New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-07-31

\ | Of revenue, which will, in the.minds Of
many, very much dim, if not do away
= with the sense of guilt that now attaches
to it; particularly among the law-honest,
{ who consider nothing wrong that the law
: does not forbid.
We believe that this is fair statement
( of the main arguments Of those who con-
tend for the utter suppression OF the
social evil. True, there is another argu-
ment sometimes brought forward, respect
ing the foul disease wherewith God pun
ishes the foul crime, to tamper with
which, in order to facilitate the commits
sion of the crime, without mourning the
punishment, is to attempt the defeat Of
Gods justice. This last argument, we hold
amounts to nothing; for saints get sick as
well as sinners.
That class of the community who are
in favor Of regulating the social evil adj
NIT the enormity of the sin and concede
the culpability Of letting it alone; but
they maintain the impossibility of putting
it away entirely, because it is founded up
on natural instinct, upon the most pow
erful Of human passions
! A large proportion of this class of peo-
pie would content themselves with pas
sive liberation, taking such precautions
only as might mitigate the physical con-
sequences Of ibidinous habits. The
whole point and gist of their arguments
in favor of regulation is founded upon
the assumed eradicability of the evil.
In the principal countries, and in all
the large cities of Europe, the social evil
| has received more or less attention and
| regulation from the authorities, and more
particularly has this been SO in France.
The only exception is Great Britain,
where the evil has never been intertercd
with, except in garrison towns for the
protection of the troops from disease; this
interference being rather military than
civil police regulation. France has GER
tainly taken the lead, and the results of
her action will, we opine, be a sufficient
foundation wherein to form some judy
ment of the whole matter.
It has been contended that the system
of regulation is failure. In an article in
the Westminster Reu;e,c Dr.. Chapman,
whose study of the subject gives his
opinions much weight, asserts that in |
France the community suffers from the |
social evil and all its baneful adjuncts, as
much as other countries where less has |
been done for regulation, or in Great |
Britain and the United States, where |
nothing whatever has been done. Of |
course, the only inference to be drawn
from this statement, is that legal regula-
ton is futile, and that as much will be
gained by letting the evil alone, as by
tampering with regulations about it.
With every respect for so high an au-
thority, We are compelled to adopt diff
ferent conclusion The system in France
is merely one Of restraint, and can not be
expected to work a moral reform among
fallen women, any more than the restrain
ing effects of criminal laws induce moral
reformation among professional law
breakers. Yet who will aver that the laws
against crime have not had, to some ex-
tent at least preventive effect.
The laws enacted for the punishment
of criminal ofenses and those formed for
the regulation and consequent restraint
OF sexual vice are not reformatory in
their nature. Effective moral reform be-
longs to another system as different as is
ecclesiastical from civil government, as
church from state. Both systems can CO.
operate with and assist each other, but
neither can do the others work The in
and punishment of one con-
induce change Of heart than would an
opportune tract have turned aside Bill
Sykes from well planned burglary. Is
1t is no argument, then, against sys-
em of legal regulation of the social evil 8
hat the regulations adopted heretofore
md now in force in other countries have :
lone nothing toward moral reformation. t
They deal with full-blown vice just as the :
riminal law of the land deals with full
blown crime, and in both cases the regu- '
atoms and laws look not so much to re- :
ormation as to shield the law-abiding d
rom the aggressions of the lawless.
In short, the regulations adopted in t
arious countries of Europe respecting the n
ocial evil do not strike at the root of the u
latter. Regulation has not gone far
nough, for the means used have been n
redicated upon the assumption that So I
ial vice is irradicable. Had the regula- Il
ons been founded upon the idea that o
parse criminal vice was, if not entirely Ii
yet capable Of such suppress q
on that it would cease to be the great V
I'll of the day, different results might Il
ave been expected. q
Whether entire suppression is prac- a
cable need not, however, be argued. "
D do something is, without dispute, a ii
eat public duty; the evil can not be al IL
wed to spread unchecked; it must be g,
gulated, and if suppression is possible G:
'entually, regulation lies at the thresh- N
Did, and should be indicted with a view sc
ultimate reformation, however long it W
ay be coming. Men do not hesitate ID
plant the acorn because the oak re-
Tires generations to grow We, there sc ..