The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1912-09-19
J THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE.
$4,000 Men and Women Make
An Easy Living by II.

an attorney ana 011lclal IN the Qe-
partment of justice at Washington,
D c, makes this startling statement
to the correspondent of the World:
From Is. 900 to 10000 girls be-
tween the ages of thirteen and
twenty-five years, a majority of
whom are native-born Americans,
are the victims each year of the
white slave traffic in the United
States.
About $4,000 men and women
make an easy living every year SELL
ing, buying and living on the earn
ingS of these girls. -
Mr. Finch, since Geo W Wicker
sham has been Attorney>General,
has been chief of the bureau of in
vestigation of the department of
justice. Last year Mr. Wickersham
in recognition of Mr. Finch's achieve
ments in tracking down cadets"
"procurers' and chiefs of the white
slave traffic and sending them to the
penitentiary, designated Mr. Finch
special commissioner for the sup
preston of the white slave traffic.
That is what Mr. Finch is now doing.
Except in a supervisory way he has
relinquished the duties of chief of
the bureau of investigation and is
now devoting his entire time to his
new duties. He says that if Con-
gress will give him the money he
will in a year suppress, barring an
occasional isolated case, e,all the white
slave traffic in the United States.
And Wickersham says that Finch
Will DO What ne says.
When Mr. Finch made the state
ment above quoted he qualified it by
saying that it was conservative es-
innate.
White slave traffic in some form
or other has existed for 5000
years." said Mr. Finch. In Europe
| it has been carried on with fuctuat-
ing success for 5000 years, in the
United Strtes with varying but ever
growing success for 100 years.
Desire for fortune and easy living
on the part of the dealers, and the
susceptibility of young girls to fraud
and deceit, are the causes, directly,
for the startling growth of the traf-
| fc in the United States. Mr. Finch
said.
So easy is the living to be made
out of white slave traffic that con-
scienceless crooks of all sorts in the
country have turned to trafficking in
young girls" he said, so great has
been the domestic traffic in women
in the last few years that today scat
tered throughout the United States,
there are, conservatively estimated,
no less than $4,000 women living in
a life of shame in semi-public or Of
ficially isolated places of disrepute. !"
And yet you can suppress white
slave traffic in a year. How much
money will it take?'
"One million dollars will suppress
| it, and for S250,000 a year it can be
kept suppressed Mr. Finch replied.
The way Congress appropriates
now and my inability to use other
funds it will take longer, of course,
perhaps four or five years.
Stanley w Finch is not unknown
to criminals. He is also well known
in official circles at Washington as
man who has done things. Nearly
twenty years ago when he was not
yet out of his teens, he came to
Washington from Ellenville, Ulster
county,N ,and entered the depart
ment of justice as clerk. He had a
good education and an ability for
organizing. He had been in the de-
partment of justice but short time
when he began studying law in a
night class of college. In three
years he was graduated. Soon af-
terward he was promoted and took