Tacoma’s Vice 'Lid' Finally Sealed
Mayor and Chief of Police bow to council pressure to finally end the city's unofficial restricted vice district.
The story, cleaned up
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.
The lid is on. Mayor Linck and Chief of Police Duley, after a stormy session with the council last night, agreed that they would keep it on and enforce the law against the social evil in Tacoma. The mayor and chief initially tried to shift the responsibility for allowing a restricted district onto the council, but the council would not take it. During the discussion, most councilmen admitted they had previously advised the mayor to follow the course of segregation. However, under pressure from members Jamieson, Lynn, Hawthorne, and Rankin, the council voted that the law must be enforced. Chief Duley admitted he had allowed over 155 women in the 'vice palace' without interference, claiming he only tried to keep order and prevent boys from entering. After much dodging, both the mayor and the chief declared they would wipe out the district and drive the women out of town if necessary.
“If the officers tried they could grab every one of those women and haul them to the train and ship them out of town. It's a cinch.”
Tacoma’s struggle to reconcile illicit local economies with 'public sentiment' has been a recurring civic tension for over a century. While the terminology has shifted, the pressure on municipal leaders to 'do something' about neighborhoods considered problematic remains a defining, if controversial, feature of local governance.
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