The Natchitoches enterprise. (Natchitoches, La.) 1888-1965, 1918-05-16
IF it was intended as a Joke, l

prohibited prostitution. and denoul
ced it as a crime, and prescribed
adequate penalties for its violation
1t said nothing about any restrict
ed district. 1t is fair to assume tina
if prostitution is to be recognized
by the city government as legiti
mate business by being Licensed
and regulated, every decent per
son would prefer that it be restric
ted to certain limits.
I have heard that at least two
members of the council understood
that the ordinance abolished pros
titution, that it was substantially
compliance with the request of the
committee. I say this because lam
anxious to avoid doing injustice to
the gentlemen of the council, all OF
whom / count as my personal frien
| DIS.
But the ordinance must speak for
itself, and thus speaking it says to
the degraded women Of the town,
and of other places in the State
from whence they have been driv
en-.
Our town is a progressive one.
We do not heed the Council of NOR
alists and reformers. We are ex-
pounding our various industries and
callings. We haye been asked by
certain gentlemen to prohibit the
exercise OF your calling. Instead of
yielding to such an unwise request,
we are going to remove all of the
restrictions which have heretofore
hampered you, by repeating the or
dinance under which you have been
segregated from the rest of our PEG
pie, and permit you to seek more
populous and attractive neighbor-
hoods. Hereafter. if you can secure
houses in the residential sections of
the town. you are free, SO tar as we
are concerned, to ply your avoca-
ton unmolested."
And what is more, we are going
to repeal the ordinance which i'm
posed a license tax upon YOU"
The fact that this ordinance was
intended by the one who drafted it
as a legal Joker, is shown by the
absence of any penal clause, with
out Yhich it cannot, of course, br
enforced. and by the fact that no
effort has been made to enforce it.
/ state. on the authority of one who
kno Is, that the situation is exact
liz whatit was when the ordinance
was adopted.
/ desire to say. in passing, that
if what MIR. Keyser says is true, to
the effect that former ordinance
imposed a license on the business in
question, then the statement in my
letter, which my friend so vigorous
ly challenges, is much too conserva
tive.
/ was fully warranted in saying
that this town enjoyed the distinc-
ton of being, perhaps, the only one
in the United States which had ele
waited the business of prostitution
fromthe station which it has always
occupied in the social system, to a
plane of equality among che legal
and gainful occupations. which the
law recognizes as such, by the i'm
position of a license. tax.
/ am not in a position to ques-
ton the correctness of Mr.. Key
ser,s statement that a representa-
tive of the federal government said
that conditions here we're among
the best in the country. He evident
ally refers to Lieutenant Thomas
A. Larremore, of the Sanitary
Corps of the United States.
Beforethat gentleman came here
he notified me by letter and wire of
his intended visit and the purpose
of it, and solicited my co operation.
Judge w. L. Cunningham received
a similar notice. He conferred with
Judge Cunningham and myself as
soon as he arrived,
l presume he had been referred
to Judge and me bv the department
at Washington, as | knew nothing
of his intended visit until the re-
ceipt of his letter. He was here two
nights and a day, and made two in
spections of the restricted district.
/ do know that his report to me was
anything but favorable to the town.
He informed meas shown by a
map which he prepared. and which
is before me as | write-that there