Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-03
Vice Rampant
Here, Federal
Officers Find
Dozens of Complaints Reach
! Marshal Smiddy Who Begins
Probe; Has Warned Women
to Leave Houses in Residen.
NtiaI Districts
; HAT Honolulu is teeming with
commerciaIfzed vice 10 a degree

d.
%HAT Honolulu is teeming with
commerciaIized vice 10 a degree
J Ear greater than before closing
the 1wilei restricted district, and that
h is rapidly spreading to the better
Presidential districts, is the substance
OF dozens of complaints which are be-
ing received by federal officials and
Which are being Investigated by U. S.
Marshal ]. J. Smiddy. Z.
Conditions are rotten-and that ID
the only word that expresses II clearly
and are becoming worse every day"
declares one federal official. He as.
serts that, in his opinion. the only way
70 remedy present conditions win be
10 reopen the restricted district.
Complaints regarding the prevalence
Of commercialized vice have been
coming into the marshal's office by
the score during the last three weeks,
he says. These are to the effect that
houses In respectable residential dis.
fricts are being rented by women, who
not only ply their trade IN spite of
repeated judicial warnings, but who
are selling liquor without licenses,
and II IL asserted that soldiers form
the majority Of the purchasers of the
booze.
A complaint reached Marshal Smid.
dy this morning from a well-known
citizen that three women, formerly of
iwiIei. have established residence in
Beretania street, where they are al.
legged 70 be catering to soldiers and
peddling booze: Other districts, equally
as respectable. are likewise being In
Tested by these women, the marshal
has learned.
Marshal Smiddy has already made
several investigations and in each case
warned the women to leave the houses
they were occupying. No arrests were
made as no actual evidence, either of
the commission Of statutory offense
or the sale Of liquor, was secured.
Other complaints have been turned
over to the police department for in
vestisation.
Reports reaching me are TO the
effect that vice is rampant and that
It is breaking out all over the city,
says the marshal eft is q case where
little Iwileis are established alongside
Of respectable homes, and where
school children are constantly brought
N touch with the menace. This Of
flee WIN do ell In its power to keep
the vice from residential districts, and
wipe out, n we are able. the vice ex-
listing there now.
Women 81 the underworld, the mar
shall has been infor1Ied. have been
renting rooms b the wholesale as
rendezvous IN which to ply their
trade. BY clever acting they have
been able 10 fool even the owners Of
the houses. who do not know who
they are.
AT the present time, says the mar
fhai, 1T viii be impossible for this on.
flee to personally Investigate all com.
plants. AZ they have come IN By the
dozen. but we intend to continue our
investigations.
One story reaching the marshal. and
which be is Inclined to believe is au-
thenfi0, tells Of young Hawaiian girl
who married = soldier recently for the
purpose Of securing marriage license
as q protection against arrest In ply.
ing the trade Of the underworld The
husband Of the woman, who resents