WHITE SLAVERY
During the past few years the public has been much interested in the
prosecution of the white slave investigation. Every adult person had a
more or less definite idea that there were in existence immoral houses.
But the majority of women had no idea that their existence should be of
any especial interest to them.
The Hon. Edwin Sims, U. S. District Attorney, Chicago, says: "There are
some things so far removed from the lives of normal, decent people as to
be simply unbelievable by them. The 'white slave' trade of to-day is one
of these incredible things. The calmest, simplest statements of its
facts are almost beyond the comprehension of belief of men and women who
are mercifully spared from contact with the dark and hideous secrets of
the 'under-world' of the big cities.
"Naturally, wisely, every parent who reads this statement will at once
raise the question: 'What excuse is there for the open discussion of
such a revolting condition of things? What good is there to be served by
flaunting so dark and disgusting a subject before the family circle?'
Only one--and that is a reason and not an excuse! The recent examination
of more than two hundred 'white slaves' by the office of the U. S.
District Attorney at Chicago has brought to light the fact that
literally thousands of innocent girls from the country districts are
every year entrapped into a life of hopeless slavery and degradation
because parents in the country do not understand conditions as they
exist and how to protect their daughters from the 'white slave' traders
who have reduced the art of ruining young girls to a national and
international system. I sincerely believe that nine-tenths of the
parents of these thousands of girls who are every year snatched from
lives of decency and comparative peace and dragged under the slime of an
existence in the 'white slave world' have no idea that there is really a
trade in the ruin of girls as much as there is a trade in cattle or
sheep or other products of the farm.
"I have no disposition to add a single word to what will open the eyes
of parents to the fact that white slavery is an existing condition--a
system of girl hunting that is national and international in its scope,
that it literally consumes thousands of girls--clean, innocent
girls--every year; that it is operated with a cruelty, a barbarism that
gives a new meaning to the word fiend; that it is an imminent peril to
every girl in the country who has a desire to get into the city and
taste its excitement and pleasures."
One of the worst obstacles to be overcome in the work of protecting
innocent girls and restoring to useful lives those who have been
betrayed, is the blind incredulity on the part of a large percentage of
the public. There are thousands of women all over the country who know
as little about what is going on in the world as do so many children.
They are wonderfully ignorant of the terrible conditions that are in
existence all around them. Of course their blindness to these awful
conditions makes them more peaceful and contented for the time being
than they possibly could be if they realized the temptations and perils
that are lying in wait for their daughters and the daughters of their
friends. But this peace is not permanent and every year thousands of
mothers are rudely awakened from their sleep of peace to find that while
they were asleep to the perils of the world their daughters have been
drawn into the whirlpool. The awakening of such parents comes too late
usually to do any good. The recent agitation along this line has caused
many a mother to exclaim, "How terrible; I did not dream that such a
condition of affairs could exist in this country."
If you possessed a rare jewel and knew you were surrounded by those who
would try to obtain possession of that jewel you would not entrust it to
a blind or a deaf watchman or one so ignorant of the wiles of the
robbers that he would trustingly allow it to pass into their possession.
There is nothing in the world so priceless to the father and mother as
the virtue and happiness of their daughter. And yet there are thousands
of parents who have been entrusted with the care of a daughter who are
trying to discharge that trust with their eyes blinded and their ears
closed. They insist upon keeping the childish belief that there is no
real danger threatening their daughter. These parents do not live in
the world. They fold their hands and raise their eyes towards heaven and
cry, "Peace! Peace!" and are unable to see the enemy slipping upon their
daughter to drag her down to a life of shame.
In this age no young girl is beyond temptation. She needs all the
protection possible, and in order to protect her the parents must be
awake to the dangers and provided with the best means of protection. One
of the things hardest to make honest and trusting parents believe is
that there can be people in the world who make it their business to lead
girls into a life of shame. But such is the case whether we believe it
or not. The men and women who ply this trade lay their plans more
carefully and employ more artifices than can be conceived of by the
ordinary parent. The wonder is that not more are caught in the net.
Another fact which the public finds it hard to believe is that the girls
who are lured into the life of shame find it impossible to escape from
such a life, that they are prisoners and slaves in every sense of the
word.
The artifices employed by these slave-dealers to obtain their victims
are many and frequently are so adroitly formulated as to blind not only
the victim but her parents as well.
One common trick of these slave procurers is the promise of a good
position. Many a girl has gone to the cities thinking she had obtained a
definite and desirable position. Perhaps she was to be met at the
station by the person who obtained the position for her. Too late she
finds her position is in a house of ill-fame. So common has this trick
become that in every large city there are organizations of social
workers who offer through the churches to look up the desirability of
any position which has been obtained by a girl so that should it prove
to be a lure of the destroyer she could be warned before it was too
late.
Another favorite device of the white slaver for landing victims is the
runaway marriage trick. The alleged summer resorts and excursion centers
which are so widely advertised as Gretna Greens and as places where the
usual legal and official formalities preliminary to respectable marriage
are reduced to the minimum are star recruiting stations for the white
slave traffic. So common is this trick that a wise mother would refuse
to allow her daughter to visit one of these places or to go on one of
the pleasure excursions unless accompanied by some older member of the
family. Also, every mother should teach her daughter that any man who
proposed such a marriage was to be looked upon with suspicion, and
should not be trusted for an instant.
Then there is the restaurant trick. The girl is induced to go to what
she thinks is a restaurant and then perhaps is taken into a private room
only to find that this room leads to her prison. Girls cannot be too
suspicious of going to unknown places with comparative strangers--either
men or women.
The moving picture shows furnish to these slavers another opportunity of
misleading girls. These shows naturally attract children and very young
girls. Evidence has been procured which proves that many girls owe their
ruin to frequenting them. As an instance of this, three girls met as
many young men at a moving picture show and at the end of the
performance were induced to leave the theater by a side door which was
found to open into an adjoining building and all passed the night
together.
The massage parlors and manicure parlors upon investigation proved to
have been used as a bait for these vile procurers. Many of these places
were found to be not equipped for their legitimate work but to be
nothing more than disorderly houses.
The investigations of the United States courts have resulted in the
imprisonment of many of these panders but there are many more still
unconvicted and the danger to young girls is ever present. The parents
cannot be too watchful in their protection, and to be watchful they must
be cognizant of the dangers and of the methods in use. The daughters
must be so educated that they are prepared to cope with the enemy.
Remember, as Browning says, "Ignorance is not innocence, but sin."