The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-02

MSSoWA FINDS
REDlloAT IS NOT
NECESSARY EVIL
Year Of Closing Successful
Say Representatives Of
u City's People.
ALMOST UNANIMOUS
IN THEIR APPROVAL
Police Declare Situation Is
Better Than Under Old
Conditions.
Is a segregated district a necessary

Is segregated district a necessary
evil?
Missoula's answer to that question
based upon years experience without
such q district after years of wide
open" conditions, is an emphatic NO"
One year ago yesterday the city and
county authorities, acting together,
closed MfssOula's redlight district To-
day the people of the city are almost
unanimous in their verdict that the
closing was q success.
TO determine the popular verdict,
The Missoulian questioned individuals
representing every attitude toward the
matter. City and county officers, labor
union offict2ls, business men, heads Of
civic SOCIETIES, physicians. judges. law
yers, educators and liquor dealers were
asked TO answer this question:
HAS the closing been a success?"
Approval Almost Unanimous.
The question was put to 20 persons,
representing the various points OF view
enumerated above. The result was as
follows:
Persons asked, 20.
Not answering, 6.
AQoroying closing order, IA.
disappearing closing, /.
Conditions Much Better.
City and county officers replied with
out hesitation that conditions have
been improved by the closing. Since
the vice district went out of exist
ence, they say, the police have had less
trouble In maintaining order than be-
fore. They deny the persistent rumor
that women driven out Of the re-
Euicted district have scattered through
the city. Chief OF Police Thomas Kemp
declares that his officers have kept
close watch of the women from the
district and that only few are still
in the city. Such cases Of immortality
as have been handled by the police in
volve strangers or women not from the
old vice district.
Disease Not Increased.
business nze,, generally approve the
new order. Physicians call 1t a sue
cess, andsDr. James d. Hobson, secre-
tary R the medical society, says that
instead OF increasing yenereal diseases
the closing has decreased the number
Of cases In Mtssouia.
LiqIor dealers declined to discuss
the matter. The one expression favor
ing the old system came from the head
Of a civic organization and was based
upon the belief that the closing has
scattered denizens of the restricted dis
trict through the city and has caused
an increase In disease.
The statement follows:
Or. e. o. Sissen, President State Uni
p ~. an
ago to say that the closing of the re.
stricted district was impossible. and
even II it were possible, would be unde.
sirable.
1.-TWO body blows, however have beer
struck against this view:
First, the heart Of modern man.
kind absolutely refuses to condemn an,
human b .ing 20 the horrible fate whici
conmercialised prostitution inflicts up,
on its victims.
Second, 8 much more definite ant
concrete blOw--the fact that every vic
commission. after prolonged and in
tense first-hand s.lsly Of restricted dis
tricts. has reached the same yerdic,
namely, that the only cure Is abolition
''The social evil and sex immoralit!
constitute one Of the great unsolve'
problems OF the human race. 1t is
problem OF the first magnitude, .sucl
as slavery once was and as alcoholism
war and poverty still are. SLAYER
has beerf abolished: alcoholism
beaten. though not annihilated; pres
ent signs Indicate that the war-go
has perpetuatNd his supreme madnes
and will be throttled within the mex
few years.
The sex problem 10 more intenscl
organic and more deeply rooted in ma
ture than any Of the others. 1t i
moreover. linked up indiyscluteiy VIII
the most beautiful forms OF huma
life-home. family. marriage. paren,
hood. But we must hope and believ
that the intelligencs OF man and hi
divine aspirations will triumph in tn
great problem ALSO"
Pelies Commissioner Thomas
kemp,-"To answer the question I
whether l think conditions have In
proved since the abolishment OF the n
stricted district In West Front stree
/ have only to say that would new
vote to have the old-time district e
tablishe1 again. Furthermore, l thiT
copdtttuns viii improve further aft
January !. l3ls.
"One of the greatest feeders TO vi
Continued on Pare EIGHTY