God of Heaven, Father of the Just, Thou who watcheth over the universe of living things, teach our daughters to know the truth down to the last, burning, revolting fact. Save them for the motherhood of a perfect race. Protect them against the demons who seek them out in the sanctity of the home. Teach them restraint. Give unto the men and women of Chicago, the strength and power to rise up and destroy the Vice Trust and its members, so that the sun may shine on a spotless city, and love, happiness, purity, and the brotherhood and sisterhood of man may reign supreme! How long, Oh God, how long? CHAPTER VII. Side Grafts of The Social Evil. Rent Graft--Saloon Graft--Dance Halls and Protective Prices--Graft from the Vice Palaces--The Massage Parlor--The Drug Crime--The Vampire Trust. Woman is the axis around which revolves the wheel of the social evil today. When directly enmeshed in the woman-traps of the Vice Trust she is the enriching factor as has been shown. Indirectly connected with the Vice Trust or serving it off and on, she is still the axis of swollen profits to the Trust. It is the purpose in this chapter to show the side grafts which are derived from the existence of the persons and places contributing to the social evil. Again the police department figures as the "go-between" hand from the victims of sin to the Directorate of Ten. It is through their protecting agency, permitting haunts of crime and vice to flourish that the already monstrous fortunes of the vice masters are further swollen. It is astounding to learn the varied sources of side graft in the city of Chicago today. As we have said before, everything must have its price of toleration or cease to exist. A few of the most notorious and flagrant forms of side graft as separate from the prostitute and her profession are to be exploited in this chapter. THE RENT GRAFT. The excess rental profit, due to the fact that at least 1,000 buildings in Chicago are the rendezvous or dwelling places of prostitutes and women of loose character, is today $1,000,000. This figure is based on the conservative estimate of the Vice Commission arrived at in its recent investigation. In its calculation the members began with the figure of 577 places immorally used. They conservatively estimated that $1,000 was the average excess profit of rent in open houses in the restricted districts, and $300 was a similar profit per year on "flats" and assignation hotels. This same profit would not exist if vice did not place a high price on the haunts where it thrives. If the profits on vice are so enormous, the Vice Trust figures that the resort keepers and hotel and "flat" renters can pay high prices. The prices for rent on "flats" are boosted from $20 to $40 above the actual rental valuation of the property. The rental price on property in the segregated parts of the city is raised five times the actual rental figure.