The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-05

looking for evidence of vice and de-
pravity. Some of the things we read
OF In our Topeka papers that happen
almost under our very eyes are far
from tending to a Pharisaical satisfac-
ton with local conditions. With all due
respect to the club woman and the VIC.
L. U.-er and without denying their
right to go daft on the subject of puri-
flying st. Louis want to say that there
| is plenty of rfeorm work here at home
to occupy all the good women in To-
peka. Ask some of the members of the
U and I club and other charity work.
ers. Didn't we all get a glimpse and
a hint of how the other half lives dur
ing the flood last spring? Topeka girls
and boys are not in half as much dan
ger of being contaminated by the St.
Louis syndicate as they are by in
| iuences here at home.
81 might add, too. that never was
greatly impressed by this vice syndi-
| cate story, anyway. 1t Savors of SAT-
| from sensation and unblushing fake, to
my mind. That is, / don't believe good
girls will be in any more danger of be-
4 ing led astray this summer than usual
What a good many people beside the
/ declarations of clubs and the w. G. t.
U. fail to recognize is that the drunk
ard and the fallen woman are the pro-
ducts of our conditions, and that the
root of the trouble goes far deeper than
municipal corruption and the remedy
/ lies in no petitions to the powers that
| be, even if the powers that be were in
clined to pay any attention to Sucn an
appeal. The more study these matters
the more am convinced that we are
all individually and collectively equally
responsible for the evils that exist
among us, or, in view of the fact tnat
many of them go so far back into MS
tory and the evolutionary processes
that it is impossible to trace them to
their source, perhaps I should say
equally irresponsible.
you know what Schopenhauer said
about London's $4,000 prostitutes pelng
the price of the virtue of her nne Ia
dies. AS some writer I was reading
the other day put it, the joy1ess lives
of the poor painted creature pay TOT
| the luxurious ease of a society or Wo-
men over dressed, over-fed and over
gay
''But do not deny the individual re-
sponsibility to do all in our power to
better conditions and I laugh at the
| club woman's petitions only because l
am convinced that they will be utterly
Intellectual. [ do think there are many
things we can do to help individual
cases and that every moment of right
living and right thinking brings us all
that much nearer out of the mess anu
the muddle that seem SO hopeless.
Strictly within the province of the fed
erations and other philanthropical or
| CARNATIONS are causes and movements
| which do much to make life easier for
| ourselves and those who will come at
ter. And when I remember what the
club women have done for public man
ual training schools In Kansas and
elsewhere, and how they have always
been against child labor and the inhu-
| man employer, how they stand for the
best conditions among mill and factory
hands, for civic improvement, public
parks, public Fairgrounds, free kinder
gartens and libraries and Industrial
schools, I am ashamed of ever having
made fun of their occasional inconsis-
tencies and follies. These things, I be-
lieve, have done and will do more 10
circumvent the plans of any syndicate
of vice than all the petitions that
could be written. They are more eff
fectual to save the girls and boys than
any number of resolutions or votes OF
protest.
What Mrs. Noble Prentis had to
say on this subject was especially SEN
sible and convincing. She takes the
right view of the federation's responsi-
bility when she said that it must find
something for the restless, dlsSat1Shed
idle girls who live in duh little towns
and villages-girls without occupation,
opportunities or healthful diversion
They can be saved, Mrs. Prentis thinks
by useful, eongenial employment. Io
find something for the Kansas girls 10
do, to make them happier and more
useful and therefore better is. it seems
to me, the most pressing duty of the
club women, the w. G. L. u ana the
rest OF US. Girls who have happy
!, homes, proper Occupation anu ailuse-
ment are in no danger from 'syndicates
of vice at home or abroad. The most
insidious advertisements of free ano
easy employment will not be able to
lure them into sin and they can visit
the exposition this summer without
any danger even if the women's clubs
and the w. c. T. u should fail in their
mission of washing st. Louis winter
than snow"
A meeting of the Portia club was
held with Mrs. L. M. Powell Thursday,
4 chosen for the ensuing year: President,