Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-07-03
HER SISTERS KEEPER.

| HER SISTERS KEEPER.
Report says the revelations OF scan
da,ous vice and organized libertinism
| following the killing of STANFORD
White have resulted in determined
crusade against rich men suspected OF
| pursuing the mode of life adopted ps
the victim of Thaw's revenge Ihe
"orientalists" OF the city are to re-
ceiye the publicity they deserve, and
/ the promise of scandalous exposures
among the wealthy of the metropolis
has reused the avidity of the scanda
| lover and the activity of the scandal
monger. Yellow newspapers are 70
| teen with pictures of the men and
women involved and below the putrid
details in hea1lines a foot high. And
when for nire days this determined
crusade" has carried the miasma OF
scandal broadcast over a continent,
when the appetite for prurient publicity
has been satisfied, vice will return to
business at the old stand, and the gold
en- key of wealth open again the doors
Of society and respectful consideration
to its possessors. 1t must be so where
the lack of large means is bar to
social recognition and where money
assumes dictatorship over common re-
spectability i'll business and politics.
Any society ouilded on wealth lacks
the vital elements of usefulness, and
of higher development. The degen-
eracy of the extremely rich is an &C
cusation against the system.
That such rnen as White exist ex-
cept as outcasts, is largely due to the
greed of one sex and the cowardice OF
the other OF the men who met White
socially and IN business hundreds
knew his character. Among the de-
cent women VINO welcomed him to their
homes with smiles, many knew his
reputation as an enemy to their sex.
OF the thousands of decent men
everywhere who have expressed the
opinion that White should have been
killed long ago, how many stopped on
the next street corner to shake hands
and chat with men as utterly devoid
of character as White himself and of
the mothers who read with horror and
a sense of personal outrage the fate
of the fourteen-yea r-old girls destroy
ed by the dead scoundrel, how many
gave a pleasant greeting and sm;:e
to men whose records are palimpsest
of crimes against women?
1t is easy to be impersonally sim
cere and to condemn at long range the
men and vices we condone as indi-
viduals. If all were to apply at nome
the tests under which we justly con-
denim White and his companions in
vice and villainy, if in every city and
village in Iowa the acid test Vera
poured on character, if men who pur-
sue young girls and weak women be-
came pariahs in business and outcasts
i'm social life at home, If women re-
fused them recognition as they refuse
their victim sisterhood, there would be
little need for social purity leagues
and determined crusades" that fail to
accomplish the reforms at which they
aim. Crimes against men, like
deliberate theft or forgery or murder,
men are rarely forgiven by men;
the destruction Of female virtue and
the ruin of woman's life inen arc
generally forgiven by women. Good
women are in a great measure re-
sponsible for men like White. When
they accept their personal respons-
Utility and act individually the re-
forms they seek impersonally will have
been practically achieved. Few men
are willing to exist under the express
ed scorn and contempt of all good
may retain social pre-eminence while
leasing his property for purposes of
crime. while the libertine walks un-
abashed before purity and good women
receive bad men on a friendly footing,
determined rrusades' will fail of their
purpose and publicity continue to be
another name for scandal Law en-
fcrcement rarely rises over social sem
timent and while decency smiles on
vice. and virtue condones crime against
itself. the libertine will flourish. and
unprotected weakness be left to its own
defence.
Exeureinn "a Clear [ axe Iowa .I1lIu 4