The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-15
THREADING IN A CIRCLE.


Already a hopeless muddle, the city's
problem of the social evil has been
hopelessly complicated by the attitude
Of the preachers who discussed it on
Sunday. In unison they censure the
mayor and his administration; they de-
mand that the law shall be enforced as
written; that the fallen women be
driven from the city: and they declare
the arrangement made for a new dis
trict is a disgrace to the city in its in
ception and execution.
Granting in advance the entire SINGER
ity of the pastors. agreeing with them
as to the ineompetency of this city adj
ministratien, praying with them most
earnestly for a better civic life. admit
ting that the mayor has made mis-
take in being outspoken as to his con-
victions-for outspokenness has no place
In politics-then what?
X X
What does the alternative mean? To
drive the outcasts from the city is a
simple proposal Criminals are thus
boring cities, and Salt Lake passes them
on in turn. But il doesn't decrease the
number of criminals or dispose of the
problem. Where are these outcast
women TO be driven to? They have no
money, no friends. no chance on earth
of decent occupation. No family in any
of the congregations which listened to
Sundays discourses would employ
one of them. They cannot be deported
bodily. the city viii not even give them
the charity of Imprisonment with food
and clothing and a place to rest in
Hagar in the desert had a prospect of
release by death: her unfortunate sis
tiers in the underworld of Salt Lake
have not even that.
What sort of Christian remedy is this.
anyway?
-
One of Sundays speakers did propose
q reclamation home supported by pub
lie money. He might as well have pro-
posed TO furnish free transportation to
heaven. The home" experiment has
been tried right here in Salt Lake
Some of the unselfish. sympathetic.
Christian women of the city undertook
to provide a place of refuge for the for
saken and outcast women. BY heroic
effort they got together money for
horne. When they sought a location
they were driven from one place to an
other by the indignant residents OF dis
tricts considered suitable for the home,
until they had to abandon their effort.
A pest-house could not have been re-
garded with more horror-and this in a
Christian community
The difficulty with the question as ap-
preached by the pastors is their refusal
TO face the facts. From Rahab's day.
the problem has never had n solution;
and the modern city is further away
from solving it than the Hebraic walled
cities We're. It is easy TO say the law
against the evil must be enforced. but
il would be Just as easy to enact and
enforce a law saying there shall be no
sin. Every city in this country has
lust suen laws, and in every city the
laws have been enforced Just as they
have been here; that is to say. the law
has been used as a club in politics. a
source Of revenue for the INSCRIPTIONS
In authority. dead letter to be revived
only with the agitation OF good people
or the campaign needs OF a party to
compel the inmolation of the victims.
WHAT real hope is there OF stamping out
the evil utterly as the pastors demand:
and what man who has any knowledge
OF human nature believes IT can be
stamped out9 Wouldn't il be better to
recognize facts. limit the evil as far as
possible and confiue it to known boun-
daries difficult OF access?
The Herald holds no brief for the
mayor or for the city council; it be-
lieves the administration has broken
down hooelessly. but IL counts the de-
mand for the determination of the social
evil by driving ont the abandoned ones
as hopelessly futile. The sheriff has
already shown that effort in this direc-
ton only serves TO spread the centagion
and infect districts that have hereto
fore escaped direct contact with vice.