Note 188 — Chapter XIV · The Source of the Bribe Money.

The inconsistency of the “attorney fee plea” is well illustrated in the United Railroads transaction. Ruef received $200,000 from the United Railroads because of the trolley permit. General Tirey L. Ford, head of the United Railroads law department, to which he devoted all his time, was credited with receiving a salary of $10,000 a year. Thus Ruef’s single “fee” was as much as the United Railroads would have paid its head lawyer in twenty years, almost a lifetime of professional service. And Ruef, it must be remembered, in addition was getting $1,000 a month from the United Railroads—more than the chief of that corporation’s legal department was receiving.