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Newspaper Page Text
Wmmsmmmmmfmmmmmmm SURE THING, HARRISON AND ZIMMER ARE TO BLAME' Mayor' Harrison has chosen to sneer at the idea that he is re sponsible for vice conditions in Chicago. Harrison, as mayor, is "head of 'the police department. Mc Weeny is merely a name. There are ordinances of the City of Chicago now, supposed to be in force, which impose the fol lowing punishments: A fine of $200 for every 24 Jiours any person shall keep open .a. disorderly house. A fine of $200 for every time -any person frequents a disorderly house with immoral intent. " A fine of $200 for every time any person leases a house, know ing that the house will be used for ammoral purposes. Furthermore, eyery disorderly diouse is under the law' a public nuisance and may be closed by or der of the mayor. 1 None of these city ordinances are ever enforced, on a large scale. t Sheriff Zimmer is to blame, too. Under the statutes of Illinois. Zimmer has the right to arrest any person running or frequent ing a disorderly house. He never does it. What is more, there is a statute of Illinois which says that every person whose habits are immoral shall be a vagabond, and as such liable to a sentence of six months in the house of correction. Zimmer could enforce that statute. He never does it. Any keeper of a disorderly house in Chicago could be sent to the Bridewell or fined until his or her business became unprofitable. But it isn't done. In a few weeks the Chicago Women's Protective League has booked fourteen hundred inmates of disorderly houses in the Twenty-second, street district, and every one of the houses is running openly. Mayor Harrison is to blame, and Sheriff Zimmer is to blame, and neither may dodge the issue. The grand jury now sitting may riot dodge the issue either. In -an interview in the Daily News today one of the grand jur ors makes an almost pitiful plea for an investigation. He says great pressure is being brought on the grand jury to force it to quit, and that many of the jurors are just about ready to quit. What are the granjl jurors afraid of? They are all business men, men of a fair station in life. What or whom are they afraid of? And even supposing they are afraid, what business have they to allow their fears to interfere with their duty? The grand jurors are under oath. The judge who impanelled them charged them to investigate vice in Chicago. If the grand jur ors wish to uphold their oath they must investigate. o o Frozen salmon packed in the Portland, Ore., district last year weighed nearly seven and a quar ter million pounds, one schooner equipped with cold storage alone catching over 1,000,000 pounds,. ..-