Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1899-12-02
San Francisco Says
Regulate Social Evil

san Francisco is discussing the So
clal evil problem with as much, IL not
more, general interest than Honolulu.
The Call publishes in recent issue
symposium of views expressive of
San Francisco clergymen, of which the
following excerpts are made:
Rev. William RAIDER, pastor of the
Third Congregational Church says:
Let us have laws which, If enforced,
would at least regulate the evil. Next
co probably affords the best example
of regulation. If the Mexican provi-
sions could be faithfully applied in
American cities great good would be
accomplished.
A more Christian attitude of good
women toward their unfortunate sis
| tiers. Women look with disdain upon
fallen women. Homes, schools and Of
ten 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 redemp-
ton to the outcast.
Rev. Robert Mackenzie, pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church, says:
San Francisco is now and will con-
tinue to be great Corinth, where COM
merce will reign and where ships from
many nations will come and CO. In
these vast marts, to whatever time or
stage of the worlds progress they have
belonged, prostitution has always been
an attendant parasite. Experience
seems to show that in such places It
cannot be suppressed. II we had here
an unvarying body of citizens; IL San
Francisco were comprised exclusively
of San Franciscans, we might so thor
ougly preach morals into the commu-
nifty that the foul class would be
squeezed out. But the fact is before us
that San Francisco is to be to a large
extent like a river, whose banks re-
main constant but whose waters are
continuously changing. Strange men
and strange women gather here daily
from the ends of the earth, form for
few days or weeks part of our pop
ulation, then pass out and away. Such
people the church and its moral-mak-
ing influences cannot effectually reach.
Yet these are largely the sustaining
factors of prostitution.
In tho nragan,o 80 ,,,.t, 4, ...l,.,...
government is the only thing possible.
The people who sustain this nuisance
should be identified and held firmly in
hand. The police and the health au-
tborities should divide the RESPONSE
bilities between them, and the places
should be relegated to particular To-
cality. New ordinances should be pass
ed creating these changes. and laws in
conflict with them should be repealed.
Rev. Jacob Voorsanger the leading
Jewish Rabbi says:
Legislation can control vice, legisla-
ton has the right TO determine that 1t
shall be neither a sore in the eyes nor
stink in the nostrils of polite society.
Legislation has the right to say that
vice, IL it be absolutely impossible to
uproot 1t, shall hide its face and be not
seen of those who are offended by its
sight. That is not hypocrisy, it is pre-
caution. II / admit my inability to
uproot certain phases of vice have at
the same time constitutional right to
prevent my children from seeing it.
Vice-that is, specifically, the bust
ness Of the bawd and the beer bottle
have recently increased in San Fran
cisco. 1t was unavoidable. II San
Francisco's pride is stimulated by its pc
sition as the gateway to the Orient 1t
must be prepared to stand the conse-
quences of an influx of population,
military and civilian, that for the time
being looks with indifference at the
staid morality of our people.
Rev. Il. A. Woods pastor of the First
Baptist church says:
To localize and attempt to control
the social evil Is in sense to legalize
that which is immoral and Illegal.
Laws attempting this have been enact
ed in some American cities, but they
have failed to control all but the more
open and shameless characters, and did
not reach the root of the evil. 1t fol-
lowed that the outraged moral sense
of the community demanded and Sc
cured their repeal. Such legislation is
itself degeneration and belongs to
darker centuries and an unchristian
age. An attempt to localize and protect
crime is itself criminal. Such legisla-
ton would encourage evil by encourage
ing and maintaing a public example of
1t in our own city under sanction of
law. The very fact that such sins are