One detective
is now [1903] serving time in the state prison for retaining a
stolen diamond pin."
The mayor thought he had a machine for grinding blackmail from
every criminal operation in his city, but he had only a gang,
without discipline or coordinating power, and weakened by
jealousy and suspicion. The wonder is that it lasted fifteen
months. Then came the "April Grand Jury," under the foremanship
of a courageous and resourceful business man. The regime of
criminals crumbled; forty-nine indictments, involving twelve
persons, were returned.
The Grand Jury, however, at first stood alone in its
investigations. The crowd of politicians and vultures were
against it, and no appropriations were granted for getting
evidence. So its members paid expenses out of their own pockets,
and its foreman himself interviewed prisoners and discovered the
trail that led to the Ring's undoing. Ames's brother was
convicted on second trial and sentenced to six and a half years
in the penitentiary, while two of his accomplices received
shorter terms. Mayor Ames, under indictment and heavy bonds, fled
to Indiana.
The President of the City Council, a business man of education,
tact, and sincerity, became mayor, for an interim of four months;
enough time, as it proved, for him to return the city to its
normal political life.
These examples are sufficient to illustrate the organization and
working of the municipal machine. It must not be imagined by the
reader that these cities alone, and a few others made notorious
by the magazine muck-rakers, are the only American cities that
have developed oligarchies.
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