The San Francisco call., 1895-10-16
ADVOCACY OF MORALITY.
MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE TELLS
HOW FAMILIES ARE THE
WEALTH OF STATES.
REDEMPTION OF THE FALLEN
Mrs. CHARLTON EDHoLM, MISS VIII
LARD AND MRS. WHITENET
SPEAK OF GREAT EVILS.

BALTIMORE. ND, Oct. 15.-Motherly
looking women with gray hairs and earnest
faces were largely in evidence at the second
days session of the National Purity Con-
gress. Among them who have devoted
years to aiding and comforting the more
unfortunate sisters who have given way to
human weakness and become outcasts
were scattered number of laymen and
clergymen who, too. have identified them
selves with the work. The reputation of
these men and women drew & crowd of
spectators to this mornings session, which
began with the reading of paper by Rev.
W. 7. Sabine, DID,, of New York, on "So-
cial Vice and National Decay Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe, who was to have made
an address to-day on Moral Equity Be-
tween the Sexes, was not able to be pres
ent, but her paper was read by President
Powell. In it Mrs. Howe said:
The relations of sex are either the crown
of society or its ruin; they either build the
state up on a sound and true foundation,
or they set up fantastic structures upon
quicKsand, which speedily become yawn-
ing chasms of loss and misery. Families
are the wealth Of states, and The ideal fam
lily life is one which we Americans espe-
cially need to cultivate. Let the romance
OF our youths look forward to married life
on plan of mutual dignity and equality.
In my view the sense of equality is a most
important condition in marriage, and the
surest guarantee of its soundness. Do
what you will, inferiority of ability will
involve as its sequence inferiority of moral
responsibility. The interests committed
to the keeping of women are too momentous
to be intrusted by any man to his in
feriors.
Philosophy and poetry in our days
have sometimes appeared as apologists of
an evil which has come to US from the
barbsrous past, but which has no apology
in the civilized present. The entertain
ment OF the old, unequal hypothesis of
morality has often seemed to me like the
building of an arch in which one side
should be sound in strength while the
other side should be built of unknown
material. For one side you fit and smooth
the stone carefully; for the other you take
such material as comes to hand. How
will such an arch stand? But if we
bestow equal care upon the two sides of
the arch then the keystone. duty, will fit
in and our social fabric will stand so firmly
that countless generations shall not cause
it TO move or fall.
Mrs. Charlton Edholm, superintendent
of press of the Worlds Women's Christian
Temperance Union, was listened to with
rapt attention as she delivered an eloquent
address on Traffic in Girls and Florence
Crittenton Missions" She told of the
horrors suffered by thousands of Young
girls lured into the haunts of infamy.
She described her experiences in many
cities and delineated the work of rescuing
the fallen.
Mrs. Edholm asserted that of the go 900
erring girls in the country, over half of
them have been scared and bought and
sold into their lives of shame.
Their average life is five years." she
added. "Forty-sIx thousand are carted
out to the potter's field every year. Over
100 American homes have to be desolated
every day to recruit the ranks of shame.
Isn't IL time somebody was saving these
girlsP Twenty million Christians can res
cue 10000 erring girls, or surely the reli-
gion of the Lord Jesus Christ is failure.
"The cursed wlnerooms are sending
more girls to hell than anything else. Just
as long as we have the traffic in drink we
will have the traffic in girls. Don't you
think it is time we were leaving our fancy
work and the making of pies and cakes and
try to save our boys and girls? 1t comes
home to you fathers, too. 1t will be no ex-
cuse when you are asked what you did tc
keep your boy out of the saloons to reply
that America should have free trade, and
that in talking for that you did not have
time to protect your offspring"
The feature of the session of the congress
was the appearance and address of Miss
Francis E. Willard, the famous leader ot
the W. c. T. q. of America. She was re-
ceived with applause and the Chautauqua
salute. The order of business was sus
pended and she was invited to address the
congress. In the course of her remarks
Miss Willard said she had read accounts
OF last nights meeting and thought OF
what good and pure things the purity alli-
ance was spreading out for all to read.
''We dare now to tell what we are think
ing. The bringing out of ideas and put.
ting them all in a common stock that will
build up a stalwart cause will win for your
society and movement universal good will.
We did not dare to speak of these things
once. 1t is just ten years since l first felt
l could mildly say something about it.
The chivalry of one man, William T.
Stead of England, did much to aid us in
this matter"
Miss Willard then gave brief story of
the work accomplished by the w. c. T. u.
and cited the fact that there are to-day All
colleges and universities which admit and
only about forty which exclude women.
This was pointed out as one indication of
the broadening of the views SO necessary
for education and publication. The
bicycle, Miss Willard said, is one of the
greatest allies of social purity. She rode
one in England. In Chicago saloon-keep-
els ana theatrical managers are cursiDg
the bicycle because the young folks are
ndlng out in the country and not patroniz-
Ing their resorts.
Mrs. William Whitnet of the National