St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-31
VIEWS OF HELEN CAMPBELL

10 the student Of sociology it is very
plain that we are to deal,no with mems
ideas of what social phenomena ought
to be, but what they are. The pheno-
mena themselves spring from founda-
ton LAID i'll the nature of man and where
the physical influences are strong er than
the spiritual, appear with almost auto
matte regularity. Legislation in such
cases, unless it approaches the stand
point OF the SoclologlSt, can be neither
scientific nor effective. Prohibition
does not eliminate appetite, and the de-
Structlou of a saloon touches i'll but
faint degree the cause that secures it
place and occupation.
On the same principle the war at pres
ent waged against houses of ill-fame is
equally futile, serving chiefly to adver-
tiSe locations, to testify to the zeal of
police captains. and to add one more
folly to the innumerable follies of New
York municipal government.
Take the actual facts of the case.
Those who know the real lives of the
women on whom public attention Is
temporarily fixed know that the larger
proportion were in the beginning either
Innocent victims of mans lust. or
yielded through love to find them
no doors open save these that 1t is
added ruin to enter. That we must add
to this list small proportion who de-
liberately choose the life makes no diff
ference in the fact they do not sin alone,
and that side by side with what we call
the "failen woman" stands the no less
fallen man. her partner in the Otfense.
I'LL the same justice is measured out to
both, no law, Legislative or ethical, can
righteouSly touch these offenders who
are first driven by society into these
refugees. and are now driven out by the
SAME force-in both cases stupidity
blind to the real aspects OF the position.
Inc remedy can never be born of the
law. The very Legislators whose edict
closes these doors, stole from them to
the council chamber, and will steal
again to other doors of the same nature,
opening again on the same ground. The
law OF supply and demand works in
evltably here as elsewhere, and the So
biologist accepts the fact and looks only
20 education and the growth and eleva-
ton of the moral sense. as the way Ou6
of these shadows. There is 10 remedy
save i'll the soul of man itself, and the
creation OF new ideal of MANHOOD and
womanhood, and this ideal society itself
makes well nigh impossible of attain
mpnt.
So long as we pack our working classes
into tenement houses where indecency
becomes compulsory and life must be
lived under conditions that are death to
health, either moral or physical, so long
this army will receive at our own hands
the recruits it needs. We add to this a
starvation wage and the evils of over.
work; we give only here and there any
suggestion of genuine industrial e6uca-
ton that would make the earning of a
living wage more practicable, and we
demand for one sex a standard of NOR
atty which we refuse to apply to the
other. In short, we legaliZe injustice,
and then marvel at the result. Society
thus first lays the foundation for the
evil and presently seeks. with hue and
cry, to eXtirpate it. Until the point is
reached where it knows itself RESPONSE
bic, and seeks to eliminate causes, these
spasmodic outbreaks OF indignation at
the work OF its own hands are purely
farclcal. and as powerless for real good
as they are senseless in method and re-
suit. HELEN CAMPBELL,