George Kibbe Turner (1869-1952) was a muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era, reporter and early twentieth century novelist. Turner joined the staff of McClure's in 1899 and focus his writing on urban problems. In 1907, he turned his critical eye on Chicago...
Chicago, in the mind of the country, stands preeminently notorious for violent crime. It is the second city on the continent: it is, all things considered, perhaps the most typically American of our cities; it is intimately known by millions; and its press is especially active and alert in the discussion of local affairs. The reputation of Chicago for crime has consequently fastened itself upon the imagination of the United States as that of no other city has done. it is the current conventional belief that the criminal is loose upon its streets, that the thug and hold-up man go patrolling them by night.
Take Chicago, then, not because it is worse than or different from other cities of America, but, on the contrary, because it is so typical, and because it is so well known. Why have the primary basic guarantees of civilization broken down in Chicago? Why has that city, year after year, such a flood of violent and adventurous crime? The answer can be simple and straightforward: Because of the tremendous and elaborate organization — financial and political — for creating and attracting and protecting the criminal in Chicago.
From: "The City of Chicago: A Study of the Great Immoralities" by George Kibbe Turner
McClure's Magazine, April, 1907 (Also located and in its entirety on Google Books.)
Photo credit: "A Ragged Line of Whiskey Row (A few of the forty-eight saloons that huddle around the rear entrance of the stock-yards on Ashland Avenue." Photo from the text.
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