Side Grafts of The Social Evil.
Rent Graft--Saloon Graft--Dance Halls and Protective Prices--Graft from
the Vice Palaces--The Massage Parlor--The Drug Crime--The Vampire Trust.
Woman is the axis around which revolves the wheel of the social evil
today.
When directly enmeshed in the woman-traps of the Vice Trust she is the
enriching factor as has been shown.
Indirectly connected with the Vice Trust or serving it off and on, she is
still the axis of swollen profits to the Trust.
It is the purpose in this chapter to show the side grafts which are
derived from the existence of the persons and places contributing to the
social evil.
Again the police department figures as the "go-between" hand from the
victims of sin to the Directorate of Ten. It is through their protecting
agency, permitting haunts of crime and vice to flourish that the already
monstrous fortunes of the vice masters are further swollen.
It is astounding to learn the varied sources of side graft in the city of
Chicago today. As we have said before, everything must have its price of
toleration or cease to exist.
A few of the most notorious and flagrant forms of side graft as separate
from the prostitute and her profession are to be exploited in this
chapter.
THE RENT GRAFT.
The excess rental profit, due to the fact that at least 1,000 buildings in
Chicago are the rendezvous or dwelling places of prostitutes and women of
loose character, is today $1,000,000.
This figure is based on the conservative estimate of the Vice Commission
arrived at in its recent investigation. In its calculation the members
began with the figure of 577 places immorally used. They conservatively
estimated that $1,000 was the average excess profit of rent in open houses
in the restricted districts, and $300 was a similar profit per year on
"flats" and assignation hotels.
This same profit would not exist if vice did not place a high price on the
haunts where it thrives. If the profits on vice are so enormous, the Vice
Trust figures that the resort keepers and hotel and "flat" renters can pay
high prices.
The prices for rent on "flats" are boosted from $20 to $40 above the
actual rental valuation of the property.
The rental price on property in the segregated parts of the city is raised
five times the actual rental figure.
The real estate owners, and the real estate agents raise the price. But
they cannot steal this vast rental profit. The Vice Trust must have a
share. A split is made. The lords of the vice combine get their share of
the rental theft and back into the pockets of the Directorate of Ten goes
the graft.
If this money is not paid by the real estate men and property owners, then
they are the losers in the long run. The police department closes the
place, refusing to allow prostitutes to live in the building.
Result: The property must be rented to people of poor condition who can
pay but small rent. The physical value of the property is so small that a
large rent could never be exacted from decent citizens. Therefore in order
to make a profit himself, the lessor holds the rent high, countenances
prostitution in his buildings and pays his graft to the Vice Trust.
A certain real estate agent controlling a building in Cottage Grove
avenue, which is infested with immoral "flats," declared that he boosted
the rents in the building $30 for each flat above the actual rental
valuation. This same man declared that he was obliged each month to hand
over to detectives who visited him, $20 on each flat, leaving him but a
boost of ten dollars per flat.
A woman who keeps a "flat" in Cottage Grove avenue declared that she was
compelled to pay $50 for a $25 flat. She argued with the real estate agent
but he showed her that if she desired police protection she would have to
meet the demand. She did so.
Some time later, on account of public protest by clean-living citizens
near this place, the police shut down the "flats" in the building in one
day. The women inmates moved out. A week later those flats which had
rented from $40 to $75 to the immoral women, were rented for $15 to $25 a
flat.
Another example of the rent graft is given on the West side levee. A
resort keeper who was once known as a king of the West side levee, owned a
two-story building, which was used as a house of prostitution from which
he derived the enormous rental of $250 a month. The place was situated in
Curtis street. The street was "wiped out" by the police. A week later the
two flats were being rented for $20 apiece.
There is one estate in Chicago today situated in a levee district which is
valued at $1,000,000. If the segregated districts were wiped out this
property would not be worth $20,000.
As an indication of the difficulty that would be experienced in wiping out
this graft, remember that three city officials are owners of property used
for immoral purposes. They are members of the great Combine. They would
not permit the destruction of the immoral "flat" system because it would
deprive them of an enormous revenue.
This rental graft is either paid to the police who take a small percentage
and then turn the remainder over to the agents of the Directorate of Ten,
in return for their protection, or is given to the vice powers direct by
the real estate agents.
This rental graft is one of the big factors in maintaining a City Defiled.
To strike at these places is to strike at the vice lords not alone
through their enslaved women but through their property valuations.
THE DISORDERLY SALOON AND ITS GRAFT.
There exist in the city of Chicago 500 disorderly saloons. Those are the
places where women are allowed to frequent the backrooms and the
wine-rooms for the purpose of soliciting drinks from men.
These places are to be found within the loop district and also in the
resident sections of the city.
The owners of these places make enormous profits by the exploitation of
vice, but they pay monthly large sums to the Vice Trust in order to carry
on their business.
Each one of these places has an average of five women "hustling" for it.
That figure is a low estimate.
Drinks are sold in these establishments at exorbitant and robbing prices.
It is estimated that the gross profit, on an average, is 175 per cent in
such places.
On the basis of five women in each place, earning three dollars a day as
commission, which is formed on a twenty per cent basis, the daily net
profit from these five girls, is $44. For a year this calculation brings
forth the enormous figure of $16,060 for the proprietor. By computation
this shows that the total profit of 500 saloons for one year is
$8,080,000!
Think of that fortune in poison to thousands of men and women who frequent
these infectious places!
But the big point is the graft.
But the big split must be made. Out of that swollen profit, the
Directorate of Ten by some hook or crook, must get its dividends.
Although the price of protection by the police, in reality protection by
the Big Ten, varies according to the location, possibilities in return and
the number of women who work, investigation has shown that the average
protective price of the disorderly saloon is $100 a month.
This runs as high as $300 for the big loop places and those whose revenues
are excessively high.
Computing on the conservative basis of $100 per month, this means that the
Vice Trust reaps a golden harvest of $50,000 a month from the disorderly
saloons and cafes of Chicago! This means $600,000 graft a year!
In many of these places forms of entertainment are given, as for instance
obscene theatricals and immoral dances. These places increasing their
revenue by such displays, must of necessity increase their graft to the
powers above. To run such "shows" they are compelled to pay the police $50
a month more, it is said.
In some districts the police charge for permitting music after closing
hours. This graft usually is divided among the local police, from some of
the police captains down to the man on the beat.
DANCE HALLS AND THE IMMORAL THEATERS AND THEIR GRAFT.
The dance halls which are found in every section of Chicago and the cheap
arcades and some of the theaters with their suggestive dramas and
vaudevilles are the starting points from which many girls go to ruin.
These places earn many a big dollar for their owners. But again the Vice
Trust holds out its aching and itching palm and cries for lucrative salve
and is anointed with it. These places pay a protective police price
ranging from $25 to $100 according to the degree of evil displayed, and
the amounts of money taken in at the doors.
The privilege of selling beer at these infamous places to facilitate the
work of destroying the souls of young women and young men is placed at $50
a month more to the police.
VICE PALACES AND THEIR GRAFT.
In previous chapters we have spoken of the richly furnished homes of vice
and sin where the man of wealth and position can covertly enjoy his
debased passions and ruin young and innocent girls with the assurance that
his sins will not find him out.
These places to carry on their trade in human souls, where thousands of
dollars are spent on elegant furnishings and where large profits accrue,
also have their prices to pay the police and the political powers in the
Vice Trust.
Protection prices, ranging from $500 to $1,000 are paid each month to
insure their guests and deprive them of the fear of molestation.
MANICURE AND MASSAGE PARLORS AND THEIR GRAFT.
These evils are not commonly known. The loop district is infested with
such shops which are nothing but thin veils for prostitutes. Many hotels
in Chicago contain such forms of vicious evil. These places are known to
the police and the women in them, who make a pretense of legitimate work
but in reality are ever on the alert for vice victims, are compelled to
pay high protective sums to continue in their illegal professions.
These places in the loop district pay an average graft and protective
price of $100 a month. This money, taken stealthily by the agents, is sent
in the bulk to the members of the Vice Trust as in every other form of
graft.
DRUG SELLING AND ITS GRAFT.
A large percentage of the lost women in Chicago and their male associates
are the victims of the drug habit. They are enslaved either by the opium,
cocaine or morphine curse. They must have these insidious stimulants to
exist, once they are trapped by this form of misery among men and women.
The sale of these drugs is prohibited by law except under the most
precautionary methods. In the South side "redlight" district four
druggists make a profit on the sale of these drugs which is larger than
their income on all other articles combined.
The sellers of these drugs must of necessity be known to the police who
see the constant throng of hundreds of unfortunates sneaking shamefully
into the places to procure the poisons that bring pleasant dreams, and
even unconsciousness.
These places pay on an average $150 a month protection money to officials
through their subordinates.
THE VAMPIRE TRUST AND ITS GRAFT.
Wherever wealth congregates, and men seek to while away the leisure hours,
willing to spend thousands of dollars in a night's enjoyment, there you
will find the agents of vice ready to minister to the wants of those men.
Out of such conditions has been born the Vampire Trust of Chicago.
It is composed of more than 100 women of loose character, women steeped in
sin and vice, women of apparent refinement and dashing appearance, women
of beauty and luring manner.
These women infest the lobbies, cafes and restaurants of the most
exclusive hotels in the city. Their victims are the wealthy Chicago
visitors who are compelled to forget their troubles and business worries
over a glass of wine with charming, siren members of the trust. These
women drug, rob, steal and blackmail their victims.
Many of these women have extensive police records. Their faces are known
to the old and young detectives who are appointed to protect the city's
guests.
Then why are they allowed to carry on their thieving trade and fatten on
their ill-gotten gains?
Again there is but one answer.
They pay their protection for existence and are allowed by the Vice Trust
to thrive unmolested. When a victim does muster up enough courage to
complain to the police that he has been victimized by a Vampire, he
obtains no satisfaction. In fact he is given a significant warning against
prosecution.
Most of the victims are married men, with almost unimpeachable reputations
and social positions and families. They are told by the police officer to
whom they complain that if they attempt to punish the woman who robbed
them, the story would become public and the notoriety would do more harm
than the loss of the money.
These women concert with the members of the blackmailers' trust. These men
point out prospective victims. If the men cannot be robbed, their
reputations are jeopardized and then the women threaten to disgrace them
by telling the story of a night of shame.
It is hard to estimate the protective price paid by these women. Judging
from the number of their victims and the large amounts of money stolen,
the relative protective price must be enormous.
The police admit the existence of this trust as was shown by a high police
official in a recent attempted prosecution of one of its notorious
members, who had served a sentence in the state penitentiary and who at
one time was the respected wife of a Milwaukee jeweler and a prominent
member of Wisconsin society. They do not admit that these women pay them a
price to carry on their open robbing of victims.
One man in Chicago, who had been held up by these infamous wretches and
bled until he rebelled against the slavery, recently gave up the battle,
committed suicide and in a letter penned to his wife before his death,
told of the outrages he had been subjected to because of his misstep.
And so these women are the agents of the Vice Trust, the associates of the
lowest male creatures in Chicago, the parasites of rich men and the causes
of suicide, murder and wrecked homes.
And why?
Because the Vice Trust must have its toll. Because the treasury has still
space for more silver and gold. Because the hunger and thirst of the
Directorate of Ten is never appeased.
Because the lust of the political powers behind the monster Vice is
insatiable.
Not because men must submit to these things because unruly passions drive
them to shame, misery, remorse and death, as has been fallaciously
charged.
These are the subsidiary vices from which millions of dollars are garnered
yearly to feed the Directorate of Ten, to put new diamonds on shirt
fronts, brighter stones in heavy gold rings, new automobiles to wait for
them outside their palaces whose every stone is hewn by the torn, cut and
bleeding hands of thousands of women slaves and raised to its place by
exhausted weakened and dying creatures.
Graft, graft, graft!
That word sings, echoes and reverberates through the underworld of
Chicago. It is the slogan of the Vice Trust. It is the mystic sign of the
vice fraternity.
And while the Vice Trust screams like a voice from the last depths of
hell:
Graft, more graft!--
The victims lost in the depths of the Inferno echo back:--
Death, and more victims!
Who can really estimate the actual amount of graft reaped from sin which
eats into the hearts of a lost and perished womanhood?
Our estimates have been conservative. They have been based on an average
system of computation. The actual figures if we were able to carry our
searchlight of truth into the coffers of the Directorate of Ten must be
far above those we have given.
We have sought to tell the truth. In our hearts we know that such graft
passes from the vicious to their masters each day. From the victims
themselves we have learned the figures which we have given above.
Is there any wonder that after a thorough consideration of the subject
from every viewpoint, we have closed our eyes and from the depth of our
soul cried out in sincere conviction:--
CHICAGO IS THE WICKEDEST CITY IN THE WORLD!