Literature
Recognizing that ignorance in matters of sex is one of the leading causes of prostitution, women working on the problem of the social evil have decided that the conspiracy of silence shall be broken all along the line and that we shall have all the light we can get. They are not unaware of the danger that comes from quacks and overhasty action, but they do not intend to be daunted by the collateral evils that seem to accompany every good. Women are therefore seeking to educate public opinion to an abhorrence of the social evil and to a realization of the menaces to health which result from it. Jane Addams by her articles in the magazines and by her more recent books has done a vast deal to draw public attention to the social evil. Anna Garlin Spencer has made a study of state efforts to deal with vice by regulation instead of abolition and “to protect monogamy by putting vice on a legal footing.” Miss Lavinia Dock’s “Sex and Morality” has also been widely read and quoted. There has been a large output of books dealing with woman’s relation to the problem of prostitution, seeking, on the one hand, to arouse woman to her own status and to inspire her to enforce right conduct on the part of man; and, on the other, to arouse men to a sense of their responsibility toward womanhood. Both English and American books are widely circulated and read in this country and suffragists may frequently be seen upon the streets or in meeting halls in various cities selling such importations as “My Little Sister” by Elizabeth Robbins or “Plain Facts about a Great Evil” by Crystabel Pankhurst.
By the drama also women and men have sought to teach sex health and morality. They have supported the Sociological Fund of the Medical Review of Reviews in presenting “Damaged Goods,” by Eugene Brieux, to large audiences in the greater towns and cities. At first presented timidly to audiences carefully selected from ministers, teachers and social workers, on which occasions the performance was opened with prayer, the powerful lesson taught by this play has led to braver adventures and “Damaged Goods” has been witnessed by many thousands of people who have not only come to see it through invitations but who have bought their seats at popular prices.
Of course the moving-picture promoters have been quick to seize upon the popular interest in the white slave traffic and to exploit that interest at times in a way that may easily be harmful to young boys and girls. Women have been blamed in the press by other women and by men for promoting an unholy craving for red-light films but it is difficult to see how this charge can be substantiated in view of the well-known commercial methods of the day. Certainly, the exploitation of woman’s work against the social evil by moving-picture show concerns will not deter their efforts for an instant.