A Baptist Pastor's Charges The Rev. John Roach Straton, pastor of the fashionable Calvary Baptist Church, has become in a night one of the chief figures in the controversy between the police and the Public Prosecutor as to the pr>- valence of vice in New York City.
In the course of a widely-advertised sermon which he preached on Sunday the Rev. J. Straton told in graphic detail of visits which he and some friends pail to well-known dance halls and cabarets, frequented by women of the under: world, where liquor flowed freely in spite of prohibition restrictions. His descriptions of existing conditions, and his allegations that Police protection is purchased on the basis of monthly payments, made, he says, on information gathered from the women, have caused a profound sensation, The pastor's declaration that in the few dance halls visited he found more young men and women than in all the churches in New York is calculated to focus the attention of other clergy on the existing conditions. Nothing approaching the outspoken charges of Mr. Straton has been heard in a New York pulpit since the famous sermons many years ago of Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, which resulted in an investigation into the New York Police Department and the conviction of many men high in that organization.
Mr. Straton condemned in scathing terms modern dances and dress styles of the women, and the practices of the so-called hostesses of the dance halls, whom he charge with being actually procurers for wealthy patrons willing to pay. He raid he hed no difficulty in gaining admission to these places, which he visited in evening clothes under the guidance of a chauffeur, who acted as sponsor with the doorman, arranging that the clergyman's party should be entertained "properly."" At one place, Mr. Straton said, the bill for one round of seven Scotch "high-balls" [whisky and soda] served to his party was nearly £5, out of which the women who had joined the table at the suggestion of the waiter admitted that they would receive a share.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.