[166] See Part III, "Great Fortunes From Railroads."
[167] "Kings of Fortune":172.
[168] Census of 1900.
[169] Eighth Annual Report, Illinois Labor Bureau:104-253.
[170] In those parts of this work relating to great fortunes from railroads and from industries, this phase of commercial life is specifically dealt with. The enormities brazenly committed during the Spanish-American War of 1898 are sufficiently remembered. Napoleon had the same experience with French contractors, and the testimony of all wars is to the same effect.
[171] So valuable was a partnership in this firm that a writer says that Field paid Leiter "an unknown number of millions" when he bought out Leiter's interest.
[172] Census of 1900.
[173] Eighth Annual Report, Illinois Labor Bureau:370.
[174] See his work, "If Christ Came to Chicago." Much more specific and reliable is the report of the U. S. Industrial Commission. After giving the low wages paid to women in the different cities, it says: "It is manifest from the figures given that the amount of earnings in many cases is less than the actual cost of the necessities of life. The existence of such a state of affairs must inevitably lead in many cases to the adoption of a life of immorality and, in fact, there is no doubt that the low rate of wages paid to women is one of the most frequent causes of prostitution. The fact that the great mass of working women maintain their virtue in spite of low wages and dangerous environment is highly creditable to them."—Final Report of the Industrial Commission, 1902, xix:927.
[175] See an article on this point by the Rev. F. M. Goodchild in the "Arena" Magazine for March, 1896.