Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1930 THE PLIGHT OF CHICAGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 January 1930, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1930 THE PLIGHT OF CHICAGO

IT is a matter of common knowledge that publicity is Chicago's "strong suit." As one, who knows the famous (or in. famous) city well, has said, "Publicity was the device through which it (Chicago) gathered credit in the world and confidence in itself by means of which it forged its way, overcoming inherent difficulties and accidental misfortunes, and setting forward its great enterprises, private and public." In a hundred years publicity raised it from nothing to a city with a population of some 4 million people. To-day, however, Chicago has more publicity than she wants: she is advertised throughout tlic world as "broke" or, in more pdflte parlance, bankrupt? She cannot pay her way, her municipal services threaten to cense functioning, because the city cannot pay its employees. Its governmental system seems to be. exceedingly complex. One authority enumerates "eight principal governments and twenty-five minor ones in Chicago: and in the metropolitan area within a radius of fifty jniles from State and Madison Streets, not fewer than 167.3 governing bodies, exclusive of the national, which direct the destinies of 4.000,000 people. No wonder that formal government is chaos." The city is in debt to the extent of 60 million pounds sterling, its coffers are empty, its revenue is constricted to such an extent tluit it is negligible in comparison with the expenditure. What are the causes which have brought so great and prosperous a city to such a scary pass? We are not able

to answer that question directly, but wo are ablo to mention some of the factors which have contributed to the bankrupt conditions of the city. In the first, place two-thirds of its population are foreignborn, or are of foreign parentage, and the strongest political body consists of 200,000 negroes who vole solidly together, and control two wards of the city in the interests of Mayor (Big Bill) Thompson, who has prosidod over Chicago's destinies during recent, years. Tn the next place there seems to be an intimate association between the criminal elements and the authorities governing the city. "The Crime Commission Report notes that at D'Andrea's" —that is, at the funeral of a noted criminal—"twenty-one judges were named as honorary pall-bearers, and at Colosimo's seven aldermen." It has been suggested that such intimacy between the authorities and the criminal class exists because tho offices of judges and aldermen are elective, and that tho officials referred to in the Crime Commission's Report depended on the support of tho criminal elements for the offices which they held. Whether this was so or not, the punishment of crime in Chicago is quite the exception. In tho journals crime is made one of the princlpal sources of news: prominent criminals are lionised. A typical case was that of Martin Durkin, a bootlegger who sliot a policeman, and fled from the city, married a girl living in his home State, went on a honeymoon to the Pacific Coast, returned cast, was arrested at St. Louis, and was conducted to Chicago. Wn his way home he was allowed to stop to "collect" his young wife's father and mother—this was at the suggestion_ of the pressmen who, accompanying him, were working up the drama of his return to Chicago—and finally, when Martin Durkin arrived there, he was received by enormous crowds as if he was a hero; and, when the police tried to prevent the moving-picture men from "filming" the triumphant scene, the crowds cheereTl the criminal and hooted tho police! In a city where public opinion is such as described, it must necessarily follow that the entire social fabric is vitiated to such a degree as to render the elective form of government a failure. The inefficiency of the municipal government would naturally lead to difficulties in connection with the finances. Public confidence in the Mayor and alderman would necessarily be shaken, and apparently the sources of revenue have dried up. Chicago had intended to hold a great World's Fair, in 1933. It was recognised that it would first be necessary to clean up the city and cleanse it from crime. But tho hand of Nemesis seems to have intervened, since a city which is bankrupt must pay its debts before it can indulge in junketing.