The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-01-27
new YORK VICE
LOSING BATTLE
Figures Show That Numer-
Gus Resorts Have Gone
Out During Year.

New York, Jan. 26.-Ncw York city
once characterized by Billy Sunday as
the wickedest spot in the world, has
become an Improbable field for ex-
ploiters Of vice.
Official figures to support this state
ment were issued recently by the bu-
reau of social hygiene, established by
John ID. Rockefeller. Jr., which has
just completed an exhaustive survey
Of vice conditions here. covering "A
period Of five years preceding Novem-
Der ! OF this year.
The darkening of the City's Great
white way and the continued curtail-
ing of liquor industry here are ac-
ceptcd as but the outward indications
of the underlying fact revealed by the
report--that New York no longer Is
the mecca of the vicious from other
parts of the country.
Vice Reduced 50 Per Cent.
The summing up of the report shows
that commerciaiized vice resorts have
been reduced in number SO per cent in
the last five years. The number of
persons engaged in these nefarious &C.
equations has decreased to an even
greater extent. Moreover the changed
conditions under which the lingering
denizens of the underworld are forced
to operate, because of constant activi-
ties of the police. are credited with
making 1t more and more difficult for
the vicious to trap the unwary.
The police and public opinion are
credited with equal shares in bringing
about the present result. In this con-
nection the report says:
1.-The steady reduction Of vice In Its
several aspects is convincing testimony
of the degree to which a determined
public sentiment. operating through
the agency of an efficient police de-
partment, can control the problem OF
prostitution. The record for the last
year shows that with IA continuous.
high minded, and cooperative leader
ship in police administration the police
department can consolidate the gains
previously made and set new stand
ards in safeguarding public health, In
establishing public decency and in pro-
teeting public morals"
Predicts Clean City.
The document describes how the
number of women observed in the
streets had decreased from Sill in
1912 to 2,s76 on November l of this
year. The report concludes with the
forecast that vice will be driven en-
tirely from the city because violation
of the law has become so Improbable
as to be luxury beyond the reach
of the average individual. II says:
New York city has become an IN
profitable field of operations for ex-
ploiters Of vice. many of whom have
lost thousands OF dollars during the
last four years trying to operate de-
spite police activity. Their disorderly
resorts were closed. Reopened at diff
ferent locations again and again, they
were suppressed as often.
Even IL they contrived to operate
for short periods at no time did they
do a really profitable business. The
cost Of moving from one place to an
other, of putting fnrDitur" in storage
and taking IL out again, Of renoyating
new establishments, all drained their
finances to the extent Of forcing them
to pawn personal effects. Projectors
who had been in the business for tween
ty or more years finally closed their
houses and acknowledged This reform
movement Is the worst ever i"