CHAPTER XXXII.
CONDITIONS IN LONDON.
By Miss Lucy A. Hall, Deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Chicago.
George R. Sims says, "The mother of cities lays her whole heart bare to no man. There is no man living who has fathomed her depths. There is no man living who has mastered her mysteries."
For the last quarter of a century especially there have been emancipating influences and efforts of noblest kinds which are really bringing, somewhat gradually, but very surely, a new London—a city that is winning a right to be viewed as a centre of largest endeavor for civic righteousness that history can so far record.
The Bishop of London, presiding at their National Vigilance Association, July 20, 1909, had a right to say, "We have succeeded in getting London united on moral questions." By his side was the Archbishop of Westminster, who said among other significant words, for the Catholic Church that, "While we work together to advance the object of the Association and its dealings with this terrible traffic, we should also make every possible effort to build up, in the children of the country, a definite and clear belief of what they owe to their Maker and of the account they will have to give Him hereafter."
The Chief Rabbi, Dr. Adler, made many vigorous statements, among which some were unusually impressive. Speaking of the White Slave Traffic, he said, "It does not merely affect the welfare of the English people, but also the welfare of the entire globe. The evil must be regarded as a veritable cancerous growth on the body politic, which must be excised. The authorities in Argentina have largely succeeded in purifying Buenos Ayres." He then spoke of the purpose of the National Vigilance Association, and said it was "To obey the bidding of the prophet, that which is lost, I will seek again, that which has gone astray, I will bring back, that which has a wing broken I will bind up, and that which is sick I will strengthen."
Seated at the right of the chairman were Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Albany, Alice, Countess of Strafford, the Countess Dowager of Chichester, and Mrs. Creighton. The last named in representing the women of England called attention to the need of educational plans, and said, "Sometimes one gets afraid of the people fighting with evil, thinking only of that fight, and not sufficiently of the building up that is needed to make the right so strong, that it has nothing to fear from the wrong. Don't let us forget to let it educate ourselves also, and to make it for each of us our great work to maintain that high and healthy public opinion which will make it ever more and more difficult for evil to prevail."
Sir Percy W. Bunting, M. A., one of the founders of the Association, spoke of it as "an organization of the helping instincts of all the churches, based on the mere humanity of the case. We touch here the fringe of the greatest moral problem in all time." Mr. Donald Maclean, Member of Parliament, Mr. Archibald J. Allen, Mr. Arthur R. More, Sir Francis Channing, Member of Parliament, Mr. Bullock and Mr. Coote spoke hopefully of prospects insured. This was really a platform of very earnest people of differing creeds representing Royalty, representing the great Law Making Body, different organizations and the great business world.
Among those in attendance were Lady Hughes Hunter, Lady Bunting, Lady McLaren, Colonel and Mrs. Young, Lord Radstock, Very Rev. Dr. Jackman, Very Rev. Father Bannan, Miss Leigh Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Fox Butlin, and Dr. Wilbur Crafts of Washington, D. C., with many others, making a really great meeting—great with people of diverse thought on other subjects, great in the inspiration gained, great in assurance of increasing momentum of a magnificent endeavor that should, with correlated efforts of other National Vigilance Associations bring a world force that shall be mightier than the evil however deeply intrenched that may be.