Lessons on Social Purity 317 



for the general uplift. By means of it, better men 

 are being inducted into office. Better still, the old 

 corrupt practice of the ward politician, so deleterious 

 to the character of youth, is losing its once powerful 

 influence on government. 



The so-called social evil, so damaging to the health 

 and morals of thousands of our best young men and 

 young women, is now under fair promise of improve- 

 ment. The remarkable survey of the Chicago Vice 

 Commission and the work of the other well-planned 

 organizations looking to the solution of the same 

 general problem have proved most effective in reveal- 

 ing the true conditions and of awakening the public 

 conscience. All of these activities in the interest of 

 putting down the sex evils point very clearly one 

 moral to all conscientious parents ; namely, that the 

 best and most certain method of inculcating lessons 

 of purity in the case of the young is through preven- 

 tive measures, and through the practice of purity 

 during the years of growth. Open and frank discus- 

 sion of the sex problems as they arise normally out 

 of the experiences of the child, admonitions and pro- 

 hibitions in regard to impure associates, the insistence 

 upon a single, and not a double, standard of purity 

 for the two sexes these are some of the specific 

 duties of parents. 



As an instance of what may be achieved by way of 

 helping the weak and depraved to defend themselves 

 against debasing habit, and especially of what may be 



