THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
On Monday, February 8, 1909, The Illinois Vigilance Association, an
organization having for its object the suppression of traffic in women
and girls, held its second annual conference against this evil. The
meeting was held in the auditorium of the Young Men's Christian
Association, in Chicago.
Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, professor of physiology in Northwestern
University Medical School, spoke on the subject that is the title of
this chapter, and was followed by Judge Julian W. Mack. Their plain,
chaste, truthful words gave no offense to the refined ladies and
gentlemen, and young ladies and young gentlemen, who composed that large
audience of nearly a thousand people. Instead of offense, appreciation
and gratitude were in every heart.
The addresses of these two eminent men are here reproduced word for word
from the stenographer's report, not omitting the enlivening
interruptions from a woman in the audience, herself a physician and much
interested in this reform.
CHAIRMAN BOYNTON: "The White Slave Traffic and the Public Health" is the
topic of the address by Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, Professor of
Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School:
DR. WINFIELD SCOTT HALL: Ladies and Gentlemen: It might be of interest
to note in passing that my interest in this matter has been directed
particularly along educational lines, to know that since the first of
October, 1908, I have addressed young men and boys on this subject to
the number of not less than twenty thousand, mostly in the colleges and
high schools, setting forth to them in perfectly clear and simple
language the proper hygiene and physiology of the sexual system,
teaching them the methods of right living.
As to this nefarious traffic that we have just been hearing about, and
the relation of that traffic to the public health, I would like in one
sentence to sum up a parallel between this white slave trade and the
black slave trade that continued from the time of the Colonies to the
memory of many of us present. I believe that we have not yet expiated
and paid the price of that slave trade and it may be many generations
yet before we pay for it. Blood flowing in rivers is a part of that
price, from the hearts of the noblest sons of America. This white slave
trade must be paid for in blood. Who are the primary victims? In most
cases, pure minded girls, ambitious to go out and earn a higher wage and
think they can send home wages to father and mother, and they fall into
these snares that are set for them.
[Illustration: DENOUNCING THE POLITICIANS WHO PROTECT THE DIVES
The author and his band of noble workers fighting the evil in the very
heart of the vice district]
[Illustration: JAMES BRONSON REYNOLDS
Special investigator for President Roosevelt]
But we must not stop there. These poor girls do not live over at the
most ten or fifteen years and a large proportion of them perhaps take
their own lives. But if you could see the line of men that I saw the
other night passing through one of these fifteen-cent lodging houses,
lined up as they passed through to take their couch for the night, where
over two hundred of these men passed by, and a large proportion of these
men showing ulcers and other superficial stigmata of the venereal
diseases! They represent the under world, the under dogs of society, the
men who are down and out, who years ago visited the houses of ill-fame
and got the disease and are now ekeing out their lives, hoping for the
end to come--many of them.
But we can look further for victims. I believe that only a small
proportion of the women who are in the houses of ill-fame--only a small
proportion--make their way there of their own volition, and that small
proportion are of the degenerate class who are born with a screw loose
somewhere. From their babyhood they who are born with this taint--and we
could, perhaps, trace that taint back--but born with that taint, they
gradually go into that life--but they make a small proportion. The rest
of them are either betrayed into that sort of a life, their lives ruined
because they trusted some man, or they are bartered into it through this
nefarious white slave traffic.
All lewd women are diseased some of the time and some lewd women are
diseased all of the time. Now, whether the lewd woman is of the
clandestine type or a professional in the house of ill-fame, it does not
matter. Some say the clandestine is the more dangerous. Why? Because no
attempt is made to have medical care. . . . That doesn't get at the real
condition at all, and so she retains disease in her body and gives it to
every one perhaps who visits her for months to come. When that is in a
woman's system, it is almost impossible to eradicate. It is shocking,
but we must know the facts. Statistics show that of the operations on
women in the hospitals of New York City year before last for the removal
of one or both ovaries, sixty-five per cent of those operations were
brought about and necessitated because of gonorrheal infection.
WOMAN IN THE AUDIENCE: And most of them were married women.
DR. HALL: A considerable proportion of them were from the house of
ill-fame. No small proportion of them were lawfully wedded, high minded,
wives and mothers. Now, it is not customary for a doctor to say to a
woman going to the hospital, "Madam, your difficulty is of a venereal
origin"--no, he says, "I find an abcess. You must get to the hospital as
soon as possible or you probably will lose your life. It is a question
of life and death to get to the hospital and have an operation." If the
doctor had said to this woman in every case "This is is of gonorrheal
origin," you can imagine what the woman would say who knew she had led
an innocent, pure life. She would say "Why?"--"You must have got it from
some man." "But I never have had any contact with any man but my
lawfully wedded husband." "Well, you must have got it from your lawfully
wedded husband then."
Our standards are not high enough. Why a lawfully wedded husband should
fix it up with his conscience to act so basely towards his wife we have
yet to find out. But it is a wrong standard and I am glad to be able to
say to the wives and mothers in this audience that almost without
exception when I say to young men "Fellows, isn't it time that we have a
single standard of purity for men and women?" they respond the same way
you have responded and it is a question of education and we must keep it
up.
Fathers and mothers in this audience--and I see there are probably
grandfathers and grandmothers--let us see to it that our children are
instructed in these matters by telling them the truth in early
childhood, and then when they get older--girls fourteen or fifteen years
old--let their mothers take them into their confidence and tell them
some of these things, tell them the truth and endeavor to protect them
against the wiles of tempters out in society.
I hardly need to say anything about syphilis. You know what the leper of
the Orient used to be required to do and perhaps to this day--when any
one met this leper, you know, he had to stand back and raise a warning
hand and say "Unclean, Unclean." But the man who has syphilis, does he
have to raise any warning hand? No, he mingles in the best society; he
drinks from our drinking glass and the innocent child perhaps uses the
same drinking glass in the railway train. Fortunately, there is only a
short period of time when he can transmit it through the drinking glass,
but during that time there is nothing to restrain him, so far as I know.
When I was a student in the medical school a quarter of a century ago,
it was a common thing to pass over with some jocose remark the disease
of gonorrhea. But that isn't done any more. Why? Because it is now
proven to the medical profession that gonorrhea is quite as dangerous as
syphilis. But the people in general do not know that. Let us tell the
young men, especially, that they cannot afford to run the risk of
gonorrhea, because it may not only wreck their own lives but the germs
may lurk there and may be transmitted two or three or more years later
to some innocent bride.
QUESTION FROM WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: Couldn't the husbands be examined?
DR. HALL: That is a perfectly fair question. I have a daughter and I
want to just say this that no man is ever going to take that daughter
from under my roof until I am sure that he has not got tuberculosis, for
one thing, and syphilis and gonorrhea for another.
CHAIRMAN BOYNTON: I am sure it is a matter of congratulation that we
have physicians in the city of Chicago who can talk as Dr. Hall has
talked to us this morning. I am glad the time has come when we can sit
as men and women and hear the truth and be unashamed.
I am sure we are all glad to have with us Judge Julian W. Mack of the
Circuit Court, who will address us.
JUDGE JULIAN W. MACK: Ladies and Gentlemen: I am on the program for the
closing words. I have no particular subject to talk about but it is a
great gratification to listen to the words, particularly of Dr. Hall,
and to see the response that they receive in a mixed audience such as
this. Too long have we buried our heads in the sand; too long have we
been silent on these great subjects; too long have we lied to our little
ones, and thereby helped to bring about the destruction of so many of
them.
I am not one of those who believe for a moment that salvation lies in
education alone. Most drunkards know the evil of drink. Most men that
yield to these temptations have some idea of the evil that they are
going into, but girls in great numbers do not know. The young boys in
great numbers do not know. Just as Dr. Hall said, you cannot appeal to a
thousand school or college men, putting before them the truth, bringing
them to the knowledge of terrible danger--and get any but one response.
Our young people are noble and brave and we can rely upon them. If we
could not, there would not be much hope of our country. We must educate
them. We must tell them the facts. It isn't many years ago that the
physicians were most guilty on this subject. If they had but told the
men of our generation what we are now endeavoring to tell the young
people of today, there would not be as many of these operations as there
are now. But they passed off these matters so indifferently, as they
might a slight cold, and that is what they all did practically about ten
years ago. It was a crime against the young people of that day. The
physicians, the clergymen and the laymen have all been awakened to a
realization of our duties, at least, so far as education is concerned.
It is up to us to see to it that all the boys and girls know something
of the mystery of life that they may guard against the dangers and the
temptations that confront them.
Dr. Hall spoke of some of the evils that await the innocent wife. Let me
carry that a step further and apply it to local conditions. In our
County Hospital we have a floor in the children's ward for the treatment
of these cases among the children. Dr. Billings, President of the State
Board of Charities and one of the, if not the leading physician in this
section of the country, and Dr. Frank Churchill, one of the leading
children's specialists of this city, told me a few days ago that there
are from forty to sixty children at all times in that department, and
that this disease is so virulent, so contagious, that there is grave
danger to every child that enters that building and is treated for other
diseases in other distinctive parts of that building, and that the great
and crying need for the children--the sick children--today in Chicago
and in Cook county, is not one floor devoted to this, but a distinct,
separate building so that the children who have not yet become afflicted
and are taken to the hospital for other contagious or non-contagious
diseases, may not become infected and carry into their own homes
gonorrheal trouble that comes through contagion, and it is up to this
Vigilance Association, the Society of Social Hygiene and the other
organizations, to see to it that the innocent children who are sick and
as yet not afflicted with this disease, taken to our county institution
do not come out worse than they enter. It is up to us to demand that
they provide a proper children's department, a proper children's
building, for the treatment of these cases.
The Society of Social Hygiene is but three years old. Similar
organizations exist in the large cities of the country. They are due to
the awakening of the people. They are spreading among the young people
the knowledge of the conditions that confront them. It is up to the rest
of us to do our share in other ways. Each of us can be an inspiration in
his own family, in the public and in the private schools. We, the
educated people of this community, can instruct the lesser educated
parents so that they may realize their duty to their children. Our
children and their children come together. We cannot escape that
brotherhood, even if we wanted to. Our children, no matter how well we
care for them, come into contact with the rest of the children of the
city. We do not do our duty by our own unless we do our duty by the
others too, and unless we see to it that they are properly cared for
also, danger awaits our own children. That is putting it on selfish
grounds, but I put it to you on the broader ground of brotherhood to
man. Let us all join. On this great question at least we are one. No
matter how we may differ on other social problems, on this question of
the white slave traffic every decent man and woman stands on the same
ground.
--E. A. B.