March 23, 1940
Mayor Warns Vice in City Must Cease

Mayor Leo Williamson and Police Chief John G. Good conferred in the office of the mayor this morning concerning reports that gambling, a vice, is existent here.

The conference was still in session early this afternoon.

Prior to the meeting, Chief Good, however, the mayor indicated that “he will not tolerate professional gambling or commercialized vice in Williamsport.”

Whether or not the warning is to be followed by police raids appeared today to depend on the future activity of suspected characters. The mayor was positive in his assertion of disapproval and is understood to have outlined his attitude and policy in detail to the Police Department heads. 

He said to newspaper reporters this morning, “I do not intend to allow such unlawful practices to flourish in Williamsport. If the reports that I have received are found to be true and if the parties involved of their own accord, promptly bring their activities within the law or get out of Williamsport we will act. 

The mayor indicated that reports of improvement in other communities that Williamsport had become a fertile field for those interested in the operation of gambling establishment and devices. He expressed his determination to use the police force to combat any belief that those engaged in such operations are free of molestation in Williamsport.

It is understood that the mayor in his conference with the chief said that competent men be assigned to investigation into the situation and that plans for imperative action be formulated at once.