Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-20
J U ST HOW TO DO IT
Yesterdays Meet of the Anti Division
Association.
Letters From Mayors of Cities Where
the Social Evil Has Been
Stamped Out.

The Anti-Division Association held a
meeting yesterday afternoon in Gunton
Temple Memorial Church, which was ad-
dressed by Rev. S. ]. Smith of Central
Presbyterian Church and Rev. G. N. Luc-
cock Of the Metropolitan Presbyterian
Church. Mr. Smith said two forces oppose
the proposed reform. One is the open, bold
opposition; the other is the let-it-alone ele-
ment. The latter objected to mentioning
the evil lest it spread. 1t was easy enough,
he said, to let it alone, but the real ques-
ton was whether vice would leave decent
people alone. A great deal of opposition
came from property owners in the Division
who received large rents. A house that
in any respectable section Of the city would
rent for SO to $50 month brought from
Sl25 to $50 if let for a bawdy house. Many
Of the owners of these houses belong to
the leading churches and are prominent in
them the churches). Mr.. Luccock deplored
the singular anxiety of Congress to oblit-
crate polygamy in Utah, when right under
the morning shadows of the Capitol lay
the foul blot of the Division. The speaker
took up and refuted the successive arRu-
ments for prostitution a necessary evil.
Letters of Endorsements.
President Bruen read letter from John
w. Foster regretting his inability to be
present and address the meeting. Also a
letter from w. NJ. Kennedy, ex-mayor Of
Allegheny, Pa, which said:
1T seems to very simple problem
to get rid of disorderly houses. Under our
existing laws We cannot recognize such
places, and the police department must en-
force the laws. This l insisted upon. To
put the whole thing in a nutshell, the police
department can suppress this evil If they
want to. 1t is impossible for a house to
run any time if the police department make
Up their minds to close them"
The following letter from A. H. Weir, ex
mayor of Lincoln, Neb., was also read:
The facts are that the so-called social
eviT is no more, in my judgment, neces-
sary evil than is any other crime in the
calendar. With officers who are honest
and willing to enforce the law, this evil, in
SO far anything that can by any stretch
of the Imagination be called public, can be
suppressed easier than can burglary or
sneak thieving. A public officer haste deal
OILY with public evils, and ii is not my
business to endeayor to penetrate the Sc
crets of the home and of domestic life and
prevent the wife from betraying her hus-
band or the daughter from sacrificing her
honor, but it is my duty in so far as there
were public manifestations of this condi-
ton, and houses where this traffic was
made so-called business, to suppress it.
AT the close of my administra ton there
was not public house of prostitution or
gambling in this city. There Were less
prostitutes and gamblers than ever before
in the citys history.
Two Conditions.
ITO accomplish such a result two con-
dItions necessary. Perhaps more than
two, but these are essential: First-Offi-
GERS of the law who have the nerve and
the willingness to ENFORCE the law. L would
attach a second, strike the evil at the
foundation of its life and power. That is,
strike at the men and the influences which
support il.
1t is pitiful subterfuge in the enforce
ment of the law against this crime TO at
tack the wretched creatures who are its
victims, and add to the miseries of the
living hell in which they are already
plunged, and let go scot free without faint
or contamination, the men who support
them and without whose aid the social
eviP could not live one day. / know no diff
ference between male and female prosti-
tutes, unless it may be in the fact that the
male is a thousand times more contempt
ible- commenced my crusade here with
the condition that 1 knew of no sex in
crime.
Il instructed the officers to arrest every
one, male and female alike, who was found
in these houses after the date when they
were ordered closed. And further and this
is ali all-essential point, the name of every
one found therein was to go upon the police
records. Not some fictitious appel!ation
but the real name of the person. 1t made
no difference if it was the governor of the
state. His name would have appeared on
these records had he been found in a house
of ill-fame.
The result was that as soon as the as
tonlshed members of the sporting element
leaHzed that to enter a house of ill-fame
meant exposure, and to a greater or less
extent public disgrace, they gave these
places wide berth. The patronage of The
houses al once fell off, and in a surpris-
lngly snort time they commenced to close
OF their own accord, because they could not
HFe WITHOUT the necessary support"