Ben Hogan holds the views of a man who has studied the question in all its bearings. His conclusions may not be in accord with religious teachings nor Sunday-school law makers; but I think they are strictly in accord with common sense. He claims at the outset that the social evil cannot be exterminated. The one thing, therefore, left to do is to render it as harmless as possible, and to surround it by such legal safeguards as may be practicable. First, let the house of prostitution be regularly licensed. This is no new idea, nor is it untried even in this country. In St. Louis and some other Southern cities the plan has been adopted, certainly with better effects than the abortive attempts to suppress such places altogether. On the Continent of Europe it is the almost universal practice to grant such licenses. Let us consider briefly the advantages arising from such a course. If a sporting house is regarded as a legal institution--which of course it is, in case of a license--then the law is able to take it in hand, and dictate such rules as it sees fit. This enables such places to become respectable in so far as it is possible for them to be so under any circumstances. A license necessarily carries with it certain conditions and restrictions. Let these be made so binding and severe that it will be impossible for any diseased woman to offer her body for prostitution. Let a board of examining physicians call at the houses at regular intervals, and make a thorough examination of the inmates. Just here I fancy some over-righteous reader may be tempted to throw down this volume in disgust. "What!" exclaims such a one, "would you make this miserable traffic more widespread than it already is?" Common sense, and not morality, must dictate the answer. These places will exist in spite of preachers and police. The sensible, worldly plan should be to make them as productive of as little evil as possible. When a man holds illicit intercourse with a woman, it is assumed that he breaks the law of God; but, unfortunately, no means has ever yet been devised to prevent a man from sinning. He is a free moral agent, responsible for his acts, and accountable for the disposition which he makes of his days on this earth. But while the laws of society cannot prevent a man from breaking the laws of God, it can restrain him from rushing into those excesses which may injure others beside himself. Another advantage--and this also, it is to be remembered, is of purely a worldly nature--arising from granting licenses to sporting houses would be the revenue returned to the municipal government. Here again the pious reader may take offense at the line of argument. And yet he thinks nothing of profiting by the tax which is laid upon liquor dealers. Nevertheless, rum is as certain an agent of the devil, according to the strict Puritanic view, as anything in the world. "Wine and women are equally destructive to the soul," say the preachers.