Chicago Tribune
PREPARE ASSAULT ON SHADY
HOTELS.
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Chief Steward, Sunday Evening Club, and Evangelist Hope to Shut Malodorous
Places to Girls.
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HELPS WHITE SLAVE WAR
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Clifford G. Roe Says Vicious Hostelries Help Evil Traffic; Boy Held Over;
Fourteen Are Indicted.
Hotels of the malodorous variety within the loop district were attacked from two quarters yesterday.
It developed that Chief of Police Steward is preparing against them the first distinct crusade of his official career.
At the same time a campaign of broad scope is being arranged against the same foes of public morality by an organization which will include both the movement which is backing Clifford G. Roe in his efforts on behalf of white slaves and the Sunday Evening Club. In connection with the latter evangelical body, now making its entrance into the battle for Chicago’s cleansing, is the religious force expected to be derived from "Gipsy" Smith’s revivals.
The Romany preacher himself is expected to launch some of the thunderbolts of the opening moral conflict.
Chief Steward was not aware last night that he had a rival in his crusade, and the reformers did not know of the activity of the police.
Police Keep Tab on Patrons
As an incident of the police plans a description is being taken, and has been for several nights past, of every couple entering the suspected hotels.
The arrest of a 14 year old girl with a boy of 18 on Wednesday in a hotel served as a spur to the forces already focusing their attention on these places.
"These hotels must be cleaned up," Chief Steward said. "We already have started a campaign in this direction which is being prosecuted under Inspector Lavin. Night before last his officers turned away nineteen couples from these ‘shady’ hotels. Officers will keep a close watch on them, and every couple that enters one of them will be inspected and their descriptions taken.
"Young girls will be stopped at the doors. We hope to find some way of reaching the owners of the places were children are harbored and they will be prosecuted vigorously. The trouble with the prosecution of these men is that the law is loose. Mr. Roe tells me the law does not make the owners responsible for the act of the agent as a clerk. I believe, though, that we can keep the young girls out of the places by a close watch over them."
Sunday Evening Club at Work
The marshaling of the Sunday Evening club under the banners of the crusade was disclosed by Clifford Barnes, president of the organization. He said the club has its men already at work. It is known that the club has a list of more than a score of hotels which are to be under close surveillance and all evidence found against the places will be used as a foundation for legal action against the owners.
"We feel we will be able to accomplish more if we do not say just what the nature of our investigation is," Mr. Barnes said. "We are satisfied that there are conditions which need changing badly, and we are going to help along."
It is expected that the club will have the evangelist, "Gipsy" Smith, invade the loop and follow his campaign with a rigorous campaign against shady hotels.
The latest movement had its inception following the experience of a citizen a few nights ago. Mr. Roe, who is cooperating with the other vice foes, told the story last evening.
"This man was going along a downtown street and passed one of the hotels," he said. "He saw on the sidewalk in front of the place two girls and two men. One of the girls was young and he noticed she wore a sweater with her school’s letter on it. He heard the men trying to persuade the girls into the hotel and thought he would watch to see what happened.
Girl Carried Into Hotel
"From across the street he saw them in earnest conversation for some time, and the girls indicated by shakes of their heads and other actions a disinclination to go with the men. Walking by again he heard the younger girl refuse to enter, but the older consented and she and her companion went up the steps and went in. All the while the clerk and some one else in the hotel was watching the men and the girls from an open window.
"After the first pair entered the second man placed an arm around the young girl’s waist and carried her up the steps and dragged her inside. Then the citizen bounded into the place. He asked the girl how old she was and she replied she was 16. Her companion interfered and said it was none of the citizen’s business. The citizen said he was making it his business and threatened to call the police. Then the man ran out the door and down the street.
"The girl was taken to one of the downtown clubs and from there sent home.
Incident of White Slave Traffic
"We are going after this matter simply as a phase, and an important phase, of the whole white slavery question. We are working with the police, the state’s attorney, and the United States district attorney in all our investigations and we have begun to make headway. Our chief attention is now being directed to the men who live off the white slaves themselves and our aim is to drive every one of these men out of the city. We may not do it in a year or two years, but we will do it. There are business men behind the movement who will furnish the financial assistance until the work of cleaning out his whole traffic is accomplished."
The case that directed attention anew to these hotels, went before the police court during the day. Paul Koplin, the young man arrested with Hazel Walker, the Austin girl, in the Hammond hotel, 444 Dearborn street, was held to the grand jury by Municipal Judge Fake in the Harrison street court. The girl was given into the custody of officers of the Juvenile court.
In another quarter, also, criminal prosecutions under similar charges made headway. Indictments were returned by the grand jury against thirteen men and one woman, arrested after serious charges against the men had been made by May Michaelson, 13 years old.
