CHAPTER I.
The Vice Trust, its Kingdom and its Power.
The Story of Chicago’s Subjugation to Political and Police Corruption—The Corrupt Ballot Box—The Mechanism of the Trust—The Prices of Sin and Vice—The Horror of Ruined and Purchased Lives—The Remedy.
Seventy-five years ago a body of pioneer souls who dared death for the dream of individual liberty, wealth and happiness, founded a city, and after the manner of the times, adopted an Indian name and called it Chicago.
The city grew, prospered, flourished; likewise did the inhabitants. Nature seemed to bless all who settled within her boundaries. Resources undreamed of were discovered.
The lake breezes fanned the tiny flame of future greatness and the sun warmed the ambitious blood of the early inhabitants. She became the golden gate to the unexplored West. She became the cosmopolitan and central point of a world power. Chicago was talked of, considered, bargained with from East to West, and North to South.
With vastness came power; with power, abuse; with abuse, vice; with vice, crime; with crime, graft.
It is of Chicago, TODAY, we write.
Truth sears, eats, destroys that which is but veneer and golden covering.
Chicago has blinded herself to the hideous truth. She has hidden her head, closed her eyes and cried out: