The police seemed utterly unable to deal with the situation, Governor Gillett threatened to call out the militia, and companies at Los Angeles were actually directed to be in readiness to enter San Francisco. But this move was finally abandoned. And through it all, President Calhoun refusing to arbitrate or to compromise, issued numerous proclamations[240] in which he intimated that the Graft Prosecution had brought on the trouble which confronted San Francisco. The Prosecution's object, Mr. Calhoun held, was to injure him and his railroad company. In this connection, it may be said, that during the searching investigation of the graft trials, not one word of testimony was produced to indicate basis for Mr. Calhoun's insinuations and open charges that the carmen's strike was part of a plot to injure him and his company.[241] On the contrary, the strike might have been averted had the United Railroads adopted a more tactful policy in dealing with its men. And, in addition to this, a more conciliatory attitude on the part of President Calhoun would, during the progress of the strike, have brought it to a close at any time. The fact remains, too, that during the 1907 municipal campaign, which opened even while the United Railroads was crushing the carmen's union, the support of the United Railroads went to the Union Labor party candidate for District Attorney. Heading the Union Labor party ticket was P. H. McCarthy, one of the strongest opponents of the Graft Prosecution, and at the same time ardent backer of the striking carmen. The efforts of the United Railroads to crush the carmen's union, while at the same time exerting itself to elect the Union Labor party candidate for District Attorney, indicates the confusion that existed in San Francisco following the confessions of the Supervisors and the revelations made by Ruef. And the efforts of the various factions to seize the municipal government increased this confusion materially. The day following Ruef's confession, a committee of businessmen, representing the Merchants' Association, the Board of Trade, the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers' and Producers' Association and the Merchants' Exchange waited upon Spreckels and Heney to enlist the co-operation of the Prosecution in restoring normal conditions. The committee--called the Committee of Seven because of its numbers--[242] already had the endorsement of Mayor Schmitz. The Chronicle, which acted from the start in the capacity of special pleader for this committee, announced in startling headlines in its issue of May 18, that "Mayor Schmitz practically turns reins of government over to citizens. Committee of Seven may run this city."[243] "With the exception of the administration of merely routine affairs," said the Chronicle of that date, "the committee, by Mayor Schmitz's written agreement, is to all intents and purposes, the Mayor of San Francisco."