DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/whiteslavetraffi01jann THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC IN AMERICA The White Slave Traffic in America BY O. EDWARDJANNEY, M. D. Chairman of the National Vigilance Committee for the Suppression of the fVhite Slave Traffic Published by the NATIONAL VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 156 Fifth Avenue New York City Copyright, 1911, by O. Edward Janney, M. d. Sori (^afttmort (preea BALTIMORE, MD., V. S. A. FOREWORD There seems to be need for a description of the white slave traffic in this country, and for some account of the movement that has arisen for its suppression, together with a dis- cussion of the methods that may be employed to accomplish that end. There are multitudes of parents, teachers and other persons having charge of young people, who are unaware of the dangers that threaten young women through the adroit agents of this traffic. These need to be in- formed. There are many social workers who should know the facts herein related, and have pre- sented to them methods by means of which they may assist in the suppression of the evil. There are many others who if they knew and understood the facts would offer moral and financial support to a movement to prevent the moral and economic loss which the com- 5 Foreword munity now sustains through the operations of the white slave trafficker. And finally, there are those who, in bondage and suffering too acute for words, make their pitiful appeal for help, for freedom and for sympathy. The facts herein stated are offered for seri- ous consideration. They are thus presented in order that the innocent may be protected, the ignorant enlightened, the foolish and reckless warned, the weak safeguarded, the wicked and designing thwarted, and the traffic suppressed. 6 CONTENTS PART I The White Slave Traffic PAGE I. The Traffic 13 II. How Girls are Kept in Slavery 35 III. Woman Slavery on the Pacific Coast. . 41 IV. The Traffic and Public Health 52 V. The New York White Slave Grand Jury 55 PART II The Sources of the Traffic VI. The Underlying Causes 79 VII. The Wrong Training of Children 83 VIH. The Dangers of the City 87 IX. Hard Times and Low Wages 93 X. Amusements 97 XL Employment Agencies 102 XII. Tolerated Vice in Cities 104 XIII. Immigration and the Traffic 106 XIV. Steerage Conditions 109 PART HI The Suppression and Prevention of the Traffic XV. The Vigilance Movement 122 XVI. Activity of the Government — The States 134 XVII. An International Treaty 142 7 Contents PAGE XVIII. Immigration — Improved Methods .... 145 XIX. Politics and Vice 147 XX. A Living Wage 156 XXL Healthful Recreations 159 Appendix 163 8 The White Slave Traffic in America INTRODUCTION The purpose of this book is to assist in arousing our Nation to the facts of the traffic in women, in the belief that when it is under- stood, the American people will arise and sup- press it. Were an epidemic to invade our country and carry off many thousands of victims, means would be at once energetically used to check it, and the whole power of State and National government would be employed to effect this. There is in our midst, constantly operating, a plague of evil which invades homes and destroys the peace, health, honor, liberty and life of many thousand young women. Shall we not stamp this out also? 9 Introduction But we cannot proceed in the darkness. The facts must first be made known, and our pur- pose is to describe the situation so that intelli- gent action may be taken. The truth must be told in as chaste and tactful a way as possible, but also in such plain words as not to be mis- understood. It is our earnest desire that each one who hears this message will receive it in a spirit free from criticism, and, realizing the motives that have prompted the labor entailed, be will- ing to learn the truth in order that the white slave traffic in America may be abolished and the conditions that give rise to it corrected. 10 Part I THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC I The Traffic The white slave traffic is the widely ac- cepted term for the procuring, selling or buy- ing of women with the intention of holding or forcing them into a life of prostitution. The term is not fairly descriptive, since the traffic reaches to every race and color, originating in Europe, where its victims are white, but it is generally used to designate the system by which vice markets are kept supplied. This business has become established in America. It is more or less clandestinely but extensively carried on in the United States, where some of the shrewdest and most un- scrupulous traders have harvested large profits from a sort of brokerage system of trafficking in women. It is a business carried on for 2 13 The White Slave Traffic in America profit. Those who make money from white slavery are : 1st. The procurer — the person who induces a girl, by whatever means, to enter a house of vice, or to earn her living by leading an immoral life. 2d. The importer or exporter — one who takes a girl to such destination or assumes the responsibility of getting her from one place to another for such a purpose. 3d. The keeper of the house, and the man who wholly or in part lives on the immoral earnings of one or more girls or women. The trader may employ agents to procure and transport victims, or he may act as his own agent, but in either case his motive is the financial profit to be made from the pro- ceeds of white slavery. “ It is obvious that the qualities required for the securing of these profits are the daring and shrewdness of the criminal rather than the energjf and industry necessary for success in legitimate business,” says the report of the 14 The White Slave Traffic Immigration Commission appointed to investi- gate the traffic in alien women brought to the United States for immoral pm'poses. The human chattels of these traffickers are practically slaves, for the girls and women who are lured, deceived through affection, or in some instances forced into prostitution, are held in bondage by subtle but compelling means. Whether the victim is confined be- hind closed doors, or is allowed to go out under close watch, or kept in submission by fear of personal violence, she is, under any of these conditions, a slave — one forced to do her master’s bidding and obliged to give to him the money she receives. Most pitiful for the women, and most brutal on the part of the men, are the methods employed for exploiting these women imported contrary to law, both those coming willingly to lead a vicious life and those lured into the country as innocent girls by deception and by their affections. With rare excep- tions, not only the innocent women imported into this country, but the prostitutes as well, are associated with men whose business it is to protect them, direct them, and control them, and vv^ho frequently, if not usually, make it their business to plunder them un- 15 The White Slave Traffic in America mercifully. ... If she resists she finds all the men about her leagued against her; she may be beaten; and in some cases where she has betrayed her be- trayer she has been murdered.* Supply and demand, factors in every sort of commerce, play their part in the white slave traffic. When there is demand for young girls, artful traders know where and how they can be procured, and nets are laid for unwary feet. All sorts of cunning devices are re- sorted to by the agents of this miserable busi- ness to lure girls into an immoral life. The procurer may be a woman, who often appears in the guise of a fascinating friend, and too easily gains the confidence of the unwary and confiding. Offers of attractive and easy em- ployment at a distance, at high wages, are frequently the bait used to entrap the \’ictim, who, once in a house of vice, finds it extremely difficult to escape, or to make her terrible plight known to her friends. Those who recruit women for immoral purposes watch all places where young women are likely to * Report of U. S. Immigration Commission, page 9. 16 The White Slave Traffic be found under circumstances which will give them a ready means of acquaintance and intimacy, such as employment agencies, immigration homes, moving picture shows, dance halls, sometimes waiting rooms in large department stores, railroad stations, mani- curing and hairdressing establishments. The men watching such places are usually suave in manner, well dressed and prosperous looking. They become acquainted as intimately as possible with young aliens, then use every conceivable method of be- traying them. The following instance, related by U. S. Dis- trict Attorney Sims, of Chicago, is one that shows clearly the methods employed and the character of the white slave traffic: Whether these hunters of the innocent ply their awful calling at home or abroad, their methods are much the same, with the exception that a foreign girl is more hopelessly at their mercy. Let me take the case of a little Italian peasant girl who helped her father till the soil in the vineyards and fields near Naples. Briefly, this is her story: A “fine lady” who wore beautiful clothes came to where she lived with her parents, made friends with her, told her that she was uncommonly pretty and professed a great interest in her. Such flattering attentions from an American lady who wore clothes as fine as those of the Italian nobility could have but one effect on the mind of the simple peasant girl, and her still simpler parents. Their heads were completely turned 17 The White Slave Traffic in America and they regarded the “ American lady ” with almost adoration. Very shrewdly the woman did not attempt to bring the little girl back with her, but held out the hope that some day a letter might come with money for her passage to America. Once there, she would become the companion of her American friend and they would have great times together. Of course, in due time the money came, and the $ioo was a most substantial pledge to the parents of the wealth and generosity of the “ American lady.” Unhesi- tatingly the girl was prepared for the voyage which was to take her to the land of happiness and good fortune. According to the arrangements made by letter, she was met in New York by two “ friends ” of her benefactress who attended to her entrance papers and took her in charge. These “ friends ” were two of the most brutal of all the white slave drivers who are in the traffic. At this time she was about sixteen years old, innocent and rarely attractive for a girl of her class, having the large, handsome eyes, the black hair and the rich, olive skin of a typical Italian. Where these two men took her she did not know; but by the most violent and brutal means they quickly accomplished her ruin. For a week she was subjected to unspeakable treatment and made to feel that her degradation was complete and final. And here let it be said that the breaking of the spirit, the crushing of all hope for any future save that of shame, is always a part of the initiation of a white slave. Then the girl was shipped on to j i8 The White Slave Traffic Chicago, where she was disposed of to the keeper of an Italian dive of the vilest type. On her en- trance here, she was furnished with gaudy dresses and wearing apparel for which the keeper of the place charged her $600. As is the case with all new white slaves, she was not allowed to have any cloth- ing which she could wear upon the street. Her one object in life was to escape from the den in which she was held a prisoner. To “pay out” seemed the surest way, and at length, from her wages of shame, she was able to cancel the $600 account. Then she asked for her street clothing and her release — only to be told that she had incurred other expenses to the amount of $400. Her Italian blood took fire at this and she made a dash for liberty. But she was not quick enough and the hand of the oppressor was upon her. In the wild scene that followed, she was slashed straight through her right eye, across her cheek, and another slitting her ear. Then she was given medical at- tention and the wounds gradually healed, but her face is horribly mutilated, her right eye is always open and to look- upon her is to shudder. When the raids began, she was secreted and ar- rangements made to ship her to a dive in the mining regions of the West. Fortunately, however, a few hours before she was to start upon her journey the United States marshals raided the place and captured the girl herself, as well as her keepers. The awful thought in her mind, however, is to escape from assassination at the hands of the murderous gang which oppressed her. 19 The White Slave Traffic in America These cases of enslavement of immigrant girls who come to America expecting to find freedom and happiness are most pitiful. Such girls are often quite friendless, bewildered by the strangeness of the language and country, lonely, craving amusement, companionship and sympathy. What wonder that they fall easy victims to the smooth-tongued procurer, and are too intimidated when they find themselves in the hands of traffickers to make any attempt to escape ! To guard against the sensational beliefs that are becoming prevalent, it is best to re- peat that the agents of the Commission have not learned that all or even the majority of the alien women and girls practicing prostitu- tion in the United States in violation of the immigration act were forced into the life or de- ceived ; and they have not proved that alien women as a class are more quickly degraded than native women, though from their igno- rance of the language and customs they are at times less able to guard themselves. More- 20 The White Slave Traffic over, since in some parts of Europe the feeling regarding sexual immorality is less pronounced than in the United States, the women presum- ably in many instances have not the conscious- ness of degradation from their fallen condition that in some cases causes the American girl her keenest suffering. They have learned that a large number of alien women and girls is being imported (sometimes unwillingly, but usually willingly) into the United States and distributed through- out the several States for the purposes of prostitution ; that alien women and girls in considerable numbers have been so deceived or taken advantage of by procurers that they have found themselves in conditions which practically forced them into a life of prosti- tution ; and that all of those engaged in the exploitation of these alien women or girls use every means of degrading them, in order to keep them in the life as long as they are able to earn money. Often the lure to the women is evidently 21 The White Slave Traffic in America not as much in the amouat of money made as in the apparent ease and excitement of making it. Even the smallest profits made in the ex- ploitation of women are, however, sufficient to tempt the man who is willing to be sup- ported by a woman’s shame in order that he may be free to drink or gamble, and to tempt the woman who has no desire to earn an hon- est livelihood. (Report of Immigration Com- mission.) Through the care of the Immigration De- partment, it is hoped that foreign girls will soon be well protected until they are able to take their place as citizens. But so long as the white slave traffic exists in America, it will continue to menace both them and native girls. It is a significant fact that when the body of a young girl was recently taken to the morgue in Chicago, nearly five hundred per- sons — relatives of other missing girls — called or wrote during the time allowed for iden- tification to see if it was their lost one. Where 22 The White Slave Traffic are those lost girls? On the outskirts of one of the western cities, there is a cemetery where 451 nameless girls are buried. It needs not the stories that have been recorded, nor yet the unwritten tragedies that have come to our knowledge, to point the significance of such unmarked graves. The facts that should be told are those that will help to strengthen the forces that are gathering to abolish the white slave trade. The unhappy fact that the daughters of every State of the Union are menaced by the cowardly agents of this clan- destine traffic should be made known. Two other incidents, both known to be authentic, are mentioned here to show that neither social standing nor dignity of bearing afford com- plete protection. Three young girls of good family and ir- reproachable character, attracted by a fortune teller’s sign displayed near the boardwalk of a seaside resort, went into the house with no suspicion of evil or thought of danger, and soon after their entrance found themselves be- 23 The White Slave Traffic in America hind locked doors. In insolent terms, they were told they could not go out, and that as they had entered of their own accord, their reputation would be ruined by letting that fact become known. Two of the girls were timid, but the third, fortunately, was equal to the occasion. By her coolness and courage, she secured the escape of all three from the clutches of a procurer. In another instance, a man seized a young married woman of excellent social position at a railroad station in a city where she was a stranger, and attempted to drag her into a car- riage, claiming that she was his insane wife. No one could wish to be an alarmist but, for the protection of womanhood in America, the dangers that threaten every walk of life while this traffic in women goes on should be made known. In the mind of the trafficker there is no sanctity attached to marriage. Frequently young girls are approached by suave pro- curers with offers of marriage. Where the 24 The White Slave Traffic risks are not too great, sham ceremonies are sometimes performed ; and instances are known where men have legally married women only to force them into an immoral life in order to collect money from them. The lax marriage laws of the States facili- tate such a proceeding, for usually no inquiry is made as to the personal history or character of the man. Indeed, in many cases, the ease with which the man wins the consent of a woman to become his wife, often without the knowledge of her friends, and frequently in direct opposition to their judgment, is astound- ing. She will often leave her home and her family to follow a stranger to the ends of the earth. Assistant State’s Attorney Roe, of Chi- cago, tells of a girl who, he says, “ was caught by the love scheme.” She was in a Chicago store buying sheet music, when a well-dressed, handsome young man, apparently looking at music too, asked her the names of some of the latest popular songs, as he wanted to buy them. At first, she turned from him, but he 25 The White Slave Traffic in America was not to be repulsed, and, artfully pressing his attentions upon her, succeeded finally in engaging her in a conversation, which he per- suaded her to continue at a nearby restaurant where they took luncheon together. There he told her how at first sight he had fallen in love with her beauty. After lunch he artfully sug- gested a visit to his bachelor apartments, but this she refused; whereupon he asked her to marry him then and there. The silly girl, be- lieving he loved her, and enchanted by the picture he had painted of his father’s wealth and fine home in New York City, consented, and they were married. After the ceremony he told her he was about “ broke,” and that they must manage some- how to get money to take them to his father’s home ; finally he said he would take her to a place where she could make enough money in a few days to pay their way to New York, where everything would be lovely, and, as they were married, it would be no one’s business how she got the money. Immediately some 26 The White Slave Traffic accounts she had read of white slave pro- curers came to her mind, and she then realized what she had fallen into. Lest she might arouse in him suspicion of her purpose, she consented to the plan, but told him that before going out to the resort she wanted to get some clothes, and it was arranged that she should meet him at a certain downtown corner to- wards evening. “ She hurried to the County Court,” Mr. Roe says, “ where an escort was given her, and she was brought to the court where I was prosecuting. I armed an officer with a warrant and he followed the girl to the appointed place of meeting. The young man was there waiting for his victim. The officer stepped up and put him under arrest, and the next day he was tried and convicted. It was then learned that he was a well-known procurer of girls. Thus saved from a life of ruin, the girl went home heartbroken but wiser for her experience. She was from a very re- spectable home, and had always been good, honest and industrious.” 27 The White Slave Traffic in America Many similar cases have been revealed in recent court trials. In passing it is well to note that, but for the wide-spread publications concerning the white slave traffic, some of which had come to the notice of this young girl, she would not have been saved. There is another form of woman-slavery that should be understood. It is the system by which a man, getting control of one or more women, induces or forces them to go on the street, in order that he may live on the money so gained, or he may place them in a house for the same purpose. In either case they are compelled to turn money over to their master, sometimes all of it. These slaves are not held by chains of steel, but by invisible fetters that are as hard to break. The Immigration Commission report says : The procurer may sell his woman outright; he may act as agent for another man ; he may keep her, making arrangements for her hunting men. She must be exploited, not for her own sake, but for that of her owner. Often he does not tell her even his right name. If she tries to leave her man, she is 28 The White Slave Traffic threatened with arrest. If she resists, she finds all the men about her leagued against her. The ease and apparent certainty of profit has led thousands of our younger men, usually those of for- eign birth, or the immediate sons of foreigners, to abandon the useful arts of life to undertake the most accursed business ever devised by man. It is the business of the man who controls the woman to provide police protection, either by brib- ing the police not to arrest her; or, in case of arrest, to secure bail, pay the fine, etc. The active agent in the white slave trafific is the procurer. Everywhere his hand is recog- nized in this iniquitous business. Sometimes women engage in it, and they ply their trade for the most part on railroad trains, steam- boats and in railway stations, always ready to proffer aid to young women who are strangers and in distress of any sort. But the men are bold operators. It is they who lure the immigrant girls ; they who band together to prevent escapes ; who visit small towns in search of fresh victims whom they either sell outright or force into vice in order that these men may be supported. It is they who obtain bail for their victims when ar- 3 29 The White Slave Traffic in America rested and obtain smart lawyers to efifect their release when seized by the law. These men are present in every large city, especially in those in which the social evil is protected or segregated, for they must have places to sell their goods. These, too, are the men who frequent the dance-halls and excursion boats, ever on the alert for their prey. They usually have no regular occupation other than watching and collecting the earnings of the women whose lives they control. Through their relations with political powers, white slavers generally manage to get protection from arrest so that they may confidently put women on the street to solicit men. In return for protection, they may act as repeaters at the polls or do other political work. Thus they contrive to make themselves safe from arrest, or, if arrested, to escape punishment; and the shrewdest of them carry on the traffic in women almost without hindrance from the authorities, with little fear that they will ever be called to ac- 30 The White Slave Traffic count for their crimes. Authority for these statements may be found in the following ex- tracts from reports filed at Washington. Naturally, you will ask, if there is an army of these dangerous men thus violating the law, why are they permitted to continue to do so? The answer is that they are useful to the politicians. The Commissioner General of Immigration, Daniel J. Keefe, in his report issued in Feb- ruary, 1910, says: As a preliminary to perfecting plans for the execu- tion of special efforts towards ridding the country of alien prostitutes and procurers, the Bureau ha,d Inspector Marcus Braun conduct a general investi- gation covering all of the largest cities of the United States. As a result, the Bureau is satisfied that an enormous business is constantly being transacted in the importation and distribution of foreign women for purposes of prostitution, which business also includes the seduction and distribution of alien women and girls who have entered the country in a regular manner for legitimate purposes, and to some extent of American women and girls. In some cities the traffic is more or less connected with local political conditions, and the police and other municipal authorities are either implicated or else 31 The White Slave Traffic in America helpless to assist in even the partial eradication of the evil. The U. S. District Attorney of Seattle stated to the Grand Jury: There are between seven and eight hundred men in Seattle who live from the revenue from the white slave traffic, almost all of whom could be reached by the State courts if proper efforts were made. The State authorities could break up this business in short order. The money invested in the traffic is fabu- lous. Chinese girl slaves on the Pacific Coast have been sold for from $500 to S2000 each. When Alphonse and Eva Dufour were ar- rested in Chicago for engaging in importing girls for immoral purposes, and were in great danger of conviction, they forfeited a bail of $26,500 and escaped to France, where they are believed to be engaged in the same business. Girls are often offered for sale for $15 upward. The following affidavit gives a specific instance of this kind: State of Illinois, County of Cook, jj. ^ , first being sworn, on oath deposes and says that dur- ing the months of October, November and Decem- 32 The White Slave Traffic ber, 1908, and January and February, 1909, he was employed as a special investigator by the Immigra- tion Commission; that as part of his duties he in- vestigated the purchase and sale of women for im- moral purposes in Chicago and elsewhere .... that in these investigations statements were made by a certain keeper of a house of prostitution in Chicago that for a certain French girl named M he had paid the sum of $1000; that for a certain French girl named M , who was an inmate of his house, he had paid the sum of $500 .... that a cer- tain girl named L , also a French girl, was sent from Chicago to Omaha and sold to a keeper of a house of prostitution in that city for $1400. Deponent further says that L. P., now an inmate of the penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., stated to de- ponent that he had received the sum of $800 for two girls whom he had brought from Paris, France, to Chicago and sold to a keeper of a house of prosti- tion in Chicago ; that thereafter he was sent by the same keeper to Paris again and given $2000 with which to procure four additional girls ; that these girls were procured in Paris, brought to New York, but that they were stopped by the immigration in- spectors and the procurers arrested. . . .* “ Kipling said in one of his poems, describ- ing the doings of lawless people in the camps of one of the Northern countries, that ‘ There * Report of Immigration Commission, page 30. 33 The White Slave Traffic in America is never a law of God or man runs north of Forty-nine!’ That and more, too, might be said of the districts where the white slaver grows rich from his traffic in girls. The men and the women who engage in this traffic are more unspeakably low and vile than any other class of criminals. The burglar and the hold- up man are high-minded gentlemen by com.- parison. There is no more depraved class of people in the world than those human vultures who fatten on the shame of innocent young girls.” * * Hon. Edwin W. Sims in War on the White Slave Trade. 34 II How Girls are Kept in Slavery The question naturally arises : How is it possible to retain girls in such a life against their will ? Why do they not make outcry and escape? The answer offered is made by those who know whereof they speak. Once in the power of her keepers, the girl may be held in subjection by threats, brutality, or, in some instances, by a woman’s strangely faithful affection for the man, however un- worthy, who has won her first love. An inno- cent girl who has been betrayed often rebels and fights wildly until subdued by compulsion. But frequently she is too broken in spirit, and benumbed by the calamity that has befallen her, to rebel or try to escape. Should she try, she would find the men who exploit women leagued together to keep her in bondage. For this combination, the white slavers have the 35 The White Slave Traffic double motive of the wish to maintain a sys- tem of mutual aid and protection among them- selves, and the wish to impress upon the women they control the difficulties and dan- gers of any attempt to escape. The methods used in houses to which white slaves are taken seem generally about as follows : Once enticed into a house, they are sub- jected to what is known as the “ breaking-in ” process, during which they are at first kept as actual prisoners. They are not permitted to go out unaccompanied. They are then told that there is no other life open to them after such an experience, and that their relatives will not take them back (which is too true, in many cases). Their street clothes are taken from them, and they are supplied instead with short dresses or flimsy finery in wffiich they cannot appear in the street. These garments and the jewelry with which they are provided are charged to them at exorbitant rates, and they are told — and believe — that they cannot 36 The White Slave Traffic leave the house until these things are paid for. When, however, the money is raised to pay for the clothes and jewels, the victim finds that by some means another and heavier debt has been charged to her. She is told that any attempt on her part to evade these debts will subject her to “ handling ” by the police, followed by imprisonment and publicity. Intimidated by threats and ill treatment, conscious of her degradation, she in time accepts the conditions and continues a life of vice. Sometimes her sensibilities are played upon by the keeper’s threat to write to her family if she shows any insubordination. It is well known that often the poor victim would rather die than let her people know the depths to which she has finally fallen. There seems to be a good understanding among the procurers, transporters and the keepers of houses of vice in every city, and among them the victims are watched and guarded so as to make escape most difficult. Threats of violence and death are often made 37 The White Slave Traffic in America to white slaves, and such threats have some- times been carried into effect, as police records show. Her earnings may be ten times as much in this country as in Eastern Europe. She may at times earn in one day from two to four times as much as her washerwoman can earn in a week, but of these earnings she gets practically nothing; the keeper of the house will take one-half; the girl must pay twice as much for board as she would pay else- where, and three or four times the regular price for clothes that are furnished her ; she also must pay the money that the procurer received for selling her into slavery, and when all these tolls are paid, little or nothing is left. Moreover, she often contracts loathsome and dangerous diseases and lives hope- lessly on, looking forward to an early death. In one of the recent raids, a big Irish girl was taken and held as a witness. She was old enough, strong enough, and wise enough, it seemed to me, to have overcome almost any kind of opposition, even physical violence. She could have put up a fight which few men, no matter how brutal, would care to meet. I asked her why she did not get out of the house, which was one of the worst in Chicago. Her answer was “ Get out ! I can’t. They make us buy the cheapest rags and they are charged against us at fabulous prices; they make us change outfits at intervals of two or three weeks until we are so deeply in debt that there is no hope of getting out 38 The White Slave Traffic from under. We’ve simply got to stick, and that’s all there is to it.* There are other reasons, strange as it may seem. Many instances occur in which girls so situated come to feel an affection for these men, who, in a manner, protect them, and in time come to stand to them for all that is worth while in the world. These men are cruel to them, rob them and make them do drudgery often. Sometimes, however, their misery becomes too great to endure and they turn on their tormentors. Here is one instance : Philadelphia. Made a slave in the dives of this city by a giant Mexican negro, a pretty 23-year-old white girl, who came here from Williamsport two years ago, early to-day plunged a pair of scissors into the negro’s heart and he is dying in the hospital. According to the story told by the young woman when she was arraigned, the stabbing followed her being taunted by the negro with what he had brought her into, before a gathering of negro men and women, and his tplling them that he owned her. She is being held without bail to await the result of the negro’s injury. * Mr. Harry A, Parkin, Assistant U. S. District Attorney in Chicago, in Report of Immigration Com- mission, page 25. 39 The White Slave Traffic in America The strange fascination that certain men exert over women is exercised by procurers who possess it; and repeated instances occur in the courts where a woman who has been bullied and beaten by the man to whom she has had to give the proceeds of her shame will intercede on his behalf, or refuse to give evidence against him. Such men count on this for their protection, and even more cer- tainly on the fact that the world is relentless in its censure of the woman who makes mer- chandise of her womanhood. One of the reasons why so many girls stay in bondage is that they are condemned by the severe tribunal of parental indignation and social decree to banishment. Debarred from normal association with right-minded people and the influences of wholesome conditions, their mental, physical and moral natures be- come warped and distorted ; they come at last to adopt the standards and live the life of the class to which society condemns them. 40 Ill Woman Slavery on the Pacific Coast In many cities on the Pacific Coast there exists a form of woman slavery which, it would seem, needs only to be described to give rise to a movement for its destruction. There are erected large and flimsily built houses called “ cribs,” consisting of many small rooms open- ing into inner passages by means of a barred window and door, which is kept locked by the manager, the key being given to men as they apply to him. Within these little cells, scantily furnished, are kept young girls, most of them Chinese and Japanese, but some of them Euro- pean and American. They have little light or air, are rarely allowed to leave their rooms, and the manager receives the money. Are they not slaves — literally slaves ? And yet this slavery exists upon American soil and no one voices an effective protest. In conversation 41 The White Slave Traffic in America with a very intelligent Chinaman, the direct question was asked : “ Are these girls actual prisoners, owned and controlled by their keep- ers ? ” He said that such was practicall)'^ the case, and that these girls were not allowed to leave their rooms without being escorted by older people whose attendance would in- sure their return. Reporting a case of disputed ownership of a Chinese girl claimed by two men, one of whom resided in Sacramento, and the other in Oakland, the Oakland Enquirer of Febru- ary 20, 1907, informed its readers that: “ This girl’s possession was one of the points in dis- pute between two tongs [secret societies], and it was this that was settled at yesterday’s con- ference.” This article was headed “ Warring Tongs Hold a Conference, and it is Agreed Chinese Maiden is to be Returned or Equiva- lent in Cash.” “ Equivalent in cash ” for a Chinese maiden ! Can it be possible that this is the United States of America and the twentieth century! .... Have we spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and shed the 42 The White Slave Traffic blood of many thousands of young men, and widowed and orphaned tens of thousands besides, in a civil war to put down African slavery, introduced from the Atlantic coast, merely to turn about and welcome Chinese slavery from the Pacific coast?* An investigator sent into the cities of Cali- fornia by the National Vigilance Committee in January, 1908, found the crib system in op- eration in San Francisco since the earthquake in what is called the “ Barbary Coast.” He reported that there were, in this district, houses built for immoral purposes containing from twenty-five to one hundred and sixty girls in each. Some of these houses occupied from one-quarter to half a block. Most of the girls in them were of foreign parentage, and our agent learned upon reliable authority that a well-organized system was in operation, by which any desired number of girls might be procured here or abroad on short notice. “ Many slave-pens for women have been built in the reconstructed Chinatown, and much of * “ Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers,” by Dr. Katharine Bushnell and Elizabeth Andrews. 43 The White Slave Traffic in America the money for these, it is said, has been fur- nished by some of the ‘Christian ’ business men of San Francisco. While a few of the citizens of San Francisco are aware of this infamy, the majority of the people of that city seem to have no realization of the depth of iniquity this crib system of slavery presents. “Similar conditions have been found in Oak- land, where the authorities seem to regard the crib slavery of young girls as part of the legiti- mate business of the city, and where at a re- cent election one of the crib owners came very near being chosen a member of the school board. The system exists in Sacramento, the capital of California, where may be witnessed a depth of depravity that is almost beyond be- lief ; and in Stockton, Modista, Fresno and Bakersfield, in which latter place cribs are owned by a prominent citizen who has held high official position. It is also to be found in San Diego and Watsonville.” Los Angeles destroyed its cribs by means of a crusade of its citizens in 1904. 44 The White Slave Traffic Aside from the cruelty of this system, it will be readily understood that these places soon become plague spots of infection, and continue to be such as long as they are allowed to exist. There is a brave and devoted woman in San Francisco who is ever on the alert to res- cue Japanese and Chinese girls. She relates the following instance: On one occasion, a band was organized to rescue a Chinese girl who had promised to assist in her own escape. She had arranged that she would hold a white handkerchief to her mouth in order to show that she was the one to be rescued. When the party entered the place, they saw the girl with the handkerchief, but, unfortunately, in the excitement of the moment, she lost her presence of mind and, waving the handkerchief, cried out, “ Oh, teacher ! ” A locked door still separated her from her rescuers, and her keepers, suspecting the truth, hurried her away and she was lost in the recesses of the house. Later on, some girls who managed to escape told her fate. Her enraged owner kicked her to death in one of the rooms of this slave-pen, where there was no one to defend her. No person was ever punished by law for this crime. The following excerpt from Miss Donald- ena Cameron’s report to the Occidental Board 4 45 The White Slave Traffic in America of Foreign Missions presents a vivid picture of the situation on the Pacific Coast; Now a glimpse at the last, and, most interesting phase of our rescue work — those who actually have been sold in China and resold in this country, young girls not out of their teens who are held by their greedy owners for a king’s ransom, never less than three thousand dollars, with large interest added every month. How hopeless and helpless is the condition of those Chinese slave girls, no enlightened white woman can realize. . . . Just lately our efforts and hopes have centered upon three young slave girls, all very recent importations from China. Foo Qui is the most interesting of the trio, the most responsive and intelligent. Her own determined rebellion against the horrors of the life she was assigned to after her arrival in San Francisco was what brought about her rescue. She first escaped from her prison on Mah Fong Alley and took refuge with Chinese in a lodging house on Dupont Street. Thither her owner traced her and demanded that she return. Foo Qui refused to go. Her owner dared not use force, as those who harbored the girl were members of an opposing highbinder tong. A meeting of the two tongs was called to settle the question of the girl’s ransom. If her new friends (?) would pay the price, she could remain with them. While this meeting was in progress behind barred doors at Tong Headquarters on Waverly Place, a messenger carried the information to the Mission. Quickly an officer was called and a rescue party of 46 The White Slave Traffic three hastened toward Chinatown. Up two flights of stairs to the top floor where a strongly bolted door barred the way. Ah Ching, the little Mission interpreter, spoke a few Chinese words. Unsus- pectingly the old doorkeeper slid back the bolts, in an instant the rescue party had forced their way past the amazed guard and down a long passageway. From the further end could be heard the distressed cries of a girl’s voice pleading her own lost cause. A door stood slightly ajar; we sprang towards it, but the excited cries of warning from the man at the door reached the inner guard; as our hands touched it the great door swung shut and the bolts dropped into place. All was quiet for a few mo- ments, then we, who vainly knocked and demanded admission, could faintly discern the sound of some- thing being dragged across the room, furniture was moved, then the crashing of glass, then indistinguish- able, muffled sounds. Oh, the intense anxiety of those moments! The bitterness of defeat! Next, hurried footsteps on the roof over our heads ! Our small party was re-enforced by the police sergeant and we pleaded with him to force an entrance. Once more a club was brought to bear on the stubborn door; at length a tardy response came; slowly the bolts were withdrawn and we entered through a passage into the meeting place of the Bing Goon Tong, where some twenty-five or thirty men of the rival tongs filled the room. An imperturbable calm pervaded the gathering, there was absolutely nothing to suggest the scenes which we knew had just been enacted. “ Where is the slave girl ? ” we indignantly 47 The White Slave Traffic in America demanded. They politely suggested that we “ had come to the wrong place to seek slave girls.” Mo- ments were precious, we must find where she was hidden. An open window suggested the fire escape. Leaning out to scan the ascent to the roof, a work- man across the street on a neighboring roof called out : “ They pulled her through the skylight, she is in the next house below.” Calling our aids to follow, we descended again to the street, ran around the corner and proceeded to mount the stairs of the “ next house below.” Another locked door guarded the entrance there, but the Chinese within, fearing to resist the squad of police who had now gathered to assist in the search, quickly opened the door. Our first search of several rooms revealed nothing, but a second look brought to our notice a large cup- board moved slightly out from the wall. As we stepped forward to glance behind it, a disheveled black head appeared. We knew instantly that its owner was no other than Foo Qui, the object of our long search. Distressed and frightened though she was, it took little persuasion to draw her from her hiding place. Great was the consternation of the enemy when the victorious rescue party made its exit from the house through the excited crowds that thronged the sidewalks, eager to see the climax. As the trembling slave girl passed up the street with downcast head, clinging to the hand of the calm, triumphant little interpreter. Ah Ching, we did not wonder that a rousing cheer went up from that mingled throng. We only marveled anew at our own 48 The White Slave Traffic lack of faith; that we could ever harbor a thought of defeat. One more short story (though it could easily be longer than the last if space and the reader’s patience would permit) : Yoke Qui is the name she was given when she began life in that strange underworld of Chinatown about two years ago. She is very pretty, and grace- ful as a reed, so we like best the soft sounding name, Suey Wah (Water Bird), a fond Chinese mother called her when she first saw the light in some peace- ful village nested near one of the great water-ways in the old Province of Canton. The Mission heard of Yoke Qui through two mysterious messengers, each with a different plan for the slave girl’s rescue. The one by which she was finally saved was worked by means of a talisman. Two halves of a little torn white handkerchief, one-half retained to assure the rescuers of Yoke Qui’s identity and the other piece carried by one of the Mission party. “ The City of Pekin,” on Jackson Street, with exits unto several intersecting alleys at the side and on the rear, had long before the days of the fire been a notorious rendezvous for Chinese men and women who live on the illicit earnings of the unfortunate slave girls who are kept there. It is not a pleasant place to visit, and our plan for the rescue did not originally em- brace entering the house, but at five o’clock, the hour previously arranged for her flight. Yoke Qui was sur- rounded by a bevy of those who watched with sus- 49 The White Slave Traffic in America picion her every move; so when the signal came from her rescuers at the outer entrance, it was not she as we expected, but the old woman who kept guard, that cautiously opened the door. The eager little party of four in the dark entry quickly divided, two stood guard that the heavy door might not close again, while two made a rapid search for the girl who held the talisman. Such consternation as prevailed, and such pandemonium as ensued can only be imagined ! Men, women and weeping slave girls ran hither and thither, but where was Yoke Qui with the torn handkerchief? In an inner room, over- looked on our first hasty search of the long hallways, two men were trying to force open a secret trap door through which the young girl could be slid to a secure hiding place ; but Providence ordered other- wise. The trap failed to respond, they must find another retreat. Across the hallway they dragged the frightened, reluctant girl, just at the moment when her rescuers were hastening toward the door to summon more aid in the search. It certainly was not “ chance ” that brought us there at that very moment just in time to block their flight. An in- stant’s glance revealed the little white talisman in the girl’s hand. We quickly drew forth the cor- responding piece from our pocket. With that mutual assurance. Yoke Qui and her rescuers turned to flee for freedom, but not without a struggle would the allies of her owner allow such a valuable chattel to escape. For a moment it seemed as though we would lose our newly won prize. Just then re- 50 The White Slave Traffic enforcements arrived to assist us. One of our wise young Chinese girls at the entrance, realizing the danger, had run to the street below and called an officer to help us. At sight of him, the Chinese men fell back and quickly disappeared. Breathless, but happy and thankful, a party of five returned to the shelter of the Mission Home. 51 IV The Traffic and Public Health The white slave traffic bears a direct rela- tion to public health, for it is a means by which infectious venereal disease is widely- spread. Not only does the woman herself become subject to infection, but she is made a transmitter of disease. Physicians, actuated by the desire to protect the innocent, are mak- ing known the fact that diseases caused by prostitution infect the wives and children of the men from whom white slaves collect the money. Upon the men who visit the market the scourge falls, and with these citizens the innocent members of their families may suffer. Because of its effect upon public health, the traffic thus becomes a subject of immediate interest not only to the medical profession but also to the public whose health is endangered. Not only does the victim suffer, but many in- nocent persons — wives and children — must 52 The White Slave Traffic come under the curse of these diseases, for they are sure, sooner or later, to afflict the victims and thence spread throughout the com- munity, causing a very large percentage of disease and sterility among men ; serious sur- gical operations, sterility and death among women ; and weakness and blindness among children due to venereal disease which is fos- tered and spread by the white slave traffic. “ Oh, what men do, what men dare to do, what men daily do, not knowing what they do ! ” It is the last clause of this proposition which explains this hecatomb of victims, and at the same time suggests the saving hope of the situation. It is not because men are so lacking in conscience or sensibility that they perpetrate these crimes against the women they have vowed to love, cherish and protect; it is largely from ignorance. If young men could be educated in matters re- lating to sexual hygiene, the significance and dangers of venereal disease, their modes of contagion and the serious consequences they may entail in married life, such knowledge would be of inestimable service 53 The White Slave Traffic in America in protecting the sanctuary of marriage from their invasion. In view of the dangers which menace the public health and the interests of the family and society from venereal disease, it is time to break down these barriers of concealment and silence, behind which these diseases propagate and flourish, to dissipate the dense ignorance of the public by turning on the purifying light of knowledge, to do away with the mystery and secrecy which have always surrounded them, and to put aside that ridiculous prudery which regards all knowledge of sexual matters as profane.* * Social Diseases and Marriage, by Dr. Prince A. Morrow. 54 V The New York White Slave Grand Jury On the third of January, 1910, the Hon. Thomas C. O’Sullivan, Judge of the Court of General Sessions, in and for the City and County of New York, charged an additional Grand Jury for the January term with the duty of inquiring into existence of an organized traffic in women. There were two features connected with this investigation which at once attracted and held the close attention of the public. One was the fact that an article in McClure’s Magazine for November, 1909, written by George Kibbe Turner, entitled “ The Daugh- ters of the Poor,” dealing with the white slave traffic in New York City, and also an article which appeared in the New York Evening Post just before election, were believed by many to have had influence in determining the election. 55 The White Slave Traffic in America The other feature was that Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was selected as the foreman of the Grand Jury. The newly elected District Attorney, Mr. Charles S. Whitman, appointed Mr. James Bronson Reynolds to take charge of the in- vestigation, Mr. Charles W. Appleton being associated with him until the appointment of the latter as magistrate. On the ninth of June, 1910, the Grand Jury made the following presentment to Judge O’Sullivan, prefacing it with the statement that they had consulted Prof. J. W. Jenks of the Immigration Commission, Mr. Turner of McClure’s, and many other individuals and associations : WHITE SLAVE TRAEFIC Presentment of the Additional Grand Jury for the January Term of the Court of General Sessions in the County of New York, in the matter of the investigation as to the alleged existence in the County of New York of an organized trafhc in women for inwtoral purposes. — Filed June 29, igio. 56 The White Slave Traffic Court of General Sessions in and for the City AND County of New York In the matter of the investigation as to the alleged existence in the County of New York of an organized traMc in women for immoral purposes. To the Hon. Thomas C. O’Sullivan, Judge of the Court of General Sessions. Sir. — We, the members of the Additional Grand Jury for the January Term, 1910, respectfully present as follows : In the charge delivered to us by Your Honor on the 3d day of January, 1910, Your Honor said: “There have been spread broadcast in the public prints statements that the City of New York is a center or clearing house for an organized traffic in women for immoral purposes, or what has come to be known as the white slave traffic. Some of these statements may have been published with ulterior motive and may have been mere sensationalism, but some are said to be based upon official investigation and charges made by persons who profess to have knowledge of the fact “This traffic in women, it is charged, follows two main objects : First, the procuring of women of previous chaste character, who through force, duress or deceit are finally made to live lives of prostitu- tion; second, the procuring of women who are al- ready prostitutes and placing them with their consent in houses where they may ply their trade. . . . “ But the main object, gentlemen, which I desire 57 The White Slave Traffic in America you to keep in mind throughout your investigation is the uncovering not alone of isolated offences, but of an organization, if any such exists, for a trafSc in the bodies of women. “You should make your investigation sufficiently broad to cover not only present conditions, but also conditions existing in the past within the statute of limitations. “ I charge you that it is your duty to pursue this inquiry into every channel open to you and to present to the court the facts found by you.” Pursuant to Your Honor’s instructions, we have made an investigation into the matters referred to in Your Honor’s charge. We have called before our body every person whom we could find who we had reason to believe might have information on the subject. Among others were the following: A member of the National Immigration Commission assigned to investigate conditions relating to im- porting, seducing and dealing in women in the City of New York; the author of an article which ap- peared in McClure’s Magazine for November, 1909, entitled “ The Daughters of the Poor ” ; a former under sheriff in the County of Essex, New Jersey; the President of the New York Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Children; the author of a pam- phlet entitled “The White Slave Traffic”; a member of the New York State Immigration Commission ap- pointed by Governor Hughes in 1908; a former Police Commissioner of the City of New York; detectives and other agents especially employed in 58 The White Slave Traffic connection with this investigation; members and ex-members of the New York Independent Benevo- lent Association ; witnesses in the specific cases pre- sented to this grand jury, as well as a number of other citizens. In addition, the foreman, the District Attorney and his Assistants have interviewed repre- sentatives of the following organizations: The Committee of Fourteen; its Research Com- mittee. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil- dren. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Charity Organization Society. The Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The Committee on Amusements and Vacation Re- sources of Working Girls. The Society for Social and Moral Prophylaxis. The Florence Crittenden Mission. The New York Probation Association. The Headworkers of various Social Settlements. The Women’s Municipal League. The Society for the Prevention of Crime. The Bureau of Municipal Research. We also published in the daily press of this city on the 6th day of May the following: “The Additional Grand Jury, sworn in in January by Judge O’Sullivan of the Court of General Ses- sions, was charged with the investigation of the truth or falsity of certain statements which had been 59 The White Slave Traffic in America publicly made during the past few months to the effect that the City of New York is a center or clear- ing house for an organized traffic in women for im- moral purposes, or what has come to be known as the white slave traffic. “ Pursuant to this charge the Grand Jury has been seeking legal evidence on this subject from all avail- able sources. The information which many citizens have volunteered to give has proved in most cases to be general rather than specific. “Before closing its investigation the Grand Jury desires to announce publicly that it will be glad to receive definite, specific information as to the exist- ence in this county of any traffic in women for im- moral purposes from any citizen or official or other individual who has such information. Those who are willing to assist the Grand Jury in its investiga- tion are asked to call at the office of James B. Reyn- olds, Assistant District Attorney, Criminal Court Building (within the next week). It will save the time of many individuals and of Mr. Reynolds if only those appear who are willing and able to present facts regarding the specific matter above stated. “ On behalf of the Additional January Grand Jury. “John D. Rockefeller, Jr., “ Foreman.” As a part of this investigation evidence has been presented to us and we have found 54 indictments ; 22 for rape. 16 for abduction. 60 The White Slave Traffic 10 for maintaining disorderly houses, 7 of which were Raines-Law Hotels. 6 for the violation of Section 2460 of the Penal Law, entitled “ Compulsory Prostitution of Women.” We have found no evidence of the existence in the County of New York of any organization or organizations, incorporated or otherwise, engaged as such in the traffic in women for immoral purposes, nor have we found evidence of an organized traffic in women for immoral purposes. It appears, on the other hand, from indictments found by us and from the testimony of witnesses that a trafficking in the bodies of women does exist and is carried on by individuals acting for their own individual benefit, and that these persons are known to each other, and are more or less informally associated. We have also found that associations and clubs, composed mainly or wholly of those profiting from vice, have existed, and that one such association still exists. These associations and clubs are analogous to commercial bodies in other fields, which, while not directly engaged in commerce, are composed of indi- viduals all of whom as individuals are so engaged. The “ incorporated syndicates ” and “ international bands ” referred to in published statements, we find to be such informal relations as have just been spoken of, while the “ international headquarters,” “ clearing houses ” and “ pretentious clubhouses ” mentioned are cafes or other so-called “ hangouts ” where people interested in the various branches of S 61 The White Slave Traffic in America the business resort. These and the houses of prosti- tution are also referred to as “markets.” The “ dealers ” and “ operators ” are the so-called “ pimps ” and “ procurers,” the “ pimp ” being re- ferred to as the “ retailer ” and the manager of houses as the “ wholesaler.” The only association composed mainly or wholly of those profiting from vice, of the present existence of which we have evidence, is the New York Inde- pendent Benevolent Association, organized in this city in 1894 and incorporated in 1896. This associa- tion has had an average membership of about 100. Its alleged purpose is to assist its members in case of illness, to give aid in case of death and to assure proper burial rites. After an exhaustive investigation into the activities of the association and of its members we find no evidence that the association as such does now or has ever trafficked in women, but that such traffic is being or has been carried on by various members as individuals. We find that the members of this asso- ciation are scattered in many cities throughout the United States. From the testimony adduced it ap- pears probable that the social relations of the mem- bers and the opportunity thereby afforded of com- municating with one another in various cities have facilitated the conduct of their individual business. On one occasion where a member was convicted of maintaining a disorderly house and a fine of $1000 was imposed upon him in the City of Newark, New Jersey, the association voted $500 for his aid. On another occasion in the City of Newark, New Jersey, 62 The White Slave Traffic where several of the members of the association were arrested on the charge of keeping and maintaining disorderly houses, and one member was in prison, the then President went to Newark, declared to the Under Sheriff that he was the President of the New York Independent Benevolent Association, and en- tered into negotiations with the authorities in New- ark on behalf of the members who had been ar- rested. We have, however, no evidence of any such instance in the County of New York. It appears from the testimony of various members and ex-members of the said Association that its membership is almost entirely composed of persons who are now or have been engaged in the operation of disorderly houses or who are living or have lived directly or indirectly upon the proceeds of women’s shame. None of these witnesses, in answer to spe- cific questions, could name more than one or two present or past members whose record did not show them to have lived at some time upon the proceeds of prostitution in one form or another. They claim, however, that all members who have been convicted of a crime are expelled from the organization when the proof of that fact has been submitted, the offence apparently being not the commission of a crime, but conviction. It would appear that this procedure is for the purpose of protecting the individual, if pos- sible, and, failing in that, of freeing the Association from criticism. Finding no evidence of an organized traffic in women, but of a traffic carried on by individuals, we have made a special and careful investigation 63 The White Slave Traffic in America along this line. Owing to the publicity given to the inquiry at its inception, it has been difficult to get legal evidence of the actual purchase and sale of women for immoral purposes, and our investigators have been informed in different quarters that a num- ber of formerly active dealers in women had either temporarily gone out of business or had transferred their activities to other cities. However, five self- declared dealers in women had agreed upon various occasions to supply women to our agents, but because of their extreme caution and the fear aroused by the continued sitting of this grand jury, these prom- ises were fulfilled in only two instances, in each of which two girls were secured for our agents at a price, in the one case of $6o each and in the other of $75 each. Indictments have been found against these two persons; one pleaded guilty and the other was convicted on trial. All of these parties boasted to our investigators of their extensive local and interstate operations in the recent past. They specifically mentioned the cities to which they had forwarded women, and described their operations as having at that time been free from danger of detection. Our investigators also testified as to the methods and means used by these people in replenishing the supply of women and in entrapping innocent girls. Quoting again from Your Honor’s charge : “ This traffic in women, it is charged, follows two main objects; First, the procuring of women of pre- vious chaste character, who through force, duress or deceit are finally made to live lives of prostitution; 64 The White Slave Traffic second, the procuring of women who are already prostitutes and placing them with their consent in houses where they may ply their trade.” Under the first heading, namely, the procuring of women of previous chaste character, we find the most active force to be the so-called “ pimp.” There are in the County of New York a considerable and in- creasing number of these creatures who live wholly or in part upon the earnings of girls or women who practise prostitution. With promises of marriage, of fine clothing, of greater personal independence, these men often induce girls to live with them, and after a brief period, with threats of exposure or of physical violence, force them to go upon the streets as common prostitutes and to turn over the proceeds of their shame to their seducers, who live largely, if not wholly, upon the money thus earned by their victims. This system is illustrated in an indictment and conviction where the defendant by such promises induced a girl of fifteen to leave her home and within two weeks put her on the streets as a common prostitute. We find also that these persons ill-treat and abuse the women with whom they live and beat them at times in order to force them to greater activity and longer hours of work on the streets. This is il- lustrated in the case of another defendant who was indicted and convicted for brutally slashing with a knife the face of “ his girl ” and leaving her dis- figured for life, merely because she was no longer willing to prostitute herself for his benefit. 65 The White Slave Traffic in America In this connection mention should be made of the moving picture shows as furnishing to this class of persons an opportunity for leading girls into a life of shame. These shows naturally attract large num- bers of children, and while the law provides that no child under the age of sixteen shall be allowed to attend them unaccompanied by parent or guardian, it is a fact, as shown by the number of arrests and convictions that the law is frequently violated. Evi- dence upon which indictments have been found and convictions subsequently secured, has been given which shows that, in spite of the activities of the authorities in watching these places, many girls owe their ruin to frequenting them. An instance of the above is the case of a defendant indicted by this grand jury and convicted before Your Honor, where three girls met as many young men at a Harlem moving picture show. At the end of the performance the young men were taken by an employee of the place through a door in the rear into a connecting building — used as a fire exit for the moving picture show — where they met the girls, and all passed the night together. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has furnished statistics showing that since the r3th day of December, 1906, 33 cases of rape and seduction originated in moving picture shows, in some instances the perpetrators being the em- ployees of the shows. It is not the purpose of this reference to bring an indictment against the moving picture show, which under proper restrictions may be an important and 66 The White Slave Traffic valuable educational and recreative factor, but rather to point out possible dangers inherent in perform- ances carried on in the darkness, and the importance of the observance of safeguards by parents or guard- ians, and of the strict enforcement of the law for the protection of children. Under the second heading in that portion of Your Honor’s charge quoted above, which refers to the procuring of women who are already prostitutes and placing them with their consent in houses where they may ply their trade, the grand jury has made a special study of the class of disorderly houses commonly known as “ Raines-Law Hotels,” the chief business of many of which is to provide a place where women of the streets may take their cus- tomers. The testimony given shows that girls who brought their patrons to certain hotels of this class were allowed rebates on the amount charged their patrons for rooms. Upon the evidence brought be- fore us, indictments were found against seven of the most notorious of these hotels. The abuse which has grown up in the conversion of the so-called massage and manicure parlor, into a disorderly house, frequently of the most perverted kind, has received our careful study under this same heading. A special investigation has been made of some 125 massage and manicure parlors in this county. Less than half of these establishments were found to be equipped for legitimate purposes, most of them being nothing but disorderly houses. The operators in such places had no knowledge of mas- sage treatment, and in certain cases where certificates 67 The White Slave Traffic in America of alleged massage institutes were on the walls of the premises they frankly admitted that they had no training in massage, and did not even know the per- sons whose signatures appeared on the certificates. In view of the above, it would seem important that these parlors should be licensed by the Health Department of the city, and that all operators in them should also have a license from some approved health or medical authority, and further, that proper supervisions should be exercised to insure their op- eration for the legitimate purposes for which they are licensed. The spreading of prostitution in its various forms from the well-known disorderly house into apartment and tenement houses presents a very grave danger to the home. It is inevitable that children who have daily evidence of the apparent comfort, ease, and oftentimes luxury in which women of this class live should not only become hardened to the evil, but be easily drawn into the life. The existing laws for the suppression of this vice in apartment and tene- ment houses should be most rigorously enforced, and, if necessary, additional legislation enacted. But of the evils investigated under this head, the most menacing is the so-called “ pimp ” w’ho, as al- ready stated, while often active in seducing girls, is, to what seems to be an increasing extent, living on the earnings of the professional prostitute, constantly driven by him to greater activity and more degrading practices. We do not find that these persons are formally organized, but it would appear that the majority of 68 The White Slave Traffic the women of the street, as well as many of those who practice prostitution in houses or flats, are con- trolled by them and usually pay their entire earnings to them. They prescribe the hours and working places for these women, assist them in getting cus- tomers, protect them from interference when pos- sible, and when the women are arrested do what they can to procure their release. While “their women ” are at work, they spend much of their time in saloons and other resorts where they gather socially. Although operating individually their com- mon interest leads them to co-operate for mutual protection or for the recovery of women who may desert them, and for the maintenance of their au- thority over their particular women. It is an un- written law among these men that the authority of the individual over the woman or women controlled by him is unquestioned by his associates to whatever extreme it may be carried. To obtain a conviction against one of this class is most difficult, for through fear or personal liking “ his woman ” is loath to become a witness against him, and without her evidence conviction is almost impossible. Whatever one may think of the woman who adopts the profession of a prostitute by choice, all must agree that the man who in cold blood exploits a woman’s body for his own support and profit is vile and despicable beyond expression. Only through the arousing of an intelligent and determined public sentiment which will back up the forces of law in their effort to ferret out and bring to justice the 69 The White Slave Traffic in America members of this debased class, is there hope of stamping out those vilest of human beings found to-day in the leading cities of this and other lands. In view of the foregoing we recommend : 1. That no effort be spared in bringing to justice the so-called “pimp.” When the character and prevalence of these creatures are more fully realized and public sentiment aroused regarding them, the inadequate punishment now imposed should be in- creased and every legitimate means devised and put into execution to exterminate them. 2. That the existing laws be more rigidly enforced to safeguard the patrons of the moving picture shows, and that parents and guardians exercise more care- ful supervision over their children in connection with their attendance upon these shows. 3. That vigorous efforts be made to minimize the possibility of the Raines-Law Hotel becoming a disorderly house, and that where necessary proper supervision and inspection looking toward that end be provided. 4. That the so-called massage and manicure par- lors be put under the control of the Health Depart- ment ; that a license from this department be required for their operation ; that certificates be granted to operators only by some approved medical authority, and that proper measures be taken to enforce these laws. 5. That the laws relating to prostitution in apart- ment and tenement houses be rigidly enforced, and that the present laws be supplemented, if necessary. 70 The White Slave Traffic 6. That a commission be appointed by the Mayor to make a careful study of the laws relating to and the methods of dealing with the social evil in the leading cities of this country and of Europe, with a view to devising the most effective means of min- imizing the evil in this city. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Geo. F. Crane, Secretary. Foreman. Dated, June g, 1910. Based on the opening paragraph of the foregoing presentment, the daily press of the country published the statement widely that “ no organized traffic exists in New York,” overlooking the facts stated in the presentment that there is an extensive traffic carried on by individuals who have a perfect understanding with each other. An editorial in the Evening Post thus puts it: THE WHITE SLAVE REPORT It is unfortunate that Judge O’Sullivan, in his address to the Rockefeller grand jury yesterday, should have been so preoccupied with the importance of confuting the slanderers of the city as to have overlooked every aspect of the grand jury’s report, except that which may be utilized for this purpose. Even in regard to the one point to which he con- fines himself, his citation of the report does not re- 71 The White Slave Traffic in America fleet its character with all desirable accuracy. “ Your report,” says Judge O’Sullivan, “is that no or- ganized traffic in women exists in this city.” Doubt- less the learned judge intended this to be understood as meaning only that the grand jury had declared that it had been unable to find evidence of such organized traffic; and yet a large part of the public will certainly understand his words as meaning more than this. What the grand jury said on this point was that they had “ found no evidence of the exist- ence in the County of New York of any organization or organizations, incorporated or otherwise, engaged as such in the traffic in women for immoral pur- poses,” nor “ of an organized traffic in women for immoral purposes.” And they immediately go on to say : “ It appears, on the other hand, from indictments found by us and from the testimony of witnesses, that a trafficking in the bodies of women does exist and is carried on by individuals acting for their own individual benefit, and that these persons are known to each other and are more or less informally as- sociated. “ We have also found that associations and clubs, composed mainly or wholly from those profiting from vice, have existed, and that one such association still exists. These associations and clubs are analogous to commercial bodies in other fields, which, while not directly engaged in commerce, are composed of indi- viduals, all of whom as individuals are so engaged.” That there have been exaggerations in the reports relating to this horrible evil is not surprising; some 72 The White Slave Traffic of these exaggerations may have been the result of a desire to be sensational, others may have been perfectly innocent, the result of an imperfect weigh- ing of evidence. If errors are committed by de- nouncers of evil. Judge O’Sullivan might find in his own case a warning against too readily imputing bad motives. He himself made in his address yesterday a frank retraction of an accusation against a court officer, publicly made by him in addressing this same jury last week. It certainly would have been much easier for him to ascertain the exact truth in re- gard to Mr. J. B. Reynolds before making a charge against him than it can be for an investigator of widespread social evil to go to the bottom of the case before drawing public attention to the need of reformatory action. But the question whether there has been exaggeration or not is by no means the main question. All that the grand jury’s report does, on the negative side, is to admit that there is no evi- dence of an organized traffic in the commercial sense of the word — a full-fledged combination, with regular division of profits or the like. But on the positive side it is evident from the grand jury’s report that there must be a large number of persons, more or less closely associated with each other, who carry on the infamous business; and furthermore, not a word is contained in the report to diminish the well- grounded belief that it is through the protection of district leaders and their influence in the police force that this is made possible. What is the actual extent in this city of the par- ticular and most shocking evil known as white 73 ( The White Slave Traffic in America slavery, cannot be determined from the report. That this jury has found six indictments coming distinctly under this head is some indication. In its general statements, the jury speaks of the difficulty it has ex- perienced in getting legal evidence of actual cases of the traffic owing to the publicity given to the inquiry at its inception. It has received information that a number of “ dealers ” have either temporarily gone out of business or transferred their activities to other cities. As to other phases of the question, closely related to this, the grand jury’s report is full of grave and important matter. Its revelations about the pres- ence of vicious establishments in various disguised forms are most serious, and its recommendations are deserving of the earnest attention of the civic au- thorities. So far as the public is concerned, it is to be re- gretted that Judge O’Sullivan’s remarks, which many may read who do not read the report of the grand jury, are calculated to convey the impression that nothing has been found by the grand jury except the existence of prostitution, and of those accom- paniments of it which we cannot hope to extirpate. That the report itself has a very different color might be shown by many passages besides the one we have quoted, and in particular by the following: “ Whatever one may think of the woman who adopts the profession of a prostitute by choice, all must agree that the man who in cold blood exploits a woman’s body for his own support and profit is vile and despicable beyond expression. Only through the arousing of an intelligent and determined public 74 The White Slave TrafSc sentiment which will back up the forces of law in their efforts to ferret out and bring to justice the members of this debased class is there hope of stamp- ing out these vilest of human beings found to-day in the leading cities of this and other lands.” By increasing the severity of the law, by adminis- tering it with vigor, and above all by stamping out relentlessly all connection between this vile trade and politics, we may hope to put an end to the in- famy; we shall never do so by either denying its existence, or venting a wrathful indignation over the fact that some people have said things about it which are not strictly true. 75 -i Part II THE SOURCES OF THE TRAFFIC 6 THE SOURCES OF THE TRAFFIC VI The Underlying Causes It is an accepted axiom that the best way to eradicate an evil is to remove its cause. Let us now, therefore, direct our attention to the causes that have produced the white slave traffic and which lie at its root, with the hope that when they are once laid bare and under- stood they may be removed. A study of the conditions that surround the traffic reveals the fact that it is not simply a case of the selling and buying of a human being against her will, but that the situation is an exceedingly complex one. It touches closely upon the social life of the community ; it involves the merchant ; it is very much mixed up with politics ; it has a decided influence upon the public health. In a word, vice is 79 The White Slave Traffic in America now commercialized and touches life at many points. To conduct the white slave traffic with suc- cess means that money must go to the house owner or tenant, the real estate agent, the sa- loon, the dance hall, the procurer, the police, the physician, the lawyer, many merchants, the telephone and messenger service and the transportation companies. It is not the “ demand and supply ” which makes the public tolerate the white slave traffic and kindred evils, but ignorance, indifference, business interests and political expediency — things which we are learning are undermining political freedom and economic independence as well as menacing the moral integrity of men, women and children.* The double standard of morality which has been accepted more or less calmly by those whom the law can touch — the women — and as a matter of course, by those whom it seldom * See Report of the Committee of Fourteen (The Social Evil). 8o The Sources of the Traffic touches — the men who make it — will have to be made single if one underlying cause of the white slave traffic is to be removed. At the present time, lack of self-control in the man, which is sheer weakness, can ruin a woman’s life, push her down into the depths of im- morality, send her into what he calls a “ court of justice,” created by him, where she is pun- ished for gratifying his desires ; and the man will be left untouched by this court which dis- penses “ justice,” to send others along the same path as often as he chooses. There is igno- rance here on the part of men — an over- powering consciousness of the physical side of life — and on the part of women, a lack of self- respect and of the realization of the dignity of womanhood just as overpowering. The law must be made to apply equally to men and women. Poverty, which fosters bad housing condi- tions and makes it necessary for a family of four or five to be herded together in one or two rooms, breeds immorality. “ In tenement 8i The White Slave Traffic in America houses, the communistic publicity of personal contact turns the whole task of cultivating protective modesty into a tragedy.” There is shortsightedness and a failure to grasp the significance of the part recreation plays in the world of working people when immoral moving picture shows, and dance halls, and amusement parks are tacitly en- couraged to do a flourishing business, because the same kind of decent amusement is not to be found elsewhere. The lax laws which deal with the question, or the fact of the ex- istence of no direct legislation whatever, must also receive consideration. 82 VII The Wrong Training of Children The foundation of this evil may truly be said to be laid in early childhood, in the un- wise methods of training adopted by multi- tudes of parents, which fosters the selfish spirit of the boy and leads him to consider that he is the centre of his world, and that every will must bend to his ; that every whim must be gratified, and everything tend to his own com- fort, pleasure and aggrandizement. Thus is born and nurtured the spirit of selfish greed which lies at the root of this evil. Indeed, there are very few homes in which adequate instruction is given to girls as to the dangers that threaten them, and this is one of the causes of the present condition. It is quite true that girls are sometimes victimized when they are aware of the danger, but in most instances, those who know the danger 83 The White Slave Traffic in America will not put themselves into a position of risk. Those who are not warned, escape only through fortuitous circumstances or the pro- tective spirit which nestles at the heart of every true man. Instances are not uncommon in which a girl returning late at night has been refused entrance into her father’s home, or actually turned out of the house after some indiscre- tion, perhaps not really serious. Parents often have the mistaken idea that in keeping their children ignorant of the origin and facts of life, they are protecting them from knowledge of evil things. The truth of the matter is that their sons and daughters are having these facts suggested to them from in- numerable sources and frequently in the worst possible way. Often they reach a conclusion that is sometimes astounding, and very often this is the beginning of the end. A child’s questions should not be answered by the story of the stork bringing the baby, or the doctor having it in his bag ; but instead of being si- 84 The Sources of the Traffic lenced with such antique falsehoods at the time when he is wondering aloud he should have his perfectly healthy and normal curiosity satisfied by truthful answers ; then he will not dwell on reproduction as a strange and unnat- ural thing, but it can all be made very wonder- ful to him by his mother and father, and rever- ence for the power that exists in his own body will save him from the suffering of a perverted mind. The carelessness and lack of common sense shown by multitudes of parents in the over- sight of their girls is almost beyond belief. Young girls are often dressed in such a man- ner as to attract notice and comment, and are then allowed to frequent railroad stations and other public places unattended, or with silly companions. On such occasions, facile oppor- tunity is afforded for them to become ac- quainted with procurers, who are ever on the watch for victims. The flood of improper literature, reaching the young on every side, leads the immature 85 The White Slave Traffic in America mind to adopt false standards of living and throws a glamour over vice. Such reading is one of the influences which fosters the white slave traffic and, indeed, lies at the root of much of it. 86 VIII The Dangers of the City Harry A. Parkin, Assistant U. S. District Attorney of Chicago, from his experience as prosecuting officer, speaks as follows : As a prosecuting officer, I personally can testify to the fact that very many cities and villages now have in the red-light district of Chicago and other cities, daughters who, if their names were mentioned in their home cities, would bring shame and dis- grace to prominent and honest people. There are girls from cities in the interior, girls from small villages with hardly a thousand inhabitants, up to cities of the size of Boston and Pittsburg, and other great commercial and social centers. I shall not pub- lish a comparative list, but a list of cities scattered broadcast from which have come girls and women to the great white slave market in Chicago within my personal experience, as follows: Toledo, Youngs- town, Detroit, Muskegon, Montreal, Troy, Milwau- kee, Peoria, Bloomington, St. Louis, Pittsburg, New York, Davenport, Moline ( 111 .), Livonia (Pa.), Whitehall (Mich.), Waseka (Minn.), Charleston ( 111 .). I know that the above statement will cause a thrill in some of the cities which I have mentioned, but I believe that the agitation upon the white slave ques- tion has reached a point where false modesty should 87 The White Slave Traffic in America no longer prevent the public from knowing the exact situation, however much it may cause them to feel a sense of regret that their village or city has fur- nished at least one victim to the sisters of scarlet. I might make a list of five or six times as large, but the one given will serve the purpose of sounding a warning to those who least suspect that their daughters and sisters are in danger. As I have said, some of the cities, much to their shame, have furnished for the houses of prostitution in Chicago more girls than others. For example, I have known for a long time that the cities of Montreal, Toledo and Youngstown (Ohio), and Pitts- burg, have furnished probably a greater average by one-third than any of the other cities. This, of course, does not include New York, for probably more women come from New York to Chicago for the purpose of entering a house of prostitution than from any other city. This is true because it has an extremely large population, and also because of the fact that it is largely through the port of New York that the alien prostitutes are brought into the United States, and thence to Chicago. Troy (N. Y.) is a prolific source from which Chicago houses receive women. In a case recently tried in the Federal Courts, the testimony showed that one girl who had been found in a house of vice in Chicago had originally been taken to a house at Troy, and from that day, when she was eighteen years of age, until she was arrested in Chicago some five years later, she had been in the clutches of, or under the control of, the different members of a 88 The Sources of the Traffic single family who had kept her earning money for them during all these years. The peaceful village of Charleston, in southern Illinois, has furnished to the panderers of lust a beautiful Norwegian girl whose parents imagine that she is engaged in a legitimate occupation in Chicago. Now a word as to the method used in procuring girls from our American cities. It is not always necessary for the procurer to go from the city to the country village to get the girl he is seeking. Indulgent parents very often permit their daughters to come to the great city unaccompanied by any pro- tector. The Sunday excursion, a World’s Fair, some theatrical production, a monstrous convention — these are the lights that allure the daughter and sister to the city. Perhaps she has never been in the city before and has no relatives or friends to whose house she may go. She will oftentimes be met at the rail- road station by a young man, well-dressed and affable, who offers to procure her a cab to take her to some respectable hotel. Unexperienced in the ways of the city she accepts, only to find that instead of a protector she has found in the affable young man a procurer for some vile house of prostitution. Many, many times have instances like this occurred, and the innocent young girl has awakened the next morning to find herself the prey and victim of her procurer. Or it may be that the girl from the country is making a second or third visit to the kind and elderly lady who met her and so kindly cared for her upon her last visit. This lady usually occupies a fiat within 89 The White Slave Traffic in America easy reach of the red-light district. It is sumptuously furnished, and, as is explained, is a home for several young ladies who are working in stores in the city. Here the country maiden is given every luxury free of expense, is entertained royally, and, alas, very many times before she attempts to leave for her home has been caught unawares and so compromised that she dare not face her home folk again. Here we get a clue as to the whereabouts of many “ lost girls.” Numerous instances occur in which farmers with large families have urged their daughters, when about grown, to seek situations in a neighboring city, into the teeming life of which they go to meet temptations for which they are unfortified, and to encounter dangers which their unfamiliarity with city conditions per- mits them to go into unsuspectingly. One such instance is cited here as typical: A white slave trader, posing as an insurance agent, visited several villages in one locality. Learning that one of the girls to whom he had managed to get introduced was going to take a position in a shop in a town about fifty miles from her home, he boarded the train upon which she started her journey. Ostensibly happening to be going to Chicago that go The Sources of the Traffic day and recognizing her, he took a seat beside the girl, who was just making her first venture into the business world. Naturally a little excited and eager to prove her ability, she was easily drawn to talk of her prospective place of employment, and replied quite frankly to his questions. Expressing surprise that the salary was so small, he professed great re- gret that he had not known she was going to take such a position, because he happened to know of a remarkably good opening in a well-known store in Chicago. He said he was connected with the firm and knew that he could get the place for her; that it was an unusual opportunity which unfortunately could not be held open another day as there were many applicants ; that the salary was almost double the wage she would receive at the place for which she has started ; and that there was promise of rapid promotion. What wonder that the girl finally was persuaded that her parents would be pleased with her enterprising spirit if she would go right on to secure that position. Quite unfamiliar with the city, and unsuspicious of danger, upon their arrival at Chicago she went with this man to a restaurant in the red-light district. Here, fortunately for her, two vigilant social workers noticed them, and the arrest that followed was in time to save the girl. Upon investigation, it was found that this trader was carrying on an extensive business as a white slave procurer, frequenting small towns and country villages to find girls who could be lured by promise of employment. 91 The White Slave Traffic in America In his book, “ Panderers and their White Slaves,” Mr. Roe has told a number of stories of this method of luring girls into houses of vice. That employment agencies are sometimes used as stations on the road to vice has been proved by a series of investigations made in New York, Washington and elsewhere. Girls, ignorant of conditions in a city, are thus easily entrapped. Licenses have been revoked for agencies which have sent girls to houses of prostitution, and government officials in more than one sec- tion found agents who were willing to send girls to work in such places on payment of a higher fee. Needless to say New York City is not the only place where constant supervision is needed ; small towns in other States have been used as recruiting grounds, and laws have been passed designed to meet the situation. The New York law governing employment agen- cies may be found in the Appendix, page 193. 92 IX Hard Times and Low Wages In a time when many are out of work, and at all times when the wages of girls and women are low, the traffic in women flourishes. First, because many young men are idle and turn to this trade, vile as it is, because there is easy money in it ; and, on the other hand, the girls who are out of work, or who are working for trifling wages, are the more easily victimized. There can be little doubt that economic con- ditions is one of the chief causes of the white slave traffic. The persuasions of the procurer are made alluring when they offer high wages to a girl who is out of a job, or to one who labors long hours for a pittance. Were it pos- sible for every girl who needs work to be able to get it at a fair rate of wages, the business of the procurer would be materially lessened. To the honor and credit of girls in America be it 7 93 The White Slave Traffic in America said, that notwithstanding all the suffering, privation and temptations they must endure, comparatively few of them fall, but many of those who do are victims of the white slaver. So remunerative is his “ business,” however, that the procurer will continue in it until the strong hand of the law forces him to quit. In McClure’s Magazine for November, 1910, is an article on “ Working-girls’ Budgets.” The following instances are given as being not at all unusual : Rea Lupatkin, a shirtwaist maker of nineteen, had been in New York only ten months, and was at first a finisher in a cloak factory. Afterward, obtaining work as operator in a waist factory, she could get $4.00 in fifty-six hours on a time basis. She had been in this factory six weeks. Rea was paying $4.00 a month for lodging in two rooms of a tenement house with a man and his wife and baby and little boy. She saved carfare bj'' a walk of three-quarters of an hour, adding daily one and a half hours to the nine and a half already spent in operating. Her food cost $2.25 a week, so that, with 93 cents a week for lodging, her regular weekly cost of living was $3.18, leaving her 82 cents for every other expense. In spite of this, and although she had been forced to spend $3.00 for examination 94 The Sources of the Traffic of her eyes and for eye-glasses, Rea contrived to send an occasional $2.00 back to her family in Europe. Ida Bergeson, a little girl of fifteen, was visited at half past eight o’clock one evening in a tenement on the lower East Side. The gas was burning brightly in the room; several people were talking, and this frail looking little Ida lay on a couch in their midst, sleeping in all the noise and light, in complete exhaustion. Her sister said that every night the child returned from the factory utterly worn out, she was obliged to work so hard and so fast. Ida received $6.00 a week. She worked fifty-six hours a week — eight more than the law allows for minors. She paid $4.00 a week for board and a room shared with the anxious older sister who told about her experience. Ida needed all the rest of her $2.00 for her clothing. She did her own washing. As the inquirer came away, leaving the worn little girl sleeping in her utter fatigue, she wondered with what strength Ida could enter upon her pos- sible marriage and motherhood — whether, indeed, she would struggle through to maternity. Katia Halperian, a shirtwaist worker of fifteen, had been in New York only six months. During twenty-one weeks of this time she was employed in a Wooster Street factory, earning for a week of 954-hour days only $3.50. Katia was a “trimmer.” After paying $3.00 a week board to an aunt, she had a surplus of 50 cents for all clothing, recreation, doctor’s bills and incidentals. To save carfare she walked to her work — about 95 The White Slave Traflic in America forty minutes’ distance. Her aunt lived on the fourth floor of a tenement. After working nine and a half hours and walking an hour and twenty minutes daily, Katia climbed four flights of stairs and then helped with the housework. One of these girls, working every day in the year, would receive $182.00; another, $208.00; and the one best paid, $312.00. At a conservative estimate, the lowest living wage, requisite to maintain the decencies of physical existence in a city, for a self-supporting, self- respecting woman is $600.00 a year. 96 X Amusements It is quite right that young people should have amusements. This is especially true of those who work hard all day in ill-lighted and poorly ventilated rooms. Unless life has some brightness and companionship in a social way, it becomes unbearable. But it is also true that most of the places of amusement provided for the working class in our cities are open to serious objection. The most popular is the dance hall, to which multi- tudes of girls flock every evening. Here is one of the most important recruiting grounds of the white slaver. It is possible, under the easy etiquette that prevails, for men to become acquainted with girls and to dance with them. Too frequently an opportunity is thus afforded to lead them astray. Furthermore, at nearly all of these dance halls, intoxicating liquor is sold. Here the 97 The White Slave Traffic in America girl often learns to drink, and under this in- fluence is the more easily induced to acquiesce in the designs of her betrayer. It is possible that “ knockout drops ” may be added to the drinks with the intention of still further blind- ing the judgment of the victim, but usually the stupefying effect of the liquor alone is quite sufficient. The steamboat excursion offers another op- portunity for the exploiting of girls and lead- ing them into evil ways. The low theatre with its vulgar plays and associations, and the moving picture shows which have sprung up like mushrooms all over the land — 300 of them running in New York City alone — are dangerous places for young girls to attend unescorted. It has been found, on investigation, that the danger consists not so much in the character of the views shown — although they need watching — as that oppor- tunity is afforded within the darkened hall, and about the doors, for men to become ac- 98 The Sources of the Traffic quainted with girls who are there without proper guardianship. There is no desire on our part to lay a charge against ice cream saloons, candy stores, etc., but while most of these are perfectly reputable, it seems necessary to state that some of these places, like the moving picture shows, when visited by young girls, unat- tended, or with careless companions, offer fa- cilities for forming acquaintances which are often dangerous. Besides, there is a risk of becoming interested in unguarded ways of living that are dangerous to young people. Not only are restaurants and ice cream saloons utilized by the procurer, but, as has been said, the “ massage parlor ” is often an unsafe place for young women to visit. Inno- cent women are lured by advertisements for operators. Papers are published and widely circulated in which the names and addresses of these houses are advertised. The temperance forces throughout the United States are being strengthened, and 99 The White Slave Traffic in America every gain here is a step toward the suppres- sion of vice ; but there is need for intelligent study of the relation of the saloon and the Raines-law hotel, to the white slave traffic. The Committee of Fourteen of New York, in the report of its Research Committee, entitled “ The Social Evil in New York City,” have this to say concerning the rise of Raines-law hotels and their methods of conducting busi- ness : Seldom has a law intended to regulate one evil resulted in so aggravating a phase of another evil directly traceable to its provisions. From the passage of this law dates the immediate growth of one of the most insidious forms of the social evil — the Raines-law hotel. This growth was due to a heavy increase in the penalties for a violation and the ex- pected increased enforcement of the law by State authorities beyond the reach of local influences. To illustrate, the license tax was raised from $200 to $800, and the penalty of a forfeiture of a bond was also added.* To escape these drastic penalties for * This $800 fee was imposed in IManhattan and the Bronx, and was the rate established by the Raines law at the time of its passage. The rate of $200 was the tax for saloons prior to the passage of the Raines law. 100 The Sources of the Traffic the selling of liquor on Sunday in saloons, saloon keepers created hotels with the required ten bed- rooms, kitchen and dining room. The immediate increase was over 10,000 bedrooms. There being no actual demand for such an increase in hotel ac- commodations, the proprietors, in many instances, used them for purposes of assignation or prostitu- tion to meet the additional expense incurred. In 1905 there were 1407 certified hotels in Manhattan and the Bronx, and of these about 1150 were prob- ably liquor law hotels. In 1906 an important admin- istrative provision was added to the law. This amendment, known as the Prentice bill, provided that hotels must be inspected and passed by the Building Department as complying with the pro- visions 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. A large number of these places, how- ever, continued under saloon licenses. For further details see Appendix, page 195. lOl XI Employment Agencies One of the recruiting stations for the white slave traffic is the unscrupulously conducted employment office. Investigation has shown that girls seeking employment are often sent to places where they are entrapped. Frequently agents take advantage of the craze which so many girls have for going on the stage, and offer them places in theatrical or concert troupes in a distant city away from their friends. In one instance, a girl was sent to Norfolk, Va., from Philadelphia, and was placed in a dive in that city so low and vile that when rescued, as she was in a few days, she was unfit for decent society. In another instance, a girl, well educated and of good family, living in Seattle, made an engagement with an agent to join a theatrical company in New York, he paying her fare 102 The Sources of the Traffic to that city. She was saved from ruin at the moment when she was about to enter the house of which she had the address, through the kindness of a New York cab driver, who in- formed her of the character of the place. Had he not done so, another name would have been added to the long list of lost girls. 103 XII Tolerated Vice in Cities We have touched upon the intimate rela- tions of politics to the traffic. No procurer could continue his operations without some sort of an understanding with the police, who are in turn controlled by the political chiefs, and they by the Boss. The procurer, as has been said, is a useful member of the political machine. In studying this phase of the sub- ject, we come upon an apparently inextricable combination of politics, social evil, white slave traffic, police and police courts, law and prece- dent ; and, on the part of the public, ignorance, prejudice and indifference. Of one thing we are sure — that the traffic in women exists — that it, together with prostitution, furnishes a large part of the power and money of the local boss, and that the “ man higher up ” must be held to a full responsibilit}-. No doubt can exist in the mind of anyone 104 The Sources of the Traffic who knows the facts, that the presence of houses of prostitution in our cities fosters the traffic in women, and is, to a great degree, re- sponsible for it. As has been stated previously, the unfortu- nate inmates of such houses do not live many years. After they are about twenty-five years of age they no longer serve to attract, and are dismissed to other scenes. Their ranks are to be filled, but how? Few come to these houses voluntarily. They are first deceived, betrayed and placed there, or they are lured into them, sold into them, or forced into them. This constitutes one of the principal sources of the white slave traffic. Then, again, there must be a market for the trafficker, and he has usually no difficulty in finding a place to sell his victim. This is one of the chief iniquities of permitting houses of prostitution to exist ; they furnish a ready market for the sale of young girls. They stand as a constant menace to womanhood as well as manhood. 105 XIII Immigration and the Traffic In the year ending June 30th, 1910, there were 1,041,750 immigrants who reached our shore, about one- third of them women. 316 immoral women and 179 procurers of women were rejected in 1910. 308 immoral women and 65 procurers were apprehended within the country and deported during 1910. There were removed to the countries of origin 1580, compared with a total of 1138 for the preced- ing year, and 213 for 1908.* Some of the women who came for such a purpose doubt- less escaped the vigilant eye of the immigra- tion inspector. Others, unfortunately a large number, fell into the ruthless hands of the white slaver after landing. The investigations of all who have studied * Quoted from the report of the Commissioner General of Immigration. 106 The Sources of the Traffic the situation show that a very large majority of those who are victimized thus are foreign- ers. Often without watchful friends, provided with little money, which melts away with alarming rapidity, accustomed to obeying the orders of men without question, ignorant of English, and the laws and customs of this new land which they have entered, they are ready and tempting victims to a man who promises much, and who speaks to them in their own tongue. So, from the thronged dance halls of the East Side of New York City, from the beer gardens of South Chicago, from the holds of vessels in which dazed Oriental girls are smuggled in, from the railroad trains on which bewildered immigrants are rushed to unknown and far-away places with strange names, the trafficker gathers up his victims and exploits them. The resorts of every city are full of foreign girls, almost every nationality is represented, and nearly all of them have reached there through force or fraud. Some agent was 107 The White Slave Traffic in America active in the process, and he was paid for his trouble. An idea of the magnitude and extent of the white slave traffic in America is herein to be obtained. io8 XIV Steerage Conditions The process of procuring alien girls begins even before landing. In a report to Congress, December 13, 1909, by the Immigration Com- mission, on conditions to which immigrants are subjected in the steerage of transatlantic steamers, it is stated: The old-type steerage is the one whose horrors have been so often described. It is, unfortunately, still found in a majority of the vessels bringing im- migrants to the United States, in which hundreds of thousands of immigrants form their first conception of our country. Considering this old-type steerage as a whole, it is a congestion so intense, so injurious to health and morals, that there is nothing on land to equal it. That people live in it temporarily is no justification of its existence. The experience of a single cross- ing is enough to change bad standards of living to worse. It is more than a physical and moral test, it is a strain, and surely it is not the introduction to American institutions that will tend to make them respected. 8 109 The White Slave Traffic in America One inspector who made the passage in the steerage by direction of the Commission says ; From the time we boarded the steamer until we landed, no woman in the steerage had a moment’s privacy. One steward was always on duty in our apartment, and others of the crew came and went continually. The entrance was also the only exit While we were rising and dressing, several men usually passed through and returned for no osten- sible reason. If a woman were dressing, they always stopped to watch her, and frequently hit and handled her. One night when I had retired very earl}'- with a severe cold, the chief steward entered our com- partment, but not noticing me approached a Polish girl, who was apparently the only occupant. She spoke in English saying, “ My head aches — please go and let me alone.” But he merely stood on, and soon was taking unwarranted liberties with her. The girl, weakened by sea-sickness, defended herself as best she could, but was soon struggling to get out of the man’s arms. Just then other passengers en- tered and he released her. Such was the man who was our highest protector and court of appeal. The atmosphere was one of general lawlessness and total disrespect for women. It naturally de- moralized the women themselves after a while. Peo- ple cannot live in such surroundings and not be influenced. no The Sources of the Traffic Such a prelude to life in America opens the way to a life of immorality here. In this review of the causes of the traffic in women in America, only the most important ones have been emphasized. It will be noted that they are many, and only those who can grasp the fact that they are all inextricably bound up with one another, and that the elimi- nation of one cause will not mean that the traffic in women has been suppressed, are able to see the problem in its true proportions. THE SUPPRESSION AND PREVEN- TION OF THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC THE SUPPRESSION AND PREVEN- TION OF THE WHITE SLAVE TIL\FFIC. Were it not for the fact that some practical ways of securing the suppression of this de- grading trade can be suggested, we would hardly be justified in calling to it the attention of the public. There are several methods of abolishing commercialized vice. In the first place, a sense of individual and national responsibility must be aroused. In order that an effective bar may be placed across the way of the white slave trader, the people of this Nation must be awakened first to the danger that rests over every young woman in the land, then to a knowledge of the nature, methods and extent of that danger, and finally to the prompt adoption and en- forcement of effective methods of abolishing the revolting trade. The White Slave Traffic in America By every possible method, the Nation must be aroused. From pulpit and from platform, and through the press the purposeful message should go forth until there is not a person any- where in the country who does not know the danger, and stand ready to do his part to avert it. Publicity is a most powerful weapon ; the traffic thrives where discussion of it is silenced or where it is merely a subject of oratorj' or idle comment. Fortunately, the education of the people is going on, and at least one organization has been formed with the single purpose of sup- pressing the white slave traffic. The influence of many of the great National reform associations of this country has been deeply felt. Among these some that have been active are The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, through its Department of Legislation and of Rescue Work; the National Council of Jewish Women; the Jewish Society of B’nai B’rith ; the American Purity Federation ; the National Florence Crittenton Mission; the Ii6 Suppression and Prevention National Federation of Women’s Clubs ; the American Societies of Social Hygiene ; the In- ternational Bureau of London and the Young Women’s Christian Association. The General Conference of the Baptists, the Methodists and the Society of Friends ; the Grange; and many other civic, social and religious bodies have passed ringing resolutions against the traffic, and in favor of the passage of repressive laws. These, and other societies throughout the country, are performing most helpful service. Effective safeguarding work is being done by the Travellers’ Aid Society, through its intel- ligent representatives, in railroad stations and on steamship piers, with their ready help to those in need. These should be found in every town and city. It is gratifying to know that this work is being extended with prospect of complete National organization. Corre- sponding to this organization is the Society “ Les Amies de la Jeune Fille,” with head- quarters in Paris. Very effective work for the The White Slave Traffic in America protection of immigrant girls is being done by the Council of Jewish Women, through its Na- tional Committee of Immigrant Aid. There are fifty-six branches of this Council, each hav- ing its committee closely cooperating with the national organization. The movement for the suppression of the white slave traffic could not have progressed so rapidly, nor could such splendid results have been attained, had it not been for the tre- mendous influence of the daily and monthly press. The editors of many of these have been fearless advocates of this cause, and de- serve heartfelt thanks. Special credit should be given to those devoted men and women who have given much time, thought and money to the cause, and who quietly and without recognition have performed splendid service. All of this effort — of which the above is only a brief summary — should be persistently continued and widely extended. There must be no receding of the wave of interest until ii8 Suppression and Prevention popular apprehension can be satisfactorily allayed through the suppression of the traffic. Every helpful agency must work energet- ically and steadily to this end, resolved never to relax effort until success is gained. More- over, new recruits must be added until a great army is in the field, enlisted in a new emanci- pation movement. As an illustration of what may be accom- plished by intelligence and persistence, we would call attention to the work of an asso- ciation of business men in Chicago, which in the fall of 1909 appointed Mr. Clifford Griffith Roe, then Assistant District Attorney, to work for the suppression of the white slave traffic in Chicago. Mr. Roe states that, acting in co- operation with Chief of Police Stewart, much improvement has resulted. No longer are red lights or electric signs allowed, nor do great crowds of men surge through the district at night as of yore ; several of the houses have been rendered vacant, others have few occu- The White Slave Traffic in America pants where formerly there were many ; no procurers or other men are allowed as hangers- on ; no liquor is permitted to be sold in the houses, and all doors between them and liquor saloons are kept closed. This accomplishment is largely due to the movement to suppress the white slave traffic. Nothing could better demonstrate the relation of the white slave trade to the house of vice. But should this movement stop with some improvement in the vice conditions of the large cities, the last condition of the people of the United States will be worse than the first. The reaction of intermittent attacks of zeal for righteousness is demoralizing. Its moral effect upon the community is social unrest, ir- resolution and a subtle skepticism that finds expression in the pessimistic assertion that vice has existed during the ages and always will, and that white slavery, being part of it, cannot be suppressed. Such an argument is as cow- ardly as it is false. 120 Suppression and Prevention Let the social welfare forces center their attack upon the system of commercialized vice and carry on, at the same time, a vigorous educational campaign. Wherever this is per- sistently done far-reaching results must follow. I2I XV The Vigilance Mov'ement During the early part of the year 1906 it became evident to those interested that the time had arrived for the organization of a movement to oppose the increasing traffic in women. Every Nation of Europe had its National Vigilance Committee, organized for this pur- pose, and the need of a corresponding associa- tion in the United States was imperative. In September, 1906, representatives of sev- eral interested associations met in New York at the home of Miss Grace H. Dodge (a home distinguished by being the cradle of many beneficent movements) and organized the Na- tional Vigilance Committee for the United States. During the years that have inteiA’ened some changes have been made in the personnel of 122 Suppression and Prevention the Committee, and sixteen members have been added. The Committee as now constituted is as follows : Alice Stone Blackwell, Boston. Seneca P. Broomell, Baltimore. Melbourne P. Boynton, Chicago. Robert Catherwood, Chicago. Grace H. Dodge, New York. John Dryden, Nebraska. Robert Garrett, Baltimore. Francis J. Garrison, Boston. Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore. Arria S. Huntington, Syracuse. Dr. O. Edward Janney, Baltimore. Dr. David Starr Jordan, California. H. C. Levis, London. Dr. Prince A. Morrow, New York. Rabbi David Philipson, Cincinnati. Anna Rice Powell, Philadelphia. Prof. Edw. B. Rawson, New York. James Bronson Reynolds, New York. Clifford G. Roe, Chicago. Percy Russell, Brooklyn. Edwin W. Sims, Chicago. Anna Garlin Spencer, New York. Elisabeth Stover, New York. Dr. Joseph Swain, Swarthmore, Pa. Henry W. Wilbur, Philadelphia. Talcott Williams, LL. D., Philadelphia. Dr. Robert N. Willson, Philadelphia. 123 The White Slave Traffic in America Simon Wolf, Washington. Prof. Thomas Wood, New York. Officers : Chairman, Dr. O. Edward Janney. Secretary, Elisabeth Stover. Treasurer, Seneca P. Broomell. Librarian, Marion E. Dodd. Headquarters : 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. Almost at the moment of its inception, in- timation was received from William Alex- ander Coote, of London, who had been largely instrumental in organizing National Commit- tees in the countries of Europe, that he would be willing to visit this country to assist in or- ganizing a National Vigilance Committee for the United States. In the course of the fol- lowing winter Mr. Coote arrived, visiting sev- eral cities and holding meetings in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston. His so- journ among us was encouraging and helpful. What the National Vigilance Committee has accomplished since its organization may be summarized as follows : A National Committee has been organized, 124 Suppression and Prevention with corresponding members in every State of the Union. The Executive Committee of the National Committee, by its direct appeal to President Roosevelt and the Department of State, se- cured the adhesion of the American Govern- ment to a treaty with the leading governments of Europe for the suppression of the white slave traffic. Efficient co-operation with similar organiza- tions in Europe has been established and main- tained. Through these relations, useful in- formation has been supplied for the protection of girls coming to this country. The National Committee, through its head- quarters, 156 Fifth Avenue, and its affiliation with the International Bureau at London, Eng- land, is in constant correspondence with similar organizations in all the leading countries of Europe, and with local organizations in this country. The field work of the National Vigilance Committee includes : 9 125 The White Slave Traffic in America 1st. Efforts to secure legislation and law enforcement to suppress the white slave traffic. 2d. Study of the causes and of methods of dealing with the traffic in this and other coun- tries. 3d. Endeavors to bring the force of an en- lightened public opinion to bear upon the prob- lems of prevention and suppression of the traf- fic in women. : During the year 1910, nine States and the • District of Columbia have passed laws to suj>- press the white slave traffic. The law had pre- viously been secured in seven States. A Fed- eral law prohibiting interstate traffic in womer has been secured, also a Federal law making more stringent provision against the importa tion of women from other countries fo immoral purposes. Under these, more thai ' one hundred convictions have already beei ' obtained. Through correspondence and co-operatioi ‘ with National Vigilance Committees of twent foreign countries affiliated through the Inter 126 Suppression and Prevention national Vigilance Bureau, and in co-opera- tion with individuals and organizations in the different States in this country, the National Vigilance Committee for the United States has jbeen able to perform valuable service in the safeguarding of girls and women needing pro- tection. The Federal Government appointed Henry B. Ide, Minister to Spain, and Dr. O. Edward ' Janney to officially represent the United States > ' It the International White Slave Congress t ' held at Madrid, October 24-28, 1910. This i ' . committee defrayed the expenses incurred by ; its chairman. Fifteen countries were repre- jented by twenty-eight official delegates, and ^ ibout one hundred and fifty other delegates ^^ trom the National Vigilance Committees of ^^;wenty countries were present at the business lessions. The Congress was in session five ^^^■lays. The subjects that were of deepest in- ^jjerest to the United States were: yi 1st. More effective international measures 127 The White Slave Traffic in America to prevent the taking of women from one coun- try to another for immoral purposes. 2d. The need for more uniform laws. 3d. Sources of the white slave traffic. 4th. Means of safeguarding girls and women who must find employment in local- ities with which they are unfamiliar. 5th. That the laws applicable to all who traffic in minors shall be made to apply equally to adults. Interesting reports were presented by those appointed to make careful study of the ques- tions assigned to them at a conference at Vi- enna, where the program for the Madrid Con- gress was prepared. Copies of these have been filed at the Vigilance Librar}\ This special library, at the headquarters of the Committee, has been increased to over three hundred volumes, and a large collection of reports and other valuable reference matter has been placed on file there. It is being made useful to social workers, educators and others 128 Suppression and Prevention who have occasion to consult the matter col- lected there. The reference file of laws touching the social evil in all the States, begun in 1909, has been revised and completed. This file has been made useful to other organizations studying the problem of vice, or interested in legislation and enforcement of laws to suppress the white slave traffic. A compilation of these laws has been made. A chart has been compiled show- ing the police system of dealing with the social evil in sixty cities in the United States. The fact that only a single sentence from the report of the Special Grand Jury of the City of New York was quoted by the newspapers created a widespread impression that it was declared in the findings of that jury that there was no white slave traffic in New York. To correct these misleading press reports, the Na- tional Vigilance Committee sent out hundreds of copies of the report in full, with an en- closure briefly calling attention to the real sig- nificance of the report. Later several press 129 The White Slave Traffic in America comments testified to the value of this enlight- enment of public opinion. Vigilance, the organ of the National Vigi- lance Committee, is published monthly through- out the year and acquaints its readers with the progress of legislation and other work for the suppression of the white slave traffic. This Committee has furnished speakers for public meetings and conventions, and has re- sponded to innumerable requests for sugges- tion, information and literature ; these requests come to its headquarters from all parts of the United States. The need for uniform State laws to suppress the traffic is obvious. Work must be done to secure the passage of adequate laws in all of the State Legislatures. Copies of the model law, prepared by the National Vigilance Com- mittee, have been printed and widely distrib- uted. Attention is given also to tests of the new laws in the courts of different localities. The organization of State Vigilance Com- mittees, where there is need for them, has been 130 Suppression and Prevention stimulated. Such organizations enjoy the full- est local autonomy, the National Committee serving only as a clearing house, a bureau of information and an agency to promote the greater efficiency of home and foreign organi- zations. Investigation has been made into the white slave traffic in various sections of this country. The results of such research are on record at headquarters. They show the extent of the traffic, its power and the cruelty of its op- eration. Assistance has been afforded in the prosecu- tion of criminals (procurers, harborers, white slave traders), many of whom have been pun- ished. Those who understand the difficulties of se- curing evidence in prosecutions for white slave traffic will appreciate the significance of the convictions that have been made under the new laws. Mr. Clifford G. Roe reports 92 convictions in Chicago during 1910; and Mr. Samuel E. 131 t The White Slave Traffic in America Pentz reports 13 cases brought under the Maryland white slave law in 1910, and 4 in the Federal Court in Baltimore, resulting in 12 convictions. A series of successful prosecutions has broken up a gang of traders operating between St. Louis and Chicago. Significant cases dis- closing less evidence of a system of traffic proved that individuals were regularly en- gaged in the business of procuring girls for disreputable resorts in Pittsburg, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Ha- ven, Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle and other of the large cities in this country, and that the convicted panders had brought girls from Tennessee, Wisconsin, In- diana, Michigan, Canada, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Connecticut and Missouri on promise of respectable employment. Among the convictions, there are several which have furnished evidence that the prac- tice of marrying girls and placing them in dis- reputable houses is a common method of en- 132 Suppression and Prevention slaving girls for profit to the white slaver (pander). Members of the Committee have traveled in the South, West, East, Canada and Europe in the interests of the work. The National Vigilance Committee has had an influential part in producing the remarkable wave of opposition to the white slave traffic which is sweeping over the country. The activity of the Federal Government, through the Immigration Department, in the number of prosecutions that have been carried on in different parts of the country shows that the menace of the traffic in women is being recognized ; but there is needed a determined, persistent, far-seeing work along the three lines that the National Vigilance Committee is following — a study of causes, methods of pre- vention, legislation and law enforcement. 133 XVI Activity of the Government — The States About six years ago, under the administra- tion of President Roosevelt, and in the depart- ment of Hon. Oscar L. Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the Government became active in the investigation of the traffic in women among immigrants, and soon there was at hand evidence quite sufficient to justify the stringent instructions sent out by Secretary Straus to Commissioners of Immigration at every port of entry, describing the measures to be taken to suppress the traffic among immigrants. Under these instructions, the officials be- came active all over the country in arresting procurers, whose victims were foreigners, and many were sent to prison. Suddenly, however, a case * which had been sent on appeal to the •■^See Supreme, Court Records, 213 U. S. 138. 134 Suppression and Prevention Supreme Court of the United States, brought forth a decision which held that, except in the case of women brought over for the purpose, all such cases must be tried in the courts of the States. This was a check to the National movement, but it has proven to be a blessing since it has stimulated the States to pass ade- quate laws. However, the activity of the United States Government has not' flagged, and it has energetically followed every line of progress open to it. Under President Taft, interest in the move- ment has been encouraged and the President referred to the traffic in his message to Con- gress in December, 1909, in the following earnest words, advocating strenuous measures by Congress and State Legislatures : I greatly regret to have to say that the investiga- tions made in the Bureau of Immigration and other sources of information lead to the view that there is urgent necessity for additional legislation and greater executive activity to suppress the recruiting of the ranks of prostitutes from the streams of immigration into this country, an evil, which for want of a better name, has been called “The White Slave Trade.” 135 The White Slave Traffic in America I believe it to be constitutional to forbid, under penalty, the transportation of persons for purposes of prostitution across National and State lines, and by appropriating a fund of $50,000 to be used by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for the em- ployment of special inspectors, it will be possible to bring those responsible for this trade to indict- ment and conviction under Federal law. Every citizen must feel encouraged by the attitude of the Government, and do all in his power to encourage it to further endeavors. In November, 1907, an Immigrant Commis- sion, appointed by Congress, began a very thorough investigation of the traffic among im- migrants, sending agents abroad as well as into our own cities, and prosecuting a number of cases. To the session of Congress of 1909-1910 this Commission made two partial reports — one dealing with the white slave traffic, and one on steerage conditions. A final report was made in December, 1910. The former presented to Congress and to the country a vivid but terrible picture of the white 136 Suppression and Prevention slave traffic, which no one can read without becoming convinced of the brutality and men- ace of the traffic, and realizing the necessity for immediate action to suppress it. Until recently, as has been mentioned, there was no Federal law under which interstate traffickers could be prosecuted in the United States courts. Only the intervention of laws providing for the protection of girls who cross State boundaries can effectually deter traf- fickers from finding their victims in one State and placing them in houses of ill fame in an- other. Lack of uniformity in State laws and court procedure have furnished protection under which a system of interstate traffic car- ried on by individuals, who are more or less in- formally associated, has become well estab- lished in the United States. Based upon the report of the special com- mission to investigate the white slave traffic several bills were drawn and presented to Con- gress. Two of these have passed — one mak- ing more stringent the laws governing immi- 137 The White Slave Traffic in America gration, and one bringing to bear the interstate commerce power of the Federal Government to suppress the traffic between States. See Appendix, pages 169, 171. These acts, especially the latter, will be im- mensely helpful in breaking up the traffic, and the Government, if it be supported by public sentiment, will undoubtedly continue its activity. Two other bills — one for the District of Columbia and the other applying to Territories and the Canal Zone — were before Congress in 1910. The bill for the District of Columbia passed on the last day of the session and was signed by President Taft. We now come to the important question of what further legal measures should be adopted by State Legislatures to put a stop to the activ- ities of the procurer, and thus strike a deadly blow at the traffic. The decision of the Supreme Court, throw- Suppression and Prevention ing the responsibility of arrest and punishment of the procurer upon the States, found them utterly unprepared for the task. No States except Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California had any semblance of laws for the suppression of the traffic. Governing such cases, all of these except that of Illinois — a very recent law — were wholly inadequate. Efforts were at once made with great energy to induce the Legislatures of the States which were in session in the spring of 1909 to pass adequate laws on this subject, and based on the law of Illinois, the States of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Colorado and Washington passed ex- cellent acts. Meanwhile the National Vigilance Commit- tee, with the advice and assistance of mem- bers of the legal profession who had had ex- perience in such cases, had framed a “ model law ” which, while brief, covered all of the important points. This was presented to all of the States whose Legislatures met in the 139 The White Slave Traffic in America winter of 1909 and 1910, and was adopted as a law, with slight modifications, in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and Louisiana. Modifications of the Illinois law were adopted in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Oklahoma. Although so many States and the District of Columbia now possess adequate laws for the suppression of the white slave traffic, there yet remains a great work for the people of the remaining States to perform. For model law see Appendix, page 178. It will be observed that this act provides against leading any woman into a life of prosti- tution, either with her consent or against her will, through fraud or force; against the sell- ing of women into such a life ; against the de- ception of a woman by means of marriage ; against the slave master (pander) who lives on the earnings of his victim ; and against holding women in durance for debt. There should be a systematic campaign con- 140 Suppression and Prevention ducted to induce the Legislatures of all the States which have not yet acted upon this law to pass it at their earliest opportunity. In this campaign, the help of every man and woman in those States is needed. XVII An International Treaty At an International Congress held in Paris in 1902 a treaty was framed, and perfected at a Congress held in the same city two years later, binding the signatory powers to unite in suppressing the white slave traffic between nations. This treaty was signed at Paris May 18, 1904, by the representatives of France, Ger- many, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Great Brit- ain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland — thirteen in all. Since then Austria-Hungary and Brazil have signified their adhesion to the treaty, and the United States June 6, 1908, it being proclaimed by President Roosevelt June 15, 1908. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A Proclamation Whereas a project of arrangement for the sup- pression of the white slave traffic was, on July 25, 1902, adopted for submission to their respective Gov- 142 Suppression and Prevention ernments by the delegates of various Powers repre- sented at the Paris Conference for the repression of the trade in white women; And whereas, in pursuance of Article VII of the said project of arrangement, the Government of the United States was, on August i8, 1902, invited by the Government of the French Republic to adhere thereto ; And whereas the Senate of the United States, by its Resolution of March i, 1905 (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring therein), did advise and consent to the adhesion by the United States to the said project of arrangement; And whereas the stipulations of the said project of arrangement were, word for word, and without change, confirmed by a formal agreement, signed at Paris on May 18, 1904, by the Governments of Ger- many, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Brit- ain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and the Swiss Federal Council, a true copy of which agreement, in the French language, is hereto attached ; And whereas the ratifications by the said Govern- ments of the said agreement have been duly deposited with the Government of the French Republic; and the said agreement has been adhered to by the Gov- ernments of Austria-Hungary and Brazil; And whereas the President of the United States of America, in pursuance of the aforesaid advice and consent of the Senate, did, on the 6th day of June, 1908, declare that the United States adheres to the 143 The White Slave Traffic in America said agreement in confirmation of the said project of arrangement : Now, therefore, be it known. That I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of Amer- ica, have caused the said agreement to be made pub- lic, to the end that the same, and every article and clause thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be aflixed. Done at the City of Washington, this isth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-second. [seal.] Theodore Roosevelt. By the President: Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State. When all the provisions of this treaty come to be carried out by the Governments, the traffic between nations will be effectually checked. See Appendix, page 165, for treaty. 144 XVIII Immigration — Improved Methods While various plans have been suggested for controlling the tremendous current of im- migration flowing into this country at the rate of fully a million a year, it is certain that the flow will continue for many years to come. What concerns us is the assimilation of that vast multitude in this country without damage to American institutions. It should, therefore, be a part of the duty of the good citizen to encourage the Govern- ment to carry out the provisions of the two bills enacted into law by Congress in 1910, looking to a stricter enforcement of the Immi- gration Act and the provisions of the act to prevent transportation across this country for immoral purposes. Congress should be urged to enact laws re- quiring the managers of transatlantic and 145 The White Slave Traffic in America transpacific companies to provide proper ac- commodations for steerage passengers. In fact the “ steerage ” should be abolished and third-class accommodations required. It is en- tirely within the power of Congress to so pro- vide, and the simple notice served upon the steamship companies that no immigrant would be allowed to land whose accommodations on board had not come up to the requirements of the law would quickly bring them to terms. 146 XIX Politics and Vice It has been stated that the presence of houses of vice in cities incites and fosters the white slave traffic. This is true of Europe, where the iniquitous system of State regula- tion has long been maintained, although those who enforce it acknowledge it to be a failure from a medical and moral point of view. Simi- lar testimony to the failure of attempted regu- lation in America is substantiated by the facts in this country. The House of Prostitution Must be Abol- ished. Its presence is possible only because of a terribly mistaken notion that there is a cer- tain value or necessity for its existence. There is no such value or necessity. Where these places exist, they create a center of infamy. They constitute no sort of protection to the community. Felonious assaults are common 147 The White Slave Traffic in America in the shadows of these houses. On the other hand, in cities where they have been driven out, good order prevails and assaults seldom occur. This is what happened in the City of Des Moines, a place of 100,000 population, when the houses of vice were driven out in Septem- ber, 1908, as testified to by Mr. J. L. Hamery, in charge of the police, who says : There is now not an acknowledged and recognized brothel in the City of Des Moines. Neither is there a public gambling, boot-leg or hop-joint in the city. We have practically no professional crime, such as highway robbery, burglary or robberies with vio- lence. The arrests for last month were less than for the same period in ten years. The Des kloines Daily Capital of June 23, igog, published a news article on the remarkable decrease of criminal cases. City Physician Losh states that the night work of the city surgeons, such as attending suicides, cutting scrapes, murders, etc., ceased almost simultaneously with the suppression of the red-light districts and public prostitution.* The proposition that decent women would not be safe in the absence of houses of prosti- * Vigilance, March, igio. 148 Suppression and Prevention tution Mr. Hamery says “ has been proven to be utterly without foundation by the experi- ment in Des Moines.” The same evidence comes from other places that have abolished the system. Judge A. K. Stewart, of the Police Court in Des Moines, confirms the above and adds ; We now have two indictments for the white slave trade in our courts to be tried very soon, where two negro show boys induced two white girls to come to the city ostensibly for theatrical purposes, but for the real purpose of prostitution; but our officers ob- served them and the girls, being only about sixteen years of age, were taken into custody as they were being taken to some place to be ruined. These girls came from a small town about loo miles in the country, and they were returned to their parents. Had there been a red-light district here, as of old, it would have been almost impossible to have saved the girls; but for the reason that they had to make arrangement for the girls to stay here, and people being afraid to give them lodging, the matter was prevented.* Let the people of every city and town unite in a determined effort to drive out every house * Ibid, January, igio. 149 The White Slave Traffic in America of vice, not deterred by political influence or the claims of business interests or the sophistry of interested people. It is far better to keep these places on the move than to allow them to become one of the settled institutions of a city. The public should know the fact that one of the chief sources of the white slave traffic is the tolerated vice in our cities and towns, and that wherever attempts at segregation have been tried they have only made the evils of commercialized vice worse. Looking at this matter in a larger way, we cannot doubt that allowing this form of vice to exist openly, and even under the manage- ment of the police, must favor the violation of other laws, and have a tendency to lessen re- spect for all law. It is opposed to all the principles of good government, the purpose of which is, according to Gladstone, “ to make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong.” There are laws directed toward the sup- pression of disorderly houses in all but a few Suppression and Prevention States. Either the keepers of such places, or the landlord, or the house itself, comes within the law, and sometimes all three. Besides that, in the enumeration of general powers of muni- cipalities in the State statutes, the following point is invariably made : All municipal corporations shall have the following general powers and council may provide by ordinance a resolution for the enforcement of the same. . . . 4. To suppress and restrain disorderly houses and houses of ill fame, and to provide for the punishment of all lewd and lascivious behavior in the streets and other public places.* The laws relating to this subject should be revised in each State, new ones passed, if nec- essary, and enforced. To the fact that our present statutes are not enforced is due a great part of the immorality that is everywhere in evidence. Should city authorities decide to close all houses of vice, it would only be just and merci- ful for them to provide a place of detention. * See Ohio Statutes, 1536-190. The White Slave Traffic in America preferably in the country, where these unfortu- nate women, more sinned against than sin- ning, should have an opportunity to regain their physical and moral health, and to acquire some means of honest support. Relegated to a supervised and well-managed farm colony, they would at least be humanely treated and prevented from exploitation. In such a colony, work of restoration could be carried to ade- quate success. The kind of politics that thrives upon vice must also go. And this reform, a good many people believe, could be effected b)'’ regarding city government a matter of business rather than of politics. The Commission plan, by which the govern- ment of a city is placed in the hands of three to five men, who are paid adequate salaries and are held responsible, seems at once to remove the government out of party politics and put it on a business basis. If, in addition, a law is enacted, as in Iowa, which provides for the prompt dismissal of an officer who fails to en- 152 Suppression and Prevention force the laws, the problem is well nigh solved. Had it not been for the adoption of the gov- ernment by Commission in Des Moines the houses of vice would not have been driven out. The State of Iowa has recently enacted two laws which are published as an example to other States. See Appendix, pages 182, 188. The present understanding between the po- lice and the vicious resort must be broken up. It is the duty of the police to see that laws are enforced. It is not their province to say that certain laws are not to be carried out. In doing so, they assume the prerogatives of both the Bench and the Legislature, instead of the executive, which is the proper function of the police. Justice Horace G. Lurton, of the Supreme Court of the United States, speaks on this point as follows * : The speaker quoted Ambassador James Bryce, of England, who called attention to dangers threatening * Address before the Maryland and Virginia Bar Associations, at Hot Springs, Va., July 28, 1910. 153 The White Slave Traffic in America the American Commonwealth, and then Justice Lur- ton pointed out other factors which might be con- sidered as undermining our fundamental law, Na- tional and State. Among them the growing inclina- tion to disregard the Constitution, both by courts and legislative bodies. “May one charged with the exe- cution of a law decline to execute it as written, and modify it if he deems the public good thereby ad- vanced?” the Justice asked. “The contention that the obligation of a constitution is to be disregarded if it stands in the way of that which is deemed of public advantage, or that a valid law under the Con- stitution is to be interpreted or modified so as to accomplish that which the executive administering it, or a court called upon to enforce it, shall deem to the public advantage, is destructive of the whole theory upon which our American Commonwealth has been founded, to say nothing of the constitutional relation of the Union and the States to each other. It is a substitution of a government of man for a government of law.” Let the authorities enforce all laws impar- tially, and if there are some bad laws on the books the Legislature may be trusted to repeal or modify them. It can be proven that the laws which the people want earnestly enough can be secured. In this country, the situation is being thor- 154 Suppression and Prevention oughly investigated. There is always the hope — a hope that is proving itself to be well founded — that when our people become in- formed concerning the present astounding sit- uation they will act, act promptly and intelli- gently and efficiently. These evils in our own country and in foreign lands are remediable only by international activity. To make that al- liance effective, it must be many times stronger than it is at present. We must be able to feel, and to make our Government officials feel, that we represent the moral sentiment of every State in the Union, and that when we speak regarding such a clearly defined evil, we speak for the people of this Nation who will not tol- erate this iniquity much longer.* * James Bronson Reynolds, Chicago Address. 155 XX A Living Wage Modern industrial conditions and means of transportation play their part in removing girls long distances from home life and parental guardianship. Many of them go out to fend for themselves (and often to help to support other members of the family) at the age when they most need safeguarding from the kind of dangers and temptations that beset young womanhood. No one knows better than the white slave trader what such transplantation means. Our friends, the Socialists, are entirely right in their arraignment of the present social order as selfish, cruel, provocative of crime and widespread misery, whether we agree with them or not as to proposed remedies. Certainly the difficulty of obtaining work at anything like adequate compensation is, at 156 Suppression and Prevention present, universal. There are many causes for the economic situation that now exists, and many changes must be effected therein before much improvement will be seen. People must have better abiding places, shorter hours of work, a better chance for education and social enjoyment. We would do well to bend our energies to the improvement of those social and economic conditions which lie at the basis of the white slave traffic. Were the people in a more comfortable financial and social condi- tion, there would be no longer an economic reason for the existence of the traffic. One improvement seems possible now. This means that managers and owners of factories and department stores, and all who employ women workers, should give them higher wages, which may usually be done if the pro- prietors are willing to cut down their own in- come for this purpose. Those who do so much of the work which brings in the profits should surely receive a larger proportion than they do at present. II 157 The White Slave Traffic in America Furthermore, the employment of welfare secretaries and the adoption of other measures which will improve the physical, mental and moral condition of employees will do much to- wards checking the white slave traffic. 158 XXI Healthful Recreations There is a movement on foot in some of our cities to provide wholesome entertainments for the people. More places that provide amuse- ment and social pleasure without attendant risks to morals are needed everywhere. Meanwhile there should be insistence upon the enforcement of a legal decree that intoxi- cants shall not be sold in dance halls and other places of entertainment provided for young people. The downfall of hundreds of girls has been accomplished through the dance halls where liquors are served. Admitting that the desire for recreation is natural, and should be gratified, certain definite provisions can be made to construct safe and wholesome amusement possibilities. On the part of the municipality, there can be public regulation of amusement places. This 159 The White Slave Traffic in America should not be restrictive but should provide for proper physical conditions, such as con- struction, ventilation, etc. Public provision might be made in connection with playgrounds and social centers, introducing unobjectionable moving picture shows to counteract pernicious ones. Where dance platforms are erected in connection with public parks, and general dancing under supervision permitted, as is done in the field houses in the Chicago parks, the moral tone can be kept normal and the social atmosphere wholesome. These platforms or halls at the same time provide gathering places for young people’s clubs and societies of all kinds. There should be insistence upon wise supervision of all places of public amusement, and provision for them wherever they are needed. By way of experiment, model dance halls have been started in New York, and also a number of model dancing classes on a small scale. Preceding all effort at constructive work, a knowl- edge of actual conditions should be obtained so as to be able to meet the situation intelligently. i6o Suppression and Prevention With sufficient provision of the right kind, openly and freely given, the amusement situation ought to improve itself. It is because so much of the recre- ational opportunity has been left to commercial enterprise that we have heretofore failed. (Mrs. Belle L. Israels, Chairman of the Committee on Amusements and Vacation Resources of Working Girls, New York City.) Such is the white slave traffic in America. The movement for its suppression is the growth of a few years, yet the hearts of the American people have been so touched by the recital of the horrors of the traffic that the determination to suppress it has been formed, and requires only persistent, intelligent, self- sacrificing effort to become successful. To this great endeavor the National Vigi- lance Committee invites the co-operation of all who would eliminate the white slave traffic from our civilization. i6i Appendix CONTAINING TREATY, LAWS, ETC. I The International White Slave Treaty Agreement Between the United States and Other Powers for the Repression of the Trade IN White Women Signed at Paris, May i8, 1904. — Ratification Ad- vised by the Senate, March i, 1905. — Adhered to by the President, June 6, 1908. — Proclaimed, June 15. 1908. Article i. Each of the Contracting Govern- ments agrees to establish or designate an authority who will be directed to centralize all information concerning the procuration of women or girls both in a view to their debauchery in a foreign country; that authority shall have the right to correspond directly with the similar service established in each of the other Contracting States. Art. 2. Each of the Governments agree to exer- cise a supervision for the purpose to find out, par- ticularly in the stations, harbors of embarkation and on the journey, the conductors of women or girls intended for debauchery. Instructions shall be sent for that purpose to the officials or to any other quali- fied persons, in order to procure, within the limits of the laws, all information of a nature to discover a criminal traffic. The arrival of persons appearing evidently to be the authors, the accomplices or the victims of such 165 The White Slave Traffic in America a traffic will be notified, in each case, either to the authorities of the place of destination or to the in- terested diplomatic or consular agents, or to any other competent authorities. Art. 3. The Governments agree to receive, in each case, within the limits of the laws, the declarations of women and girls of foreign nationality who sur- render themselves to prostitution, with a view to establish their identity and their civil status and to ascertain who has induced them to leave their coun- try. The information received will be communicated to the authorities of the country of origin of the said women or girls, with a view to their eventual return. The Governments agree, within the limits of the laws and as far as possible, to confide temporarily and with a view to their eventual return, the victims of criminal traffic, when they are without any resources, to some institutions of public or private charity or to private individuals furnishing the necessary guaranties. The Governments agree also, within the limits of the laws to return to their country of origin, those of those women or girls who ask their return or who may be claimed by persons having authority over them. Return will be made only after reaching an understanding as to their identity and nationality, as well to the place and date of their arrival at the frontiers. Each of the Contracting Parties will facili- tate the transit on his territory. The correspondence relative to the return will be made, as far as possible, through the direct channel. 166 Appendix Art. 4. In case the woman or girl to be sent back can not pay herself the expenses of her transporta- tion and she has neither husband, nor relations, nor guardian to pay for her the expenses occasioned by her return, they shall be borne by the country on the territory of which she resides as far as the nearest frontier or port of embarkation in the direction of the country of origin, and by the country of origin for the remainder. Art. S- The provisions of the above articles 3 and 4, shall not infringe upon the provisions of special conventions which may exist between the contracting Governments. Art. 6. The contracting Governments agree, within the limits of the laws, to exercise, as far as possible, a supervision over the bureaux or agencies which occupy themselves with finding places for women or girls in foreign countries. Art. 7. The non-signatory States are admitted to adhere to the present Arrangement. For this pur- pose, they shall notify their intention, through the diplomatic channel, to the French Government, which shall inform all the contracting States. Art. 8. The present arrangement shall take effect six months after the date of the exchange of rati- fications. In case one of the contracting Parties shall denounce it, that denunciation shall take effect only as regards that Party and then twelve months only from the date of the day of the said denunciation. Art. 9. The present arrangement shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Paris, as soon as possible. 167 The White Slave Traffic in America In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Agreement, and thereunto affixed their seals. DONE at Paris, the i8th May, 1904, in single copy, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, and of which one copy, certified correct, shall be sent to each Contracting Party. [l. s.] (Signed) DelcassF [l. s.] (Signed) Randolin. [l. s.] (Signed) A. Leghait. [l. s.] (Signed) F. Reventlow. [l. s.] (Signed) F. de Leon y Castillo. [l. s.] (Signed) Edmund Monson. [l. s.] (Signed) G. Tornielli. [l. s.] (Signed) A. de Stuees. [l. s.] (Signed) T. de Souza Roza. [l. s.] (Signed) Nelidow. For Sweden and Norway: [l. s.] (Signed) Akerman. [l. s.] (Signed) Lardy. 168 II An Act to Regulate the Immigration of Aliens into the United States The Howell-Bennet Act Sec. 2. That section three of an Act entitled “ An Act to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States,” approved February twentieth, nine- teen hundred and seven, is hereby amended so as to read as follows : Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of any alien for the purpose of prostitution or for any immoral purpose is hereby forbidden; and who- ever shall, directly or indirectly, import, or attempt to import, into the United States, any alien for the purpose of prostitution or for any immoral purpose, or whoever shall hold or attempt to hold any alien for any such purpose in pursuance of such illegal importation, or whoever shall keep, maintain, control, support, employ or harbor in any house or other place, for the purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose, in pursuance of such illegal im- portation, any alien, shall, in every such case be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof be imprisoned not more than ten years and pay a fine of not more than five thousand dollars. Juris- diction for the trial and punishment of the felonies hereinbefore set forth shall be in any district to or 169 The White Slave Traffic in America into which said alien is brought in pursuance of said importation by the person or persons accused, or in any district in which a violation of any of the fore- going provisions of this section occur. Any alien who shall be found an inmate of or connected with the management of a house of prostitution or prac- ticing prostitution after such alien shall have entered the United States, or who shall receive, share in, or derive benefit from any part of the earnings of any prostitute, or who is employed by, in, or in connection with any house of prostitution or music or dance hall or other place of amusement or resort habitually frequented by prostitutes, or where prostitutes gather, or who in any way assists, protects, or promises to protect from arrest any prostitute, shall be deemed to be unlawfully within the United States and shall be deported in the manner provided by sections twenty and twenty-one of this Act. That any alien who shall, after he has been debarred or deported in pursuance of the provisions of this section, at- tempt thereafter to return to or to enter the United States shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be imprisoned for not more than two years. Any alien who shall be convicted under any of the provisions of this section shall, at the expiration of his sentence, be taken into custody and returned to the country whence he came, or of which he is a subject or a citizen in the manner provided in sec- tions twenty and twenty-one of this Act. In all prosecutions under this section the testimony of a husband or wife shall be admissible and competent evidence against a wife or husband.” 170 Ill The Federal White Slave Act An Act to Further Regulate Interstate and For- eign Commerce by Prohibiting the Transpor- tation Therein Eor Immoral Purposes of Women and Girls, and for Other Purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States of America in Con- gress assembled, That the term “ interstate com- merce,” as used in this Act, shall include transporta- tion from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory or the Dis- trict of Columbia, and the term “ foreign commerce,” as used in this Act, shall include transportation from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any foreign country and from any foreign country to any State or Territory or the District of Columbia. Sec. 2. That any person who shall knowingly transport or cause to be transported, or aid or assist in obtaining transportation for, or in transporting, in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Terri- tory or in the District of Columbia, any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose, or with the intent and purpose to induce, entice, or compel such woman or girl to become a prostitute or to give herself up to debauchery, or to engage in any other immoral practice; or who shall knowingly procure or obtain, 171 The White Slave Traffic in America or cause to be procured or obtained, or aid or assist in procuring or obtaining, any ticket or tickets, or any form of transportation or evidence of the right thereto, to be used by any woman or girl in inter- state or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or the District of Columbia, in going to any place for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose, or with the intent or purpose on the part of such person to induce, entice, or compel her to give herself up to the practice of prostitution, or to give herself up to debauchery, or any other immoral practice, whereby any such woman or girl shall be transported in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or the District of Columbia, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprison- ment of not more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 3. That any person who shall knowingly per- suade, induce, entice, or coerce, or cause to be per- suaded, induced, enticed, or coerced, or aid or assist in persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing any woman or girl to go from one place to another in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or the District of Columbia, for the purpose of pros- titution or debaucher}% or for any other immoral pur- pose, or with the intent and purpose on the part of such person that such woman or girl shall engage in the practice of prostitution or debauchery, or any other immoral practice, whether with or without her consent, and who shall thereby knowingly cause or 172 Appendix aid or assist in causing such woman or girl to go and to be carried or transported as a passenger upon the line or route of any common carrier or carriers in interstate or foreign commerce, or any Territory or the District of Columbia, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 4. That any person who shall knowingly per- suade, induce, entice, or coerce any woman or girl under the age of eighteen years from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to any other State or Territory or the District of Columbia, with the purpose and intent to induce or coerce her, or that she shall be induced or coerced to engage in prostitution or debauchery, or any other immoral practice, and shall in furtherance of such purpose knowingly induce or cause her to go and to be carried or transported as a passenger in interstate commerce upon the line or route of any common car- rier or carriers, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, or by im- prisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 5. That any violation of any of the above sections two, three, and four shall be prosecuted in any court having jurisdiction of crimes within the district in which said violation was committed, or 12 173 The White Slave Traffic in America from, through, or into which any such woman or girl may have been carried or transported as a pas- senger in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or the District of Columbia, contrary to the provisions of any of said sections. Sec. 6. That for the purpose of regulating and pre- venting the transportation in foreign commerce of alien women and girls for purposes of prostitution and debauchery, and in pursuance of and for the purpose of carrying out the terms of the agreement or project of arrangement for the suppression of the white slave traffic, adopted July twenty-fifth, nine- teen hundred and two, for submission to their re- spective governments by the delegates of various powers represented at the Paris conference and con- firmed by a formal agreement signed at Paris on May eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, and ad- hered to by the United States on June sixth, nine- teen hundred and eight, as shown by the proclama- tion of the President of the United States, dated June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, the Com- missioner-General of Immigration is hereby desig- nated as the authority of the United States to re- ceive and centralize information concerning the pro- curation of alien women and girls with a view to their debauchery, and to exercise supervision over such alien women and girls, receive their declara- tions, establish their identity, and ascertain from them who induced them to leave their native coun- tries, respectively; and it shall be the duty of said Commissioner-General of Immigration to receive and keep on file in his office the statements and declara- 174 Appendix tions which may be made by such alien women and girls, and those which are hereinafter required per- taining to such alien women and girls engaged in prostitution or debauchery in this country, and to furnish receipts for such statements and declarations provided for in this act to the persons, respectively, making and filing them. Every person who shall keep, maintain, control, support, or harbor in any house or place for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, any alien woman or girl within three years after she shall have entered the United States from any country, party to the said arrangement for the suppression of the white slave traffic, shall file with the Commissioner-General of Immigration a state- ment in writing setting forth the name of such alien woman or girl, the place at which she is kept, and all facts as to the date of her entry into the United States, the port through which she entered, her age, nationality, and parentage, and concerning her pro- curation to come to this country within the knowl- edge of such person, and any person who shall fail 'ithin thirty days after such person shall commence keep, maintain, control, support, or harbor in any house or place for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other immoral purpose, any alien woman or girl within three years after she shall have entered the United States from any of the countries, party to the said arrangement for the suppression of the white slave traffic, to file such statement concerning such alien woman or girl with the Commissioner- General of Immigration, or who shall knowingly and 175 The White Slave Traffic in America willfully state falsely or fail to disclose in such statement any fact within his knowledge or belief with reference to the age, nationality, or parentage of any such alien woman or girl, or concerning her procuration to come to this country, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. In any prosecution brought under this section, if it appear that any such statement required is not on file in the office of the Commissioner-General of Im- migration, the person whose duty it shall be to file such statement shall be presumed to have failed to file said statement, as herein required, unless such person or persons shall prove otherwise. No person shall be excused from furnishing the statement, as required by this section, on the ground or for the reason that the statement so required by him, or the information therein contained, might tend to criminate him or subject him to a penalty or for- feiture, but no person shall be prosecuted or sub- jected to any penalty or forfeiture under any law of the United States for or on account of any trans- action, matter, or thing, concerning which he may truthfully report in such statement, as required by the provisions of this section. Sec. 7. That the term “ Territory,” as used in this Act, shall include the district of Alaska, the insular possessions of the United States, and the Canal Zone. 176 Appendix The word “person,” as used in this Act, shall be construed to import both the plural and the singular, as the case demands, and shall include corporations, companies, societies, and associations. When con- struing and enforcing the provisions of this Act, the act, omission, or failure of any officer, agent, or other person, acting for or employed by any other person or by any corporation, company, society, or association within the scope of his employment or office, shall in every case be also deemed to be the act, omission, or failure of such other person, or of such company, corporation, society, or association, as well as that of the person himself. Sec. 8 . That this Act shall be known and referred to as the “ White slave traffic Act.” Approved, June 25, 1910. 177 IV The Model Law The Law Proposed for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic BASED on the LAW OF ILLINOIS AND OTHER STATES. THE MOST IMPORTANT PROVISIONS HAVE BEEN SUP- PORTED BY DECISIONS OF THE STATE SUPREME COURT An Act in Relation to Pandering, to Define and Pro- hibit the Same, to Provide for the Punishment Thereof, and for the Competency of Certain Evidence at the Trial Thereof Section A. Any person who shall procure a fe- male inmate for a house of prostitution ; or who shall induce, persuade, encourage, enveigle or entice a female person to become a prostitute; or who by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme, shall cause, induce, persuade, encourage, take, place, harbor, enveigle or entice a female person to become an inmate of a house of prostitution, or assignation place, or any place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged, or allowed ; or any person who shall, by promises, threats, violence, or by any device or scheme, cause, induce, persuade, encourage, en- veigle or entice an inmate of a house of prostitution or place of assignation to remain therein as such in- mate; or any person who by promises, threats, vio- 178 Appendix lence, by any device or scheme, by fraud or artifice, or by duress of person or goods, or by abuse of any position of confidence or authority, or having legal charge, shall take, place, harbor, enveigle, entice, persuade, encourage or procure any female person to enter any place within this State in which prosti- tution is practiced, encouraged or allowed, for the purpose of prostitution or not being her husband for the purpose of sexual intercourse, or to enveigle, entice, persuade, encourage or procure any female person to come into this State or to leave this State for the purpose of prostitution or not being her hus- band for the purpose of sexual intercourse ; or who takes or detains a female with the intent to compel her by force, threats, menace or duress to marry him or to marry any other person or to be defiled; or upon the pretense of marriage takes or detains a female person for the purpose of sexual intercourse ; or who shall receive or give or agree to receive or give, any money or thing of value for procuring or attempting to procure any female person to become a prostitute or to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution or not being her husband for the purpose of sexual intercourse shall be guilty of pandering, and upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Peniten- tiary for a term of not less than two years to life imprisonment. Sec. B. Any person who by force, fraud, intimi- dation or threats, places or leaves, or procures any other person or persons to place or leave his wife in a house of prostitution or to lead a life of prosti- 179 The White Slave Traffic in America tution shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to the Penitentiary for not less than two nor more than twenty years. Sec. C. Any person who shall knowingly accept, receive, levy or appropriate any money or other val- uable thing, without consideration, from the proceeds of the earnings of any woman engaged in prostitu- tion, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on con- viction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not less than two nor more than twenty years. Any such acceptance, receipt, levy or appro- priation of such money or valuable thing, shall, upon any proceeding or trial for violation of this Section, be presumptive evidence of lack of consideration. Sec. D. Any person or persons who attempts to detain any female person in a disorderly house or house of prostitution because of any debt or debts she has contracted, or is said to have contracted, while living in said house, shall be guilty of felony and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to the Penitentiary for not less than two nor more than twenty years. Sec. E. Any person who shall knowingly transport or cause to be transported, or aid or assist in ob- taining transportation for, by any means of con- veyance into, through or across this State, any fe- male person for the purpose of prostitution or with the intent and purpose to induce, entice or compel such female person to become a prostitute, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof be sentenced to the Penitentiary for not less than two nor more than twenty years; any person i8o Appendix who may commit the crime in this section mentioned may be prosecuted, indicted, tried and convicted in any county or city in or through which he shall so transport or attempt to transport any female person, as aforesaid. Sec. F. It shall not be a defense to a prosecution for any of the acts prohibited in the foregoing sections that any part of such act or acts shall have been committed outside this State, and the offense shall in such case be deemed and alleged to have been committed and the offender tried and punished in any county in which the prostitution was intended to be practiced or in which the offense was consum- mated, or any overt act in furtherance of the offense shall have been committed. Sec. G. Any such female person referred to in the foregoing sections shall be a competent witness in any prosecution under this Act to testify for or against the accused as to any transaction or as to any conversation with the accused or by him with another person or persons in her presence, notwith- standing her having married the accused before or after the violation of any of the provisions of this Act, whether called as a witness during the existence of the marriage or after its dissolution. And be it further enacted that this Act shall take effect from the date of its passage. i8i V The Iowa Act An Act to enjoin and abate house of lewdness, as- signation and prostitution, to declare the same to be nuisances, to enjoin the person or persons who conduct or maintain the same, and the owner or agent of any building used for such purpose, and to assess a tax against the person maintaining said nuisance and against the building and owner thereof. Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa: Section i. Whoever shall erect, establish, continue, maintain, use, own, or lease any building, erection or place used for the purpose of lewdness, assigna- tion or prostitution is guilty of a nuisance, and the building, erection or place, or the ground itself, in or upon which such lewdness, assignation or prosti- tution is conducted, permitted or carried on, con- tinued or exists, and the furniture, fixtures, musical instruments, and contents are also declared a nui- sance, and shall be enjoined and abated as herein- after provided. Sec. 2. Whenever a nuisance is kept, maintained or exists, as defined in this act, the county attorney or any citizen of the county may maintain an action in equity in the name of the State of Iowa upon the 182 Appendix relation of such county attorney or citizen, to per- petually enjoin said nuisance, the person or persons conducting or maintaining the same, and the owner or agent of the building or ground upon which said nuisance exists. In such action the court, or a judge in vacation, shall, upon the presentation of a petition therefor alleging that the nuisance complained of exists, allow a temporary writ of injunction without bond, if it shall be made to appear to the satisfac- tion of the court or judge by evidence in the form of affidavits, depositions, oral testimony or other- wise, as the complainant may elect, unless the court or judge, by previous order, shall have directed the form and manner in which it shall be presented. Three days’ notice in writing shall be given the de- fendant of the hearing of the application, and if then continued at his instance, the writ as prayed shall be granted as a matter of course. When an injunction has been granted, it shall be binding on the defend- ant throughout the judicial district in which it was issued, and any violation of the provisions of in- junction herein provided shall be a contempt as here- inafter provided. Sec. 3. The action when brought shall be triable at the first term of court after due and timely service of the notice has been given, and in such action evi- dence of the general reputation of the place shall be admissible for the purpose of proving the existence of said nuisance. If the complaint is filed by a citi- zen, it shall not be dismissed except upon a sworn statement made by the complainant and his attorney setting forth the reasons why the action should be 183 The White Slave Traffic in America dismissed and the dismissal approved by the county attorney in writing or in open court. If the court is of the opinion that the action ought not to be dis- missed, he may direct the county attorney to prose- cute said action to judgment, and if the action is continued more than one term of court, any citizen of the county or the county attorney may be substi- tuted for the complaining party and prosecute said action to judgment. If the action is brought by a citizen and the court finds there was no reasonable ground or cause for said action, the costs may be taxed to such citizen. Sec. 4. In case of the violation of any injunction granted under the provisions of this act, the court, or in vacation, a judge thereof, may summarily try and punish the offender. The proceedings shall be commenced by filing with the clerk of the court an information under oath, setting out the alleged facts constituting such violation, upon which the court or judge shall cause a warrant to issue, under which the defendant shall be arrested. The trial may be had upon affidavits, or either party may demand the production and oral examination of the witnesses. A party found guilty of contempt under the pro- visions of this section, shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three nor more than six months, or by both fine and imprisonment. Sec. 5. If the existence of the nuisance be estab- lished in an action as provided in this act, an order of abatement shall be entered as a part of the judg- 184 Appendix ment in the case, which order shall direct the re- moval from the building or place of all fixtures, furniture, musical instruments or movable property used in conducting the nuisance, and shall direct the sale thereof in the manner provided for the sale of chattels under execution, and the effectual closing of the building or place against its use for any pur- pose, and so keeping it closed for a period of one year, unless sooner released. If any person shall break and enter or use a building, erection or place so directed to be closed, he shall be punished as for contempt as provided in the preceding section. For removing and selling the movable property, the officer shall be entitled to charge and receive the same fees as he would for levying upon and selling like property on execution, and for closing the prem- ises and keeping them closed, a reasonable sum shall be allowed by the court. Sec. 6. The proceeds of the sale of the personal property, as provided in the preceding section, shall be applied in payment of the costs of the action and abatement, and the balance, if any, shall be paid to the defendant. Sec. 7. If the owner appears and pays all costs of the proceeding, and files a bond with sureties to be approved by the clerk in the full value of the prop- erty, to be ascertained by the court, or, in vacation, by the clerk, auditor and treasurer of the county, conditioned that he will immediately abate said nui- sance and prevent the same from being established or kept therein within a period of one year there- after, the court, or, in vacation, the judge, may, if 185 The White Slave Traffic in America satisfied of his good faith, order the premises closed under the order of abatement to be delivered to said owner, and said order of abatement cancelled so far as the same may relate to said property; and if the proceeding be an action in equity and said bond be given and costs therein paid before judgment and order of abatement, the action shall be thereby abated as to said building only. The release of the property under the provisions of this section shall not release it from any judgment, lien, penalty or liability to which it may be subject by law. Sec. 8. Whenever a permanent injunction issues against any person for maintaining a nuisance as herein defined, or against any owner or agent of the building kept or used for the purposes pro- hibited by this act, there shall be assessed against said building and the ground upon which the same is located and against the person or persons main- taining said nuisance, and the owner or agent of said premises, a tax of three hundred dollars. The assessment of said tax shall be made bj'^ the assessor of the city, town or township in which the nuisance exists and shall be made within three months from the date of the granting of the permanent injunction. In case the assessor fails or neglects to make said assessment the same shall be made by the sheriff of the county, and a return of said assessment shall be made to the county treasurer. Said tax shall be a perpetual lien upon all property, both personal and real, used for the purpose of maintaining said nui- sance, and the payment of said tax shall not relieve the person or building from any other penalties pro- Appendix vided by law. The provisions of the law relating to the collection and distribution of the mulct liquor tax shall govern in the collection and distribution of the tax herein prescribed in so far as the same are applicable, and not in conflict with the provisions of this act. 187 VI The Iowa Law to Remove Officials for Misconduct or Neglect of Duties IN Office An Act authorizing the district court or judge to remove officers for misfeasance, misconduct or maladministration in office, and providing the method of procedure therefor. Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa: Section i. Any county attorney, sheriff, mayor, police officer, marshal or constable shall be removed from office by the district court or judge upon charges made in writing and hearing thereunder for the following causes: 1. For wilful or habitual neglect or refusal to perform the duties of his office. 2. For wilful misconduct or maladministration in office. 3. For corruption. 4. For extortion. 5. Upon conviction of a felony. 6. For intoxication or upon conviction of being intoxicated. Sec. 2. The complaint or petition shall be entitled in the name of the State of Iowa, and may be filed 188 Appendix upon the relation of any five qualified electors of the county in which the person charged is an officer, the county attorney of such county, or the attorney gen- eral, and shall be filed by the attorney general when directed so to do by the governor. It shall be the duty of the county attorney to appear and prosecute this proceeding when the officer sought to be re- moved is one other than himself; and when the proceeding is brought to remove the county attorney, the court may appoint an attorney to appear in behalf of the State and prosecute such proceedings. Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the governor, when- ever he has knowledge that reasonable grounds exist for the filing of complaint against any of the within named officers, to direct the attorney general to file the same against the offending party and prosecute said action. The accused shall be named as de- fendant and the petition, unless filed by the attorney general, shall be verified. The petition shall state the charges against the accused and may be amended as in ordinary actions, and shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county in which the person charged is an officer. The accused may at any time prior to the time fixed for hearing file in the office of the clerk of the district court his answer, which shall be verified. Sec. 4. If the person or persons filing the com- plaint or the defendant believe that the cause ought not to be heard before any of the judges in such dis- trict, he shall at the time he files his petition or answer in the office of the clerk of the district court, file a copy thereof in the office of the clerk of the 189 13 The White Slave Traffic in America supreme court, together with an application to the supreme court asking for the appointment of a judge outside of such district to hear the complaint. Upon the filing of the copy of said complaint, together with the application, in the office of the clerk of the su- preme court, it shall be the duty of the chief justice of the supreme court, or in his absence or inability to act, any justice thereof, to forthwith issue a writ- ten commission directing a district judge in the State of Iowa outside of such district to proceed to the county in which the complaint was filed and hear the same. Upon the receipt of such commis- sion, said judge shall immediately make an order fixing a time for hearing which shall be not less than ten (lo) nor more than twenty (20) days thereafter, and forward said order to the clerk of the district court of the county in which the hearing is to be had. The clerk shall file said order and forthwith cause a copy thereof or a notice of the time and place of hearing to be served on the ac- cused. If the cause is to be heard by a judge within the judicial district, upon the presentation of the petition, or a copy thereof, to such judge, he shall make the order fixing a time for the hearing as here- inbefore specified. Sec. 5. The proceeding shall be summary in its nature and triable as an equitable action and may be heard either in vacation or term time, and shall be heard before the court or judge without the inter- vention of a jury. Upon the filing of the petition in the office of the clerk of the district court, and presentation of the same to the judge, the court or Appendix judge may suspend the accused from office, if in his judgment sufficient cause appear from the peti- tion and affidavit or affidavits which may be pre- sented in support of the charges contained therein. In case of suspension, as herein provided, the tem- porary vacancy shall be filled in the manner specified in Section 1257 of the Code. Sec. 6. If upon the hearing herein provided for, the district court or judge shall find that the accused should be removed from office, he shall make and enter of record an order of removal and the va- cancy thus created shall be filled as provided in Section 1272 of the Supplement to the Code, 1907. Sec. 7 - In case of appeal to he supreme court, the cause shall be advanced and take precedence over all other causes upon the court calendar, and shall be heard at the next term after the appeal is taken, provided the abstract and arguments are filed in said court in time for said action to be heard. The su- preme court shall fix the time of hearing and the filing of arguments. The taking of an appeal by the defendant and the filing of a supersedeas bond shall not operate to stay the proceedings of the district court or judge, or restore said defendant to office pending such appeal. If the final termination of such proceedings be favorable to any accused officer, said officer shall be allowed the reasonable and necessary expense including a reasonable attorney fee to be fixed by the court or judge he has incurred in mak- ing his defense, by the county if he be a county officer, or by the city or town in which he holds office if he be a mayor, police officer or marshal. The White Slave Traffic in America If the action is instituted upon complaint of citizens as herein provided, and it appears to the court that there was no reasonable cause for filing the com- plaint the costs may be taxed against the com- plaining parties. Sec. 8. Any judge who is required to preside at a hearing, herein provided for, outside of his judicial district, shall be allowed his necessary and actual expenses incurred by reason of such hearing, and the necessary and actual expenses of his official reporter. An itemized sworn statement shall be made by such judge and official reporter showung the amount of expenses incurred, and the same shall be filed with the auditor of state. Thereupon, the auditor shall draw his warrant upon the treasurer of state for such amount. Sec. 9. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act, in so far as they apply to the officers herein designated, are hereby repealed. Sec. 10. This act being deemed of immediate im- portance shall take effect and be in force from and after its publication in the Register and Leader and Des Moines Capital, newspapers published in the City of Des Moines, Iowa. Aproved March 25, A. D. 1909. Published March 27, 1909. 192 VII New York Employment Agencies Act The part that employment agencies play in sending girls to immoral resorts and situations is brought out by the section of a New York law passed in 1906 as a result of an investigation made shortly before that time. Chapter 327. Section 7 An Act to amend chapter four hundred and thirty- two of the laws of nineteen hundred and four, entitled “ An Act to regulate the keeping of em- ployment agencies in cities of the first and second class, where fees are charged for procuring em- ployment or situations,” generally, and to limit its application to cities of the first class. 7. Character of employer; fraud. No such licensed person shall send or cause to be sent any female as a servant or inmate or performer to enter any place of bad repute, house of ill-fame, or assignation house, or to any house or place of amusement kept for im- moral purposes, or place resorted to for the purposes of prostitution, or gambling house, the character of which such licensed person could have ascertained upon reasonable inquiry. No such licensed person shall knowingly permit any person of bad character, prostitutes, gamblers, intoxicated persons or pro- curers to frequent such agency. No such licensed 193 The White Slave Traffic in America person shall accept any application for employ- ment ‘tnade by or on behalf of any child or shall place or assist in placing any such child in any employment whatever in violation of the compul- sory education law, known as title sixteen, of the consolidated school law of eighteen hundred and ninety-four, as amended; and in violation of chap- ter four hundred and fifteen of the laws of eight- een hundred and ninety-seven, known as the labor law. No licensed person, his agents, servants or employees, shall induce or compel any person to enter such agency for any purpose, by the use of force or by taking forcible possession of said person’s property. No such licensed person, his agents or employees, shall have sexual intercourse with any female applicant for employment. No such person shall procure or offer to procure help or employment in rooms or on premises where intoxicating liquors are sold to be consumed on the premises whether or not dues or a fee or privilege is exacted, charged, or received directly or indirectly. For the violation of any of the foregoing provisions of this section the penalty shall be a fine of not less than fifty dollars, and not more than two hundred and fifty' dollars, or imprisonment for a period of not more than one year or both, at the discretion of the court. . . . 194 VIII Methods of Conducting Business in Dis- orderly Raines-Law Hotels Practically every hotel which is conducted spe- cifically for the purposes of prostitution in con- nection with the sale of liquor has its staff of women solicitors on the streets in the vicinity. These women are required to bring their patrons to the hotel and to urge them to buy drinks. In some in- stances they are boarded by the saloon keepers, much after the plan of the regular “ parlor ” houses. There frequently exists a connection between a disorderly saloon in which women solicit and the disorderly hotel. Men met in a particular saloon must be taken to a specified hotel. The purpose of this arrange- ment is to make more difficult the securing of evi- dence proving the disorderly character of a place. There are few cases, however, in which the same man is proprietor of both the saloon and hotel. Many of these hotel proprietors act as bail bondsmen for the women when arrested. When they are placed on probation they often return to their old life and the keeper of the hotel pays the police for not re- porting the fact that they have broken their parole. During an investigation of 33 women placed on pro- bation a number admitted that they were bailed out 195 The White Slave Traffic in America by the proprietors of the Raines-law hotels for which they were working. In such cases the sum of $5.00 for the bail bond was deducted from their earnings.* * Saloons in New York, by Collier’s Weekly, May 2, 1908. Arthur H. Gleason, 196 The National Vigilance Committee for THE United States of America The National Vigilance Committee for the United States of America, for the Safe- Guarding OF Unprotected Girls and Women AND THE Suppression and Prevention of the White Slave Traffic Alice Stone Blackwell, Boston. Melbourne P. Boynton, Chicago. Seneca P. Broomell, Baltimore. Robert Catherwood, Chicago. Grace H. Dodge, New York. John Dryden, Nebraska. Robert Garrett, Baltimore. Francis J. Garrison, Boston. Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore. Arria S. Huntington, Syracuse. Dr. O. Edward Janney, Baltimore. Dr. David Starr Jordan, California. H. C. Levis, London. Dr. Prince A. Morrow, New York. Rabbi David Philipson, Cincinnati. Anna Rice Powell, Philadelphia. Prof. Edw. B. Rawson, New York. James Bronson Reynolds, New York. Clifford G. Roe, Chicago. Percy Russell, Brooklyn. Edwin W. Sims, Chicago. 197 The White Slave Traffic in America Anna Garlin Spencer, New York. Elisabeth Stover, New York, Secretary. Dr. Joseph Swain, Swarthmore, Pa. Henry W. Wilbur, Philadelphia. Talcott Williams, LL. D., Philadelphia. Dr. Robert N. Willson, Philadelphia. Simon Wolf, Washington. Prof. Thomas Wood, New York. Corresponding members in every State and the Canal Zone. Chairman: Dr. O. Edward Janney. Secretary: Elisabeth Stover. Treasurer: Seneca P. Brdomell. Librarian: Marion E. Dodd. New York Office : 156 Fifth Avenue, Room 529. 198 INDEX AlBdavit of Inspector, 32 Agencies, Emploj'ment, 102 Agencies, Emplojinent, Law, 193 Alcohol, Effect of, 97, 99, 120 Am. Purity Federation, 116 Appleton, Chas. W., 56 Am. Soc. of Social Hygiene, 117 .Amusements, 97 Andrews, Mrs. Elizabeth, 43 Bakersfield, Cal., 44 Baltimore, 132 Baptist Conference, 117 Bloomington, 111., 87 Boston, 87 B’nai 13’rith Society, 116 Braun, Inspector Marcus, 31 Bushnell, Dr. Katharine, 43 California, 43 Cameron. Miss Donaldena, 45 Charleston. 111., 87 Chicago, 87, 90, 119, 132 Chinese Girls, 45 Cincinnati, 132 Commission Government, 152 Commission, Vice, 71 Committee of Fourteen, 80, 100 Committee, Nat’l Vigilance, 122 Congress, international, at Mad- rid, 127 Coote, Wm. Alexander, 124 Council of Jewish Women, 118 Cribs, 41 Dance-halls, 30 Davenport, Iowa, 87 Debt, Slavery from, 3S Denver, 132 Des Moines, Iowa, 148 Detroit, Mich., 87 Diseases, Social, 52 Dodge, Miss Grace H., 122 Earnings, 38 Enquirer, Oakland, 42 Evening Post, 65 Evening Post, Editorial, 71 Excursions, 98 Federal Law, 126, 137, 171 Fresno, Cal., 44 Grand Jury, N. Y., 55, 129 Grand Jury, Recommendations, 70 Grand Jury, N. Y., Report, 66 Grange, The, 117 Hamery, J. L., 148 Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers, 43 Housing, Effect of, 81 Howell-Bennet Act, The, 169 Ice Cream Saloons, 99 Ide, Henry B., 127 Immigration Act, 145, 169 Immigration Commission, 15, 20, 28, 109, 136 Immigration, Effects of, 106, 145 Instruction, Need of, 83 International Bureau, The, 117 Iowa Acts, 182, 188 Israels, Mrs. Belle L., 161 Janney, Dr. O. Edward, 124, 127 Japanese Girls, 45 Keefe, Daniel J., 31 Law on Employment Agencies, 193 Law, Federal White Slave, 126, 137, 171 Law, The Model, 139, 178 Law in California, 139 Law in Colorado, K9 Law in Connecticut, 139 Law in Dakota, North, 139 Law in Dakota, South, 139 Law in Dist. of Col., 126, 133 Law in Illinois, 139 Law in Iowa, 139, 153, 182 Law in Louisiana, 140 199 Index Law in Maryland, 140 Law in Massachusetts, 140 Law in Minnesota, 139 Law in New Jersey, 140 Law in New York, 139, 140 Law in Ohio, 140 Law in Oklahoma, 140 Law in Pennsylvania, 139 Law in Rhode Island, 140 Law in Virginia, 140 Law in Washington, 139 Les Amies de la Jeune Fille, 117 Library, Vigilance, 128 Liquor, Use of, 97, 99, 120 Literature, Improper, 85 Livonia, Pa., 87 Los Angeles, Cal., 44 Lurton, Justice H. G., 153 McClure’s Magazine, 55 Manicure Parlors, 67, 70 Marriage, 24, 132 Massage Rooms, 67, 70, 99 Methodist Conference, 117 Methods of Procurers, 29, 37, 38, 65, 98, 99, 102, 104 Milwaukee, 87 Model Law, The, 139, 178 Modista, Cal., 44 Moline, 111., 87 Money Invested, 32 Montreal, 87 Morrow, Dr. Prince A., 54 Moving-picture Shows, 66, 70, 98 Muskeegon, 87 National Council of Jew. Women, 118 National Federation of Women’s Clubs, 117 National Florence Crit. Mission, 116 National Vigilance Committee, 122 New Haven, 132 New Orleans, 132 New York City, 87, 132 New York Indep. Benevolent As- soc’n, 62 Norfolk. Va., 102 Oakland, Cal., 44 O'Sullivan, Judge, 55 Pacific Coast, The, 41 Parents, Neglect of, 84 Parkin, Harry A., 39, 87 Pentz, Samuel E., 131 Peoria, 111., 87 Philadelphia, 132 Pittsburgh, 87, 132 Politics, Influence of, 104, 147 Poverty, Influence of, 81 Presentment of Grand Jury, 56 Procurers, 29, 37, 38, 65, 98, 99, 102, 104 Procurers, Women, 29 Raines-Law Hotels, 67, 100, 195 Recreation, Effect of, 159 Reynolds, Jas. Bronson, 56, 73, 155 Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 56 Roe, Clifford G., 25, 92, 119, 131 Roosevelt, President, 125, 134, 142 Restaurants, Use of, 99 Sacramento, Cal., 44 San Diego, Cal., 44 San Francisco, 44, 132 Seattle, Wash., 102. 132 Sims, Edwin W., 17, 33 Society of Friends, The, 117 Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Report of, 66 Societies, Religious and Reform, 116 States and the Traffic, 126 Steerage Conditions, 109, 146 Stewart, Chief of Police, 119 Stewart, Judge .A. K. , 149 St. Louis, 87, 132 Stockton, Cal., 44 Straus, Hon. Oscar L., 134 Supreme Court Decision, 135, 138 Taft, President W. H., 135 Tenement House Conditions, 81 Theatre Plan’s, 98 Toledo, Ohio, 87 Tongs, Chinese, 42 Travellers’ Aid Society, 117 Treatv, International White Slave. 142. 165 Troy, N. Y., 87 Turner, Geo. Kibbe, 55 200 Index U. S. Immigration Commission, 15, 20, 28, 109, 136 Vigilance Com., Nat’l, 122, 197 Vigilance, Monthly, 130 Wages, Influence of, 93, 156 Waseka, Minn., 87 Washington City, 92 Washington, State of, 139 Watsonville, Cal., 44 White Slave TrafBc Act, The, 171 Whitehall, Mich., 87 Whitman, Chas. S., 56 Woman’s C. T. Union, 116 Working Girls’ Budgets, 94 Young Women’s Christian Asso- ciation, 117 Youngstown, Ohio, 87 201 A Journal of Moral Education and the Vigilance Movement PUBLISHED MONTHLY Fifty Cents a Year 156 Fifth Avenue, New York