Imperial Valley press., 1914-02-11
Capital
j Is Attacking Vice
By BURTON y, sTANDlsH
Written for the United Press)

(Wrltten Tor tne Onfteu -IIeso'
Washington, Fehs THE national
capitals vice district is on the move.
The new Kenyon injunction and
abatement" law will forever remove
this sewer spot IN the city. Because
Washington is the first large eastern
city to adopt this "1owa idea" the op-
Grafton of the new statute will be
watched with interest all over the
country.
The Kenyon measure, in brief, pro-
vides that any citizen may obtain an
Injunction against use of any prop
ertv in the District for immoral pur-
poses, on showing that the property is
thus used. Iowa cities adopted such
a law half a dozen wears ago and have
succeeded in ridding their environs OF
the segregated vice district.
Washington's red light district has
been notorious for years. Up until
10 wears ago the entire vice section
was ouartered in half a dozen streets
directly off Pennsylvania avenue, and
bounded by Twelfth, d, T., and Fiji
teenth streets. Police recognized the
boundaries of this quarter, kept track
of it's denizens and preserved order
there.
Indeed. it had long been. the boast
of the Washington police department
that Washington's rtenderloln was the
safest place in the city," and that
boast was not baseless. 1t was rare
occasion for any of the unfortunates
to be taken into court, and arrests OF
habitues of the houses or OF casual
visitors ere.far from frequent.
The Washington tenderloin has been
semi officially recognized and rigidly
restricted on the theory that it meant
that the residential sections would be
kept absolutely "clean",-and they
have been up to the present time, with
mighty few exceptions.
1t was also proved by the police
that this semi-official recognition and
segregation meant that Washington's
streets by day or night were absolutely
free of street walkers. The women of
the segregated district were known
and registered as such, and they knew
that "street walking" would mean ex-
lie from Washington.
Persons who have openly or secretly
opposed the Kenyon measure have
prophesied that stamping out of the
tenderloin will mean that Washing
toms residential sections will suffer as
a result; that if some of the women
who are chased out of the tenderloin
do not spread to other sections,
others will come into. the city and man
age to live as they do in New York,
PHILADELPHIA and other cities where
such unfortunates conduct small "es-
tablishments" in good neighborhoods.
A vice crusade in 1904 forced more
restricted quarter for the vice section,
and second "City of the Living Dead"
spranR into being in the southeast sec
ton of the city-a scant three blocks
from the capitol building.
The older vice area was within a
stones throw of the post Office build
ing and the treasury department and
within sight of the white house, WASH
ington monument and the department
of agriculture. The new red light
district did not suppIant the old, the
police crusade suddenly dying, for
some obscure reason. s'|.
The Dasasge of the Kenyon measure
through the senate and house marked
the end of ten years fight by civic re-
formers. Their pleas that the ma
tion's capital--known as one OF the
"cieanest" cities in the world-should
permit organized vice to tester and
GROW in a part of the city set aside
for it, had hitherto gone unheeded.
One other thing which 1t is ex.
pected that the Kenyon measure will