Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-17
VICE CRUSADE IS ON;
ARREST 10 WOMEN
Four Ward Leaders and
Eight Police Lieutenants
Called to City Hall
CLEAN UP THE STREETS

Raids, more than a score of arrests, the
summoning Of four ward leaders to City
Hall and the grilling Of police lieutenants
are the latest features of the anti-vice
crusade launched by Mayor Smith and
other municipal officials. following charges
made by Secretary Of the Navy Daniels
Vice-sauad detectives started out last
night to clean up the streets in the central
section Of the city. BY 1 a. m. nineteen
women had been arrested Fifteen were
taken to the misdemeanants branch Of the
Municipal Court and four to the Fifteenth
and Locust streets police station.
Sixteen headquarters detectives were sent
out to scour South Philadelphia shortly
before midnight. Several arrests were
made.
There was every indication that the fight
against commercialized vice in Philadelphia
will be one ito the fnish," as one official
expressed It,
All arrests were made in strict accord
ance with Secretary Danes's ultimatum
that the city must be made clean for sail
ors and marines quartered here, or he would
take the matter into his own hands
EIGHT L1EUTENANTs CALLED
Eight police lieutenants whose districts
were mentioned in Secretary Danles's re-
port as being more or less infested with
disorderly houses and saloons were sum
moned before Director of Public Safety Will
SON. They were warned that the places
must be closed and that more stringent
rules must be enforced relative to sailors
and marines congregating with women in
back rooms of saloons.
The lieutenants summoned we're:
William Jenrles, Fifteenth and Locust streets
station
Samuel Little, Nineteenth and oxford Streets
station.
Acting Lieutenant James Duffy. Twelfth and
Pine Streets station.
Lieutenant John Graham, Twenty-eishth and
william Mcbride, Fourth and Race Streets sta.
tion.
Harry Plucktelder, Tenth and Buttonwood
James Hesrn, Eleventh and Winter Streets
station.
| James Barry, Fourth Street and Snyder Avenue
Charles B. Hall and Charles Seger, of the
| Seventh Ward, were among the first leaders
| to confer with the Mayor following the
| launching of the campaign. They said they
| had put the Mayor on the right track so
| far as vice is concerned. and added that the
| Seventh Ward was clean
MAYOR PLEDGES CLEANUP
The Mayor gave his assurance to State
officials and prominent churchmen rep
| resenting every creed of his intention to
| stamp out vice Briefly. the Mayor told
| those who came to counsel with him that
| the Daniels report had no political signit-
| cance so far as he was concerned. He
| took occasion to deny published inter-
| view ascribed TO him and Director Wilson
| in which he had been quoted as saying
| the charges were the result of political
| campaign started by those VINO sought to
| influence public opinion. Director Wilson
| also repudiated the interview
| The Mayor said: This means more than
| politics II means that hundreds, yes thou
| sands of lives Of the flower of American
| manhood are In jeopardy here from grave
| social vices"
After having placed before him cold hard
| facts which showed what the troops of the
| Allies have endured because of the sapping
| of their vitality, and the beginning of the
| same conditions in the United states, ne
| pledged all the power Of his office to safe
| guard the life and health of every American
soldier and sailor who comes to Philadel'
| phia.
The Mayor in discussing with State Off
| cials the suppression OF vice, said: Il have
| little faith in the quarantinng of resorts or
| in the vice squad. Cases have been reported
| where It has made actual grafters of the
| men on the post" In one case up on Eighth
| street the Mayor learned that the police
| man supposed to stand in front OF re-
sort collected tribute of a dollar from every
man he passed in through an alley which
led to the yard of the house.
| One transfer of lieutenants was an
nounced Because of the Illness of Lieu
tenant Van Horn OF the Eleventh and Win
ter streets station, sergeant has been act
ing as Lieutenant Because of the trouble
in the district Lieutenant Hearn, Of he
Twentieth and Berks streets station, was
sent to the Tenderloin, and after the re-
turn of Van Horn he will supplant Hearr
at Twentieth and Berks.
THIRTEEN FREED AFTER WARNING
The Tenderloin arose early this morning
and was at the Eleventh and Winter street:
station house to have a peep at the new
lieutenant and incidentally to attend the
hearing of thirteen women arrested II
Chinatown on Saturday night as the result
| Of the city-wide drive on commercializeC
vice. Tim Callahan Tony the Horse, the
Duke" and a host of lesser lights were
very much in evidence as the women wer,
brought up before Magistrate Tracy
According to the telepone calls / have
been thoroughly looked over" by those cru
of these women are respectable and, married
and only take the air at a. m. every morn
ing in Chinatown merely as a rest from
domestic worry"