Mr Stead in Chicago.

Manawatu Herald, 22 May 1894, Page 3

Mr Stead in Chicago.

Mr W. T. Stead, after a sojourn in Chicago, says that so far from being filled with a sense of the infinite wickedness of Chicago, he is lost in admiration at the general good conduct of the citizens. " I knew nothing," he told an interviewer, " to match the survival of honesty and integrity in an American city in the midst of the hell fire of corruption and injustice in which its life is passed. Take Chicago for instance.- There are 68 aldermen iv the City Council, and of these 50 are admittedly corrupt. They are aldermen that they may make money out of their position by trading away to speculators the franchises of the city. The respectable, honest, God-fearing citizens have abandoned the city government to the devil, or to his vicegerents, the saloon keepers and the gamblers, for it is they who really run themachine. Then again, in their police courts and in what corresponded to our County Courtg, justice is the last thing thought of. If in the municipal administration there is corruption which would bo regarded disgraceful in the worst districts of Russia, the administration of justice in many respects would bring a blush to the cheek of a pasha. The innocence and guilt of the accused count as nothing compared with the fact of whether or not he had got a political ' pull.' "