CHICAGO AND ITS LIFE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21117, 19 March 1934, Page 16

CHICAGO AND ITS LIFE

THE HUB OF AMERICA A VIGOROUS GROWTH ißy T.C.L.t Chicago is noted for its municipal ""graft," gangster rule, its criminal ■hold-ups, and its general crime. Perhaps no city in the world possesses such an evil reputation. Local citizens, however, say that in proportion to population Chicago life and conditions are no worse than in other. American cities, and there axe those who have Jived a lifetime in the city without witnessing any untoward occurrence. Certainly Chicago is never neglected in the news, particularly by its own press; it features every crime committed, everything that reflects on the good name of the city, unlike newspapers in some of the other big cities, •which will not cry "stinking fish" iu their own spheres of influence but have no compunction about defaming their neighbours' good name. Chicago's own public men also do their best, or worst, to expose to the world the undesirable and worst features of their own community. It will be remembered that the former mayor, Bill Thompson, periodically used to fulminate against Britain and all its works, and on one occasion made himself ridiculous in the eyes of the outside world by collecting certain school history books of the city, piling them up in a heap in a reserve and publicly burning them, as a protest, forsooth, against the in- j fluence of King George V. of Britain in the compilation of the histories! Of course, it was all perfectly absurd, but Thompson knew nis politics and the prejudices of his people, and the Filly proceedings were his way of attracting the support of ignorant electors who were, and always will be, bitterly opposed to England because of fancied grievances of the past. A Bad Reputation. They have a saying in Chicago—'"Quarrel with Chicago you can easily do; laugh at it if you please, but there is one thing you cannot do, and that is to ignore it." Even in the early 'thirties Chicago had a bad reputation. An English visitor at that time set down his impressions as follows: "Sharpers of every degree; peddlers, grog-sellers, horse-dealers—rogues of every description, white, black, brown and red—half-breeds, quarter breeds, and men of no breed at all." He spoke of the city as a "slab city," the town on the "dismal garlic creek" (Chicago is the Indian word for onion), and complained bitterly of the mud in the streets. Yet there must have been something amazingly virile and magnetic about the place, and its inhabitants could not all have been the riffran 5 described by the English observer, "or the city could not have progressed ■fend expanded in the way it has done during the last 100 years. The city must have possessed men of 'Vision, resource and indomitable willpower. It was a long way from everywhere, 1200 miles from New York and more than 2000 from New Orleans, it had no outlet, it had only the lake svstem for transport, there was no communication with the illimitable spaces of the West. But in the 'nineties its enterprising men had no fewer than six railway systems runninj into the citv. .connecting practically the whole of the tnorth-western areas, and making Chicago the railway centre of the whole of the United States, a position it has retained ever since, indeed, passing on to the large title of being the greatest railway centre in the world. Industry and Agriculture It also became a manufacturing centre. A start was made when McCormick invented ti • combined reaper and Dindcr, a machine that revolutionised farm production and farm economy, and incidentally largely contributed to the Northern States winning the Civu War. But he blazed the trail in another dir.ction. Instead of following the old doctrine of "caveat emptor," he established the doctrine of "value received." and by his system of fixed price, easy credit, as well as the value of his products, lie made his products advertise themselves not only in the great northwest, then being opened up, but in the whole agricultural -vorld. Up to 40 years ago Chicago was largely an agricultural centre. Its business was to take the farm products of the Middle West and pass them on to the East and to the world. The great stock yards, the intimate operations of which are made familiar by Upton Sinclair's graphic descriptions, were the outstanding feature of the life of the community. Wheat was king, and the hog queen. 'J.ien came the industrial era, with the phenomenal impulse given by the opening up of the raw materials of the country-side aiid the tremendous accession of population from Europe. j In 1871 fire destroyed the heart of j the city, the damage resulting being! estimated at the time at £50.000.000, but the catastrophe did not lessen the .-pint of its citizens. Instead they regarded it as a challenge to fresh endeavours, and with incredible energy—the energy born of the conditions of the north-west—thev built * bet , t<? r and a larger city. That spirit or laith, confidence and enterprise was exemplified in a sign hung up bv a land agent: "All gone but wSe, children and energy." t,t A X} h »- !! mC Chk :?Zo was an epitome of the- nation-restless, pulsating with «"<-)•!!>'. ambitious, enterprising sure *L m 'V,? niioenl ni its fut "«- Here throbbed the true life, the true power •nd .-pint ~{ America, crude perhaps!

I with the crudity of youth, disdainj ing rivalry and the opinions and feelings of others,; brutal in its ambitions, assertive and arrogant in the newfound knowledge of its giant strength; I prodigal of its wealth: almost infinite j in its desires. It had subdued the I wilderness in a single generation; it i had built up. in the face of disaster I and calamity, a huge city. A Severe Sel-Back. ! No city in America suffered inure i from the recent depression and ur.emi ployment than Chicago. All the big | meat works, the great iron and steel j industries, the extensive printing i works and publishing houses found j themselves unable to employ more ! than a fourth of their hands. The ! spending power of the farmers of j Illinois—one cf the most fertile States > in the whole of America—dropped catastrophically, the gross income of the small holders amounting to less than 200 dollars per annum, and the retail business and the commercial houses were compelled to put off the bulk of their hands. To-day, since I the New Deal measures have come j into operation, the same old optimisj tic spirit is abroad in the city, the I same indomitable courage is iinding | expression, and staffs are being re- ; employed and the unemployment i situation relieved. But financially the city is in a bad way. It borrowed as heavily as it was able to during the earlier pari of the slump and increased rates to the maximum, only to tind that ratepayers simply could not pay. A third of the total defaulted, and receivers are in possession of their properties. The Council vainly endeavoured to realise, but just now there is no demand for property, and the rates arc so high as to frighten off investors. Magistrates, police and school teachers are on the pay-roll of the city, but j there are no funds, and so these ofii- i cers are given "warrants." or 1.0.U.'5, I which the unfortunates have to dis- | count to live at all. This has brought i into existence a new business, that of ; discounting warrants, the money-lend- j crs taking the risk for a certain con- j sideration that the city will some.day I

| redeem tiie notes. Virtually it means j a heavy reduction in wages and j salaries and the police and magisi trates are thus exposed to strong ! temptation to derive means for living i at nil.