The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-14
ARE WOMEN
TO Be SOLD2
Iheo. Richards Asks
The Question.
.OPEN LETTER TO PUBLIC
City Pastors Failure to Drive On,
Japanese Procurers Creates
Feeling.

The temporary defeat of the pastors
OF Honolulu's churches in their fight n
rid the City of the degenerate class OF
Japanese men who live off the earn
ings of fallen women of their race. has
stirred up intense feeling. The procur-
ers who are banded together in clubs
to blackmail respectable Japanese and
to defy the law to stop their degraded
trade, laugh at those who are trying
to have them deported.
In the Supreme Court on Friday. II
was decided in a test case. that the
procurers could not be held on a charge
OF "disorderly conduct" Theodore
Richards, who has been leader in the
campaign against this form of vice. has
addressed the following letter to the
public:
The dear public loves to assume that
there are always a few professional re-
formers who are willing to attend to the
moral sewage-nay. to live in the cess
pools-perhaps because they enjoy pad
ding In the muck to which occupation
there ls some agreeable notoriety at
tached. Then. too, are they not "feed?'
Let US waive all quarrel on this ground,
provided the public will admit that. as IL
mas created the Nth, IL must be respon-
sible for the removal. If the work is to
be shunted of on n department, let the
public see to IL that experts are employ
ed. and then that they do IL well. The
air is full OF talk about clean" govern
ment. and IL is gratifying 10 see how
much men are preparing to endure in
THIS city TO secure that end. We are
willing TO give up one or several. even
OF order. pale oratory-short flights of
our national bridal mixed with stale
tobacco smoke, provided we secure some
clean and Cipan m aa n ra-
suit.
This is all right. my best beloved" bu,
listen to "A truism: n clean" government
will provide for clean measures in its
backyard as well as In front" No one
Will care to deny that to secure the
honest administration of public offices in
volving public funds is the main object
of clean" campaign. That will make
"A handsome front yard. gentlemen. 1t
may not interest you to know II, but I'm
with you.
Let us look at the Japanese backyard
In the first place. although you may not
permit it: some OF you think it's a neces-
sity What Women sold for from S,s
to $500 per head and rented out to a
more odiOus servitude than tnat endured
by negroes In the South? Is that "a ne
c,ssity? At the risk OF an anti climax,
should like TO suggest that there may be
| something wrong with your system, gen
| tlemen, which involves such necessity
To review the situation briefly. the mir
/ ty-odd men who were picked out from q
II
/ tween four hundred and eight hundred
/ and arrested on the nearest charge 20 bt
/ found TO TT their odious case, are out
| vindiCated. triumphant. Their obvious
/ assumption Is that the Christian Gov
/ ernment which could not reach theii
| tried TO catch them as slave dealers arc
| procurcrs. and as there was no faulJ N
/ the evidence. nor In the handling ol
/ above acts as decided by court IRON
| which there Is no apDeal. Leaving aS'dt
/ their assumption, which may be wrong
/ and which may lead them into real error
| crnps-what "A pity they don't like opium. .
| the cold fact is that we have no -tat"t'
| though. to secure a thoroughly "clean'
| government we will have to make
| statute some day. doesn't II?
| Of course this is practically waiting To-
| thc new odorless eNcavators. seeing tina
| we DO not like to touch this thing VIII
our hands. a distant remedy. this legis
| est man VINO sat as judge on fridil
| might not have given expression 10 M
! convictions. his common sense-aye, hii
| sympnt pnthies-untrammeled by cumbrou'
| laws OF evidence and interpretations o.
what hitherto has constituted disturb
| ance OF the peace. EVeryoody hhows
| tended TO disturb'D the peace. MAY
/ 10 please the Court as these last Two re
marks are irrelevant and incompetent,
move that they be stricken from the eN
| Finally. then, must we wait for legis
lation. seeing that the exigency Is not a.
| grave as that OF the plague-alieged t'
| he black3 OF course we Will nave t'
clean this nuisance out when " gets bll
| enough. But II we wait for Legislation
how would II do 10 begin TO prepare 10
Ug You see we may forget about ]
| when the first Legislature has settle.
down to the consideration OF "frontyaru
politics. .-,-.
/ In the mean time let no one imagine
/ that there has been any enort lost
, much less that there has been a de
| feat Humanitys causes are Coo )
which do not permit of ultimate ded.a,
There are good men and true comInltlSt'
To the Contest-nay, the best OF the pup
tic h backing n, the foregoing 10 inc coil
trary. Observation-Disclosures 50 much
perhaps, out OF sympathy for the Jnp
anese as for self-protection-the protCiy
b. ton OF our civilization, whlcn shoun
guard the very life-breath OF our chii
dreu. from contamination: suppose
make my meaning palmer py saylns S",,, Tua
right. There is something TO De don
, right away" what are you gong 10 W
THEODORE RICHARDS