Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1917 — WOMEN BLAME LOW WAGE [ARTICLE]

WOMEN BLAME LOW WAGE

Five Hundred Girls, Branded Scarlet, 'Storm Church and Ask Pastor to Solve Question. • San Francisco, Jan. 26. —Nearly 500 women, mostly of the underworld, Stormed the Central Methodist Episcopal church and asked Rev. Paul Smith what he intended to do with them in connection with his campaign for the suppression of the downtown tenderloin. This campaign started when Mr. Smith was told that street soliciting was in progress at the very doors of his church. Feeling that he was meeting little encouragement, he toured the district in company with investigators, and newspapers published •what he reported he saw. Mayor James Rolph, Jr., and' the police commission held a long session and announced that virtually all of a set of ten demands made by Mr. Smith for regulation under the law would be granted. A massmeeting of citizens has been called. For 30 minutes Mr. Smith stood the target of questions resolving themselves into “What are you going to do about it?” and then the women reluctantly trailed out of church.