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Newspaper Page Text
I 'I 1 WANT IS JHE REAL SEDUCER OF OUR GIRLS, SAYS JANE ADDAMS OF HULL HOUSE, . Having read the testimony of Julius Rosenwald and department stores, in which they takVthe. pqsition that low wages have no rela tion to white slavery, The Day Book here presents" the testimony of Jane Addams, of Hull House, who needs no introduction to' our readers: - - . .. , . , By JaneAddams. - v ' s"Is it because our modern industrialism js so new that we hav.e been slow to connect it with the poverty and vice all about us?" The. aphorism that "morals fluctuate' vith trade" was long con- sidered cynical, but it has(been demonstrated in Berlin, in London, in Japan, as well as in several American cities that there is a distinct increase in the number of registered prostitutes during periods of ftnancial depression and. even dur ing the,. dull season of leading local industries.-''' . "Out of workj hadn't been able to save," 'Could not make enough money tat'live on," "I- got sick and Tan behind, are the' explanations given by rescued .girls at Hull House; ' One.girl said that she had first yielded to temptation when she had become utterly discouraged, because she had tried in vain for seven months to save enough money for a pair of shoes. She 'habitually spent two dollars a week for her room, three dollars for her board, and sixty cents a week for carfare, and she iound the forty cents remaining from her weekly .wage of six dollars in adequate'to do more. than re-sole her old shoes twice. When the shoes "became wtoo worn to endure a third soling and she possessed but ninety, cents to ward a new pair, .she gave up her struggIefto use her own- con- temptuous phrase, she "sold out for a pair of shoesl" ' Of coursea girl in such a strait does not go out deliberately to find 'illicit niethods of earning t money-4-she simply1 yields in a moment of utter weariness, and discouragement to the tempta tions she has been able, to with stand up to that moment. The long hours, the lack of comforts, . the low pay, the ab sence of recreation, the sense of "good times" all about her which she cannot share, the" conviction that she is rapidly losing health and chdrm, rouse v the5 molten forces within her. A swelling tide' of self-pity suddenly storms the banks which have hitherto held her and finally' overcomes her instincts, of dece'ncy and righteousness, as well as the habit of cleap-living, established by generations- of" her forebears.". It is perhaps in the department store more than' anywhere, else