The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1913-10-31
FAvoRs PUBLICITY

hin the last issue of the Ladies
HDme Journal an article by Jane
Addams, one of the recognized re-
Formers rs authority on sociological
dhestions just about expresses the
Belief OF the editor Of the Democrat
atung the lines of publicity anu is
here reproduced for the benefit OF
| tle readers. OF course the Journal
ami Jane Adams may he wrong but
that is the magazine that first start
ed the pure food agitation and is in
u measure responsible for the laws
that are now In effect. Jane Addams
Las done more for Chicago in her
research work than whole regiment
of the people who did not approve of
her methods. She ought to know
what she is talking about and no
! doubt does. for sue Is a drawing card
| on lecture platforms and is the first
woman to assist in a national nom
ination OF president. Here Is her
| opinion:
| Contemporary women, as well as
( men, ought 10 find II much easier at
the present moment to meet this
4 supreme test of religion than II has
ever been before in the long history
of civilization A new publicity in
Yregard to the social evil Is a striking
< characteristic of the last decade. This
I publicity has disclosed the fact that
thousands of these so-called fallen
women are piteously young and that
thousands of others lost their chas
tity when they were helpless, un-
thinking little girls, many OF them
| through members of their own house
holds In that crowding which life In
large tenement pOstulates,
THE success of the business, which
in Chicago pays its promoters fifteen
million dollars year, is founded
upon the hypocrisy and seli-right
eousness of the decent citizen, and II
continues to capture girls, to ruin
young men, to spread disease and to
corrupt city politics, because good
citizens do not consider IT part Of
their religious obligation to face 1t
openly and TO undertake-Ats aboli
tion.
THE medical profession is aban-
doning its century-od position OF
secrecy and connivance; leading edu-
Gators are at last urging adequate
instruction for all youth. Shall not
the church accept the challenge and
bear valiant part In this modern
crusade whose call has come not
from a solitary hermit, as did the
call for the Crusade long ago, but
from a multitude of warm-hearted
youth who from our streets "paven
with peril, teeming with mischance. -
still eagerly clamor for world
made fit and fair for their budding
lives?
"As women all over the world are
| each year securing a larger measure
of political power may we not ex-
pect them gradually to remedy the
|. legislative and administrative wrongs
which have grown up around the So
| cial evil and which serve to shield
1t from direct remedial action? So
ciety, like the individual, always
finds the contemporary test OF IT,
spirituality, the most difficult While
1t easily boasts OF those already past
aud is unduly confident of the future
IL too often fails TO meet the test
which faces II at a given moment
and which best reveals Its genuine
courage and sincerity.
III The new publicity continues
, 10 disclose on the one hand the enor-
nous number of little children who
are pushed into an evil life through
the very congestion OF the city's pop
ulation, and dlscloses on the other
hand large number Of young peo-
ple In drcary country communities
who are drawn into vicious practices
through sheer reaction from the
monotOny and grayness of their life,
then a Nationwide church In the
crowded city must advocate measures
TO lessen the sensational evils OF
overcrowding, and at the same time
| It. must offer social organization 10
all the solitary young people OF the
countryside If II Is made clear that
youth is ensnared because OF Its lg-
norance of the most fundamental
facts of life, then IT is the duty OF
the church TO promote public inslruc-
ton for boys and girls which shall
? dignity sex knowledge and free II
, from all lndecency If 1t is found
that degenerate children born oi
diseased and vicious parents become
an easy prey to evil-minded men, n
is clearly the obligation of the
church to challenge all applicants for
marriage, and to work out through
modern eugenics the admonition OF
the Hebrew teachers as 10 the re
j sponsibility into the third and fourth
generations.
The World is at Last Waking Up
"Ali over the world are traces oil
a changed attitude toward the social
+ evil Not only are American cities
b such as Chicago, recommending re-
8 strictive measures looking toward
i final abolition. but European cities
= such as Vienna. are also doubtlnt
the value of their long established
RECOMMENDATION. aud are therefore
I logically facing the same conclusion.