A Mead Project
reference page

Originally published as:

Robert Throop and Lloyd Gordon Ward.. "Research Note: Vice Commission of the City of Chicago, 1910-1911." St. Catharine's ON: The Mead Project (2006).

Vice Commission of the City of Chicago, 1910-1911

 We originally constructed this table as a preliminary step in documenting ties between the Illinois Vigilance Association, Vice Commission of the City of Chicago, the Chicago Committee of Fifteen,  University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Foundation, American Social Hygiene Association, and the federal Council for National Defense and its Advisory Commission, especially the War Training Camp Activities Commission and the General Medical Board and its Committees on Hygiene and Sanitation and Civilian Cooperation.

For our purposes, the most important relationship in the table is the participation of Abram W. Harris and Julius Rosenwald on the "Social Evil and Saloons" committee of the Commission. At the time of the Thomas Scandal, Rosenwald was a trustee of the University of Chicago, a trustee of the Rockefeller Association, a member of the Advisory Commission to the Council for National Defense. Also on the Council's Advisory Commission was Dr. Franklin H. Martin, who taught in the Medical Faculty of Northwestern University under Harris's presidency. At the time, Harris was also the President of the American Social Hygiene Association and a Vice-president of the Chicago Committee of Fifteen. In constructing the General Medical Board, Martin drew heavily on the resources of the American Social Hygiene Association, particularly in constructing the Committees on Alcoholism and Venereal Diseases. It was the work of these two committees that defined Section 12 and 13 of the "Conscription Bill," the legislation that created the War Training Camp Activities Commission that defined and administered the Alcohol and Vice prohibition zones during the First World War.

Notes

Sources:  Membership list built up from Mayor Busse's March 5, 1910 letter to Dean Walter T. Sumner (named at the time as Chairman pro tem), reproduced on page 2 of  The Social Evil in Chicago. There appears to be an error in the reproduction. That version of the document included the name of Bishop C. T. Schaffer, who was named to the commission on 14 March 1910 (see Social Evil in Chicago p. 4). Shaffer was not named in the first list published in the Chicago Tribune on 6 March 1910.

 

©2007 The Mead Project.

 

This page and related Mead Project pages constitute the personal web-site of Dr. Lloyd Gordon Ward (retired), who is responsible for its content. Although the Mead Project continues to be presented through the generosity of Brock University, the contents of this page do not reflect the opinion of Brock University. Brock University is not responsible for its content.

 

Fair Use Statement:

 

Scholars are permitted to reproduce this material for personal use.  Instructors are permitted to reproduce this material for educational use by their students.

Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, for the purpose of profit or personal benefit, without written permission from the Mead Project. Permission is granted for inclusion of the electronic text of these pages, and their related images in any index that provides free access to its listed documents.

 

The Mead Project, c/o Dr. Lloyd Gordon Ward, 44 Charles Street West, Apt. 4501, Toronto Ontario Canada M4Y 1R8