The police extortion of itself would have finished
it in time. A blackmailer in the long run always kills the goose
that lays his golden egg. His greed gets the better of his sense.
The interview I quoted was not a plea for legalizing wrong. That
will get us no farther. It was rather a summons to our people to
cease skulking behind lying phrases and look the matter squarely
in the face. With a tenement-house law, passed this winter, which
sends the woman to jail and fines the landlord and his house $1000,
we shall be in the way shortly of doing so. Until we do that justice
first, I do not see how we can. Poverty's back is burdened enough
without our loading upon it the sins we are afraid to face.
Meanwhile we shall be getting up courage to talk plainly about it,
which is half the battle. Think of the shock it would have given
our grandmothers to hear of a meeting of women in a public hall "to
protest against protected vice." On a Sunday, too. Come to think
of it, I do not know but that wholesome, plain speech on this subject
is nearer the whole than half the battle.
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