y
or regularly rounding up women, fining them ten or fifteen dollars apiece,
and turning them loose, are trying to meet the social emergency by
shutting their eyes to nine out of ten of its essential features. Their
policy gives a clean bill to the male prostitute, arrests the woman, takes
away a part of her earnings, sets her free under the necessity of seeking
new victims to offset the fine, offers her no incentive to lead any other
life, incidentally increases opportunities for police graft, and virtually
gives the sanction of the law to the whole nefarious business. The ostrich
with his head buried in the sand sees our gravest social problem about as
clearly and wholly as do many who are administering laws concerning
prostitution in American cities.

The impotence of laws passed in advance of public education and public
demand is a difficulty often overlooked. Some reformers seem to think
they can eliminate the social evil by getting a law passed. They urge
state legislatures to pass laws requiring every school to teach sex
hygiene. These people think they are going straight at a solution; but
they fail to see the patent fact that there are not now enough competent
teachers for this work; no, not one teacher for every hundred schools.
Another example of futile legislation is the California law requiring the
reporting of cases of venereal diseases. One could easily list a score of
laws in the domain of sexual morals which are ineffective, either because
in their very nature they could not be enforced, or because the public do
not wish to have them enforced. Perhaps there are no factors of the social
emergency so frequently left out of account as the relation of public
education to public opinion and the relation of public opinion to the
possibility of law enforcement.

As a matter of fact the educational phases of social reform are of most
immediate importance. Nothing can so profitably occupy the attention of
social hygiene societies as the education of the public. If groups of
social workers come to serious disagreement on other phases of the
present emergency,--if the discussion of restricted districts,
minimum-wage laws, health certificates for marriage, and reporting of
diseases divides the group into warring camps,--all can unite in favor of
spreading certain truths as widely as possible; and it is not difficult to
agree on at least a few of the many methods which have already proved
effective in educational c