Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/278

Rh organs fight on the side of graft against this young business man who has gone in for politics. And not only the San Franciscans; the business men of the East, and especially of New York, have turned their newspapers against him. And Mr. Spreckels smiles; he expected all this. Why?

There was no doubt about the badness of politics in San Francisco. “Labour ruled there,” and the business world has been “long” with pity for “poor old ’Frisco.” Why then this opposition of the San Francisco business men to Mr. Spreckels ? What do they say against him ? Not very much. They attribute political ambition and, in the same breath, a business motive to his efforts for political reform; they say he wanted a street railway franchise and sought to “get in on” the United (Street) Railways of San Francisco. Patrick Calhoun offered him an interest in that company, and Spreckels declined it; and he has promised publicly that he will never own, directly or indirectly, a share in any public utility company and that he will take no office in the city government. Nothing has been produced from his business record against him. That must be well known, and since it was a record of “success, I expected to hear of sharp deals and queer turns, but, no, nothing of the sort. Mr. Spreckels must indeed be a good business man. You will