Fighting the Debauchery of Our Girls and Boys

Found this 1923 book in a Tulsa flea market. It was edited by the Reverend Philip Yarrow, superintendent of the Illinois Vigilance Association, who seems to have been the Don Wildmon of his day.

Here are some of the book's chapter headings:

"Why Do Girls Go Wrong?"

"Hazel - A Victim of White Slavery Today"

"The Story of Hattie's Ruin"

"Jessie B__ and the Carnival"

"Mabel's Downfall: or the Jazz Route to Ruin"

"Modern Barbaric Dancing"

"Vicious Magazines and Pictures"

"Stag Parties"

"The Moral Dangers of the Automobile"

"Immoral Conditions in High Schools"

"Are the Moral Standards of the Colleges Low?"

"Dangerous Conditions in the Moral Life of the Young People of Today"

Here are some of the passages I found interesting:

• Comparing lax morals with cubism, of all things, Yarrow writes:

"Women smoking, jazz dancing, obscene music, libidinous abandon of the stage, increase of divorce and illegitimacy - these are symptoms of a general revolt against the ancient Christian standards of morality.

Cubism in painting, having no evolutionary background in the noble creation of the past meant only a frightful perversion of the historic use of the canvass and brush. Persisted in, such a movement would sound the death-knell of true art.

In like manner this general disregard and overthrow of the old historic forms of American morality which for years have been the controlling factors in molding American character, will, if continued, inevitably lead to a deterioration in the moral, and indirectly, in the intellectual fiber of the nation." (Pages 456-7)

• Regarding red light districts, Wirt W. Hallman, member of the Chicago vice commission, writes:

"Fifteen years ago the segregation of vice was the common rule in most American cities. ... The Chicago Vice Commission of 1910...made a careful study of the problem. ... followed by ... similar bodies in more than thirty-five other cities.

In the vice reports ... one common conclusion was reached in regard to segregation, i.e., that it was from every point of view an unmitigated evil which should never be recognized or tolerated." (Pages 399-400)

• In the chapter entitled, "Why Women Live Longer than Men,"

Dr. D.H. Kress devotes a lot of space to the dangers of tobacco. This was written in 1923. He lists the poisons in cigarettes, including nicotine, furfural, and carbon monoxide, and writes "the use of tobacco, and especially of cigarettes, by boys is assuming such proportions that in the interest of the future of the race the traffic in it must cease." (Page 366)

Philip Yarrow

• The Reverend Yarrow appears, from the record, to have been a busy guy, challenging gambling laws, leading speakeasy raids, and swearing out warrants against plays he considered obscene. These included the Chicago productions of "The Front Page" and "Sketch Book," the latter resulting in the actual arrest and booking of several actors, including William Demarest, best known as Uncle Charlie on the 1960s TV sitcom "My Three Sons". (New York Times, February 24, 1929; February 14, 1931)
• Yarrow was counter sued by Chicago book store owner Walter Shaver after Shaver was acquitted of selling an obscene book. When Yarrow failed to pay the $5000 judgement, Shaver had Yarrow arrested. (New York Times, June 28, 1931)
  
• During the 1928 presidential campaign, Yarrow, in his capacity as leader of the Chicago Church Federation, assailed the "whisper campaign" attacking Al Smith's Catholocism. "This is a free country and a man's religious convictions are his own sacred right," Yarrow said. "Moral matters are legitimate subjects for consideration in voting, but religious creeds are not." (New York Times, September 14, 1928)
• The Reverend Yarrow died in 1954, at age 82. (New York Times, June 16, 1954)