Let us be careful that we be not numbered among those of whom it is written, "There were false prophets among the people."

The white slave traders, and all who wilfully or ignorantly aid and abet their abominable commerce in girls, are ardent advocates of segregation or some form of regulation—whereby they obtain a police status which enables them to exploit the helpless and foolish, and ignorant, and vicious to dispense alike to guilty men and innocent wives and babies, blindness, insanity, locomotor ataxia, abscesses, tumors, surgical operations and coffins.

To protect these loathsome resorts is like maintaining a thousand pest houses, not for purposes of quarantine, but with the sole result of advertising and spreading the pestilence.

THE SHAME OF BRUSSELS, INDIA AND HONG KONG.

In Brussels, where regulation was held to be perfect, and a model for other countries, English girls were found enslaved, and the chief of police resigned after being exposed as a partner with the white slave traders.

In India, regulation went the abhorrent length that an army circular memorandum, under authority of Sir Frederick, afterwards Lord Roberts, made the army itself a procurer of prostitutes, saying: "It is necessary to have a sufficient number of women; to take care that they are sufficiently attractive; and to provide them with proper houses"—free quarters. When Dr. Kate Bushnell and Mrs. Andrew, two American ladies, exposed the frightful conditions existing, by authority, in India, Lord Roberts at first said that they spoke falsely, but afterwards said, when convicted of the truth, "I apologize to the ladies without reserve."

In Hong Kong, under regulation, government money was used by detectives to induce women to sin with them, in order to enroll them as public women. In India and Hong Kong alike, under the reign of Queen Victoria, of happy memory, these registered women were called "Queen's women." Under such shameful misrule Hong Kong became the base for the shipment of Chinese slave girls to California, by which Mongolian brothel slavery was introduced into America—a horror worse than the bubonic plague.

BLAMELESS GIRLS ENSNARED IN CHICAGO.

In this First Ward of Chicago, said to be the most influential and richest ward in the world, are nearly two miles of indecent resorts. Since a district in this ward was thrown open to this most diabolical commerce, blameless Chicago virgins have been lured to apartments on Wabash avenue, under the shadow of churches of cathedral importance, and then sold into the adjacent white slave market—the illegal red light district. This was shown in court at Harrison Street, before Judge Newcomer, June 1, 1907.

Intoxicating liquor has been sold illegally, without a license, in hundreds, perhaps thousands of resorts in the city, against the protest of the Chicago Law and Order League repeatedly addressed to the Mayor. Surely this will not be allowed to continue—the virtual payment of a bounty of a thousand dollars a year, the price of a saloon license, to the keeper of an indecent resort. Surely the First Ward debauch in the Coliseum will never be allowed again.

REPEAL OF REGULATION NOW DEMANDED IN EUROPE.

The International Bureau for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, representing every country in Europe, except Turkey, has recently written:

"We are anxious to call the attention of our readers to the fact that when we started the work for the suppression of the white slave traffic, we maintained that, apart altogether from that direct work, the respective governments would have their attention drawn to the importance of the question of the repeal of the system of regulation of vice. Our anticipations are being fully realized in different countries, where the National Committees are declaring by vote that the White Slave traffic is promoted and kept alive by the government regulation of vice, and are calling upon their respective governments to abolish the system." (23d Annual Report of the National Vigilance Association, London, page 17.)

The only righteous attitude of government toward all crime and vice is eternal antagonism. The government should educate the people concerning the frightful effects of vice and never encourage these ruinous practices. The responsibility of government in this connection are nothing less than awful.

POSITION OF THE CLERGY.

The editor of a great Chicago daily said to me, concerning the readiness of many people to segregate and regulate vice. "The clergy won't stand for it."

Mr. Huxley, shortly before his death, addressing a company of clergymen, said that men of science in their search for the truth, may find themselves obliged to return to the guardians of Divine revelation, the ministers of God, and that if they did so return, he hoped that the clergy would not have betrayed the gates.

James Russell Lowell has told us truly that compromise in a matter of fundamental morals, that is, slavery, cost us the Civil War. In matters of eternal truth, and in matters of fundamental morals, we must not, we will not, compromise. WE WILL NEVER BETRAY THE GATES.

E. A. B.



CHAPTER XXII.

THE WHITE SLAVES AND THE BLACK PLAGUES.

The White Slave Trade means two things, snaring girls and spreading disease. As tuberculosis has been called the White Plague, the diseases spread by vice are now called the Black Plagues. Every father and mother, every youth and maiden should be instructed at once in the right way and put on guard against the reptiles that lure unprotected girls, and against the sting of deadly disease that inevitably punishes all who break the moral law, which is physical law as well.

It is not enough to hint softly at these horrors. The truth must be told as plainly as the preacher's Bible and the physician's microscope tell it. Delicacy is excellent in telling the truth, but the delicacy that suppresses the truth is sin. Our loins are to be girt about with truth—our loins, the apostle says, the region of our sex life—girt with truth, not with ignorance and false modesty.

The general public must be made to realize the enormous extent and serious character of these diseases. They cause one-seventh of the suffering of the human race, and in cities more than one-seventh. Physicians have heretofore concealed the truth from the public, but now are foremost in telling it.

When a girl is induced to take up an immoral life she is quickly infected with the diseases that go with that misconduct, and is dead while she lives and a source of death to others. A physician whose former duty it was to inspect depraved women in Paris said to an audience of young men in a vice district of Chicago that ninety-five in a hundred of those women were walking pest-houses.

The victims of the loathsome commerce in girls are first ensnared, then enslaved or at least exploited, inevitably infected with the loathsome disease and all the time compelled to make money for their wicked masters. Constantly they are spreading the pestilence to the men and youths who patronize them and then pass on the plagues to their present or future wives and children.

The red light districts, like a lake of fire, are perpetually engulfing unwary and unprotected girls, along with the wilfully depraved. They are misled by crafty women and villainous young men with smooth manners and false tongues, on promises of light work, big pay, fine clothes, jewels and great happiness. The route to the abyss is commonly by way of dance halls and amusement resorts of all kinds having drinking attachments. The girl who drinks puts herself at the mercy of the young man in whose company she may be. The girl who dances is in very great peril, and she puts young men with whom she dances under greater temptation than herself.

Soon after the fatal plunge a girl becomes immodest, indecent, lawless, homeless, a victim and distributer of vile diseases. When the plain people know the horrors of the white slaves and the black plagues, the sane plain people will demand the destruction of the white slave market and the extirpation of the black plagues.

The committee of seven physicians, appointed by the Medical Society of the County of New York, after elaborate investigation reported that 225,000 persons were treated in New York City in the year 1900 for the diseases caused by vice. The majority of these were immoral men and immoral women, but a large and deeply wronged minority consisted of virtuous wives and children of all ages.

HALF A MILLION BLIND.

Any medical professor can tell any inquirer that there are at least ten or twelve thousand blind in the United States today, whose blindness dates from a few days after birth and was caused by disease which their mothers contracted innocently from their guilty husbands—who in most cases supposed themselves cured before marriage.

Dr. Neisser, of Berlin, who in 1879 isolated the germ that causes ophthalmia of the new-born, a vice germ, after careful investigation throughout Germany concludes from the statistics that there are thirty thousand blind in Germany from this cause. If the same proportion would hold throughout Europe, there are two hundred thousand blind in Europe from this cause—more than the three armies engaged at Waterloo.

But to be very conservative, let us cut the figures in two, and we have still one hundred thousand sightless persons, blind from babyhood, in Europe alone. Including America, and adding Asia, Africa and the islands of the South Seas, we shall find in the world half a million persons blind or one million sightless eyes, from this pestilent germ—at which many young men laugh as no worse than a cold and which is on sale all the time in every immoral resort in the world.

HELEN KELLER'S "I MUST SPEAK."

In a full-page article in The Ladies' Home Journal for January, 1909, Helen Keller, the brilliant blind graduate of Radcliffe College, wrote under the heading "I Must Speak":

"The most common cause of blindness is ophthalmia of the new-born. One pupil in every three at the institution for the blind in New York City was blinded in infancy by this disease.

"What is the cause of ophthalmia neonatorum? It is a specific germ communicated by the mother to the child at birth. Previous to the child's birth she has unconsciously received it through infection from her husband. He has contracted the infection in licentious relations before or since marriage. 'The cruelest link in the chain of consequences,' says Dr. Prince Morrow, 'is the mother's innocent agency. She is made a passive, unconscious medium of instilling into the eyes of her new-born babe a virulent poison which extinguishes its sight.'

"It is part of the bitter harvest of the wild oats he has sown."

Miss Keller goes on in her article to tell the women of America that blindness is by no means the most terrible result of this pestilent sin.

INNOCENT WIVES SUFFER.

Dr. Prince A. Morrow, whom Miss Keller quotes, has written a volume on the consequences of these diseases to wives and children. The book is entitled "Social Diseases and Marriage." On page 132 Dr. Morrow quotes this from Dr. Garrigues:

"I knew a girl in perfect health, of great beauty, of Junoesque proportions, combining muscular strength with regularity of features and graceful movements, possessing a most amiable disposition—in brief a paragon of a wife to make a husband happy. She married a nice young man in a good business. It was a marriage based upon mutual affection and held out every prospect of a long and happy union. A week after her marriage she came to me with an abscess in one of Bartholini's glands and a profuse discharge. . . . She was under treatment for months. . . . She was seized with violent pain in the lower part of the abdomen and had a temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit and a pulse of 140. . . . The peritonitic infection continued to spread, and laparotomy was performed. Finally she died.

"In many similar cases the patients recovered for the time being, but went on leading a life of invalidism, interrupted by more acute attacks of peritonitis. Some get well after having their ovaries and tubes removed. This, then, is what awaits these poor women—discharges, inflammations, a life full of suffering, capital operations, or death."

A Chicago physician writes to the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene:

"Several years ago there came under my care a case that I can never forget. The patient was a bride twenty-two years old, a beautiful woman of excellent family. She was suffering from a disease contracted from her husband, who had supposed himself cured before the wedding. An operation, which offered the only chance of saving her life, was performed. All went well for a few days. Her husband, who had been constantly with her, was called away on urgent business. The patient suddenly became worse and died before his return."

These two beautiful brides, and countless thousands like them, were killed by a disease of which young men are not afraid, of which they make light in their ignorance. Any physician will attest these statements. Some surgeons attribute three-fourths of the surgical operations on women to this disease; one-fourth is a very conservative reckoning.

THE REMEDY.

Mr. Edward Bok, editor of The Ladies' Home Journal, on the editor's personal page of that magazine for September, 1908, puts the responsibility for meeting these terrible evils upon parents. He wrote:

"First: We parents must first of all get it into our heads firm and fast to do away with the policy of silence with our children, that has done so much to bring about this condition. Our sons and our daughters must be told what they are, and they must be told lovingly and frankly. But told they must be.

"Second: We fathers of daughters must rid ourselves of the notion that has worked such diabolical havoc of a double moral standard. There can be but one standard: that of moral equality. Instead of being so painfully anxious about the 'financial prospects' of a young man who seeks the hand of our daughter in marriage, and making that the first question, it is time that we put health first and money second: that we find out, first of all, if the young man comes to court, as the lawyers say, with clean hands. Let a father ask the young man, as his leading question, whether he is physically clean: insist that he shall go to his family physician, and if he gives him a clean bill of health, then his financial prospects can be gone into. But his physical self first. That much every father would do in the case of a horse or a dog that he bought with a view to mating. Yet he does less for his daughter—his own flesh and blood."

Dr. William Osler, formerly of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, now of the University of Oxford, in an article describing the diseases which are the greatest scourges of the human race, such as cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, consumption, pneumonia and leprosy, wrote of the group of vice diseases:

"These are in one respect the worst of all we have to mention, for they are the only ones transmitted in full virulence to innocent children to fill their lives with suffering, and which involve equally innocent wives in the misery and shame."

E. A. B.



CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

On Monday, February 8, 1909, The Illinois Vigilance Association, an organization having for its object the suppression of traffic in women and girls, held its second annual conference against this evil. The meeting was held in the auditorium of the Young Men's Christian Association, in Chicago.

Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, professor of physiology in Northwestern University Medical School, spoke on the subject that is the title of this chapter, and was followed by Judge Julian W. Mack. Their plain, chaste, truthful words gave no offense to the refined ladies and gentlemen, and young ladies and young gentlemen, who composed that large audience of nearly a thousand people. Instead of offense, appreciation and gratitude were in every heart.

The addresses of these two eminent men are here reproduced word for word from the stenographer's report, not omitting the enlivening interruptions from a woman in the audience, herself a physician and much interested in this reform.

CHAIRMAN BOYNTON: "The White Slave Traffic and the Public Health" is the topic of the address by Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, Professor of Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School:

DR. WINFIELD SCOTT HALL: Ladies and Gentlemen: It might be of interest to note in passing that my interest in this matter has been directed particularly along educational lines, to know that since the first of October, 1908, I have addressed young men and boys on this subject to the number of not less than twenty thousand, mostly in the colleges and high schools, setting forth to them in perfectly clear and simple language the proper hygiene and physiology of the sexual system, teaching them the methods of right living.

As to this nefarious traffic that we have just been hearing about, and the relation of that traffic to the public health, I would like in one sentence to sum up a parallel between this white slave trade and the black slave trade that continued from the time of the Colonies to the memory of many of us present. I believe that we have not yet expiated and paid the price of that slave trade and it may be many generations yet before we pay for it. Blood flowing in rivers is a part of that price, from the hearts of the noblest sons of America. This white slave trade must be paid for in blood. Who are the primary victims? In most cases, pure minded girls, ambitious to go out and earn a higher wage and think they can send home wages to father and mother, and they fall into these snares that are set for them.



But we must not stop there. These poor girls do not live over at the most ten or fifteen years and a large proportion of them perhaps take their own lives. But if you could see the line of men that I saw the other night passing through one of these fifteen-cent lodging houses, lined up as they passed through to take their couch for the night, where over two hundred of these men passed by, and a large proportion of these men showing ulcers and other superficial stigmata of the venereal diseases! They represent the under world, the under dogs of society, the men who are down and out, who years ago visited the houses of ill-fame and got the disease and are now ekeing out their lives, hoping for the end to come—many of them.

But we can look further for victims. I believe that only a small proportion of the women who are in the houses of ill-fame—only a small proportion—make their way there of their own volition, and that small proportion are of the degenerate class who are born with a screw loose somewhere. From their babyhood they who are born with this taint—and we could, perhaps, trace that taint back—but born with that taint, they gradually go into that life—but they make a small proportion. The rest of them are either betrayed into that sort of a life, their lives ruined because they trusted some man, or they are bartered into it through this nefarious white slave traffic.

All lewd women are diseased some of the time and some lewd women are diseased all of the time. Now, whether the lewd woman is of the clandestine type or a professional in the house of ill-fame, it does not matter. Some say the clandestine is the more dangerous. Why? Because no attempt is made to have medical care. . . . That doesn't get at the real condition at all, and so she retains disease in her body and gives it to every one perhaps who visits her for months to come. When that is in a woman's system, it is almost impossible to eradicate. It is shocking, but we must know the facts. Statistics show that of the operations on women in the hospitals of New York City year before last for the removal of one or both ovaries, sixty-five per cent of those operations were brought about and necessitated because of gonorrheal infection.

WOMAN IN THE AUDIENCE: And most of them were married women.

DR. HALL: A considerable proportion of them were from the house of ill-fame. No small proportion of them were lawfully wedded, high minded, wives and mothers. Now, it is not customary for a doctor to say to a woman going to the hospital, "Madam, your difficulty is of a venereal origin"—no, he says, "I find an abcess. You must get to the hospital as soon as possible or you probably will lose your life. It is a question of life and death to get to the hospital and have an operation." If the doctor had said to this woman in every case "This is is of gonorrheal origin," you can imagine what the woman would say who knew she had led an innocent, pure life. She would say "Why?"—"You must have got it from some man." "But I never have had any contact with any man but my lawfully wedded husband." "Well, you must have got it from your lawfully wedded husband then."

Our standards are not high enough. Why a lawfully wedded husband should fix it up with his conscience to act so basely towards his wife we have yet to find out. But it is a wrong standard and I am glad to be able to say to the wives and mothers in this audience that almost without exception when I say to young men "Fellows, isn't it time that we have a single standard of purity for men and women?" they respond the same way you have responded and it is a question of education and we must keep it up.

Fathers and mothers in this audience—and I see there are probably grandfathers and grandmothers—let us see to it that our children are instructed in these matters by telling them the truth in early childhood, and then when they get older—girls fourteen or fifteen years old—let their mothers take them into their confidence and tell them some of these things, tell them the truth and endeavor to protect them against the wiles of tempters out in society.

I hardly need to say anything about syphilis. You know what the leper of the Orient used to be required to do and perhaps to this day—when any one met this leper, you know, he had to stand back and raise a warning hand and say "Unclean, Unclean." But the man who has syphilis, does he have to raise any warning hand? No, he mingles in the best society; he drinks from our drinking glass and the innocent child perhaps uses the same drinking glass in the railway train. Fortunately, there is only a short period of time when he can transmit it through the drinking glass, but during that time there is nothing to restrain him, so far as I know.

When I was a student in the medical school a quarter of a century ago, it was a common thing to pass over with some jocose remark the disease of gonorrhea. But that isn't done any more. Why? Because it is now proven to the medical profession that gonorrhea is quite as dangerous as syphilis. But the people in general do not know that. Let us tell the young men, especially, that they cannot afford to run the risk of gonorrhea, because it may not only wreck their own lives but the germs may lurk there and may be transmitted two or three or more years later to some innocent bride.

QUESTION FROM WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: Couldn't the husbands be examined?

DR. HALL: That is a perfectly fair question. I have a daughter and I want to just say this that no man is ever going to take that daughter from under my roof until I am sure that he has not got tuberculosis, for one thing, and syphilis and gonorrhea for another.

CHAIRMAN BOYNTON: I am sure it is a matter of congratulation that we have physicians in the city of Chicago who can talk as Dr. Hall has talked to us this morning. I am glad the time has come when we can sit as men and women and hear the truth and be unashamed.

I am sure we are all glad to have with us Judge Julian W. Mack of the Circuit Court, who will address us.

JUDGE JULIAN W. MACK: Ladies and Gentlemen: I am on the program for the closing words. I have no particular subject to talk about but it is a great gratification to listen to the words, particularly of Dr. Hall, and to see the response that they receive in a mixed audience such as this. Too long have we buried our heads in the sand; too long have we been silent on these great subjects; too long have we lied to our little ones, and thereby helped to bring about the destruction of so many of them.

I am not one of those who believe for a moment that salvation lies in education alone. Most drunkards know the evil of drink. Most men that yield to these temptations have some idea of the evil that they are going into, but girls in great numbers do not know. The young boys in great numbers do not know. Just as Dr. Hall said, you cannot appeal to a thousand school or college men, putting before them the truth, bringing them to the knowledge of terrible danger—and get any but one response. Our young people are noble and brave and we can rely upon them. If we could not, there would not be much hope of our country. We must educate them. We must tell them the facts. It isn't many years ago that the physicians were most guilty on this subject. If they had but told the men of our generation what we are now endeavoring to tell the young people of today, there would not be as many of these operations as there are now. But they passed off these matters so indifferently, as they might a slight cold, and that is what they all did practically about ten years ago. It was a crime against the young people of that day. The physicians, the clergymen and the laymen have all been awakened to a realization of our duties, at least, so far as education is concerned. It is up to us to see to it that all the boys and girls know something of the mystery of life that they may guard against the dangers and the temptations that confront them.

Dr. Hall spoke of some of the evils that await the innocent wife. Let me carry that a step further and apply it to local conditions. In our County Hospital we have a floor in the children's ward for the treatment of these cases among the children. Dr. Billings, President of the State Board of Charities and one of the, if not the leading physician in this section of the country, and Dr. Frank Churchill, one of the leading children's specialists of this city, told me a few days ago that there are from forty to sixty children at all times in that department, and that this disease is so virulent, so contagious, that there is grave danger to every child that enters that building and is treated for other diseases in other distinctive parts of that building, and that the great and crying need for the children—the sick children—today in Chicago and in Cook county, is not one floor devoted to this, but a distinct, separate building so that the children who have not yet become afflicted and are taken to the hospital for other contagious or non-contagious diseases, may not become infected and carry into their own homes gonorrheal trouble that comes through contagion, and it is up to this Vigilance Association, the Society of Social Hygiene and the other organizations, to see to it that the innocent children who are sick and as yet not afflicted with this disease, taken to our county institution do not come out worse than they enter. It is up to us to demand that they provide a proper children's department, a proper children's building, for the treatment of these cases.

The Society of Social Hygiene is but three years old. Similar organizations exist in the large cities of the country. They are due to the awakening of the people. They are spreading among the young people the knowledge of the conditions that confront them. It is up to the rest of us to do our share in other ways. Each of us can be an inspiration in his own family, in the public and in the private schools. We, the educated people of this community, can instruct the lesser educated parents so that they may realize their duty to their children. Our children and their children come together. We cannot escape that brotherhood, even if we wanted to. Our children, no matter how well we care for them, come into contact with the rest of the children of the city. We do not do our duty by our own unless we do our duty by the others too, and unless we see to it that they are properly cared for also, danger awaits our own children. That is putting it on selfish grounds, but I put it to you on the broader ground of brotherhood to man. Let us all join. On this great question at least we are one. No matter how we may differ on other social problems, on this question of the white slave traffic every decent man and woman stands on the same ground.

—E. A. B.



CHAPTER XXIV.

THE VENEREAL DISEASES.

Note:—We are permitted to quote this chapter from the book "Man and Woman," by Dr. Wm. T. Belfield, Professor in Rush Medical College, and Secretary of the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene organized by the Chicago Medical Society.

Promiscuous and clandestine indulgence of the reproductive instinct, everywhere prevalent, is for obvious reasons especially common in our large cities, where even children of both sexes are frequently initiated into sexual practices before puberty—a fact familiar to physicians and often revealed in our Juvenile Courts, though apparently unsuspected by parents in general. Chicago papers recently recorded the discovery of such practices among pupils of a public school.

The illicit sexual relation is the chief though not the only factor in the dissemination of the two serious venereal diseases; so prevalent are these in our large cities that at least half the adult male population of all social grades, according to conservative estimates, contract one or both of them. (In Germany gonorrhoea is the most frequent of all diseases, with the single exception of measles; in America it is about as frequent.) Were the evil effects of these diseases limited to those who seek clandestine indulgence, discussion of this distasteful topic might be reserved for them only; but since he who has acquired either of these diseases is, for an indefinite period, a possible source of contagion to his associates—especially to his bride and her children—the essential facts should be understood by every adult. These facts, so far as they concern the public welfare, are here briefly summarized:

1. Every prostitute, public or private, acquires venereal disease sooner or later; hence all of them are diseased some of the time, and some of them practically all of the time. The man who patronizes them risks his health at every exposure.

2. Medical inspection is an advantage to the prostitute chiefly because it gives her patron a false sense of security. Even the most elaborate and painstaking examination—and such is not bestowed upon the prostitute—may fail to detect a woman's lurking infectiousness; the perfunctory, routine examination actually made affords but a feeble protection to the patron. Moreover, at the first cohabitation after such examination she may acquire disease which she may transmit to every subsequent patron, until it is perhaps discovered at the next examination.

3. The many antiseptic washes, lotions and injections upon which the ignorant rely for protection from disease, are inefficient; not because they cannot destroy the germs of disease, but because they do not penetrate the skin and mucous membranes in which these germs have been sheltered.

4. Gonorrhoea in the male, while usually cured without apparent loss of health, has always serious possibilities; it kills about one in two hundred; it permanently maims one in a hundred; it impairs the sexual power and fertility of a much larger number; it often produces urethral stricture, which later may cause loss of health and even of life; and in many cases it causes chronic pain and distress in the sexual organs, with severe mental annoyance and depression. The loss of health, time and money entailed by these sequels and their treatment may far exceed that occasioned by the original disease.

The prevalent notion among the uninformed that gonorrhoea is a mere annoyance, "no worse than a cold," is based entirely upon lamentable misapprehension.

5. The persistence of this disease in the deeper parts long after it is outwardly cured, leads to the unsuspected communication of the disease to women with whom the individual may cohabit. Among these women may be his bride, who thereupon enters upon a period of ill-health that may ultimately compel the mutilation of her sexual organs by a surgical operation to save her life. Much of the surgery of these organs performed upon women has been rendered necessary by gonorrhoea, contracted from the husband. Should she while infected with this disease, give birth to a child, the baby's eyes may be attacked by the infection, sometimes with immediate loss of sight. Probably 25 per cent of the blindness of children is thus caused.

6. The other serious venereal disease, syphilis, infects the blood and therewith all parts of the body. For months after infection with this disease, the individual may communicate it by a kiss as well as by cohabitation; and articles moistened by his secretions—towels, drinking glasses, pipes, syringes, etc.—may also convey the infection. While under proper treatment the disease is not dangerous to life in the earlier years, yet the possibilities of transmitting the contagion should forbid marriage for at least three years.

The most serious results of syphilis appear years after its acquisition, when the individual has been lulled into a false sense of security by long freedom from its outward manifestations. It attacks all organs of the body, slowly and insidiously producing the symptoms of consumption, dyspepsia, liver disease and many other ailments. Since we have at present no reliable means for proving that one who has acquired the disease is absolutely cured thereof, physicians impress upon these patients two injunctions: first that they shall take the known remedies for the disease one or two months in every year, and second that they shall confide to every physician whom they may consult for any chronic or obscure ailment, the fact that they have been infected with syphilis. This latter injunction is especially important; for nearly all disorders produced by syphilis can be promptly checked by certain remedies; yet many of these disorders affecting internal organs of the body, may not be identified as of syphilitic origin by the unsuspecting physician, who therefore fails to administer the needed and successful remedy. By directing the doctor's attention to the possible syphilitic origin of the disease through a frank confession of his early infection, the patient may save his health or even his life.

These serious and intractable results of syphilis appearing years after its contraction, occur especially in the shape of disorders of the blood-vessels and of the nervous system—apoplexy, paralysis, insanity and locomotor ataxia for example; and these but too often appear after the man has acquired a family that is dependent upon him for support. The mental state of the husband and father whose bread-winning capacity is suddenly abolished through the natural result of his early folly, may be imagined.

That the syphilitic parent may transmit the disease to his offspring is common knowledge; some of his children are destroyed by the inherited disease before birth; others are born to a brief and sickly span of life; others attain maturity, seriously handicapped in the race of life by a burden of ill-health, incapacity and misery produced by the inherited taint; while still others apparently escape these evil effects.

Absolute freedom from venereal contagion, admittedly a prequisite for marriage, must be determined by expert medical skill; apparent recovery does not prove that the disease is really eradicated. Ignorance of the difference between real and apparent cure is responsible for most of the venereal infection of brides and taint of children.

The present popular crusade against tuberculosis is laudable and must result in a distinct restriction of the "great white plague"; but the greater black plague, syphilis, could be virtually eradicated in a few generations, through the universal practice of circumcision. Although apparently introduced into Europe less than four centuries ago, it has already tainted perhaps one-sixth of the total population, and it is steadily spreading; in the United States the ratio is but little better. (These percentages are merely estimates, since there are no official records of the venereal diseases except in public institutions.)



CHAPTER XXV.

RECRUITING GROUNDS OF THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFICKERS.

By Harry A. Parkin, Assistant United States District Attorney, Chicago.

In all of the articles which have been published, and in all the addresses made respecting the white slave traffic, the public has been warned in general terms to beware lest daughters and sisters in their own towns and villages should become the prey of the white slave traffickers. In these articles it was undoubtedly thought best to spare the sense of security which the resident of a peaceful community usually has, by failing to mention specific cities where it is known that procurers and panderers of girls secure their victims. In an article which I wrote in the March number of a magazine, I transgressed to a slight extent this rule, and gave as an example the story of the little German girl from Buffalo. Those who read this will remember this pathetic case of a child widow who was persuaded to come to Chicago, with her infant in her arms, in search of more remunerative employment, and who was there sold into white slavery.

Buffalo is not the only city which is a hunting ground of white slave traffickers. I think it safe to say that every city, village and hamlet whose daughters are fair to look upon, has been or will be, as time proceeds, the hunting ground of some procurer or agent for the white slave syndicate. I do not say this rashly, nor for the purpose of startling villagers where the church bell and the school bell are practically the only sounds which break the peace and quiet of the community, but I make the statement for the purpose of sounding a warning to that very resident, that very mother, that daughter, who sits in that schoolhouse or in that church pew and believes that she is safe from the snares of the traffickers because of the remoteness or the inaccessibility or otherwise of her peaceful village. It is not alone the large cities that furnish beautiful girlhood to lives of shame and debauchery. It is not necessary to go to New York, Pittsburg, Philadelphia or Kansas City to procure beautiful and attractive girls. It is well known that out on the prairies, in Texas, in Missouri, in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, in fact all over our great west, there are as beautiful types of womanhood as ever graced God's footstool. It is these that the trafficker is seeking. They it is who furnish the easiest victims for his snares.

As a prosecuting officer I personally can testify to the fact that very many cities and villages now have in the red light district of Chicago and other cities, daughters who, if their names were mentioned in their home cities, would bring shame and disgrace to prominent and honest people. There are girls from cities in the interior, girls from small villages with hardly a thousand inhabitants, and girls from villages of this size and cities of varying population from that on up to cities of the size of Boston and Pittsburg and other great commercial and social centers. There are of course some cities which furnish more women for prostitution than others. I shall not publish a comparative list, but will suffice by giving a list of cities scattered broadcast from which have come girls and women to the great white slave market in Chicago within my own personal experience. Cities which have furnished girls and women for this purpose are as follows: Toledo, Ohio; Youngstown, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Muskegon, Michigan; Montreal, Canada; Troy, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Peoria, Illinois; Bloomington, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; New York; Davenport, Iowa; Moline, Illinois; Livonia, Pennsylvania; Whitehall, Michigan; Waseca, Minnesota; Charleston, Illinois. I know that the above statement will cause a thrill in some of the cities which I have mentioned, but I believe that the agitation upon the white slave question has reached a point where false modesty should no longer prevent the public from knowing the exact situation however much it may cause them to feel a sense of regret that their city or village has furnished at least one victim to the sisters of scarlet.

The list of cities is not confined to the great group of cities having thousands of population, but, as you will note, includes small villages where it would hardly seem possible that girls could go astray. I might, if I had the time and space, make a list five or six times as large, but the one which I have given will serve my purpose—that of sounding a warning to those who least suspect that their daughters and sisters are in danger.

To those of you who do not reside in the cities which I have mentioned, I warn you not to conclude from the fact that I have omitted the name of your city or village from the list, that no girl has come from your community. It may be that I shall include your city in a future list—at any rate do not permit yourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security.

As I have said, some of the cities, much to their shame, have furnished for the houses of prostitution in Chicago more girls than others. For example, I have personally known for a long time that the cities of Montreal, Canada, Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, have furnished probably a greater average by one-third than any of the other cities. This of course does not include New York; for probably more women come from New York to Chicago for the purpose of entering a house of prostitution than from any other city in the United States. This is true because it has an extremely large population, and also because of the fact that it is largely through the port of New York that the alien prostitutes are brought into the United States, and thence to Chicago. Some of the other cities which I have mentioned have furnished one, two three, or more, as the particular case might be. This to me is sufficient proof of the fact that there is and probably always will be to a greater or less extent, until we crush it out, a syndicate or system which is continuously operating and seeking new fields for the purpose of ensnaring innocent victims and selling them into lives of shame.

Troy, New York, is a prolific source from which Chicago houses of ill fame receive women. In a case recently tried in the Federal courts, the testimony showed that one girl who had been found in a house of ill-fame in Chicago had originally been taken to a house at Troy and from that day, when she was eighteen years of age, until she was arrested in Chicago some five years later, she had been in the clutches of or under the control of the different members of a single family who had kept her earning money for them during all these years. The peaceful village of Charleston, in southern Illinois, has furnished to the panderers of lust a beautiful Norwegian girl, whose parents imagine that she is engaged in a legitimate occupation in Chicago, and whose peace of mind I would not disturb by furnishing them with her name. Muskegon, Michigan, is a field to which the white slave operator sends at frequent intervals for fresh girls. It is not a large city, but seldom does the procurer go there without returning with his victim.

Now a word as to the method used in procuring girls from our American cities. Some of the various schemes, which are used by the procurer, have been detailed in these pages in preceding articles, and I need not worry the reader with a repetition of their details. It is not always necessary for the procurer to go from the city to the country village to get the girl he is seeking. Indulgent parents very often permit their daughters to come to the great city unaccompanied by any protector; the Sunday excursion, the fat stock show, a world's fair, some theatrical production, a monstrous convention—these are the lights which allure the daughter and sister to the city. Perhaps she has never been in the city before and has no relatives or friends to whose house she may go. Perhaps she has been in the city once or twice before and has met a supposed woman friend, who has taken her to her house and shown her every courtesy. If the former, she will oftentimes be met at the railroad station by a young man, well dressed, pleasant and affable, who offers to spend his money to procure her a cab to take her to some respectable hotel. Unexperienced in the ways of the city, she accepts only to find that instead of a protector she has found in the affable young man a procurer for some vile house of prostitution. Many, many times have instances like this occurred, and the innocent young girl has awakened the next morning to find herself situated in a gaudy bedroom, without clothing, the prey and victim of her procurer. Her clothes have been taken away from her, and upon inquiry she finds that she is in debt and will not be permitted to leave the house until she has earned sufficient money to pay back what the affable young man has spent upon cab fares and hotel bills, and, in addition to that, to repay the price which the keeper of the house gave to her seducer. An instance of this kind, in which a girl had been procured by this identical method, was related by Mr. Sims in a magazine article. She has since been rescued and is leading a respectable life back home with her parents.

Or it may be that the girl from the country is making a second or third visit to the city and has been invited to again visit the kind and elderly lady who met her in a department store and so kindly cared for her upon her last visit. This kindly elderly lady usually occupies a flat at some distance but within easy reach of the red light district. It is sumptuously furnished and, as the elderly woman explains, is a home for several young ladies who are working in stores in the city. Here the country maiden is given every luxury free of expense, is entertained royally, and, alas, very many times before she attempts to leave for her home has been caught unawares and so compromised that she dare not face her home folks again. The city of Chicago in certain sections is full of apartments of this kind, where an elderly lady, usually a semi-retired keeper of a house of prostitution, has furnished an apartment and runs a supposed respectable home for working girls. Three to five girls live with her. Her telephone number is furnished to hotel employees and elevator operators, to "steer" male inquirers who are in search of a "pleasant evening" to the flat in return for a commission of fifty cents or a dollar for each customer. The girls who live in this class of places are girls who come from the country and who have fallen, but who are not low enough to go to the regular houses of prostitution in the red light district. Clerks from department stores, whose meagre salaries are not sufficient to support them while away from their parents, seek these houses as a means of supplying the deficiency in their weekly earnings. They are thus enabled to dress tastily and just a little bit better than the virtuous girl who works next to them upon the same salary but who does not sell herself for lust. In such places as these I have known of girls who came to the city to study painting, stenography, bookkeeping and other occupations, and who, while ostensibly pursuing their daily labor, are all of the time going to these houses of assignation whenever there is a dollar to be gained which will place them in a position to dress better or go to some place of amusement which costs money.

What, then, shall we do to protect our daughters and our sisters? That is the question which is puzzling not only prosecuting officers and police officials, but one upon which economists and charitable organizations are spending months debating. One safe and sure protection we all have. That is, do not permit the daughter or the sister to go from the country village to the large city unless you know absolutely and beyond the peradventure of doubt, that the hotel where she shall stay, or the people whom she shall visit, are absolutely above reproach of any kind. Advise your daughter and your sister of the snares which lay in her path before it is too late. Forewarn her so that she shall be advised in time to spare her the great anguish and the pain to which she may be otherwise subjected.

If the procurer comes to the village in search of his victim, teach the daughter and the sister to have no confidence in affable strangers, well dressed and fluent of speech, but to confide always in her mother when she makes an engagement to go driving, to visit an ice cream parlor or to go to the city with a male escort.



CHAPTER XXVI.

PRACTICAL MEANS OF PROTECTING GIRLS.

By Harry A. Parkin, Assistant United States District Attorney, Chicago.

What can be done about it?

There could be no legitimate excuse for exploiting the white slave trade in the public prints without the definite and sincere purpose of securing practical and substantial protection against this terrible social scourge. Such is as surely the purpose of this article as it has been that of the excellent articles by Hon. Edwin W. Sims which have brought out a vast and interesting volume of correspondence.

Many of these letters have been from fathers and mothers aroused to anxiety about daughters who have been allowed to seek a livelihood in large cities without suitable oversight or protection. In some instances the worst fears of these parents have been, by definite investigation, shown to be all too well founded.

Other letters have come, by the score, from public officials and from public spirited men and women who have at last been stirred to a realization that there is an actual, systematic and widespread traffic in girls as definite, as established, as mercenary and as fiendish as was the African slave trade in its blackest days. And practically all these letters indicate that very few of those who have been finally aroused to the enormity of existing conditions have any clear idea of what should or may be done to protect these daughters of our own people from the ravages of the white slave traders.

A letter from the Mayor of a Connecticut city is typical of the common misconception among cultivated and well informed public officials who have not given the legal phases of the repression of the white slave trade especial and exhaustive study. The Mayor writes:

"I should think that the Federal Government would have to pass stringent laws providing a heavy penalty for all who are engaged in this business. The law would then be the same in all states and people could not escape from its provision as they would if the states tried to take up the matter and passed conflicting statutes. An organization might secure the passage of such an act by the Federal Government, but it hardly seems to me that it is necessary, more than to state the facts, and have the members of congress take immediate action that would put an end to the whole matter."

While it is probably true that the Federal Government has power to prohibit the carrying of women from one state to another for immoral purposes, that power has not yet been specifically established by actual tests in court and is therefore, in a sense, undefined. On the other hand the states, under their police power, have a remedy in their own hands, and it would seem both logical and natural that this power be exercised in the protection of its own homes and daughters. As a matter of fact we have found literally scores of cases, in our investigations relative to the importation from foreign countries of girls destined for immoral houses, where American born girls have been lured or kidnaped from a home in one state and carried to some large city in another state, there to be broken to the life of shame.

The federal investigations in Chicago and other localities have clearly established the fact, that, generally speaking, houses of ill-fame in large cities do not draw their recruits to any great extent from the territory immediately surrounding them; for obvious reasons the white slavers who are the recruiting agents for the vile traffic prefer to work in states more or less distant from the centers to which their victims are destined.

In view of all this it must be clearly apparent that the need of the hour is legislation which will make it as difficult and dangerous for a white slaver to take his victim from one state into another as it is for him to bring a girl from France or Italy or Canada, or any other foreign country, to a house of ill-fame in Chicago or any American city. Therefore, it is suggested that if each state in the union would pass and enforce severe and stringent laws against this importation, this terrible traffic would be dealt a blow in its most vulnerable part. Such an enactment might well be worded as follows:

"Whoever shall induce, entice or procure, or attempt to induce, entice or procure, to come into this state, any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or concubinage, or for any other immoral purpose, or to enter any house of prostitution in this state, shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary for a period of not less than one (1) nor more than five (5) years and be fined not more than five thousand ($5,000) dollars."

One of the strangest results brought about by the recent white slave prosecutions in Chicago and the publicity which they have received, has been the astonishment of thousands of persons, as evidenced by letters, at the fact that such a wholesale traffic is actually in existence. But what is still more astounding, not to say discouraging, is the reluctance of the other thousands to believe that many hundreds of men and women are actually engaged in the business of luring girls and women to their destruction, and that this infamous traffic is being carried on in every state of the union every day of the year.

Perhaps the actuality of this awful avocation may be made more clearly apparent to the innocent and unsophisticated doubters whose awakening and moral support is needed, if I cite one or two instances which have come to my personal knowledge within the last few days.

In a comfortable farm home in a state bordering upon Illinois is an uncommonly attractive young girl who has, almost by accident, been delivered from the worst fate which can possibly befall a young woman. Through secret service operations one of the most dangerous "procurers" of this country was traced to the home in which this beautiful girl had been adopted as a daughter. The white slaver had already ingratiated himself into her confidence and that of her foster-parents, and arrangements had practically been made by which she was to accompany him to Chicago, where he had a "fine position" awaiting her. If he had not been located and his character made known to the household at the time when this was done, she would now be a white slave in a Chicago den.

Another case which has had a less fortunate termination is that which involves the "fake" marriage, a subterfuge common in this wretched traffic. A young man made the acquaintance of a handsome girl in the North Side district of Chicago. He was polished and plausible and the parents of the girl, who were ambitious for their daughter's advancement, were apparently flattered that he should bestow his attentions upon her. When, after very brief courtship, he proposed marriage, they offered no objections and even set aside their own wishes when he suggested that he held prejudices against being married by a clergyman and against having a formal wedding. Consequently they went before a "Justice of the Peace," who pronounced them man and wife—a "fake" Justice, who was merely a confederate of the white slaver. They went at once to San Antonio, Texas, he having claimed that he held a very profitable position in a large business concern in that city. When they arrived there the poor girl had her awful awakening, for she was promptly sold into the life of shame without hope of escape from its degrading servitude.

Another very effective regulation which every state will do well to adopt by enactment of its general assembly is that making the premises leased or used for a house of ill-fame liable for any and all fines against its lessee.

The following seems to me a desirable clause covering this point:

"Whoever keeps or maintains a house of ill-fame, or a place for the practice of prostitution or lewdness, or whoever patronizes the same, or lets any house, room or other premises for any such purpose, or shall keep a lewd, ill-governed or disorderly house to the encouragement of idleness, gambling, drinking, fornication or other misbehavior, shall be fined not exceeding one thousand ($1,000) dollars. When the lessee or keeper of a dwelling house or other building is convicted under this section the lease or contract for letting the premises shall, at the option of the lessor, become void and the lessor may have like remedy to recover the possession as against a tenant holding over after the expiration of his term. And whoever shall lease any house, room or other premises, in whole or in part, for any of the uses or purposes finable under this section, or knowingly permits the same to be so used or kept, shall be fined not exceeding one thousand ($1,000) dollars and the house or premises so leased, occupied or used shall be held liable for, and may be sold for, any judgment obtained under this section."

Some enactment of this nature is particularly desirable for two reasons: First, because actual experience has shown that judgments obtained against keepers of such houses are difficult of collection and that the ones against whom the judgments are obtained are remarkably resourceful in avoiding punishment even after conviction. Second, it seems obvious that when a property owner knows that his real estate is particularly available for houses of this character he is, if unprincipled enough to do so, bound to encourage the use of his premises for that which will bring him the largest money returns. This puts him in the way of fattening upon the wages of the social vice without incurring danger of punishment. Naturally he becomes a friend of the traffic and ready to aid and abet it wherever and whenever he can. Therefore it seems to me he should no longer be allowed to escape the penalties attached to those who engage in this infamous trade. As the owner of the property on which unlawful acts are persistently committed, and as a sharer in the unlawful profits of those acts, he should be made to share also in its perils and punishments; he should be made to feel that, as the owner of the property used for the purpose of harboring fallen women he is a link in the chain which draws innocent womanhood to its doom and that he must suffer to the full proportion of his guilt. Again, it is the first instinct of the lessee or keeper of such a house, on coming in contact with the law, to flee and forfeit his or her bonds. By making the property itself liable to forfeiture, absolute security against this kind of thing is established, thereby preventing many a miscarriage of justice and of just penalties.

Since the beginning of the recent prosecutions in Chicago a score of keepers, realizing their guilt and fearing prosecution, have fled the country and have not yet been apprehended. If both the federal and the state governments had a law of this kind the escape of these criminals would not have involved a complete defeat of the law in their cases, for prosecution could have been brought against some person connected with their establishments, and when a conviction was secured the property occupied by them could have been closed out. A statute of this kind, wherever enacted, can scarcely fail to prove one of the most powerful and effective of all possible weapons against the white slave traffic. And the smaller the city, the more effective will this weapon be found—which is only another way of saying that the larger the city the larger the toleration of the social vice.

One of the greatest weapons in the hands of the white slavers and of the keepers of houses of ill-fame to prevent the escape of fresh recruits and to submerge them into hopeless slavery is the system of indebtedness which is practiced in these places. The one object of those concerned in the subjugation of a girl who has become a victim of the wiles of the white slaver is to break down all hope of escape from the life of shame and bitterness into which she has been entrapped. Nothing has been found so effective a means to this end as the debtor system. The first thing a girl is compelled to do on being thrown into one of these houses is to buy an expensive wardrobe at from five to six times its actual value. To be more definite, I have in my possession bills rendered against certain inmates taken from the dens. In these bills stockings costing 75 cents have been charged at $3.00; shoes costing $2.50 are charged at $8.00, and kimonos costing $4.00 are charged at $15.00. As the goods themselves were seized as well as the bills for them, I am able to make this statement. In every case I have found that the girl was compelled to renew her outfit of finery whenever the keeper so dictated, without regard to her need of it. Our investigations have all shown that when a keeper imagined that a girl, an inmate, is intending to leave the place either openly or secretly, a new outfit is forced upon her at absurd figures and she is told that she cannot leave until every cent of her indebtedness has been wiped out, and that if she attempts to do so, they will "put the law on her." In the dozens of cases which I have examined there has not been a single one which has failed to show evidence of this kind. I have in my possession numerous copies of bills rendered against these wretched women in which their costumes reach as high a figure at $1,200 and even $1,500. This indebtedness system is mutually recognized and enforced between the keepers of all houses; in other words, no girl can leave one house and enter another unless she is able to show that she leaves no indebtedness behind her.



As this phase of business in the underworld is one of the main props of white slavery it is well to go into it with definiteness and to give examples which illustrates its operation.

In one of the recent raids a big Irish girl was taken and held as a witness. She was old enough, strong enough and wise enough, it seemed to me, to have overcome almost any kind of opposition—even physical violence. She could have put up a fight which few men, no matter how brutal, would care to meet. I asked her why she did not get out of the house, which was one of the worst in Chicago. Her answer was: "Get out—I can't. They make us buy the cheapest rags and they are charged against us at fabulous prices; they make us change outfits at intervals of two or three weeks, until we are so deeply in debt that there is no hope of ever getting out from under. Then, to make such matters worse, we seldom get an accounting oftener than once in six months and sometimes ten months or a year will pass between settlements—and when we do get an accounting it is always to find ourselves deeper in debt than before. We've simply got to stick and that's all there is to it."

To frame an enactment which will knock this prop of indebtedness system out from under the white slave business might appear to be a most difficult matter, and yet I believe that the legislature which enacts a statute of which the following clause is the essential part will go a long way towards accomplishing this most desired result:

"And whoever shall hold, detain, restrain, or attempt to hold, detain or restrain in any house of prostitution or other place, any female for the purpose of compelling such female, directly or indirectly, by her voluntary or involuntary service or labor, to pay, liquidate or cancel any debt, dues or obligation incurred therein or said to have been incurred in such house of prostitution or other place, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary at hard labor for not less than two or more than ten years."

There is only one other enactment which all legislatures should be urged to pass, and that is one which strikes directly at the white slaver, the "procurer," the owner or the "fellow." Keepers of houses of ill-fame have discovered that the hideous task of keeping the unwilling white slave in subjection is much easier if a certain ownership of her is vested in a man. In many cases this man is the one who is directly responsible for placing the girl in the house, but this is not invariably the case. When it is the case he receives not only a lump purchase price down on the delivery of his victim to the house, but he is recognized by the keeper as her owner and master, the one to whom a certain percentage of her income is paid and with whom all settlements on her account are made. What is more important in the eyes of the keeper is that this man is held absolutely responsible for the girl's subjection, and if she attempts to escape he must cajole, threaten or beat her into subjection. In one of the recent raids I chanced to come upon visual demonstration of how this peculiar phase of white slavery operates in actual practice. One of these "fellows" was disciplining a girl whom he "owned"—and doing so by the gentle process of forcing her against the wall with his hands at her throat.

Some of these "fellows" "own" two or three, or perhaps more, white slaves, and on the income of their slavery these brutes live in luxury at expensive hotels, maintain expensive automobiles and lead lives of luxury, idleness and dissipation.

While some states have statutes directly aimed at this system, it has been found extremely difficult to secure convictions against these most contemptible of all white slavers, for the reason that all of the existing statutes, so far as I am informed, make it necessary, at least by implication, for the prosecution to establish the fact that they derive their entire support from white slaves under their control—in other words, it devolves upon the state to demonstrate that the man on trial has no other visible means of support. As a consequence the defense set up is almost invariably calculated to prove that the man on trial is a solicitor for a tailoring establishment, a laundry or some other legitimate business enterprise.

In view of this fact, it seems to me an enactment drawn upon the following lines would be effective:

"Any person who shall knowingly accept or receive in whole or in part support or maintenance from the proceeds or earnings of any woman engaged in prostitution shall be deemed guilty of a felony and on conviction thereof shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than one (1) nor more than three (3) years and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars, or both, in the discretion of the court."

Not long since I was asked how many persons I supposed Chicago contained who would come under a statute of this kind and who ought to receive sentence under it. My reply was this:

"Probably there are five thousand women in Chicago today following the so-called profession of prostitution, and it would seem to me, from the testimony obtained in the course of the recent white slave prosecutions here that at least one-fourth that number of male parasites are supported in whole or in part in this manner and would therefore come within the meaning of such a statute."

So much for specific legislation which ought, as a protection to the young womanhood of this country, to be passed by the legislature of every state in this country not already having statutes which adequately cover all the points involved in the clauses which I have suggested. The next practical question to be raised—and which I hope every reader of this article will ask—is this:

"How can the legislatures be induced to make these needed enactments?"

Or, to express myself a little differently, if each reader were to ask me:

"What is the quickest and most practical way by which I may get action on the legislature of my own state?"

I would suggest the following methods: Find the names of the men who represent your district in the general assembly of your state and write to each one of them a letter substantially as follows:

"Hon....................

"Dear Sir:—I am in hearty sympathy with the legislation against the white slave traffic proposed by the Woman's World and urge you to secure the passage of laws which shall embody the clauses and enactments suggested in the enclosed article clipped from that journal.

"You surely will not question the worthiness or the need of laws of this kind and I ask the further favor of a reply from you indicating your attitude with regard to this most important matter.

"Yours sincerely, ..............."

Also I would suggest that readers who are members of churches or habitual attendants upon church services, take this matter up with the pastors of their churches, each requesting his or her pastor to confer with the other pastors of his community to the end of preparing a petition to be sent to the representatives from that district in the legislature, urging the passage of the enactments above suggested. If these petitions are vigorously circulated they will receive the signatures of practically the entire citizenship of every community and will have a powerful, not to say compelling, influence upon the representatives and state senators who receive them. Women's Clubs, Law and Order Leagues, Christian Endeavor Societies, Epworth Leagues, Grangers and Farmers' Institutes, Young Men's Christian Associations, Young Women's Christian Associations and Women's Temperance Unions in every city, village and hamlet of the country, scan also exert a powerful and practical influence in securing such legislation as a protection against the ravages of the white slavers by passing suitable resolutions of endorsement and sending those resolutions to the men representing their several communities in the general assembly of their state. While, as I say, these memorials on the part of respected organizations will do a useful work in shaping the course of legislation, this will not take the place or do the work of the individual personal letter, and every reader who is sincerely and earnestly interested in securing such legislation as I have outlined will miss the main stroke of influence if he or she fails to write a personal letter to the men representing his or her district in the general assembly of the state.

And whenever such a letter is written the various clauses given in this article should be incorporated in the letter; this will put your request in definite and explicit terms, a result greatly to be desired.

I cannot close this article without recurring to the statement made at the outset to the effect that many persons still remain unconvinced that the white slave traffic is a thing of widespread and actual existence; that it is the established calling of hundreds of men to lure and kidnap innocent girls into a life of shame and to sell them into houses of prostitution, where they are kept against their will in the most revolting of all human slaveries.

In my desk at this moment is a letter from which the following is taken:

"There are in that house, No. ——, two girls by the names of Annie and Edith. One has been there for two years and is not allowed to go out of the house. . . . is not even allowed to write to her own people, and whose mail is opened and read before she is allowed to look at it. The other girl has been there seven months and has never been out of the house."

This letter was written by one who knew the facts in the case.

A very few days ago this pitiful case was, in an official way, brought to my attention. A little German girl in Buffalo married a man who deserted her about the time her child was born. Her baby is now about eight or nine months old. Almost immediately after her husband ran away she formed the acquaintance of an engaging young man who claimed to take deep interest in her welfare, and in that of a certain girl friend of hers. He persuaded them both that if they would accompany him to Chicago he would immediately place them in employment which would be far more profitable than anything they could obtain in Buffalo. Supposing that the work awaiting her was entirely legitimate and respectable the little mother took her baby and, in company with the young man and with her friend, came to Chicago. The next task of this human fiend was to persuade this "child widow" that it would be necessary for her to place her baby temporarily in a foundling's home in order that it might not interfere with her employment. This accomplished, he took the two young women at once to a notorious house and sold them into white slavery. Thenceforth this fellow has lived in luxury upon the shameful earnings of these two victims. The young mother has attempted by every means imaginable to escape from his clutches and at last has importuned him into a promise to release his hold upon her on the payment of $300. She is still "working out" the price of her release. It is scarcely too much to say that she looks twice her age.

One other example from the current history of the white slave trade as it is pursued today. Only a few nights since a physician was calling professionally at one of the houses of Chicago's "Red Light" district. Two men and a young woman entered the door just before him and took seats at a table. A glance at her fresh and innocent face was enough to convince him that she was out of her element and probably unaware of the character of her surroundings. Stepping abruptly to the table, the physician looked the young woman straight in the eye and asked:

"Madam, do you know that this is a house of prostitution?"

"No," was the trembling answer.

"Are you a woman of the street?" he persisted.

She flushed indignantly, but finally replied:

"No—I am a respectable woman and I supposed I was being taken to a ladies' cafe."

Her companions bolted for the door and made their escape. The physician then called a policeman, who escorted the young woman to her home and found her statements to be true—that she was a respectable girl and had believed her "friends" to be taking her to a respectable restaurant.

Tragedies of this kind are happening every day and all over this country. It is time for the decent people of the United States to wake up, realize what is going on in the underworld and to take strong measures to protect their daughters and their neighbors' daughters from the hands of the most despicable and inhuman of all criminals, the white slave traders.



CHAPTER XXVII.

LAWS FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.

By Harry A. Parkin, Assistant United States District Attorney, Chicago.

The war for exterminating the white slave traffic has progressed so rapidly and has attained such enormous proportions, that it is not now confined to one state or country, but people from every state in the United States, in Canada, England, and other foreign countries, have taken up the slogan and are vitally interested in assisting to curb the monstrous traffic. Laws have been enacted in several of the states during the past sessions of their respective legislatures. In other states new laws are contemplated. Reports are received by the Committee on Legislation daily which are indeed encouraging and show the need of centralizing the effort and assisting citizens of the different states who so frequently are at a loss to know exactly what to do when a white slave case comes within their observation.

To meet this need and to further the effort to secure proper legislation, the Committee has decided to publish the following digest of the laws of every state in the Union, so far as practicable, for distribution to those who are interested in this warfare.

In this connection the Committee desires to acknowledge its very deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to the governors of the respective states, their assistants and attorney generals, for the data furnished by them contained within these pages. It is indeed an encouraging sign when men in high public office stop for a time from the stress of their official duties to assist in a world-wide undertaking of this kind.

The reader will find in these pages all of the laws of each state in the United States, so far as obtainable, which affect in any way, and which may be used to throttle the white slave traffic. There will also be found simple directions to be followed by the citizen who becomes acquainted with a white slave case and who desires to have it properly prosecuted. The digest has been made as simple as possible, and technical legal terms and phrases have been avoided where possible in order that every one, be he lawyer or layman, may be able to read and act understandingly.

The Committee.

UNITED STATES.

The section of the United States statutes which is the basis of the Federal prosecutions is known as Section Three of the Act of February 20, 1907. It may be found in United States Compiled Statutes, Supplement 1907, page 392.

THE EFFECT OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION.

The Congress of the United States, on February 20, 1907, passed what is known as the Immigration Act. This Act covers twenty-three printed pages affecting the immigration of all classes of peoples to the United States. Among other provisions, Section 3 of this Act attempted to prohibit the importation of alien women and girls for immoral purposes. This section was made sufficiently broad to prohibit not only the importation, but the keeping, even with the consent of the alien, of any foreign woman or girl for immoral purposes. The Act is as follows:

Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of any alien woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, is hereby forbidden; and whoever shall, directly or indirectly, import, or attempt to import, into the United States, any alien woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, or whoever shall hold or attempt to hold any alien woman or girl for any such purpose in pursuance of such illegal importation, or whoever shall keep, maintain, control, support, or harbor in any house or other place, for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, any alien woman or girl, within three years after she shall have entered the United States, shall, in every such case, be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof be imprisoned not more than five years and pay a fine of not more than five thousand dollars; and any alien woman or girl who shall be found an inmate of a house of prostitution or practicing prostitution, at any time within three years after she shall have entered the United States, shall be deemed to be unlawfully within the United States and shall be deported as provided by sections twenty and twenty-one of this Act.

It is this section of the Act under which the prosecutions in the Northern District of Illinois were instituted by United States District Attorney Sims in June of nineteen hundred and eight, and which resulted in the imprisonment of so many procurers and keepers of houses of ill-fame. Among the cases which were tried before a jury and which resulted in a conviction of the keepers, was a case entitled United States v. Keller and Ullman. These defendants were charged with having harbored Irene Bodi, a native of Austria, within three years after she had entered the United States, and found guilty by the jury and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth for one and one-half years each. They thereupon prosecuted an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, alleging among other things that the law under which they were convicted was unconstitutional, in that the clause "keep, maintain, control, support, or harbor," attempted to embrace powers not given by the constitution to Congress, but reserved to the respective states and to be within their police powers. This contention was upheld by the Supreme Court. The result is that so much of Section 3 of the Act of February 20, 1907, as attempted to prosecute a keeper who simply harbored or permitted to be within his house of prostitution an alien woman or girl within three years after her arrival in this country was wiped out of the statute, and the section of the Act must now be read as follows:

Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of any alien woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, is hereby forbidden; and whoever shall, directly or indirectly, import, or attempt to import, into the United States, any alien woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, or whoever shall hold or attempt to hold any alien woman or girl for any such purpose in pursuance of such illegal importation, shall, in every such case, be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof be imprisoned not more than five years and pay a fine of not more than five thousand dollars; and any alien woman or girl who shall be found an inmate of a house of prostitution or practicing prostitution, at any time within three years after she shall have entered the United States, shall be deemed to be unlawfully within the United States and shall be deported as provided by sections twenty and twenty-one of this Act.

It will thus be seen, by comparing the Act as originally signed by the President and the Act as it now reads, after the decision of the Supreme Court, that it is necessary in every case to show that the person who holds the alien had directly or indirectly imported the same alien into the United States for immoral purposes. In other words, the federal authorities are now restricted to cases where they are able to prove that the defendant imported the girl prior to the time she was found in his house of prostitution. This will very materially lessen the number of federal prosecutions, as it is extremely difficult in the vast majority of cases to show that the person in whose house the alien was found was in every instance responsible for her importation. It is to be hoped that Congress during its coming session shall see fit to enact remedial legislation which shall correct that clause of the Act declared unconstitutional, or if this shall be found impossible, to at least broaden the present scope of Section 3 of the Immigration Act so that it can be made more comprehensive and far-reaching.



Another result of the action of the Supreme Court is to emphasize the great need for legislation by the respective states looking to laws which shall minimize the placing of girls in houses of prostitution within the several states, and which shall prevent the migration from one state to another of women for immoral purposes. Many of the states have already responded. The State of North Dakota has enacted a law to hit White Slavery. South Dakota has done the same. Illinois has already passed two excellent bills drawn on the lines suggested in the March issue of the Woman's World. The State of Iowa has also enacted a law aimed at White Slavery.

Procedure.

Prosecution for violation of the Federal laws rests with the United States district attorney in the respective districts. The matter should be brought to his attention and the evidence submitted for his examination. The usual procedure is to then present the matter to the Federal grand jury, if one be sitting, or to arrest the defendant and prosecute him before a United States commissioner.

ALABAMA.

In Alabama any person who takes a female from her father, mother, guardian or other person having the legal charge of her without his or her consent, for the purpose of prostitution or concubinage, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than ten nor more than twenty years.

Alabama Code, 1852, Sec. 3095; 1871, Ch. 56, Sec. 3.

Any person who takes any female unlawfully, against her will, with the intent to compel her, by menace, duress or force to marry him or any other person, or be defiled, shall on conviction be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than ten nor more than twenty-one years.

Alabama Code, 1852, Sec. 3094; 1871, Ch. 56, Sec. 3.

The above section is aimed at one who takes a female with the intent to compel her to suffer the crimes enumerated. There is a further section aimed at the person who actually accomplishes the result intended and covered by the previous section. The latter section is as follows:

Any person who takes any female and by menace, duress or force compels her to marry him or any other person or be defiled, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than ten nor more than twenty-one years.

Alabama Code, 1871, Ch. 56, Sec. 3.

It is no defense to a charge of abduction that the elopement was with the consent of the female and at her request, and the burden of proof as to the chastity of the woman abducted, in an indictment, is upon the defendant.

Any parent or guardian or person having charge or custody of a female such as is mentioned by the preceding paragraphs, who permits or encourages or abets in the commission of the crimes above set forth can be punished the same as the person who actually seduces the girl.

Alabama Code, 1893, Ch. 129, Sec. 1.

Procedure.

Report any violation to the prosecuting officer of the county in which the crime was committed.

ALASKA.

That if any person, under promise of marriage, shall seduce and have illicit connection with any unmarried female of previous chaste character, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years; or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months nor more than one year, or by fine not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars. A subsequent marriage of the parties, or offer to marry in good faith, is a defense to a violation of this section.

Section 123, Ch. 7, Carter's Annotated Alaska Codes.

Procedure.

Report violation to the District Attorney for the district in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.

ARIZONA.

Every person who inveigles or entices any female, of previous chaste character, into any house of ill-fame or assignation, or elsewhere, for the purpose of prostitution; or to have illicit carnal connection with any man; and every person who, by any false pretenses, false representations or other fraudulent means, procures any female to have illicit carnal connection with any man, is punishable by imprisonment in the territorial prison not exceeding five years, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Section 235, Ch. 1, Revised Statutes of Arizona, 1901.

Every person who takes away any female under the age of eighteen years from her father, mother, guardian, or other person having the legal charge of her person, without their consent, for the purpose of prostitution, is punishable by imprisonment in the territorial prison not exceeding five years, and a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

Section 236. Id.

Procedure.

Report violation to the District Attorney for the district in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.

CALIFORNIA.

"Every person who, within this state, takes any female person against her will and without her consent, or with her consent procured by fraudulent inducement or misrepresentation, for the purpose of prostitution, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding five years, and a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars. 266a. Penal Code.

"Every person who takes any female person unlawfully, and against her will, and by force, menace, or duress, compels her to live with him in an illicit relation, against her consent, or to so live with any other person, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not less than two nor more than four years. 266b. Penal Code.

"Every person bringing to, or landing within this state, any female person born in the Empire of China or the Empire of Japan, or the islands adjacent thereto, with intent to place her in charge or custody of any other person, and against her will to compel her to reside with him, or for the purpose of selling her to any person whomsoever, is punishable by a fine of not less than one nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than six nor more than twelve months. 266c Penal Code.

"Any person who receives any money or other valuable thing for or on account of his placing in custody any female for the purpose of causing her to cohabit with any male to whom she is not married, is guilty of a felony. 266d. Penal Code.

"Every person who purchases, or pays any money or other valuable thing for any female person for the purpose of prostitution, or for the purpose of placing her, for immoral purposes, in any house or place against her will, is guilty of a felony. 266e. Penal Code.

"Every person who sells any female person or receives any money or other valuable thing for or on account of his placing in custody, for immoral purposes any female person, whether with or without her consent, is guilty of a felony." 266f. Penal Code.

Procedure.

Present the facts within your knowledge of the alleged crime to the District Attorney of the county in which the crime is alleged to have been committed.

COLORADO.

"Any male or female person, over the age of eighteen years, who shall procure, encourage, persuade, induce, or prevail upon any female person of previous chaste character to have sexual intercourse for hire, with any male person other than himself shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than one year or more than five years.