The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1913-10-31

apparent extinction OF cne moraI par
riers that were once so effective. The
barriers of morality and convention
are supplement to each other. During
the last few years we have seen the
almost complete destruction of those
reticences upon sex matters that
doubtless had their own attendant
evils, but that did actually prevent
far more evils than they Caused. What
we call plain speaking became
vogue and fashion. Literature and
the drama combined in what was said
to be a moral crusade, but what was
actually financial crusade. And now
the churches have followed suit. Moth
ing is too private for public discussion
no audience too young for admission
and participation. no vital fact too ex-
plosive- for. reckless handling. Upon
every side we see gross familiarity
at its deadly work. Here in San
Francisco we are about to have what
its, promoters cali Purity Sunday.
Countless sermons will be preached
to audiences of young men and young
women, and with their own sex re-
lationships as topic. Does any one
with sane knowledge of human ma
ture suppose that even the most ex-
quisite delicacy can neutrafize the in
evitable poison of those sermons? Is
it not we'll known to even the tyro.
in such matters that here at least the
most fatal and irresistible of all forces
is that of suggestion, and that reason
and prudence struggle in vain against
it. The cure for this sort of evil
is retinence and not publicity, mys-..
terry and not familiarity, the home and
not the. pulpit. the mother and not
the school teacher: To err in such
matter as this is 10 poison The, rising
generation. Indeed if we are to credit
the hysterical exaggerations of the
women's clubs the rising generation
is already poisoned by familiarity
that presents experiment as pleasing
adventure in well-known paths.
Therefore it is time that we, called
halt to the sex fanatics. They have
been at their work for some years
past, and now the air is becoming I'M
breathable. Every field of publicity
has been invaded. They have almost
persuaded us that sex is the one thing
worth thinking about and worth talk
ing about. The results are sufficient
1y evil upon matured minds that have
learned to govern themselves. Upon
immatured minds to whom self-gov-
ernment has hardly occurred it has
been little short of disastrous. Every
sacred mystery of life has been cheap
ened, coarsened, profaned. All the
protective wells of mystery and sane
tity have been broken down, and in
their place we are offered statistics,
hospital reports, and idoform It is
these SEX fanatics that are largely re-
sponsible for the juvenile immortality
Of the day. 1t is the sex newspaper,
the sex drama, the sex novel, the sex
reformer, and the sex pulpit, that have
created it. And it has been nourished
by the apathy and the neglect Of par
ents who are quite content that the po-
licewoman and he delinquency court
shall do the work that has been so
shamelessly neglected by themselves.
LET us hope that we are nearly at
the end of this particular epoch lest
some worse thing befall us. 1t is bad
enough that for years past our young
people should have been forced to
live in an atmosphere of public dis
cussion comparable only with that of
an open sewer. Things will have to
come to pretty pass if we must now
forbid our children to go either to
school or to church for fear of the
moral contamination that must en-
sue"