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. But the mayor was only an automaton. Back of him was
Abe Ruef, the Boss, an unscrupulous lawyer who had wormed his way into
the labor party, and manipulated the "leaders" like puppets. Ruef's game
also was elementary. He sold his omnipotence for cash, either under
the respectable cloak of "retainer" or under the more common device of
commissions and dividends, so that thugs retained him for their
freedom, contractors for the favors they expected, and public service
corporations for their franchises.

Finally, through the persistence of a few private citizens, a Grand Jury
was summoned. Under the foremanship of B. P. Oliver it made a thorough
investigation. Francis J. Heney was employed as special prosecutor and
William J. Burns as detective. Heney and Burns formed an aggressive
team. The Ring proved as vulnerable as it was rotten. Over three hundred
indictments were returned, involving persons in every walk of life. Ruef
was sentenced to fourteen years in the penitentiary. Schmitz was freed
on a technicality, after being found guilty and sentenced to five years.
Most of the other indictments were not tried, the prosecutor's attention
having been diverted to the trail of the franchise-seekers, who have
thus far eluded conviction.

Minneapolis, a city blending New England traditions with Scandinavian
thrift, illustrates, in its experi