New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-21
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
REGULATING CRIME.


SIR: One of the greatest of cur social evils, that
of prostitution has been long demanding attention,
but through dolicaCy we have seemed particularly
averse to meeting it until il has now assumed gigaI-
tic proportions. The question is now, however,
fairly before the people and must be met The City
Council of ST. Louis have taken the nitatory steps
in the matter, and have passed ordinance which
is almost literal copy of the European laws on the
same subject Are these laws wise aud worthy of
general adoptionl
First, as to their efficiency. For many years pros
tituion has been fairly legalized in France Every
unfortunate woman must by law be registered, regu
larly examined, and is required to submit to other
sanitary regulations The gstraton lists contain the
names of only about 5000 of these women while the
estimated number who publicly privately carry
this soukillng profession is estimated at no less
than thirty thousand. Again, the recognized aim OF
these laws in France is not to suppress even limit
the evil, but simply to prevent the spreading of
loathsome diseases. Yet there is, perhaps, no city
in the world in Which these diseases gener
ally prevalent among all classes than in Paris; wit
the two immense hospitals for these diseases,
the Midi for and the Lourcine for women, which
are continually crowded with patients, beside the
nnumerable cases which are treated at the general
hospitals, and the VIGOROUSLY great number who
consult physicians i'll private practice.
An act known as the Contagious Diseases Act"
was recently hurried through the British Parliament
with little or no discussion on its provisions. The
public ignorant Of its character, and it gen
orally supposed that it act to prevent the eX
tension of the cattle plague. W was, however,
enforced in several garrison towns, and the people
then first learned, to their CONSERVATION that the
act was an almost literal copy of the French law, and
was administered in much the same manner. Any
woman suspected of unchastity was at the mercy of
q supervisor who might cause her arrest and in case
she could not fairly prove her innocence, might COM
pei her to submit to the indignity OF an examination.
This law has recently caused the greatest excitement
throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain,
and a very powerful party, numbering among its
leaders many of the most prominent men and women
of the day, is demanding the repeal Of the OBJ
n0XiOus law.
But it must not be forgotten that both France and
England have strong reasons for the enforcement of
sueh laws which do not operate at all in the United
States. Tie ordinary garrison Of Paris including
the soldiers at versatile, ST. Cloud, and the other
surrounding IOS,s numbers about $1,000 men, while
tie whole FIcnch ARM consists of nearly 100000
mel. TIE pay Of these soldieIs is the merest pit
lance, and most OF them are unmarried for two
reasOns-fiTst: he army IS drafted from the young
men Of the nation, most of whom, when they enter
the service aio beneath the average aga of marriages
and again, their small pay does not enable them TO
support a wife and family 1t is Of cou1se for the
interest of the Government to Keep these ren in the
lest possible health, and rs French morality, and
particularly the morality Of the French army, is at
the lowest possible standard, il is quite necessary
that the won en- with whom the soldiers associate
should lie as free from disease possible. Besides
all this the nea themselves most rigidly exam
| ined from time to time.
1t is on this very ground that the Contagious
Diseases Act was introduced into England and, as
before stated its enforcement las been thus far
| fined to few garrison towns With the small army
of the Gnted states and the better pay of our sol
dicrs looking at the question merely as one OF eXpe-
diency this the great argument adduced 10y the sup
porters of these laws upon the other side Of the At
laHtic falls at once to the ground. Again, all laws
that have thus far been enacted, including the Or
dinance recently passed by the City Council of ST.
Louis are One-sded and unfair. Contagious diseases
are indiscrminately convey ed from one sex to the
other and any act that provides for the examination
of one SEX while the other is left perfectly free must
prove practically worthless.
When we look at the moral side of the question
there can be but one opinion. 1t cannot be right
in a professedly Christian country TO license
and protect prostitution by law. Yet this
is just what the ordinance Of the City Council OF ST.
Louis has done for it cannot be denied that Gov
elmnent that regulates" such crime and collects
fees for doing is bound to protect it so long as 1t
conforms 10 the law. There is perhaps no project
that would tend much to the increase of the evil
as this If giving the prostitutes certain degree OF
responsibility and assuring them protection in their
profession as well as disseminating the idea that the
danger of disease is averted reduced to mini
num- will not have that effect il is difficult to imas-
inc any measure that would. The section of the or
dinance that provides that the agents of the Board
of Health and examining physicians shall use all
proper means for retaining the unfOrtunates with
whom they come in contact must prove simply null
and void when we consider what class of medical
men will accept such positions.
st. Louis has done good thing. She has brought
the people face to face with this great and growing
evil, for the regulation and check OF which some
means must be devised and though the plan that she
has adopted may, and probably will, prove worse
than Intellectual it must be productive of good re-
suits in that it grappes fairly and boldly with the
problem that is before al of our large cities for so
luton. WIN. T. WHITE, NJ ~
Patctucket, r. l., July is, 1870
WORK AND WAGES.
RELATIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR.
MI