City Council Targets Saloons with Private Booths
Tacoma's council moves to revoke the licenses of saloons that provide 'boxes' for female patrons, citing a moral concern over their presence in drinking establishments.
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Chief Duley has been investigating, and he finds that a large number of the wet goods dispensaries in the city are violating the act prohibiting boxes. There is no provision for the enforcement of this law except to revoke the licenses, so the chief put the matter up to the council last night. 'In these places women resort to drink and we cannot keep them out as there is no law to do so,' said the chief. Councilman Jamleson called the bluff instanter: 'I will have the license inspector furnish us a list of all places where there are boxes in violation of law and we will recommend that their licenses be revoked at once,' said Jamleson. The list will be prepared and put up to the council and it will then be up to the council to act and close them up.
“In these places women resort to drink and we cannot keep them out as there is no law to do so.”
This reflects the early 20th-century push to police social boundaries and gendered spaces under the guise of public morals, a common precursor to the full-scale Prohibition era. It captures the tension between saloon culture and the city's desire to control urban behavior through licensing threats.
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