United labor bulletin., 1909-10-15
WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.
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BY Agnes H. Downing, in the Virginia
Unonist.

There is no question now before the
public in which thoughtful people
should take a more vital interest than
in the white slave traffic.
This is a difficult question because the
subject is one that has heretofore been
avoided, yet the evil is growing and there
is no hope of a solution except by max
ing public the facts.
The white slave traffic means the buy
ing and selling, the shipping and trans
porting of women usually young girls)
for immoral purposes and for the profit
of those engaged in this business.
That this Infamous thing is being done
on large scale, that the business is moi
alone local but national and interna-
tional, can no longer be doubted. In
Europe where it was first detected so
cieties have sprung up to combat 1t
Largely through the work of these orga
nizations the leading nations of Europe
on May 18th, 1904, entered into a treaty
to suppress this shameful trade. June
18th, 1908, the government of the
United States became a party to the
treaty.
Since then investigations made officially
by the United States Government have
disclosed the fact that not alone does the
white slave trade exist in the United
States. but that by far the greater mum
ber of. girl victims are taken into the
life by force or fraud. Many anu var
ious means are employed to secure the
recruits Young girls who must go into
the world alone to make their living
offered work at good wages; they are
offered positions as lady's maids
chorus girls, actresses or whatever Will
be likely to appeal to them Often they
are wooed and won in marriage, Du'
in all cases where the white slave is at
work they are landed in houses of in
fanny from which they are unable to
escape.
1ney are often kept by sheer physi
cal force. locked and bolted doors
Their street clothing is taken from them
and locked away; drugs are given them
III Inelr lOOu anu olHti
ameable cruelties are inflicted on them
to break their spirit and render theiI
resistance Intellectual.
1t takes much study of this phase OF
the question to convince the average
person that girls cannot escape, and il
requires something of a knowledge oil
the laws of the underworld before il
is clear that they can not. For one
thing while the laws for imprisonment
for debt have long since been laid aside
and more humane laws adopted ovel
the civilized world, yet in the brothel:
and against the girls who are unwil
ling inmates those laws, though no lon
ger valid, are invoked. A girl is pu
in debt to the keeper of a place, by hi!
furnishing her with clothing, food, etc.
and then she is allowed to go because
she is in debt. The procurer who cap
lures her and brings her to the house
is paid for her, as for a horse or {
piece of furniture that he might sell
The prices range from fifty to two ol
three hundred dollars, sometimes a little
more Mr.. James Bronson Reynolds, o
New York, who has been a special com
missioner of Mr.. Roosevelt when the
latter was president, makes this state
ment:
After the payment of money for this
human property, title is passed just as
for real estate. and the alleged property
rights are respected by our officials
So the girls put into the underworld
which indeed is a world by itself, have
much to contend against in their efforts
to escape. Perhaps no recital of theil
affairs can express the gloom and des
pair of their lives so forcefully as the
one fact that the great majority of then
suicide.
Those who do not end their lives
live a few short years of frightful suf
fering and shame and humiliation, wner
they fill nameless graves. And the mum
Der of victims is surprisingly large.
1t is a question that calls for the
thoughtful attention of every decent per
son. Especially is it the province o
fathers and mothers to open their eye!
to the institutions that the present citl
governments place glaringly before
them.
r r + r
BARRED CIRCUS LABOR DAY: