Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-13
Men, Not Wages
 Are Responsible
VICE COMMITTEE RECEIVES
 TART LETTERS
CALLED .tHYPOCRITEs"
Women of Underworld BeiittIe In- vestisation Now in al<e the Men Good" Their Advice.

Chicago, March 1z.-Reformers and reformed-the state senate's vice in- vestigation commission and the women for whose moral downfall the com differed today in the relation between low wages and low morality. Letters received by the commission from women of the underworld mock ed at the work which the legislators are doing.
 Not Wages But Men to Blame.
 One of these letters, signed "K R. L.," reads:
 "To the Commission: Girls don't go wrong because they are hungry or be- cause they need clothes. They go wrong because they are tempted by lies and overpowered by the evil in men.
 They listen to the fair and pretty things that men tell them, and they fall because they think they can trust themselves and trust the tempters. It is not the employer. l was a good girl and I worked in a store.
 Could Not Avoid "Friends."
 T didn't get much money. but that didn't matter. I lived on $e week and would be living like that now. but met men. They semed to consider me their prey and all the time it was hght--ight They wanted to be nice to me, they said to me, and take me to the theater and treat me fair-a,nd give me 9 chance to enjoy life
 T didn't know men were bad-al1 thought only women were bad. I thought all a girl had to do to remain good was sto be truthful to 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 trying to give me fair chance to be happy. In the street they followed me These I could avoid-but the friends who hung around.
 The Big Secret of Vice.
 That Is the big, big secret of the they had let me be-if they had only let me be-only let me live as I wanted to-T wouldn't have had to sink into the room when your commission was trying to solve things, and wouldn't have had to sit in a corner with my veil down, afraid to look 8 good wom- an in the face"
 Another cry from the underworld echoed the words of this letter. It was more bitter. though, and it read in part:
 Due to a Lot of BIacksuards.
 You're looking for the things that made such women as L Low wages? Dance halls? Hunger7 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.
 T don't know any girls who sold for money to buy bread or clothes. But I do know lots of us who hit the road for hell because @ 1or of blackguards kept bounding them with their rotten attentions. God help the men, and not us. We're all right 7ef aens start wH Thefs assd a1e s f1 Sun be dreds and hundreds of kids and sports who hang around State street and wait like wolves for the tired girls to leave the stores.
 "Waaes Won't Help Us."
 Why don't you make the men be and the girls will be good.
 Now they haven't got @ chance. and they never will have as long as the law smiles at one and splits at anoth- sr"
 This letter was signed with the ini- tials 'tL4 M.''
 Several Girls Resign Positions.
 While these comments on the situa- ton continued to pour in, the civic awakened by the com mission bestirred itself in the launching of committees and private tnvestigat- Ing forces,
 In some stores numbers of girls ap- preached their employers to demand larger salaries. All were assured that they would be taken care of as soon as something definite has been agreed upon. Several resignations were ten dered- by girl employees as a result of parental advice.
 A mass meeting for the discussion of 8 living wage and a Saturday half holiday was scheduled by the Juven- le Protective association, the Consum- srs' league and the Women's Trade Union league for next Friday night.