Chicago Tribune
WANT VICE WAR CONTINUED
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Presbyterian Brotherhood Convenes; Adopts Resolutions.
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PRAISE FOR GIPSY SMITH
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Call Present Time to Strike Hard Blows for Righteousness.
The Chicago Presbyterian brotherhood yesterday entered upon an active crusade for a better and cleaner Chicago, bright with religious fidelity, human fraternity, and civic honor. Resolutions were passed applauding the moves already made to supplant indecency and inertia in Chicago with wholesomeness and red blooded activity in public life.
It was declared at the meeting that the present is a "white hot" opportunity for bold, strong strokes, and a scheme was suggested for a massmeeting of all the lay churchmen in Chicago at the Coliseum, to sell the boom for bigger and better things.
The "keenly suspected alliance" between officers of the law and the vicious element was contrasted sharply with the religious fervor engendered by "Gipsy" Smith’s mission.
It was declared that one of the first things the churches can do is to make Chicago a cheery place for the boys way from home who are "lonely" by providing wholesome and attractive places of amusement to crowd out the gaudy eyesores which wreck young manhood.
All Favor an Uplift
All the speakers advocated a genuine uplift in Chicago. The resolutions follow:
Resolved. That the Presbyterian Brotherhood of Chicago puts on record its deep sense of the critical moral significance of the present moment in the history of the city.
That the profound public expression already enacted by the mission conducted by Gipsy Smith; the widespread indication at known and suspected connection between officers of law and exploiters of crime and vice; the stirring call from the city’s journalism for united and militant assertion of the love of righteousness and honor, and the feeling general that it is time to set forward a better and greater Chicago, all confirm the current hour a white hot opportunity for bold strong strokes in behalf of nobler standards for the city.
That as men of the church we recognize and accept the peculiar responsibility of confessed Christians for consistency, candor and courage in such a crisis.
That we enjoin the council of the brotherhood a special obligation in this time for positive leadership.
That we trust the council will align the Presbyterian brotherhood with other denominations to aid the speedy realization in Chicago of that reign of right in Chicago which our Master named the Kingdom of God.
Urges a Demonstration
Dr. Hardin urged that the Presbyterian men of Chicago should be called to meet with the men of all the churches of Chicago in the Coliseum for a demonstration of that earnestness of purpose which is felt all over the city for a cleaner and better Chicago.
Prof. William Mather Lewis, head master of Lake Forest university, took for his subject "The Chicago Boy."
"The poor mother who gives her 8 or 10 year old baby beer to drink and diseased meat to eat is not near so bad as the rich man who gives his 16 year old son and automobile and a pocket full of money and then take no interest in that son’s associates," said he.
"The mother may be educated in time, but there is no hope for the father."
Prof. Lewis Said he had stood in front of saloons and theaters on South State street, below Van Buren, and on West Madison street, near Halsted, and on Clark street north of the river, and seen young boys of 10 years come out between acts and go into the saloons and come out again, with the devil’s leer already planted on their faces and the devil’s talk already rolling from their nicotine stained mouths.
Sees Appeal in "The Tribune."
"I was led to this investigation," he said, "because I noticed a letter in THE TRIBUNE of Sept. 1., signed by ‘Lonely,’ and if I had been a stranger in Chicago the chances are 1,000 to 1 that the unwholesome place would have got my patronage also.
"A crying need in Chicago today is for meeting and amusement places, brilliantly lighted and attractively furnished, which will push in among the dives. You say they can’t compete. I say that a warm, pleasant room, with games and music, moving pictures, and some whole hearted fellows in charge, would save thousands of youths a year.
"The reason many a boy adopts as his ideal some sporting character of low morals, while he shuns the model whom his parents urge him to imitate, is because the former is strong along those physical lines which are a boy’s greatest joy, and the latter repels by his lack of physical skill and interest.
"A man does not need to be a Cobb or a Wagner to interest a boy, but he must know the difference between a base hit and the bleachers.
"Do you know that over 90 per cent of the boys in Chicago are profane, and that thousands between the ages of 8 and 10 smoke and chew?"
The following were elected as officers of the Chicago Union for the ensuing year: President Judge Charles G. Neely; first vice president, George Lazear; second vice president Henry P. Crowell; treasurer, Carroll H. Sudler; and secretary, Calvin H. Mills.
