POLICE DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF BOSTON A RECORD OF THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS AGAINST SEXUAL IMMORALITY SINCE DECEMBER 1, 1907 AS CONTAINED IN THE INFORMATION RELAT- ING THERETO EMBODIED IN THE REPORTS TO THE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHU- SETTS MADE ANNUALLY BY THE POLICE COMMISSIONER FOR THE CITY OF BOSTON WITH ADDED MATTER CITY OF BOSTON PRINTING DEPARTMENT Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/recordofenforcem00bost_0 QlS-c LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST SEXUAL IMMORALITY SINCE DEC. 1, 1907. Total extinction of public and semipublic sexual immorality in a city of the size of Boston cannot be hoped for, can hardly be imagined; but effectual restraint can be applied. I do not mean restraint by license as practised in the cities of other continents the world over, and as tried at times in this country. Neither do I mean the restraint common to almost all cities of the United States with populations large enough to raise the question, — the restraint which attempts to confine vice to particular localities, which says to brothel keepers that within territories bounded by certain streets they may carry on their business untroubled, or at worst with no greater inconvenience than a fine imposed with such regularity and moderation as to become practically a license fee; which guarantees pros- titutes in houses or out-of-doors within designated sections against the danger of prosecution; which assures licentious men that for breaches of the law com- mitted within certain territorial limits there is neither punishment nor exposure. Restraint by license is a surrender to vice under authority of law; restraint by segregation is a compro- mise with vice illegally made, a nullification of laws by public officers appointed to enforce them. Either license or segregation condemns whole neighborhoods, in which the vicious are but a minority, to the common brand of infamy, and fails nevertheless to save other neighbor- hoods from incursions of vice. When I speak of restraint, therefore, I mean the restraint which is founded on effective laws, vigilant performance of police duty and that responsive action by courts and juries without which both laws and police are powerless. Until a specific law is violated by a 2 particular person, the police can only watch; and when the offence is detected, they can do no more than present the offender and their evidence to a court. It is a judge in a lower court who finds guilt or innocence and orders punishment, and in a higher court it is the verdict of a jury which makes possible or impossible the imposition of a penalty by a judge. The problem of mercenary sexual vice is thousands of years old; even in Boston its official record covers nearly two centuries. As early as 1718, the population being then but 10,000, “Mary Porcell, Abigail Thurston and Esther Ray were publicly whipped for being night walkers, and afterwards fined ten shillings each.” Sixteen years later, in 1734, “a mob demolished a house of ill fame under the countenance of some well- meaning magistrates.” In 1753 “a female accused of lewdness was exposed nearly naked on a scaffold near the Townhouse for the space of an hour, facing each of the four cardinal points fifteen minutes, suffering the most disgusting and brutal treatment by a mob.” In 1796 the Boston watch was reorganized and one of the duties with which it was charged was “to enter houses of ill fame.” In 1816, an effort having been made to build a new workhouse, it was said: “As respects the Hill, it consists principally of drunkards, harlots, spendthrifts, and out- casts from the country; in truth, Beelzebub holds a court there, and almost every town in the Commonwealth has a representative. These are great nuisances, but every large town has them, whether governed by Select- men, or Mayor and Aldermen, in spite of jails and work- houses, and probably will till the millennium.” The population of Boston at that time was about 35,000, and the extract just quoted shows that the presence in the city of many lewd women from other places is not a new social condition. In the middle of the last century, when the population of Boston was about one-fourth its present size, immoral 3 practices were carried on so boldly and so extensively that it was possible to arrest scores of men and women at a single descent. In one such effort, April 23, 1851, in which fifty policemen and an equal number of the watch were engaged, 165 persons were arrested in one part of the city. In another descent, October 22, 1858, fifty-one women were arrested, most of them, as de- scribed by the recorder, being young, and many of them having been in the city but a few months. These few historical notes chosen from many that might be used show that in Boston as elsewhere public immorality is deep-rooted. It has outlived all agencies employed for its extermination, from the whipping post of bodily punishment to the probation system of moral suasion. It will survive as long as there are bad men and women whose vices offer a means of profit. It can be held in check and perhaps gradually reduced whenever the laws, the courts and the police faithfully and intelligently cooperate. Over the first two I have no control; for the police I avow both authority and responsibility. The record of their work in recent years is in the pages which follow and the quality of that work is at the judgment of every reader. Stephen O’Meara, Police Commissioner for the City of Boston. 4 DECEMBER J, 1907, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1908. [From the Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston for the Police Year ended Nov. 30, 1908.] Until this, the third year of my service as Police Com- missioner, I have refrained from discussing the rela- tions of the Police Department to houses of ill fame, night walking and other forms of public or semipublic immorality. Sincere but inexperienced sociologists and humanitarians will discuss the subject at a moment’s notice, but after two and a half years of study, with the advantage of daily access to all forms of police information, I am still unprepared to do more than to state and analyze facts, and to touch the mere edge of criticism and suggestion. Houses of III Fame. There is a tradition in Boston that fourteen years ago, under the direction of a chairman of the Board of Police, then lately appointed, houses of ill fame were closed and their keepers prosecuted in great numbers. Nothing in the records of the department justifies this tradition. In 1894 the number of persons prosecuted for keeping houses of ill fame was 46, and in 1895 the number was 69. The popular belief at that time, which still exists, must have had its origin in the publicity with which the work was then carried on, and the knowledge that in the year immediately preceding, 1893, the prosecutions had numbered but 19. Public clamor will never close a house of ill fame, but it will spread demoralization through the commu- nity. The people who live by this business care nothing for public opinion. They can be reached only through the silent, relentless work of the police; and it was through such work in 1908 that 114 persons were brought into court charged with keeping houses of ill fame. This is the largest number in thirty years, and therefore 5 the history of Boston, as isecutions will show: i the following statement of 1879 . 51 1894 . 46 1880 . 23 1895 . 69 1881 . 25 1896 . 72 . 1882 . 52 1897 . 54 1883 . 63 1898 . 31 1884 . 67 1899 . 68 1885 . 43 1900 . . 100 1886 . 84 1901 . 55 1887 . 50 1902 . 55 1888 . 25 1903 . 80 1889 . 55 1904 . . 66 1890 . 27 1905 . 52 1891 . 31 1906 . . 65 1892 . 40 1907 . 74 1893 . 19 1908 . . 114 Legal Evidence Difficult to Obtain. In order to secure evidence for these 114 prosecutions, 205 suspected houses and apartments were searched by the police, and the whole number of searches in those places was 402. The difficulties of this work are not in the least under- stood by the public. It seems to be impossible to make even persons of intelligence realize that no one can be convicted of a crime, not even a keeper of one of these houses, unless a specific offence can be charged, with precise and abundant evidence to sustain it, in the calm and judicial atmosphere of a court, and with a skillful attorney employed by the defendant to overthrow the case. An indignant citizen who feels sure of the bad character of a house demands that it be closed by the police. He forgets that we are not in an Asiatic des- potism; that in this country every person is held to be innocent until his guilt has been proved; that the one thing which is of value to the police is the very thing which he cannot produce, or refuses to produce, and that is evidence that will convince or help to convince a court or jury. He protests that men and women 6 drive up to the house and drive away late at night, that there are lights, music and merriment; and in his simplicity he does not know that if a policeman were to go before a judge asking for a warrant on such a state of facts he would be told that he did not know his busi- ness, that the appearances which he described were to be found nightly in Commonwealth avenue and Beacon street as well as in the shady quarters of the city. He does not know that “ spotter” evidence — the evidence of a man who for pay would enter these houses and join in their orgies — would not be worth the time it would take to present it to a scornful jury. He does not know that the law by its provisions classes a house of ill fame as less dangerous to the community than a place where trivial gaming is going on; that the police may, with a warrant but without warning, break in the doors of a house in which it is suspected that men are playing cards or shaking dice for money, but that the only practicable way in which they can legally enter a house of ill fame is by means of a search warrant for liquor, obtained in advance from a court and subject to many chances of becoming known. Although the police made 114 prosecutions last year there were “ high-class” houses, so called, whose keepers they could not reach. Another year will, perhaps, show a different result. There are houses of this char- acter to which no man is admitted unless known to the keepers or in the company of others who are known. The critical citizen supposes that any man is welcomed at any of these places unless he is suspected of being a policeman. There are other houses which no man enters and but few women inhabit. They have their accredited customers among men, and their clients among women, and by means of the telephone cus- tomers and clients are brought together in places not under the scrutiny of the police. How Keepers are Punished. The 114 persons charged with keeping houses of ill fame having been brought into court, what was done 7 with them? Taking the action of the lower courts only, for there were some appeals which it would be difficult to follow through the procedure of the Superior Court, the disposition of cases was as follows: 49 7 16 11 3 2 1 7 1 9 4 3 1 Fined $50 Fined $100 Discharged Placed on file Placed on probation Prison at Sherborn .... Pending House of Correction one year House of Correction eleven months House of Correction six months . House of Correction four months House of Correction three months House of Correction one month . Total 114 With the discharges no fault can be found, for doubt- less the evidence was not strong enough to convince the courts. But that fourteen cases should have been placed on file or on probation, either of which disposi- tion implies guilt, is puzzling. No person goes into the business of keeping a house of ill fame by accident, on impulse or through sudden temptation. All such persons are of mature years, for they own or occupy houses or apartments, and they must be so hardened to vice as to be free from the danger of contamination by the inmates of any prison. If they express repentance when they have been caught and convicted, it could be worked out better after a term of imprisonment than immediately following a release without punish- ment. The sentence in almost half the cases was a fine of $50, which is not even the maximum money penalty provided by law. It is hard to believe that the Common- wealth should condone such an offence as this for any sum of money paid, and especially for a pittance that 8 can be charged to the profit and loss account without embarrassment to the business or interruption of its successful progress. Penalties for Violating the Liquor Law. But besides the 114 prosecutions for keeping houses of ill fame, the 402 searches developed evidence on which were based 43 prosecutions for violation of the liquor law, which in the lower courts were disposed of as follows: Fined $50 26 Fined $75 1 Fined $100 4 Discharged 6 Placed on file 3 Placed on probation 1 House of Correction three months ... 1 Pending 1 Total 43 It will be noticed that the prevailing fine ($50) is as heavy in the liquor cases as in the cases of convictions for keeping houses of ill fame. Inmates of Houses. As a further result of the police searches 78 men and 130 women, in addition to the keepers, who were found in these houses, were arrested, either as actually engaged in the commission of crime or as idle and disorderly persons. Their cases were disposed of in the lower courts as follows: Fined $20 135 Fined $15 3 Fined one cent 2 Placed on probation 27 Placed on file . 9 Discharged 8 Defaulted 2 Carried forward 186 9 Brought forward 186 House of Correction one year .... 1 House of Correction sik months .... 1 House of Correction four months ... 9 House of Correction three months ... 4 House of Correction two months .... 1 House of Correction one month .... 1 Prison at Sherborn 3 Jail three months 1 Jail fifteen days 1 Total 208 The 78 men were released on payment of fines. Of the 83 persons punished in any way for keeping houses of ill fame, 27 were sentenced to imprisonment. Of the 83 women who were mere inmates of the houses, not their keepers, who were punished in any way, 22 were sentenced to imprisonment. Immorality in the Streets. The work of the police for the suppression of open immorality in the streets took the form of prosecution of common night walkers and of women and girls not properly to be classed as night walkers but nevertheless guilty of immoral acts and conduct. The persons prose- cuted as night walkers numbered 249, and their cases were disposed of in the lower courts as follows: Probation 99 On file 9 Defaulted 6 House of Correction one year .... 2 House of Correction six months .... 7 House of Correction four months .... 42 House of Correction three months ... 36 House of Correction two months . 10 House of Correction one month .... 2 Prison at Sherborn 30 State Farm 4 Lancaster School 1 Fined 1 Total . 249 10 Women and girls arrested in the streets but not properly to be classed as common night walkers num- bered 119, and the lower courts made the following disposition of their cases: Probation 19 Discharged 3 On file 2 Delivered to parents 41 Delivered to probation officer .... 1 Defaulted 2 Held for grand jury 2 Fined 12 Pending 3 Prison at Sherborn 8 Jail 2 State Farm 1 Lancaster School 3 House of Correction five months .... 3 House of Correction four months .... 5 House of Correction three months ... 7 House of Correction two months .... 3 House of Correction one month .... 2 Total 119 In some cases probation was allowed on condition that the persons convicted should go voluntarily, for certain periods of time, to unofficial institutions of a reformatory character, such as the House of the Good Shepherd. From personal familiarity with the streets of Boston at night for more than thirty years I can say con- fidently that open soliciting is now less common than ever before. But on the other hand, unfortunately, the number of girls from twelve to seventeen years of age roaming the streets at night, far from their homes, and learning the lessons of prostitution, has increased in the past few years with startling rapidity. 11 A General Statement. A summary of prosecutions by the police for the year in the directions described above is as follows: For keeping houses of ill fame . . .114 For violating the liquor law in known or sus- pected houses of ill fame 43 For presence in such houses when searched, not as keepers but as inmates or patrons . 208 As common night walkers 249 For immoral conduct or acts in the public streets, 119 Total 733 I am not so simple as to suppose that any combination of effort by courts and police can ever drive vice of this character from a city which has 620,000 inhabitants, and, for police purposes, almost double that number. It is trying and thankless work, which falls mainly upon the police of three divisions. They have been faithful and energetic and will so continue not in the expectation of accomplishing the impossible but with the determination to make the business of vice so hazard- ous and unprofitable that as many as possible will be driven out of it and others will be deterred from taking it up. I shall make no recommendations for changes in the laws until further opportunity has been given for the more effective use of laws, however imperfect, which are already in existence. 12 DECEMBER J, 1908, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1909, [From the Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston for the Police Year ended Nov. 30 , 1909 .] The annual report of the Boston Police Department has included for many years a statistical table of arrests for offences against chastity and morality. The normal number of such arrests in a year represents faithful police work; a marked increase is proof of exceptional vigi- lance and activity. The table which follows gives the whole number of arrests for offences against chastity and morality in each of the last eight years, those years being chosen because they represent not only the present police administration but the three next preceding administrations : Year. 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 Arrests for Offences against Chastity and Morality. . 704 . 709 . 876 . 807 . 895 . 843 . 1,165 . 1,432 This table omits from the total of each year the figures covering certain small items which are included in the regular statistical tables but represent disorder rather than immorality. On the other hand, all yearly totals in this table include some offences involving sexual immorality, such as rape and indecent assault, which are usually classified under the heading “ Offences against the Person.” As the figures of all years are treated uniformly, the means of comparison are perfect. A closer view, showing the three great causes of arrest on account of sexual immorality, is given in the following comparative statement: 13 Arrests for 1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1 1908. 1909. Fornication 138 94 253 284 260 279 375 520 Keeping house of ill fame .... 55 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 Night walking 259 271 236 190 249 169 249 375 Totals 452 445 555 526 574 522 738 1,007 With these offences and with conditions affecting them, the matter which follows will deal. Houses of III Fame. The number of persons prosecuted in 1908 for keep- ing houses of ill fame was 114, much the largest up to that time in the history of the department. The num- ber in 1909 was 112; and, because of the diminishing material upon which to work, the procuring of evidence for the prosecutions in the second year doubtless required double the effort on the part of the police that was required in the first year. The prosecutions for keeping houses of ill fame each year for thirty years are shown in the following table: 1880 . . 23 1895 . 69 1881 . . 25 1896 . 72 1882 . . 52 1897 . 54 1883 . . 63 1898 . 31 1884 . 67 1899 . 68 1885 . 43 1900 . . 100 1886 . . 84 1901 . 55 1887 . . 50 1902 . . 55 1888 . . 25 1903 . 80 1889 . 55 1904 . . 66 1890 . 27 1905 . . 52 1891 . . 31 1906 . 65 1892 . . 40 1907 . . 74 1893 . 19 1908 . . 114 1894 . 46 1909 . . 112 The evidence on which to base these 112 prosecutions was obtained through police efforts of many kinds, includ- ing 295 searches with warrants in 115 different places. 14 The lower courts disposed of the cases of persons prosecuted for keeping houses of ill fame in the years 1908 and 1909 as shown in the following table: 1908. 1909. 49 51 1 7 6 16 13 11 8 3 5 2 1 7 3 1 1 2 9 5 4 5 3 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 Totals 114 112 The penalties in 1909 indicate no change on the part of the courts in their estimate of the gravity of this crime and the difficulty of securing evidence for con- victions. In 1908 the penalties imposed upon ninety-seven persons who were convicted reached a total of $3,150 in fines and 175 months of imprisonment, besides two persons sent to the Women’s Prison on indeterminate sentences. Fined $50 Fined $75 Fined $100 Discharged Placed on file Placed on probation Prison at Sherborn Pending House of Correction one year House of Correction eleven months . House of Correction nine months House of Correction eight months House of Correction six months . House of Correction four months House of Correction three months House of Correction two months House of Correction one month . House of Correction nine months and $100 fine House of Correction three months and $100 fine House of Correction two months and $75 fine Common jail six months .... 15 In 1909 the penalties imposed upon ninety-nine persons who were convicted reached a total of $3,500 in fines and 154 months of imprisonment. The maximum penalty under the nuisance act is $100 fine or twelve months of imprisonment or both. The maximum fine was imposed in 1908 in seven cases, and in 1909 in six cases; the maximum imprisonment in 1908 in seven cases, and in 1909 in three cases. In no case in either year did a court impose the maximum combined penalty of $100 fine and twelve months of imprisonment. The searches in suspected houses of ill fame disclosed evidence on which were based twenty prosecutions for violating the liquor law, with the following results: Fined $50 11 Fined $100 1 House of Correction three months ... 3 Discharged 4 Placed on file 1 Total 20 Inmates and Patrons. The searches of houses of ill fame resulted further in the arrest on the premises of 135 men and 167 women, other than the keepers of the places, who were either actually engaged in the commission of crime or were open to prosecution as idle and disorderly persons. The manner in which these cases were disposed of in the lower courts, all the men being released on payment of fines, is shown in the table which follows, in comparison with the disposition of similar cases in the year 1908: 1908. 1909. Fined $20 135 216 Fined $15 3 12 Fined $10 - 2 Fined one cent 2 - Placed on probation 27 24 Carried forward 167 254 16 Brought forward 167 254 Placed on file 9 15 Discharged 8 6 Defaulted 2 3 House of Correction one year ... 1 House of Correction six months ... 1 1 House of Correction four months .93 House of Correction three months ..48 House of Correction two months ..11 House of Correction one month ... 1 7 Prison at Sherborn 3 2 Jail three months 1 Jail fifteen days 1 Lancaster School - 1 Held for grand jury - 1 Totals 208 302 The birthplaces of the 167 women prosecuted in con- sequence of having been found in houses of ill fame were as follows: United States 113 Canada and British Provinces .... 22 Ireland 19 England 5 Russia 4 Scotland 2 Austria . ' 1 Germany 1 Total 167 The ages of the women prosecuted in consequence of having been found in houses of ill fame, given under the heads of native born and foreign born, are shown in the following table : Years. Born in Foreign U. S. Born. Totals. 17 1 - 1 19 6 1 7 20 9 2 11 21 12 2 14 Carried forward 28 5 33 17 Brought forward 28 5 33 22 11 3 14 23 11 2 13 24 5 1 6 25 7 1 8 26 to 30 26 15 41 31 to 35 13 12 25 36 to 40 5 11 16 41 to 50 6 2 8 Above 50 1 2 3 Totals 113 54 167 Night Walkers. The work of the police for the suppression of open immorality in the streets took the form of prosecution of common night walkers and of women and girls not properly to be classed as common night walkers but nevertheless guilty of immoral acts and conduct. The persons prosecuted as night walkers numbered 375, and their cases were disposed of in the lower courts as follows, comparison being made with the year 1908: 1908. 1909. Probation . 99 172 On file 9 8 Defaulted 6 12 Fined 1 1 House of Correction one year 2 - House of Correction six months . 7 12 House of Correction four months 42 52 House of Correction three months . 36 44 House of Correction two months 10 11 House of Correction one month . 2 1 Prison at Sherborn .... 30 45 State Farm 4 10 Lancaster School 1 — Jail four months '..... — 2 Jail three months - 1 Discharged . 2 Pending . 2 Totals . 249 375 18 The birthplaces of the 375 persons prosecuted as common night walkers were as follows : United States 266 Canada and British Provinces .... 52 Ireland 22 Russia 7 Austria 5 Sweden 5 England 4 Germany 3 Norway 3 Italy 2 Spain 2 France 1 Hungary 1 Poland 1 Scotland ......... 1 Total 375 The ages of the persons prosecuted as common night walkers given under the heads of native born and foreign born are shown in the following table: Years. 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 21 . 22 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 to 30 . 31 to 35 . 36 to 40 . Above 40 Born in Foreign T , , U. S. Born. lotals - 1 - 1 1 - 1 6 3 9 12 3 15 11 3 14 27 5 32 38 11 49 38 13 51 15 14. 29 16 5 21 62 24 86 21 19 40 12 7 19 6 2 8 Totals 266 109 375 19 Women and girls arrested in the streets but not properly to be classed as common night walkers num- bered forty-six, and the disposition of their cases was as follows : Discharged at stations 3 Delivered to parents 15 Delivered to State Board of Charities ... 3 Delivered to private institutions .... 3 Placed on probation 11 Sent to Women’s Prison 6 Sent to State Farm 1 Fined 2 Pending 2 Total 46 These persons, though conducting themselves in an immoral manner in the streets, were in most cases hardly more than delinquent or wayward children, as the ways in which their cases were disposed of indicate. Of the forty-six the number twenty-one years of age or under was forty-one. Their birthplaces were as follows: United States 41 Canada and British Provinces .... 2 Russia 2 Austria 1 Total 46 Significance of Ages and Birthplaces. I now bring together for purposes which will appear later certain fresh information concerning the ages and the birthplaces of women and girls prosecuted in Boston in a single year for specific offences of three kinds against the laws of chastity and morality. There is a prevalent belief that the women and girls who so offend are of immature age and in most cases of foreign birth. This belief has been created largely and fostered mainly by persons whose peculiarity of temperament, lack of 20 information, or interested motives lead them to exag- gerate what may be called the humanitarian aspect of vice as distinct from the legal aspect. In 1909 the Boston police prosecuted 167 women and girls who were found in places resorted to for prosti- tution, though not the keepers, and in a majority of instances not even residents of those places. They prosecuted 127 women and girls for fornication com- mitted in other places, such as ordinary lodging houses or even the public parks and streets, which could not be proceeded against as houses of ill fame. They prosecuted 375 women and girls as common night walkers. These three classes of prosecutions involved a total of 669 women and girls, and it is with them that this information deals. The first table relates to the matter of birth as follows: Birthplace. Arrested in Resorts of Prosti- tution. Arrested for Forni- cation in Other Places. Arrested as Com- mon Night Walkers. Totals. United States . 113 93 266 472 Canada and British Provinces, 22 12 52 86 Ireland 19 15 22 56 England . 5 2 4 11 Russia 4 2 7 13 Scotland . 2 - 1 3 Austria 1 - 5 6 Germany 1 1 3 5 Hungary . . 1 1 2 Poland . 1 1 2 Sweden - - 5 5 Norway . . - 3 3 Italy . - 2 2 Spain . - 2 2 France . - 1 1 Totals . 167 127 375 669 The following table gives the ages of the 669 persons under consideration, those of the native born and of the foreign born being stated separately: 21 Years. 15 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 20 . 21 22 23 . 24 25 . 26 to 30 31 to 35 36 to 40 41 to 50 Above 50 Born in U. S. Foreign Born. Totals. 1 - 1 1 - 1 3 - 3 9 3 12 20 4 24 23 9 32 44 7 51 62 15 77 55 16 71 29 17 46 24 6 30 109 49 158 47 41 88 26 22 48 18 4 22 1 4 5 Totals 472 197 669 The following considerations are appropriate to the study of the foregoing figures: 1. At 21 years of age or under the native born in the second table number 101, the foreign born 23; but between 30 and 40 years the native born are 73 and the foreign born 63. Herein is no suggestion of exceptional youthfulness among the foreign born. 2. By the census of 1905 it appears that of the women in Boston between the ages of 18 and 50, both inclusive, 46.63 per cent are foreign born. Of the women offenders of the same ages treated in the foregoing tables 29.29 per cent are foreign born. Assurance is thus given that there is no excess of foreign born among offenders of this character. 3. The whole number of arrests in Boston in 1909 for all offences was 71,512, and the arrests of the foreign born were 45.77 per cent. Of the 669 women arrested for the particular offences under consideration here, the percentage of foreign born was 29.45. It appears, therefore, that when foreign-born women become law 22 breakers their offences do not show an excess in the direction of sexual immorality. 4. The census of 1905 shows that of the 109,416 foreign-born females in Boston 102,535 had been resi- dents of Massachusetts more than two years and 85,277 more than five years. The percentage for two years’ residence is 93.71 and for five years’ residence 77.94. The foreign-born women in the foregoing tables number 197, and according to the above facts 184 of them would have been residents of Massachusetts more than two years and 153 more than five years. 5. Of the 197 foreign-born women 156 were natives of English-speaking countries, the birthplaces of half of them being within a day’s journey of Boston; so that on the day of their arrival they would have displa 3 ^ed no peculiarity of language, dress or manners to dis- tinguish them from the mass of the settled population. Of the 669 women but 41 of any age or of any length of residence here were natives of non-English-speaking countries. It should be remembered that these 669 women were arrested separately and from time to time through a period of twelve months; that they were presented to the courts and with few exceptions were convicted; that they were real women guilty of real offences, and that an aggregate thus obtained is far different from a result produced through the multiplication of one “pet” case by as many hundreds as the imagination of the multiplier will sanction. The facts as to ages, birth- places and terms of residence herein set out should be an assurance to the people of Boston that the immoral life of their city is not sustained by the feeding to it of young and helpless foreigners. “White Slavery.” This topic follows naturally upon the foregoing matter. The term “White Slave” as applied to a particular phase of prostitution was coined many years ago, probably in London. It was meant at first to 23 describe a girl or a woman who had been enticed from her home in a foreign country, placed in a brothel without suspicion on her part as to what she was to become and there kept against her will. Soon it was made to include any girl or woman who passed from one country to another and entered a similar resort, even though she were of depraved character and fully under- stood her situation. Careless use has carried the term far beyond its first or even its second meaning and into the region of the indefinable. Sober-minded persons employ it as a con- venience, often with an apology; but because of its sharp appeal to popular imagination it has become a plaything for persons of a different type, who use it to stimulate as well as to express a certain form of hysteria. It is so effective in shocking the innocent and in moving the benevolent that no opportunity for its use is passed over, whether the “ white slave” be a rowdy girl walk- ing the streets or a mature woman of hardened character and many criminal convictions. There is no ground for even reasonable suspicion that in Boston women or girls are forced into an immoral life or compelled to remain in it under physical coercion or restraint. If such a case were known to the police the victim would be released at once and her keepers arrested. A person who knew of such a case and failed to inform the police would be as black a criminal as the criminals themselves; and a person who pretended to such knowledge without possessing it might fairly be set down as an irresponsible gossip. Single cases arise from time to time in which it appears that a woman is induced to lead an immoral life by the threats or persuasions of a depraved husband or so-called “ lover”; but rarely in such cases is it her first experi- ence in mercenary immorality, and release from the life is open to her whenever she chooses to leave the man. In the great majority of cases prostitution is practiced in Boston by women and girls who do not depend upon 24 it exclusively for a livelihood and do not live apart for the purpose. They are prepared for semi-professional immorality by lack or disregard of religious training; by early contact with the vicious in speech and action; by the need of money to spend for necessaries, or more often by the craving for means to buy better clothes than they can afford; by flashy public entertainments and reading matter which rouse their bad instincts, teach them the forms and methods of vice, enlarge upon its rewards in money and luxury, stimulate vanity, idealize the unchaste, and by coarse picture and printed sneer degrade the home and caricature the relations of husband and wife. The transition from a virtuous life to a life devoted wholly or in part to mercenary immorality, the only kind with which the law and the police have much to do, is rarely sudden. Almost always there is a preliminary corrupting process of the kind just described, with longings for luxuries, excitement and “good times”; and the bad road is much more likely to be taken at last under the guidance of a girl or a woman who has already traveled upon it than through the persuasions of men. Boston, like all large cities, attracts many loose or unfortunate women and girls who come to it from other places of their own free will; and if they pursue an immoral life here it is not because they are forced to it by men or by other women but because they are vicious, or eager to spend more than they can honestly earn, or, in the aspect most favorable to them, are drawn to it through their necessities. It is not of much use, however, to expend sympathy upon a woman or a girl who is too proud to ask assistance from one of the scores of private benevolent organizations which abound in Boston but is not too proud to solicit strange men in the streets or to sell the little virtue that she ever had to chance acquaintances. Benevolent men and women in and about Boston have lately been shocked and imposed upon by means of a circular issued under the name of a chartered 25 organization soliciting subscriptions of money. The circular asserts that young girls are “sold” in Boston for immoral purposes and “kept by heinous methods from their freedom,” and to this it adds, “We believe the annual traffic in human souls in this city (Boston) amounts to hundreds.” From a like source and printed in Boston newspapers of large circulation I find such assertions as the following : There are at present in Boston, according to a recent canvass, 4,963 women gaining a livelihood altogether or in part for immoral purposes. The life of a “white slave” is on an average five years, and where there are nearly 5,000 such women it follows that their ranks must be recruited by 1,000 each year. Where do they come from? I find that the Provinces supply the largest quota. The last sentence is as grossly libelous upon a worthy element in the population as the preceding sentences are absurd. It has been shown already in this report that of the 669 women and girls arrested in Boston last year for any of the offences which might connect them with “white slavery” in even the most fanciful use of that term, 472 were natives of the United States and 86 were natives of Canada or the British Provinces. And yet this authority finds that “the Provinces supply the largest quota.” The “recent canvass” which produced exactly 4,963 as the number of women in Boston gaining a livelihood altogether “or in part” by immoral means is clearly a myth, and the calculations based upon it are equally mythical. Not all the agencies in Boston combined, the Police Department included, could make a canvass of such a character that would be worth the paper upon which it was recorded. Such assertions as these would be unworthy of notice but that they are used in soliciting money; that they secure publication in Boston newspapers which are read by hundreds of thousands of persons who have no means of detecting the folly and the falsehood, and that they are copied and commented upon in all parts of the country. 26 Because of these considerations I felt it to be my duty to the City of Boston to secure through the news- papers, under my official signature, the widest possible circulation to the following statement: A report of the United States Immigration Commission relative to the “ importation and harboring of women for immoral purposes” was presented last week to Congress, and parts of it were printed in the Boston newspapers. This is the so-called “ White Slave traffic,” and as many persons have been led to believe that Boston was deeply involved I have obtained from Washington and examined carefully a full copy of the report. Though it consists of sixty-one printed pages, the name of Boston is mentioned but four times, always in the most casual manner,, as for instance, that it is one of the dozen cities in which investigations were made and that it is among the seaports through which women who have been sent back to their own countries may sometimes re-enter the United States. There is no suggestion of the existence in Bos- ton of conditions which prevail in some other cities and are fully described in the report. While so many persons and organizations are endeavoring to promote the material welfare of Boston, its good name, which is better than “ great riches, ” needs to be protected from the assaults of societies and indi- viduals whose recent use of the “ white slave” as a means of stimulating subscriptions has been varied, persistent and, I think I may justly say, unscrupulous. Securing Evidence. In my last report I explained the difficulty of securing evidence strong enough to convict for immoral prac- tices, especially in the case of keepers of houses of ill fame, even though appearances were sufficient to con- vince an ordinary observer. The police, moreover, stand at a disadvantage in so far as results are con- cerned, for they are compelled to keep within the bounds of both law and morals; they are allowed to enter sus- pected places as police officers with search warrants, or individually, under orders, to observe and report, but on no account to take part in immoral acts or so to place themselves as to be open to the charge of immorality. 27 Any private organization, however, with no official responsibility and eager to make a case, is free to hire men and women by the day or the week who may go to any lengths for the sake of procuring evidence. They sometimes betray their employers, sometimes invent or exaggerate in order to earn their pay, and with juries have the standing which they deserve. But the Police Department cannot use its men in such ways, and would not if it could. The men of the police force are re- quired to be manly and moral, and whatever they can do under their official obligation in a moral and manly way for the suppression of vice they will do — nothing more. They have not the gift of impersonating degen- erates and none among them would be allowed to spend his days and nights with degraded men and women for the sake of securing a conviction. In some other cities the practice is different, and in support of the attitude of the Boston Police Depart- ment, though it needs no support, I may properly quote a single mild passage from a long and searching criticism uttered from the bench by Mr. Justice Crane of the New York Supreme Court and reported in August, 1909. Such work, he says, is revolting and should not be counte- nanced for a moment, much less compelled. A policeman may be obliged to do many disagreeable things, but he is human and should not be subjected to such temptations or debasing influences, and I am confident this community does not demand nor expect it. To close a disorderly house we have not got to degrade young men. It is said that the evidence can be procured in no other way. In this I must differ, for such places have frequently been closed either upon testimony of occupants or else upon what can be seen going on daily. One does not have to take poison to discover its deadly effects. I trust this word of warning from me will stop such practices. The Boston method has its compensation in the fact that police testimony has high standing with the courts. Of 112 persons arrested in 1909 for keeping houses of ill fame, 99 were convicted; and the 13 discharges 28 represented usually those cases in which two persons, such as husband and wife, are arrested at the same place and the individual responsibility can be determined only on hearing in court. Of 302 persons arrested in houses of ill fame, other than the keepers, only six were discharged; and of 375 night walkers arrested only two were discharged. The Futility of Civil Procedure. Surprise is often expressed by lawyers and others that the police do not have recourse in the pursuit of houses of ill fame to Revised Laws, chapter 101, section 8, which is as follows: The supreme judicial court or the superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, upon an information filed by the dis- trict attorney for the district or upon the petition of the board of police or police commissioners, or other authority having control of the police, or of not less than ten legal voters of a city or town, stating that a building, place or tenement therein is resorted to for prostitution, lewdness or illegal gaming, or is used for the illegal keeping or sale of intoxicating liquors, to restrain, enjoin or abate the same as a common nuisance. The Boston police long ago tried this law and found it wanting. It is a rule of the department that when a conviction has been secured the owner of the real estate involved shall be notified by the commanding officer on a printed form provided for the purpose. In con- sequence of such notice or of representations made to him personally an owner who is a good citizen will remove an offending tenant. But, unfortunately, many such places are owned by persons who are well aware of the uses to which they are put, who derive large incomes from them and will do nothing towards removing nuisances except under legal compulsion. At this point the law should come in, and its weakness may best be illustrated by means of a case which actually arose within the year. The secretary of a private society represented that he had secured sufficient evidence against a particular house, and asked the Police Department to apply for 29 an injunction against the owner of the property. A petition was made in the name of the Police Com- missioner, the person proceeded against offered no defence and an injunction against that person specifically was granted. The situation then was this : If it could be shown that the house was resorted to for purposes of prostitution after the injunction had been issued the owner of the real estate might be punished for contempt of court; but to show such use would require substantially the same kind and quantity of fresh evidence that would be needed to secure criminal conviction of the keeper of the house. The injunction became operative September 14, and the police continued their searches and surveillance of the place. Then the expected happened, just as it had happened in all previous cases of civil procedure within the experience of the police. The title of the real estate was transferred and the injunction, except under legal conditions which probably would never arise, became worthless. The proceedings had cost about seventy- five dollars and would have cost a great deal more but for the fact that the legal preparations and the appear- ances in court were made by the commissioner’s secre- tary. It was worth while, however, in order that a fresh test of the futility of civil procedure might be given. In the enthusiasm of the few days which elapsed between the issue of the injunction and its overthrow by the simple but expected process of a transfer of the title of the property, the secretary at whose request the Police Department had begun proceedings issued in print to the members of his society and the contributors to its fund, several of the Boston daily newspapers also publishing it, the following account of the affair: At the urgent request of the pastor of an institutional church situated in the danger-zone in the South End your secretary undertook the task of gathering the necessary court evidence against an immoral house alleged to have continued unmolested 30 for twenty-two years. Similar repeated appeals to the police by that pastor had been fruitless. The police captain of the precinct confessed to your secretary that he was powerless to close this house. Yet in ten days our agents had gathered overwhelming evidence of the extent and character of the illegal business. We instituted an equity action under a law which allows an injunction to issue to restrain and abate the nuisance. The injunction was allowed and a decree issued which if not obeyed will bring the offenders into court for contempt. If the authorities will now station officers in front of the place as they have in other instances been placed before immoral houses not under injunction, the remedy will be effective. If this is not done the society will have to see that the court decree is enforced. It would seem that the public could expect at least such service from the police, especially when the dignity of the court is in question. The fantastic assertions and suggestions made in this statement have already been answered in part; the official police record of the house itself for the two years ended November 30, 1909, will dispose of the remainder. The house was searched with warrants December 6 and 15, 1907, February 22, March 13, 19 and 21, April 17 and 25, May 23 and 26 and August 13, 1908. In the same period it was visited, under orders, but without warrants, by policemen from other stations, in citizens’ clothes, January 28, February 16 and 28, March 4, 10 and 15, April 5. 15, 18, 22 and 25, June 25 and July 9, 21 and 22, 1908. No single search developed evidence sufficient for a prosecution, and the policemen in citi- zens’ clothes were either refused admittance because of suspicion as to their identity or, if admitted, failed to obtain evidence because restricted in their action by their orders and by their personal sense of decency. But by combining all possible points of evidence a case for the court was prepared, and August 13, 1908, the keeper of the place was tried and convicted. What was the result? A fine of $50, which was paid without a murmur, and the nominal proprietorship was passed on to another woman. 31 Following this and before the sale of the property in October, 1909, the house was searched three times and was visited twenty-one times by policemen in plain clothes. They failed to secure the evidence which the private agents secured in ten days, for the sole reason that if their acts had qualified them to give the testi- mony which the agents gave in court they would have been discharged from the police force. This house is closed now for the same reason that scores of other houses of long standing in that and other neighborhoods have recently been closed; and the reason is that the persistent but lawful course of the police has so alarmed keepers, inmates and patrons that the business in those places has ceased to pay. There is nothing peculiar in the case of this one house except* that it presents the single instance in two years in which the police in the prosecution of keepers of houses of ill fame received assistance in any form from any source other than such as their own efforts developed. In the same street, which is short, but for more than a generation has been notorious, nine other houses have been under constant surveillance. Houses A, B and C have been searched, but no evi- dence of immoral business has been found. Houses D and E were searched, but though the evidence found was insufficient the keepers took warning, moved out, and respectable tenants took their places. House F was searched and four arrests for fornication were made; a warrant for keeping a house of ill fame was refused by the court, but the keeper moved and the house is now occupied by respectable tenants. House G, lodging house, keeper convicted of keeping a house of ill fame, was fined $50, and the immoral business has been stopped. House H, apartment occupied by man and wife; wife arrested July 4, 1909, as a common night walker and case placed on file; July 7, 1909, two persons arrested for fornication; July 9, 1909, husband arrested for 32 keeping a house of ill fame and fined $50; moved away and place now occupied by respectable people. House I, keeper arrested for keeping a house of ill fame, fined $50 and moved away; under new tenant four arrests for fornication were made, but warrant for keeping a house of ill fame was refused by the court, and the house is still watched. Suppression of Public and Semipublic Immorality. The last annual report described fully the work of the police for the suppression of public and semipublic immorality during the year which ended November 30, 1908. It was the first time in the thirty years of police control by commissioners that the subject had appeared in an annual report otherwise than in the general statis- tical tables of crime. The work was entered upon two years ago with deliberation and has since been carried forward, and will continue to be carried forward, in accordance with a well-considered plan. In explanation of the plan upon which the police are acting this passage may be quoted from the report for 1908: Public clamor will never close a house of ill fame; but it will spread demoralization through the community. The people who live by this business care nothing for public opinion. They can be reached only through the silent, relentless work of the police. And again: I am not so simple as to suppose that any combination of effort by courts and police can ever drive vice of this char- acter from a city which has 620,000 inhabitants and, for police purposes, almost double that number. It is trying and thank- less work, which falls mainly upon the police of three divisions. They have been faithful and energetic and will so continue; not in the expectation of accomplishing the impossible, but with the determination to make the business of vice so hazardous and unprofitable that as many as possible will be driven out of it and others will be deterred from taking it up. 33 Nothing has happened in the past year to change either the plan or the point of view. Police action has not been delayed by the hostility of prosecuted criminals and their friends; neither has it been hurried by the impatience of persons of good intention who do not understand. It is a peculiar circumstance that mani- festations of both feelings became public in the second half of the second year in which the police had done more than ever had been done before in Boston for the suppression of public and semipublic immorality. It would be unfortunate for the city if either kind of attack were to divert a Police Commissioner from an effective and permanent course of action upon a subject so important and yet so difficult. The one duty of the police in this matter, and the wisest policy as well, is to enforce the laws. No attempt to transform a house or a neighborhood which is devoted to vice for the sake of the money which it earns can be of permanent benefit unless founded on law. If houses of ill fame can be closed on a large scale and immoral women can be driven from the streets by mere threats on the part of the police, that circumstance is in itself a reasonable indication that the business had previously been tolerated and that when the spasm of reform has passed it will again be tolerated. People of this char- acter understand the kind and the quantity of evidence needed by the police to obtain a conviction and how hard it is to secure it; they regard lightly the sentences usually imposed; they know their legal rights and are assisted in maintaining them by expert attorneys. They will give up the business only when convinced through constant but lawful pressure that it has ceased to be profitable and that their chances of gain and immunity are better elsewhere. Their old plan of removal from one police division to another is now of no avail, for the police pressure is equal in all parts of the city to which they would think of migrating. Here is the illustrative record of one woman, with the street numbers omitted: In the summer of 1908 she 34 occupied an apartment in Bennet street and let rooms to night walkers; searched August 8, 1908, but evidence was insufficient to prosecute; September 1, 1908, she moved to Harrison avenue, where she opened a lodging house; searched November 29, 1908, and four arrests for fornication made; arrested December 2, 1908, for keeping a house of ill fame and fined $50; appealed, but withdrew appeal and paid fine; moved off the division, but in July, 1909, reappeared in an apartment in Broadway extension, where she let rooms to night walkers; searched July 24, 1909, and liquor seized; evidence insufficient to prosecute for keeping a house of ill fame, but convicted September 2, 1909, for violation of the liquor law, fined $50 and vacated the premises. Where this woman, who is a type of many, will reappear cannot be foretold, but wherever it may be the police will meet her. In the last annual report allusion was made to a police movement in 1894 to which a great deal of publicity was given at the time, and in the report surprise was expressed that the recorded results in the form of prose- cutions were so meager. I have examined again the department records of that period and have consulted with officers who were in positions of authority at the time and I find that results were obtained by police threatenings rather than by process of law\ As a consequence, the persons who closed their places and scattered soon recovered their courage and resumed the business, knowing that they could be punished only after conviction of an offence against the law. In confirmation of this belief I quote from a letter addressed by a clergyman to the chairman of the Board of Police in the July following the general agitation of 1894. Concerning a particularly bad neighborhood the letter speaks, in part, as follows: The time has now come for the law as well as the gospel. They are paralyzing all our efforts to do good here. Some houses are worse than others, and I send herewith a list of the most notorious which I desire to have cleaned out imme- diately. I am especially anxious that the keepers of the places are caught and convicted. Only in this way can the evil be eradicated. You did a fine work here some months ago. But they are back again as brazen and bad as ever. The only thing to do is to keep them on the move. I realize the difficulty your force has to get convicting evidence and shall be glad to render them any assistance in my power. The houses and the persons of the character described in that neighborhood and elsewhere have now been kept under constant but legal pressure for two years. Some of the results of the work are shown in the tables and the reading matter already presented in this report, but only a suggestion of the detail. If it were proper to publish the addresses a remarkable list of notorious houses lately closed could be given. One in particular, situated in what is now a business street, had been carried on as a house of ill fame for fifty years, with the exception of the period between June 1, 1883, and August 1, 1886. It was searched often and convictions were sometimes obtained, but as a different woman was put forward on each occasion as the ostensible proprietress the penalties were fines of $50 or $100, which were merely charged to profit and loss. At the time of the public police movement of 1894 the inmates of the house were sent to live in rooms outside, but business was continued by the proprietress through assignations made by telephone. In a few months, the storm having blown over, they returned and matters went on as before. The record of the past two years shows that nine searches were made with warrants and that officers from other stations were sent to the place twenty-six times, without securing entrance, as only persons known in the house were admitted. But the business was so disturbed that the searches of October 22, 1909, showed that but two women were living in the house, that there was no liquor to be found and very little food. Three weeks later, November 12, the house was vacated, the telephone taken out, most of the furniture sent to an auction room, 36 the rest removed and the doors were locked. Lawful pressure on the part of the police had made the business unprofitable, and when the proprietress became con- vinced that the pressure was to be continued she gave up. The following is the record for two years of a house which has not yet been closed: Twenty-three searches and two liquor seizures; seven different women put for- ward as the proprietress, representing a change after each of the following convictions: March 3, 1908, violating liquor law, fined $50; May 12, 1908, liquor law, $50; August 12, 1908, keeping a noisy and disorderly house, $50; January 29, 1909, liquor law, $50; March 3, 1909, liquor law, $50; March 26, 1909, liquor law, $50. A notorious house was closed after the following prose- cutions in three months : Violating the liquor law, fined $50; liquor law, $100; liquor law, discharged by court; house of ill fame, fined $100; house of ill fame, new ostensible proprietress, fined $50; liquor law, discharged by court. Another house was closed in July, 1909, after a siege of eighteen months in which there were fifteen searches without result and the following prosecutions: House of ill fame, fined $100; house of ill fame, discharged by court; house of ill fame, placed on probation; four women arrested as idle and disorderly, fined each $15; again, five women arrested on the same charge, fined each $20. Another house in the same street, which closed also in July, 1909, was searched four times without result, but at other times evidence sufficient for the following prose- cutions in less than two years, involving seven different keepers, was obtained: Violating liquor law, fined $50; house of ill fame, fined $50; liquor law, $50; house of ill fame, $50; house of ill fame, $50; house of ill fame, $50; house of ill fame, discharged by court. Though the house is closed a new warrant is still out for a former proprietress, once fined $50, who has disappeared. Scores of similar cases might be cited, but these will suffice to show to the uninformed but impatient citizen 37 that a rap on the door and an order from a policeman will not close a house of ill fame; that liquor warrants must be obtained, plans laid and searches made by groups of policemen; that the disappointments in securing evidence are far more numerous than the successes; that even when the police think they have evidence enough it often proves in the sight of the courts insufficient to convict; and that the penalties on conviction are not such as to close a place which is doing a profitable business. It is a fact, moreover, that Boston in its treatment of what is commonly called the “ social evil” is peculiar in one important, perhaps vital, respect. Boston is almost the only city of its size or perhaps of half its size in the United States in which the police refuse to set apart prescribed localities where houses of ill fame may be carried on without penalty or interference; and Boston is right. All law breakers here are liable to the penalties of the law and the last who should be exempted are those who make a business of vice. But in other cities the localities in which vice is free are as well known as the Common is known in Boston. In a report recently published by the chief of police of a city of moderate size in the middle West, he cites as proof of his severity towards evil doers the fact that he has ordered the keepers of houses of ill fame in the privileged territory to take the name plates off their doors and remove their red lights. I received lately from a United States commissioner a schedule of questions identical with those sent to all other cities. It was made up in the belief that the toleration of vice in particular localities existed here as elsewhere. But the questions were so foreign to all conditions in Boston that practically none could be answered and I was obliged to say in my reply: The situation in Boston is totally different from that exist- ing in other cities as indicated by the schedule of questions received by me. In Boston there is neither in law nor by understanding any section set apart within which prostitu- 38 tion may be practiced without legal liability. Regulation and registration in the sense implied in your schedule are therefore impossible. All persons engaging in the business or committing acts contrary to law are prosecuted wherever found and whenever sufficient evidence can be obtained. The Police Attitude. The attitude of the Boston Police Department towards public and semipublic sexual immorality and some of the effects of its work in two years have been shown in part in this report and in the report for 1908. The police have produced results, as it is their duty to do, but they are not responsible for one drop of the poisonous stream of description and speculation touching the vilest subject on earth which lately has been poured through some newspaper columns into thousands of households. It is the duty of the police to do this work, hateful as it is to manly men; and they do it faithfully as sworn officers of the law, not as volunteers with a taste for it. By inclination, moreover, as well as under orders, they work in silence. News of searches and arrests for violation of the laws against immorality is not furnished by the police, and the newspaper reports, comic or sensational, formerly based thereon, no longer appear. Paid agents of societies and amateur “sociologists,” some sincere but unwise, others mercenary and reckless, are endeavoring to fill the blank thus created. The matter which they print serves only to arouse the dangerous curiosity of the innocent, to gratify the prurient tastes of the depraved and to supplement appropriately the lascivious printed and pictured sug- gestions which occupy adjoining pages and constitute for thousands of boys and girls their first and progressive lessons in vice. The police prosecute only because the laws are violated. That is the extent of their official right and obligation; but as citizens they rejoice in good work by whomsoever honestly carried on which tends to preserve the innocent from participation in vice or to reclaim them should they fall. 39 DECEMBER 1, 1909, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1910. [ From the Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston for the Police Year ended Nov. 30, 1910.] The particularly vigorous work of the police in the years 1908 and 1909 for the suppression of public and semipublic sexual immorality was continued in 1910; but the previous work seems in itself to have reduced in some directions the number of opportunities for successful action. The table which follows gives the whole number of arrests for offences against chastity and morality in each of the last nine years, those years being chosen because they represent not only the present police administration, but the three next preceding administrations: Year. 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 Arrests for Offences against Chastity and Morality. 704 709 876 807 895 843 . 1,165 . 1,432 . 1,301 This table omits from the total of each year the figures covering certain small items which are included in the regular statistical tables, but represent disorder rather than immorality. On the other hand, all yearly totals in this table include some offences involving sexual immorality, such as rape and indecent assault, which are usually classified under the heading “ Offences against the person.’’ As the figures of all years are treated uniformly, the means of comparison are perfect. 40 A closer view, showing the three great causes of arrest on account of sexual immorality, is given in the following, comparative statement : Arrests for 1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. Fornication 138 94 253 284 260 279 375 520 408 Keeping house of ill fame 55 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 Night walking 259 271 236 190 249 169 249 375 366 Totals 452 445 555 526 574 522 738 1,007 834 The foregoing figures, in common with some others in the first part of this report, will show a slight variation from those to be found in the statistical tables given later. The reason is that in this place court prosecutions are considered and in the tables arrests are recorded. At the beginning and the end of each year a slight variance is likely to arise in some cases because the arrest and the arraignment in court do not take place on the same day. Houses of III Fame. The number of persons prosecuted in 1908 and 1909 for keeping houses of ill fame was very much the largest in the history of the department, and to that fact, as well as to circumstances which will be described later, is to be attributed the reduction in the number prosecuted in 1910. The number of prosecutions for keeping houses of ill fame each year for thirty years is shown in the following table: 1881 . 1882 . 1883 . 1884 . 1885 . 1886 . 1887 . 1888 . 25 1889 . 52 1890 . 63 1891 . 67 1892 . . 43 1893 . . 84 1894 . 50 1895 . 25 1896 . 55 27 31 40 19 46 69 72 41 1897 . 1898 . 1899 . 1900 . 1901 . 1902 . 1903 . 54 1904 . 31 1905 . 68 1906 . 100 1907 . 55 1908 . 55 1909 . 80 1910 . 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 The evidence on which to base these 60 prosecutions was obtained through police efforts of many kinds, including 369 searches with warrants in 125 different places. In 1909 the number of places searched was 115 and the number of searches was 295. The difference between the work and the results in the two years indi- cates greater caution on the part of the offenders and the extension of police action to places less marked with suspicion. The lower courts disposed of the cases of persons prosecuted for keeping houses of ill fame in the years 1908, 1909 and 1910, as shown in the following table: 1908. 1909. 1910. Fined $50 Fined $75 Fined $100 Discharged Placed on file .... Placed on probation Prison at Sherborn Pending House of Correction one year House of Correction eleven months House of Correction nine months House of Correction eight months House of Correction six months House of Correction four months House of Correction three months House of Correction two months House of Correction one month 49 51 23 1 3 7 6 2 16 13 8 11 8 3 3 5 2 2 - 1 1 2 9 5 4 4 5 2 3 7 3 1 1 1 7 3 1 4 1 114 108 56 Carried forward 42 Brought forward . . . .114 108 56 House of Correction nine months and $100 fine - 1 - House of Correction three months and $100 fine 1 House of Correction three months and $50 fine - - 1 House of Correction two months and $75 fine - 1 Common jail - 1 1 Defaulted - 1 Held for grand jury . . - - 1 Totals 114 112 60 The maximum penalty under the nuisance act is $100 fine or twelve months’ imprisonment, or both. The max- imum fine was imposed in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 6 cases and in 1910 in 2 cases; the maximum impris- onment in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 3 cases and in 1910 in 1 case. In no case in any of those years did a court impose the maximum combined penalty of $100 fine and twelve months’ imprisonment. The searches in suspected houses of ill fame disclosed evidence on which were based 23 prosecutions for violat- ing the liquor law, with the following results: Fined 14 House of Correction six months .... 1 House of Correction three months ... 1 Discharged 4 Placed on file 3 Total 23 Inmates and Patrons. The searches of houses of ill fame resulted further in the arrest on the premises of 84 men and 103 women, other than the keepers of the places, who were either actually engaged in the commission of crime or were open to prosecution as idle and disorderly persons. The manner in which these cases were disposed of in the 43 lower courts, all the men being released on payment of fines, excepting three, who were placed on probation or had their cases filed, is shown in the table which follows, in comparison with the disposition of similar cases in the years 1908 and 1909: 1908 . 1909 . 1910 . Fined $40 - - 1 Fined $30 - - 1 Fined $25 - - 4 Fined $20 135 216 130 Fined $15 3 12 6 Fined $10 - 2 1 Fined one cent 2 - - Placed on probation .... 27 24 19 Placed on file 9 15 4 Discharged 8 6 5 Defaulted 2 3 1 House of Correction one year . 1 - - House of Correction six months 1 1 1 House of Correction four months . 9 3 2 House of Correction three months . 4 8 7 House of Correction two months . 1 1 - House of Correction one month 1 7 - Prison at Sherborn .... 3 2 - Jail four months .... - - 1 Jail three months .... 1 - - Jail fifteen days .... 1 - - Lancaster School .... - 1 - Held for grand jury .... - 1 3 Pending - - 1 Totals 208 302 187 Night Walkers. The work of the police for the suppression of open immorality in the streets took the form of prosecution of common night walkers and of women and girls not properly to be classed as common night walkers but nevertheless guilty of immoral acts and conduct. As night walkers offend in public the police were able to make substantially as many prosecutions as in 1909, the figures for the last four years being, 169 in 1907, 249 in 1908, 375 in 1909 and 366 in 1910. Cases were disposed of in 1910, in comparison with 1908 and 1909, as follows: Probation 1908. 99 1909. 172 1910. 190 On file 9 8 10 Defaulted 6 12 8 Fined 1 1 4 House of Correction one year . 2 - - House of Correction six months 7 12 12 House of Correction four months . 42 52 42 House of Correction three months . 36 44 27 House of Correction two months . 10 11 7 House of Correction one month 2 1 1 Prison at Sherborn .... 30 45 44 State Farm 4 10 14 Lancaster School .... 1 - — Jail four months .... - 2 4 Jail three months .... - 1 - Discharged - 2 3 Pending - 2 - Totals 249 375 366 The great proportion of night walkers placed on pro- bation gives particular interest to the results of such action. In no spirit of criticism, and without having gone below the surface of the matter, it is worth while to note results in 68 cases in which night walkers prosecuted by the police in one particular division were placed on probation within the year. Of the 68, 1 was sent to a state asylum for the insane; 9 are in private reformatory institutions in accordance with the terms of their pro- bation; 5 were surrendered by the probation officers and sentenced; 23 defaulted, that is to say, broke the condi- tions of their probation and presumably disappeared; 16 were dismissed because of satisfactory conduct during the term of their probation, which is usually six months, and 14 cases are pending. 45 Women and girls arrested in the streets for immoral conduct, but not properly to be classed as common night walkers, numbered 58, and their cases were disposed of as follows: Delivered to parents 22 Delivered to State Board of Charities ... 7 Delivered to private institutions .... 1 Discharged at station house 6 Placed on probation 9 State Farm 4 Women’s Prison at Sherborn 1 Lancaster School 3 House of Correction six months .... 1 House of Correction four months .... 2 House of Correction three months 1 House of Correction two months .... 1 Total 58 The Law and the Police. An attempt to close a house of prostitution by means of an injunction against the owner of the real estate was described in last year's report. The procedure is based on Revised Laws, chapter 101, section 8, but has long been known to the police, through actual experi- ment, as of no value for such a purpose. At the request, however, of an officer of a private organization, and as a further test of the law, the Police Department aided in securing an injunction against the owner of the house. No court contest was made by the respondent and the injunction became operative September 14, 1909. The theory of the law and the belief of interested though inexperienced persons is that, with an injunction against the further use of the house for purposes of prostitution, the owner of the real estate would be in contempt of court, and subject to imprisonment if the house were again so used. But in line with previous experiences the title of the real estate was almost immediately transferred to another person, and as against the new owner the injunction had no force. 46 Meanwhile, the police had continued to watch the house and to search it with warrants, woman No. 1, who was in charge of the premises when the injunction was sought, though not the owner of the real estate, having turned the management over to woman No. 2. When the last annual report of the Police Depart- ment was closed, November 30, 1909, the house was apparently occupied by permanent male lodgers. But woman No. 2 gradually took up the old practices and in consequence of evidence secured by the police in February, 1910, a warrant for her arrest was applied for. It was refused by the court on the ground that it appeared that she had given up business at that place. What she had really done was to transfer the management to woman No. 3, which is the plan usually followed in such cases. The police were compelled to begin their work over again with woman No. 3, and it was not until November, 1910, that they secured evidence enough to take her to court. She was arrested, and after her case had been continued she pleaded guilty, paid a fine of $50 and turned the house over to woman No. 4. December 3, 1910, the police had sufficient evidence to ask for a warrant for woman No. 4, which was granted, but she kept out of the way, woman No. 5 taking her place, and was not arrested until December 28, when the case in court was continued to January 6, 1911. The record of this particular house in the past two years illustrates many aspects of the contest which the police are carrying on against the business of vice; but especially and most discouraging of all, I venture to say, is that attitude of the courts which makes it easy for keepers of houses of ill fame to avoid conviction, and when convicted, after all, to escape, in many cases, with petty fines. When court results are considered it is hardly an exaggeration to say that in cases such as the following the police are wasting their time and the laws are 47 brought into contempt. A woman controls a house of eight suites. She lives in one of them, rents such of the others as she chooses, and two have been used for years for immoral purposes. They are barricaded like old-fashioned gambling houses, and when the police appear and are seen through a peephole, they are unable, as a rule, to gain entrance in time to secure incriminating evidence. From December 1, 1907, to March 3, 1908, seven different women were the osten- sible keepers of the place. On the latter date the seventh woman was convicted of keeping a house of ill fame, and the penalty was a fine of $50. Under these conditions a policeman in uniform was stationed in front of the house from August 16, 1908, to October 16, 1909. The business apparently was too profitable to be given up readily, but it was damaged to such an extent that on the latter date the apartments were vacated. In a few months, however, business was resumed. From April 10 to November 20, 1910, the place was searched twenty-one times by the police, and the only success, if a fine of $50 imposed by the court can be called a success, was the conviction of the woman who was the ostensible keeper in August, 1910. It is practically useless to attempt to collect evidence when the results are such as these. On this point I may appropriately repeat what I said in my annual report two years ago: It is hard to believe that the Commonwealth should condone such an offence as this for any sum of money paid, and especially for a pittance that can be charged to the profit and loss account without embarrassment to the business or interruption of its successful progress. The Business of Vice Modernized. In previous reports I have spoken of the gradual disappearance of the old-fashioned houses of ill fame, — single houses with resident inmates. The movement has continued through the past year, and among those which gave up business it is worth while to mention 48 three houses standing together in a short street between Bowdoin square and the State House, which had been carried on for a generation. The character of their “ trade’ ’ may be judged from the fact that when the furniture of one of them was sent to an auction room it was estimated to have cost $18,000. Police pressure accounts in a large measure for these surrenders, but the most important instrumentality in the change which for good or for evil has taken place in the business of vice is the telephone, with the modern system of opera- tion which throws its use open not only to subscribers but to the whole public. The “telephone house,” as it has come to be known, and in most cases it is but an apartment, is practically an exchange, in which the tenant, without keeping women in the place, fills orders, so to speak; and even when the police become suspicious and arrive with a liquor search warrant, which is their only legal and practicable means of securing entrance, they usually find nothing incriminating on the premises. A person carrying on the business in this way receives messages by telephone from men, and has at her call numbers of women and girls who use the telephone at stated times to learn whether or not they are wanted. The telephone is essential, also, in a large number of cases in which women live alone, or usually two together, in the small flats which have become so numerous. By its use men can arrange with the women and the women can communicate one with another from house to house. In one police division which contains no known houses of ill fame, in the sense in which the term has heretofore been used, 17 places were searched in 1910, 15 of which were flats of this character. In all the 17 places evi- dence of violation of the laws was obtained, resulting in the arrest of 2 persons for illegal sales of liquor and of 35 persons for adultery or fornication. But not in a single case was the evidence sufficient to establish a charge of keeping a house of ill fame. Lodging houses in great numbers, where “no ques- tions are asked,” and men and women may come and 49 go at pleasure, provided they make no disturbance," are practically beyond the reach of the police except in cases in which criminal practices are carried on to such an extent that it is possible, through an unexpected search, to secure evidence of a character and quantity to convince a court that the house is a place “ resorted to for prostitution.” In one place 6 persons were arrested for fornication and convicted. On the strength of that evidence the proprietor was arrested on a charge of keeping a house of ill fame, but was discharged by the court. In another case 26 persons were arrested for fornication and convicted, and the two proprietors were fined, respectively, $50 and $100. Again, with 10 arrests and convictions for fornication, the keeper of the house was fined $75; and in still another, with 8 arrests and convictions for fornication, the keeper was placed on probation. Similar instances, though less marked, have been numerous. I am aware that some hotels of the lower class are large contributors to the convenience of mercenary vice. In a few cases in which the police were able to show that women were allowed to loiter on the premises for immoral purposes, and afterwards committed criminal acts, the managers of hotels of this kind have been convicted of keeping places resorted to for prosti- tution, and their business has been destroyed. Even the most carefully conducted hotels cannot question their guests and determine their legal relations to one another; but there are hotels of another kind, whose managers are careless, indifferent or actually aware that their rooms are used for immoral purposes, and are ready to profit by such use. To this latter class the police will continue to give particular attention. Public and Police. The Police Department regards the business of vice as a social tragedy which has gone on from the beginning and presumably will continue to go on to the end; but police action against it is confined, of necessity, to the 50 attempted enforcement of the laws. The police have no other mission or authority, and their efforts to reduce the profits of the business, to secure the adequate punishment of those who engage in it, and thus to check its growth, have met with practically no helpful or appreciative response from any direction. If a future Police Commissioner were intending to pursue the same course with respect to the business of vice that has been followed for four years, I should advise him that he might expect loyal support from the police when once he had convinced them that he was in earnest; little encouragement from courts; bitter hostility from persons whose profits were curtailed; indifference from the public; and from a few enthusiasts in the cause of social purity, whose admirable purposes are not sus- tained by straight and intelligent thinking, he would be sure to receive some measure of abusive criticism. I should advise him that unless he held his oath of office in high regard, and cared for no reward other than the consciousness that he had done his duty faithfully and with some benefit to the community, it would be better for him personally that he should follow the easy road of indifference, which is always chosen by those who are officially blind. 51 DECEMBER l, 1910, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1911. [ From the Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston for the Police Year ended Nov. 30, \ 9 \\.] For four successive years, contrary to all precedent in the department, I have given in my annual reports elaborate statistics with liberal comment thereon, con- cerning crimes against chastity and morality. I find that this matter covered in the aggregate fifty printed pages. As I supposed that my report for 1910 would be my last, no feature of the problem which seemed worthy of public consideration was neglected; and for that reason and because there is nothing new to be said I return to the former practice of the department, which is to include the statistics of these offences against the laws with the statistics of all other offences. For the purpose of this summary I may repeat briefly what I have before given in detail: 1. The Boston police make no compromise with the “ social evil. 77 2. That rejecting the method followed in practi- cally all large cities, including the capital of the United States, they refuse to designate certain districts in which the laws against sexual vice may be broken with impunity. 3. That their prosecutions, carried on by lawful and decent methods, are aimed against persons who violate the laws of chastity and morality because they are law breakers and the police are sworn to enforce all laws to the best of their ability. 4. That the Boston police have not exterminated sexual vice, even of the commercial kind, an accom- plishment which no police and no people have ever yet achieved; but their work in that direction in the past five years has been greater than any that the city ever before knew and will be continued by all means at their command and in the face of all forms of public hostility and indifference. 52 SUPPLEMENTARY RECORDS* As explained on the preceding page, the annual reports of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston no longer include in special detail statistics and other information concerning the enforcement of laws against sexual vice, such statistics having been returned to their place in the tabular statements of the reports where they appear with the figures of all other classes of crime. But as the special analyses have been made from year to year, and as the call for this pamphlet in Boston and from many cities and organizations throughout the country has been continuous, I have considered it of sufficient public importance to extend the record by the presentation of later statistics corresponding to those already published. Some of the explanations contained in the reports as to the precise meaning of certain statistics are omitted ' in the new matter, but they still apply. Stephen O’Meara, Commissioner. February, 1913. 53 DECEMBER J, J9J0, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1911. The table which follows gives the whole number of arrests for offences against chastity and morality in each of the last ten years: Year. 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 Arrests for Offences against Chastity and Morality. 704 709 876 807 895 843 . 1,165 . 1,432 . 1,301 . 1,303 A closer view, showing the three great causes of arrest on account of sexual immorality, is given in the follow- ing comparative statement: Arrests for 1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. Fornication 138 94 253 284 260 279 375 520 408 414 Keeping house of ill fame . . 55 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 88 Night walking 259 271 236 190 249 169 249 375 366 304 Totals 452 445 555 526 574 522 738 1,007 834 806 Houses of III Fame. The number of prosecutions for keeping houses of ill fame each year for thirty-one years is shown in the following table: 1881 . 25 1885 . 43 1882 . 52 1886 . 84 1883 . 63 1887 . 50 1884 . . 67 1888 . 25 54 1889 . 1890 . 1891 . 1892 . 1893 . 1894 . 1895 . 1896 . 1897 . 1898 . 1899 . 1900 . 55 1901 . 27 1902 . 31 1903 . 40 1904 . 19 1905 . 46 1906 . 69 1907 . 72 1908 . 54 1909 . 31 1910 . 68 1911 . . 100 55 55 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 88 The evidence on which to base these 88 prosecutions was obtained through police efforts of many kinds, including 286 searches with warrants in 133 different places. The lower courts disposed of the cases of persons prosecuted for keeping houses of ill fame in the years 1908, 1909, 1910 and 1911, as shown in the following table : 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 7 6 2 4 1 3 49 51 23 29 7 3 1- 1 1 1 2 9 5 4 6 4 5 2 6 3 7 3 5 - 1-1 1 1 - - - 1 81 83 39 Fined $100 Fined $75 Fined $50 House of Correction twelve months House of Correction eleven months House of Correction nine months . House of Correction eight months . House of Correction six months House of Correction four months . House of Correction three months House of Correction two months . House of Correction one month House of Correction nine months and $100 fine House of Correction six months and $50 fine Carried forward .... 52 55 Brought forward . . . 81 House of Correction three months and $100 fine - House of Correction three months and $50 fine House of Correction two months and $75 fine - Sherborn Reformatory .... 2 Jail three months - Placed on probation 3 Placed on file 11 Discharged 16 Defaulted - Held for grand jury Pending 1 83 1 1 1 5 8 13 39 1 1 2 3 8 1 1 4 52 1 10 4 16 1 4 Totals . 114 112 60 88 The maximum penalty under the nuisance act is $100 fine or twelve months’ imprisonment, or both. The maximum fine was imposed in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 6 cases, in 1910 in 2 cases and in 1911 in 4 cases; the maximum imprisonment in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 3 cases, in 1910 in 1 case and in 1911 in no case. In no case in any of those years did a court impose the maximum combined penalty of $100 fine and twelve months’ imprisonment. The searches in suspected houses of ill fame disclosed evidence on which were based 22 prosecutions for violat- ing the liquor law, with the following results in the lower courts : Fined 10 Discharged 7 Placed on file 1 House of Correction nine months ... 1 House of Correction three months and $100 fine 1 Placed on probation 1 Defaulted 1 Total 22 56 Inmates and Patrons. The searches of houses of ill fame resulted further in the arrest on the premises of 51 men and 63 women, other than the keepers of the places, who were either actually engaged in the commission of crime or were open to prosecution as idle and disorderly persons. The disposition by the lower courts of these cases in com- parison with the three years next preceding was as follows : Fined $100 Fined $40 Fined $30 Fined $25 Fined $20 Fined $15 Fined $10 Fined 1 cent House of Correction twelve months House of Correction six months House of Correction five months . House of Correction four months . House of Correction three months House of Correction two months House of Correction one month Sherborn Reformatory Jail four months .... Jail three months .... Jail fifteen days .... Lancaster School .... Placed on probation .... Placed on file Discharged Defaulted Held for grand jury .... Pending 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1 1 1 4 1 135 216 130 64 3 12 6 4 2 1 10 2 1 - - 1 1112 1 9 3 2 4 8 7 2 11-2 17-1 3 2-1 - - 1 1 1 1 27 24 19 13 9 15 4 3 8 6 5 4 2 3 14 - 13 - 1 Totals . 208 302 187 114 57 Night Walkers. The work of the police for the suppression of open immorality in the streets took the form of prosecution of common night walkers, and of women and girls not properly to be classed as common night walkers, but nevertheless guilty of immoral acts and conduct. The cases of common night walkers were disposed of as follows : Fined 1908. 1 1909. 1 1910. 4 1911. House of Correction twelve months 2 - - - House of Correction six months 7 12 12 15 House of Correction five months . - - - 2 House of Correction four months . . 42 52 42 30 House of Correction three months . 36 44 27 35 House of Correction two months . 10 11 7 3 House of Correction one month 2 1 1 1 Sherborn Reformatory 30 45 44 27 State Farm 4 10 14 11 Lancaster School .... 1 - — - Jail six months - - — 1 Jail four months . . - 2 4 2 Jail three months .... - 1 - 2 Jail two months .... - - — 1 Placed on probation .... 99 172 190 160 Placed on file 9 8 10 5 Defaulted 6 12 8 5 Discharged - 2 3 3 Sent to Hospital for Insane - - - 1 Pending . 2 - - Totals . 249 375 366 304 Women and girls arrested in the streets for immoral conduct, but not properly to be classed as common night walkers, numbered 89, and their cases were dis- posed of as follows: Delivered to parents 34 Delivered to State Board of Charities ... 4 Carried forward 38 58 Brought forward 38 Delivered to private institutions .... 2 Discharged, sent home 13 Discharged by courts 2 Fined 4 Placed on probation 13 Placed on file 3 Sent to House of Correction 5 Sent to Reformatory at Sherborn .... 5 Sent to Common Jail 1 Sent to State Farm 1 Defaulted 1 Pending 1 Total 89 59 DECEMBER I, J9tJ, TO NOVEMBER 30, 1912. The table which follows gives the whole number of arrests for offences against chastity and morality in each of the last ten years: Arrests for Offences against Chastity Year. and Morality. 1903 . 1904 . 1905 . 1906 . 1907 . 1908 . 1909 . 1910 . 1911 . 1912 . 709 . 876 807 . 895 843 . 1,165 . 1,432 . 1,301 . 1,303 . 1,897 A closer view, showing the three great causes of arrest on account of sexual immorality, is given in the follow- ing comparative statement: Arrests for 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. Fornication 94 253 284 260 279 375 520 408 414 781 Keeping house of ill fame . . 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 88 101 Night walking 271 236 190 249 169 249 375 366 304 334 Totals 445 555 526 574 522 738 1,007 834 806 1,216 Houses of III Fame. The number of prosecutions for keeping houses of ill fame each year following table : for thirty-two years is shown in 1881 . . 25 1885 . . 43 1882 . . 52 1886 . . 84 1883 . . 63 1887 . 50 1884 . . 67 1888 . 25 60 1889 . 1890 . 1891 . 1892 . 1893 . 1894 . 1895 . 1896 . 1897 . 1898 . 1899 . 1900 . 55 1901 27 1902 31 1903 40 1904 19 1905 46 1906 69 1907 72 1908 54 1909 31 1910 68 1911 100 1912 55 55 80 66 52 65 74 114 112 60 88 101 The evidence on which to base these 101 prosecutions was obtained through police efforts of many kinds, including 261 searches with warrants in 129 different places. The lower courts disposed of the cases of persons prosecuted for keeping houses of ill fame in the years 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912, as shown in the follow- ing table: Fined $100 Fined $75 Fined $50 House of Correction twelve months . House of Correction eleven months House of Correction nine months . House of Correction eight months, House of Correction six months . House of Correction four months, House of Correction three months, House of Correction two months . House of Correction one month . House of Correction nine months and $100 fine .... House of Correction nine months and $50 fine 1908. 7 49 1909. 6 1 51 1910. 1911. 1912. 2 3 23 1 29 10 2 45 Carried forward 81 83 39 51 65 61 Brought forward House of Correction six and $50 fine . House of Correction three and $100 fine House of Correction three and $50 fine . House of Correction two and $75 fine . Jail six months Jail three months Sherborn Reformatory . Placed on probation Placed on file . Discharged Defaulted .... Held for grand jury Pending .... Totals 81 83 39 51 65 1 1 1 1 1 - - 1 1 1 2 3 5 2 10 15 11 8 3 4 5 16 13 8 16 15 - - 1 1 - - - 1 - - 1-44 114 112 60 88 101 months months months months The maximum penalty under the nuisance act is $100 fine or twelve months 7 imprisonment, or both. The maximum fine was imposed in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 6 cases, in 1910 in 2 cases, in 1911 in 4 cases, in 1912 in 10 cases; the maximum imprisonment in 1908 in 7 cases, in 1909 in 3 cases, in 1910 in 1 case, in 1911 and 1912 in no case. In no case in any of those years did a court impose the maximum combined penalty of $100 fine and twelve months 7 imprisonment. The searches in suspected houses of ill fame disclosed evidence on which were based 24 prosecutions for violat- ing the liquor law, with the following results: Fined $50 On file . Fined $100 Probation Fined $75 Discharged 12 5 1 4 1 1 Total 24 62 Inmates and Patrons. The searches of houses of ill fame resulted further in the arrest on the premises of 202 men and 249 women, other than the keepers of the places, who were either actually engaged in the commission of crime or were open to prosecution as idle and disorderly persons. The cases were disposed of in the lower courts, compari- son being made with previous years, as follows: Fined $100 Fined $75 Fined $50 Fined $40 Fined $30 Fined $25 Fined $20 Fined $15 Fined $10 Fined $5 Fined- 1 cent House of Correction twelve months House of Correction eight months, House of Correction six months . House of Correction five months . House of Correction four months, House of Correction three months, House of Correction two months . House of Correction one month . Sherborn Reformatory . Jail six months . Jail four months . Jail three months . Jail two months . Jail fifteen days . Lancaster School .... Placed on probation Placed on file Discharged 1908 . 1909 . 1910 . 1911 . 1912 . - - 1 - 15 1 1 1 4 1 3 135 216 130 64 96 3 12 6 4 1 2 1 10 223 - - - - 1 2 1 1 1 1 9 3 2 4 8 7 1 1 1 7 3 2- 1 1 1 1 27 24 19 9 15 4 8 6 5 1 1 2 2 1 1 6 2 12 2 5 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 13 54 3 15 4 4 Carried forward 206 298 182 110 447 63 Brought forward Defaulted . Held for grand jury Pending 206 298 182 110 447 2 3 14 4 1 3 1 Totals 208 302 187 114 451 Night Walkers. The work of the police for the suppression of open immorality in the streets took the form of prosecution of common night walkers, and of women and girls not properly to be classed as common night walkers, but nevertheless guilty of immoral acts and conduct. Cases of common night walkers were disposed of in the lower courts in 1912, in comparison with 1908, 1909, 1910 and 1911, as follows: Fined 1908 . 1 1909 . 1 1910 . 4 1911 . 1912 . House of Correction twelve months 2 House of Correction six months 7 12 12 15 14 House of Correction five months . - - - 2 - House of Correction four months, 42 52 42 30 23 House of Correction three months, 36 44 27 35 21 House of Correction two months . 10 11 7 3 3 House of Correction one month . 2 1 1 1 4 Jail six months .... - - - 1 1 Jail four months .... - 2 4 2 2 Jail three months .... - 1 - 2 1 Jail two months .... - - - 1 - Sherborn Reformatory 30 45 44 27 19 Lancaster School 1 - - - - State Farm 4 10 14 11 12 Hospital for Insane - - - 1 - Placed on probation 99 172 190 160 202 Placed on file 9 8 10 5 16 Defaulted 6 12 8 5 5 Discharged • - 2 3 3 10 Nol prossed - - - - 1 Pending - 2 - - - 249 375 366 304 334 Totals 64 Women and girls arrested in the streets for immoral conduct, but not properly to be classed as common night walkers, numbered 157, and their cases were disposed of as follows: Fined 1 House of Correction 2 Sherborn Reformatory 8 Lancaster School 3 State Farm 3 Placed on probation 37 Placed on file 4 Delivered to parents 79 Delivered to State Board of Charities ... 2 Released at Station House 15 Discharged 2 Pending 1 Total 157 65 TOTALS AND COMPARISONS. The enforcement of the laws against sexual vice have proceeded for so long a time on the present basis that it is worth while to present totals under the separate headings and to show comparisons between the five-year period ended November 30, 1912, and the five-year period immediately preceding, ended November 30, 1907. Arrests under the general classification of offences against chastity and morality: Five years ended November 30, 1907, 4,130; five years ended November 30, 1912, 7,098. Arrests for three principal causes, viz., fornication, keeping house of ill fame and common night walking: Five years ended November 30, 1907, 2,622; five years ended November 30, 1912, 4.601. Taking these three elements separately the com- parisons are as follows: Fornication . — Five years ended November 30, 1907, 1,170; five years ended November 30, 1912, 2,498. Keeping House of III Fame . — Five years ended November 30, 1907, 337; five years ended November 30, 1912, 475. Common Night Walkers.— Five years ended November 30, 1907, 1,115; five years ended November 30, 1912, 1,628. It should be understood : 1. The particular significance of the arrests for fornication, which in some states is not even a crime, is in the fact that almost all such arrests are made in connection with searches of suspected houses of ill fame. Moreover, it is upon the conviction of persons so arrested, men and women, that subsequent arrests of keepers of houses of ill fame are mainly based. 2. Though the term “ house of ill fame 7 ’ is used for convenience, the language of the statute is a “ place resorted to for prostitution,” and such place in Boston is almost always an apartment, a hotel, a lodging house 66 or even a shop. It is not to be assumed therefore that the number of persons arrested in a year for keeping a house of ill fame indicates in any considerable degree the existence of a corresponding number of separate houses devoted to prostitution, with regular inmates. Such separate houses, so inhabited, have been forced out of existence by unremitting police prosecutions to such an extent in the past five years that few are now in operation, and they are dropping out one by one. The last to go are naturally those whose managers own the real estate which they occupy and are otherwise wealthy; but even such persons surrender when they find that the business has been made unprofitable and that police conditions offer no prospect of a return of easy times. There are failures to convict even when the police feel that they have a strong case, but after each failure they again begin to accumulate evidence that will meet the requirements of the courts. Some of the discharges, moreover, represent cases in which two persons, husband and wife for example, are arrested at the same place and a court hearing is necessary to determine whether or not both are guilty. 3. To charge a woman with being a common night walker is a serious matter, and under Massachusetts law the charge is difficult of proof. For these reasons and as a rule policemen only who have been especially instructed and detailed and are familiar with the strict requirements of the courts undertake to prosecute common night walkers. There is no such practice in Boston as the spasmodic “ rounding up” of fifty or a hundred women, to be thrust into court with insufficient evidence and therefore in three cases out of four to be discharged. Every case is prepared with the greatest care and in the belief that the woman aimed at is legally and actually a common night walker. As a consequence, of the 1,628 women arrested as common night walkers by the Boston police in the five years ended November 30, 1912, only eighteen were discharged by the courts, a record of almost 99 per cent of convictions. 67 Houses of III Fame. The disposition by the lower courts of the 475 persons charged with keeping houses of ill fame in the five years ended November 30, 1912, is shown in the follow- ing table: Fined $100 29 Fined $75 6 Fined $50 197 House of Correction twelve months 11 House of Correction eleven months ... 1 House of Correction nine months ... 3 House of Correction eight months ... 2 House of Correction six months ... 27 House of Correction four months ... 19 House of Correction three months . 19 House of Correction two months .... 2 House of Correction one month .... 1 House of Correction nine months and $100 fine 1 House of Correction nine months and $50 fine . 1 House of Correction six months and $50 fine . 1 House of Correction three months and $100 fine, 1 House of Correction three months and $50 fine . 1 House of Correction two months and $75 fine . 1 Sherborn Reformatory 2 Jail 4 Placed on probation 35 Placed on file 31 Discharged 68 Pending, defaulted or held for grand jury . . 12 Total 475 A further summary of these cases is as follows : Number fined only 232 Number imprisoned only 91 Number fined and imprisoned .... 6 Discharged 68 Convicted without penalty 66 Pending, defaulted or held for grand jury . . 12 68 The maximum penalty under the nuisance act is a fine of $100, a year of imprisonment, or both. The maximum fine was imposed upon 29 persons, the maximum imprisonment upon 11 and the maximum fine and imprisonment combined upon none. The searches in places suspected of being resorted to for prostitution resulted in the five years ended Novem- ber 30, 1912, in 132 prosecutions for the illegal sale or keeping of intoxicating liquors in those places. The cases were disposed of as follows: fined, 81; impris- oned, 7; fined and imprisoned, 1; discharged, 22; placed on file, 13; placed on probation, 6; defaulted, 1; pend- ing, 1. Including these cases the whole number of prosecu- tions for the illegal sale or keeping of intoxicating liquor in the five years ended November 30, 1912, was 891. In the preceding five years no separate record was kept of prosecutions originating in searches of places sus- pected of being houses of ill fame. Inmates and Patrons. The searches of houses of ill fame in the five years ended November 30, 1912, resulted further in the arrest on the premises of 550 men and 708 women, other than the keepers of the places, who were either actually engaged in the commission of crime or were open to pros- ecution as idle and disorderly persons. The manner in which these cases were disposed of in the lower courts was as follows: Fined $100 Fined $75 Fined $50 Fined $40 Fined $30 Fined $25 Fined $20 1 15 1 1 1 8 641 Carried forward 668 69 Brought forward 668 Fined $15 26 Fined $10 236 Fined $5 1 Fined 1 cent 2 House of Correction twelve months ... 3 House of Correction eight months . 2 House of Correction six months .... 6 House of Correction five months ... 1 House of Correction four months 20 House of Correction three months ... 33 House of Correction two months ... 9 House of Correction one month . 12 Sherborn Reformatory 7 Jail six months 1 • Jail four months 1 Jail three months 2 Jail two months 1 Jail fifteen days 1 Lancaster School 1 Placed on probation 137 Placed on file 46 Discharged 27 Defaulted 14 Held for grand jury 4 Pending . 1 Total 1,262 I have already commented upon the fact that of 1,628 persons arrested as common night walkers in the five years ended November 30, 1912, but 18 were dis- charged by the lower courts as not guilty. Further evidence of the care with which the police do their work is found in the fact that of 1,262 men and women arrested in searches of suspected houses of ill fame, other than the keepers, but 27 were discharged by the lower courts. So that in a total of 2,890 arrests under these two heads there were but 45 discharges, or 1.56 per cent. 70 Common Night Walkers. The cases of persons arrested as common night walkers in the five years ended November 30, 1912, were disposed of in the lower courts as follows : Placed on probation Placed on file Defaulted Fined House of Correction twelve months House of Correction six months . House of Correction five months House of Correction four months House of Correction three months House of Correction two months House of Correction one month . Sherborn Reformatory . State Farm Lancaster School .... Jail six months .... Jail four months .... Jail three months .... Jail two months .... Discharged Insane Hospital .... Nol prossed Pending 823 48 36 6 2 60 2 189 163 34 9 165 51 1 2 10 4 1 18 1 1 2 Total 1,628 Immoral Conduct in the Streets. Women and girls arrested in the streets for immoral conduct, but not properly to be classed as common night walkers, in the five years ended November 30, 1912, numbered 469, and they were disposed of as follows : Delivered to parents 191 Delivered to State Board of Charities . 16 Delivered to private institutions .... 6 Carried forward 213 71 Brought forward 213 Placed on probation 90 Placed on file 9 Discharged by courts 7 Discharged at station houses, sent home . . 37 Sherborn Reformatory 28 State Farm 10 Lancaster School 9 Jail 3 House of Correction one to six months . 32 Fined 19 Defaulted 3 Held for grand jury 2 Pending 7 Total 469 72 SPECIAL INFORMATION. Several subjects more or less closely connected with the enforcement of laws relating to sexual vice are considered in the pages which follow. As nine-tenths of the public discussion which these matters evoke, and I might well say nineteen- twentieths, is carried on by persons who have no accurate knowledge of the laws, the rules and the practice affecting them, my purpose is almost wholly to furnish information. 73 “ DANCE HALLS/' When a resident of any large city other than Boston reads of a “ dance hall / 7 he figures to himself a place in which women, employed for the purpose, entertain men who come in from the street, a liquor bar and convenient private rooms being at their service, and the division of the entertainment being five minutes of dancing to half an hour of drinking. Or in another city it may mean this or perhaps a saloon with dancing in a rear or a side room or in a hall above, the dancing place and the dancing carried on therein being in any case in close relations with a bar and the sale of liquor. Contrary to the belief of many, even of our own people, no such “ dance hall/’ or any place remotely resembling it, and no saloon with an accompaniment of dancing, has existed in Boston at any time in the past thirty years. When Boston had but a third of its present population, and when the sale of liquor was wholly unregulated, dozens of such “ dance halls” were in con- tinuous and undisguised operation. At the present time no dancing or other entertain- ment can be given in a place in Boston which the stat- utes declare to be a public hall without a license from the Mayor. This license may be for a year, covering all entertainments within that period, or it may be for a single entertainment. In either case, and no matter where or what the hall may be, the manner in which the license is issued and the conditions prescribed on its face are the same. It is therefore true that Sym- phony Hall or Copley Hall equally with the poorest public hall in the most obscure part of the city may be called a “ dance hall.” The proprietor or the manager of a hall applies to the Mayor on a printed form for a license. The applica- tion is referred to the Police Commissioner and by him to the captain of the division in which the hall is situated. 74 The captain indorses upon it his approval or disapproval, in the latter case with his reasons, and returns it to the commissioner who forwards it to the Mayor, approved or disapproved in accordance with the captain’s report. In either case the Mayor has full power, the action of the police being merely advisory; but in no instance within my knowledge has a mayor of Boston granted a license contrary to the sustained objection of the police. In the great majority of cases, the halls being entirely respectable, the approval of the police is given without reserve. But when a hall has a record of disorder or indecency or the character of the entertainments pro- posed to be given is likely to produce such conditions the captain so reports. Sometimes the objection is met by a change of managers or of hall arrangements or by an agreement that regular policemen shall be present at all entertainments; and sometimes even when a license for a year is refused, licenses for single enter- tainments by particular organizations may be issued from time to time. Halls of this character are watched constantly by the police, and at times on their recom- mendation an annual license actually in force is revoked by the Mayor, or an application for a single enter- tainment in a hall without an annual license is dis- approved. The license in its general application does not require that policemen shall be present at all entertainments, but it does require that when detailed by the Police Commissioner they shall have the right to be present, and it requires further that an owner or manager “ shall employ, to preserve order in his place of amusement, only regular or special police officers designated therefor by the Police Commissioner, and shall pay to the Police Commissioner for the services of the regular police officers such amount as shall be fixed by said commis- sioner.” Ill-informed critics have sometimes exploited the notion that because a regular police officer is paid by the manager of a hall he is therefore under personal obliga- 75 tion to the manager and subservient to his interests. Nothing could be more absurd. One might as well say that the clerk of a court or the conductor of a street car is under personal obligation to a person who pays a fee or a fare. The rule of the Police Department as to “paying details” makes personal obligation on the part of a policeman impossible. All such details are performed on the officer’s own time and all the money earned is his. The rule directs that “paying details” shall be distribu- ted among the men of a division as evenly as possible, and the commanding officer is required to keep a com- plete record and to forward a monthly report on the subject to headquarters. No manager of a hall can make requisition for a particular policeman; in fact he is usually ignorant of the identity of the policeman detailed for a particular entertainment until he reports for service. The parts of the standing rule of the depart- ment which bear particularly upon this subject are as follows : Division commanders will require special vigilance on the part of officers detailed to dancing parties in which disorder or indecency in any form is likely to appear. . . . Officers so detailed will bear in mind . . . that they are under no obligation whatever to the owner or manager of a hall except to assist him in the preservation of order and the observance of the con- ditions of his license. When a breach of law calling for prosecution is committed, officers will prosecute as in any other like case. When a condition of a license or special direction from the licensing authority to licensees is violated, an officer at a hall will direct the attention of the responsible owner or manager to the matter and if necessary will assist him in stopping such violation. In all cases in which an officer observes general disorder or indecency even though no one specific act should be such as to call for prosecution or notice to the manager, he will so report in writing to his division commander. Sergeants will include in their rounds halls at which only patrolmen are detailed, will see that they are attending to their duty and will report in writing to their division 76 commanders any improper acts or conditions in the hall which they may observe. Division commanders will note such reports and will forward to headquarters such of them as may seem to be useful for transmission to the licensing authority. They will also inform themselves as to the general character of persons attending public dances and will report from time to time any unfavorable opinions which they may form as to those frequenting particular places and the effect of their presence and of the dancing parties themselves on the order and good morals of the locality. The following is a copy, with names omitted, of a report from a police officer which indicates the nature of the difficulties with which the police sometimes contend : I respectfully report that I was detailed to Hall, p. m., 16th inst., to a dance given by the — Athletic Association. During the evening several young girls, who in my opinion were under the required age, obtained admission to the hall in some manner unknown to me. I informed the manager of the hall and pointed out several of them to him. After talking to them he returned to me and said he thought they were over seventeen years of age. I then attempted to put some of them out of the hall when several young men, perhaps twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, stepped up and said the girls were their sisters. About 11 p. m. several of the young couples (perhaps six or eight couples) began to dance indecently, the dance known as the grizzly bear. I attempted to stop them; they paid no attention to me and continued. I then stopped the orchestra from playing; when I did this several of the young men came at me and I drew my short club. Some person grasped my club from behind; another person struck me in the face from behind; I then reached for my revolver and they scattered. I then ordered the janitor to turn the lights off and close the dance, which he did. The manager made no attempt to assist me in any way. A copy of this report was sent to the Mayor and as a consequence the license of the hall was by him suspended. A month later it was restored, presumably on assurances of improved management. 77 Suggestions are often made as to further supervision of so-called “ dance halls,” but as they involve the use of agencies over which the Police Commissioner has no control I shall not discuss them. Few of the persons, moreover, with whom I have considered this subject from time to time have seemed able to distinguish between slang, vulgarity and bad manners on the one side, which are the unfortunate privilege, so to speak, of all who choose to indulge in them, and profane or obscene acts or words, which are forbidden by the laws. In all occupations and amusements there are many differing standards of costume, conduct and language, and men and women who obey the laws are under no compulsion, however desirable such a course on their part might be, to conform to the rules by which persons of refinement may choose to limit themselves. 78 IMMORAL SHOWS. There is no probability that any performance likely to be given at a regular theater in Boston could be attacked successfully on the ground of immorality by prosecution under the criminal laws. It was attempted by the police in as flagrant a case as ever came within my knowledge, but the judge who had granted the warrant for the performer after a preliminary state- ment of the facts decided, upon full hearing, that he could not hold that the statute had been violated. Even if a conviction could be secured in a lower court, in such a case, the accused would undoubtedly appeal, and weeks would elapse before even the uncertain result in the Superior Court could be reached. It is through the license issued by the Mayor in much the. same manner as in the case of public halls that such shows should be controlled, but even the licensing authority is here reduced to persuasion and negotiation. Chapter 494, Acts of 1908, provides in section 2 as follows: Section 2. If at any time under a license granted hereunder there shall be given a theatrical exhibition, public show, public amusement or exhibition, any part of which, in the opinion of both the mayor and the police commissioner of Boston, is obscene or immoral or tends to injure the morals of the community and is not eliminated at the request of the mayor, then he may suspend the license for such particular representation. This act was drawn by counsel for the Theatrical Managers’ Association, and was passed on its petition by the Legislature, the Police Commissioner being included in its terms without his knowledge. It will be observed that under the act: 79 1. No power can be exercised until after the exhibi- tion has been given. 2. The Mayor and the Police Commissioner must unite in the opinion required by the statute, presumably after view of the second, or a later performance, either personally or through representatives. 3. When they have agreed as to the unlawful part or parts, the Mayor must give notice; and failing elimination, he may suspend the license for “such particular representation,” whatever that may mean. It is doubtful if the suppression of a whole play would be authorized by the language of the act, and yet the worst material in such performances usually consists of words, gestures, postures, and other mani- festations scattered all along the way. It is true that in one instance an entire play was ordered eliminated by the Mayor under penalty of a suspension of the license of the theater, but in that case the manager yielded without a test of the law. I believe that the only way to deal with indecencies on the stage is to hold managers responsible through their licenses. They know what is indecent, even according to prevailing loose ideas, and if they are convinced that indecent words, acts or displays will be followed by a suspension of the theater license for a period of from one to six days, the cleansing of the Boston stage morally may in time be as thorough as its physical cleansing would be if done by the Fire Department. When the men who have a money interest in the performance undertake the work of shutting out indecencies with a heavy penalty for failure the finest possible police force for the purpose will be on guard. The Mayor and the Police Commissioner joined in 1910 in a petition to the Legislature for an act under which the Mayor as the licensing authority might exercise the power just described. The time for new business had passed, the theatrical managers appeared in opposition, and the Legislature refused to suspend 80 the rule in order that the measure might be considered. In 1911 the proposition was heard by a committee of the Legislature, the Mayor, the Police Commissioner and several private citizens appearing in its favor, representatives of the theaters in opposition; and the committee and the Legislature refused favorable action. A similar bill was before the Legislature of 1913, but the committee to which it was referred reported against it. 81 HOTELS AND CAFES. In discussing hotel conditions in Boston many persons speak freely of “second class” hotels and even of that institution peculiar to New York, the “Raines law” hotel. There is no official separation of Boston hotels into classes. Under the law the best and the worst are alike operated under an “Innholder’s license.” Some innholders are licensed further to sell intoxicating liquors, and of these a certain number have a special license to sell up to midnight instead of stopping at eleven o’clock. The particular value of an innholder’s liquor license as compared with what is commonly called a saloon license lies in the fact that it gives to the licensee the right to sell on Sundays and certain holidays when the saloons are closed, and if the special twelve o’clock license has been granted, to sell also from eleven o’clock to midnight on week days — to persons only in either case who have resorted to the hotel for food or lodging. Licenses for hotels, with or without the liquor privi- lege, and all other licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors are granted by the Licensing Board, composed of three commissioners appointed, as the Police Commis- sioner is, by the Governor of the Commonwealth. The Board is wholly independent of the Police Department, but is entitled to and receives by law as well as in the public interest the closest and most extensive coopera- tion of the police. The law covering this particular point is section 17, chapter 291, Acts of 1906, as follows: It shall be the duty of the police commissioner and his subordinates to obtain and to furnish to the licensing board such information as may be required by the said board from them or from any of them relative to the character or fitness of a licensee of said board or of an applicant for any license which said board is empowered to issue, relative to the place at which the business 82 authorized by any license is or is proposed to be con- ducted, and also relative to the manner in which any business authorized by any license is at any time being conducted. Such information may be given in writing or orally as said licensing board may require. The principal methods by which this cooperation is carried on may be summarized as follows: 1. Reports in writing by division commanders on all applications to the Licensing Board for licenses of any kind or class or for special temporary privileges to licensees, made annually always and often at irregular times, embodying full information as to persons, places and surroundings. In reports on applications for the annual reissue of licenses it is customary for command- ing officers to enter no objection if conditions have not changed since the last previous action in the case by the Licensing Board. 2. Reports in writing by division commanders on all complaints as to licensees received by the Licensing Board and referred to the police. 3. Reports in writing by division commanders con- veying results of special inquiries, particular or general, as desired by the Licensing Board. 4. Voluntary reports in writing by division com- manders embodying all information of possible value to the Licensing Board as to violation by licensees of general or special laws or of the conditions of their licenses, convictions in court, the delivery of liquors at unlicensed places, etc. 5. Personal attendance upon the Licensing Board, as notified, of police officers of all grades, for consulta- tion, or the presentation of complaints against licensees. The police having submitted a report or a complaint, further action thereon rests wholly with the Licensing Board. It may dispose of the matter in its own way, without further reference to the police, which is the usual course, or it may call upon the Police Com- missioner to make the complaint formal. In the latter case notices are prepared by counsel for the Police 83 Commissioner, witnesses are summoned and a hearing is given by the Licensing Board at which the prosecution is represented by the Police Commissioner’s counsel or by the division commander with whom the complaint originated. Following the hearing the Licensing Board makes its finding free from all other authority. In the twenty-five years immediately preceding the act which became effective June 1, 1906, the licenses now granted by the Licensing Board in so far as they then might lawfully have been issued were controlled by the Board of Police. For this reason and because the police continue to serve so extensively as the agents of the Licensing Board the general public, failing even in six and a half years to understand the changed con- ditions, has continued to hold the police responsible for all that it sees of certain licensed hotels and cafes and for much more that is said or printed with varying degrees of exaggeration. It is for this reason largely though not altogether that I have considered it advisable to explain with some detail the actual situation. - In the licensing of particular places and in the framing of conditions under which the licensees shall conduct their business the police may recommend anything but they can decide nothing. When a provision of the statute law is violated they may prosecute in court, but as the proceeding might be long delayed with small and uncertain penalty if successful, they resort usually to the Licensing Board which has the power to convict almost immediately and to impose the far more dreaded and appropriate penalty of revocation or suspension of the license. It is true, moreover, that the greater number of offences against morals and decency which it is in the power of hotels and cafes to permit, and concerning which the public is properly sensitive, are not covered by the law. The selling of intoxicating liquors to women, for example, is not a breach of the law. In so far as the statutes are concerned any licensed hotel, cafe or saloon might lawfully sell to a woman in any circumstances in which 84 a sale to a man would be lawful. It is at this point that the Licensing Board intervenes by imposing general and special conditions under which the licenses are granted. A particular licensee may be forbidden by the Board to serve women at any time or in any part of his premises, or to serve them on certain days, or to serve them elsewhere than in specified rooms, and so on through an extended list of conditions designed to make it possible that business may be continued with rudi- mentary decency, if no more, in certain hotels and restaurants which are of such a character and so situated that without specific restrictions their operation might be to the last degree scandalous. Whether or not such places should continue to be licensed in order to protect from financial disaster a landlord who is perhaps doing his best in a hard situ- ation, or to maintain the supposed value of real estate which sometimes is assessed into the hundreds of thou- sands of dollars, or on the theory that licensed places draw to themselves and therefore away from the quiet neighborhoods the great number of drinking men and women who gather into the center of the city, is a matter for decision beyond the authority of the Police Commissioner. I believe, however, that to license such a place and then to expect the police to exclude from it the drunken and the indecent whose money represents at least the difference between a profit and a loss in operation is no more reasonable than if one were to spill a barrel of molasses in the street in August and then direct the police to keep the flies away. I believe that in this phase of life as in many others a supply will sometimes create or enlarge a demand; and further, as I long ago formally expressed myself, that there are licensed hotels and cafes in Boston occupying premises for which so high rentals are demanded that no possible patronage that they could secure, with decency at all times observed, would enable them to pay their expenses. The use of hotels for private immorality not usually accompanied by drunkenness or disorder is peculiar to 85 no time or place. The best hotels are without means of knowing whether persons of respectable appearance who register as man and wife actually have that rela- tion. If the contrary could be ascertained, such guests would be excluded. Hotels of a somewhat lower grade are indifferent as to the facts, and the lowest of all, varying though they do in prices, look for a revenue from such sources. An attempt to deal with the second or even the third kind of hotel under the law or by any means other than through their licenses, is full of difficulties. An innholder is required by law to provide entertainment for travelers, and to reject a sober and orderly person, no matter under what suspicion, is so likely to lead to a suit at law that such rejection is generally effected under the pretext that all rooms are occupied. Except in the unusual circumstances in which it is possible for the police to prove in court, and the proof must be thorough, that the hotel is a place resorted to for prostitution with the knowledge of its proprietor, there is no way other than through its license in which to reach a hotel that is mainly or largely engaged in providing rooms for persons falsely registering as man and wife. Furthermore, a hotel which is without the liquor privilege, and there are many such, is not wholly prevented by the loss of its innholder’s license from the means of doing a profitable business. The two titles, hotels and cafes, are intended for present purposes to cover all public places, however designated, which operate under licenses of any class or kind and are likely to be used with accompaniments of drink or music or both for the practice of sexual vice in any of its stages. 86 BOSTON POLICE CONDITIONS* [From the Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston for the Police Year ended Nov* 30, 1911.] Having completed a term of five years as Police Com- missioner and entered upon a second term I may describe with knowledge some conditions of police work and organization in Boston which are peculiar, beneficial and creditable to the city. The people of Boston are daily readers of news which affects unfavorably in turn the police departments of other American cities, large and small; and it therefore seems to me to be well worth while that they should receive such information as shall save them, in so far as the facts justify, from judging their own police service by what they read of the service which is given to other communities. First. — The Boston Police Free from Politics. The Boston Police Department is wholly free from politics — the root of all evil in the policing of American cities and towns. A police department without politics may yet be inefficient, but a police department controlled or even influenced by politics is sure to be inefficient and worse, to just such a degree as it is affected by the political taint. In the five and a half years for which I can. answer, no appointment, promotion or transfer of a police officer, no expenditure of a dollar, no grant or refusal of a single one of the tens of thousands of licenses and permits which the Police Commissioner controls has been influenced by any political personage or politi- cal consideration. The public acceptance of this as the actual condition is shown by the fact that in all the criticism to which a police department and its com- missioner are sure to be subjected, not one person and not one newspaper has even alleged in five and a half years that the department as a whole or any members of it were concerned in any way with politics, except 87 as voting citizens. Technically, the commissioner him- self might have been regarded in his first term as a political appointee, but even that suspicion is lost in his reappointment by a Governor not of his own party. It may be added, moreover, as emphasizing the peculiarity of this situation, that by law and for lawful purposes the Boston Police Department is brought into closer relation with voters and elections than is any other police department in the world. It is to the police that the statutes have intrusted the annual house-to-house canvass of men and women whose names constitute the basis of the lists of voters prepared by the election commissioners. It is to the police that supplementary inquiries as to new candidates for registration as voters are assigned. It is to the police that all the ballots for use in the city on election days are intrusted for prompt and safe delivery at the 206 voting places. It is a police- man who hands the key of the ballot box to the warden, witnesses and certifies the number registered, and is the custodian of the key throughout the day. A police- man watches the proceedings of election officers from - the opening of the polls until the final returns are handed to him for delivery to the election commissioners. He must be informed as to all the conditions under which voting should proceed and the ballots be handled and counted, for it is his duty to act instantly should any condition be violated. He has printed instructions from his own superiors and from the Board of Election Commissioners. He holds in his hand a list of voters in the precinct whose confinement in hospitals or penal institutions makes it impossible that their names should legally be voted upon. He holds also a printed descrip- tive list of all voters in the precinct, and uses it con- stantly as a means of checking attempts at fraud. And when the polls are closed and the count is begun it is a policeman who must watch every movement of the election officers, with a full knowledge of the things which they should or should not do; see to it that a dozen details are observed in sealing and otherwise 88 preparing the returns, and then take them for personal delivery to the election commissioners. I may add that as Police Commissioner I have found it easy to keep the department out of politics. The members of the force want none of it, and when once convinced that no political influence can help or hurt them they gladly base their hope of promotion wholly upon the proper performance of their duties. The “ politicians,” so called, whatever their party, have given no trouble. A department head who is himself independent of political control creates his own atmos- phere and is not importuned for improper favors, which wise politicians soon learn are not to be had. As the Governor of the Commonwealth is the only public official, other than the courts, to whom the Police Com- missioner of Boston is responsible, it is proper for me to say that in five and a half years of service under three Governors, representing the two leading political parties, I have never received from one of them a request or an intimation designed to influence my official action through favor towards them or their friends on any subject whatever. On the contrary, they have uni- formly assured me of their desire that I should maintain the independence of judgment and conduct which was the basic condition of my acceptance of office. Second. — The Boston Police and Assaults on Citizens. Violent and abusive treatment of citizens is a common and probably much exaggerated cause of complaint against the police throughout the country. Let us see what information can be given as affecting Boston. In the past five and a half years about 300,000 arrests have been made in Boston, not counting cases in which juveniles or adults were merely summoned to court. These arrests were made by about 1,500 policemen on duty at all hours of the day and night, armed with clubs and loaded revolvers. Of the men arrested more than half were drunk, and in thousands of cases violent and 89 abusive, and a large percentage of all persons arrested were dangerous criminals. As a consequence of these arrests and .of the rela- tions of the police with the whole population two policemen have been convicted of unjustifiable assaults and have been discharged from the department; and two others have been discharged for offences believed to have been the outgrowth of an assault upon a prisoner. In none of these cases was a club, revolver or other weapon used, and in all instances the acts of the policemen resulted from outbursts of temper pro- voked by abusive language. It may be said that this remarkable record is due to leniency on the part of the department towards such offenders, that a citizen who is assaulted by a policeman cannot secure justice from the police authorities. On the contrary, no other offence is pursued more rigorously or punished more severely. But to this suggestion there is a perfect answer in addition to the denial. A citizen who is assaulted by a policeman has a right to go to the courts for redress, either with a criminal complaint for assault or with a civil suit for damages. But in five and a half years no Boston policeman has been convicted in any criminal court of assault or any other form of violence committed upon a citizen; and no Boston policeman has paid a dollar in civil damages by order of a court for any act committed by him within those five and a half years. There have been a few instances, perhaps four or five, in which policemen have paid small sums out of court in settlement of cases involving technical assault or unlawful arrest, but not actual bodily injury to the plaintiffs. Five men while engaged in violations of law and in conflict with policemen have received injuries which resulted in death, but in all such cases the courts, after full investigation, have declared the policemen to be blameless. What is the other side of the case? In five and a half years two policemen have been shot dead by crimi- 90 nals and a dozen have been crippled for life by shooting or other violence. In the same period 305 persons, not counting those who escaped, have been arrested for assaulting policemen; and 118 policemen while arresting criminals and 65 other policemen while pur- suing criminals have been injured to such an extent as to cause them to lose 3,696 days from duty. No account is made of the innumerable cases in which the injuries did not necessitate absence from duty. Such is the record of five and a half years as between the individual citizen and the individual policeman, with the policeman possessing the legal as well as the moral right, often of necessity exercised, to use all needed force in effecting an arrest and overcoming resistance. As to the preservation of order in its broader aspect, this may be said to the credit of the people and of the police: In the fifty-seven years of its existence the Boston Police Department has kept order in the city without once calling for military aid. In the draft riot of 1863 soldiers were employed under orders of their own officers to prevent resistance to laws which were themselves of a military character; and at the time of the great fire of 1872 the militia were called out as a precautionary guard for the extensive burnt district. With these exceptions, if they can be called exceptions, no soldier has done police duty in Boston in fifty-seven years, a record which I feel sure cannot be matched by any city of its size in the world. Third. — The Boston Police and “ Corruption. ” In five and a half years one Boston policeman has been convicted of bribery. He accepted $2 in a crowded street, in open day and in the presence of three wit- nesses who were strangers to him, on his promise that he would refrain from prosecuting one of the witnesses for a violation of the street traffic rules. The case was reported at once at headquarters, the policeman was questioned and suspended and charges were preferred against him. He offered his resignation, which was 91 refused, and on failure to appear for trial he was dis- charged and the case was reported to the district attor- ney. Judging from his conduct at the time and since I am of the opinion that the man, who had served two years, was mentally unbalanced. In another instance a policeman who was discovered by his superiors to have given information of an intended search of a house was discharged from the department. The evidence against him disclosed no bribery, but indicated rather that he had acted through friendliness. In a third instance the names of certain police officers with figures against them representing money were found in a diary in a house raided with a search warrant. The matter was investi- gated with the greatest thoroughness and no reason could be discovered for doubting the honesty of the officers named, who had done and are still doing the best possible work for the suppression of vice in their division. I do not doubt that there are persons in Boston who pay money to third parties on the supposi- tion that it goes to the police, but that it does go to them or to any of them has not been shown by a particle of credible testimony. A cordial welcome at police headquarters has always awaited any person who could give such testimony, and the whole force knows that any member convicted of corrupt practices will be not only discharged but presented for criminal prosecution. Such is the discovered extent of “ corruption” in the Boston Police Department in five and a half years; and though no man can say that no policeman is corrupt, it is fair to assume that the fire underlying so small a quantity of smoke must itself be small. Fourth. — The Boston Police and the “ Social E\il.” For four successive years, contrary to all precedent in the department, I have given in my annual reports elaborate statistics, with liberal comment thereon, concerning crimes against chastity and morality. I find that this matter covered in the aggregate fifty 92 printed pages. As I supposed that my report for 1910 would be my last, no feature of the problem that seemed worthy of public consideration was neglected; and for that reason and because there is nothing ne,w to be said I return to the former practice of the department, which is to include the statistics of these offences against the laws with the statistics of all other offences. For the purpose of this summary I may repeat briefly what I have before given in detail, that: 1. The Boston police make no compromise with the “ social evil.” 2. That rejecting the method followed in practically all large cities, including the capitol of the United States, they refuse to designate certain districts in which the laws against sexual vice may be broken with impunity. 3. That their prosecutions, carried on by lawful and decent methods, are aimed against persons who violate the laws of chastity and morality because they are law breakers and the police are sworn to enforce all laws to the best of their ability. 4. That the Boston police have not exterminated sexual vice, even of the commercial kind, an accomplish- ment which no police and no people have ever yet achieved; but their work in that direction in the past five years has been greater than any that the city ever before knew, and will be continued by all means at their command and in the face of all forms of public hostility and indifference. Fifth. — The Boston Police and the Liquor Laws. The laws concerning the sale of intoxicating liquors are enforced by the Boston police and are lived up to by licensees in a manner which I feel sure is unequalled in any other large city in the United States. The laws themselves are strict, elaborate and complicated, and the further conditions imposed by the licensing authori- ties are numerous. Licensed places are closed within the hours and on Sundays and other days prescribed by 93 the laws. The “back door” of the saloon, which in other large cities is recognized and tolerated by the authorities in violation of their own laws, is not known in Boston, and the saloon itself is exposed to inspection by the public and the police at all hours of all days. Violations of law by licensees are confined almost exclusively to sales made to minors and to intoxicated persons, and to sales made on Sundays and prohibited holidays by hotels operating under the law which per- mits the serving of liquors to persons resorting to such hotels for food or lodging. The minor is not easily identified, especially when he lies as to his age; the degree of inebriation which brings a person under the law as to intoxication has not been and cannot be defined by the law itself; and the provision concerning Sunday and holiday sales by hotels is susceptible of many evasions. I believe it to be safe to say that wherever the law is so specific as to afford a reasonable basis for enforcement, it is enforced; and that the line of incom- plete enforcement runs through those provisions of the law which are themselves uncertain and cannot be made clear and effective at all times. The sale of intoxicating liquors by unlicensed persons has long been carried on only in ways so cautious and places so obscure that in order to obtain entrance and evidence the police are compelled to resort to strategem and disguises. Under those conditions the prosecutions number from 150 to 200 annually. Sixth. — The Boston Police and Gambling. No professional gambling house exists in Boston and none has existed for a dozen years. This is a remarkable situation, for the presence of many such houses in other cities and the futile efforts of the authorities to suppress them are notorious. Fifteen years ago Boston, with a much smaller population, contained perhaps a score of houses fitted, furnished and carried on by pro- fessional gamblers for gambling on a large scale. All have long since been forced out of business by police 94 prosecutions, and they have no successors. The gam-1 bling of to-day in Boston is carried on spasmodically! and on a petty scale in laundries, lofts, barns, kitchens,! tailor shops and like places, and in open lots, by men and boys who go into it as an occasional amusement, not as a means of living. A few men are concerned in it who try to live without work by this or any other method. They hire a room in one part of the city or] another from time to time, but soon the police appear, strip the room of its poor fittings, seize a few chips andj playing cards, arrest all present and that is the end of that particular place. Gambling of the character which alone is found and prosecuted in Boston receives practi-| cally no police attention in other large cities. Seventh. — Law the Only Police Guide. Obedience to law, with the use of none but lawful methods, is the rule of action in the Boston Police i Department. To such obedience policemen are required to hold themselves as well as to hold others. They are not allowed to follow unlawful methods for the sakef even of an apparent advantage to the community, for the community will suffer in the long run far more than it can possibly gain through disregard for law by its police. In the summary which I have given under the seven preceding headings I have not touched the broad, general work of the Boston Police Department; I have attempted merely to give some useful infor- mation concerning certain subjects which are always discussed when police work in the United States is under consideration. ■y 21