The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-09
SOCIAL EVILS GAN
 NOT BE STOPPED
MAYOR FLElscHMANN DELIVERS AN INTERESTING ADDRESS ON THE HARDEST PROBLEM THAT MUNICIPALITIES CONFRONT.

Baltimore, October S.-The convention of the League of American Municipalities resumed It's session this morning. Among the addresses delivered were, Municipal Restriction of the Social Evil" by Mayor Julius Fleischman of Cincinnati. Mir. 1 Fleisehman said:
 Under the legal definition of the rights of the city it may be said that the policy of the city of Cincinnati is not re- striction nor licensing of the social evil, but restriction of the spread of dis ease in the first instance, with the re- striction of the evil as a possible incl dent to the adopted regulations.
 Tt is to be admitted that the uues- tion of the issuance of certificates is se- rious and open to argument, but 1t is de- nied that the issuance of a certificate is in any degree a Compromise with crime
 Tn the work done the police depart ment Is the controlling influence, and without it the health department would be powerless. The police department looks to the mistress of the house of prosti- tuition for the performance of her al- lotted share of the work. If these regu- lations are followed strictly and in good faith, the mistress of the house is not molested by the police unless there is some open breach of the peace, and there in lies her safety and as a consequence her protection. Those houses are quietly conducted, and as a rule confined to cer- tain restricted boundaries. Music is al- lowed in houses of prostitution, but it must be StODnpd hpfOra Tnidnigbf
 If closing up the houses by the stop- ping of music or of drinking would re- suit in the total suppression of the social evil there would be overwhelming force. in the argument. But a stoppage of the social evil is an impossibility.
 Tt is conclusive in the light Of all his- tory of attempts to deal with the social evil that it's suppression is an impossi- bility. Therefore it's regulation is the problem with which the people are today confronted, and which the municipal au- thorities of Cincinnati are endeavoring to solve"
 At the afternoon session the delegates listened to an address by Rudolph Herr Ing, hydraulic engineer and sanitary ex- pert Of New York City, on Garbage and Sewage Disposal" In which the speaker reviewed the whole field of proper dis posal of the solid and liquid refuse of a modern city, the various methods in use In this country and in Europe being re- viewed including dilution in large bodies of running water, intermittent filtration through sand chemical precipitation and partial liqufaction in septic tanks, fol- lowed by high rate filters of course ma terlal and liberal aeration. "Of all the processes for sewage purifcation," said he, none equals ineffeetiveness the slow percolation of sewage through porous soil or sand. It is natures method of purifying the dirty water, which, after a rainstorm, goes over the surface of the ground gathering dust and bacteri, then slowly descends through the pores to the spring levels and finally issues as a pure and limpid spring water The methods of dilution and Intermittent filtration through sand are those most used, most effective. and where practicable. most eco- 1 nomca1."