The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-03-21
LIES OF MEN AND NOT POOR
WAGES ARE THE SOURCE
OF SOCIAL EVIL.
VOICE FROM THE UNDERWORLD
yomen Who Have Lived Lives of
DEGRADATION Charge Men With Ly-
inc TO Entrap Them. A Woman of
a Years Remarkable Witness.

Degradation Charge Men With Ly-
ing to Entrap Them. A Woman of
- Years Remarkable Witness.
CHICAGO.-Reformers and unre-
formed the state senate's vice inves-
fgation commission and the women
for whose downfall the commission
&c irving to determine the causes,
differed today on the relation be-
tween low wages and low morals.
Letters received by the commission
from women of the underworld
mocked at the work which the legis-
lators are doing. One of these let
ters. signed *. R. L." reads:
ITO the Commission: Girls don't
90 wrong because they are hungry or
because they need clothes. They go
wrong because they are tempted by
lies and overpowered by the evil in
men.
They listen ITO the fair and pretty
things that men tell them and they
fall because they think they can trust
themselves and trust their tempters.
II is not the employer. l was a good
girl and | worked in a store.
Il didn't get much money, but that
didn't matter l lived on IS a week,
and would be living like that now
but l met men. They seemed to con-
slider me their prey and all the time
it was fight, fight. They wanted to
be nice to me, they said, and to take
me to the theatre and treat me fair
and give me a chance to enjoy life.
All Men Bad.
II didn't know men were bad-all
bad-where a girl was concerned.
thought only women were bad.
thought all a girl had to do to remain
good was to be truthful with herself
God pity women who think that and
who keep their trust in men until it
is too late.
Every day it was some one else
always smiling at me-always try
ing to give me fair chance to be
happy. In the street they followed
me. These I could avoid. but the
friends who hung around!
That is the secret of the thing
that makes a good girl bad. If they
had let me be-if they had only let
NE be-onIy let me live as [ wanted
to-I wouldn't have had to stink
into the room when your commission
was trying to solve things, and
wouldn't have had to sit in corner
with my veil down afraid to look a
good woman in the face"
Cries From Underworld.
Another cry from the underworld
echoed the words of this letter II
was more bitter, though, and it read
in part:
You're looking for the things that
make such a woman as I. Low
wages, Dance halls! Hunger!
Cold They all helped a bit, but
they didn't turn the trick themselves
You're all bunch of hypocrites
afraid to look the thing in the face
and afraid to learn the truth.
Il don't know any girls who sold
themselves for money to buy bread
or clothes. But I do know lots of us
who hit the road for hell because
lot of blackguards kept bounding
them with their rotten attentions.
God help the men and not us. We're
all right when we start All We need
Is to be left alone. There are hun
dreds and hundreds of kids and
sports who hang around State street
stores and wait like wolves for the
tired girls to leave the stores. Why
don't you make the men be good?
All the wages in the world won
help us. Make the men be good and
the girls will be good.
Now they haven't got the chance
and they never will have as long as
the law smiles at one and splits at
another"
This letter was signed with the mi
tias Il. M"
While these comments on the sit
uation continued to pour in the civic
every time they get in a tight
mission bestirred itself in the launch
ing of committees and private inves-
ugation forces.
In some stores numbers of girls
approached their employers to de-
mand larger salaries. All were as
sured that they would be taken care
Of as something definite had to be
agreed upon. Some designations
We're rendered by girl employees as a
result of parental advice.
Policemen Paid for Immunity.
New York-The grand jury and
District Attorney Whitman spent to-
DAY listening to the confessions OF
men and women that they paid mon
ey to policemen in return for i'm
munity from interference while they
violated the law.
The hotel owner and several wo-
men who ran disorderly resorts told
now they contributed to the Golfers
OF the system" Much of their testi-
Mony corroborated stories already