After joining the union, Jurgis enrolls in free night school to learn English so that he might participate in the meetings. He learns about democracy and politics. Jurgis discovers that in America, like everywhere else, the rich men own almost everything. After Jurgis has been working at Brown's for three weeks, a night watchman asks him if he wants to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Jurgis does and is taken, along with a number of his co-workers, to big gray buildings where he fills out paperwork. Then the man treats them to rounds of drinks and Brown's gives Jurgis days off work to complete the process.
Jurgis doesn't realize he's involved in a corrupt operation, though. Men bribe the workers to vote a certain way during elections, paying them for a vote, and giving them free drinks at the saloons where the voting booths are located. Jurgis realizes something is not right when Jonas comes home one night and says that he offered to vote three times for four dollars-and that his offer has been accepted!
Jurgis's co-workers explain Chicago politics to him: officials, who rule by graft, have to be elected. So, there are two sets of grafters called "political parties" and the party that "buys" the most votes gets elected.
The ruler of the stockyards district is an Irishman named Mike Scully. He is a democratic boss and the very illustration of corruption and graft, with his hand in a number of industries in the city. His signature can secure any job in the yards. His supporters have formed a club called the War Whoop League. On election days, these men will be out on the streets in the hundreds, with large wads of money in their pockets.
Chicago is a maze of corruption, with bosses who have hands in every industry, every business, and every arm of government. Yet Scully stands as the people's man and workers adored him. The government inspectors are corrupt, too-the American people see their presence in the slaughterhouses and assume that meat is disease-free. They do this by bribing a bartender to look the other way while they track down drunk people coming in from out of town to rob.
So, naturally, they become friendly with this bartender who they keep paying off. The bartender points them in the direction of a guy named Goldberger. Goldberger gives Jurgis and Jack Duane tips about who they should rob next in other words, who no one in Chicago will step up to assist in court. Goldberger also lets them in on some sweet information about horse racing in New Orleans.
Apparently, all these races are rigged, and Goldberger knows about them. So, Jurgis and Jack Duane get in on horse betting as well. Around this time, Jurgis and Jack Duane part ways. Jack Duane gets caught red-handed drilling into a safe and has to leave town. Jurgis, meanwhile, bumps into that night-watchman from all the way back in Chapter 9, who got Jurgis his citizenship. This is the guy who bought Jurgis's vote for a local political machine.
Now that they have met up again, the night-watchman makes Jurgis an offer. The night-watchman works for a guy named "Bush" Harper, who in turn works for Mike Scully, one of the richest and most influential men in Packingtown. Mike Scully is a Democrat, but he has worked out a back-room deal with the local Republican party for the next couple of elections. The next Democratic nominee for a city council position is a rich Jewish man.
Mike Scully isn't very invested in the Democratic nominee because he has his own prejudices. Scully himself, however, is coming up for reelection in the next election after this. So, what Scully secretly offers the Republicans is this: he will give them money from this poor Democratic nominee's election fund as long as the Republicans promise not to raise a candidate against Mike Scully in the following election after this.
It's a trade of city council positions: Mike Scully will sacrifice this election as long as he is guaranteed to win the next one. The one trouble in this deal is that there is a new movement gaining steam in the packing yards: socialism. Mike Scully is worried that the hot-head Democrats of Packingtown would prefer to go with the Socialist Party candidate over some random Republican. So "Bush" Harper hires Jurgis, who is well-known as a union man and has lots of union connections.
He wants Jurgis to go back to the meatpacking plants to lobby for the Republican candidate with his old union buddies. Jurgis doesn't see how this is going to work, since he's been blacklisted from working in Packingtown.
So Jurgis agrees, and he gets to meet Mike Scully, the most important man in Packingtown. Mike Scully personally gives Jurgis a note to take to the head manager of Durham's packing plant, Mr. The note tells Harmon to hire Jurgis as a personal favor to Mike Scully. Harmon offers Jurgis a job as a night watchman. Jurgis refuses because he needs to be surrounded by the workers. Harmon lets Jurgis take a job trimming hogs. Again, what a reversal of luck: Jurgis once begged for this job and was refused.
Now, he gets automatically appointed to the hog-killing room. He adds that socialism is necessarily a worldwide movement: any one nation that achieves success will be crushed by the others around it.
He adds that it could also be interpreted as the fulfillment of Christian values on Earth. Jurgis visits Teta Elzbieta to tell her about socialism. She is happy to hear that he wishes to work and help support the family. She even agrees to attend socialist political meetings with him from time to time. Jurgis finds a job as a porter in a small hotel that pays thirty dollars a month plus board. Ostrinski informs Jurgis that his new boss, Tommy Hinds, is actually a state organizer for the socialist party and a well-known socialist speaker.
Hinds is overjoyed to find that Jurgis is a comrade. Hinds never tires of preaching socialism in his hotel and elsewhere. Socialists flock to the hotel, so the radical philosophy of the proprietor does not hurt the business he owns. Hinds often urges Jurgis to detail the horrendous filth of the meat-packing plants along with the real recipes for tinned meats and sausages. Jurgis takes up the socialist cause with a passion.
He endeavors to read newspapers, including The Appeal to Reason, and learn all about the political and economic systems of power in America. He becomes angry and frustrated when he cannot sway people to socialism.
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