What a travesty to wrap the flag of America around our girls and extol virtue and purity, freedom and liberty, and then not raise a hand to protect our own girls who are being procured by white slave traders every day!
Some ministers have said that the subject is too black to present to their congregations. It is a problem, they said, for the public authorities and slum workers, not a question for the high-minded citizen. It is the hope that the readers of this book, who are church members, will suggest that their pastors aid in the struggle against white slavery, and that through them, people everywhere may be awakened to a realization of its importance. No social problem is too unclean for the people to take hold of when the cause undermines the fairest heritage in life, our homes. For, after all, the home is the social unit and the very foundation of all government.
CHAPTER XI.
THE BOSTON HYPOCRISY.
Arraignment of False Modesty That Deters Well-Meaning People from Fighting the White Slave Evil.
By Clifford G. Roe, Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois.
None of us is perfect. However, it is well to strive toward perfection. It is well sometimes to look into the glass and see ourselves as others see us. That is the very thing Boston needs to do at the present time. Like the ostrich that hides her head in the sand and thinks because she cannot see anyone no one can see her, Boston shuts her eyes to the social evil problem and says there is no such thing here.
To learn whether or not the White Slave traffic is nation wide, conditions in various parts of the country have been studied. From ocean to ocean the trail of this monster can be seen. New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and many other cities, realizing that there is a trade in the bodies and souls of girls, are making determined efforts to blot it out. They acknowledge its presence and they are fighting it. In New England it is different. The good people there shun the thought of such a subject. They have not learned that false modesty is a thing of the past, and the time has come when we must know the social evil problem as it is and meet it face to face.
In talking with one of the leading workers for the betterment of Boston the above title was suggested, for he said: "The attitude of the people here regarding social evil is plain Boston hypocrisy." The idea is to hide the evil, if it is there. In this beautiful city there is not a well-defined red light district or levee as the houses of ill-fame are scattered throughout the city, often side by side with fine private residences. Here and there is a district where perhaps a dozen or more of the disorderly houses are located.