MONTAGUE. No. I should say that to any one. I am at war with the system... not with individuals. It is the old story of hating the sin and loving the sinner. Your father's rivals are just as reckless as he take Murdock, for instance, the man who is behind this Grand Avenue Railroad matter. It is hard for a woman to understand that situation.
LAURA. I can understand some things very clearly. I go down into the slums and I see all that welter of misery. I see the forces of evil that exist there, defiant and hateful... the saloons and the gambling-houses, and that ghastly white-slave traffic, of which Annie Rogers is the victim. And there is the political organization, taking its toll from all these, and using it to keep itself in power. And there is Boss Grimes, who is at the head of all... and he is one of my father's intimate associates. I ask about it, and I am told that it is a matter of "business." But why should my father do business with a man whose chief source of income is vice?
MONTAGUE. That is not quite the case, Miss Hegan.
LAURA. Doesn't the vice tribute go to him?
MONTAGUE. Part of it does, I have no doubt. But it would be a very small part of his income.
LAURA. What then?
MONTAGUE. The vice graft serves for the police and the district leaders and the little men; what really pays nowadays is what has come to be called "honest graft."
LAURA. What is that?
MONTAGUE. The business deals that are trade with the public service corporations.
LAURA. Ah! That is what I wish to know about!