The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-05-20
PRESBYTERIANS
TO take BAN OFF
SEX DISCUSSIONS
WHITE SLAVE COMMITTEE MAKES
coMPREHslvE REPORT TO
GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
DECLARE IMMODEST DRESS
IS DANGEROUS TO MORALS
Modern Dances and Current Ljtera.
ture Severely scored-MovIe charg-
ed With Inflaming Thoughts and
Emotions of the Young.
(By Associated Press.)

Chicago, May 25.-"No federation;
no regulation; no recognition"
This is the suggested slogan of the
Presbyterian church presented to the
126th general assembly here today in
the report of the special committee on
white slave traffic.
The report estimates that there are
100000 prostitutes in the United
States, and that a far greater number
are unchaste. Contributing factors in
this condition are the fashions, dances,
the theatre, literature and ignorance.
The principal remedy suggested is the
enlightened training of the young.
The report was prepared by Paul R.
Hickok, John Balcom Shaw, John Ken
nedy, Winfield Scott Hall and J. M. T.
Finney. Excerpts follow:
Your committee is directed to con-
slider the enormous violation of the
Seventh Commandment involved in
the traffic. This is not matter call
Ing for statistics, with all the mental
confusion that must result from long
statements of appalling figures. But
that the extent of the traffic in human
bodies for purposes of lust and greed
is enormous as described in the
Assembly's resolution, is terribly evil
dent upon only slight investigation.
The Vice Copmission of Chicago, ILL.,,
appointed by the City Council in 1910,
has made most thorough survey of
these conditions in that one city. In
Chicago alone, the commission re-
ported that there are not far from
5000 women who devote their time
wholly to the business of prostitution
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 vaster
army Of persons leading impure lives,
guilty of occasional immoral relations,
being supported wholly or in part by
their occasional earnings, or engaging
in occasional immortality not for profit,
but for desire There is no possible
way Of estimating this larger number,
but the word enormous seems scarce
ly adequate to describe the conditions
known to be present.
"If the ratio existing in Chicago may
be taken as anything like an accurate
index to that prevailing throughout
this country, it seems entirely safe to
assert that at least 100000 persons are
devoting their time wholly to this un-
thinkable iniquity in the United States,
and it is most probable that the num-
ber is very much larger. Most stu
dents of the problem would place the
figure two or three times as high"
Would Discuss Sex Frankly.
On the much-discUssed subject OF
education in matters of sex the report
has this to say:
"The methods of greatest wisdom
and largest efficiency are still to be
discovered. But it is the belief oi
your committee that hitherto a large
majority Of those persons responsible
for the education, guidance and nur
ture of youth have followed an un
fortunate course regarding the great
sacred truths of life This course has
Men one Of silence and mysticism al
rule. This attitude on the part O
hrents and. teachers of youth has the
Schological effect of stimulating
6iosity, with the almost universe
Xult that children acquire distorted
wpoints and morbid misconceptions
- kreat truths that rightly understood
In the first, would engender feeling
Pverence for life and respect for al
.~J processes. There seems, there
H& but one rational course for earn
cN minded Christians to follow. Tha
aaAse is to answer the natural ques
Cots of their children freely, frankly
thIy. sincerely and sympatheticaliy'
19tvuIaar Tendencies Of Fashion
plaip ipeaking of the factors in the in
se Of the social evil, (which ar
\lcontinued on Page Twoo
n