But while the protestants against prevailing conditions were hot with the disappointments of this failure, District Attorney Langdon issued a statement that he had determined to seize the opportunity presented by the impanelment of a new Grand Jury to inaugurate a systematic and thorough investigation into charges of official graft and malfeasance in office. To assist in this work, he announced, Francis J. Heney had been requested to become a regular deputy in the District Attorney's office, and had accepted. That the investigation might not be handicapped by lack of funds, Mr. Langdon stated Rudolph Spreckels had guaranteed that he would personally undertake the collection from public-spirited citizens of a fund to provide for the expenses necessary to make the investigation thorough.[74] It became known that William J. Burns, who had been associated with Heney in the Oregon land-fraud cases, had been retained to direct the investigation, and that for several months his agents had been quietly at work. The effect of these announcements was immediate. All talk of "vigilante committee" and "lynching" ceased. The case of The People of San Francisco vs. the Schmitz-Ruef Administration was to be presented in an orderly way in the courts. And the united press of San Francisco, legitimate business interests, and a great majority of the people welcomed the alternative. FOOTNOTES: [48] See Keane's testimony in The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, Part 3, vol. 1, page 455. [49] See footnote 41, page 43. [50] Supervisor Gallagher testified in the case of The People vs. Ruef, No. 1437, that about a week before the fire "Mr. Ruef stated that the United Railroads wanted to secure a permit to use electricity upon their lines and asked me to speak to the members of the Board of Supervisors about it and let him know whether it could go through the Board, and about what amount of money it would take. I told him that I would do so." (See Transcript on Appeal, page 850.) Similar testimony, to show that the United Railroads was dealing with Ruef during the month preceding the fire, was brought out at trials of other defendants in the "graft" cases. This would make the date of Ruef's activity on behalf of the United Railroads about the time of Mr. Calhoun's announcement that he would proceed to present plans for the trolley system, to the "proper representatives" of the People (the Supervisors), who were even then, through Ruef, receiving bribe money from public-service corporations.