Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-21
MOVED
BY MOTHERS PLEA
Mrs. Hooker Makes a Telling
Argument Against the
Social Evil.
KENYON BILL HEARING
BY D. C. subcommittee
Speakers Urge That End Be Put to
Segregated Vice in the Ma
tional Capital.


an important influence on the Kenyon
bill which is framed to prevent or reduce
| to minimum the social evil in this city.
The mother Of these boys-Mrs. Donald
R. Hooker, president of the Just Govern
ment League-who spoke for about two
minutes before a subcommittee Of the
House District committee today in con-
sideration of the Kenyon red light
measure, and the mothers picture of
those two lads seemed to have stronger
effect on the representatives sitting in
meeting than did all the long array Of
facts and figures and laws and conclu-
sions OF vice commissions. professional
and amateur reformers, senators, repre-
sentatives and members OF clubs of all
sorts.
Mrs. Hooker spoke after the committee
had heard Of the brothels and social cess
pools of the great cities Of the country.
with vice and crime reduced to tables
and mathematical problems; after men
and women had tod tales OF dirt and
disease and prostitution ad nauseam.
With these rather sickening mental pic
lures in mind, the committee members
heard Mrs. Hooker.
Pleads for Her BOYS.
ct have two small boys" she began.
"and I want your cooperation in bring
ing them up well. teach them what is
right and what is wrong, and 1 do not
want them to go out from my home and
learn things that I could never teach
them. AS long as you men who have
this great power of legislation permit i'm
morality to exist as it does, then how
can 1 teach my little boys that it is
wrong? They will say. The law allows
! this and then what can l say In reply
II want you to see this picture In your
minds-the picture Of doorstep with the
prints of many feet upon 1t. And then I
want you to picture the return home Of
the boys who enter these places Of pros
titution. For every man who enters one
has to return somewhere to some home.
lis it fair to my boys? Is 1t fair to
the other little boys who are growing
up to have their lives indelibly impressed
by this legalized immortality, as was
the last generation?"
The hearing at which Mrs. Hooker's
| simple and motherly appeal made SO
profound an impression was held before
Representative Caraway's subcommittee.
but many other members of the House
District committee attended it. The
speakers were presented by Rev. DR.. w.
r. Wedderspoon, pastor Of Foundry M.
E. Church Andrew Wilson. president
Of the Anti-Saloon League, gave figures
from the excise board and internal rev.
district traffic and the unauthorized sales
OF liquor. He said that If the police
| would observe some of the present laws
the evil in Washington would be cur
| tailed.
Hits at the Landlord.
Rev. DIR. Wilbur F. Crafts spoke on
legal and economic lines, saying that the
Kenyon bill. which has passed the Sem
ate. struck at both landlord and tenant,
and that it il 50 drastic that in cities
where it is in effect landlords hustle OBJ
jectionable tenants out in a hurry. He
said that 1t has been conclusively proved
that where segregated vice Is wiped out
there Is no "scatteration." Without segre-
gated vice, he stated. white slavery can
not exist.
Rev. DIR. Henry Murray Of Baltimore
drew narrowing picture Of the inside
workings of white slavery, and then re-
ferred to Washington specifically:
I'VE do not want another Inauguration
to pass over US with such an immoral
situation as has been presented here be-
fore"
Mrs Nina e. Allender, president OF the
Woman's Suffrage Clubs of the District.
| said that the organizations which she
represents do not cling to the idea that
community must have segregation and
legalized immortality to protect its good
! women.
1T ia an insult to say 3d." she declared.
IF our government cannot protect its
| women without this human sacrifice. then
we had better find some other system Of
government
Predicts Passage Of Bill.
J. H Patton, assistant chairman Of
the Purity Federation, asked that the
committee should speedily report the bill
to the House, and predicted that 1t would
pass and become a law in short order.
Mrs. Barclay Hazard OF New York. rep
resenting the Florence Crttenton Mis-
son, gave some instances Of how women
from the vice districts have shown their
ability to reform.
AT present." she said, they are
trundled from place to place, as If they
were pests. like potato bugs. but they
| are not-they are human beings and
should be treated as SUCH
| Representative Towner of Iowa told of
the good effects Of the law in his state.
where the legislature has passed an act
similar to the Kenyon bill. Among those
present today. some of whom also spoke,
were Rev. Henry Anstadt Rev. H. N.
Hickock, r, 8. Holmes. Mrs. Margaret
Dye, Ellis, Mrs. Florence F. Earhart, Co.
| lumbus, Ohio: Rev. George NJ. Cum
mings. Mrs. Belle c. Culbertson, Rev.
Paul R. Hickok. H. w. Kline, Mrs. H.
| Z NTo,roo Mrz YrudpV Clark Moffor nj