The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-04-19
MORAL UPBU|lO|NG IS
C|TY'S GREATER TASK
DIR Russell Bowie Uses Disclosure
of Vice Conditions as Text for
Sermon.
IAuDs WOMEN WHO ATTEND
Rector OF St. Paul's Urges Men Also
to l,c Brave Enough to Hear and
Face the Truth.

That the task OF the citizens Of
Richmond today Is greater than was
that which faced those who fifty
years ago found Richmond in ruins
after evacuation. was declared last
night by Rev W. Russell Bowie, rec
tor of st. Paul's Episcopal Church. 10
q large congregation In which We're
mem bers OF the Rotary Club. Refer
efice waa made during the sermon,
whose title was The Rebirth OF the
City to the disclosures made by the
vice commission, and the duty or
good citizenship was clearly pre-
scented.
After he had described conditions
In Richmond during the last days of
the war, pcturing the par played by
those who worshiped in st. Paul s
church during those days. and detail
Ing In graphic manner the stir and
confusion which followed the receipt
by President Davis. in his pew in the
church, of the news that Richmond
must be abandoned. DR. Bowie traced
the rise of the eity through we AIRY
years of Reconstruction to the Rich
mond OF today.
The Duty of To-day.
''And now. today said he. touch
Ing the situation barred by the vice
probe. what shall We say OF our
heritage? Can we resolve on less
than TO keep the city worthy Of all
that those who lived for her--aye,
and those who died for her-have
given her right to be?
What shall We do with our present
as they are revealed?
Three members of the police
commission are on trial before the
council. With the issue of that rial
1t Is the part of no man now to
speak II rests with the seven men
OF the council committee to hear the
evidence and to form the" rdict
We would not PREJUDICE the case
which Ia In their hands, and the one
thing we assume Is that they shall
determine IL V'1h justice and with
feariessness.
But out of the facts as they cave
developed, these things stand out al
ready as true:
First, that among at least a part
OF the people OF Richmond the con-
science that ought to hate vice has
grown callous. No one can have gone
to the hearings of the council COM
ntittee and listened to the coarse
Q amusement among the crowd in in
stances when witnesses spoke of this
or THAI mans impu.ity az a common
thing without feeling his spirit burn
with the awful sense of our need for
a new ana blazing ins!stence upon
that. Cleanliness OF life which so many
have lightly thrown away.
The city has right, and with in
exora BILE insistence the city ought to
that it's police authorities
should themselves be men of clean
k>tn
sincere and sustained prosecution OF
social vice should be expected of a
police force headed by men who
themselves are parties TO it.
An Irrefutable Truth.
That as a general truth. liz ir-
and its application ought
to be made specific to the flli degree
for which now, or In the future
there may be cause.
THE third thing which the present
situation makes evident Ia the fact
that the conscience Of good men and
women must have done with the
insincerity which thinks IL
has acted modestly in regard 10 a
hateful evil when II hides the evil
away somewhere so that it is not
seen We need a sense Of shame that
shall not be a cross between embar-
rassncnt OF n SNUG hypocrisy
All honor TO the women who have
been brave enough in this investiga-
tion to face the recital OF the facts
hat Will never bs changed until the
good people Of Richmond know them
enough to hate them. and hate them
enough to stamp them outi When
all the city Of Richmond. and part'c-
ularly the mon Of refinement and
knightiy strength substitute for tho
reluctance to hear moral rottenness,
the Drawer and more manly deterni-
nation TO clean ont the moral rotten
ness. go tina. there will be less OF It
Of which 10 hear. then the city shall
have gained The kind Of champion
ship II needs.
Our task today ia 10 fashion the
1ner life which would inherit the
city,