8 



Miller* my way all the way up, "burning corks and making cham- 

 pagne and doing all the necessary things. As shipping 

 clerk later I went to San Francisco during the Christ- 

 mas period in 1907 and 1908, Ve were getting $30 a 

 month for twelve hours a day and six days a week in 

 this winery, one of the largest in the world at the 

 time. Father got the same wage as I did, and there 

 were nine children in the family, a total of eleven 

 people. Unfortunately there wasn't enough money to 

 go around to have us eat properly and we went on 

 strike the fall of 1912. I got a $5 raise for a 

 couple of months, but after the Christmas rush was 

 over the boss come along and said, "I'm sorry, we 

 don't need you any more." 



So Mother then went around crying to the neighbors 

 and gathered enough money to buy me a suit at $22 and 

 put me on the Southern Pacific train, and I went to 

 San Francisco, seeking a job. There I met an old 

 friend of mine, blind political boss, Chris Buckley, 

 a former political boss of San Francisco before the 

 Ruef time. He had his summer home next to ours in 

 Livermore, and he said to me, "Hello, Johnny Miller, 

 what are you doing in San Francisco?" 



