RPROBL •a,^jsui -^iiii&-=f^-?= (^ -FROM THE BENNO: LOEWY LIBRARY ; '■/. • .. : , , .■.■; '■ COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 "v BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY All books are subject to recall after two weeks. Olin/Kroch Library DATE DUE iitiMM fflfiir-miiiiinL,, rfn 7 J "TWOr m^. GAYLORD PRINTED IN U-S A Unbindable HQ nyiSaT" ""'*""•>' ^*"^ The master problem, 3 1924 021 845 460 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021845460 THE MASTER PROBLEM WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE : Letters and Reminiscences. MEMOIRS OF DR. BARNARDO. DR. J. B. PATON— EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL PIONEER. CRADLES OR COFFINS? EDITOR OF "QUESTIONS OF SEX" SERIES. „ "NEW TRACTS FOR THE TIMES." „ "PREVENTION," Etc. THE MASTER PROBLEM BY JAMES MARCHANT DIRECTOR OP THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OE PUBLIC MORALS FOR BACE-RZGENERATION SECRETARY, NATIONAL BIRTH RATE CO]yiMIS3I0N WITH FOREWORD BY THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM PRESIDENT or THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PUBLIC MORALS NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1917 First Published in igiy UNBINDABK ) RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO MY FELLOW-WORKERS IN THE CAUSE OF RACE-REGENERATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD FOREWORD BY THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM IT is not easy to write a foreword to this most im- portant book, which contains a mass of information, much of it painful, and yet all of it necessary for the social and moral reformer to know. One almost hesitates to ask people to study so much that makes one feel how far we are from having a world populated by people living under the influence of God, the Father of the World. But I am encouraged to recommend this book because I am satisfied that the indifference shown to the great sex questions is mainly due to ignorance. If once we can rouse people to a sense of the awfulness of all those evils with which this book deals, we shall, I believe, find that the mass of himianity wUl be active on the side of reform. No man or woman reading these pages will afterwards be able to plead the excuse of not knowing how terrible the conditions are under which some people are living, and how heroic must be amy reforms attempted. God prosper this book for the bettering of humanity. H. R. Birmingham. Bishop's Croft, Birmingham, Zls/ September, 1916, i I C/3 O u PQ Oh o U Z o |z 8 C7 i u U o o "id 3 jo" O ,? I— ( i; a u ■00 u 0:j H -SI OS • s Pi -2 H i Q ^ Z - 5 i . ^ •I . •S-S k*^ :«■«■« p « t! s: K s a . »- 2 z 2 MS o 3 p " Q 1-1 *>- ■. '^ " 5 > use -» ^ « s ■C % ^ o III ft, H, R, no i ^ ll "as 'Si H ■«!HH .K oaa .•a ills a S» CO concn (Hi2 s|a !jdj' .a . ■ a K f* < u 2 s K a D ^ > Oi t iT « >. o i» •w "S da 11- R O Q tSKd «pS a s IS s •' 1^ u sij ^1 5 SB b<«. sis O I* Kg in * 8 .1" •!! !", 31 O z" o a z o a H Si -<< O CO Q OS O b Q n tig^ o; •<■ *■ 6 u u u .c x: js CONTENTS PAGE Foreword by the Lord Bishop of Birmingham . vii Introduction xi PART I THE SITUATION ABROAD CHAPTER I. A Survey of what has been done . . i II. The Extent of the Traffic in the United States i8 III. Further Illustrations of the Traffic IN New York, Chicago, etc. ... 32 IV. The Social Evil in South America, China, AND Japan 49 V. " The Life " in the South and Far East . 55 VI. How Some American Cities Tackled the Master Problem 70 VII. The Master Problem in Other Aspects and Places 80 PART II THE REGULATION SYSTEM VIII. Some Insight into the History of Regula- tion 92 IX. Medical Opinions upon Regulation . . 106 X. Diseases Arising out of the Social Evil . 118 X THE MASTER PROBLEM PART III GENERAL CONDITIONS IN EUROPE CHAPTKK FAGS XI. Where Regulation is in Vogue . . 133 XII. Countries which Favour Abolition . 158 XIII. The Master Problem in Britain . . 174 PART IV WHAT THE LAW IS DOING XIV. Legal Progress in America and the Far East 210 XV. The Legal Situation in Europe . . 226 XVI. The Law as it Stands in Great Britain 241 PART V PROS AND CONS OF THE SITUATION XVII. Causes Predisposing to Vice . . . 263 XVIII. Salving and Saving .... 280 XIX. Moral and Social Hygiene . . . 309 PART VI RENEWING THE RACE XX. The Birth Rate 326 XXI. Marriage and the Family . . , 340 XXII. The Gospel of Race Regeneration . 351 INTRODUCTION THE MASTER PROBLEM THE social evil, its causes and remedies, has been the master problem in every age — even during periods of bloody struggles between nations for life and supremacy. And it is, spite of all men say to the con- trary, the supreme, unsolved enigma of our present civilisation. Several times during recent years the social evil, with its dire physical and racial consequences to troops and civilians, has been the uppermost question of practical European politics. It has exhausted the resources of new international movements started again and again to hold it below the surface of public life. It is always the skeleton in the cupboard of that part of the medical faculty where expediency and so-called science have ousted morals from the judgment throne. This ugly reality is the rock on which, in these latter days, system after system of ethics has broken. In 1869 the legal regulation of this evil shook England to her foundations, though the full danger of the moral earth- quake was not felt by those who, by paltering with the Holy Law, had rendered themselves insensible to their crimes. Again, false, revolting solutions of this master problem brought Europe in the nineteenth century to the verge of moral ruin. This problem, to this hour, conditions the conceptions, poses the model, and mixes the colotir for the palette of artists, provides subjects for the illustrator and the camera, the risky situation of the problem play, and the erotic atmosphere for the modem novel writer who courts popularity by tickling the palate of an ill-Controlled public, ever ready to allay its thirst xii THE MASTER PROBLEM at Stygian pools, into which, for the sake of plot and gain, the sweetest blossoms of pure love have been plunged. Decidedly, if it is an ancient question, it is also modern. About it has grown a vast organised trade in flesh and filth, with a piteous host of victims, which battens upon its exhaustless resources to provide unnamable incite- ments and satisfactions for weak mortals, the like of which were unknown in the worst periods of moral declension in earlier days. On the surface, to take one aspect only, is the so-called white slave traffic ; but below are cancerous growths, of which this problem is only a symptom. Examine the ramifications of this dangerous symptom a moment. Of recent years even the most respectable of our newspapers have boldly opened their columns to the exposure of this white slave traffic. They have done so under the impulsion of incontrovertible evidence that it is exten- sively and secretly carried on, which has engendered the belief that the time has come publicly to warn parents and children against it, and to let the daylight of pub- licity beat upon the dark ways and tortuous methods of the white slave agent. A number of books have also been written upon this revolting and painful subject, most of them in highly coloured language designed to anger the reader against the trader, to make the heart overflow with sympathy for innocent victims, and to call for the stringent application of the lash to the pampered flesh of the procurer and profiter alike. Now who are the persons connected with and what is involved in the white slave traffic ? First, there are the virgin victims the overwhelming majority of whom by one means or another are entrapped or forced into the market of shame. Obviously, without them there would be no trade. Secondly, there are the traders who obtain the living " goods " from whatever source is within their long reach.. Thirdly, the vicious and pitiable cus- tomers who hire the victims. These are the principals. Others are necessary to run the business ; agents to interview and to pass on the clients, landlords to let the INTRODUCTION xiii necessary premises, newspapers in which decoy adver- tisements are inserted, houses of assignation where customer and victim meet, and a network of under- ground ramifications to cover up the trail. In addition is a set of degraded women who subdue the victims into leading " the life " without hope or desire of deliverance — to be willing slaves to serve their owners with calcu- lated fidelity, knowing that to do otherwise is to do worse for themselves in the end. These are the necessary elements for the successful conduct of this traffic in the souls and bodies of men and women. Probe this system and you will open up insidious causes — psychological, moral, social, economic, physical — striking deeply into the soil of human nature, which make this trade possible and profitable. About almost every outcast victim there is a pitiful story to tell of bad heredity and environment ; of pitiable ignorance of the laws of life ; a story of neglect, wilfulness, decep- tion, ending in as terrible a tragedy as could befall any woman. Nor must it be concluded that " bad " heredity and environment invariably mean that the unfortunate girls are of low degree. By far the greater proportion of fallen women are not of gentle birth, and their early years have been spent in a bad material and moral environment, due to poverty and neglect. It is indisputable, however, that some few are from the higher grade of society. Thus in a tabulation of five hundred and fifty cases, fifteen were from the families of professional men, and the fathers of sixty-three of the girls were owners of businesses. It is sadly true that a regrettable laxity is often apparent among classes where the womenfolk have abundant leisure. This can be caUed by no other term than " bad environment." It is a laxity which loosens self-control, leads to experimental pandering to unholy appetite, and thenceforward with ghastly facility to the too-late realisation that by the tentative yielding to desire chastity has been undermined. xiv THE MASTER PROBLEM Every passion-stricken customer, too, has a " history " physical or moral which it is necessary to read with an open mind and to understand, before passing a final judgment on his life. And every loathsome trader has his tale to tell, for some of them do not willingly become merchants in the market of vice. This white slave traffic is, then, the more or less or- ganised relationship of the sexes outside the bonds of matrimony, a relationship which has everj^where and in all times existed, and is seemingly inevitable in numerous instances in all classes throughout the world. That these relationships are in this present age promoted by a third party, the white slave agent, who conducts his dreadful business for financial gain, adopting foulest means to accomplish his ends, and running a Damoclean risk of disaster, is surely a visible and terrible sign of moral degeneration. The social evil touches human life on every side. It is the social problem of great cities and remote hamlets ; a housing problem, affecting the birth and upbringing, the work, and the home comforts of the people ; an educational problem, demanding the incessant attention of parents, teachers, ministers and doctors. It is a prob- lem affecting the poor in our slums and factories, who are surroimded by open temptations, alluring those upon the threshold of life ; and the rich, whose gold is turned to dross when used to promote vice. It is a problem of the most advanced as of the backward nations, and, in finding some way to lessen its dimensions, they must, at all costs, unite in shaping and enforcing a common remedy, and, by stringent universal laws, throtthng some of the manifold progeny to which the evil has given birth. It is a problem which has grown with a false and arti- ficial civilisation, which has implanted in man unneces- sary desires and fed them at the cost of his better life, which has put upon him burdens too great for flesh and spirit to bear. And accompanying these sexual irregu- INTRODUCTION xv larities are diseases which, hitherto, have been unnam- able, but have grown to such proportions and brought such horrors in their train that only a few months ago a Royal Commission was appointed in England to cope with the results.^ In this problem is the age-long cry of women for equal justice, before the moral law, with man ; the unconscious cry of childhood for effective protection of its priceless innocence and modesty ; the gkll-bitter cry of the people for room and time and means to live an honest decent life. In it is the age-long, although often subdued and sometimes stifled cry of the true guardians of country and home, literature, art, and song, for things that are noble and of good report. From the beginning until now, this master problem has concerned the enduring elements in the life and character of nations, and the very existence of civilised man. The book here placed before the public is not another of the many exposures of this open sore of the world, it is not a book which merely distresses the reader and leads no whither. Necessarily the writer is compelled to present many aspects of the case, and in so doing he draws upon wide sources of information, — from America, India, the principal European countries, our British Colonies and other countries. Much of this information has come to him as part of his work as Director of the National Council of Public Morals and in association with allied organisations, or historical moral crusades in which he has taken part, like that conducted by his illustrious friend and guide, the late Mrs. Josephine Butler. The overruling object of the book is, however, to attempt the more difficult and more useful task of reaching the root causes of vice and suggesting lasting remedies. Along the hnes of such an objective many men in America have consecrated their lives, so that in various directions there is readier access to concrete facts and tangible results among the records of State, or City, in the United States of America than there is elsewhere. 1 The report has now been issued by Messrs. King and Son. xvi THE MASTER PROBLEM It would ill requite the magnificent efforts of such workers if the data and tabulations referred to in the course of these pages were taken as evidence that vice is more rampant and less restricted in the United States than on this side of the Atlantic. Unhappily vice has no particu- lar habitat, it is well-nigh universal ; and to conclude that because evidence is more fully available in a certain direction, the evil must therefore rage unchecked in that area, would not only be grossly imfair, but emphatically untrue. Purity workers throughout the world admire and thank their American colleagues for the bravery and zeal that have placed at the disposal of the cause a wealth of working details which abound in specific strength and conclusive proof. THE MASTER PROBLEM PART I THE SITUATION ABROAD CHAPTER I A SURVEY OF WHAT HAS BEEN DONE " Let us make our education brave and preventative. Politics is an after-work, a poor patching. We are always a little late. The evil is done, the law is passed, and we begin the uphill agitation for repeal of that which we ought to have prevented the enacting. We shall one day learn to supersede politics by education. What we call our root and branch reform of slavery, war, gambling, intemperance, is only medicating the system. We must begin higher up in education." — Emerson, " The Conduct of Life." THE legend of St. Margaret, full as it is of wild improbabilities, has a distinct teaching of world- wide application — that chastity is of such transcendental value that, to preserve it, the last ounce of strength were well expended, the utmost sacrifice worthily made. Only of recent years, after the pearl of greatest price has been filched from so many of its maidens, has the world awakened to the stupendous national importance of purity of life. The great task of bringing nations to such a living realisation as will impel concerted action for preserving untainted the honour of their daughters, has to-day an added problem to solve, the complexity of which is accentuated by the covert sanction of centuries. Thus, side by side, runs the twin effort : the inculca- 2 THE MASTER PROBLEM tion of ideals of purity and chastity in the minds of the growing generation, and the boldly tireless uncovering of national shame, that the cancerous growth may be cut out, or, at least, its baleful ramifications circum- scribed. It is a stupendous enemy to fight ; thank God for the valiant few who are doing it ; may He give them the thrice-arming of their just cause. Let us then boldly but discreetly examine some of the evidences of this dreadful traffic in which women are mostly the victims of deceit, and always the sufferers. We are told that vice is as old as the hills, and as wide as the world. It is so. From the twentieth century back to the dawn of things, the trail of the harlot can be traced. From pole to pole, and shore to shore, the lure of the painted woman is always manifest. In the year 1902, in a report issued in New York, one reads : — " Glancing at present conditions, we find that no important nation is free from the taint. The great cities of the world vie with each other in the vast numbers who gain their daily bread by immorality. Nor is there reason to think that this condition is transitory."^ Speaking generally, we may say — as a later chapter will demonstrate — that the ancient prostitute was a slave and the raediseval prostitute an alien, while the modern prostitute is a citizen. The bulk of modern prostitution bears the peculiar stamp of modern social and industrial conditions. The hosts of unmarried workers in a great trading or industrial city represent the masculine factor. The feminine factor consists (mainly) of women and girls from the midst of the social organism who have been impelled by circumstances to make prostitution a means of livelihood. By this statement the folly of the sweeping assertion is not indulged in. In the nature of things no virtue, » " The Social Evil," Putnams, N.Y. A SURVEY 3 or vice, is confined to any one class, and immorality is sadly present among higher grades than the industrial, while, too, there are those of both sexes who are unfaith- ful to the marital bond. Yet, where statistics are avail- able, abundant proof is forthcoming that the greater percentage of recruits to infamy are from the industrial ranks. Under existing conditions many women are attracted, rather than forced into prostitution. The greater the earnings of the prostitute, the richer her attire and the more luxurious her mode of life, the stronger is the attraction for those who are upon the borderland of vice and virtue. The preceding brief paragraph also gives the studied opinion of Prof. Alvin S. Johnson, of Columbia University, who in 1900 made a patient and prolonged investigation in the U.S.A. On this side of the Atlantic a more recent opinion corroborates the American Professor's conclusion. For the purpose of this book Commissioner Cox, of the Salvation Army, was interrogated. In regard to rescue work, she said, they rarely get a girl to give up the life until she has passed to the " second stage " as it were, viz. too old for the best West End business and forced to go to the East End. She said she thought that their hope for the future lay in educating men and women to the danger to health as well as to soul, which attended prosti- tution. The directions in which efforts are being made are in the main of a threefold character : the redemption from the life of those who can be won back, the segregation of the traffic, and the greatest though infinitely the slowest process of moral education on racial lines. So far as the first is concerned, the work of such institutions as the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford Hills is particularly useful, as there a series of careful tabulations have been made which furnish really valuable data of prime importance in attacking vice. The work of rescue is good, but prevention is better. 4 THE MASTER PROBLEM It is a huge task. Though much has been done, it is but a drop in the ocean as compared with what remains— " so httle done, so much to do " is doubly true in this work. It has been demonstrated that segregation or regulation is of little avail in stemming the tide of vice. The only effect of segregation is that the trafl&c becomes in a measure more defined, or recognisable, but its savoiu: of sanction is altogether harmful, and the semblance of control and inspection that regulation involves has been perniciously evaded. As will be seen in those chapters dealing specifically with that phase of the fight against vice, where towns and cities have sought a remedy in segregation, it has not materially lessened the extent of the evil. Amid all the murk that obscures the pathway of the future is discernible the struggling beams of a guiding light. It faintly illimiines the path at present but is yearly growing stronger, for there are among us enlightened and undaunted men and women who are bringing to bear the allied forces of science and religion upon this ghastly pall of immorality. They have the noble aim of guarding the weak and educating the strong. It is a task which has all the tremendous dif&culties of constructive social labour, and is as dehberate as evolution itself ; but it is the only way to permanence. To bring anew to the world an appreciation of moral values is a task for giants, but, bravely essayed, will assuredly win in the end, repeopling the world with men who are strong and good, with women who are noble and pure. It is particularly desired to canvass in this division of the volume that part of this great effort which is being prosecuted abroad, starting with the United States of America. Any attempt to give more than a mere outline of the work being done in America in connection with the Master Problem would necessitate a volimie in itself. Moreover, as several books written by those who have had practical experience in connection with these investi- gations have been published already, and are available A SURVEY 5 to all who are deeply interested in this persistent cam- paign against sexual immorality, it is proposed to give only a brief, but somewhat graphic description of the situation as it exists to-day, the information being derived from the most authentic sources obtainable. Instead of dividing these up into sections applsdng to New York City, Chicago, and other large centres of popu- lation, as the same conditions are found to exist in each of these places, special mention will only be made where these are foimd to vary or to bear precisely on any one phase of the work. Details in abundance may be found in the books which from time to time will be noted as a reference. In the autumn of 1900 the authorities of New York City found themselves awakened to, and confronted with a consciousness of the social condition which existed in certain parts of the City, as hitherto they had never experienced. Accordingly, a meeting of influential citizens was held in the Chamber of Commerce, out of which arose the formation of the Committee of Fifteen, who pledged themselves to carry out the following objects : — 1. To institute a searching inquiry, uninfluenced by partisan considerations, into the causes of the alarming increase of gambling and the Social Evil in this City, and to collect such evidence as shall establish the con- nection between existing conditions and those who, in the last analysis, are responsible for these conditions. 2. To publish the results of such investigation in order to put our fellow-citizens in possession of facts, and enable them to adopt such corrective measures as may be needed. 3. To promote such legislation as shall render it less difficult to reach offenders, and as shall put an end to the shifting and division of responsibility in the local administration of the laws relating to vice and crime, to the end that public of&cers and their subordinates may be held to a strict accountability for their acts. 6 THE MASTER PROBLEM 4. To suggest and promote the provision of more wholesome conditions and surromidings, in order to lessen the allurements and incentives to vice and crime. Two years later, the report prepared imder the direc- tion of the Committee of Fifteen was issued in a volume entitled " The Social Evil," pubhshed by G. P. Putnam and Son. It gave a faithiful record of careful investiga- tion during which were canvassed the causes and con- ditions of vicious practices, and a possible remedy sought. The book affords a reliable study of this age-long problem from the sane, non-sensational point of view which must appeal to the scientific as well as the purely philanthropic reformer. The major portion is devoted to a thorough threshing out of the Regulation System, its supposed virtues and its utter failure to achieve the end in view. This exact and dispassionate survey of the situation as applying to the United States concludes with the following paragraph : — " For the introduction of a system of control . . . several State laws would be needed. But whereas reglementation (e.g. regulation) would with difficulty find a place under the American Constitution, a system of moral control would be open to no objections on the score of constitutional law. What is of greater importance, any good that might result from reglementation is fatally tainted with evil ; whatever good might result from moral control is good unmixed. Reglementation would arouse the uncompromising hostility of a great part of the community ; intelligent moral control would meet with the approval of all, excepting of those who are not satisfied with a plan which would only gradually bring about moral and sanitary improvement, and who dream that there is some Royal Road to the instant abolition of either moral or sanitary evil." The power of moral control has also received recog- nition as the most promising weapon for fighting the evil in other States and Cities of the U.S.A. Chicago, Balti- more, Sjnracuse, and Pittsburgh have arrived at the same conclusion as New York with reference to the A SURVEY 7 " safety " of segregated districts, confirming, therefore, the report of the Committee of Fifteen already alluded to, and the steady prosecution of a sufficiently enforceable method of " moral control " has been adhered to. Even more definitely has Philadelphia pronounced in this direction. The conclusions published in 1913 of the Vice Commission of Philadelphia include : — " The proper instruction of youth in the home and by qualified teachers would establish the true idea of a uniform standard of morals for man and woman. " Segregation of vice, whether by statute or by police regulation ... is a demonstrated failure." With these reports and revelations in mind it is in- teresting to read, in November, 191 5, a contrast made of conditions in the United States, by Mr. Geo. J. Ander- son, who says that, within the borders of Chicago's " levee " district, which had long made the city notorious, a three-years' campaign against the social evil resulted in there being a total of over five hundred resorts where the red lights burned no more. Beginning with the Chicago disclosures, the fight has gone relentlessly on until the United States is the cleanest great nation in the world. Mr. Anderson maintains, indeed, that the United States of America " can well point with pride to a national house- cleaning in the past three years," for commercialised vice " has received a crushing blow." What it has meant in Chicago is thus graphically narrated by Mr. G. J. Anderson : — " In April, 1912, an old college friend, a lawyer, suggested that it might not be unprofitable for me, both as a citizen and a journalist, to see at close range some things in Chicago life that were probably novelties to one just out of the more Puritanic atmosphere of Boston. Their novelty was enough to make the heart sick. Our expedition began with a visit to a notorious dance-hall whose reputation has been well- nigh international. Then it was in full operation, with singers, drink-serving waiters, and its staff of professional prostitutes. The picture of that brazen vice has not yet faded from my 8 THE MASTER PROBLEM mind. From there we went to an establishment where the brazenness and the viciousness were only increased by the evil surroundings of a disorderly saloon. Afterward we walked around the more populous squares of the so-called ' segregated district.' " On every hand the brilliantly lighted dens, with the jangle of their ragtime songs and revelry, and the hoarse laughter of patrons and prostitutes, lined the squalid streets. Outside the resorts, hangers-on bid for custom. Through the blocks and the constantly opened doors, groups of men, mostly youths, passed and repassed as at some conventional county fair. Policemen strolled, casual and care-free, through the throng. Beside the curbs rolled a procession of autos and taxi-cabs. I returned from the ' levee ' wondering that the better Chicago tolerated it for a moment, wondering still more how such a foe could be driven from its entrenchments. " And yet — only three short years afterward, with the same friend and over the same route, we have been met with an astounding change. The hall of revelry was barred and in blackness ; not a light or a woman in sight. The disorderly saloon was in like desolation, with only one dim gleam in a room of the deserted hotel above. Around the blocks we went, met everywhere by bars and bolts, by boarded windows and the signs of real-estate agents. Standing on a gala corner of the old days we faced absolute blackness, save for the street-lights alone, and were passed only by one young coloured girl during our entire stay. " The lone policeman with whom we talked hoped ' the church folk were satisfied.' A cabman at the corner, in offering to guide us to resorts vaguely remote, declared the place was ' dead.' ' They're all watchin' it all the time ! ' " Chicago had awakened ; that's all. ... To Chicago commercialised vice has become not ' the necessary evil,' but a matter of pubhc conscience." And all over the country the battalions of reform have pressed on in like manner ; we are told " countless red lights have been put out and many more been dimmed." Few people, Mr. Anderson thinks, realise either the swiftness or the extent of the reform. " Americans were quick to strike at the profits of com- merciahsed vice. Every investigation reiterated the cry to A SURVEY 9 sever the money-nerve if we would paralyse the monster's every limb. And to our further credit, too, we began not with the poor, exploited victims, but with the ' higher-ups/ their keepers, and, above all, with those concealed, often respected, partners who — for an extortionate consideration — gave them shelter within their real estate. Thus came to be devised the famous Injunction and Abatement law (q.v.) which, beginning in Iowa five or more years ago, has swiftly spread throughout a score of States and the District of Columbia. Curiously enough, Illinois, essentially the birth- place of reform, has only recently placed this particular law upon its statute books." As many readers doubtless know, this act permits any citizen, under such legal conditions as each State may provide, to obtain an injunction against a house of shame and to have the property closed for a year at least, together with other penalties. The law is fully dealt with in a later chapter — " Legal Progress in America." As a result of these changes, segregation in this country — save in parts of the South alone — ^is an exploded super- stition. Almost wherever vice investigations have been made, the name of George J. Kneeland is known. Mr. Kneeland believes there are four chief lines of attack upon vice as a business, each hitting at the money-nerve. These are : the separation of liquor from prostitution ; the enforce- ment of laws against owners of property used for im- moral purposes ; punishment of men who live on the proceeds of prostitution, and the reduction of the number of patrons. All these phases have been conspicuous in the victories of the past three years. Nor has what may be called the Red Cross work been altogether neglected, as the success of Bedford Reformatory in New York so well indicates. But the great movement upon the sad problem of reform of the prostitute is still to come. Educational campaigns and social hygiene have been powerful factors for good. " To the Chmrch, however, will be left, in the 10 THE MASTER PROBLEM last analysis, the task of final extinguishment. The wisdom of hygiene and the force of law will each attempt its appointed tasks. But some of these fateful scarlet gleams will yet remain until a new way of life floods out the fires of lust and lucre that sear the hearts of men." So closes this striking contribution, which tells of a sustained and successful movement for moral cleansing and moral education. From reliable information received from different parts of Canada, the same kind of splendidly useful moral work is going forward as in the United States. In HaU- fax, Seattle, Vancouver, and other places the eyes of the inhabitants have been opened to recognise the harm which has been going on by a silent recognition and tacit acceptance of a segregated district in the various towns and localities. By strenuous efforts these are gradually disappearing, and the " scattering " of such houses is found, without question, to have a beneficial rather than the contrary effect on the morals of the neighbourhood. From one private source of information, a lady says that so far back as thirty years ago her brother, who was then engaged in some mining districts, wrote, saying that there were as many as 13,000 young gkls under sixteen years of age on the streets in the various towns of the mining districts he lived in. Their earnings were taken from them by men who had trained them to vice, and who kept them as much under their power as veri- table slaves of another colour. As the "trade" in the United States and Canada is closely connected, the work of the American Vigilance Association is finding much friendly and valuable co-operation by similar organisa- tion in Canada, the two working together for the attain- ment of the one object — ^suppression of tolerated vice in any shape or form in any given locaUty or town. Canada appears to have estabUshed a system of school and adult preventive education which is acting as an excellent check on the growth of immorality in her large centres. One who is familiar with these conditions says, " Women are not allowed behind the bars here, and A SURVEY 11 no women are ever seen drinking in front of the bars . . . sexual perversion is almost unknown, and certainly we have not the degeneration which is so prevalent almost everywhere in Europe." This is owing in a great measure to the unfaltering efforts of the Canadian Moral Education Association, which was organised in 1906 by a handful of men and women in Toronto. The object of the society is to educate men and women in clean living, emphasising the advantages of the development of their higher nature and general success in life. The main rules of this society are as follows : — 1. By disseminating carefully selected and approved literature, for the teaching of the constitution of the body, laws of health for body and mind, the means of preserving the same ; the origin and development of human life. 2. By providing speakers capable of presenting these subjects wisely, and giving desirable information. 3. By introducing young people who are leaving home to such organisations or individuals as will supply fit companionship and social enviroimient. 4. By bringing proper influence to bear upon the legislators and assisting to secure just laws, repeal bad ones, and to enforce all measures for the upholding of a high moral standard. The methods used are : Distribution of literature, mothers' meetings, lectures, Public School branch, and reform legislation. The society attempts nothing in the way of rescue work, believing that to get at the cause is the first real step in the forward movement, and first foundation towards the future of social h ygie ne. The education authorities have for the past two or three years realised the importance of introducing these subjects into Public Schools, and on this score can claim to be the first country in the world to have appointed special instructors who go from school to school, thus forming a distinct link, 12 THE MASTER PROBLEM and by continued observation and knowledge are able to apply their teaching in the most attractive and helpful manner to the boys and girls. That other great region of the British Empire — Australia — ^has, too, many strenuous citizens arrayed on the side of purity. By " Guilds " for young men, similar agencies for girls and women, great meetings under in- fluential auspices for men, a responsive educational propaganda was initiated in 1911 which is gathering headway, and making assured progress along the lines of physical enlightenment and moral strengthening. In Japan, where the yoshiwari, or segregated quarter, long received legal recognition to a greater degree than in any other country, the efforts of Count Okuma and others have not been entirely void of result. In spite of the present conditions it is more than likely that once Japan does wake up to the realisation of the unutterable evil of the traffic in her midst, and the bar it must surely be to her national progress, she will clean it out with as terrible effectiveness as she did opium. The leaven is even now working, for after the fire which broke out in Tokyo in 1911 and destroyed a large portion of the segregated district, a number of influential men and women sought to prevail on the officials of the City to put an end to the whole business — ^but there was too much money in it ! The agitation, however, spread throughout the country, and acted as the first real educational movement of a really public nature. Two provinces, indeed, have already outlawed the traffic, and as the public sentiment is aroused great changes may be expected in other quarters. Not the least influence in this direction is the fact that the present Emperor has made strong demands for a monogamous home and proper regard for home life among all classes of his people. In China segregation is not so general as in Japan, but prostitution is countenanced by long standing custom similarly as in the realm of the Mikado. In the general awakening of China there is much to be hoped for, but as yet only few definite signs of influences toward A SURVEY 18 purity are discernible. In Chapters IV and V we shall give a full account of the traffic in the Far East. What has been done in Europe will form the subject matter of a later chapter. Here, however, it may be appropriate to detail, as part of " what has been done," the International agreements in operation against the white slave traffic. The official international conferences to consider concerted measures by the various Governments against the white slave traffic have resulted in the preparation and signature of two instruments, viz. the " Agreement " of 1904 and the " Convention " of 1910. The Agreement of 1904 The " agreement " was drafted at the first of&cial conference, which was held in Paris in 1902, and was signed on the i8th of May, 1904, by the leading European nations. Since then many other nations and their colonies or dependencies have adhered, and the "agree- ment " is now accepted by Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States. The " agreement " also applies to all the colonies of France, Germany, and the Netherlands ; the Danish Antilles ; all the Russian territory in Europe and Asia ; the Italian colony of Eruthraea ; and Iceland. Of the British dominions beyond the seas, Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, and New Zealand have adhered, together with the following Crown colonies : Bahamas, British Guiana, Ceylon, Fiji, Gambia, Gibraltar, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Malta, Mauritius, Northern Nigeria, Nyasaland, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Southern Rhodesia, St. Helena, Uganda, Trinidad, Wei-hai-wai, Windward Islands. The list of dominions or colonies which have not adhered is almost equally long. The most important names in it are the Dominion of South Africa, the Empire of India, and Egypt. 14 THE MASTER PROBLEM The important articles of this " agreement " read as follows : — " Article I. — Each of the contracting governments under- takes to establish or name some authority charged with the co-ordination of all information relative to the procuring of women and girls for immoral purposes abroad ; this authority shall be empowered to correspond direct with the similar departments established in each of the other contracting states." The " authority " under this clause is in each case an individual official. For Britain the authority was Mr. F. W. Bullock, of Scotland Yard. " Article II. — Each of the governments undertakes to have a watch kept especially in railway stations, ports of embarkation, and en route, for persons in charge of women and girls destined for an immoral life. With this object instructions shall be given to the officials and all other quah- fied persons to obtain, within legal limits, all information likely to lead to the detection of criminal traffic. " The arrival of persons who clearly appear to be the principals, accomplices in, or victims of such traffic shall be notified when it occurs, either to the authorities of the place of destination, or to the diplomatic or consular agents in- terested, or to any other competent authorities." Articles III and IV provide that, where necessity arises, the declaration of women and girls of foreign nationality shall be taken " in order to establish their identity and civil status and to discover who has caused them to leave their country." This is with a view to their repatriation through charitable institutions or private persons " offer- ing the necessary security." Provision is also made for sending back to their own country " women and girls who desire it " or who are " claimed by persons exercising authority over them." Where neither the women nor their friends can find the money, the cost of repatriation is to be borne by the country of her residence to the nearest frontier or port of embarkation, and the rest by her country of origin. A SURVEY 15 These articles are seldom put in force. As a rule the sending back of girls is managed by their own consuls. But occasionally girls are sent home by the " authority " according to these articles. Article VI provides for the supervision by the con- tracting States of " agencies engaged in finding employ- ment for women or girls abroad." Articles V, VII, VIII, and IX provide for the date of coming into force, the accession or possible withdrawal of other States, etc. The Convention of 1910 The " convention " of 1910 was also drafted by the conference of 1902. But as this proposal necessitated the legislative " levelling up " of the criminal laws of the different countries, time for full consideration by them was needed. Ultimately a second conference was held at Paris in 1910, when the draft convention was fully discussed and agreed to with some slight amendment. It was signed on the 4th of May, 1910, by the representa- tives of the following countries : Austria -Hungary,* Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France,* Germany, Great Britain,* Italy, Netherlands,* Portugal, Russia,* Spain,* Sweden ; and ratified in August, 1912, by the States marked with an asterisk in the above list. (Switzerland and the United States were represented at the conference, but did not sign the convention.) It may be presumed that most, or all, of the govern- ments which have previously adhered to the " agree- ment " will, in due course, adhere to the " convention." The important provisions of the "convention" are as follows : — " Article I. — Whoever, in order to gratify the passions of another person, has procured, enticed, or led away, even with her consent, a woman, or girl under age, for immoral purposes, shall be punished, notwithstanding that the various acts constituting the offence may have been committed in different countries. " Article II. — Whoever, in order to gratify the passions of 16 THE MASTER PROBLEM another person, has, by fraud, or by means of violence, threats, abuse of authority, or any other method of com- pulsion, procured, enticed, or led away a woman or girl over age, for immoral purposes, shall also be punished, notwith- standing that the various acts constituting the offence may have been committed in different countries. " Article III. — The contracting parties whose legislation may not at present be sufficient to deal with the offences contemplated by the two preceding articles, engage to take or to propose to their respective legislatures the necessary steps to punish these offences according to their gravity." Other articles in the convention provide the necessary machinery for carrying out the main intention of the convention — ^including the communication between the various contracting parties of the laws which may be in existence, or adopted in the future, in the States con- cerned ; the inclusion of these offences in the list of offences for which extradition may be granted ; the interchange of the records of conviction in these cases ; the adhesion of non-signatory States, etc. Protocol of Closure The convention is supplemented by what is called a " Protocol of Closure," which is in effect an explanatory note " forming an integral part of the convention." Its purpose is "to indicate the sense in which Articles I, II, and III of that convention are to be understood, and in accordance with which it is desirable that the contracting States, in the exercise of their legislative sovereignty, should provide for the execution of the stipulations agreed upon or for their extension." The protocol declares that " it is fuUy understood that the words ' woman or girl under age, woman or girl over age,' refer to women or girls under or over twenty com- pleted years of age. A law may, nevertheless, fix a more advanced age for protection, on condition that it is the same for women or girls of every nationality." " The case of detention, against her wiU, of a woman or girl in a brothel, could not, in spite of its gravity, be A SURVEY 17 dealt with by the present convention, seeing that it is governed exclusively by internal legislation." It will be seen that in numerous notable cities in many parts of the world, patient and competent investigation has been going on for the purpose of arriving at an un- biased conclusion from evidence given by unprejudiced minds. Out of the great mass of facts and carefully arrived at convictions has evolved one central truth, that the moral factor is the chief regenerative element of practical value to restore purity to the lands of the earth, and to instil into the hearts of the growing genera- tion an active recognition of honour and chivalry. CHAPTER II THE EXTENT OF THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES " Thus, instead of the law being the guardian of virtue, it has, by its silence and weakness, become in a terrible measure the protector of vice." — Mrs. Beamwell Booth. BY common consent, humanity for ages was content to hide the shame of its ilUcit lustings from the pubhc gaze. Such a course may have been to some extent commendable. When, however, the vile traffic not only remained hidden, but became looked upon as a regret- table necessity which it were useless to combat, no amount of biological sophistry could justify inaction. For obvious reasons concerted action could not be hoped for, but nevertheless in many large cities and towns in various parts of the world. Vigilance Committees and Commissions of Inquiry have taken up the fight against vice, and from the information so collected certain useful data have become available, forming a dependable basis for tabulations of this terrible Master Problem of the world. The extent of the traffic in women can only be judged by patient investigation, a course reluctantly embarked upon by the many, and only continued with unabated zeal by the few. So nauseous are the circumstances brought to light wherever the " lid " has been taken off, so terrifying the facts, so awful the outlook for communi- ties not possessed of administrators who add to a strong moral rectitude an unswerving determination to over- come mountainous difficulties rather than allow im- morahty to flourish unchecked, that many reformers stand aghast at the vastness and bestiahty of the under- world of vice. Paralysed by the very horror revealed i8 THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 19 before their shrinking eyes they go no farther — and so nothing of lasting value is done. In various parts of the globe, however, certain un- daunted workers, strengthened and inspired by the tremendous issues at stake — ^first, the souls of men rio less than of women, and, secoridly,The eugenic future of the human race— have' thus laboured in the cause of the the world's betterment. Sometimes they have initiated their campaign under municipal auspices, often it has been more useful to carry on Vigilance work apart from official control, but in either case the approval and assistance of municipal authorities have seldom been wanting to facilitate the gathering of statistics, or the punishment of offenders in this particular category of wrongdoing. It must be remembered always that the problem is made immeasurably more complex by the two principal attitudes — toleration and official blindness. In the report of the Vice Commission of Philadelphia, ' already referred to, was a weU-expressed recognition of these factors : " Toleration of prostitution by a considerable part of the community and the inclination of administrative officers to ignore laws relating to prostitution, and substitute for them policies or police regulations conflicting with the laws, arise in large measure from the false but prevalent idea that prostitution is a necessary evil and that man is justified in the selfish gratification of his impulses by resorting to houses of prostitution and in the sacrifice of women to that end." ^ When the Bureau of Social Hygiene was formed in New York in 1911, a decided step in the right direction * This Commission began investigations in the previous August, and its members were William Clarke Mason {Chairman), Theodore J. Lewis {Vice-Chairman), Roy Smith Wallace {Secretary and Treasurer), Revs. J. -.W.-Gochran, G. H. Ferris, H. L. Phillips, and J. F. Trainor, Rabbi H. Berkowitz, Drs. Frances C. van Gasken, C. D. Hart, and C. J. Hatfield, Mesdames M. P. Falconer and E. C. Grice, Misses M. A. Bumham and A. F. Davies, John H. Barnes, S. S. Fleisher, H. T. Greenwood, C. F. Jenkins, J. P. Keating, F. A. Lewis, and G. J. Kneeland {Director of Investigation) . * " Segregation and Commercialised Vice." A Report published by the American Vigilance Association. 20 THE MASTER PROBLEM was taken, in that it was founded as a permanent body. Eleven years earlier a committee was formed in that great American city — the Committee of Fifteen earlier referred to — and excellent work was done, as its report abundantly testifies. But not being of a permanent character its influence could not be expected to be lasting. The extent of the traffic, however, continued to expand despite the war waged by upholders of purity, a war more intelligently prosecuted because of the information given by the Committee. Thus New York was led to the inauguration of the Bureau, which is ceaselessly at work for the raising of fallen women, the protection of innocent girls, and the punishment of the criminal participators in traffic euphemistically glossed as " The Social Evil." These two bodies have given the writer access to a long continuity of records and statistics, and a variety of noted cases, which together enable some glimpse to be obtained of the extent of "commercialised prostitution" in New York City. The details are appalling. Broadly speaking, the vice resorts may be classed imder the following headings : (a) Parlour Houses ; (b) Tenement Houses, Hotels, Furnished Rooms, Massage Parlours ; (c) Saloons, Concert and Dancing Halls, Cabaret Shows ; (d) Excursion Boats, and Pleasure Parks where various amusements are provided. Examples of the moral horrors connected with all these places are endless, and each one may be verified by reference not only to the printed pages of the respective volumes of the Committee and the Bureau, but by access to the register from which they were drawn. An enormous trade in prostitution was discovered in New York, Chicago, and other American cities, and added to these places of general rendezvous there existed in Chicago not more than three years ago, " houses of American girls kept for the exclusive use of Chinamen, houses of negro women for white men, and of white women for negro men ; the novelty of Armoiir Avenue being a house of Japanese women for American men." THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 21 Before going into examples and statistics, both of which necessarily must be restricted, it will perhaps more adequately convey the extent of the traf&c if some out- line is given of the system upon which this nefarious business is conducted. The latest investigations establish the fact that prosti- tution is exploited as a commercial undertaking, and, for the most part, controlled by men, though women are also involved. The masculine element includes owners, procurers, cadets or pimps as they are called. The last named represent for the most part young men of various classes of society who have either one or a " string " of girls working for them on the streets or in houses. The women, or " Madames," who either own their respective houses or manage them for men at a given salary and commission on takings, are frequently those who have " had their day " at the same trade and have become hardened to the life. The four classes of " traders " through which the traf&c is recruited and by whom it is conducted, may be described thus : — Owners. — ^The men proprietors have reached their present vocation by many paths. They have been wrest- lers, prize-fighters, gamblers, " politicians," proprietors of " creep-houses " — otherwise a place where women take men to rob them — fruit vendors, pawnbrokers, pick- pockets, crooks, pedlars, waiters, saloon-keepers, etc. Some of them pose as " business " men, carrying cards and samples, to serve as a subterfuge when they are arrested as vagrants or for living off the proceeds of prostitution. Not a few, however, without concealment, devote their entire time and energy to managing parlour- houses and other resorts of prostitution. Some of the latter own a business outright ; others have partners who share in the profits. One man, for instance, con- ducts a house with from fifteen to twenty-five inmates, and, in addition, has an interest in several other ventures of the same character. In some cases the firm is a family affair, including brothers, brother-in-law, uncle, and cousins. 22 THE MASTER PROBLEM As many as thirty houses — known as " one-dollar houses " from the price paid for the service of the girl inmates — ^have been operated as a " combine " under the direct control of fifteen or more men. They buy and sell shares in these houses among themselves, and it is seldom that an outsider, unless he be a relative, can " break " into the circle and share in the profits. The value of the shares depends upon the ability of the owners to maintain the conditions in which the houses, being unmolested, are permitted to make large profits. The man who proves himself capable of achieving this thorough business sagacity and political "pull" is called the " king." Upon him falls the responsibility of " see- ing " the " right " individuals. In one instance in New York City, it was found that a whole family were engaged in the business, — ^the parents conduct a restaurant, which is a well-known " hang- out " for pimps, procurers, crooks, and prostitutes ; the daughters are prostitutes, the two sons pimps and pro- curers. The father and mother are constantly on the look-out for girls whom their sons may ruin and exploit on the streets or in houses. In other instances, although the father openly deals with procurers he keeps a sharp eye on his own girls, and would not let one of them go into the life on their own accord. The majority of " exploiters " are foreigners by birth, and drift from one country to another plying their trade. South Africa was at one time a favourite destination — especially Johannesburg. From this place, after the Boer War, they were driven out with whips, but their trail of seduction and corruption may be traced through the Argentine, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, Alaska, and all the large cities of the United States. The way in which these men ply their trade, or rather their double trade, viz. that of procurers of young girls, and as diamond merchants or any other business which by its very nature gives scope for travel and continually being on the move, is both fascinating and clever in many in- dividual cases. As they make money both ways they THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 28 are better able to defend themselves and pay heavy fines when such are imposed by the law. The Pimp. — ^The pimp or cadet, as he is commonly called, comes third in the scale, though as indispensable to the " trade " as a whole as either the owner and pro- curer combined, or the man who does nothing but travel about and " buy " his " goods " in one way or another. The " pimp " is usually one of those clever youths who manage to live on other people, whether it be by pocket- picking or thieving in other ways. Being a smart sort of boy he attracts the girls of his neighbourhood, and it frequently happens that a strange kind of attachment for each other springs up which soon leads them into immoral relations. One who knows this class well says " the large majority of boys who become pimps and seducers of girls and the large majority of girls who become prostitutes were at the start not immoral, but unmoral. They have never had any moral standards in any proper sense of the term." The next step is for the girl to become a clandestine prostitute while at the same time engaged in some business occupation. Finally, under the pimp's influence she "breaks away" and becomes a " regular." The pimp attends to all the business arrangements and generally initiates her into the trade proper, introducing her to houses kept for this purpose, or keeping a watch over her as she solicits on the streets or in the saloons. From the psychological point of view this relation is a strange one. In spite of being beaten from time to time, girls will deliberately choose to work under a pimp rather than on their own. And not infrequently a spark of real affection will keep alive this unnatural and almost ghastly relation. Madames. — ^These women are of a most business-like character, and know the " ropes " from end to end. In some cases they treat the fifteen or twenty girls placed xmder their care with the utmost consideration the " trade " can command ; while others are a terror to all who come imdemeath their rule. As soon as houses are set up an opportunity for trade is created. The 24 THE MASTER PROBLEM proprietors give specific orders to the procurers — ^for young girls, for innocent girls, for brunettes, for slender women, for stout women. And the procurer fills the order, resorting to every possible device in the effort to do so — to deceit, misrepresentation, intoxication, " doping," or what not. The white slave traffic is thus not only a hideous reality, but a reality almost wholly dependent on houses of prostitution.^ A ■ large number of girls are also kept " on call " ; that is, they may be engaged in some business in the daytime but hold themselves available to be sent for by any of these houses if called by telephone at certain hours. If a customer is not pleased with the girls pre- sented to him at some of the parlour houses, the Madame will ascertain his special choice and telephone to another house with which interchange of this kind is established, or to one of these outside girls whom she knows will be at liberty at a certain hour. The list of such girls de- scribes them as being "tall ones," "short ones," " stout ones," " thin ones," and " just kids." What a world of tragedy lies in those words just kids ! " Men are very fussy," said one Madame to an investigator, "and you have to cater for them if you want to keep their trade." Very clever are the methods employed for keeping in touch with customers. Lists of names and addresses of men and boys are gradually accumulated, and at stated intervals the Madame sends a veiled announcement as to change of address or what " goods " they have " on view." Thus, " Kindly call at our old place of business, as we have a Beautiful Spring Stock on view." Sometimes the same kind of " stock " is styled a hbrary, and notices of important changes are sent to " subscribers," including sailors on board certain war vessels, business men, clerks and others. The " Bargain " has also a place in this trade. A Madame informed another investigator that every Saturday night was bargain night, adding, " next Saturday I shall have twelve young girls and guarantee ^ See " Commercialised Prostitution in New York." THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 26 them not to be over sixteen years of age. You must come early and get one of the bargains." £#An astonishing fact, unfortunately not confined to the United States, is that men who for many years have held responsible official positions which by their very nature have brought them into contact with this trade in women, have yet remained unobservant or unconvinced of its appalling reality. That the Master Problem has proved to be a " war- fare of years and not a battle of days " has by no means diminished the courage and zest of those engaged in the valiant fight. Nor need they be discouraged ; the latest reports tell of steady progress and an understand- ing of the enemy's tactics, which at the outset were practically unknown. The hideousness of bare statistics is seen in the follow- ing unvarnished and fully authenticated record. The business done in the " dollar houses " is constant and considerable. One notorious Street dollar house of sixteen girls, which was almost as fully occupied as any other during the day of the investi- gation, July gth, 1912, shows the customers by a card held by each girl, which is ticket-punched for every man received. Each of these cards at the end of the day was fuU of holes, the one with a few more than the rest having thirty such significant indications of her day's nauseating activities. Another sixteen-girl house served 264 customers on the same day. It is impossible, avers that experienced authority, Mr. Geo. J. Kneeland, to estimate the number of men and boys who become customers in vice resorts during the course of any one year. On the basis of actually recorded data obtained in Manhattan, it may be taken as fairly reliable that inmates of resorts and women on the streets trade with between ten and fifteen men per day. This statement is corroborated by evidence secured by the Vice Committee in Chicago, where the average was found to be fifteen per day for each of the eighteen in- mates in one house. This figure is the more dependable 26 THE MASTER PROBLEM as it is arrived at from a tabulated record of this particu- lar house extending over twenty-two months. In another part of New York State, the city of Syracuse, an average daily number of twelve customers were entertained by one female during a period of six months. On this point grim but irrefutable evidence is afforded by records^ actually produced in court at a prosecution of a brothel-keeper in Chicago in igii. These show the number of men to whom each girl gave satisfaction of vicious passion on the several days noted : — Sunday — Number of Men Alice 20 Vere . . i6 Kitty . . 24 Mina • 36 Edith . . II Florince . 20 Monday — Alice . 16 Kitty . ■ 14 Mina . 22 Edith . • 15 Florince • 23 Vere • 17 Tuesday — • "^ Alice . 11 Vere • 14 Kitty . . 12 Mina . 12 Edith . • 15 Florince . 21 Sophy . . 18 Wednesday — Alice • 15 Vere . 16 Kitty . • 9 Mina . 10 Edith . • 4 Florince . 21 Sophy . . 21 ^ Only a typical portion of the record is reproduced. THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 27 Thursday — Number of Men. Kitty 17 Florince . . . . . . .45 Annie ........ 22 An owner of a " twenty-five girl dollar house " placed his receipts at 3550 dollars a week, which would mean in English money about £40,000 per year. These bald figures are not hasty assessments, or vague approximations, but carefully arrived at evidence actually on file in the respective centres mentioned. Such plain but appalling facts have a terrible significance. Taking the lower figures as the basis of calculation, if the 15,000 professional prostitutes then known to be in Manhattan entertain ten men each, the customers total at least 150,000 persons every day. To realise in some measure what such figures mean, the student must keep before his mind that Manhattan represents only one-fifteenth the area — though possessing half the total population — of one great city. Think of the many great cities of the world ; think that the awful daily aggregate must be multiplied by three hun- dred and sixty-five to arrive at a year's traffic for but part of one great city ! Ponder, too, over certain other ascertained statistics, which illustrate with dramatic emphasis how great a task is before the reformer. Mrs. Kate W. Barrett states that " more than 350,000 women in the U.S.A. are prostitutes, and upwards of 20,000 fresh victims are added yearly ! " Does not the logical sequence of thought bring home with staggering force the reek of vice with which the world is tainted ? A decade ago purity workers would have considered that only by some miraculous intervention could have been accomplished the progress that has been made lately, especially during the last year or so. Yet satis- factory as it is, it is but little in comparison to what still remains to be done. For instance, in July, 1915, a party of investigators determined to ascertain the true situation with respect 28 THE MASTER PROBLEM to public vice in San Francisco. What followed is told in their own words : — " On the evening of Friday, July 23rd, we secured a taxi on Market Street and requested the driver to take us to the red-light district and the worst section of the district. He took the hint and we were soon on our way. This young man informed us that he had been a resident of San Francisco for years, that the city was wide open with respect to prostitution, and to his knowledge the houses of shame had never been closed for more than a very few days at a time, if at all. He stated that the infamous dance-halls, notorious the world over, had been closed for a week or so, and that it was under- stood they would be permitted to open the following (Satur- day) night. As a matter of fact they did not open until the next Wednesday night. " Without any further suggestion on our part we were landed at the entrance to Alley. It was eleven o'clock. The night world was there with ail its horror. We were in the very midst of San Francisco's segregated area, Barbary Coast. It did not take us two seconds to see that every imaginable form of vice was operating without restraint. Sailors, soldier boys, negroes, handsome boys and young men, wretchedly clad drunken bums, strangers ' seeing the town,' and men, men, men ever5rwhere swarming in and out of these dens of vice like bees in and out of hives. " We passed through Alley, a narrow, dirty alley connecting two streets, with vice joints in the cellars, on the first floor and upstairs, and I counted 137 men and boys, boys some of them not more than sixteen years of age, when passing through. Dr. Moore, when returning through this alley, informed me that he counted 163 men and boys. On the doors of these houses of ill-fame was this notice, ' Ring the Bell,' so uniform in style that I suspect it must be a police requirement. No. Alley was pointed out to me and running wide open and full blast, although it was ordered to be closed some months ago by Judge Sturtevant under the Injunction law. Passing into some twenty of the houses we found from four to twelve girls in the parlour of each, these representing only a portion of the inmates. Liquor (probably beer) was being sold freely at a dollar per bottle ; music, singing, and general hilarity present at every place. From six to twenty men were in each of the joints visited. We THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 29 estimated from this that not less than six hundred men and boys were at Alley during that hour. At No. — they were putting on a nude show, the girl giving the exhibi- tion being a negress. We next visited the ' Crib ' building, located outside Alley, where scores of prostitutes are exhibited in the most disgusting manner. "We then went through Alley, Street, and connecting and surrounding streets, finding the same conditions. On Street, where a higher class of ' houses ' are located, there were ten automobiles at 12.15 a.m., each in charge of a chauffeur. In four cases I saw well-dressed middle-aged men come out of houses, jump into the back seats of these machines and order them to move on. This is indicative of a class of trade that has been common in the red-hght districts of our larger cities. At Street they were putting on a nude show, con- ducted by three young girls. We were informed here that while the police had ' prohibited ' these nude shows and vile exhibitions, that they were being put on at most of the houses, and without any danger of arrest. " It was at this house that we secured several " medical certificates,' the one I now have before me reads as follows : ' San Francisco, July 3, 1915. This will certify that I have this day examined Miss B B and found her free from veneral disease. Signed, Paul A., m.d.' We have used the spelling employed on the certificate. There were twenty inmates in this house, and the girls informed us that A examined them twice each week, on Wednesdays and Satur- days, requiring about half a minute for each examination, charging each girl $2.50 for examination, or $100 per week for the house. They also told us that he had two other houses, each with more inmates than this one, for which he stood sponsor. $300 per week for two half-days' employment is no small job for ' Paul.' We were informed that he was formerly a member of the ' Municipal Clinic,' that had under- took to carry on these examinations under municipal au- thority, but we made no effort to verify this statement. We were also told here that the notorious dance-halls on Street, just east of Kearney, where from 500 to 1000 of these women gather nightly for the ' public ' dance and drinking, were closed for a time, but would surely open within a night or two. " We started for our hotel at 1.20 a.m. We were told of 30 THE MASTER PROBLEM other streets we ought to visit, but we had seen enough to establish the exact situation with respect to vice in San Francisco. We had seen enough, too, to take sleep from our eyes for nights to come and to cause our hearts to ache with the thought of the blasted lives that are being turned out of these vice dens. We had traversed only a few blocks where undoubtedly looo girls and women are inmates and not less than 3000 men and boys had been spending their time and wasting their manhood during these midnight hours. Three police officers were walking these streets that night, but made no attempt to suppress the open vice ; indeed they answered inquiries freely as to the location of certain streets or par- ticular houses. We were also informed by inmates and keepers of houses that at no time had they ever been closed, and to their knowledge no serious attempt had ever been made to do so." A question respecting which there has been much debate is that of the relative proneness of city-born as against country-born females to moral declension. On this point it is interesting to observe that in four hun- dred and ninety-one cases inquired into, four hundred and four were city-born, eighty-five were country-born, two being unaware of their birth-place . Thus a percentage is arrived at of 82-48 city-born, and 17-47 oiily, country- born. Here opens an exceedingly wide area of debate as to prime causes, sociological conditions, industrial temptations, the wage-scale, and a host of other issues which will be dealt with later. It is sufficient for this chapter to recognise that whereas this single example shows an overwhelming number of frail women among the city-born, yet the tragic figures earlier given have to be added to the extent of about 17 per cent on account of moral laxity in rural districts. Another factor which has a bearing on the social evil is the ratio of devotion to " the life." In a tabulation of two hundred and twenty-four cases, fifty-eight girls and women said that they engaged in intermittent prostitu- tion. Out of this table emerges a serious fact ; that there is a considerable percentage, verging on 30 THE TRAFFIC IN THE UNITED STATES 31 per cent, who would not affect the average of " cus- tomers " arrived at earlier in the chapter, as it is legitimate to conclude that the averages there given are from " regular inmates " of such houses. As the book proceeds this argimient will be abundantly supported by cited examples. Still another revealing glimpse at the extent of illicit sexual intercourse is gained through an inquiry by one woman investigator in February, 1912, in the City of . Comment is imnecessary upon what follows. During the month in question one hundred and twenty- two estate agents were visited for the alleged purpose of renting an apartment for immoral purposes. In each case the agent was made to understand the use to which ostensibly the place would be put. Mark the result — sixty-seven agents knowingly agreed and gave, between them, the addresses of ninety-eight separate apartments where it would be reasonably " safe " to conduct such business. Of the others only seventeen refused outright. Among the remainder, sixty-five separate addresses were given. A type of the varying degrees of wiliness displayed in the transactions which resulted in these sixty-five addresses was one agent's remark : "I know what you want the house for, but I very much rather you hadn't told me. You talk too much. I'll tell you what — send somebody else up in a week's time and I will give you the house." These are the conditions which prevail in but one small area of the world's surface. In the next chapter we shall deal with some further illustrations of traffic in New York, Chicago, etc. CHAPTER III FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE TRAFFIC IN NEW- YORK, CHICAGO, ETC. "It is a vicious circle which we have to break, and one of our problems is concerned with the best way of breaking it ... we are faced by the necessity of realising a new responsibility : our respon- sibility for the coming race." — Havelock Ellis. EVERY large city has hundreds of girls and women with souls seared and bodies soiled by the indelible markings of unchastity. The pitiable story of their first fall is a tale to be told with tears. The circumstances run the gamut of deception, drugging, social glamour, impulse, ignorance, curiosity, ennui, brute-force, want. Each contributes its quota as being the prime cause of departure from virtue, and each represents a ghastly total toward the aggregate of victims to lust. One fact stands out with terrible prominence from the mass of evidence on record with regard to this hellish traffic in passion ; it is that the great majority of fallen girls were seduced long before the age of eighteen. And if that fact be not sufficiently surcharged with sadness, to it may be added the knowledge that at eighteen, when innocent girlhood should be joyous and light- hearted with the zest of life, very many of these stricken girls were veterans in vice. These facts were powerfully enforced at the noteworthy Public Morals Conference held in London in 1910 under the auspices of the National Council of Public Morals, 42 Great Russell Street, London, W.C. Both in the United Kingdom and abroad the statements have since been emphasised by Vigilance workers, abundantly proved by numerous statistics, and demonstrated by sordid proceedings in criminal courts. 32 PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 33 It is to the credit of the U.S.A. that the greater num- ber of the illustrations given in this section dealing with the foreign aspect of the traffic, should be from one or other of the States of the Union. It does not mean that America has a greater share of vice than other continents. Rather is it a token of sincere and un- remitting effort to uncover their corner of the Gehenna of vice that is burning remorselessly into the fabric of civilisation the world over. Splendid work has been done these last two decades on both sides of the Atlantic in prevention, and rescue, and enlightenment, as will be seen in due course as the various sections are dealt with in ordered sequence. In the U.S.A., Vigilance Commissions have sat in many of the State capitals and large cities, and have between them collected a mass of docketed records, ^ of which the following are but types taken here and there — types which with the utmost ease could be repeated to the point of monotony were any purpose to be served by doing so. It is a strong indictment, but indisputable, that in some cities a large number of brothels carry on a syste- matic, notorious, and wellnigh undisturbed trade. An investigator in New York City, whose report was first carefully and systematically corroborated (by two subse- quent visits by different investigators, in the case of brothels), placed on record that he was taken at 11.30 p.m. (a date in 1912 was indicated) by a chauffeur to a very exclusive house in M . The chauffeur, by the way, draws a commission on every customer brought to the house, which ranks as a " ten-dollar establishment." There were, runs this fearful yet faithful record, fifteen young and attractive girls in the receiving parlours, and a creditable string band was playing all the evening. The investigator was ushered into the main room by smart maids in white aprons, and here he found on ^ Every illustration given is in the archives of one or other of the cities where Vigilance movements have been active. The precise locality will not be given in every case. 84 THE RIASTER PROBLEM show the youngest of the girls available to gratify cus- tomers. The furniture of the room was embellished with gold, the walls hung with good paintings, and the floor spread with expensive rugs. Everything betokened abundant material prosperity. The girls wore dressed in elaborate silken evening gowns. (In some otlxor places the girls wear a red imtfonii in silk, with a very short skirt not reaching even to the knees.) No man would be allowed admission to this house unless he came in a taxi-cab and \\fas passed in by the driver as being " aU right." At the other end of the rank is the " fifty-cent house." A general report on these told how frequently the houses were in a dilapidated and unsanitary condition. For instance, " those in Street, N , are practically unfit for habitation. The rooms are dirty, the creaking flooring is covered with matting which harbours filth and vermin and is mostly in a rotten state. The atmosphere is laden with vile odours, the small windows are seldom open, and the ceilings are low. The small bedrooms are damp and unventilatcd and reek of stale tobacco, medicated drugs, and inferior disinfec- tants." Into such places common men crowd. The wooden bench ranged against the wall of the receiving room was full of customers, while othci-s stood about the room, all being unashamed and unabashed. The investi- gator described the scene during the time he was in the house, " At the foot of the stairs which led to the bed- rooms above, a man was stationed. Every time a visitor came groping his way down the stairs, the business-like and aggressive announcer would cry out. ' Next I ' At the word the man on the bench whose turn it was, rose and passed up," and so the endless Saturday night sacrifice of honour and virtue went on. The unfortunates in such a house are often subjected to savage cinielty by drunken and vicious clients, in addition to being made participators in bestial debaucheries of an indescribable nature. In the " dollar houses " the external appointments are PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 85 good and the girls " less vulgar, younger, and more intelligent." They form the " mainstay " of the trade in prostitution, being frequented by small shopkeepers, better-class clerks, under-managers and such middle- rank workers, a really large class. Of these " dollar houses " there were over eighty in 1912 in Manhattan, as against twenty, fifty cent and forty, five and ten dollar houses. There are also one or two " fancy " houses, where only " stars " are kept and in which any price up to a hundred dollars may change ownership according to the ingenuity in perversion engaged in by the customer and a " star," whose claim for notoriety rests on the variety of her " tricks " in sexual debasement. A side of the dreadful traffic which should be referred to is the pretence of precaution taken to protect customers from contracting venereal disease. Hence much show is made of periodical examination and medical certificates of health. How utterly futile, in a system which battens on the supreme anxiety of its customers for secrecy, is it to expect any such precautionary measure to be honestly carried out. Too often is the certificate given whether the girl be free from disease or not. One recorded case showed that a girl was under treatment for the dis- ease by the same doctor who gave her the certificate of freedom, which was nailed on her bedroom door, and despite which a visitor contracted venereal disease from her. Quite another aspect of white slavery is the unattached prostitute, who has a flat to which she brings men soUcited on the streets, or receives regular customers. Then it is undeniable that certain " massage " estabUshments are thinly veiled resorts of vice. The prostitute who is the outcast on the streets, the furtive wreck to whom most men would give money and go away, is not the deinger ; it is her sister in vice who has not yet descended to the depths, who can attract without open solicitation, or who is domiciled in a house of ill-fame ; the great menace to public health is behind closed doors. 36 THE MASTER PROBLEM It is the same in Chicago, in Philadelphia, in Balti- more, in Boston, in any of the great cities — ^why dull the perception by further examples of the methods by which the system is carried on ? Turn now, rather, to the manner in which the women are recruited into the ranks of the chasteless. In a tabulation^ made of six hundred and fifty prostitutes who were induced to state their avocations when they were trapped, or succumbed to temptation or desire, it was found that domestic servants predominated, e.g. general servants, 243 ; factory girls, 127 ; no need to work, 92 ; retail store clerks, 40, and so on. Taking the same group of 647, out of 300 who could tell definitely, it was found that the highest number of girls (61) committed their first sexual offence at sixteen years of age, while 72 had already been seduced before reaching sixteen. By the time they were eighteen, 109 of the 300 were deliberate and practised prostitutes. The result of a British investigation is given in Chapter XIII, and reveals that on both sides of the Atlantic a large number of prostitutes begin their career of shame when mere children. Nor is it a fact of recent growth ; Vigilance inquiries of the 'eighties record the fact. In an authoritative book, " The Social Evil," published in 1902, and based on an eighteen-months' inquiry by unimpeachable investigators, the same " disgrace to civilisation . . . the betrayal of children " is also emphasised. In 1909, in " Social Hygiencies,"* we find "numbers between 14 and 16 have had to suffer the dire consequences of outrage." In 1912 a book which has run into seventeen editions, " The White Slave Market," by the late Mrs. Mackirdy and Mr. W. N. Willis — both earnest social workers — gives evidence upon evidence of how young girls " not yet sixteen years old " are deceived and degraded. In 1913, the valuable report of the Bureau of Social Hygiene 1 This" tabulation is given in its complete form in the chapter " Causes Predisposing to Vice." ' ByJtheJAuthor. PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 37 states that of 1021 girls on the streets in one particular region of a great city, 546, or more than half, had entered prostitution between their fourteenth and eighteenth years. In 1914, in the report of the International AboU- tionist Federation held at Portsmouth in June of that year, we find it stated "more than half start on the wrong path before they reach eighteen years." Ample illustration is therefore afforded, firstly, of the heart-breaking extent of the traffic among girls too young to decide for themselves, and, secondly, the remarkable drop in numbers among young women who have reached twenty, and some d^retionary know- ledge. It is not the place in this chapter to indulge in regrets at the hesitancy of parents to enhghten the ignorance of young girls sufficiently to enable them to recognise danger, but incidentally it may be emphasized that neglect so to do is a substantial factor in these deadly figures. In the autumn of 1913, the writer made inquiry of the Special Commissioners of the Department of Justice for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic in the U.S.A. The advantage of such official information will be apparent. The cases would not be unusual examples chosen for their strength ; they would not be " written up," and would bear in every aspect the stamp of official authority. Care has been taken throughout this book only to use evidence from thoroughly dependable sources, and in first giving the following illustrations of actual prosecuted cases it is felt that the strongest presentation will be secured. In sending the details of many cases, from which only eight examples are taken, Mr. S. W. Finch, Special Commissioner, wrote under date October i8th, 1913 : — " I have the honour to enclose copies of statements pre- pared as to the facts developed by investigations made in a few t3rpical cases which have been prosecuted under our White Slave Traffic Act." These cases are given in the same official style in 38 THE MASTER PROBLEM which they reached the writer, save that the names, given by the Commissioner, have been obscured. Defendant, convicted in Arizona, under a charge of enticing a child from Nogales, Arizona, to Los Angeles, California, for immoral purposes ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one year and three months in the Kansas State Penitentiary, at Lansing, Kansas. Victim, Montie Lee H ; aged 13 J years ; of previously chaste character. Statement of Facts: Defendant had a bad reputation for chastity and was known in Nogales as a procuress. Victim came to Nogales in June, 1912. About three years prior to this time, defendant had visited her sister (mother of victim), during which visit her conduct was such that the father ordered her to leave the house. Before leaving, however, defendant threatened him, saying, in effect, with much profanity, that she would cause both his daughters to become prostitutes. The victim was morally pure and with not even the slightest womanly physical development. Almost imme- diately after her arrival at her aunt's home in Nogales, one Smith, whom the defendant had several times urged to come to her house for the purpose of having illicit relations with her or young girls who hved at her house, visited her, and defendant introduced victim to her as her daughter, telling him that she was sixteen years of age, although she was but thirteen and one-half years old. Following this introduction, Smith called many times at defendant's home, during all of which time defendant repeatedly informed victim that Smith (who was really married) was a good man and Montie should do everything he wanted her to do. She. especially commended her for going away with Smith, telling her it was the best day's work she ever did. Smith went to Tucson, Arizona, about June 25, 1912, after giving victim $15.00 and telling her to use the money for her transportation to that point (which amounted to about $2.00) and to spend the balance as she pleased, except that she should buy a long skirt and wear it at Tucson. The victim bought the long skirt and put it on in defendant's home and in her presence, thereafter leaving for Tucson, where Smith met her. They registered at one of the principal hotels in the city, taking separate rooms. Smith entered victim's room and slept in the same bed. Upon the following morning Smith bought tickets for PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 89 Los Angeles, California, and upon their arrival at that place- engaged rooms at the Hotel, where he lived with the victim for several weeks. In the meantime, Smith met his wife in Los Angeles, effected a reconciliation with her and cast off witness, who was afraid to return home. Instead she went to Guaymas and Hermosillo, Mexico, soliciting in both of these places until she became so ill that she was placed in a hospital, where her stay became known. Defendant, convicted May 20, 1912, in the Southern District of Florida, under a charge of transporting a girl from Concord, New Hampshire, to Pinehurst, Florida, for immoral purposes ; sentenced to imprisonment for one year and one day in the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. Lived at Concord, New Hampshire, was a married man 24 years of age, had a limited education, and was previously employed as a driver of a coal wagon. Victim, Ethel M. C , lived at Concord, New Hampshire, was 15 years of age, and was a student in the High School. She was fond of music, and the only daughter of foster parents, and apparently of previously good character, Statement of Facts; Information was received to the effect that the girl had disappeared from her home in Concord, N.H., on March 5, 1912, and that about the same time L had deserted his wife and had drawn from the bank $250 which he had saved. For about six months L had seemed to be much interested in Ethel, but had never done anything to attract particular attention. On the evening of March 5th Ethel left her home to go on an errand and was not seen by her parents thereafter. No trace of L or the girl was found until a letter was received from her written at Boston, March gth, in which she bade her mother good-bye and told her that she and L were going to Paris and that it would be useless to search for them. In evidence, Ethel stated that she did not at first know L was a married man. L admitted that he had paid her expenses from Concord to Jacksonville, and that they had lived together as husband and wife. Defendant, convicted in Oregon of transporting a girl from the State of Washington to the State of Oregon for immoral purposes ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment for 40 THE MASTER PROBLEM ten years in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. Victim, name unknown ; aged i6 years ; previously to meeting defendant was of chaste character. Statement of Facts: The evidence in this case shows that about ten months prior to his arrest, this defendant seduced a sixteen-year-old girl (victim) under the promise of marriage, and later personally conducted her over a tour of several hundred miles, taking her to the smaller cities and a number of towns in the State of Washington for the purpose of having her engage in prostitution. During this period he collected all of her earnings. Later he sent victim out alone on a similar trip, having her remit her earnings to him. This proving unprofitable he again accompanied her. At Wallace, Idaho, he occupied a room in an assignation house adjoining that of victim. Here he forced her to engage in prostitution, collecting her earnings regularly three times a day. Her health failed, she was forced to retire temporarily. When she regained her health, as victim did not send him the amount of money he expected to receive, defendant administered a severe beating to her. This offence led to defendant's arrest, further investigation bringing to light the fact that for ten or twelve years defendant, while ostensibly a waiter by occu- pation, was in reality a " cadet " and procurer ; that at one time he had four women and girls engaged in prostitution in the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, all of whom remitted their earnings to defendant regularly. Defendant, convicted in the Southern District of Florida of transporting a girl from Atlanta, Georgia, to Tampa, Florida, for immoral purposes ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years and six months in the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. Victim, Agnes C ; 17 years of age ; lived at Suwanee, Georgia. Statement of Facts : Defendant and one M S operated jointly the Theatre at Tampa, Florida. Their booking representative at Atlanta inserted an advertisement in the paper for chorus girls. Victim applied and signed a contract to appear at a salary of $10.00 per week for the first four weeks and I15.00 a week thereafter, she to room and board in the theatre. After victim signed a contract, agent PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 41 gave her a railroad ticket which had been provided by the defendant and his partner for that purpose. She arrived at Tampa at about 6.30 a.m. and met defendant at seven o'clock. Victim then testified as follows : " He showed me to my room and took the check to get my trunk. I went to sleep and slept until two o'clock in the afternoon. After lunch I went to my room, and about six o'clock the defendant came and said to me I would make a hit, and I was to be his girl. His room was next to mine, and he told me he was coming in my room that night and sleep with me ; and he kissed and caressed me." Defendant denied that he made improper proposals to the girl, and it was testified that at the prehminary hearing she did not charge him with such. In all else, however, her test - mony was not contradicted, and it was supported as to the character of the house and as to what took place. Defendant found guilty of transporting a girl from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland, for immoral purposes ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment of eighteen months in the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. Lived in Baltimore, Maryland, where, together with his alleged wife, he conducted a house of prostitution. Victim, Olga T ; 18 years of age ; an alien coming from some place near Finland ; limited education ; employed as servant ; character apparently good. Statement of Facts: Defendant had requested Alessio G and Gaetano A to procure girls for his brothel. While walking in Central Park victim, who was then seeking employment, was accosted by Alessio G , who, under the pretence of giving her employment in a respectable house, induced her to accompany him to a tenement house, where she was forcibly detained in his room and compelled to have intercourse with him repeatedly. She was then taken to Baltimore and conducted to defendant's house at No. — Eastern Avenue. While an inmate of this house she received no portion of the money earned by her. Victim was utterly ignorant of the English language, without friends, and in a strange city, and was compelled to prostitute herself in this house. While an inmate she was subjected to cruel treatment. Subsequently M sent for G and informed him that he must get victim back to New York immediately, as the Government authorities were after her. G thereupon 42 THE MASTER PROBLEM took victim to the Union Station, but before he could get her aboard a train she was placed under arrest. G made his escape, but was subsequently apprehended in New York City. Defendant, F M , anltahan, found guilty of transporting a girl from New York City to Paterson, New Jersey, on January 2, 1912, for immoral purposes, sentenced to five years in the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia. Lived in New York City ; no information available as to his education ; was a barber by trade, and had pre- viously lived on the earnings of at least one girl. Victim, Anna P , was a respectable Jewish working girl, who came to America three and a half years ago from London, England. Lived in New York City and was employed by the Art Embroidery Company. Was chaste until she met M in January, 1912. Statement of Facts : During the fall of 1911, defendant, M , met Anna in the lobby of a cheap amusement place in New York City. He brushed up against her and entered into a conversation with her and then accompanied her to her home and received permission to call upon her. Later, M proposed marriage. About January, 1912, M took Anna to a ball, and remaining out until two o'clock in the morning she was afraid to go home, so M suggested that she accompany him to a hotel and he would get two separate rooms and in the morning they would be married. They then proceeded to a hotel, and when they were shown upstairs Anna discovered that he had only secured one room, to which she strongly objected, but M told her it would be all right, that they would be married in the morning. She finally consented, and later M seduced her. Later, he com- pelled her to earn for him in a bad hotel in Paterson, N.J. He next put her in a house of ill-fame. Anna remained in this place for two weeks, after which time she refused to continue. While in this house she gave M most of her earnings. M urged her to return, saying he would marry her if she did. She still refused, and M beat her badly and stabbed her twice. A physician was summoned who treated her wounds, and a woman of the underworld took care of her that night. Then followed M 's arrest. Defendant, convicted in the Northern District of Cali- fornia, under a charge of transporting a girl from Baltimore, PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 48 Maryland, to San Francisco, California, for immoral pur- poses ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years in the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washing- ton. Was a merchant of Fort Yukon, Alaska. Victim, Charlotte O'H , a nurse, of Scranton, Pennsylvania ; of chaste character and excellent education. Statement of Facts : An advertisement in the New York caUing for a nurse to go to Fort Yukon, Alaska, was answered by a woman of high character, a trained nurse living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The victim's employer subsequently stated that she was a thoroughly good girl, a regular church attendant, and that she bore the best of reputations. By appointment she met the advertiser in Baltimore, Maryland. He informed her that he was a mer- chant in Fort Yukon, Alaska, where he had a young wife and baby. The advertiser (defendant) paid the transportation of the nurse (victim) to San Francisco. After their arrival in San Francisco, under the pretext of waiting for the boat and desiring to make some purchases, defendant secured comfortable quarters for victim in a cottage. Here defendant administered drugs to victim and attempted to have inter- course with her while she was under their influence, but victim escaped from the cottage and informed a Catholic priest, who promptly reported the facts. A telegram was sent to Arch- deacon , who replied that he had known defendant per- sonally for eight years, and that he was an evil character and had an exceedingly bad record, particularly concerning illicit relations with women. A part of this letter read : " All the decent people of this place, and not a few whom we are not accustomed to call particularly decent, are hoping that B will be ' clinched ' this time. He has fully earned a long term of imprisonment by long-continued evil living, and I have no doubt — ^no one here has any doubt — that the girl he was trying to bring in with him was destined to the same fate as those he has lured here in the past." Defendant, convicted in the Eastern District of Michigan of transporting his own wife and a girl named Lillian B from Cleveland, Ohio, to Detroit, Michigan, for immoral purposes ; sentenced to a term of imprisonment of five years in the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. 44 THE MASTER PROBLEM Victims, Celia F , wife of defendant and mother of his one child, and Lillian B , the latter being 17 years of age. Statement of Facts : Defendant had previously served a term of imprisonment in the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. Immediately upon his release he married victim Celia. A child was born to them, and very soon thereafter defendant induced his wife to enter upon a life of shame. Defendant transported both victims from Cleveland, Ohio, to Detroit, Michigan, for purposes of prostitution. Defendant was shown to have been engaged in procuring young girls for some time, it appearing that he was employed as a procurer by his brother, who conducted a notorious resort in Chicago. Prior to the time of defendant's arrest in Detroit he trans- ported one Anna C , aged 17, from Buffalo, New York, to Cleveland, Ohio, where he placed her in a house of prostitu- tion. In pronouncing sentence upon defendant, the Judge said that " there were no words in the English language adequate to express his contempt for a man who would traffic in the virtue of the mother of his own child." Many of the ruined are unable to bring to justice those responsible for their downfall. Some such authenti- cated cases giving details of the manner in which the girls were caught, are given hereunder, for adding which to this already long chapter on the U.S.A. no excuse is needed. " A " Uved with her parents in Chicago. She was a high- school graduate, and at the age of twenty was employed in an office. One of the girls in the same building asked her to go to a dance one Saturday night and they both went, un- attended. The friend introduced " A " to " J," who after a dance took her downstairs to " a sort of cafe," where they had lemonade. Later in the evening "J" asked "A" to have another lemonade, this time with a little claret in it. In the words of " A" : "When I began to drink I noticed a peculiar taste and asked 'J' if it were intoxicating. He said ' No.' Directly afterwards I felt dizzy ; it seemed as if my head was whirling round and round, and in a few moments I entirely forgot where I was. When I came to I was in a bed." The pathetic story goes on to describe the girl's experience in a house of ill-fame after she had been ruined while uncon- PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC 45 scious, and how at last her father, through Vigilance agents, was able to rescue her. Another example, which came to light in May, 1907, is recorded by C. G. Roe in " Panders and their WTiite Slaves " : — " One afternoon Minnie was serving at the ribbon counter of a large department store when a pleasant, refined-looking young man came along and asked for some ribbon. ' What kind ? ' inquired Minnie. ' Any colour will do if you are selling it,' was the smartly-tailored man's reply, and this led to an invitation to the theatre, which the girl was foolish enough to accept. Seated in the stalls he told fables of wealth and of his fine bachelor apartments. She promised to see him again, for a drive, and on that occasion he made love to her, but no improper word was spoken or suggestion made. Next time she was free they went to a dance together, and she remembered nothing after taking refreshment with him until she awoke, as she discovered later, in his flat, and with the realisation that she had been cruelly ruined. Several men were present. She was afraid to go home again. However, the man said they would go out right then and get married. On the way they went into a house to see one of the man's friends, and in a few moments she discovered she was captive. Her clothes were forcibly taken from her, and she was com- pelled for many weeks to remain in the brothel for the service of patrons. She escaped one day and the matter became known, coincidentally with the fact that the man was one of a gang of several men who enticed and drugged girls, and thereafter sold them into white slavery at prices varying from 25 to 100 dollars each, according to their physical attractions and youthfulness. " One of these men, later, was found to have with him, under pretence of a musical party, no fewer than fourteen girls, a ' consignment ' of lured girls he was taking to a disorderly house in another State." Dr. Kate Adams, at Chicago in 1912, related the following instance of what White Slave Traffickers are capable when carrying on their business in bodies : — " A little girl from a suburb, south of the city, just past her sixteenth birthday, was seduced by an employee of a well- 46 THE MASTER PROBLEM known company here ; the fellow ran away after the seduction and has not been located since. This young girl was afraid to go home after what had happened. She could not face her mother. She went to the West Side and roomed with a girl friend. Almost immediately a man formed her acquaint- ance, and said he would help her find work. He sent her to what he said was a caf6. He told her to be there at three in the afternoon, that she was expected, and that he would come over at five o'clock. When the child arrived — for she was nothing but that — she was taken in charge by the man man- ager of the house and the booking ofi&cer sent for. She was instructed to say that she was twenty years old. The manager sat at her elbow during her interview with the bookers. These are not pleasant things to speak of, but such things have been hidden too long ; twenty men were sent to that child that night, and she saw fifty-six before she was declared too ill to ' work.' She tells me that she got just 13s. out of the {,12 that must have been paid into that house on her account. Shortly after this the youth of the girl was reported and arrests were made." Dr. Adams goes on to say : " This little girl came to my Home for Girls pending the presentation of her case to the Grrand Jury. Dr. Bertha Van Hoesen, our physician, attended her, and I would not attempt to repieat to you her report as to the child's condition. We, as a city, have permitted a district to exist where such things happen practically every day, but it is only occasionally that we get knowledge of them. Can you conceive of the heart of that manager who went to that young girl's room and cursed her after she sent word to him that she was ill, and asked that no more men be sent to her. Yet this is one type of the men who are engaged in the vice business." It would be easy to multiply instances where the snare of vanity, and the facility with which some girls are deluded, have contributed to the loss of virtue. One of the procurers, quite a young fellow, was led by his father to return to respectability ; he replied to an official investigator who asked him to explain the methods by which girls are secured : — PRESENT-DAY TRA.FFIC 47 " We all have the same system, only varied according to the girl. If she is stage-struck it's dead easy to get her ; if in love the man promises to marry her. If she is looking for a job he is ' Johnny on the spot ' with a good one. After a feUow has ' handed out a line of talk ' which is likely to fetch the girl, and she is ' hard to land,' they use ' knock-out drops,' e.g. drugged drink, which does the trick if you are in a pfece where it is safe. All sorts of places are visited, and if a girl is too young, but a fine specimen, a man will marry her and then put her in a ' house,' as they say they cannot arrest a fellow for putting his wife into a brothel. It is often done." Undeniably matters are improving, and the long- sustained labours of purity workers are reaping sub- stantial rewards. But the world is a long way yet from being clean, and lest any reader may hastily conclude that because the examples given are not absolutely abreast of the times they represent out-of-date con- ditions, the following two extracts are taken at random from New York papers. One dated August 29th, 1915, reads : — " With the arraignment in the Yorkville Court yesterday of Frank M. on the charge of attacking and robbing Miss A. H. disclosures of a widespread campaign to intimidate Grand Jury witnesses against ' white slave ' agents were made by Assistant District Attorney Smith. " The young woman had recently appeared before the Grand Jury, where she told of the existence here of a well- organised ' vice band.' Shortly afterwards she was warned that she would suffer. On the morning of August 25th she was attacked by several men, receiving a broken jaw and other injuries. " The Yorkville Court proceedings disclosed that for a month past Mr. Smith had been making an investigation of the renewed activities of the ' vice trust ' in the neighbourhood of Thirty-Fourth Street and Seventh Avenue. Information has come to him that men at the head of this ' trust ' have been able to get poUce protection. One of the alleged agents, according to Mr. Smith, is ' Mochy ' G., who forfeited his bail last year when arrested on the charge of being involved in the ' white slave ' traffic." 48 THE MASTER PROBLEM The other appeared earlier in the same month : — " The ease with which young and pretty girls can be bought for a paltry $50 and confined in questionable houses against their will was shown yesterday when Lieutenant E., of D C L 's staff, bargained for and ' bought ' three girls. He only paid $10 down on each — ^the balance was to be paid if the girls ' proved satisfactory.' The three girls are now in custody, as are three young men from Newark, with whom Lieut. E, says he made the deal. " Enright got in touch with the three men at a Twenty- Third Street house. He represented he wished to buy three girls and the men offered to get them. Yesterday they brought , , and , all of Newark, and all nineteen years old, to New York." These are but a few glimpses of this ghastly traffic in the souls of women in one part of the world. How the same traffic is carried on elsewhere is for the next chapter. CHAPTER IV THE SOCIAL EVIL IN SOUTH AMERICA, CHINA, AND JAPAN " The crowning and most accursed sin of Society is the carelessness with which it regards the betrayal of women." — Ruskin. IN the previous chapter, reliable figures were given showing the extent of the white slave traffic in the U.S.A. Unhappily these deplorable statistics are not pecuUar to New York City, or the other places referred to ; neither are they abnormal, for in almost every city of dimensions in the world the social evil exists to an extent little dreamed of by the ordinary healthy-minded citizen. In the more southern territories of the Continent of America, such as Mexico and other largely populated centres, successfully organised efforts have done much to reduce known vice and to raise moral standards. Not always has this bew done in the same way ; not always, either, has the purging of a city been acknowledged by the authorities. On the first of these two points effort has been recom- mended in the direction of prohibiting importation, and Buenos Ayres has been quoted as a typical case where restriction in this way would materially combat sexual vice. In this vast and rapidly growing city of the Argen- tine Republic the pernicious system of regulation is in force, and therefore the greater percentage of prostitutes are under official control and record kept of the history of each. The police register showed that recently in the official houses of Buenos Ayres there were no fewer than 1414 registered prostitutes. Is it not a terrible thought that the thousands upon thousands of morally degenerate men are deliberately allowed by official sanction thus to damn their souls, wreck their bodies and most certainly K 49 50 THE MASTER PROBLEM transmit to the next generation a direful legacy of dis- ease and mental inefficiency ? Out of this number of municipally recognised white slaves only 272 were Argentine women, the remaining 1142 being imported girls and women, cajoled, entrapped, or willing wantons, mostly from Europe. There were over seventy houses of assignation of the highest grade in Buenos Ayres, several of which were located in the most fashionable thoroughfare of the city. At a purposely low computation, giving the system the benefit of every doubt, each house would contain at least ten inmates, thus giving a total of seven hundred girls. It has to be emphasized that these houses are only those catering for the richest customers, and that the second and third grade houses, therefore, are as many more as the register shows. A fact which makes blacker the horrible picture this statement conjures up, is that in these first-class houses English girls, freshly imported and used for the first time, are almost exclusively presented to the customers. A striking instance of reluctance to acknowledge the victories of purity is seen in an important city which shall be nameless and unlocalised save for the acknow- ledgment that it is on the American continent. In this city there were nearly a thousand known domiciled prostitutes, not counting those who solicited on the streets. In the summer of 1912 a determined Purity crusade was initiated and a Vice Commission took con- trol of the campaign. In eighteen sections of the city, houses of vice were congregated besides many more scattered here and there, and doing a fatal work under the toleration of the police authorities. At the same time a rigid law existed on the statute book prohibiting such houses, and providing that the owner be severely punished as weU as the agent for letting it for immoral purposes. Small fines from £1 to £9, English equivalent, had from time to time been inflicted, after which the delinquents departed to follow their trade as before. The Commission met with much SOUTH AMERICA, CHINA, AND JAPAN 51 bitter opposition from the Press, and even the Grand Jury alleged that after eighteen months of hard work, the Commission had done more harm than good. As a matter of fact, even though the crusade met with very little financial support the results achieved were beyond expectation, including the appointment of an admirable Board of Police Commissioners ; the appoint- ment by the Governor of a good Board of Liquor Licence Commissioners, who at once set about eliminating the worst class of public-houses ; the abolition of the sale of intoxicants in houses of vice ; the ordering out of all telephones from these houses ; the closing of 104 houses and the prevention of new ones being opened ; the reduction of the number of inmates from 822 to 520, and the rescue of a proportion of them through the assistance of homes and charitable institutions. To close over a hundred houses of ill-fame and to cause three hundred prostitutes to cease their infamous trade is no mean achievement when, as already pointed out, one bears in mind the potentialities for pollution that exist in one bad woman. That is the encouraging aspect of a black fact, but the pernicious shadow over that city, of the five hundred brothel-inmates that still remain, is cruelly sinister. Reference has been made in an earlier paragraph to the official recognition of houses where immorality is practised. In no continent does this obtain to such a degree as in Asia, in certain regions of which it is sanc- tioned by long custom, and the social ethic deems it unnecessary to close the traffic. In China the ramifications of sexual immorality further defy estimate by statisticians, because the profession of the prostitute is not necessarily permanent, for they can be taken into concubinage by some man of means and attain a position of standing in the community. This change of life is called tsoengliang, or " following the good way." The restrictions laid by the law upon the wife are, as jn niost western countries, infinitely more severe 52 THE MASTER PROBLEM than those imposed upon the husband ; and as the marriage is not based upon individual choice it naturally follows — except in rare instances — that extra-marital intercourse is thereby increased. In like manner it has been accurately proved that only a few Chinese women enter upon the hfe of prostitu- tion from individual choice, but are placed in that position by those who have the right to " riie over them." Until recently, parents were legally permitted to sell their children, the sale of wives being also practised though not widely sanctioned. The open sale of girls as prosti- tutes is theoretically forbidden, but the restriction is evaded by a pretence of marriage or adoption. Segregation is not rampant in China. In the foreign quarters there are brothels for three classes of customers, native Chinese, foreigners, and mixed. The wide extent of the white slave traffic in China may be gauged by the fact that in Hankow — a typical city — there are several narrow streets occupied entirely by houses of prostitu- tion. In the Chinese cities there are two types, the common or public brothel, open day and night, and distingmshed by a particular type of red lantern, and the assignation houses which also supply girls. Street prostitutes of a lower grade are found in the inns and temples, and in the theatres. Apart from these, and entirely distinct the one from the other, are the flower boats, a type of resort particularly associated with China. A full and interesting description of the better class house on terra firma and of these flower boats is given in the next chapter by a writer closely acquainted with this phase of prostitution in the East. Prostitution has received official sanction in Japan since 1626, when the first segregated quarter was estab- lished in Tokyo. Some description of the circumstances and history of Japanese custom in this connection will be more appropriate to a later chapter, where it will be found. Here, some idea is sought to be given of the extent of the traffic in Japan. The various licensed quarters known as the Yoshiwarj SOUTH AMERICA, CHINA, AND JAPAN 53 Yukwaku, and situated principally in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagasaki, are constantly supplied with young girls actually owned by their keepers ; the tea houses are allowed to cater to depravity without interference. Considerable fees are made out of the commissions and the gifts of the more wealthy guests. Certain figures arrived at in 1906 give the total girls kept in licensed Yoshiwari houses in the Japanese Empire as 44,542. The principal towns showed respectively as the total registered prostitutes : Tokyo, 6379 ; Osaka, 5003 ; Nagasaki, 2342 ; Kyoto, 1913. Depressing as these figures are, they become subjects for serious contemplation when it is pointed out that in only three years from the date given, one of these cities had almost doubled its dreadful abandonment to the vice of immoraUty. In 1909, Osaka had 1948 hcensed houses of prostitu- tion, in which were 9378 licensed women, and m6n paid that year £445,700 to the brothels. That means one hcensed woman to every thirty-eight men in Osaka. Licensing the evil gives it legality and respectabihty in the eyes of the Japanese, who are noted for their regard for government ; the same logic reacts on the business aspect of it. It is not therefore to be wondered at that the legaUsing of the traffic tends to its increase, and hence to the increase of revenue therefrom. In spite of all this, there is a considerable amount of unlicensed prostitution which is quite beyond any accurate estimate up to the present. The only definite fact is sad enough, e.g. that over seven thousand women were arrested in one year for ilHcit prostitution. A fact to be noted is that the Japanese pubhc generally has not yet come to look upon the evil as in any sense degrading. A man not infrequently marries a girl from the Yoshiwari and stands to lose nothing of his caste thereby. Another great Asiatic area is India. England has much to ponder over in her attitude toward the traffic in India. The degrading periodical examination of women was stopped in 1888, and a new Cantonment Act, introduced 64 THE MASTER PROBLEM in 1889, was strengthened in 1893. The result, however, was such an enormous increase in syphilis that a new order was introduced in 1897, which made notification of " contagious " diseases compulsory ; which gave power to remove brothels, and which prevented the residence or loitering of prostitutes in or near Cantonments. In regard to the view of the base use of women among natives much that in Westerns is considered as un- equivocal prostitution is looked upon in Asiatic domains as sanctioned by custom, as for instance the religious practices in Hindu temples, whereby large numbers of girls are dedicated from infancy to a ceremonial procedure which involves what is nothing more nor less than prosti- tution. All this makes any assessment of the social evil in India difficult and perplexing, and it is all to advantage that resulting from Mr. Dadabhoy's Bill discussed in the autumn of 1912 by the Supreme Coimcil at Simla, some advance has been made in the right direction. In Ceylon a segregated area had long been tolerated in Colombo, but in 1912 energetic local agitation was so successful that many houses were closed. With regard to the extent of the traffic in other British possessions no very exact data is at present forthcoming. Strenuous efforts are being made in the direction of purity, as will be detailed in a later chapter, but informa- tion from reliable sources tends to prove that the traffic consists not in innocent girls, or for the most part with white women, but among such as have been engaged in this trade in other countries first, and either of their own accord or under the protection of the procurer have transferred their field of operations to siich towns and districts in the colonies as afford special scope for the " trade." There is little doubt, however, that the keener insight and knowledge which is being constantly brought to bear on these investigations, will bring to Ught such information as will enable us to rid to a large extent such places and districts of this " trade " which, no matter where it exists, leaves physical ruin to men and women and their succeeding generations, in its train. CHAPTER V " THE LIFE " IN THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST t "A trade which is poisoning the life-blood of the world so long as f there is a single country which permits it to flourish." — The Countess ' OF Aberdeen. " The thing, in all its shamelessness, and all its callow cruelty and all its contemptible cowardice, is still alive." — The Archbishop of Canterbury. BEFORE going farther afield, shall we pause for a moment to consider the sources of supply for the extensive and devilish trade in the South and Far East ? Although hundreds upon hundreds of girls are shipped into the country for immoral purposes, yet there is a constant stream of girls taken from the farms and homes of America. Girls from many North American cities have been sent to South America, to Shanghai, and to Australia, for which traffic in victims for dens of vice, Clifford G. Roe tells us, " New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco have become the main distributing points." In the towns on the coast-line of the Gulf of Mexico many hideous illustrations of the traffic could be given, were it not that cities already mentioned have furnished more than enough evidence of the tortuous trickery by which the system is recruited and carried on. A single illustration will suffice, that of a great centre in the Southern State of Louisiana. Here exists the only dis- trict of its kind in the State set aside for the unfettered indulgence of sexual vice under the protection of the law. So far from this official segregation ensuring that prostitu- tion shall remain under control and hidden from the public, it has resulted in the regular issue and distribution of an infamous "Blue Book," which is a directory of the segregated district, giving the names and street addresses 55 56 THE MASTER PROBLEM of approximately six hundred women inmates of houses of ill-fame and containing full-page advertisements of many of the houses, and full-page half-tone illustrations of the interiors. Very justly, a writer who examined the directory remarked : " It is enough to make the blood run cold to think that any civilised city on the globe would permit for an instant such a book to be issued in its midst." Of Mexico and Brazil pathetic stories could be given, as too, in the southern regions of the continent, of the Argentine, where many deceived girls are sent from the distributing points, to meet the unholy demand. In Buenos Ayres the traffic is scarcely veiled. The proce- dure which involves the fiction of a theatrical engage- ment is sufficiently well known to be passed by here, but a variation in the quest for victims was an application made to a well-known employment agency for "a nice smart EngUsh girl as nurse to a lady." Inquiries revealed that the applicant was a man, the agent of a Spaniard owning a large establishment in Buenos Ayres. There was every evidence that the principal was a trafficker in vice, but as no " legal " proof was forthcoming, and no girl had been supplied, the man merely disappeared. It is a sad fact, as Mr. Coote, the Secretary of the National Vigilance Association, pointed out at the International Congress held in London in 1913, that the majority of the girls in the licensed houses of ill-fame in the Argentine are recruited from European countries, a large proportion passing through Bordeaux, from the Western countries, including England, and through Lemberg and Bukowina from Russian territory. From these centres too many girls are sold into white slavery in Brazil. An illustration of one of the methods of recruiting for South America was given at the Fifth International Congress held in London in 1913, by which one learned that the procuresses travel through the little towns and villages of mid-Europe, and indicate to the agents the addresses of those young girls who are ambitious and THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 57 beautiful, and who are tired of poverty. The agent hastens there, professing to be the representative of a rich property owner in South America, and shows them a formal contract of marriage in which the proprietor, enamoured of the young girl by the mere sight of her photograph, promises her a future of absolute luxury. Naturally, this is only a lie. It is probable that the young girl has never been photographed, and moreover, such a promise of marriage has no value. The agent brings her beautiful dresses and imitation jewellery, and rapidly gains the confidence of the young girl and her parents. The greater number of those marriages are made by the aid of a person calling himself a Rabbi and are celebrated by means of false papers. The husband and wife leave for Havre, and from there for the Argentine. Needless to say, that once there she is immediately placed in a house of ill-fame. Happily, through the agency of the Austrian League a procurer known as " Napoleon " was arrested and expelled in 1912. He was so named by his friends because of the measure of success which had attended his nefarious traffic, and by which he kept well supplied a notorious house in Buenos Ayres. In October of the same year also, two other white slave dealers were arrested for persuading girls to accompany them to Buenos Ayres. Their plan of action was to go through a " ritual " marriage with each girl they secured, and to place their " wives " in various brothels in the capital of the Argentine. Illustrations of the diligence with which the men who deal in the virtue of women ply their trade are seen in the manner in which they infested the zone while the Panama Canal was being constructed. Before leaving the great continent of America, to observe somewhat more of the traffic in Asia, some illustra- tion must be given of the value of iUicit gains in White Slavery. In one city where over three thousand women living by prostitution were located by trained investiga- tors, the official report stated : " The prices for service in these call houses vary from $3.00 to $15.00 or $20.00 68 THE MASTER PROBLEM for the girl, with a charge of $1.50 or S2.00 for the room. The most commonly charged price for the girl is $5.00, and for the room, $2.00." From the report of a Vice Commission published by a populous city in 1913 is extracted the following grave indictment of its inhabitants : " There is an annual expenditure of more than six million dollars in this city for prostitution purposes : — J £ Parlour houses . . 2,433,600= 486,720 Call houses . . . 1,216,800= 243,360 Street-walkers . . . 2,600,000= 520,000 $6,250,400=£i,'25o,o8o We are thoroughly convinced that this is an under- estimate rather than an over-estimate." That any error is in favour of the delinquents may be gathered from a significant fact which came to light in 1913, when it was discovered that during the previous year, the owners and profiters of disorderly houses in one great city paid no less than £1,700,000 to bribable members of the municipality and the police, for assistance in evading the law. In India the White slave problem is complicated by the number of young Indian females who can be sold into prostitution. There is an irregular trade in little girls, these children being bought when babies for a trifle, and specially reared for sale at the age of thirteen or fourteen at prices varying from twenty to two thousand rupees. The conditions prevailing in China to-day are better understood by students having some familiarity with the social and moral customs of the people. Briefly they arise out of the fact that sexual ethics are based upon the supremacy of the family over the individual, and this alienation of individual dignity and responsibility is one of the basic considerations necessary to any inquiry into the reasons of the Social Evil in the Far East. An academic investigation into causes is not the present THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 59 object. Rather do we look at conditions as they are and seek to banish or minimise. The resorts of vice in China are of two types, those on land, and those on the water. The first type are found everywhere, the second exists only on the river fronts. The first are called tsing-loo, or blue houses, from the fact that customarily the blinds which shield the interior from view are painted blue. The houses are sumptuous to a degree, and in Canton and Emoi are specially designed for their purpose and are two stories high. The upper floor is divided into small cubicles, each of which has its female occupant. In the centre is the common room, decorated with handsome pictures. In the evening, about seven o'clock, the blinds are opened, a large number of lamps are lighted, and music and songs fill the house. Some of the streets on which the houses are located are called Hoa-Kiai, or " street of flowers," and Lioe hiang, or " street of willows." Each house has also its own name. For instance, one finds at Emoi the names of tshao-a-oa, or " saddle of straw " ; tsap poehhtee kao, or " the eighteen chairs." The second type of resorts are the flower boats, hoa thing. They can best be described as gigantic Venetian gondolas ; their length varies from sixty to eighty feet ; they have a beam of about fifteen feet. At the stern is a platform so arranged that when the boats are anchored close together, as is frequently the case, it is possible to pass from one to the other. Toward the rear of the boat is an antechamber opening into the main saloon, which occupies about half the length of the ship. The two rooms are separated by basket- work partitions. At the right and left are couches for the opium-smokers. The retiring room is separated from the pleasure-seekers outside by a wooden partition. The windows on each side can be closed by curtains. All the furnishings are artistically carved and are of brilliant colours. The floor of the main saloon is covered with the richest carpets and European lamps. 60 THE MASTER PROBLEM adorned with crystal pendants, suspended from the ceiling. The furniture consists of a large round table, candelabra and several chairs, all made of beautiful rose- wood and ebony, elaborately inlaid.. These seductive boats create at night, by their dazzling brilliance, a magi- cal effect, and no one who has visited Canton can ever forget the sight. The " flower maidens " do not ordinarily reside on these boats, coming to them only for the exer- cise of their calling. The Chinese do not ordinarily go to these boats alone. They generally make up a company of ten or twenty friends and hire one of the boats for an evening. For the rental price the proprietor of the boat furnishes the illumination, a supper, and the girls. He must also furnish a band of musicians, and the " flower maidens " must entertain the merry-makers by their singing and conversation. About nine o'clock supper begins, where- upon the guests seat themselves about the round table, each having a girl at his side. During the last course some game is played — ^the most popular being the Morra of the ItaUans. At the end of the feast each couple goes apart in a small boat constructed on the same model as the large one, and therein passes the night. The education of the " flower maidens " is conducted in a systematic manner. During the first six years of their life they are reared with the greatest care. At the age of seven or eight it is their duty to keep in order the rooms of the older girls. They are richly clothed when they are taken to the flower boats, where they serve tea and smoking materials to the guests. About the age of eleven they learn to sing, and play on the lute and guitar. If any of the girls show a natural aptitude, they teach them writing, arithmetic, painting, and other subjects. This continues vmtil the thirteenth or fif- teenth year. The girls must then attempt to win the favour of some rich man by means of coquetry and various artifices. If they have good luck in this their guardian sells their virginity for a large sum of money. This happens most frequently at the age of thirteen. THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 61 when it is called " trying the flower " ; if at fourteen years, " cultivating the flower " ; if at fifteen, " gathering the flower." The procurers who deal in girls for the purposes of prostitution and live off their profits, are particularly debased individuals. It is not uncommon to find that these men have formerly been officials in the courts or prisons. Great care is taken to conceal their actual identity, also to prevent the escape or abduction of the prostitutes in case their part in this discreditable busi- ness should become known, for the open sale of girls as prostitutes is theoretically forbidden. The methods by which the men procure these girls are not unUke certain features of the same " profession " in other countries. For instance : in Southern China exten- sive floods are not an infrequent occurrence, and many famihes are plunged into financial ruin. At such a time the procurer will make his appearance in the guise of a kindly friend offering to purchase a girl for a wealthy relative who wishes to marry. As this is in accordance with the custom of the country, the parents are practi- cally compelled to sell their daughter ; and as the price increases up to a certain age, and may be added to if the girl is more than usually attractive, the offer is gladly accepted. If, however, such a transaction shoifld be traced and brought to justice, the offender is sternly treated ; earnings are confiscated and fines are imposed, in addition to which he is sometimes ordered to wear a badge or special garb indicative of his immoral calling. The law also gives a prostitute the right to make a public complaint if ill-treated. The foregoing description applies to coast towns, not to the interior where prostitution is very little known. The accompaniment of vice with opium-smoking is often observable among houses of prostitution in China, and in its train has followed various outcrops of the vilest nature. Mr. W. N. Willis, the collaborator with the late Mrs. Archibald Mackirdy, portrays two scenes in Shanghai. The first describes a beautiful girl who 62 THE MASTER PROBLEM " sat near my table at the Hotel A . She was one of the prettiest girls I ever saw. Very refined -looking, she certainly presented a perfect picture of womanhood beautifully modelled. Yet the most conspicuous feature about her was a pair of large, jet-black eyes, which sparkled like diamonds, and seemed to tell a tale of dormant passion within her — of a hungry soul yearning for something. How came the woman there ? I became interested. When she left the dining-room I felt irritated, as I sorely wanted to speak to her — ^to get if possible her history," This scene fades, and out of the fumes of an opium den, where Mr. Willis made investigations the same night, another rises. " We passed into the inner room — on the couch, with the cursed pipe in the grasp of her slender fingers, and nude, save for a scanty neglige, lay my beautiful companion of the hotel table : and, to add to the horror of it, she was attended by a Chinaman ! " The beautiful creature, who had been crossing my mind all day long, lay here in an opium den, open to the gaze of every Chinaman who cared to pay for the privilege of feasting his eyes on the form of a white woman drugged and uncon- scious. " To see her there, unconsciously one of the main attrac- tions of the opium hell of an unscrupulous, slant-eyed heathen, fairly unnerved me. I turned round and with a kick sent the Chinaman flying through the door. True, the woman was not British, but she was a Christian — and placing my cloak around her I carried her out of the house and conveyed her to a house of protection." Hideous and pathetic as this incident may be it is not exactly an illustration of white slavery in the sense of actual prostitution. There are enough and to spare of terribly forcible examples. At Shanghai, for instance, there is a gorgeously furnished place called the " Harem." A liveried footman opens the door, and the visitor is shown into a drawing-room with which any fine lady might well be satisfied. About twenty American girk are kept, but they do not remain there long, as this THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 68 woman's charges are so exceedingly high that she must of necessity only offer " fresh " and really attractive girls to her customers. This involves the need of having supplies almost continuously en route. She works in co-operation with a notorious gang in San Francisco. Another is Scott's Road, a very notorious quarter, con- taining about three hundred Chinese dens. Each den shelters from ten to fifteen or twenty girls of every nationality. Crossing the Yellow Sea to Japan, altogether different conditions are met with. Prostitution, instead of being veiled and illicit, is licensed and open. Here is seen segregation in its completest vogue. How such a system came into being is instructive. From historical investiga- tion it appears that recognised prostitution has existed in Japan since 1626. At this date the first segregated quarter was established in Yedo (Tokyo) and named Yoshiwari, or the Moor of Good Luck. At that time the place was a mere swamp filled with reeds and rushes, but in a few months it was reclaimed, laid out in streets, houses were built and business began to flourish. Forty- four years later the land was required by the Government for other purposes, and a decree was issued that the brothels must be removed. To compensate these traders in humanity the authori- ties offered to give them a larger area of ground in another district with permission to run the houses not only by day but also by night, and to give a sum of money to assist in the rebuilding. Before this removal took place one of the disastrous fires which from time to time have occurred in Tokyo happened, and demolished the buildings so that a hasty retreat had to be made to the new area granted, which consisted of nearly eighteen acres of land, and is the famous Yoshiwari of the present day. Similar to the description of the flower boats and other recognised residences of this class in China, the following conveys a mental picture of the famous Yoshi- wari of Tokyo. 64 THE MASTER PROBLEM Above the gateway which forms the single entrance to the Yoshiwari is inscribed in Chinese characters a poem by a well-known playwright which freely translated runs thus : — " A dream of springtide when the streets are full of cherry blossoms. Tidings of the autumn when the streets are lined on either side with lanterns." When one glances down the avenue at night, after the place is lighted up with thousands of brilliantly coloured lanterns and flashing electric lamps, the whole quarter appears as if smothered in flowers. The comming- ling blossoms, seemingly transmuted into dense masses of soft and fleecy cloud, braid the trees in a wealth of vernal beauty, and the gay dresses both of the unfortunate women and those of the passers-by, ever kaleidoscopic in effect and vividly Oriental in coloiu", all go to make up a scene at once strange, fascinating, and wellnigh dream- like in character. In a country where recognition of White Slavery is established there can be no illustrations given of trappings and deceptions. That is the horror of the whole situation in Japan — ^its placid acceptance of trafiic in the souls and bodies of girls as being on the plane of everyday business transactions. Another area where this infamous trade is carried on is in Singapore, the gateway to the Near East. Here, to quote a trenchant and outspoken sermon dehvered in the Cathedral of Singapore, " the fearful traffic of white women is proceeding without let or hindrance." In Malay Street are many dens of vice where white girls are brought, girls decoyed from respectable homes, lured to their doom by specious promises. Not infrequently, if nothing else succeeds, the procurer marries the girl before leaving Europe, but that is a smaU thing, the man has probably been through the ceremony before with dozens of girls and will do so with dozens more. No means are too vile to secure a well-developed, attractive girl, suck THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 65 as are seen upon every boat that lands a human cargo at Singapore. Respecting current conditions in Singapore, Mrs. Grace Human, who was long associated with vigilance work in Ceylon and was a zealous member of the group which succeeded in securing the closing up of the segre- gated district in Colombo, has written the following as the result of observation spread over nine weeks ending April, 1915 :— " Singapore's native population is composed chiefly of Chinese and Malays. The European and American population numbered in 1911 at the last census 7368, including 1658 British military. " Brothels are no longer licensed, but the houses are still distinguished by a pecuUar-shaped lamp with a big black munber painted on it — apparently the number of the Government licence formerly held. All the women are registered. " On March 17th a party of nine of us visited the brothel quarter at Street at about eight in the evening. We first went to Street, where the brothels are all Chinese. The women sat in rows on chairs or benches just inside the open doors, where they could be conveniently seen by all passers-by. Some of them seemed to me mere girls of 14 or 15, others were obviously much older. Their appearance, as well as the appearance of the houses, indicated that they belonged to the poorer classes, and their clients appeared for the most part to belong to the poorer class of natives also. Even at this early hour crowds of these men passed along the high, narrow pavement, pausing at each door to laugh at, compare, and appraise the women. " Some of us took the trouble to try and count the women in the brothels in Street. On one side of the street we counted 113 ; on the other side it was estimated, by taking an average of the number in each house, that there were 180. On this reckoning there were over 290 women in this one street alone. But the figures must not be taken as exact. There may have been some women not counted in the inner rooms, there may have been some women counted who were only caretakers or keepers. " From Street we went to ■ Street, 66 THE MASTER PROBLEM Street, and Street, all three streets being together and close by. Here there were no Chinese girls. This was the region of the Japanese and Continental women, whose market is for Europeans and rich natives. " Looking down Street with its double row of brilliant lamps converging in the distance, one was reminded of a deserted pier jutting out seaward. For the roar of the traffic in the surrounding streets could be heard, yet the street itself was silent and empty. " ' When do the Europeans visit these streets ? ' we asked a tail, weary English policeman in khaki who was patrolling the brothel quarter. " ' Between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.,' he said, and his state- ment tallied with our experience of other Eastern cities. European residents do not as a rule come earlier, though passengers come at all hours. " The street was not long left empty and deserted. We were a big party, and the noise of our boots and English voices quickly attracted attention. On all sides the women came out. On the left were two Japanese girls, dressed as children, with short frocks and long white-stockinged legs, who silently stared at us. On the right a Japanese girl in a kimono came under the lamp ; then, seeing that we had not business with her, squatted on her heels, gazing duUy into the road. Several stood in their doorways. We passed close to them. Their faces were so thickly painted that it was as if they were wearing a mask. All expression was completely hidden. This and their huge heads of hair and extravagances of dress gave to some of them a monstrous, hardly human appearance. There was an extraordinary lack of animation among these women. None of those standing at their doors, or lounging inside, were chattering. This was due partly, no doubt, to the early hour. A week later we were down in the same street at 11 p.m., when trade was in progress, and then this street and the women wore a totally different aspect. These Japanese houses were comfortably furnished with carpets, pictures, and cane chairs, and were a contrast to the poor houses of the Chinese. We were told by a Japanese gentleman that Japanese prostitutes, who are all imported, are brought here as innocent girls on various false pretences of respectable, well-paid work being found for them. " We noticed a good many European women among the THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 67 Japanese of Street and Street. A missionary in our party spoke to one of these. She was a Russian, she told us. She came last from Cairo. ' Yes, it was indeed a dreadful life, and she longed to leave it. She was tr37ing to save money to get home to Russia. No one would be able to tell in Russia what sort of life she had led here.' " In this Japanese quarter there are 53 numbered houses, some of the numbers covering two houses. In the other Japanese quarter Street, Street, and Lane — I have only seen 25 tolerated houses, and we have not counted the women. According to this estimate there would be about 750 registered women living in recognised brothels. But I am told, on good authority, that there is also a Malay quarter. Outside of the segregation quarter there are many houses of similar character scattered about the town, and the Japanese hostels appear to be houses of acconamodation also. " It is difficult to believe that the extent of this evil can be exceeded by any other Eastern port of similar size under English government. Singapore must surely head the list ! " A small Vigilance Society has just been started here. Its members are a few missionaries and two laymen. They are all exceedingly busy and, though willing to give their services, have very little time or thought to spare. What they need is a leader who can devote all his time and energy to a public campaign. Nothing less than an active, persistent agitation will be strong enough to change this attitude of the local government and to induce it to abandon its policy of segregation and toleration. Private efforts have already been made and have failed." Awful as is the life of girls in houses of ill-fame in Singapore, it cannot be compared for horror to the hope- less slavery of those who are traded through the East by pimps who made their head-quarters at Singapore. With some half-dozen of fresh-looking girls from the villages and towns of Europe, one of these vile men will tour the Straits Settlements, up through Siam into China, and thence to Asiatic Russia. The pimp chooses towns and villages not on direct routes, and at each stop his girl-slaves are at the mercy of the indescribable and revolting debaucheries of any native who can pay the 68 THE MASTER PROBLEM pimp. Regardless of what the girls suffer, or to what indignity and perversion they are submitted, the owner of their bodies, for he is no less than that, carries out his itinerary of vice, until, diseased and physically worn out, they are sold as human wrecks to some obscure native den of iniquity where at last girls who left a trusting home a few months earlier, all smiling and eager for the golden- tinged life pictured by the pimps, embrace death as a kind and merciful release from a wrecked and tortured life. Of girls thrust into the unbridled licentiousness of mining camps ; of hideous depravity in South Africa ; of things done in Australia, and even in Canada — ^where vigilance workers are making good headway — and which fail of expression in plain English, it would only prolong the catalogue of bestiality to repeat. A sufificient number and variety of illustrations of the ramifications of the white-slave traffic have been given to bring some realisa- tion of its criminality and its menace. One single further incident will suffice to close the chapter. It is told at great length in " The White Slave Market," the remark- able book written by Mrs. Mackirdy and W. N. Willis. Certain Italian procurers, who periodically brought to Australia batches of girls — many beautiful and nearly all innocent — on one occasion landed eighteen girls at Perth, W. Australia. These were quickly distributed among immoral houses, and prepared for their ruin. One of these girls was sent to the goldfields. She was a beautiful girl, a child of sunny Italy, the child of pious parents. She had been engaged as a milliner to go forth to the booming colonies to make her fortune. She, however, began to get a little suspicious even on board the boat, at the conduct of those in whose charge she was ; and, as she was considered " touchy," the greatest care was taken of her until she was landed in the " right " quarter, which was inside the walls of a hell in one of the big towns of the goldfields. Once securely inside this dreadful place the " breaking-in " process was begun, and steps were speedily taken for " knocking the non- sense " out of her. Her clothes were removed, and an THE SOUTH AND FAR EAST 69 old and tattered garment was given to her. The scantiest morsels of food were allowed her by the woman who acted as her jailer dming the day. At night her pimp would visit her, and wild scenes took place behind lx)lted and barred doors between the unfortunate girl and the wretchwho had trapped her. She was well built and strong, and her physical fitness helped her to resist the advances and ill-treatment of the monster in human form whose business it was to ruin her. With superhuman strength she succeeded for days in protecting her honour. At last her owners tried a new method. They tied the girl to the foot of the bed and beat her unmercifully. Her screams were stifled by a handkerchief tied over her mouth. Exhausted, bruised, and battered, she lay at the foot of the bed tightly bound ; still she resisted the pimp's overtures. They took the handkerchief from her mouth, and shut her up, leaving her for the space of two days. This is not at all an abnormal case, merely one that came to light because, happily, the girl was able to attract the attention of a painter who was working on a ladder at the back of the house, whereafter he got her out of the window and took her to safety. Do not forget, good Christian reader, that for one who is saved before betrayal there are thousands upon thousands who are sent to death yearly. Do not forget either, that the cases quoted in these two chapters are not " terrible examples," but the ordinary incidents of the traffic, erring maybe only in that they are too mild to be really typical. The naked realities of the bulk of cases as known to us are too utterly heUish to allow any writer to describe them in any book for the public eye. CHAPTER VI HOW SOME AMERICAN CITIES TACKLED THE MASTER PROBLEM " Such will be our programme : the oppressed to be delivered ; the slave to be set free ; the moral law to be obeyed to the last tittle ; the soul of the poor to be delivered from the hands of the spoiler, and the Governments of the world to be warned of the logic of retribution whereby men and nations reap as they have sown." Mrs. Josephine Butler. " I wish to remind you that you are dealing, not with the character of the unfortunate, but you are dealing with a cold-blooded commercial spirit of the worst of human rogues. To put it in a brutal manner, the reason why this evil has become so dangerous and hydra-headed is that there is money in it." — Rx. Rev. Bishop Ryle, d.d. (Dean of Westminster). THE manifold causes which operate to reinforce the sad sisterhood of the streets are not the only elements which have to be combated in this struggle to free men from the thrall of vice no less than to unshackle women from its slavery. Centuries of permitted freedom and immunity ; an inherent belief in the fallacy of its physiological necessity, and worst of all, an almost unbelievable laxity among administrators, and venality among officials have all contributed to maintain and entrench sexual immorality in a position that for long made the battle seem hopeless. These false perspectives and corrupt practices have rendered immensely more difficult the task of those who are fighting the Social Evil and, indeed, are influences doubly hard to remove because of the illogicalities and malversations upon which they rest. It is not enough airily to dismiss the subject as does the writer of a pamphlet, " White Slaves and Nasty Nonsense," by saying, " People who know anything, 70 SOME AMERICAN CITIES 71 know perfectly well that there are only two practical causes of this evil : the poverty of women and the passions of men." It is easy thus to dispose of what is one of the grave problems of our time, but because in this way the writer satisfies himself he no more settles the matter than did Canute when he bade the waters to stop ; and both actions derive from the same cause — an ignorance of the real forces at work. The ramifications of the white-slave trade are not patent to the public eye. The terrible results are. But effects are not causes and no experienced vigilance officer or serious sociological student would dream of attributing to poverty more than a tithe of the declen- sions into prostitution. And the declensions are of them- selves but one group of many causes which swell the ranks of White Slavery, causes which find careful con- sideration in a later chapter. Quite truly poverty is one cause, but by no means theca.\ise. Much of the difficulty of the cleansing of the nations would vanish were the principal factor to be fought, that of economic exigency. Mrs. Sidney Webb was perfectly in accordance with fact in saying in 1910, " I do not pretend that all prostitution springs from economic causes." Reducing the negative of the " poverty " argument to concrete figures — ^while remembering always that in- dubitably it must be considered as one of many causes of entering prostitution — it is found that of 150 gurls who gave reasons for entering prostitution, — in response to an investigation in Philadelphia in 1912, only 12 said their action was from bad wages or poverty. The reason figures are taken from the U.S.A. is merely because the region is mainly dealt with in this chapter. Reference, however, to an important contribution by Dr. Helen Wilson on the subject of economic causes of prostitution in the United Kingdom do not materially affect the argument. In her pamphlet (1913) she shows that out of 669 women interrogated in England 65 only were first led into prostitution owing to economic causes. To put evidence succinctly on the question of wages 72 THE MASTER PROBLEM versus prostitution, the proportion of women who assigned poverty as the cause of their entry into pros- titution is given by various highly dependable authori- ties, from a variety of cases, in differing countries, as follows : — Mrs. Bramwell Booth, 2% ; M. Strohmberg, 0-25% ; M. Pinkus, 14%. The whole aspect of White Slavery in Europe is dis- cussed later on. Only by long, patient, and wide-ranged investigation can the enquirer attain to an approximation of the various forces at work silently and unceasingly to maintain the supply of the markets of infamy. Men who are equipped with this knowledge, however, appreciate the greatness as well as the difficulties of the task, and work unwearyingly in its cause. In America effort finds outlet in the passive work of education and the active labour of prevention. Under the latter category comes rescue work, " cleaning up," reclamation, and " making hard." On the whole, the concensus of opinion is against the policy of segregation ; it involves legal recognition and encouragement of something vile, and does little or nothing to reduce vice. When, as was referred to by the Lancet in April, 1914, one woman has been known to accommodate 2000 men in the course of six months, to place that woman in a registered house where legally she can carry on-her filthy trade under the protection of the law, does not advance the cause of purity one iota. Nor is the case altered where periodical examination is enforced. Too often the means of compulsory isolation or detention of the syphilitic woman are so inadequate as to be useless. The location of disease is of no value unless it is followed by ways of preventing the contagion from being passed on. Of 466 girls expertly tested in an institution, only 50, e.g. 10-7 per cent, were free from venereal infection. It needs no demonstration to indicate the truth of the prediction that in no series of registered houses would the examiners be able to stop voluntarily from plying their trade anything like 90 per cent of the SOME AMERICAN CITIES 73 total prostitutes working in the assignation houses under medical examination. That it is not unfair to make such an assertion is further shown by the remarks of Miss Kate Adams of the Police Department, Chicago, in the next paragraph but one. The idea of a " royal road " to the purification of the morals of any city or community has been long since abandoned by all sincere and broad-minded workers. One general feeling, however, prevails ; which is that the notion of segregation in any shape or form must be abolished. The findings of those who have spent several years in careful and personal investigation confirm the opinion that wherever a certain locality is known as a " Red Light " (White Slave) district, there the youth of a city will tend to gather, together with older degenerates and the typical white slave traffickers. It is to this locality that girls who begin first as clandestine prosti- tutes, gradually wend their way as their chances of restoration to a normal manner of life, or to an assured living as an independent prostitute, appear to dwindle. In every sense it forms a cesspool of vice and wickedness totally unreclaimed by its pretensions to safety on account of medical inspection. Countless proofs of the fallacy of this " protection " are forthcoming, an example of which may be quoted from an address by Miss Kate Adams in which she says : — " In houses having medical inspection a doctor calls once a week and gives a girl a clean bill of health. Fifteen minutes after the doctor leaves the house she may become infected. At a very low estimate she stands to infect ninety men before she sees the doctor again. Just let me recite one instance of medical inspection. I took a girl, who came to me for help, to Dr. Caroline Hedger for examination. The laboratory test was made and one of the social diseases shown. Within a few days this girl entered a house on the North side. I located her within a week and went to the house to see her. A physician had examined her within three days of Dr. Hedger's examination, and had given her a certificate stating that she was in a perfectly healthy condition, and this certifi- 74 THE MASTER PROBLEM cate was fastened on the door of her room. This is one of the high-priced, oldest and best-known houses on the North side. When this girl later entered a South side house I reported the case to Dr. Evans, then Commissioner of Health, and he caused her to be taken out of the house and sent to the Bridewell for treatment. This is the case of only one girl ; hundreds of them were spreading the infection every night before the district was closed."' If further proof of laxity of medical examination were wanted it would surely be found in the fact that in New York City in 1911 no fewer than 15,781 cases of venereal disease were treated in hospitals and dispensaries. Two logical conclusions, therefore, have been arrived at. First, that however desirable it may be, as an act of sociological amelioration, to minimise poverty by pay- ing a living wage to female workers, it would not sub- stantially reduce the extent of the Social Evil. Secondly, that to sanction immorality as a necessary evil, by group- ing prostitutes into one area under medical and police control, is a big mistake. A concise summary was issued by the Philadelphia Vice Commission in 1913 of the more important recom- mendations arising out of a patient and scrupulously unbiased investigation occupying some five months : — " That all efforts to confine prostitution to a given district be abandoned and that the statutes be persistently enforced uniformly throughout the city. "That all measures for the suppression of prostitution be free from spectacular and sensational features. " That prosecutions for the suppression of prostitution be especially directed against the owners of the houses, madams, and pimps or procurers. " That carefully planned courses in sex hygiene and patho- logy be included in the curricula of night schools for adults, high schools, normal schools, and colleges, and that neighbour- hood classes be formed by parents for the study of these subjects. * See Testimony and Addresses on jSegregation and Commercial- ised jVice, presented before the City Council's Committee of Nine. — American Vigilance Association, Nov., igi2. SOME AMERICAN CITIES 75 " That the Department of Public Health take action to secure : Registration of venereal disease — Laboratory facilities for diagnosis of venereal diseases — ^Treatment of the eyes of the new-born. " That social service departments be established in stores, manufacturing establishments, factories, and other institu- tions having a large number of employees. " That women be appointed to poUce duty. " That women be appointed on the Boards of all institutions to which women or children are committed. "That there be strict supervision of places of amusement, especially those frequented by minors. "That there be strict supervision of employment agencies. "That the attention of the Commissioners be called to the use of the park for immoral purposes, and that they be urged to improve the lighting and poUcing therein. " That the Legislature enact the laws introduced at the re- quest of this Commission relating to : Venereal wards in general hospitals receiving State aid — Letting and keeping houses for immoral purposes — Street-walkers and soliciting — Opium, cocaine, and narcotics. " That it raise the age of consent to twenty-one years, that it make provision for the custodial care of feeble-minded girls and women during the child-bearing period, that it enact the law requiring that messenger boys be excluded from immoral resorts, and that relating to the admission of minors to places of amusement. " Conclusion. Our unanimous judgment is expressed in our recommendations. However valuable these may be, the work done will accomplish little of permanent good unless it be utilised as the foundation for a larger and more constructive effort which shall develop a strong public sentiment mani- fested and made effective through some well-organised volunteer body committed to persistent repression of vice, in pursuance of the strict letter of the statutes of the State." Because the "segregation remedy" is being pressed upon public attention year after year, first by one authority and then another, it is necessary to repeat again and again that it is no remedy but a complete failure. 76 THE MASTER PROBLEM The unanimous opinion of the twenty-one Commis- sioners who presented the above recommendations was expressed upon the subject of segregation in the following words : — " Segregation is ineffective — it segregates a small minority of the sexually vicious, can never isolate their diseases, and promotes rather than reduces clandestine prostitution ; it is confiscatory — lowering values of properties for reputable purposes ; it is anti-social — forcing the families of the poor into evil associations ; it is uneconomic — raising a crime to the dignity of a business through concentration, combination, and publicity ; it is unethical — ^promoting the double standard of morality by the erection of a female lazaretto ; it is mal- administrative, requiring official comphcity in and partner- ship with an illegal pursuit to the sure debauching of police morals ; it is inhuman — resting upon the assumption that prostitution is a natural and ineradicable feature of society. " So far as we know, every vice commission in this country has unanimously rejected it as we do now. It is neither more nor less than licensed vice." It is significant that at the Portsmouth (England) Con- ference in 1914 it was reported that " between 50 and 75 cities have abandoned segregation within the last five years." A very painstaking enquiry was made in 1901 by the Committee of Fifteen in New York City, by which were revealed abuses and criminal practices referred to in earlier chapters. This Committee, however, did not content itself with active discoveries of prostitution and its extent, but in its report made a well-balanced, dignified assessment of the various possibilities suggested by the facts to the Committee as tending to ameliorate the extent of the evil. Regulation or segregation was rejected as being a machinery of no practical value, as in the final analysis the logic upon which the reasoning rested was found to be as fallacious as the practical application of regula- tion, either to stem the volume of prostitution, or to secure protection from venereal disease. SOME AMERICAN CITIES 77 The value of sanitary control, involving periodical inspection of prostitutes and the temporary retirement of any prostitute discovered to be suffering from syphilis, was also considered. The idea was rejected on the statisti- cal evidence furnished of the high percentage of women who evaded examination — particularly when infected — left the brothel, and became clandestine prostitutes. More productive of helpful conclusions was the dis- cussion of the moral regulation of vice, by which the application of moral principles in various ways, such as the removal of flaunting vice, imparting exact knowledge on sexology, vigilance exercised over drinking bars and places of entertainment where young people congregate, the removal of children from vicious influences, and the formation of a special police division to deal with white slave suspects and prostitution cases. Summed up, the Report recommended : — " better housing for the poor, purer forms of amusement, the raising of the conditions of labour, especially of female labour, better moral education, minors more and more with- drawn from the clutches of vice by means of reformatories, the spread of contagion checked by more adequate hospital accommodation, the evil itself unceasingly condemned by public opinion as a sin against morality, and punished as a crime with stringent penalties whenever it takes the form of a public nuisance — ^these are the methods of dealing with it upon which the members of the Committee have united and from which they hope for the abatement of some of the worst of its consequences at present, and for the slow and gradual restriction of its scope in the future." In addition, the Committee recommended — " the creation of a special body of morals police, analogous to the sanitary police already existing, selected on grounds of exceptional judgment and fitness, to whom, and to whom alone, should be entrusted the duties of surveillance and re- pression contemplated in the above recommendations." One of the recommendations made by the jury in the presentment handed up at the termination of its labours 78 THE MASTER PROBLEM was that a public commission be appointed to study the Social Evil. In this connection, separate personal con- ferences were held with over a hundred leading men and women in New York City. These conferences led to the conclusion that a public commission would labour under a number of disadvantages, and at best could hardly do more than present recommendations. It was also believed that the main reason why more results of a permanent character had not been obtained by the various organisations which had dealt with the subject of the Social Evil during the past ten or fifteen years, was that most of these organisations were temporary. While active, they materially improved the situation, but as their efforts relaxed, there came the inevitable return to much the same conditions as before. So the conviction grew that in order to make a real and lasting improvement in conditions, a permanent organisation should be created which would go on, generation after generation, continuously making war- fare against the forces of evil. Therefore, as the initial step, the Bureau of Social Hygiene was formed in the winter^bf 1911. The task which the Bureau set itself was that of preparing a dispassionate, objective account of things as they were during the period above mentioned, the forms which commercialised vice had assumed, the methods by which it was carried on, the whole network of relations which had been elaborated below the surface of society. Arrangements were therefore made in January, 1912, to secure the services of Mr. George J. Kneeland, who had directed the Chicago Vice Commission investigation. Mr. Kneeland, with a corps of assistants, made a thorough and comprehensive survey of the conditions of vice in New York City, the findings of which were presented in 1913 in a valuable and comprehensive volume, entitled " Commercialised Vice," to which we have referred. It will be noticed in passing that both these great cities arrived at the conclusion that only by a permanent body exercising sustained vigilance could real progress SOME AMERICAN CITIES 79 be made in diminishing the Social Evil. It is still fully early to point to substantial progress made by the New York Bureau of Social Hygiene, though some little comparison is referred to in our first chapter. Still an encouraging range of foundational work has been put in, and a valuable aggregation of statistics and data obtained. Far-reaching propaganda too has been formu- lated which has the support of the best intellects, and the ratio of results in amelioration and prevention are sufficiently significant already to justify not only the existence of the Bureau as a permanent organisation, but also to emphasise its potential effectiveness. But amongst all the American organisations a foremost position must be given to the World's Purity Federation, founded in 1900 under the presidency of Mr. B. S. Stead- well, a man of exceptional ability, with large vision and untiring energy, who is destined to become a great leader in organising the whole of the forces of purity throughout North America into one strong democratic Federation. To-day its silent forces are at work ; to-morrow the*city will awake purer and cleaner, less vicious and more virtuous ; its shamed sisters will have been gathered into the fold of a wisely charitable love, the purity of its womanhood more fully guarded, and the lives of the men purged and ennobled by the realisation that the forces of Nature are not given for base gratifications. CHAPTER VII THE MASTER PROBLEM IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES " Wise laws and just restraints are to a noble nation, not chains, but chain mail — strength and defence, though something also of an encumbrance. And this necessity of restraint, remember, is just as honourable to man as the necessity of labour. You hear every day greater numbers of foolish people speaking about liberty, as if it were such an honourable thing ; so far from being that it is, on the whole and in the broadest sense, dishonourable and an attribute of lower creatures." — Ruskin. " My feeling is that the one aim we must keep before us in this matter is that we should bring every possible influence to bear upon the yoimg through their growing years, so that they may grow up first of all morally thoughtful and then that they grow with a clean and pure moral life of their own. It is in this cleanliness and purity of personal life that we have to make the only safe beginning for all the developments of character." — Bishop of Hereford. ONE of the most determined efforts to grapple with the Social Evil on the part of a single in- dividual was that initiated in Chicago a few years back by the Hon. Clifford G. Roe, formerly Assistant State's Attorney of Illinois. How he threw up his professional work to devote his life to the battle for purity makes thrilling reading. He tells it in his book, " Panders and their White Slaves." He was acting in a case in which a girl-graduate had been trapped by a " pander," or " pimp," and seduced while under the influence of a " dope " or " knock-out drops," as the drugged drink is called, and thereafter conveyed to a brothel and held against her will. At the conclusion of the speech by the Attorney on behalf of the procuress, Mr. Roe was impressed by the tissue of assumptions which constituted the defence, and mentally contrasted its superficiality with the simple, sincere, and convincing way in which the injured girl had told her story. 80 IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 81 " Then," Mr. Roe recalls in his book, " as the Attorney concluded and I sat at the counsellors' table, vaguely con- scious of the stir in the court room, and of the defendant's attorney gathering his notes in his hands and again taking his place at the table, I saw certain points in his argument, things which he had nonchalantly assumed and which hinted at a great iniquitous business. Then the firm conviction came over me that this case touched upon a terrible wrong in our social life." In his reply Mr. Roe dealt with the points of the case and concluded with the following lofty assertion in the open court : — " If this girl be a notoriety seeker, as counsel has said, if she is merely trying to right herself for her own misdeeds, I am going to find it out. If, as counsel has intimated, other women are doing the same thing as this defendant has done, if they are dragging girls into houses through a systematic slavery, if a system of indebtedness holds girls in all these houses, then, as an officer of this court, I pledge myself here and now to investigate this matter to the very end, to ferret out the inner recesses of this underground world. If girls are sold as this girl has been, it is slavery, and I shall pursue it to the very end, and if it be a system of slavery, I shall drag it from its hiding-place to the light of the day." The case was concluded, and on the thirty-first day of January, 1907, the judge gave a verdict of guilty against the woman who kept the house of ill-fame. With his habit of trained thought, Mr. Roe recognised that the most active agent in the whole business was the man who first attracted the young girl's attention, ingratiated himself sufficiently to be able to offer refresh- ment without offence, thereby to drug her and seduce her while she could not resist. It was against such callous and heartless villains, who though often hardly out of their teens were productive of more misery and heart-breaking than an aged and hardened criminal, that Mr. Roe directed his efforts. These activities included a complete plan of publicity and education, and for months addresses were made 82 THE MASTER PROBLEM throughout the country with this idea in view. For a long time Mr. Roe was convinced that the publication of cases and facts concerning the panders, instead of corrupting the morals of young people, would rather put them on their guard, and that when the girls of the land knew of the secret methods of the procurers they could not be so easily entrapped. A vast deal of discussion has raged around this ques- tion of publicity. The logic of Mr. Roe, however, was sustained in many directions. An instance is given from his book, where the knowledge saved a girl's virtue. In the case quoted there was no possibility that the girl was hypersensitised by reading the warnings, for scarcely had the " pander " paid the fine in the case under notice than he was caught again plying his trade in girls, and sentenced to a period of detention, for having sold Louise X into a brothel. The man's name was K , and the complainant, Mary , a pretty choir singer. Mary told Judge , who tried the case, of her experiences, thus : — " I had never seen the man before. I went to a music store to buy a song I needed. While I was buying the music the young woman waiting on me called my attention to a young man who was trying to flirt with me. " ' I don't know this man,' I said ; ' he must mistake me for someone else.' " When I left the store the man followed me, and as I reached the street he took hold of my arm. " ' Hello, kid ! ' he said ; ' it's a long time since I met you.' " ' You are mistaken,' I replied ; ' you do not know me.' " ' Oh, yes, I do,' he insisted. ' I used to know you at Syracuse. What are you doing for a living now ? ' " I never had been in Syracuse, so I knew he must have some wrong purpose in talking to me, but I told him I was singing sacred music in churches. " ' How much do you get ? ' he asked me. " I told him I averaged about twenty dollars a week. " ' Why,' he said, ' you can beat that to death. I'll show you how to make fifty dollars a week and not half try.' " As I walked down the street he kept talking to me. I IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 83 asked him where he wanted me to go, and he said, ' Oh ! I'll get you a position singing out on the South Side.' " I didn't say any more because I felt sure from the accounts I had read in the papers that he was a white slave procurer. Several times I tried to get away from the man, but he kept hold of my arm so tight that I could not. When we reached Van Buren Street, as we passed a policeman on the crossing, I gave him a poke with my hand, and as he turned quickly around I said, ' I want you to arrest this man.' " The policeman thereupon placed the man under arrest. This is a type of the preliminary procedure of " pan- ders " who suit the " talk " they " hand out " to the circumstances. Once a girl listens to such a man she has taken a perilous step, for at the earliest moment she is entrapped — ^by doping, or by being blindly led into a house on some specious quest, or by the more primitive method of forcible abduction. Another " pander " trick is to go through the form of marriage with the girl. Then the initiation begins. One deluded " bride " had the common sense to go to the police as soon as she found what manner of man was her pseudo-husband. A week after the marriage. Carlo, the " pander-husband," said he had lost his employment and had no money ; apparently thinking over the situa- tion for a few minutes, a way out of the difficulty appeared to him — so he told the girl. He suggested that he would take her to a place, which he had heard about, where she could easily make enough money in a few days to tide them over until he could get work. Not imderstanding the nature of his intentions, she at once became interested in this new way of making money so easily. Then he explained what he intended doing with her and where he proposed to take her. Slowly the realisation dawned upon Rose that Carlo was intending to place her in an immoral house. She had read the stories in the newspapers of how panders had caught other girls in the same way. Was her dream of happiness and love to vanish in a moment ? She knew that she must think quickly. She vaguely comprehended 84 THE MASTER PROBLEM his purpose ; she knew that he intended to do some great wrong to her. Thinking that she was easy prey, as she had been led so easily thus far, he had no suspicion when she consented to do as he requested. He led her into the red-light district, whereupon the girl-wife asked him to wait on the comer before entering the house, and going for a policeman, she had Carlo arrested. To save innocent girls from these monsters grew to be the life's work of Attorney Roe, who became President of the American Alliance for the Suppression and Pre- vention of White Slave Traffic. He fought them in every way that recommended itself to his alert intellect as likely to prove of effect. For instance, he set out to purify the police, having learned of pernicious practices in connection with pander- ing. That it was necessary is plain. During March and April, 1907, Judge Judson Going found that a habit had grown up among some of the police of taking out warrants for the arrest of owners of dis- reputable places, that no arrests were made upon these warrants, and that the warrants were never returned to the court. The judge had his clerk go over the list, and he found that over a hundred of these warrants on which no arrests had been made had been taken out from his branch of the court alone. The court bailiff was ordered by the judge to take the list and personally to summon the resort owners into court. It was then ascertained that these resort owners had never been arrested, although they were well known, but the police had visited them, telling them that they had warrants for them ! While fearlessly exposing the corrupt officers, who, by the methods obviously shown above, extorted black- mail, or " graft " from panders and brothel-keepers, Mr. Roe pays tribute to the majority of police officers and their steadfast honour. It has repeatedly been on the lips of scrupulously fair- minded people, who suffer from too much ingenuousness IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 85 and too little experience, to argue that it is edsy for entrapped girls, as soon as they discover their plight, to scream or make commotion at a window to draw attention. In their innocence these guileless folk cannot imagine that a girl is held down by women while criminals outrage her, neither can they visualise the corruption which " blinds " certain of the police, should a girl, which is unlikely, be allowed to get to a window. In the majority of cases, once a girl is in a red-light house she stands little chance of getting out, which is the reason of the tremendous emphasis placed by vigilance workers upon campaigns of enlightenment not only to teach sexology, but also to open the eyes to the dangers that beset a young and attractive girl from her early teens onward. Before considering this question of enlightenment it will be of interest to note that by the efforts of Mr. Roe, a new statute, materially strengthening the hands of the police, and advancing considerably the cause of social purity, became law in the State of Illinois on July ist, 1909, and"slhce that time yet more strenuous and more ^successful efforts have been put forward " to cast a white light upon these arch-enemies to society who lurk in the darkness, who buy and sell the souls of daughters, who gather in the miserable fifty dollars per ' capture,' coined from the travail of girls." By 1914, forty-two out of forty-eight States had followed Illinois's lead by passing laws to suppress com- mercialised vice. The importance of enlightenment — ^to return to this topic — ^has long been recognised. It is a duty mostly shirked by parents, despite the grave dangers which their sons and daughters run in consequence. Ignorance is responsible for the ruin of thousands of young girls under eighteen every year. If parents are unhappily bashful, then others must help the young people. Such, briefly, is the general conclusion of workers for social purity. In quite a number of cities plans have been drawn up for carrying through a programme of clean-minded tuition 86 THE MASTER PROBLEM upon sex matters. They can well be summarised in the recommendations of the Philadelphia Vigilance Com- mission, which formulated the following : — "In no other department of life is it so important that instinctive activity shall be not only influenced, but dominated by a seasoned practical judgment and a disciplined character than among children. These results are hard to produce by formal educational methods. " We beUeve that practical agreement has been reached, or may be attained easily, among parents and educators on these points : — " First, prevalent sex practices, in and out of wedlock, result in overwhelming evil consequences, physical and moral, and lack of information on matters of personal and social sex hygiene is an important causative factor of these practices. " Second, direct instruction on these lines should be given in high schools, normal schools, colleges, and universities. A recent investigation (1912) shows that such instruction is recognised, and at least begun in 138 schools (higher) distri- buted over 40 States. The situation now demands education in the psychology of sex, social workers and tactful secular and religious teachers who have specialised on the dangers, temptations, and prevention of the social evil should formulate a course of study. " Third, as adolescents, boys and girls may rightfully claim knowledge (i) of the functions and hygiene of the chief organs of the body, including the reproductive system ; (2) of the meaning of sex, marriage, home-making ; of the sacredness of the prenatal life, the influences of heredity, and the conse- quent duty of right living, even when young ; of the responsi- biUties of parenthood ; (3) that handUng of the organs of reproduction, except as necessary for cleanliness, injures sometimes health, and always mind, character, sense of honour, causing greater mental and moral harm as one grows older . . . ; (4) of contagious sex diseases, their danger to every person, as indicated by statistics of wide prevalence ; their many methods of communication, including the fact that they exist almost universally among those leading immoral lives ; that they are more difficult to cure than any ordinary con- tagious disease, and that their harm is more far-reaching ; (5) of the normal phenomena of adolescence ; the physio- logical influence on health, mind, and morals, of clean thoughts. IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 87 reading, conversation, entertainments, companions ; the value of occupation and physical exercise in keeping thoughts and habits and health good ; the avoidance of tobacco, alcohoUc drinks, the advertisements of ' doctors ' and ' reme- dies ' found in newspapers, magazines, etc. " Every girl has a claim to instruction concerning the hygiene of menstruation, the function and sacredness of motherhood, and the care of infants. " Every boy has a claim to instruction concerning the value of conscience and avoidance of ignorant and evil advisers in this matter ; the sacredness of fatherhood, and the duty of protecting all girls and women from evil as he would his sister or his mother." The extension of direct teaching into the lower grades of schools, public and private, and into the home instruc- tion of younger children even before school age, finds both support and opposition. The points of agreement as to practical action are these — 1. At all ages children's questions should be answered truthfully. 2. A gradual preparation for the information owed to a child at puberty is desirable and possible. 3. Parents should be the first informants. The points of difference concern — 1. The estimation of risk to character and habit from early information. 2. The wisdom of supplying or supplementing at school, the early teaching which is not given, or only faultily given, at home. An excellent epitome was published in 1913 by the Century Company, giving a survey of the work accom- plished in New York City, in which the remedies adopted in recent years divide into preventive, reformative, and correctional spheres, and which is eloquent to real pro- gress made, and the practical effectiveness of the societies and agencies at work. Throughout the States in one direction or another, the same quiet but determined work is going on and has met with a gratifying measure of success. In St. Louis 88 THE MASTER PROBLEM the segregated district was abolished in March, 1914, Cleveland is expected to follow this lead at an early date. Commercialised prostitution has been driven out in Harrisburg, Penn. In Minnesota a " Red Light Injunc- tion and Abatement Law " has been passed, which is said to be the best Statute on prostitution and the white slave traffic yet made law. In Pittsburgh, when the " clean up " began there were 246'heuses of prostitution, 36 of them classed as assignation houses, on the police list. After some months of work the result in 1912 was that all the assignation houses were closed, 100 regular houses closed permanently, and 11 others temporarily for offences, leaving 97 still open. Bad houses have been removed from 21 residence streets. By 1913 the Morals Efficiency Commission, as the Pittsburgh body was named, was able to report that it had closed 182 houses and had driven 658 out of 1000 prostitutes out of business. In Washington (January, 1914) progress was reported thus : — " For years there existed behind the Post Ofi&ce at Washing- ton, almost within sight of the White House and the Halls of Congress, a district known as the ' Division.' It was, in fact, the segregated district of the National Capital, tolerated by the Government of the District of Columbia. Within a few years its location was changed to one even nearer the Capital building. But its end has come. The aroused moral senti- ment of the country for the past year has urged the adoption of the Injunction and Abatement Law, known as the Kenyon Bill, drawn to apply to the District of Columbia. Twice passed by the Senate, the Bill has been at last passed by the House of Representatives, and it now bears the signature of the President. The police of Washington might have closed the ' Division ' at any time, and should have done so, but they were evidently restrained. For this significant achieve- ment in abolishing tolerated vice at the National Capital every man and woman in the country should rejoice and give thanks." In Baltimore, at the close of its work (December, 1913) the Vice Commission reported : — " The aboUtion of the sale of liquor in houses of vice ; the IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 89 ordering out of all telephones from these houses ; the closing of 104 houses and the prevention of the opening of any new ones ; the prohibition of the entrance of any girl or woman into any of the remaining houses who had not lived in a similar place ; the reduction of the number of inmates from 822 to 520, and the rescue of a proportion through the pro- vision of homes for them ; the prohibition of the visits to houses of vice of women not regular inmates." Boston has not progressed so rapidly as other cities, but there " organised houses of prostitution have been reduced to a minimum and street solicitation has been suppressed to a very large degree." Much, however, still remains to be done in this city of culture and lefinement. In another commendable direction a distinctive advance is noted to the credit of the State of California, where a vocational school for girls over fourteen years of age has been established by the legislature. The school is open to any girl who desires to abandon a life of prostitu- tion, and" provision is made only for those girls who go there voluntarily. Another school has been established which will receive girls committed by the courts. These references are of sufficient number and variety to convey to the reader the work which has been done in cities since the beginning of the century. Of the national remedies adopted, the Bennet Law of 1910 is of parallel importance to the Mann White Slave Law of the same year. Both are explained in the legal chapters. In the realm of National investigation, the President and Congress authorised a National Commission in 1906, which has done widespread good. The character of the trade in the Argentine and South America generally is that in those regions are congregated from all parts of the world prostitutes who no longer bring high fees; they form the dumping-ground for " second-hand goods," and in this respect are only slightly superior to China. Another source of supply in South American cities, particularly in Buenos Ayres, is the importation of pseudo-theatrical companies, composed wholly of girls who represent the fatal gleanings of procurers in Europe. 90 THE MASTER PROBLEM International legislation was long agitated for in this direction, as it was confidently argued that thereby a prolific source of supply would be stopped and many thousands of victims saved: female victims among young and innocent girls ; male victims among those who would contract venereal disease from the class of prosti- tutes imported. For the last twelve years a National Committee has been working in Buenos Ayres to bring about the suppression of importation, as the Bennet Law does in the U.S.A., and further, to secure the repatriation of foreign women engaged in the traffic. The effect of such legislation being adopted becomes evident when the reader is reminded that earlier in this volume we have pointed out that nearly four-fifths of known prostitutes in Buenos Ayres at the close of 1912 were of foreign birth. In South Africa, the Contagious Diseases Act is in force only in one of the provinces, and a branch of the International Abolitionist Federation was formed for the Union in 1913. The great aim of reformers here is to raise the age of consent, which at present is only four- teen. Practically no active remedies have yet been adopted for South Africa, but the mass of the people are being prepared, legislators are being educated, public opinion being enlightened, and so the way is being paved for action of a decisive nature. In Australia, happily, a generally cleanly state of affairs in regard to prostitution leaves no great record to be made of negative work. In Queensland, regulation existed on a small scale from 1868 till 1912, when vigil- ance workers secured its suspension. In 1913, however, a new law, permitting practically the same thing under another guise, was enacted. Success, so far, has been confined to a substantial abridgment of the working of the Act. In New South Wales, opposition is strenuously being prosecuted against a similar Act introduced in 1906. Prostitution is not rampant in Australia, nevertheless, as the Rev. F. C. Spurr so concisely and excellently put it whilst serving in his great pastorate in Melbourne, where he fearlessly and successfully grappled with the subject : — IN OTHER ASPECTS AND PLACES 91 " Australia, young as it is, has a very serious moral problem to face ; it is the problem of the purity of its youth. I do not for a moment say that it is actually more acute with us than with the older nations of the world, but for reasons of climate it presents a special character, and in view of the fact of the country's comparatively recent birth, it assumes a special gravity." In Canada, the Moral and Social Reform Council of Canada was formed in 1907 with local councils through- out the Dominion, and representing every religious com- munity. Out of this Council in 1912 grew the National Committee for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. Already the benefit of this organisation has been widely felt in the Dominion, particularly in Halifax, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, where, as indicated in Chap- ter XIV, the co-operating influence of the police has been marked. India has always been an area of difficulty. Although Regulation has been suppressed, arrangements differing very little from the old official recognition are still in force in some of the cantonments. In Ceylon, however, by the action of the inhabitants themselves, the segregated area was closed in 1912, as we have before stated. It is well, in closing this section, to recall the topic of international agreements. While powerful organised movements have arisen in many great countries to com- bat and suppress commercialised public vice, the most encouraging recent result of labour in this field is the fact that the very general agitation and educational propaganda that has been carried on for years is gradually and successfully establishing a world-wide movement. It is this world vision that will bring ultimate success, for all students of the question now recognise that with the present facilities for intercourse and transportation, the problem must be solved by all nations at this time if£it is to be correctly and successfully solved by any one of them. PART II THE REGULATION SYSTEM CHAPTER VIII SOME INSIGHT INTO THE HISTORY OF REGULATION " We will dare to hope that out of White Slave Emancipation there will spring something nobler yet. The resolve in the heart of great peoples that though passion and weakness will always sin, the setting apart, the steady, regular, efiective setting apart, the degradation of God's tenderest and weakest creatures for bestial uses, shall no longer be a thing condoned and tolerated and taken for granted among us." The Lord Bishop of Winchester. ALTHOUGH the history of the Regulation System _f\. of vice has been told and retold many times, no book dealing with this subject in its various bearings on social life can be complete without a definite reference to the same. In fact, it is only by continually remind- ing oneself that the conditions of the present day are but the outcome of many generations of tolerated vice in one form or another, that a right perspective is gained as to the place it has held in the past and what may be its future. The most venerable traditions and records bear testimony to the antiquity of prostitution. Of the ancient nations the Hebrews alone appear to have rightly under- stood the serious consequences of allowing it to proceed undisturbed. The Greeks and Romans saw clearly that certain evils resulted from it, and their one endeavour was to divest it of these evils. The trend of Jewish legislation may accordingly be described as repressive; that of Greece and Rome as regulative. The religion of these two countries demanded the 92 HISTORY OF REGULATION 93 preservation of the family life, while politics required pure blood in her leading citizens ; anything, therefore, which would incapacitate the daughters of citizens for marriage and motherhood was considered a public calamity. It therefore became a recognised law of society that, should a free woman be tainted with dis- honour, her return to decent society was for ever im- possible. If a free woman fell she was at once assimi- lated to the class of slaves who, as is well known, formed the class set apart as prostitutes for the gratification of the male portion of the population. The social conse- quences of this practice apparently escaped the notice of the Greek and Roman. Although there is evidence enough to show that venereal disease existed, its effect upon the community was not understood. Apart from the accepted line of demarcation by these social con- ditions, the only legal regulation which existed was the collection of certain revenue from the earnings of the public prostitute. This, however, was finally abandoned under the rule of the Christian Emperors, thus concluding definitely classical regulation of vice. At the beginning of the Middle Ages the States of Western Europe pursued a strictly repressive policy with regard to prostitution. Both the prostitute and those who sheltered her were liable to whipping and exposure ; and in some cases the former were punished by death. By the tenth century, however, the perse- cution of the prostitute had practically ceased. Instead of being looked upon as a crime it came to be tolerated, but under regulations that aimed to divest it of conse- quences that to the mediaeval mind appeared evil. In 1180 Henry II gave a royal patent for the legulation of public houses of prostitution in London. The same were established in Hamburg in 1272 ; Regensburg, 1308 ; Zurich, 1314 ; Basel, 1356 ; Avignon, 1347 ; Vienna, 1384. As the integrity of the family life was still looked upon as an important asset to the social welfare of the State, the belief existed that provision being made for the 94 THE MASTER PROBLEM satisfaction of the vicious impulses of the floating popula- tion, the family would be secure from invasion. The brothel was, therefore, looked upon as both a necessary and useful adjunct to city life. This accounts for the fact that such houses were frequently built at public expense and managed on public account, and for the voting of funds for securing from abroad inmates for these public-houses of ill fame. It also explains the condition sometimes imposed upon the citizen who leased such an establishment, that he should provide a suffi- cient number of suitable inmates. In this we have the origin of the " trade " in prosti- tutes which has been carried on ever since in a more or less marked degree. These women formed a class abso- lutely distinct, and were, as far as possible, secured either from abroad or outside the domain of the city in which they carried on their profession. They remained aliens ; and any woman who fell from virtue in the ordinary ranks of social life became an alien also in status, and was for ever debarred from returning to her own kith and kin. They were, moreover, required to wear a distinguishing mark, such as a red or yellow ribbon on their sleeve, so that no mistake might be made as to their character and social reputation. This, however, did not entirely debar them from taking a certain place in the social life of the city or nation of which they were an accredited part. Prostitutes in large numbers took part in processions, and even in sacred festivals. The public brothel was also bound to entertain persons of note who visited the city ; in short, vice was not considered evil so long as it showed itself in true colours. Where a brothel was let to a responsible citizen he was held responsible for the conduct of its inmates, and such as frequented the house, as it was a recognised fact that wherever houses of ill fame were grouped together, there the worst characters congregated also, such as thieves and cut-throats and others who menaced the life and liberty of the ordinary citizen. In some cases, the public women HISTORY OF REGULATION 95 w, re organised into guilds, each guild having a head who was responsible for what might occur in a brothel. The regulations thus obtaining in the Middle Ages covered three aims : first the prevention of vice on the part of citizen women, the preservation of public order, and the collection of revenue from prostitutes. In the latter case it was not an uncommon thing for the Church to claim a large part of such revenue. At the end of the Middle Ages, many social and economic changes took place. Society as a whole became more corrupt ; and the alien character of prostitution disappeared. Sumptuary laws were enacted, because it was thought that the jewellery and fine clothing of the prostitute had attracted decent girls and women into the life of shame. At about the same time an epidemic of syphilis spread over Europe, assuming, as a result of the immorality, the proportions of a great plague. Under the influence of this evil the licensed houses of prostitu- tion were pretty generally closed during a considerable part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Reopened again, they lived by the strength of traditional usage until replaced by modern regulation of prostitution, or, as it is generally known, reglementation. The modem system of regulation seeks, in some measure at least, to care for the health of the prostitute as well as for that of the citizen, though how far this has proved to be the case is already well known. In mediaeval days the welfare of the aliens who were the victims of the law as then enforced was accounted as nothing ; so that, though the improvement may be considered slight, the difference between the old and the new " regulation " formed at least one step in the right direction. This new era began early in the nineteenth century, when the first definite registration of prostitutes for the purpose of medical control was instituted under Napoleon Buona-' parte in 1802, other countries following suit by degrees. By the middle of the century it had spread over the whole of Europe, not by legal enactments, but as a matter of police administration. England was the first to pass any 96 THE MASTER PROBLEM legal measures giving sanction to this system in the CD. Acts made law in 1864-9.^ The history of the passing of these Acts is worth re- calUng as an example of that short-sighted policy which forsakes the clearest principles under pressure of a thorny and complex problem, and of " expert opinion," when it appears to be necessary " to do something." The Contagious Diseases Act, which most people supposed referred to foot and mouth diseases amongst animals, was in operation in 1864, but in 1866, acting upon the strong representations of medical experts who were con- fronted with an increase of the social diseases in the Army, Lord Paget moved for its reconstruction. The new Bill was read the first time on the ist of May, it passed the Committee stage on the 15th, the third reading took place on the 17th, and it received the Royal assent on the nth of June, without one word of debate. Verbally amended in 1868, the Act was further extended in 1869 to include eighteen populous districts, while the Secretary of the Society promoting the Bill was urging its application to the whole civil population. Presented by Lord Northbrook to the House of Lords on 23rd of July, the amended Bill passed the third reading on the 2nd of August, on which day it was read the first time in the House of Commons, and on the nth of August, the day on which Parliament was prorogued, it received the Royal assent, without one word of debate in either House. Greater haste could not have been exhibited had the disease, which is mainly contagious at the will of the persons affected, been a malignant form of smallpox. It was this extension of the Bill, and the extraordinary powers it conferred upon the police and 1 The present chapter is coacemed with the whole aspect of Regula- tion and therefore needs to contain some reference to the Acts legal- ising the system in Great Britain, and to the career of Mrs. Josephine Butler, whose noble work was European rather than solely confined to England. At the same time, the events which immediately preceded the passing of the Acts, and the struggle which issued in their repeal, are distinctively part of British history and find record in Chapter XIII, which deals with " The Master Problem in Britain," HISTORY OF REGULATION 97 medical men, which faimed the smouldering fires of oppo- sition into the blaze which seventeen years later reduced the three Acts to ashes. What was the object of these Acts ? It was con- sidered necessary for the physical health of soldiers and sailors that they should not be exposed to the danger of contracting secret insidious diseases from unclean persons who sold themselves for immoral purposes. To attain this apparently desirable end practically the female portions of our garrison towns were to be sub- jected to police and medical regulation. Those who were suspected by the former of having fallen were required to be examined by the latter at stated periods, or to be brought before a magistrate, who could imprison them for non-compliance with the law. George Meredith, in " One of our Conquerors," makes Priscilla declare, " For gross maladies, gross remedies." That was the belief of the promoters of these gross Acts. However carefully such Acts were administered, a terrible power was placed in the hands of the police, which sooner or later was certain to be followed by dire consequences. As a fact, the gravest blunders occurred. Innocent women went about in terror lest they should be mistaken for what they were not ; some submitted their persons to the surgeon's eyes and instruments rather than be hauled before the magistracy on suspicion ; several, either to escape the disgraceful and painful ordeal, or from maddened sense of shame, committed suicide or were wrongfully imprisoned. The horrid imported system brought flaming trouble in its train. Thomas Hardy was right when he said through the lips of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, " When men and women break a law the woman pays." The great failure of these Acts was demonstrated in the most conclusive manner, e.g. that the rate of venereal disease continued to increase with disconcerting rapidity. By this limited explanation of the Acts it is now evident that they were self-condemned. But it was not 98 THE MASTER PROBLEM until " a woman's protest," signed by nineteen ladies, appeared in the Daily News, that public attention was even momentarily arrested. That protest brought Mrs. Butler to the leadership of the Repeal Movement. Mrs. Josephine Butler was born on April 13th, 1828, within sight of Flodden Field, where the memories of those chivalrous deeds lingered which adorn the pages of Sir Walter Scott. She was the daughter of John Grey, of Dilston, whose biography she wrote, a book of which the late F. W. H. Myers said : " It breathes of the Northumberland Moors, the valley of the rushing Tyne, and of blown and rainy hills." Her father was a cousin of the famous Earl Grey, and with him he promoted the first Reform Act, Free Trade, and the abolition of slavery. Her mother was a descendant of the well-known Hugue- not family, the Annetts, who escaped to England at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. From these Josephine inherited that love of freedom which determined and glorified the work of her life. She died on the 30th December, 1906, at Wooler, where she had spent, in almost solitary seclusion, the last three years in much weakness of body, but, as she wrote to the author, " breathing the free air of my native hills." In the numerous newspaper biographies which appeared at her death, she was referred to as "A Modern Saint," "A Famous Reformer," "The Foremost Champion of the Liberty of Women." And that part of her work by which she will be remembered was described with praiseworthy fulness, contrasting strongly with that " conspiracy of silence " which, in 1870, stifled the Press of the whole country when publicity was the breath of the cause she heroically advocated, and in which she gained what is now universally regarded as one of the most encouraging moral victories of the Victorian reign. The present generation knows too little of her work. Immorality shirks the light, and attacks upon it must be made with grave discretion, lest more harm than good is done. But there comes a moment when public HISTORY OF REGULATION 99 protest is an admitted necessity, when the moral forces openly revolt, and speech and action are forced from the most reluctant souls. That moment arrived in April, 1869, and Mrs. Butler was compelled to take up arms against the legalising of vice. By a series of pre- paratory circumstances, but more by a profound belief in the sacredness of personal liberty, an acute sense of justice and almost supernormal mercy for sinners, and most of all by what she believed was the call of Heaven, she was driven from the sanctity of her beautiful home and, leaving husband and children, went forth crying, " I rebel ! I rebel ! " She exposed her sensitive nature to the whips and scorns of outrageous vice, to the sting- ing taunts of men, and engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with the deadliest of sins and a deluded host who believed it was necessary to satisfy certain passions of certain men by Act of Parliament at the infinite cost of the bodies and souls of weak and erring women. She entered upon this terrible warfare as a lover of her country, and would have sung the noblest song ever written in the name of England : — " Ever the faith endures, England, my England ; Take and break us : we are yours, England, my own ! " ' For several years she had opened the guest chamber of her own home to misled girls, and in Liverpool had visited about four thousand women in the prisons and workhouses, picking oakum with them in their cells, that she might discover those broken chords which, in the worst human hearts, only respond to the most cultured touch. In that work of mercy she learned two secrets of success — humility and sympathy. The sudden loss of her own only daughter — ^who in her eagerness to welcome her parents' home-coming, fell over the balustrade from an upper floor dead at their feet — ^plunged her into depths of sorrow which revealed to her still more of the mystery of human suffering. ' W. E. Henley. 100 THE MASTER PROBLEM Mrs. Josephine Butler set her hand to a task from which the bravest man or woman might have recoiled in horror. " To touch pitch is to be defiled ! " Mrs. Butler knew better. Writing years later, when one phase of the conflict had ceased, she said to the present writer : " There is blessing and even pure joy in this special service, although to many it appears a repulsive service, in which to engage our thoughts and activities. There is harm and danger in mere passive contemplation of evil and baseness, but the motive purifies all, and like the Saint in Raphael's famous picture, we are enabled to tread upon the hideous dragon wallowing under our feet without fear or danger, our eyes fixed on the light beyond." Mrs. Butler immediately proclaimed the fundamental principles of her opposition. It was not the revolt of a sex, but of citizens of a free country. Founding her claim upon what she aptly called the Bible of the English Constitution — ^the Magna Charta, Bill of Rights, and Petition of Rights — she demanded respect for the in- alienable right of every woman over her own person. A considerable portion of the civil community had been taken by these Acts out of the jurisdiction of the Home Office and placed under the War Office and the Admiralty — ^their inchvidual liberties had been withdrawn from the guardianship of law and of justice and delivered over to the caprice of the administration. There existed flag- rant infringement of the sacred liberty of the subject. Moreover, the Acts legalised that sapless moral code which upholds one moral law for man and another for woman, and allows that sin is a necessity to physical completeness. Compelled by nature to bear the repel- lent consequences of shame, woman was further degraded by compulsory examinations of State surgeons, not that she might be permanently redeemed, but that she might be given a State licence to go forth^and sin again for the safer pleasure of debased men. The defenders of the Acts treated the subject merely asf'a physiological question, and gravely blimdered in that limited view of HISTORY OF REGULATION 101 it ; but it was first and last a moral question, though the moral sense of those in authority was so blurred by the tyranny of so-called expert medical opinion that few could see the force of the axiom already enunciated: that which is morally wrong cannot be physically right. It required much time and argument to convince so high-minded a statesman as the late Mr. Gladstone of the pre-eminence of this moral aspect of the problem, and to wring from him the declaration — " If these Acts can be shown to be immoral in their principles and tendency, no supposed physical advantages consequent on their operation can justify their continuance, and they must be repealed." Mrs. Butler's position was un- assailable. The moral forces which Mr. Gladstone fre- quently invoked in stately language were ranged on her side. Her supporters increased in numbers and force year by year, and ultimately included men of widely divergent views on political and religious ques- tions — J. S. Mill, Sir James Stansfield, Dr. Martineau, Cardinal Manning, Professor Francis Newman, Professor Sheldon Amos, Jacob Bright, Professor Stuart, Mr. H. J. Wilson, to mention a few. Mrs. Butler would have named them all, for she never tired of expressing her profound gratitude to them for their wise and powerful advocacy. We are unable in this chapter to dwell long upon the methods adopted^to secure the repeal of these morally condemned Acts. From 1870 to 1881, there were held 766 public meetings and 91 conferences, whilst 18,068 petitions, with 2,657,248 signatures, were organised to protest against them. By-elections were fought and won at the cost of personal danger, and the Government and Press were compelled to recognise the alarming import- ance of the movement. Medical experts were confronted with statistics and counter expert opinion which check- mated their designs. The Acts did not secure better health for the troops, whilst their legal victims waxed worse. In 1875, 65 per cent of them were diseased ; in 1876, 68 per cent; in 1877, 73 per cent; in 1878, 75 102 THE MASTER PROBLEM per cent ; in 1879, 82 per cent ; in 1880, 84 per cent ; and in 1881, 88 per cent. In 1882, the Acts were sus- pended. Mrs. Butler appealed to working men and their wives in the great manufacturing centres, and they rallied to the abolitionist standard. With the consent of her husband. Canon Butler, whose devotion and chivalry deserve large mention in any record of his great wife, she visited the garrison towns and the houses where the unfortunate congregated. In 1896, Mrs. Butler recalled, in a contribution to the Chatham Crusade, initiated and conducted by the present writer, her visit to this typical centre. A paragraph from her touching account and from one of her speeches will show the working of the Acts, and how she reasoned with its victims. " I recall one night there, in which I was permitted to enter three of the superintended houses of shame under Government sanction. What I witnessed there dwells with me still as a dark and sorrowful memory, after all these years. I will not speak of it, except to tell you that the impression made on me was, beyond all else, one of pity, of the tenderest pity, for the young of both sexes, who were being educated by the State to feel that impurity was necessary, and allowed ; for, indeed, these young people could see that vice had been raised by the State to the rank of a permitted industry. In one of these ' habitations of darkness ' which I entered there was a hall with a stage for theatricals at one end. This hall was filled with girls (some frightened and timid-looking) and with soldiers, almost all young, many recruits ; I saw no civilians there. I was struck with the sombre aspect of the company. Though there were some songs and some dancing, I saw no signs of real enjoyment, no healthy laughter, no real merri- ment. It seemed as if an accusing conscience hovered over the place, and such laughter as there was had a hollow sound ; there was a deadly gloom, as of the lower world. I was speak- ing to a little group apart, when a number of young soldiers (they were all young) came up to me, leading and urging forward a very young comrade, a boy with an open, innocent face, the son, maybe (I thought), of a Christian mother, and lately from a good home. One of his comrades (whose kindly feelings touched me much) said. ' Speak to this lad, ma'am. HISTORY OF REGULATION 103 He has just joined. It's all so strange to him, and he frets badly.' They pushed the boy quite close up to me. I could not feel or speak otherwise to him than as a mother to a dearly-loved son. The poor boy leaned his head on my shoulder and burst into tears. He uttered a cry which pierced my heart, and which dwells in my memory to this day. He said (his comrades all keeping silence, and some crying), ' O, lady, I want to be good ! I want to be good ; but they expect us to be bad, and so we get bad. ' " Addressing the men in another house, she pleaded, in language used in her " Hour before the Dawn " — a pamphlet, wrote Mr. W. T. Stead, " which is un- equalled in the writings of this generation for deep in- sight, passionate sympathy, and prophetic vision." " I speak to you as an equal, not a superior ; as a fellow sinner, a fellow sufferer ; for not in vain have I sat in darkness and in the shadow of death . . . every word is wrung out of a heart which has been exercised by no common suffering. I know enough of human life and of Divine love to make me tenderly loving to you, were your confessions far more awful than they are." As a result of opposition infused with a divine spirit, founded upon the highest constitutional and moral principles, constant and unwearied agitation, this foul blot upon the Statute Book of our great and free land was expunged. In April, 1883, Sir James Stansfield had the honour, which he richly deserved, of carrying a motion condemning the compulsory medical examina- tions. The suspension of the Acts necessarily followed, and on the i6th April, 1886, they were finally repealed. Mrs. Butler was abroad when the end came ; and it fell to the lot of another splendid champion and devoted friend, the late Professor Stuart, to flash the io5rful news to her. But it brought her little joy. " You are re- joicing," she wrote from Italy. " As for me, when the telegram came from Stuart armouncing that the ' Acts ' were no more, I hardly felt as if I cared. We had struggled so long ; and now, when it has come at last, much of the 104 THE MASTER PROBLEM joy of the triumph seems to have been lost in being deferred." Mrs. Butler's long and sustained work abroad was but an extended application of those same principles which she has left to us as a great inheritance. She tramped the Continent, interviewing the Chiefs of the Police des Mceurs, the leaders of Protestant communities, editors, senators, reformers, freely speaking to them in France and Italy in their own languages, leaving in every place a nucleus of awakened opposition to the whole system of regulated vice. Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Mazzini, P^re Hyacinth, Pope Pius IX, welcomed and supported her plea. Her work has nearly overspread the Continent, resulting in repeated International Congresses and in transforming the moral face of Europe. The present writer some time ago walked, as it were, in her footsteps over the Continent, and discovered with amazement the rapidity with which a rich harvest has grown from the fertile seeds she scattered. Other lands have responded to her call to action. America, Africa, India, New Zea- land, and now Japan and China and Russia are demanding enlightenment on the subject of Abolition against Regula- tion. A complete Biography of Mrs. Butler will not be written. During the last year of her life she privately implored her friends not to write an account of her personal life, and to destroy her private letters, of which there were thousands. So that it is the more necessary for us to place on record again and again the principles upon which the work of her life was based. " That record," she wrote in a preface to the published account of the present writer's Crusade in Chatham in 1900 (undertaken whilst acting as Assistant Minister to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, a crusade which ulti- mately resulted in the foundation of the National Council of Pubhc Morals), " that record must not be lost or disregarded — ^for the battle in which you and I have severally been called to take our place is a most vital part of the great worldwide ' battle of the Lord against HISTORY OF REGULATION 105 the mighty,' a battle which must be maintained without discouragement and without weariness, until the dawn of the day when all evil shall be overcome." When the time comes to speak of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, we shall have more to relate respecting the late Mr. W. T. Stead and his bold advocacy of purity. Undoubtedly his efforts, which were directed toward raising the age of consent, did much to stimulate Parlia- ment to its decision in the matter of Regulation. His campaign, which was undertaken at the instance of Mrs. Josephine Butler and Mr. Scott, began in 1885, when he gathered the material for " The Maiden Tribute to Modern Babylon," and resulted not only in his im- prisonment, but in the passing of the Act raising the age of consent to sixteen; and, as we have seen, the next year the object for which Mrs. Josephine Butler had so long and so zealously worked, the repeal of the Regula- tion Law, so far as England was concerned, became an established fact. CHAPTER IX MEDICAL OPINIONS UPON REGULATION " After many years' trial of police control, inspection and licensing, there comes from all quarters the same story of complete failure, even in some cases of actual increase of the evil. Sexual diseases are as wide-spread and virulent among people where regulation exists as in any unprotected country. This is the deliberately expressed opinion of medical men of the highest eminence, supported by conclusive statistics and facts." — W. A. Brend, Charing Cross Hospital. " All attempts at regulation and revival of the Contagious Diseases Acts would not only be morally wrong, but medically valueless." — Protest against regulation signed by Dr. Mary Scharlieb, Dr. Florence Willey, Lady French, Lady JeUicoe, etc., October, 1914. Issued by The National Council of Pubhc Morals. THE medical aspect of Regulation has now been lifted from the cloudy atmosphere of the old-time passive toleration with which this phase of prostitution was wont to be viewed, and has been subjected to the clean daylight of statistical analysis. A lot of sentimental rubbish surrounded the whole question for many years, and by common consent there was a general medical acquiescence in a policy of hush. It was thought that men could not remain in full health and be chaste. With such a fundamental error it is not difficult to see that the majority of medical men were thus content to allow the nation to nurture an evil which produced the appalling results that have followed wherever Regulation has existed. It goes without saying, of course, that the diseases arising out of sexual licentiousness do not solely derive from Regulation, but it is emphatically true, on the other hand, that Regulation does not diminish venereal dis- eases one iota. In earlier chapters various examples have been given 106 MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 107 of the futility of medical inspection and the ease with which diseased women may evade certification as dis- eased, by leaving a regulated district, and going into another house, or, more usually still, by becoming clandestine prostitutes, plying the infamous calling un- restrained, and infecting dozens of men before they are traced. Numbers of such cases could be cited from official records, but it is the purpose here rather to establish by exact statistics and by definite medical opinions, the fact that Regulation is a ghastly failure in its purported efiicacy as a means of preventing sexual disease. Happily in Great Britain Regulation, as we have seen, has been abolished for many years, but nevertheless it is instructive to look backward. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the CD. Acts as pieces of machinery, whatever may be said as to their moral aspects, or their one-sided application. On paper they looked efficient, but the fact remains they were proved failures in actual result. The main features of the Acts which were applied to naval and military stations were : — 1. Registration and police supervision of prostitutes. 2. Their periodical medical examination for the detec- tion of venereal disease. 3. Their compulsory detention in special hospitals if diseased. The Acts were in full force from 1870-83, and were in existence from 1864 to the year 1886, when victory crowned Mrs. Butler's efEorts. It was recognised as an established fact that before the passing of the CD. legislation there was a steady decline in the number of men in the Army and Navy who con- tracted venereal diseases. Yet when the Acts came into operation the number becoming infected jumped up alarmingly. A Parliamentary return issued in February, 1894 (CD. 509), gave the following significant table dealing with years during which the Acts were being actively administered : — 108 THE MASTER PROBLEM Admissions to hospital in the Home Army : Ratios per 1000 of strength : — iSyo 1883 Primary sores . . 71-1 increased to 116-5 Secondary syphilis . 257 „ 28-5 Gonorrhoea . . 103-6 ,, 115-0 Totals . . . 201-0 „ 260-0 The argument these figures are used to uphold finds added vindication in the statement issued in regard to 1904 on the subject of venereal diseases among men in the Services. This shows that the admissions to hospital for all venereal diseases per 1000 of strength were : — Home Army . . 270-7 reduced to 66 -o Home Station of Navy 203-0 „ 112-0 Writing recently (July, 191 5) upon this subject, Miss Alison Neilans aptly put the matter : — " Under the full operation of the CD. Acts diseases in- creased, although the only possible justification of those Acts, even from a material point of view, was that they would reduce disease. Abolitionists have always said that not only were these Acts morally wrong, but they were also un- scientific and futile. Experience shows this to be true. " Since the total abolition of the Acts more serious efforts have been made throughout the Services to educate the men on the subject of these diseases, and also to inculcate principles of self-control. The greater success of these methods has been demonstrated again and again." How incontestable is this statement, the figures already quoted go far to prove. The common-sense conclusions to be arrived at after a study of the conditions contemporaneous with these Acts are that : — I. No system of Regulation can prevent clandestine prostitution, or can register the clandestine women. These are often quite young, get infected very early in their irregular life, and are the most potent conveyers of disease. MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 109 2. A woman carefully examined and passed as free from disease may be infected the same day, and is at large until the next examination, probably for fourteen or twenty-one days, in a highly contagious state. 3. A woman may be in an infectious state and yet present no objective symptoms of disease. She may pass on disease from one man to her next client without being affected herself. This is known as " mediate con- tagion," and is especially true of the professional prosti- tutes. 4. Young clandestine women are infected by diseased men, and even if all diseased women could be interned until cured the diseased men left at large would speedily infect a fresh set of women. A measure to prevent contagious disease which deals with one sex only is not only unscientific but ridiculous. 5. The system of compulsory examination and deten- tion deters women from coming voluntarily for treatment in the early stages of their disease, and thus scatters it in this most infective period. To these cogent reasons may be added three out of a series of objections to Regulation, given by Mr. W. C. Dawson, the well-known purity worker in Leeds, and sub- mitted to the Social Purity Congress at San Francisco in 1915 :— A. A vice area is a temptation to young people, who will not readily believe that practices can be prejudicial to the well-being of the community when the authorities either provide facilities themselves or permit others to provide them. B. A vice area attracts to it all the idle, vicious, and criminal population in a city who prey, not upon their own class, but upon the law-abiding community. It is not only a " hot-bed " of immorality, but also produces the basest kinds of criminality, such as bullies, procurers, seducers, thieves, and blackmailers. C. A vice area lowers the. moral tone of the whole community. The directors of companies and their share- holders, tradesmen and their employees, who make large 110 THE MASTER PROBLEM profits on the food, wines, showy clothing, etc, supplied in such areas, oppose all social reform and its advo- cates. Dealing with the question of Regulation, The Shield recently offered a criticism with which the writer is heartily in agreement :— " In so far as men believe that legalised segregation or regulation, and the methods which they incorporate, achieve their purpose, i.e. lessen the chance of disease, they tend to remove inhibition and encourage vice. As the guarantee of safety which they are popularly thought to provide is an absolutely false one, it follows that such methods tend to increase disease, because — whatever may be the intention of the authorities — ^the average man under this system is led to believe that it is not the vice in itself which is the evil to be fought, but only the disease. He sees that he is not expected to keep chaste, but to keep well. He believes that he can fulfil this part of his duty by avoiding unregistered women ; but the net result of this appeal to the lower, instead of the higher, nature is an increase in sexual immorality, a slackening of the moral sense of personal responsibility, and, naturally, an increase in those diseases which are rooted in the prostitu- tion of the body." To come back to the strictly medical purview of the chapter, the report given in August, 1913, by Dr. Arthur Newsholme, c.B., the Medical Officer of the Local Govern- ment Board, upon the results of Dr. R. W. Johnstone's investigations on behalf of the Board into the Control exercised over Venereal Diseases in England and Wales, includes the following definite opinion : — " In his report. Dr. Johnstone emphasises the practical point, that syphilis is spread less by habitual or professional prostitutes than by women who are only occasional prostitutes and by men who have neglected to secure competent advice or to observe it when given. Hence it is impracticable to attempt to repress this disease by restrictive measures of the type of the former Contagious Diseases Acts. We must look to other means of control applicable with a fair degree of equality of both sexes." MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 111 In November, 1912, the question of Regulation came acutely before the Municipal Council of Chicago, and a protracted examination of the whole question was given by a number of prominent men and women. One of the most convincing addresses was given by Dr. W. A. Evans. It is worth quoting in full, but space forbids more than a few extracts. The value of these opinions as a contribution to well- considered medical data on the subject, is substantially enhanced by the fact that Dr. Evans, during many years of medical practice, was an avowed believer in Regula- tion. As he remarked in the opening minutes of his address : — " I frankly confess that when I became a member of the Vice Commission I shared the rather loose view of the medical profession, that to segregate vice would be a measure looking toward a control of the problem of venereal disease. I had absorbed this point of view without any particular study, and it did not represent the accurate opinions of the close investigations of myself or anybody else. " It was with this point of view that I became a member of the Vice Commission. What I observed as a member of the Vice Commission sent me to the conclusion that segregation was not a remedy looking toward the ultimate cure of the vice evil from any standpoint." Dr. Evans, therefore, is neither a visionary nor a fanatic, but a busy, experienced, discriminating prac- titioner, who has arrived at his conclusions out of an abundance of evidence and statistics, which have led him, without bias, to the logical decision that, from a purely materialistic view-point alone, without taking into account the powerful moral and humane aspects of the question. Regulation does not achieve its own pur- pose, but makes a damnable business more damnable still. Discussing the points which were relied upon to give to Regulation its value as a beneficial measure Dr. Evans pointed out that one of the reasons why Segregation did not return results was the fact that " the medical 112 THE MASTER PROBLEM inspection which prevails in the segregated districts and constitutes, usually, the most important argument that is offered in its favour, is no more of a success than is the policy of Segregation, and segregating this vice away from other parts of the community is no more successful than is Regulation. In fact, it is the least successful of the three effects that are supposed to be the good results of this particular line of policy." " And now, why ? " asked Dr. Evans, and, answering his own question, continued : " Medical inspection does not give protection by reason of the fact that, in the first place, as it is usually carried out, there is no pretence that it is compe- tently or properly applied. I have been in a great many houses here in Chicago, where I have seen a number of physi- cians' certificates made up and signed, which the Madam could give out to any girl who applied for one, without having that girl go through a medical examination. I should imagine that, if a girl comes into a house during the week^when the doctor is not to come round for two or three days, in all proba- bility in many of these houses that policy prevails of giving the girl a temporary certificate, or rather this certificate which is regarded as a temporary certificate, and the girl is examined when the doctor comes round at his regular examining day. " The custom is in these houses that are inspected, to have the physician call, in some houses once a week and in some houses once in every two weeks. The custom is to give an examination that is exceedingly superficial, and that examina- tion is not close enough to determine the facts that are set forth in the certificate. At the conclusion of that examination the girl is given a certificate that she is in good health or otherwise. The type of examination that is given is not an examination that would disclose whether the girl had either of the two diseases that are prominently in mind or not. Therefore, the certificate does not state the facts, the facts that exist, as they could have been found out by a more complete and more thorough examination. " In addition to that, the two diseases are peculiar in that they remain contagious for a long time, and that during the course of the diseases for a large part of the time they are latent. For much of the time evidence of them is not easily had, although at the time when that evidence is not to be had MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 118 — certainly not by a superficial examination — ^the diseases are highly contagious. They are diseases that are peculiar in that they are latent for a considerable part of the time, and continuing latent they can suddenly spring up into activity. " They are diseases that have, one an incubation period of four days, and the other an incubation period of twenty-one days. If the examination is made during the incubation period the most skilful medical examination could not deter- mine that there was a contagious disease present, and yet one day later the disease might manifest itself and be actively, most actively, contagious. And the doctor would not come around until six days later, and in some instances until thirteen days later. " I know, as a result of conferences with a great many physicians that are engaged in treating this type of diseases, that the custom is for the woman to take treatment until outward manifestation of the disease has passed away, and when it is no longer to be seen on the skin or in the mouth or throat, or by reason of secretions, that the custom is for the woman to discontinue treatment. That is a time of double danger in that there is nothing apparent to a person on his guard showing that there is contagion in that case. And yet the diseases are actively contagious. " And so the conclusion that I arrived at is a conclusion that is in keeping with the conclusion of medical men generally throughout the world, and that is that medical inspection looking to a certificate, which certificate would serve to guide those who came about such places, is a fallacy that is mis- leading." Replying to a question : " Suppose, doctor, they were examined every day. Would that be proper medical supervision? " Dr. Evans replied : " In the first place, it would not be feasible to examine them every day, and in the second place an examination of the type that is now given would not be worth anything more than — well, it would be worth something more, but practically no more than the examination once every two weeks. An examination to be of any service would have to be a microscopic examination so far as one of the venereal diseases is concerned, That J6, one requires a microscopic 114 THE MASTER PROBLEM examination and the other requires a blood examination, and that would represent an amount of work that would not be feasible at all." It will be noted that in the course of his remarks, Dr. Evans referred to the growing unanimity among medical men upon the failure of the threefold points of segregation, regulation, and examination. A case in point is the inquiry instituted in 1911 by the American Medical Association. The resulting report was presented at a meeting of the Association, where it was carefully dis- cussed. A significant fact was that no one who was communicated with preparatory to that report, no health officer in the United States, advocated Segregation as a remedy for the problem of the control of venereal dis- eases. The essence of that report is to be had in the transactions of the section on " Preventive Medicine and Public Health " of the American Medical Association in 191 1. It has nothing to say at all in favour of or along the line of Segregation. The health officers quite generally are agreed that Segregation is not even a part of a cure for the venereal disease problem ; that the method of cure is to make it a reportable disease and treat it like other contagious diseases, and to provide proper hospital and dispensary facilities for those who have the diseases, where they can be kept until they are completely cured. In later chapters the question of prostitution in Europe will be examined with some approach to thoroughness, which will obviate more than a passing reference here. On the Continent, Regulation was practised for many years as being useful and e£&cacious, but the rising sun of medical and moral enlightenment gathered in strength, slowly it is true, and at last banished the darkness of error with which the system is enveloped. As a consequence the pernicious trilogy is fast disappearing. i The following table shows the number of inscribed women in certain well-known towns in France : — MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 115 Paris . Marseilles Bordeaux Lille . Nantes Le Havre Toulon Total 6000 639 410 108 125 136 325 7743 The reason of quoting these figures is twofold. First to point out that even with the above approximately eight thousand women, there are devastating possibilities almost beyond belief, even if the minimum averages of daily intercourse, and transmission and re-transmission of infection, are worked out. The second reason is the stronger, and is divided into two considerations. It is an astonishing fact, based upon official knowledge and unimpeachable data, that only a fractional part of the women who gain a living as prosti- tutes are inscribed on the registers of the Regulation authorities. In Paris the six thousand inscribed are esti- mated to be only one-fifteenth of the total number of prostitutes. If that same ratio of unregistered women to registered rules for the other French towns quoted, how doubly imperative it becomes to the public welfare to make really efficacious whatever means are adopted to deal with the Social Evil. But Paris is not a " terrible example " of this flagrant evasion of regulation requirements. Readers of " Prosti- tution in Europe," by Dr. Abraham Flexner, a valuable treatise which was issued in 1914 by the Bureau of Social Hygiene, will remember that on page 146 figures are given which may be grouped as follows : — Registered Known Percentage of Prostitutes. Prostitutes. Registration. Vienna . 1,500 . . 30,000 .. 5% Rome 223 . 5,000 •• 4i% Munich • 175 • 2,574 ■• 7% Berlin 1 1 T^V; . 3,000 . 50,000 • 6i% This last figure is Dr. Nieman's estimate, 116 THE MASTER PROBLEM It is therefore clear that the number of registered prostitutes is insignificant, no matter where existent, as compared with the actual total. Consequently the system stands convicted as useless as a means of control or regulation. That is the inevitable conclusion of the first consideration. How does it stand in preventive value ? Professor Finger maintains that " about 25 per cent of all licensed prostitutes are in the highly contagious stage of latent syphilis." It has to be borne in mind that the prosti- tute has every incentive to evade licence and consequent examination, and if she realises or suspects that she has syphilis, or the yet more insidious gonorrhoea, her efforts are redoubled in this direction. It is legitimate, there- fore, to argue that a very much larger percentage of the exceedingly preponderating total who do not present themselves for registration are diseased. Again, from the statistics furnished by Dr. Le Pileur, emerge the facts that " 74 per cent of those registered were already syphilitic when examined," and also that " 34 per cent had been infected a year or more before they were regis- tered." The same authority gives it as almost axiomatic that the average prostitute is syphilitic at eighteen, or say one year after she begins the regular sale of her body. This sad array of figures leads to the point of the second consideration referred to, that if it is medically established that so great a percentage of prostitutes are suffering from disease of a highly contagious nature, and that so ridiculously small a percentage of prostitutes ever came under control, the medical value of all the cumbrous machinery of segregation, regulation, and examination, is utterly and unequivocally valueless, either as a means of health protection or as a mitigant of a standing evil. In a trenchant article on " Society and Sex Problems," the Lancet says (April 25th, 1914) : — " Abolitionists demand the cessation of all regulation or recognition by the State of prostitution as a trade. This is the British view, and it is the view to which educated opinion MEDICAL OPINIONS ON REGULATION 117 is strongly leaning at the present time. The arguments rest chiefly upon the fact that regulation, after a long and careful trial, has turned out to be a failure. . . . The day of regula- tion is over." No more eloquent synchronisation of the medical opinion of the world could be given than this emphatic peroration by a highly authoritative British Medical paper : " The day of regulation is over." The Master Problem is not to be solved by Regulation ! CHAPTER X DISEASES ARISING OUT OF THE SOCUL EVIL " The public ought to have fuller knowledge of these great evils and their effects upon the life of the nation. If venereal diseases are to be stamped out, it will be necessary not only to provide the medical means of combating them, but to raise the moral standards and prac- tice of the community as a whole. Such instruction should be based upon moral principles and spiritual considerations, and should by no means be concentrated on the physical consequences of immoral con- duct." — The Royal Commission Report, 1916. " Our great hope must be that the true moral may be drawn from all this revelation of disease ; the moral, I mean, of the evilness of evil, on which God writes out the condemnation in the terrible statistics of physical result, spreading through the guilty to the innocent, en- tailed on one generation to its unborn successor." — Rt. Rev. Lokd Bishop of Winchester (Extract from Portsmouth June Conference, 1914)- THE diseases arising out of the Social Evil present a rough classification under two categories — direct and indirect. The first group comprises the venereal diseases which are the direct outcome of illicit relations, and which are highly contagious. In the case of married men who contract one or other of the venereal diseases, this first group includes the innocent woman who is his wife and to whom he transmits his evilly obtained malady. The indirect diseases which form the second group, find their victims among the children of parents, one or other of whom has suffered at some period from venereal disease. Obviously, the maternal percentage of guilti- ness is negligible as compared with that of the paternal responsibility ; which makes it imperative that efforts at amelioration should proceed along lines which aim at bringing to men, and particularly to young men just on the threshold of life, a better realisation, through educational agencies, not only of the true place of the 118 DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 119 procreative function but also of the ravages which follow wilful disobedience to the moral law. The old policy of obscurity so long ascendant must vanish, and parents and teachers must enlighten maidens and youths on sexual matters ; the young men being plainly and categorically given the " strong meat " of unconcealed explanation as to the disease and lifelong suffering to themselves and others, which so easily may befall a departure from the high path of sexual virtue. Until comparatively recent date the very word Syphilis was uttered — if at all — ^with bated breath, as something constituting a dire and sinful malady not to be thought of or mentioned to an innocent person with whom we might, nevertheless, discuss the cause of smallpox, typhoid fever, and any of the other better known and recognised maladies, of which we speak without fear of condemnation. And all the time we have been so afraid of recognising this one " sinful disease," we have re- mained ignorant of an even more insidious danger in the form of Gonorrhoea, so far-reaching in its results, and pervading the private morals of the community to an hitherto unknown and almost imthinkable degree. Gonorrhoea is dangerous to the individual, syphilis to the race ; to present in any adequate manner the entire results of these tw o diseases whip h arise out of the past and present standara ot private morals, is not easy ; but enough must be said to show what is the heritage of this present generation, and lastly, to fix attention on the strong ray of light which modern science has thrown athwart a darkness otherwise filled with wellnigh utter despair. Gonorrhoea, a disease well known to ancient civilisa- tion and frequently referred to by classical writers from Aristotle down to our latest social historians, is a specific disease caused by infection from a pathogenic microbe known as the gonococcus — discovered by Neisser in 1879. The serious nature of this disease lies in the fact that Unless adequate treatment is applied in the first, or early stages — indeed, as soon as possible after infection, 120 THE MASTER PROBLEM it is likely to become chronic and difficult to cure. The primary symptoms may be of so slight a nature as easily to be overlooked in the case of either sex, and where this is the case the disease is liable to lie quiescent for a considerable period, even for years, before it is recog- nised by one or other of the forms in which it may make its appearance. By this time it is extremely difficult to effect a cure, and then only by prolonged treatment directly under the supervision of a capable doctor. If, however, on the immediate appearance of the first symp- toms, or even a suspicion of a symptom, skilled treatment is obtained and persevered in until a pronounced cure is effected, there is comparatively little danger. A striking example of the danger alluded to is given by a well-known doctor. A man who has contracted gonorrhoea applies for medical treatment. When the first symptoms dis- appear he discontinues the application of the remedies in the belief that he is cured. In the course of two or three years he marries, and the gonococci which mean- time have remained dormant in the urethra, are trans- ferred to the virgin vagina and become rejuvenated. The infection of the wife re-infects the husband with his own gonococci. The blame is naturally laid upon the wife, who, unable to defend herself (largely due to the ignorance which has hitherto prevailed on these matters), suffers a reproach unjust in the extreme. In the course of her practice, Dr. L. Martindale came across various deeply pathetic examples of the blasting effect upon young wives' lives of transmitted Syphilis and Gonorrhoea. One such she recently quoted in her informative book, " Under the Surface " : — " As an example of gonorrhoea perhaps I cannot do better than quote a case that came under my care a short time ago. " The patient, aged 25, had been married two years. On examination, I found her to be suffering from pyosalpingitis and metritis, that is to say, the Fallopian tubes were inflamed, one of them containing a large quantity of pus (matter), and the uterus was also affected. As is usual in such cases she was childless. DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 121 " The history she gave me was that two days after marriage, while travelhng, she was seized with very great pain and difficulty in micturition. On arriving at the hotel, the doctor who was called in told her she was suffering from inflammation (it is unnecessary to say that a doctor practically never tells the patient the exact nature of this disease), and since that time she had frequently had severe illnesses, for which she was laid up for weeks. Later, the young husband, to whom I gave the diagnosis, admitted to me that he had contracted gonorrhoea previous to marriage, had had careful treatment, and had postponed his marriage until nine months after his supposed cure. His doctor had from time to time made microscopic preparations of any discharge, and for nine months previous these had shown no signs of the gonococcus micro-organism. He also confessed to having suffered from syphilis." This is what might be termed a "clean" case, for the young man seriously believed he was cured and delayed marriage until a medical man pronounced him so. In numerous cases the male cares not, and, knowing he has one or other of the diseases in a more or less stage of malignancy, yet proceeds to his marriage to slay with disease the woman a few hours earlier he has vowed to " honour and cherish." The point which must be enforced to-day is that no silent suffering must be borne by either man or woman in these matters without seeking the advice of a com- petent physician at once. It is imperative that these diseases should be made known privately, just as others are notified publicly, and that it rests with the individual, not alone for personal reasons, but for the good of humanity at large, to put all pride or false modesty to the winds, and by treating the matter seriously and instantaneously much mental as well as physical suffer- ing will be averted. The prevalence and effects of gonorrhoea have been greatly underestimated, and it is only by confining one- self to facts that the truth is likely to be brought home to many still in ignorance. It is stated on the highest 122 THE MASTER PROBLEM authority that of the adult male population inhabiting large towns a large proportion do not escape gonorrhoeal infection^[,before the age of thirty. It is further stated that in New York out of looo married men 500 have had gonorrhoea; and that as 50 per cent have not been thoroughly cured, they are liable at any time to infect their wives. Taking the other side we find that out of the 40,000 to 50,000 prostitutes who die annually, at least 40 per cent of this mortality is due to the effects of gonorrhoea. As regards married women, it has been established beyond doubt that 70 per cent of various specific diseases met with in married women are due to direct infection of careless or ignorant husbands. Emphasis should be laid on this last sentence, as it is unfair to class all men as wilfully careless or criminal in this matter. While doubtless too many do exist, the vast majority who convey the infection are ignorant of its existence through failure to carry out reliable medical instructions until a cure has been effected. The word reliable is used advisedly, in contradistinction to the habit so prevalent amongst men — even those of good social standing — ^to consult a disreputable chemist, or doctor of the quack order. A disease of this kind calls for specialised treatment, which cannot be obtained from either of these sources. The manner in which this disease attacks the sexes presents a curious pathological difference. In the male the incidence of gonorrhoea is more visible and therefore more easily diagnosed ; it is also attended by a far greater degree of pain and discomfort than is the case with the female. In fact, with the latter it is frequently non-apparent, though the resultant effects are of the most serious character, involving among other disorders sterility and acute abdominal diseases. Fournier, the emi- nent French authority on sexual diseases, says : — " It may, for instance, react on the bladder, on the pros- tate in the form of congestion, inflammation and abscess DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 123 which requires to be opened immediately to avoid worse dangers; on the kidneys; on the eye by the inoculation carried there by the fingers soiled with pus, or in some other manner, an inoculation which causes an acute ophthalmia which may destroy the eye in a few days ; on the heart ; even on the spinal cord, causing paralysis of the lower limbs and the bladder ; or even on the brain. To cite one order of cases only, out of eleven instances of acute inflammation of the spinal cord caused by gonorrhoea eight have been known to end fatally." To deal with only one of the indirect ramifications of gonorrhoea, it is authoritatively stated that more than one-third of the children^ who suffer from blindness in schools and asylums in which definite statistics are avail- able, owe their infliction to the transmission of this disease from one or other parent. Further, it is recorded that above lo per cent of all blindness owes its origin to the ravages of gonorrhoea. In regard to syphilis, in 1905 Schaudinn traced the disease to a specific microbe, which, however, though mostly received by sexual intercourse with an infected person, can be transmitted by " innocent " contagion, such as drinking from a cup previously used by a person in a syphilitic condition. The great horror of sj^hilis is its treacherous characteristics. " That is to say," to quote A. Corbett-Smith, " when once the poison has invaded the system, the body remains in a state of infection, either latent or open, for an absolutely in- definite period. But these symptoms are intermittent in their appearances. Though the body may remain infected there may quite possibly be no open and visible sign of the disease, save at intervals. The patient may, in fact, imagine him- self to be fully cured. Then another outbreak, more serious than the last, appears in a totally different part of the body." ' The Royal Commission states that in children's hospitals girls from 4-14 are found to suffer from gonorrhoea. Genital infection is some- times brought abput by sexual means and is sometimes due to the cruel superstition that a man is cured of venereal infection if he has intercourse with a virgin. 124 THE MASTER PROBLEM Fournier compares a body in such a condition to a volcano in a state of intermittent eruption ; a series of distinct outbreaks separated from each other by periods of quiescence. There are three stages of syphilis — ^the improper or inadequate treatment of the first two causing practically 80 per cent of the cases in the third or tertiary stage. In each stage it is wholly serious because of its poten- tiality ; particularly is its contagious activity apparent in the second stage when its presence is manifested by rashes and breakhigs out in various parts of the body, owing to the thorough permeation of the poison through- out the body. If syphilis remains uncured in the primary and secondary stages a more seriously dangerous period is developed. What syphilis is capable of in the human body cannot be written in detail, so hideous are the specific ravages of which it is capat)le. No single organ of the body is immune from attacks ; in three cases, one may develop visceral disease, the second may become totally blind, while the third may become irremediably epileptic. " The tongue, the throat, the eye, the ear, the heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys ; muscles, bones, joints, tissues, nerves, arteries, and veins, all can fall under the blight of this fell plague." The majority of patients, however, in the tertiary stage are those who have syphilis of the brain, the spinal cord, and the nervous system generally. This raises the direct contribution of syphilis to insanity. Of the cases of syphilitic origin admitted to asylums for the insane between 1908 and 191a some 60 per cent were general paralytics, while it is significant further to note that the comparative tables of the 1911 census show a lo-i per cent increase in insanity since 1901. As in gonorrhoea, much indirect suffering and disease result from transmission to innocent subjects. Among 331 unselected hospital cases of children attending as out-patients, the following tabulation was formulated : — DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 125 Mental Deficiency and Cases. Syphilitic Origin Epilepsy . 204 95 Heart Diseases . 25 17 Deafness^ . . 82 17 Bone Diseases . 52 16 Aortic Diseases . 46 30 Eye Diseases . . 84 57 Dr. James Kerr Love states (1915) that syphilis is more disastrous to child life than tubercle, and gives statistics of 21 families in which 172 pregnancies took place, there were 30 miscarriages or stillborn children, and including these, 75 deaths, nearly all in the first or second year, and 31 deaf and blind children — that is 106 out of 172, dead, or deaf, or blind. These are two great social plagues : plagues which have been permitted to grow almost unchecked, mainly because of false ideas of modesty. If the results were not so awful, it would savour of screaming satire that the diseases which authorities concur are responsible for many of the maladies known to civilisation, are not difficult of treatment and cure if, as soon as they are contracted, or the individual becomes conscious he has one or other, competent medical advice is taken and either disease is attacked in its primary stage. The general neglect has brought a terrible aftermath, for British specialists tell us that though syphilis is less general than it was forty years ago, the diseases which derive from syphilis are on the increase. With appropriate strength of language the author of " The Problem of the Nations " says : — " The campaign against any conspiracy of silence must be continued with ever-increasing vigour. This plague has got to be wiped out of existence, and to do so we must have clean and frank discussion. It concerns, directly or indirectly, every man and woman in the country, in the world, for it is based upon the most elemental facts of human existence, sexual impulse and motherhood." ' In regard to deafness it must be remembered that a considerable proportion of syphilitic infection responsible for deafness cannot be detected by a test. 126 THE MASTER PROBLEM If for a moment, before going into statistics, one may be allowed to become personal, it is with a balanced recognition of these facts that the National Council of Public Morals prosecutes its aims. By its lectures and by its literature it breaks the " conspiracy of silence " by " clean and frank discussion," and by its whole propa- ganda aims at an intelligent era of moral uplift, deriving its power and impulse from knowledge and purity. In this way the Council fights the two great sins of omission and commission. The omission of those responsible for combating evil by enlightenment has left the young unequipped to recognise the danger and wrong of giving way to sexual temptation. This is met by the suitable literature of the " Sex " series. The commission of those who have fallen, whether ignorantly or viciously, can be fought by plain words at lectures, by correspondence and frankly written books on the evils that beset the path of continuance, and, ere a dire heritage has been in- wrought upon themselves and generations to come, by kindly firmness, the self-destroying victims led to aban- don secret suffering for efficient medical treatment while the danger is avertible. In all channels of secret vice it is ever difficult to arrive at dependable data, or statistics. Whereas, there- fore, an abundance of generally reliable estimates on the incidence of sex diseases are extant, the most satisfactory basis that can be used is Naval and Military returns. Here exactitude and definiteness are obtainable, so just parallels can be drawn without any tangible allowance for assumptions in estimating. " The Statistical Report of the Health of the Navy for 1913," issued by the Admiralty in October, 1914 (Cd. 7683), provides food for thought and material for encour- agement. The total number of cases of venereal diseases recorded in 1913 was 11,821, with 105 final invalidings and 4 deaths. This gives the satisfactory decrease of 22'85 per 1000 in the case ratio, as compared with average for the previous 5 years : the invaliding and death ratios show fractional decreases, -39 and 0-2 respectively. DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 127 The average number of men sick daily was 661-38, a ratio per 1000 of 5-19, and a decrease of 2-22 as compared with the average for the previous 5 years. This means that, in a force of 126,000, there has been a reduction of 280 men in the number sick daily. The total number of days lost to the service was 241,410. Though the average strength of the total force has increased considerably, the latter figure compares very favourably with either of the two previous years, being less than that of 1912 by 27,800 days, and less than that of 1911 by 67,507 days. The China Station with 15-121, and the West Atlantic and Fourth Cruiser Squadron with 126-93, show the highest case ratios for venereal disease, while the Home Station with 78-49, and the Cape of Good Hope with 88-97, show the lowest. The cases include 1977 chan- croid, 719 primary, and 2133 secondary syphilis, 5876 gonorrhoea, and 1116 sequelae of gonorrhoea. Two deaths and 52 invalidings were due to constitutional syphilis, and 2 deaths and 53 invalidings were due to gonorrhoea or its sequelae. The Army Health Report for 1912 (Cd. 7201) gave a total of 6068 cases of venereal diseases in the United Kingdom, 3170 by gonorrhoea, 2007 syphilis, and 891 soft chancre. Of these only one was fatal, and that a gonorrhoea case. The United Kingdom Command had an average strength for one year of 123,109. In India (strength 71,000) there were 3943 cases with 3 deaths, and in the rest of the British Army stationed abroad 3668 with I death (in South Africa). The ratio per 1060 of strength for the United Kingdom was reduced to 56-4 from 60-5 in 1911. In India the steady drop in the statistics of venereal diseases sustained a check in 1912, when the ratio went up to 55-5 as against 53-1 in 1911 ; but it is satisfactory to note that it shows a marked decrease on the figures for 1908, when the ratio worked out at 69-8 per 1000. The Indian cases were — gonorrhoea, 2416 ; syphilis, 824 ; soft chancre, 703. 128 THE MASTER PROBLEM The common factor of these figures is the preponderance of gonorrhoea. In each report credit is given for the decrease of the incidence of venereal disease, to clean living, increasing knowledge, and salvarsan. Thus the Director-General of the Medical Division, War Office, remarked in regard to the above report : — " The still further decrease in the ratio for admissions for venereal diseases is most satisfactory. In the Aldershot Command the ratio of admissions for these complaints is far below that of any other Command in the United Kingdom, and may be attributable to the facilities for healthy recreation which exist in this Command. The effects of hard work and the encouragement of sports among the men as an incentive to clean living are admitted. " The increasing use of salvarsan in the treatment of syphilis is reducing the period during which the men are under treatment in hospital for these diseases, and an average reduction of four days in the time each case was under treat- ment has taken place when compared with last year. A further reduction may be anticipated." The final sentence strikes an altogether happy note which harmonises with the hopes and aims of all workers together for the cause of purity. The highest incentive to clean living is the practical application of religion, and thus religion and science find themselves hand in hand in the fight against the Social Evil, twin seekers for a : solution of the Master Problem. I' It is now being fully recognised that all moral reforms I or regeneration of mankind must be brought about by Uhe combination of religion and science. The old idea that spiritual renovation must come first is practically exploded; we are beginning to act on the admonition set forth by St. James : " If a brother or sister be naked or destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstand- ing ye give them not those things which are needful to the body ; what doth it profit ? Faith if it hath not works, is dead." Very slowly but surely, we are beginning DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 129 to perceive that most forms of vice are due to some disorder of the body either mental or physical ; and only by the removal of this disorder can we expect individuals to come to a state of bodily and mental health where their spiritual perception and appreciation of right and wrong will be quickened also. That this is true can be shown by definite instances, but one of the ways by which it will be attained — ^the " most excellent way " which, up to the present, has been made manifest— is by the dis- covery of salvarsan. Much has been written and said in the most eulogistic and enthusiastic terms about the wonderful discovery of salvarsan. As the final and entirely successful out- come of years of patient work it must appeal to all intelligent men and women even apart from what the Lancet calls the " romance " attending this discovery. " Interesting as a novel " is the common expression, but there are few novels possessing episodes and situa- tions as exciting as those developed in Professor Ehrlich's narrative. Never before has so marvellous a tale been told as the record of devising and using medicines and the way in which our latest remedies act against those microscopic foes which threaten the life of humanity. But when we appreciate that the message of that tale is to announce that of late there has been put into medical hands a whole armoury of weapons — ^which may go far to free the world from many of the worst diseases which now enthral us — ^we can only confess that the tale cannot be surpassed in interest and excitement by any that could be told. This " tale " as told by the late Professor Ehrlich himself is indeed one of minute interest, a tale of warfare and of the determined overcoming of an enemy which has the power of reinforcing itself unless the attack is carried on with determination and perseverance to a finish. With these weapons added to the marvellous ciu^ative power of salvarsan, victory over the most deadly and widespread foe to human well-being is assured. 130 THE MASTER PROBLEM At the outset, salvarsan, or " 606," was introduced into therapeutics solely for the treatment of syphilis, but has proved invaluable in other directions, more particularly in the treatment of framboesia or yaws ; in one instance a hospital containing three hundred beds for framboesia was rapidly transformed into other use as it was found that a single dose of salvarsan cured the patient of this particular disease. But what of its direct connec- tion with the Master Problem ? Simply that it is to this we are looking for a transformation in the general health and conduct of men and women — and the well-being of little children, such as will, if we choose, bring about a new era of happiness and a dispersal of misery both realised and unrealised in the life of all civilised nations, " The time is at hand when an end shall be made of the disease which doctors can now quickly cure, and so prevent that which has hitherto been the most implacable and hideous enemy of the mental and physical health of its victims and children. This is not a matfer of mere physical health, as some declare, but of morals and conduct, for the use of salvarsan means an end of the terrible form of disordered and disastrous conduct which is called ' general paralysis,' which fills our asylums, and against which at present only salvarsan, of all means ever tried, can prevail at all. To use this remedy as it must, and will, be used, will be to prevent, we believe, any case of this malady from recurring again." ^ Up to the present — salvarsan was first put on the market only at the close of 1910 — ^few, if any, records are obtainable regarding the application of this remedy amongst men and women generally, but the assertions put forth by doctors in the Army and Navy, together with incontrovertible proofs of its unbounded value in the treatment of syphUis, form a foundation for the medical and social community in general which is full of hope and stimulus for the wider results which must soon follow. Without going into any details of this section — though a very important one — of the natural life, it may be stated in brief that 3000 cases have been treated at > Dr. Saleeby in "Prevention,"' October, 1913. DISEASES ARISING OUT OF EVIL 131 Rochester Row, London, without a single death resulting, nor any ill-effects. In Berlin, Professor Wechselmann records that he has given 45,000 injections with the same good result. This determined effort to treat the men representing the army of the different nations, is another proof of the change which has come over the authorities since the institution of Regulation, for the primary benefit of the Army. Apart from this, statistics point to the steady diminution in the incidence of syphilis during the last thirty years. This diminution commenced simultaneously with the suspension of the Regulation of Vice (Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, 1886). Previous to its repeal there had been a steady rise in syphilis incidence in both " protected " and " unprotected " military stations. Colonel Melville, in a paper read before the Public Health Society in Dublin, 191 1, concludes : — " The evidence then points clearly in my opinion to the fact that whatever other effects regulation of prostitutes may have, the stopping of venereal disease is not one of them, and whatever the results may be of its repeal, it is not incompatible at least with a diminution of admissions from this cause." When we begin to treat prostitutes, whether of the professional or clandestine class of women, as ordinary hospital patients, and not as a special favour to a special section of diseased humanity, the two greatest causes of the spread of syphilis will be under some measure of con- trol ; the two, in fact, which up to recent years have appeared to be the only two classes needing such care and treatment. We now know — ^as reiterated earlier in this chapter — ^that a large part of the community is affected by this " secret plague," but over against this ap- palling discovery is the threefold satisfaction, viz. the abolition of State Regulation, the improved moral and physical condition of the army in every nation, and the discovery and applied benefits of salvarsan, which bene- fits are not confined to the few, but are for all who choose to benefit thereby. 132 THE MASTER PROBLEM A pitiful picture has been displayed in this chapter, the curtain has been lifted by those who know, and the festering sores of vice seen for a moment in all their unclean reality and their awful ravaging " unto the third and fourth generation." Happily, as the curtain is dropped, brighter possibilities are in prospect and the mind goes forward in hope, buoyed with the certainty that for those who will there is regeneration. And in the regeneration of the individual is seen the regenera- tion of the race, a race purged of vice, cleansed of dis- ease, given nobler aims and impulses, put on the High Road which leads even unto God. Yes ! Race regenera- tion is worth while. ^ * This chapter was written before we raised our great army for the European War and before the final report of the Royal Commission was published. The present condition of affairs as regards the extent of venereal diseases is most serious. There are now many thousands of cases under treatment every day in the Army and Navy. Indeed, competent authorities greatly fear a widespread epidemic of these diseases amongst the civil population when the war is over. Hence the utmost effort should be made to carry out the Recommendations of the Royal Commission., PART III GENERAL CONDITIONS IN EUROPE CHAPTER XI WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE "As we leam something of the sin and evil in the world and the misery and disease that follow in its track, it is difficult at first not to be overwhelmed with horror and despair. But as we read the past we see abundant reason for hope, for we see the progress that has been made in the long slow struggle." — ^Mrs. Ceeighton. " We may confidently look forward to the time when all nations will unite in the name of our common humanity in seeking to destroy the nefarious traffic which fosters the vice on which it battens, and is one of the darkest blots on the civilisation of the century in which we Uve." — Rt. Hon. Reg. McKenna, m.p. (at that time Home Secretary). A FEW decades ago it would have been far easier than is the task to-day, to tell within brief limits the prevailing conditions in Europe so far as the Social Evil is concerned. Then, a sweeping assertion that the Continent was in the clutches of the Regulation System would suffice. The use of the word " clutches " is not haphazard. The system, to the credit of its adherents, was in the^main inaugurated with the best intentions. But it was a plan ill-conceived, with neither moral nor any other " proportions ; the hasty, easy-way-out of timorous legislators who were half-hearted and half afraid of tackling the evil, and, later, wholly afraid of the batten- ing spectre into whose clutches they had delivered them- selves. To-day, with years of effort in the leading capitals of Europe, the situation is very different. At once in- finitely better and infinitely more complex to describe. In the face of advancing science and enlightenment Regulation is fast signing its own death-warrant as a 133 134 THE MASTER PROBLEM proved failure, and the cumulated effect of zealous workers in the cause of social purity, unremittingly con- tinued over a span of years, has modified and curbed, and in many places — Holland, Denmark, and Norway — banished altogether the mainstay of vice — ^the Regulation System. Flexner, indeed, says (1913) that though groups of brothels exist, " a segregated district, into which the prostitutes of a city are confined, exists nowhere in Europe. A few streets may be tenanted in this or that city either only or almost entirely by prostitutes, but they do not form a district, and contain a fraction of the total prostitutes in that particular city." This measure of success justifies a triumphal cadence in the song of progress, but it complexes considerably any attempt to give a broad vision of what has been done, and what present conditions approximately represent the varying stages of repression under which prostitution and the White Slave Trafiic still exist. To the student who would desire to learn of the history of regulated prostitution in various of the capitals of Europe, no more useful manuals can be suggested than " The Social Evil,"i published in 1902, and " A Vision and its Fulfilment," ^ 1910. For a careful and patient analysis of the European situation to-day, the exhaustive and unbiased work of Flexner,^ issued in 1914 under the auspices of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, stands un- equalled if read in conjunction with the volumes embody- ing the Reports of the International Conferences,* and the periodical issues of " Prevention."* The general idea which led up to modern regulation was based upon a logical error and an alarming ignorance • Prepared by the New York Committee of Fifteen and published by Putnams. • National Vigilance Association, London, W.C. ' " Prostitution in Europe," by Abraham Flexner, Century Co., New York. • International Congress on the White Slave Trafftc, London, 1913 ; International Abolitionist Federation Congress, Portsmouth, 1914, etc. ° The Quarterly Magazine of the National Council of PubUc Morals, London, W.C. WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 135 of the futility of barring out sex diseases by fencing round the female. The integrity of the family was looked upon as vital ; accordingly, the severest penalties were inflicted upon unchaste wives and daughters of burghers. It was believed that if provision were made for the satisfaction of the vicious impulses of the floating population, the family would be secured from invasion. In the modern usage, the root-idea of family protection remains, but the recognition of disease and its ravages has taken the place of the former ignorance ; while the moral point of view has changed completely. Every modern system of Regulation avows the purpose of pre- venting as far as possible the degradation of those who are not yet depraved, and the rescue and restoration to honourable life of fallen women who are still susceptible to moral influences. But the chief distinguishing feature of modern Regulation is its endeavour to stamp out the diseases that everywhere attend vice. This the system attempts by periodical medical inspection and the segre- gation of the unfit female. By a singularly masculine line of reason it has never sought to bar the disease-spread- ing activities of the tainted male. The system long in vogue in Paris was " improved " from time to time until it became to be known as the model to which other capitals of Europe adapted their own methods of dealing with prostitution. It was described in 1901 as follows : — " Prostitution is tolerated either in licensed brothels or in houses of accommodation where prostitutes at large are compelled to resort. Weekly examinations are imposed upon the inmates of brothels ; these take place in the licensed houses. The prostitutes at large are obliged to appear once in two weeks at the offtce provided by the police for that purpose. Those found to be diseased are sent to the hospital of the prison of St. Lazare, and are not liberated until cured. " To ensure a certain control over the conduct of these women, the keeper of a licensed house (always a woman) is responsible for good order in her establishment. A prostitute who lives alone in a rented apartment must own the furniture 136 THE MASTER PROBLEM of the apartment, so that it will not be easy for her to dis- appear in case she has violated any of the regulations. " Women may be registered as prostitutes either by order of the chief of the Morals Bureau or at their own request. As a rule, inscription is voluntary. Clandestine prostitution is punished severely enough to make it worth while for the notoriously debauched to avail themselves of the toleration offered by the police. Originally, little attention seems to have been paid to the checking of the growth of vice. But there has been an in- creasing tendency to refuse the registration of minors. While this cannot be done in every case, minors are registered much less frequently than formerly. The tenants of licensed houses are forbidden to admit boys under eighteen or students of the various higher schools. Great care is also exercised in making it easy for a woman who desires to reform to do so. " The control of prostitution is given over almost entirely to a body of special agents who form a part of the general secret service. The ordinary police have nothing' 'lo do with prostitution, except in case of gross violation of p^iblic decency or public order. Between forty and fifty agehts -are required for this service. They must, of course, be men of great tact, they must be men upon whom reliance may b6 placed, since any mistake they may make entails the most serious conse- quences." In connection with the Regulation System as it was carried out in France in the opening years of the present century a series of scandals in 1903, owing to the irrational manner in which obviously virtuous women were forced to undergo the degrading medical examination, led to the appointment of a Commission by M. Emile Combes, President of the Council and Minister of the Interior. This Commission du Regime des Moeurs was formed in 1903 and contained among its seventy members four mem- bers of the French Branch of the Abolitionist Federation: Mme. Avril de Sainte Croix, Dr. Fiaux, M. Comte, and M. Yves Guyot. When the first meeting was about to open, the Prefect of Police, M. Lepine, said to M. Guyot, who then was Minister of Public Works, in tones which were not with- out a shade of vexation : " You will triumph." WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 137 Senators, deputies, mayors of large towns such as Lyons, Bordeaux, Rheims, were unanimous in con- demning the system of poUce regulation, and the Prefect of Police himself could only reply to charges against the system by pleading guilty. What is the good of an institution thus disavowed by the very person who is entrusted with its direction ? Finally, M. Bulot, the Procurator-General to the Paris Court, gave evidence, condemning in the most formal manner all the methods of the Prdfecture de Police. In its sitting of the yth of December, 1906, the Com- mission on the Regime des Moeurs unanimously adopted the entire scheme which had been elaborated by the Secretary-General of the Commission, M. Hennequin. Meantime, M. Clemenceau, having become President of the Council on the 14th October, 1906, speaking at Draguignan, protested against the " impla'ca,ble, immoral regulation of an unmentionable state of things. For the vices of man it is woman who expiates." " Ah ! " he continued, " if you could see — filing past what is called the administrative tribunal of the police prefecture — the terrible procession of those degraded creatures, from fifteen to sixty years of age and more, who sum up in their persons the extremest human misery, you would perhaps think with me that public morality might be better served than by imprisoning them for having failed to observe regu- lations which we had no right to edict, and by carelessly cultivating their daily degradation. I am theoretically expected, as Minister of the Interior, to watch over the public health, threatened by this redoubtable legion. I must say that this is an office which my administration accomplishes with complete success, and by means of practices which are contrary to law, contrary even to the principles of all human government." Nevertheless, when he was in possession of the proposed law drawn up by the Commission, instituted by his pre- decessor, he made no use of it. None of his successors, during the nine years' which have passed since it was drafted, has dared to draw it from the locker in which it sleeps. But for all that, it is a decisive document. 138 THE MASTER PROBLEM It is seen therefore that no great change has been made for several years in these regulations. On the authority of M. Victor Marqueritte, the females admitted to the prison of St. Lazare in 1912 were " 13,080, and 136,760 days of detention were registered in the official lists under the iniquitous regime of this tribunal, composed of an official chief and two inspectors of police who," M. Marqueritte expresses the opinion, " uncontrolled, ad- minister what passes for justice upon thousands of wretched women who are untried and have no right of appeal." Mr. Flexner describes his visit to Paris in 1913 as exhibiting conditions on very much the same plane of regulation as in Berlin, inscription by both, voluntary and compulsory, also there is liberty for the inscribed prostitute to live in her own apartments apart from the brothel at which she transacts her operations. If a prostitute is married, registration, or inscription is com- pulsory in Paris. It is perhaps late in the day to enunciate a root- principle. Yet, maybe, it will serve as a useful reminder at a juncture when effort is being made on every hand, by those who aim at race-regeneration, to bring to bear the facilities of science and education and hygienics and penology and common-sense persuasion upon purging our civilisation of the Social Evil. This principle is that it is not unhappily illegal for a woman to engage in pros- titution per se. Herein lies the difficulty of police action. The penal authorities can make illegal various appurte- nances of conmiercialised prostitution, but the State has no legal right to interfere with the voluntary exercise of personal liberty by mature individuals, whether male or female, so long as no one else is disturbed thereby. The unanimous conclusion of the French Extra Parliamentary Commission may be quoted as being accurately repre- sentative of current opinion : " The prostitution of women does not constitute a crime and does not fall under the penal law." In less veiled language the Dutch legal opinion runs : "A grown girl may do what she WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 139 likes with her own body." While a British high Police Official has placed on record that the nut-shell conception of the legal position in England is : "A woman may become mistress or paramour, she may indulge in occasional immorality as she pleases. Why not, therefore, in prostitution ? She is only using her personal freedom." To this may be added the statement of the Chief Con- stable of Glasgow (November, 1911) : " Immorality in itself is not an offence against the law." In brief the immorality of two adult individuals is no concern of the State provided that the two most inti- mately affected make sure that no annoyance to others is caused, and that no third party derives profit from the act. In Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and, in practice, Germany, this attitude prevails, while in Denmark and Hungary it is sought indirectly to reduce prostitution by making a female who solicits liable to prosecution as a vagrant. This latter formula is, however, an exceed- ingly weak weapon, as manifestly only the homeless prostitute can be successfully proceeded against as a vagrant. Throughout Europe, therefore, " a woman runs no risk of prosecution if quietly and inoffensively she receives men in her room or her house for the purpose of paid sexual intercourse." Out of this situation emerges the vital need of propa- ganda such as that engaged in by the National Council of Public Morals, as complementary to the activities of Vigilance and Abolitionist Societies. The latter attack White Slavery, the pimp, the brothel-keeper, the Regula- tion System, and promote directly ameliorative rescue and medical measures. It is the province of the National Council to take count of personal equation and by its work to bring influence to bear on the individual, against whom the law is powerless. They do not merely deplore and combat the manifest evils of the past and the present changing conditions, but direct their efforts towards lay- ing the foundations of a larger, a nobler, and a richer civil- isation. It is their work, through various means and 140 THE MASTER PROBLEM agencies, to persuade to the application of loftier ideals, more widely embracing principles, and surer methods of advance than have hitherto prevailed. They pro- ceed undauntedly and unremittingly in their labours to awaken a sensitive, enlightened social conscience, to give voice and new life to the long silent and thwarted aspira- tions for a regenerated humanity. The concrete applica- tion by the Council of these general ideals cannot appropriately be elaborated in this chapter. Roughly, therefore, the situation in Europe may be considered as possessing many promising indications. The White Slave Traffic, and what may be termed as the paraphernalia whereby prostitution is exploited for profit, are being constantly subjected to repression and exposure legally and by the national societies. Venereal disease is being fought by science and education with encouraging results. The vigilance associations are ever exercising their powers to circumvent the operations of procurers, and using whatever means at the moment are available to rescue victims and win back repentants. The constant opposition to the Regulation System and the demonstration of its illogical basis and actual harmfulness have spread realisation throughout the Conti- nent that as a vehicle for preventing disease it is absolutely nugatory. And on the plane of education and inspiration to a higher moral outlook, a strongly sustaiaed, highly supported, and powerfully applied volume of expert influence, persuasion, and personal teaching is being directed with constancy and high-minded wisdom, in order to raise the individual to a recognition that whereas personal liberty debars immorality from being considered as a crime, yat personal purity should unhesitatingly brand as a vice, dishoriouring to either male or female, any form of prostitution. With this touch upon the pulse of the general situation, we return to more specific symptoms. In Paris, as indeed in any city, it is more than difficult to arrive at any idea of the number of women actually engaged in regular or intermittent prostitution ; only one WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 141 thing is absolutely certain, i.e. that the number of prosti- tutes controlled by the Regulation System forms a frac- tional part of the total number of women living in or addicted to vice. The approximations vary from the 120,000 of Maxine du Camp to the 14,000 clandestine plus 6400 registered prostitutes, 20,000 in all, estimated some time ago by a former Chief of Municipal Police of Paris, M. Carlier, as plying their calling within the boundaries of the French capital. The sustained average of the inscribed women is 6000, largely drawn from other districts or countries ; thus, of 781 newly enrolled in one year, only 213 were Paris born. Another feature is that of age. Among the inscribed prostitutes of Paris, only 16 per cent are under twenty- one, while of the clandestine, or uninscribed, prostitutes who came under observation, 57 per cent were minors. This terrible use of young life is growing. In 1903, there were 1370 arrests of minors for prostitution ; in 1908, 1638 ; in 1909, 1739. Again, these figures only demon- strate the proportion, as, naturally, by far the greater number of prostitutes do not come into conflict with the police, and the sad fact is that the figures are steadily rising. Eugene Provost, indeed, has estimated that in general one-half of the minors arrested have not finished their seventeenth year. Nor are the conditions better in other towns. In Berlin, where an active policy of discouraging the regis- tration of minors exists, more than 25 per cent inscribed in one year were under twenty-one, and of these seven were but fifteen years old, twenty-one were sixteen, and thirty-three seventeen. In another town over a period of fourteen years ending 1909, 55 per cent lost virtue before their seventeenth year ; 70 per cent between sixteen and eighteen, and 97 per cent between fourteen and twenty-five. Paris as a type of Continental city, in so far as the prevalence, practices, and policing of prostitutes are con- cerned, is of average value||as it^represents fairly well general conditions. Muchfhas been written about the 142 THE MASTER PROBLEM demi-monde of Paris being on a different plane from her sister in vice of other Continental capitals and cities. On this point the calm judgment of Flexner is useful. He says : — " There is a notion current that prostitution in Paris is subtly different from that in other great cities, and that the women are less mercenary, the practice less odious and repulsive. Parisian prostitution enjoys, indeed, the glamour of a Bohemian background and a more picturesque tradition ; but beyond this I saw no reason to think the notion well grounded. Prostitution here, as everywhere, is purely mercenary, as everywhere rapacious, as everywhere perverse, diseased, sordid, vulgar, and almost always filthy. In her bloom, the Parisian cocotte possesses a bit of Gallic grace and verbal cleverness that is perhaps denied to EngUsh, German, or Scandinavian women of the same class : but it is soon brushed aside by excess, drink, and perversion. A day at St. Lazare prison quickly dispels any illusions one may entertain on this score." In Paris, according to a recent investigation (Fiaux), " the entrance fee at pretentious establishments is twenty francs and from that it ranges as low as five francs, with proportionate extras for wine, tips, room-fees, and what- ever can be coaxed out of the customer." The profits are great from the exploitation of vice ; a second-rate establishment in Paris is known which produces an annual profit of 70,000 francs. Of all this ill-gotten money, it is axiomatic, wherever prostitution is commercially con- ducted, that the prime agent, the woman herself, has practically no share. Her body is debauched, her health ruined, her soul damned possibly; she is the slave and chattel of her owners until disease and death release her. The situation in France was pointed out by M. Henne- quin in 1913 at the Fifth International Congress for the suppression of the White Slave Trafiic held in London in July of 1914, where he explained certain recommenda- tions (noted in his speech) put forward by the French Committee: — ' " We in France are in a very difficult position. We find WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 143 ourselves in our country confronted with a judicial conception f which is very different from that of certain other countries. We are more moderate, I do not say less moral, but more moderate, and our habit of thought, our traditions, our historic and judicial considerations do not permit us to goj so far as other countries, and then again our point of view is somewhat different from theirs. Further, our judicial con- ' ception of proxenetism could be well defended. On the other ' hand, we have in France a large number of licensed houses. " We are told that there is no doubt the licensed house of ill-fame is one of the worst and even the chief source of the White Slave Traffic. I will not deny this affirmation. But what are we to do in our country in the face of inveterate custom and of a system that has many partisans ? The French Committee felt strongly that it could not hold itself aloof from the irresistible movement manifested, and that it would content itself by purely and simply rejecting the radical proposition presented to the Congress. This was why our Committee prepared an intermediate motion which, without going so far as the categoric suppression of the houses, re- sponds, nevertheless, in a certain measure to the views of the great number of the Committees, e.g. that any individual inciting a woman, not already a prostitute, to enter a house of ill-fame commits a misdemeanour. We know quite well that we are proposing for our country a very considerable innova- tion, and we are travelUng as far as is possible in the direction of the ideas of the majority." This plain statement shows the delicate nature of preventive work in France, and how by diplomatic progression the country has to be brought to a higher understanding. Happily, many influences are at work to cause sentiment to become more active and to bring about a wider awakening of the national conscience. M. G. de Morsier, at the Portsmouth Conference of the International Abolitionist Federation in June, 1914, thus summarised the work of recent years : — "It is forty years since Mrs. Josephine Butler came to Paris to speak of the great movement to which she had devoted her life. In 1875, the first French Abolitionist group was organised. Progress has been slow. " Our efforts have for the most part been directed to the 144 THE MASTER PROBLEM enlightenment of public opinion. We have striven to bring home to people's minds the error of the double moraf standard, and the crying injustice of a system which imposes on women all the burden of men's immorality. The Administration has made of the prostitute a creature apart from human kind, fit only for contempt, and unworthy of the protection and justice that are the heritage of the French people. " Our propaganda has been carried on by meetings, pam- phlets, and a periodical. The foundation, some years ago, of the League against the White Slave Trade strengthened our hands ; it has moved the public and banished apathy. The medical men have come to recognise that Regulation has been injurious rather than beneficial to public hygiene. The Congress held in Paris in June, 1913, dispelled the last re- maining doubts and established the righteousness of Aboli- tionism, whether regarded from the point of view of Law, of Hygiene, or of Morality. " To sum up, no more opponents face us. All have quitted the field. Their arguments for Regulation have failed them. " During the last two years we have gained new allies. The women and young people have come forward. " At the French National Congress of Women held in 1913 a resolution was carried unanimously, on the motion of our own indefatigable secretary, Madame Avril de Sainte Croix, demanding the suppression of all measures exceptionally directed against wom.en in matters of morality. " Another remarkable movement is the ' Alliance NouveUe,' a society of young men and women who are students in literature, science, and law. It has for its object the promotion of well-being, morality, and justice. These keen and young enthusiasts of the Quartier Latin have asked us to help them to study the question of Abolition. They have whole-heartedly given us their support, and have held meetings, first for their own comrades and then for the public. " We have had our disappointments and our sorrows ; but our labour has not been in vain ; the work goes forward." On the whole the strong optimism with which this report is permeated is pardonable, and to a great extent justified. FfS3:?< Substantial progress is also observable in another domain of the great effort to solve the Master Problem. WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 145 M. Barrere, a French Ambassador, who represented France in the International Committee of Paris, has spoken of the fifteen years' advance since he first became associated with the fight against vice. Speaking about a year ago, he said : — " I have been labouring for fifteen years to bring about the acceptance of a more liberal policy. During the first few years of effort I met with great obstacles, but to-day it is less difficult. For instance, a little while back, after receiving different reports asked for on the question of venereal disease, the Committee of the International Bureau of Hygiene at Paris adopted a provisional resolution pending a study of the reports still to come in. Here is this resolution : — " ' The reports which have been read have once more emphasised the essential and fundamental importance of treating venereal diseases from their first appearance ; to facilitate early treatment is the best prophylaxis. This aphorism, which holds for all transmissible diseases, becomes an imperious necessity in the case of venereal affections. " ' Without waiting, therefore, for the later work of the Committee, it seems fitting to draw the attention of the Governments of the countries represented here to the necessity of taking steps to enable persons suffering from venereal diseases to obtain easily, promptly, and without publicity, the medical care which is necessary for their speedy cure. " ' To sum up, the public authorities, upon whom devolves the duty of providing for the prophylaxis of venereal diseases, must take every available measure to render the treatment of these affections easily accessible to all classes of the popu- lation. Above all, they must entirely and unhesitatingly suppress everything which tends directly or indirectly to retard or prevent the treatment of patients during the con- tagious period of their illness.' " Thus the progress of events has decreed that it should be the International Bureau of Hygiene in Paris which should take the initiative and should itself prepare this survey. I rejoice at this for a twofold reason, because it illustrates the service which the Bureau has already been able to render the sanitary authorities, and because it proves the indisputable success of the liberal pohcy." 146 THE MASTER PROBLEM Next in order of importance one should take Berlin, where the modern system of Regulation dates back in its essential features to the year 1700, except that the per- mission to register minors existed from 1814 only. The system continued until 1856, when the Prussian over- tribunal declared the brothel to be an illegal institution and the licensed houses of Berlin were definitely closed. We may accordingly pass at once to the existing regulations. The sanitary feature is paramount. The registration of prostitutes is merely auxiliary to sanitary control, since it is absolutely necessary to register the women of loose life if they are to be subjected to periodi- cal examination. A woman may be registered either at her own request or by the order of the chief of the police bureau. The police arrest any woman whom they have reason to suspect of clandestine prostitution. The grounds of such arrest may be direct observation by the special police agents of the service of morals, the denuncia- tion of private persons, of registered prostitutes, or of men who believe themselves to be contaminated by the woman in question. When arrested, she is subjected to a physical examination, and if found to be diseased the police assume the power to place her upon the register. If she is not diseased, she receives a " kindly warning." In the warning-formula, especial emphasis is laid upon the fact that second arrest would mean compulsory registration. It is assumed that if a mistake has been made in the first arrest, the woman arrested will take such pains to avoid further suspicion that a second mistake would be practically impossible. Once registered, prostitutes are required to report every week at the public dispensary for sanitary examina- tion. Failure to do so is punishable by imprisonment, the maximum sentence being six weeks. Examinations and treatment are gratuitous. Every registered prostitute must give satisfactory information as to age and antecedents. Minors are not, as a rule, permitted to register. It should be mentioned that a graduated scale of WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 147 treatment according to age is practised in Berlin. Under eighteen the girl is turned over to her natural or legal guardian, or, via the Juvenile Court, put into the care of an institution. From eighteen to twenty-one girls have almost the same treatment as minors, though if arrested later they are put on the inscribed roll. Women over twenty-one, if arrested, are put on the inscribed roll, which, in effect, means she becomes " authorised to earn a living as a prostitute," and is subject to a code of regulations. The fluctuations which occur in the totals on the inscribed list conduce to some thought. Pinkus has noted the figures at Berlin over a period of years : — . Additions to Failed to Year. inscribed women. report. 1902 . . 538 699 1903 . ■ 590 696 1904 . . 683 II05 1905 • • 917 1069 1906 . 1207 824 These figures cannot be relied on as basic data, because it is not recorded, possibly not ascertainable, what were the causes of failure to report. Death, or illness other than venereal, or migration, or success in eluding the morals police undoubtedly contribute to the declensions. Yet, on the whole, it is significant that the new-comers mostly approach in volume the figures of those whose names, through absence from examinations, are erased from the inscribed list. One fact it points to is the mani- fest presence of a sustained channel of supply, for it would surely be unreasonable to suppose that the number of girls voluntarily taking up a life of vice would so nearly fill up the gaps over a series of years. Another item for thought in the above table is the steady increase in the newly inscribed, and the disquieting realisation that in the space of four years the recruits to prostitution among the inscribed women — the minority of those practising prostitution — represent an increase of about 125 per cent. 148 THE MASTER PROBLEM To this must be added another point. Morals authori- ties, very rightly, are reluctant to include minors on the inscribed list. To recognise a girl as a permitted prosti- tute practically destroys all chance of her reclamation, hence she is not recognised by the police. At the same time, however, she is at a most attractive age as a prosti- tute, and is, moreover, ignorant and reckless, which means that very many uninscribed prostitutes enter their business every year to a total that is not computable with any accuracy and is not controllable to any great extent. The few minors who were inscribed in Berlin in one recent year, upon examination yielded no fewer than 75 per cent as suffering from venereal disease. The great majority of prostitute-minors go unexamined, yet it is tolerably certain, from carefully compared statistics collected by medical men working independently of each other, that 50 per cent of these minors are venereally infected. In Berlin, so Idng as they " conduct themselves with discretion," prostitutes are free from inscription, and before being subject to arrest and examination they receive three warnings. Therefore, they have a long run before being compelled to undergo periodical ex- amination, and numbers escape examination altogether. As in Paris, a special division, the morals police, watch over this phase of Berlin life, but Berlin is con- siderably in advance of Paris, inasmuch as, according to Flexner, " in any case a woman under detention on suspicion has at the police head-quarters no contact whatsoever with inscribed women who may be under arrest at the same time." Whatever may happen else- where, contamination does not occur there. No general conditions for Germany^ can be tabulated, so many variations of regulation exist. Bremen gathers its prostitutes into a single street, where all on the list are compelled to reside. Munich has the same rules as Bremen, but its prostitutes live in scattered brothels. * The Royal Commission says that the proportion of infected recruits is greater in Germany than here by over 50 per cent, and that Prof. Blaschko considers that the civihan populace of Germany is more deeply affected than in England. WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 149 Hamburg has another interpretation of the root idea of Regulation, and towns may be so taken all over the Empire. But whatever form of Regulation is administered, it can only touch a few of the bulk of prostitutes, as seen by the total females inscribed in a recent year at the typical German towns mentioned in Chapter IX. The others frequent the dance-hall, the cafe, and similar establishments, to purge which very little has as yet been done on the Continent. In this direction much remains to be accomplished, and the police are very powerless in the present state of the law. As shown in the report submitted in 1914 to the Portsmouth Conference by Frau K. Scheven : — " The police are recognising more and more that not by regulation, not by punishment, not by supervision will the great social evil be cured, but that different measures must be employed, measures of education and social care. All young girls are now withdrawn from the clutch of the police and sent to reformatories, or put under the care of probation officers. In twenty-three towns there are female police- assistants whose work tends to guard and save the female youth from coming under police control." The German Abolitionists also reported that they had " sent petitions urging that the pending revision of the Penal Code should include Abolition of Regulation, raising of the age of protection to sixteen years, and punishment for those who employ procurers, as well as the procurers themselves." " In Berlin and Strassburg," the report concluded, "rescue homes have been opened, while in Hamburg our branch is engaged in a struggle against the rebuilding of the segregated area." So vast is Russia that anything like a comprehensive survey must fail. Count Muravieff, in the last years of the nineteenth century, made the comment, " Russia suffers terribly from the White Slave Traffic," and told 150 THE MASTER PROBLEM his interlocutor, Mr. W. A. Coote, of the National Vigil- ance Association, that " Russia had from a national point of view tried to cope with vice." It was out of this meeting that the National Committee was formed in Russia, and the first meetings in 1899 were character- ised by remarkable enthusiasm and also by the high auspices under which they were held. The Committee, indeed, was formed by express command of the Tsar. Since that day the Russian National Committee has met with a large measure of success and has won the sympathy and practical support of a great number of people. Good work has been done in combating the activities of exploiters of women and in opening the eyes of girls to the real nature of dazzling offers of employment abroad, while the more obvious evil of prostitution in the towns has met with steady and persevering endeavours at suppression. It is difficult to give tangible results, as the police system in Russia does not look with favour upon any form of publicity. It is known, however, that in Petrograd in 1911, out of the population of some 1,620,000 no fewer than 106,400 persons were suffering from venereal disease, of whom 45,000 were syphilitics. A unique feature of the social diseases in Russia is the unusually high percentage of sufferers who have not become infected through sexual contact. In the city population, extragenital infection is responsible for from 1-5 to 3 per cent of syphilis ; but according to the data to hand, as much as 80 per cent of the syphilis among the Russian rural population is contracted thus. Much has been said of the temptations of the Conti- nental music-hall, and much that is true. Whether in Paris, or Vienna, or in Russia, the peril to the virtue of any young woman who becomes an artiste or waitress at certain of these places is great indeed, for while she can be protected before she leaves England, a girl cannot be guarded from rash action after reaching the Continent. To take a case in point : An artiste may receive a per- fectly genuine engagement for Berlin ; but while she is WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 151 in Berlin, no legislation in England can safeguard her in accepting an engagement in Warsaw or Petrograd. And this is the invariable mode of procedure. After twelve months in France and Germany, a girl has made the round of all the best halls. An agent comes to her, or perhaps she meets the manager of a Russian or Austrian " hall," and without any difficulty she arranges a con- tract to appear for two months in Moscow or Budapest on a salary considerably larger than she has ever had before. The " music-hall " is not a place of entertain- ment pure and simple at all, but a restaurant. At one end there is a small stage. The body of the room is filled with small supper-tables. At the back there will be a gallery of curtained-off boxes, and, behind these again, entirely isolated and separate, are the cabinets or private dining-rooms. In most towns no charge, in others a wholly insignificant charge, is made for admission. The performance begins, as a rule, after the theatres are finished, and lasts until five o'clock in the morning. The programme may contain anything from twenty to forty names — ^nearly all women's, and the performers appear for a few minutes, nominally to sing or dance, but in reality to expose their charms to the pleasure-seekers below. When a girl has finished her turn, she takes her seat at a table until she receives an invitation to supper, perhaps in the hall itself, perhaps in a " cabinet." It may or may not be stated in her contract that she has to wait in the place until it closes, that she has to accept invitations to supper or to sing in " cabinets." She soon discovers that if she does not make herself agreeable to her employer's clients she speedily becomes unpopular. The entire profits of the place are derived from the champagne that is consumed, and the girl is the bait that is used to tempt the guest to further excesses and ex- travagance. To achieve this end she must drink herself. Night after night from eleven till five she must sit down to coax and be coaxed, to submit to the clumsy jests and coarse innuendoes of her entertainer and to honour his smallest whim. If she wishes to be a success, she dare 162 THE MASTER PROBLEM not refuse. The very waiters are so many spies who furnish a report on her behaviour to the manager. She is there to draw from his dients. She must therefore order the costUest fruits, the finest champagne, the most expensive liqueurs. And at the end of every evening there comes the same eternal question, the eternal temptation, the eternal desire on the part of the guest. In his sensual hunger the Slav is masterful, extravagant and almost Oriental in his patience. He will wait for days. He will go back night after night. He is rich. He sends his intended victim costly presents. His car- riage is at her service every afternoon. He can afford to be patient, knowing well enough that success is only a matter of time. And in the face of this incessant bombardment it is inevitable that, sooner or later, even the strongest girl's defences must break down, the more readily, perhaps, in the end because by the time her salary reaches her it has dwindled down to half the contract sum. In Russia, a man of this class who invites a girl to supper is expected to give her a present of anything from five to fifty roubles merely for the pleasure of her company. The practice, however, is both demoral- ising and tempting. A girl who is in the habit of taking money from a man soon loses any shame she may have had at such a transaction, and as she knows that she has only to say " yes " to receive a far larger sum, it is scarcely to be wondered at that some night when things, perhaps, are going badly, or when she is heated with wine, she should yield to the pressure that is brought to bear upon her. That this description, which appeared at greater length in The Englishwoman in 1913, from the pen of Jean D'Auvergne, is no exaggeration every fair-minded judge who Imows Russia, Austria-Hungary, or the Balkans will admit. M. Lepine (late Chief of the Paris Police), who more than any man in Europe perhaps, knew the inner secrets of the Regulation System, assigned, not many years WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 153 ago, as a reason for the decline of the brothel the ex- planation that " taste " had changed. This truly may be an internal cause, but the great reason is the achieve- ment of hard and long work by those who for years have laboured unremittingly for purity. Another potent reason to that already suggested for the decay of the brothel system is the increase of police efficiency and governmental legislation in the direction of controlling the management of brothels and in breaking down the White Slave Traffic. As soon as public senti- ment required the slightest deference to the dictates of humanity, the day of the, brothel was over, and as soon as it became difficult and dangerous to maintain a supply of young and innocent girls the " game " ceased to be worth playing. How much the brothels depended upon youthful recruits is seen from the officially recorded fact that prior to the suppression of the houses in Zurich some 60 per cent of the prostitutes living in the eighteen brothels were under seventeen years of age. Where the brothel does flourish it is because it is the seat of perverse practices. In Paris and Stockholm, and even more so in Berlin, perversion is carried on to a terrible extent. " These brothels," says Fiaux in Maisons de Tolerance, " are elaborately equipped for every form of perverse indulgence. The inmates compete with one another in forcing upon the youthful customer the know- ledge of unnatural and artificial forms of sexual gratifica- tion." So blatant is this form of vice in Stockholm, where there are thirty brothels, that the infamous implements employed are in full view as one enters the rooms. Before proceeding to relate somewhat of the con- ditions in " abolition " towns, it will be interesting to glance at the situation in Italy, where active steps are being taken to cope with venereal diseases by hygienic medical treatment as apart from the police-controlled system of excluding, in a very ineffectual manner, any diseased prostitute from active continuance until free from disease. The peculiarity of the position in Italy is 154 THE MASTER PROBLEM that the old Regulation System runs concurrently with the Government supported plan of medical treatment which was initiated in 1907 and which has proved to be an unqualified success. It was spread abroad some two years or so ago that the new Italian system was having disastrous results, and that recourse to the old system entirely was necessary in order to arrest the increase of syphilitic disease. That this was erroneous is seen from the statistics furnished by Dr. A. Lutrario, the Director- General of Hygienics for Italy. These show the descend- ing percentage of adult mortality from syphilis and also a noteworthy diminution of infantile mortality from the same cause. 1902 190S 1909 1910 1911 Deaths from syphilis per million inhabitants . . 71 50 46 . 50 53 Out of every 1000 deaths from syphilis in Italy at all ages, the deaths of children under five years of age were in — 1888 1889 1908 1909 I9I0 772 776 558 562 577 Undoubtedly the diminution of the total death-rate from syphilis is largely due to the diminution of the infantile death-rate, especially from congenital syphilis. This confirms a belief in a progressive decrease of disease among adults. That the facilities afforded through the agency of the Bureau of Public Hygiene, and at the public expense, for persons of either sex to attend dispensaries or enter the venereal wards for the treatment of venereal disease, continue to possess the confidence of the public is demon- strated by the increase of such patients from 11,000 in 1901 to 18,000 in 1911 in regard to in-patients, and from 66,922 in 1901 to 76,350 in 1911 at the dispensaries. Dr. Santoliquido, President of the Permanent Com- mittee of the International Office of Public Hygiene, outUned the systems of Europe to the Portsmouth Con- WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 155 ference in 1914. Dealing specifically with the Italian dual system, he defended the provision made by the State and read a description prepared by Dr. Lutrario on the broad lines of the methods of medical treat- ment. In towns with more than 40,000 inhabitants, dis- pensaries for venereal patients must be provided under the care of specialists. The Ministry make annual grants for dispensaries and, in so doing, have regard to the financial position of the Commune and to the diffusion of venereal diseases. Communes with fewer than 40,000 inhabitants, where such dispensaries have been established, have a right to State aid, subject to special agreements with the Ministry for the Interior. In these Communes, the provision of dispensaries is not compulsory excepting when they are necessitated by special local circumstances or considerable diffusion of venereal disease. In towns with clinics for syphilitics, the working of the dispensaries can be entrusted to them, with an annual grant. All patients at dispensaries must be treated alike. Treatment thereat must in all cases be gratuitous. Persons of either sex are equally admissible into venereal wards in general or into ordinary hospitals, or into special hospitals where such exist, the cost of hospitalisation being borne by the State. An exception is made in the case of institutions founded wholly or in part for venereal disease. It is the intention of the legislature that the prophy- laxis of venereal disease shall be provided for in every way by facilitating gratuitous treatment — every patient treated and cured being regarded as another extinct centre of infection. The communal doctors are required to treat venereal patients gratuitously, on the same footing as all other patients. Dispensaries for venereal patients are pro- vided by the communes, aided by grants from the State. 156 THE MASTER PROBLEM Wards for venereal patients in hospitals and clinics for syphilitics are entirely supported by the State. (^Every consideration must be shown for the suscepti- bilities and circumstances of the patient. A prescription for venereal patients given at a dispensary must not bear any indication of its place of origin, or of the name of the patient, or of the diagnosis or any other particulars relating to the patient. In order to secure treatment at a dispensary or in a hospital ward, patients are not required to prove that they are necessitous. Such proof would compel them to disclose their identity, and patients might consequently hold aloof. Women received into the hospital wards for venereal patients must not be publicly designated by their surnames, but by the number of the bed and by their Christian names, or by a pseudonym. The prophylactic regime is absolutely distinct from the police regime for prostitution. It can be readily conceived that compulsory notifica- tion would have caused' patients to avoid the doctors of the dispensaries and venereal wards and to resort to "quacks," whereby all the hopes which the legislature reposed in those institutions would have been dis- appointed. Notification is required only in cases arising from wet- nursing, which are under special supervision, and in cases among prostitutes in brothels. Side by side with this carefully-conceived plan for securing to every sufferer facilities for treatment, with total absence of compulsion or of publicity, there remains a remnant of the Regulation System based on an entirely different conception. Briefly it is as follows : — Houses of prostitution are recognised, and the police keep a register of them. The keeper is under certain obligations as to decency, public order, etc. He is further required to have all the inmates examined twice a week by a doctor of his own choice. If any of them are found diseased they are sent to the hospitals ; not to the ordinary ward, but to a special ward for prostitutes. WHERE REGULATION IS IN VOGUE 157 They may not re-enter the house of prostitution until pronounced cured. Theoretically there is no compulsion on the individual woman. She has complete freedom to leave either the house or the hospital at any time. The only condition is that if she is in a registered house she must submit to examination and treatment. If she refuses examination, it is presumed that she is ill. The houses entered on the register are : — {a) Those where two or more prostitutes live together. (b) The abode of a single prostitute if she has previously transgressed the regulations, or if it is proved that she has previously communicated a venereal disease to another person. According to a table issued in 1914 there were some 5000 known prostitutes in Rome, of whom only about 130 inhabited the 22 brothels. Thus it will be seen, as Dr. Flexner succinctly phrased it in 1914 : " The two services differ in object — the one having a hygienic end and the other aiming to protect public order." The Italian Government have also made plain the differing aims of the two systems. " The treat- ment of venereal disease is to be kept entirely distinct from the protection of morals and the measures of the police." The essence of the Italian hygienic system is its thorough-paced voluntarism, and that is the secret of its success as compared with other systems, such as the Danish procedure later referred to. CHAPTER XII COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION " You can no more heal a moral disorder by physical remedies than you can cure smallpox by reciting the Ten Commandments ! Shutting people up in institutions, giving them employment there, will of them- selves never restore what has been lost. The lapse in morals is a moral lapse and can only be really rectified therefore by means of moral influences." — Mrs. Bramwell Booth. " I believe that this vice has achieved its vast proportions owing to Governmental neglect of preventive and remedial measures. The law acts largely to protect the man, and there is no adequate protection for any girl over fourteen." — Lady Aberconway. DENMARK may be considered par excellence as the country where most has been done to combat venereal disease. Copenhagen, which it is well to remem- ber is not only the capital but practically the only large city, will be sufficiently typical of Danish conditions . Prior to 1906 Regulation was in force, thereafter an abolitional policy was introduced by the law of 1906, which auto- matically abolished the registration or inscription of prostitutes . Its chief benefit was that it extended facilities for the treatment of venereal cases. Such good pioneer work was done that by 1914 there were in Copenhagen 240 beds for venereal cases ; that is one bed for every 1500 inhabitants. As a matter of fact, any one who desires it, and who in the least degree stands in need thereof, can to-day be admitted into hospital if suffering from venereal disease, and some 60 per cent of the cases receive gratuitous treatment. In 1912 the number of " sick-days " for venereal disease was 71,000, according to Dr. Svend Lomholt, of Copenhagen. Roughly the average yearly cases treated is 5000 (thus in 1908 there were 5100 and in 1913, 4696). An admirable summary was given in 1914 by Dr. S. 158 COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 159 Lomholt, of the v/orking of Abolition in Denmark, from whom we learn that the Act passed in 1906 maintains, and in a still more vigorous form, the old enactment that it is incumbent under penalty on anyone suffering from contagious venereal disease to seek medical attendance and treatment. This provision, though very little known to the public, is of no small practical value in dealing with patients neglecting their treatment, or the precautions required. According to statute such patients are to be reported to the public officer of health, who thereupon will require them to attend at the consulting rooms of the nearest " public " doctor (in Copenhagen one of twelve doctors) under pain of fines or compulsory admit- tance into hospital. If the patient still fails to comply, the requirement may be enforced by the sanitary police inspector, who also interferes if a patient, after having been under the care of one of the " public " doctors, neglects his treatment. In 1912, 457 men and 170 women were reported under these provisions. Before the Act of 1906 came into operation, appre- hensions were entertained that these compulsory measures were likely to injure the good relations between the doc- tors and patients, and to destroy the confidence of the latter. It cannot with any justice be maintained that such has been the case. The large number of patients who have from the first and up to the present moment sought the help of the public doctors, proves that no fears of these provisions are frightening people away. Against the trade of prostitution as such, no enactments are in force in Denmark ; but the trade is not recognised as a legitimate occupation, and professional prostitutes are in consequence dealt with as vagrants, receiving notice from the police inspector to seek a legitimate trade. It is difficult to judge whether this measure is of any great importance. It may be assumed that, in a great many cases, the prostitutes elude the provisions by stating a sham occupation, such as hairdresser, female clerk, or the like, even if it is obvious that they still make money by prostitution. Procurers and souteneurs are, 160 THE MASTER PROBLEM on the other hand, liable to severe punishment ; and brothel-keeping is prohibited. Failure to comply with the above-mentioned notice to seek honest work is punished according to the special Vagrancy Act ; and in such cases the police inspector is entitled, with the consent of the woman concerned, to have her examined for venereal disease. The examina- tion only takes place in order that the woman may be sent into hospital if found to be suffering from venereal disease. In 1912, 721 examinations took place ; 153 cases of disease being thereby discovered, including 57 cases of syphilis. In only 23 cases had the disease not already been diagnosed and treated. Any attempt to establish under this provision any- thing in the least degree like regular examination of prostitutes has never been made ; the only aim being that of getting the disease in question treated. A large majority of the women concerned appear either never to have been examined again, or only alter the lapse of one or more years. The sanitary value of the measure is certainly not very great, even if it must be admitted that from time to time some very neglected cases of syphilis are in this way brought under medical care. A third group of provisions in the 1906 Act has refer- ence to the communication of disease to others. Under pain of severe punishment sexual intercourse is prohibited to any person knowing or supposing himself to be suffering from contagious venereal disease. The value of this penal clause has been ardently discussed ; many wish to have it abolished because of practical difficulties in enforcing it, in consequence of which it acts very unequally and is, in their opinion, on the whole of very little use. This does not agree with the experience of Dr. Lom- holt. He says : — " Certainly transgressions are very frequent as regards persons suffering from chronic disease, but on the other hand it is, in my opinion, beyond a doubt that very many are avoiding sexual intercourse under pressure of this very COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 161 clause and, if transgressing, are at least guarding to the utmost against communicating their disease, knowing perfectly well that their transgression was sure to be discovered." The yearly number of legal proceedings on this account is not very large ; in 1912, for instance, it was only 50, of which 36 resulted in the accused being sentenced. Flexner, in examining the countries — Norway, Den- mark, Holland and Switzerland — ^where abolition methods prevail, says (1914) : " The step (abolition) was of moral rather than of immediate practical import- ance." It may be pointed out, however, that " immediate practical " good was achieved by encouraging many contagious persons to undergo a cure and thereby stay the spread of venereal disease. So far as the order in the streets is concerned Flexner raises the logical issue, that the closing of regulated areas would throw more prostitutes on the streets and so tend to greater dis- order. Flexner says of Danish towns : "Of the abolition cities I visited, prostitutes are most prominent in the chief thoroughfares of Copenhagen, particularly in the vicinity of places of amusement. The main shopping street of Christiania,^ says the same writer, in regard to towns in Norway, appears to be free of promenading prostitutes by day ; at night they are in distinct evidence there and in amusement gardens close by ; their de- meanour, as in Copenhagen, is quiet and unobtrusive." Continuing, Dr. Flexner asks : " Have conditions in the town named been affected for the worse by the sudden and recent change from regulation to abolition ? " Flexner answers his own enquiry : "I did not find a single police officer who answered that question in the affirmative." In Norway, a severe penalty is attached to the mainte- nance of 'houses of prostitution, and the ordinary criminal code enabled the police to arrest women for violations of decency, while persons " aiding for profit the immoral • A few pages further on, in the Norwegian report, further details respecting Christiania are given. M 162 THE MASTER PROBLEM intercourse of others " are liable to two years' imprison- ment. The Dutch law for the prevention of illicit sexual relations bears with especial severity on the violation of minors and the promotion of immorality. In these regulations the aim 'is to suppress brothels; local laws deal efficiently with the street prostitute. In Amsterdam she is not allowed to loiter, or to walk up and down in the vicinity of a spot where the police had had occasion to warn her. The effect of this close restriction is seen in the comment of a well-known investigator in 1914, who said that " in the Hague the street prostitute is barely noticeable." At the passing of the suppressive law of June, 1911, some 36 districts or cities held powers to prohibit prosti- tution, but very few Councils exercised their power till 1911, when the new law became operative. In Amster- dam, the enforcement of the 1911 provisions resulted in 90 brothels being closed. To this evidence of activity may be added the result of the first year's police court prosecutions under the powers conferred by the Act : — Pimps or souteneurs . . . .42 persons. (Who were sent to Government working- houses for one to three years) For cases of procuration of minors . .35 „ For criminal abortion . . . .25 „ For keeping of brothels . . . , 18 „ (During six months only, whilst in most places the brothels had been closed before by the Municipality) For seduction of minors . . . .14 „ For pornography . . . . . 13 „ For traffic in women . . . . i person. Total, 148 cases — 109 convicted, i warned, r died, 20 acquitted, 5 discharged from prosecution, 12 not yet decided at date figures were issued. In 1913 under yet another new law a free poli-clinic was established for dealing with venereal diseases, and is working with good results. COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 168 Swiss opinion leans toward Abolition. Prostitution is not yet subject to Federal law, though any day may see the completion and approval of the new Federal code, which well-informed jurists in Switzerland say will con- tain a general prohibition of brothels. Each canton deals with its own problem, which explains the enigma that whereas Switzerland is mostly abolitional, yet Geneva still permits seventeen brothels. Zurich, on the other hand, imposes a heavy fine, and " five years of hard labour " where a conviction is secured for " providing opportunity for the immorality of others or deriving profit therefrom." In Zurich, too, " women who in public places offer themselves for immoral purposes or tempt thereto may be imprisoned up to eight days." Yet with all this vigilance and legislation, human frailty and viciousness is able to find outlet. In Zurich the police know 400 persons who rent rooms for prostitu- tion, yet are unprosecutable, because of some technicality behind which, so far, they have succeeded in sheltering. In Christiania there are 500 known prostitutes ; Rotter- dam, yet another abolition town, has 1465 women of suspected virtue ; Copenhagen keeps 400 women under observation ; while in the port of Amsterdam in 1911, 968 girls were located. These facts demonstrate two things. First, the excel- lent reward which has so far been vouchsafed to the long and patient work of those engaged in solving the Master Problem ; and, secondly, how necessary it is to emphasise over and over again that race regeneration can most effectively be secured by moral regeneration. Enactments and repression are all very well, and no one welcomes them more than the National Council of Public Morals, but the true path to light, slow though the steps be that are taken therein, lies along the track of sex-education and moral uplifting, for men and women can the more easily be kept pure than made pure. The group of Abolition countries here above referred to have had various abolitional agencies at work for a vary- ing number of years. One or two paragraphs setting 164 THE MASTER PROBLEM forth their work and progress as at 1914 will neither be inappropriate, nor savour of repetition. Holland. — ^The question of venereal disease has lately been much discussed, especially owing to a regrettable increase of disease in the Navy. One or two proposals have been made to deal with this by reintroducing the Regulation System, but the suggestion has met with no support. " Regulation is a vanquished system in Hol- land." The Abolitionist struggle in Holland, which lasted forty years, has led to the present situation, where the State, the Church, the physician, the law-makers, and the local authorities have all begun to realise their responsibilities. During 1914, a National Society for the Repression of Venereal Disease was founded. Norway. — ^The Norwegian associations and the Central Board have more than two hundred local societies afl&li- ated with the National organisation — ^founded in 1894. The Central Board sends out lectures, among its many other activities, and also issues a monthly organ, Vaern. Amongst other work undertaken may be mentioned the campaign against the White Slave TrafHc, indecent literature and post cards, harmful popular customs, etc. The Central Board also gives much attention to pre- ventive measures : the substitution of doubtful amuse- meiits by healthy ones, sport and gymnastics, the estab- lishment of evening schools to prevent loafing and inculcate a love of work, meetings of mothers to consider the question of the education of children and the con- ditions of home life. As is well known, the regulation of prostitution ceased in Christiania in 1888, and the campaign against venereal diseases was entrusted to the Board of Health. No person is bound to undergo examination on account of mere suspicion, and therefore compulsory measures are impossible. In 1911, 143 notifications of infection were investigated, of which 112 were verified and 31 were without result. In connection with these notifications COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 165 33 men and 80 women were examined, some by the Board of Health, and some privately ; only two men and three women avoided examination. In Christiania, all who desire it receive free treatment from the medical officers of the Board of Health — amongst whom there is one woman. On the other hand, hospital accommodation is always gratis in the case of infectious diseases when requisite to prevent infection, but not when demanded simply for nursing purposes. In 1911, 550 men and 181 women voluntarily notified themselves to the Board of Health. These precautions have proved to be quite effective, and grow more so as by degrees patients have become accustomed to visit the Board of Health, not as enemies but as friends. The fact that this work is disconnected with the police and is free from all regulation and com- pulsion in the case of patients is in reality the corner- stone of the Christiania system. Switzerland. — In Switzerland, Regulation has been abolished in Neuchatel, Berne, and Zurich. It survives in Geneva only. That city in 1896 expressed by a two- thirds majority in a popular vote its approval of Regula- tion, and this vote (unique in the civilised world) has so far proved an insuperable obstacle to reform. About a year later Zurich gave an exactly contrary verdict by an overwhelming majority. Cantonal branches of the Federation have existed for a long time, but the Swiss National Branch was not con- stituted till 1909. In 1912, the Swiss Branch promoted a petition signed by twenty-five societies, representing 55,000 persons, urging that in the new code the equal moral law for both sexes should be recognised, that the age of protection for girls should be raised, that adequate provision should be made for the protection and re- education of minor girls, and that the Regulation System should be made impossible. The Tessinese Branch re- ported that the tolerated houses in Lugano were closed in 1907 owing to its efforts ; though public opnion in support of this measure has grown, yet constant watch- 166 THE MASTER PROBLEM fulness is necessary to prevent reaction. The Berne Branch has been chiefly occupied during 1914 in organising a Home for unmarried mothers and their babies. Reports of other European countries briefly epitom- ising the position up to 1914, are given hereunder : — Sweden. — In Sweden, though the Federation is not increasing in numbers, its principles are making way all over the country and are generally controlling public opinion. In 1903 a Royal Commission was appointed to devise measures " to meet the growing danger of infectious sexual diseases in a humaner as well as a more effective manner " than is possible by regulating prostitution. The President of the Branch and the Secretary were made members of the Commission. All the others were Regulationists, but gradually all were drawn toward the Abolitionist standpoint. The Commission has reported against Regulation. So early as 1911, the Municipality of Stockholm passed a resolution against Regulation, but no change has yet been made. Spain. — Here the authorities realise the attractiveness of the liberal policy, and have tried to adopt it by the Royal decrees of January, 1910, suppressing all houses of toleration throughout Spanish territory. Portugal. — In the new Republic the establishment of tolerated houses or brothels is contrary to the law. The exercise of a moral and hygienic prophylaxis for the suppression of venereal diseases rests with the sanitary and judicial authorities. No hospital may refuse treatment to venereal patients, either because of the nature of the malady, the standing of the patient, or any legal formality. Quacks are liable to prosecution, and the fact of trading on patients suffering from venereal disease is an aggravating circum- stance. In Russia and Austria-Hungary features exist which call for notice, particularly the drainage of the young female life of these vast areas, in order to supply the COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 167 demand for vice abroad. In the valuable reports issued of the various International Congresses held on the sub- ject of the White Slave Traffic, the National Vigilance Association and the International Bureau for the sup- pression of the White Slave Traffic have collected an abundance of information on the ramifications of the traffic in girls, to which readers desirous of fuller know- ledge will do well to turn. Mr. W. A. Coote, the vener- able Secretary, in the course of his world-wide travels in the interest of his lifelong campaign against the Social Evil, has ever been a convinced advocate of the establish- ment of wide legal facilities to suppress the exportation of young girls abroad. The recruitment to prostitution in this way, particularly in Southern semi-tropical lati- tudes, is very great, and the consequent drainage of female life from Europe truly appalling. The track of the procurer lies most prolifically through Russia and the Dual Monarchy, and is therefore a crucial question in any consideration of the Master Problem as affecting these two Empires. The work of the traffickers is more easy in those places where material sordidness preponder- ates ; that is why the greater number of the young girl victims of the traffic come from Poland, Hungary, Austrian Galicia, Roumania, and Mid-Russia.^ This traffic constitutes the pursuit of women in its most hideous and repugnant forms. It divides into two distinct streams : the traffic in young ignorant girls of the poorer class, and the traffic in young girls of better and even sometimes first-rate education, who, believing themselves independent and quite able to take care of themselves, become only more easily the prey of the traffickers. How do the traffickers who visit the villages in order to recruit women destined for prostitution present themselves ? They post as emigration agents, either official or private according to the laws, offering employ- ment in rich countries to those who, in their own, lead lives of sorrow, privation, and misery. 1 It is understood, of course, that the reference is to pre-war con- ditions. 168 THE MASTER PROBLEM They go to the poor hamlets endeavouring to attract girls of frank disposition who are discouraged at their poverty ; they display before their eyes the advantages of going to splendid countries where life is easy, work abundant, and the future certain. On other occasions they visit the miserable quarters to be found on the outskirts of big towns, and their offers of every comfort, easy to obtain, naturally find a sympathetic reception. The propaganda appears quite honest on the face of it ; the agents of the traffic naturally hide their evil inten- tions. They represent themselves to their victims as genuine emigration agents, offering to the women respect- able occupation in easy and brilliant positions. Generally they propose service in private houses, or in hotels, or other public establishments. The contract concluded, the women are taken to a port and embarked for foreign countries in exactly the same manner as if they were ordinary emigrants. Two groups of figures only need be given in evidence of the extent of this exportation from Russia and Austria- Hungary. During 1912, 1030 young women were regis- tered as inmates of the licensed houses in Buenos Ayres. Of this number no fewer than 362 were Russian. It must be borne in mind that these figures relate only to the registered houses, whereas the greater proportion of the prostitution is clandestine, the women so engaged being for the most part European. The other array of figures is from the tables of the Bedford Hills State Reformatory, New York City. Here an analysis of women who came to the institution for venereal treatment yielded 24-11 per cent as foreign-born, e.g. 156. Of these 37 were Russian and 37 were from Austria-Hungary. In both these tables the figures quoted are higher than in any other European country. Thus, there were only four English girls in the Buenos Ayres list, while at Bedford Hills, fourteen were of English birth. The ports of embarkation are principally Lemberg and Vienna. It is satisfactory, to note that the activity of the police and COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 169 of purity workers has been rewarded. In 1911, there were 321 convictions for white slave traflftcking, and in 1912, 360. Increasing numbers of arrests and convic- tions are being made each year. The Hungarian National Committee has been able to secure the inclusion into the laws of Hungary of the principles of the International Convention of 1904. The Government instituted a department of Central Police Surveillance in 19I3, which began operations in February of that year. Its functions are thus summarised : — (i) In accordance with the National Convention respecting the suppression of the White Slave Traffic the said Central Bureau shall centralise all foreign information concerning the said traffic. To that end the Bureau shall be authorised to correspond with the other Central Bureaux established in those countries which are signatories to the Convention, and to communicate direct to those Central Authorities extracts of the cases and convictions obtained in the interior of the country, for offences specified in the Convention, the different elements of which shall have been perpetrated in the different countries. (2) In accordance with the International Agreement for the suppression of pornographic literature incorporated into Act 50, 1912, the Central Authority shall centralise all in- formation that may serve to facilitate the prosecution and punishment of those acts which constitute offences against the National laws, such as the circulation of prints, drawings, pictures, or other obscene objects of an international character. It shall, in addition, furnish information required for the prevention of the importation of such publications, or for assisting in their seizure within the limits of the National laws. As well as being usefully active in this way, the Hun- garian workers at Budapest and in other parts of the country are keenly alive to every branch of effort for the preservation of national womanhood. In the direction of helping those in danger during 1912 the Committee interviewed at the offices of the police 364 women, 179 of whom had accepted help. Of these, 60 were placed in the Committee's Home, 20 in 170 THE MASTER PROBLEM different institutions, 6 went abroad, and the remainder returned to their famihes ; 30 had, for various reasons, been refused police permits, and out of these 6 were admitted to the Home ; 45 of the registered women returned their permits, and 5 of these also came to the Home. Help was offered to 22 girls arrested for clandes- tine prostitution, and 12 of these accepted the shelter of the Home. These details are the more encouraging when it is learned that the effort only began in January, 1912. The Home referred to rapidly became inadequate, and so strong was the public approval of the good work done that a grant of 50,000 crowns was given towards the erection of a larger establishment capable of receiving at least 100 girls, and there is strong reason to believe that the Municipality of the City of Budapest will give the new site. From these indications it will be seen that public sentiment is awake, that purity workers are vigilant, and that Hungary has what is considered an efficient system. For the other two countries under consideration, Austrian cities regulate vice, but in no very efficient way ; for the last half -century Russian cities have persistently striven to keep prostitution under sanitary control, registration and examination of women still being in full operation to-day. Some 3000 prostitutes are inscribed in Petro- grad — there is no law in Russia for protection of minors, neither exists provision for venereal treatment. In our first reference we indicated that Austria pos- sessed points of difference from other parts of Europe. Apart from the matter of exportation, Vienna presents several peculiarities in the system of regulation of vice. The Morals police and the Sanitary police are under different authorities. The supervision of public morals falls in the province of the Imperial police, while for the sanitary control the municipal authorities are responsible. As a consequence, there is a lack of harmony, the Sanitary police attempting to increase as far as possible the number of public prostitutes, the Morals police attempting to limit it. Examinations of licensed women are made by COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 171 ordinary physicians, designated by the police. They are made either at the domicile of the physician or at that of the woman. They are thus designed to give as little publicity to the a,ctivities of police control as circum- stances allow. Some measure of alteration was made in the law in June, 1911 ; but the same dual control, the " District Police Commissariats " and the " Division for Morals Police Affairs of the Department of Police." By the new law the prostitute is not treated as an outcast, e.g. " In respect to her behaviour she is liable only to the same rules as to order and decency that apply to all other persons." All that she is forbidden is "to appear in a group of immoral women or with a pimp." Differing from the German law, which can only take a prostitute into custody on proof of money passing, the Austrian police, recognising the interminable disputes the required evidence would arouse, therefore arrest on suspicion any suspect who has been watched and warned on a previous occasion. No prostitute is forcibly inscribed in Vienna, and even then " women must not be assigned to supervision if they are : (i) girls under eighteen ; (2) virgins ; (3) pregnant ; (4) married and not legally divorced ; (5) afflicted with contagious disease." Two points in the regulations are worthy of notice. The first is the forcible treatment at hospital of any prostitute found to be venereally diseased, and the second that " prostitutes of foreign domicile coming to Vienna are to be deported from the city." A natural sequence of these conditions is that out of 30,000 prostitutes estimated to be plying their infamous calling in Vienna, only some 1600 are inscribed, and that up to the outbreak of the war it shared with Brussels the distinction of possessing fewer brothels than any other city of like dimensions in Europe, both having only six houses of ill-fame. It becomes, therefore, an easy task to maintain a rigid and thorough supervision over these establishments, and the work being carried out by 172 THE MASTER PROBLEM the highest officials of the Department who control the social evil, the necessary conditions are minutely carried out by brothel-keepers, who cannot hope to gain favour or exception, and by the prostitutes who recognise their improved material lot under such a regime which aims at making their existence more tolerable and endeavours to befriend them in every way possible. As an instance, one brothel-keeper, to whom the official made a domiciliary visit, was complained of by the women as swindling them out of their earnings, pro- viding food which was uneatable, and of only changing the bed-linen once a month. All this despite the immin- ence at any time of inspection. The authorities threatened to close the establishment unless there was prompt re- dress in each aspect. Needless to say, it was done and the women knew that they had only to report reprisals to bring down punishment. The amended financial arrangement was divulged ; each girl paid £i a day to the brothel-keeper for board and lodging, and her earn- ings, for the day and night, ranged from £2 to £6. At the time of complaint the girls, as stated, received no money and exceedingly inferior food. It would be dangerous to take the example of Vienna as a factor in argument, for manifestly, were the number of brothels and the women under inscription to become more approximated to those in other capitals of Europe, major officials would have to relegate the inspection to the ordinary type of police. So ends a general recapitulation of conditions in Continental Europe. It has been sought not to be un- duly reiterative in details, but to give the reader the credit for understanding that in many cities, the extent, practice, and habits of prostitution vary but little, as too does the system under which it is controlled. It has been sought rather to emphasise those points wherein certain towns differ in these particulars from others and so to present some tangible picture of conditions as a whole throughout the Continent. A justifiable criticism may be that with apparent COUNTRIES WHICH FAVOUR ABOLITION 173 invidiousness no " terrible examples " have been given, whereas the American material abounded in such. All the world over the methods and cruelties of procurers and brothel-keepers are much the same, and once having given a comprehensive series of concrete instances of the varying forms of wrong committed upon girls, it was considered that to prepare a similar series for Europe would unnecessarily distress the reader. Villainies every whit as terrible as in America are committed daily in Paris and Berlin. CHAPTER XIII THE MASTER PROBLEM IN BRITAIN " I wonder if any of "us have realised the imperativeness of duty. There is nothing in all this world so tyrannical as duty. You cannot evade its commands ; you cannot escape its results for good or evil ; you cannot substitute anything for it ; it is absolutely imperative." — Miss G. Countryman, U.S.A. " Once let the heart of England be really aroused, let the con- science of this country be really excited, then I do not believe for a moment there will be any lack of workers in the cause." — Lord Cole- ridge. HAPPILY for the United Kingdom, a prophet arose in the 'sixties of last century who changed the face of the land in so far as the Master Problem is con- cerned. Mrs. Butler's effort was put forward before the National Vigilance Association was formed, and Mr. W. Alexander Coote in referring to those pre-N.V.A. days in his history of the foundation of the Association, says : — " The one great champion of morality, at home and abroad, was Mrs. Josephine Butler. Her efforts were wholly concen- trated on the Repeal of the Regulation of Vice system, which then was in vogue in, and within the radius of fifteen miles of, the sea-ports and garrison towns of England. The one obvious fact revealed to her during her campaign in England was the very low state of public morality. In response to Mrs. Butler's efforts, and the public opinion she and her followers had created, the Government repealed what are known as the Contagious Diseases Acts." To some it may be news that the Regulation System, which had such a brief life in England, was attempted to be introduced from France under Lord Melbourne's Ministry, 1835-41. There is no need to deal with the 174 THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 175 rampancy of the social evil and its harvest of disease during mediaeval days, and since, but the conditions which led to the never-to-be-forgotten CD. Acts cam- paign, will make a convenient jumping-off point, and they find their origin in the attempt mentioned above. This plan to foist the French idea of recognised but not legalised prostitution upon Great Britain as a serious legal enactment was abandoned owing to the impossi- bility of asking the Queen, then a young girl, to sign an Act to legalise it. Nor was such a step considered possible during the lifetime of the Prince Consort. It was during the Queen's first year of widowhood, when she was known to be deeply engrossed by her bereavement, that the partisans of the system succeeded in obtaining Queen Victoria's assent to an Act of Parliament. This was followed by other Acts in 1866, 1868, and 1869, all adopted by an indifferent Parliament. The 1869 Act raised a vigorous protest on the part of Miss Harriet Martineau in a series of letters in the Daily News. A group of Baptist pastors, whom other Non- conformist ministers joined and at whose head was the Rev. Charles Birrell, of Liverpool, sent vigorous protes- tations to the Government. In 1868 the Rescue Society, whom Mr. Daniel Caper represented, handed to the Home Secretary a pamphlet enumerating objections against the Contagious Diseases Acts. This produced no eSect. Two Nottingham doctors. Dr. Charles Bell Taylor and Dr. Worth, then called Mrs. Josephine Butler's attention to the nature of the 1869 Act. In September also, the Rev. Dr. Hoopell, of Northumberland, Mr. George Charleton of the Society of Friends, and Mr. Banks, who afterwards became Secretary of the National Association, raised a protest at the Bristol Congress of Social Science. Mrs. Josephine Butler, whose husband was Principal of Liverpool College, with his entire consent and full help, thereupon prepared herself for the great work she was about to undertake, and which has already been related in brief. 176 THE MASTER PROBLEM The movement for the repeal of the Acts was pursued with the method, the energy, and the power which dis- tinguishes the undertakings of the British nation, and culminated in a resolution moved in the House of Com- mons on March 17th, 1879, to reject the vote for pro- viding the money to carry out the Contagious Diseases Acts. Colonel Stanley, for the Government, demanded that the money be voted, but he announced that after con- sulting the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Government had decided to appoint a Committee of Inquiry. This was the beginning of the end, and on the 20th April, 1883, the system was effectively suppressed by the adoption of a motion proposed by Mr. James Stansfield, suspending the compulsory examination. On the i6th March, 1886, the final abolition was adopted without recourse being necessary to a division, and on the 5th June, 1888, regulation was condemned in India, though from an inquiry made in 1893, it was proved that up to that time the Regulationists had maintained their practices in India. . The Contagious Diseases Acts were also suppressed for Ceylon, Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements, and Gibraltar, thanks to Sir Henry Holland, then head of the Colonial Office. The abolition of the Contagious Diseases Acts in England was of enormous importance, because the nation thereby recognised the individual freedom of all women before the law. However, as Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., pointed out in 1914 at the Portsmouth Conference, in considering the matter of prostitution one must not lose sight of the point that its cause has vary- ing origins. The CD. Acts made the error of trying to remedy, or at any rate to palliate a complex and difficult social disease by treating only one of its causes. That is why the CD. Acts failed. Those who work at the Master Problem have, to quote Sir Victor Horsley once more, " to study all the social factors which lead to prostitution, we have to stop it as well as we can, and we can do a very great deal." THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 177 A noteworthy example of this is the agitation which led to the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, by which the age of consent for a girl was raised from thirteen to sixteen years of age, though the value of the Act was considerably diminished by the qualifying proviso in Section 5 in respect to " reasonable cause to believe the girl was of or above the age of sixteen years." When the House of Commons suppressed the CD. Acts in 1883, the activity of workers in the cause of social purity did not slacken. That truly was the first victory, and a palpable one, but all too few women would be saved by resting on that achievement. London at that time was particularly the hunting- ground of many vicious men, who, not content with satisfying their evil passions among " seasoned " women, demanded innocent girls of tender years of age on whom to inflict irreparable wrong. A considerable business was therefore transacted in young girls ; one could be bought for a few pounds, and debauched again and again by her purchaser, without any hope of rescue or redress. The extent of the juvenile prostitution had been brought to the public notice in the earlier 'eighties, and a Commission of the House of Lords had strongly recom- mended that an Act of Parliament should be passed to cope with the evil. Mr. Gladstone's Ministry — Sir William Harcourt being then Home Secretary — recog- nised the urgency of the demand, and introduced a Bill giving effect to the recommendations of the Committee, but there was no motive power behind it. It was strongly opposed by a small group of men and the result was that session after session the Bill was introduced in due course and then included in the massacre of the innocents at the end of the session. In the spring of 1885 this Bill had been reintroduced when Mr. Gladstone's Government came to an untimely end. Lord Salisbury was called in to form a Ministry, and it was understood that the Bill for the protection of girls was once more to be sacrificed. At this juncture an appeal was made to the late Mr, 178 THE MASTER PROBLEM W. T. Stead, then a powerful figure in journalism as the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, and, after some sensa- tional developments, which are better told in his own words, public opinion was so inflamed that the Bill was passed which raised the age of consent to sixteen. So palpable was it that this legislation was due to Mr. W. T. Stead that it was universally known as " Stead's Act." At the time the Bill was in imminent danger of being consigned to oblivion, the late Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, " came to me." (Mr. Stead's own account is here followed.) " I was then editing the Pall Mall Gazette. He told me briefly how he, with Mrs. Josephine Butler and many others, had laboured for years to secure the necessary law for pro- tecting girls and for combating the horrors of the White Slave traf&c. He said, ' The Ministry is out and the Bill is practically lost. You are the only man in the country who can save it.' I told him frankly that I thought no man could save it, but if the thing had to be done the whole question would have to be dealt with de novo in such a fashion as to compel the general public to realise the horrors at which they had hitherto blinked. To do this was a task which I did not think myself competent to perform, as I knew nothing of the sad and tragic underside of life nor did I personally know any girl of ill-fame in London. Mrs. Josephine Butler added her entreaties, and I said I would look into the matter. I found that the law of England recognised that a girl one day over thirteen years of age was legally a woman. I further obtained evidence from Mr. Howard Vincent, formerly Head of the Criminal Investigations Department of Scotland Yard, as to the existence of scoundrels well known to the police, who made a business of procuring and corrupting young girls. He told me that as soon as the child was over tlurteen years of age she could be inveigled into a house of ill-fame and there could be violated without any possible hope of redress, because if she had consented to go into the house she was held to have consented to her own ruin, although she might at that time be, and probably was, absolutely ignorant of what vice meant. " I remember asking Mr. Howard Vincent if the innocent victims of such a hideous system did, not cry out or scream. THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 179 ' Certainly they do,' he said. ' And no assistance comes ? ' said I. ' None,' he said. I said, ' It is enough to raise hell to think of it.' ' Humph ! ' he said, ' it does not even raise the neighbours.' ' Then,' said I, ' I will raise hell,' and I did. " I went to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Man- ning, and the Bishop of London, and told them that there was only one way to get that Act of Parliament passed, and that was for me to go into the dark and devious way of under- ground London, either by myself or with my agents, to procure girls over thirteen professedly for vicious purposes. " I communicated with the Salvation Army," Mr. Stead's narrative continues, " and through their agency secured the services of a former keeper of a house of ill-fame, who under- took, in response to my urgent representation, to go back to her old haunts and to purchase for me a girl just over thirteen, as if she had returned to her old way of business and wished to secure a young maiden for a vicious man. The woman was most reluctant to return, even for the best of motives, to her old companions ; but in the end she went to an old acquaintance and told her she wanted a girl of thirteen, paying her £2 on commission. She then went to a Mrs. Arm- strong, who was the mother of a child called EUza, who had just turned thirteen, and proposed the transaction to her. Mrs. Armstrong, on receiving £3, allowed her daughter to be handed over to the procuress. " The child was brought to me. I was assured positively that the transaction was complete, that the mother had consented to the sale of the girl for vicious purposes ; and if I had been an ordinary vicious man I could have taken the child to any house of ill-fame I liked and abused her as much as I pleased. I took the child into a house of ill-fame, the nature of which she knew nothing. She only knew she weis going to the house of a kind gentleman. She went to bed. " I entered the room to see if she were asleep, when she woke up with a startled cry, ' There is a man in the room.' I promptly retired, and a lady of the Salvation Army removed her at once to a nursing home, where she was examined by a doctor, who certified that she had suffered no injury of any kind, and was then taken next morning to Paris, where the Salvation Army took care of her. " That was only the first of a long series of similar trans- actions, which proved beyond all question the readiness of procurers and procuresses to obtain young girls for vicious 180 THE MASTER PROBLEM purposes in return for payment, varying from £i to £5 ; that children over thirteen were received without any protest by the keepers of houses of ill-fame, or assignation houses ; and that, in short, was the whole devil's business which was going on, without let or hindrance, under the notice of the police and the shadows of our churches and chapels." As a result of his investigations, Mr. Stead published in the Pall Mall Gazette for six days a series of articles, entitled, "The Maiden Tribute of Modem Babylon," in which he set out in plain, vigorous English the funda- mental facts which he had discovered existed in London's midst. The commotion which the publication caused in Lon- don and throughout the whole world was immense. The Home Secretary implored Mr. Stead to stop publishing the articles. He told him he would stop them the moment he promised to carry the Bill through, raising the age of consent for girls. He declined to give any such pledge. Mr. Stead then told him that he would go on with the publication until the roused indignation of the public compelled the Ministers to do their duty. Thanks to the splendid response of the women of the country, largely aided by leaders of religious thought, Mr. Stead achieved his end. The Criminal Law Amendment Act was swept in triumph through both Houses of Parliament by Minis- ters who had assured him positively that it was a physical and political impossibility to do any such thing. That Act of Parliament still stands as the Charter of the girlhood of our country. It raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, it admitted the evidence of children, even if they were not able to satisfy the judge and jury that they understood the nature of an oath, and it increased the pains and penalties inflicted upon all those who ruined girls, whether by abducting them abroad or corrupting them at home. A great demonstration was held in Hyde Park to celebrate the passing of the Act. Arising out of the transaction with Mrs. Armstrong, THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 181 Mr. Stead was condemned to prison and served a term of nine weeks. In his own narrative of the event he said that he went to prison because he was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey of having aided and abetted in the abduction of a young girl of thirteen years of age named Eliza Armstrong. They added a rider to the effect that he had been deceived by his agents, and that they recom- mended him to mercy on the ground that his action had led directly to the passing of a much-needed Act of Parlia- ment. The case attracted an enormous amount of attention, coming up first at Bow Street, and afterwards at the Old Bailey. A defence fund of nearly £6000 was raised, and the leading counsel were engaged on both sides. After a long trial, Mr. Stead was convicted, but immediately a great agitation was set in motion. The Government was besieged with petitions and protests. Telegrams rained in upon the Home Office, the Prime Minister, and the Queen, and after Mr. Stead had been three days in Coldbath Prison, Lord Salisbury, on his own motion, without waiting for the consent of the Judge who had passed sentence, ordered Mr. Stead to be transferred at once to HoUoway as a first-class misdemeanant. The remainder of the sentence — ^two months and four days — Mr. Stead served at HoUoway, where he edited the Pall Mall Gazette from November, 1885, to January, 1886. When Mr. Stead came out he was welcomed by a mass meeting at Exeter Hall, presided over by Mr. Stansfield, and addressed by leading representatives of all the churches and social organisations that had been engaged with him in the great fight. The crowd was so great that the chairman and Mr. Stead were only able with great difficulty to obtain admission to the hall, and take their places on the platform. It was soon realised that the new Act was not nearly so effective as had been hoped, on points which are dealt with in the legal section. Meanwhile, too, the Vagrancy Act of 1898 had been placed on the Statute Book, and that also could have the proverbial coach and horses driven 182 THE MASTER PROBLEM through it owing to the inconsistencies which it con- tained. During the years 1907 and 1908 a Conjoint Committee, consisting of representatives of the Jewish Board of Deputies, the National Vigilance Association, the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women, and the London Council, held a number of meetings to discuss the proved defects in the working of these two Acts and to consider what amendments were required to render less easy the path of the procurer and dealer in girls and women. As the result of those deliberations Bills were prepared with the object of amending both the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Vagrancy Act and a deputation waited upon the then Home Secretary (Mr. Gladstone) to urge the Government to take them up. This was in March, 1909, and from that time until the end of 1912 ilothing was achieved. In December of that year though, by dint of continual pressure and urging in this direction and that — including a huge mass meeting at the London Opera House, presided over by the Archbishop of Canter- bury — the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which had an influential backing in the House of Commons but which had been " blocked " by certain members at various stages, at last received the Royal Assent, and the law henceforward had an added effective instrument with which to deal with the white slave traffic. In the next section the precise legal content of the Act will be out- lined. We arrive, therefore, at a position in England where regulation is non-existent so far as the general public is concerned ; where the recognition of regulation by the naval and military authorities has been banished ; where the free exercise of the prostitute's wiles has been made more difficult ; where the exportation and importation of victims have been hedged round with legal impedi- ments ; where the fear of the lash and the prison cell has been seared into the coward-mind of the procurer and pimp, and where the virtue of a woman has at last been THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 183 looked upon as a pearl worth preserving untarnished in its virgin purity. Nevertheless, the Millennium is far off. Though " Piccadilly is a paradise and the provinces purged " in comparison with conditions of old, yet the track of the seducer still pollutes our cities and an aftermath of disease eats into the vitality of the nation " unto the third and fourth generation." If proof were necessary it would only be necessary to remind the reader of the Piccadilly Flat Case in 1913 to confirm the statement ; or, perhaps, a passing reference to the more recent Massage Case, in which the accused was sent to prison for three months, and the other notorious case, where the female brothel-keeper received a sentence of nine months' imprisonment. Or again, it is significant that in July, 1912, the Home Secretary stated in the House of Commons that during the twelve weeks ending May 31st, fifty-four girls and young women were reported to the London police as missing, who had not yet been found. These were all under twenty-one years of age, and fifteen of them were under sixteen years old. How many had been reported missing to the police of other cities and districts he had no information. In another direction emphatic evidence of the need of a high-minded and high-souled application to means of solving the Master Problem, lies in the Royal Com- mission on Venereal Diseases, the report of which has been dealt with in another chapter. The movement which resulted in the appointment of the Commission was initiated by Sir Malcolm Morris, whose public-spiritedness is well known, in a series of articles in the Lancet. In July, 1913, a weighty appeal signed by the President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and by thirty-six other medical men of high eminence appeared in the Morning Post, urging the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question, and consider what steps might be taken to deal with the diseases. This letter is sufficiently historical to merit repetition : — 184 THE MASTER PROBLEM " There has always been a conspiracy of silence as regards venereal diseases. The time, however, has come when it is a national duty to face the facts and to bring them prominently to the notice of the public. When the subject was discussed last year at the Royal Society of Medicine it was stated without contradiction that in London alone there are 40,000 new cases of the gravest form of the disease every year, and in the United Kingdom as a whole 130,000 such cases. The worst form of venereal disease is highly contagious and dire in its effects. It claims its victims not only from those who have themselves to blame for contracting it. It is one of those diseases that may be transmitted from parent to child, so that the offspring of a sufferer is born with the virus actually in its tissues, to cause, it may be, hideous deformity, or blindness, or deafness, or idiocy, ending often in premature though not untimely death. Innocent members of the public, wives, children, doctors, dentists, students, and nurses, are among those who during the routine of their ordinary daily life are often accidentally called upon to pay a tragic penalty for the wilful blindness that ignores its existence. There is a great volume of evidence that locomotor ataxy and general paralysis are its belated manifestations. We are living to-day in a new era as regards diagnosis and treatment. The microbes responsible for these diseases have been discovered in recent years ; means of diagnosis far in advance of previous experi- ence have been elaborated and treatment has been enormously improved. The time is therefore appropriate for an organised effort on a comprehensive scale to reduce the incidence of these diseases. The experience of the Royal Army Medical Corps during the last few years has shown the enormous reduction in all forms of the disease that can be brought about as a result of systematic effort. Organised effort among the civilian population is impracticable until the public conscience has been aroused, and can only be attempted after a full and authoritative investigation." The effect of this letter was far-reaching, and its power was efficiently intensified by the publication in October, 1913, of the results of a year's enquiry, made at the instance of the Local Government Board, into the existing control over venereal diseases, with special reference to the adequacy and general character of the THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 185 arrangements for institutional treatment of these diseases now available in England and Wales. This enquiry was entrusted to Dr. R. W. Johnstone. The report, Cd. 7029, exhaustively examined the whole question and disclosed the serious extent to which venereal diseases are affecting the national health. The next month, November, 1913, it was announced that a Royal Commission had been appointed. This momentous Royal Commission was suggested so early as 1899 by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Surgeons, and again in 1904, when the Royal Commission on Physical Deterioration recommended that an exhaustive enquiry should be made into the extent of the malady and the steps that might be taken to arrest its progress. The first sitting of the Commission was on the 7th of November, 1913, the appointed Commissioners being Baron Sydenham, of Combe (Chairman), Sir David Bryn- mor Jones, K.c, m.p., Mr. Philip Snowden, m.p.. Sir Kenelm E. Digby, g.c.b., k.c. Sir Almeric FitzRoy, k.c.b., K.C.V.O., Sir Malcolm Morris, k.c.b., k.c.v.o.. Sir John Collie, M.D., Dr. Arthur Newsholme, c.b., Chief Medical Ofl&cer to the Local Government Board, Canon J. W. Horsley, the Rev. J. Scott Lidgett, Dr. F. W. Mott, f.r.s., Mr. Ernest Lane, f.e.c.s., Mrs. Scharlieb, m.d., Mrs. Creighton, and Mrs. Burgwin ; Mr. E. R. Forber, of the Local Government Board, Secretary. By April, 1914, thirty-two meetings had been held and a first report (Cd. 7475) issued, the further reports being published in the closing days of 1915. The Royal Commission completed its labours in 1916 ; and the report has been epitomised in an earlier chapter. But let us to actual conditions. Take London. It will be remembered that in the striking letter from the principal medical men of England, the statement was made that there are 40,000 new cases of contagious sex-diseases each year in London alone. Yet in com- parison with the Continent, Flexner says, London is " most assuredly " no worse. According to the report 186 THE MASTER PROBLEM of the- Royal Commission upon the duties of the Metro- pohtan Police, Regent Street and Piccadilly, though still with a number of loose women frequenting them, is " far less disorderly than formerly, when at certain hours these streets became so crowded with undesirable persons as to make the streets irksome to respectable persons." This Commission Report was issued in 1908 ; since then, in the same areas, some hundreds of dis- orderly houses have been closed in consequence of legal proceedings. A general concurrent tightening of police control prevented women from the houses joining the ranks of the street walkers, and instead of an aggrava- tion of solicitation, conditions were improved. Such a purging of the streets is the more gratifying when it is remembered that as the law stands prostitutes cannot legally be taken into custody because they are prosti- tutes ; to justify their apprehension they must commit some distinct act (such as persistent soliciting) which is an offence against the law. The unobtrusive prostitute is not molested, and a woman acting in a manner which sufficiently over-reaches the bounds of toleration to bring her into conflict with the law is first warned. The statistics of arrest show the increased vigilance of the police, and the number of sustained convictions prove the good judgment exercised by the police in carrying out their difficult duties. These arrests in 1915 were 4206 as against 2409 in 1901, and the percentage of failures to secure conviction were 6-3 in 1905 compared with ii'4 in 1901. "To-day," says Mr. W. A. Coote of the National Vigilance Association, " London is an open-air cathedral compared with what it was forty years ago." But great as the improvement is, much remains to be done in view of the disease statistics quoted. " Women are distinctly abundant," says Flexner, 1914, " in the streets radiating and in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus, Regent Street, and the various railway stations." " Brothels," the same writer affirms, " nowadays THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 187 lead a stealthy, uneasy, transient life. In certain regions they are masked as massage establishments, baths, schools for teaching languages or elocution, and so on. The methods of attracting men are through the medium of small announcements in the daily, even- ing, and weekly papers. Among a number of proved brothel advertisements at disposal, the following is given as tjrpical : — Skilful treatment for Muscular Ailments given daily. Hours 12.30 till 7. — W. Assistant wanted at once. Or alternatively, a corps of sandwich-men parade Street, or some other fashionable thoroughfare with boards advertising the times the supposed business is carried on." The women who run these brothels under the guise of treatment establishments have several " nurses " and " assistants " on the premises during business hours, and if a customer is not pleased with the choice so a,f£orded him photographs of available girls are shown and the selected one sent for. In this way, by many devices and under varying pseudo-occupations, houses where prostitution is carried on exist in numbers, and, with those women who rent flats and carry on their evil trade single-handed, total to a considerable though incomputable aggregate. An aspect of London life which has to be considered in any survey of the Master Problem is that of the living- in system. Of late years particularly, many of the reputable firms have establishments for their employees, the hygienic perfection, the comfort and the general conditions of which are the acme of homeliness, while the salaries are sufficient to lift life from devious necessities. Obviously a generalisation cannot be taken as an invariable practice, and here and there exceptions will be found which conduce to cheapness of virtue. Or again, in such a vast body as the aggregate female living- in assistants of the Metropolis must be, it caimot be supposed that without exception the girls are proof 188 THE MASTER PROBLEM against temptation, or dangerous curiosity, or can be always suspicious of apparently innocent diversions. Even, it is undeniable, some already lost to virtue find their daily occupation in houses where living-in is in vogue. A considerable outcry was made in certain of the daily newspapers in 1913 on what was termed " Living- In Horrors," and an editorial statement also appeared in the Shop Assistant, which touched upon the issue with which we are more intimately concerned, in the following words : — " What is the position of thousands of shop girls working for a paltry pittance not sufficient to keep body and soul together ? In the case of those who have good homes it means that their parents are subsidising their employers, while the poor, friendless girl, left alone in the world to rely on her own resources and fight the battle of life, has to contend against this unfair competition, and is often driven to eke out a miserable existence by leading a life of shame. This is no exaggerated statement, but is only too true, as anyone who has been intimately connected with shop life in our big cities can testify." There is possibly a tinge of nndue coloration in this statement, but every now and then confirmation crops up of the existence of vice among shop-girls, as was seen early in 1915 by the proceedings in a certain West End police court. Evidence is also forthcoming from an investigator of the Ransome Wallis Homes, who, accord- ing to a weekly newspaper in March, 1914, said, in re- ferring again to young unmarried mothers who bring their babies to the Home : "I have told you a large percentage of them come from the big business houses, and I think the reason lies in their greater freedom in the matter of hours compared with their less favourably circumstanced sisters." In this statement the inference is that the greater liberty means greater personal laxity and a wider scope for clandestine prostitution. THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 189 In every great city the lure of the stage is a powerful aid to the procurer, and much has been said also of the loose morality of theatrical agencies. London is no ex- ception, though certainly much cleaner on the whole than Continental capitals. It is unnecessary to add to the already quoted instances in other parts of the world, of white slave recruitings from theatrical or music-hall aspirants, but it may be well to enforce the truth that the Bohemianism, as many lightly, but falsely, term unrestrained coarseness, is not absent from the London of to-day, and too often the girl who insists upon being respected thereby fatally injures her prospects. The following incidents occurred last year, according to the artist in question. But it would be unjust to infer that all agents behave in the same manner : — " During the course of my first week several agents promised to take me to see a well-known manager who, they said, would book me. On the understand- ing that it was all arranged, and was only a question of signing the contract, I went over there one evening, only to learn that the gentleman in question had never heard of me, and, moreover, was not in a position to book me. The five or six agents were there in force. I lived at that time at and one of these agents offered to give me a lift as far as Poverty Corner (the junction of Waterloo Road and Stamford Street). The cab had scarcely started before I had to object strenuously to his arm round my waist and his kisses. The result was that, despite all their promises, the whole of these agents dropped me like live coal, and I have never since had a return date at the hall at which I was then performing ! " In the case of my second London engagement, I was offered two weeks in North Country towns, and was asked to step into the office after one of my performances to sign the contracts. I had not been in the office more than five minutes when this gentleman of the profession wanted to kiss me. I felt inclined to run away without the contracts, but I wanted work badly, and so tried to ' chaff it off ' by sapng that I would kiss him when I came back from the North. But he was not to be put off like that. As I left the room he sprang 190 THE MASTER PROBLEM up, threw his arms round me, and refused to let me go until I had kissed him. Fearing to make a scene, and being anxious to get out, I gave him what he termed a ' peck ' on the cheek. I fulfilled the two weeks' engagements in the North, but no more contracts were given me from this gentleman. " On another occasion I deputised one night at a hall for a friend who was ill. After the perform- ance the husband of my friend introduced me to a gentle- man with whom he was conversing. This gentleman was an agent. He said he was going to the (a well-known club), would we join him ? My friend's husband naturally wanted to get home to his sick wife, and refused ; I, seeing an oppor- tunity of possible bookings, and having heard a great deal of this club, agreed to go with him alone. On the way he showed me a booking list, which conveyed nothing to me. On leaving the club he insisted on seeing me home, much as I resented his proffered assistance. In the vehicle I had quickly to move to the opposite seat, the whole journey being one constant physical struggle on my part to evade amorous attentions. I saw my invalid friend the next day, showed her the booking list, and related my adventure. She at once recognised the man, who, I then discovered, had been con- victed of an indecent assault before." These two small side-lights are helpful in gauging the moral barometer, but do not assist forward palpably in considering conditions. To this end, however, statistics given by Dr. Helen Wilson, Secretary of the British Branch of the International Abolitionist Federation, in June, 1914, may prove useful. Dr. Wilson and a staff secured the life histories of between 600 and 700 prosti- tutes. They were collected from an enormous variety of sources and over a period of two years. Some were got from rescue workers, some from police court mission- aries, others from magistrates, policemen, relieving officers, and officials of workhouses. Some came from the women themselves. The results are tabulated below. The first table shows the ages at which girls go wrong. In it we have attempted to differentiate between the first lapse from virtue, and the adoption of the life of a THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 191 prostitute ; in most cases there is an interval of months or years between these two events. Table I. Age Age. Under i6 i6 and 17 years 18 and 19 years 20 and 21 years Over 21 . Age unknown First lapse, 76 139 92 50 44 401 429 830 Became prostitute. 24 103 91 55 68 341 489 830 It will be observed that of those of whom the age could be ascertained, more than half started on the wrong path before they reached eighteen years, that is, before they were fitted for or should expect full social and economic independence. The next table shows the important part played by bad homes or broken homes. It analyses 356 cases in which the home conditions in childhood and girlhood were known : — Table II. Home Conditions Good homes Institutional upbringing . Bad homes — Bad father ..... Bad mother ..... Drink ...... Other conditions .... Lack of home — No home when under 16 No home, over 16 ... Turned out ..... Ran away ..... 88 34 29 39 42 49 -159 15 33 5 22 -75 356 192 THE MASTER PROBLEM Only a quarter of the whole number had a normal and satisfactory home. " In corroboration let me give you," said Dr Helen Wilson, " a different series of cases. I looked up the history of 165 consecutive cases in an institution for fallen girls. Most of them were not actual prostitutes, and the majority were under eighteen years of age : — Mother dead 60 Mother bad . . . . . . .40 Father dead or worthless . . . .81 " It does not appear in how many of these cases both parents were bad, but it is clear that a very small pro- portion can have had a normal home with two good parents." These figures suggest that if we wish to lessen prostitu- . tion, we should see to it that there is some better guardian- ship of orphan girls, and of those who might be described as " morally orphaned." The third table comprises 669 cases of women who became prostitutes, and states the chief cause assigned by the woman herself or by those who knew her. Dr. Helen Wilson does not claim scientific accuracy for these figures. The table only gives the causes assigned by persons who are not very analytical or scientific. To get at the true causes we should need a much closer analysis ; we should probably find in every case more than one factor, and should often assign as the more important something quite different from that given here. The table is, however, interesting and suggestive because it enumerates all the principal causes, though probably not in their true proportion. " I have pur- posely omitted percentages," said Dr. Helen Wilson, " lest they should give an impression of greater exactitude than is justified." THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 198 Table III. Causes Assigned Economic causes — Low wages . Unhappy in situation Out of work Husband out of work Left widow . Child to keep (unmarried) For gain, to buy sweets, etc. Laziness Immoral conditions at work place Compulsion — By husband or " paramour " . White slave victim .... Home conditions — Bad or demorahsing home Lack of home (including those who sought situations in London, those who had run away, etc.) Wives, deserted, divorced, or separated . Seduction, i.e. lost character, home, or employment ..... Grief, or shock by death of husband, child, etc. Drink . Wilful or weak-willed Vanity, love of pleasure Sexual inclination 4 6 29 4 4 15 II 12 3 — 88 22 10 32 III 57 17 —185 47 20 30 33 135 99 669 The general tenour of the foregoing tables enforces the truth that lax home training and bad economic con- ditions lead to a distressing precentage of prostitution, though not in so high a ratio as believed by superficial observers. In another direction, however, where neither of these conditions exists, girls are drawn away, as will be evidenced a few paragraphs later on. 194 THE MASTER PROBLEM Emphatic ofl&cial recognition of the risks run by young girls, and also of the in loco parentis responsibilities of employers, was manifested in the action of the British Government in 1913, when it caused to be issued to the telephone girls at all the London exchanges an extra- ordinary warning against white slave traffickers and their despicable devices. The warning, which took the form of a type-written notice, sent by the Comptroller to the head supervisors at the various exchanges, put before the girls plainly and boldly the dangers they have to fear. After the warning against the agents of white slave traders, two instances are given of the ingenious methods by which these persons entrap their unwary victims. The first tells of a girl operator who received a telegram, purporting to be from a friend, asking her to meet her. Fortunately for the operator she happened to meet her friend before the time of the appointment, and by this means made the discovery that the telegram had come from an unknown source, and that the name was forged. Sensibly enough, the girl reported the incident. Enquiries were officially instigated, and it was discovered that the telegram came from a man who is known to be con- nected with the "White Slave Traffic. The second case quoted concerned a pretty telephone operator who, as she came off duty, was met outside the exchange by a woman in the garb of a hospital nurse. This woman apologised for troubling the girl, and said she had bad news for her. In reply to a question, the woman replied that the girl's father had met with a fatal accident. She followed this up by asking the girl to accompany her to the hospital. As the girl's father had died some con- siderable time before, she told the nurse that a mistake had been made. This, too, was reported, and it was found that the nurse was an agent of people directing this iniquitous traffic. The notice also called the attention of the girls to the circumstance that cases have been brought to the notice of the telephone officials of girls having been offered drugged chocolates in trains. THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 195 All the operators were warned against giving the names or movements of any of their colleagues to per- sons of whose identity they are not certain. They were advised to report immediately to the head supervisor any annoyance or unpleasant incidents to which they might be subjected. Accompanying the circular, the Government enclosed a valuable leaflet issued by the Girls' Friendly Society, warning girls in detail of the character of the wiles of traffickers and giving kindly advice as to conduct. It is so practical that it is given in extenso : — "Warning to Girls: Forewarned is Forearmed Girls should never speak to strangers, either men or women, in the street, in shops, in stations, in trains, in lonely country roads, or in places of amusement. Girls should never ask the way of any but officials on duty, such as policemen, railway officials, or postmen. Girls should never loiter or stand about alone in the street, and if accosted by a stranger (whether man or woman) should walk as quickly as possible to the nearest policeman. Girls should never stay to help a woman who apparently faints at their feet in the street, but should immediately call a policeman to her aid. Girls should never accept an invitation to join a Sunday School or Bible Class given them by strangers, even if they are wearing the dress of a sister or nun, or are in clerical dress. Girls should never accept a lift offered by a stranger in a motor, or taxi-cab, or vehicle of any description. Girls should never go to an address given them by a stranger, or enter any house, restaurant, or place of amusement on the invitation of a stranger. Girls should never go with a stranger (even if dressed as a hospital nurse) or believe stories of their relatives having suffered from an accident or being suddenly taken ill, as this is a common device to kidnap girls. Girls should never accept sweets, food, a glass of water, or smell flowers offered them by a stranger ; neither should they buy scents or other articles at their door, as so many things may contain drugs. 196 THE MASTER PROBLEM Girls should never take a situation through an advertise- ment or a strange registry ofi&ce, either in England or abroad, without first making enquiries from the society to which they belong. Girls should never go to London or any large town for even one night without knowing of some safe lodging." The Comptroller of the Post Office Telephone Depart- ment has upwards of 5000 young women and girls under his charge. Certain districts of London have the advantage of active preventive agencies. In South London, for in- stance, the Central South London Free Church Council prosecuted 68 brothel-keepers in 1909, 53 in 1910, 32 in 1911, 25 in 1912, and 40 in 1913 ; the last figure being so much smaller than the first is owing to the thinning out process of previous years and the vigilance of those interested in purity becoming well known throughout the district. The report of this Council for 1913 concluded : — " Those of us who knew South London twenty years ago cannot think of the mighty change between then and now. Surely the closing of upwards of 1150 dens of shame and a great number of public-houses, which gave to certain parts of Lambeth and Southwark the title of the ' cess-pool of London,' and which provided rendezvous for many of the worst criminals in the kingdom, must have contributed largely to the decreased death-rate, the reduced number of appre- hensions for drunkenness and crime, and the changed aspect and conditions of the crowded streets and their inhabitants." A fuller account of this excellent work was given by Dr. Meyer, the President, in " The Cleansing of a City," published by the National Council of Public Morals. This work has been conducted by Mr. J. O. Bairstow from the beginning with singular discretion and truly remarkable results. Indeed, it has been said with justice that Mr. Bairstow has accomplished quietly, by his wise zeal and unflagging perseverance, more than many loudly advertised crusades to purify London. THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 197 In North London an Association was formed a quarter of a century ago, having amongst its objects — 1. To prosecute keepers and landlords of immoral houses, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. 2. To provide a home, and the discipline of Chris- tian love, for any who truly desire to forsake an evil life. 3. To teach everywhere and by all possible methods that the moral law is of equal obligation on men as well as women, and its infraction by either deserving repro- bation. In recapitulating the early experience of this North London Vigilance body, it was stated that they had not been long established when news was brought of a very notorious brothel in the neighbourhood. The Committee had heard of the horrors of this den of infamy through some of the poor girls. The landlord — a member of the local Vestry and a large property holder — ^was communi- cated with, but was found to be utterly indifferent as to the character of his tenants. A prosecution was determined upon, and after months of patient watching and collecting of evidence, a clear case was made out and pressure brought to bear upon the Vestry, who resolved on a prosecution. The defendant was fined in the maximum penalty of £20 with £5 5s. costs, and the magistrate intimated that nothing but the defendant's extreme age saved him from imprisonment for three months. As well as against landlords, the local authorities were forced by the Association to take proceedings against women. In one case, where men were pillaged with violence in a brothel kept by two women, the leading delinquent was sent to prison for three months. The whole thing came to light through an anonymous letter. 198 THE MASTER PROBLEM It should not be forgotten, of course, that a great, an excellent and never-ceasing work is done in London by the National Vigilance Association, who endeavours among its many activities to prevent the occurrence of such sad incidents as the following, which was told to a crowded audience at the London Opera House, on an occasion when the Archbishop of Canterbury was in the Chair. Said the speaker : — " I could tell you several points and cases, but I am only going to tell you one, and that is of a case the details of which are known to be in every respect true. The home is a cultured one, the girl was a cultured girl, a girl of fifteen. I can take you to the town, I can take you to the home. It will be a very sa^ home just at this time of the year. As I say, the girl wa^ fifteen years of age, and, coming from school, was to arrive at one of the termini of London. She was told that an old lady would meet her there — a friend — and that old lady did meet her. The old lady friend was asked to see her across London to the other terminus. The lady saw her into the cab, and the young girl said to her, out of kindness, ' Do not trouble about me ; it is a long way for you to come across London with me,' and the old lady, thinking the girl was safely in the cab, thought she might leave her to get across London. That is two years ago. That girl was never heard of from that night, and has never been heard of since. A pure, well-educated, cultured, innocent girl would have been exceedingly dangerous to export had she left these shores a pure and innocent girl, those who are engaged in this trafi&c know perfectly well ; she is therefore taken to one of the flats kept by procurers or pimps, her opposition is broken down, and she is ruined at these places, and then she is shipped abroad and sold." How these fiends proceed has been described by a poor victim, rescued from a life of shame. She was one of a family of three sons and four daughters, who lived in . She was taken under the false pretence of a lucrative situation in a cab to a house and was shown into a room. Suspecting nothing, she. had a meal and THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 199 went to bed. The same night two women and a man entered the room, and the latter assaulted her, while the former held her tightly. That was the first step ; and it was repeated every day. The poor girl, realising now, of course, the trap into which she had fallen, put forth every effort to escape, and obtain justice for herself — ^but in vain. She was kept a prisoner in her room, which had no window from which she might shriek for assistance. She could not write home, and even if she had been able to do so, she did not even know the name of the road in which she was living. After many weeks of dreadful brutality, and harrowing torture of both mind and body, she submitted to what she looked upon as her fate, and became one of the show-girls of the common room, where she was for some seven months, until a man with a grain of mercy in his soul helped her to escape. That girl lived in with her parents, but she will never entirely recover from the dreadful mental shock of her ghastly sufferings. Such examples, unhappily, are not isolated, as purity workers know full well ; neither is London alone in its vice. The great cities of the provinces, and many towns and ports, have vice-problems of no mean dimensions. The abrogation of the CD. Acts tended to a difficult and complex situation in various parts, and it was some years before the traffic in women could be brought within manageable confines. Police action in many cases was strongly seconded by vigilance campaigns, and by Press disclosures. One of the most searching of these was conducted by the present writer, the director of the National Council of Public Morals, at a time when he was holding a ministerial appointment at the naval port of Chatham in Kent. By means of a series of articles, at first published under the pseudonym of " A Minister of the Gospel," in the Rochester and Chatham Standard in the spring of 1901, a sensation was caused which gripped the town, roused its inhabitants and Councillors to strong action, and brought to the writer letters of commenda- tion from all parts of the United Kingdom. 200 THE MASTER PROBLEM Straight from the shoulder was the charge : — " There is a place in Chatham which I call a cesspool, about 12 yards wide and loo yards long, but only surface deep. On one side it is bordered by the iron railings which enclose soldiers' graves, on the other by a high wall guarding the tombs of old citizens. It is approached by a road darkened by over- hanging trees. That place has witnessed scenes I cannot describe in these columns. It is the open resort of loose girls, older lads, and men, and of the familiar street -walker. Here are the ages, in some cases verified, of a few of those who are known to live on the streets of Chatham — 60, 52, 49, 43, 41, 37 (three of this age), 35, 34, 33, 29, 26, 24, 22, 21 (eight or nine), 20 (several), 19 (eight or nine), 18 (several), 17 (several), 16, 14, 13. It is, of course, uncertain how many there are at any one time. I have a list, carefully checked, of about 90 of them who have traded in Chatham this year. But these are only the worst cases. Add to that number another 90, who have, as yet, escaped the inevitable, and we have the appalling estimate of 180 fallen women on the streets of Chatham. That this is a very moderate estimate can be gauged from the fact, which I have from the highest authority, that there are forty of them in a certain hospital at this moment. To-morrow they may be in the streets because nobody has the power to detain them. Liberty in these cases means contagion, perhaps death. It is generally admitted that there are at least 900 men in Chatham who keep these women." For several weeks this powerful crusade went on until a great meeting of the inhabitants was held, and vigilance work placed upon a firmly recognised basis, which was rendered the more powerful by a message from King Edward VII, who, then, had not long ascended the throne. In other naval towns and ports of Britain conditions abound, of which Chatham is but typical. Travelling from Devon to the North in the summer of 1915, the writer found himself among soldiers and sailors. The lads of the Navy told him that " it was cells " to be seen in certain streets in Portsmouth, because they are " brothels from end to end." In Plymouth the workers THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 201 for purity find adverse influences so strong that there is free talk in the town of the re-estabhshment of the CD. Regulations ; a movement to this end was apparent in July, 1915, and " a considerable public opinion " was satisfied that such local legislation was " simply a ques- tion of time." In 1913 the Bishop of Exeter took the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the Plymouth Rescue and Preventive Committee to call attention to the state of things, saying that the diocese was " not half roused " on the matter. During the year it was pointed out that the Plymouth Rescue Home had had more girls and women pass through than in any previous year. Another western town is Bristol, where the evil was sufficiently rampant in 1913 to lead the Bishop of the Diocese, Dr. Browne, to call a meeting of ministers and laymen, representative of the several Christian com- munities in the city. The meeting was held at the Bishop's Palace, Redland Green, and a campaign fol- lowed, the subsequent report of which very rightly emphasised : — {a) A more serious conception of the grave responsi- bilities connected with the power to transmit life needs to be cultivated among all classes. [b) From every quarter and on every point there comes the remark, " What we want is a cleaner public opinion." Enthusiasts may go on working upon in- dividuals, and they will do a great amount of individual good ; but the evils will go on if " the people love to have it so." (c) When public opinion metes out the same measures to the man who lives an immoral life as it does to the woman who is suspected of it, something will be done. From this point of view, women can do even more than men. In the port of Hull the local Vigilance Association finds a sphere of activity among incoming vessels, 654 of which wepe visited {vide a recent report) and 1243 cases dealt with by trained women-workers who speak several 02 THE MASTER PROBLEM languages. These workers met the Continental boat- trains and welcomed foreign women and girls. In conversation with the Secretary of the Association it was learned that girls arriving at Hull Station were actually met by others who were acting as decoys. He knew of one case where a girl was got away and thrashed with a whip, but the Society rescued her and brought her back to Hull. On one occasion a girl was met by a woman at Paragon Station, and offered a situation at 25s. a week, with plenty of fine dresses. A porter — the porters are very great friends of the Society — called the vigilance ofiicer who was in the station, and told her the woman was up to no good. The result was the girl was rescued from a terrible fate. The great port of Liverpool with its mobile cosmo- politan population harbours many prostitutes, but public opinion is strong and the law active. The prosecutions for Brothel-keeping and solicitation of Prostitution from 1910 to the present date are as follows : — Brothel- Keeping. Prostitution. Year. Prosecutions. Convictions. Prosecutions. Convictions, 1911 184 118 1463 1230 1912 114 88 1 124 962 1913 153 116 1208 1065 1914 73 55 1281 II34 1915 102 79 701 610 One disquieting note, however, is struck by the Chief Constable, who inclines to the opinion that " the decline of the figures referred to corresponds with a reduction in professional prostitution, but it seems quite possible that the reduction is due to the professional being ousted by the amateur." Some controversy arose in the winter of 1913, when Archdeacon Madden, himself a valued worker in the cause of purity, was reported to have said at a public meeting in the city of Liverpool, that so far as he knew, " any respectable girl could walk the streets of Liverpool at almost any hour of the night, if she was going about THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 203 in a thorough business way, without being spoken to by any man." This evoked considerable discussion, and numerous protests against the Archdeacon of Liverpool's dictum appeared in the newspapers of the city, as tending to accentuate the feeling that Liverpool was certainly lax in its morals, so far as its men-folk were concerned. But in so large a city both arguments are bound to have a measure of truth. One thing is certain from the investigations of Flexner, published in 1914, there is a vast improvement from the times in recent memory, when importuning on the main highways was well-nigh unrestrained. " Nowadays," says Dr. Flexner, " the prostitute walks more or less swiftly by, indicating her object by a stealthy glance or mumbled word. The public-houses are less and less used for this purpose, because the publican fears the loss of his licence. If the woman attracts a man the pair retire to the woman's room, rarely to an hotel ; or parks, cabs, and even railway compartments are utilised. Not infrequently a journey to a suburb is urged. One street-walker suggested a suburb several miles distant — as the nearest place that was sure of being free from interruption or molestation." Doubtless this ebb and flow of good and bad, this certain decrease of blatancy and problematic decrease of evil, is the experience in many large cities. Conditions in Manchester, for instance, are not very different, though it is encouraging to note there a really definite movement by thinking people to cope with potentialities to evil.^ One such strongly advocated movement was initiated in March, 1914, for the .provision of suitable meeting-places for young men and young women. Bishop Welldon and other well-known clergymen gave their support to the idea which was projected by the Man- chester Courier, after a striking sermon in Manchester Cathedral by the rector of one of the suburban churches of the city. ^ Eight hundred public-house licences have been cancelled in Liver- pool in the last few years. 204 THE MASTER PROBLEM In this sermon, which was preached to the members of the White Cross League, the Rev. W. E, Kemp spoke of " certain districts in Manchester which are given over to organised vice," and further declared that " there are almost whole streets where the houses are let out in furnished rooms for a definite evil, and where the owners do not want respectable married people." This statement produced a sensation. Another impor- tant Manchester daily. The Daily Dispatch, interviewed the Secretary of the Manchester Vigilance Association on the point, who said that whilst immorality took many ugly forms in the city it was by no means as rampant and as open as it was some years ago. " Mr. Kemp," he observed, " speaks of ' organised vice.' What does he mean by that ? I think he is looking at this from a clergyman's standpoint, and a great deal of what is undoubtedly immorality of a gross character is not such as comes under English law as it stands to-day. The old-time brothel has practically ceased to exist in Man- chester, but what is wanted is such an amendment of the law as will enable our police to follow up the sup- pression of the brothel by dealing with those who singly use places for the purposes of immorality." Arising, therefore, out of the above circumstances came the suggestion in an article in the Courier next morning after the sermon : — " Anyone with the slightest acquaintance with the social problem knows that Manchester has been peculiarly successful in the last decade in combating it. The more obvious touting of the traffic has been driven from our streets. In no other English city do the young enjoy such immunity from the more garish snares of vice. No other city streets are so free of the painted face. Ten years ago so much could not be said. The new peril that remains to be faced is the reckless- ness of the younger generation. Financial and personal independence seems to have brought with it little sense of responsibility. But whose fault is that ? What means are being taken to fill the minds of our successful young people with any sort of spiritual ideal ? The immense ' floating population ' of young business and artisan workers is left THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 205 terribly at sea. Until more mixed clubs and reception-rooms, under really sympathetic and impeccable management, are opened, the wastage of our youth will go on." It will be observed in passing that the newspaper in question is not free from the same error of generalisation as that with which the clergyman was charged. The truth probably lies between the two, and here the evidence of Flexner is useful : — " Brothels," he says, " lead a stealthy existence. The more prosperous occupy small houses on the edge of the city, and word is passed through cab-drivers or ' friends.' In certain sections of Manchester, the position of the window shades and the front door is a signal to the initiated. In the side streets leading from Street, Manchester, many doors are significantly ajar up to the late hours of night." Mr. John Galsworthy, the prominent writer and novelist, took some part in the matter, and in a letter wrote : — " I believe that in the teaching of the sense of chivalry, and in frank knowledge of sex dangers, the best hope lies of lessening sex evils. You ask me whether I think a City Lounge for young folk would be a good thing. It sounds an extremely sensible idea. But whether it succeeded would depend entirely on those who managed it. If they had wisdom, sympathy, and a sense of humour, the Lounge would, no doubt, be a wise and cheerful place. If not, I can imagine nothing much more dreary. Love, of whatever quality, is not an emotion that can abide being told to do this or that, to sit here or to sit there. But, anyway, to give young girls places to go to where they will be safe and happy is, of course, one of the first necessities of town life." This letter was followed by a further article in the Courier, which perceptively touched upon a first cause which may well be pondered over by social reformers. " Because we have not provided for the new freedom of our young men and women, their spirit of independence and their love of adventure lead them into dark places. By the pro- 206 THE MASTER PROBLEM vision of a popular mixed club, a safe and sane meeting-place for youth could be provided. Sooner or later it must be seen what a dire necessity it is to the immense floating population of our clerks, typists, teachers, and shop assistants. The working classes are amply provided for by their unions ; the young people of the disorganised middle classes are not. And to decry the sins of the younger generation without attempting to prevent them is to be guilty of a piece of pure hypocrisy." Manchester has a useful Rescue and Preventive Society, which during 1914 had some 163 cases to deal with. Leeds, too, is alert in regard to rescue work. In 1913 the Leeds St. Faith's Rescue Home dealt with 263 cases as against 259 in 1912. In 1914 some greater activity was shown on the vice question, and certain of the Leeds newspapers made the assertion quite plainly that there was undoubtedly in the factories and workshops of the city " a means of solicitation to vice, and a means to a real dragging down of the walls of reserve and reticence wholly due to married women tempting girls, and deliberately setting themselves the horrid, hellish task of trying to debase and debauch their minds and outlook on life." Speaking just after the publication of the statement, Archdeacon Armstrong Hall, of Richmond (Yorks) Cathedral, said there were signs of improvement as regards immorality. Vice did not seem to be so rampant as it used to be. Yet, recently he had been on the golf links with one who had travelled the world over and seen much of the under- currents of life. He inquired of this man his opinion of Leeds. The reply he received was : "I think it is the most terrible and the most impudently vicious place I have ever seen, and I have been both to San Francisco and Sydney." The Archdeacon told the meeting that he had repeated this to a Leeds clergyman, who told him that the remark was quite justified. In Birmingham, according to Flexner, " no police officer has ever tried to find out how many prostitutes there are in the city, for the simple reason that the THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 207 prostitute, pure and simple, so long as she remained law- abiding was no concern of authority." The Brotherhood Federation is now facing these subjects and has estab- lished a splendid Social Service Section, which is a model for the whole kingdom, under the guidance of Mr. A. Butler, J. p., and Mr. John Clee, the very able Secretary. Already their work is producing large and permanent results. The need of catering for the leisure of girls and boys in their mid-teens also exercised social workers in York in 1 914, but nothing definite was done. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the " Lounge " idea was given practical embodiment in 1914-15, when the Duchess of Marlborough, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Lady Sydenham, the Hon. Emily Kinnaird, sister of Lord Kinnaird, and others started clubs in various camping centres where soldiers and their girl friends were made welcome and allowed full liberty to enjoy each other's society under kindly-hearted understanding chaperonage. It proved a gratifying success. Conditions in Scotland merit some comment. On the ameliorative side workers are enterprisingly vigilant. A powerful auxiliary of the National Council of Public Morals is at work and public opinion has been aroused throughout the North. A great preventive movement was given added impetus by the Conference in October to November, 1913, organised by the indefatigable Secretary, D. L. Kirk, s.s.c, to which practically all the men of note in Scotland gave their countenance. Lord Salvesen is the President of the Scottish Council, and took the chair at the great mass meeting in Edinburgh. A few months earlier, the Lord Provost of Aberdeen presided over a Conference of similar importance in his city. Dundee has a strong representative Committee work- ing on these problems and its operations are meeting with marked success. The Rev. Marshall Laing, m.a., the Secretary, is to be heartily congratulated upon the good work done. h In Glasgow, according to Dr. James Devon, C ief 208 THE MASTER PROBLEM Medical Officer of the Prison, the streets are cleaner, lives healthier in every respect than they were a generation ago. He attributes this largely to the increase of leisure and a greater number of holidays, and the better wages paid to the working classes. People, in his opinion, now that they have the time are beginning to look about them, and to see about them, and yet in Glasgow there are more charges of a sexual character than a generation ago. He reconciles the two statements by pointing out that in that time there has been a great awakening of public conscience. It is not that there are more offences, and he affirmed that " he was in a position to give an opinion upon that which was dependable. It is that more offences are reported." So much for opinions. The actual statistics for Glas- gow show that during the first six months of 1914, 220 women under twenty-three years of age were convicted of " importuning." In this same year the Municipal Council of Glasgow issued a " Memorandum on a social evil," in which it cites " the volume of existing im- morality and the frequent violation of children, and the existence of ice-cream shops which are merely cloaks for indecency." In Edinburgh in 1915 there were 508 apprehensions for prostitution, representing 363 individuals. Of these 363, 32 were between 16 and 21 years of age, and 158 between 21 and 30. For the first five mon-5is of 1916, 220 cases have been dealt with in court. And the Authorities inform me that things are worsening instead of bettering with respect to these offences. In Ireland conditions may be judged by the incidence of syphilis, which, taking Ireland as a whole, is abnormally small, the mortality from that cause being but 078 per 10,000. On the other hand, the mortality among syphil- itics in Dublin is double that of London. The cases of syphilis in London average 10 to 12 per 1000 of the population. As reference has been made here to the incidence of sexual disease it will be useful to quote Dr. Douglas THE PROBLEM IN BRITAIN 209 White's evidence before the Royal Commission in March, 1914. He estimated that there were every year 122,500 fresh cases of sexual disease in London alone, and 800,000 in the United Kingdom ; of these 114,000 would be syphilis. From these figures he deduced that there must be in the United Kingdom some 3,000,000 syphilitics. Britain prides itself upon its high moral standards, yet she has to stand confessed to such figures as these. Well might men and women be stirred to bring about an era of moral purity ; and well might His Majesty King George V sends forth the message : " The foundations of national glory are set in the homes of the people. They will only remain unshaken while the family life of our race and nation is strong, simple, and pure." PART IV WHAT THE LAW IS DOING CHAPTER XIV LEGAL PROGRESS IN AMERICA AND THE FAR EAST " What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do." RUSKIN. " It may be possible to extract some small degree of comfort from the recent revelations of the White Slave traffic when we reflect that at the present moment, in the midst of a freedom such as has never been accorded to young women in the history of the world, it is neces- sary to organise a widespread commercial enterprise in order to pro- cure a sufficient number of girls for the White Slave market." — Miss Jane Adams. " No Act of Parliament by itself will ever succeed in putting an end to vice ; but I am sure of this fact — that by a judicious amend- ment of the law we can put an end to the commercialisation of vice ; we can bring to speedy punishment immoral monsters who use the weakness and the depravity of others to make their own fortunes." — Rt. Hon, Reginald McKenna, m.p.. Chancellor of the Exchequer (then Home Secretary). FOLLOWING the sequence observed in the eariier chapters, the laws of the United States of America in regard to the Master Problem first come under review. Particularly during the last decade a vigilance has been exercised in the majority of the States of the Union, which has had the effect of materially bettering the legal position by consolidating and strengthening, and in some cases freeing from graft, the administration of the laws operating against white slavery and commercialised prostitution. America, to a greater extent, even, than Europe, is in the midst of a twentieth-century movement against 310 LEGAL PROGRESS 211 commercialised vice. An aroused and educated public opinion has quickened those who seek to solve the Master Problem, with fresh courage and with fresh faith in the power of society to reduce the ills of vice from which it suffers. Facts disclosed by recent vice investi- gations, new principles and methods of education, the pressure for the solution of economic and social problems, and the growing recognition in the field of practical politics of the importance of these problems, have forced questions of public morals upon the attention of legisla- tors, executives, and the general public. These new factors have led to a new conception of the relations of the State to this subject. Public morals are being pre- sented to the law-maker not merely as before, in terms of : the criminal law, but as problems of social life in its most j complex and fundamental relations. No precise covering code of exactments can be given to represent the law as at present it stands in America. As yet, complete unanimity of opinion has not been reached in all the States on the question of vice-control, and this leaves some areas still under regulation, though the great majority have abolition measures' actually in operation or as an admitted ideal to be attained. There is, too, a divergence of practice among the advo- cates of reglementation. In a few cities segregation still exists, with its constant medical examination and certifi- cation of prostitutes. In others, segregation is a thing of the past, but medical examination is still compulsory. By the opening of 1914, many thoughtful students of vice conditions throughout the United States had arrived at the conclusion that the administration of the excise laws and the laws against prostitution should be in other hands than those of the police. Policemen are rarely qualified to handle the problems involved in the adminis- tration of these laws. Furthermore, the alliance between vice and the police is too easy. A separate administra- tion would make this alliance more (hfficult and at the same time free many honest policemen from insidious temptation. 212 THE MASTER PROBLEM That such an opinion has more than sentiment as a foundation is seen by the assertion of a pohce expert which appeared in 1913 in a book on the Modern Control of Cities. His statement is in favour of the regulation of vice, and throws out a more than strong hint that where abolition exists, the police will be in collusion with vice. This prominent American Chief of Police is Mr. W. McAdoo, who maintains that the imperfection and impracticability of American laws making everything pertaining to prostitution illegal, jorce a collusion between the forces of vice and the police, and throw the burden of practicable legislation on the police. Mr. McAdoo is no believer in abolition. Bluntly he says : " We must always have prostitution ; therefore, let us confine it to a certain quarter of the city." It will be seen, therefore, that the whole question in the United States of America is in a state of flux. Public opinion has become strong and active, citizens holding municipal offices are interesting themselves in, and oft- times initiating Commissions of Enquiry into vice con- ditions, and revelations are being made both as to the extent of secret vice and as to the venality of individuals in the ranks of the paid supporters of law. It may be considered that the great awakening to the vice-peril of the States coincided with the opening of the twentieth century, when movements were initiated in many cities. As a general rule it was found that profound danger to the community existed in regulation. Around this question the struggle mainly centred, because, to quote Bliss in the EncyclopcBdia of Social Reform : " In America there have been attempts to introduce the registration system in almost all the larger cities. In St. Louis the licence or registration system was intro- duced in 1870 and was given up after four years. The authority for it was obtained by a legislative trick." St. Louis is quoted as an example because two years after the system was established. Dr. W. E. Eliot, the President of St. Louis University, conducted an investi- gation whereby it was proved that as the result of regula- LEGAL PROGRESS 213 tion " brothels increased 34 per cent ; registered prosti- tutes, 35 per cent ; and arrests of prostitutes for indict- able offences, 18 per cent within two years of the passing of the 1870 law." The publication of the evidence col- lected by Dr. Eliot resulted in the repeal of the Act by a 90 to I majority. On the other side of the argument, with regard to the percentages quoted, the authors of " The Social Evil " say that " the most absurdly imperfect experiment upon which arguments were ever based was that of St. Louis. Neither the claims for increase nor those for decrease are supported by facts worth anything." Be that as it may, something certainly happened which caused the almost unanimous repeal of the Act in that city. Added difficulty in combating vice-conditions has been experienced everywhere in the States owing to the Raines Law, " From the passage of this law," says the Research Com- mittee of New York City, in a report issued 1910, " dates the immediate growth of one of the most insidious forms of the Social Evil. This growth was due to a heavy increase in the penalties for a violation and the expected increased enforce- ment of the law by State authorities beyond the reach of local influences. To illustrate, the licence tax was raised from £40 to £160 and the penalty of the forfeiture of a bond was also added. To escape these drastic penalties for the selling of liquor on. Sunday in saloons, saloon-keepers created hotels with the legally required 10 bedrooms, kitchen, and dining- room. The immediate increase was over 10,000 bedrooms. There being no actual demand for such an increase in hotel accommodation, the proprietors in many instances used them for purposes of assignation or prostitution, to meet the additional expense incurred." In 1915 there were 1407 certificated hotels in two of the large cities, and of these about 1150 were probably liquor law hotels. Another reliable investigator says : — " No one who has lived in New York City can have failed to realise that there is a close connection between what is 214 THE MASTER PROBLEM popularly known as the ' Raines Law hotel ' and professional vice. The term is rapidly coming to be synonymous with house of assignation. This does not mean that there are not many so-called hotels, organised for the sole purpose of evading the Raines Law, which have remained completely free from prostitution. Yet it can hardly be denied that there are forces at work which tend to make the decent Raines Law hotel the exception rather than the rule." The existence of these hotels means that the prosti- tute has provided for her a ready means of assignation, and the result has been that in New York solicitation is probably more general than in any other American city. In 1906 an important administrative provision was added to the law. This amendment, known as the Prentice Act, provided that hotels must be inspected and passed by the Building Department as complying with the provisions of the law, before a certificate could be issued to them. As a result of this new legislation, 540 alleged hotels were discontinued in Manhattan and the Bronx. In 1912 there were 558 hotels in Manhattan, 103 of which were found upon investigation to be assignation places of a disorderly and suspicious type. The Raines Law was framed to restrict one evil and succeeded in fostering one far worse. The new Tenement House Act, however, has been an effective power for good. As a result of this law and of the facts collected by the Committee of Fifteen, appointed in 1900 to enquire into the Social Evil, it became possible to take measures for the eradication of prostitution from the tenement houses. In the United States of America, the State and the city are considered the proper custodians of public morals. The National Government is held to have authority regarding public morals only in relation to immigration laws, postal laws, or laws governing com- merce between the different States. With the exception of the immigration laws and the laws for the government of territories which are under the direct control of the Central Government, the National Government until LEGAL PROGRESS 215 1910 refrained from all legislation in relation to prostitu- tion and allied offences. But the two highly important laws of National application passed by the Congress in 1910 merit attention, though the State laws relating to prostitution command the chief consideration of workers for social purity. Of the two National laws, the Bennet Law penalises the importation of women into the U.S.A. for immoral purposes. Its chief intent is to prevent the immoral exploitation of uneducated and ignorant immigrant women. But it may be of interest to know that the courts have sustained and enforced this law even when it was invoked against a first-cabin passenger, a European person of standing, who attempted to bring his mistress with him into the U.S.A. The second National law, known as the Mann, or White Slave Law, punished the transportation of women from one State into another for prostitution, debauchery, or other immoral ends. It became law on the 25th of June, 1910, and has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States, not only for the punishment of traffickers in innocent girls, but also, when common prostitutes were the subject of traffic. It was even sustained when invoked to punish a man who in one State as agent, engaged a young attractive girl of seventeen to appear in another State as a chorus girl in a cheap variety theatre. During the period from June 25th, 1910, the date of the passage of the White Slave Law, to September 30th, 1913, there were 633 convictions under the Act, involving penalties amounting to 1105 years' imprisonment, and 1101,461 {£20,006) in fines. There were but 93 acquittals. At this date, too, there were 177 cases awaiting trial, or over 800 arrests in total during three years. As time progresses the principles of the Bennet Law will have wide application, touching as it does upon one of the vital channels which keep the vile trade going. In America, State legislation as to vice embraces laws relating to rape, sediiction, abduction, and similar 216 THE MASTER PROBLEM crimes. Forty-six States, that is all but two, make adultery a crime, defining it as sexual relationships between two persons, either of whom is married to a third person. In nearly all these States the adulterous act of the husband is held to be equally criminal with the adulterous act of the wife. Thirty-seven of the forty-eight States penalise fornication, that is, the illicit sexual relationships of two persons whether married or unmarried, and without regard to gain. Three of these States also specifically penalise prostitution, though the crime of fornication clearly includes prostitution. Only two minor States specifically grant to their cities authority to establish a policy of regulation, or to create special districts within which prostitution may be tolerated. With these exceptions, in all the States of the Union the regulation of vice by municipal authority is illegal. Since 1900 the public conscience has demanded a more rigid law enforcement, and in this second decade is demanding the entire abolition of the policy of toleration and segregation. Within the past five years between fifty and seventy-five cities have abandoned the policy of segregation or toleration and established that of sup- pression. In the same period two important laws have been accepted and passed in many of the States. Not always have the same clauses been adhered to, and in some the changes have lessened the potency of the enact- ment. But still, the central fact is their adoption. The first of these " blanket " enactments is the State White Slave Law. Forty-two of the forty-eight States have passed so-called White Slave Laws aimed to suppress commercialised vice. In twenty-nine States these laws are excellent, and in ten, fair. The growth of the move- ment in favour of these laws is seen by the years of their adoption : one such law was passed in 1907, one in 1908, five in 1909, ten in 1910, nineteen in 1911, two in 1912, and three in 1913. The character of the enactments may be shown by the New York State Law. This law pro- hibits the importation of females for any immoral pur- pose, or the receiving or paying money for such placing, LEGAL PROGRESS 217 the detention of a female in a house of prostitution for the payment of a debt, the taking of any money from the earnings of a prostitute, or the encouragement or aid of a female to lead a life of prostitution. Great range is given to the Judge in the imposition of penalties. The minimum penalty for offences under this law is imprisonment for two years, and the maximum penalty imprisonment for twenty years and a fine not exceeding £1000. The imposition of a maximum penalty is not unknown. The second recent law of special importance is known as the Injunction and Abatement Law. Toleration and regulation have been and still are in many cities the non- legal but established policy of treating the vice problem. This policy is made possible only by the common consent of the Mayor, the police and the. prosecuting attorney of a given city. Protestants against this condition have seen that some means must be devised to give the power of initiative to American citizens to attack illegally tolerated prostitution. This need was thought to be met by a law known as the Injunction and Abatement Law, which was originally adopted in the State of Iowa in 1909. Since that date nine other States have passed similar laws, and during the past winter the National Congress passed the same law for Washington, the National capital. The law contains no provision directly affecting the right or power to regulate prostitution. Yet, after it was passed by the National Congress, the Chief of Police at Washington declared that on the day it went into effect the tolerated houses would be closed. For years citizens and organisations had protested against the existence of tolerated vice in the national capital, but ■because of the dogged inertia of the prosecuting authori- ties and the police, their hands were tied. As soon as the power of initiative passed to the citizen, the police were compelled to act. The essence of the Injunction Law is that it declares houses of prostitution and similar places to be nuisances, 218 THE MASTER PROBLEM subject to attack in those civil courts known as courts of equity. The proceeding is, therefore, a civil proceeding where success is more easily possible than in a criminal proceeding in which the rights of the defendant under our English and American laws are carefully guarded. Proceedings may be initiated by citizens or taxpayers and by the Prosecuting Attorney. If the Court is satis- fied that a nuisance exists, a permanent injunction is issued, the violation of which is a contempt of court, punishable by fine or imprisonment. A final order is then issued, permanently abating the nuisance, requiring the sale of the chattels found on the premises and closing the place to all uses for one year. The owner may, however, secure release of the closing order by filling a bond for an adequate amount, which bond is liable to forfeiture if the nuisance is re-established. Failure to obey these orders is contempt of court. After a conviction was secured in {he first important case adjudicated in Iowa, the State first adopting this law, appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the State. The Supreme Court upheld the right of the courts to issue injunctions against public nuisances. The Minnesota Red-Light Injunction and Abatement Law is said to be the best statute on this subject yet passed by any State. Its constitutionality has been attacked, and so far the law has been upheld by the courts of Minnesota. This law is being used as a model in other States where efforts are to be made to secure its passage. More recently still, San Francisco has adopted an Injunction and Abatement Law which was described at the San Francisco Congress of the International Purity Movement in July, 1915, as " probably the most ef&cient kind of law for the suppression of all kinds of public vice." It is to the new Injunction and Abatement Law more than to any other, that America is turning at the present time for an effectual means of suppressing houses of prostitution and forcing unwilling and recalcitrant o£[icials to do their duty. LEGAL PROGRESS 219 Mr. J. Bronson Reynolds, Chairman of Committee of the American Federation of Social Hygiene, formerly Prosecuting Attorney for the County of New York, ex- pressed the opinion at the Conference of the International Abolitionist Federation, held at Portsmouth, our own English seaport, in July, 1914, that — " any programme of reform must include a reorganisation of the personnel of the police by the addition of women police- men. Our morals police must not be left solely in the hands of the sex most disposed to maintain the double standard of morals. The average police officer accepts as a maxim, as does the average man, the double standard of morals. He is from conviction lax toward the male offender, hence not in- clined to be energetic in enforcing laws restraining man's self-indulgence. I believe from my personal experience as a prosecuting attorney that male police officers should not have charge of girls brought into court for the first time in connection with sex offences. The demoralisation of girls through their court relations with the police is frequently a shocking consequence of the present order. To meet these evils we have in several American cities already appointed police women for the care and protection of women offenders. They also serve as detectives in the inspection of dance- halls, recreation places and parks where loose morals may lead to disaster. The value of their service is highly appreciated, and its continuance and extension are assured." The American laws which we have reviewed show that the law-makers of the United States have provided effective legal weapons to attack commercialised vice. Substantial results have already been achieved through the improvement of the law's machinery. Procurers have been reduced in number, the importation of women into the country for immoral purposes and their trans- portation from State to State have been lessened, and the number of prostitutes on the streets of cities has been substantially reduced. In close relationship to the legal position in America is the " model " Bill drawn up in 1914 by Mr. H. E. Gemert, an experienced attorney, and Secretary of the 220 THE MASTER PROBLEM World's Purity Federation. This has some eight sections, one of which, Section II, may be quoted as embodying the pith of the provisions : — " Sec. II. Powers and Duties of Commissioner. The Commissioner of morals shall take cognisance of the morals of the people of the State and of all matters pertaining thereto and shall : " I. Aid in enforcing the laws of the State directed against vice and immorality ; and to that end he shall cause the arrest and conviction of any person or persons who violate or attempt to violate the provisions of this chapter. " 2. Secure the best moral conditions in factories, schools, public dance-halls, public parks, and other such buildings and localities. "3. Conduct investigations from time to time into the moral conditions in all cities and towns within the State. " 4. Collect statistical information regarding disorderly houses, their inmates, owners, and keepers ; and regarding cadets, procurers, street-walkers, clandestine prostitutes, and all conditions which bear directly or indirectly upon the morahty of the people of the State. "5. Ascertain and recommend such ways and means of dealing with immoral conditions and persons as may, in the opinion of the Commissioner, be for the best interest of the people of the State." The proposal has met with universal approval from those who have studied the question. In brief, the " model " Bill provides that each State shall estabUsh a bureau or department for the suppression of public vice. Such a bureau shall be organised with a Special Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, Counsel, Chief Clerk, one or more stenographers, and as many trained detectives as may be required. The officers of the bureau ought to hold their positions permanently, or at least during a reasonably long term, and not be sub- ject to removal with each succeeding administration. It is believed by those in a position to know, that such a force could most successfully handle the vice LEGAL PROGRESS 221 question in any State, make all required investigations in cities, enforce existing laws and recommend needed legislation. This would make one central bureau re- sponsible for the vice situation in each State and would greatly simplify matters. With such a bureau earnestly studying these problems in every State in the Union they would soon have a wealth of reports and statistical matter, covering the whole question of commercialised vice. The State being at the back of such a bureau would make its authority and influence more definitely felt than similar commissions or bureaux established in the cities, and it would be more economical. In North America, Canadian territory, the law is waking up. As a whole Canada is " clean," but the vice trouble is definitely apparent in some of the large cities. According to a well-known divine, " The segregated district in the heart of Halifax has been a long standing blot upon the fair name of that beautiful and good city, in which the Social Evil is more in evidence than in almost any other city in the Dominion." Some time in 1913 definite efforts were begun for the removal of that district and the police have ably seconded the efforts of Halifax purity workers. In Vancouver the Rev. T. A. Moore, d.d., wrote recently : — " The vice district of that city was removed to make way for the developing industries and commerce of that city. It was thought at that time that disorderly houses were per- manently removed, but almost before the people of the city were aware of it great houses were being built, specially planned for the carrying on of social vice. The Moral and Social Reform Council immediately began a fight. The battle went on, however, until a short time ago, when the Board of Police Commissioners gave instructions to the police that the segregated district must be removed, and that the city must be cleansed of all public commercialised vice. There were many raids and many more arrests. The Court was filled with cases and the jails were overloaded with convicts. At last it was impossible to house all the convicts in the jails. 222 THE MASTER PROBLEM and the officials refused to receive any more lewd women prisoners, whereupon the provincial authorities were appealed to, so that provision should be made for these prisoners." The people of Vancouver are pressing forward in every possible way, intending that the battle shall not cease until it is won for pvire manhood and pure woman- hood. The cleansing of the segregated district in Winnipeg has gone on successfully. The fears of many that the removal of disorderly houses in that district would scatter the evil through the city have not been verified. A Municipal Authority a short time ago indicated that while the segregated district has been practically wholly removed, there is not now so much vice in other parts of the city as when the segregated district was carrying on its nefarious business without hindrance. The police have been most active in carrying out their duties. With regard to legal action in South America, particu- larly in the great and populous cities of Buenos Ayres and Rio de Janeiro, the difficulty in securing definite suppressive Acts lies in the apathy or condonance of the citizens. In January, 1913, Mr. Coote left London for South America, and on his return issued a comprehensive report of his experiences. The following summarised the situation : — " Buenos Ayres does not quite justify the general opinion of Europe as to its moral character. It is bad, very bad, but when one remembers the climatic conditions, and the great wealth of the people, the large number of single men in camp, and the amount of money paid for the indulgence in vice, the wonder is that things are not much worse than they are, especially as there is no public opinion on the moral ques- tion. " Whatever unfair means may be adopted to lure young women into these houses of ill-fame, and undoubtedly in many cases it is accomplished by the exercise of fraud on the part of the traffickers, the police and other officials place no obstacles in the way of a girl's return to a respectable life. LEGAL PROGRESS 223 Nevertheless two things were very forcibly demonstrated, viz. : that innocent girls of different nationalities are en- trapped by false pretences, taken to South America, de- liberately sold to the houses of ill-fame. How the selling is done, what is the amount paid, and in what degree the girls are themselves ultimately parties to the transaction, are questions upon which the Buenos Ayres police were unable to throw any light. Accurate information on such a subject is naturally not easy to obtain. The conditions referred to do not apply so much to English or German girls as to those of French, Italian, Russian, or Spanish nationality." It is only fair to the police to state that every possible assistance was afforded to Mr. Coote by M. Francisco Laguarda, Head of the Criminal Investigation Depart- ment, and also by the Chief of the Finger Print Depart- ment, who not only placed at his disposal official documents dealing with the subject, but explained the action taken by the police to arrest the traffickers and to suppress the traffic. Notwithstanding the absence of public opinion, the police authorities of Buenos Ayres are doing excellent work, and are prepared to go further if and when public opinion will support them. A- White Slave Traffic Law was passed in the Argentine Republic in August, 1913. The Act, which is exceedingly stringent, imposes penalties of from three to six years for the corruption of women between eighteen and twenty-two ; six to ten years for the corruption of girls or boys under eighteen ; and up to fifteen years if under twelve. *lt makes people in charge of disorderly houses where such victims are found accessories ; and also public employees who fail " through adverse acts or omissions " to comply with the law. The passage of this law is attributed in large measure to the visit of Mr. Coote, The Act had an extraordinary and immediate effect. According to the investigation Department at Buenos Ayres, " no fewer than 2000 procurers . . . left the capital, as if fleeing from an earthquake. Over a million 224 THE MASTER PROBLEM and a half pesos (a peso=about 2s.) were withdrawn from the banks by the fugitives." In the Far East there are signs of awakening. Ng Poon Chew, a Chinese scholar who spoke at the International Purity Congress in November, 1913, said : — " The authorities of the cities and provinces in China are trying their very best to make good, are trying to reform our social and moral conditions in China. " We realise that the manhood and womanhood of China must be preserved at all costs, and the only way to do it is to remove the things that cause the fall of manhood and womanhood in China." The Chinese law is full of anomalies in regard to prosti- tution. Until recently, in strange contradiction to the standards of filial piety, parents were permitted to sell their children. The sale of wives was also practised, although not largely sanctioned. A husband considers a wife as bought property by reason of a payment made to the parents of the girl on the consummation of the betrothal contract. Hence, though the open sale of girls as prostitutes is theoretically forbiddeh, this restric- tion is evaded by a pretence of marriage or adoption. When dealers in prostitutes are brought to justice they are sternly treated. Their earnings are confiscated and heavy fines imposed. Sometimes they are sentenced to wear a badge or special garb indicative of their im- moral calling. The law gives a prostitute the right to complain against cruel treatment by her owner. For this purpose she goes to the main village of the district and cries aloud in the public square. Should she fear the injustice of petty officers, she may beat a drum found in the palace of every high governmental official, requiring him to hear her plea. Very few prostitutes take advantage of this right of appeal. It is very difficult for them to prove their contentions, and in case of failure they would be subjected to even greater oppression. In case her claims are upheld, the Government takes the girl into custody and commits her to a Magdalen institute where LEGAL PROGRESS 225 she is taught various domestic occupations. Her picture is placed on file, and a man who is too poor to pay the price of a wife in the ordinary way may marry the girl if he so desires. Procurers have the legal right to buy a girl from her father on payment of a stipulated sum, and girls who run away are reported to the police, who immediately trace them and compel them to return to their keeper, according to police regulations. Under the guidance of its leaders, one may predict with confidence that the Japanese authorities will realise generally that which has dawned upon the few — ^the hideousness and destructiveness of the Social Evil. Then prostitution will be suppressed as was opium and anarchy. About a decade ago, Count Okuma records that a step was taken, the splendid results of which are now becoming evident : Saga Province abolished licensed prostitution and has since witnessed great improvement in the physi- cal growth of its men. The good example of this province was followed by the action of the Gumma Prefecture which did away with the licence system, and a larger percentage of its young men are now able to pass with clean records the physical examination for the army than ever before. It is therefore seen that the great American Continent as a whole is wide-eyed awake and working with zeal in the cause of purity ; that the Far East, too, is shaking off its drugged passivity — ^giants are being aroused to hurl from their shoulders the incubus that has long sapped their vitality. The cry for moral cleanness is being heard in the lands afar, students of the Master Problem are working with patience and zeal in all quarters of the globe. CHAPTER XV THE LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE " The vice problem is everywhere made a police problem. In this respect the European countries are far in advance. Given an upright, capable chief and you will have a police force that would not dare to enter into collusion with and profit by vice. There are 18,000 police in London, yet no taint rests upon them." — Rabbi Henry Berko- wiTZ, D.D. .Member of the Philadelphia Vice Commission. " State Regulation of Vice is legally indefensible and morally unjustifiable ; it operates unequally, and therefore unfairly, as between the two sexes ; it is degrading to women ; it offends the moral sense of civilised communities ; and it has failed, and does fail, to limit or mitigate the evils which it is intended to mitigate, and does not lessen the consequences of those evils in the shape of venereal disease.^' — The Lord Bishop of Winchester. A GREAT Belgian statesman described regulated vice as " the central crime of the Universe — a system by which women are enslaved, womanhood is degraded, and justice is trodden underfoot, in order that lust and selfishness may be protected and enthroned." To combat this and to secure legal activity the Inter- national Abolitionist Federation, founded over forty years ago by the late Mrs. Josephine Butler, has been an efficient forerunner of the law in many directions and in many European countries. To a large extent its operations have been crowned with success. England led the way by abolishing the CD. Acts, Norway followed, then Denmark, Holland, and several British Colonies, and in every case with good results. Everywhere the evil system remains it is in ruins, and it is universally condemned by all the foremost medical experts. As wehave seen,ini9i3,inParis,thehome and centre of the regulation system, its medical failure 226 LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 227 was exposed as trenchantly as its injustice and its im- morality. Abolitionists rising above all "respect of persons " claimed that Society and its laws should be based on the recognition of personal liberty for all, with its necessary corollary of individual responsibility. So largely has police action on the Continent been an effect resulting from the Abolitionists as a cause, that it will be useful to quote the legal clauses from the Charter of the Federation as drawn up at the Geneva Congress in September, 1877. The following are the essential points : — " The Section of Hygiene asserted its conviction of the complete failure of all systems of moral police, whose object is to regulate prostitution. " The enforced medical examination of women, which is the basis of Regulation, is an outrage to woman. " That official registration is a violation of liberty and common law. " That by Regulation, the State, forgetting that it owes equal protection to both sexes, degrades women and corrupts both men and women. " That the State, whose duty it is to protect minors and to assist them in the struggle for good, on the contrary incites them to debauchery, facilitating vice by Regulation. " That by authorising centres of debauchery and recog- nising vice as a legitimate profession, the State sanctions the immoral prejudice that debauchery is necessary to man." The Section of Law declared that : — " The State has no right to regulate prostitution, for it should never make a compact with evil or sacrifice constitu- tional guarantees to questionable interests. " All systems of official regulation of prostitution imply arbitrary action of the police and violation of the judicial guarantees ensured to every individual, and even to the greatest criminals, against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. " The compulsory examination of women is equally con- trary to common law. " As such violation of law is solely committed to the 228 THE MASTER PROBLEM prejudice of the woman, the result is monstrous inequality between her and the man ; woman is lowered to the rank of a mere chattel and is no longer treated as a person. She is placed outside the law. " Moreover, by regulation of vice, the State violates in direct manner its own penal law, for the latter prohibits incitement to debauchery, and the State is at any rate protecting such incitement, so long as it is offered by estab- lishments and women authorised by the State. " Further, the State thus ignores its duties of protection towards minors. " The State must continue to punish all incitement to debauchery when directed towards persons under , age, of either sex, and should treat procurers with special severity." These strong resolutions were confirmed by the Con- ferences held at Li^ge in September, 1879, and at London in June, 1881. It has been said that " the law is an instrument much more difficult to use than is commonly supposed." Nevertheless — apart from spiritual considerations — it is certainly the most continuous and persistent of all the powers that educate the conscience, and it emphasises most practically the principle of personal responsibility when it enjoins that he who does unlawful injury to another is bound to make compensation. The trouble is that in the particular question under discussion, as already commented upon in an earlier chapter, the law does not look upon prostitution in itself as an offence and therefore cannot actively suppress the practice. There is this, though : the obligation of the legislator is not limited to the devising of laws for the criminal prosecution of those guilty of sex crimes. Laws which shall extend and increase the preventive agencies of Society are of equal and of even greater importance. The vice problem can be touched constructively and preventively through laws for the improvement of con- ditions in the homes of the poor, for the supervision of morals on the streets, where the sons and daughters of the poor find early temptation to wrongdoing. The law LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 229 can provide more carefully drawn and more thoroughly enforced child-labour enactments, particularly in the direction of governing conditions of labour of young girls in factory and workshop. Equally important is legisla- tive responsibility in securing the expansion of our educational systems for the quicker and surer detection and wiser treatment of the mentally defective and even the mentally inferior. In practically all of these domains law has been framed ostensibly to guard the rights and virtues of those referred to, and in the main it has been a benefit. How the law has reacted on morality was forcibly demon- strated when the introduction and enforcement of affilia- tion laws taught men that, like themselves, children had rights and could compel their fathers to do their duty. But the law is not helpful where it is wedded to Regu- lation. In England it is non-existent ; on the Continent, happily, it is a vanishing quantity. Indeed, a couple of years ago a deputation, seeking knowledge of con- ditions in Europe, reported to its superiors that " in all the countries visited, except Germany, the Inter- national Abolitionist Federation has succeeded in over- coming the governmental and municipal recognition of this vice. A special morals police which works quietly and without sensational methods has control of this matter." The report also stated that " wherever the ordinary police are permitted to make arrests and raids the responsibility for the care of public morals is dissi- pated, and unlimited opportunities for blackmail created." The law is the necessary effective instrument, however, for the experience of the deputation was that to leave the initiative to private citizens was found to be inade- quate. Taking France as a concrete example, we find that rather over ten years ago the French Government appointed an extra-parliamentary Commission for the reform of the Regime des Moeurs. This Commission, after four years' work, and very serious work, drafted a Bill which was to suppress regulation, protect minors. 230 THE MASTER PROBLEM and assure public order. The Bill as elaborated by the Commission comprised three pa.rts : (i) order in the streets ; (2) the prostitution of minors ; and (3) public hygiene. In the Senate, M. Beranger, who opposed Abolitionist ideas, intervened and prevented the Bill from passing. Then, in order to show that he was not merely a destroyer, he suppressed the first and third parts, leaving only the second — that relating to the prostitution of minors, after altering it in a manner which made it inapplicable ; this he presented as a new Bill, which he succeeded in getting passed by the Chambers. The result was the Act of 1908, which was looked upon by many people as a law inspired by the Abolitionists. Instead of helping matters it aggravated them considerably. Thanks to this Act, not only have the " morals police " been able to say that Abolitionists clamoured for liberty for disorder in the streets, but, in addition, this badly-framed Act has procured disastrous results from the point of view both of health and of public morality. In actual fact, through this Act, which was badly thought out, badly drafted, and badly voted on, there are in Paris more than 15,000 girls — minors, under eighteen years of age — ^whom no one can get at, whom no one can hold back from vagrancy, and who constitute a grave danger to the State from a moral point of view as well as from the point of view of public health. The general question of commercialised prostitution is governed in Paris by an enactment dated 1878, which defines the conditions and limits of clandestine prostitu- tion, of tolerated prostitution, and the rules to which women have to conform in regard to the periodical vaginal inspection for the purpose of detecting contagious disease, and also so far as registration is concerned. The inscription, in France, is both volimtary and compulsory, as, too, is the question of whether the prostitute lives alone or in a brothel. It has been pointed out that the examination of women is far too brief and perfunctory to be of real value. LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 231 and as this medical inspection is one of the " safeguards " regulation is supposed to provide, the whole system is rendered ineffectual. It does not properly detect or protect, and the very process of examination, as carried out, is a means of propagating infection. In this way the system becomes a factor in perpetuating the con- ditions out of which it sprang. ,_ That this is no statement of a biased enthusiast eager for his pet doctrine of Abolition is graphically demon- strated by an incident quoted in 1914 by Flexner. He records : — " My own notes contain many random conversations which cannot be wholly without representative significance. I happened, for example, to call on one of the most eminent of French dermatologists at the time when he was consulted by a wealthy Mexican gentleman who was passing the winter in Paris. A prompt diagnosis of syphilis was made. ' Im- possible,' ejaculated the perturbed patient. ' I have had nothing to do with any woman except an inmate of a well- known resort of high character (he named the house and street) who possesses a certificate of health. For this security I pay 100 francs ! ' ' You could purchase equal security much cheaper on the streets,' replied the French savant." In the words of an eminent physician, by the legal protection which medical inspection is supposed to pro- vide, " the public is fooled ! " It would be an impossible task to give, within the limits of a chapter, more than a bird's-eye view of what the law is doing in Exurope. Neither is it necessary. A more useful purpose will be served by endeavouring to indicate where legal enactments exist which have some peculiar quality not common to the general run of " morals laws." Thus Italy considers she is justified in believing that social hygiene and social morality follow the same curve in a given nation and that she has found in the law a lever for raising its standard of morality. Italy has cancelled most of her regulations which dealt exclusively 282 THE MASTER PROBLEM and in an exceptional way with prostitutes as such ; and she has organised a campaign against venereal disease on the sole basis of Common Law — a campaign which is already proving to be efficacious. It is known that, in Italy, emigration plays a very important part, and the Government do what they can in supervising, instructing, and protecting our emigrants, either when they first set off, or in the ports during the voyage, or when at the place where they embark. An order was imparted by the Italian Home Depart- ment on the 7th of March, 1913, to the effect that in every provincial capital, the Prefect should appoint an experienced police official, possibly of superior standing, with directions to collect, in his turn, in the surrounding districts of the Province, all information relating to this shameful international and national traffic, specially with regard to girls of tender age, and to be in touch with local institutions whose object was the protection of young girls. Also in all ports of any importance ajjd in frontier towns (Luino, Tenda, Domodossola, Chiasso, Venti- miglia, Bardonecchia, Pontebba, Peri, etc.), pohce offices have been instituted, which are specially charged to watch over embarkation, disembarkation, and the transit of travellers. Another most valuable contingent of both workers and agents is supplied by the organisations, both at home and abroad, used by the Board of Emigration. In 1914, the following trenchant criticism was passed upon the German police administration in regard to the Social Evil : " Eversrthing is forbidden here — procura- tion, brothel-keeping, the exploitation of commercialised vice, sale of liquors in places of debauchery, seduction of minors — and all these things flourish openly under the eyes of our police and our law officers without their interfering ! " This, the President of the German Branch of the International Abolitionist Federation asserts, is because the State has made a compact with vice in order to tame the wild monster of prostitution for the use of LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 233 the citizens and to take out its poisonous teeth by sub- jecting to a bodily inspection the female victims ot this never-satiated Moloch. PubUc authorities in Germany condescend to treat with procurers and brothel-keepers as members of a respectable profession. They are neces- sary factors of the system, but the police cannot deal with them without being tainted themselves with corruption, and weakened by bribery, especially in the subaltern ranks. In Berlin the prostitute is controlled by the plain clothes morals police, whom, Flexner says, " are charged with the duty of watching not only registered women, but also unregistered women whose actions arouse sus- picion that they are seeking to practise prostitution for money, the offence which alone is obnoxious to German law. A woman whose behaviour is suspicious is in the first instance warned by the officer — not arrested ; if warning is unavaiUng, arrest follows." The procedure after arrest has been described in an earlier chapter. The morals police are under the control of an inspector, with five Commissioners, or assistants, and he has under his control some two hundred plain clothes men who patrol Berlin in pairs. With regard to brothels, the statement made in open- ing the reference to the Social Evil in Germany is borne out by the remarks of Flexner as the result of his totir of Germany in 1913. He says that houses of prostitution are forbidden in Germany, but " in many German cities through the connivance or compulsion of the police, establishments are found which are brothels in everjrthing but name "... the police ..." condone the techni- cal violation of the law by dictating the dwelUng-houses in which prostitutes shall live." Hamburg and Bremen are the most prominent examples of the subterfuge practised by the police in this matter. In Berlin the police are opposed to brothels ; the prostitution therefore is scattered, though the city is not entirely free from establishments which are comparable to brothels. In- cidentally it is observed by authorities that in no two 234 THE MASTER PROBLEM German cities is the same system of regulative control in vogue. It is impossible, therefore, to do more than quote a few examples. So much for what the law is doing in a negative sense in Germany. On the other side there is the legal position of unmarried mothers in Germany. A side issue to com- mercialised prostitution it is true, but not unalhed. The father of the child has to pay for the mother's lying-in and for the maintenance of the child up to sixteen years, according to the social position of the mother. But this law wants stronger social support if it is not to become a dead letter. The young mother, inexperienced and weak, is not able to enforce her rights, and in most cases her relatives are not in the position to make the man acknowledge his fatherhood. Hence the authorities in many towns have undertaken this task, by charging themselves with a general guardianship of all illegitimate children born in the district. A special magistrate is ap- pointed for this purpose. Armed with the power of a high official he speedily discovers the presumptive father, and forces him to pay. If there is no possibility of getting money, the authority for relieving the poor takes the child into its own charge. In 1913 the Leipzig authority obtained over £9000 from illegitimate fathers, and in Strassburg 97 per cent of them were made to pay. This system has an excellent effect. A man who has paid sixteen years for a child naturally takes an interest in it. So moral ties are not altogether destroyed. It is not difficult to understand that a considerable danger lurks in this law unless a high percentage of fathers are made to pay. Otherwise the law, by shouldering ultimate responsibility, might encourage immoral relationships. Women police have been installed in several towns in Germany through the International Federation's Abolitionist propaganda, and of the organised women's movement which roused the indignation of the public by imveiling the old social cancer and the brutal methods of the police. These women police take care of all the females who habitually frequent the streets of our large LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 285 cities. The appointment of women police is an interest- ing phenomenon of our modern social life. The necessity for the help of women in this task was felt, and most urgently felt, in the face of the modern prostitution problem. We can say that in the history of prostitution a new era has begun with the institution of women police. The first was appointed at Stuttgart in 1903, and this example has been imitated in twenty-three towns. There is as yet no uniformity of action among them, but everjTwhere they possess the confidence of their clients and are organs of preventive care. In eleven towns they are regular officials attached to, but not incorporated in, the police ; in the other places they are supported by societies, but have their office at the police station and work much in the same way. Only in one town, in Mainz, is the police assistant fully incorporated in the police as head of the police des mceurs, having no superior but the President, all the morals policemen working under her. This is the situation in which a woman has enough power to use her influence and therefore useful as an example to demonstrate how the character of the " morals police " can be changed by entrusting it to a courageous, enthusiastic woman. Mainz is one of the greatest German fortresses, with an immense garrison and a lovely situation on the Rhine which attracts visitors. There is an enormous demand for prostitution. It has regular tolerated brothels. When the women police began their work in Mainz the procurers exercised a dreadful power over the unfortunate inmates of their houses, who were exploited in all possible ways, weighted with debt, alcoholised, and without any rights against their keepers. This chief woman, appointed by a regulationist authority, could not ask for the abolition of this abominable system, but she undertook to reform it. And she succeeded. What no man ever achieved, she achieved in the course of a few years. New regulations for the keepers of these houses were drawn up, and so 236 THE MASTER PROBLEM strict were they that, Uterally kept, they made the exploitation of the women an impossibility. A storm of indignation from the brothel-keepers was the conse- quence ; they protested and declared that they could not continue their profession under the new conditions. They tried to disregard the regulations ; and were punished by the closing of their houses for a fortnight, a month or longer, the girls being sent away, which caused heavy losses. The girls know now that they have a friend at the police station ; they come to the woman chief for shelter and advice and she has induced many to aban- don their life of shame and to begin an honest profession with the money they have saved. It is interesting to see that the work of female police, even under the system of Regulation, tends to make this system die out, the brothels being depopulated and hard to let. One house stood empty for more than a year because nobody cared to take it, an event unheard of in the history of these houses. At Mainz the woman chief is the first to investigate all cases herself. This makes an enormous difference, because she excludes all the young girls and children from contact with the criminal police. The town has opened a home with ten beds where she can shelter them immediately, the town paying the whole expense. Experience shows that in the immediate struggle with prostitution, women police are a most effective factor. We see, especially in the smaller towns, a diminution of prostitution which will in the course of years make the Regulation sj^tem die out. It will not be abolished in Germany ; it will die out. In Holland the former system of regulating the Social Evil was totally abolished several years ago, and the new Law of May, 1911, already referred to, resists any kind of compact with prostitution or other forms of public immorality. This attitude of the authorities, contrary to what it had been formerly, has proved to have a very wholesome influence. This extremely detailed and precise Act may be called a model. ^. LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 237 This Act bears with especial severity on the violation of minors, has strong powers for the suppression of brothels and to prevent third parties profiting by the demoralisation of others. The National law is aided and reinforced by local enactments. The maintenance of order in the streets is the responsibility of the munici- pality. In Amsterdam the city mandate reads : " Women are forbidden to take their stand on the steps or in the doorways of taverns and beer-houses or other houses accessible to the pubhc, or to walk up and down in the vicinity after a police officer has ordered them to move on. Neither, being within houses, must women attract the attention of passers-by to themselves by a deliberate act of communication or exposure." The police in Holland have a Bureau at Amsterdam, where is being prepared statistics and lists of all prosti- tutes known to the authorities. In 1914, this list con- tained some 7000 names, and the investigation had not then, after four years, been completed. In Amsterdam itself the police are active, claiming that the greater number of known brothels in recent years is proof, not of actual increase so much as increased knowledge on their part of the whereabouts of the establishments. In 1908 the police had knowledge of 292 houses in which were 548 girls. In 1911 police vigilance revealed 968 girls in 597 houses. At The Hague a corps of men are detailed to preserve public morality, and at Rotterdam the morals section has two inspectors, one social worker and twelve police- men. In Belgium, before the war of 1914 laid the whole country waste, the Regulation system was in vogue and its administration typified " regulation at its worst," according to a transatlantic expert investigator. For the purpose of suppressing the transportation of European women abroad, Belgium adopted, in 1906, the International Agreement of May, 1904. Beyond this the Belgian authorities not long before the war were considering a proposition which makes it a punishable 238 THE MASTER PROBLEM offence to keep a woman or girl in a house of ill-fame against her will. It also allows to be punished a stranger who has been an accessory or accomplice in an act of procuring committed by a Belgian abroad, or in the retention of a woman or girl in a house of ill-fame against her will. In Norway a feature of the legal situation, which is not observed elsewhere, is that private physicians are required to furnish reports of the venereal cases treated by them. The legislature attitude toward prostitution is abolitional and the provisions of the law are rigorously enforced, so that a recent enquiry in Christiania ehcited the official report that " arrests for solicitation are few." The Norwegian law, which was a pioneer abolition enactment, dating from i860, includes powers to deal with venereal disease. Danish legislators have latterly followed in the foot- steps of Norway. By the law of 1866 prostitution was legalised and subjected to Regulation, a system which continued until 1906^ when a law on abohtion lines was passed and strongly enforced. By it brothels are for- bidden, the prostitute is treated as a vagabond, and places of assignation, cafes using immoral women as waitresses were sternly repressed. Sweden, long a Regulation country, has so far advanced along saner lines of thought, as to have held a Com- mission which unanimously recommended the abolition of Regulation. With the exception of the city of Geneva the whole of Switzerland is under abolition. At Geneva the effective- ness of Regulation, in so far as the medical examination is concerned, may be gauged by the statement of the City Physician in 1913, that " it only requires an hour or so to examine the eighty-six inscribed women of the city." In Spain, at the moment when the International Con- gress against the White Slave Traffic was meeting in Madrid in September, 1909, a Royal Decree was promul- gated, suppressing all houses of toleration throughout LEGAL SITUATION IN EUROPE 289 Spanish territory from the ist of January, 1910. It should be noted, however, that Spanish legislation is not definitely abolitionist, but is simply intended to do away with the hideous abuses which used to occur. Regulation in Spain, as almost everywhere else, gave rise to much immorality, and was especially to be con- demned from the point of view of respect for the female sex. Old legal documents relative to prostitution give evidence that the women were questioned not merely on strict matters of fact such as could concern the authori- ties, but also on the most intimate moral details, which were recorded in the papers of those poor fallen women. All that kind of thing has disappeared as a result of the new statutes, the objects of which are : {a) To pre- vent an abominable tax being imposed upon prostitutes under pretext of the obligatory medical examination ; (6) suppression of the special registers of prostitutes ; (c) creation of a free medical service and of sanitary speciaU- ties and dispensaries ; (d) prohibition of private houses of ill-fame ; (e) prohibition of prostitution below a certain age. Portugal still regulates. In Bavaria, after twelve years of continuous Abolitionist work the national con- science is awakening. In the principal city, Munich, the police are beginning to regard Regulation as an institu- tion that is open to objection and that may be dispensed with in the not very distant future. In Russia, where there is a distressing amount of venereal disease among " the very flower of the youth, the young men in the IJniversities," but little can be said with definiteness about the precise activities of the law. In 1910 Mr. W. A. Coote made the distinctly encouraging statement that " the Russian National Committee has been second to none in its unwavering and beneficent efforts to suppress the traffic. Better still, its labours have met with a large measure of success, and have won the sjnnpathy and enlisted the practical support of a large number of people." It will be remem- bered that in Russia in 1899, by the express command 240 THE MASTER PROBLEM of the Tsar a National Committee was formed with Princess Helena of Saxe-Altenburg, daughter of the late Grand Duchess Catherine, as President, and a Com- mittee was composed, amongst others, of Princess Dolgouruki, Princess Alexander Lieven, Madame Sabour- off, Madame Philosophoff, Baron Wienicken, Count Pushkin, and M. Tomashevsky (Secretary). Austria in the opening months of 1914 presented con- ditions very similar to France. Regulation was in vogue, but its provisions seldom had been carried out in any degree of thorough conscientiousness. The police regulations for the supervision of prostitution were last revised as from June ist, 1911, and are based on laws of 1851 and 1885. No girl under eighteen is inscribed. Neither are married women. In Hungary, however, the latter may engage as a prostitute with her husband's consent. Brothels have a quarterly inspection and medical examination of prostitutes. With regard to actual inscription, Flexner says of the Austrian poUce officials, who have power to cancel inscription on the request of the prostitute, " they regard every request as the possibility of a return to decency and fearful of ever interfering with such a desire, however faint, never inter- pose an objection." Another element of humanity in the Austrian law of 191 1 is that the prostitute " in respect to her behaviour is liable only to the same rules as to order and decency that apply to all other persons." On the other hand, the Viennese police do not have to wait as do their German confreres, upon proof of the actual passing of some monetary or material consideration, but " after watching and vainly warning, arrest on sus- picion." One of the points of the Hungarian enactment (Buda- pest) is that " not less than one-fourth of the girl's earnings must belong to her ; she must be allowed certain times to walk independently and alone, and she must not be hindered from going to church." CHAPTER XVI THE LAW AS IT STANDS IN GREAT BRITAIN " We live in a country where there is no practical protection for any girl over the age of fourteen. It is evident that the law lags behind the state of moral feeling of the great majority of this nation. If girls were protected a blow would be struck at the very root of the tree of vice." — Lady Aberconway. " We are living in an age in which, more than in any other perhaps, new ideas are being put forward, new views of morality are industriously disseminated, new solutions of the old human problems are daily presented to us." — ^The late Cardinal Vaughan. WHEN the Criminal Law Amendment Bill was before the House of Commons in 1912, the Bishop of London made a powerful speech at a meeting to emphasise the need of such an enactment. He con- cluded with the words, " We want to get a new conscience on an old evil." There is as great an amount of truth in the need of a new conscience as exists in the certainty that the evil is old. In Great Britain we need go no farther back than 1864, when the Regulation System was legally installed. Happily London and the great cities did not come under this category. As seen in an earlier chapter, an unwearied antagonist arose in the person of Mrs. Josephine Butler, who fought the degrading CD. Acts with all her strength. Her efforts had the reward not always vouchsafed to the reformer, for, as we know, the Acts against which she protested in season and out of season were repealed in 1886, while she was still living. While this strenuous contest was going on for the purpose of freeing our sailors and soldiers from the B 241 242 THE MASTER PROBLEM thrall of sexual vice, as part of the expected naval and military regime, other minds were being exercised upon the fatal ease with which young girls could be obtained for immoral purposes. Here again it seemed a super- human task to shake the apathy out of public opinion, and to arouse from lethargy the bulk of our legislators. The police and the high officials of penological adminis- tration were entirely in favour of drastic measures. They knew far more than the public, and certainly more, too, than Parliament. They had a knowledge not only of the awful extent of the wrongdoing, but also of their own impotency because of the insufficiency of existing legal enactments such as the Vagrancy Act of 1898, the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1880, and the Offences against the Person Act of 1861. To remedy the various loopholes by which vicious men legally escaped, legislation was passed in 1885 in the shape of another Criminal Law Amendment Act. The late Mr. W. T. Stead was instrumental in securing the passage of this enactment in a way truly dramatic. The story has already been told in these pages. This 1885 Act raised the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen, though its effective enforcement was sadly marred by the insertion of a clause which freed the man from penalty "if it shall be made to appear to the court or jury that the prisoner had reasonable cause to believe the girl was of or above the age of sixteen." Although this proviso produced a new and novel principle into English jurisprudence, it was carried by the House of Commons. But does it not seem to sub- vert the principle of equity ? A man is charged under section 5 with carnally knowing a girl under sixteen. At the police court a certificate of the girl's birth may be produced, showing that in reality she is only fourteen, although she appears to be older. When the case comes before the judge and jury at the Assizes, the man may plead guilty. And as the aggrieved parents are waiting to hear the sentence pronounced, the judge reminds the jury that, if in their opinion the prisoner had reason- THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 243 able cause to believe that the girl was of or above the age of sixteen, he is entitled to an acquittal. The prisoner is not compelled to plead that he had reasonable cause to believe, the jury decide for him, and so deny the girl the legal protection which the law seemed specially to provide for her. The judge may thereupon order the man's acquittal. This proviso, in 50 per cent of the cases, defeats the objects of the clause, namely, to protect girls up to the age of sixteen from the viciousness of unscrupulous men, and gives an unsympathetic judge and a weak jury the opportunity of depriving a girl of the protection which the law presmnably gives her. The " reasonable cause to believe " clause applies to the girl residing in the disorderly house where it is enacted by this law that no girl under sixteen shall be permitted to be in or upon such premises for bad pur- poses ; yet it is possible for the keeper of such a house to allow a girl of fourteen, whose physique makes her look older, to ply this fearful business there, she being able to plead that she had " reasonable cause to be- lieve " that the girl was of or above the age of sixteen. There is something radically wrong with a good law which is rendered largely impotent by such a proviso. Between this Act and the next piece of legislation definitely aiming at the Social Evil, the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912, were various enactments which affected for the better the environment and con- ditions of women and girls. For instance, the Children Act, 1908, popularly known as " The Children's Charter," has valuable provisions for protecting girls under sixteen from injurious influences, while an amendment particularly relating to the clauses which refer to prostitution was passed in 1910. Ten years earlier, in 1898, a useful amendment to the Vagrancy Act of 1824 was passed, aiming at those who " knowingly live wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution " and also anyone who in public places " persistently solicits or importunes for immoral pur- 244 THE MASTER PROBLEM poses." An Act of similar import was passed for Scot- land in 1901. By an Act of 1889 the circulation of in- decent advertisements and any relating to secret dis- eases is prohibited, while the question of indecent pictures or photographs and immoral or obscene books is dealt with under general Acts respectively of 1839 and 1847, and the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. Though not directly aimed at the Social Evil, the Ahens Act of 1905 has proved of value in dealing with foreigners who sought to ply their infamous trade in England. Mr. John Pedder, c.b., who at the Home Office has the administration of the Act under his con- trol, has furnished some enlightening details. He says : — " It is worth while to state that, in the course of the seven years that the Aliens Act has been in operation, to the middle of 1913, 336 women have been expelled from this country for offences connected with prostitution, and the figures are higher for the later than the earlier years of the period. There is reason to think that the possibilities of doing good work by this means are becoming more and more recognised by the magistrates and others through whose hands these cases pass. " As regards the persons who organise or live on the pro- ceeds of this traffic there can be no doubt as to the propriety of applying the powers of expulsion rigorously, and it is certain that these powers have been of very considerable effect in the last few years. From 1906 to 1913, 168 men have been expelled for the offence of living on the proceeds of this traffic, and 153 men and 97 women have been expelled for being concerned in keeping brothels. The figures show a tendency to diminish in the more recent years of the period, and, as there is no reason to suppose that there has been any decrease in the vigilance or the rigour with which the law is enforced, this may perhaps be taken as a hopeful sign." Another Act of considerable importance was the Punishment of Incest Act of igo8. Only those who are engaged in Vigilance work, and the few whose duties compel a frequent attendance at police courts, know how necessary such an Act became. THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 245 Then came the next legislative advance — the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912, but in 1910 a Bill was promoted " to make further provision for the protection of Women and Girls ; for the suppression of immoral and indecent literature, etc., and otherwise for the prevention of immorality and indecency ; and to amend the law relating to certain crimes ; and for other purposes con- nected therewith." The chief features of the Bill are worth recapitulation as indicative of the desire of many members of Parliament to reinforce existing laws and so strengthen the hands of the police in their fight against immorality. The main proposals of the " Morality Bill " were : — 1. To raise the " age of consent " to nineteen, the full offence to be felony, and the maximum punishment to be — (a) if the girl is any age under sixteen, penal servitude for ten years ; (6) if the girl is over sixteen, penal servitude for five years. 2. To protect all feeble-minded women and girls. 3. To make it felony to obtain, and a misdemeanour to attempt to obtain, consent by any inducement or threat in connection with employment. 4. To make it a misdemeanour for any woman or girl of abandoned character to permit a boy under nineteen years of age to h9.ve immoral relations with her, or for any person to favour or encourage such relations. 5. To extend the protection against procuration, and at- tempted procuration, now enjoyed by girls of good character under the age of twenty-one — (a) to all women and girls of good character ; (6) to all feeble-minded women and girls, whatever their character ; (c) to all girls under the age of nineteen, whatever their character. Although this excellent Bill did not become law, it manifestly had an influence on the framing of the 1912 Bill, as various of the proposals in connection with drugging, living on immoral earnings, the practice of soliciting, keeping brothels, etc., which were made in the 246 THE MASTER PROBLEM Morality Bill, further than those indicated in detail above, have been incorporated into the new C.L.A. Act. Inci- dentally, too, it may be pointed out in regard to the attempt, by this 1910 Bill, to raise the age of consent that when by the 1885 Act, sixteen was fixed, Sergeant Simon said that " when he first drafted the clause it was his intention to put in eighteen." And again a letter was read to the House from the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. " I find," said Mr. Gladstone, " that Mr. Morley has enquired whether I object to its being known that in my opinion the Protection Age might properly be ad- vanced beyond sixteen in the Criminal Law Amendment Act. ... I have considered it as well as I can, and I personally should have been glad if the Government had found it consistent with their views to name eighteen rather than sixteen as the Protection Age." Much has been written about the new Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1912. Around its " flogging clauses " a heated and sometimes acrimonious discussion was initiated by certain hasty persons who saw in the pro- vision an insult to the liberty of the subject and an indignity to the person. They were blind to the fact that men with brutalised instincts can only be made to realise, by the adoption of admittedly barbaric methods, that there is a power greater than their own vicious potentialities. At any rate, the clause proved effective to a comfort- ing degree, even as a moral factor, for immediately it was enforced an exodus of procurers and pimps took place. A significant telegram appeared in the daily newspapers the day after the new Act received the Royal Assent : — " Paris, Friday. " Most of the Paris papers to-day announce that as the result of the coming into force of the White Slave Traffic Act in England a large influx of undesirable persons to Paris is noted by the police. They ask if it is not time for the French Government to introduce a similar law to protect French girls from the terrible traffic." THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 247 The Act received the Royal Assent on the 13th Decem- ber, 1912, and though various desired powers were not granted, it gave certain substantial benefits. They may be summed up as follows : (i) The power of im- mediate arrest, not only for procuration, but for the attempt to procure. (2) Heavier punishments for pro- curers. (3) Additional powers to assist landlords to get rid of tenants who are using their properties for immoral purposes. These powers may also be used to force the landlord who is acquiescing in these malpractices to get rid of his tenants. (4) Lastly, very valuable additional powers against the bullies, or souteneurs, who live on the immoral earnings of women ; and heavier punish- ments for them upon conviction. The next Act of importa,nce was that for the wider protection of the Feeble-Minded. It became law in April, 1914, and gave powers to civic authorities to care for the feeble-minded by sheltering them in institutions. Commenting on the Act three months after it was passed in 1914, W. C. Dawson, j.p., Chairman of Education Committee and Member of Watch Committee of City Council, Hull ; Honorary Legal Adviser to Hull Vigilance Associations, said : — " ' Segregation of the unfit ' is an expression received with not much favour in a country where the liberty of the subject is the keynote of its political life, but surely those unhappy beings who are a serious danger to themselves and to the community ought to be taken complete care of in institutions where they will be protected from injury, and their lives made as happy as possible. Left alone, and at large, they are often prolific to an alarming degree, and a grievous moral danger, as well as a large expense to the State." During 1915, some outcry was made as to bogus " Massage Rooms " and Night Clubs, and 1916 was ushered in with various well-intentioned restrictions, particularly as to Night Clubs. It is highly probable, too, that before this work goes to press further salutary regulations will be issued. ns THE MASTER PROBLEM By the courtesy of the Home Office we have been supplied with full particulars showing how these various laws are being administered and thus practically to demonstrate what the law is doing. The following schedule is prefaced with the Memorandum : — " The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1912, did not so much create any new offences, as extend the definition of existing offences, or modify the procedure or the punishment which could be imposed. For the most part, the offences affected by the Act are grouped with other offences in the Criminal Statistics, and therefore separate figures are not available. The headings under which the offences fall, and the other offences included in this heading, are as follows : — " Indictable Offences " I. Attempt to commit unnatural offences (including assaults with intent to commit unnatural offences, indecent assaults on male persons, and male persons soliciting for immoral purposes). "2. Procuration — (a) Procuring women or girls for immoral purposes, or using drugs with like intent, (b) House- holder permitting defilement of girls, (c) Detaining women in brothels, (d) Conspiracy to defile a female, (e) Persons having custody, etc., of young girl causing, etc., her seduction, etc. (/) Living on prostitute's earnings, etc. (g) Procuration, abduc- tion, etc., of mentally defective female. "3. Keeping disorderly houses. " Non-Indictable Offences " I. Brothel-keeping — Keeping a brothel, or permitting premises to be so used. " 2. Living on prostitute's earnings — (a) Any male person who lives on the earnings of prostitution, or controls, or directs prostitution, or in any public place per- sistently solicits or importunes for immoral purposes. (b) Any female person for purposes of gain, control- ling, or directing, etc., a prostitute to aid, compel, etc., her prostitution. THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 249 " All the headings show a marked increase in 1913, but this does not necessarily imply an increase of offences — it may simply mean an increased activity in taking proceedings. Under the first two headings the increase is probably due to the inclusion of offences formerly tried summarily, as indicated id the sentences of whipping imposed under the new Act, but the third heading — ' Keeping Disorderly Houses ' — does not include many cases of brothel-keeping, the figures under this heading being chiefly gaming-house cases. " Only six women appear to have been proceeded against for living on prostitutes' earnings." Statement with regard to Prosecutions for Offences affected BY THE PASSING OF THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT, I912 (a) Indictable Offences TJ Numbers for Trial. Number Convicted. sit Offence and Year. isl . Totals. Males. Females. Alie com fori sion Attempts to Commit Unnatural Offences : igog 60 60 — 40 — 1910 62 62 — 40 I igii 52 52 — 38 — igi2 59 59 ■ — 41 I 1913 75 74 I 54 2 Procuration : igog 7 4 3 4 — igio 25 14 II 17 6 1911 18 10 8 13 4 igi2 14 8 6 lO 1913 73 57 16 57 4 Keeping Disorderly Houses : igog 68 62 6 51 2 igio 84 79 5 55 — . igii 34 28 6 23 — igi2 45 39 6 38 — 1913 96 89 7 73 "~" 250 THE MASTER PROBLEM (6 Non-Indictable Offences Offence and Year. Persons proceeded against. Recogni- zances. Probation. Number Convicted. Aliens re- commended for Ex- pulsion. Brothel Keeping : 1909 1255 71 24 995 25 1910 1238 85 17 965 22 igii 1050 73 18 811 23 1912 854 32 16 695 22 1913 1025 52 18 831 8 Living on Prostitutes' Earnings : ^^^^ 495 2 — 44° 24 1910 470 3 — 403 26 1911 451 3 I 385 18 1912 444 4 2 396 31 1913 673 6 3 561 26 The police have done good work in recent years in sup- pressing the trade on the streets. In this they have been materially assisted by the sustained efforts of purity workers associated with various agencies at work with the common object of " doing their bit " toward the solution of the Master Problem. The greater number of these zealous and indefatigable officers have been women, and their achievements have been so encouraging that in the summer of 1915 the question of inaugurating a recognised branch of duly sworn-in women police, to look after the women and children, was strongly em- phasised. The Chief Commissioner of Police regretted that he was unable to take any steps in the matter until special legislation authorised him to engage other than males as constables or officers, and there the matter stands at present. Unofficially, however, some good work has been done for years in the London Courts and streets ; without doubt many a recalcitrant girl can be persuaded to tell her troubles to a police-woman, where she will keep silent to an ordinary policeman. THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 251 On this matter Miss Margaret Ashton, whose experi- ence and opinions are truly valuable, writes to the author : — " Not only is it possible with women police patrolling the streets to obtain a higher standard of public morality, but it must and has already had the result in other lands of changing the attitude of the law and its administration toward women offenders. Some authorities have considered that one police- woman is suf&cient as a beginning, but in this case the work must of necessity be very limited, and it is not even satis- factory as an experiment. The ideal is to have uniformed women pohce patrolling those streets which exist in every town where the conditions are morally undesirable and where women and young persons of both sexes are open to molesta- tion. " Women police to have . the full effect desired must be easily recognised, and must be appointed and sworn-in just like men constables, with full power of arrest and of entry exactly like the "men. It is true that it has not been found necessary in most cases for women to exercise the power of arrest, but the knowledge that it exists and can be exercised is most advisable, and the right of entry into women's or mixed lodging-houses of ill-fame is essential to the success of the work. " There are large numbers of cases brought before the Courts such as criminal assaults, indecencies, paternity cases, cruelty to or desertion of wives, which could be better dealt with if the injured women and girls could state their case and be questioned and cautioned by a woman instead of a man. A more accurate estimate of the circumstance could be arrived at if these unfortunates were not compelled, as at present, to give a detailed account of their injuries to men, to be cross- questioned in Court by men, surrounded by men officials, cut off from the presence and support of the presence of a woman who has investigated their case. " In the preventive moral work required on the streets a body of suitable women with powers of arrest would prove invaluable, while in conducting investigations respecting sexual offences all thinking persons will acknowledge that the help of a woman of&cial would be safer and more fitting than that of a male constable." 252 THE MASTER PROBLEM A step forward in the matter of women police was made during September, 1914. This came about in consequence of the outbreak of the War and the vast camps of recruits, territorial and regular forces, scattered over the country. Serious reports were sent to the National Union of Women Workers and others of the behaviour of the girls and women in the neighbourhood of these camps, which threatened, indeed, to rise to a scandal. As Mrs. Gow very justly explained at a meeting in connection with these complaints, it was more than probable that much of the behaviour was due to the emotional tendency prevailing throughout the country in consequence of the unexpected outbreak of war, and by dealing with it in this light girls might be prevented from worse evils befalling them by a little oversight of a quiet kindly nature. It was, however, decided by the N.U.W.W. that strong effort should be made to estabUsh a recognised Women's Patrol Committee consisting of voluntary workers, and offering their services for two hours a day or more if circumstances permitted. These patrols were to go in couples, and the hours arranged were those when the men were off duty. Before making any definite arrangemeAts towards this organisation, ai. private letter was addressed to Sir Edward Henry, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to know if such an effort would have his sanction and support. A very cordial reply was received in which Sir Edward stated that he would have pleasure in supporting such a movement, and would do all in his power to aid the harmonious working of the scheme between the police constables and the women patrols. Following on this a private interview was granted by the Home Secretary, who likewise gave it his personal support, and offered in conjunction with Sir Edward Henry to ask for the same from the Chief Con- stable and Military Authorities in all localities where camps had been erected. Acting on this official advice and countenance, it was arranged that each patrol should wear a distinctive badge on her arm (similar to that THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 258 of a special constable) with the letters N.U.W.W. and a number ; in addition to which each carried a card headed : — Notice to Police The Bearer No is a worker authorised by the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Police are desired to render her any necessary assistance. Signed Commissioner of Police. The women selected for patrols were from thirty to fifty years of age and well experienced in the public work of the preventive and rescue societies scattered over Great Britain. It was emphasised from the first that these women patrols should be absolutely distinct from rescue work ; that they should know how to win the confidence both of the military authorities and of the police, and be very careful to avoid what might be considered interference or officiousness by either, and to equally strive to win by friendly sympathy the confidence of the girls whose welfare they had in view. Although the official authority was granted for the duration of war only, it was sincerely hoped that the good impression made by the women patrols would have a distinct influence on the ultimate establishment of fully qualified women police. Coincident with the movement just mentioned, another and distinct effort was put forward which emanated from the Women's Freedom League, though on a non-pohtical basis. It was called the Women PoUce Volunteers. Their activities do not so intimately concern readers, as they are of a more general character than demanded by the Master Problem. The aim of this body was to fufil all duties devolving upon ordinary policemen with the exception of having powers of arrest ; but especially to be present during all cases where women were con- cerned in police courts. 254 THE MASTER PROBLEM As the work of police-women, so far as England at least is concerned, is at present in the initial stage, very few facts are forthcoming other than those stated. These, however, give every reasonable groimd for hope that ere long both official and public opinion will be com- pletely won over to favour the establishment of women police ; and in view of this it is most encouraging to know that one of the highest officials at Scotland Yard voiced his own personal opinion at a public meeting in the following terms : — " Though I have no of&cial authority to express an opinion on this difficult question, yet I feel I ought to make known my own opinion as to the great assistance that women have rendered the police in this work. Whether they should be given police authority in these cases or be encouraged to go on with the work as now, is a difficult question. But as I have been expressly appealed to as to whether I would wel- come a lady Assistant Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard, my reply is that I should welcome help from any lady who could render effective assistance. I believe it is essential that women should be associated with the work, but I am in doubt whether that help should be official or voluntary. We have a lady who helps us considerably in that direction, but she has not taken the oath of a constable. The more we associate ladies with our work the better and more effective, I am quite sure, will be the results." In October, 1915, Mrs. Creighton was elected President of the National Union of Women Workers, and in her presidential address voiced emphatically the need for poUce-women and the striking value a women pohce service would be in grappling vice problems and special cases affecting females. It may seem that an inordinate space has been given at the close of this chapter to the question of women pohce. The thinker will make no such charge. It is a development so patently advantageous that it is bound to come in Great Britain as it has with entire success on the Continent. THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 255 We move slowly in the way of all reforms, but in no direction is the public conscience more awakened than in this of penal reform. In the effort to prevent rather than to punish delinquency, to give the offender a chance of improvement rather than to force into permanent crime, we must make use of the newer ideals and advance with the times, turning our faces toward a future which will be all the brighter for recognising the common needs of our common humanity and using the fresh agency of women's insight and co-operation in pohce administra- tion as in all other social reforms. Among the most undaunted of our workers for national purity are various Members of Parliament who, in season and out of season, are labouring to place on the Statute Book new laws which shall strengthen the hands of the police and municipal authorities in dealing with vice problems. Time and again their efforts have been baulked and blocked ; and where a Bill has got through its effect has been bungled by restricting qualifying amendments. This opposition arises, not from point-blank antagonism to legislation for repressing immorality, but from far more insidious and potent twin-elements. There is a refusal to recognise the dire need of such enactments, and, secondly, a wide misconception both of the physical needs of men and of where the liberty of the subject works with drastic harmfulness against the welfare of the community. Despite discouragement, however, this group of earnest men go conscientiously on. A further " Criminal Law Amendment BUI," still " on the knees of the gods," was promoted in 1914 to tighten up the law and to co-ordinate the operation of other Acts bearing upon the Master Problem. Its short preamble runs : — " To consolidate and amend various enactments relating to offences against the person, to the protection of Women and Girls, to prostitution, and to brothels and other premises ; to amend the Law relating to the extradition of criminals 256 THE MASTER PROBLEM and to vagrancy ; and otherwise to make further and better provision with respect to offences against morality ; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid." Such a Bill is manifestly of sufficient interest to soci- ologists to merit its proposals being tabulated. The chief amendments and extensions proposed by the Bill are as follows : — 1. To reduce the maximum term of penal servitude for any sexual offence to ten years, but to empower the court to order corporal punishment in cases of rape and of the full outrage on a girl under twelve years of age. Where, however, such corporal punishment is ordered in addition to penal servitude, the term of penal servitude inflicted must not exceed three years. 2. To make further provision for the protection of women and girls from procuration, and for the more effective punish- ment of persons guilty of the crime. The provisions of section two of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, are greatly strengthened. The crime is made felony punishable with penaj servitude for ten years, and (if the term does not exceed three years, or if imprisonment is awarded) with corporal punishment in the case of a male offender. 3. To extend the Punishment of Incest Act, 1908, to incest between uncle and niece, and between nephew and aunt ; but in these cases the offence is not made punishable with penal servitude. Other incest now punishable under that Act is made felony, and the maximum term of penal servitude which may be inflicted is increased from seven to ten years. 4. To complete the protection of all women and girls who are lunatics, idiots, or imbeciles, or who are defectives within the meaning of the two Mental Deficiency Acts. 5. To make it a misdemeanour, punishable with imprison- ment (with or without hard labour) for two years, to obtain or to attempt to obtain consent by any inducement in con- nection with employment. 6. To raise the age of consent to an indecent assault in the case of a boy to sixteen, and in the case of a girl to eighteen, subject in each case to a proviso relating to apparent age ; to raise the age under which the full outrage on a girl is felony to fourteen ; to raise the age of consent in respect of THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 257 abduction for an immoral purpose to twenty-one, subject to a proviso relating to apparent age ; and to raise the age of consent, in the ordinary sense of the phrase, to eighteen, subject to a similar proviso. 7. To enable penal servitude for not more than five years to be awarded — (a) for criminal immorality ordinarily punishable with imprisonment only, if as a result of the offence venereal disease has been communicated ; (b) for an indecent assault upon a woman, an attempt to commit rape, etc. 8. Certain cases are to be heard in camera ; others are to be so heard subject to the right of representatives of the Press, and certain other persons, to be present in court (cf. section one hundred and fourteen of the Children Act, 1908). 9. To extend the Extraditions Act, 1870, to incest, sodomy, procuration, etc. 10. To strengthen the law relating to disorderly houses, etc. ; to solicitation for immoral purposes, and to persons trading in prostitution. 11. To enable pseudo-nurses to be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds, but not as incorrigible rogues. 12. To enable a court of summary jurisdiction to require the parent of a girl under the age of eighteen years who is, with the connivance or through the negligence of the parent, leading a life of prostitution to send her to an institution. It may be added that the Bill extends to the protection of women and girls in foreign countries, if they are British subjects, from acts committed by British subjects. It is expected that in the near future the data which has been laid before the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases and the recommendations embodied in the Report will give rise to some strong legislation not only in regard to an extension of facilities for the adequate treatment of sex diseases, but also in the direction of education about and repression of vice. By the Report the nation has been brought face to face more forcibly than ever with the awful toll it is paying for sex-sin, both individually and nationally. It will see therein how destructive of the stamina and health 258 THE MASTER PROBLEM of the present generation is the vice-peril and will find a deeper understanding of the reality of the race-suicide that the workers at the Master Problem have for years been preaching. The law is, indeed, doing much, in comparison with even a decade ago, toward the suppression of vice and the punishment of those that batten on sex-sin. As mori forces grow stronger and fearless citizens, by passing less elastic laws, place in the hands of ofiicials the means more effectively to combat the Social Evil, we shall draw nearer to " the dawn of a more perfected humanity." The words of this last sentence were used by the writer in " Social Hygienics." He continued : — " Rescue work, prosecutions — if wisely initiated and con- ducted — the improvement of the civil law, the creation of International Laws, all such agencies which make evil-doing more difficult, are hastening the fuller advent of that day. But over and above that repressive work, running alongside it but not too closely identified with it, for the methods of ' force ' cannot be applied where love rules, there must be positive moral regulation. That moral movement should be under the more direct aegis of the Christian Churches, and operate not through the police court, but through the home, the day and Sunday school, the pulpit, the platform, and the Press. The bedrock from which these manifold beneficences spring must be true religion." It will be of interest to conclude this section with a tabulation of what is legally considered as the age of consent in various parts of the world. The present writer in 1908, in order to assist the agitation to raise the British age of consent to eighteen, made extensive enquiries, by correspondence, among the law of&cers of the various nations mentioned. The tables following were compiled from their replies. THE LAW IN GREAT §** o JS o 0) o ^^ I is P 9 H 3 " -H ° _ rt o p4 g u u h V3 a> n ■§ o'Sb" D=l 2 BRITAIN 2 >. S - XI 4) ■o -g 1 :s S H •:: . • S-o "S-?" ft ^:sa M M ""S-S" ^3 >< \o o •" ^-^ " M 01 0) >.S»-S s ^ punishab pply to bo hild appea ndoer is n .a M u not the her K o O H Ul )H Ov Ott)Q0 'U CO 3 « M .9° -2 3 2 Ac MM I s " " g 3 - ■S'o o g ■a a 3 a ■a o *M a H H M z H H (/} H i-l H m <: K H u o ■ ■ H - •< 3 is i3 P gw H>:g • • H • _ U) H a M » 2 H M (U 2 w ,^ ^ *< :S S ^ S -s Pi o III I-l ft ti Xi o 260 THE MASTER PROBLEM 00 « a O o i^i MOO ja °|^ &" S'S 0> q} -p +.+) g ^^° 5|-g h *^ rt > ta 3 ' O > 19 O la IB in S 60T3 ci 9 s § »< s e- S a O CO ^1 o >, •- s &+» -« 0) 55 a ° S .□•a o *^ SJ'-S +> JS rt * v b § Q4 u A O ^ O J 2 » o ' U « IH >2 ^ M C u 3 a ^§^ll1i g_ o 2 c3.2' ilPllllllSlil ir . r H « P T! ™ to ? »rl p o o tn Q I* S CO ij u H <2 g 8 THE LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN 261 a o 5g^ t) "-3 2 8 o •a o O I 9 O Cl< O O i-i ^ 1^ o vO to in ^ Tj- Ti- if> irjoo 0000 ^^in^ m u MHM WHMHWMMHMHMMClO Z s> o u ^ B ? o « w „ . . o i w & J^ 5Htn8i-)WfiNWHNMtfitn g IS < a I-.0 PART V PROS AND CONS OF THE SITUATION CHAPTER XVII CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE " We waat better housing, better education, and greater study given to what is done with our boys and girls after they leave school. We want segregation of the vicious, diseased, and feeble-minded, and we want still more the power of the Gospel and the influence of the Church. I think that if only Christian people were awake to the necessity for action and eager to take it, great results would follow." — Dr. Kempthorne, Lord Bishop of Lichfield. " I believe that it has not yet occurred to one man in ten thousand that harlotry is unknown in nature. The set of men's thoughts for ages has been towards tolerance of this awful perversion, so that in spite of all the hard words and contempt they may use in their dealings with pubhc women, in their hearts they regard this moral degradation of the nobler sex as natural and inevitable." — Harold Begbie in " The Weakest Link." THE authors of " Modern Cities," Professors Pollock and Morgan, in discussing the Social Evil, say : '' Lack of ethical training and of proper grounding in ethical estimates of life, form, we are confident, the main causes of the deplorable and widespread social evil.'" In our modern economy, and especially since the opening of the twentieth century, this laxity in self- control and in moral balance has been particularly noticeable. It is not so much a sign of decadence as of neglect. Neglect to train and educate along lines which strengthen and stimulate the mind. Consequently, there is a looseness of habit in the mental processes which predisposes to lazy thinking and a blunted sense of moral standards, out of which 263 264 THE MASTER PROBLEM evolves a taste for literature of a similar ethical valueless- ness. It is not a distant step from a state of this kind to immorality. " By no means negligible factors," indeed, " in stimulating appetite,", says Flexner, " are erotic books and prints." A campaign of considerable magnitude under an international agreement was carried out a few years ago, which had the effect of diminishing the distinctly obscene and indecent pictures and cards and books. But a great influence of wrong -direction is still exerted in an even more insidious form by what may be termed " border- land " literature — ^books that glorify freedom of sex- relations, or in their writing hold out a perennial but unfulfilled promise of something really " dirty " — on the next page. Under a vacillating habit of national morality it is found that no clear stemdard exists. Thus it comes about that in a London case rather over a couple of years ago a London magistrate convicted a book- seller for disposing of a book of which, in passing sentence, the Bench declared that " nothing more foul or filthy " had been found in London for a long time. The same book figured in another prosecution case a few days later, and the culprit was acquitted. Yet it must be remembered that one cannot padlock the whole Press in order to curtail the output of some writers who produce " pulpy stories trading upon the inherent attraction of nasty subjects for the easily excited curiosity of others." Neither can we do so because some blackguard issues a dirty penny paper with filthy illus- trations which sells in a half-concealed way in the under- current of life, and, alas, comes in the way of boys and girls, effeminate men and foolish hysterical women. Such stuff plays upon their love of excitement and un- wholesome secret sensations. They ask for it too. And therein lies its baleful power in preparing and predisposing minds for an easy descent into active immorality. This question received a very thorough canvass in the year 1911 at the memorable Public Morals Conference CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 265 in Scotland,^ where the futility of "padlocking" process and the unwisdom of forcible repression was explained by one speaker, who said : — " Noxious ideas are, by the very act of prohibition, brought and kept before the mind, and they tend, as ideas always do, to find some expression in act. There is a simple little dialogue which I have read somewhere which will illustrate my point. " ' Tommy,' said the indignant mother, ' are you teaching the parrot to swear ? ' ' No, mother, I am telUng it what it must not say.' The instruments with which we must fight bad ideas are good ideas." Nevertheless strong action in individual cases has been found useful. The Rev. Lauchlan McLean Watt at the same Con- ference asked : " Is it the mercantile spirit of the pub- lishers, booksellers, news vendors, and journalists, or the itch of public prurience seeking a balm in dirt ? " The same speaker enunciated a plan to rid the public of those whom he referred to as " the road-hogs of literature " : " Take away the profits, and at the same time, imprison. Hit the mean always on their mean side. Get the scoundrel on the raw. And do not advertise. Let the doors be closed and only the fact be intimated to the world." There is no doubt that repression leads to secrecy. It is axiomatic. At the same time " indecent stuff which stirs from its sleep the lascivious imagination of un- developed and uncontrolled youth " is surely a fit subject for legd control. Happily, between these two points of view an effective mean has been found. The National Union of News- agents, Booksellers and Stationers has, as an organised body, exerted a considerable influence in the suppression of objectionable literature. They have boldly faced the difficulties in dealing with so delicate a subject, and adopted methods that have been productive of great results, whilst at the same time avoiding giving publicity to undesirable publications. It is the common practice ' Under the auspices of the Scottish Council of the National Council of Public Morals. 266 THE MASTER PROBLEM for a member to bring to the notice of the trade at their private conferences any pubUcation that was calculated to have a pernicious influence, with the result that a quiet, but systematic and effective boycott is set up on the part of the retail trade. It is of interest to recall that this way out precisely follows the plan outlined by the writer in 1908 when interviewed during the memorable Morals Crusade. " The police at the present moment," he said in that year, " are exercising some sort of censorship, and are doing it in a very sane and zealous manner. But I think we shoTild not look to the police to do this, for they are already overburdened. An immense quantity of indecent literature, illustrated and otherwise, pours from the Press weekly. I calculate that close upon a million copies of various papers are circulated which obviously have for their object the debasement of human nature. " At present the law is too weak to deal with them. I think one effective way of dealing with them will be through the Newsagents' Federation, which can do a very great deal to check the circulation of this literature, and I am happy to say that they have from the first set themselves to do it. The same thing might be done in regard to post cards. The Publishers' Association, also, ought to turn its serious atten- tion to the checking of those publishers, and there are happily only a few, who have fatally lowered the standard of fiction. The Institute of Journalists should be foremost in this work of cleansing the Press." Much more recently, the writer, in a lecture on " The Influence of the Press on Public Morals," outhned a scheme for deahng with those newspapers which are guilty of " the wholesale dissemination of prurient matter " : — " A certain limited class of papers with considerable circu- lation among the working class and middle class fill their columns with garbage, gathered not only from the Divorce Court, but from the Assizes, Sessions, and Pohce Courts, for the publication of which in the mass no conceivable public interest can be pleaded. CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 267 " Now no newspaper man has the least doubt in his mind as to the distinction between the papers which report a selection of these cases in their due proportion among the law reports and the limited number of papers which deliber- ately traffic for profit in garbage collected for the purpose, and I think I speak for the majority of the profession when I say that we should like to see a law framed which would hit this traffic without depriving the ordinary careful newspaper of any reasonable liberty. " Lawyers have told me that this is impossible, but I would advise you not to accept that answer as final, but to study the case for yourselves. For myself, I cannot think It impossible to make a law which would fit the facts, and if you will let me, I will quite tentatively sketch out what I wotild like to see done. " I should like to take newspapers, not on one issue, nor on one report, but on their whole record in this matter. If week after week a newspaper filled a palpably excessive pro- portion of its space in this manner, or to put it more precisely, if an obviously excessive proportion of the space that it ase'Q ^Si^fcMr^'^mTde%-ome^Te^''~-mohtm^ to the connection between the White Slave Traffic and Sweated Wages, and elicited some interesting replies, the more important of which can be summed up as follows : — Mrs. Sidney Webb : " No knowledge of the same as directly associated." Women's Social and Political Union : "Do not concede that there is any close association." National Union of Women Workers : "No knowledge whatever of the two being definitely connected." Anti-Sweating League (Secretary) : "I have talked to thousands of these sweated workers, and I could count on the fingers of one hand the women who told me that they had been driven on to the streets from this cause." Fabian Society : (Mr. Ed. Pease) " thinks the girls usually obtained for the W.S.T. are too healthy to be drawn from the sweated workers. These belong more to the ordinary prosti- tutes of the streets." The general opinion was that a somewhat distinct line must be drawn between the actual White Slave Trade and the ordinary or street prostitute, as she is more free 268 THE MASTER PROBLEM to be recruited. Not as a choice, but as a surrender to the force of circumstances. By " economic conditions," the whole range is meant, not the narrowed question of inadequate wages, which, as we pointed out in Chapter VI, is responsible for a quite small proportion of female declension into vice. This does not mean a denial that distressingly low wages exist, but that a love of chastity is so ingrained into most girls that they bear any privation rather than go into prostitution. The subject was dealt with in a recent number of Vigilance, in which the Editor maintained that " expres- sion of opinion of those who have had the practical experience and close contact with girls who have in some way left the highway trodden by women who have kept their honour and self-respect, is all against the hasty conclusion that economic necessity compels certain of j^A? 7 to be immoral. Even the trade unionists depre- the Newsag^ts' Federatimi, whicKcMi' at) a vefjrgreardeal to check the circulation of this literature, and I am happy to say that they have from the first set themselves to do it. The same thing might be done in regard to post cards. The Publishers' Association, also, ought to turn its serious atten- tion to the checking of those publishers, and there are happily only a few, who have fatally lowered the standard of fiction. The Institute of Journalists should be foremost in this work of cleansing the Press." Much more recently, the writer, in a lecture on " The Influence of the Press on Public Morals," outUned a scheme for dealing with those newspapers which are guilty of " the wholesale dissemination of prurient matter " : — " A certain limited class of papers with considerable circu- lation among the working class and middle class fill their columns with garbage, gathered not only from the Divorce Court, but from the Assizes, Sessions, and Police Courts, for the publication of which in the mass no conceivable public interest can be pleaded. CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 269 shoulder the responsibility for leading these girls astray ; there is no question of economic necessity here. To the normal girls who supplement their wages by selling their bodies, it is criminal on the part of any of us to let our sympathy go to the extreme where we justify them in so doing. Miss Clementine Black, too, holds an opinion on these lines : — " I fail to see how any connection could exist between low wages and what is called the ' White Slave Traf&c,' ' which' consists in entrapping or deluding women into prosti- tution for the commercial advantage of some other person. That under-payment should drive women into voluntary prostitution for their own profit is evidently conceivable, though my own impression is that the direct influence of poverty in this way is rare." In many other instances this same opinion has been expressed by competent authorities. The writer caused enquiries to be made some few months ago in regard to the connection between the White Slave Traffic and Sweated Wages, and elicited some interesting replies, the more important of which can be summed up as follows : — Mrs. Sidney Webb : " No knowledge of the same as directly associated." Women's Social and Political Union : " Do not concede that there is any close association." National Union of Women Workers : " No knowledge whatever of the two being definitely connected." Anti-Sweating League (Secretary) : "I have talked to thousands of these sweated workers, and I could count on the fingers of one hand the women who told me that they had been driven on to the streets from this cause." Fabian Society : (Mr. Ed. Pease) " thinks the girls usually obtained for the W.S.T. are too healthy to be drawn from the sweated workers. These belong more to the ordinary prosti- tutes of the streets." The general opinion was that a somewhat distinct line must be drawn between the actual White Slave Trade and the ordinary or street prostitute, as she is more free 270 THE MASTER PROBLEM to act as she likes, the others having neither freedom nor option of any kind. This opinion is legitimate. It does not, however, alter the view, as further opinions show that in regard to prostitutes, as apart from White Slave victims, the same conclusion is arrived at. Mr. W. A. Coote, the Secretary of the National Vigilance Association, in 1912, made a most emphatic utterance : — " It is a common opinion," he said, " that women are driven upon the streets by economic pressure ; but it is not true. I am amazed that men who affect to defend women against their oppressors should give countenance to so foul a slander. If you eliminate girls of the general servant type, the feeble-minded, and those who, as the outcome of betrayal, fling themselves despairing into the streets, you will have a very small percentage left to be explained on grounds of economic necessity. All the same, the wages paid to the women workers of England are a standing disgrace to our civilisation, leaving Christianity entirely out of the question." Add to this the considered reply of Commissioner Cox to the writer : — " / must say that I am unable to agree to the general proposi- tion that white slaves are largely recruited from the sweated industries, or that the economic question enters to any extent into the problem of prostitution. I certainly have had cases come under my notice where the difficulty of securing a living wage has prevented the return of the woman from her evil life, but I cannot say from experience that any of the girls I have come across — and they have been very numerous, unfortunately — have deliberately embraced the horrible calling of the street in order to improve their income. " It would be extremely foolish to deny," she said, " that female labour is wickedly underpaid, and that suffering is thereby inflicted upon a large and most deserving portion of the community ; but the roots of the evil of prostitution and the White Slave Traffic do not take their sustenance from this source, but from the wayward and undisciplined hearts and minds of men and women, who are determined to seek sensual satisfaction regardless of the consequences to themselves or others." CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 271 Commissioner Adelaide Cox has been associated with Mr. Bramwell Booth for more than twenty-five years, and is in supreme command of the Women's Social Wing of the Salvation Army. Perhaps few men in England have had a wider personal acquaintance with the problem of prostitution than Mr. W. J. Taylor, the Secretary of the London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution, with which is connected the Midnight Meeting Movement. He has been the guiding spirit of the institution for about fifty years ; and since the work was begun, in 1851, no fewer than 45,000 women of the class under review have been dealt with through its various agencies. " The whole problem," he said, " is a very complex and baffling one ; but while I should be the first to declare that many proprietors have a heavy responsibility upon them on account of the low wages paid to their girls, I should not feel justified in placing upon their shoulders the terrible burden of complicity in the degradation of women through prostitution. From my long personal experience of these cases I can unhesitatingly say that very few indeed adopt the business deliberately." The enquiries of Dr. Helen Wilson are very much to the point upon the wages question. When Dr. Wilson revealed the result of her investiga- tion to the Abolitionist Conference, Paris, in July, 1913, she said : " No one knows better than myself that our cbnclusions can be at best very imperfect and tentative — indeed they should be described as suggestions rather than conclusions." Continuing in this temperate strain, Dr. Wilson com- mented : — " At an early stage we became convinced that the economic^ factor in prostitution was only one among a variety of in-?' fluences social, educational, and psychological. Recognisingli that, in an investigation of this kind, scientific truth is not to be attained merely by focussing on one of the factors, we decided that our enquiry should cover all the causes which 272 THE MASTER PROBLEM lead women to enter the profession, leaving the economic factor to take its chance of emerging finally in true proportion to the rest." Following these remarks she gave the interesting statistics already tabulated in Chapter XIII, and which also give point to the fact that the lack of a good home has a preponderating influence upon immorality. In more than a quarter of the cases this is put down as the primary cause. A series of tables prepared with similar care and unbias in New York about the same time as Dr. Helen Wilson's investigations were carried on enforce the same fact. Out of nearly 700 testimonies taken, only 32 turned to prostitution because of poverty. To put the evidence succinctly on the question of wages versus prostitution, the proportion of women who assigned poverty as the cause of their entry into prostitu- tion is given by various highly dependable authorities, from a variety of cases, in differing countries, as follows : Mrs. Bramwell Booth, 2% ; M. Strohmberg, 0-25% ; M. Pinkus, 1-4%. Within the domain of economic reasons may come the question of occupational predisposition. Here a very delicate matter is touched upon. One occupation which was discovered in the course of Dr. Wilson's investigation to be specially dangerous was that of waitress ; but here again Dr. Wilson points out that the work presents peculiar advantages for the woman who anticipates temptation with the full inten- tion of not resisting it, and for the woman who seeks a cloak for an immoral life. Hence it is not so much that this occupation leads to immorality, but that it attracts an undue proportion of women who are likely to be immoral in any case. On the other hand, an analysis taken in a London Rescue Home showed that out of 427 prostitutes admitted, 275 were servants and only 6 barmaids. Another home of 675 showed 283 servants and 12 barmaids. CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 273 In a tabulation prepared in New York 4 per 100 were waitresses before entering prostitution, whereas 37 per 100 were domestic servants. In another table compiled from evidence collected from various rescue homes, out of 662 records, 53 gave " waitress " as their pre-prostitute occupation, and 185 the differing grades of domestic service.^ In " Problems of Sex " (1913) Professors J. A. Thom- son and Patrick Geddes dogmatise : — " The domestic is nearest the home, and so feels its in- stinctive feminine interest more than do her sister workers in the outer world. Her domestic functions, too, are all more normally feminine ones. She feeds the household, cares for the children and all the rest, like the good worker-bee, and so oftenest turns to marriage — oftenest, too, to motherhood without marriage." It is obvious that all who fall into motherhood with- out marriage are not certain to become prostitutes, but it is equally obvious that the circumstance, and its usual treatment on the part of parents and employers, creates a very powerful predisposition in that direction. Statistics are the unhappy proof. Miss F. J. Wakefield has written strongly on this point, " Many reasons have been assigned as contributory causes for prostitution, but an important one is the girl-mother. My own experience as an investigator is confirming me in the view that if every girl received material and moral help at the time of her first trouble, it would eliminate a very large proportion of the girls on the streets. " It needs but little imagination to picture the plight of a young girl abandoned by the man to whom she has given herself and whom, in many instances, she has really loved and has trusted to marry her. Terrified and ashamed, she conceals her condition (unless she has already left home in expectation of marriage), and when concealment is no longer possible, runs away from home to hide her shame and to escape the severity she dreads, or (and this is no rare occurrence) is turned out of her home, with or without a small s\im of money. ' See also refereiice in Chapter IV, 274 THE MASTER PROBLEM Heartbroken, ashamed, frightened at the unaccustomed loneliness and the unknown future, suffering from the physical disability of her condition, is it any wonder that the girl's mind is not in a state to reason or act calmly, even if the press- ing need for daily food and shelter were not upon her ? In her search for work, in the lodging-house or workhouse, she soon meets others who have been through a similar experience, or whose interest it is to baulk her in her attempts to make a decent livelihood. With character and friends gone, penni- less after — often long before — the birth of her child, with tempters on every hand and with the constant demand of men for such as she to satisfy their passing sexual impulses — how is an inexperienced girl to escape ? Every circum- stance conspires to push her forward down a path of vice." Mr. Bronson Reynolds says that in his experience in connection with New York he found it to be invariably the case that, once a girl was down, there never failed those who would try to persuade her that her ruin was irretrievable, and who would surround her with a mental atmosphere which made it practically impossible for the girl to believe that she could ever extricate herself from her position. To emphasize the high percentage of lapse from virtue, or perhaps it should be referred to as the greater field of temptation and danger, which rules among girls in domestic service, one may quote the statistics of ille- gitimacy in one city, Aberdeen, as published in February, 1913, by the Public Health Department. "The total number of illegitimate births for the year 1911 was 441. Of the 407 coming under the observation of the Public Health Department, in 192 cases the mothers were described as 'living at home' and 'engaged in domestic work ' ; in 65 cases the mothers were domestic servants ; in 62, mill-workers; in 35, fish-workers: in 38, workers in workshops ; in 5, clerks or typists. In 10 cases the occupa- tions of the mothers are not indicated." Dealing further with the relation of occupation to first lapses into prostitution, J. Cameron Grant, in " The Heart of Hell " (1912), says ; — CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 275 " It may here be of contingent interest to point out from what source the larger proportion of victims to the awful ranks of prostitution is drawn. The greater number of recruits to this life, as shown by all statistics of prostitution, come from domestic servants, the second largest number from girls who live at home with no definite occupation whatever. This is one streak of brightness, for it shows that although there is every reason for us to make a desperate fight in all matters connected with the economic aspect of the social evil, it is at the same time through economics that we will come at least to some amelioration, if not to victory, in the matter. The ordinary girl who goes out to work under the rough influences and tutelage of the work-room and the factory, where she hears things called by their right names, and has in her, however crudely implanted, a sturdy spirit of independence and esprit de corps, has in her the germs of a protective influence that should be fostered by every means in our power, and her economic position so improved that she can make even a braver fight of it than she does to-day." On the Continent a number of cities have analysed their records of prostitution. In Geneva 503 out of 1300 were servants, and only 120 factory workers, with an intermediate figure of 236 for tailoresses and laundresses. Munich produced, out of 173 registered, an equal num- ber, 29, who had been domestic servants and factory hands, while barmaids headed the list with 52. Of the 2500 clandestine prostitutes in Munich in 1911, 721 had been servants, 608 barmaids, and 255 factory hands. Berlin reversed the order of things by showing 445 factory girls as against 431 servants. Actual figures give way to percentages in Vieima, but they demonstrate the same fact ; 44-52 per cent being servants. In Stockholm the table showed 996 servants, 395 factory workers, and 266 seamstresses. A number of occupational tables were compiled in 1913 which may be usefully quoted. The first deals with an interrogation of rather over a thousand girls plsdng on the streets in various towns, and is of value not only as indicating the occupation 276 THE MASTER PROBLEM before prostitution, and therefore showing the ranks which furnish the larger numbers to clandestine prostitu- tion, but also as evidence of the proportion remaining at work in comparison with those wholly given over to their infamous calling. Before going After entering on streets. prostitution. Artist 4- • 4 Artists' model 2 3 Assistant at stores 117 68 Canvasser 5 4 Chambermaid 9 I Clerk in small shop 28 16 Companion . , I I Errand girl . I — Factory 72 21 Domestic service 27 20 Laundry 2 — Librarian I — Manicure 6 4 Massage 2 2 Millinery 13 3 Nurse girl 8 i Office work . 25 18 Palmist 2 2 Seamstress 17 5 Shopkeeper . I 2 Stenographer 31 27 Teacher 9 6 Telephone operator 9 5 Theatrical work 72 88 Trained nurse 4 3i Translator ^."=^ "I . I Waitress 18 8 No work 518 . — Unknown lOI 33 Supported by prostitution only — 677 Supported by husband or family — 83 Stealing — I Tot 1 106 1 106 CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 277 The second list was compiled from girls in several institutions, the pre-prostitute vocation being ascer- tained from a few inmates in each of many homes, refuges, and hospitals, to a total of 662, thus affording a liberally representative table. Artist Assistant at store Bookbinding Canvasser . Chambermaid . Clerk in small shop Companion Errand girl Factory Domestic service . Laundry Librarian . Manicure . Massage Millinery . Nurse girl . Ofi&ce work Palmist Salvation Army worker Seamstress . Steel engraver Stenographer Teacher Telephone operator Theatrical work . Waitress No work 70 I 2 34 9 I I 213 117 16 I 4 I 12 34 20 I I 16 I 8 I 13 20 53 10 The third enquiry was among the girls in a large Rescue Home containing over 1000 inmates at the time. A total of 647 complied with the request to state occupa- tion prior to engaging in prostitution, the analysis yielding : — Bookbinding Chorus girl 7 18 278 THE MASTER PROBLEM Clerk in business house 48 Domestic . 243 Doorkeeper I Errand girl 3 Factory operative . 127 Laundry employee • 14 Manicmre . 2 Millinery . ■ 13 Office clerk 13 Sewing (handwork) 23 Steel engraver I Telephone operator 9 Nurse 3 Waitress . . 28 No occupation . 92 It will be observed that the highest figure is among domestics, 37-56 per cent, factory girls coming next with 19-62 per cent, and girls who had not to, or did not, work for their living next with 14*27 per cent. With regard to her table, quoted in Chapter XIII, Dr. Helen Wilson says of another aspect : — " Among the cases put down to Vanity, Love of Pleasure and Society, I have included 106 cases where the girl ascribes her fall to bad companions (meaning female companions) —the kind of companionship usually associated with extrava- gance and dangerous amusement. There is a tendency in England, especially among officials, to ascribe to such cases nearly all immorality among girls, and to put the whole thing down to natural depravity. But we may well ask ourselves how far this so-called frivolity is due to wholesome and natural instincts which can find no wholesome and natural outlet. Young people, girls as well as boys, naturally crave for companionship, for pleasure and excitement. Society recognises this in the case of boys, but it has never recognised or provided for it in the case of girls. For those who have no home, or a bad home, or a crowded home, the natural joys of youth can only be obtained in the street, or in the theatre, cinematograph, or other public place of amusement. That is hard on the boy, but it is much harder on the girl, because her wage is less. Even if she receives enough to pay CAUSES PREDISPOSING TO VICE 279 for her food and clothing, she has very seldom any margin for pleasure. For her there is no place for enjoyment except the street unless she can find a man who will treat her ; and when that is once begun, she has entered on a dangerous road. " A woman, if she is young, and alive, craves for some life of the mind and spirit, just as a man does ; but in a great city this costs money. How is she to obtain it ? On the one side she must face penury, solitude, starvation of the mental and social instincts. On the other side she sees gaiety, brightness, interest, companionship ; these she can obtain at any moment by selling her dignity, her self-respect. When these defences are broken down, it is a short step further to sell her virtue. " In the pcirt of England where I live this difference is strikingly exemplified. In working-class families it is the custom that both boys and girls should bring all their wages to the mother for the common stock, and she gives them back a small amount as pocket-money for their pleasures. To the son, whatever his earnings, the amount given is rarely less than a shilling a week, while the older daughter, who may be earning quite as much, thinks it natural that she should not receive more than 3d. or 4d. Hence for her pleasure she is dependent on her brother — or somebody else's brother. This difference of treatment is as unwholesome for the lads as for the girls. " There is another point connecting this ' love of pleasure ' with economic conditions. My own observations among working girls lead me to think that where the occupation is one in which the worker can take an interest, one which gives scope to skill and thought, she does not feel the need for exciting pleasures in her evenings to the same degree as the girl engaged in monotonous and unskilled labour. As a rule the interesting occupations are the better paid ones, but even where the rate of pay is the same, I believe we shall find that the girl who can find her interest in her work is more inchned to live a sober and normal life than the one whose work is monotonous and purely mechanical." CHAPTER XVIII SALVING AND SAVING " There is no better way of reaching the hearts of the people than by arousing within them a sense of the need of exercising toward the erring, love, protection, chivalry, and care." — The late Mrs. Archibald Mackirdy. " It is of the first importance to convince a woman of the true love of those who are striving to save her. Here, of course, is manifest the supreme importance of a right selection of workers. " There must be no coercion. Every appeal must be made to the higher nature. Force is no remedy here. Threats or penalties, and promises of rewards, which are little more than bribes, are not only of no good — they are distinctly bad. Restraints, which are not assented to and accepted willingly, will aid no real reform. Bolts and bars are in reality but symbols of failure. Love and coercion cannot possibly flourish together." — Mrs. Br am well Booth. ALL kinds of scientific knowledge are being brought . to bear upon this gigantic and widespread evil of sexual vice. Social laws, economic readjustments, sex equality, science — mental, medical, and surgical ; and re- ligion in the form which will most readily appeal to all classes of degenerate-minded men and women ; and healthy amusements and recreations. It is compelling the best thoughts of every man and woman, and the more this steady stream of active and carefully reasoned thought can be brought to bear on the problem — com- bined with keenest sympathy and imagination — the sooner will the Cure be started, and run like living streams of water through the community of every land. The gradual elimination of age-long vice cannot be entertained as the only solvent. While the slow-working medicine of such a cure is struggling to overcome the vice- germs with which the prostitute and her male partners in sin are permeated, racial decay continues at an acceler- ated pace and recruits to vice are drawn in from the un- thinking and ignorant. 280 SALVING AND SAVING 281 The blow when it falls must often be " a palpable hit." Measures must often be drastic. And quick. Yet if this is to be so, as it must, what in the name of all that is humanitarian and humane is to become of the poor vice-worn women of the sad sisterhood ? The twin efforts of preventive and rescue work have been exercised to a far greater degree and in a far wider sense during the last decades than ever before. A new generation of workers, strong, virile, and progressive ; afire with the enthusiasm of a noble cause, has joined itself to the band of war-scarred heroes who for many a year, in many a battle, bore the brunt of the world's ridicule and disapprobation, yet unwaveringly set their souls to the work of saving from ruin and salving from ruins, girls and women in need of their high-souled ministrations. Workers at the Master Problem have not often found themselves running in parallel hues of thought to Mr. Bernard Shaw. They and he, however, find common ground in the contention so emphatically expressed by the redoubtable G.B.S., that prison-like homes of deten- tion where a hard regime is enforced and the "rescued! have to work out their salvation under conditions nearly 1 akin to slavery, constitute the worst possible remedial | measure." But when it comes to the question of actuality, purity workers are at widest divergence from Mr. Shaw, because if such " abandon hope institutions " exist they are very much indeed the exception. All the time and every time Mrs. Bramwell Booth is right in her dictum that " Force is no remedy " in rescue work. The task of reclamation must find its motive-force in a deep, pitying — though not patronising — love. The activities of prevention agents may legitimately have a perceptible tinge of crispness, yet the same rich love for a soul in danger must be at the back of all endeavour. " Better," says Ellice Hopkins, in her oft-quoted words, " the fence at the top of the precipice than the ambulance at the bottom." Thank God for the ambu- 282 THE MASTER PROBLEM lance which raises the bruised and the fallen ! Thank God for noble women who are ready, with love and sympathy, and faith unceasing, to follow up the fallen sinner, and seek to turn her from her evil ways. But shall we say that it is a work of at least equal value which seeks to fence the edge of the steep precipice, lest young and unwary lives should fall over to their temporal and eternal undoing ? In the same year that success crowned the long sad fight of Mrs. Josephine Butler against the CD. Acts, the National Vigilance Association was formed, and its co-operating European organisation, the International Bureau for the Suppression of the White Slave Traf&c, was founded in 1899. Between them they were respon- sible for much that was done in the last decade of the nineteenth century, to save girls from folly, and protect them from vice-sharks. This work, whether through the agency of law-amendments, or municipal co-opera- tion, or the operations of the experienced officers of the Association and the Bureau, has been distinctly preven- tive and enormously valuable in preserving to virtue many who otherwise would have been entrapped. Some eleven years earlier than the Vigilance Associa- tion was founded, the International Abolitionist Federa- tion was constituted, in March, 1875, and has found abundant scope for activity on the Continent and in the Americas, particularly in the territory of the United States. Its record of work done is truly inspiring. Such great organisations as the Girls' Friendly Society and the Young Women's Christian Association, The Travel- lers' Aid Society, The Mothers' Union, must also be classed among active preventive agencies. They are doing splendid work in Britain, and tens of thousands of young women in our great cities owe their moral health to them. As to the many Rescue Societies and organisations, Mrs. Bramwell Booth's Homes are typical of what approaches the ideal in this respect. The late General Booth, in his last private letter to Commissioner Adelaide Cox, who is in charge of the SALVING AND SAVING 283 Women's Social Work of the Salvation Army in the United Kingdom, said : — " I do hope . . . that the work in which you are so deeply interested and which is so valuable to this poor world of ours is progressing." Throughout his life General Booth took a great interest in the Women's Social Work. The story of its beginning reads to-day like a romance. A baker's wife living in one of the poorer streets of Spitalfields was touched by the helpless and pitiable condition of some poor girls who knelt at the Penitents' Form at the corps where she and her husband attended as soldiers. Her pity took practical shape. In their distress and trouble she took these girls into her own home. This was only her humble dwelling with small accommodation but distinguished by the Christian hospitality and their desire to prove themselves friends in the crisis of their lives. The need was placed before the General, and he with his big heart could not resist the appeal to open a Rescue Home. That was a little over thirty years ago. From that beginning a stream of activity on behalf of women and children has been in progress not only in this country but also in the overseas Dominions. It is interesting to note that Australia was imbued with the idea of starting a Women's Rescue Home in Melbourne and that the Colonial Government contributed £1000 towards the cost. In many of the chief cities in the United Kingdom, in continental centres like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, in the United States of America as well as in Canada, South Africa, Japan, the Argentine and else- where, openings for the establishment of this beneficent agency of the Salvation Army have occurred. Taking the International statistics, there are to-day 119 Rescue Homes with accommodation for 3819. During the last year 7399 women were received, and the number 284 THE MASTER PROBLEM given as having passed out satisfactorily into situations or elsewhere is 6664. There are for women who have been wronged or are in times of difficulty 36 Branch Homes with accommodation for 720, and large numbers of women have from time to time passed through the Maternity Hospital. Closely allied to this branch of Salvation Array activity are the Homes for Children, of which there are now over 50 with an accommodation for 2189. There are 26 Creches as well as 17 Industrial Schools with accommodation for 1115. General Booth placed Mrs. Bramwell Booth in charge of the first Rescue Home estabUshed by the Army, and under her skilful management the work for the benefit of women and children grew and extended in many directions. When, however, the death of the General increased the duties and responsibilities imposed upon Mrs. Bramwell Booth through the elevation of her husband to the leadership of the Army, she was obliged to relinquish the control of the British branches to Commissioner Adelaide Cox, who had for some years been her chief assistant. Figures do not convey anything like the full story of the services rendered by the Salvation Army. From the back parlour of the baker's wife in Spitalfields in 1883, there has now grown an organised work by women Officers of the Salvation Army which includes the visita- tion of streets, brothels, licensed quarters in foreign cities, clubs, etc., midnight posts, receiving homes, rescue homes, factories, laundries, " out of love " funds, service girls' brigades, shepherding brigades, maternity hospitals and homes, investigation and detective agencies. These agencies and offshoots are being improved and extended at every available opportunity. The Salvation Army has instituted a special depart- ment for dealing with cases of girls who have been wronged by men, in order to obtain from the guilty party the affiliation money due to them. This has worked most successfully, notwithstanding the difficulties known to all social workers. Enquiries are immediately set on SALVING AND SAVING 285 foot, and where satisfactory proof is obtained every effort is made to compel the men to make an allowance td'the girls for their babies. In Great Britain alone hundreds of pounds have been received in this way. The whole machinery of the Salvation Army in the Rescue Homes is directed as far as possible to giving the women a new chance in life and to train them for suit- able occupations. They are taught laundry work,' sewing and other duties. When they have given proof of a desire to get into some occupation the Women's Social Department gives every assistance in order to get them suitably placed, and the records show that a large number of those who have gone out under these conditions have made good in their new start in life. As an indication of the social value of this branch of the Salvation Army it may be pointed out that 2877 women and girls were dealt with in the Branch Homes of the Army during nine months of the year. These come to a large extent from circumstances of the deepest degradation. No fewer than 1597 have entered upon entirely new conditions : 263 were cases where patient help was needed ; 677 were of cases seeking fresh service and assistance of a similar character, whUst 340 cannot yet be reported upon favourably. Situations were pro- cured for 914 women, and of these cases the majority are doing well. Of this number 76 came under the care of the Salvation Army direct from the prison cell or the police court ; nearly 300 became mothers whilst in the Army's care, all the little ones being bom in the Mothers' Hospital. The Mothers' Hospital is a development of the Army's maternity work made necessary by the growth of the Department. The first Maternity Hospital was Ivy House, Hackney, a large old family residence which was transformed for the purpose, and at length two other institutions — one at Lome House, Stoke Newington, and the other at Upper Clapton, were provided for the reception of mothers with infants born at the Hospital. 286 THE MASTER PROBLEM The new Mothers' Hospital stands on nearly three acres of ground, and when complete the total cost will amount to £50,000. Its accommodation under the completed arrangements will provide for 2500 patients yearly. The Salvation Army, broadly speaking, provides for four classes of women in its Maternity Hospitals. These include the unmarried mothers, many of whom are very young in years ; the poor married women whose home circumstances are such that it is very desirable for their own welfare and that of their offspring that they should go into an Institution ; and the comfortably-ofE married woman who cannot afford the luxuries of a private nursing home, but desires the skilful service and quiet such as " the Mothers' Hospital " affords. Thousands of cases are now chronicled at the Head- quarters of the Work in Mare Street. These records touch life at all points and are full of romance and tragedy, caused frequently by misfortune or wayward- ness, or, as frequently happens, by the deception of one who was accounted a friend. As an evidence of the nature of the cases with which the Army has to deal there may be mentioned one which is at least typical of many others. " The young daughter of a doctor was promised a happy home of her own, and so enticed from her own town. These promises failed utterly, however, and in the early hours of one morning some years after, this girl of a cultured home was found by a friendly policeman sleeping in an old quarry with a little boy beside her. Her face still seemed stained with tears, and her boy looked hungry and ill from ex- posure. " She was brought to the nearest of our Homes, where she was welcomed and helped. In the warmth of the shelter, and the atmosphere of kindness that surrounded her, her sad story was told, of betrayal and desertion, and then how she had struggled, and lastly, hoped to hide herself away where the kindly (?) weather — it was very cold — would cause her days on earth, and those of her little son, to end," SALVING AND SAVING 287 She is one of those who have taken a new lease of life by the help that the Salvation Army has been able to afford her. In all important directions the Salvation Army en- deavours to assist women and girls to keep straight. For instance, it provides women and girls with hotels where cheap lodgings are found, and in a variety of other ways helps women to situations or some other means of earning a living. When the Government passed the White Slavery Bill the Salvation Army established a world-wide Department called " The League for the Protection of Women and Girls," with a Staff Officer in charge at the International Headquarters. A special council was appointed to con- sider how best to promote the object of the League, which is to join together throughout the world the entire number of Army agencies actively to co-operate to resist, obstruct, and destroy the White Slave Traf&c. In order to assist the Council the General instructed all the Officers of the Salvation Army throughout the world to explain clearly to young women and girls the dangers around them and the facilities for trapping and decoying women. Young women are warned to reject any advance from strangers, and, if in doubt, to appeal to a policeman or a railway company's servant, and ask for the address of the nearest Salvation Army Lodging Home. Any girl or woman who had been entrapped into a life of sin, was urged if the information fell into their hands to send a letter and help would be forthcoming to assist them to freedom. Before the War commenced the General organised a regular Corps of travelling Officers on Emigrant Ships, so that every vessel of this kind had one such Officer on board in order that the authorities might be supplied with data concerning any undesirable persons who were using the ship for the purpose of White Slave Traffic, and also to assist the owners to support the steps then taken. General Booth, who places the greatest store on the 288 THE MASTER PROBLEM work of the Women's Social Department in its relation to these cases, made a strong claim on its behalf which is very fully justified by circumstances. " It is a work," he wrote, " which is being done economically — that is, by the smallest possible outlay of money. If our friends could only measure the extent of our operations, and count the number of wretched creatures befriended and blessed by their contributions, they would, I venture to think, be amazed at what is accomplished by means of the financial help they afford us." Then there is the magnificent preventive work of the London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution, of which Mr. W. J. Taylor is the excellent Secretary, to whom we have previously referred. How little the general public realises the great and gracious character of its work among young women and girls in dire need. The origin of these Homes goes back over sixty years. At first temporary arrangements in private houses to meet the need of such cases were made, the workers going out into the streets after ten o'clock at night with the object of seeking young women and offering them a helping hand. This missionary work in the streets at night, which started in 1851, was continued with much success for several years, and on the 24th June, 1857, the first Home of the Institution was opened for sixteen inmates. Since then the work has very greatly increased, and there are now six separate Homes supported by the Institution, in addition to a Refuge which is kept open all night. Provision is also made for igo inmates, who are classified according to their characters and ages. Very recently the Society has taken over the work of the Midnight Movement, which was founded in 1859, and has held about 3000 gatherings, which were attended by upwards of 125,000 young women. A missionary also visits and missions the streets at night, seeking to rescue those in peril. About four years ago a still further effort Wfis inaugur- SALVING AND SAVING 289 ated to reach young women by the prominent exhibition- of notices in the ladies' waiting-rooms of the metropolitan railway termini and other public places frequented by travellers. Such notices are also displayed by the Girls' Friendly Society, by the way. These notices, in English, French, and German, offer advice or help, day or night, to young women who from any cause find themselves stranded in London. Some of the instances of timely help which has been rendered read more like romance than sober fact. Nearly 43,000 young women and girls have been assisted by the Homes, and the large majority have been started afresh in life. The benefits of the Homes, and also the Open-All-Night Refuge, are free — ^irrespec- tive of creed, class, or country, or of the state of the funds at the time assistance is sought. No fewer than 1283 applications for the benefits of the Society were received during 1915, and it is interesting to note con- cerning these apphcations for admission that the majority received are on behalf of girls who are in moral peril. For many years past the larger proportion of those admitted to the Homes have been young women and girls in distress and moral danger. Another very valuable preventive agency is that carried on by Mrs. Ransome Wallis at Croydon. Here the babies of unmarried mothers are cared for. In every possible case it is enforced that the mother shall, when- ever possible, help to maintain her child by payment of from 2s. 6d. to 5s. per week, so that all sense of respon- sibility is not lifted from her, making it " too easy." The Ransome Wallis Homes at South Croydon com- prise four separate old-fashioned houses standing in their own equally delightful gardens. One is for boys only, another for girls, a third for tiny tots who have spent the first two or two and a half years of their lives in the home of a good foster-mother, which is found to be much more beneficial to the health of the young infants than having a number together. The fourth house is used as a hospital when needed. 290 THE MASTER PROBLEM So greatly has this noble work extended in the face of untold opposition from those who for some reason have failed to grasp this special problem in its just and right aspect, that one cannot but feel that Mrs. Ransome Wallis and her co-workers have been chosen as pioneers in this particular phase of social preventive work. Out of the number of unmarried mothers who have placed their babies under this loving and wise care, it is most rare to learn of any who have transgressed in the same way a second time, which is the most practical proof that such help does not conduce to immorality, but is a far surer preventive than leaving the mother and child unprotected. A recent venture for the purpose of reclaiming girls and women from the streets was inaugurated in February, 1915, as The Weaving Studios, 6 Demnark Street, Charing Cross Road, London. It is an attempt to bring the deUght of creative work into the lives of those whom the world has long regarded as outcasts, in the hope that occupation of such a character would do something to meet one of the chief difficulties of rescue work, that of giving girls and women who are being helped a fresh start in life. Hand-weaving was the craft selected. Experience of older industries had shown that there is a steady business demand for beautiful hand-woven fabrics ; and because it has a personal element. It is a series of small failures and successes ; it trains a girl in habits of application. The school is especially intended to help girls who are unsuited to life in existing rescue homes, and to the openings these provide — girls who by birth or the cir- cumstances of their lives belong to the middle classes and who would not be satisfied with work which did not bring out their individuahty and refinement. Other kinds of artistic work are also to be imdertaken in coimection with this employment scheme, and training in such skilled trades as upholstery, dressmaking, and photography will be offered to the girls. In the domain of ameliorative effort an incident is SALVING AND SAVING 291 worth recording which shows how strong an anchor is work in that direction among girls who by reason of occasional economic stress undergo periods of strong temptation. It is well known how deep an interest in less fortunate womenfolk is taken by the Duchess of Albany, "not only in connection with rescue work, but also in brightening and cheering the lives of women workers. The Albany Institute at Deptford, which is carried on under the auspices of the Deptford Fund, is a case in point. The writer was told by a friend with whom the Duchess had some conversation recently, that Her Royal Highness is sincerely proud of the girls who belong to the Institute, and told of one occasion, particularly, when their loyalty to her ideals and to the standards of pure womanhood were strongly tested, and stood the strain. It happened some years ago, when the Act was passed making it illegal to employ girls in the slaughter-houses at Deptford Cattle Market. The Duchess was away at the time, and curiously too, the Chief of the StaflE at Deptford had just started her fortnight's vacation. This meant that when the girls were out of employment, and hard put to it — even to the extent of pay/ning their jewels — ^to keep themselves from starvation, there was no one in whom they could confide. It was learned later that White Slave vultures did their utmost to lure these girls to ruin with glittering promises of money many times more than they had earned before, but not one of the fifty discharged Cattle Market girls who belonged to the Institute would sell her honour, though they were in dire straits. The Duchess in relating the facts added with feeling that she had " never heard of a more heroic deed." Another finely conceived work initiated under Royal auspices was the Hostels founded by the late Mrs. Archi- bald Mackirdy (Olive Christian Malvery), whose zealous, and oft-times fiery propaganda in the cause of purity is famiUar to the public. Mackirdy House was opened by the Duchess of Albany 292 THE MASTER PROBLEM in November, 1911, at 79 Great Titchfield Street, Oxford Circus, London, and handed over by Mrs. Mackirdy to Mrs. Bramwell Booth to control. The Mackirdy House had its origin in those experiences which were the prelude to " The Soul Market " and " Thirteen Nights." Mrs. Mackirdy discovered from bitter experience that there was often no place save the casual ward in which a virtuous but penniless woman could seek shelter for the night. In her trenchant way Mrs. Mackirdy, in speaking at the 1911 Welsh Conference on Public Morals,^ gave expression to her views : — " I dare say rescue homes are all right in their way, but real homes are of far more value to the nation. To give a woman who is on the verge of ruin a taste of home is to wake in her heart a desire for home life — the most wholesome desire, next to the love of God, that a woman's heart can know. This desire will inspire quite hopeless women to efforts of self-respect and ambition." This opinion, enunciated in October, became a concrete fact in the November by the opening of the Home, the motif of which is well explained in Prevention, the organ of the National Council of Public Morals : — " Mackirdy House is not a Rescue Home, neither is it an ordinary Lodging-house. It is a Home in London where a girl can stay if out of work, or between one situation and another ; where she can live safely, cheaply, and well — in some instances she may be received without pajmient should the case demand it — and where she has a good chance of hearing of a position which may suit her. There are no rigid restrictions, there are very few rules, and there is every personal convenience and practical comfort. " The aim of the Home, the reason for it, its right to exist is to cater for girls who, without its aid, might sink and even- tually ' fall.' It is to prevent this, and therefore to raise not alone woman, in the sense of the individual, but womanhood in its far-reaching practical bearing on the race, the nation, the future." * Under the auspices of the National Council of Public Morals. SALVING AND SAVING 298 Within a few hours of the opening of this house a young girl,- fifteen years old, ran away from home and came to London to look for work. Mrs. Mackirdy related the incident : — " The girl was penniless and friendless. A haunted look was in her eyes ; fear on her bewildered face. The ghouls of the streets dogged her steps. They had marked her for their prey. At midnight a ' worker ' found her roaming, distressed, far from home. Now that foolish but innocent one is being trained. Work will be found for her — and friends. The love of thousands of women has made it possible to save such a girl — ^has removed one more reproach from our national life." Queen Mary opened another Mackirdy Institution in 1913, the Hostel and Haven in Paddington. The con- trol here was vested by Mrs. Mackirdy in the Church Army, and the whole conception bore the stamp of the founder's strong individuality. Mrs. Mackirdy did not become a fashionable " slummer," she became a tramp. She sold from the gutter, lived in lodging-houses, and bore for a long period all the vicissitudes of the poorest, learned the temptations they undergo, and on returning to her normal sphere in life devoted herself to making it more possible for good women to remain good. The business-like thoroughness of her achievement of the Hostel and Haven makes some extended description justifiable, as a guide to similar effort. In the words of " Prevention " : — " The Hostel and Haven are situated in one of the pleasantest parts of Paddington, standing on high ground, and commanding an extensive view away to the north of London. No praise can be too sincere for the admirable and carefully planned arrangements, equally well carried out, which will make these houses a model for many others of a like character. " They are located in what was formerly a Girls' College, and consist of two good old-fashioned houses connected, so far as the central hall and chapel are concerned, otherwise separate. Nothing could have been more appropriate for 294 THE MASTER PROBLEM Mrs. Mackirdy's idea of a double home, the one for hard- working girls and women of the more educated class, and occupying positions in business houses or offices but possessing very small means ; while the other house will be kept for those who, through misfortune and poverty, have drifted lower in the social scale, and finding themselves in dire temp- tation and need, will fully appreciate all the advantages of such a refuge and home either as a temporary or more per- manent residence. " In the right-hand house the accommodation consists of a large pleasant dining-room where meals are nicely served, apd a daily menu of considerable length and variety is arranged at the most nominal prices imaginable, yet consisting of the best and most appetising kind of food. No meals are com- pulsory ; only the cubicle or bedroom has to be paid for a week in advance ; beyond this, everyone is free from further obligation. The rooms, including cubicles, range from 3s. 6d. to 8s. a week, and are most comfortable and inviting. " On the other side of the house several of the rooms remain as dormitories, the others having been fitted up as cubicles. Pretty bed-coverings tone with the wallpaper, and every- thing is bright and attractive to a degree — all for the sum of from 2S. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a week. " In addition to these rooms there is a large sewing-room where personal mending or dressmaking can be done, while others use it merely for a sitting-room. The whole of the top floor has been cleverly fitted up as a model laundry. Tire floors are covered with concrete, and every appliance is of the latest and most scientific type. An outside lift conveys the coal and fuel from the basement, and here it is proposed to do the whole of the household laundry, assisted by women who have been accustomed to similar work, or who wish to be trained for laundry workers. At stated times each week the laundry and ironing-room will be placed at the disposal of any of the residents who care to use them, a small charge of one penny being made for the hot water and other con- veniences. There are two dining-rooms, the one already mentioned and a large one in the basement, the price of the food varying slightly so that each section has its own tariff. " A very beautiful private chapel, formerly used by the college, is attached to both houses, and here simple service and prayers will be held every day to which all are welcome." SALVING AND SAVING 295 Mrs. Mackirdy, not long after this Hostel was opened, died suddenly in the prime of her life. '^ This gospel that prevention is better than cure is, indeed, much more than a truism in dealing with the Social Evil. The ill wrought by the moment of abandon- ment is past " cure." Therefore, the cause of purity is far better served by active prevention on the one hand and by further helping the girl to realise her better self, and by bringing some happiness into her drab life. So often these girls are untrained and ill-regulated in life. They have false ideas of enjoyment, and probably hate or despise useful work. They lack self-respect and self-control. The task required of the community, and which the community must require of any institution that undertakes to deal with them, is to introduce a person who has a false idea of life to a truer idea ; to train an ill-trained girl, who dislikes work, to self-control and a love of useful activity ; to enrich the life of an ignorant pleasure-seeker with new and wholesome in- terests which shall drive out and supersede the old ones — to lead her to the knowledge of the true joy of hfe. Against his notes for the foregoing reference the writer added a marginal query, " What about sex-isolation ? " It is an important question. The hunger of young people of one sex for the innocent enjoyment of the company of the other is very real, and very natureil. If more freely it were catered for, the working out of the Master Problem would be easier. Young people will not be " policed," but under wise and benign chaperonage various experi- ments where girls and young men have been encouraged to take their enjoyments together have proved highly successful, and untoward results have been nil. There is a strong feehng in this direction in the North of England, and, as briefly mentioned earlier, such a venture on the part of a section of the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation in connection with soldiers' camps was most happily developed. It has been sought to give above a general idea of 296 THE MASTER PROBLEM the range of effort put forth by British workers, rather than to recognise and describe every known and worthy agency. Manifestly no more could be done in the space available, or without making invidious distinctions. Other unnamed institutions and societies are doing splendid work, some, maybe, even larger in scope than the particular ones specified, as, for instance, those great and valuable institutions, the National Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Children and the Jewish Preventive and Rescue agencies which are second to none in the kingdom in their wise and efficient government; the Roman Catholic Homes and various Church of England Diocesan organizations forming together a most beneficent network of redemptive agencies throughout the land. The writer has sought merely to epitomise what is being done by taking representative spheres. In this way too, the preventive reformative and correctional work which is being done in the United States of America will be sufficiently conveyed, by some account of representative work in New York City. Certain societies and institutions exert a potent though indirect influence as preventive agencies — among them the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the New York Society .for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. A few institutions render more direct service — the Associa- tion for Befriending Children and Young Girls and the Children's Aid Society, for example. These, with the Home for the Friendless, the Sheltering Arms, the girls' departments of the Catholic Protectorate, Juvenile Asylum, and other organisations maintain homes for the young. There are, moreover, numerous settlements with a hold on the young through kinder- gartens, clubs, and friendly services, doing a quiet but constantly effective preventive work ; independent girls' clubs, thirty special ones in New York, providing oppor- tunities for friendship, recreation, and training ; some societies, such as the Girls' Friendly, offering attractions to girls who have few advantages in their homes. The SALVING AND SAVING 297 work of the Committee on Amusements and Vacation Resources of Working Girls has been active in the diffi- cult dance-hall problem, previously shown to be an important factor in the exploitation of prostitution. The Travellers' Aid Society, which assists incoming women of all classes at railway stations ,and docks, is a valuable safeguard. This society definitely helped 18,562 persons in the year 1914. Of these, 5161 were from seventeen to twenty-five years of age, and nearly all women. Similar work for traveUing coloured girls is done by a department of the National League or Urban Conditions among Negroes. The Big Sisters assist girls who have already come to the point of grave danger. Working along the lines already marked out by the Big Brothers' Movement, women of devoted abilities are taking little girls who have already yielded to temptation and endeavouring to win them to useful lives. Homes for working girls and women, though touching this need indirectly, touch it strongly ; seventeen hun- dred women are accommodated in such homes. Their economic value has long been realised ; their moral and social importance is beginning to be appreciated. Their usefulness as preventive agencies probably varies with the degree of experience, resourcefulness, and sympathy possessed by those who are directly in charge. Among the more definitely preventive agencies may be mentioned, first, societies of a national scope which aim to create healthy sentiment by emphasising the grave dangers of the Social Evil. Such are the American Federation of Sex Hygiene and the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, operating through meetings, lectures, and printed matter ; the American Vigilance Association, which, originally organised to secure legisla- tion, has now extended its operations so that it is actively engaged in a propaganda that touches the entire field of commercialised vice. Prominent among local organisations is the Committee of Fourteen, originally organised for the suppression of the Raines Law Hotels, now occupied in combating all 298 THE MASTER PROBLEM manifestations of commercialised sexual vice in New York. Two societies doing important work in educational preventive work — ^the New York Probation Association and the Church Mission of Help. The Probation Associa- tion organises among working girls protective leagues. Their main purpose is to secure the help of girls in pro- tecting other girls. The Church Mission of Help organises bands of women, principally in Episcopal churches, to study the needs of wayward girls and to give help as they are able. Both of these societies encourage parents, guardians, and girls in need to come to them for advice and help, thus making their work more personal. The more definite and concrete examples of preventive work appear in the work of homes which concern them- selves with individuals in distress. They take girls, some of them very young girls, who are subject to bad influ- ences, who are incorrigible, or who for various reasons find difficulty in their home life. Of such homes there are several. Those reaching the larger numbers are represented by the Children's Department of the House of Mercy, and the House of the Good Shepherd. For coloured girls the work on the larger scale is done by the Howard Orphan Asylum. The smaller homes, of which there are at least six in New York, deal more personally with the individual girl. Their capacity ranges from twenty-five to seventy- five. Of this type is the Free Home for Young Girls. The inmates, mostly sent by guardians and friends, are from eleven to seventeen years of age. A real home hfe is maintained. Most of the girls attend the public schools, and all are taught sewing, simple cooking, laundry work, and housework. In Brooklyn the Train- ing School and Home for Young Girls cares for and trains girls by a method similar to that of the Free Home. The House of the Holy Family, which is partly preven- tive, is conducted by the Association for Befriending Young Girls, and cares for seventy-five young girls, mostly Roman Catholics. Special attention is given to the matter SALVING AND SAVING 299 of amusements ; religious as well as friendly care is pro- vided. Provision is made for all girls leaving the home. This home cared for 177 girls in 1912. The Washington Square Home, a non-sectarian institu- tion, provides a home for indefinite periods for girls who have erred or who are in danger of so doing. They come voluntarily to the home. Sixty-four were received in 1912, the average age of the girls being eighteen. In- struction in housework, laundry, and plain sewing is given. Girls are kept as long as necessary to train for self-support. All these homes maintain good discipline and friendly relations. The girls usually go out equipped to live and with a strong appreciation of what has been done for them. The border line between preventive and reformative work is in theory definite and clear ; in practice, as illus- trated by institutions, it is rather hazy. Reformative institutions and homes endeavour to help women who have actually pelded to temptation or to force of circum- stances. The Margaret Strachan Home cares for twenty-four girls temporarily. They come voluntarily, through doctors and mission friends, remain from one to six months, receive certain training and are sent out to maternity hospitals or to friends. There were eighty girls in the home in 1911, most of them under twenty years of age. For upwards of thirty years this home has been conducted under the management of an association of religious women. The Wayside Home in Brooklyn pro- vides a home for friendless girls. It emphasises home care and practical training. The St. Michael's Home at Mamaroneck is operated under the Protestant Episcopal Church by the Sisters of St. John the Baptist. It cares for sixty girls at a time, most of them for the space of two years. Of the larger institutions the House of the Good Shepherd, the House of Mercy, the New York Magdalen Benevolent Society, and the Ozanara Home for Friend- 300 THE MASTER PROBLEM less Women each receive wayward women of all kinds, and the House of the Good Shepherd and the House of Mercy receive little girls from dangerous surroundings. The Magdalen Society is the oldest of this kind, having been founded in 1833. The Ozanam Home in Brooklyn, under the leadership of Roman Catholic women, offers shelter and help to those who wish to reform and as a rule remain in the home over three weeks. In the year 1912, 667 were cared for at public charges and 198 at private charges. The House of the Good Shepherd can care for 500 women and girls, making it the largest institution of the kind. No account is taken of race, colour, or creed, although probably the majority of its wards are Catholic. The girls are divided into classes according to their con- dition and purpose of entering the institution. The House of Mercy does a similar work under the guidance of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the capacity of this house being no. The women do the work of the large laundry which is a source of income. Attention is given to recreation, religious training, and to the life after leaving the institution. The Magdalen Benevolent Society Home cares for about 100 women, the larger part of whom are committed by magistrates. Erring women under thirty years of age also come voluntarily into the home for six months or more. Unmarried mothers with babies are received and trained. This home is non-sectarian in its management and its work. Certain homes are specially devoted to unmarried girls expecting to become mothers. The Heartsease Work for Friendless Women in this city, the St. Faith's Home at Tarrytown, and Lakeview House at Arrochar, Staten Island, are perhaps the best examples. To these the girls come voluntarily or are directed by relatives, friends, and charitable workers. Mothers with their children are kept for two years in most cases. They are taught all kinds of home work and especially nursery work. Safe places are provided for all leaving the home. SALVING AND SAVING 301 Lakeview Home, operated under the direction of the Council of Jewish Women, does a similar work for Hebrew girls. Definite work to reform this class of women done by three religious organisations may be mentioned here — that of the Chinatown Settlement, the Rescue Mission in Doyers Street, and of the Salvation Army. These organisations are in a position to touch those more deeply involved in vice ; but the majority of the girls they reach are not prostitutes. The Chinatown Settlement offers a home and friendly relations to girls drawn into Chinatown. It brings to the home an average of seventy-five different girls per month. The Rescue Society reaches girls through mission services, clubs, and classes. Two thousand seven hun- dred and forty-eight women were touched by the services in 1911. The Salvation Army maintains rescue and industrial homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as it does in all the chief cities of the land. The home in Manhattan cares for fifty women and is always full. Some midnight rescue work is done ; but the girls actually taken from the streets are few. This work, which formerly depended largely upon religious results in meetings, now accom- plishes more by personal influence of workers. The leaders state that perhaps 80 per cent are reformed. The two homes that probably touch the problem of the prostitute and commercialised traffic in women more closely than any others are Waverley House and the Florence Crittenton Home. The leaders in these homes are in close relation to the magistrates' courts and both take care of witnesses in White Slave cases pending in the Federal Court. Waverley House is under the management of the New York Probation Association. It accommodates eighteen girls, who come through the courts, as above mentioned, and through philanthropic and religious organisations. Two hundred and nine were cared for in the house in 1912. Personal attention and careful study are most 302 THE MASTER PROBLEM prominent in this house. Classes in the useful arts, English, and music are provided. The Florence Crittenton Mission is one of many homes of the same name situated in the larger cities of this country. It formerly engaged in . , rescue mission work for both men and women. Its work is now limited to the care of erring women. The home contains sixteen rooms, each occupied by two or more persons. The girls are probationers, girls released on suspended sentences, witnesses in white slave cases, and women discharged by the courts ; a few come from caf^s and from the streets. During an entire year, 501 girls passed through the home. The disposition of the girls above mentioned was as follows : — Situations . 183 Sent home . 185 Deported . 17 In care of organisations 58 Committed to institutions 19 Left against wishes 17 In Home . 22 The work is financed and managed by the National Florence Crittenton Mission. The wide work of the New York Probation Association, which deserves mention here, is in the form of a careful study of all the cases with which it has to do. A thorough physical examination is given each girl by a physician. A mental examination follows, and cases are placed under the direct supervision of a skilled neurologist and psy- chologist. Careful records of all facts are kept. The discovery of physical and mental weakness, often after prolonged study, leads to a definite course of action. Such scientific results are not only valuable in the practi- cal treatment of the individual girl, but furnish a basis on which the Courts act, and are of wide usefulness to the student of the conditions which lead to moral delin- quency. There are three main correctional agencies in New SALVING AND SAVING 303 York City: the New York State Training School for Girls at Hudson, the State Reformatory for Women at Bedford, and the Workhouse. A real work of correction is also accomplished in the case of those committed to the House of the Good Shepherd, the House of Mercy, and the Magdalen Benevolent Society Home. The New York State Reformatory for Women at Bed- ford Hills, New York, was opened for commitment in May, 1901. It is supported entirely by State appropria- tions. It receives women between the ages of sixteen and thirty years from Greater New York, Long Island, and the tier of counties on each side of the Hudson River as far north as Albany. Over 80 per cent of its inmates come from Greater New York. The institution is situated in the heart of Westchester County — thirty-nine miles north of New York City. It has a capacity for 340 inmates, with a population of 505. It is built on the cottage plan. The idea of the institu- tion is that of a good industrial school. Much outdoor work of a constructive character is carried on, both for its physical effects and for mental and moral results. In- dustrial training in laundry work, various branches of needlework, cooking and other branches of domestic science is given. The inmates have musical and dra- matic clubs. Their rehgious needs are met by services conducted by clergymen of their respective denomin- ations. The New York State Training School receives girls under sixteen years of age from the entire State. Those from New York City come through the Children's Court. The equipment of the school is very good, the chief need being for more room. The cottage system used accom- modates 385 girls, in separate sleeping-rooms. The households are practically independent of each other, thereby offering, as far as is possible, the conditions and spirit of a real home. The methods of work and the life in the school are most commendable. A personal and individual interest in each girl is manifest from the time of commitment through 304 THE MASTER PROBLEM the school Hfe and for years after the school is left. Dis- cipline is varied, with the principle always in mind that the individual and not the offence is to be treated. Humiliation and loss of self-respect are avoided, if possible. The living conditions and training seem excellent. Amusements are afforded at proper times, are well arranged and heartily indulged in. The Workhouse receives about 75 per cent of all women prisoners convicted of offences related to prostitution in the magistrates' courts in this city. In the year 1912, 3513 women charged with soliciting and loitering were committed to the Workhouse for periods up to six months. About 50 per cent of these, as shown by the finger-print process, are repeaters, each of whom had been arrested from two to eight times. The life in the Workhouse is generally conceded to be not only useless but actually harmful. In the United States of America as in British Reforma- tive Agencies, the main idea is to create the " home " atmosphere, which is recognised as being the most potent influence to keep wayward girls straight and to bring erring women back into good useful lines. Another distinct department of ameliorative activity is the care of the feeble-minded, or subnormal. The feeble-minded girl of the upper or middle classes does not get on the streets, because in the majority of cases she can be taken care of. But a feeble-minded girl who is expected to earn her own living is not fit, under any condition of society, to earn a living wage, except in that one way. The remedy for this is not economic ; no one would propose that the feeble-minded should receive the wages of capable workwomen. The remedy is to have them looked after and taken care of. In the Bedford Institute of America some 30 per cent of the prostitutes under its roof were subnormal in mental condition at the time the appended census was taken. It shows by six graded groupings the state of the 193 feeble-minded women examined on the occasion of the census. SALVING AND SAVING 305 Border-line — neurotic . . 26 Distinctly feeble-minded . 107 Insane — under restraint 20 Insane tendencies 3 No moral sense .... . 26 ' ' Wild ' ' — truants — runaways II Flexner, speaking at a period just before the War, said : " Of twenty-one girls recently placed in a newly estab- lished observation home in Berlin, five were reported as being mentally below par." Mrs. Bramwell Booth's experience is that an average of 12 per cent are feeble- minded. The prostitutes, however, who were committed under the Inebriate Acts (British) during 1909 showed almost 70 per cent below normal. This high proportion is of course due to the alliance of insobriety and im- morality. Upon the point of mental defect imposing a predis- position to immorality and thence to prostitution. Dr. Branthwaite, in the course of a balaijced and thoughtful pronouncement, says, " There is almost consistent evi- dence of some causative relationship between mental defect and prostitution." Direct evidence of this predisposition of the mentally afflicted, owing to their lack of restraint or reasoning power or recognition of the shame of the act, or in- ability to combat insidious male advances, is given by the Whethams in their book published in 1909.^ These authors say : " The lack of self-control which drives feeble-minded boys into the prisons, sends the girls on to the streets." This conclusion is based upon an ex- amination of the valuable evidence of the Royal Com- mission on the Feeble-Minded. A mass of evidence is given on the ramifications of evil prevalent among the feeble-minded. In this connection it is significant to notice that though the authors do not treat their work as a contribution towards the Master Problem, nor do they aim at discussing the causes of prostitution, yet the ' " The Family and the Nation " (Longmans), by William C. T>, and Catherine D. Whetham. 306 THE MASTER PROBLEM only two examples they give to demonstrate " the descent of mental defect " are certainly instructive upon the topic of predisposition. The first starts from an eccentric father and an insane mother, of whom a daughter is born. That daughter is mentally defective, and without marriage becomes the mother of two girls, both mentally defective. One girl is \mder detention, the other has had two girls by some man unknown. The second case, where the father was unknown and the mother mentally defective, produced three mentally defective girls. The first was a prostitute before the age of fifteen, the second had a child without marriage, and the third is under special control. Wherever one turns there is abundant evidence that feeble-mindedness is a prolific cause of predisposition to immorality and prostitution. Dr. C. W. Saleeby, in " The Progress of Eugenics," a work also unconcerned with problems outside its subject, has penned a dictum which shows how strongly within the realm of expectation is immorality among the female feeble-minded : — " We have " educated ' the feeble-minded girl, until she ' got into trouble,' and then her feeble-minded child, until she ' got into trouble ' ; and we now have all three genera- tions, all feeble-minded and all illegitimate, living together in the same workhouse." This proneness to sexual desire on the part of the feeble-minded is realised by social workers in every direction. So recently as July, 1915, this was definitely recognised in a warning issued in connection with the San Francisco Exposition. " No girl or woman should visit San Francisco who is not fully warned of conditions and instructed as to safe methods of travel. Few perfectly normal girls who are thus informed will be in any actual danger. The usual methods of the vice- mongers are slower though no less sure where a girl yields to first approaches and temptations, We know of no safe- SALVING AND SAVING 307 guards that can adequately protect the ignorant girl or the feeble-minded or subnormal girl except the company of rela- tives or close acquaintances and friends." Dr. H. H. Goddard, the Director of Research at New Jersey, who has written competently upon this subject, says : — " We may look at the various reformatory institutions for females above the age of perhaps fourteen. Two facts here bear upon our question. First, it is well known and ac- knowledged by all that a large percentage of these women in our reformatories are there because of sexual irregularities, which means at least the beginning of a life of prostitution, and oftentimes much more than a beginning. " The second fact, only recently coming to be understood, but demonstrated by careful psychological study, is that a large percentage of these people are feeble-minded." Nor is the Professor contented with institutional enquiry : — " In company with two physicians," he says, " I made a brief observation of three disorderly houses in Philadelphia, seeing about thirty inmates. We had no hesitation whatever in certifying that two-thirds of these women were feeble- minded and would have been proper persons to be in institu- tions for the feeble-minded." Finally, in considering the whole range of prostitution, Dr. Goddard quite frankly admits that " the per- centage due to each of the many causes is not known," yet we may assess it as follows : " Pure wickedness " — doubtful if any ; possibly i per cent. " Sex perversion " — probably 2 per cent is a liberal allowance. " Inordinate sex appetite uncontrolled " — not over 2 per cent. " Inno- cent girls betrayed " — 10 per cent is probably high. " Poverty and the industrial situation " — it may be 15 per cent. " Involuntary— white slaves " — doubtless less than 10 per cent. Here we have then, all told, only 40 per ceitt accounted for. I do not pretend that if a hundred or thousand prostitutes were asked they would not assign reasons which could be classified as above and 308 THE MASTER PROBLEM give a much larger percentage. But what we mean is, that the percentage of otherwise healthy, normal women, the real cause for whose prostitution could be classified under these heads, would probably not run very different from what is here given. " How then shall we account for the other 60 per cent ? The answer is by a condition long ignored, because we have been largely ignorant of it, but which from now on we cannot fail to take into account. In a word, they are feeble-isinded and not responsible for their mode of life." Various other causes predispose to vice, such as lurid talk, bad example, drink, loose and suggestive situations in music-hall and cinematograph presentations, dancing- halls — so popular and so fatal in America — and other influences which could be enumerated. But these are exterior forces causing a general undermining of character, rather than direct factors to sexual immorality and so do not rigidly come within the category of the chapter. Two strongly silhouetted causes are projected by the arguments that have been advanced and the supporting evidence given in the same connection in this chapter. Both lead to a common solution. An appreciable contri- bution to the supply of prostitutes comes from homes where poverty does not reign, but where parental con-" trol, training, and example are either absent or lax. Consequently, temptation is coyly dallied with rather than rigidly shunned. The second factor also arises from lack of mind occupation and is found among a poorer strata, where no semblance of home-life exists and where a frank, uncovered animal condition of life is a normal state. With nothing uplifting or refining to turn to, pernicious literature, loose conversation, and suggestive larking are courted for the salacious mental excitement they produce, and the fall comes. How strongly, therefore, to be advocated is a return to a simple and piure home-hfe and the realisation anew of the old truths of marriage-sanctity and parental responsi- bility. CHAPTER XIX MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE " The fear of the Lord is pure." — Psalm xix. " The first duty of the race is to see that its new-born are well-born. But it is difficult to come at because we are dealing with the one force most full of fire, power, and danger. " Yet surely, if men have trained the lightning to carry their messages and trail their cars, and manipulated their poisons into medicines, there must be a way to subdue this primal dynamic of pro- creation to intelligence. " The matter, however, can never be arranged as purely physical. It is bo\md up with all the higher functionings of the human spirit. You cannot regulate human beings as cattle." — F. Crane, d.d. HYGIENE is on the lips of every would-be reformer of the twentieth century. It is writ large over home, school, laundry, bakery, dairy, sanitary authority, and our daily press. Health is being fervently sought after by rich and poor, young and old ; and fresh air by night and day, cleanliness, regular and wholesome food, suffi- cient rest, sleep, and exercise, are now known to be itsi; first essentials. But over and above physical h3rgiene, > is social, mental, moral, and even spiritual hygiene, which , are all correlated. The indivisible connection between ' body and mind and their sleepless interaction is a vital factor in preventive medicine. Social health, too, results from this free interplay of mind on mind as much as from improved sanitation, public libraries, the green fields, and the song of birds. It is not, however, so readily recognised that morals have much to do with physical health. In politics, religion, education, com- merce, the moral issue is often uppermost, and in the end tends to prevail. Health and holiness are twins, and in spite of the example of unwashed anchorite' and mediaeval saint, are inseparable. " No morals," some- 309 310 THE MASTER PROBLEM one has said, " no man." With equal truth we may write, " No morals, no health." It does not, of course, follow that the imhealthy are immoral. Yet the normal condition of morality is a sound mind in a sound body. And the true; saint, even though no specimen appears upon the Church calendar, is the whole man — ^rightly developed in body, mind, and spirit. The unity of law which the late Duke of Argyll laboured to popularise in the nineteenth century lies at the root of things. It is and must be true that all truth is one, otherwise the whole structure of human knowledge is without foundation, and the conception of evolution which has revolutionised all our philosophy, an idle dream. From that all-embracing and illuminating pre- mise it follows that what is morally wrong cannot be physically right. That axiom cuts right across the whole question of the relation of the sexes, which is dealt with from many aspects in this book. It gives the lie direct to that oft-welcomed quackery which advertises that vice is a necessity, and to the whole array of so-called medical opinion which, once in England and still to a deplorable extent on the Continent, bolstered up the morally indefensible regime of the State regulation of vice. Chastity is the necessary condition, of physical well- being. The sowing of wild oats has always brought forth a harvest of spiritual and physical corruption. Certainly this plain test of the truth or falsity of the lop-sided moral standard which has condemned in woman what it has condoned in man, has not been practically applied. The confusion of doctors has confounded the ordinary man, and has justified the flesh to the spirit. Yet unless we hold fast to this simple truth in sim- plicity amidst all the mire of this world, we shall be in danger of coming to false conclusions and of losing our way in our present discussion. Social and physical hygiene are rooted in and intertwined with moral recti- tude. Because the above position almost instantly commends MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 311 itself to the enlightened reason and conscience, it would seem that it is hardly worth while further to discuss it. Unfortunately, however clear the truth may appear, it is not generally accepted in practice. The moral element is not readily discerned, for instance, in cold scientific facts. But unless we wrench them from their setting in the natural order of things, and from their relation, directly or indirectly, to human life, such facts of neces- sity have their moral aspects, whilst through the whole of the social facts comprehended under the term " society," the moral issue is supreme. The subordination of every fact and question affecting human interests— of religion, law, science, politics, health, medicine, hterature, amusements, national and international relations — ^to morals is, indeed, nothing short of a revolution. It has never been done in the history of the world. Wars have been waged for so- called religion, for land, money, pride — ^never for morals. Kings have struggled with the people, and have sent multitudes to their doom, and have themselves gone to the scaffold, but the causes and motives of the age- long strifes have often been tyranny, aggrandisement, hatred, revenge. Somehow or the other, when the end has come, it has seemed to justify the means, the results have turned out to be morally desirable. The ultimate issue, as the writer beheves, of the whole struggle for existence throughout the evolution of life, is good. The blind have fallen together into the pit, the people, crushed and bleeding, have groped through dark and tortuous ways to light and liberty. The feet of progress have been manacled and chained to dead weights which have dragged them back for centuries, yet, looked at broadly and through the long years, humanity has gone forward, the evil-doers have suffered, the good, if not the good presumably, yet the good has come by its own. When that faith, grounded in the very nature of things, and fortified by the drift of the whole events of history, and by the as yet incompletely revealed plan of the universe, is, in faith, applied to the detailed move- 312 THE MASTER PROBLEM ments of present-day society, the evolution of society is consciously quickened and directed. The test for each of us is not pedigree, money, position, but moral worth, and of the nation it is not dreadnoughts and gold, but moral character. This may seem to be merely an admirable copy-book motto, to be remembered but not applied. On the contrary, it is here stated to be the actual basis of ever3i:hing which has really lasted or can last, the one thing which matters. The health of the nation and of each class of society and of each individual lies in the fundamental truth — the basis of physical, mental, social, and spiritual health is in moral health. No morals, no society, is a statement of absolute truth. Commerce, education, friendship, all human relationship would be at an end without morals. Dishonesty, lies, do here and now wreck all relationships — and that within the span of an ordinary lifetime. The true relation of the sexes, whatever else it is, is only possible on a basis of morals. And morals imply equality in the very sense in which that word can be rightly used between man and man. Every right action of man and woman, great or small, is, before the moral law, of equal value, and every wrong action, even if done by a king and involving the whole life of a nation, is to be condenmed equally with the seemingly smaller acts of the private individual in private hfe. Before that law each action is equal, and each action is equally judged. That is the true doctrine of the equality of the sexes. By some it has been said that as the woman suffers more than the man, therefore it is not so sinful for the man to sin ; that nature has obviously made some distinction, and that our moral and civil laws should operate in conformity to these natural differences. Our conten- tion, on the contrary, is that whatever may appear to be the grades of difference in some of the results of wrong- doing, our moral code is not to fluctuate with them, to rise and fall according to them, but is inflexible, and ever the same, intrinsically, for all people in all time, whether "they discern it or not. There is no other equality between MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 318 the sexes, apart from this they are unequal, intended to be, and in spite of every effort to obliterate it, must so remain. All the wrongs — political, economic, and social — ^which woman has borne, would be removed if this single standard of morals was set up and observed. To attempt to right any of these ills without at the same time changing the fundamental error from which they arise is to begin at the wrong end and to court at least partial failure. The bedrock moral code must be exalted for any changes to become permanent. And our plea is that whilst it may be politic to attack results, it is wiser and more efficacious in the long run to strike at causes, and in overthrowing results never to fail at the same time to demand the ultimate fundamental reform. Social and moral hygiene implies much more than the recognition of these moral axioms. The whole round of relations between men and women and children are involved. The marriage laws, family hfe, the education of children for parenthood and citizenship, the employ- ment of women, the housing question, are amongst the questions to be considered. Is marriage to be a tem- porary or permanent contract, and what are the respon- sibilities of each party to it ? Can the woman claim damages if she is not financially supported and the intemperate or otherwise injurious conduct of the man makes it impossible for her to maintain the home and efficiently to feed, clothe, and train the children ? May the contract be enforced as any other contract before the law ? May motherhood be protected from diseases which would destroy her life and that of her children ? May she claim compensation for such outrages ? These are searching, socially and morally revolutionary ques- tions, and in our judgment the right answer would com- pletely overturn large sections of our civil laws, and alter the whole structure of modern society. This is an example of what the writer means by the far-reaching results of the recognition and application of the one moral principle which he has been inculcating in this chapter. The question of Moral Hygienics steps beyond the 314 THE MASTER PROBLEM personal, while also comprehending it. An individual is trained to personal cleanliness of soul and thought, but as useful and necessary a part of the " hygienising " process is to remove the contaminating elements from the reach of the individual, and especially the young, venturesome, and ill-restrained pl-oducts of latter-day civilisation. Our growing children must not be allowed to " burn their wings " because in their gay flutterings they are ignorant of the devastating power of the alluring flame. Hence a growing part of moral and social hygienics has been to hedge round with wise restriction some part of that much-worshipped god, " the liberty of the subject." Some such matters have already received considera- tion in these pages under the chapters more particularly discussing defined phases of the Master Problem. These may be called the basic requirements, such as the age of consent, the suppression of brothels, the banishment of regulation, and " making hard " the trade of white slave traffickers. Other factors in the attainment of social purity are equally important though not so vital. Some of the lesser known may be referred to here. It is an old story now how the music-halls were dealt witl^, and how licences for intoxicants were refused to the majority of places- of general entertainment ; not so pld is the ban in the interests of morality which the cinemato- graph producers put upon themselves. Incidentally, it shows an encouraging sign of the trend of social hygienics that purveyors of entertainment should themselves have censored their own products before such work was under- taken by a public official. It is the right thing to do. In the realm of preventive hygienics, one channel, little known to the general public as a vehicle for impurity and worse, is the Poste Restante. At the Congress in 1913 this matter received some special consideration from Baroness de Montenach, who reminded her hearers that the 1905 Congress voted a Resolution, asking that " the Post Office Authorities should take measures to prevent the delivery by the Poste Restante of correspondence to children not accompanied or not authorised by their parents." MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 315 In 1912, the International Conference at Brussels, at the request of the French National Committee, decided to discuss the question of the Paste Restante at the Con- gress of London in 1913, and the Swiss National Com- mittee was asked to present the Report. The Baroness made the most minute enquiries for the Swiss, etc. Because some optimistic persons did not believe that the Post Restante was greatly used by young girls, Baroness de Montenach was at pains to obtain informa- tion upon this point from different countries. Having established the fact of the frequent use of the Post Restante by minors, and the relations existing between the Post Restante and the traffic, she studied the regulations of different countries relative to the particular matter, and finally sought the opinion of competent people of different nationalities as to the desirability of more severe regulation, and as to the means to be taken to prevent possible abuses. " In Germany," said the Baroness in 1913, " the Paste Restante is very extensively used. In Berlin an alarming proportion of young girls of all classes, amongst whom are children of fourteen years of age, make use of the Paste Restante for clandestine correspondence. " We have been told of young girls of good family who go each day to the Paste Restante for the correspondence of their class mistresses. The columns of the Berlin journals are filled with a long series of communications and propositions to which replies are to be sent to the Paste Restante under numbers ; if the system were not successful it would have been abandoned long since. It is therefore evident that the replies solicited to the Paste Restante duly arrive. " At the hour when the shops and work-rooms are closed, either at midday or in the evening, crowds of young girls are to be found at the gratings of the Paste Restante, and among them many schoolgirls, all seeking their clandestine corre- spondence." Replies of the same nature were received from Munich, Strassburg, Frankfort, etc. 316 THE MASTER PROBLEM In Spain young girls ask, by means of newspaper advertisements, to enter into relations with gentlemen by means of the Poste Restante. In other cases it is the gentlemen who ask for " correspondents," or even through registry offices, which offer engagements, adding, as a condition, that the young girl — or child — should be pretty. Recently, a " beautiful " woman — these are the terms of the advertisement — asked of a man seventy-five francs, giving her address as the Poste Restante. From another, the advertisement may be seen : " Lady, discreet, offers private room, address Poste Restante." In Italy the Poste Restante is also much used by young girls ; at Milan the grating is crowded by them at the hours when schools and workrooms are closed, and amongst them are to be found quite children. The elder ones, for fear of being surprised, or owing to some remnants of shame, frequently send the younger ones to obtain their correspondence. A fatal example and a most deplorable initiation into evil ways ! And amongst the crowds waiting their turn are to be found criminals, making a choice of their victims from among the young girls whom they know to be easy prey ! In the chief towns of Switzerland, Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva, and Bale, the same abuses are to be noted. Although access to the Poste Restante has in France been forbidden to minors of both sexes, the fact that correspondence can be obtained by intermediaries has given birth to a veritable industry. At the entrances of the principal offices in the Rue du Louvre, and in the neighbourhood of the of&ces in the Rue Bleue, and in the Rue Milton, were established actual counting-houses where clerks, authentically of full age, and provided with papers in accordance with the circulars of M. Chaumet, receive a commission of ten cents per letter for obtaining letters addressed with certain initials. From Bordeaux information was given that many young girls make use of the Poste Restante, and it is added that the simple fact of going alone to wait her turn at the grating classes a young girl as a person of Ught MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 317 character ; she also finds herself in dangerous company there, exposed to the danger of hearing improper talk and of making most undesirable acquaintances. It is conclusive that the abuse of private letter boxes opens the door to worse evils, and the liberty accorded in France of having private letter boxes away from the home, and under a false name, permits most dangerous correspondence without risk of discovery. An official of the Paste Restante in Paris has stated that it frequently happens he has to distribute in one day more than one hundred letters to young girls under fifteen years of age. In Holland the Post Office officials state that young girls rarely make use of the facility. But many news- paper vendors who have kiosks, act as intermediaries for the Poste Restante clandestine correspondence. In England the Poste Restante is very little used. A professor living in Russia, who is the director of a large educational establishment, told the Baroness de Montenach that in that country the Poste Restante is a grave danger to morality. The previous year at Nijni- Novgorod eleven young girls between twelve and fourteen years of age committed suicide £is the result of relations entered into through clandestine correspondence. America has not remained indifferent ; the Postmaster of New York, for instance, has forbidden its use to young girls. It is incontestable that the Poste Restante is used by numbers of women and young girls for questionable purposes, and that it is in the hands of trafiickers and individuals without conscience a useful weapon for their criminal ends. Having in this way uncovered a vast network of dangerous influence, the inquiry by the Swiss Com- mittee was directed toward the restrictions existing. It was found that in a few countries the provisions of the law had been materially strengthened a very short time after the inquiries revealed the true state of matters ; but no uniformity of action exists. Since November, 318 THE MASTER PROBLEM 1912, France has demanded identification of applicants with their private address, and instituted an age limit. Norway, since January, 1913, only allows the Paste Restante to be used by travellers. Belgium has fixed fifteen years as the earliest age eligible to use the Paste Restante. Switzerland has made sixteen years, and the French limit is sixteen years for lads and eighteen for young girls, but only for the correspondence conducted under numbers or initials. Up to the present Belgium is the only country where it is forbidden to send, no matter to whom, letters addressed Paste Restante under numbers or initials. New York, Norway, and Hungary have recognised that the Paste Restante should only be used by persons travelUng in the locality and never by those possessing a permanent address. Among the ameliorations recommended, the most concise and at the same time the most comprehensive ' measures of regulation appear to be : — 1. Severe provisions for verifying the identity of the receiver. 2. The suppression of all correspondence addressed under initials or numbers. 3. The prohibition of the use of the Paste Restante to children under sixteen years of age. 4. And lastly, the restriction of the use of the Paste Restante to persons not living in the locality. On this subject something tangible is contributed by M. Hennequin, who says : — " Before the application of the French reform referred to in your manuscript, I asked that an experiment should be made in Parisian post of&ces in order to ascertain to what degree Paste Restante correspondence was conducted, and whether the projected reform was as badly needed as had been stated. The following is the result of investigations made during five days in ten of the Paris post offices, which will prove to you that the affair is of no mean importance. In fact, according to the figures I have before me, it is stated that during those five days, and in those ten post of&ces, the MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 319 number of correspondents under number or initials for boys under i6 years of age was 1327, and for young girls under 18, 3453 ! You will be so good as to note that these results were obtained from only ten offices out of the several hundreds which exist in Paris. " A very simple calculation will show that, supposing the Posie Resiante to be similarly active at least 300 days out of 360, there would be nearly 300,000 of these letters, under initials or numbers, for boys under 16 years of age and girls under 18 years of age, and that, as regards young women alone, with whom we here are particularly concerned, the number would have been 200,000 in ten months ! " Such correspondence has been found very frequently indeed to be initiated through the medium of newspapers, and it is to be remembered that the suppression of facili- ties should surely be accompanied by drastic action against the newspapers taking such advertisements. Otherwise, instead of being banished, the danger would only be removed to a less desirable locale and the Paste Restante service very quickly replaced by newspaper shops and registries. These agencies would thus be brought into contact with young girls of frivolous character, whom they could easily influence in undesir- able directions. A long recognised danger on the Continent, perhaps in greater degree than in England, has been the Employ- ment Agency. Under the cloak of being one of the genuinely honest and straightforward businesses of this kind, many girls have been enticed to their ruin. Workers at the Master Problem have been active in this matter, recognising the evil and framing plans to combat it. In this domain the Swiss Committee have been the leaders in gathering data and opinions in order to bring international powers to bear upon those who use an honourable calling for nefarious purpose. In various countries rules hedging round the operations of agencies have been put into force, and in England the London County Council framed and enforced a set of by-laws of considerable scope, the determinate 320 THE MASTER PROBLEM nature of which may be gathered by quoting two out of the sixteen provisions : — Clause II. " If an agent provides upon the premises sleeping accommodation or lodging for any female apphcant he— " («) Shall not suffer any room used by such female applicant for sleeping to be so occupied that there will be in such room less than 350 cubic feet of air space for each person accommodated therein. " (b) Shall keep exhibited in such room a legible notice stating the total number of persons which such room will accommodate in conformity with this by-law. " (c) Shall keep such rooms furnished with suitable separate bedsteads and sufficient suitable bedding for the number of persons which such room will accommodate in conformity with this by-law. " (d) Shall not cause or suffer any bed in such room to be occupied at any one time by more than one person. " (e) Shall not suffer any male person, other than a person in charge of the premises, to be in that part of any premises which female applicants are for the time being using for sleeping accommodation." Clause XVI. " A theatrical, variety, or concert agent shall keep a complete hst of children under the age of 16 years who are booked by him for engagements either in London or else- where, and shall in such list indicate the place or places of entertainment at which each child is booked to perform and the length of engagement of each child at each such place of entertainment." Apropos of this movement, and the London County Council regulations referred to, Mr. F. S. Bullock, C.I.E., of the Home Office, very pertinently remarked at the 1913 Congress on the White Slave Traffic : — " The subject of employment agencies is not new. In the year 1906, in Paris, our attention was strongly drawn to the danger of these employment agencies (theatrical and other- wise) to girls in search of employment. I was so deeply im- pressed with the danger to which these girls were exposed that I determined to give special attention to the subject when I returned to London. I found that there had been no MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 321 exaggeration in what was said to us in Paris. I found that girls were in the habit of going to theatrical agencies, and ran the gravest risks of getting into trouble unless they were warned and protected, and I therefore attempted to do what I could to introduce legislation in England for the control of these agencies. I am glad to say that we were successful in obtaining the General Powers Act of the London County Council, namely, power to supervise agencies in London for employment of all kinds. But when you have got your special legislation and got your agencies to work properly — when the girls are accompanied by their guardians or parents, and their contracts are properly supervised, and everything so far as law can make it is satisfactory, then you will find this danger — that agencies are not the only way to obtain employment. Here in London the supervision of the London County Council has simply driven those employers to news- paper advertisements. The newspapers offer employment of all kinds. Now, these advertisements lead to private interviews between the employer and the girl. It is a laudable desire, and an increasing desire, among women to obtain employment, but, if they put themselves into the hands of advertisers, who ask for private interviews in hotels or lodg- ings, the danger is greater than at the agencies. Then I would say just this note of warning — that you should bear in mind that the more strict you are with the agents, the more you drive people to advertise and to offer employment to young and innocent people who are desirous of getting work. By making the law too strict we shall drive people away from the agencies and send them to newspaper advertisements." It is admitted that the questionable agencies im- mediately resort to the newspapers. But the channel is not new to them, and the encouraging feature is that by rigid surveillance of agencies one more sphere of activity of the white slave trafficker is closed. In referring to newspaper advertisements, Flexner, when he was touring Europe in 1913 for the Bureau of Social Hygiene, made some investigation in London upon the matter, and interesting details will be found in his book, " Prostitution in Europe," pubhshed in 1 914. Some tangible advance has been made in dealing 322 THE MASTER PROBLEM with the evil by certain of the trade organisations both voluntarily and at the suggestion of the National Council of Pubhc Morals. Not a little, too, has been done in the realm of social hygienics by recent legislation which refuses intoxicants to young people and prevents children being taken into public-houses. Yet another effort may be considered ; one not of legislative origin — ^the White Cross League, which, itself, has latterly had a robust and energetic fellow-citizen of the fair country of Social Hygienics in the Alliance of Honour. The White Cross League is now known throughout the British Empire and in most Continental countries as an association of men working for the promotion of purity amongst men on the highest moral and most deeply spiritual lines. Its present name and organisation dates from the year 1891, but the name " White Cross " had been associ- ated with purity work undertaken by men amongst men on similar lines and especially with the five well- known " White Cross Obligations " several years earlier. The movement had its origin from two distinct sources — both of which sprang into existence in the eighties — the Churchman's Union and the White Cross Army. The movement spread far and wide, taking root in New York and Chicago in 1885, in Canada, Australia, South Africa, Trinidad, Japan, Shanghai, India, Ham- burg, and many other parts. In Bishop Lightfoot's own words, England in 1886 was " dotted over with associations, guilds, brotherhoods, and the hke, enrolled under the White Cross Banner." Then arose a demand for a society which should not be a distinctively Church of England organisation, or tmder a governing body composed exclusively of members of that Church. Such a society was formed in 1885. The " objects " were threefold : — I. To urge upon men the obligation of personal purity. MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 323 2. To raise the tone of public opinion upon questions of morality. 3. To inculcate a chivalrous respect for womanhood. Thus it will be seen that the movement aims at be- coming an educational force for spreading, especially among young men, the positive principles of purity rather than a repressive power for dealing with vice through the machinery of the law. Direct rescue work on the part of men is not encouraged. The method adopted for carrying out this three- fold object is to urge upon men of all classes the accept- ance of the five White Cross Obligations. These Obliga- tions are expressed in the following pledge : — 1. To treat all women with respect, and to endeavour to protect them from wrong and degradation. 2. To endeavour to put down all indecent language and coarse jests. 3. To maintain the law of Purity as equally binding upon men and women. 4. To endeavour to spread these principles among my companions, and to try and help my younger brothers. 5. To use every possible means to fulfil the conunand : " Keep Thyself Pure." The two societies carried on their work in perfect harmony, but in different directions, until the year 1891, when their respective fields of work began to overlap, whereupon they amalgamated under the title of the White Cross League. A work not so widespread, but embodying the same generic thought of personal purity, has existed among women for many years under the name of " The Snow- drop Bands." The avowed aim is to uplift the thought and lives of all who come under its influence by endea- vouring : (i) To create in their minds such an ideal of womanhood that they shall passionately desire to realise it, and (2) to strengthen them to resist the tempta- tions by which they are surrounded, and to take a firm stand on the side of purity. The origin of this movement was very simple. The 324 THE MASTER PROBLEM first Band, consisting of twenty-four members, was formed by Mrs. Arnold Watson, of Sheffield, the originator of the idea, and her friend Mrs. Pye Smith, in connection with a small Training Home for Servants. From that humble beginning the work has developed until at the present time Bands have taken root, not only in England, but also in Scotland and Wales, where national superin- tendents have been appointed, as well as in Australia, Tasmania, and South Africa, the whole movement being inspired and directed by that noble and courageous Secretary, Miss Nunnerly. The organisers of the Snowdrop Bands work to raise the whole standard of life and thought amongst working girls whilst they are still young enough to be led and helped. Also to get them to unite to make a brave stand against the kind of conversation, reading, and general low tone of mind too prevalent among them. The special features of Snowdrop Bands, as outlined by the founder, are : — First, the embodiment of a fair and winning ideal of womanhood in the emblem — the snowdrop — rising unsullied from the dark earth, and retaining its loveliness only as long as it retains its purity. The appeal thus made to the imagination usually meets with an instant and warm response from those to whom it is addressed. Secondly, the taking of a definite step, by signing the simple promise at the back of the membership card. This is the sole condition of membership.^^The pronnise runs as follows : — " We, the members of the Snowdrop Band, sign our names to show that, wherever we are and in whatever company, we will, with God's help, earnestly try, both by our example and influence, to discourage all wrong conversation, light and immodest conduct, and the reading of foolish and bad books." It is obvious that the faithful keeping of such a promise involves an amount of self-control which at times rises almost into heroism. These are a few of the influences making for a condition of moral and social hygiene. Other quietly prosecuted MORAL AND SOCIAL HYGIENE 325 effort is being consistently and constantly put forth for the purpose of purifying and purging systems and evil activities. The movements referred to for raising and ennobUng the individual outlook are by no means the sum-total of such effort ; they are but types of many such concerted and sustained activities which have been working with blessing for many a year. It is good to feel that though more than much remains to be done, much has been accomplished. i^ijLord Gladstone, in penning the foreword for the writer's little book on " Social Hygienics," said : — " It is well that a band of earnest men and women should concentrate their thoughts and efforts for the high purpose of holding ground already won, and of making fresh conquests for public morality." It is well. PART VI RENEWING THE RACE CHAPTER XX THE BIRTH RATE " The most brilliant civilisation the world has ever known was that of ancient Greece. It lasted only for an hour. It was trampled under- foot because it was on too small a scale. We have to realise now that the security of our own civilisation depends not only on the quality and efficiency of our people, but also on their numbers." — Mr. Herbert Samuel. " Think of the endless procession of little coiBns, bathed in mothers' tears, as they pass on to fill our graveyards with corruption. Half the maternal energy of this country is ruthlessly wasted 1 " — Lady Aberconway. THE tragic and stirring events of the last two years have brought the nation face to face once more with the crucial question of the birth rate, and the signi- ficant diminution of the percentage of increase. The duty of Motherhood has again been impressed upon the nation in imperative accents, and with it the perennial cry of the high mortality among infants. The quotation at the head of this chapter from a speech by Mr. Herbert Samuel was uttered at the Mansion House in 1915, at which the Deputy Lord Mayor of London presided, and at which many notable personages discussed the dual questions of Motherhood and Baby- rearing. Its dominant note was the repair of war waste among the men-folk of the nation, and its clarion cry, " more healthy babies." The same cry was raised in 1913, when the returns of the Registrar-General showed " the lowest rate since registration began." At that time the matter was taken 326 THE BIRTH RATE 327 seriously in hand by the National Council of Public Morals, who, seeing that the movement for a Royal Commission had no result, formulated a Commission of Inquiry on its own account, upon which served some of the most dependable experts of the United Kingdom. The Reports of the Registrar-General, which caused so much concern, demonstrated that whereas the average number of births each year by three-monthly periods in the United Kingdom for the years 1903-12 was : First quarter, 289,519-4 ; second quarter, 296,589-8 ; third quarter, 288,391-0 ; fourth quarter, 274,670-9 ; the number in the first quarter of 1913 was 271,948, and in the second quarter 285,831. According to the same return for the week ended August 30, there were 2043 births in the administrative county of London, or 120 below the average number per thousand in the corresponding week of the previous five years. In Greater London there were 3302 births, or 310 below the average.* The decline thus indicated is not an isolated pheno- menon observed only for the particular year under review, but is a point in a steady ebb, the lowest level of which seems hkely still to be reached. Thus, in the period starting 1861, the birth rate has descended from 35-1 to 23*9 in 1913. As will be seen from the following table, there was a rise between 1861 and 1875, but thereafter a continuous drop, until to-day the birth rate is roughly 10 per 1000 lower than in 1861. Birth Table per iooo of Population England and '861-65 1866-70 1871-75 1876-80 1881-85 Wales.... 351 35-3 35-5 35-3 33-5 Scotland ... 35-1 34-9 35-0 34-8 33-3 England and 1886-90 1891-95 1896-1900 1901-5 1906-10' Wales 31-4 30-5 29-3 28-2 26-3 Scotland ... 31-4 30-5 30-0 28-9 267 * A later return for the week ended October 25, 1913, showed that there were in the administrative County of London, including the City, 2021 births, 113 below the average. • For the United Kingdom 1911-13 the rate was 24'i. 328 THE MASTER PROBLEM This table is based upon the crude figures supphed by the Registrar-General. But Dr. Newsholme and Dr. T. H. C. Stevenson have made certain corrections which, whilst they do not invalidate the results, tend to qualify them and especially to explain why the birth rate in Ireland has not declined in the same proportion as in England. These statisticians have properly taken into considera- tion the varpng numbers of wives of child-bearing age in any given population, which is a vital factor in esti- mating the natural increase or decrease, and they arrive at the conclusion that for England and Wales, whilst the crude birth rate in 1901 was 28-5, the corrected is 28-4 ; for Scotland, crude, 29-5, corrected, 33-4 ; for Ireland, crude, 227, corrected, 36'i. Thus the fertility rate in Ireland is high, although the birth rate is low ; whilst in England the difference between the crude and corrected figures is too small to have any appreciable bearing upon the final result. It is instructive too, to notice the maximum and minimum birth rate for certain countries : — Maximum Minimum birth rate. birth rate. England and Wales . 33-9 in 1881 23-1 in 1910 Scotland . 337 ,. 1881 25-2 „ I9IO Ireland . 24-5 „ I88I 22-3 „ 1890 Hungary 45-6 „ 1884 357 " 1905 Austria . 38-9 „ 1882 33-5 „ 1908 Spain . 37-1 „ 1881 32-6 „ 1909 Prussia . 37-8 .. 1885 31-8 „ 1909 German Empire 37-2 „ 1884 321 „ 1908 Italy . . . . 390 „ 1884 31-5 » 1907 Belgium 31-8 „ 1881 24-9 „ 1908 France . 24-9 „ 1881 19-6 „ 1909 Since this table was compiled, further " crude " figures have become available, which show a continued down-grade, e.g. : — THE BIRTH RATE 329 United Kingdom 23-9 Hungary .> . . . . . . 34-8 Austria 31-4 Spain 31-8 German Empire 29-8 Italy 31-3 Belgium 237 France 187 The figures for the United Kingdom are for the year 1913, and the other countries for such years as were issued up to January, 1916. It will be noticed that the drop exhibited by the British rate is more serious than in any country in Europe except Hungary. It may or may not be a good thing that fewer children have been born to occupy vacant places, so that each has more elbow-room. It may or may not be true that the quality of human life has improved pari passu with the decline in quantity. But, subterfuges aside, we have to recognise that the birth rate has declined and is still dechning. No statistical or economic legerdemain can conjure that fact to vanishing point. Whether the decline has gained such momentum that it cannot be overtaken is another and a most opportune question ; but a decline which has been steady and almost persistent for some forty years is matter for serious thought. There is much sentimental talk about " the dignity of Motherhood " just now in face of the awful number of deaths on the battlefield, and the continued shrinkage of births. But the sacredness of all Motherhood is not included. A sharp line is drawn between the children of the married and the unmarried mother ; the latter is perhaps pitied, but nevertheless condemned to a hfe which is very often cursed. This is one of the causes of the present-day revolt of women against the parliamentary government of men. But it is only one. Intertwined with it are deeper causes which cut right through our marital life. If there are thousands of unwanted children outside wedlock 330 THE MASTER PROBLEM there are thousands inside. And there are worse results. A large number of women are the victims of hideous diseases which render their life and the lives of their children a living death, and with sad remorselessness brings actual death to a high percentage of children, while to the poor woman who is the wife of an unchaste man, barrenness is one of the penalties she pays for her husband's sin. Nor is this the only cause of a diminish- ing birth rate. The knowledge of the possibilities of the voluntary control of reproduction must have come almost as a revelation from heaven to many an unwilling mother in our land. That it has been accompanied by other conse- quences, almost as fatal to morality and to national existence, is undoubtedly true. The full truth is only now being realised by the Church and the Empire. The falling birth rate in glaring con- trast to the wastage of war is a public symptom which has opened the eyes of some people, but the full un- avoidable result is hidden from the sight of the great majority. For what does it mean ? If Motherhood has too often been fraught with disaster, it is now in more serious danger. If the Hves of women have been blighted by the sins of men, they are now being robbed of their only compensation — ^the life and love of children. They are in imminent danger, whilst revolting against man- made laws, of bringing about graver evils than they could remove by legislation or any other means. Sex antagonism, in the light of the new knowledge, would work greater havoc amongst women than men. It may be true that hiunan nature being what it is, sex relationships will probably in the end discover their proper adjustments. That is our hope. True love, as long as humanity lasts, will surely finally conquer and endure. But the way to that desirable adjustment may be strewn with the wrecks of would-be Motherhood and Fatherhood. Men and women aUke may become plastic victims of the new control of the trans- mission of life, and together may fall into the pit. As THE BIRTH RATE 831 always, woman will be the greater sufferer, and whichever way it is regarded, it seems inevitable that it should be so. To attempt to uproot these differences which seem grounded in the nature of sex and to be encompassed about by ancient habits, customs, rites and what not, is hke to the attempt of the baby to uproot a century-old oak with a pin. No amount of rhetoric can gild these hard facts. The sexes are not equal but complementary, and the true aim is to give each a wholesome environ- ment in which to develop to the uttermost its peculiar characteristics. The tremendous consequences of sex antagonism make the possession of a parliamentary vote a mere bagatelle which might conceivably turn out to be a curse in disguise. The time when only the children will be born who are desired and loved in anticipation is afar off. We have seen that nowadays many of them are unwanted, especially in the classes where they could be best maintained. Amongst these classes the average family is less than two, and that means, in a very short period compared to the life of the race, degeneration. Inbreeding may con- ceivably follow in the wake of these limited families, for the fewer they become the harder they may draw the line of class distinction. Then arrest of mental and physical development would ensue, for sterility would overtake fertility. The steps to this end can be clearly seen. First, the present higher classes would be swamped and slowly disappear, the lower middle classes would be affected in turn, then the skilled workmen — ^they are already tainted, as their maternity benefit returns show — and the less skilled labourers, the last to be reached, would become the chief breeding-ground, as they are fast becoming, of the larger proportion of each succeeding generation. The control of the production of human beings is one of the greatest discoveries of this age. Let me repeat that sentence — because it is not fully realised at first reading — ^the control of the production of human beings is one of the greatest discoveries of the age. Beside it telegraph and 332 THE MASTER PROBLEM steam-engine and printing press are mere children's toys. Man has become possessed of a weapon which might turn this planet into a dead world myriads of years before the sun fails to give sufficient warmth to sustain life ; a weapon which might set free the strongest passions of the human body and soul from all effective control when the rehgious, prudential, and economic governors have been removed. Temporary marriages or aUiances are amongst the lesser evils of this discovery. Parliamentary action to arrest the fall of population, endowment of motherhood, appeals to patriotism are, I fear, of little avail. They have been tried in France with no tangible result ; do they fare better in England ? The national and international changes resulting from this discovery can be glimpsed. The East outnumbers the West, and if physical force, as we are all so fond of saying, is the ultimate basis of government and national stability, then the centre of civilisation may once more change. We begin to know how Rome and the cities of the plain fell. The moral corruption of family life was one of the primary causes, and we are taking to heart the lesson. But we must add another lesson, the knowledge of this fact which was unknown to these ancient times — ^the voluntary control of the population. With this new factor, as well, to bear in mind, who will be bold enough to attempt to forecast the results ? Into this situation^ which had caused grave mis- givings, was projected the Commission of the National Council. Led by the Rt. Rev. Bishop W. Boyd-Carpenter, as Chairman, the Commissioners appointed were : the Bishop of Birmingham, the Duchess of Marlborough, Lord Willoughby de Broke, Lady Willoughby de Broke, Lady Aberconway, the Bishop of Barking, the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of St. Paul's, Sir John Gorst, Sir Thomas Whittaker, m.p.. Sir A. Pearce' Gould, Sir J. Macdonell, Sir J. Crichton-Browne, Surgeon-General G. J. H. Evatt, the Venerable Dr. W. Sinclair, Principal A. E. Garvie, Rev. J. Monro Gibson, Rev. R. F. Horton, Dr. A. T. Schofield, Dr. Major Greenwood, Rev. F. B. THE BIRTH RATE 333 Meyer, Rev. Thomas Phillips, Professor G. Sims Wood- head, Dr. A. Newsholme, Dr. T. H. C. Stevenson, Dr. J. W. Ballantyne, Dr. C. W. Saleeby, Dr. Agnes Savill, Dr. Ettie Sayer, Dr. Mary Scharlieb, Dr. Florence Willey, Rabbi Professor H. GoUancz, Professor L. T. Hobhouse, Mrs. General Booth, Mr. A. G. Gardiner, Mr. Walter Heape, Mr. J. A. Hobson, Mrs. George Morgan, Mr. R. Donald, and Rev. James Marchant, secretary. Dr. T. H. C. Stevenson, the Superintendent of Statistics for the Registrar-General, and Dr. A. Newsholme, Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, joined the Com- mission with the consent of the President of the Board and the Registrar-General, and whilst holding themselves free not to sign any public report brought to the help of the Commissioners an amount of indispensable statistical data. The Commission had an abundant field of enquiry. What was the position in that year ? The marriage rate had scarcely varied during the period under survey ; the marriageable age had remained fairly constant, although later marriages are becoming the rule, especially amongst the professional classes, yet the birth-rate declined. All manner of explanations of this singular phenomenon come to mind — ^the high standard of living and greater love of pleasure, and the consequent shirking of parental responsibility ; the higher education of women and their wider entrance into industrial and professional pursuits ; even fear of the pains of parturition has been pressed into the argument ; our alleged moral degeneration has been frequently upon the lips of preachers, whilst the view that the most worthy desire to give the fewer children born a better chance than the many had in earlier days is quoted with applause. Some biologists have come to the rescue with the plausible statement, which strongly appeals to our pride, that a lower birth- rate is a sign of our advance in the scale of civilisation, whilst " over-populationists " triumphantly argue that a lower birth rate actually increases the productive 334 THE MASTER PROBLEM capacity of the nation. Indeed, the catalogue of ex- planations is limited only by the ingenuity of the makers. But when it is finally exhausted, the one question the answer to which all must dread comes uppermost : not whether the birth rate is falling, but whether the fertility of our people is failing. The Commissioners set themselves to enquire into (a) the extent and character of the dechne ; {b) its causes ; (c) its effects ; and {d) to consider its economic and national aspects, e.g. : — First, the extent and character of the decline were considered under such headings as the present British birth rate and infantile mortaUty, general and classified according to income, occupation, province and county, urban and rural, and religion (where possible) ; statistics showing the proportion of sterile to total marriages (to find out whether smaller families or total childlessness is the cause of the fall) ; foreign statistics showing the extent of declining birth rates, special attention being paid to France and the Jews. Secondly, the alleged causes of the decline were investigated, under the head- ings of physiological causes (for example, the effect of town life, etc., upon lateness of marriage, fertility, number of marriages), prudential motives, and methods of restraint (moral, mechanical, and chemical). Thirdly, the effects of the decline of the birth rate, whether due to natural or artificial causes, were searched out, imder the headings of effects upon the children, upon the man and woman, upon married people, and up""dn home life. Fourthly, economic and national aspects were dealt with ; the Commission considered, for instance, the alleged results of a rapid increase of population in a country where the land is fully cultivated, of a permanent surplus of workers upon the condition of the working class (in the matter of unemployment, overcrowding, etc.) in the case of a declining or stationary population, and the alleged national danger of a disproportionate increase in other nations. After many meetings and a very careful analysis THE BIRTH RATE 335 of the evidence submitted, the Commission^ issued a report of its findings, the saliencies of which may be summarised as follows : — Commission's Conclusions From the statistical evidence the Commission consider that the following propositions are definitely established : — 1. That the birth-rate has declined to the extent of approxi- mately one-third within the last thirty-five years. 2. That this dechne is not, to any important extent, due to alterations in the marriage-rate, to a rise of the mean age at marriage, or to other causes diminishing the proportion of married women of fertile age in the population. 3. That this decline, although general, has not been uni- formly distributed over all sections of the community. 4. That on the whole the decline has been more marked in the more prosperous classes. 5. That the greater incidence of infant mortality upon the less prosperous classes does not reduce their effective fertility to the level of that of the wealthier classes. They further consider that the following propositions, although based upon evidence less substantial than that upon which conclusions (i) to (5) rest, are also sufficiently well established : — 6. Conscious limitation of fertility is widely practised among the middle and upper classes, and there is good reason to think that, in addition to other means of limitation, the illegal in- duction of abortion frequently occurs among the industrial population. 7. There is no reason to believe that the higher education of women (whatever its indirect results upon the birth rate may be) has any important effect in diminishing their physio- logical aptitude to bear children. Economic Reforms While concurring in the conclusions and recommendations of the whole Commission, twenty-four members are of opinion that something more will be expected of those who have had ' The Report of the Commission has now been published in a volume of 450 pages, and can be obtained from the National Council of Public Morals, 42 Great Russell Street, W.C, from los. 6d. 336 THE MASTER PROBLEM the advantage of considering the evidence and the informa- tion submitted. Two questions of fundamental importance especially seem to them to demand some answer : — 1. Is the present decline of our national birth rate regret- table ? 2. If it is regrettable, is it preventable, and if so how ? So far as the decline is due to the practice of abortion it is, they say unhesitatingly, to be condemned. The use of me- chanical and chemical preventives of conception injurious to health must also be censured. " We do not advocate an unrestricted birth rate, but we hold, on the one hand, that a stagnation or decline of our population would be injurious to the manifold interests of the nation, and that an increase, consistent with a continually rising standard of health, wealth, education, leisure, and happiness for the whole population, would in these same interests be desirable ; and, on the other, that by certain social and economic reforms, combined with moral and re- ligious influences, it might be possible not only to increase but also to improve the population." Among the reforms advocated are : — 1. A living wage. 2. A State bonus, by means of insurance, for children of parents whose earnings do not exceed £120 a year. 3. Separate treatment of husband's and wife's means in computing income-tax, and further remissions on account of children. ' 4. Improved facilities for secondary education, with special aid for large famihes. 5. The provision of adequate housing at reasonable rents. 6. Full development of the natural resources of the Mother Country and the Dominions, by the reform of land tenure and the improvement of agriculture. Finally, attention is drawn to the appalling infantile and child mortality, which must be ascribed to preventable causes ; and the consideration is urged that if it is desirable that children should be born, it is no less, if not even more, desirable that the children born should have a chance of life and health. Not strictly a birth-rate question, but one of out- standing national importance in these days of rapid THE BIRTH RATE 387 depletion of potential fathers by the attrition of warfare, is that of infantile mortality. Dr. Newman states in his book on Infancy that one- sixth of the infants of this country who are bom alive die before they are five years old. A large proportion of the remainder fail to reach maturity. Add to this the number of infants born dead, or who perish before birth, and it is safe to say that a vast number of children of this country begin their existence only to perish. This, therefore, provides an added powerful reason why the birth rate should not continue to decline. " In order that a nation should maintain its numbers un- altered " the Whethams maintain that " an average of four children must be born to each marriage." They argue at some length, and with the support of strong evidence, that 50 per cent of the children, either through not reaching maturity, or by not becoming fathers or mothers, " do nothing to continue the race." With considerable care Dr. Amand Routh, of Charing Cross Hospital, has drawn up a table of birth-loss and infant mortality which gives the sincere student abundant reason for consideration. Estimated Loss to England and Wales from Postpone- ment OF Marriage, Lowered Fertility, Ante-natal Deaths, and Infantile Mortality in 191 i Loss to population 1910. in 191 1. Potential loss due to postponement of marriage and reduced fertility of mar- ried women only .... — 430,193 Estimated abortions, premature labours, and stillbirths (in married and un- married women) .... 98,680 96,925 Recorded infantile deaths under one year of age (legitimate and illegitimate) . 94,579 114,600 Total estimated probable loss of popu- lation (potential and actual) for 1911 ..,,,, 641,718 338 THE MASTER PROBLEM On the other hand it is decidedly to the disadvantage of the State to encourage fertility to do its utmost at the expense of every other consideration. Without discussing the question of illegitimacy, there is the more tragic one of the feeble-minded folk. They are always prone to indulgence, and marriages between persons so afflicted invariably result in large families, the majority of whom are mentally deficient. The birth rate must be kept from falling if the British race is to maintain its supremacy, but even then our sons will fail of their birthright if quality is not an equal consideration with quantity. In the " Progress of Eugenics " Dr. Saleeby has stated the case for Race Regeneration in high-souled accents. He believes " that ' the soul of all improvement is the improvement of the soul ' ; that, since individuals are mortal, the quality and quantity of parenthood are the dominant factors in the destiny of any people ; that the culture of the racial life is the vital industry of mankind, everjrwhere and always ; that every child who comes into the world should be planned, desired, and loved in anticipation ; that the function of government is the production and recognition of human worth, and the extirpation of human unworth ; and that to these incomparable ends, for which, if for any, the world was made, all powers of man and of Nature must be made subservient." As life is constituted to-day the nation falls very far short of this ideal. The causes which lead to the path of error have been defined. They came into being with far greater facility than they can be banished. Industrial conditions, the master-delusion of Malthusians, and selfishness, are the main restrictions of the birth rate. These are the active tendencies at work in our midst. The surface symptoms are patent to the man in the street ; but their deeper causes and far-reaching effects are not realised. Many people shut their eyes to the facts and fondly believe that somehow things will right them- selves — and there may be a measiure of truth in that THE BIRTH RATE 339 belief provided we do not circumvent the operation of other natural laws. Probably we can also count upon the general advance of humanity and upon the inwrought experience of the race to keep us up to a certain level of propriety. Strictly orthodox beUevers fall back upon the dogmas of religion and preach these with increasing earnestness as the final remedy for all the ills that flesh may yet be heir to, whilst educationist and scientist rely upon what seem to them to be surer grounds for the ultimate readjustment of sex relationships on a safer and happier basis which shall not rob love of its romance, womanhood of her glory, manhood of its virility, or posterity of its life. Is not to-day a time of expectation, of deep fears, but also of high hopes ? CHAPTER XXI MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY " The world has no such flower in any land And no such pearl in any gulf the sea As any babe on any mother's knee." Swinburne. " We are beginning to realise that we are the keepers of our children, of the race that is to come after us. Our sense of social responsibility is becoming a sense of racial responsibility." — Dr. Havelock Ellis. THE present times would not be miscalled were they referred to asi, the crux of history. Civilisation, high ideals, populations, are in the balance against arrogance and materialism. The scales will turn most assuredly in favour of the Good. But at terrible cost. How deeply the realisation is biting into the consciousness of thinkers and those in authority is seen by the great meeting at the Mansion House in London, on the 26th of October, 1915, when was inaugurated " a campaign to promote the welfare of motherhood and infancy." At this important meeting, to which a passing reference was made in a previous chapter, Sir James Crichton- Browne said that a copious reinforcement of infant life was of vital importance to the economic future of the country. " We want," he continued, " not puny, atrophied, debilitated babies, but promising little pink buds of humanity." That, indeed, is the aim, too, of workers at the Master ■ Problem, because it is only by a high sense of parenthood and the consequent development of " buds " of mental and physical " pinkness " rather than mental and physical weaklings, that vice can be sensibly diminished, for the truest factor of race-regeneration lies in the family circle. The family is the basis of national Ufe, and as King 340 MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 341 George said in his memorable message to the Convocation of York, " It will only remain unshaken while.the family life of our face and nation is strong, simple, and pure." This is an axiom which none can gainsay. Our happy homes have ever been our joy, pride, and safety. In the large family of sturdy children, brought up to struggle and endure, has been our resource and strength for the maintenance and development of commerce, the defence of our country, the supply of new life to our colonies. The stabihty and fertility of the family have been the source of our greatness. The disintegration of family life, the loss of fecundity, must therefore be fraught with national disaster. No sophistry can bhnd us to that inevitable result. Marriage is the beginning of the family. Upon its meaning, scope, and permanence depend the welfare of the children, the existence of the race. Because of this many of .the more responsible leaders of public opinion hold tighter than ever to the indissolubility of the marriage tie under every condition short of adultery, and even then they would prohibit re-marriage. One of the disturbing features of to-day is that marriage has become the subject of exciting and widely-read stories which play fast and loose with the sanctities of married life. Divorce, dishonour, and the shameful complications and risky situations which lead up to it are a perennial fount of inspiration for the mixed philosophy and plausible clap-trap which they preach as a veritable modern gospel. They turn the shady side of hfe full face to the public gaze, and young people look behind the scenes which they depict with prying curiosity ; and it cannot but be assumed that their view of the marriage contract must be influenced by these degrading presentations of a theme from which every vestige of sanctity is squeezed out. These novehsts openly advocate, or imply, that the contract should be experimental, of a temporary char- acter, to be dissolved by the parties at will. Such doctrines are the greatest peril which threatens family life. The helplessness of babyhood, the training and education of girls and youths, the necessity of a spot, however humble, 342 THE MASTER PROBLEM which can be called home, for the safe and sound up- bringing of the generations, and the continual and loving self-sacrifice involved in motherhood and fatherhood, which are the first among the god-like attributes of humanity — all these demand the impregnable permanence of the marriage tie ; and all these requirements are be- littled if not openly scorned. Are these writers sjntnptoms of the social evil having sent its roots into the souls of men on a larger scale than we have dared to think ? In addition, certain writers with unquestioned serious- ness declare that their schemes of social reconstruction necessarily involve the destruction of the family as at present constituted. Certainly " social reconstruction " must deal with the family. That is the very source of national Ufe, and cannot be excluded. And by the manner in which the home is treated the whole social policy must be judged. The home is a touchstone which brings out the intrinsic nature of every scheme involving the trans- formation of society. Morris and Bax in " Socialism : Its Growth and Out- come " declare that under the new social order " a new development of the family would take place on the basis, not of a predetermined lifelong business arrangement, -to be formally and nominally held. to, irrespective of circumstances, but on mutual inclination and affection, an association terminable at the will of either party. It is easy to see how great would be the gain to morality and sentiment in this change." This crucial point is emphasised also by E. and E. M. AveUng. " The contract," they write, " between man and woman will be of a purely private nature. . . . For divorce there will be no need." Mark the last significant phrase. No need for divorce ! No words are required to make clearer these declarations of admittedly respon- sible social writers. They would destroy the permanent character and many of the responsibilities of marriage. Now marriage, to those who accept the view that the body is, in the expressive phrase of Scripture, " the temple of God," is a holy sacrament, in which soul unites MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 348 with soul as Christ is united to His Church. It is in- dissoluble because of its sacred character ; it cannot be broken, and the parties thereto are not to form another alliance. Whatever misery results through incompati- bility of temperament, or flagrant wrong-doing, or in- curable disease, the lesser evil to the family, the State, and — some would hold — to the individuals themselves, is to hold fsLst to the union and to prohibit divorce and certainly re-marriage. It can scarcely be doubted that, hard as this view appears when confronted with unions which have been nothing short of a lifelong outrage, it is, on the whole, the view which most of us in our best moments would accept — at least which certainly secures the moral condi- tions upon which true family life depends and its purposes are best fulfilled. That high view, however, must not bUnd us to other requirements. The marriage union is now a contract which the civil law must enforce in a way the Church, nowadays, at any rate, cannot. And perhaps it is in the clauses of that contract that some solution of the present- day partial revolt from the permanence of the union may be found to lie. It grates upon the sensitive soul to speak of so sacred a union as a contract, like any other legal contract. But with the predominance of the civil over the ecclesiastical power, the forms and requirements of the State might well appear in a partnership which is of more concern to the State than even an international treaty. _ It may be here added, but with great diffidence, that the proper adjustments of the somewhat widespread evils and failures of marriage, as at present understood, could be made. The beliefs and ceremonies of the Church should be left unimpaired, and the parties to the marriage contract should be influenced by every legitimate means to conform to them. But certain additional clauses might be added to the civil contract. What are these mutual and physical requirements ? We will not deal with the one essential above all others : 844 THE MASTER PROBLEM love in its highest sense. The question of the physical health of the parties is very important. Should a full disclosure be made by each of them of any family defects likely to be inherited, and, as in any other contract, all omissions intended to deceive, and all false declarations, be actionable ? And should the Church unite with the State in punishing such breaches of the contract ? Now it is happily generally known, although the know- ledge has been criminally hidden, that there are certain terrible diseases which are contagious in married life and are inherited. Both the man and the woman ought to have an indisputable right, although it may be difficult to enforce, to know that each is free from such disease, and that if, during married life, either contracts it, by immoral relations, and gives it to the other, the victim may obtain compensation, and separation with adequate financial support and the custody of the children. Secondly, should we not have a clause binding the man to support his wife ? Now, short of actual cruelty, a man may slowly starve his wife to death and throw upon her the burden of keeping the family, although he is physically and mentally capable of working for their support. Under such circumstances the woman should have prompt access to the Courts, and should be able to sue him for compensation and adequate support. Or if he becomes a drunkard and neglects his family, she should be able not only to enforce her rights to proper main- tenance and treatment, but such support should be collected by the State. If he becomes a criminal, he should work in prison to support her and his family. Of course, the same laws would apply to the woman, with necessary variations respecting the care of the children and her own welfare. Adultery should, may I say, without shadow of doubt, give either party absolute release, apart from any question of physical cruelty, such as is now required in some countries in the case of the woman. Adultery at once destroys the moral basis of marriage. Personally I go further and say that the guilty party should be declared MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 345 to be incapable of contracting marriage with another person. This sin strikes the deepest blow at family life, and therefore national life, and the adulterer should be excluded from all offices under the State. And he should be compelled to contribute to the support of his wife and children during his lifetime, and at the time of the trial to make a will, to be declared by the Court to be irrevocable, providing for his wife and children on a scale to be determined by the judge. And the guilty woman, should she have separate property, should be compelled to do likewise, with such differences as are inevitable to the case. The co-respondent should also be liable for damages, and should be declared, if unmarried, incapable of being married. The age of marriage should be raised to eighteen for the woman and twenty for the man. In England at present the respective ages are twelve and fourteen. This old law should be brought up to the level of en- Hghtened public opinion without delay. This may be a very austere view, and one not likely to prevail. But adultery results in shame and misery to the innocent, , and is a violation of the most sacred relationships. These are the main clauses covering what appear to many to be lawful demands which, if they could be included in the marriage contract, would remove a large percentage of the serious grievances which it were foUy to deny too frequently make the marriage union a lottery and a snare. But there are other considerations. Ex- cepting where it is necessary, owing to ill-health or mis- fortune to her husband, the married woman surely ought not to be employed outside the home. She should not work for a living. The result of such prohibition if it were possible legally and practically to prohibit might bear hardly upon some individual cases, but it would improve the whole economic situation, and it would enable the man to earn a better wage. Married men with families should be paid considerably higher wages than single men, they should be exempt 346 THE MASTER PROBLEM from income-tax according to the number of their chil- dren, and if desired they should be allowed free medical attendance for themselves, their wives, and children. These two latter points are to some extent met by recent legislation in England. The working hours of the married man should be shorter than those of the unmarried, so as to allow for the father having leisure to care for his children and to uphold his home hfe. The economic factor in marriage has much to do with the question of the decline of the birth rate. The enfeeblement of the race going on alongside this decline accentuates the grave perils which confront the nation. It is of little use to mourn the prevalence of practices which it is contended account in large measure for this decline and deterioration. They are to be condemned because they shatter self-respect or degrade the marriage union. They have other moral results which affect the national life which we will consider in a moment. Motherhood should be better protected and made more attractive. The home must be made a more secure and a sweeter place, with healthier surroundings. Motherhood must be encouraged and become, as it once was, a coveted honour. And then, and not till then, will our homes be our pride and joy, and the woman and the babe the honour of her sex and country. Much has been written of recent years about the marriage of the undesirables, and of their abnormal fertility as compared with the sounder and better classes. The families of the feeble-minded, for instance, are 7-2 against 3-1 of the wholly sane. Mr. and Mrs. Whetham reckon that 1000 families of the latter at the present rate of increase will be represented in three centuries by 372, whilst the former (i.e. 1000 families of feeble- minded) will have become 30,000. There must then be added to the decline in the birth rate and the enfeeble- ment of physical strength a third factor— 'the abnormal fertility of the unfit. The marriage contract suggested above would prohibit the union of the radically feeble- minded. What, then, would become of them ? It may MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 347 be proper to remark that they should be permanently cared for by the State. The whole of the marriage laws, then, as regards age, equality of conditions, maintenance, property, issue, divorce, should be revised so as to prevent those evils which are persistently arresting public attention. Now consider another problem. The voluntary control of the birth rate is being pressed upon us, and many have adopted it from one cause or another. We had better frankly consider it. The small family system is very likely a danger to family, national and racial life. Some modern parents, modern advocates of little and good as applied to families, are deeply impressed by these cheap and easy reasons for shirking their responsibilities to the race. The choice is quantity or quality — ^both cannot be obtained. With a New Zealand poet we may exclaim : " Here the man and the woman fail. And only the flocks increase." Is there quality, and is it of such marked superiority as to compensate for the loss of quantity ? Are we producing prize children possessing all the points of wind and limb, brain and soul, according to the highest re- quirements of race regeneration ? No one who is ac- quainted with the children of our industrial centres, or even of our urban districts or aristocratic quarters, can say that the type is visibly improving in any particular which is of permanent value. Theoretically, it would seem that fewer mouths to fill would mean more bread for each, a better chance of growth, fuller development, and richer fruit. But fewer does not necessarily mean better. In business it means more often than not less capital ; and the limitation of choice does not increase trade. It is to be feared that this limitation in many cases looks more like lack of physical stamina, of the weaken- ing of moral fibre, of an impoverished sense of social responsibility, of the death of the spirit of self-sacrifice, 348 THE MASTER PROBLEM than deep-seated foresight for the quality of the children to be. The whole tone of modern society, with its in- creasing demands for amusement and ease, its showy refinements and hysterical athletics, its great display of wealth and charity, is not in keeping with that con- summate prudence and self-control which suppresses self-indulgence to the level of monasticism and fetters desire for the benefit of posterity. The co-extensive knowledge of the means of limitation with the existence of self-indulgence has led many to ask the witty question of the Frenchman, already quoted, " What has posterity done for me that I should consider posterity ? " Fewer children may mean more pampered children. The struggle for existence amongst a large family more often tends to the production of stronger manhood and finer womanhood than the greater ease of a smaller family would do. The larger share does not necessarily feed the self-sacrificing spirit in parents or children. In any society which is to survive there should be enough for all, but more than enough is not all to the good. The lessened struggle to obtain enough is a doubtful blessing ; the larger share may be purchased at the cost of virility. Quantity of the old sort may be more valuable than so-called quality of the modern kind. Our forefathers had more grit and endurance, more daring and courage, than the children of to-day. They were our superiors in physique and soul. They knew less, but they had more of the capital of life, which is the only true wealth. Had they had our advantages of better social conditions, wider knowledge, higher wages, allied with their strong man- hood, what might they not have done ? We are wealthy and puny, more leisured and less adventurous, more charitable and less virile, more selfishly prudent and less self-sacrificing. This terrible war has changed this, we feel sure. Many noble sons have gone forth ; many have died. All the more then it becomes imperative to clarion call the need for pure, strong, and healthy families ; to shout aloud the causes which poison the wells of life at MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 349 its source. We can, if we arise from our sleep, recover the lost ground and pour into our blood the fertilising power of a hitherto indomitable people. But there needs must be a great awakening. The race needs quantity in order to meet the ever-growing, ever-varying demands upon it. Given fair quantity from all classes, the quality will, in the main, look after itself. The keener competi- tion will, in the end, improve the future output. The argument of Malthus that the means of subsistence tended to fall below the demands of existence does not now hold water. Was it ever true ? or oiily a plausible but shallow forecast, due to defective reasoning and obser- vation ? More mouths mean more hands, more brains. Every mouth can more than feed itself. The supply does not run short ; it is increased by the demand. That is a law of Nature as well as of economics. And it has been demonstrated that the Empire can provide the means of subsistence for a much larger population. The healthy fertility of the people has been described as fatal, and to condemn woman to child-bearing has been violently denounced as a burden fraught with such pain and sorrow that she ought to refuse to bear it. Such materialism and Malthusianism exists and must be fought with fearless directness. Tlie fertility of the people is now a great asset of the Empire. If now they continue infertile we might go to the wall. Motherhood needs encouraging, and it must be better protected. The mother ought not to be condemned to do the work of two people. The home is her place ; the factory, seldom. The economic conditions of woman have to be revolutionised, not her natural desires and capacities for motherhood. Fertility is not fatal to the people, but sterility would be. The people at heart are morally sound. Their kindness, charity, sympathy, self-sacrifice, their love of children, their pride in motherhood, are amongst the priceless possessions of the race. In these directions woman, in her- heart, looks for the generous help of man, and not in introducing to her teachings and 350 THE MASTER PROBLEM ractices which would belittle her supreme functions. It behoves the Church of God and every wise physician and social reformer to check these pernicious attempts to dry up the springs of moral and physical life. There must be, too, as so many are urging, a return to a simpler and cheaper mode of living. The present extravagant rate makes for late and childless marriages. Our standard of living is wholly false. Club, hotel, and " flat " life, with the multiplying and attractive means of " getting away," which make children and a permanent home an encumbrance, are undermining the sobriety, if not the sanity, of the nation. The whole standard of living amongst all who are decently paid has gone up and tends to rise, and if we are to make marriage possible and its responsibilities welcome we must cut down our expenses and set the fashion for a sweeter and homelier life. The felicitous words of King George, already quoted, are profovmdly true. With kaowledge and sweetness, purity and nobleness, going hand in hand, our children will be strong and self-controlled. There will be little seeking of outside and illicit pleasures ; our sons will scorn to be impiure ; our daughters will hold fast to their most precious possession. When the home life of the nation becomes in very truth the residence of love and honour, and peace and happiness, then will the Master Problem lose much of its terrible complexity, perhaps be in a fair way to be solved in a future not far beyond the horizon of our own generation. CHAPTER XXII THE GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION " Race regeneration seeks the improvement of the flesh and blood, body and mind, of the race, partly by trying to make the most of the best, partly by watching for new departures which spell progress, partly by prejudicing public opinion against the multiplication of the unfit, and by other endeavours. Secure progress must always depend on this improvement of the intrinsic qualities of the race." — Professor A. J. Thomson, m.a., ll.d. " We have this great task before us — we have to supplant the low and false ideal of manhood with a higher and nobler and worthier ideal of manhood." — Mrs. Fawcett. WE approach " the conclusion of the whole matter." And the end is in the beginning. The highest future of civiUsation lies in race regeneration, which starts with the cradle, and earlier, and extends from the cradle to the Golden Age of youth beyond. Rescue work is noble work, prevention is of like nobility, but the hope of the future lies in construction — a regenerated race, born of pure-Uving men and women. The emphasis of purity work, more and more, is shifting from rescue to prevention;^ from prevention to construc- tion. At the outset we must frankly ask ourselves, " Is our race going up or under ? " This question arrests every worthy citizen not only of our vast Empire, but of all civilised nations. In Great Britain it is being forced upon us from all sides, and we probe ourselves and others for the answer. The more we cross-examine ourselves the more the conflict wages between the welcome re- collections of the shining victories we have won by peace- ful conquests of the laboratory, and many another immortal contest with ignorance and disease, and the 351 352 THE MASTER PROBLEM uneasy persistent feeling that we are not yet what we might be. A mist obscures our mental vision, and we grope about earnestly desiring to find the light which now comes near in hopeful guise and then evades us or we shrink from it. We feel that we have not sufficient know- ledge to answer the fateful question in the way we desire. A doubt has entered our mind and heart, and we are confused and disturbed and inclined to think the worst. It is as if ten thousand fingers pointed in the direction we do not want to take. Something is wrong somewhere, we feel certain. That thought is in the air. Signs of weakening appear in unexpected places ; the more we look for them the more we find. If we mention the dreaded subject casually to others we are startled to find that they too are uncomfortable ; they have seen a ghost. From Parliament and pulpit, home and school, workshop and office, army and navy, the disturbing note is too frequently sounded. It gathers force the closer we listen ; at one moment it is a chorus of whispers, at another it is like a tolling bell, and then it thunders a passionate appeal which seems to echo round our far- flung Empire. Are we going up ? Are we going under ? we ask ourselves again and again. And the echo of our fears comes back as answer : something is wrong some- where — ^we are not what we ought to be. The Great War is claimed by many to have given the lie to those who were for ever crying out that the British were a race of decadents. It has. But has it affected to any appreciable extent the Master Problem ? Those men who come back will, in facing awful realities, have learned to view in truer perspective the values of Life. But unless this undoubted fact — and it is undoubted — has had born of it the will and the wish to be pure men, then the questions remain unaffected by the war. Are we going up, or are we going under ? Let us follow up some of the clues we have found in the course of these chapters, and try to discover whether they bear the meaning we are so unwilling to place upon them, GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 358 Many people, in spite of the repeated falsifying of the interjaretations of prophecies concerning the end of the world, persistently believe that the end cannot be far off. To them the arguments here enunciated may appear contrary to the designs of Providence. Others, not of their faith, have a vague, recurring opinion that, apart from prophetic Scriptures, history and even science fore- shadow the periodic doom of all things. Other empires, which appeared in their day to defy the ravages of dis- solution, have fallen to rise no more. The fates of the " eternal kingdoms " of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Rome — ^whose splendours shine through all generations — appear to many to be a warning to us that the ultimate, if not impending, end of our own proud Empire is as certain and as complete. The supporters of Scriptural prophecy quote as evi- dence the demoralising condition of the world — each nation squandering its material wealth and the lives of its people in the murderous business of war. And those whose arguments are based on the foundation of historical analogy also feel that the strife of nations and the wounds and bruises and putrefying sores of the social body of om: kind are obvious portents that our race is going the way of all flesh. Astronomical science lends some support to this con- clusion. The time, no doubt, will be reached when the earth will become " A slag, a cinder moving round the sun Without its crew of fools." That is a far-off event, however, which, except to those morbid souls who like to indulge the mood of pessimism, is of no moving interest. But science has accumulated other facts — falling birth rates, infantile mortality, here- ditary diseases and tendencies, the ominous fertility of degenerates and the equally ominous infertility of the undegenerate, the increase of feeble-mindedness and of corroding vice, the break-up of family life under the disintegrating influences of modem industrialism, love 2 A 854 THE MASTER PROBLEM of softness and pleasure, and the apparent enfeeblement of spiritual and physical fibre, facts which spell out a quicker consummation for man than the freezing of the sun. Now, spite of all this evidence, we believe in regenera- tion, that the golden age is before us, is in process of becoming ; and our work is to interpret the signs and prophecies of this new world in the making, demanding the application of loftier ideals, more widely embracing principles, and surer methods of advance than have hitherto prevailed. We do not merely deplore and combat the manifest evils of the past and of the present changing conditions, but endeavour to reveal the possibilities of a richer civilisation. The era of destructive criticism ; of improving en- vironment alone ; of lavish care, for a short season, of the unfit, merely to turn them adrift at the critical age ; of reliance upon forms and drugs, hospitals and peni- tentiaries, police and prisons, is mercifully passing away. We are living in a transition period, but nearer the future than the past. The wonderful nineteenth century seems already to have become history, and the first decade of the twentieth century has closed. The new spirit of the age, which appeared in wondrous guise on the horizon at the watch of the centuries, is becoming articulate. It is evident to all who possess the historic vision that we are living in the twihght before the dawn. The rapid, ruthless progress, and verily bewildering discoveries and developments of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the opening up of virgin fields of reform and of imtrodden and unsuspected paths of advance, were heralds of the approaching Kingdom of God. But we who seek to solve the Master Problem are not dreamers and mystics. We do attack by undermining and by legislation present-day evils, because these spoU the present life and menace the future, and are a crime against posterity. We take full account of the disruption of family life by industrial and social conditions; of the moral and economic influences which involve late GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 355 marriages -and an ever-falling birth rate ; of the grave and urgent questions of the wastage of child-life, and of the dire results of inefficient education ; of the weakening of the links between the generations, and of the un- controlled multiplication of the unfit who threatened to swamp in a few generations the purer elements of our race. All these are disquieting symptoms with which may be included the prevalence of vice, demoraUsing literature, and the manifold and manifest evils of our competitive system which cause the hideous congestion of slumdom with its irreparable loss of the finer sensibilities, of beauty, sweetness, and light, to be added to their ex- haustless drain upon free-flowing charity and the national purse. This is a black catalogue of evils calculated to make the most hopeful to despair. Making due allowance for the marvellous changes which have taken place in Europe since the Renaissance and the Reformation, it is painfully surprising and disappointing to discover how far off we are from realising and enjoying the new life — personal, national, or international — which it awakened in many lands. In Italy, France,, Germany, England, the leaders of the Renaissance, and the common people who plunged toward the light of the new day, suffered many a set-back and counter-movement. These world-movements "have only apparently passed into history. They brought a new way of viewing the world and humanity ; a new conception of our duty and destiny ; a new inter-racial outlook. But this fresh spiritual life, the blessed longed-for freedom, the abound- ing vitality, the gay, buoyant optimism, the exuberant mirth, the care-free, frank, and open enjojmient of life, have yet to possess us. We still await the glorious resurrection of life abounding. The grave-clothes and the empty tomb represent too much of our modem existence. The body, the theatre of many diseases bred and fed by our wrong civilisation, short-lived in consequence of the exhausting pressure upon its strength, from which it too often fails fully to recover, the_^complex nervous system 356 THE MASTER PROBLEM played upon by stimuli which torture it and weaken its marvellous and developing capacities of response, the spirit stunted, devitalised and enslaved by the falsities and petty tyrannies of our circumstances and mode of life — body and soul we require more than patching by philanthropic legislation — ^we stand in desperate need of another re-birth. How the wondrous change is coming, the writer has tried, though very briefly, to indicate. This mighty European conflict may bring the transformation. Many signs there are of the better times ; and many forerunners. They bear various and sometimes contra- dictory names — socialist and individualist, modernist and Cathohc, eugenist and liberal Christian, Christian scientist and theosophist, higher-thinkers and anarchists, " advanced " poets, authors, and men of action — have all some ray of light to contribute to the brighter illumina- tion of this shadowed world. But true science and true religion, long divorced, and now uniting, are the ultimate and exhaustless sources of inspiration and life, and from them will finally come the new world and the redemption of man. The supreme and dominant conception of our work is then the regeneration of the race. It does not strike the leaden note of despair, but the ringing tones of a new and certain hope. The regenerated race is coming to birth ; the larger and nobler civilisation is upon us. It is already seen that it is criminal to live at the expense of the future, that children must be wisely and diligently educated for parenthood, that it is at least equdly necessary to improve the condition of the race through parenthood as through change of environment, that the emphasis must shift from rescue to prevention, and concurrently and ultimately from prevention to creative construction. We seek to hasten the good time coming when true rehgion will occupy its rightful place in the home and society, when science will flood the world with light, and in- dustry will not sadden and demorahse but make life happier, sweeter, and holier for every man, woman, and chUd. GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 357 Now the body of man has probably reached the apex of development. Further advances will be spiritual rather than physical. How far may he not evolve along lines to which there is no material limit ? Mind is the last product of the ages, and who can say what the mind of man may not attain to ? The theory of evolution has also given us the clue to the immortality of the race. Individual man may be mortal, but will the race die ? By conscious and deliberate direction of the propagation of the human family we can ensure that the best shall be born, and that the race must improve rather than de- teriorate. These are the more hopeful declarations of science, and it is the belief of certain sincere workers at the Master Problem that we are entering upon a period of racial regeneration which, if not limitless, will be long enough to eclipse the glories of all the past. As science has taught us how to harness steam and electricity and to make those mighty forces obey the feeblest hand, so biology is bringing under our control the operations which issue in the birth and development of man. The long hidden, and now but partially revealed facts of heredity are being cogently pressed upon our attention by an earnest body of men who perceive that we must not only take account of them, but they must pass from science into social reform and legislation. And we may have to urge in certain cases that, both for the sake of the unborn and the hving, men must be restrained socially and morally, from perpetuating the birth of lives demonstrably doomed to degradation. Before the rise of modern philanthropy the keenness of the struggle to live cut of£ early in life many who are nowadays nursed by the hand of charity to adult age, and then are allowed to marry and be given in marriage. As already indicated, many children are feeble-minded perhaps as one of the dire results of the terrible strain of competition and the cruel lot of the poor. Unless they are cared for until and through adult life their type is perpetuated. Others are infected with the virus of alcohol, and without question the incurable inebriate 358 THE MASTER PROBLEM should be excluded from the responsible privileges of parenthood. These are illustrations of the direction in which control of the exercise of the highest and most responsible func- tions will, ere long, be asserted by society, whether by the Church adding to her degrees of prohibition under the sanction of enlightened pubUc opinion, or by civil law, or by both. The economic, moral, civil, and political position of woman is being pressed to the front as never before. The consideration of her modern claims and of her position in the labour market demands dispassionate treatment. More than appears to some women is involved in woman's advent into spheres which tend to distract her from more ancient and nobler duties. The economic, even the political, side of what is called the woman's question is not the aspect which wholly concerns the race. The family and the home are the chief determining factors, and the future may discover an entire reversal of her present aspirations, and the turning again of her activities in the direction more fraught with the weal of humanity than any other position or privilege she may gain from political agitation. The relation of the sexes is the profoundest of problems. But it is in cementing them closer, in the development of their highest possibiUties, in the quickening of the passion of love and the heightening of sex attraction, and not in the suppression of sex, and the unsexing of one-half the htrnian family, that ultimate salvation will be discovered. Vice, with all its manifold, distressing, bewildering, deadening horrors, is the alienation only of an instinct which is divine and upon which rests the whole fabric of human life. That the woman should have come to be so often the tool and plajrthing of man, and man so often the mere animal, legislating, even unconsciously, to pro- tect himself, is one of the elements which, in the evolu- tion of the relations between men and women, was almost inevitably bound to arise. And when conjoined to that element of selfishness which seeks its own pleasure GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 359 as an end in itself, and not as a means of establishing the home and the family, there is the resultant depen- dency, economic and physical, of women, and the further drawback of partial education, narrower outlook, fewer opportunities, the care of the children and many other disqualifications again seemingly inevitable to her condi- tion, then the pre-war unsatisfactory position of woman in an industrial community is not hard to be understood. It seems probable too that though the war is causing an influx of women into many channels of commercial and industrial life, the ultimate position of the female worker may not be materially strengthened. There will be a reconstruction of society resulting from the upheavals which are being felt in every part of the King's dominions and in other lands. In that better society many of the results of modern industrial activity will fmd no secure place. Our civilisation, in the main, has been moving in the right direction, breathing the spirit of independence into the children of the serf, giving ever-enlarging liberty to those who were ready to use it aright, and opening up the way for the humblest to rise to the seats of the mighty. But other consequences, not in the true line of progress, have followed, and these must now be thwarted and those who are on a siding switched off to join the main track of advance. This readjustment of our ideals, in the light of the new know- ledge which is vouchsafed us, the check which must be applied to injurious growths, the removal of what have been rightly called the curses of our partial civilisation, wiU be slowly accomplished in accordance with the silent, patient processes which have brought us to the present state, accelerated by the conscious, determined efforts of the few enlightened individuals, and through them, by and by, of the bulk of the people. Through generations of adversity and struggling, man has advanced toward the light. Science and philosophy have come to his aid. Discoveries and inventions have leapt from his erstwhile dormant brain, and his conditions have been revolutionised. From all alike, of whatever 360 THE MASTER PROBLEM class, the scales of ignorance have fallen from darkened eyes ; the Church has been aroused to her true mission, and the purpose of human life has been revealed to humanity ; the outlook of man has widened with the widening of the sea ; commerce has knit land to land ; disease and death are being faced with more potent weapons than the arts of quackery ; the pen has brought knowledge to those who knew not the alphabet of learn- ing and of liberty ; the world has so changed that it is veritably a new world by comparison with the times of our great-grandfathers. The forces which have wrought this wondrous trans- formation are being more and more disclosed to us. They have been operating, unknown to men, for many genera- tions. Now we know they can be consciously directed-. We see clearly enough the end towards which things have been drifting. We see, as never before, what might be. There are still amongst us many obstacles to progress. Ignorance, disease, caste, poverty, vice are still formid- able barriers which yield slowly to the rising might of reform. Gigantic evils have grown up apparently as a result of our going forward. The glories of civilisation have bred new and more disastrous evils than afflicted the savages. But who can doubt that they are doomed ? Look at this subject a moment from another angle.'' Since the discussion at the British Association meeting at Cambridge in 1905, the subject of physical degenera- tion has been kept continuously before public attention. Degeneration, whatever form it takes — fatty, or gener- ally physical — ^whether attacking the individual or the race in a physiological or mystical sense, is, alas ! not peculiar to this age. And the fact of regeneration is well known to science. The local death of some tissues, for instance, as the writer first heard his revered tutor, the late Professor T. H. Huxley, say, is often followed by " regeneration." Regeneration in the animal and vegetable kingdoms — for example, the olive tree pos- sesses exhaustless capacities of reconstruction— ^and even » See piaper rtad before this British Association, 1911, by the Author. GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 361 in men and races, in no merely metaphorical sense, is an old truth. The term regeneration covers a series of facts, as well recognised in physiology as in religion, which has claimed peculiar use of the doctrine from time immemorial. As from the renewed life of individual cells is built up the life of tissue and organism, so from the rejuvenated life of the whole social organism the racial life is renewed. Life, more life, and ever persistent, is the key-note of the philosophy which is sounding the knell of nineteenth- century materiahsm, and even of the transfigured realism of Herbert Spencer. The old conception of vitalism, which sought to account for vital phenomena, which is the ultimate aim of physiology, by " vital force or spirit," is being revived, albeit in a new incarnation. Creative vitalism (which must assume the physiological basis of life to be persistent) is the thought at the basis of race- regeneration. The apparent Irishism that life tends to live, that degeneration may be overtaken and overcome by re- generation, needs to be re-emphasised as a vital truth of science. The whole advance of medicine means this conquest or it means worse than nothing. The causes of the vital phenomena of life, although still very far from being even approximately understood, are slowly reveal- ing themselves, perhaps through the very facts of physi- cal deterioration (a truer word to use in this connection than degeneration). The struggle for existence is prob- ably bringing to the surface defects created by modern industrial conditions. But these defects — ^which charity seemeth to shelter and perpetuate, but which in the end cannot be saved by any philanthropy — whether of brain or muscle or stature, have not touched the foundations of fertility. Quantitative human life, as shown by the falling birth rate in some western countries, whether the imme- diate causes be voluntary or not, may seem to be falling, but is life faiUng ? What new physiological facts of the reduction of essential fertility have come to light since 1876, when the birth rate began to fall ? Or has any inherent tendency toward a progressive decline in the 362 THE MASTER PROBLEM standard of physique been disclosed ? Is it not still true that nearly 90 per cent are born healthy ? And that many of the defects in adults and school children are due to ignorance and avoidable social conditions ? Yea, is it not plain that qualitative life (which, after all, is in fact the only true way of measuring life) is advancing ? May not the full explanation of evolution demand constant regeneration of life ? The evolution of society is founded upon it. Philosophy is mere chaff without it. Physiology is concerned with the processes and function of vital, i.e. regenerating organisms. Religion preaches regenera- tion unceasingly — apart from it her faith and mission would be mockery. Take a wider view. Nothing is more certain than that human society is in a constant state of flux. The exist- ing order of things may have appeared to an earlier generation to be established, but sociology, guided by the principle of evolution, and with ample warrant from actual events, has taught us that the old order is always giving place to the new. This is sure; the present condition of society, in whatsoever country, cannot last. There is no standing still. One section is receding and another advancing, or, perchance, if we could see deep enough below the surface of things and far enough into the future, we should say that the whole body politic is developing towards a higher plane of being— that what appears to be loss and ruin to one member of the body is, in reality, a gain to the whole, and, therefore, to each individual. And this known evolution of society from barbarism to what we call civiUsation (which in the period in which we live — even forgetting the war for a moment — ^is on the whole only an improved barbarism, true civilisation being a much more perfected social condition than we have ever dreamed of) quickens our interest in and enlarges our anticipation of what will come to pass for our Empire. We are hving in a changing world. One decade of the twentieth century has closed, and it has notable records of the march of events. In the realm of science, aviation. GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 363 and wireless telegraphy have opened up possibilities beyond the utmost reach of our imagination. Biology, psychology, and sociology have added a notable share to the sum of knowledge. The East has startled the West by the quickened pace of its advance. There is a stir in the air which the people breathe, a quickened circulation of recharged blood, which has been felt all round. Educa- tionists are straining every nerve to improve our educa- tional system. The child has been set in the midst again, and all eyes are turning to him. The twentieth century will not reach its meridian before the first watch of the long-prophesied, but now near at hand, better day has struck. But most of the hopes and suggestions and possible reforms so far indicated herein come from science, and deal with physical heredity and changes of environment. What is there to be said about religion and its further developments ? Much, in every way. Note one or two in concluding this general survey. Looking out upon the world half-way through the second decade of the twentieth century, it is possible then to see, although through a glass darkly, the direction which human life will take to find fuller expression. It is well to recall again that only five hundred years behind us is that wondrous revival of an imperishable desire for a life of freedom, love, and beauty. That revival was excited by the discovery of classical antiquity, but that ancient mould could not hold the liberated spirit which overflowed into every department of human thought and activity, changing personal and national ideals and creating a tidal wave of light and life which swept across Europe and touched every awakening land. And that profound quickening of religion, which we call the Reformation, which coincided with vast social changes, and was indeed the life and expression of them, lifted humanity to a still higher plane of being. The modern doctrine of the conservation of energy, that no force is lost but is transformed to other modes, is a verity in that vaster world where the liberating and 364 THE MASTER PROBLEM omnipotent forces are of the Spirit. The Renaissance and the Reformation have never been spent forces ; they have been working through the centuries and are ready to break forth again with garnered momentum. Philosophic and social materiahsm, and especially the mental and physical slavery of modern industrialism, have blunted the finer susceptibilities and have given rise, through exhaustion and weariness more than through the conflict of science and religion, to a widespread doubt and indifference to things of the spirit. The shallowness of life and its artificialities, the narrow, sordid outlook, is ceasing to enslave the stunted souls of men. Indeed, the emancipation of religion is already upon us. It is as though a flood of light from Heaven has burst into the soul of man and he has seen by a lightning flash the way to God. In the trenches of Flanders men have learned that the greatest Truth of life is God, and the greatest expression of Him is self-sacrifice. In rendering to Caesar the things that are Csesar's, or, in other words, giving themselves to their country's call, the trivialities and frailties have fallen away, and the great issues of the Empire have revealed the greater issues of life and death. This miracle, however, is not a miracle, paradox though the statement may be. It is an opportunity-ripened con- summation of a long-working leaven, whereby the human spirit has been discovered clothed in its native dignity and simplicity. ' ' The kingdom of God, ' ' said Christ , " is within you." Health of soul, like health of body, is not main- tained by professional quackery. Fresh air, wholesome food, simple living, are ousting pUls and potions, and the heart, by its own innate needs and impulses, is finding God in star and flower and most of all in every human soul. The age-long struggle to free the soul from darkness, whether of superstition or evil, is nearing a climax — a chmax hastened, but not produced, by the war. Still we wait for the winds of God to blow around our Empire. There are sounds to be heard by those whose ears are tuned to the agitating waves of spiritual ether, GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 365 who habitually live near the borderland, of an approach- ing outburst of spiritual energy which will break the present moulds and fling aside the obstructions and cold doubts of science and materialism, and will sweep into itself all those seemingly unbalanced movements which reassert the creative predominance of spirit over matter, and which are among the distant but sympathetic signs of its coming. The spirit of God in man suffereth long in the womb of each century before coming to birth. The walls of its temporary abode, which are but the creeds and religious language in which the particular age en- shrines its expression, are agitated and wax thin with the heat and struggle of the living spirit within, which seeks another and broader and deeper incarnation. Romanism and Protestantism have each in turn fulfilled this mission. The truths they hold and teach cannot be lost, for they are amongst the universal principles of religion. The Holy Spirit which suffuses the sacred robe of the priest, the altar lights, the bread and wine and burning incense, speaks through Quaker stillness and the loud crying of the Salvation Army. It despises no channel of manifesta- tion, for all alike are limited and through any one of them the light may strike into the darkness of a soul and illuminate it with an unearthly splendour. We must not despise sects, creeds, ritual of this ism or that. They all serve the end in view, and only obscxire its realisation when darkened by insincerity and by acts which belittle the august dignity of the soul worshipping God. " Neither in this mountain nor in that," said Christ, " shall ye worship the Father, but in spirit and in truth." All social reforms, which give more air, more quickening light, greater leisure, sweeter homes, peace of mind, love of children and of the beautiful, which truly tend to up- lift and reform ; all forms of thought and of belief in the overcoming spirit ; all advances in science which set back disease and shield the body of man from contagion and bring to view hidden truths of nature ; all education which improves the faculties of observation and reflection and opens up new kingdoms of knowledge to the seeker 366 THE MASTER PROBLE^I after truth, and new methods of developing mind and body ; all deeds of chivalry and mercy which beat down selfishness and succour the widow and fatherless ; all these and cognate means of giving the soul a voice are of the very essence of true religion. Philosophy, too, comes to the aid of the human mind and helps it to a clearer sight of the unifying principles of all knowledge and life. No doubt there is a science of sciences, and a religion of religions — a supreme synthesis of knowledge, earthly, so called, and heavenly, so called. To that sublime height man has not yet attained. But to this we have come in the twentieth century — ^it is given us to see that each age has received that amount of the light of truth which it could absorb and give out again, and that our pecuUar task is to emphasize the unity and utility of all knowledge, to classify and intensify it, and to keep the windows of the soul wide open to the heavens. One forerunner passed away in England in recent years. General Booth, a truly remarkable manifestation of the saintly, ardent spirit which goes forth to rescue the bodies of men and women and children from starvation, degrada- tion and vilest crimes, transfiguring the worst lives with the touch of godlike love, and preaching through his vast army of devoted soldiers the blessedness of self-sacrifice. Here is a Father Damien, who laid down his life for the leper ; and there a Father Dolling, who brought faith and life again to the dwellers in the darksome and noisome slum ; and yonder my dear friend, the late Dr. Barnardo, whose work lives after him in the lives of the tens of thousands of children he rescued, and in the " ever open door " which he left in the Homes which continue his splendid work with unabated zeal and success. In other fields there are the intellectual giants — Darwin and Wallace, scientific John the Baptists-r- who by searching discovered something of the secret of God in the propagation and development of life, and by its revelation ha\e transformed our knowledge of the worlds seen and unseen. GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 367 Others, too, are applying themselves to purify the racial life — the late Sir Francis Galton, whose work is being carried on by a number of brilliant disciples and a growing host of social workers ; or, again. Professor Ehrlich, who passed away in 1915 at a time when his marvellous anti-toxic preparation had become fully recognised as a curative agent in diseases arising out of social evil. These are seeking to eliminate those strains and taints in human life which lower vitality, and which in perpetuating themselves bring misery upon the chil- dren to the third generation. These are among the advance guard, who, without waiting for the arrival of the main army, have thrown themselves without sparing time, talent, or strength into the fray, and from which humanity will emerge in posses- sion of a " new Heaven and new Earth." What a host of forerunners ! From north and south, east and west, from all the fields of religious, of social and scientific labour, from the noble ranks of poets and philosophers, from the single files of the advanced men and women who incur the opprobrium and persecution of the age in which they preach their " new " messages — everj^where the forerunners appear clearing the paths of enormous evil growths, the most noxious and rampant of which is that which forms the Master Problem. And we who belong to the great majority have our share in preparing the way for the new times. Civilisa- tion must restore the value of every individual life. In olden days the individual was lost in the state and nation, now he is lost in company and union, in the army of war and commerce. One soldier shot down in battle is not realised as one whose life a world could not purchase ; one man dying of starvation and abject despair in the teeming thousands of slumdom is not valued as an im- mortal soul. They are but so many blades of grass, so many pebbles on the shore. The cheapening of human life must cease, and we must conceive of life as invaluable to God, the nation, and posterity. In spite of lowliness of birth, of rags, and even of crime, there is a sacred dignity 868 THE MASTER PROBLEM about life, an unearthly solemnity which should strike every man bom of woman with awe and wonder, and make impossible the enslaving and degrading of man, woman, or child. The task and honour of the individual is to set his hand to some service for others. The kingdom will not come within or without to the man who seeks to save his own soul. Hi's joy is to help to prepare another for the good time coming, and social workers must go about with this gospel in their hearts as well as on their lips. The fields of social and racial service lie about us, and are white unto harvest, but the labourers are ever too few. Society is to be redeemed, and one instrument of redemption is a purged and purified social economy. Lust of speed, war-to-the-knife competition, and bloody sweat to earn a living must stop. Each man must deUberately deter- mine to have time every day to cultivate his soul. Every woman, too. The rediscovery of soul is to be the great achievement of the twentieth century. We must culti- vate the imagination and love of lovable things for their own sake, of the beauty of sky and landscape, and most of all of the human body and the human soul. And as each living " likeness of his Maker " discovers his soul he will set about freeing it from the peril of sin. Regenera- tion must start from within. So will man rise and shake off the filthiness of vice ; so will womankind reassert her virgin purity. But how glorious an " high calling " for those who bring to their brethren and sisters these lost standards by which to measure fitness for citizenship in the " new heaven and new earth." So we strain our eyes to see the long-promised land. It appears and disappears with tantalising frequency — to-day our hopes rise high, to-morrow they are dashed down. Our conception of it is uncertain, vague, formless, unsubstantial, but it is not merely a fair dream. It is coming — of that we are sure. Poverty and crime, vice and misery, war, slavery and disease, and the darkness of ignorance surely cannot be the legitimate and final GOSPEL OF RACE REGENERATION 369 result of centuries of evolution. The human race cannot so be cheated of its birthright. Under God, these things shall be wiped away. And not the least of the " things " is social impurity. An all-wise God has given man the power to work out his own salvation. No longer need the curse descend to the third and fourth generation. By education, by precept, by example, by equity and justice, by pity and love, the purif5^ng ethic of honour- able chastity is being intelligently promulgated, so that man may fill the measure of his days in happy freedom from secret shame or hidden disease, and may carry out, too, his highest duty to God and his fellows, by leaving behind him a robust family untainted in mind and soul and body. 2 B APPENDIX NOTE ONE of the difficulties experienced in gathering the material for this work has been to remember the many sources which have afforded useful data. Facts and figures, helpful opinions and extracts of more or less brevity have been culled from books, reviews, reports ; scientific, socio- logical, and medical periodicals ; the newspapers of leading cities of Great Britain, the Continent, and the United States of America. Whatever available written or spoken word would con- tribute to a better understanding of the Master Problem has been critically examined, and grateful acknowledgment is made in this respect to all whose words or opinions or tabulations are quoted in these pages. Among the sources so consulted are : — Books. — " Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade," by Mrs. Josephine E. Butler (Horace Marshall and Son), ; " The Social Evil " (Putnam's) ; " The Problem of the Nations," by A. Corbett-Smith (Bale, Ltd.) ; " The Family and the Nation," by W. C. D. and C. Whetham (Longmans) ; " The Weakest Link," by Harold Begbie (Free Church Coun- cil) ; " Commercialised Prostitution in New York " (Century Co.) ; " Prostitution in Europe," by Abraham Flexner (Century Co.) ; " The New Cyclopaedia of Social Reform," by W. D. P. Bliss (Funk and Wagnalls) ; " Panders and their White Slaves," by Clifford E. Roe (Revell) ; " Modern Cities," by H. M. Pollock and W. S. Morgan (Funk and Wagnalls) ; ' The Progress of Eugenics," by C. W. Saleeby (CasseD) ; " A Vision and Its Fulfilment " (National Vigilance Association) ; " The Nation's Morals " (Cassell and Co.) ; "The White Slave Market," by Mrs. Mackirdy and Mr. W. N. Willis (Stanley Paul); "Social Eugenics" (Swan Sonnenschein) ; " Public Morals " (Morgan and Scott) ; " Problems of Sex/' by Profs, Thomson and Geddes ; " The 370 APPENDIX 371 Social Disease," by Mrs. Creighton (Longmans) ; " Under the Surface." by L. Martindale (Southern Pub. Co.). Reports of ; Portsmouth Conference (1914) ; London W.S.T. Congress (1913) ; Vice Commission of Philadelphia {1913) ; Health of the Navy (Cd. 7683, 1914) ; Health of the Army (Cd. 7201, 1913) ; Aberdeen National Council of Public Morals (1913) ; Royal Commission on Venereal Disease (Cd. 7475) ; North London White Slave Traffic, Criminal Law Conference (1913) ; Report on Venereal Diseases (Cd. 7029, 1913). Pamphlets by Amand Routh, m.d. (Ante-Natal Hygiene) ; " Why I Went to Prison," by W. T. Stead ; " The Campaign Against Syphilis," by F. W. Giles, m.b. (King and Son) ; " The Heart of Hell," by J. C. Grant (Women's Suffrage Society) ; " Some Causes of Prostitution," by Dr. Helen Wilson (Aboli tionist Federation). Newspapers and Periodicals. — The Times, The Morning Post, The Lancet, Manchester Courier, Leeds and Yorkshire Post, Liverpool Echo, New York Herald, New York American, The Contemporary Review, The Awakener, The Shield, Light, Vigilance, The Nation, The Spectator, Prevention, Penal Reform League Quarterly, and many other daily and weekly issues. In addition to the above considerable list, my thanks are also due to Mr. S. W. Finch, Special Commissioner to the Department of Justice for the U.S.A., to the Rt. Hon. R. McKenna, Home Office, for special statistics relating to the prosecutions under the White Slave Traffic Act, to Mrs. Scharlieb, m.d., member of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases, for reading the chapters dealing with those problems, to Commissioner Kitching, of the Salvation Army, for statis- tics and facts supplied, and to many others who have given ready co-operation and extended ungrudging service in placing material at the disposal of the writer. J. M. September, 1916. PRINTXD IN GREAT BRITAIN BV WILLIAM BKCHDOH AND SON, LTD., PLVMOUTH, ENCLAKS LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Promoted by the National Council of Public Morals Prevention. A Quarterly Illustrated Journal. The Nation's Morals. Being the Proceedings of the Public- Morals Conference held in London on the I4tfa and Z5th July, 1910. The Cleansing of a City. By various Authors. The Declining Birth Rate— Its Causes and Effects. Reports of the Commiisioa. 10s. 64, net. RACE AND SEX BOOKLETS {SIXPENCE EACH NET) Edited by the Rev. James Marchant, F.R.S.E<1. Morals and Brain. By Sir Thomas Clouston, M.D., LL.D. Religion and Race-Regeneration. By Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. Literature— The Word of Life or of Death. By William Canon Bakit, D.D. Problems of Sex. By Prof. J..,AKTHUR Thomson and Prof. P Geddks. National Ideals and Race-Regeneration. By Rev R. F. Hoeton, M.A., D.D. Womanhood and Race-Regeneration. By Marv ScHARLrEB. M.D., M.S. The Problem of Race-Regeneration. By Dr. Havelock Ellis (Editor, Contempotary Science Series, etc.). The Methods of Race-Regeneration. By C. W. Saleeby, M.D., F.R.S.Ed., F.Z.S,, Author of "Parenthood and Race Culture." The Declining Birth-Rate — Its National and International Significance. By A. Newsholme, C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P. Education and Race-Regeneration. By the Right Hon. Sir John Eldoh Gorst. "QUESTION OF SEX" SERIES (TIVO AND SIXPENCE EACH NET) Life and its Beginnings. By Dr. Ellen Webb What a Boy should Know. By Dr. A. T. Schofield and Dr. Percy Vaughak- Jaclcson. Before 1 Wed, By Sir Thomas Clouston, M.D., LL.D. What it means to Marry. By Dr. Mary Scharlieb. Preparation for Marriage. By Walter Heape, M.A., F.R.S. Social Hygienics, By Jambs Marcwant. With a_ Preface by the Right Hon. Viscount Gladstone (late Home Secretary). Second Kdition, is. ; post free, is. 2^. Seven Letters to Young Men. By James Marchant. Preface by Prof. G. Sins WooDHEAD, LL.D. 15. net ; post free, is. id. "NATIONAL LIFE" SERIES (ONE SHILLING EACH NET) The Hidden Scourge. By Dr. Mary Scharlieb. Cradles or Coffins By James Marchant. The Master Problem. By James Marchant. The above can be tapplled on application to the Secretary, The National Council of Public Morals, 20 Bedford Square, London, W,C-