The San Francisco call., 1906-08-29
LANGDON To CLOSE
DENS OF VICE.
District Attorney Says
He Will Not Sanction
Violation of the Law
ORDERED


The persistent encroachment of the
vicious element on the Western Addi-
tion has caused District Attorney
Langdon to. issue defiance which
means that there will be no more delay
in driving from among the homes of
decent people class which, with the
connivance of some one in authority,
has been enabled to gain a foothold
in spite of strong public sentiment.
The arrest few weeks ago of the in
mates of Lazarine's notorious resort at
Steiner and Turk streets has given
Langdon an opportunity to declare
himself. In directing the arrest Of
Joseph Magner, who owns the prop
erty in which LaZarine has established
herself, he has begun campaign that
will be far reaching.
Lazarine's place is only one of fifty
that will be taken in hand. When the
flames drove these unfortunates from
their downtown haunts they scattered
over the residence district without re-
gard to location. The new tenderloin
was created In day, and notwith-
standing the oft-repeated assertions of
the police that it would be removed
there has been no effort made to either
limit or regulate 1t.
PENAL CODE IS PLAIN.
The Penal Code in express terms
thorities, as we'll as the State and
coanty officers, to suppress the growth
of vice. The District Attorney intends
to do so under the section of the code
that reads as follows:
Every person who keeps any dis
orderly house, or any house for the
purpose of assignation or prostitution,
or any house of public resort, by which
the peace, comfort or decency of the
disturbed, or who keeps any INN in
a disorderly manner; and every person
who lets any apartment or tenement,
knowing that 1t is to be used for the
purpose of assignation or prostitution,
is guilty of misdemeanor.
In speaking of his proposed cam
paign against the evil Langdon said:
Houses of prostitution will not be
permitted to remain in the residence
district Every house must be closed
at once, or the landlord will be arrest
ed for letting his building for the pur-
poses of prostitution. Chief Dinan is
in thorough accord with me in this
lord who delays or refuses to eject
his tenants after he has been notified
that a house of prostitution is being
conducted there.
the spread of the social evil is by ar
resting the greedy landlords who. to
get an increased rental, are willing to
contaminate respectable neighborhoods
and lower the moral tone of the whole
community. To arrest the unfortunate
inmates of these houses and permit
those who profit by their infamy to go
unpunished is neither just nor the
proper method of vindicating the law.
RENTERS WORSE THAN INMATES.
To my mind the inmates of the low
est brothel are infinitely superior to
the unmentionable creatures who live
upon their earnings. For the exorbi-
tant rents that can be obtained from
houses of prostitution some property
neighborhood, corrupt the minds of in
nocent children. and set at defiance the
public laws of the State.
When few of these landlords who
lay claim to respectability are drawn
into the Police Courts as defendants
violators Of the law in this regard.
Today we shall proceed against Jo-
seph Magner, who has rented the up
per fat on Turk and Steiner streets to
who formerly kept house on Com
street. A few weeks ago the
police raided the house and arrested
the madame and eight girls. We shall
now try what promises to be a more
effective way of driving these women
the owner of the premises under Sec
tion 316 of the Penal Code.
It is probable that before Langdon
closes his war on these places he
will have closed all those that have
sprung up in the neighborhood of the
Chutes, Jessie Hayman's place at Post
and Devisadero streets, and many
others that are scattered throughout
the city.