The "prostitute-repeating" system is but one of the means employed to gain and sustain political control. Hundreds of other methods are in vogue today and working their evil effects. "Stamp out Vice and Evil. Eliminate the red-lighted, tinsel Houses of Shame; give our city to God." This is the cry of the churches, led by their praiseworthy pastors. Oh, ye with eyes that see not, and ears that are deaf to the voices of hell, strike now and strike hard. But strike not at the thousands of fallen women, nor at the brothel keepers, nor at the dive owners, nor at the panderers, not yet, at least. STRIKE, FIRST, AT THE POLITICAL SYSTEM THAT CONTROLS ALL AND REIGNS OVER ALL. Destroy the foundation and the superstructure will topple over of itself. Break the power that begins and ends at the ballot box. Break the power that sucks at the veins of the myriad army of the lost, and lives on the white ways of decency. That is the evil! Kill it! In showing the Unbroken Circle of Iniquity we have shown where the control of crime is begotten. And now the parts, interlocked so finely that the connecting points are lost, are to be revealed. Once political power is assured, all else is inevitable by the nature of things. THE POLICE COLLECTORS. The political power finds its agents. They are of necessity, the police. Willing spirits are found. The guardians of the law and public safety are hired out by the political kings to collect their tolls from their sycophants and vassals. Chicago policemen, high and low,--we venture to say eighty per cent of them,--are today by virtue of the collection and tribute system the confederates of every species of criminal, of every exploiter of every known kind of vice. They aid, abet and allow these law violators to thrive. Vice and crime must pay its tribute to the police. The police must turn over the bulk of the proceeds to their political masters. No criminal can continue in his nefarious business without paying the price. It is called Police Protection. That is the blind. In reality it is Political Protection. The police are but the body guard, the secret service of the corrupt-- Directorate of Ten. Under Police Protection, for so many dollars per day, according to the nature of the crime-business being carried on, every form of vice flaunts itself in the face of Chicago's 2,000,000 inhabitants and its thousands of country visitors. It is no secret. Chicago knows. But she has failed to observe the reason, and to open her eyes is the mission of this book. THE PRICE OF CRIME:--$15,000,000 A YEAR! From the army of vice the yearly tribute to the Directorate of Ten--the controlling power--is almost unbelievable. The figures stagger one. With reserve, not exaggeration, we make this statement:-- Chicago's vice legion yields for existence and for protection the sum of-- $15,000,000 annually. Think of it! Crime pays that fortune to exist and rob the public of more money.