The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-10-16
CLARION CALL TO OUTY
IS SOUNDED BY ALL
RICHMOND MINISTERS
In Great Meeting They Adopt Elo-
quent Report Warning OF Dangers
to Nations Moral Life.
WARS MATERIAL ILLS DO NOT
COMPARE WITH MORAL HURTS
Committee Named to Inquire Into
Apparent Menace to Proper and
Lawful Observance OF the Sabbath
Day.

That was clarion call to Virginia
and to America to keep its manhood
and its womanhood sound and pure
and good, its ideals lofty, and its re.
/ ligion indebted, which the ministry
of Richmond, without regard to de-
| nominational lines, sounded forth yes
terday at a meeting held in the senate
chamber at the Capitol
The meeting was held in line with
the vice prevention work of which
DR.. j. T. Mastin. secretary of the
state board of charities and correc-
tons, is the official head. and com
mittee recently named brought in its
report printed below, w hich calls Vir-
ginia Christianity to its duty
/ The committee was composed OF
/ Rev. Graham III. Lambeth, Methodist
! Rev. T. Clagett Skinner Baptist: Rev.
/ Father John c. kelliher, Roman
| Catholic; and Rev. j. Calvin Stewart.
/ Presbyterian
| The report was unanimously adopt
! ed as the sense of the meeting and
will be published broadcast. 1t is as
| follows
Text of Report.
Because or the perilous conditions
OF the time. we realize the necessity
laid upon us az shepherds of the flock
to lift up our voices in warning lest
many of our people be wounded and
hurt In their moral character and re-
| ligious experiences. The nation faces
fearful crisis. What Europe has I'M
| dergone for three years we must now
endure. War disturbs the normal life
OF society in every way, but in no
way more profoundly and seriously
than in its menace to the social. moral
and religious well-being of men.
TITS material disasters are tnsignffi-
cant. tremendous as they are In COM
parison with the peril 1t presents to
the social ideals, the relation of the
sexes and the religious experience OF
the nation. The most disQuieting news
comes from England and the continent
of the absolute breakdown in innumer-'
able instances of the domestic social
and moral restraints that held sway
in time OF peace. Men and women In
hultitudes are being swept TO ruin.
License in social intercourse is eating
like a 1oathsome sore into che vitals
OF European nations. When peace IL
again established more fearful than
the material losses and the economic
disasters suffered by reason of this
war will be the moral degeneration of
the masses
I'VE must not blink the fact that
W Skhitu upon Tue oI IKE
catastrophe. Thousands OF men in uni
form are abroad in the land. Two hum
bred thousand soldiers and sailors oc-
cupy Virginia territory between~For-
tress Monroe and Fort Myer. Follow
ing item are inevitable crowds of de-
generate and disreputabie men and
women seeking to prey upon them like
human vultures. needless of any moral
consequences so that their ignoble
greed of Catn 10
men without character or conscience
are lying in wait to despotl the boys
that come from the shelter and pro-
lection OF our homes. Shall our sur
viving boys return to their homes
shorn of physical and moral strength
1t were a thousand times better that
they should lie buried upon the battle
field than that they return physical and
moral wrecks,
A Call for Mobilization.
I'VE challenge the moral and re-
ligious forces OF our community to
mobilize and to contest the right of
the powers Of evil to prey upon our
boys We exhort all rlght-thinking
men and women in this hour of dan
ger to lend active. unceasing support
to every agency and activity that
contemplates the protection of our
boys. General Pershing has asserted
that 1t Is his purpose to bring back
the soldiers from France as clean as
when they left these shores The ma
tional administration Is seeking to en-
act such laws as shall protect the SOL
diers in camp from the perils that
heset them. We challenge the re-
sources of the city OF Richmond.
lodged largely in the hands of Chris
tan men and women. In generous sup
port of all movements that contem-
plate the well-being of the thousands
or young men encamped in adjacent
territory and spending their hours of
leisure upon our streets
Neither should we gloss the fact
that some OF the men who wear the
uniform and walk our streets are base
ana constituencies. The seiective draft
mas caught not only gentlemen, but
alas, others of contrary character as
we'll. The sole qualification for SER
vice In the new army is physical. not
moral In consequence many are
round wearing the uniform who do not
possess ths virtues an aroused patri-
otto sentiment would clothe them with.
The noldiers are not only preyed upon
by the underworld, but many of them
seek to prey. in turn. upon the i'm
mature and transporting young wo-
men, who seem to think that unprece-
S-oAHttAoiiS justify unusual con-
duct and unconventional social reia-
tons. When the uniformed thus meet
the uniformed irreparable harm
sometimes results Already from
many sections come appalling reports
or girls w hose lives will be forever
bhghted by reason of their thought
lessness.
Thousands of soldiers win seek
amusement and adventure upon the
streets of Richmond Around them
public sentiment has wrapped a man
tie of glamor and glory. They are
our national heroes The danger is
obvious when we apprehend the effect
upon girls whose nature til Just now
excited by the exaggerated emotion
alism of the hour. The girls of our
homes are In grave danger unless in |
FORMED and warned and protected We
appeal to all parents to re-esta blish
the discipline that seems largely to
nave vanished from our homes: to
throw around their girls the loving In
struetion and the firm restrictions
such time vitality demands. and to
give hearty support to every move
ment 70 defend the home against the
foes that come from God knows where
today and are forever gone tomorrow /,
TO permit young girls to run wild
upon the streets and to ignore the
ordinary. social conventions even in I
such high hour as this is to imperil
the future happiness and weff6ra Of I