Minneapolis Madams: The Lost History of Prostitution on the Riverfront

5. Vice Report: After the Bordellos Closed

157 FIVE Vice Report After the Bordellos Closed Once the Minneapolis city fathers made the decision to suppress rather than segregate prostitution, there was a demand (ironically, perhaps) that the entire issue receive serious study. In July 1910, fiftyseven prominent men petitioned Mayor James C. Haynes to conduct an investigation of what they termed the “Social Evil.”1 Soon a fifteenmember commission headed by Marion Shutter, a Universalist minister , was investigating how law enforcement, saloons, dance halls, economic conditions, home discipline, and “the influx of a new type of foreign element” that has “without question, tended to lower the social and morals stands of the community,” related to prostitution.2 The commissioners ranged from officers of the court such as Judge Edward F. Waite and probation officer Edward J. Davenport, professors John H. Gray and David H. Painter, physicians Dr. Herbert O. Collins and Dr. Mabel S. Ulrich to business and union representatives such as Charles M. Way and Nicholas C. O’Connor. Their findings were published in the 1911 Report of the Vice Commission of Minneapolis to His Honor, James C. Haynes, Mayor. The commission did its best to maintain a nonpartisan position and steer clear of assigning blame or uncovering corruption in its investigation of the roots of prostitution in Minneapolis. Many of the commissioners grudgingly admitted favoring the system of regulated prostitution at the beginning of the study, but once their work was completed most of them had changed this position. Perhaps they had come to this conclusion as a result of their investigations, or perhaps Vice Report 158 the commissioners sensed a shifting political reality and understood the old-style red-light districts would never return. The vice commission pursued a vigorous course of research, sending out approximately 350 letters in a representative sampling of Minneapolis citizens from a wide variety of businesses and professions . They interviewed madams who kept brothels and police officials who had enforced a variety of policies on prostitution over the years. Although none of the madams were named, it is quite likely Nettie Conley, Ida Dorsey, and Edna Hamilton provided testimony, given their prominence and years of experience in the business. The commission corresponded with authorities from other cities, and traveled to other municipalities to investigate how they approached the problem of public prostitution.3 The commission briefly recounted the history of how the city dealt with prostitution, stating, incorrectly, that the system of fines had begun in the early 1880s and making no mention of the crusade against the madams that had sent three of them to prison. The report then moved on to the current situation. Considering the arguments for legalizing prostitution, the commission quoted several writers who presented rationales for a system that would put the commercial sex trade on the same footing as liquor, allowing the city to confine it to certain areas and exercise control through licensing. One suggestion was to locate a sex district on Nicollet Island under city ownership, while another thought the Eleventh Avenue area was as good as any. Instead of the old system of monthly fines that acknowledged prostitution was indeed a violation of state and city laws, legalization would end the hypocrisy and recognize that prostitution would never be completely eradicated, only regulated. The report affirmed that this argument was “theoretically logical and consistent” but impossible in any practical sense. “Legalizing and licensing prostitution is a method foreign to the sentiments and feelings of the American people and repugnant to their moral sense.” The report concluded that the electorate would never elect state representatives who would repeal current prostitution laws nor a city council that would enact similar ordinances.4 In the end, the commission favored strict enforcement of antiprostitution laws, citing a “new spirit abroad in the land, and particularly in our cities, so different from former indifference and assumed Vice Report 159 helplessness, that it is called a Civic Awakening.” This new idealism manifested itself in a determination to eliminate political bossism and partisan politics, and make cities better through beautification and slum clearance.5 The commissioners reported that never within their collective memory had prostitution been under better control than since November 1910, “when the police department put into effect the drastic order prohibiting saloons from harboring prostitutes and directing the police to pursue a vigorous policy for the elimination of disorderly houses.”6 When writing about this...