The Snohomish Moral Crusade
Ministers unite to force the city council to shutter local gambling dens and brothels.
SNOHOMISH, Jan. 20. The ministers of the various churches in this city have commenced a crusade against the gambling places and houses of ill-fame now running in various quarters about town. They have presented a memorial to the city council calling attention to the increase in the vices above mentioned, urging their suppression and citing sections of the penal code of the state governing such evils. The council was urged to enforce those laws and were assured the co-operation of the Ministers' Alliance in the matter. The Mayor last night advised the council that such a move would not be popular, except possibly in the case of gambling, and submitted that the council should do nothing at all about the memorial. The matter will nevertheless be submitted to a vote next Tuesday night.
“The Mayor last night advised the council that such a move would not be popular.”
This 1893 clash between clergy-led moral crusaders and a pragmatic city council captures the perennial tension in Washington politics regarding vice and municipal revenue. While the 'crusades' have shifted from saloons to modern zoning and public health debates, the debate over how much a city should tolerate (or profit from) vice remains a hallmark of regional civic life.
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