number of ideas among them—to their early deep impressions in favor of
family interests and supposed rights—to the narrow and partial
experience of a family and its usual small connections, are equally
destructive of a good sound practical education or well-training of
children.
“The individual system of society which has so long prevailed in all
nations, and amongst all peoples, is also a strong barrier to the
proper education of beings intended to be made rational. The individual
system of society is injurious to man now, under every point of view in
which it can be considered; but especially in the education of children
of all classes. It confines all their strongest feelings to self first,
then to family, afterwards to kindred, and then to small neighborhoods
and districts, regularly and systematically training each child to
become at maturity a merely localized, ignorantly selfish animal,
filled with family and geographical prejudices.
“As long as this individual system shall be continued, it will be vain
to expect that any child can be well educated, or properly trained to
become a rational being—a man with the full physical and mental powers
of humanity, intelligent, moral, and virtuous. The isolated character
formed by the individual system will, as long as children shall be
educated under it, and in accordance with all its innumerable errors in
practice and principle, render it impossible for any child to be so
educated and placed in society as not to become, more or less, a cause
of anxiety to its parents. Every child under this system comes into
society, at its birth, opposed by the capital and experience of
society; and as it advances in its progress, and has to take part in
the jostle, bustle and business of life, it has to contend for itself,
often, not only against these general powers of society, but on the
death of parents, or sometimes even before, with brothers and sisters,
for individual property or other advantages.
“Besides, children before they have any resisting powers of mind, being
forced to receive the errors of their parents and other early
instructors, respecting their supposed faculties of believing and
disbelieving, loving and hating, are by this process, placed through
life in direct opposition to nature; and, as vice has been made, by the
gross errors of our ancestors, to consist in acting in accordance with
nature, and virtue in acting in opposition to it, and as nature
continually impels the individual to desire to act in accordance with
its own laws, in defiance of man’s unwise and unjust laws, the great
probability is that children will be more liable to obey nature than
man; and thus, where there are children, they must be a source of
constant anxiety to parents; and that anxiety must be injurious to the
best formation of the organization of the remainder of the infants that
may be born to them.” [343]
We have still to fix our attention upon the sexual education of the
children of the bourgeoisie. In our society the Christian sexual ethics
is dominant, often even among non-Christians, without their being
conscious of it. According to this system the whole sexual life
proceeds from the evil one, and man would be better without any sexual
instincts. [344] This is why children are generally raised in an
absolute ignorance upon this subject, or even have lies told to them
about it. As nature cannot be suppressed it follows that the curiosity
of the child only becomes the more inflamed, and that the conduct of
men in this regard becomes hypocritical. [345]
Secondly, let us take up education in the petty bourgeoisie. Upon this
point we can be very brief. A part of this class joins on to the
proletariat from the conditions of its life, and another part to the
bourgeoisie. It is unnecessary, therefore, to speak of it at length. It
is only the core of the petty bourgeoisie who, having kept the
traditions of their class, show any differences in this regard. Here
there is no danger of the demoralizing influence of the luxurious
surroundings of the rich, and the surveillance of the father is
greater, and thus the education more severe; but the limited conception
of life, and the continual efforts of the parents, eager to procure
advantages for their families, develop egotism among their children in
a high degree.
With regard to the proletariat it has already been shown that the
material advantages necessary for a sufficient education are lacking in
the case of this class. Housing conditions are here of the greatest
importance. Generally there is not room enough for the children at
home, so that they spend the greater part of the day in the street.
Then again the housing conditions are responsible for the fact that the
children often are thrown with persons whose influence is harmful to
them (prostitutes, etc.). And finally the small apartments bring it
about that the children are too early instructed in sexual matters, and
this in a bad way (through sleeping in the same small room with their
parents, or in the same bed with children of the opposite sex, etc.).
Then children need to grow up in an environment not poisoned by cares,
one in which poverty does not harden the heart, and extinguish all
gayety, and where the knowledge necessary for education is not wanting.
Further, in this class the father has generally no opportunity to busy
himself with the education of his children in consequence of the long
duration of his hours of labor outside of the home. A great many
working men have to leave home in the morning to go to work long before
their children are awake, to return only after the little ones have
already been put to bed; and the situation is much the same where the
laborer works at night, and consequently sleeps during the day.
The development of capitalism has led to the paid labor of married
women, and consequently to one of the most important causes of the
demoralization of the children of the working class. When there is no
one to watch a child, when he is left to himself, he becomes
demoralized. In his work, “The Condition of the Working-Class in
England”, F. Engels has put the situation briefly: “The employment of
the wife [in the factory] dissolves the family utterly and of
necessity, and this dissolution, in our present society, which is based
upon the family, brings the most demoralizing consequences, both for
parents and for the children. A mother who has no time to trouble
herself about her child, to perform the most ordinary loving services
for it during the first year, who scarcely indeed sees it, can be no
real mother to the child, must inevitably grow indifferent to it, and
treat it unlovingly, like a stranger. The children who grow up under
such conditions are entirely ruined for later family life, can never
feel at home in the family which they themselves found, because they
have always been accustomed to isolation, and they contribute therefore
to the already general undermining of the family in the working class.”
[346]
Finally, when, through death or otherwise, the parents are no longer in
a position to support and raise their children, they are left to their
fate, unless there are charitable persons or benevolent institutions
that wish to take charge of them. For the state, for reasons shown
above, does not lay upon itself the duty of caring for such children.
It remains now to speak of the lower proletariat, among whom
prostitutes and criminals are included. The education of these persons
is not only much neglected, as is often the case with the children of
the proletariat, of whom it may be said that they receive a negative
education—but these receive in addition a positive education in evil.
It might be possible to dispute the advantages of a good education, but
it is indisputable that children brought up by immoral people, or even
incited to evil (prostitution or crime) run the greatest risk, unless
exceptional circumstances present themselves, of becoming persons
hurtful to society.
In this connection it is necessary to fix our attention, finally, upon
the situation in which illegitimate children find themselves. Since
marriage, at once the consequence and support of existing social
conditions, is the only form of sexual union legally recognized,
illegitimate children are legally and socially treated as pariahs.
[347]
It is difficult to form an idea of the great number of children who, in
our present society, are neglected or abandoned. The following passage
may help form some conception of it: “If the reader will imagine a
procession of 109,000 children marching past him, and notice
attentively child after child as it goes by, he will get some idea of
the extent of the suffering of children with which the ‘National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in England’ has
actually had to do during the first ten years of its existence.
“The first 25,437 are sufferers from injuries inflicted upon them with
boots, crockery, pans, shovels, straps, ropes, pokers, fire, boiling
water, in short with every imaginable instrument that came to the hand
of the brutal and vindictive parents—covered with wounds and bruises,
burned, scalded, and covered with plasters and bandages.
“Then come 62,887 sufferers from neglect and starvation—covered with
dirt, eruptions, and sores, trembling, in rags, half-naked, pale, weak,
faint, feeble, pining, starving, dying—many of them borne in the arms
of the nurses of the hospitals.
“Then come 712 funeral processions, where the maltreatment ended
fatally.
“Then come 12,663 little beings, their sufferings displayed to turn the
lazy and cruel benevolence of the street to those who are answerable
for their pallor, leanness, and coughs—most of these, too, are still in
arms, but in the arms of vile drunkards and vagabonds.
“Then come 4460 pitiable girls, victims of the lust of human monsters.
“Then come 3205 little slaves of unsuitable and harmful occupations and
dangerous performances, untimely births in traveling vans, acrobats at
fairs, trapeze performers and tight-rope walkers in circuses, laboring
under too heavy a load, and suffering the most diverse outrages. The
procession is 60 miles long and takes 24 hours to pass by.” [348]
The society spoken of above is a private institution. The extent of its
labors is very limited, which is why it has not taken cognizance of a
great number of the children who have been thus treated. At the time
when the report containing the above figures had just appeared, it had
only been in operation ten years—during the last five more effectively,
as a part of the first five was taken up with the organization of its
service. Finally the field of its labors includes only the United
Kingdom, while capitalism reigns over a great part of the world and has
everywhere the same consequences. In consideration of these facts we
can form an idea of the great destitution in which a multitude of
children are found, and what sort of persons children so treated are
likely to grow up to be.
To sum up what has been said, we see that the system of education for
the child has not always been what it is now, and that we cannot
therefore speak in this connection of institutions created by nature,
except as regards the relation between mother and child during the
first years of the latter’s life. It has been shown, I think, that the
present system of education is closely bound up with the method of
production of the day. No one can deny that in this regard also we are
far from living in the “best of possible worlds.” [349]
C. PROSTITUTION. [350]
By prostitution must be understood the social fact that there are women
who sell their bodies for the exercise of sexual acts, and make a
profession of it. The putting of one’s body at the disposal of another
for the purpose of sexual intercourse constitutes then at times the
sale of merchandise. To find the cause of prostitution in our present
society it is necessary to begin by asking: “What are the causes for
the demand for this merchandise?” These causes may be reduced to the
following:
a. The difficulty or impossibility of marrying found by many men. We
have already seen that in our present society there is a continually
increasing number of the petty bourgeois and of those who practice the
liberal professions who, in consequence of the insufficiency of their
incomes, cannot marry, or only at a rather advanced age. As we have
seen, also, this is not in general the case with the proletariat. They
reach the maximum of their wages while still quite young, and are less
exacting as regards their material needs. All this brings it about that
they marry sooner and so have less recourse to prostitution. (Soldiers
and seamen, who are often forced to remain unmarried, form an
exception.)
b. Besides those of whom I have been speaking, those also must be
mentioned who do not wish to attach themselves for life to a single
woman. Further, separate education, inducing a different life for the
two sexes, is often an obstacle to the easy meeting of two persons who
might make a marriage of inclination. Many men renounce marriage
because the intellectual plane of women is altogether different from
theirs, as a consequence both of their education and of their manner of
life, and also because with them the thought of improving their
economic position by marriage predominates. [351]
The larger contingent of men who have recourse to prostitutes is made
up of bachelors, [352] and the smaller of married men. Whence springs
the following cause:
c. Often the marriage is not contracted from inclination, but for
financial reasons, which brings it about that the men often indemnify
themselves with prostitutes. But this is applicable also to those cases
where the marriage has not been made for the reasons named, but in
which, for any cause, an antipathy has sprung up between the couple,
without the dissolution of the marriage, either because of the
difficulty of securing a divorce, or from motives of expediency. Since
monogamy does not proceed from an innate inclination, prostitution is a
necessary correlative of marriage.
d. The keeping of extravagant mistresses is a pastime for those who
have been demoralized by a life of luxury and ease, and at the same
time is a means by which these people can get rid of their incomes.
e. Finally, prostitution is a means whereby rich perverts satisfy their
inclinations.
Before leaving the causes of the demand for prostitutes there is one
further matter to consider. Those who have recourse to prostitutes must
necessarily have a low opinion of woman, whom they consider only as an
object existing for pleasure, and thus bound to be ready, as soon as a
man wishes, to furnish him what he desires, for money, and not because
of affection. This vile fashion of regarding women has been universal
for centuries, and is still pretty general. It is to be explained from
the long-continued inferior social position of women. We have seen that
this position has been improved little by little, and that the result
of this improvement has been an increase in the number of men who have
a higher opinion of woman, and who wish to have sexual relations with a
woman only when there is a mutual affection between them. These persons
form even today only a small minority, however.
In the presence of a majority still thinking quite differently it is
absurd to preach total sexual abstinence to all unmarried young men, as
certain moralists do (Tolstoi, for example). Though there are men who
abstain without injury to their health, these moralists forget that the
satisfaction of the sexual desires is one of the most important needs
of the majority of men (the life of our day certainly increases these
desires), and that present social conditions are the cause of men’s
considering woman their inferior. Dr. Blaschko, in his work “Die
Prostitution im XIX Jahrhundert”, rightly says: “The sexual requirement
in the case of mankind as of all other beings is an entirely natural
one. To be sure, it is not so strong and compelling as the necessity of
food and drink; it can be suppressed in the case of anyone for a time,
and with many permanently, without injury to the health. But what is
true of this or that person does not hold for the mass of mankind, for
whom sexual intercourse is doubtless a necessity.” [353]
It is now necessary to inquire why there is a sufficient supply to meet
this demand. Before beginning, however, one remark must be made. The
point of departure of the etiology of prostitution must be the
incontestable fact that modesty is not an innate but an acquired
quality. The problem is chiefly, then, what are the causes why the
feeling of modesty is not sufficiently developed among certain women.
The following are the principal causes:
a. Immoral environment. We shall examine this first in so far as it
affects children. [354] In running over the statistics which mention
the age of prostitutes one is particularly struck by the fact that a
great number of them are still very young. To cite some examples: Dr.
G. Richelot gives the following figures in his work “La Prostitution en
Angleterre”: [355]
London, 1836–1854.
Prostitutes Sentenced in Cases of Summary Jurisdiction.
=====================+==================
Age. | To the 10,000.
---------------------+------------------
From 10 to 15 years | 27
,, 15 ,, 20 ,, | 2,463
,, 20 ,, 25 ,, | 3,623
25 and over | 3,887
=====================+==================
Edinburgh, 1835–1842.
Prostitutes Admitted to “Lock Hospital.”
================+==================
Age. | To the 1,000.
----------------+------------------
Below 15 | 42
From 15 to 20 | 662
,, 20 ,, 25 | 199
25 and over | 97
================+==================
In the “Reports from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the
Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls” [356] the following
figures may be found:
England, 1881–1882.
Received into an “Asylum for Girls and Women.”
==========+==========+=============
Age. | Number. | Percentage.
----------+----------+-------------
12 to 14 | 8 } |
14 ,, 16 | 6 } |
16 ,, 18 | 28 } | 55
18 ,, 20 | 34 } |
20 ,, 23 | 9 }|
23 ,, 25 | 25 }| 45
25 ,, 39 | 27 }|
+----------+-------------
| 137 | 100
==========+==========+=============
In his work “De la Prostitution dans la ville de Paris”
Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [357]
Paris, 1831.
Registered Prostitutes.
============+===========+=============
Age. | Number. | Percentage.
------------+-----------+-------------
12 years | 1 } |
13 ,, | 3 } |
14 ,, | 8 } |
15 ,, | 17 } |
16 ,, | 44 } | 23.6
17 ,, | 55 } |
18 ,, | 101 } |
19 ,, | 115 } |
20 ,, | 216 } |
21 ,, | 204 } |
22 ,, | 249 }|
23 ,, | 240 }|
24 ,, | 207 }| 76.4
25 ,, | 193 }|
26 and over | 1,582 }|
+-----------+-------------
| 3,235 | 100.0
============+===========+=============
C. J. Lecour gives the following table: [358]
Paris, 1855–1869.
Registered Prostitutes.
================+===========+=============
Age. | Number. | Percentage.
----------------+-----------+-------------
Below 18 years | 513 | 8
From 18 to 21 | 1,704 | 26.6
Over 21 | 4,190 | 65.4
+-----------+-------------
| 6,407 | 100.0
================+===========+=============
Dr. Augagneur gives the following ages for prostitutes admitted to the
hospital: [359]
Lyons.
========+===============+================+==========
Years. | Older Girls. | Younger Girls. | Total.
--------+---------------+----------------+----------
1877 | 520 (65.5%) | 274 (34.0%) | 794
1887 | 144 (68.2%) | 67 (31.8%) | 211
+---------------+----------------+----------
| 664 (66.07%) | 341 (33.73%) | 1,005
========+===============+================+==========
S. Sighele gives the following figures: [360]
Italy.
Registered Prostitutes.
=======+=================+=========+=============
Year. | Age. | Number. | Percentage.
-------+-----------------+---------+-------------
1875 | From 16 to 20 | 2,455 | 26.98
| ,, 21 ,, 30 | 4,766 | 52.50
| 31 and over | 1,867 | 20.52
| +---------+-------------
| | 9,088 | 100.00
| | |
1881 | From 17 to 20 | 2,953 | 31.90
| ,, 21 ,, 30 | 5,456 | 58.92
| 31 and over | 850 | 9.18
| +---------+-------------
| | 9,259 | 100.00
| | |
1885 | Under 20 | 3,228 | 27.76
| From 20 to 30 | 4,589 | 54.70
| 31 and over | 1,471 | 17.54
| +---------+-------------
| | 8,388 | 100.00
=======+=================+=========+=============
Dr. L. Fiaux gives the result of an official enquiry, as follows: [361]
Russia, 1889.
Out of a Total of 17,603 Prostitutes.
================+==================
Age. | Percentage.
----------------+------------------
15 and under | 0.3 }
From 15 to 16 | 1.3 }
,, 16 ,, 17 | 3.5 }
,, 17 ,, 18 | 6.9 } 69.9
,, 18 ,, 19 | 8.8 }
,, 19 ,, 20 | 10.8 }
,, 20 ,, 25 | 38.3 }
25 and over | 30.1 30.1
| ----- -----
| 100.0 100.0
================+==================
Dr. A. Baumgarten gives the following figures: [362]
Vienna.
Prostitutes Not Registered.
=======+=======================
Age. | Number to the 1,000.
-------+-----------------------
13 | 4
14 | 19
16 | 94
17 | 97
18 | 111
19 | 119
20 | 83
+-----------------------
| 527
=======+=======================
As these figures show, there is a considerable portion of the
prostitutes who are minors, but they do not tell us of the number of
adults who embraced the profession while they were yet under age. As to
this point, Dr. Bonhoeffer gives the following, showing the age at
which the prostitutes whom he examined began the practice of their
profession: [363]
Breslau.
16 years old or under 30 }
Between 17 and 18 years 44 } 54%
,, 19 ,, 20 ,, 28 }
,, 21 ,, 50 ,, 88 46%
--- ----
190 100%
Parent-Duchatelet gives the following table: [364]
Paris.
=================================+===========+=============
Age at the Time of Registration. | Number. | Percentage.
---------------------------------+-----------+-------------
10 | 2 } |
11 | 3 } |
12 | 3 } |
13 | 6 } |
14 | 20 } |
15 | 51 } |
16 | 111 } | 50.4
17 | 149 } |
18 | 279 } |
19 | 322 } |
20 | 389 } |
21 | 303 } |
Over 21 years | 1,610 | 49.6
|-----------+-------------
| 3,248 | 100.0
=================================+===========+=============
Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [365]
Russia.
=================================+================
Age at the Time of Registration. | Percentage.
---------------------------------+----------------
11 or younger | 1.2 }
13 to 15 | 9.0 }
15 ,, 16 | 12.9 } 80.5
16 ,, 18 | 30.8 }
18 ,, 21 | 26.6 }
21 and over | 19.5 19.5
| ----- -----
| 100.0 100.0
=================================+================
A large majority of prostitutes, then, have been placed upon the
registers of the police while still under age. We may very well say,
moreover, without fear of mistake, that a great part of those who are
registered at a later period of life have already been among the
clandestine prostitutes. Dr. Augagneur says: “How many of these women,
devoted indefinitely to the life of a common prostitute, would not have
fled all its horrors if a society, careless of the interests of its
members, had furnished them with sufficient means of defense up to the
age at which they all have succumbed,—under 21 years? When a woman has
not prostituted herself before 21, she will not prostitute herself
later. Look for exceptions to this rule and you will find that they are
very few. The woman who is older and more experienced knows the
consequences of her acts; less passionate, less weak, and less
impressionable, she resists better a first temptation whose
consequences she is fully aware of. [366]
However this may be, it is certain that a very great proportion of the
prostitutes have taken up their profession, or have been seduced, while
they were still very young. Upon this latter point the following
figures enlighten us: [367]
England.
=======================================+===============
Age at which Prostitutes Were Seduced. | Number.
---------------------------------------+---------------
11 | 3 }
12 | 5 }
13 | 16 }
14 | 79 }
15 | 189 }
16 | 184 } 58%
17 | 247 }
18 | 221 }
19 | 297 }
20 | 280 }
21 | 256 }
22 and over | 1,299 42%
| ----- ----
| 3,076 100%
=======================================+===============
In his work, “La prostitution clandestine”, Dr. L. Martineau informs us
that the age at which the prostitutes whom he observed were deflowered
is distributed as follows: [368]
France.
======+==========
Age. | Number.
------+----------
5 | 1
9 | 2
10 | 2
11 | 2
12 | 5
13 | 11
14 | 31
15 | 86
16 | 87
17 | 115
18 | 93
19 | 50
20 | 37
21 | 27
+----------
| 549
======+==========
90% of a total of 607.
The facts already brought out give rise to the presumption that the
ranks of prostitutes are in a very large measure recruited from the
less well-to-do classes, where the neglect of children has assumed
enormous proportions, and not from the more favored classes where the
children are carefully guarded and kept away from unfavorable
influences. The correctness of this conclusion is shown by a further
examination. According to figures given in the “Reports” quoted above,
only 44 out of 3,076 prostitutes, or 1.4%, came from the well-to-do
classes. [369] In his “Sozialpolitisches Handbuch” Dr. Lux publishes
the following table: [370]
Berlin, 1871–1878.
==========================================+==========+=============
Profession of the Parents of Prostitutes. | Numbers. | Percentage.
------------------------------------------+----------+-------------
Artisans | 1,015 | 48
Factory hands | 467 | 22
Lower officials | 305 | 14
Commerce and transportation | 222 | 11
Agriculture, etc. | 87 | 4
Soldiers | 26 | 1
+----------+-------------
| 2,122 | 100
==========================================+==========+=============
Dr. Bonhoeffer found that the fathers of the prostitutes whom he
examined practiced the following professions: [371]
Breslau.
=======================+=====+=======
Manufacture and trades | 72 | 42
Unskilled workmen | 32 | 19
Lower officials | 24 | 14
Commerce | 13 | 8
Transportation | 12 | 7
Lodginghouse-keepers | 6 | 3.5
Agriculture | 8 | 5
Traveling musicians | 2 | 1
Higher officials | 1 | 0.5
+-----+-------
| 170 | 100.0
=======================+=====+=======
Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [372]
Russia.
==============================================+=============
Classes from Which Prostitutes Are Recruited. | Percentage.
----------------------------------------------+-------------
Peasants | 47.5
Bourgeois | 36.3
Wives and daughters of soldiers | 7.2
Other classes | 4.7
Foreign subjects | 1.5
Nobles and daughters of employes | 1.8
Merchants and considerable citizens | .5
Daughters of members of the clergy | .5
+-------------
| 100.0
==============================================+=============
As the table given above shows, the Russian prostitutes are recruited
in greater numbers from the bourgeoisie than in the other countries of
Europe. The Russian bourgeoisie, however, cannot be compared with that
of other countries. It is more like the petty bourgeoisie, as the
following quotation given by Dr. Fiaux proves: “The committee considers
that the great mass of the women registered belong to the lower
classes.” The fact that, of 100 prostitutes, 83 come from poor
families, 16 from well-to-do families, and one from a rich family,
proves the same thing.
After having given the professions of 3,332 fathers of prostitutes,
[373] Parent-Duchatelet arrives at the following conclusion: ...
“prostitutes born in Paris all proceed from the artisan class, and ...
it is not true, as some persons have assured me, that there are to be
found among them a number belonging to very distinguished families;
...” [374]
In speaking of the prostitutes born outside of Paris he says: “...
there is a mass of facts more than sufficient to prove to us that, as
far as the class of society from which prostitutes come is concerned,
the departments do not differ in any way from Paris; we see upon the
last table as upon the first, only working people and those little
favored by fortune, who consequently cannot take care of the education
of their daughters, nor watch them, and still less provide for their
needs when they have reached a certain age, ...” [375]
We must particularize these unfavorable environmental influences. And
the first fact that we meet is that a part of the young prostitutes
have been incited to the profession by their parents. Parent-Duchatelet
mentions 16 cases in which mother and daughter were both registered
prostitutes [376]; and von Oettingen quotes the following from Dr.
Tait: [377]
Edinburgh.
There were found among the prostitutes:
2 mothers with 4 daughters each, or 8 in all,
5 ,, ,, 3 ,, ,, ,, 15 ,, ,,
10 ,, ,, 2 ,, ,, ,, 20 ,, ,,
24 ,, ,, 1 daughter ,, ,, 24 ,, ,,
41 mothers with 67 daughters in all
In the second place it is necessary to speak of the abandonment of the
children of the poor classes. No scientist of consequence admits that
the moral ideas are innate, but simply that the new-born infant is more
or less fitted to appropriate such ideas. It follows that one cannot
expect much from a child whose moral education has been neglected in
youth, however great natural capacity he may have been endowed with.
From this it follows that where there is lack of education and care
because of the death of the mother, or the alcoholism of the father, or
because the father and mother are both at work away from home a great
part of the day, or where the morality of the parents themselves is not
great, the children run great risk of being lost. The following figures
support this assertion:
Von Oettingen shows that, according to Dr. Ryan, 12,000 to 14,000
prostitutes in London became such as a consequence of a neglected
childhood. [378] In the “Reports of the Select Committee,” etc., the
following figures are found: [379] of 3,075 prostitutes 1,481 (48%)
were orphans, and 921 (29%) were half-orphans. In his “La prostitution
clandestine à Paris”, Dr. Commenge gives the following figures
concerning the 2,368 prostitutes whom he observed during the years from
1878 to 1887: [380]
692 (29%) were orphans;
456 (19%) had lost their mother;
811 (35%) ,, ,, ,, father.
Out of a total of 190 cases Dr. Bonhoeffer shows 72 (38%) in which the
education had been positively bad (criminality or prostitution on the
part of the parents, neglect, lack of surveillance, etc.); 106 cases
(56%) in which the education had been probably bad; and only 12 cases
(6%) in which it was proved that the education had been good. [381]
For Russia Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [382] 3.6% of the
prostitutes still had father and mother; 47.5% had parents who were
separated, and 18.5% were without any family.
With regard to the cause given for prostitution Dr. Augagneur says as
follows: “The majority of prostitutes are born to prostitution at the
same time that they are to puberty. Their moral sense, if such may be
called that which no one has ever tried to awaken, is not shocked by
their situation; they have prostituted themselves without shame and
without regret. They have left normal and respectable society without
being really aware of its existence, without the desire of ever
returning thither. They have lacked the things necessary to make them
respectable women—instruction in virtue, the example of their
relatives, the suspicious surveillance of their mothers, and material
well-being. The daughters of the people are not, at the day of their
birth, of a clay inferior to that of the daughters of the bourgeoisie
or of the nobility; they are naturally no less intelligent, no more
perverse. And yet if you examine the civil status of a hundred
prostitutes, you will find that 95 at least have sprung from the lowest
strata of society. The existing social inequality, that is to say, is
alone responsible for this unequal distribution.” [383]
Finally I will cite once more the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet, which
is of great value, since this author is the most able sociologist who
has treated of this subject. He says: “The misconduct of parents, and
the bad examples of every kind which they give to their children, must
be considered with regard to many girls, and especially those of Paris,
as one of the causes determining their mode of life. The dossiers of
each girl constantly make mention of disorder in the household, of
fathers who are widowers living with concubines, of lovers of mothers
widowed or married, of fathers and mothers separated, etc. What
surveillance can such parents exercise over their children, and if they
judge it proper to give a reprimand, or give good advice, what
authority could such observations have in their mouths?
“Thus the depravity, the indifference, the necessitous position of many
people of the last class provoke, or do not or cannot prevent, the
corruption of the children; we may say in general with regard to a good
number of prostitutes, what observation continually teaches us of
criminals, that they have for the most part an ignoble origin.” [384]
In the third place, we must name as a cause of the demoralization in
youth bad housing conditions. One of the most pronounced
characteristics of the child is his propensity to imitate. Hence it
follows that the fact that a whole family must live and sleep in one or
two rooms has the most harmful consequences for the sexual morality of
the children. Sexual life has no longer any secrets for the child of
the poor classes at an age at which this life is still a thing unknown
to the children of the well-to-do classes.
I will give here some figures to show how small the dwellings of this
class are. According to an investigation made in Berlin in 1895 there
were 4,718 dwellings without fireplaces, and occupied by 13,700
persons; more than 200,000 dwellings consisted of a single room with a
fireplace, and 22,160 of these were occupied by more than 6 persons.
There was the following percentage of “overcrowding” (in official
statistics this means more than 6 persons in one room with fireplace,
and more than 8 persons in two rooms with fireplace, or in one room
with kitchen attached): in Königsberg 10.6; in Halle 10.3; in Breslau
9.9; in Lübeck 8.75; in Görlitz 6.91; in Leipzig 7.85; in Altona 7.62;
in Munich, 4.41; in Kiel 4.46; in Mannheim 11.8. In 1890 there were
living in overcrowded dwellings the following number of persons to the
1,000: in Berlin 784; in Munich 533; in Breslau 754. [385]
According to the investigation made in 1890 there were in Vienna 23,921
dwellings consisting of a single room, with 64,621 occupants, and
103,433 dwellings of two rooms, with 411,314 occupants. These two
groups include 44% of the dwellings and 35% of the population.
Professor von Philippovich, in the article from which these data have
been taken, shows that in the districts inhabited by the Viennese
working-men, Ottakring, Meidling, and Favoriten, 29.3%, 30.8%, and
31.26% respectively of the dwellings of one or two rooms were
“overcrowded” (i.e. 3 to 5 persons in a room). [386]
The 1899 census of the Netherlands gave the following results: There
were 307,937 dwellings consisting of one inhabited room each, and
occupied by 1,172,014 persons (22.7% of the population); and there were
334,355 dwellings consisting of two rooms each (including kitchens,
alcoves, and covered passages), occupied by 1,497,353 persons (29% of
the population). [387]
The detailed statement shows the situation still better. There were
45,641 dwellings of only one room, with 4 persons in each; 62,548
dwellings of more than one room with 5 or 6 persons; 41,877 dwellings
of only one room, occupied by 6 or more persons; 45,363 dwellings of 2
rooms which were occupied by 3 or 4 persons; 20,582 dwellings of two
rooms with from 4 to 6; and 706 dwellings of two rooms with 6 occupants
or more. [388]
What is often lacking besides is space to place a sufficient number of
beds, or even the means of procuring them. In a great number of cases
children of different sexes must sleep together in one bed, or even
with adults. It also often happens that the inhabitants of these
already insufficient dwellings are obliged to take night-lodgers. There
are the following percentages of dwellings with lodgers: in Leipzig,
17.5; in Breslau, 12.5; and in Berlin, 15.8. [389] In Vienna 6.4% of
the population are night-lodgers, and in Berlin 6.1% [390].
It goes without saying that among these persons lodging together there
are some who are demoralized and dangerous to children. In his work,
“Verbrechen und Prostitution”, P. Hirsch depicts these dangers as
follows: “Think in how narrow a space an entire family is penned up
together, so that at times a separation of the sexes is scarcely
possible, at a time when the sexual instinct of the growing children is
already beginning to develop. The children unhappily only too often are
present at the most intimate occurrences and early lose all feeling of
shame. How can decency and good morals be learned by children whose
parents are obliged to take prostitutes as lodgers? Who shall protect
these unfortunates from moral contamination? Often a word will be
spoken in their presence, or an occurrence take place, which they are
not yet, perhaps, able to understand. But the childish nature is
receptive to such impressions, and what happens in their presence falls
upon fruitful soil, and what has remained fixed in their memory from
earliest youth, will, if later their sensuality is once aroused, bear
terrible fruit. We are astonished when we hear a twelve or thirteen
year old girl use language which we are accustomed to hear only from
prostitutes who have followed their trade for years; we are astonished
at the sophistication of persons still quite young, and are inclined at
once to pass an unfavorable judgment upon them. Truly our judgment
would be quite different, we should have sympathy with them, and should
be made to reflect, if we came to know the holes in which these poor
creatures passed their childhood.” [391]
As a cause of the demoralization of young girls we must note, finally,
child labor. In the first place there are children who are sent to sell
flowers, matches, etc., and this causes them to be neglected and to
frequent bad company. With regard to this Hirsch says: “One has only to
get into conversation with the children who sell flowers, matches, and
the like on the streets of the great cities in the evening, or to
overhear their talk, to be astonished at their sophistication. One
would hardly believe with what shamelessness such boys speak of sexual
matters with growing girls in the same situation, without blushing and
quite as a matter of course, since they have been accustomed to it from
earliest childhood. It is no wonder that from these circles a
considerable contingent is furnished to the ranks of prostitution and
crime....” [392]
A second cause is work in factories, by which girls are brought into
contact with adults who, from their often coarse manners and language,
and their lack of moral sentiments, corrupt these children for their
whole lives. After having spoken of the other dangers which threaten
the morality of children, Lecour says: “If she has escaped these
dangers the child, placed too young as an apprentice, will meet other
perils. There will be the contact with girls who are older and already
corrupted, and workmen who respect neither youth nor innocence, who
boast of debauchery, propagate immorality, and dishonor the daughters
of their comrades. There will be, perhaps, the impure domination of the
proprietor or foreman.” [393]
Let us now look at the influences which demoralize adult women. In the
first place we must speak of the influence of profession. The following
figures serve to show which are the professions from which prostitutes
are recruited most: [394]
Berlin, 1855.
Factory-workers } 73 }
Seamstresses, laundry-workers } Industrial 16 } 61 %
Day-laborers } workers 23 }
Workers at home } 32 }
Domestics 22 9 ,,
Without declared profession 70 30 ,,
--- ------
236 100 ,,
1873.
Factory workers } Industrial 355 }
Workers at home and saleswomen } workers 936 } 64.3 %
Caretakers of stores } 139 }
Domestics 794 35.7 ,,
----- --------
2,224 100.0 ,,
1898.
Workwomen, seamstresses, and saleswomen 66 43.4 %
Domestics 78 51.3 ,,
With their parents 7 } 5.3 ,,
Nurses of children 1 }
--------
100.0 ,,
In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.” we find the following:
[395]
England.
Domestics 1,589 60.7 %
Seamstresses, dressmakers, and other industrial
professions 967 36.9 ,,
Barmaids 64 2.4 ,,
----- --------
2,620 100.0 ,,
Breslau, 1901. [396]
Domestics 72 38 %
Factory workers 37 20 ,,
Seamstresses 28 15 ,,
Saleswomen 14 7 ,,
Dressmakers 8 4 ,,
Barmaids, flower-girls, hairdressers 13 7 ,,
Dancers 4 2 ,,
Without profession and living at home 14 7 ,,
--- ------
190 100 ,,
In Parent-Duchatelet’s “La Prostitution à Paris” figures are found
showing that domestic servants, in proportion to their number, furnish
the largest contingent of prostitutes, and that working-women who try
to provide for their needs with the needle furnish also a very great
proportion. [397] Dr. Jeannel shows that in 1859, out of 298
prostitutes registered in Bordeaux, 40% had been domestics, and 37%
workwomen who had tried to live by sewing. [398] Out of a total of
6,842 clandestine prostitutes in Paris (from 1878 to 1887) Dr. Commenge
found that 2,681 (39.18%) had been domestics, and 1,326 (19%)
seamstresses. [399]
Dr. Baumgarten gives the following table of percentages for 1,721
prostitutes:
Vienna.
Servants 58.00
Working by the day 16.00
Cashiers 14.00
Factory workers 5.50
Office employees 0.38
Children’s nurses 0.36
Singers 0.28
Hairdressers and models 5.48
------
100.00
Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [400]
Russia.
Servants 45.0 %
Seamstresses 8.4 ,,
Factory workers 3.7 ,,
Laundresses 1.4 ,,
Governesses and nurses 1.3 ,,
Merchants, bakers, and others 1.3 ,,
Cigar-sellers 0.7 ,,
Singers, circus-performers, and other artists 0.3 ,,
Practicing different trades and professions 2.7 ,,
Kept mistresses 2.0 ,,
Without fixed profession 6.4 ,,
Living upon the labor of their husbands 1.7 ,,
Living in their family, or with their parents more
or less remote 22.3 ,,
These statistics show that a quite considerable number of the
prostitutes have been workwomen in factories. (In Russia manufacturing
is very little developed—hence the low figures there.) We may accept it
as indisputable that this labor has in general very disadvantageous
consequences for the morality of the workwomen.
In his work, “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, Engels
depicts these consequences in the following terms: “The collecting of
persons of both sexes and all ages in a single workroom, the inevitable
contact, the crowding into a small space of people to whom neither
mental nor moral education has been given, is not calculated for the
favorable development of the female character. The manufacturer, if he
pays any attention to the matter at all, can interfere only when
something scandalous actually occurs; the permanent, less conspicuous
influence of persons of dissolute character, upon the more moral, and
especially upon the younger ones, he cannot ascertain and consequently
cannot prevent. The language used in the workshops was characterized by
many witnesses in the report of 1833 as ‘indecent’, ‘bad’, ‘filthy’,
etc. (Cowell, evid., pp. 35, 37, and in many other places). It is the
same process upon a small scale which we have already witnessed upon a
great one in the great cities. The centralization of population has the
same influence upon the same persons, whether it affects them in a
great city or in a small factory. The smaller the mill, the closer the
packing, and the more unavoidable the contact; and the consequences are
not wanting. A witness in Leicester says that he would rather let his
daughter beg than have her go into a factory; that they are perfect
gates of hell; that most of the prostitutes of the town had the mills
to thank for their present condition (Power, evid., p. 8). Another in
Manchester ‘did not hesitate to assert that three-fourths of the young
factory employees of from 14 to 20 years of age were unchaste’ (Cowell,
evid., p. 57). Commissioner Cowell expresses it as his opinion, that
the morality of the factory operatives is somewhat below the average of
the working class in general (p. 82). And Dr. Hawkins says (Rept. p.
4), ‘An estimate of sexual morality cannot readily be reduced to
figures, but if I may trust my own observations and the general opinion
of those with whom I have spoken, as well as the whole tenor of the
testimony furnished me, the aspect of the influence of factory life
upon the morality of the youthful female population is most
depressing.’” [401]
And then it happens at times that the proprietors or their foremen by
abusing their power force the working-girls who please them to yield to
their desires. Engels says of this: “It is a matter of course that
factory-servitude, like any other, and to an even greater degree,
confers the ‘jus primæ noctis’ upon the master. In this respect also
the employer is sovereign over the persons and charms of his employees.
The threat of dismissal suffices to overcome all resistance in nine
cases out of ten, if not in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in
girls who, in any case have no strong inducements to chastity. If the
master is mean enough, and the official report mentions several such
cases, his mill is also his harem; and the fact that not all
manufacturers use their power, does not in the least change the
position of the girls. In the beginning of the manufacturing industry,
when most of the employers were upstarts without education or
consideration for the social hypocrisy, they let nothing interfere with
the exercise of their vested rights.” [402]
Besides factory workers domestics form a very considerable percentage
of the prostitutes. As the Berlin statistics cited above show the
percentage of workers has diminished and that of domestics has
increased. According to Dr. Blaschko the cause of the diminution of the
percentage of factory workers is to be found not only in the fact that,
the year 1898 being very prosperous, poverty did not come in as an
important factor in the same measure as formerly, but also in the
raising of the intellectual and moral plane of the Berlin
working-women. It is impossible to speak of a similar raising of the
plane of the domestics. The nature of their occupations prevents their
forming associations; they are therefore deprived of the moral effect
of the trades union. [403] The causes of the importance of the
contingent furnished to prostitution by the domestics are of different
kinds. Besides the reason I have just mentioned, the fact is to be
noted that it is not from among the most intelligent and best of the
working classes that domestic servants are ordinarily drawn. For these
prefer the less dependent position of working-woman to that of
domestic. In the second place there is the influence of the occupation
itself. (There are still others, of which I shall speak later.)
It is easy to understand how the occupation of domestic has a
demoralizing influence. Not only do young girls, often ignorant and
without education, come to live in surroundings of a sort to pervert
them, but there is also their dependence upon people who only demand
that their work shall be well done, the lack of civilizing influences,
and the isolation that deprives them of contact with their fellows, all
of which lowers their moral plane. [404]
Aside from the two groups cited there are still other occupations which
may exercise a demoralizing influence, such as that of barmaid, etc.
[405]
Before closing our observations upon demoralizing environment as a
cause of prostitution, we must fix our attention upon the evil
influences to which many women are exposed, those, that is, who must
provide for their own needs and do not live at home. The smallness of
their wages does not permit them to rent a room by themselves but they
are obliged to content themselves with a bed simply. This brings at
once great moral disadvantages. But further, this arrangement drives
the persons in question into the street when not at work, since often
the landlords do not allow them in the house except during the night.
The harmful consequences of this are sufficiently obvious. [406]
b. The maternity of girls and concubinage are among the causes of
prostitution. Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [407]
Paris.
Having come from the provinces to conceal themselves in
Paris and to find resources there 280
Brought to Paris and abandoned by soldiers, traveling
salesmen, students, and other persons 404
Domestics seduced by their masters and dismissed by them 289
Simple concubines during a longer or shorter period who
have lost their lovers, and do not know what else to do 1,425
-----
Total 2,398
46% of a total of 5,183.
In the “Reports of the Select Committee”, etc. we find given as cause
of prostitution: [408]
England.
Concubines abandoned by their lovers 360
Girls seduced under promise of marriage 806
-----
1,166
37.9% of a total of 3,076.
In his “Minderjährige Verbrecher” L. Ferriani gives the following:
[409]
Italy.
Seduction by a lover 1,653
,, ,, employer 927
-----
2,580
24.7% of a total of 10,422.
The statistics cited show, then, that the cause named occupies a quite
considerable place in the etiology of prostitution. This cause is
entirely a consequence of the existing social conditions, which
maintain the dependent position of woman, and of marriage, which brings
it about that every woman living with a man as with a husband is
despised, even when the union is due to inclination, and that life is
made very hard for her, especially if a child is born of the union.
However, it must be added, that this applies especially to the women of
the middle classes, and that “free love” and the child that is the
fruit of it, are not at all so despised among the proletariat, for, as
we have seen above, the bases of the present legal monogamy have not so
great an importance there. [410]
However this cause of prostitution only makes itself felt when the
woman to whom it applies is also deprived of all pecuniary means. And
so we come to the third category in the etiology of prostitution.
c. Poverty. As the statistics already cited have shown, almost all
prostitutes spring from the classes without fortune, and the great
majority of them have been at first working-women or domestics, and
consequently have belonged to families without fortune. If such women,
for any reason whatever, cannot find work, they are thrown into
poverty. As this happens constantly in society, poor women find
themselves forced into prostitution. The facts are there to prove it.
In treating of the etiology of prostitution Parent-Duchatelet gives the
following figures: [411]
Paris.
Excess of poverty, absolute destitution 1,441
Loss of father and mother; expulsion from home; complete
desertion 1,255
To support aged and infirm parents 37
Eldest of the family having neither father nor mother,
to support brothers and sisters, and sometimes nieces
and nephews 29
Widows and deserted wives, to raise a large family 23
-----
2,785
53% of a total of 5,183.
The author says among other things: “Poverty, often pushed to the most
frightful extreme, is still one of the most active causes of
prostitution. How many girls abandoned by their families, without
parents, without friends, unable to find refuge anywhere, are obliged
to have recourse to prostitution in order not to die of hunger! One of
these unfortunates, still susceptible to feelings of honor, strove to
the last extremity before taking up a part which she regarded as
extreme, and when she came to register herself it was shown that she
had not eaten anything for three days.” [412]
“One would hardly believe that the career of prostitution has been
embraced by certain women as a means of fulfilling their duty as
daughter or mother; yet nothing is more true. It is not unusual to see
married women who have lost their husbands or been deserted by them,
become prostitutes with the sole purpose of not leaving a numerous
family to die of hunger. It is still more common to find young girls
who, not earning by their labor enough to provide for the wants of
their aged and infirm parents, ply the trade of prostitute in the
evening to make up what is lacking. I have found the marks peculiar to
these two classes of prostitutes too often not to be convinced that
they are more numerous in Paris than one would believe.” [413]
In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.”, which I have already
quoted several times, are found the following figures: [414]
England.
To provide for the needs of her mother 11
,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, idle husbands 35
As a consequence of poverty or lack of work 164
---
210
6.8% of a total of 3,076.
(We must take into consideration the fact that in the case of many of
the 37.9% who are put down in this same set of tables as seduced,
poverty was a contributory cause.)
Ferriani gives the following table: [415]
Italy.
Deserted by husband, parents, or other members of the family 794
Death of husband, parents, or other persons contributing to
their support, or other cause of poverty 2,139
To provide for the wants of children, parents, or other sick or
needy members of the family 393
-----
3,326
31.9% of a total of 10,422.
Dr. Blaschko shows that the forced idleness among garment makers during
some months of each year causes an increase of prostitution. [416]
As we have seen in the first part of this work, it has been proved at
various times that crime against property increases or diminishes
according as the economic situation is favorable or unfavorable. If
poverty is one of the causes of prostitution it must follow that the
number of prostitutes will vary at the same times as the general
condition. Statistics prove that this is what does actually happen.
However, we need only take into consideration the figures for
registered prostitutes; if we had at our disposal the figures for
clandestine prostitution they would naturally show still greater
modifications.
Berlin. [417]
=====+=============+=============
| Number of | To 100,000
Year.| Prostitutes | of the
| Registered. | Population.
-----+-------------+-------------
1869 | 1709 | 223
1870 | 1606 | 203
1871 | 1625 | 197
1872 | 1701 | 198
1873 | 1742 | 195
1874 | 1956 | 210
1875 | 2241 | 232
1876 | 2386 | 242
1877 | 2547 | 248
1878 | 2767 | 262
1879 | 3033 | 277
1880 | 3186 | 284
1881 | 3465 | 298
1882 | 3900 | 326
1883 | 3769 | 306
1884 | 3724 | 293
1885 | 3598 | 273
1886 | 3000 | 230
1887 | 3063 | 216
1888 | 3392 | 231
1889 | 3703 | 244
1890 | 4039 | 255
1891 | 4364 | 273
1892 | 4663 | 288
1893 | 4794 | 292
=====+=============+=============
Leaving aside the abnormal years, 1870 and 1871, we perceive that the
prosperous years 1872 and 1873 give very low figures. After this period
times become worse and worse, while the number of prostitutes sustains
a considerable increase. From the year 1882 economic conditions began
to improve, and the figures for prostitution correspondingly fell, to
rise again very noticeably during the unfavorable years 1889 to 1892.
In his work “Statistik der gerichtlichen Polizei im Königreiche Bayern
und in einigen anderen Ländern”, Dr. Mayr also gives convincing proofs
of the parallelism between the changes in the economic situation and
prostitution. [418]
However it is not only forced unemployment leading to great poverty
that is one of the causes of prostitution; we must also consider as
such the fact that the wages paid to women are often so small that it
is impossible for them to pay even their necessary expenses, and are
thus obliged to find some supplementary source of income.
In his work already quoted, “Die wirthschaftlichen Ursachen der
Prostitution”, Pappritz fixes the minimum that a working woman in
Berlin must have for her strictly necessary expenses at 600 marks a
year. Most of the women working in factories generally earn but 500
marks. The average earnings in 1897 were 457 for dressmakers, and 354
for those who made the button-holes (hand labor). And yet the wages
paid in Berlin were not the lowest—the average for all Germany was 322
marks. [419]
It will not be very difficult to quote several authors who, in treating
of this subject as regards Germany, have expressed themselves in the
same way. But I must be brief, and hence shall content myself with
citing a passage from Dr. Frankenstein’s “Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in
den deutschen Grossstädten”, in which he sums up the result of his
studies upon this subject: “A very great proportion of the
working-women of our great cities receive wages that are not sufficient
to provide the most indispensable necessities of life, and find
themselves for this cause in the dilemma either of seeking a
supplementary trade in prostitution, or of falling into the unavoidable
consequences of bodily and spiritual destruction.” [420]
It is evident that the same thing is true of all the countries where
capitalism reigns. Here is what Faucher, for example, says in his
“Études sur l’Angleterre”: “Work with the needle is so poorly paid in
London that the young persons who give themselves up to it earn only
three or four shillings a week, working sixteen or eighteen hours a
day. The wages of a fancy needle worker, for a hard day, are from 50 to
60 centimes, while linen workers generally get 30 centimes for
stitching a shirt. Nothing more frightful could be imagined than the
existence of these poor girls. They must get up at four or five o’clock
in the morning, at all seasons of the year, to go to work, or to
receive the orders of the merchants. They work without relaxation until
midnight in small rooms, where they are crowded together by fives and
sixes for economy in the use of fuel and light. If they are admitted to
a dressmaker’s or linen draper’s establishment, they are ill-fed, and
under pretext of pressure of business are kept at their task day and
night, with only four or five hours of sleep, which are further
regularly limited on Saturday. This sedentary life and constant
confinement ages them before their time, when phthisis spares them. Is
it to be wondered at if some, frightened and disheartened at finding
the way of virtue so hard, hold out their arms to prostitution?” [421]
Against these long, hard days and small wages are to be set the easy
life and often quite considerable returns—at least in the beginning of
their career—which prostitutes enjoy. Moreau-Christophe in his “Du
Problème de la Misère” says that in London there are prostitutes who
earn $100 to $150 a week, and that the average earnings are $10 a week.
[422]
To conclude I wish to call attention to the opinion of
Parent-Duchatelet concerning this state of things in Paris. He says:
“Of all the causes of prostitution, particularly in Paris, and probably
in the other large cities, there is none more active than the lack of
work, and the poverty inevitably consequent upon insufficient wages.
What do our dressmakers, seamstresses, menders, and in general all
those who work with the needle, earn? If we compare the wages of the
most capable of them with what those of only moderate abilities can
make, we shall see that it is not possible for these last to procure
the mere necessaries of life. And if we then compare the price of their
labor with that of their dishonor we shall not be surprised that so
great a number fall into a life of shame made all but inevitable.”
[423]
Not only does poverty, taken in the sense of the lack of the actual
necessaries of life, act as a cause of prostitution, but also that
relative poverty which prevents women from enjoying luxuries which seem
necessities, like jewelry and fine clothes. With these same women
laziness also plays a part.
Now the general opinion with regard to these factors is that they
belong exclusively to the individual nature, that they are innate to
some women, and that they consequently have nothing to do with the
social environment. In my opinion this is entirely erroneous. Mankind
are born with certain needs. The non-satisfaction of these needs causes
death or the wasting away of the organism. These needs are what we call
the strict necessities. All the other wants are awakened by the
environment: that is to say, each possesses them in germ, but they are
latent as long as the surroundings do not develop them. For example, no
one would suffer from abstaining from tobacco if he did not see someone
smoking; no woman would want expensive clothes if others did not wear
them; etc. The desire to dress expensively, to wear jewelry, etc., is
not at all, then, an individual quality of certain working-women; the
germ of this want is innate in each individual, without any exception
though in different degrees. The present order of society, by
permitting certain women to spend immense sums for senseless luxury,
awakens in others the desire to imitate them as far as possible. Since
these last have not the means necessary to shine, they seek them where
they may find them, and as there is only the way of prostitution, many
follow it. We may add to this that a great number of men use their
money and their distinguished manners to decide those who hesitate.
This is, therefore, also one of the reasons why the ranks of
prostitution are so often recruited from among dressmakers and
domestics, i.e. from among those who come into direct contact with the
luxury of others. [424] Another cause which makes women desire
expensive and useless things is their low degree of culture, which
shows them nothing more preferable than the possession of luxury. And
where women who have all the leisure and the means necessary to busy
themselves with more serious matters set the example of frivolity, we
ought not to be surprised that those without the same advantages try to
follow their example.
The same is true of idleness. If each person who is capable of it would
do a certain amount of work, any normal individual would be ashamed to
pass the day doing nothing. But the fact that there are women who are
esteemed though they remain idle, awakens in other women, who are
obliged to work long and hard, the desire to do nothing also. As
prostitution opens to them the means of remaining unoccupied, they have
recourse to it to satisfy their desire.
The irony which comes out so often in the social life shows itself
here; the rich women who despise prostitutes never suspect that they
themselves are in part the cause of the fall of the others, and that
placed in the same poor surroundings they themselves would not act
differently. [425]
All those who rank the causes last cited among individual factors base
their opinion upon the thesis, equally strange and false, that there
are two kinds of persons: those who by birth are destined to command
and to enjoy, and those who are destined only to obey, to work, and not
to enjoy at all. Looked at from this point of view the person who
rejects these conditions constitutes an individual anomaly.
Perhaps it will be objected that without admitting the existence of
individual causes it will be impossible to explain why, though a great
number of women live under the conditions named, only a small fraction
prostitute themselves. Those who reason in this way commit the error
already spoken of, of thinking circumstances the same when they really
differ. There are no two persons who live under exactly the same
conditions, how much less thousands. To give one example only: all the
women who earn only the strict necessities of life have not been raised
in the same environment. Those who have grown up in favorable
surroundings have perhaps so great an aversion to prostitution that
they prefer a life of poverty to one of abundance procured by
prostitution. It is possible that these women would prefer suicide to
selling themselves, if they came to a state of complete destitution.
Secondly it is necessary that a woman should not be too ugly, or the
possibility of her earning her living by prostitution is excluded. No
one would claim, however, that feminine beauty is one of the causes of
prostitution; placed in another environment a woman would not
prostitute herself simply because of her beauty.
Although the reasons already given refute in great measure the supposed
objection, it must be confessed that the question is not thus entirely
answered. Just as all the beings of a certain species differ among
themselves, so these women differ naturally as to their innate
qualities. The one will have more decided and more numerous wants than
the other, she will be less laborious, more frivolous, etc. (qualities
which in themselves have nothing to do with prostitution), and, other
things being equal, she will be more exposed to the temptation to
become a prostitute. All this is perfectly true, but it has nothing to
do with the etiology of a social phenomenon like prostitution. For we
are here in the presence of two distinct problems; why, of two persons
placed in the same situation (supposing that to be possible), the one
is more in danger of becoming a prostitute than the other; and, second,
what are the causes of the social phenomenon which is called
prostitution? The answer to the first question must be that in part at
least it is because people differ as to the intensity of their
characteristics and of their appetites. The answer to the second is the
social conditions.
When two persons of different height are fording a river, and the
shorter steps into a hole and is drowned, should we have the right to
say that the difference between the height of persons is one of the
reasons why people are drowned? I think not. The only reason why there
are people who are drowned is that a man cannot live in water—which in
no way excludes the fact that a short person runs more danger of
drowning than a tall one.
Now as to prostitution—the atmosphere in which certain women live is
the cause of their fall, which does not prevent its being true that
some of them run more risk than others. The truth of this assertion may
be proved by an observation of the facts. Among women who are not
prostitutes also there are more who are lazy, frivolous, etc. than
those who are not. And though the former have not prostituted
themselves, if they had lived in bad surroundings and in poverty they
would have run more risk than the latter. If all women were exactly
equal prostitution would be as general as it is now; only in this case
it would be in every case the environment which would decide what woman
became a prostitute, whereas in reality there are, alongside of the
environment, individual differences which determine which ones run more
risk than the others.
Those who believe that there are here individual causes at work always
take the point of view that society is not an organism but a collection
of individuals, and that consequently an examination of the individual
will suffice to explain social phenomena. It is by the study of
prostitution, for example, as a social phenomenon that we bring out the
fact that individual differences do not play any part in the etiology
of prostitution.
d. Among the causes of prostitution must not be forgotten the fact that
many persons have pecuniary interests in it. Without this many women
would never have become prostitutes or would not have remained such,
and the opportunity for a man to procure the services of a prostitute
would not be so good. Capital has settled down on this as upon every
place from which profits are to be drawn. The profession of the keeper
of a house of ill-fame being extremely lucrative, great sums have been
invested in it. In order to furnish the necessary material for these
capitalists an international commerce has been created, whose
ramifications extend over almost the whole world, and in which large
sums are employed, the “white-slave trade.” [426] Often before their
entrance into these houses the prostitutes have already plied their
trade, but many innocent girls become the dupes of the false promises
of these traffickers and are given over to the keepers of houses of
prostitution. In his “Der Mädchenhandel” Dr. Hatzig says: “The girls,
in so far as they do not give themselves up voluntarily as objects of
traffic, are generally enticed with illusory promises of a glittering
future.... Advantageous positions in foreign countries are as a rule
offered to them, while nothing is said of the unchaste object of the
business. To this especially is to be ascribed the enormous exportation
of Hungarian girls into Russia, to whom engagements as dancers in St.
Petersburg are promised. When the unhappy victims have once arrived at
their destination they would hardly venture to escape from the hands of
the slave-trader. In helpless case, deprived of the protection of
friends and country, they submit to their fate and are sold to houses
of prostitution.” [427]
Once fallen into the hands of the keeper of such an establishment it is
almost impossible for these women to free themselves. He holds them in
all sorts of ways. For example, he will exchange their clothes for
others not proper to wear in the street, and will charge them so high a
price that they are in his debt; often they do not understand the
language of the country; etc. Legally slavery is abolished, but in
reality it always exists for these women. [428]
e. The ignorance of a part of the women, a consequence of the
environment in which they were brought up, is also one of the causes of
prostitution, and no inconsiderable one. Dr. Richelot gives the
following figures: [429]
London (1837–1854).
==================================================+===========
Prostitutes Arrested. |
--------------------------------------------------+-----------
Not able to read or write | 34.98%
Able to read only or to read and write imperfectly| 61.29%
Able to read and write well | 3.51%
Having a higher education | .22%
+-----------
| 100.00%
==================================================+===========
Manchester (1840–1855).
===================================================+===========
Unable to read or write | 51.61%
Able to read only, or to read and write imperfectly| 47.60%
Able to read and write well | .78%
Having a higher education | .01% (?)
+-----------
| 100.00%
===================================================+===========
In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.” the following table is
given: [430]
England.
==================================+========+======
Unable to read and write | 1,213 | 40%
Able to read only | 464 | 15%
Able to read and write imperfectly| 1,016 | 33%
Able to read and write well | 371 | 12%
+--------+------
| 3,064 | 100%
==================================+========+======
Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [431]
Paris.
==========================+=======+======
Unable to sign their name | 2,503 | 56%
Able to sign, but badly | 1,868 | 42%
Able to sign well | 110 | 2%
--------------------------+-------+------
| 4,481 | 100%
==========================+=======+======
Dr. Commenge gives the following: [432]
Paris (1878–1887).
======================================+=======+=========
Unregistered Prostitutes. | |
--------------------------------------+-------+---------
Able to read and write | 4,297 | 68.12%
Able to read and sign their name | 988 | 15.66%
Able to read but not to write or sign | 11 | 0.18%
Unable to read or write | 1,012 | 16.04%
--------------------------------------+-------+---------
| 6,308 | 100.00%
======================================+=======+=========
From an examination of the statistics given it is evident that the
number of illiterates is very large, however they may be decreasing in
number now that primary education for the children of the poorer
classes is becoming more and more general. Knowing how to read and
write, however, proves very little as to the culture of the individual.
The statistics only show the number of prostitutes who are totally
illiterate, and we must certainly count many of the others as well
among the ignorant.
It is clear that ignorance alone does not lead to prostitution. But it
is clear that many prostitutes would not have become such, or would not
have lent an ear to the flattering offers of good positions, etc., if
they had known what an abominable life awaited them.
Among the secondary causes of prostitution must certainly also be
classed:
f. Alcoholism. Not only have many women been seduced when they had
drunk too much, and so have become prostitutes, but the demoralization
which is the result of the constant abuse of alcohol may have the same
effect. [433]
g. Degeneracy. According to some physicians (among whom are Professors
Lombroso and Tarnowsky, to cite only the most famous) the cause of
prostitution is not to be found first in the environment, but in a
pathological (or atavistic) condition. These authors have examined a
certain number of prostitutes, and have drawn from this examination the
conclusion that the stigmata of degeneracy often found in them indicate
a state which is the cause of their misconduct; prostitution is in
large part kept up by born prostitutes. [434]
There is one objection to be made to such a manner of proceeding,
namely that we must in the very beginning give a precise definition of
the social phenomenon which is called prostitution. This definition,
which can perhaps be given only by the sociologist and not by the
biologist, will show us at the outset that it is very difficult to
represent anyone as born with a tendency to commit sexual acts for
economic reasons. So Professor Lombroso understands a totally different
thing by prostitution from what it really is. He says: “Sometimes in
the beginning marriage does not even exist and prostitution is the
general rule” [435] and as an example he cites that the Naïrs live in
complete promiscuity. According to Professor Lombroso, then, everywhere
that there is no marriage there is prostitution. In other words,
according to him all nature is one grand brothel, in which, aside from
the married women, all the females would be prostitutes! Truly
Professor Lombroso has some sociological views all his own.
These authors claim, then, that prostitutes often present stigmata of
degeneracy. An examination of the figures shows, however, that 63% of
all the prostitutes examined show almost no such stigmata. [436]
For 63% of them then degeneracy cannot be the cause, nor does it follow
that it is the cause in the remaining 37% of cases. For many women with
these stigmata are not found at all among the ranks of prostitution. To
bring out the real import of the researches in question we must put
beside them the results of an examination of non-prostitutes. It is for
this reason that I wish to call attention to the work of Dr. P. Näcke,
“Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe”, in which the author arrives at
the result that only 3% of the normal women examined by him failed to
show signs of degeneracy. [437] It seems to me, then, that when we find
figures so low among normal women the thesis of Professor Lombroso is
not proved.
If his conclusion were true, prostitutes would be drawn from all
classes of society, for degeneracy is present in all classes. But, as
we have seen above, they are drawn almost exclusively from the poorer
classes. Professor Lombroso thinks he has refuted this argument (which
is enough to overthrow his whole theory) by saying: “The woman who,
coming from the lower classes, ends by becoming the inmate of a
brothel, in the upper classes becomes an incorrigible adultress....”
[438] Consequently according to Lombroso there is no difference between
a prostitute and an adultress. It is not necessary to combat such
singular ideas: they refute themselves.
Nevertheless the theory named is not without importance for the problem
of prostitution. The following quotation, taken from a recent study of
Dr. Bonhoeffer shows what its importance is: “We have no more right to
speak of prostitution as inborn than we should have to speak of a born
drinker. The disposition brought about through the defective psychical
condition is inborn. But whether a psychically defective female
individual will become a prostitute is in a certain sense dependent
upon chance and external conditions.” [439]
There are persons who are born with psychic defects. These persons
adapt themselves to their environment only with difficulty, and have a
smaller chance than others to succeed in our present society, where the
fundamental principle is the warfare of all against all. Hence they are
more likely to seek for means that others do not employ (prostitution,
for example). If the defect of a woman has relation especially to the
sexual sphere, so that she feels, for example, extraordinary sexual
desires, the danger of her becoming a prostitute is very great. [440]
Even when the environment in which such persons live is very favorable,
it is nevertheless certain that their actions will be different from
those of others, though it does not at all follow that they will
infallibly become prostitutes. It is certain that these morbid cases
are rare in general, and very rare among prostitutes. [441]
Parent-Duchatelet says: “Finally there are girls who give themselves up
to prostitution in consequence of a licentiousness which one can
explain only by the action of a mental disease ...; but in general
these Messalinas are rare; I have only found one opinion upon this
fact, and it has been abundantly confirmed by my own researches.” [442]
This theory, that the principal cause of prostitution is to be found in
innate psychic defectiveness, contains, as Dr. Blaschko says (in his
“Die Prostitution im XIX Jahrhundert”), “a small grain of truth in a
mass of exaggerations.” It is only a very small proportion of
prostitutes who have gone into the profession for this reason, and it
is certain that they would not have done so if circumstances had not
contributed to bring it about. [443]
We have now arrived at the end of our observations upon prostitution.
In our opinion it has been shown that it is partly the inevitable
complement of the existing legal monogamy, and partly the result of the
bad conditions under which many young girls grow up, the consequence of
the physical and mental misery in which the women of the proletariat
live, and the consequence also of the inferior position of woman in our
present society. When we make exception of a few cases where a certain
degeneracy enters in beside the effect of the unfavorable environment,
the prostitution of today is, then, the consequence of existing social
conditions, which, in their turn, spring from the economic system of
our time.
It may be objected that prostitution has presented itself under other
economic systems. I am not ignorant of this, but I know also that 3 × 4
= 12, and 2 × 6 = 12 also; that is to say that two different causes may
produce the same result. The prostitution of our day may be the
consequence of capitalism while that of earlier periods may have been
the consequence of the mode of production of those times. Further, an
examination of the epochs in which prostitution was a general
phenomenon (it never reached proportions as great as under capitalism)
[444] shows us that they did not differ much from our own in those
matters which concern the question in hand, namely, the inferior
position of woman, and the strong contrasts in fortunes.
Many authors who have taken up the question of prostitution declare
that it is as old as humanity itself. If we understand by prostitution
what it really is, and not what imagination makes it out to be, this
assertion is absolutely false. Prostitution is of very ancient date,
but it has not always existed. Westermarck, one of the authors best
qualified to pronounce an opinion upon this matter, says: “Prostitution
is rare among peoples living in a state of nature and unaffected by
foreign influence. It is contrary to a woman’s natural feelings as
involving a suppression of individual inclinations.” [445] I advise
those who, in spite of everything, wish still to maintain that
prostitution belongs to all time and all places, to investigate the
peoples among whom the matriarchate exists. If they are so unfamiliar
with sociology, let them look for prostitution in the country. They
will find none; prostitution exists only in the cities.
CHAPTER IV.
ALCOHOLISM. [446]
We understand by alcoholism the social phenomenon which consists of the
chronic abuse of alcoholic beverages. [447] Before touching upon the
etiology of this phenomenon we must decide the biological question, why
does a man consume alcohol? Always and everywhere it has been
established that the liking for narcotics is natural to man. Those who
believe that human nature is inclined to evil, and that the tendency to
excess is innate, find the solution of the problem very simple. They
reason as follows: “by alcohol this innate desire is satisfied; man is
inclined to excess,—ergo ... alcoholism.” Those who deny the evil
nature of man find here on the contrary the crux of the problem. For,
say they, the facts are there to prove that man has not always and
everywhere been intemperate; there must then be other causes than this
so-called sinful instinct.
Alcoholic beverages are consumed first, because they are agreeable to
the taste (at least some of them); second, and especially, because
aside from the taste they have the power of awaking agreeable
sensations. In his work “Der Alkoholismus” Dr. A. Grotjahn expresses
himself thus upon this point: “Narcotics act ... not primarily through
their agreeable taste, but influence directly the cerebral cortex and
awaken pleasurable sensations which are completely independent of the
activity of the senses or of pleasure-producing perceptions of the
outer world. There is no other means of producing pleasurable
sensations independent of the perceptions arising from the outer world,
and independent of the functions of the senses. Only in this way is it
to be explained that the need for the use of narcotics has attained so
wide a dissemination, and struck such deep roots when once mankind had
learned their use.” [448]
If alcohol is used regularly, then, to drive away disagreeable
sensations, the consumption must necessarily increase if the individual
wishes to attain the same psychical condition, for use continually
weakens the effect.
Here, as in the case of the etiology of other social phenomena, we must
treat the different causes of alcoholism separately, although it often
happens that a number combine to make a man alcoholic. We shall begin
with the causes which lead to alcoholism among the proletariat, for it
is in this class that the abuse of alcohol is most widespread and
produces the greatest ravages, first because the quality of the drinks
consumed is very bad, and secondly, because alcohol has more harmful
effects upon a badly nourished system.
a. There are occupations which, by their nature, lead the workmen who
follow them almost inevitably to the abuse of alcohol. Dr. Grotjahn
says: “The mental condition suffers when the temperature is too high or
too low, more than the capacity for work. The great discomfort while at
work may be removed by regulating the things which influence the
temperature (clothing, housing, heating, ventilation) or the
uncomfortable feelings may be blunted through copious draughts of
spirituous beverages. Hence the peculiar custom of taking alcohol
against great heat and great cold both, a thing which would be absurd
if alcohol worked specifically against the one extreme of temperature
or the other, and did not simply moderate the unpleasant sensations
produced by abnormal temperatures.” [449]
In the second place come the industries in which much powder or gas are
produced. To quote Dr. Grotjahn again: “The dust, which those working
in the open air have at times to endure, but which those who work in
closed rooms must almost always put up with, brings about, through
directly irritating the mucous membrane of the mouth, a highly annoying
thirst, which greatly induces the drinking of beer and brandy. We hear
it on all sides from workmen who outside of working hours are entirely
moderate or even abstemious, that the thirst which is excited by dust
is not nearly so well quenched by water or any ‘soft drink’ as by the
use of alcoholic beverages. Experience shows that in the callings which
are dust-producing there is a marked tendency to beer- and
brandy-drinking, and to a quick passage from moderate to immoderate use
of alcohol. This is the case with masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers,
but especially with grinders and quarry-men. The production of
irritating vapors in chemical works has a similar effect, but more
intense than that of ordinary dust.” [450]
In the third place there are the industries in which the workmen are
brought into direct contact with alcohol. Thus there are, for example,
the workmen in distilleries, [451] breweries, alcohol-warehouses, etc.;
then wine tasters, those who have to use alcohol in their business, and
finally those whose business takes them into establishments where
alcoholic drinks are sold, such as commercial travelers, and the
tenants of the establishments themselves. [452]
b. The too great length of the working-day. Workers who are forced to
work much longer than the human organism can stand are inclined to the
abuse of alcohol for two reasons. In the first place they find in it
the means of repairing temporarily the diminution of force caused by
great fatigue. Since alcohol gives only a temporary increase of
capacity, its continued use, and consequently its abuse, is therefore
almost inevitable. [453] This is the cause of the great development of
alcoholism among longshoremen, who often work for twenty-four hours or
even longer at a stretch.
In the second place immoderately prolonged labor produces a veritable
torture, which can be assuaged by large quantities of alcohol. Those
who have an interest in having the workman toil as long as possible
have always tried to prevent the shortening of the working-day by
claiming that it would increase the abuse of alcohol. The facts have
shown, however, that just the contrary is true. It has been proved that
it is not the shortening of the working-day, but its too great
extension that is one of the important causes of the abuse of alcohol.
So it is not by chance that the retailers of alcoholic beverages are
among the most zealous opponents of the shortening of the day. [454]
c. Bad and insufficient nourishment. There are many workers not
sufficiently nourished for the support of the body. For the purpose of
removing the feeling of discomfort arising from this they make great
use of alcoholic drinks. In these cases the nourishment is insufficient
both objectively (considered from a physiological point of view) and
subjectively (it does not satisfy the individual). Besides these there
are those who are able to procure a sufficient quality of food but lack
the means to vary the dishes and to replace foods that are bulky and
difficult to digest (potatoes, bread, cereals, etc.) by others less
bulky but more nutritious (especially meat). The persons who rely upon
persuasion in combating alcoholism, fix the attention upon the enormous
sums expended for spirituous drinks, and then figure how much bread,
how many beds, and other useful things could have been bought with this
money. All this is well and good, only in reasoning in this way they
make the capital error of representing a workman as a sort of machine
who says to himself: “I do not earn enough for the support of my
family—let us not buy alcohol, then, for it is harmful but rather eat
more potatoes. It is true that the discomfort will persist, but ... I
shall at least be nourished as well as possible.” However, since the
working-man is, no more than other men, a being who is content to
reason, but who feels, the calculations of these Utopists fall to the
ground.
Aside from the bad quality and insufficient quantity of the food, very
often the working family do not know how to give an agreeable taste to
the dishes they eat; and in families where the married woman herself is
employed away from home they often have to content themselves with cold
viands. In these cases spirituous drinks serve to counteract the
discomfort of the monotony and bulkiness of the food. Among a number of
proofs which may be brought in support of what has been said above, we
may cite the researches made by a Swiss inspector of factories, M.
Schuler, upon the relation between alcoholism and the food of the
working-classes. [455] In this investigation the following facts
appear.
In the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, and Neufchâtel the condition of the
people with regard to food is the best; a small consumption of potatoes
and a large consumption of meat. Little brandy is drunk there, the use
of alcohol being mainly limited to a large consumption of wine. The
workmen in the canton of Neufchâtel, except those employed in
watch-making, live in poor circumstances, eat many potatoes and also
drink much brandy.
In the cantons of Berne and Lucerne the living conditions of the
working class, and especially their food, are very bad; they consume
much grain and little meat, and in these districts they drink an
extraordinary quantity of brandy. In Aargau there is a great difference
between the condition of the industrial proletariat and that of the
proletariat engaged in agriculture. The food of the former is
insufficient, potatoes forming the main resource; furthermore the
working day is very long, and the consumption of brandy is
correspondingly great. The food of the agricultural laborers, on the
other hand, is much better (a greater consumption of meat and of milk)
and the consumption of brandy is much less than among the factory
hands. In the canton of Zürich the conditions are much the same as
those in Aargau.
All this shows clearly that it is the bad material condition of the
proletariat which causes alcoholism, for everywhere that the condition
of the industrial worker is raised above that of the agricultural
population (as, for example, among the skilled workmen at Winterthur),
the consumption of brandy is less among the factory people. Just so the
material condition of the small rural proprietors in the canton of Zug
is worse than that of the factory hands, and the consumption of brandy
there is considerable. [456]
d. Bad housing conditions. These conditions often bring it about that
the workman, returning from his work, goes to the dram-shop instead of
to his home. The dwelling is ordinarily small, too small for a large
family, without comfort or attractiveness, gloomy, and often cold in
winter, whereas in the dram-shop there is light, warmth, and gaiety;
comrades are there, and other topics of conversation than the perpetual
cares of life; and, above all, for a little money there may be procured
the means of forgetting for the moment the miseries of life. [457]
e. The uncertainty of existence and forced unemployment. The continual
difficulties, the anguish of not knowing what the future has in store,
produce a depression which may be driven away for the moment by the
consumption of alcohol. In the article by Richard Holst already cited,
is found the following answer given by a workman to the question: What
are the principal causes of alcoholism? “One of the principal factors
is the difficulty of earning a living for one’s family, and also—and
especially—care, the eternal care for the morrow, which fastens upon
the life of the working-man like a bur, and which, as work becomes more
rare, drives him to desperation. This is the principal cause of
alcoholism. Remove this care and men will drink much less alcohol, for
then the heart can open itself to joy instead of deadening itself, as
is at present almost a necessity. For many persons this deadening is
the only, although the fatal, means of ridding one’s self for a moment
of the terrible thought, ‘What will happen if I have the misfortune to
be thrown out of work, or fall sick?’” [458]
Unemployment leads often to alcoholism. “Idleness is the mother of all
the vices”, says an old adage; but among all the vices, that which
arises most directly from idleness is without doubt drunkenness. What
can a man do in the long hours when he has no work? The rich man,
educated, well brought up, finds the means of passing his time
agreeably; but the poor man has only the dram-shop, and is drawn
thither irresistibly. The first time he goes for a change from boredom;
then from habit, and finally from a necessity now become instinctive to
his organism, which at a given moment feels the need of something to
stimulate the nerves. It is in alcoholic drinks that he finds what he
lacks. [459]
f. Ignorance. The lack of other means of enjoyment. One of the lesser
causes of alcoholism, but important enough to be named, is ignorance.
There are a great many persons who think that the regular consumption
of great quantities of alcohol is not harmful, who even believe that
alcohol has nutritive value, and that consequently the consumption of
it is even useful. [460]
From another point of view, however, ignorance, the lack of culture,
emptiness of life, are very important causes if not the most important
causes of alcoholism. The desire for pleasure is innate in every man,
including the working-man, whose life is a hard one in every way. But
for him there are almost insurmountable difficulties in enjoying all
that is truly beautiful, all that nature, art, and science can offer to
man. This is due first, and principally, to material difficulties. In
our present society one can enjoy these things only with plenty of
money. The wages of the working-man are not enough for this. Often he
is too tired when the day is over to take up anything which requires
effort, and his abode is too small and too badly arranged for reading
or any other form of distraction. However, the principal reason why the
proletarian enjoys the products of civilization but little is that his
intelligence is not prepared for it. His capacities have not been
cultivated in this direction, for capitalism has developed in a great
number of people only the capacity for manual work to the detriment of
everything else. Dr. Augagneur, in his article already cited, has
expressed it as follows: “The true cause of alcoholism is entirely of
the intellectual and moral order; it is the insufficiency of cerebral
activity, the intellectual indigence and distress, the mental
unemployment.
“Every individual who, after the business of his calling is completed,
is incapable of busying himself with something else, is a fruitful soil
for alcoholism. How many, aside from their technical efficiency, are
unfitted to think, to comprehend, to explain anything whatever. When
the workman, after ten or twelve hours of mechanical work, leaves the
factory, he is confused, does not know how to kill the time that must
elapse before he goes to bed; he drinks....
“Sundays and holidays ordinary labor is suppressed, the laborer wanders
about the streets, objectless, adrift, embarrassed by his liberty, and
runs fatally aground upon the dram-shop. The days of rest are days of
drunkenness.
“Our society suffers from this intellectual inaction, which is the true
cause of alcoholism. Most men, as soon as their trade no longer makes
them work their arms and in some cases their brains, know not which way
to turn. Alcohol is their refuge, because it procures for the nervous
system sensations which take the place of the absent ideas.” [461]
It is for this reason that the abuse of alcohol is greatest among
unskilled laborers [462] and that it decreases everywhere that the
workmen begin to organize in unions and political parties, since these
lead to the amelioration of conditions, material, intellectual, and
moral. In other words, drinking diminishes wherever the proletariat is
animated by an ideal. And it is also among those workmen who foresee
the future of their class and know what there is to do, that the ranks
of total abstainers are mainly recruited. [463]
There are persons who maintain the thesis that poverty is not the
principal cause of alcoholism among the working classes. As a proof
they say that the laborers who earn the least (farm hands among others)
are not those who drink the most, and that an increase in wages often
brings about a higher consumption of alcohol. They are deceived,
however. They lose sight of the fact that most agricultural laborers
earn so little that they cannot consume alcohol regularly, that beside
the material poverty there is an intellectual poverty, and that a
slight amelioration of the one does not produce simultaneously a
diminution of the other. The abuse of alcohol has, on the contrary,
decreased regularly everywhere that the labor movement has brought
about a continuous amelioration of material and intellectual
conditions. [464]
To close these remarks upon alcoholism among the workers I will quote
the following from Engels in which the causes are concisely set forth:
“All possible temptations, all allurements combine to bring the workers
to drunkenness. Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all
things conspire to make it accessible to them. The working-man comes
from his work tired, exhausted, finds his home comfortless, damp,
dirty, repulsive; he has urgent need of recreation, he must have
something to make work worth his trouble, to make the prospect of the
next day endurable. His unnerved, uncomfortable, hypochondriac state of
mind and body arising from his unhealthy condition, and especially from
indigestion, is aggravated beyond endurance by the general conditions
of his life, the uncertainty of his existence, his dependence upon
possible accidents and chances, and his inability to do anything
towards gaining an assured position. His enfeebled frame, weakened by
bad air and bad food, violently demands some external stimulus; his
social need can be gratified only in the public-house, he has
absolutely no other place where he can meet his friends. How can he be
expected to resist temptation? It is morally and physically inevitable
that, under such circumstances, a very large number of working-men
should fall into intemperance. And apart from the chiefly physical
influences which drive the working-man into drunkenness, there is the
example of the great mass, the neglected education, the impossibility
of protecting the young from temptation, in many cases the direct
influence of intemperate parents, who give their own children liquor,
the certainty of forgetting for an hour or two the wretchedness and
burden of life, and a hundred other circumstances so mighty that the
workers can, in truth, hardly be blamed for yielding to such
overwhelming pressure. Drunkenness has here ceased to be a vice for
which the vicious can be held responsible; it becomes a phenomenon, the
necessary, inevitable effect of certain conditions upon an object
possessed of no volition in relation to those conditions. They who have
degraded the working-man to a mere object have the responsibility to
bear.” [465]
As for the causes of alcoholism in the lower proletariat they are the
same as for the proletariat (if we except the two first named), only
they are much more intense. A very insufficient diet, frightful housing
conditions, the demoralization consequent upon inaction, ignorance, and
the absolute lack of any intellectual life have made of the man a brute
who can forget his misery only by drinking.
The same is true of prostitutes, among whom the abuse of alcohol is
very wide spread. Parent-Duchatelet says: “The taste of these women
(prostitutes) for strong drink may be considered to be general,
although in different degrees; they contract it early, and this taste
ends by plunging some into the last state of brutishness. All the
information that I have gathered proves that they began drinking only
to blunt their sensibilities; gradually they become accustomed to it,
and in a little while the habit becomes so strong that it resists any
return to virtue;...” [466]
Dr. Bonhoeffer says: “In many cases alcoholism is the result of the
manner of life of prostitutes.” [467]
The etiology of the abuse of alcohol in the well-to-do class is
principally as follows:
a. A part of the well-to-do class, those who live exclusively upon the
income from their invested capital, consider one of their occupations
to be the spending of a part of the surplus-value that they receive.
Among the means they make use of for this end is alcohol, which has
also the faculty of dissipating the ennui resulting from the emptiness
of their existence.
“Many persons, belonging for the most part to the well-to-do classes,
have no fixed occupation and feel the need of none. These persons do
not know what it is to love work for work’s sake. Having all that they
need to live upon they imagine that work exists only for those who have
to earn their bread, and they themselves are created for ‘dolce far
niente.’ Unfortunately the ‘far niente’ is not always sweet! Having
nothing to do, these individuals do not know how to use their time;
they are bored, they seek distractions and pleasures. Alcohol presents
itself to them as procuring the pleasure sought for, but as this
enjoyment is only momentary, they are forced to renew it and to prolong
it....” [468]
b. Another part of the bourgeoisie is composed of those who pass their
lives in the fierce combat of competition, who are bent under the
burden of material cares, and whose mind is occupied with a single
idea, that of getting money. This is why in these surroundings also
they frequently have recourse to alcohol to dissipate their vexations,
especially when things go badly.
Having treated of alcoholism among the idle portion of the bourgeoisie,
Kautsky says in the study quoted above: “Not all, of course, and
perhaps not even the majority, of the moneyed class are idlers. Many
work as long and hard as any working-man, even if the work they do is
often superfluous. But it is always one-sided nervous work. Muscular
exercise among the property-holding class has been constantly pushed
ever further into the background since the sixteenth century, and the
demands upon the nervous system have correspondingly increased. Besides
the continual struggle with the working-class, from whom the
surplus-value is taken, there is going on an equally uninterrupted
battle of the spoilers among themselves for a share of this
surplus-value. All these battles are carried on today by nervous, not
muscular, energy, and the contests become constantly more bitter, the
crises more tremendous, the battlefields more colossal, the forces
involved more incalculable.
“Thus the nerves of the bourgeoisie become wrecked through their
activity as well as through their idleness.... If part of the
bourgeoisie befuddle themselves out of wantonness, another part grasp
for stimulants or for means of benumbing themselves, alcohol, morphine,
cocaine, any thing to take away their feeling of sickness, to conquer
their pains, to make them forget their cares; and as it is with the
proletariat, so is it with the moneyed class, the power of resistance
to these agents declines.” [469]
Finally, we must notice some causes of alcoholism which influence the
whole population.
a. Imitation. This is reckoned among the important causes. In the first
place there are many children (for whom alcohol even in small
quantities is extremely harmful) who are accustomed to the use of
alcohol as a consequence of the example set by their families. Dr. R.
Frölich mentioned the following facts at the 8th International Congress
against Alcohol at Vienna: [470]
Out of 81,187 children from 6 to 14 years of age going to school in
Vienna, there were:
49.5% who already drank beer and 32.1% who drank beer regularly
82.1% ,, ,, ,, wine ,, 11.2% ,, ,, wine ,,
94.2% ,, ,, ,, brandy ,, 4.1% ,, ,, brandy ,,
But imitation is also important among those who have attained their
full development. In the course of time certain circles have taken up
the habit of drinking, and any one who frequents these circles must do
the same under penalty of being looked down upon. However, I think that
the importance that abstainers give to imitation is exaggerated. The
number of those who are guilty of the abuse of alcohol from force of
example and nothing else is certainly not very great. The other factors
which have been at work at the same time to bring about this result are
not so obvious. Finally we must not forget that imitation is not an
independent factor; what does not exist cannot be imitated, and
consequently there must be other causes primarily responsible.
b. The climate. Although so much importance is not attached to climate
as formerly, it is nevertheless certain that a cold climate, especially
if damp, favors the consumption of alcohol, since this dissipates
temporarily the discomfort resulting from cold and humidity. It is for
this reason that the inhabitants of the northern countries (for
example, England, Denmark, and Holland) consume on the average greater
quantities of alcohol than southern countries (like Spain and Italy).
However the facts show that the social environment is a much more
important factor, and is apt to modify or overcome entirely the
influence of climate. In Sweden and Norway, for example, the
consumption per capita is smaller than in countries farther south, like
Denmark and Holland. The great changes which occur at different times
in the same country, where the climate remains a constant factor, are a
further proof of the truth of this. And notwithstanding the climate the
abuse of alcohol increases greatly in the southern countries in which
industrialism becomes more and more prevalent (like northern Italy).
[471]
c. Race. There are many persons who attribute much importance in the
etiology of alcoholism, as in other social phenomena, to the influence
of race. Where two nations differing racially have not the same
consumption of alcohol, they think they can explain the difference by
race. But in reasoning thus they forget that two nations may present
great differences in their manner of life, and that the greater or less
consumption of alcohol may be explained better by these than by race
(without counting that racial difference in the tendency to alcoholism
is still to be accounted for somehow). To cite an example; the peoples
of the Germanic race are more intemperate, than the peoples of the
Latin race (a fact already explained by the climate, and further
accounted for by the cheapness of wine); this difference it is said is
to be explained in part by race. And yet the use of brandy in northern
Italy increases with increasing industrialism, northern industrial
France gives a very high figure for brandy-consumption, and the
Belgians of the Latin race do not yield to their Germanic compatriots
in the use of alcohol. [472] The proverbial temperance of the Jews is
often attributed to their race, while we should ask whether this
temperance is not rather to be attributed to their manner of life,
which differs from that of other peoples. It is probable that the
Jewish industrial workers, for example, who have broken with the habits
of their coreligionists, have also become consumers of spirituous
beverages. As far as the diamond-cutters of Amsterdam are concerned
this fact is at least averred. [473] The tendency which is observed
among the Slavic peoples of becoming intoxicated periodically in an
extraordinary fashion, is attributed to race, but the same thing is
observed in other countries where wages are very low, thus preventing
regular drinking, and limiting the consumption of alcohol to paydays.
[474]
I believe that the influence of race upon alcoholism is enormously
exaggerated, which does not, however, imply that I deny its influence.
The slight expansion of the use of alcohol among the Mongolians (among
whom, it is to be added, this is replaced by other narcotics,
principally by opium) is to be explained in part perhaps, by race.
d. The psycho- and neuro-pathic condition of some persons enters into
the etiology of alcoholism in three ways. In the first place, the
regular use of small quantities of alcohol may, with the said persons,
result in alcoholism. Secondly, quantities of alcohol which have
results imperceptible in the normal man, may cause drunkenness in a
very neuropathic person. Thirdly, alcoholism is present as the
principal symptom with dipsomaniacs, and as a secondary symptom in the
case of persons suffering from mania, melancholia, or paralytic
dementia. [475]
After what we have said concerning the causes of the consumption of
alcohol, we must add something about the production of it. As is the
case with most articles, the production of alcohol is capitalistic,
that is to say, for the sake of profit. Consumption is only a condition
for attaining this end. If the profits could be greater without
production it would cease. [476] Aside from the producers, the state
also has a great interest in the consumption of alcohol, since it
derives considerable revenue from it.
The consequences of the fact that the production of alcohol is
capitalistic have a great social importance. To instance only some of
these:
First. The number of places where liquor may be drunk is very great.
The more there is consumed, the more profit there is for the producers
and for the retailers. As a consequence there is much advertising, and
many dram-shops, in which the wages are often paid and workmen hired.
These two things increase the profits of the dealer, but exercise an
indirect pressure upon the working-man to make him drink. [477]
Second. The constantly decreasing price of alcohol. As we have seen
above there is a tendency in the present economic system to lower the
price of commodities, since each producer tries to increase his
profits, if only temporarily, by seeking to improve the processes of
production. This is applicable to alcohol also.
Third. The adulteration of alcoholic drinks. Under the capitalistic
system the object of production is not to furnish as perfect a product
as possible, but to make as great profits as possible. Hence comes the
tendency among producers to adulterate their wares, to deliver goods of
poorer quality than they are supposed to be, for the purpose of gaining
greater profits. The adulteration so frequent with alcoholic beverages
has physical and psychical consequences most harmful to the consumers.
[478]
The exposition which I have just given of the etiology of alcoholism
points out the principal causes of it, and proves that they are to be
found in the last instance almost wholly in the present constitution of
society. It is possible that some one will interpose the objection that
this cannot be the case, that there must be, besides pathological
causes, individual causes, since it happens that among persons living
in the same environment some become alcoholics and others do not.
This last fact is incontestable, but it is partly to be explained by
the fact that, while there are persons who live in environments that
are very similar, there are no two individuals whose surroundings are
exactly the same. Take, for example, two workmen. The one may have
passed his youth in circles where they drink little or no alcohol, and
where it is pointed out to him that abstinence is very salutary, while
the other sees only examples of intemperance. It may be that here is
the explanation of the fact that the first has remained temperate,
while the second has not, although the two live in surroundings almost
alike.
But suppose that the environment is and has always been exactly the
same for a group of persons, we shall see then that the tendency toward
alcoholism is not the same for each individual. No one will be able to
dispute the fact, however, that it is the environment that is the cause
of the abuse of alcohol. Individual differences bring it about that one
man is more drawn to the use of alcohol than another, but circumstances
explain why the first has become alcoholic. These differences can never
explain why, at a certain period, the abuse of alcohol has, or has not,
become an almost universal phenomenon.
The proofs are plain. In examining, for example, a period like that in
which capitalism took its rise in England, as it is described by Engels
in his “Condition of the Working Class”, a period, that is to say, in
which the working class found itself in very disadvantageous material
and moral conditions, we see that the workers, with rare exceptions,
were consumers of alcohol, and largely abused it. Since that time
conditions have improved. The moral and material plane having been
raised, those whose tendency toward alcohol was less strong and who had
more marked innate moral qualities, ceased misusing alcohol. As
conditions improve still further those who are weaker follow little by
little the same road to temperance. This process may be observed going
on among unorganized workmen, with whom the tendency to drink is
generally great. As soon as they begin to organize, and in measure as
their organization is developed, we see that first the most
intelligent, etc., among them become temperate, and that little by
little these are followed by the others.
It is a biological fact that men always and everywhere present
qualitative differences. But this constant factor does not give an
explanation of the changes which society undergoes, and is not,
therefore, of great importance to sociology, which, while taking it
into account, has for its task the explanation of the changes in
question. And it is just those changes in the use of alcoholic
beverages which have taken place during the course of the centuries,
which show that the social environment is the principal cause of
alcoholism.
In ancient times alcoholism was unknown. It is true that among the
Israelites, for example, the abuse of alcohol at times occurred, but
the fact that no importance was attached to it proves that alcoholism
properly speaking did not exist. [479] Nor was it to be met with among
the ancient Greeks. At every meal, and at their reunions they drank
wine diluted; it is unnecessary to say that these “symposia” were not
looked down upon by the Greeks, but on the contrary were highly
regarded. “Greek opinion found nothing improper in intoxication, only a
certain self-control in drunkenness was held to be indispensable. Gross
and violent conduct was, like the drinking of unmixed wine, a custom of
the barbarians, and unworthy of a Greek.” [480] Nor was ancient Rome
any more acquainted with alcoholism, though among the Romans, coarse in
comparison with the Greeks and demoralized by their immense wealth, the
abuse of alcohol was often met with. But it was only the very small
group of the rich who were addicted to it. When the barbarians
annihilated the ancient world they were not capable of assimilating the
civilization of the peoples whom they had just subjugated, while they
adopted their pleasures, a thing which did not require so high a state
of development. This is the cause of the great abuse of alcohol among
the Germans. [481] The uncertainty of existence, and the miserable
conditions during the migrations of these peoples were favorable to
this abuse.