef's partisans that opposition to the Ruef-Schmitz administration retarded development of the community compare curiously.[193]