The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-04-03
Discussing the Liquor Question

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exploited by large business interests.
There are four large interests
which are concerned In the exploita-
tion of prostitution. The first OF
these is the criminal hotels, the Sec
ond is the houses of ill-fame, and the
fourth the men-largely Russian
Jews-who deal in women for the
trade. There are large indirect in
terests, such as, for instance, the
leasing or subletting Of tenements to
the business, an operation which
yields enormous percentages of pro-
fit,-but these are the four principal
direct interests in the trade.
The hotels constitute probably the
largest of these. There are 292 of
these houses known and recorded In
Chicago, with capacity of 10000
rooms. 'Twenty-one of them contain
each 100 rooms or over; the largest
has $50 The gross receipts of these
enterprises cannot be less than four
million dollars year; they are prob
ably five million. The total amount
expended there cannot be less than
eight million dollars; it is probably
tenmillion These places have been
extremely profitable, because their
expenses are low, and their patron
age is large. At present they are not
so good an investment as formerly,
because the city authorities
to action by desperate woman
throwing herself out of an upper
story window-have passed hotel
I license ordinance, which is intended
| to do away with this business. The
largest of the hotels, some of which
have for some time pooled their legal
| and political interests in the hands
of a manager, are now fighting this
ordinance as unconstitutional.
| The profits of the business are, of
course, very large and quick. Much
of the money made here Is dissipated,
yet there are at least half dozen
persons now interested in this bust
ness who are credited with fortunes
running into the hundreds of thous-
ands. Their profits are not only from
their shares in the women's earnings,
but from excessive prices for liquor.
They also secure large returns from
| furnishing clothing and other neces-
saries of life to their employees, at
prices ranging from 100 to 200 per
cent higher than the usual retail
price. By this system the wages Of
the women are largely secured by the
proprietors of the Establishments.
The plan is not different in principle
from the familiar company store
system of the manufacturing and
| mining district. 1t is first rule of
the business, as generally conducted,
to keep the employees continuously in
debt, so that they are unable to leave
the establishments unless the pro-
prietors desire 1t.
The Dealers in Women.
These places and the hotels cater
to the demand for running young
! girls especially the low-paid en-
ployes of department stores and fac
! tories, which furnish the majority of
the English speaking women in the
profession in Chicago. The dance
halls and irregular saloons also take
a part of the profit from this source.
The direct business of supplying wo-
| Ill6u W Tic LIduc, willie nv oO Idl sc
as these others, is also profitable.
/ Some of the more enterprising of the
keepers of the regular houses of i'll
| fame have private arrangements with
men, who ruin young girls for their
| use. Most of the young women who
come into the business in this way
do so before reaching the age of
nineteen.
The largest regular business in
furnishing women, however, is done
by a company of men, largely COM
posed of Russian Jews, who supply
women of that nationality to the
trade. These men have a sort of
loosely organized associations ex-
tending through the large cities OF
the country, their chief centers be-
ing in New York, Boston, Chicago
and New Orleans. In Chicago they
now furnish the great majority of the
prostitutes in the cheaper district OF
the West Side levee, their women
having driven out the English-speak-
ing women in the last ten years
From the best returns available
there are some ten or dozen women
offered for sale at. the houses of pros
titution in the Eighteenth ward
every week. The price paid is about
fifty dollars head. In some excep.
tional cases seventy-five dollars has
been given. This money, paid over
to the agent, Is charged up to the
debt of the woman to the house. She
pays, that is, for her own sale. In
addition, she gives over large share
of her earnings to the man who
places her.
Cocaine: A Highly Profitable Drug
There is a minor business, finan
cially speaking, which is closely con
nected with prostitution: this is the
selling of cocaine. The profit on the
retail sale of cocaine Is very large
running as high as three or foul
!, hundred per cent, as the drug i!
,, usually heavily adulterated with
,, acetan lid. There have always beer
!. number of drug stores sand some
saloons at which 1t could be obtain
ed by its users. Although taken By
many persons throughout the coun
try, especially by negroes, 1t is nov
recognized generally to be the spe
: cial drug of the prostitute. Tht