Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-23
cHIcAco's nAoNIFIcESr BONANZA.

IL Is e6Llmdteu budt bttcft VIII De ADOub
$50, ,0O0, 900 available from all sources to
carry out he plans of the worlds exhi-
bition at Chicago. This is tremendous
amount of money; but the people OF the
windy city will find no difficulty in using
it. Whatever benefits may accrue to the
country at large from this exhibition, it
is very certain that Chicago will not
come out of it with loss. The build
ings to be erected out of the money and
the permanent improvements to be
made will represent from $12, 900, 900 to
$15.OO0,000. To these Improvements
and buildings Chicago will no
doubt fall heir, for none of the
states will care about removing them
after the fair is over, and the canals,
bridges, esplanades, beautitied grounds,
boulevards, roadways, ETC., will remain
as permanent ornaments to the parks.
Chicago will thus, at no cost to herself,
become the possessor of vast amount
of property and embellishments, and
will doubtless show up in the end with
the handsomest and most attractive
public grounds to be found in any city
in the union. The whole country will
contribute to beautify Chicago and to
make it counterpart of Paris in the
attractiveness of its suburban boule-
Yards and in the magnificent structures
and embellishments that will be be-
queathed to it by the fair.
OF course no one will complain OF
Chicago receiving this magnificent
windfall. Nor will any one regret that
the lake city win pocket hundred
millions or so from the crowds of visitors
who will come from all parts of the
world to attend the great fair. But what
the people of this country who are act
ing so literally toward that city have a
right to exact is this, that they shall be
guaranteed against extortion when they
do visit the fair. There should be some
way of placing a curb upon avaricious
landlords in the prices they shall charge
to the stranger; and there ought to be a
way by which the police protection Of
that city, at a time when it is filed with
thousands of thousands of strangers
from all parts of the world, can be made
to at least measurably protect.
Chicago has the deserved reputation
of being not only the wickedest city in
the union, but the very worst policed
city in the civilized world outside of
Italy and Turkey. Her police depart
ment has been a shame, disgrace and
modification to every decent citizen in
Chicago, and these do not hesitate to
say themselves that the thieves and
murderers are less to be feared than the
men who are paid to protect the people
from the criminal class. Unless before
the fair is opened to the world the de-
cent people of Chicago compel radical
and complete reform in their police SER
vice thousands OF persons who would
otherwise pay the fair visit will prefer
to stay at home and be safe than to go
to Chicago and take the desperate
chances of being sandbagged or robbed.
After what the federal government and
the individual states have done for Chi
cago, the people of the country have the
right to look for fair treatment at the
hotels, exemption from extortion, safe
ty in their persons by adequate and hon
est police protection, and liberal policy
in the admission fees to all the grounds,
all the parks, and all the attrac tions OF
the great exhibition. Chicago can well
afford to accede to these demands, and
to take such steps as will assure the
world that they will be faithfully carried
| out.