The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-09

come into accord with the Democracy aud the
South, in opposition to all amendments, The
ground he now stands upon will not sustain his
weight.
"The Social Evil'-The Governing Evil.
From the World.
Some clever writer, perhaps It was Arch
bishop whately once compared the way in
which, for a long time, man may carry around
in his head two completely irreconcilable sets
of ideas without once discovering their hostile
relations, to the incident of two contending
armies in Scotland silently encam ping within a
lew rods of each other in the midst of an i'm
penetrable fog. What the sun did that day, we
hope to do for the beclouded columns of the
Tribune, and, when its conflicting ideas are dis
closed to each other, to let them fight 1t out as
best they may.
bill is now before the Legislature which
proposes to subject to regular medical inspec.
tion the women who make sale of their persons
The Tribune sets down two objections to ITS
passage-one sophistical, the other earnest and
radical. Its sophlstical objection is that to
regulate prostitution by medical police is to
legalize prostitution. But the Iluuor law advo-
Gated by the Tribune, both Tor reasons of morals
and for reasons OF revenue, regulates the sale
OF liquor; does it Therefore legalize drunken
ness! The two cases are precisely similar; but
the ITibltneS notions about the one and about the
other are precisely antagonlstic. We leave
them to contend with each other Neither can
exist il the other survives.
But the Tribune makes this further objection,
which Is radical and fundamental: - THE
object of regulation is to lessen the chances of
inection-ot disease: and we would not have
them lessened. On the contrary we hold it
desirable that it should be rendered absolutely
certain that everykman who visited a house of
1ll-fame would there be smitten with an inCura.
bic and fatal leprosy. 1t Is the chance OF escape
unharmed that stimulates lechery and multi
plies hbertines. We're certain and speedy death
the OOtpriOnG npnnltO 40 ran rps
be few indeed. But the idea OF securing men
against The natural results OF their own vices
Is not merely immoral, it Is a sheer Illusion"
Human societies the world over, ana even
here, wnere fewer things were committed to
Government to do than elsewhere, have, never
theless, charged Governments with so much
more than their single legitimate function -
the administration OF the law, q. G., the common
organized force to prevent the doing OF injustice
by one citizen against anOther-that men have
come to rely, for the reCtdCatiOn of any great
evil upon these artificial ana clumsy creatures
OF theirs; whereby their own selt-rehant ener
gies, and their confidence i'll the SIMPLE forces
of the social organism mot first Contrived at
Paris, London, Philadelphia, or Albany, nave
become enteebled with dIsuse.
1t may, therefore, as a practical matter, be
for a time necessary TO the mitigation OF great
and admitted evils, that these substitutes, SO
long as they are substitutes, should be put TO
some good use. If the Government must, for a
time yet, be misused to deprive meu OF their
right to use their iaculnes as they please, and
their right 10 exchange the property acquired
by such use with whom and Tor what they
please; if the Government must continue still
TO be misused 20 legalize plundefing and spolia-
ton by protective tariffs. then surely govern
ments might Tor a while be used 10 circumscri0e
the raVages OF the worst Ot human diseases.
1t is in this sense. and with the hope of get
ting the best Results out of d police system
unavoidable as whole, that We have lately
pressed the mitigation OF the worst cOnSe-
quences of tAe social evil upon the Gttent on of
nDr lAulC mn nph In. of
them not always mar.
Governments everywhere charge themselves
with supervision OF the relations OF the sexes.
The philosophy which permits them TO Ordain IL
civil sanction to the noblest OF those relations
must be brutal, indeed, II IL shall refuse police
regulation to mitigate the worst OF those rela'
tons. And if it be true that nothing less than
the unsoftened consequences of their own errors
can teach men to torsake them, those conse-
quences must follow upon the errlng individual
himself TO have their proper disciplinary result.
But, says the IFLbune:-"Even the llte-bloOd OF
infancy is tainted and filed with the seeds or
agony and death Dy diseases engendered by
lust. The innocent suffer with the guilty."
In what way does the Tribune propose to have
the inherited sutterlngs OF the second ana thru
generations administer their lessons to those
who have paid the last penalty Tor the wee
which transmitted them!
But there is CLEAN of misappled truth in
the 1rltu7e'S doctrine. 1t is that winch looks
not TO government machinery, but to the nGtu-
raj forces OF the social organism, tor the means
OF human progress. In the social organism,
liberty is life. The Creator did not blunder IN
framing men as social beings. Human society
is not "a failure, whatever human governments
may be, here and elsewhere. The social forces
are so constituted by the Creator OF them, that
they woEk and develop harmOniously IN the AR
OF liberty, and man reaches nObler stature IN
every succeeding century because oil the tact.
The hindrances to this free growth are cnlehy
those of government, which here aud there has 4,
doubtless, produced some handsome results,
but thereby acquires no better title TO operate
out OF it's narrow sphere OF guarding person,
liberty, and property than gardener VINO has
trimmed hawthorn bush into the likeness oi
Napoleon, or contriVed to force blush into the
heart OF a camelia, would have to erect himself
into the lawgiver and controller OF the veRe'
table kingdom. Men have not yet comms-
stoned these hot-house gentlemen TO prescribe
/ the crops of the globe, and ordaIn fashions TO
! the flora, and heats To the atmosphere OF the
| temperate and troplc zones; but the social
/ organism, which is quite as well able to endure
/ its native air of liberty, they have subjected to
! universal and disastrous tlnkeriLg.
| OF the tinkeIs the Tribune Is among the mosl
! devoted. Protective tariffs are the tools WIFE
| which II concelves that nahonal industry car
| be hammered into vigorous lite. liquor law
| IL the fetish which it woEshlps as capable tC
extirpgte drunkenness (as ii society could derive
| from Government any more lorce than II put
into governmentl, like The Hndoo VINO wor
sbips the very clay while he is moulding 1t mt
the shane of an execrable god. But while tn
Tribune proclaims its reliance upon disease a
the only check upon lechery, and fatal aat
incurable leprcsy as the best possible check,
refuses TO rely upon small pronts or no pront
as a suitable means OF diverune men from III
profitable occupations or bankruptcy as the Des
check upou misguided enterprise.
II has confidence in the capacity OF the Anne
rican people 10 discover the road to health an
happiness among those fatal pitfalls; 1t has n
7 | air ~