Характеристика Чикаго — страница 5

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about 80 years, Chicago again boasts the tallest tower—the Sears, Roebuck and Co. Building, which soars 1,450 feet above the city. 16. "Big Bill" Thompson (1869—1944) served three terms as mayor of Chicago, became notorious for political machinations. Thompson practised what in American political terminology is known as the "spoils system"—"to the victor belongs the spoils". In the 1920's it seemed that power in Chicago was shared between Thompson, entrenched in City Hall, and Capone, sitting with his gunmen in the Lexington Hotel. This state of bliss was enjoyed by the financiers, industrialists, gangsters and politicians. 17. Samuel Insull (1859—1938)—public-utilities financier. By 1907 he overcame the competing publjc-utilities companies

in Chicago and soon he came to control the city's transit system. When the Depression broke out in 1929, Insult's pyramid of corporations was one of the first to collapse into bankruptcy. Thousands of his stockholders were ruined. Insull dis­appeared before he could be brought into court 18 Al Caponet(1899—1947)—American gang leader in Chicago in the 1920's. He received tribute from businessmen and politicians. His crime syndicate terrorized Chicago and controlled the gambling there. Capone' was mysteriously murdered and given a funeral featured by more than twenty truckloads of floral wreaths and numerous limousines filled "with gangsters. Thousands watched while the newsreel cameras cranked away. Crime as big business went on; in time the warfare between gangs

pro­duced a new "czar".