new charter finally succeeded, and in 1900 the city hopefully
entered a new epoch under a charter of its own making which
contained several radical changes. Executive responsibility was
centered in the mayor, fortified by a comprehensive civil
service. The foundations were laid for municipal ownership of
public utilities, and the initiative and referendum were adopted
for all public franchises. The legislative power was vested in a
board of eighteen supervisors elected at large.

No other American city so dramatically represents the futility of
basing political optimism on a mere plan. It was only a step from
the mediocrity enthroned by the first election under the new
charter to the gross inefficiency and corruption of a new ring,
under a new boss. A Grand Jury (called the "Andrews Jury") made a
report indicating that the administration was trafficking in
favors sold to gamblers, prize-fighters, criminals, and the whole
gamut of the underworld; that illegal profits were being reaped
from illegal contracts, and that every branch of the executive
department was honeycombed with corruption. 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