The Survey, Volume 30, Number 6, May 10, 1913Various
General
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 6, May 10, 1913
Various
Charities -- Periodicals; Social problems -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
The present excessive demand for prostitution which comes largely from
young boys is, I believe, caused by the nature of our present social
organism which abnormally emphasizes the sex relation and puts it before
every other influence a boy meets. Women’s dress, current literature,
musical comedies and problem plays, “smutty” stories told by boys among
themselves, even our advertisements—all combine to throw a fascinating
glamor around sex indulgence and develop an abnormal instinct in our
boys, which takes command of their nervous system and insists that sex
indulgence is necessary.
The average boy of eighteen cannot think of marriage for economic
reasons, but his nature craves action, and under these ever-present
influences he comes to believe that the perfect “good time” is sex
indulgence—and he will exercise all his ingenuity, when with a girl, to
attain his goal. No one, who is not in the confidences of young people,
has the least idea of the pressure thus brought to bear on girls. The
girl finds it necessary in order to hold a boy’s attention, with the
amusements and companionship that goes with it, to do as he wants; many
girls fall through their perfectly natural desire for healthful
recreation which they can get more plentifully by giving in—or through a
sentimental desire to retain the favor of boys who are satisfied with
nothing short of intercourse.
The ultimate remedy must be to put against this “prevailing spirit of
the times” a powerful combatting influence, which will establish in our
boys a high ideal of womanhood and marriage.
E. C. S.
Swissvale, Pa.
FREE ACRES COLONY
TO THE EDITOR:
Many persons interested in social betterment work, have written to me
enquiring about the Free Acres Colony at Berkeley Heights, N. J.
If you can get along without gas and a janitor and plumbing and a land
lord and other modern improvements, you can build your own one room
tent-shaped bungalow for $40 there, and make your own clothes and be as
respected as you are respectable. Later, you may make it your residence.
Any handy man or woman might make a living chopping wood, or gardening,
and so forth, and no one there will either give you anything or try to
take anything away from you; for in this co-operative land-ownership
there is no speculative element.
On a co-operative basis, Free Acres affords an opportunity to own a
rural home without having to buy land. But it is as secure as buying,
for the lease is a perpetual lease and can be transferred. At present it
is pioneering; there are no established industries there as yet, but
opportunity is open to anyone to establish them. You can lose yourself
in the woods which surround the farm, although it’s only twenty-seven
miles from the City Hall in New York.
BOLTON HALL.
New York City.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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