Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1903 — CHICAGO HAS MANY “GRAFTERS” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHICAGO HAS MANY “GRAFTERS”

Mayor Harrison Bays the City Hall Ta Full of Corruption. “If I could fire all the men I suspect of ‘grafting’ they would bo jumping out of every window in the City Hall. This hall is full of ‘graft,’ big and little — you know it and can’t prove it. I’ve got eighteen months left and I will get some of them yet.” With those and other declarations Mayor Harrison of Chicago expressed

himself on the subject of municipal service. He asserted that his hands wers tied; that convincing proof could not be secured to establish guilt. Mayor Harrison never before allowed the public to understand that he knew of the widespread and systematic corruption in the city departments. One purpose of his doing so was to show why lie does not hold department heads to strict accountability. "Sufipicions are not proof,” he said, “and proof is necessary to discharge a man under the civil service laws. It is an impossibility to get sufficient evidence in many known cases. The police department is full of suspected cases of corruption.”

CARTER H. HARRISON.