The wageworker., 1906-09-21

The Wageworker has the utmost re-
spect for the members of the minis
terial union of this city, and it has
never at any time, nor in any place,
questioned their sincerity or the hon
esty of their motives. Neither has 1t
been at all backward about criticizing
them when it felt that just criticism
was called for.
The very recent agitation aroused
because of Chief Cooper's action with
regard to the red light district dur
ing fair week, is, we believe, uncalled
for. Let us say right here and now
that we do not commend Chief Cooper's
action. We believe it was ill-advised,
and we doubt not that Chief Cooper
now sees it in the same light. But
the man who would question the mo-
tives that actuated Chief Cooper does
not know him. Having known P. H.
Cooper for something like sixteen
years, We are prepared to take issue
with any man or any organization that
would assert, openly or by insinuation,
that he would use his official position
in a manner he knew to be wrong.
But all of us learn by experience, and
even Chief Cooper, with all of his
years and experience, is neither too
old nor too experienced to profit by
further experience.
With the reverend gentleman who
said he had investigated the social evil
in Lincoln and in Pittsburg, and found
it worse in the Nebraska city than
in the Pennsylvania city, We take most
decided issue. The reverend gentleman
is undoubtedly honest in his asserted
belief, but the assertion does his pow
ers of observation no credit. A twenty
years experience in daily newspaper
work gave the editor of this paper
some knowledge of metropolitan life
better knowledge, perhaps, than that
OF the average minister. The editor
OF this humble little paper has worked
as newspaper man and as printer
In scores of cities larger than Lin
coin, in many others OF similar size,
Sand in some smaller but still to be
classed among metropolitan cities. And
1t Is with vast pride that he, as a citi-
zen of Lincoln, can stand up and as
sert in all honesty and truthfulness.
that there is not another city of equal
size in the United States, so far as
he knows, that is as free from the
social evil as Lincoln; that in no city
of equal size is the liquor traffic so
well regulated, and that there is not
another city OF equal size in this re-
public so free from the traps and
snares that beset the feet of young
men and young women.
The WageworlSer is just as much OPP
posed to the virtual licensing of the
social evil as any minister in Lincoln.
II is unalterably opposed to the system
of monthly fines which obtains in
most cities. But it recognizes the facS
that this evil, which is as old as time
itself almost, will continue through all
eternity. There are some things that
even the Almighty can not do. That
being true, why not admit that there
are vastly greater number of things
that finite men can not do, and that
one of them is to eradicate the social
evil? Then why not do the best We
can, guided by experience? Confine
1t into the smallest area possible, make
its practice as odious as possible
and then get after the real criminals
In the case-the frequenters of the re-
sorts.
Reverend sirs, would 1t not be bet
ter to turn your attention to the many
things possible of accomplishment
all of them calculated to benefit our
city and it's people-than to be forever
harping on the one thing that is i'm
possible of accomplishment, the eradi-
cation of the social evil?
A few years ago, in the city OF
Omaha, there was a minister who pre-
sided over the largest Protestant
church in that city. He began cru
SADIE against the social evil similar to
the one now engaged in by the min
listers of Lincoln. The fight waxed
warm One day the madam of a no
torious house came to him, and with
tears in her eyes declared that she was
tired of the life she had been leading
and wanted to reform and live Chris
tian live thenceforth. This minister
of course encouraged her. He gave
her some good advice and said he
would be her friend. The woman
closed her house, bought a little cottage
in the respectable" portion of Omaha
and lived quietly and honestly for a
year. Then she went to the minister
and said she wanted to become Chris
tian and identify herself with the