Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/292



in power.” He reported to them the condition of things and, offering a ticket in opposition to the regular ticket, he won. Enough of Spreckels’s directors were elected to give him control. He did not take the presidency. Because his father was fighting the company, he put up W. B. Bourn for president, but Rudolph was boss. And he cut off more than $300,000 of useless expenses (graft, politics, and inefficiency) in the first year!

It was while he was in control of the gas company that young Spreckels got his first insight into the government of the city. He found upon the padded pay-roll a man employed at $500 a month to collect the bills against the city for public lighting. Inquiring why, Mr. Spreckels was told that “this arrangement facilitated the collections; that the collector was a politician, with a following and a pull; he could get the money without delay, and — besides —was “useful in many ways.” Mr. Spreckels understood. He discharged the man.

“What was the result ?” I asked Mr. Spreckels, when he told me of this incident.

“Some delay; that was all,” he said.

One day an employee brought Mr. Spreckels the bill for gas furnished to the city gas inspector. This official had always ignored his bills and the