"In making the statement at a time and place which allowed no opportunity for a legal showing before the date of the election which you seek to influence, you showed the same courage which put a bullet into the body of Dr. J. C. Handy of Tucson, Ariz., in 1891, for whose killing you were indicted for murder, and upon trial were acquitted because you were the only witness to the deed. "You say whenever I want you to prove it in court you will do so. "I want you to try to prove it, and at once. I demand that you begin at once. I know you cannot prove what does not exist. Why you should wait upon my desire, why you should depend upon my wish to proceed with the performance of what must be to every good citizen a public duty, I do not know. "But as you declare that you will proceed only with my consent, I give you here and now full consent and authority to proceed, and I go further and ask that you do so. "I regret that your recent identification with the Citizens' Alliance and with the corporations anxious to encompass the defeat of a candidate in a political campaign should have made you so far forget the regard for truth, justice and decency which should characterize men in our profession, as to have induced you to take the chance of ruining for life the reputation and standing of one who is not rightfully amenable to your charge, and who has not otherwise heretofore given you the slightest private or personal provocation for your savage and mendacious attack. "A. RUEF. "San Francisco, November 6th." [14] To hold that only 28,687 electors of San Francisco wished a change in the administration of San Francisco would be unjust. Many who were opposed to Ruef's domination remained away from the polls, through dissatisfaction with the management of the fusion movement. Of the more than 40,000 who voted for the Union Labor ticket, were thousands of union men who were opposed to the Schmitz-Ruef element. But Ruef cleverly injected the Citizens' Alliance issue, and the organized labor element was, because of this, made to vote practically solidly for the Ruef-selected candidates. The fact that voting machines were used in every precinct in San Francisco for the first time contributed to this. Members of labor unions did not understand the working of the machines, and were afraid to attempt to vote anything but the straight ticket. This dissatisfied organized labor element, two years later, contributed in no small degree to the election of Mayor E. R. Taylor and the re-election of District Attorney William H. Langdon, thereby making possible continuation until 1910 of the graft prosecution.