Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1922-08-26
DECLARATION OF PRIN-
ClPLES AND RESOLU-
TIONS ADOPTED BY
THE COOK COUNTY
REAL ESTATE BOARD.
CHICAGO.

posed of conservative business and
taX-paying citizens. We believe that
business is as essential to our civil
liZatiOn as air is to the life of the
individual. that it is the machinery
of business which supports schools,
churches, government and our so
cial institutions; but that as air may
be poisoned and deadly, so may the
evil methods of evil men corrupt and
debase business, and endanger our
life, our property and menace our
government.
We are alarmed at the power and
influence of the criminal profteer.
The American people during the war
were told the profiteer would be shot
He has not been shot, but instead he
is often found as a leader in move
ments to suppress the lesser criminals
which by his example he has created.
The profteer at the top is the gun
man at the bottom, while the former
gets away with millions the latter,
following his example, wants to get
away with hundreds in the way best
known to him. Judges and courts, Off
GERS of the law and legislators in
stead Of boldly taking cOgniZance of
the facts and proceeding to put the
prOtiteerS or parent criminals in Jail
and driving them out of the cOmmu-
nifty, have, instead, become the dupes
and instruments of those criminals,
and are leading in the hue and cry
against their criminal offspring so
that the crimes of the parent law
| breakers may go unpublished.
We apprehend not the slightest
! danger in America from violent an
| archy or bOlshevism, our political in
situations offer no soil for the growth
of such theories. But we are in grave
! fear of the small group in our cOun-
! try, brazen, impudent blind and
greedy, who have no God nor flag,
nor country and are now in control of
the money and natural resources of
our country, and who are fast assum-
ing the same relation to our people as
| have been maintained toward their
people by the similar privileged and
prOfteering groups in Europe who
were responsible for the terrible war
|
ing other wars.
Inherited and accumulated wealth
IN the hands of the few whose minds
and methods are foreign and antagO-
nistic to our institutions is America S
peril, as it is the only serious men
ace to our individual lives, peace,
happiness and prosperity.
And whereas, the ownership of our
public utilities in Chicago in private
hands is synonymous with the cOrrup-
ton of our local government and Of
ficials, and the exploitation of our
citizens is an example and incentive
to thuggery, and
WHEREAS, the Cook County Real
Estate Board and the people of Chi
cagO have repeatedly demanded pub
lie ownership of it's traction lines
/ and other utilities, and
WHEREAS, it has been found that
! the City, while possessing the power
| of condemnation to acquire our trans
| pOrtatiOn systems, cannot exercise
this power, unless some plan is de-
vised to provide the funds necessary
! if such power is exercised, and
WHEREAS, it is absolutely neces-
sary that the power of condemnation
be invoked if the City is to purchase
the Surface Lines from the traction
fnanciers, as according to all evil
dence and experience, they will de
mand an eXOrbitant price for their
properties and
WHEREAS, there has been a per-
sistent and increasing agitation for
the immediate building of subways
in the downtown section of the City,
and
WHEREAS, subway construction is
so extremely expensive at the low
est estimate cost, four times as much
per mile as elevated and twenty times
as much as surface lines, and if the
City undertake the building of the
subway now, with it's limited finan-
ciaI ability, it will leave no resources
with which to purchase the lines and
so get control of the System; nor
will it have sufficient funds to build
more than the mere beginning of a
subway system, and
WHEREAS, if the City should in
vest its money in Subway System,
the cost would be so great that the
interest on the debt would seriously
cripple if not completely destroy the
City's chance of purchasing any fur
Their traction properties, and
WHEREAS, there seems to be con-
certed effort in many directions to
block the City from being placed in
a position to exercise cOndemnatOry
powers, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Cook COun-
ty Real Estate Board reiterate its
position in favor of municipal own
ership of public utilities, and
RESOLVED, that we condemn the
proposed subway plan now being agi-
tated as insincere and hypOcritical;
and
RESOLVED, that, while we have no
political affiliations or preferences,
we approve the sO-called Thompson
Plan of Ownership and operation of |
the traction properties with its con-
domination and trustee-management
features as the most practical plan
submitted, and be it further
RESOLVED, that a copy of these |
resolutions be sent the Mayor, and |
members of the City Council and to |
the Judges and other local and State