The San Francisco call., 1899-11-19
Rev. William RAIDER.
Pastor Third Congregational
Church

Tho social evii IS IN some respects the
neglected proa!cm IN the social economy.
Becorrsors are either sup-emely indifrer-
ent or Gs-cssoaably .atolcrant a. 10
methods. J; has been punished 10y death.
connscst.oo. abandonment. nogElng and
exile. The severity OF Judaism was al
most equaled by The penalties OF the thir-
teen:h and sixteenth centuries.
IT has been prohibited. segregated and
regulated. To very great extent all OF
these policies have been stupendous fall
ures. The attempt 20 suppress prostitu-
ton was as big failure in the Jewish
theocracy ard Rome as 81 Is in San Fran
cisco.
Segregation without strict conditions has
not been a success. Fallen women were
relegRtcd 20 the Ghetto. bat the Ghetto
became a hell OF lawlsssress.
To regulate ih!s evil was the ambition
OF municipal Greece. and is in vogue to-
dsy in Paris. Berlin. Vienna. g.. Louis.
Cleveland. Pi.:sb-rS and other cities. This
method has much in It's favor. The evil
Itself ccr no more be crushed out OF eK-
istence ;hGn murder or stealing or lep-
rosy.
The sooner people look cpon = in this
way the better. Your ardent suppression
ist doesn't know what he IS talking about.
Ills theory Is coed. but the hard facts OF
Centuries are against him. The testimony
az the blood of six thousand years sweeps
away his logic.
Nobody IN San Francisco pays much at
tention 10 the matter. II is driven from
street 10 street and from locality 20 10
cality, but the e-il is not lessened. There
IS no reform IN this spasmodio effort at
closing up the iens os vice; nobody ex-
poets the laws 10 be enforced and they are
not enforced. The police laugh at our
statutes. They talk and write and occa-
sionally make arrests, but nothing IS ac-
complished except the redemption OF GER
tain localities. The whole question OF the
evil IS immeasurably more important than
any OF these local phases. Il ia a prob
leIa which is social. political and religious.
IL must be approached from the domestic
life. from the standpoint OF the church
and from the state.
! Let rs have laws which. II enforced
would at least regulate the evil Mexico
probably affords the best example OF reg
ulacon. IL the Mexican provisions could
be faithfully applied In American cities
grcst good would be accomplished.
2 A more Christian attitude OF good
women toward their unfortunate sisters.
Women look with disdain upon fallen
women Homes. schools and often
churches are socially closed TO them.
They are indeed abandoned" like wrecks
Upon the sea But men are not. Christ
put both on an equality and taught the
possibility OF redemption 10 the ou;cast
II the Christian women or this city would
take as much interest in prostitutes as
they 30 IN drunkards the problem would
receive some light Causes and cures
should be traced back into the customs
and dangers of the domestic life and 20
The Increasingly weakened marriage bond
AS 20 this Nymphia. I have never seen Il
and know nothing about the place except
from hearsay. Men who run such a
building for money should be punished.
such public rendezvous OF vice. plainly
n violation OF our laws. should be de-
stroyed But its destruction will not af-
fcct the great evil beneath &. and this.
after all. should be the objec. OF our
reform