Chicago Tribune
STEWARD’S ORDER THROTTLES
LEVEE
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Police Chief’s Drastic New Rules Just the Beginning of Greatest Cleanup City
Ever Knew.
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MANY MUST LEAVE TOWN
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Old Vice Ring Hard Hit; Reform Workers Declare Regulation Best Ever Issued Here
The resorts in Chicago’s three chief levee districts entered upon a new stage of their existence last night. Lights burned with diminished and diminishing brilliancy, women hid from the streets and were not seen at doorways or at windows, and the evil faced men who have been wont to ply their nameless trade through the vicious sections dared not show their faces.
Chief Steward’s new regulations, the levee concluded as the day closed in a sullen evening, could not be evaded. Old habitués of the "red light" district gathered and discussed their future. Some said they would move. Others said they would comply with the new rules.
To the vice trust, which has ruled with a rod of iron in the Twenty-second street district, the drastic order came as a body blow. This "trust," with five members, through ownership and control and example, has been the dictator of the fortunes of hundreds of women in the resorts of the neighborhood for years. One of Chief Steward’s rules is that men will not be permitted to own resorts where women are inmates. This rule will tear from the old ring its mastery of vice.
Expect More Strict Rules
In the light of the orders already issued from the office of the chief of police, the resort world was prepared to give full credence to rumors of still worse to come.
The order transmitted by Inspector O’Brien on the north side against mail undesirables had a marked effect. The police sill carried nineteen warrants for vagrancy of men known in the district, but the men kept safely away and no arrests were made.
On the west side it was the quietest night in many months. Women were not seen strolling or loitering through the unsavory streets, and windows were dark. Music sounded from resorts and saloons in some instances, but there was not the old time rowdy boisterousness.
The scope of Chief Steward’s ambition for the segregation and control of vice includes no only the driving out of the men who have lived by the sacrifice of women, the elimination of much of the ease of access to low resorts and their temptations, but the requirement of stringent health precautions and the prohibition of the sale of intoxicants in the house.
The enforcement of the regulations issued and contemplated will place Chicago’s vice regulation and control on a standard equal to that of any great city in the world.
Blow to Vice Trust
The following out of Chief Steward’s directions will mean the elimination of men from the ownership and management of houses of ill repute — and that to Chicago means the destruction of the vice trust — that mysterious quintet, which through a combination of money and politics "cornered" the opportunities for the establishment of houses within the Twenty-second street district, and since then has controlled the district.
It is these five men — two politicians, Roy Jones, George Little, and Ferdinand Buxbaum — who built up the "trust methods." This corporation has made helpless women still more helpless, condemning them to purchase their house gowns, their shoes, and even their medical certificates from men they name, and has prevented a woman ousted from one house finding a place in another under the control of the syndicate.
Two Chief Features of Order
The elimination of this control and the driving to other employment of the men who at the end of the week collect the women’s "envelopes" containing the part of their earnings not subtracted by the mysterious bookkeeping methods of the house, are the chief aims of the first series of instructions issued by Chief Steward.
A second one is pronounced scarcely less important. That is th abolition of the swinging doors between saloons and back rooms, where the women gather. This change, it is declared, will put a stop to the touring of parties of youth from one barroom to another to "see the sights."
The complete list of instructions sent out thus far follows:
1. Permit no soliciting, either on the streets, in doorways, from windows or in saloons.
2. Permit no signs, lights, colors, or other devices to be anywhere displayed indicative of the character of the premises occupied as a house of ill repute.
3. No so-called exhibitions or shows will be permitted in any disorderly house.
4. No persons between the ages of 3 and 18 years will be permitted in the districts or to enter the premises, under any circumstances, messenger and delivery boys included.
5. All males who subsist on the incomes from women residents of the so-called red light districts shall be arrested as vagrants.
6. No male shall be allowed to loiter about the premises, and all found so doing, without visible means of support, shall be dealt with accordingly.
7. No males shall be allowed to be the owners or to conduct disorderly houses.
8. There shall be no swinging doors — only double doors — and these at all times to be closed.
9. The establishment of disorderly houses shall not be permitted outside certain districts, and under no conditions shall they be established within two blocks of a school, church, hospital, or any public institution.
10. There shall be no disorderly houses on any street having a street car line.
11. No person under the regular age shall be detained against his or her will, nor shall any bars or other obstacles be permitted in any exit.
12. No women without male escorts shall be allowed in saloons. This rule must be rigidly enforced.
Decided After Conference
"I haven’t issued any orders about vice in the last few days," said Col. Steward, when the question of how many inspectors had been told to go ahead with the "clean-up" was put to him.
"The matters to which you refer nave been discussed with the inspectors orally several times, and recently I concluded that it was wise to put the instructions in writing, so that there might be no doubt as to their exact meaning or any question as to any of them having been given. For that reason I prepared a summary of them which already has been given to three inspectors, and will be given to a fourth, Inspector Hunt, tomorrow.
"The inspectors have been at work on the west and north sides for several days, and Inspector Wheeler received a copy of the instructions on Friday. Most all of the things set forth in the instructions have been done to a great or lesser degree in all of the divisions where they are necessary, but it is necessary to have uniformity in this matters.
"Anybody can do anything that any other body does or thinks he can do, and the only way to control the situation is to eliminate all question of special favors to any one. It does not do to issues instructions for regulation on one side of the city and fail to enforce the same regulations in the other parts of town. These instructions will go to all the inspectors who have anything to do with vice."
"More Coming," Says Chief.
At this point in the interview cam corroboration for the statement that the chief’s work is no mor than well begun. The list of instructions was run through hurriedly, and after he had emphasized the benefits from those touching on the ownership of houses by men, the presence of unemployed men in such places, and the abolition of swinging doors between bars and back rooms, he paused.
"That’s enough for the present," he said slowly, "but there are more coming. We’ll enforce these and then see what else is needed."
"Will you abolish the sale of liquor in such places?" he was asked.
"Not yet," was the answer.
Inspectors of the various divisions affected by Chief Steward’s orders said that they already had taken steps to carry them out and every one would be executed to the letter.
"I had begun a campaign against the men who live off the profits of the women of the underworld." Inspector O’Brien said, "and they all will have to get out or go to jail. As to some parts of the orders I do not know just how the north side district stands, but I will learn tomorrow and every place in a location forbidden by the regulations will have to move.
Speed Enjoined on Inspectors.
"The chief has told us to carry out the regulative principles with all the speed possible and it will be done. I have not yet learned how many of the places are owned by men but they will have to be rid of them within a reasonable time.
"Last night all the resort keepers of the district and the saloon owners affected were notified of the chief’s orders and all promised to carry them out with dispatch. Any infringement of them with regard to the conducting of the places will be followed by immediate arrests."
The levee district of South Chicago had not been included in the general orders against the vice districts last evening. Inspector Hunt said he had not received the regulation instructions from Chief Steward but that when they were received they would be enforced to the letter.
"I suppose I will get the order of regulation tomorrow," the inspector said last evening, "There is only a small district in South Chicago and we have kept it within limits confines on two streets. There will be no trouble about following the chief’s orders there.
Resort Owners to Submit
Capt. Cudmore of the Twenty-second street station, said all the resort owners of the south side red light district had promised to make immediate arrangement to meet all the demands of the chief’s order.
"We had the swinging doors taken off at the places a week ago," he said " and the change in the ownership of places where the order demands it will be made with all reasonable haste. The chief said to give the owner of all resorts a reasonable time to comply and everyone has said there will be no unnecessary delay.
"Probably half of the 140 resorts in the district are owned by men. All these will have to change hands. We have had to make no raids to enforce the order and I believe non will be required as all owners show a disposition to obey without trouble.
Resort owners said the police had given them until today to get rid of all the men waiters, musicians and porters in the places. The pianos were being played as usual on Sunday night.
Denizens of the district said the new order would mean many removals from the levee and the closing of some of the places, because they would not pay.
Vice Foes Commend Rules
The new orders of the chief of police met with the hearty commendation of the men who are leading the general crusade against vice in the city. Clifford G. Roe, who is carrying on a general war against white slavery, said he was in thorough accord with the new regulations for the underworld districts.
"It is exactly what we want in Chicago," he said. "The biggest part of the problem of the regulation of the vice districts is solved with the elimination of the men hangers-on of the vicious resorts. White slavery will be far less general when the men procurers are driven from the city and the execution of the chief’s order means this if nothing else. I believe that fully half of the resorts of the city are owned by men. I believe there never was a better police regulative order issued."
Arthur Burrage Farwell, president of the Chicago Law and Order league, said it was the best police order for the regulation of the "red light" districts that he had every known to be issued in the city.
"I hope the chief will continue in the way he started," he said, "and see that all of his orders are carried out to the letter. It will mean a bettering of conditions and that will help."
Dr. David Blaustein, superintendent of the Hebrew Institute, said he was pleased with the chief’s action.
"After all, in our crusades all we can do is to train public sentiment," he said. "Whatever the people want has got to be carried out by the police in the handling of this whole question of vice. I am glad to see Chief Steward showing the clean-up spirit that is evidenced in the latest orders to his force."
The inspection trip taken Saturday night and early yesterday morning by the Rev. M. P. Boynton, pastor of the Lexington Avenue Baptist church, and Mr. Farwell convinced both men that the Woodlawn residence district was a good field for the civic scrub brush.
Besides the saloons, cafés, and dance halls the two inspected the cheap theaters of that part of the city. Both agreed that if Woodlawn did not want the stigma of the red lights attached to it in the near future radical changes were necessary.
In the Woodlawn café, at Sixty-third street and Cottage Grove avenue," the pastor said, "there was one group of three young men and two girls not over 19, whom we saw given seven helpings of wine. The girls were unsteady when they got up to leave at closing time. They were not bad girls, were quietly dressed, and modest looking. On the sidewalk outside one of the girls, in bidding one of the young men goodby, called him ‘dear.’ In response he seized her and kissed her before the throng of hundreds of drinking men and women who crowded the sidewalks.
"The place did not close until a few minutes after 1 o’clock, but at the closing hour the lights were darkened and then began actions on the part of both men and women at the tables which offended every principle of good breeding. Many of the women were young, some in short dresses.
Reports from Amusement Parks
The investigators saw things at the White City and Sans Souci dance halls that the ministers pronounced "vile." In both places many unescorted girls in short dresses were dancing. Couples waltzed in a hugging position, said the investigators, and the girls in many instances left the dance halls at midnight without escorts and stood about on the street corners. Some were seen to walk away with young men.
The 5 and 10 cent theatres brought forth good and bad reports from the investigators. Some parts of the programs were commended, but suggestive songs found in one place met with disapproval.
Dr. Boynton was pleased with the order of Chief Steward. He said he believed the elimination of men owners would go a long way toward elimination of the white slave traffic.
"I believe, too," he said, "the separation of saloons and resorts will put many of the dens out of business. The intention of the chief to drive out the men who live off the earnings of vice cannot be too strongly commended. Chicago should arrest all of them and put them to work on the rock pile until they leave the city. It is too bad that all of the resorts cannot be driven out of existence."
Reform League Branch Formed
A branch of the law and order league in the district bounded by Seventy-first and Ninety-fifths streets, Cottage Grove avenue and State street was launched at night by the Brookline Presbyterian Church.
Sixty men attended the meeting and Charles Deutschmann temporary chairman and William S. Creveling temporary secretary. Mr. Deutschmann will appoint a committee of three to investigate vice and law breaking in the district. At the meeting a week from next Sunday the committee will report and a permanent organization then will be effected !
