CHAPTER V.

COMMON COUNCIL--BOODLERS--BRIBERS--COUNCIL OF 1899--POWERS OF--MISUSE

OF--PRICE OF VOTES--PASSAGE OF BOODLE ORDINANCES--PUBLIC WORKS

DEPARTMENT AND BUREAUS--ILLEGAL CONTRACTS--STREET REPAIRING,

ETC.--CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION--HISTORY OF--PRESENT BOARD TOOLS OF

MAYOR--EXAMINATION BY--EXAMPLES OF--ATTACKS UPON LAW--SPECIAL

ASSESSMENTS--ASPHALT RING--FIRE DEPARTMENT--COUNTY GOVERNMENT--INSANE

ASYLUM--SALE OF "CADAVERS"--CONTRACTS--SHERIFF'S OFFICE--JURY

BRIBERS--JUDGES--REVENUE LAW--TAX DODGERS--TOWN BOARDS--CORONER'S

OFFICE--PRESS TRUST--CIVIC SOCIETIES--BERRY COMMITTEE'S

REPORT--BAXTER COMMITTEE--OPENING TESTIMONY--CONCLUSION.

For a generation the Common Council of Chicago has been governed by a

majority of "boodlers." Aldermen have been, in that period, fairly

representative of the wards by which they were elected. The various

nationalities, clustered together in such a manner as to give rise to the

naming of a ward according to the nativity of its inhabitants, such as

Polish, Swedish, Bohemian, German, Irish, etc., have selected as their

representatives in the Council, men who, as a rule, in private life were

honest. Their selection was usually upon strictly party grounds. The

"independent" voter, in municipal elections, is a growth of quite recent

years. The class appears to be increasing with great rapidity and to be

finding a means of concentrating its strength at the polls.

As honest as an alderman may be when he first takes his seat, he soon

finds himself surrounded by influences which appear to exert a fascinating

power over him. He must elect to be for or against the gang. Prior to the

allowance of a yearly salary the temptation to join the gang was

heightened by the promising returns, in a pecuniary way, which the gang

could almost guarantee the incoming member. An alderman "once prepossessed

is half seduced" and, since it is almost axiomatic that the total

seduction of a prepossessed alderman is a mere matter of time and

opportunity, the fall always comes when some high spirited, progressive,

and perhaps, God-professing citizen, offers from his purse a goodly

compensation to the gang for the grant of some public privilege. Thus the

public privilege is seized upon by the aldermanic gang as a private

privilege which it disposes of to the broad-clothed briber at a price

satisfactory to its members. The bribers are found in that sanctified

element of the community which attends church under the pretext of fearing

and worshipping God.

"But yet, O Lord! confess I must,

At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust;

An' sometimes, too, wi' worldly trust

Vile self gets in!

But thou rememb'rest we are dust,

Defil'd in sin."

On secular days, its leaders, the accomplished, in thieves' parlance, the

"slick" bribers, whisper their temptations into the ears of public

servants willing to become their private tools, like the devil in the

garden of Eden, "who squat like a toad close to the ear of Eve."

The "gang" spots its man with remarkable foresight, and year after year

its power to manage public affairs to its own private advantage has

become more and more felt by the public.

For the first time in a generation, in this year 1899, it is believed an

honest majority is in control of the council. The pleasurable fact is that

the majority was elected upon a non-partisan basis, the recommendations of

a civic body, as to the honesty and capacity of the candidates in the

several wards, having been acted upon by the voters in preference to those

of party nominating conventions.

It is, however, too early to predict a new era in the history of the

council. "All signs fail in dry weather," and at this moment there are no

indications of an approaching shower of "boodle." The street car franchise

question is drowsy and will not be awakened until the corporations

controlling the lines are ready to do so. That they will not do so until

some legislation is enacted in 1901, is too apparent to require an effort

to prove. For one year at least there is a majority in the council which

will, it is hoped, protect public rights; and it is also hoped that in

1900 this majority will not only be retained, but also greatly augmented.

Projects may be hidden which in the near, or not distant, future, will

come forth to plague the consciences of a number of newly admitted members

and put their integrity to the severest of tests.

The power of the Common Council, as confided to it by legislation, over

the affairs of two millions of people, is too immense to be wielded by a

single ordinance making body. Under our form of municipal government it

controls the finances and the property of the city, regulates licenses to

sell liquor and to carry on various classes of business, such as

auctioneers, distillers, grocers, lumber yards, livery stables, money

changers, brokers, junk stores, billiard, bagatelle and pigeon-hole

tables, pin alleys, ball alleys, hackmen, draymen, omnibus drivers,

carters, cabmen, porters, expressmen, hawkers, peddlers, pawnbrokers,

theatres, shows and amusements, and many other classes of occupations.

Its power over the uses to which the streets may be applied is, in one

sense, limited; in another almost unlimited. While limited by the charter

to the power to lay them out, open, widen and improve them, prevent

encroachments and obstructions thereon, lighting and cleansing them, its

power to regulate them is almost unlimited. "To regulate" the use of the

streets is a broad power, and while several distinct grants of power of

regulation are contained in the statute, such as preventing the throwing

of ashes and garbage upon them, their use for signs, sign posts, awnings,

etc., the carrying of banners, placards, advertisements, etc., therein,

the flying of flags, banners or signs across them from house to house, or

traffic and sales upon them, nevertheless, the uses to which they may be

applied in the way of business enterprises for advertising purposes, are

as numerous and as varied as the minds of the originators of the schemes

are original and unique.

For the right to use, therefore, in a given way in a given ward, the

"gang" alderman long ago established and still maintains a schedule of

rates. They are graduated from the insignificant charge for permission to

"string a banner," or establish a fruit stand, up to the highly

respectable "rake off" demanded for the use of them for switch tracks, or

street railway purposes. It is not so many years ago that a leading

morning newspaper furnished the public with some information on this

subject, upon the occasion of the passage of an ordinance granting

valuable privileges to a railway corporation. Four members of the council,

not the "Big Four" of olden times, but the modern "Big Four" leaders of

"de gang," were said to have received for their manipulation of the

ordinance, and the organization of their followers for its support, the

quite comfortable sum of $25,000 each. Their supporters were to receive

$8,000 each for their votes, while the "go between" received $100,000 and

a few city lots. The standard price per vote for valuable franchises is

$5,000, yet in a pinch of private necessity, a few votes can be commanded

at lower figures. The contingency of a possible veto is provided for, so

that in that event one-fourth must be added for the second vote to pass

the measure over the veto. Thus it has gone on not only with respect to

street railway grants, but also for electric lighting, telephone

conduits, gas pipes, private telephone wires and that long list of uses

devised by business men for the advertisement of their personal interests.

The peanut stand privilege, the fruit stand privilege, the bootblack

privilege, the banner privilege, all pay cash to some "gang" alderman, as

do the policy rooms, pool rooms and saloons with wine room privileges.

It is an amusing, as well as an instructive sight, to witness a meeting of

the council upon an occasion when some well announced "boodle" ordinance

is called up for passage. The plan of campaign has all been arranged

beforehand, and the floor leader selected to command the movement. Let it

be an ordinance for granting the right to a street railway company to lay

down its tracks, and operate its line, in a given street. The

preliminaries have all been gone through with, the signatures of property

owners verified, and the price to be paid for favorable votes agreed upon.

When the ordinance is taken up its opponents are generally in a

disorganized condition. There is among them, as a general rule, no

coherence of opposition. The main object to be attained, viz., the defeat

of the ordinance as it is presented, is lost sight of in the effort "to

make records" by the introduction of amendments, reflecting some

individual idea of the member who offers it, without having submitted it

to his associate opponents for their judgment. Consequently they disagree

among themselves and fall to fighting each other, thereby weakening their

opposition. Meanwhile the "gang" sits smilingly by, under instructions to

vote down all amendments. When one is offered, of comparative

unimportance, the quick-witted lobbyists of the corporations, Jew and

Gentile, convey a tip to the leader of the "gang" that the amendment "is

all right," "quite agreeable," "will be accepted," etc., whereupon the

gang's leader obligingly informs the chair that it is his profound belief

the amendment is a very proper one, and it is graciously accepted. The

opposition having some little encouragement, present other amendments,

which are, of course, defeated. Sometimes debate is permitted. If the

speeches could be reported verbatim and the words spelled out as

pronounced, it would make Mr. Dooley reflect on the style of modern

oratory, as presented by the "mimber from Archey Road." The question

coming to a vote upon the passage of the ordinance, the roll call begins.

From the "Bath House" on the right comes, on the first call, the familiar

"Aye." That response is repeated by every member of the gang without

explanation, and in a stolid way, indicating contempt for public opinion.

The measure is now out of the way. Preparations are made for the next.

Settlements have to be made and everybody satisfied before new matters

involving "boodle" can be presented. Occasionally there is a loud "kick"

by some slow-witted member who fails to secure his full share of the

"swag," but he is usually placated in some manner best known to the

combination, and business goes on in the old way. The division and

distribution of the "boodle" are matters of great secrecy and adroit

management. It is forced into the pockets of some, or finds its way into

them in mysterious ways. It is discovered under a plate at a restaurant,

or under a pillow at bedtime; but it seldom passes into the open hand,

held rearwards, as the caricaturist pictures the "boodler."

A newspaper thus spoke of the members of the council belonging to the

party it represents. "The average ---- representative in the city council

is a tramp, if not worse. He represents or claims to represent a political

party having respectable principles and leaders of known good character

and ability. He comes from twenty-five or thirty different wards, some of

them widely separated, and when he reaches the City Hall, whether from the

west, the south or the north division, he is nine cases out of ten a

bummer and a disreputable who can be bought and sold as hogs are bought

and sold at the stockyards. Do these vicious vagabonds stand for the

decency and intelligence of the party in Chicago?"

This is a picture drawn a few years ago, but it correctly sketches a

number of the hold over members of the present council, and a few of the

old timers re-elected.

The new members of the council, one-half in number, are committed, by

their ante-election pledges, to the policy of refusing the grant of

privileges to individuals or corporations without compensation to the

public. Whatever of benefit the public may derive from this policy, it is

not quite clear that it will operate as a preventive of "boodling." The

ingenuity of the "boodler" combines the cunning of the sneak thief, with

the boldness of the highway robber in devising the ways and means to find

and secure his "stuff." It is a matter of congratulation that the boodling

species is dwindling away from the public view. How long it will remain in

concealment depends upon how long the independent voter wishes to keep it

concealed.

The department of the city government to which is committed the control of

its public improvements consists of a number of bureaus. The Commissioner

of Public Works controls, as part of his executive department, the City

Engineer, Superintendent of Streets, of Street and Alley Cleaning, of

Water, of Sewerage, of Special Assessments and of Maps. When it is

considered that this means the care and management of 1,111 miles of

improved and 1,464 miles of unimproved streets, 112 miles of improved and

1,235 miles of unimproved alleys, making a total of 3,924 miles of

streets and alleys, the letting of contracts for their repair, improvement

and cleaning, and all the details of engineering, sewerage and water pipe

extension bureaus, involving the expenditure of millions of dollars, the

vastness of the public interests entrusted to the Commissioner may be

realized. Under every administration the department is assailed for

frauds, stuffed pay rolls, favoritism and boodling. The administration now

in power (and which has been in power for two years) has not escaped

criticism. Powerful as that criticism was, and founded in truth as it was,

it apparently did not affect the minds of a majority of the voters.

Contracts were let by this administration, in direct violation of the law

which provides for a letting to the lowest bidder, after advertising for

bids, where the amount is in excess of $500. Yet a political favorite, who

was himself at one time spoken of as a probable appointee to the office of

Commissioner, but who stepped aside, as it is charged, as the result of a

deal, obtained thereby a contract for street repairs amounting to

$230,000, which was never advertised for, but let to him privately in such

a manner so that the vouchers in payment were drawn in sums less than $500

each. So grossly evasive of the law was this transaction, that it involved

the stoppage of payment of the warrants by the Comptroller of the city. A

re-measurement of the work was ordered by him. This developed the

astonishing fact that, even if the contract had been properly let, there

was nevertheless an overcharge, swindling in its nature, to the extent of

$60,000. The Comptroller was, therefore, compelled to withhold his

sanction to the payment of the vouchers. In some manner, however, they

were paid after some slight reductions were made. This was a blow at the

sterling integrity of the Comptroller, whose public services in thoroughly

reorganizing his office, and placing it on a business basis, and whose

devotion to public interests cost him his life, are the only conspicuous

acts, free from shame, egotism, or corruption, of an administration to

which he loaned the strength of his good name, and upon which he shed the

splendor of his ability and personal honor. He will be long remembered as

the one oasis in a desert of maladministration. Both in private and in

public walks Robert A. Waller lived an honorable life. He died mourned by

all who knew him.

"His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world: This was a man!"

The attempt to let the contract for the use of a tug for service to the

cribs, or water intakes, in the lake, was another breach of the law so

flagrant, as to attract public attention for a time. Its consummation was

prevented by the threat of court proceedings, which, at once, led to the

insertion of an advertisement for bids. But here again fraud was

attempted. The specifications were so drawn as to call for boats of

certain dimensions, exact compliance with which was almost impossible,

except to one towing company to which originally the contract was about to

be let without a bid. This company's bid was $13,000; the lowest bid was

$3,500. Still the city authorities hesitated to award the contract to the

lowest bidder, but public opinion, and the known ability of the bidder to

fulfill his contract regardless of his boats' dimensions, compelled the

letting to him, thereby saving to the city the sum of $9,000. Vouchers

about which there was a doubt as to their legality, have been paid to a

contractor, who was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers, but who

resigned the appointment immediately, it is said, for business reasons, or

because he could not be assigned to a pleasing command. These vouchers

amounted to $50,000, and their payment, it is rather uncharitably said,

induced the gallant contractor to become an independent voter. There is no

difference between the manufacture of an independent voter in this manner,

and his manufacture by putting him on the pay-roll without work. This

method seems to have been adopted by the public works department of the

city government, following, perhaps, an old precedent.

The purchase of water meters, under specifications with which only one

company could comply, and the laying of water pipes without letting

contracts in a lawful manner, are notorious instances of unblushing

frauds committed by this department. It is almost incredible that a dynamo

should be bought in parts, so that it could be purchased from a friend,

and paid for in sums less than $500; yet this was done. Thus a piece of

machinery having a fixed price as a whole, was not only purchased

illegally, but paid for in such a manner that its price, as a whole, was

doubled when bought in pieces. So it was with other electrical apparatus;

so it was with the protection to fire hydrants. Instead of advertising for

bids for the work of shielding the fire hydrants from the severity of the

winter's cold, they were divided up into companies like those of a

regiment of soldiers, each having its contract commander, who received his

pay on vouchers each calling for less than $500. The present commissioner

is an old politician, who has held several official positions. It is but

just to say of him, that, with the general public, he bears a good

reputation. His political enemies are not by any means complimentary in

their allusions to him, those particularly in the ranks of his own party.

He is energetic, self confident, amiable, and a particularly able bluffer

when occasion demands it. Without being profound he is efficient, and

without being remarkably efficient, he is not at all valueless.

The Civil Service Commission has reached its present age, nearly five

years, after suffering all the diseases incident to poor nursing. It is

not by any means a vigorous child as yet, but as it gains in strength it

will perhaps grow in wisdom. When it recognizes the fact that the people

permitted it to be born, it will also recognize the further fact that its

parents require of it obedience to their wishes. They demand the

enforcement of the Civil Service Law as it is written, for the public good

and not for partisan advantage. They would impress upon the commission the

conviction of their belief that without a properly administered civil

service law, municipal government is a menace to republican institutions;

that without it the experiment of municipal ownership of "public

utilities" is hazardous, and that the increasing intelligence of the

people and their wider knowledge of the science of government have taught

them that the political maxim, "to the victors belong the spoils," is a

relic of the barbaric days of politics, in which wide open primaries,

stuffed ballot boxes, captured polling places, and thugs were the

governing elements of elections.

The civil service law was placed upon the statute book at the instance of

those who had made the study of municipal government a duty, and who from

that study realized that the growth of great cities, in population,

material wealth and industrial development, demands commensurate changes

in the manner of governing such communities. The basic principle of the

law is the elimination of the spoils system, and the substitution of the

merit system. The banishment of the professional politician, that

individual who lives upon the spoils of office, is a result certain of

accomplishment under the proper administration of this beneficent statute.

Foreseeing this result, the professionals in all parties united against it

and have sought, and are still seeking, to undermine its provisions and

destroy its utility.

The law was put into operation by a board of commissioners not one of

whom had ever been an active party man. No body of men ever met for the

performance of a public duty, who were less tainted with partisanship than

were these gentlemen. They studied the law carefully, and acquainted

themselves with its text and its spirit. Their selection was satisfactory

to the public, and was a guarantee of honest endeavor to place the affairs

of the city under the control of the law's terms, in all the departments

to which those terms applied, and which could be brought within the

classified service. They formulated adequate rules, after consultation

with able men familiar with the workings of the federal civil service law.

Open to criticism as some of these rules were as being more theoretical

than practical, nevertheless they were built upon the basis of selection

by merit alone, regardless of politics, and were adapted solely to that

end. For two years it adhered to the law, enforcing against the party to

which the majority of the commissioners belonged a rule which required

that no person holding an office which fell within the classified service

could take an examination for that position without resigning the

position. The law continued to work during 1895 and 1896 as smoothly as

new machinery can. In the Spring of 1897 a new city administration came

into power of a different political complexion from that under which the

law was placed in force. It was then found, to the amazement of the

public, which, however, in the hurly-burly of life soon subsided, that

these commissioners were incompetent. One placed his resignation in the

hands of the Mayor and was almost immediately appointed to the office of

comptroller by that officer. The efficiency of his service in his new

office, and the quality of his character, have already been referred to in

these pages.

Suddenly the same Mayor addressed the late associates of the Comptroller

as follows, viz.: "You will please take notice that I have elected to, and

I do hereby remove you from the position of Civil Service Commissioner in

and for the City of Chicago for the following causes. First: You are and

have been in your performance of the duties of said office incompetent.

Secondly: In the performance of said duties you have been guilty of

neglect of duty." A new commission was appointed, which proceeded to

reverse the rule above referred to, whereupon nearly all the employes of

the city were discharged. No examinations having been held for these

positions there was no eligible list from which to select their

successors. Consequently, in such a case, appointments were made under a

section of the statute to fill the vacancies for sixty days, during which

time examinations were held to obtain an eligible list. These appointments

were, of course, all made from the Mayor's party. He could not do

otherwise in view of the public utterances he had made during his

campaign, when he said if he retained any employes appointed under a prior

administration of a different political belief, "it will only be for

menagerie purposes."

When the examinations were held and a list certified, it was found that in

every instance the sixty day men passed at its head. Such a uniformity of

results was in itself evidence of a disregard of the law. From the highest

position for which examinations were held, down through all grades, to

the lowest, such as barn men, the sixty day man was always marked up to

the head of the list.

During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than seven different persons were

selected as civil service commissioners, until a board was found willing

to act upon the Mayor's interpretation of the statute. One instance of the

abuse of the law will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for the

purpose of selecting a party man to fill a vacancy in office. An

examination was held of applicants for the position of "foreman of street

lamps repairs." The man who passed at the head was a sixty day man. At

thirteen years of age he became a sheet metal worker's apprentice, and

with the exception of a short period when he was engaged in keeping a

saloon and made a failure of it, he continued to follow that occupation.

He is a heeler for one of the most notorious of the aldermanic gang. It

will be observed in contrasting the questions asked him, and those asked

his superior, an applicant for the office of Superintendent of Street

Lamp Repairs, that a lower degree of educational qualifications is

required of the Superintendent, that of his subordinate, the foreman of

the gang of repairers. These questions were propounded to the foreman,

viz.:

"If the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle is 35 feet and the base 21

feet, what is the altitude?

At 30 cents a square yard what is the cost of lining with metal a cubical

room 13 feet long?

If it takes eight men five and one half days to make 100 lamps, how long

will it take six men to make 350 lamps?

A building is 302 feet high; the walk and court measure 90 feet; what is

the length of a straight line running from the top of the building to the

opposite curb?

At 25 cents a square yard what is the cost of a sheet of iron sufficient

for the construction of a cylinder pipe closed at both ends 28 feet long,

the diameter of whose base is 28 inches?

What is the capacity in gallons of a sphere 15 inches in diameter?

If 24 gallons of water flow through a 2 inch pipe each minute how many

gallons will flow through a 3 inch pipe under the same conditions?

What is the length of the diameter of a circle whose area equals 1,386

square yards?

Name the materials used in the construction of a street lamp?

Name three essential qualifications requisite for a foreman?"

A street lamp could not be repaired, as a matter of fact, by a person

unable to answer these questions! This truth must be apparent to any

unbiased mind!

All the other applicants could answer the last two questions only, simply

because they were honest; but the metal worker answered them all, and was

marked 100, although he had not been at school since he was thirteen years

of age, and does not appear to have been much of a student since that

time.

The Superintendent's examination ran as follows, viz.:

"What are the duties of Superintendent of Lamp Repairs?

What experience have you had to qualify you for this position?

How many lamps should a tinner complete in a day?

How many signs should an etcher complete in a day?

If a special assessment were levied and confirmed, what would your duty be

to secure the erecting and lighting of the lamps?

On what part of the city property should those posts be set?

If posts were to be erected how would you determine what class of posts

would be required?

What is the general duty of Superintendent of Lamp Repairs regarding

repairs to lamps?"

The attacks on the civil service law come from all sources. A party

convention in 1898, in its platform said, "We pronounce the Civil Service

Law inefficient, mischievous and hostile to the regnant principles of

popular government. We demand its repeal."

The next convention of the same party resolved: "We pledge the ------party

to the strict enforcement of this, the Civil Service Law."

The Mayor's consistency and that of his party are identical. If the two

removed commissioners were incompetent and neglectful, so must the third

have been, and yet that equally incompetent and neglectful commissioner

was appointed to an office, the very highest in the gift of the Mayor.

Acting upon the demand of his party for the repeal of this law, the

Corporation Counsel began his attacks upon it by a multiplicity of

opinions calculated to gradually remove it from the statute book.

Ordinances were passed in accordance with these opinions, creating new

heads of departments and exempting them from the civil service rules.

Positions, filled by civil service appointees, were abolished. The same

positions were re-created under a new name, filled by a sixty day man who

was then examined, and certified to the head of the list. The police

department, the city treasurer, and other branches of the local government

which have attempted by judicial proceedings to emasculate the civil

service law, have in every instance been foiled by the decisions of the

Supreme Court.

The Special Assessment Bureau of the board of public works, has for many

years, in conjunction with the alderman, had the origination and passage

of ordinances for paving streets, laying sewers, sidewalks, drains, water

supply and service pipes, etc. Under a law recently enacted, and now in

force, all ordinances originate with a board, named the Board of Local

Improvements. The right of petition on behalf of the property owners, is a

feature of the new law which smiles at the property owner, while it "winks

the other eye." It holds out a hope, as do other provisions of the law, of

reduced assessments, but, so far, the practical benefit to the owner of

real estate has not been made apparent. Since the year 1861 and including

the year 1897, the enormous sum of $90,402,790.44 has been levied upon

real estate for the payment of public improvements. During the year ending

December, 1891, the amount levied was over six millions of dollars, and

during the following year ending December 31, 1892, just preceding the

World's Fair, the assessments reached the sum of over fourteen millions of

dollars. Reference has already been made to frauds in the letting of

contracts for street improvements. They are split up and let to favorites

without advertising, so that each payment will fall under $500, although

the improvement may be a mile in length. The asphalt ring is just as

potent as ever. It fights every effort of other dealers in asphalt to

procure a contract and it generally succeeds in foisting upon the people

its quality of asphalt at a higher price than that offered at a lower

price, by other bidders, perhaps equally as good in quality and which has

been successfully used in other cities. Failing recently to stampede the

board, the ring accepted contracts at a figure submitted by its

competitors. This, however, is a familiar trick of trusts, and will last

for a very short period of time, unless the board manifests a disposition

to consider the merits of the material of competing contractors. The ring

will not abandon its struggle so easily. It is powerful, uniting in its

behalf the combined efforts of politicians of all parties, who are

connected with the asphalt corporations as stockholders and officers. The

Board of Local Improvements not long since made the announcement that it

was preparing to levy special assessments during the coming year to the

amount of $10,000,000. The people may weep and protest, while the

contractor smiles and urges.

The one department of the city government, unsurpassed by any of its kind

in the world, is the Fire Department. The officers and men are of the best

material, of the highest courage, and serve under the strictest

discipline. They are fire fighters, not politicians. Their chief is a man

of independence of character, honest, taciturn, a strict disciplinarian--a

general in command of a corps of which he is justly proud. He tolerates no

political interference with his men. In this respect, particularly, he is,

always was, and always will be sustained by the entire community. Any

attempted management of the department which would tend to lessen its

efficiency meets with the chief's stern resistance. Aside from his own

moral and physical courage, his admirable sense of duty, and the fact that

the public honor him and support him, he has the powerful assistance of

the board of underwriters in any case of damaging intermeddling with his

command. Knowing his worth and the merits of his department that

intermeddling would bring, instantly, a threat of the rise in insurance

rates from this board, a threat which would touch the pockets of many

property owners, and consequently one which would solidify them in support

of the chief. He shares with his men the dangers of their calling. The

gallant men, who during the past year lost their lives in saving the

property and lives of others, testified by their sacrifice to the

hazardous nature of that calling. A recital of the heroic deeds of those

men would not be surpassed by the stories of gallantry in the field of

battle with which the pages of American history are replete. While Dennis

J. Swenie's strength holds out he will command his famous batallions to

his own honor, and to that of the city of which he is so faithful and

loyal a citizen.

Even the possibility of his being supplanted in his command, which

appeared recently in the failure to reappoint him at the first opportunity

afforded the Mayor, aroused the people to a united protest, which,

indications prove, was timely and effective. The omission to send his name

to the council with the first of the Mayor's appointees, may have been, as

it was claimed "accidental," but it is nevertheless the belief that that

omission was in the nature of a test of public opinion. If so, the power

of public opinion retained him in command, despite political purpose to

the contrary.

With the exception of this department all the others of the city are

merely run on political lines, as adjuncts of the political party in

power, notwithstanding the civil service law. The abuses of that law may

become fewer in number, not through any merit of the present board, but

because it has about exhausted itself in filling all the offices with men

of one political faith by means already explained.

The departments of the County government under a feeble civil service law,

different from that applicable to the city, are conducted in the same

manner as those of the city for the benefit of machine politicians and

their regiments of ward and township workers. They are as corruptly

managed as those of the city government.

The institutions at Dunning for the insane and the poor, are generally

managed by ward politicians, whose appointments are in the nature of a

reward for party services, or rather, services to some particular boss.

Recent reports of grand juries note some improvement in their conduct. On

the whole, however, they are regarded in the nature of spoils by the ring

of party loafers, whose views of government consist, mainly, in doing the

greatest good to the greatest number of the ring.

The traffic in dead bodies, or "cadavers" goes on, as it did when exposure

came about a year ago through detected shipments to the State of Missouri

for the use of a medical college in one of the towns of that state. These

pauper dead "escape," in the language of the employes, from the "killer"

ward in which they are stored, a place selected to lay out a corpse suited

for the dissecting table. It has been a matter of more than rumor and

given currency by the press, that subjects for the dissecting table are

selected before the breath has left their bodies. This statement finds

more or less verification in the disclosures of the Missouri case before

alluded to.

Contractors for county supplies pay a percentage of their prices to a

county ring, and, consequently, a poorer quality of food, fuel and

medicines, is furnished to these institutions than the contracts call for,

which cost the contractor an additional sum by way of boodle to obtain

them.

The sheriff's office has had a standing shame for many years in the cost

of dieting prisoners. The county board allows the sheriff for dieting,

twenty-five cents a day for each prisoner confined in the county jail. The

cost of a day's dieting is estimated not to exceed ten cents, according to

the greed of the sheriff. From this one source alone the sheriff's office

is regarded as one of the most lucrative offices in the county. The excess

above the actual cost is clear profit to the sheriff.

Some of the bailiffs of the courts have been discovered within the past

year as jury bribers, willing to take any side offering the most

lucrative terms. The principal in this disreputable business fled, and

now an unseemly quarrel is raging between the city's detective department,

and the sheriff's and state attorney's office as to which was to blame for

that escape.

The judges of the Courts of Cook County are men of integrity. Some are

able jurists, but of late years the standard for judicial qualifications

has been, through party machine nominations, considerably lowered. These

judges are charged by the law with some duties the nature of which is

purely political. Thus, the selection of justices of the peace for the

city, the poor man's court, is confided to them. No scandals, so far, have

attended the exercise of this duty, but their selections have not, as a

general rule, earned the confidence of the people. "J. P." means nowadays

one who will give judgment for the plaintiff. The evil practices, the

frauds and swindles, which have their origin in the system now prevailing

for the conduct of justice courts, has given rise to strenuous efforts to

reform them by state legislation. This will ultimately be accomplished.

While the members from the rural districts, in each recurring state

legislature, are difficult to manage, in the one session of their term in

the lower house in matters affecting a large city, nevertheless, when

fully informed, they have granted such remedial legislation to Chicago for

which its civic bodies have made timely application.

A new revenue law has just gone into operation, designed to abolish the

inequalities of taxation which grew up and were fraudulently fostered

under the repealed law. What its effect will be it is difficult to

predict. The personal property holders, those with long lines of stocks,

bonds, valuable house furnishings, large bank accounts, and concealed

wealth, are very likely to feel unkindly towards the stringent provisions

of this law. They have been evading their just share of taxation for

years. They are today the most ignorant of the many people calling at the

assessor's office to make out and verify under oath their respective

schedules, simply because it is so many years since they were called upon

to pay a personal property tax, that they have forgotten all about the

form.

The holders of large real estate interests, who, for years, have been

paying assessors to exempt them from assessment, or reduce their

valuations, are, also, most probably confronted with the impossibility of

escape from paying their proper share of general taxes. This iniquitous

system has been denounced in the press for years. A year ago a town

assessor was convicted of the offense, and heavily fined by the court. The

tax evaders are as vicious a class in a community as are sneak thieves.

Their payment to assessors to lower their valuations is the worst species

of corruption. The payrolls of the town assessors present the most

conspicuous instances of corruption to be found in any department of the

county, or city, government. Many men are carried on their pay rolls and

paid from five to ten dollars per day who never do one moment's work in

the making of the assessment. They are simply being nursed for political

purposes. In one of the wealthiest towns a payroll fell under the writer's

observation, which showed a clear steal of $2,200 for a period of two

weeks only. These officials designated a personal friend to whom all

money was paid. One-fourth of these payments were handed over to the

"solicitor" who brought in the "business," one-fourth to the "friend," and

the remaining one-half went to the assessor. Men in high station in

national and state councils, state and national committeemen, city and

county officers, lawyers, politicians and sporting men were engaged in

this business of boodling, throwing upon the owners of small real estate

interests more than their fair share of the burdens of taxation. In an

address delivered in this city by an ex-President of the United States, he

said that as Lincoln had declared this country could not exist half slave

and half free, so he declared "it could not exist half taxed and half

free" from taxation, that the sin of tax evasion was a new danger to the

integrity of the Republic and that its evil lay in the "evasion of just

taxation by the rich, and the consequent thrusting of an extra burden on

the poor." The corporations engaged in the manufacture of gas, in the

management of traction companies, of live stock exchanges, of packing

companies, railroads, steel companies, sleeping car builders and

merchants owning large landed properties, have had their agents regularly

employed in procuring a reduction of their valuations for assessment, who

were nothing more nor less than bribers. Whether these crimes will be as

freely attempted under the new law remains to be developed, but some of

the distributors of personal property schedules are again playing their

old trick of taking money from the poor under promise of returning them as

non-holders of taxable personal property. An arrest of one of these

robbers, who had accepted one dollar from each of a number of women has

been made. The men elected as assessors and as members of the board of

review are men of good character and able judgment. The only indication of

danger is that a political boss who has lived and thrived at the public

crib and whose political methods have always been unscrupulous has been

appointed chief clerk of the board of review. His salary is large enough

to keep him out of temptation, if he has not forgotten the ways of the

righteous. He was an expert "adjuster" in politics. In assessments the

"adjuster's" occupation should now be gone. The difficulty lies in

teaching an old adjuster new tricks. The old system of assessment for

general taxation was denounced by an official of the county as "nothing

more nor less than a gigantic legalized swindle, reeking in corruption, a

harbor for 'grafters,' 'petty thieves,' and 'sharks,' and an enormous,

unnecessary and galling burden on the tax payers, the expense of which has

no justification in reason and should have none in law."

The new system abolishes but one of the evils of the old. In place of town

assessors, a board of five assessors is established whose work is subject

to review by another composed of three members. Their labors are, in turn,

passed upon by the State Board of Equalization, before which for years

railroads and other corporations have had their adjusters, agents or

brokers, and before which they will continue to appear and accomplish, as

they always have accomplished, the placing of the lowest possible

valuations upon railroad properties, and a reduction of capital stock

valuations. The board of assessors now values all the real estate in Cook

county in place of the assessors in the separate towns within the county.

These towns, six of which are wholly within the city limits, are, through

their officials, plunderers of the public, robbing the funds of the towns

by increasing their salaries out of all proportion to the services they

are required to render, and which could well be dispensed with to the

greatest advantage of the people. In the year 1898 they cost the treasury

$395,411.55. Absolutely nothing is apparent as the result of this looting

of public funds. They occupy, in the business parts of the city, expensive

offices, which are open for public use not to exceed four months in the

year, and afford, for the remaining months, club accommodations for the

hangers on of the political crooks who manage party affairs. Card playing

and gambling are their principal occupations. In the division of the

proceeds of the robbery, the justices of the peace participate. They are,

by virtue of their offices, members of the town board. Their services are

not worth ten dollars per annum, but they receive compensation ranging

from $200 to $500 per annum.

As illustrating the tendency of these town boards, from which the

assessment of property for taxation has now been taken away, the following

are the valuations of real estate and personal property for the past three

years as equalized by the state board. The foundation for the assessments

was laid by the town assessors. It will be observed that, notwithstanding

the increase in population, the value of real estate and personal property

has been steadily declining. The decline is a measure of the boodling

propensities of the assessors. Their percentage of award "no fellah can

find out."

VALUATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT.

1896. 1897. 1898.

Real estate $195,684,875 $184,632,905 $178,801,172

Personal property 34,959,299 33,594,167 29,601,393

Population, school census 1,616,635 1,851,588

The value of the taxable real estate in Chicago, according to these

figures, decreased in two years $18,883,703, and the value of taxable

personal property $5,357,906. During the same period the population

increased 234,953. As wealth and population increase in Chicago, values of

property decline. At ten per cent of its cash value, which is the basis

adopted by assessors for years for taxation value, taxable real estate in

Chicago is, in round numbers worth $1,788,000,000.

It is impossible to average the per cent paid for reductions in valuations

to the assessors. Of the eighteen millions in reduced valuations in 1898,

as compared with 1896, it is safe to say five millions were purchased. As

the rate of taxation was between nine and ten dollars on one hundred

dollars the amount of taxes paid by those who should not have paid them

was $500,000. The assessors were "not working for their health," but for

about fifty per cent of the taxes saved to their principals, with the aid

of the friend and the agent who brought the business, or say about

$250,000 of "graft."

The coroner's office is also one which not infrequently gives rise to

scandals. There are open charges made that some of the juries, called by

that official, have found exonerating, instead of incriminating, verdicts

for a money consideration in the division of which the office

participated. An unseemly quarrel between the coroner and the police

revealed the fact that both have favorite undertakers to whom the bodies

of those meeting sudden death from accident, or otherwise, are taken. In a

dispute as to which should control a corpse a most painful truth became

public that it was carted about from one undertaking establishment to

another, and that even the law was invoked to obtain possession of it by

means of a writ of replevin.

The office of the recorder of deeds is one of the most important in the

county affairs. Generally speaking it is well conducted, although its

records are not as presentable to the eye as are the books of a

first-class mercantile firm. Female labor is employed mostly in recording,

i. e., spreading an instrument at large upon the records, while male labor

keeps up the tract books, indices, etc. The employes of both sexes are

favorites of political bosses. The abstract branch of the business of this

office is a sublime failure. For years it has cost the county a large sum

of money to make good the deficiency--expenses largely exceeding earnings.

Its abstracts cannot compete with those of private corporations, which

employ experts in that business, and pay them in proportion to their

ability, merit alone being their recommendation. The abstract makers

employed by the county are shiftless and incompetent. The Torrens system,

or the registration of titles, will, in time, but not for many years to

come, supersede the abstract system, but not until the public shall have

gained more confidence in its merits than it has yet acquired in

recorder's abstracts of title.

It was not the purpose of these pages to pursue inquiry into the

corruption existing in both the municipal and county governments. The

primary intent was to refer to the vices and crimes which prevail by

reason principally of police partnership in their joint proceeds. Both

governments are corrupt, and appear to be so because the people consent

they shall be corrupt. The lessons the public learn from day to day,

through the columns of the press, are forgotten. When election day

approaches a revival of the facts through the press is then charged to

political trickery, and its charges of maladministration are disregarded

as being invented for party purposes. The press condemns while the evils

are prominent, then it condones, and becomes the subservient and truculent

supporter of the men who permitted vice and debauchery to attain its

stalwart growth. The people believe there is a trust press, banded

together to obtain favors through school leases, bank deposits of public

funds and personal appointments in return for services to be rendered

their municipal benefactors. The only non-member of the trust is the organ

of the street car corporations and such exposes of villainy as it may

present are set down as means to an end--the effort to obtain public

privileges without compensation to the city. Newspapers, therefore, in

municipal affairs no longer lead public opinion. They cannot again become

its leaders until they free themselves from the suspicion of conserving

their own interests by the sacrifice of those of the public. The greatest

of them delivered but feeble blows during the recent mayoralty campaign,

while the lighter weights, who were fighting for a candidate for renewed

honors, had been for two years most unmercifully pounding him for his

persistent assistance rendered to the vicious classes, in their indulgence

in crime and debauchery.

The various civic societies formed for the improvement of municipal

government, pay attention solely to matters removed from the insidious and

ceaseless advances of crime, close their eyes to evidences of disease

apparent on the body politic, and merely dream of higher ideals. They

leave to one society the task of the suppression of vice. They give to it

neither sympathy nor pecuniary assistance. It begs its way in meetings of

its sympathizers, warns the community of the prevalence of crime and

indecency, but the community rushes on in the business struggles of the

day from year to year, trusting--as it always has trusted--in its public

servants for the full performance of their sworn duties--a trust so

constantly violated that municipal government has become merely the

synonym of the rule of the criminal classes.

A special session of the Illinois Legislature was called by the Governor

in 1897. Among the subjects included in the call was one suggesting the

passage of an act "to establish boards providing for non-partisan police

in all cities of the State containing over 100,000 inhabitants." Pursuant

to the recommendations of the executive's message, a resolution was passed

by the Senate for the appointment of a committee of seven members of that

body, which recited the recommendation of the Governor; that a bill had

been introduced providing for the establishment of non-partisan police

boards in all cities containing the necessary population; that charges and

scandals had arisen in regard to the management of the police force in

Chicago, and that the committee be clothed "with full power to act" and to

investigate "fully the subject" and report its findings as early as

possible to the Senate at the special session.

The committee consisted of one people's party, one democratic senator and

five republican senators. From the moment of its selection it was branded

as a partisan committee, appointed not so much to obtain information

which would enable an unbiased judgment to be formed upon the merits of

the proposed bill as to accumulate political capital for the use of the

republican party. The committee proceeded with its investigation, and on

February 10th, 1898, submitted its report, which was adopted February

15th, 1898, by a vote of thirty-three republicans and one democrat, eight

democrats voting in the negative. The only democrat voting in the

affirmative was a member of the reporting committee.

On the last day of the special session, no legislation having been enacted

on the subject of the proposed bill, a resolution was introduced providing

for a continuance of the committee, which recited that it had "unearthed a

most deplorable state of affairs in the management and control of the

police force of Chicago," and that "the most flagrant violations of the

civil service law have been brazenly practiced by those in authority in

control of that police force." Nothing resulted from the latter resolution

continuing the committee.

The report covered the investigations of the committee into the

operations of the civil service law, and the manner of its enforcement,

finding that it was a plaything in the hands of the party then in power,

and an object of constant and premeditated attack. It also found the

grossest abuses in the management of the police pension fund and in the

workings of the police force as an organization. That crime was protected

and lewdness tolerated by it, and that in fact it was a powerful ally of

the criminal classes, and practically made an unofficial livelihood off

unfortunate women of the town, thieves and their fences, gambling resorts

and their keepers, and the patrons and keepers of the all night saloons.

It found the Chief of Police was cognizant of the facts, and yet took no

steps to correct them. That Chief from whose testimony quotations appear

in these pages, was re-appointed to command the police force for the next

two years.

The findings of this committee made but little, if any, impression upon

the public mind. There were no revelations as to the condition of criminal

affairs, and the relations of the police therewith, which were new to the

people, with the possible exception, perhaps, that it was not known how

utterly inefficient and irresponsible the Chief of Police was. From that

moment every newspaper has, if not demanded, at least suggested his

removal from office. In this respect it but voices the sentiments of the

entire community. It is a paradox why, in the face of this public feeling,

a majority of the people supported for re-election the staunch friend of

the dishonored head of the police force, unless upon the hypothesis that

he would not continue to be a part of the new administration. If so, the

hypothesis soon failed. The Mayor thought he would "hold him for a while."

The lesson to be learned from the failure of this committee's report to

attract public attention to the prevalence of criminality and obscenity in

Chicago as fostered by the police force is this, that an investigation

concerning the methods of government of a city administration controlled

by the Democratic party, without a kindred investigation of the methods of

a county administration controlled by the Republican party is too

partisan to suit the sense of fair play and of justice entertained by

every American citizen. It matters not that the order for the

investigation had reference only to the passage of legislation for the

regulation of the police force in cities of a certain population, and

that, therefore, the scope of the inquiry was limited by the terms of the

order. Perhaps it was as broad as it could have been made, under the

governor's call, which, by the provisions of the constitution fixed the

subjects upon which only legislation could be enacted in special session.

Either the call should have been broader, or this particular subject

matter should have been omitted from it, and left for the regular

session's consideration. Then all matters pertaining to the manner of

conducting both city and county affairs could have been investigated free

from the delimitations of an executive call. Nevertheless, the fact

remains that the report of the Berry Committee, as it was called, is a

stinging indictment against the police force of Chicago, which sooner or

later must be tried at the bar of public opinion. It will, in a measure,

have blazed the way for a new committee of inquiry, whose sittings have

just commenced, in so far as the police department is concerned.

The Baxter Committee was formed under a resolution of the Senate. It

consists of five republican and two democratic senators. The resolution

refers "to the management and control of the police affairs" of Chicago,

and "the conduct of the municipal government thereof, in reference to the

expenditure of public money and the enforcement of the law in its several

departments." This language would limit the scope of the committee's

inquiry to city affairs only. The resolution, however, closes with words

granting authority to the committee for a "full, complete and perfect

investigation of any and all the said subject matters herein named, and

such other subjects as they may deem wise and prudent to investigate in

the interests of good government."

If this committee is wise it will not confine its efforts to ascertaining

how the city government is managed. It will command public approval if it

will extend its inquiries into the affairs of the county government as

well. This the community will demand; with less it will not be satisfied.

The great mass of both parties is concerned with what will be of the most

advantage to good government, not with what will be to the greatest

advantage of either party. Hence, if this inquiry has in view a partisan

purpose its sessions will merely reproduce tales of the street familiar to

the ears of the people, and with which the legislature has been familiar

for a decade. To associate these crimes and debaucheries with one

administration will in one respect be unfair, because they have progressed

under other administrations as well, but it can emphasize the one great

and astonishing truth, that never in the history of the city has a police

force been permitted to become the bed-fellow of these monstrous evils, to

protect them and contribute to their overwhelming power, in such a

shameless, openhanded and defiant manner as it has in the past two years,

as it is still permitted to do, and as it will probably be permitted to

do, for the next two years.

That committee will find nothing in these pages unknown to the observing

citizen. The great mass of the people read and forget. These evils are

hinted at herein, and gathered together. They may impress those who are

unaccustomed to taking notes of passing events. That the growth of crime

in Chicago, and the prevalence of bestiality is not generally believed by

the majority of its people is a self-evident proposition. It would be an

insult to their intelligence and virtue to assert they knew the facts. It

is not a criticism of their intelligence to say they do not know the

facts. It is rather to their credit that in the pursuit of their business,

the care of their homes, and the cultivation of their morals, they judge

the great community in which they live by their own standard, and firmly

believe that as they know themselves to be good citizens, they believe

their fellow men are likewise good citizens. While they rest in this

conviction vice is eternally at work, immorality undermining and crime

attacking the power of government, capturing one and then the other of its

strongholds, until today the criminal classes constitute the balance of

power in every city election, and can handle it as they may choose, by

the mere concentration of the voting strength of the keepers of eight

thousand saloons and their hangers on.

The appointment of a comptroller and corporation counsel acceptable to the

public, both being men of sterling integrity, and known ability, is merely

a partial promise of reform. The new comptroller is a worthy successor to

the deceased Waller, while the new corporation counsel takes his office,

with a reputation for probity and legal acumen which are guaranties that

neither will be used in an attack upon the people's laws. But the police

department and the public works department are still under the same

direction. They give no promise of departing from the protection of

criminals on the one hand, nor the illegal letting of contracts on the

other. Both of these are inviting fields for the Baxter committee to

explore, and when they shall have thoroughly done so, if they shall turn

their attention to county affairs, they will probably find pastures just

as prolific of the rankest of weeds.

The Baxter committee began its hearings on the 18th day of May, 1899. Its

opening witness confirmed the truth of many of the facts set forth in

these pages. He paid protection money for keeping a gambling house, until

the demands for a contribution to a campaign fund became too exacting,

when he was "told he had better quit." "As an ounce of prevention is worth

a pound of cure," said the witness: "I quit."

He testified that gambling was going on everywhere a few days before the

committee began its work, named a number of the resorts, and related some

of his losses in a few of the games in which, although a professional

gambler, he was "skinned."

Officers were found in them, and protection to the games openly boasted

of. The club organization, it develops, is the gambling idea of evading

the laws, the theory being that none can gamble unless they are members.

The practice seems, however, to be that every man is a member who will not

squeal. Houses of disrepute were visited, and the indecencies alluded to

in foregoing pages witnessed by the sergeant-at-arms of the committee.

His testimony in this respect was too realistic for publication.

A member of a recent grand jury submitted a list of all night saloons he

had visited, and found doing business, between the hours of one and five

o'clock in the morning. The list contained the names of forty-six saloons,

located on eleven different streets. His information was not as startling

as was the fact that his joint feat of pedestrianism and absorption of

drink is, perhaps, unequalled in sporting or drinking records. He drank in

each of the places visited--total drinks, forty-six in four hours. Length

of route covered four miles; width, about one-half mile; square miles

traversed--two! Can any sprinter, carrying the same weights, surpass this

achievement?

The witnesses so far called before the committee are mostly from the

detective force, and from among lodging house keepers. Their replies are

evasive, and when not so, their memories are clouded. All they had ever

known of the subjects upon which they are interrogated had fled from their

recollection. "I don't remember," avoided many a pitfall.

The methods of the committee do not impress an observer as having been the

result of much consultation or careful preparation for their work. There

is an apparent indifference on the part of some of its members to reaching

results, or to remaining steadily in the pursuit of the purposes for which

it was organized. Political influences are undoubtedly at work to shorten

the lines of its inquiry, and the length of the days it shall devote to

their development. This investigation is not wanted by local politicians

of either party. It rests with the committee alone to determine whether

its work shall be well done or not. To maintain the dignity of the State

is their first duty, let their investigation reveal what it may and strike

whom it will.

A people who voluntarily submit to taxation for the construction of such a

stupendous improvement as the drainage canal costing $28,000,000, who

apply their surplus water fund to the building of a complete system of

intercepting sewers, who compel the abolition of the murderous grade

crossings, through the elevation of railway tracks, all for the

improvement of the sanitary condition and safety of their homes and lives,

are entitled to the best protection the state can give them against the

domination of criminals and debauchees, even if the management of its

police force should thereby be placed in the hands of state agencies, or

under some other supervision which will compel it to dissolve its

relations with vice, and prevent it from utilization for political ends.

Submission to the exactions of trusts, in the shape of telephone and gas

companies, does not require them to submit to a trust of criminals and

police officials. The element to which it is estimated $70,000,000 is

annually paid in Chicago for its drink bill, must be so regulated, as that

it shall cease to furnish the balance of power in elections, to exercise a

baneful influence over the police, to ruin the young, to encourage

debauchery, and breed criminals. A municipal government that cannot, or

will not, control these vicious agencies, will ultimately be condemned by

a public-spirited people, if they can be, as they sooner or later will

be, persuaded to devote a few hours, taken from their business or

pleasure, to a vigorous uprooting of a system under which such iniquities

can be born and develop to such menacing proportions. There must be an

awakening to the fact that

"They say this town is full of cozenage,

As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,

Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,

Soul-killing witches that deform the body,

Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,

And many such like liberties of sin."

APPENDIX.

From the daily press a few accounts are culled, and added by way of

appendix, as to the perpetration of crime and the habits of the police in

connection with it.

The Baxter Committee unearthed the following account of the degree of

protection afforded to citizens by police officers, and the easy-going

indifference with which the Chief of Police regarded the affair when it

was first called to his attention.

On the night of March 3d ult. a woman returning from a drug store was

stopped by two detectives and charged with soliciting men upon the

streets. She denied this offensive charge, told where she had been and

where returning, and showed a bottle of medicine she carried as

confirmatory of her statements. This happened about 8:45 o'clock. She was

then within twenty feet of the entrance to the house in which she lived.

Notwithstanding her denial, the officers went to the house with her. One

of them then said, "I'm an officer; open this door!" Another woman with

whom the arrested woman was boarding asked, "What is the matter?" One of

the officers replied, "This woman was on the street soliciting," to which

the boarding house keeper replied, "You are mistaken." "Well," said the

officer, "if you want to stop her give me $15," and the reply was, "She

has no money to give you or to any one." The boarding house keeper,

thinking the men were common thieves, then whispered to the accused woman,

"Go with them and I will follow you." The officers took their woman to a

corner and into a saloon, where they compelled her to give up a pair of

diamond earrings for ten dollars which were handed to her by the

bartender. The boarding house woman followed, and prevented the detectives

from obtaining the ten dollars, but finally they grabbed the bill from the

accused woman's hands. The women were then released and returned to their

home. Taking a sealskin sack with them they returned to the saloon, and

were handed the diamond earrings, but not without leaving the sack in

their stead. The women saw the detectives return, and drink at the bar,

paying for their tipple with the money they had snatched from the hand of

the one.

While the parties were wrangling on the street a police sergeant and two

officers in uniform passed. One of the women cried out, "Here are two men

robbing this woman!" The sergeant replied, after observation, "I have got

nothing to do with this." One of the women asked, "What are you for?" Then

the sergeant, having discovered the men were detectives, said to one of

them, "They are all right. Get what you can." The sergeant then left.

The women now demanded that the detectives show their badges of authority.

They were shown. Demand was then made that a patrol wagon should be

called. This was denied, but accidentally one came along the street

returning to its station. When the accused woman caught sight of it she

fainted. The boarding house keeper raised such commotion that one of the

detectives said, "For God's sake, shut that woman's mouth up or she will

make us trouble!" They then ran away.

The next day the boarding house woman called on the Chief of Police and

told the whole story. He referred her to the Lieutenant at the station of

the precinct in which the indignity occurred. To him the entire facts were

given, and written down by the desk sergeant. The men were there

identified.

On the following day one of the detectives went to the women's house,

accompanied by a brother-in-law, whose wife was a personal friend of the

boarding house woman. The detective had a copy of the woman's statement as

she had made it at the police station. He begged for mercy, crying, "he

had nothing to say for himself." He piteously pleaded he had a mother in

the hospital, a mother-in-law who was dying, and three small children to

support. Suggestions were made, and the woman's feelings worked upon so

that she was induced to leave the city.

Meanwhile the boarding house keeper made a statement at another police

station, in which she suppressed the facts as to the diamonds and the

money. She was asked to appear before the police trial board, and

refused. Thereupon the charges against the detectives were dismissed.

It developed before the Baxter Committee that the Chief of Police had been

told all the facts. The papers got hold of an account of the affair, and

the Chief called upon the boarding house keeper. In the course of his

conversation, this woman trying to protect the officers through her

aroused sympathy, was asked by the Chief, "What about those diamond

earrings and sealskin sack?" The woman answered, "If you don't know, I

don't." He then asked, "Didn't you tell that to me?" She answered, "If you

can't remember, I can't." She was then questioned by the Chief whether

these officers were begging her to quash the matter, whether they were

offering her money for that purpose, etc.

The Chief stated the reporters were hounding him to death, when the woman

asked him "why he did not show her statement?" He replied it was locked

up, "if they want any information they can get it from you."

One of the men is still a member of the detective force. The other

resigned and went into the saloon business, and appeared before the

committee entering a partial denial of the woman's story. The knowledge of

the Chief of all the facts was fully shown before the committee.

Notwithstanding this, he does not appear to have taken any steps to keep

the matter before the trial board, or to institute any other proceedings

to bring these detectives to punishment.

This is not at all surprising in the face of the fact that this officer

is, as is shown in court proceedings, a veritable czar in his own

estimation.

The following account is taken from the _Chicago Democrat_ of May 27th

ult. A similar report of the case is contained in the other dailies.

"Judge Brentano held, this morning, that Chief of Police K. did not have

the power to have a man restrained of his liberty at his (K.'s) request.

The decision was brought about on the hearing of a petition for a writ of

habeas corpus filed by Attorney F. A. D. for the release of Edward H., who

was arrested last Monday morning at Twenty-ninth and State streets on

account of the shooting of Officer James S., which resulted from an

attempt of a number of officers to enforce the

disarmament-of-colored-people policy of the Chief of Police.

"The man had been confined in the county jail, and the return of the

sheriff, when the prisoner was brought into court, read: 'Edward H. has

been detained in my custody at the request of J. K., Chief of Police for

the city of Chicago.' Judge Brentano evinced great displeasure when he

read the return of the illegal detainment of the prisoner. 'A man,' said

the court, 'cannot be held at the simple request of K. or any other

person. K.'s word is not sufficient to keep any man in custody. I won't

tolerate any such actions, for if the man was guilty of shooting an

officer, or committing any other crime, Mr. K. has had sufficient time and

knows how to take the proper steps to punish the prisoner.'

"'The court certainly would not allow this man his liberty when he is

under arrest and has not been booked or complained against before a

justice of the peace owing to the neglect perhaps of such a high official

as Mr. K.,' remarked the assistant city prosecuting attorney.

"'I certainly would, regardless of whose neglect it is,' said the court.

'The prisoner is discharged.'

"No witnesses were heard, the prisoner being discharged on the ground that

it was shown in the return of the sheriff that H. was simply being

detained to please Chief K.

"Attorney D. had witnesses in court to show that the prisoner had been

beaten and injured by the police who arrested him, both before his arrival

at the Twenty-second street station and after he was installed in a cell

at that place.

"Prisoners who were in the station at the time H. was taken there were in

court to testify that the officers who had charge of the prisoner beat and

struck him in such a manner that they thought H. would be killed.

"The prisoner's face and condition in court were the best evidences of the

treatment he had received.

"Both of his eyes are closed, swollen and discolored to such a degree that

they stand out in bold contrast to his own color, which is a dark copper.

Two gashes, each six inches long, on the top and front of his head bear

testimony to the means said to have been used by the officers in carrying

out their chief's new disarmament policy.

"It is also alleged that the prisoner was confined in a dungeon cell while

he was in the custody of the Twenty-second street police.

"After his discharge the injured man had to be helped to the elevator by

two of his friends because of his injuries. The names of the officers who

assaulted the prisoner were not obtainable, for the reason that the

prisoner had not been booked and the officer making the arrest had not

signed any complaint."

Two observations will arrest the attention of the average reader. They

must naturally occur to his mind. First, What sort of a Sheriff is he who

will keep a man in jail, without a proper commitment? Second, What kind of

a lawyer must he be who will suggest to a court the propriety of depriving

a man of his liberty, without due process of law, at the mere request of

such "a high official" as the Chief of Police?

The return of the Sheriff in this case to the writ of _habeas corpus_

should have been treated as a contempt of court.

Pool rooms are operating as of yore. The _Daily News_ of May 27 ult.

contains the following, viz.:

"The saloon of J. H. D. at E. and N. C. streets was converted into a pool

room yesterday afternoon at the time the ticker began to record the

winning horses in the races at the various tracks throughout the country.

A dozen men assembled in the barroom where the ticker was located and

placed bets, while a number of women sat in the back rooms and also

chanced their money.

"The women's wants were looked after by a young man who answered to the

name of 'Dude.' After each race he carried them the slip printed from the

ticker showing the winners and handed their money to those who had been

lucky. During the interval between the races the schedule of the next race

was discussed by all who intended to place money, and 'Dude' would come

from the rear room with a handful of bills to place on some race by the

women.

"On the inside money was passed over the bar indiscriminately and a clerk

was busy keeping track of those who placed bets. From the conversation

which passed between those in the barroom one might judge that he was in a

genuine poolroom, where the interference of police was not to be feared.

"All the men present merely gave their initials when they risked their

money, and these were carefully preserved on paper until the ticker

decided whether the money was lost or won. The man who passed as 'Dude'

had charge of the pools apparently, and all the money which was placed

went through his hands. After taking it he would call the initials of the

man placing the bet and then hand the money to the man behind the bar."

The ticker was presided over by a large, smooth-faced, well-dressed man

and anything which came over the machine which was not a report on a horse

race was of no interest. The reports of the score at the various ball

games were soon shown the waste basket, while the lists of the horses

which earned places were preserved and hung on hooks after they had been

carefully inspected by those present.

A number of stylishly dressed women were seen to enter the place, and,

according to information furnished the _Daily News_, women have been in

the habit of visiting the D. saloon for some time for the purpose of

placing bets on the races. Two young women came from the direction of L.

S. avenue about 4 o'clock and entered the place apparently as though it

was nothing new to them.

"The 'ladies' entrance' is on the E. street side. The rooms for women are

arranged in the east half of the double-flat building on E. street, while

the saloon faces on C. street.

"J. H. D., who conducts the place, came in yesterday afternoon while the

betting was at its height, and, bedecked in diamonds, walked leisurely

behind the bar and, picking up a Racing Form, turned to the 'boys' and

asked how 'things were going.' He was told the winners in the races which

had been reported during his absence and seemed pleased with what was told

him.

"The saloon is known as 'D.'s O. P. C.,' and has been conducted at this

place for the past five or six years. The license for the place is in the

name of Mrs. J. H. D. It is said that D. was formerly in the saloon

business here, but sold out and went to New York, where he put on a

vaudeville show and sunk several thousand dollars trying to make it pay.

He finally failed, it is said, and came back to Chicago and reopened his

saloon.

"At the Chicago avenue police station nothing was known apparently of the

gambling at the D. saloon on the races. Capt. R. said that he told a

couple of his men some time ago to watch the place, but he said they had

reported nothing irregular. The captain seemed surprised when he heard of

how affairs were, and Inspector H. was apparently very indignant at the

thought that anything of the sort was going on in his district. He at once

gave the captain orders to send a couple of men to the place and if

anything was found to be going on there to stop it."

The result of the visit of the Inspector's officers is thus stated in the

_Tribune_ of May 28th ult. Its headline is suggestive, in view of the

particulars given in the _Daily News_ of the occurrences by its reporter.

"REPORT NO GAMBLING."

"A report that a poolroom was being conducted in the saloon of J. H. D.,

E. and N. C. Streets, was investigated yesterday by Detectives B. and R.,

who visited the place at 3 p. m., and reported no gambling existed there.

It was said that during Friday afternoon bets on the races were accepted

in the saloon and that men as well as women frequented the place."

The newspapers contribute evidences of the absence of crime in Chicago,

and of police operations as follows, viz.:

From the _Daily News_ May 27th ult.

"Officers from the Attrill street police station are scouring the west

side in an effort to apprehend burglars who created havoc in the vicinity

of Humboldt Park boulevard and Western avenue during the early morning

hours of yesterday. Among the residences visited by the night prowlers

were those of: (Here follows a list of eleven burglaries.)

"In addition burglaries at the following places in the immediate

neighborhood have been committed within the last few days: (Here follows

a list of four burglaries.)

"One of the burglars rode from house to house on a bicycle. Two revolvers

dropped by the visitors were found in the yard of the E. residence. The

territory suffering the nightly raids is embraced in the suburb of

Maplewood, and citizens have armed themselves in their own defense,

asserting that police uniforms have not been seen on the streets concerned

for weeks."

From the _Democrat_ May 27th ult.:

"Burglars forced an entrance into the store of the Guarantee Clothing

Company, State street, last night and stole nearly $1,000 worth of goods.

"Apparently the thieves took their time, and the police say they must have

used a wagon in removing the goods. Persons living in the flats above

heard nothing unusual during the night, and the police are unable to

comprehend how the thieves could remove the great amount of property

without attracting attention.

"This morning a clerk opened the front door of the store. It looked as

though a small cyclone had passed through the establishment."

This burglary took place between two police stations, from neither of

which it was far distant. It is probable that if one officer had gone over

his beat just once that night, its perpetrators would have been caught in

the act. Some neighboring saloon was, perhaps, more needful of police

protection!

Some tremendous effort is being made, however, to suppress policy shops

and clean out all night saloons! Witness the following, viz.:

From papers of May 27th ult.:

"Detectives D. and D. of Chief K.'s office raided a policy shop in the

basement of the building at 6 Washington street last night and destroyed

the fixtures of the place and confiscated the sheets, records and other

paraphernalia.

"The shop was in a small room under the sidewalk and was reached through a

barber shop. S. H., the police say, was the agent in charge of the place,

and represented the O. R. & G. company of Fort Erie, Canada. No arrests

were made, but Chief K. says the place will remain closed."

"Two hours after midnight Sergt. M. and Officers M., O'B., H. and F.,

from the Harrison street police station, raided the C. L. saloon at State

street, arresting sixty inmates. The majority of these were boys. There

was one man with gray hair and wrinkled face.

"Shortly before the police court convened at 9 o'clock the entire crowd

was marched into Inspector H.'s office and from there to the courtroom,

where the cases were disposed of by Justice M. Every sort of a plea

generally used in court was brought into play by the defendants. Some

cases were dismissed, while other prisoners were fined $25 and $50. The

police claim about half of those arrested were criminals.

"The arrests were made because of the large number of complaints against

the saloon."

The raid on the policy shop belongs to the spasmodic line of operations of

the police. Fifty of them could be made if some mysterious reason did not

exist why they are not made.

The saloon referred to belongs to the all night class, and is one of the

most notorious of the kind. It has been protected in the past, and still

would be if it were not for the fact that "a large number of complaints"

have been made against it. These are not new to the police. They have been

made before, but something must be done for appearance sake while the

Baxter Committee continues its probing! That this place was a resort for

criminals is not a recent discovery by the police. They always knew it.

To cull the press for proofs of the truth of the charges made in the

foregoing pages, would result, in a few days, in the reproduction of a

mass of evidence on the total inefficiency of the police force. Such as

are here given are examples of the many the scissors could find.

The reader can multiply them, in his mind, ten fold in a week's time, and

then reach a result far short of the facts.

The whole story of the alliance between the police, the saloons and the

justices is told in the following cartoon taken from the Daily News of

June 23, 1899.

[Illustration: CAUGHT COMING AND GOING.]

THE DIVEKEEPER (to Harrison street police officer)--"I've got my dollar a

head out of them. Now you can drive them into court and give the justice

his chance."