The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1909-02-04

statement made by Or G. S. Woods
at the Y. M. G. A. meeting for men
at the Grand Opera House Sunday
afternoon. More appalling than this,
the speaker added, is the existing
condition of society which winks at
such a situation and takes 1t as a
matter of course.
DR.. Woods, who is prominent in the
medical profession in Indiana, is sec
retary of the Indiana State Society of
Social Hygiene. While he gave much
prominence to the moral phases of
the subject, it was particularly as a
medical practitioner that he discussed
the social evil. He was greeted by
an audience of about 400 men. His
address, in the main, was heart to
heart talk to young men and he en-
ployed plain and direct terms to the
matters which he desired to impress
upon his auditors EARLY education
in the home of the young and develop
ing boy was the remedy for the evil
which he placed above all others in
treating existing conditions. He also
advocated the same standard of morals
for men that society now imposes upon
women, as necessary to the eradica-
tion of existing evils.
Secretary P. B. Williams, of the
local Y. M. c. A.. presided at the
meeting and introduced the speaker.
In his preliminary remarks Secretary
Williams sought to impress upon
those present that the mems meetings
of the association in the opera house
are not yet self sustaining; that the
collection last Sunday averaged five
cents per capita while that of the
Sunday before had averaged six cents;
that because Of the great distance
travelled by the speaker on this occa-
sion the exxxpxenses were higher than
for any previous meeting and that with
the attendance present it would be
necessary to contribute 16 cents each
TO keep the accounts balanced. He
appealed to the audience to meet this
expense and also to help wipe out the
deficit.
Secretary Williams also announced
a change in the expected program for
next Sunday, when Judge Blair was
TO have spoken. Instead John F.
Meek, of Coshocton, will be the speak
er. Judge Blair is wanted in Youngs-
town on that occasion, the secretary
said, to speak in behalf of local OPP
tion movement. Ina smuch as Canton
and Stark county have not yet devel-
oped the courage to go into a local
option campaign, the secretary said,
the association did not feel free to
take so forcible campaigner as Judge
Blair from a field that did have the
courage ito take up the campaign.
Hence the change in speakers.
The singing for the meeting was
led by the Y. M, G. A. quartet and
r. H, Spellman in most pleasing
manner rendered as a solo, Il Heard
the Voice of Jesus
DR.. Woods said in beginning his ad-
dress that there had been but three
great evils to menace this country from
it's inception-slavery, which has al
ready been eradicated, intemperance,
against which a successful fight is now
being waged, and the social evil, the
most serious problem of the nation.
There had been an awful cost in ma
terial possessions as well as in human
life in the eradication of slavery, he
said, and like cost is involved prob
ably in a different way, in the eradi-
cation of the other evils, but this cost
would be paid and the nation would
emerge pure and clean.
He emphasized the difficulty Of Sc
curing the help and cooperation Of
the pure and cleann in dealing with the
social evil because of a false mod
esty that has from the beginning caus-
cd people to shun or ignore this sub
feet. Women will not discuss 1t, he
said; schools are silent on the sub
ject and the press only handles 1t
when 1t embellishes or sensationalizes
a story of the day Such Is public
sentiment on the subject that good
men and good women, passing the
habitation of the evil, close their eyes
and hold their nostrils. AS result,
growing boys and girls are left to
learn of the evil in the most vulgar
and repulsive language on the street
or from chance companions. Until
parents and others shall change their
policy on this subject and take the
developing youths of the country into
their confidence and tell them in the
right way what they should know of
these subjects there can be no real
improvement. The salvation Of the
country, in the opinion of the speaker
Heb III lnS uOLl6 anu Tie SShOOl u dlh
tng of the young mind in the right
1 channels on this great subject. Ply
sicians, he said, as a class, are doing
pioneer work in the great reform,
but 1t was with shame, he said, that
he recognized that certain element
in the profession is prone to treat the
subject as "a necessary evil" an idea
which he secuted and denounced with
force and vehemence.
DR.. Woods was very forcible in his
argument placing two sexes on the
same moral plane, pointing out that
for every feminine derelict there must
needs be a masculine associate, and In
referring to the necessary evil" ar
gument drew pathetic picture of
sacrificing some mans daughter or
sister TO the lust of another man,
should that argument be accepted. He
spoke forcibly of condition of So
tiety which would condemn the women
who had fallen but would permit the
man who had sinned in the same de-
gree to return TO his home of purity
to earess ana embrace his loving moth
Ar OF sister Mothers, he said, would
not allow their daughters to pass All
evening in the parlor with the woman
who had gone astray. but how much
greater harm might be done that same
daughter through passing the evening
IN the parlor with the young man
who had gone just as far from the
path Of virtue. He expressed comfort