The Grand Jury
believed and said all this, but it lacked the legal proof upon
which Mayor Schmitz and his accomplices could be indicted. In
spite of this report, Schmitz was reelected in 1905 as the
candidate of the Labor-Union party.
Now graft in San Francisco became simply universal. George
Kennan, summarizing the practices of the looters, says they "took
toll everywhere from everybody and in almost every imaginable
way: they went into partnership with dishonest contractors; sold
privileges and permits to business men; extorted money from
restaurants and saloons; levied assessments on municipal
employees; shared the profits of houses of prostitution; forced
beer, whiskey, champagne, and cigars on restaurants and saloons
on commission; blackmailed gamblers, pool-sellers, and promoters
of prize-fights; sold franchises to wealthy corporations; created
such municipal bureaus as the commissary department and the city
commercial company in order to make robbery of the city more
easy; leased rooms and buildings for municipal offices at
exorbitant rates, and compelled the lessees to share profits;
held up milkmen, kite-advertisers, junk-dealers, and even
street-sweepers; and took bribes from everybody who wanted an
illegal privilege and was willing to pay for it. The motto of the
administration seemed to be 'Encourage dishonesty, and then let
no dishonest dollar escape.'"
The machinery through which this was effected was simple: the
mayor had vast appointing powers and by this means directly
controlled all the city departments.
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