The Women’s Crusade Against Vice
Twenty-five prominent Tacoma women demand the city council clear out gambling houses and houses of ill-repute, citing the city charter and moral degradation.
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A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Twenty-five of the most highly respected ladies of Tacoma have presented to the Council of that city a petition, in which they call the attention of the Council to the act consolidating the cities of Tacoma and New Tacoma, section 41, sub-section 16, by which the city government has power and authority to suppress and restrain disorderly houses, and to authorize the destruction of all instruments or devices used for purposes of gaming. The ladies then say: 'It is notorious that our city is infested with gambling houses and houses of ill-fame, and that our police are blind to their duty and the public welfare. Money is squandered, the moral sense of the community outraged, our young men destroyed and the city disgraced. We do most respectfully ask your honorable body to take such steps as will secure the speedy execution of the law with regard to the suppression of these houses of vice.'
“It is notorious that our city is infested with gambling houses and houses of ill-fame, and that our police are blind to their duty and the public welfare.”
In 1884, Tacoma citizens were already grappling with the tension between rapid growth and vice. This petition echoes a long-standing history in Washington of citizens mobilizing civic tools to force accountability on city halls that preferred to look the other way.
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