The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-08-31
SUPERVISE THE DANCE HALLS.

Keriosha people were mortified during the
past week by brutal criminal assault made on
a young girl The courts of the county are eX-
pected to act promptly on the punishment of
the men connected with the outrage and I'M
doubtedly punishment fitting to the crime-if
such punishment is possible under the statute
will be meted out but it is important that
other young women of the city be protected
against such attacks in the future. Such pro-
lection can not come entirely from the police de-
partment or the courts but some of it should
come from these sources Home influences
must be brought into the fight to make Keno
sha safer for the young girl and fathers and
mothers of young girls must do the real big
work of safeguarding them against being liable
to such attacks.
Supervision Of dance halls and the loafers
who congregate about them is decidedly neces-
sary in Kenosha One of the first regulations
which should be demanded by the police officers
is that no place where violations of the prohi-
bition law have been found should be permitted
to operate as dance hail. Many young man,
who may have been normally clean and free
from the criminal intent, is rendered menace
when his brain is befogged with liquor.
The place which is willing to violate the law
and sell contraband liquor is place which will
probably not be over-thoughtful of the virtue
of young girl ora woman. The drunken man
is a mighty poor companion for young girl or
for anyone else. Places in Kenosha have con-
tinued to flourish regardless of the fact that
drunken men and some times drunken women
have been the chief thing of interest they have
to offer. These places should be closed by the
police and kept closed
Mothers and fathers Of girls in Kenosha
should know the nature of the places where
their daughters and their sons go to dance If
these places are such as to open the way for
their association with the debauched and vici-
Gus the children should be barred from them.
The public dance hall may be a necessity in
Kenosha but it must not be permitted to be-
come menace to the girl life of the city. That
in many cases it has reached the stage where
it is menace can not be denied. Every one of
these dance halls and the places about them
should be under the direct supervision Of a po-
lice officer or deputy sheriff just as soon as
the music starts and these guardians of the law
should remain there until the last dancer has
quit the floor. It might cost the city and coun-
ty something to maintain such supervision but
the virtue of the girls is worth more than the
city could spend on such supervision.
1t may be that some of these places would
resent the coming Of such officers but the ex-
preston of resentment will be the surest indi-
cation that the place in question is poor place
for your daughter and mine to go.
1t may be a little old-fashioned to have ia
ther and mother go with the daughter to
dance but just the same little old-fashioned
chaperonage in Kenosha might lead lot Of
mothers and fathers to discover that the night
life Of their daughters was being passed under
conditions which throttle every real sense of
girlhood and open the way to the evils which
prove the most dangerous menace to their de-
velopment. The public dance must be proper
ly supervised or Kenosha will pay for it with
the debauchery Of the virtue Of it's daughters.
The representatives of Goods Patient Poor"
in Wisconsin are evidently neither patient or