The graft scale is so astonishing as to be almost unbelievable.
Cold figures are set down by the over lords; cold dollars are paid by the lawless. Failure to pay means ruin. Grace is rarely given. The new man or woman seeking to open a vice-business must pay a high entrance fee to the political powers. Their protection price is always higher than that exacted from the “old timers.” The more hideous the crime-business the higher the protective compensation for it. The greater the profits accruing, the more the weight of the gold and silver poured into the coffers of the corrupt politicians and their allies.
In the white palaces of hidden sin, where degeneracy boasts of its infamous acts, and where men of wealth and women of fashion congregate to turn loose their insane lusts without fear of detection or restraint, the price of existence runs into the thousands of dollars.
In several vice emporiums, fitted as sumptuously as the homes of millionaires on Lake Shore Drive, the protection for traffic in white, delicate and beautiful bodies of young girls is $1,000 a month!
From the elegantly furnished roulette parlor to the den of quarreling, cursing negroes in the “black belt,”—from the highest place of gaming to the lowest—the price to go on filching thousands of men and women is paid, and paid willingly.
THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC ANDS ITS LIFE-PRICE.
The White Slave Traffic—the most infamous, foulest, lowest and destructive feature of Chicago’s wickedness,—pays a terrible price to the lords of the underworld.
Police protection is granted it at terrible risk to the police and politicians themselves. For this reason the price is high.
We all know what the White Slave Traffic signifies.
In a word it is:—