The Washington herald., 1912-09-22
M~ AooscWYlGzm @"s"
THOUSANDS MAKE LIVING
IN WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC
From $4,000 to 10000 Girls Drawn Into Life of
Shame Each Year in United States-Federal
Official Warning Against Trade

ganizing. He had been in the Depart
ment of Justice but a short time when
he began studying law in a night class
of a law college. In three years he was
graduated. Soon afterward he was pro-
moted and took up the work of cutting
down graft among the appolntees under
Federal court clerks, United States Mar
shals, and other employees connected with
the Federal courts.
Mr.. Finch is about forty years of age.
He is about six feet tall and muscularly
built. He has curly brown hair, worn
rather thick. deep brown. wide set eyes,
high forehead, and a rather long face.
His face suggests courage, aggressive
ness, and tenacity.
A close friend once asked him If he
ever considered the physical dangers of
running down such characters. His re-
ply was: Il haven't time for that" And
he hasn't. For more than four years he
has worked on an average sixteen hours
a day. seven days a week.
Two years before Mr. Wickersham's s
administration Mr.. Finch was trying to
organize the various investigating officers
in the Department of Justice, but he had
little success until Mr.. Wickersham came
in. The new Attorney General, Wicker
sham, was in Office but few days when
he called Finch in and said: Il want an
effective corps of Investigators. l am go
ing to enforce the Sherman antitrust
laws and every other law. You get the
agents; 1 will get the money"
Finch started to work at once. He dis
missed some agents and transferred 9TH
ers to different work. What he did after
that is best illustrated by what the trust
busting officials of the Department of
Justice say: The cases against every
big corporation, the prosecution of which
was begun in this administration, were
worked up by Finch's men,
six Score Investigators.
There are about 10 special Investigators
in the corps which Finch organized. In
addition to handling trust cases Finch's
men handled land fraud cases, bank
ruptcy frauds. peonage cases, crimes on
government reservations, and the high
seas, national banking cases and re vio-
Iations Of the Federal statutes prohibit
ing interstate trafficklng in women.
1t was in this last named field that
Finch laid the foundation for his pres
ent work. Until June Is, 1910, when the
white slave law was enacted, the Fed
eral statutes prohibiting white slave traf-
fic were not very far reaching. Agents
Of the Department OF Justice could do
little more than run down complaints and
get a few convictions. The reports the
agents made to Finch on these few cases,
however, were so clear and concise as to
lead him to make a study of the white
slave business in all its phases. This
study led him to the discovery that the
cry that white slave traffic in the United
States was mostly among aliens was far
from the truth; that, spread over the
entire United States, was a system of
white slave traffic which was seAstling.
Mr.. Finch took the matter to Attorney
General Wickersham. Mr.. wlulssrsham
directed him to push the prosecution of
the specific cases. Finch undertook II.
but he was Handicapped by a lack Of
funds. He did the best he could, how
ever and by last May he had found q
way out He told the Attorney General
his plans. He wanted s25o, 900 to carry