Crime in Chicago
Chicago : A More Intimate View of Urban Politics. By Charles Edward Merriam. (Macmillan Co. 15s.) WHEN Professor Merriam was on a committee to investigate the organized crime of Chicago two men were despatched to see just how safe it was to commit a crime. They loitered very suspiciously on a railway station and were arrested. A pro- fessional bondsman was summoned and he immediately secured their release. As soon as they were out again they picked a pocket (Professor Merriam's own) and divided the pro- ceeds with the police. The officers were so pleased that they pointed out where richer fields of crime awaited them and offered to escort them on their explorations. When these facts were reported there was nothing to do, of course, but to dismiss the officers concerned. After a few months, however, they were reinstated, with full pay for the period of vacation.
"We must admit," says Professor Merriam, "that pro- fessional crime is better organized for defence against the law than society is for the apprehension and conviction of the professional criminal." This seems no overstatement. In Chicago there is a new aristocracy of marauding barons. They wear steel vests, travel in bullet-proof cars, cultivate the useful habit of sitting with their backs to the wall, and are attended as faithfully and obsequiously as any old Russian potentate. Their resources are drawn in the first place from bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and crime ; but they also control ninety of the city's chief industries and neither the Govern- ment nor the banks can dispense with their aid. This is the "Big Fix." Until quite recently its members had an absolute guarantee of immunity from the law : they could even commit murder with perfect safety. The Big Fix over-reached itself and its power was diminished ; but its methods persist and there is every likelihood that it will regain its old influence.
How did this monstrous state of affairs arise ? Well, con- sider the circumstances. After the great fire of 1871 Chicago was a heap of ashes. It is estimated that the population at next year's census will be three and a-quarter million. Two thirds of the inhabitants are foreign born or born of foreign parents. There is no stable tradition of citizenship and no natural communal feeling : - no measures have yet been found to weld this vast accumulation of men into one body. Prohibition has added to the difficulty. In 1919 Chicago voted 406,000 wet and 147,000 dry ; and the Eighteenth Amendment forced Prohibition on an entirely unwilling metropolis. Is it surprising that the police winked at in- fractions ? They could have done nothing else in a popula- tion which was so solidly against the law. Bootleggers paid for " protection " ; but, if they were "protected " against the consequences of one crime, it became difficult to arrest them for any other crime. Where was the line to be drawn?
"If the policeman, uniform and all, is purchased by the boot- legger, must he distinguish and divide between bootlegging in the narrower sense and other violations of the law more commonly supported by the community ? Theft and violence certainly in defence of liquor are legitimate under this agreement, and perhaps more. . . The bootlegger's staff is selected with results in mind, and is not always composed of tender-minded individuals. Often they are tough rascals recruited from the underworld. The officer whom they buy may be obliged to turn his back upon many things, not directly involved in the sale of liquor. Likewise the prosecuting attorneys and the influential politicians when sold find themselves enmeshed in a net from which it is difficult to escape."
There are, of course, movements for reform ; and there can hardly be a doubt that gradually they will lick the city into shape. Meanwhile, if they are to accomplish anything, they will have to be supremely gifted with good sense. First of all, they must be able to make friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness, without abandoning any of their principles and efforts. Puritanism is worse than useless ; it drives even more people into rebellion against the law. The Under- world exists, as Professor Merriam points out, because it supplies the needs of the Upperworld. "Its deeds are those of our own inspiration or of our own neglect, we share in responsibility for them. What we see is ourselves, not them." The main problem, therefore, is not how to extirpate criminals, but how to create a well-adjusted community.
Another difficulty lies in the choice of a political leader. In a population where the common level of culture is low, a successful leader must be a demagogue. There is no help for it ; he must be able to appeal to the simplest and most widespread prejudices. Naturally enough, the devil seems to haSe all the best talent. When "Big Bill" Thompson declared himself wetter than the Atlantic Ocean, affirmed that he stood by America First, and warned King George to "keep his snoot out of Chicago," his words had nothing to do with any real issues ; but that was their very beauty—they created a prejudice and covered up the issues. Even the righteous have to rely on the same kind of appeal.
"One of my colleagues in the Council was elected by this incident. His much older opponent in a joint meeting had twitted the kid,' and hoped he might become a man some day. This in a ward where large families were the rule. 'I am a man,' said the young challenger, I have two children already, and he has none. Who is the best man here ? ' "
It is encouraging to see from Professor Merriam's study how thoroughly conscious of all these problems are the groups in Chicago who are working and fighting for civic decency. Success comes hard ; but the prospects are by no means desperate. Within the city of conflict and lawlessness there is a new city.
"There is a Chicago in which the politicians function by serving the public, rather than by robbing them ; in which business assumes responsibility for the common wealth as well as for the class weal ; in which law and order and legal and social justice not only exist but grow and develop new forms to meet the new conditions. The spirit of this new Chicago is transforming a city of brick into a city of marble ; shaping lakes and parks, streets, ways and play- grounds into a beautiful and useful whole, which will soon be one of the physical marvels of the world."
Professor Merriam himself has been one of the notable pioneers of this new city, and his monograph is both inter- esting and authoritative.
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