New Ulm review., 1912-03-20

be denied. 1t cries for and reache'
out to suck JOY from the breast of lif'
ss blindly and confidently as 9 bsb'
for its mothers milk. It will drinl
poison rather than thirst.
The rightof youth to JOY is universal
1t is not limited by class, wealth o.
station. It is inherited by the child o
the tenements who dances in the streets
as justly as by the child born in {
palace to dance in guarded bal
rooms.
The denial OF it by the state il
punished by injection of vice as surel,
as neglect of sanitation is punished b!
epidemics. Neither infection is lin i
ted to the class in which neglect o.
duty gave rise to it. The responsibl
suffer justly with their victims.
Since Puritan times American pa
rents have learned this truth almost
too we'll. The indolent have made !,
an excuse for leaving youth to chase
Joy unmatched and unguided. The
state, which comes to take over the
duty of indifferent parents, must learn
it, 1T is not to make . bad matter
worse.
The public dance hall is the poor
girls ballroom. There her small in.
heritance of Joy is paid in such mean
coin as remains after distributing the
larger inheritance. "
If you shut the door in her face, she
will go farther and fare worse, and
your guarded class will not escape
the infection OF her i'll faring. If you
guard her half as we'll as her sister of
the ballroom is guarded, she will be
even safer, because the poor learn
earlier how to guard themselves. It
is easier to pass counterfeit coin of Joy
in gold than in coppers.
Do the office of parents in the public
dance halls if they leave it undone.
Regulate them up to the sacred line
whore the right of innocent JOY begins.
Chaperone them, if you will, with
women policemen to do the work of
mothers more toil-weary than indif-
ferent.
Shut them up if you have something
better to offer; but never otherwise.
That way lies mortal peril and swift
The authors of the dance
halls themselves are not more danger
Gus to society than they who stand
bIindly IN the way of something better.
Wise men and good women have an
ticipated the result of the crusade
against public dance halls and have
stirred themselves to provide some-
thing far better. The city authorities.
under the spur OF public agitation,
have done their part Of destruction,
but the nobler part of construction
has fallen to the volunteers of the
churches. the women 8 clubs and other
'ympathetic organizations.
The highest service to public moral
ty has been done by those who have
triven to open the churches to the in
accent pleasure of the poor and to
convert the schools into places of
harmless Joy after the tasks of the day
ire done in them. The mortal enemies
VI public morality are those who seek
o discourage or defeat the substitu-
ion of higher and safer theaters of
tumble pleasures than those they have
et out to destroy.
Their success would inevitably breed
eaction to the worst state of the
'ublic dance hall system, after ex-
'erience of the dire consequence of
triving to stifle wholly the just crav-
ng of youth for harmless pleasure.
The Sunday School is an admirable
Institution, but there are natural and
ealthy human desires which it does
lot fully satisfy. Youth is not to be
heated of its birthright of Joy with a
ness of maxims because some people
approach clean flesh without
lack thoughts"