indolence and abnormal sex appetite are first causes of prostitution.
Difficulty in finding work, laborious and ill-paid work, harsh
treatment of girls at home, indecent living among the poor, contact
with demoralizing companions, loose literature and amusements are
secondary causes. They all contribute to debauch male and female youth
and lead it to form dangerous habits of vicious sensual indulgence.
Prostitution seems inseparable from human society in large
communities. The fact is acknowledged in the name given it, "the
necessary evil." Regulation and medical control only arrest in a
degree the spread of venereal diseases to which prostitution gives
rise. The elementary laws on which prostitution rests seems to be
stronger than the artificial codes imposed by moral teaching. It is an
evil which must be combatted _individually_. Men are principally
responsible, in one way or another, for the existence of the social
evil. In the case of the young man, abstention is the only cure for
the probable results of indulging his animal passions by recourse to
the prostitute.
Prostitution, both public and private is the most dangerous menace to
society at large. It is the curse of individual young manhood because
of the venereal diseases it spreads. One visit to a house of
prostitution may ruin a young man's health and life, and millions of
human beings die annually from the effects of poison contracted in
these houses. "Wild oats" sown in company with the prostitute usually
bear fruit in the shape of the most loathsome and destructive sex
disorders.
The development of self-control, the avoidance of impure thoughts and
associations, the cultivation of the higher moral nature instead of
the lower animal one, and, finally, _marriage_, should prevent the
young man from falling into prostitution. All the state and medical
regulation in the world will not protect him from the venereal
diseases he is so apt to acquire by such indulgence.
FREE LOVE
Free love is the doctrine of _unrestrained choice, without binding
ties_, in sexual relations. For altogether different reasons, however,
it is quite as objectionable as prostitution for the young man. It may
offer better hygienic guarantees. But it is a sexual partnership which
is opposed to the fundamental institution of _marriage_, on which
society in general is based throughout the world. And, aside from the
fact that it is a promiscuous relationship not sanctioned by law or
society, it is seldom practically successful. It cannot admit of true