The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-06-29
PROTECTING THE SOLDIER BOYS
FROM VICE q.

Inc war department Is 10 De cOm-
mended for the rigid measures it is
pursuing in protecting our soldier
boys from the temptations and evil
influences that usually hover around
camp life.
Not only is a rigid and vigorous cam
paign being waged in freeing the
camps of these evil influence of lewd
ness and vice of all descriptions, but
in addition the "red light" districts
of the larger towns have been investi-
gated and made to close their haunts
on the shortest possible notice.
The war department authorizes the
publication of the following state
ment:
In all cases the government has
worked with the honest and able CO.
operation of municipal and local au.
thorities. The state councils of de
Tense have done much valuable work.
Chiefs of police throughout the coun-
try have been requested TO give their
attention to this phase of vice regu
latiOn, and the results vindicate the
enthusiastic patriotism with which
the authorities have carried out their
trust. The tenderIOins in the Texas
cities-old fashioned red light dis.
tricts which up to a few weeks ago
seemed as permanently planted in
their towns as the city hall-have
withered over night or gone their
way. FL Paso. Forth Worth Waco
are now surprisingly free Of the easy
money establishments which once
made night hideous and filled the po
lice courts in the morning hours The
world in those parts has grown safe
for the army OF democracy.
Farther north, st. Louis has closed
the lid tight upon the Objectionable
centers. Mayor Bell of indianapolis
has been doing energetic and effec.
tive work in his own town and has
cooperated in keeping undesirable
resorts away from the environs of
Fort Benjamin Harrison.
San rranciscos uptown tenderloin
is also closed tight against the vice
interests, and downtown the all-night
pianos of the "Barbary Coast" nc
longer rattles forth their delirious
ragtime. The cIeaning-up process
has extended all the way to PIatts.
burg, where the wandering undersir.
ables have been told plainly to pack
up and go.
To organize this great protective
movement has been a work of tire
mendous detail and has involved the
notifying of many thousand police
heads in every region which might
touch upon the military establish.
ments Twenty-one thousand letters
were circulated among police authori
ties. The press throughout the coun-
try has done invaluable service to the
government through the medium of
special articles setting forth investi-
gated facts and advising means of
discouraging the sort of business
which the war department has de-
termined to stamp out in the vicinity
of environments and training camps.
The work of Secretary Baker has
been especially vigorous in this re
gard, as he has recognized from the
first that healthy citizen soldiers
could not be produced in unwho1e-
some surroundings. He has never I'M
derrated the Importance of the moral
side Of camp sanitation and, in cases
where cities were slow to comply
with his request has not hesitated
to inform the laggard officials that
unless his policy was followed out
promptly the camp sites would be
moved to other localities.
1t is safe to predict that the gov
ernments big campaign of house
cleaning will result in a far lower
percentage of disease among our sol
diers than now prevails in foreign
military camps.