Chicago Tribune
5,000 SOULS AND
$15,000,000 A YEAR TRIBUTE TO VICE
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Commission, Demanding Annihilation of Levee, Reports on Chicago Resorts.
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MORALS BOARD IS URGED
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Specific Denunciation of the Segregation System On of the Recommendations.
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LOW WAGES IS GIRL’S GREAT PERIL
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Chicago’s vice commission last night submitted to the city council a report of the results of the investigation which it has been quietly making since its appointment by Mayor Busse on July 5 of last year. It is the most extraordinary exposé of the social evil that ever has been published.
Upon motion of Ald. Charles M. Foell the report was filed and an order was passed authorizing the commission to publish it for restricted circulation and to continue its operation until June 1 or until it shall have completed its business.
Amid an array of facts absolutely staggering in the frightfulness of the conditions they reveal, some stand out vividly from and dwarf all the rest. They are:
Chicago spends $15,000,000 actually for vice.
The traffic in women in this city annually demands and destroys the lives and souls of 5,000 young girls.
Segregation is denounced by the commission and this means the wiping out of the "levees."
To neighboring cities which may be able to see nothing in the report except an indecent and ill advised exposure by Chicago of her own shame the report of the commission has this to say:
"The investigation was not confined to Chicago only. It covered fifty-two of the larger cities of the United States. In many of those cities conditions were found to be worse than they are in Chicago. In some they were found to be better. As a whole Chicago is a better city morally than most of the cities of the United States that are in its class."
Report Faces Issue Squarely.
The report is scientific and dispassionate. Its purpose was to avoid criticism and recrimination and set for the facts. It has avoided exaggeration and sensationalism, but it has not scrupled to tell the truth and the whole truth. It sets the public face to face with the facts and then appeals to the public conscience: "What are you going to do about it?"
Answering its own question, from the conclusions drawn in the course of extensive investigations, the commission takes a stand preeminently American and touched with a fine idealism. Prostitution, it says, can be suppressed, not in a week, a month, or a year, but by persistent and intelligent effort through a long period of years. The report expressly repudiates the cynical European theory that the social evil always has existed and always must exist, and that segregation is the only remedy.
"Constant and persistent repression," it says, "must be the immediate method; absolute annihilation the ultimate ideal."
Tells How Work Can Be Done.
For the immediate initiation of the policy thus set forth the commission last night made two recommendations. They were embodied in ordinances submitted to the council with the report and are as follows:
First — The appointment of a morals commission.
Second — The establishment of a morals court.
The morals commission is designed to take up the work of vice suppression at the point where the Busse commission gives up its task. It is to consist of five members, to be appointed by the mayor and approved by the council, to serve for two years and to receive no salary. The commissioner of public heal is to be a member ex-officio of this commission.
It shall be the duty of this commission to gather evidence and to take the necessary legal steps for the suppression of vice in Chicago wherever such suppression is believed to be advisable. Its jurisdiction is to cover the whole of the city of Chicago and the district three miles beyond the corporate limits.
Large Power for Morals Court
The function of the morals court shall be to consider the cases submitted to its consideration by the morals commission. The morals court shall have the power to invoke the aid of the municipal police in enforcing its orders.
The investigations of the commission in Chicago resulted in the gathering of the following statistics:
The police list of Oct. 26, 1910, shows 192 disorderly resorts, with 2,343 rooms in seven precincts, with 1,012 inmates and 180 keepers.
Two hundred and seventy-two flats, with 900 rooms, at 151 separate addresses, with 419 inmates and 252 keepers.
Forty-two hotels, with 1,222 rooms, catering to the immoral trade, and 27 keepers, eight of whom are women. These give a total of 506 places where immoral conditions exist, with 1,880 women engaged in the business.
The commission estimates that the aggregate profits reaped from the vice of "white slavery" in Chicago amount to the enormous sum of $15,699,449. This sum is made up of the profit received by the owners of property used for resorts, the keepers and the inmates, amount to $8, 476, 689; the profit from the sale of liquor in disorderly saloons only, $4, 307,
( 6) 000, and the profit from the sale of liquor in resorts, $2,915,760.
Many Traffickers in Drugs.
The commission found, also 514 houses, flats, hotels and saloons not on the police lists, where 1,314 women led immoral lives.
There are many other places beside these. The commission did not investigate them, because they were not essential to the conclusions.
A startling exposé is made by the commission of the sale of drugs in the vice districts. The report states that four drug stores in one of the vice districts sell four pounds of morphine and six ounces of cocaine per week. No drug store in the city outside the vice district sells more than four ounces of morphine and three drams of cocaine in a week. The druggists, to foil police investigation, order their drugs from various wholesale houses, and in many cases, direct from the manufacturers.
The investigators of the commission found that the girls, in the vice districts are more addicted to the use of morphine than cocaine. The startling discovery also was made by investigators that in many cases doctors traded in the drugs and supplied the girls with the poison.
Details of the Report.
The report, dealing first with the necessity for a change from the existing system of dealing with the vice problem in Chicago, says:
"We believe that Chicago has a public conscience which, when aroused, cannot be easily stilled — a conscience built upon moral and ethical teachings of the purest American type — a conscience which, when aroused to the truth, will instantly rebel against the social evil in all its phases.
"Some who have superficial knowledge of the ‘continental system’ of segregation and regulation, based on a cursory reading or surface investigation, might bring it forward as a method of relief. One has but to read scientific works on the subject, to study the reports of international conferences held in Europe, and to hear the findings of careful investigators to see the unreliability and futility of such a system, and to learn of its failures as a permanent institution where it has been undertaken, in this country or abroad. The commission is convinced that the so-called system has proved itself degenerating and ineffective.
Americans Abhor Segregation.
"Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of the citizens of Chicago and the fathers and mothers of its children never will countenance the recognition or legalization of a commercial business which spells only ruin to the race. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to take a bold stand against this curse of society. It behooves us to raise social life to the highest possible standard of righteousness— to teach the your of our land loyalty and honor to womanhood.
"The immensity of the social evil problem is no excuse for us to stand idly by and do nothing in an attempt to solve it. The sin of impurity may not by cured in a day, a year, or perhaps in generations. But we assume that by earnest, wise, united, and persistent effort on the part of individuals and organized groups in society we can do something — how much we can only discover by trial. To say we can do nothing may be left to the morally inert; of course, they can do nothing — but evil.
"We may enact laws; we may appoint commissions; we may abuse civic administrations for their handling of the problem; but the problem will remain just as long as the public conscience is dead to the issue or is indifferent to its solution.
Religion Must Curb Men
"Until the hearts of men are changed we can hope for no absolute annihilation of the social evil. Religion and education alone can correct the greatest curse which today rests upon mankind. For this there is a mighty work for agencies and institutions of righteousness in our land.
"With these facts in mind the commission has squarely faced the problem. It has tried to do its duty by placing before the public the true situation in Chicago. It presents recommendations carefully and conscientiously drawn.
"Throughout the report the commission has made every effort to publish only such results as would give the municipality a correct and unexaggerated idea of conditions.
"Its statements are not made to bring discredit upon the city. Without seeking to condemn other cities, the commission desires to state its belief that, in contrast, Chicago is far better proportionately to its population than most of the other large cities of the country. This statement is made after careful study of conditions in fifty-two of the largest cities of the country — a study based on the replies received from, first, the city clerk; second, the head of the health department, and third, the superintendent of police in these fifty-two municipalities. In addition, personal investigation by the commission was conducted in some fifteen of the largest cities. Much data is in the possession of the commission showing the conditions existing elsewhere upon which to base it conclusions.
Officials Are Not Criticised
"The commission has refrained from unnecessary criticism of public officials. Present day conditions are better in respect to open vice than the city has known in many years. But they are by no means a credit to Chicago. However, this must be remembered: they are not unique in the history of the city. Present day public official are no more lax in their handling of the problem than their predecessors for years; as a matter of fact, the regulation respecting flagrant and open prostitution under the present police administration are more strict in tone and repressive in execution than have been issued or out in operation for many years.
"No one will doubt that in many instances such an attitude on the part of the public and their officials leads to the breaking down of the morale of the police. But to make the sweeping statement of general inefficiency and dishonesty would be unjust to a large number of men endeavoring to do their duty. The commission believes, therefore, that the large majority of the police are honest and efficient; it believes that some are neither honest nor efficient. For the former it has the warmest praise — for the latter it has the most severe condemnation.
"As stated, the commission does not condemn the personnel of the police as a whole, but it does condemn the system — a system which has grown notoriously inactive in the handling of the social evil, partly because of the tolerative attitude of the citizens of Chicago, and partly because of its own desire to perpetuate itself as a system; a system which makes it easier for the police to accept graft from the tremendous profits reaped from the sale in women’s bodies than honestly to do their duty. All credit to the great body of men who have withstood these temptations, and who some day will find a condition where their courage will be amply rewarded.
"To the Hon. Fred A. Busse, mayor of Chicago, belongs the honor and distinction of having appointed this, the first municipal commission to study the existing conditions of a great city respecting vice and to report such recommendations as it may deem advisable for the suppression thereof.
"This fact in itself speaks more forcibly than any mere words of appreciation which this commission might offer for the honor and privilege extended to its members.
"Credit likewise belongs to the members of the city council, in that they unanimously concurred in the recommendation of the mayor and appropriated the funds used in the preparation and the printing of this report.
No Powers of Prosecution
"This commission is an investigating, and not a prosecuting body. The ordinance by which created gave it no powers of prosecution, and specifically stated the object in view to be obtained the results of a scientific study of existing conditions and to point out methods of relief for such.
"The commission has carefully omitted from the report all names of offenders against the law, as well as addresses. It has also refrained from publishing the numbers of police officers who have been actually seen violating police rules regarding conduct while on duty as well as overlooking the violation of the law and of police regulations. In place of these the commission has used the letter "X." with a number following. These definite addresses, names and numbers, however, are on file in the records of the commission.
"Unfortunately, there are two standards of morality in Chicago. One standard permits and applauds dances by women almost naked in certain public places under the guise of art, and condemns dances no worse before audiences from the less prosperous walks of life. This same hypocritical attitude drives the unfortunate and often poverty stricken prostitute from the street, and at the same time tolerates and often welcomes the aliken clad prostitute in the public drinking places of several of the most pretentious hotels and restaurants of the city.
Profits $15,000,000 a Year
"The first truth that the commission desires to impress upon the citizens of Chicago is the fact that prostitution in this city is a commercialized business of large proportions with tremendous profits of more than $15,000,000 per year, controlled largely by men, not women. Separate the male exploiter from the problem, and we minimize its extent, and abate its flagrant outward expression.
"In juxtaposition with this group of professional male exploiters stand ostensibly respectable citizens, both men and women, who are openly renting and leasing property for exorbitant sums, and thus sharing, through immorality of investments, the profits from this business, a business which demands a supply of 5,000 souls from year to year, to satisfy the lust and greed of men in this city alone.
"Practically no attempt has been made in Chicago to enforce the present laws. In place of enforcing the law the police have been allowed to adopt arbitrary rules and uncertain regulations of their own, whereby certain sections of the city have become restricted districts. Here they established their own regulations which were without adequate legal foundation. We have, then, a combined administrative and legislative power in the hands of a department of the local government, which, in turn, is in closest touch with, and influenced by, the political influences of the city."
Evil Hotels Are Attacked
The report, after stating the number of women regularly involved in the traffic under consideration to be 5,000 attacks assignation hotels downtown and on principal streets leading to the three sides of town as "one of the greatest menaces to young people and an evil for which there is no excuse and for which there should be no rooms in Chicago."
It also found that the most dangerous moral influence and the most important financial interest aside from regular disorderly houses are the disorderly saloons, admitting women. Four hundred and forty-five such saloons were listed in the city and 929 unescorted women were found in them during the investigation.
Another feature of the vicious saloons that is pointed out is the vaudeville show of improper nature conducted in rear rooms.
Protection for Children
Then the report takes up the question of protection of children and it states:
"We often forget that society owes much to the protection of the children. Those of mature years can be left generally to guard themselves; but in the case of youth and ignorance, society must take the part of the elder brother, and in many cases the part of the father as an educator and guardian.
"From its study of existing conditions in Chicago the commission feels that if there is to be any permanent gain in the fight against the social evil in this city much care and thought must be given the problem of child protection and education. Children in certain sections of the city are surrounded by many immoral influences and dangers. They are compelled by reason of poverty to live within, or in close proximity to, restricted prostitute districts. Even in residential sections children come in contact with immoral persons, and gain an early knowledge of things which may influence their whole life and guide them in the wrong direction.
"One of the sad spectacles in this great city is the night children who sell gum, candy and papers on the streets. Through small habits learned by loitering near saloons, and even in the rear rooms frequented by vile persons, they become familiar with the vulgarity and immorality of the street and learn their language and their ways of life. That children should be kept off the street at night by the police and that parents should be impressed with the importance of the most strict supervision of the child’s recreational house, are two matters for the greatest moment in the protection of the child.
"The investigations by the commission show that messengers and newsboys have an intimate knowledge of the ways of the underworld. Their moral sense is so blunted as to be absolutely blind to the degradation of women and the vile influence of vicious men.
"The commission heartily indorses all attempts to provide healthful and carefully guarded places of recreation for the children. It does not sympathize with those who simply stand by to criticize without doing anything in a constructive way to provide something wholesome for that which may demoralize. Children must and should have amusement and recreation, and they will find it in some way. Let Chicago increase her small parks and recreation centers. Let the churches give their facilities to provide amusement for children. Let the board of education extend its efforts to establish more social centers in the public schools. Let the city provide clean dances, well chaperoned — as they are now in the public schools."
Urges Teaching Sex Hygiene
The report urges the wise teaching of sex hygiene in the schools as a means of child protection for the future.
The situation in colored people’s communities in Chicago is then discussed. "Invariably," it is stated, "the larger vice districts have been created within or near the settlements of colored people. In the past history of the city, nearly every time a new vice district was created downtown or on the south side the colored families were in the district, moving in just ahead of the prostitutes. The situation along State street from Sixteenth street south is an illustration.
A former chief of police gave out a semi-official statement to the effect that so long as this degenerate group of persons confined their residence to districts west of Wabash avenue and east of Wentworth avenue they would not be apprehended. This part of the city is the largest residence section of colored families. Their churches, Sunday schools and societies are within these boundaries.
Negro Girls Driven to Evil
"In addition to this proximity to immoral conditions young colored girls are often forced into idleness because of a prejudice against them, and they are eventually forced to accept positions as maids in house of prostitution.
"Employment agents do not hesitate to send colored girls as servants to these houses. They make the astounding statement that the law does not allow them to send white girls but they will furnish colored help!
"The apparent discrimination against the colored citizens of the city in permitting vice to set down in their midst is unjust and abhorrent to all fair minded people. Colored children should receive the same moral protection that white children receive."
The question of supply to the demands of the social evil is discussed and the danger to immigrant women is emphasized. The report says:
"The white slave act recently passed by congress has been most effective in minimizing the traffic in foreign women. Much needs to be done, however, to protect the innocent immigrant who is betrayed and led into an immoral life after landing in New York or elsewhere.
"The care of immigrant women upon their arrival in Chicago needs supervision. Immigrant girls should not be left to private expressmen and cab drivers, to be lost to their relatives and friends in the city because of incorrect addresses or the carelessness or vicious intent of the drivers.
Bad Homes a Cause
"The subject of ‘supply’ should bring forward most prominently, too, the fact that the supply comes largely from bad home conditions and lack of recreational privileges. In a large number of cases investigated the home conditions have contributed to, if not caused, the downfall of many a wife and daughter.
"Statements are often made, and in some instances warranted by facts, that the excessive demands upon the mother because of a large family of children, without sufficient income or help to care for them, is also the occasion for many neglected children going astray.
"The statement is also made and supported by facts, learned from long and faithful experience in caring for dependent and delinquent children, that more delinquent girls come from small families where they are spoiled than from large families where there may be poverty, but a sort of unconscious protective union of the children shielding one another.
"The subject of the so-called white slave traffic has attracted much attention throughout this and foreign countries. The term ‘white slave’ is a misnomer. As a matter of fact, the traffic is not confined to white girls, but to all unfortunate girls and women of all colors, races and nationalities. The use of this term, however, is authorized by the national government and was incorporated in the international law on the subject.
White Slavers Unorganized
"It has been demonstrated that men and women engage in the ‘white slave traffic’ are not organized. Their operations, however, are so similar and they use the same methods to such an extent that it is safe to infer that they are in some way working together.
"The vice commission, after exhaustive consideration of the vice question, records itself of opinion that divorce to a large extent is a contributory factor to vice. No study of this blight upon the social and moral life of the country would be comprehensive without consideration of the causes which lead to the application for divorce. These are too numerous to mention at length in such a report as this, but the commission does wish to emphasize the great need of more safeguards against the marrying of persons physically, mentally, and morally unfit to take up the responsibilities of family life, including the bearing of children.
"As to the economic side of the question — the life of an unprotected girl who tries to make a living in a great city is full of torturing temptations. First, she faces the problem of living on an inadequate wage — six dollars a week is the average in the mercantile establishments. If she were living at home where the mother and sister could help her with mending, sewing and washing, where he board would be small — perhaps only a dollar or two towards the burden carried by other members of the family — were her lunch would come from the family larder, then her condition might be as good as if she earned eight dollars a week.
Temptations of Young Girls
"The girl who has no home soon learns of ‘city poverty,’ all the more cruel to he because of the artificial contrasts. She quickly learns of the possibilities about her, of the joys of comfort, good food, entertainment, attractive clothes. Poverty becomes a menace and a snare. One who has not beheld the struggle or come in personal contact with the tempted sole of the underpaid girl can never realize what the poverty of the city means to her. One who has never seen her bravely fighting against such fearful odds will never understand. A day’s sickness and a week out of work are tragedies in her life. They mean trips to the pawnbrokers, meager dinners, a weakened will, often a plunge into the abyss from which she so often never escapes.
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of girls from country towns, and those born in the city but who have been thrown on their own resources, are compelled to live in cheap boarding or rooming houses on the average wage of $6. How do they exist on this sum? It is impossible to figure it out on a mathematical basis. If the wage were $8 a week and the girl paid $2.50 for her room, $1 for laundry, and 60 cents for car face, she would have less than 50 cents left at the end of the week.
"That is, provided she ate 10 cent breakfasts, 15 cent luncheons, and 25 cent dinners. But there is no doubt that many girls do live on even $6 and do it honestly, but we can affirm that they do not have nourishing food, or comfortable shelter, or warm clothes, or any amusement, except free public dances, without outside help, either from charity in the shape of girls clubs, or friends in the country home. How can she possibly exist, to say nothing of live?
Vice a Good Paymaster
"Is it any wonder that a tempted girl who receives only $6 a week working with her hands sells he body for $25 a week when she learns there is a demand for it and men are willing to pay the price? On the one hand her employer demands honesty, faithfulness, and a ‘clean and neat appearance,’ and for all this he contributes from his profits an average of $6 for every week.
"Her honesty alone is work this inadequate wage, disregarding the consideration of her efficiency. In the sad life of prostitution, on the other hand, we find here the employer, demanding the surrender of her virtue, pays her average of $25 a week.
"Which employer wins the half starved child to his side in this unequal battle? It would be unjust, however, to cast any reflection upon those girls who are brave and pure, but intimating that because they earn so small a wage they must necessarily be in the same class with those other girls who, unable to survive longer the heroic battle against poverty and self-sacrifice, had succumbed and gone down.
Help for the Victims
"How can these unfortunate women be helped and saved to society? Some well meaning persons declare that they should be left to their fate; that they are criminals and should be treated as such. The commission does not feet that this is an answer to the problem. They are human being still, stumbling for a time in the depths of sin and shame, but notwithstanding how low they have sunken in the social scale, they can be rescued, if by some method they can be made to feel the touch of divine sympathy and human love.
"No doubt, during the coming months many of these women, now in houses, and in the streets, and in the saloons, will be cut loose from their surroundings by the effective operation of the law. Some wise provision must be made to help them. To put them in prison with no provision for their spiritual or physical needs would only tend to degrade them still lower and send them back to a life of shame in some other community in a worse condition than they were before.
Care for First Offenders
"First offenders, especially, instead of being fined or imprisoned, should be placed on probation under the care of intelligent and sympathetic women officially connected with the court.
"Old and hardened offenders should be sent to an industrial farm with hospital accommodations on an indeterminate sentence. Obviously it is necessary that some such measure of almost drastic control should obtain if such women are to be permanently helped and society served?
The commission addresses a word to men:
"It is a man and not a woman problem which we face today — commercialized by man — supported by man — the supply of fresh victims furnished by men who have lost that fine instinct of chivalry and that splendid honor for womanhood where the destruction of a woman’s soul is abhorrent, and where the defense of a woman’s purity is truly the occasion for a valiant fight."
Changes Recommended
The commission presents, among others the following recommendations:
"To federal authorities: A federal bureau of immigration should be established in great distributive centers, such as Chicago, to provide for the safe conduct of immigrants from ports of entry to their destination. Efficient legislation should be enacted and present laws enforced in such a manner, as to the traffic in women within the boundaries of each state, and as thoroughly, as the federal authorities have dealt with the international traffic.
"The owners of lake steamers should exercise more vigilance enforcing their rules. The sale of intoxicating liquor to minors should be absolutely prohibited on lake steamers. All gambling devices should be suppress on lake steamers.
The commission condemns the ease with which divorces may be obtained in certain states, and recommends a stringent, uniform divorce law for all states.
Work for Illinois to Do
"To the state authorities:
"We recommend that the state authorities, the Chicago Medical Society, or the morals commission investigate and report on midwives, advertised maternity hospitals, medical advertisements, advertising doctors, and regular physicians who are suspected or known to be illegal practitioners.
"Physicians who advertize treatment and cure of such diseases should come under the provision of section 12, chapter 91, of the Illinois revised statutes, providing for the licensing of itinerant physicians.
"We recommend that the state authorities or the morals commission conduct an investigation of employment agencies and the advertisements of employment agents who advertise in Chicago papers published in foreign languages.
"We recommend the enactment of a new Illinois law providing that medical certificates must be secured showing the bearer is free from certain diseases before a marriage license can be issued.
To Regulate Messengers
"We recommend the enactment of state laws and city ordinances whereby a disorderly house may be declared a public nuisance, and containing provisions expressly giving to any citizen the right to institute simple and summary proceeding in equity for the abatement of the nuisance.
"We recommend the enactment of such legislation as will empower the commissioner of health, after due investigation, to declare and to order same closed and abandoned.
"There should be a relentless prosecution and punishment of professional procurers, all keepers and inmates of existing disorderly houses, as well as owners of the property rented or leased for immoral purposes.
"An identification system should be established in the state courts. In dealing with prostitution fines should be abolished and imprisonment or an adult probation system substituted.
"A law should be enacted providing a penalty against any corporation or person employing messenger boys, or knowingly sending any messenger boy under 21 years of age to any disorderly house, unlicensed saloon, inn, tavern or other unlicensed place where malt or spiritous liquors or wines are sold, on any errand or business whatsoever.
Another School for Girls
"We recommend that immediate legislation be sought to establish a second school for wayward girls in the state of Illinois, said institution to be established in some other part of the state, rather than to extend the institution at Geneva. The latter institution is overcrowded and the numbers there are all that can be governed satisfactorily by one superintendent.
"We recommend legislation providing for the organization of a sympathetic agency with paid agents who have followed a special instruction, and who would be charged with regular supervision of the children of unmarried mothers.
"To county officials:
"We recommend the appointment of a permanent committee on child protection, with ample funds from the county treasury.
"To city officials:
"We recommend that the city council of Chicago enact an ordinance creating a commission to be known as the morals commission.
"Enforce the laws and regulations, especially those prohibiting the harboring of disorderly persons in saloons; prohibiting wine-rooms and stall in saloons; prohibition assignation rooms and ‘hotels’ in connection with saloons; prohibiting dances in buildings where there is a saloon.
New Rules for Police
"To this end maintain a strict surveillance of the police; discharge policemen who are guilty of gross or petty graft in their relation with the saloons; make frequent rotation of policemen; provide investigation of complaints within twenty-four hours by picked men taken from ‘outside’ districts.
"By any proper means, especially by publicity, put pressure upon the Brewers’ exchange and the Wholesale Liquor Dealers’ association members doing business with saloons which violate laws or regulations referred to, or who are , as bondsmen, responsible for such saloons.
"Licenses of saloons that violate these laws or regulations should be permanently, not temporarily, revoked.
"No women without male escorts should be permitted in saloons. No professional or paid escorts for women should be permitted in any saloon.
"The ordinances prohibiting winerooms should be strictly enforced, and any attempt to provide booths, screens or curtains about table in rear rooms of saloons should be immediately suppressed.
"We recommend that no intoxicating liquor be sold at any public dance.
"A municipal detention home for women should be established, controlled by probation officers.
Want Municipal Dance Halls
"Municipal dance halls should be established, properly policed and supervised. A municipal lodging house should be established for women. We recommend that the municipality secure a farm on which a tradeschool and hospital be established, to which professional prostitutes could be committed on an indeterminate sentence.
"To the corporation counsel: The city ordinances relating to houses of prostitution shoudl be enforced. The city ordinances prohibiting advertisements purporting to treat and cure diseases should be enforced. Daily papers that publish such advertisements should be prosecuted.
"To the police department:
"Accurate monthly reports on all places in Chicago where immoral and dissolute persons congregate should be made to the superintendent of police inspectors.
"If any inspector, captain, or officer fails so to report he should be reduced in rank or dismissed from the service.
"A special morals police squad should form a part of the police force of the city. We recommend that women officers should be added to the police force, whose duty should be to render assistance to women or girls throughout the city, especially at all railroad stations or other places where inexperienced women are liable to need help. We also recommend that some of these women officers be able to speak foreign languages.
Health Regulations
"To the department of health:
"We recommend that the department of health investigate and report the extent of contagious diseases in Chicago each year, together with the sources of infection, the practice of midwifery, with such recommendations looking to its improvements as may be deemed proper; institute a rigid investigation into the use of cocaine and other noxious drugs, with a view at least of limiting such sales by the druggists; direct especial attention to so-called massage practice, and be given power to suppress as a public nuisance any place where contagious diseases flourish.
"To the board of education:
"We recommend that the board of education appoint a committee to investigate thoroughly the advisability and methods of teaching social hygiene to the older pupils in the public schools.
"Girls between the ages of 14 and 16 should receive definite vocational training in continuation schools. We recommend that the board of education extend the use of public schools as social centers.
Regulations for Parks.
"To the park commissioners:
"The parks should be better policed and playgrounds supervised more carefully. Managers of dancing pavilions should be more vigilant in excluding vicious persons. Park managers should extend greater protection to unaccompanied young girls, especially in the evening. Public parks should be better lighted and equipped with search lights. Seats should be removed from the deep shadows.
"To church and other religious bodies:
"Pastors and religious workers should aid in arousing public opinion against the open and flagrant expression of the social evil in this city. The churches should endeavor to counteract the evil influences in the community by opening rooms attached to the church buildings as recreational centers during week day evenings.
"To parents:
"Great emphasis should be placed on parental responsibility and upon the effects of church and school in informing parents of how to safeguard their children."
Text of Proposed Ordinance
Following is the proposed ordinance:
"Be it ordained by the city council of Chicago:
"Section 1 — That there shall be and hereby is created in and for the city of Chicago, a commission to be known as the ‘Morals Commission of the city of Chicago,’ the members of which shall be appointed by the mayor with the approval of the city council, and which commission shall consist of five [5] persons who shall be qualified electors of said city and each of whom shall have resided therein at least one year preceding this appointment. A second member of said commission shall be a physician in good standing.
"Section 2 — The members of said commission shall take the oath of office and file the bond provided by law for officers of said city; provided that no additional bond shall be required of the member of said commission who shall be the commission of health of said city. Such bond shall be in the penal sum of one thousand dollars [$1,000] and shall be conditional according to law.
Members Serve Two Years
"Section 3 — The term of office of the commissioner of health, as ex-officio member of said commission, shall be during the time that he be commissioner of health of the city of Chicago. The term of office of the other members of said commission shall be two [2] years, and until their successors shall be appointed and qualified. The commissioner of health of the city of Chicago shall not receive any additional compensation as a member of said commission. The other members of said commission shall serve without compensation. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of public works of the city of Chicago to furnish to said commission suitable quarters without charge.
"Section 4 — Said commission shall have power to appoint a chief clerk and assistant clerk, one attorney and assistant attorney, one medical inspector and assistant medical inspectors, and such other help as may be necessary. The compensation of all such officers and help and other expenses of said commission shall be such as may from time to time be fixed by the city council.
Give Commission Full Power
"Section 5 — It shall be the duty of said commission to take all legal and necessary steps toward the effectual suppression of disorderly and similar houses within the limits of the city of Chicago, and within three (3) miles of the outer boundaries of the city; to collect evidence of the violation of any state laws and city ordinances concerning any of such houses, and the keepers, inmates, and patrons of the same; and to institute and carry on prosecutions in the name of the city of Chicago against any of said houses, said keepers, inmates, and patrons.
‘Section 6 — Said commission shall have power and authority to make rules and regulation for the conduct of the business of said commission, and otherwise not inconsistent with the provisions of this ordinance."
Members of the Commission
The members of the commission are, beside Dean Sumner and Secretary Edwin W. Sims:
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