Nevada Bucks the Morality Trend
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:51 PM

Churchill County, Nevada, has no operating legal brothels, though brothels could operate legally there. But some "reformers"* wanted to improve things, so voila', there it was on the ballot, a question to make brothels illegal in Churchill County. How did things turn out? "A ballot measure to ban prostitution in the county was trounced, two-to-one in one of scores of local issues and races decided in the general election."

Now we know that Winston Churchill favored alcohol, tobacco, and painting, but I am not sure about his take on other vices; still, I can't help but to think he would be pleased. (What do you mean the Nevada county isn't named after Winston Churchill! Don't be silly.) Vice Squad has noted the Churchill County controversy in the past.

*Incidentally, I have been reading Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's -- a wonderful book, originally published in the early 1930s. (I am reading it, of course, for its insights into Prohibition.) At some point Lewis notes how the word "reformer," which had a positive spin in the teens, by the 1920s had begun to be used contemptuously.

Oops, almost forgot to note my favorite bit of election news contained in the linked article: "Reno voters endorsed a small property tax to help control mosquitoes..."

Labels: Nevada, Prohibition, prostitution