Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-05
REFORM WITHOUT EXPOSURE,

The Bishop of St. Davids sent letter
to recent meeting in London, protesting
against the method of the expose adopted
by the Pal lIaN Gazette He pronounces
it the greatest ofIense against public de-
cency and morality ever committed in
even nominally Christian country. But
other clergymen Of equal standing and in
telligenee indorse the action of the Gazette
and commend its courage and its methods.
The subject is just now one of profound in
terest in England. To Just what extent
such publications are .justifiable is unset
tied in the ethics Of public decency, if we
are to Judge by the division of sentiment
in England If the ends are ever to lust
ify the means, it would seem that the case
Of the Gazette is a defensble one. How
are great reforms to be worked and great
evils combatted when public opinion is an
essential aid, if the facts are to be kept
secret? 1t will be conceded that the
amendment to the Grimes Act could never
have been secured without just such an ex-
posure as that recently made in England,
and there is no one who will now deny the
| righteousness of that enactment. The ar
bitter IN this debate is to be the voice of
public opinion. 1t has thus far unduali-
fiedly approved the method of the expose,
and that this is true is testified to by the
action Of Parliament We have said be-
fore this, that we do not believe the publ
cations made by the London journal will
poison the social atmosphere, or lead any
one into evil ways. There is no proof that
they have done so as yet On the con-
trary, the effect thus far apparent has been
to quicken the moral sense, to decrease the
most infamous OF crimes, and to throw
about female virtue additional safe guards.
The results therefore may be said to have
justified the means employed. True, the
matter treats Of crime that in recital is re-
pulsive to every modest mind, and shocks
every worthy manly and womanly senti-
ment But when this is admitted, it is
necessary to go further and show that it
tends to degrade the moral sense, to
| increase evil practices and augment crime.
If the result is the reverse of this, how
can those who hold with the Bishop of St.
Davids reasonably object to the agency
| employed? The conservatism that fears
to drag the skeleton from the closet really
fosters the vice. There is and can be, no
patent method of reform. 1t is usually
the result of moral convulsion. The
knife must be applied to remove moral
cancers, for they are rarely rotted away BY
| moral suasion. The radical reformer at
the outset generally invites the opposition
of the public, but as only that is reform
that is right. it invariably results that in
time the radical has his reward. Reform
is always born of corruption, and publicity
is the only possible field for its activity or
Its success. If the tendency of the times
Is, as DIR. Holland so stoutly maintained,
toward reform, then those methods that
the public sense approves are commend
able. The English expose has its type in
our own country, and the chief difference
is in the volume of the recital and magni-
tude of the crime; the morality and de-
cency and ofense to public modesty in
volved are precisely the same. For in
stance, nothing viler is treated of in the
London expose than has been openly
printed in the California press in the case
of the purchase of female children by
Chinese for immoral purposes. Yet no
one has even suggested that it was repre-