and that ghastly white-slave traffic, of which Annie Rogers is the
victim. And there is the political organization, taking its toll from
all these, and using it to keep itself in power. And there is Boss
Grimes, who is at the head of all... and he is one of my father's
intimate associates. I ask about it, and I am told that it is a matter
of "business." But why should my father do business with a man whose
chief source of income is vice?

MONTAGUE. That is not quite the case, Miss Hegan.

LAURA. Doesn't the vice tribute go to him?

MONTAGUE. Part of it does, I have no doubt. But it would be a very small
part of his income.

LAURA. What then?

MONTAGUE. The vice graft serves for the police and the district leaders
and the little men; what really pays nowadays is what has come to be
called "honest graft."

LAURA. What is that?

MONTAGUE. The business deals that are trade with the public service
corporations.

LAURA. Ah! That is what I wish to know about!

MONTAGUE. For instance, I am running a street railway...

LAURA. [Quickly.] My father is running them all!

MONTAGUE. Very well. Your father is in alliance with the organization;
he is given franchises and public privileges for practically nothing;
and in return he gives the contracts for constructing the subways
and street-car lines to companies organized by the politicians. These
companies are simply paper companies... they farm out the contracts to
the real builders, skimming off a profit of twenty or thirty per cent.
One of these companies received contracts last year to the value of
thirty million dollars.

LAURA. And so that is how Grimes gets his money?

MONTAGUE. Grimes' brother is the president of the company I have
reference to.

LAURA. I see; it is a regular system.

MONTAGUE. It is a business, and there is no way to punish it... it does
not violate any law...

LAURA. And yet it is quite as bad!

MONTAGUE. It is far worse, because of its vast scope. It carries every
form of corruption in its train. It means the prostitution of our whole
system of government... the subsidizing of our newspapers, and of the
great political parties. It means that judges are chosen who will decide
in favor of the corporations; that legislators are nominated who will
protect them against attack. It means everywhere the enthronement of
ignorance and incompetence, of injustice and fraud.

LAURA. And in the end the public pays for it?

MONTAGUE. In the end