The herald., 1896-03-30
A TRUST" IN SIN

Under the caption "a Grinding and Sim
full Monopoly" The HERALD today pub
fishes plain narrative of facts that should
prove of absorbing interest to the gentle
men who compose the Los Angeles city
council. 1t is narrative the gentlemen
are invited to peruse, narrative the gen.
tlemen cannot afford to ignore. 1t is de-
scriptive of as shameful monopoly as
ever cursed an American city; it is sugges-
tive of either official incompetency or
official corruption. 1t is story OF a
.'trust'' in sin.
1t will be remembered that in response
to the efforts of the Ministerial union of
this city the council ordered the police
commission to remove disreputable houses
from Alameda street. 1t will also be re-
membered that after good deal of back
ing and filling of the kind that seems to
have characterized very nearly every police
commission Los Angeles has had in the
last ten years, the immediate guardians of
the police department announced their i'm
sOhtAOA "a SOihpiyidS WIN iuO uchAdIuS
of the council by ordering the
clearance of Alameda street of all
the Objectionable houses. What tine
police commission promised is one thing
and what it has done is something en-
tirely different. The diagram accompany
Ing the article above noted makes clear the
fact that the police commissioners have
not cleared Alameda street of houses of
ill.fame. 1t makes clear the fact that they
have prescribed the plying of the trade in
sin in certain houses on Alameda street, but
left undisturbed the same sort of occupa-
ton in certain other houses on the same
thoroughfare. And 1t is here that the
element of gross incompetency or auda-
cious corruption enters.
A short time since the parties leasing the
strip of property marked on the diagram
complained to the police commission that
police officers were rendering their hold
ing useless by preventing patronage of the
houses thereon. The response of the COM
mission was that the officers were obey
ing orders given in pursuance of the COM
missioners' purpose to clear Alameda
street of prostitution. The shallowness of
that reply is made apparent when it is OBJ
served that across the street from the
piece of ground Disseminated against on
the property numbered on the diagram,
the traffic in sin was then and is today be-
iuU rriaJ NJ, frooIu nd opapIx
The houses on the property discrmi-
mated against are similar in construction
to those on the property unmolested, and
one set, like the other, is entered from
tabooed lot is no more reprehensible in
appearance than the tolerated lot.
The situation to-day is that prostitu-
ton exists on Alameda street despite the
pretentlons of the police commission, and
that the territorial control of it has been
secured by two men. One on the west
side and the other on the east side, albeit
the ground given to it on the east side
does not quite come to Alameda street.
Ii is alleged that the parties who leased
the prescribed limits and built houses
thereon, on Saturday last surrendered
their lease. 1t is further asserted that the
monopolist who rules the nest of perdition
just east of the street will take possession
of this vacated property and that in a
short time the traffic that was forbidden
to his predecessors will be commenced by
him. Was it for this that the discrimina-
ton complained of was practiced? Will
the city council find out?