The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-09-26
SOME OF THE CAUSES OF PRES
ENT-DAY IMMORTALITY
Extract from Report on Social
Purity
By B. S. Steadwell.

| agreed that there has been a marked
increase in licentiousness during the
past forty or fifty years. With all the
efforts that have been directed
against it, We have not been able to
appreciably check its rapid growth
There are many causes for this, as
many as for sin itself or for the de-
creasing interest in and unfaithful-
ness to the Church of God In fact it
is only too evident that the most pro-
life cause of present-day immortality
is the lack of true spirituality in the
hearts and lives of our people. Re
Hg1on, pure and undefiled, is after al
the only true antidote for personal
impurity, and the individual must be
pure before We can hope for or ex-
pect pure social relations.
But aside from the religious con-
sideration, as we'll as the very factors
which have helped to make that what
it is, the leading causes of the in
crease in unchastity center in the
transitional period in which we live
We are living at high pitch in days
of constant change. 1t is safe to say
that the world has moved faster in
the realms of science, education, in
vention, discovery, commerce, and
recreation during the past fifty years
than in several centuries preceding.
These steps of progress which have
brought such blessings to the world
have also brought added responsible
ties which man has failed to assume
and as a consequence the great evils
have been multiplied-pros with
all it implies, has increased many
fold, but it has not tended to make
man more virtuous. immortality is
more general and rampant today than
it was fifty years ago principally be-
cause there are far greater opportunl-
ties for indulgence in licentiousness
today than there were fifty years ago
1t has been made easy to live lust
fully.
A few examples will illustrate this
point: The advent Of electricity
brought us the telephone which is
necessity to any modern house OF
shame whether located in the city or
in the country, and connects every
home with these dens of infamy, 1t
brought the electric light which has
turned night into day, until there are
as many people upon our streets and
in our parks now at midnight as there
were formerly at midday. During the
past fifty years girls and women have
taken their places beside boys and
men in schools, colleges, stores,
offices, factories and shops, and have
in constantly increasing numbers en-
tered commercial life. This close as
sociation has brought opportunities OF
which full advantage has been taken.
The automobile which has brought
such comfort to those who can afford
it, has made possible the "joy ride
and has built up the palatial road
house" Luxurious transportation IA
cilities has also ushered IL immoral
practices never before known.
The home, formerly the center OF
MANY activities and of social life, has
had it's duties shared, and in many
cases entirely supplanted, by the
school, the church, the playground,
the club, the boarding house, the no.
tel. the summer resort, the winter re-
sort, until there is comparatively lit
tie home life or home training OF any
sort, and consequently that Parental
Responsibility" that used to be writ
ten about so eloquently, is only found
in modified and weakened form.
We have relieved parents so effective
ly from all duties pertaining to the
education, development and rearing
of their children that the old home in
fiuence and ties have been broken II
not forgotten and we find our boys
and girls, our young men and young
women free from ali restraint and
guidance parading our streets during
the day and evening hours and seek
ing their recreation and pleasure
where they are open to every in
fiuence and temptation that can de-
grade or drag down.
To these conditions and influences
must be added what many students
believe to be the leading factor in the
promotion of evil tendencies-co
mercialization. All questionable and
degenerating pleasures, the Soclai
Evil, etc., are raised to the standard
of business. The incentive is not
lust, but avarice The real motive Is
graft, greed, gain. Money is loved
more ardently today than ever before.
Those who are conducting illegltlmate
institutions are doing it for profit and
there are no means they will not en-
p;oy, no ends to which they will not
stoop to stampede the people into pa
tronizing them. 1t is known by these
men that the caliope will attract a
hundred times more people than the
chuch bell, that street carnival may
be made profitable if the hurrah is only
loud enough, that millions of dollars
invested in a Coney Island or a Mid
way is bound to return rich DIVIDENDS
not only to the management, Dut Io
the traction lines running to 1t and &c
every fakir who can command one OF
it's privil eyes. Profits are valued
above a living wage. In this age the
virtue of every girl, the mannood OF
every boy, are assets whose value Is
only TOO well known by those Wno
traffic in them in the marts OF SIN
The world today is pleasure-mad be-
cause it is first money-mad.
The situation as it pertains Woulo
indeed be discouraging if we did not
view it in it's transitory aspect we