The Washington herald., 1911-04-16
CHICAGO'S EFFORTS
TO STAMP OUT EVIL

Chicago, and the cities on the Ameri-
. can continent of which Chicago is but
a type, have given a mighty shock dur
ing this Holy Week which has just
closed The shock came as a result of
one of the most startling moral docu-
ments ever issued in the United States
the report Of the municipal commission
appointed in Chicago to study the ques-
ton Of vice in that city.
The history of the document is inter-
esting. At a mass meeting Of ministers
last summer the problem of the traffic
in virtue within the limits of the city
was put upon the consciences Of these
clergymen in a series Of startling ad-
dresses. Out of that meeting came the
appointment OF a committee empowered
to wait upon Mayor Busse and to urge
him to create a citizens commission
with power to investigate the social evil
in Chicago.
Never before had the mayor done any,
thing personally or officially, it is said,
TO discourage vice. This committees re-
quest seemed to offer an easy way to
gain favor with Christian citizens. and
the mayor responded by appointing a
representative commission.
AS is usual when commissions of this
nature are named, practical men saw
little or nothing in the programme. To
them il represented the same old story
fine bit of theory and with nothing to
it beyond the piece of paper it was writ
ten on. But all presidents were smashed
The commission reversed the usual. In
stead of praying cream and living
SKINNED milk. they determined to give
the public the cream. They went to work
to secure from the city council an ap-
preparation for expenses, and with the
small amount placed at their disposal
they have accomplished a wonderfully
thorough-going investigation, and on the
basis of the data collected have just is
sued a printed report of really monu-
mental and magnificent proportions.
The personnel of the commission would
insure such a document. Dean Sumner,
of the Episcopalian Cathedral. is the
chairman: the secretary, Edwin w.
Simms. as United States District Attur-
ney, has fought white slavery in season
and oVt. Among other members were
President y. w. Harris. of Northwestern
University; DR.. Frank w. Gunsaulus:
Father O'Callaghan, of the Paulist order;
Prof. Graham Taylor, sociologist; Chief
Justice Harry Olson, of the Municipal
Court; John c. Whitman. keeper of the
BriGewell, and Profs. w. l. Thomas,
Charles Richmond Henderson. and H L.
Wil.ett, of the University of Chicago
At the outset the commissions report
staggerS the reader with the declaration
that the annual expenditure in houses of
vice within the city of Chicago is SIS
CO0,0CO, and that to supply the demands
Of f,-oR S4 10
girls must annually be stolen from them
The mortality of women involved in the
business, 1t is stated, is so enormous that
one-fifth die annually and at least 1000
recruits must be found to supply their
places.
The report is emphatic and vigorous in
its stand on the so-called ''contnental'
system of regulation. The commission
says the system is impossible. In their
opinion no plan of dealing with the ques-
ton is worthy of a civilized nation if il |
does not aim continually at the final ex-
tinCtion of the evil itself Yet il IS frank |
ly recognized as a practical situation that |
prostitution can be suppressed only by |
most persistent effort through a long
period of years and that as a feasible |
immc date result increasing repression is
the hest that can be expected.
What amounts almost to a sensation is |
the commissions stating in its findings
that the problem can never be disposed |
Of through reliance on police measures
Ultimately, they say, the only cure eff |
fective must be such a moralizing CT in |
dividual men that make up the mass of
society that automatically their chivalry |
shall protect the virtue of women, as |
now without that chivalry their evil ep- |
petites desecrate her.
And here 1t is that the commission |
frankly lays the burden on organized re- |
ligion-on the churches whose function IT |
is to build character according to the |
ethical standards of Jesus Christ. The |
commission frankly says. Until the |
hearts of men are changed we can hope |
for no absolute humiliation of the social |
evil Religion and education alone can
correct the greatest curse which to-day !
rests on mankind. For this there is a |
mighty work for agencies and institutions
Of righteousness in our land
Growing out of the whole is the final
recommendation that Chicago shall |
create a Morals Commission intrusted
with the duty of fighting the social evil
until it is finally stamped out. The COM
mission says, in conclusion, that Chicago
is no worse than other great cities, and
that what is done in Chicago is bound to
affect municipal policy on the social evil
in the future everywhere.