“In some parts of Chicago where poverty and insecurity have robbed men of hope, an election bribe of anywhere form $0.50 to $5.00 or $10.00 looks large and the vote itself, when lost in a sea of 1,700,000 other votes in the city looks small. Of course, in the long run the bribe-receiver gets the small end of the bargain. He pays in inefficient city administration at points that affect him most . . .”

$10 in the mid-1930s–which the BLS inflation calculator tells me would now be more than $150–for my vote for an aldercritter? Good grief. And, as a colleague once pointed out to me, given the occasionally troubled history of police-community relations in Chicago, maybe voters in the “parts of Chicago where poverty and insecurity have robbed men of hope” would actually appreciate more inefficiencies in some city services . . .