The opposing commissioner out of the way, the board by a vote of two to one, adopted certain rules submitted by Ruef for the management of French Restaurants.[121] By the same vote, the commission then granted the French-Restaurant licenses, action upon which had so long been delayed.
All this was done before the public. There were, of course, charges of graft and extortion, which most people, although without definite proof, believed. Heney, nearly a year later, in his speech in the Partridge campaign, referred to in a previous chapter, charged graft. A Grand Jury had made[122] an honest attempt to get to the bottom of the scandal. The efforts of this early Grand Jury came to nothing.
The Oliver Grand Jury had not been in session a fortnight, however, before the whole miserable story of Ruef’s connection with the French Restaurant cases had been spread before it.
Thomas Regan, who had served as Police Commissioner during the Schmitz administration, testified that as early as the summer of 1904 Schmitz had told him that the “French Restaurants” were bad places and should not be permitted to exist. When Tortoni’s was closed, Schmitz stated to Regan, according to Regan’s testimony, that the French Restaurants were all run alike, and should all be closed. Acting upon the Mayor’s suggestion, the Police Commission ordered the investigation into the methods of the French Restaurants which created such a sensation in San Francisco during the closing months of 1904. Licenses were denied in some cases. In others, hearings of applications for renewals were postponed from time to time. Some proprietors were called upon to show cause why their licenses should not be revoked. Of all of which, Commissioner Regan testified, he kept Mayor Schmitz informed.
The course of the commission threw the keepers of the French Restaurants into a panic. Their attorneys found themselves helpless and could give their clients no encouragement. Marcus Rosenthal, for example, who appeared before the commission on January 3, 1905, on behalf of the Bay State Restaurant, testified at the Schmitz trial, that he was not permitted to say anything; that the commissioners would not listen to him, nor hear testimony. After that meeting he had advised his client, and a little group of “French Restaurant” keepers who had gathered about him, that it would be useless for them to appeal to any court, because under the law there could be no review of the action of the Police Commissioners; that the commission could arbitrarily dispose of any saloon-keeper, and he could not seek remedy in the courts.
And then, having explained the situation fully, Rosenthal told them, what every observer in San Francisco knew, “There is only one man who could help you, and that is Mr. Ruef.”[123] The French Restaurant keepers received this advice from all sides. Joe Malfanti testified at the Schmitz trial that “numerous friends advised me to see Ruef.”
And to Mr. Ruef the “French Restaurant” keepers finally found themselves compelled to go—at the urgent suggestion of a fellow French Restaurant keeper, Jean Loupy.
Loupy was proprietor of the French Restaurant known as the “Pup.” At Loupy’s place Ruef maintained a sort of headquarters. There he took his dinner practically every night, entertained friends and received his henchmen.
Ruef had from time to time acted as Loupy’s attorney. He had also loaned Loupy money. At the time of the French Restaurant troubles, Loupy, according to his testimony, owed Ruef $1000.
When the closing of the French Restaurants seemed inevitable, this Loupy brought word to the French Restaurant proprietors that Ruef would represent them all before the Police Commission for $7000 a year,[124] on a contract for two years. The sum was finally cut to $5000,[125] $10,000 for the two years. For the first year “Marchand’s,” “Delmonico’s,” “The New Poodle Dog” and the “Bay State” paid $1175 each. Loupy for the “Pup,” on the grounds that he had been put to considerable expense and was a poorer man than the others, paid only $300.[126]