The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-16

Edited by Ernest A Bell (The
 Charles 0. Thompson Co-, Chicago)
 This book, designed to awaken the sleeping and to protect the innocent" edited by Mir. Ernest A. Bell, secretary of the Illinois Vigilance association efor the suppression of the white slave trafho), superintendent of the Midnight mission at Chicago. contains chapters Of interest written by Hon. Edwin w. Sims. United States district attorney, Chicago; his assistant, MT. Harry A Parkin. and the Hon. Clifford E. Roe, assistant states attorney, Cook county. Illinois.
 MT. James Bronson Reynolds of the National Vigilance committed. New York; the late lamented Charles N. Crittenton, founder and president or the National Florence Crittenton mis- sions, and Mrs. Ophelia Amigh, super intendent of the Illinois Training School for Girls, also discuss this terri bla subject very interestingly, most convincingly.
 In addition to the above named au- thorfties, Miss Florence Mabel Dedrick, missionary of the Moody church, Chi eago; Miss Lucy A. Hill, deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal church, Chtca- go; Principal D. F. Suthland of the Red Water institute, Red Water, Tex; Dr. William T. Belheld, professor in The EQB1 11eu1Cdl COllcBes AA' Winfield Scott Hall, professor in the Northwestern University Medical school. Chicago; Melbourne P. Boynton, pastor of the Lexington Avenue Baptist church, and others who do not sign the contrib utions to this discussion, com plete a list of persons who have given this so-called white slave traffic much thought, study and work, and now pre- rent the matter before the public "to
 zI0 ir,rr or1d f0 rnf a0f innocent"
 Edwin W. Sims, United States dis trict attorney. Chicago, in presenting this volume to the public, among other things says: "It is my hope and belief that this work, edited by the scholarly and devoted Ernest A. Bell, whose life of toll for the wayward and the fallen has endeared him to all who know of him and his work, will do much to make the nature. scope and perils or this infamous trade better understood"
 There are some things so far re- moved from the lives of normal de- cent people as to be simply unbelteya- ble by them." says MT. Sims. You would hardly credit the statement for example. that things are being done every day in New York. Philadelphia, Chicago and other large cities of this country in the white slave trafhc which would. by contrast, make the Congo slave traders of the old days appear like the Good Sanaritans. Yet this figure Is almost a literal truth. The man of the stone age who cluooed tnc woman of his desire into insensibility or submission was little short Of high minded gentleman when con- trasted with the men who fatten upon the white slave traffic in this day Of social settlements, of forward move ments, of '. M. C. A and Christian En- deayor activities, of airshops and wire less telegraphy.
 Naturally, wisely, every parent who reads this statement will at once raise the question: What excuse Is there for the open discussion of such revolt ing condition of things In the pages or a published bookf What good Is there to be served by Haunting so dark and disgusting a subject before the family circleT
 "Only one-and that is a reason and not an excuseI The recent examination or more than 200 white slaves by the office of the United States district attorney at Chicago has brought to light the fact that literally thousands of innocent girls rom the country districts are every year en- trapped into life of hopeless slavery and degradation because parents in the coun- try do not understand conditions as they exist and how to protect their daughters from the white slave traders who have reduced the art of ruining young girls to 8 national and international system"
 Continuing on that line for some para graphs, MT. Sims properly enquiries; "Is not this. then, reason enough for 6 little plain speech to parentsT' And, continues MT. Sims, passing his remarks on the in- vestigations made by the federal govern ment in Chicago:
 ''There are. to put 1t mildly, hundreds, yes thousands, of trusting mothers in the smaller cities, the towns, villages and farming communities of the United States who believe that their daughters are get ling on fine in the city. and too busy to come home for visit or to write much,' while the fact Is that these daughters have been swept into the gulf of white slavery-the worst doom that can befall a woman"
 "A volume could be written on this re- volting subject" says MT. Sims in the chapters of this book written by him, but have no disposition to add single word to what will open the eyes of the parents 10 the fact that white slavery is an ex- lsting condition-a system of girl hunting that is national and international in it's scope, that 1t literally consumes thou sands of girls, clean, innocent girls, every year; that 1t is operated with cruelty, barbarism that gives a new meaning to the word fiend; that 1t is an imminent peril to every girl In the country who has a desire to get into the city and taste it's settlements and its pleasures. The facts have stated are for the awak- ening of parents and guardians of girls. In view of what I have learned in the course of the recent investigation and prosecution of the white slave traffic can say in all sincerity that if I lived in the country and had a young daughter I would go any length of hardship and privation myself rather than allow her to go into the city to work or to study unless that studying were to be done in the very best type of an educational insti- tuition where the girl students were al- ways under the closest protection. The best and the surest way for parents of