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Frances Willard, "Social Purity Work for 1887," Jan 1887
White Cross. Societies may be formed when desirable under the
leadership of clergymen or Christian men of experience, but no society
of girls is contemplated.
REFORMATORY WORK.
This is to be carried on by the establishing of cheap Reading
Rooms and Lodging Houses for women in large cities and towns with
notices posted up in depot waiting rooms, advertising the same to the
stranger and the friendless; Industrial Homes to be founded by the
State as a sequel to petitions circulated by our societies; and a "Life-
Saving Station" (i.e. W.C.T.U. Committee of two) should be formed in
every local union to inaugurate and carry out reformatory work. In each
community there are women especially interested in this department of
Christian endeavor who can be induced to act on this Committee.
Evangelistic work should accompany all these efforts. Visits to
degraded women, and prayer with and for them, should be constantly
made, and efforts to win them to a true life should be accompanied by
practical attempts to find them honorable employment, or return them
to their homes. Dr. Kate Bushnell[F], Evanston, Ill, National Evangelist
of this Department, will upon request, send her circular with further
details.
LEGAL WORK.
The following petition is now in circulation in nearly every State
except Massachusetts and Colorado, which have already, in response
to petitions of the W.C.T.U., raised the age of consent to eighteen
years. Wisconsin also has laws which largely anticipate the legislation
herein asked for:
PETITION.
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The increasing and alarming frequency of assaults upon women,
and the frightful indignities to which even little girls are subject, have
become the shame of our boasted civilization.
A study of the Statutes has revealed their utter failure to meet the
demands of that newly-awakened public sentiment which requires
better legal protection of womanhood and girlhood.
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