Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-05-21
IMMORTALITY IS
 0N THE INCREASE 100000 "Scarlet Women" In U. $. and Greater
 Number UncAaste.
BLAME THE FASHIONS
Report of Pr Jytcrian Committee De- cIares That Contributing Factors Are Literature, Dances. The
 atres and Ignorance.

Chicago, May 2O.-"No toleration; no regulation; no recognition"
 This is the suggested sligan Of the Presbyterian church presented Io the 126th general assembly here teddy in the report of the special comnnl tee on white slave traffic.
 The report estimates that there are 10000 scarlet wO.nan in the Unired States, and that 1dr greater numUrr of women are unchaste. Contributing factors in this condition are the fash ions, dances, the theatres, litoratu:c and ignorance. The principal remedy suggested in the cnli3il:elieG tain ing of the young.
 The report was pr4oa ed by Paul R. Hickok, sJohn BalcoE! Shaw. Donn Kennedy, Winfield Scutc Hal and J. M. T. Finney. EXce"p..s fellow:
 Your committee is directed to consider the enormous violation of the Seventh Commandment involved in the traffic. This is not matter calling for statistics, with all tic mental confusion that must result
 
 figures. But that the ext mt Of tie traffic in human bodies for purposes of lust and greed is 'enormous,' as described in the assembly's reso!u- ton, is terribly evident upon only slight investigation.
 "The vice commission of Chicago, Ill.,, appointed by the city council in 1910, has made most thorough sur vey of these conditions in that one city
 'In Chicago alone, the commission reported that there are not far from 5sO00 women, who devote their time wholly to the business of prostitu- tion.' The conditions in that city are not believed to be worse than in most cities Of the country. This figure did not include, of course, the much vas ter army of persons leading impure lives, guilty of occasional immoral relations, being supported wholly or in part bv their occasional earnings, or engaging in occasional immortality not for profit, but from desire. There is no possible way of estimating this larger number, but the word 'enor- nous seems scarcely adequate to
 
 present.
 eff the ratio existing in Chicago may be taken as anything like an accurate index to that prevailing throughout this country, It seems tirely safe to assert that at least 100000 persons are devotiag their time wholly to this unthinkabla ini- quity in the United States and it is most probable that the number is very much larger. Most students of the problem would place the figure two or three times as high.''
 On the much discussed subject of education in matters of sex the re- port has this to say:
 ''The methods of greatest wisdom and largest efficiency are still to be discovered. But it is the belief of your committee that hitherto a large majority of those persons. responsible for the education, guidance and nur- ture of youth nave followed an unfort- unate course regarding the great sa- cred truths of life. This course has been one of silence and mysticism as a rule.
 Parents and Teachers.
 "This attitude on the part of par ents and teachers of youth has the psychological effect of stimulating curiosity, with the almost universal result that children acquire distort- ed viewpoints and morbid mlsconcep- tions of great truths that rightly un- derstood from the first, would en- gender feelings of reverence for life and respect for all life processes. There seems, therefore. but one ra- tional course for earneSt-mlnded Christians to follow. That course is to answer the natural questions of their children freely, frankly, fully, sincerely and sympathetically." Speaking of factors in the increase of the social evil, which are now assuming alarming prasortions," the report says:
 s'One of these appears in the vul- gar tendency of modern fashion. Our Standards We remember, expressly forbid all immodest apparel Today many of our women are going 10 such extremes of dress as to shock even the least prudish, and open American womanhood to the charge of a complete forfeiture of modesty. The unfortunate side of it all is, that the women of the church, whose most conspicuous adornment is SUD- posed to be meakness, are quite as guilty of this offense as are women who make no religious professions. Until our Christian women can be made to see what mischief is being done by such a reckless abandon to the foibles of. fashion there can be little hope of stemming this every