Note 69 — Chapter IV · San Francisco After the Fire.

Definite figures, alleged to be the graft schedule enforced in the San Francisco tenderloin after the fire, were published. The Chronicle of April 24, 1907, said on this score:

“After the great disaster of last April, or so soon as the new tenderloin began to build up and the Barbary Coast district began to establish itself, a schedule of prices for protected vice was formulated. This schedule has been rigidly adhered to. In the case of houses of ill-fame, the proprietors were required to pay the policemen on the beat the sum of $5, the sergeants $15, the captains $25, and the chief of police $75 to $100 every week for the privilege of conducting their nefarious business. The gambling houses were assessed according to their ability to pay, but the average price for police protection, according to Heney, was about the same as the houses of prostitution. The dives along Pacific street and in the Barbary Coast district were required to pay $50 every week to the police captain and the chief, those two functionaries presumably dividing the money. The sporting saloons where women of the night life congregate were taxed a similar amount.”