Chicago Tribune
U.S. TO THROW TEN MILE
VICE ZONE ROUND PIER.
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"Chicago to Be Cleanest City," Slogan of the Authorities.
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As the first step in a united onslaught on vice a ten mile vice zone and a half mile liquor prohibitory territory are to be established around the municipal pier by the United States government. Consideration is also being given to declaring the University of Chicago and Northwestern university military camps and establishing similar restriction around them. A sanitary zone covering Cook county already had been declared by Dr. C. St. Clair Drake, secretary of the state board of health, acting for the state authorities.
News that the office of United States Attorney Charles F. Clyne has ruled the municipal pier, where a naval ensign’s school is being conducted, to be a military camp and recommended to Washington that zones be established, became known after yesterday’s joint conference of city, county, state, and federal law enforcement officials, at which definite plans for correlating legal and medical activities were worked out. Adopting "Chicago, the cleanest city in the world," as their slogan, the officials mapped out a program of attacking vice in all its ramifications.
Firm Grip by U. S. on Vice.
The recommendation to Washington that zones be established at the outskirts of the business district is the first step in the plan. It presages the federal government taking a firm grip on the vice and liquor situations extending far to the northern outskirts of the city, extending southward to beyond the University of Chicago and westward beyond Western avenue. Federal raiders will be active as soon as Washington officially O.K.’s the plan and prosecutions of disorderly resort keepers may be brought in the United States courts.
If it is decided that the University of Chicago and Northwestern university, where enlisted men in large numbers are students, are within the classification of permanent military camps, establishment of further zones would enlarge the restricted territory to include the suburban and near by towns. It would mean the wiping out of the "white light" colonies of Burnham and Burr Oak, as well as including numerous road houses of unsavory reputation.
Mayor Thompson Present.
Mayor Thompson, because of whose absence at the time the meeting a week ago was adjourned, attended yesterday’s session. Among other present besides Capt. George J. Anderson, official representatives of the army and navy secretaries, and Capt. G. H. Robinson and Lieut. E. R. Beckwith, his aids, were First Assistant United States Attorney Joseph B. Fleming, State’s Attorney Maclay Hoyne, Attorney General E. J. Brundage, Acting Chief of Police John H. Alcock, Sheriff John E. Traeger, Dr. S. G. Taylor, representing the state board of health; Dr. John Dill Robertson, city health commissioner; :Lieut. Edwin L. Reese, naval intelligence bureau; Second Deputy of Police C. E. Frazier, Assistant State’s Attorney W. H. Duvall, Hinton G. Claybaugh, local head of federal investigators, and John E. Condren, assistant United States attorney.
Statement on Situation.
At the conclusion of the meeting a statement prepared by Capt. Anderson and Assistant United States Attorney Fleming, who were named as spokesmen for the conferees, was given out, which read:
"Recent Chicago and Cook county conditions were discussed with a view to adapting some of these new methods to the local situation, and, also, in an effort to correlate various legal and medical provisions now in the hands of the authorities. After a thorough general discussion, in which each participant pledged himself fully and freely to the limit of his office in the enforcement of vice and liquor regulations, certain specific pledges were given and a number of plans and ordinances, to be announced later, were agreed upon.
"We appeal to every patriotic citizen of Chicago to support the united officials in their efforts to make effective one of the most difficult of government war policies, to give the largest measure of support possible for this protection of the men in the military and naval services in Chicago and northern Illinois, and in general to continue the program for making Chicago the cleanest city in the world."
