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This newspaper page contains 15 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Chicago Eagle
Location
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Date
Jul 28, 1900
Page
2
The mayor approved paying the electrical department every two weeks to avoid loan brokers. Treasurer and Comptroller will manage the disbursements, costing about 400 in labor and losses. any employee who uses a loan broker or Patronises Joan Hooker will be dismissed.
William D. Kerfoot, the city comptroller, seals his third floor office to money lenders and their messengers. Only police known visitors gain entry, with extra guards and temporary barring of messenger boys and registered letters to stop wage assignment schemes. He seeks to force lenders to the courts as he expands protections for city payroll and prepares a mandamus petition to obtain June pay.
The Times-Herald reports that money lenders prey on city employees including police, with cases at Lawndale Avenue station and a test in Justice Gibbons court. City Comptroller Kerfoot faces suit over held salaries while Chief Ripley and Mayor Harrison denounce the practice and seek remedies.
Attorney Reed says the Comptroller refuses to pay men who earned their money. Buckley borrowed funds from Touls Weber & Co years ago. the loan has been repaid, but the firm says he still owes si). The wage assignment warrant has been released and the Comptroller is urged to pay the due wages.
Comptroller Kerfoot discusses the cash loan problem that grips city employees pay, noting hundreds of pend ing cases and threats of personal liability. He cites lenders who threaten to sue and suggests civil service rules to curb salary mortgages and proposes hiring extra bookkeepers and seeking funding.
Public attention focuses on persistent loan sharks using city and county offices to collect debts. The City Treasurer bans such use, yet reports show large sums handled by public employees. A list of individuals and firms connected to the Weber group is questioned, with multiple names named as potential involved parties.
Assistant Chief Ptacek declares the department is not a tool of money lenders. He notes he enforces debts like coal and laundry bills for officers but refuses to intervene for David Weber or other loan brokers. He says the Webers know they will get no favors from his office.
Property owners complain that rebates on special assessments are never received while loan men like the Webers escape taxes on personal property yet extract payments from the city. They question why certain individuals avoid obligations while others pay.
The September 1890 Cook County Grand Jury denounced debt collectors and chattel mortgage sharks. It urged state supervision and stricter regulation of chattel banks to curb poverty and crime linked to confidential credit and salaried borrowers.
Loan sharks threaten to block wage payments, asserting ownership of Chicago and control over city finances as they press the City Treasurer over a large outstanding loan. The conflict signals a bold expansion of pressure on municipal governance.
The narrative accuses loan sharks of hijacking payrolls for policemen and city workers, triggering a nationwide bankruptcy act rescue for some, while alleging officials and officers profit from salaries. It condemns the Weber gang, the Brick Trust, and city figures like Recorder Simon amid calls to jail obstructors and curb private collections.
A porch climber exposes the corrupt practice of police officers paying 10 percent monthly on loans to a known lender. The force under Jake Weber faces pressure as officers resist further compulsion and seek ends to the racket.
A roster of city officers and department heads including Mayor Carter Harrison and city officers such as City Treasurer, City Clerk, Deputy City Clerk, City Attorney, Corporation Counsel, Oil Inspector, City Electrician, Gas Inspector, Commissioner of Public Works, Secretary Public Works, Superintendent of Special Assessment, City Sealer, City Collector, Commissioner of Buildings, Fire Marshal, Chief of Police, Chief of Detectives, Commissioner of Health, Superintendent of Streets, and other listed officials.
The piece lists county officers led by Recorder Robert M. Simon and Sheriff E J Magerstadt, with various court clerks and officials. It then notes Brown University’s early 1800s push for coeducation, highlighting women earning degrees and prizes, signaling shifts in attitudes toward women in higher education. It also mentions Count von Zeppelin’s 400 foot airship designed for five passengers, implying limited impact on rail travel.
Fortune's Bottled Beer expands with a large bottling establishment next to the Van Buren street brewery. The new facility features advanced cooling and attached freezing apparatus to keep walls at freezing temperature, enhancing a beer known worldwide. Telephone Monroe 40.
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