Evangelist Martin on "The Three Social Evils"

California, 1921

"If laws were passed in the state of California making it unlawful for men to dance with women other than their own wives, and allowing single men to dance with each other, and not with single women, the dance craze would soon be abated," declared Evangelist T. T. Martin, addressing a union meeting in the Twenty-third Avenue Baptist church yesterday afternoon on "The Three Social Evils — Dancing, Card Playing and Moving Pictures."

"In San Francisco," he continued, "statistics show that 75 percent of fallen women come from dance halls.

"The harm of the dance comes in the contact of the sexes and should be abolished for that reason. Although the dance ruins many women, the great sufferers are of the sterner sex. Where the dance ruins one woman it harms a dozen men."

Card playing and moving pictures were both condemned by the evangelist. "If card playing, one of the great social evils, is to be abolished, the women must cease gathering around their bridge tables. Were that the case, the men would not gather at their poker tables."

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, March 7, 1921, p. 8.