The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, MARCH 19, 1917. HIGHER IDEALS.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 261, 19 March 1917, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, MARCH 19, 1917. HIGHER IDEALS.

Ever before us shine* the ideal, always untouched, hut always calling to noble endeavour. "Hitch your waggon to a star” is good sound advice. Lower your ideals, and your ( harac ter bee ornes debased. Do you wish to elevate the race? Then give it higher ideals. Raise those ideals from good to best. Much concern lately has been expressed over the moral depravity and its resultant physical taint. The cause of this depravity is the double standard of morality. To whom should we look to give young men higher ideals? Surely to the doctor (the physician of the body) and to the preacher (the physician of the soul). Vet many preachers act on the assumption that a young man must sow his wild oats. And now for the first time in our recollection, a doctor stands forth publicly in defence of prostitution. The “Medical Journal” reports an address by Dr. Molesworth,

of Sydney, and the discussion thereon. He says: “We must come back to the recognition of the fai t that the communal sexual desire is a constant force; that this desire will find gratification il the heavens f.dl and hell gape in consequence.” And so this learned coctor calmly condemns a class of women to be sacrificed to satisfy this desire. The two strongest forces in a man’s nature are self-pre-servation (the desire to save his own life) and race-preservation (the desire to reproduce his kind). Now, the first of these passions has ever been held in check by a healthy public opinion. If a man deserts a comrade in danger to save his own life he is branded at once as a coward. We never hear it said, “Oh! he was only yielding to the strung passion of self-preservation; he really could not help running away; he must save his own life.” No suc h rx< use* is made. He is branded as a coward, and is shunned by all his fellows. Now, why not bring the* same he althy public opinion to bear, and brand the- man as coward who deserts the* woman who has erred for love of him, and often, too, deserts his unborn child? Is he not doubly a coward? Why, then, receive him, rnd flatter him, and say, “Poor fellow! he' sowe d some wild oats”?

Let us clear away the accumulated rubbish of years, and get down to facts. Either this passion can be controlled or it cannot. Now, all doctors of standing agree- that c hastity is conducive to health. There is no physical necessity for a man to sin. If he lives cleanly he* lives healthily. If we admit the position of our medical friend, then if it is necessary for men to sin, it is necessary that women be set apart for them. Why then look down upon these women? The whole thing had its origin in the low estimation in which wome-n were held. If the- prostitute is a necessary evil, the-n these women are condemned to a life- of misery and suffering, an early death from a loathsome disease, all to gratify man’s drsire for pleasure. What matters the* woman’s suffering? She is only hereto serve the iordly male and ministe*r to his pleasure. Men may think this, but that any woman should agre-e----with the-m is to us unthinkable. N et we have women of the ruling class at Home asking for compulsory examination of all prostitutes, and also of girls from 15 to :8 years of age. What

a dreadful thing it is! Here are women w illing to c reate- a slave e lass (for that is what it amounts to). 1 0 supply man’s lust, let the White Slaver tigp and steal the- girl of tender years. Let him herd them in houses as slaves, get the law to compel them to be regularly examined; n< ve-r mind what horrors you influ t upon these girls (they arc w ithout the' pale); do all you can to make sin safe for men, and God Himself mocks all your endeavours, and cries, “The soul that sinneth shall di«.” Men may devise all ways to sin and not to sufE-r the consequences, but “He not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man so wet h, that shall he reap.” The cry of the-se poor outcast women goes up to God continually, and the man who forced them to a life of shame shall not go scathless. Women of our land! what is the remedy for this moral scourge? Legislation may help and act as a palliative, but education is the only certain cure. Create a he-althy public opinion. Se*t up the same standard for the boy as for the girl. Expect your boys to live as purely as your grls. Don’t forgive his moral lapse-s more easily than hers. Set up highe*i ideals for marriage. Te-acli that the reproductive powers are* God-given, and only to be used for the purpose for which the-y are given. Not in a day or a year or a generation can it be done. Hut le-t us start by taking the youth up on to the- Mount of Vision. (iive him a glimpse of the of purity; teach him self reverence and self-knowledge*. Raise the status of women. Not man s superior, nor yet his inferior, but his equal Man and Woman together creaP the ideal home. So together they will create the ideal State.