The Chicago Vice Commission
Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch
Greenwich House, New York
The value of a report consists in its emphases. Not only is it important to bring together the various aspects of the problem, but also to show these aspects in their proper relation one to another and to bring out in relief significant high lights.
The Chicago Vice Commission's report is successful (I) in emphasizing the economic factors making for prostitution ; (2) in indicating the absolute necessity for the careful classification of delinquents and corresponding treatment in order to secure results; (3) in insisting upon the recognition of prostitution as a business where profit and the use of alcohol are the most important features, in the interest of which youth in its inexperience is exploited and sacrificed; (4) in tying up the question of "vice" with that of the need for recreation; and (5) in suggesting a permanent municipal body to which this problem shall be referred thus providing for the development of a continuous policy.
(218)
If one were hypercritical, one might suggest that the report is weakest on the side of emphasizing the importance of ideals strongly appealing to the young. The religious girl, the trade unionist, the suffragist, the socialist, the revolutionist is so deeply moved by faith in life that she is not easily led astray. Not even under severe economic pressure will she be so likely to take this path as will her less purposeful sister.
