unmoved. Again the remedy is in the girl's own hands. But, as a matter
of fact, the police are so afraid of making a mistake that, almost in
every case where there is a doubt, they do not charge.

Those--again I must add especially women--opposed to State interference
in these matters must ask themselves on what grounds their opposition
is based: should we not consider the health of society in the present
and the future well-being of the race as more important than our
personal distaste and intellectual dislike of interference? Even
_liberty_ must not take up a disproportionate amount of space in our
view. My own belief in the efficacy of making right doing as simple as
is possible by lessening temptation, is based on what life has taught
me, that the fundamental character of people is not greatly alterable,
but that the alteration of their circumstances will certainly influence
the effect and working of their capacities and instincts. The buttercup
which is tall with a flower at the end of a high firm stalk and leaves
with slender spike fingers, if it grows in an open meadow, becomes a
stunted flower on a short stem, and its leaves form squat webs, in order
to force its growth on a close-cropped lawn. The experience of the
American Army shows us that to cut off opportunity and suggestion of
temptation, the incentives to libidinous imagination, is to alter
character more than everyone recognizes. When I think of this
achievement, gained in so short a time and with so simple means, I
confess I lose patience with the opposition raised by the women of this
country against every attempt at legislative interference with
prostitution. Nothing can be done thoroughly because of this hindering
folly. There really is no limit to women's sentimental egoism and their
blindness in turning from facts.

We pray in our churches "lead us not into temptation," but we leave our
streets crowded with temptations. Surely this is stupid negligence and
worse. Remove the temptations, and as a nation we shall be delivered
from evil.

VI

Now, a friend who has read this chapter up to this point, objects that I
am laying too great stress on one aspect of the problem, bringing
forward with undue insistence the importance of restricting
prostitution--the removal of the woman tempter as the only practical way
to prevent the spread of sexual diseases. She does not, I think, like my
dismissal of conscious moral striving from a principal place i