Chicago Tribune
RESORTS OBEY HEALY’S ORDER
———
North Side Quiet Under Supervision of New Inspector.
———
NO FIXED LEVEE DISTRICT
———
Police Official Aims to Control Rather than Exterminate.
The effect of the presence of Inspector Healy on the north side was noticeable last night. The back rooms of the saloons were practically deserted and the pianos in many of them failed to lure the seeker for amusement. In some of them women were present, but they were accompanied by male escorts. The detectives attached to the East Chicago avenue station kept close watch of the resorts, and the effect of the "cleanup" order was evidenced by the fact that not one woman was arrested.
Inspector Healy while at the East Chicago avenue station talked of his plans and aims.
"The segregation of vice on the north side is a great big question," said he, "and to attempt to confine the resorts within prescribed limits without first giving the matter serious consideration and getting the approval of my superiors would be taking on myself authority far beyond that of an inspector.
Obstacles in the Way
"To fix the limits within the district west of Clark street and south of Chicago avenue would be paramount to turning a wealthy manufacturing section into a read light district. Again, there are many honest artisans living in the same section, and it would be disastrous to the morals of their children to allow people of known vicious tendencies to gather around them. It would be equally preposterous for me to say that vice could be confined within a narrow section. As a matter of fact, I could not make such a statement without authority — and I haven’t the authority.
"I will, however, stop any tendency of the vicious element to encroach on the respectable residence district east of Clark street. There are, I understand, a few undesirables who have recently moved over the line. They will be requested to take a back track. This is as far as I can go in that direction. I can and will make North Clark street a main thoroughfare, where people can walk without being molested.
Control Not Extermination
"It is not a question of driving women or the underworld into other sections or into the lake, but how to control them and keep them under surveillance. They must stay off the streets and they must stay out of the back rooms of saloons unless they are accompanied by men, and from the reports I have received this evening I am sure they understand that I am in earnest."
