East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-04-06
POVERTY CAUSE OF
DOWNFALL OF GIRLS
REPORTS CHICAGO COMMISSION
TO THE CITY COUNCIL
Many Radical Recommendations Are
Made in Report on Existing Evils
-Drectly Opposed TO System of
Segregation.

Chicago, April 6.-Poverty is the
chief cause OF the downfall of girls,
| according TO the Chicago vice COM
mission. the first salaried comm.s-
sion of its kind. The commission
in its report TO the city council last
| night and gave an exhaustive review
of the present statue OF the social
evil in Chicago, its past, its causes and
means of suppressing it. The recon-
mendations We're directly against the
European principle of segregation
They were:
Constant and persistent repression
of the social evil as an immediate
method. with absolute annihiation as
the ultimate idea. This by means OF:
"First-The appointment of a NOR
ais committee.
"Second-The establishment Of a
morals court"
In summing up present conditions
the report says:
Most of the police are honest; one
standard OF morality in Vhicago ap-
plauds dances of nearly naked women
in the name of art and condemns
dances no worse before less prosper
out audiences; men, not women, are
the ones 'hightst up in the business
administration of the social evil; ho-
tells which ask no questions of their
patrons are a great contributing
means to wrecked girlhood; prejudice
against colored girls drives them into
the social evil centers and as SER
wants or inmates: the white slave traf-
fic is not organized"
Contributing causes are named as
follows:
Want of the necessities Of life,
craving for simple luxuries, ignor-
ance, broken promises, deceit of men:
but chief of all-poverty. Lack of
protection to immigrant girls aids the
evil, says the report, and lake steam
ers with no regulations are fruitful
sources of victims. Lack of proper
pay for working girls is assailed at
great length in bitter terms and is
called the chief reason why young
girls fail to resist temptations.
The causes are summed up thus:
Lack of ethical and religious teach
ings; economical stress on underpaid
workers; large number of seasonal
trades for women. leaving periods of
the year when there is no employ
ment; abnormality; unhappy home
conditions; careless and ignorant par
ents. broken promises, love of ease
and luxury; craving for excitement
and change; ignorance of hygiene.
Among the recommendations are
these:
Instruction Of children u and IS
years old in six hygiene by personal
attention q parents; physical examI-
nation Of applicants for marriage IL
censes; better protection for girls;
abolition Of the fining system azzirst
known members Of vice districts; an
Intelligent and ample adult probation
system; home for old offenders; an
appeal TO the chivalry Of men; regu-
!ation Of lake boats; investigation and
supervision Of employment agencies;
laws calling centerz Of the evil public
nuisances; against allowing msszen-
ger boys 10 go into the vice districts;
the state 70 take the place Of parent
to illegitimae children; comfor STA
tons in the city; municipal dance
halls; municipal lodging houses for
women; segregation Of semi-delin-
quent girls from delinquents and an
Intelligent care and education for
them; women officers for the police
force; vocational training for older
girls in the public schools; hotels and
homes for working girls and women.
vigilance in public parks where girls
and women visit; and less liberty for
children except under the eye Of their
parents; and, generally. closer atten-
ton Of parents to the habits, ac-
quaintances and doings of their chill
dren-girls and boys.