In Chicago

The special grand jury which has been investigating the frauds, conspiracies and murders attendant upon Chicago's primary election last April, last week brought indictments of a police lieutenant, eight racketeers and a large, dark figure who had seemed destined to gain fame in the councils of the nation--Oscar DePriest, first Negro alderman of Chicago, nominee of the G. O. P. to succeed the late famed Martin Barnaby Madden in the House of Representatives. It was not the first time Mr. DePriest had been indicted. In 1916 he was accused of handling tainted money, but the charge languished and died in Chicago's political limbo. This time the charge was conspiracy to protect gambling and vice resorts on Chicago's vice-ridden South Side. The boodle exacted went to swell Mayor Thompson's campaign fund, it was charged.

Southerners who read the news smiled grimly. "Down here," they said, "we'd just naturally lynch a nigger like that."