The Girl That Disappears/Chapter 17
XVII
MAYOR "GOLDEN RULE" JONES SOLVED THE
PROBLEM BY SEGREGATION
I CAN illustrate this point no better than by relating Toledo's experience. During the administration of the late Mayor Jones, "Golden Rule Jones," a deputation of clergymen called on Mayor Jones and told him that the city of Toledo demanded the suppressing of the social evil. Respectable people could bear it no longer; they demanded that every woman of ill repute be compelled to leave Toledo.
"Gentlemen," said Mayor Jones seriously, "not one of you loathes the social evil more than I. Not one of you would more gladly put a stop to the whole wretched business. And if you can suggest any way on earth in which it can be done, I shall be only to thankful to work with you. You say 'send these women out'—where shall we send them? To Cleveland? To Akron? Would that be fair? And if they remain here are you willing to help them earn an honest living? They have to keep on living you know. Are you willing to befriend them, uplift them, protect them? I will take one of them into my home. Will each of you?"
Of course they were not willing, not a man of them. Then, after a lot of discussion and hot words that got nowhere, Mayor Jones said:
"Gentlemen, I cannot drive these women out of town, I cannot suppress the social evil in Toledo. But I'll tell you what I can do, I can segregate it, I can control it. That much I can do and will do. How does it suit you?"
It suited nobody, and the delegation went out denouncing the "Golden Rule" administration bitterly. The Golden Rule, according to most people, is all very well in its place, that place being the New Testament. To apply it to the social evil is beyond the comprehension of the average clergyman or citizen.
Nevertheless Mayor Jones did segregate the evil and it remains segregated to this day.
This is how segregation worked in an Ohio city of 200,000 population. They confine the business to a certain quarter of the town. They allow street-walkers on no other streets except those designated. They allow no pianos, no noise, no revelry. Nothing exists in Toledo's red-light district except the plain, unadorned business of prostitution. The police rules governing it are few and simple. Every person in the district knows them by heart, and they know they have to obey them; otherwise, their business is broken up.
There is no such thing in Toledo as a white slave. The police would not permit it. Any woman in the district knows that as long as she obeys the police rules she may claim police protection. There is no such thing as police graft in Toledo. This is possible only because they have a thoroughly efficient, honest, and intelligent Chief of Police, and his work is backed up by an absolutely honest, sincere and intelligent mayor, Brand Whitlock.
Cleveland is another Ohio city which has had a police chief brave enough to acknowledge the fact that there is such a thing as a social evil. Chief Koher has dealt with the matter precisely as Mayor Jones dealt with it, and as Mayor Whitlock in Toledo continues to deal with it. They have their red-light district in Cleveland, but they have it thoroughly under control, and they have no white slavery. They have no such thing as a country girl lured to a house of ill repute under pretense of obtaining honest employment, and afterwards kept in horrid bondage. They have no such thing as a young immigrant girl, ignorant of the language, in fear of her life, being beaten into subjection and infamy by a brutal master.