"The System," As Uncovered by the San Francisco Graft ProsecutionHichborn, Franklin
History
"The System," As Uncovered by the San Francisco Graft Prosecution
Hichborn, Franklin
Political corruption -- California -- San Francisco; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Politics and government
"I received from Mr. Frank G. Drum, $20,000 as an attorney's
fee as spoken of between ourselves, about the time that the
gas rates were being fixed. Of that money, I gave to Mr.
Gallagher for the Board of Supervisors about, as I remember It
now, $14,000. It may have been a few hundred dollars more or
less. I think about $14,000. Mr. Drum spoke to me about
employing me in the service of the company some month or two
before, I believe, and engaged me as attorney to represent the
interests, as I understood it from him, which he represented
in the company, at $1000 a month, of which I received, I
believe, for two or three months. At the time of the fixing of
the gas rates some of the Supervisors, as I was informed by
Supervisor Gallagher, insisted upon fixing an extremely low
rate, such a rate as would have been ruinous to the business
of the company, a rate which neither I nor any one who had
looked up the question would have considered under any
circumstances to be reasonable, proper or maintainable, and
said they were determined absolutely to reduce those rates.
The matter was brought up at one of the Sunday evening
caucuses and some of the members of the Board of Supervisors
insisted that the board had been pledged by its platform to a
rate of 75c. per thousand feet; they thought that was even too
much and made some strong speeches and others maintained the
75c. rate and they contemplated fixing the 75c. rate that
evening, that is to say, agreeing to do it at the proper time
which I suppose was a week thereafter. In the meantime, the
company sustained a heavy fire loss, not the fire of April
18th, but the previous fire, which caused them a great deal of
damage, and I told Mr. Drum that it would be necessary for me,
in order to protect the interests of the company and the
interests which he represented, to have an additional
attorney's fee and I told him that I thought it would require
$20,000. He considered the matter and one day, a day or two
afterward, he agreed to pay me the additional attorney's fee
of $20,000 which I thereafter received.
"Q. Where did the conversation take place in which you told him
about the necessity of having the $20,000? A. At his office in
the Mills Building."
[205] Although the Graft Prosecution was to be effectively opposed
by Union Labor party leaders, the San Francisco Labor Council,
made up of representatives of practically every San Francisco
labor union, on the night of March 23, 1907, adopted
resolutions declaring for the prosecution of bribe-givers as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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