Mayor Orders Crackdown on Vice
Colfax officials scramble to collect fines from gambling dens and 'the half world' as the city council seeks to boost revenue.
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The anti-saloon league meeting at the Presbyterian church Sunday night had its action reflected in the city council meeting Monday night by a verbal order from Mayor Stuhl to Marshal Mackay to enforce the payment of monthly fines upon gamblers and the women below the social deadline. Up to last December, these fines were paid monthly into the police court, but since then such as are still in evidence are not credited upon the docket. In December, six gambling games paid their stipends. In January, four paid; in February, two; in March, one lone gambler contributed. The women below the dead line have not been in evidence since December. Mayor Stuhl's order aims to revitalize these collections for the city's current expense fund.
“Up to last December, these fines were paid monthly into the police court.”
This reflects a classic 19th-century municipal 'vice tax,' where the city government essentially legalized illicit activity through systematic fining, balancing public moralizing with a desperate need for revenue.
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