Life Since the Baby Boom

In the last episode, we saw how Older engineered the election of James Phelan as Mayor, but then was bitterly disappointed when Eugene Schmitz succeeded him. He thought that Schmitz and his powerful backer, Abraham Ruef, were corrupt and set out to prove it.

Older campaigned ceaselessly against Schmitz and Ruef in the pages of The Bulletin. He was certain they were taking bribes, extorting small businesses, and engaging in other corruption, and he set out to bring them down. This went on for years.

I plunged immediately into a most malignant campaign against Schmitz. The Bulletin was filled with cartoons showing Schmitz and Ruef in stripes. Our editorials declared that these men should be in the penitentiary and would be put there eventually. I spared no effort in running down and printing news stories to their discredit.

At this time I used to dine frequently at Marchand's, a famous restaurant here, controlled by Pierre. One evening when I entered Pierre met me with a face of despair and said : "Mr. Older, I'm a ruined man. They're going to put me out on the sidewalk after all these years building up this business."

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