The “white slave traffic” is as much a scourge as tuberculosis. This
appalling problem is sapping the vitality of the nation, and every
means of giving publicity to this menace, which, unfortunately, is not
on the wane, should be used. We have the best possible publicity agent
in the film. Such a film could be prepared and exhibited to initiate
the ignorant, and to show those who practise in it that something is
being done openly to expose this illicit traffic.
One reads in the newspapers almost daily of wrecked lives, fathers who
have shot their daughters and then themselves, because she has trodden
the downward path; and of others who have made away with themselves
because they are beyond reclamation.
This subject is talked about, and often whispered, as if it were a
plague and they were afraid of becoming infected with it.
It is a plague, and requires to be stamped out, like the Plague of
London.
The daily life of the unfortunate daughter of the streets and her means
of livelihood could not be portrayed more eloquently. The efforts
of the reclaimer of lost souls would be strengthened. Mothers would
give silent prayers for the imparting of such information to their
daughters, which, although their duty, it is often shunned, to the
detriment of her offspring.
In a clean, inoffensive and simple way it could be shown how
unfortunate girls, attracted by finery and dress, are sometimes
directly led into these channels.
If the book entitled “The Rise and Fall of Susan Lennox” could be
suitably filmed, then much would have been accomplished in this
direction.
Mrs. Caudle’s “Curtain Lectures” would not be needed at home. The
impression upon the young mind would be indelible. The voiceless
foster-mother would repeat the lesson to thousands of young people.
The allied question “venereal disease” has already appeared upon the
screen and thousands have already benefited by it. The Manchester
Corporation has taken steps to give publicity by means of the film, and
if the idea is generally approved and encouraged, much will be done to
educate citizens of the dangers of this malignant disease. Let us hope
that greater efforts will be made to bring these evils home.