There are those who contend that a consideration of these matters is ill timed, immodest, and productive of no good; but this is the talk only of the advocates of impurity.
Of course we cannot hope to reform the world entirely, any more than our predecessors have been able to eradicate crime by the imposition of formidable punishments.
But we shall have gained a great advance if we can bring the individual and the public to see that social impurity is unnecessary and indefensible upon any ground whatever, and when we can secure the associated action of society for the reprobation of those who wantonly indulge in sin to the irreparable damage of their own health and the embitter ment of the lives of womankind and posterity.
A careful scientific examination of the question shows that the physical results of prostitution are most deplorable to both sexes; for practically all who transgress are contaminated sooner or later, and the heritage which posterity gets is a deterioration of infamous proportions. Succeeding generations will rise up as a
veritable "cloud of witnesses" to the shame of such progenitors.
Those men who argue in favor of prostitution, and live accordingly, say that it has always existed since the world began, and that our ancestors surely could not have been entirely wrong. But witchcraft, sorcery, and the magic art of divination, which were accepted by our forbears, have been put aside as unscientific, while prostitution has been retained as a recognized institution because it is pleasurable.
And it is assured permanency to a certain degree until we are aided by the unanswerable truths of science to control ourselves and put it also aside.
But it is a terrible and damnable fraud to contend that impurity is in any way necessary for any one; and it is the bounden duty of each conscientious individual to understand the matter fully, decide for himself, and then throw his influence on whichever side appeals to his manhood and his reason.
The efforts which have been exerted heretofore have been mainly in the direction of endeavoring to rescue fallen women; but laudable as this undoubtedly is, it is nevertheless ineffective.
It is the men who must be appealed to and regulated for as long as they simply create a demand by their patronage there will surely be a supply.
And of what avail can it be if for every rescued girl a fresh one is pushed over the brink to fill up the gap caused by her withdrawal?
Evidently then, it is the height of folly, from a scientific standpoint, to attempt to improve these conditions while the active and primal cause of the degradation is left untouched. The fault is that there is a Double Standard of morality one rule for men and another for women.
A portion of womankind are told off to lead chaste lives, and another portion to be abominably profligate, while many men reserve the right to be as impure as they please, at least at some time in their lives, and foolishly entertain the pernicious belief that their perversity will not result in lasting detriment to their character and health and offspring.
If we maintain the doctrine that prostitution is a necessity, then it is an error to rescue any outcast woman, since her place will then have to be supplied by some young girl who is not yet defiled. Like the leeches in Ceylon, which sometimes adhere so thickly to the beasts when they wade through the streams as to cover them, they should be allowed to remain where they are, for flesh and blood can endure no more depletion.