Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-08-14
PUBLIC MORALS CONFERENCE.
Washington Post.)

Theholding OF a public morals con
ference in London is a serious symp-
tom of the times, 1t shows two things:
First, that moral standards require
looking after; and secondly, that the
public conscience has at last been
awakened and stirred to tackle the
task. If We are to Judge by the
statements made. the cleansing of
the Augean stables by Hercules was
only joke when compared with what
the philanthropic men and women who
attended the meeting have set them
selves to do.
The subjects discussed naturally
TOOK wide range. Education for par
eattood, the work Of the churches in
influencing the young; the necessity
of offending to the educational re-
qnirements and moral surroundings
Of boys and girls who have just left
school; the influence of~books, news
papers and theatres on public morals
these and a 1Os. Of kindred matt ars
wsre discussed BY experts in a spirit.
Of the bloadest philanthropy. aaI
WIKI an obviously earnest desire to Il
fect sadly needed improvements.
The old anu difficult question OF
checking by means OF the existing or.
CARNATIONS of rubf@Eers, news agents
circulating Libraries, journalists AMI
authors, tie lroduc ton aid circu a.
ton of noXious IL orts and pub ic4-
tons was once more brought forwar l.
land, as usual, e'ici-ed much devir ,is}
of opinion The representative OF
| the Retail News agents and 30 \
sellers Union eLit,.ed to having the
distributor of tie 5.oks and perio j.
Gals made a censor on the good
gr uhd that It as impossible for the
vendor &c look through even a 1.-THE of
the publications ha had to handle. A
clergyman backed this up by saying
that in any case tlaa decision OF
| what was indecent should not be left
to the distributor. In his own case
the reverend gentleman had occasion
10 write book on Walt. Whitman.
but his bookseller, who knew him per-
fectly well, refused to sell him a com
plete edition of the poets works as
being likely to corrupt his morals.
A sensation was caused by one
speaker, who averred that books writ
ten by women were far worse than
those written by men and that wo-
men were far more eager tLan men %
obtain from libraries books that were
corrupt or prurient, or that dealt in
bald and plain fashion with problems
of sex.
The most interesting address was
that delivered by Mr.. w. T. Stead, Oh
the relation Of the theatre to public
morals, but, though it was highly
| charged with common sense. and was
at the same time brimful of humor,
which evoked repeated laughter from
his hearers, it ended in a trite CON
clusIon, namely, that those who aim
at high ideals in dramatics deserve
to be supported. Of course, they do.
the problem is how to get thu masses
to give their support in the right
place and to withhold it from the
other sort.
Altogether, the conference, though
we'll intentioned, was scarcely a great
success; but its propaganda may take
root and bear fruit in time. A pre-
liminary necessity would appear to be
an agreement among the philanthro-
pfsts themselves as to what is and
what is not immoral, and then a
united effort to cope with what is
admittedly evil along practical lines.