The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-03-19
WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC
EFFORTS BEING MADE TO SAVE
YOUNG GIRLS.
Some of Them Tell OF Their Down

Some of Them Tell OF Their Down.
fall, Low Living Wage Being Nam
ed as the Cause.
Fifteen hundred white men and
three hundred negroes live off the
earnings of white slaves and wo-
men of tie underworld in Chicago,
according 10 testimony given by a
one-time cadet" to the members of
the Illnicis State commission inves-
tigating vice conditions in Chicago.
The commission has just begun its
work of endeavoring TO trace the
causes of vice, and one of the first
things did was to issue subpoenaes
for twenty of Chicago's most promi-
nent citizens-merchants, owners and
managers of big department stores
and mail-order houses, proprietors of
factories and others who employ
/ thousands Of girls-to appear at fu-
ture sessions of the commission for
examination.
The action is said to be prompted
by the evidence given SO far which
leads to the belief that low wages
paid girls were one of the chief con-
tributing causes to white slavery
among women workers.
Scores of girls, many of them in
mates of underworld resorts, have
testified before the commission, and
one Chicago dance hall already has
been closed as the result of the sto-
ries told by several of these youthful
witnesses. One girl told how she had
been fishing on the banks of the river
at Water Valley, Ind, when she was
suddenly seized, thrust into an auto
mobile and taken to a notorious re-
sort at West Hammond, just inside
the Illinois state line. Later she was
transferred to a house in Chicago.
Miss Virginia Brooks, the young
woman who has been trying to rid
West Hammond of its notorious re-
sorts, was another witness. She de-
clared that talks with resort inmates
in that place led her to believe that
insufficient wages was the cause OF
the downfall of nearly all. "a girl
in Chicago needs s12 a week to live
decently," she concluded.
Two girls from the State Training
school told of their downfall. Unin-
viting home conditions were blamed
by them. Each told the same story
of sale to owners of dives for from
SO to SIS each, and established the
fact that many men made this reg
ular business.
Another witness, a girl of Is years
| appears on the record as miss NJ
She said she was introduced by hel
elder sister to man who said he was
a detective and he took her to re.
| sort in Chicago. The man. she said
remained with her a. week and then
went away. According to her testi,
mony she had been earning SIS q
week in store before she took the
| fatal step.
Most of the girl witnesses who ap.
peared declared they were sold into
| the business" at Gary, Ind. Some
| went there to become wives" of well
known cadets, others on mere
pleasure jaunts, but all wound up al
one destination, immoral resorts
When they were forced to live i'm
| moral lives, they testified, they hao
to give all their earnings to the men
who put them there, the men in turn
| dividing half with the keepers of the
dives.
None of the girls were over Is
years Of age, and they testified they
| earned from $50 to s125 week II
resorts. One stated that, after e
period Of two months, she had $3.50
for herself. Each witness told o;
meeting other girls who had beer
driven into similar life, and nearly
all of them, they testified, were there
because of low wages.
Four states, Indiana, Ohio, Wis
| consin and Michigan-have been ask
ed to join hands with Illinois in thi:
war on white slave traffic in the Mid
die West. Lieut.. Gov. Barrett OHara
! head Of the Illinois Investigating
commission, has sent letters to the
governors of each of these states
asking their cooperation.
Evidence already in the hands o:
the commission tend to prove the ex
listence of an organized traffic center
ing about Chicago, with agents ir
each of these four states. The lieu
tenant governor believes that prob
ing COMMITTEES similar in purpose C
the one in Illinois might be created
in each Of these states.