City Hall Wins Fight to Shutter Immoral Dance Halls

The indications are now that the ordinance declaring dance halls nuisances and providing a penalty for keeping them in violation of the law will be deemed valid by the superior court. Judge Humes yesterday heard the argument on a demurrer to the complaint interposed by James Monroe, a dance hall owner and one of the appellants from the municipal court, and overruled it. Monroe could not plead guilty, however, and will stand trial in the superior court also. Monroe's attorney argued that the keeping of a saloon was not a nuisance, that dancing was not a nuisance, and that a combination of a saloon and a dance could not therefore be a nuisance. Judge Humes handled the matter squarely in his decision. He said that in his opinion the city had the right to pass the ordinance. There was not the slightest doubt that a dance house was a nuisance. It was true that dancing was not in itself a nuisance, but where women were hired to associate with men at a place where there was dancing and drinking, the effect upon the public morals could not be else than bad, for their influence could only be to bring out the vilest side of human nature and its degradation.