New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-03-16
VICE TRADE TOO VAST
TO DIE MRS. LA|DLAW
Great Capital Invested Must
Have Constant Recruits
at Any Cost.
TAKE DESPERATE CHANCES
Jersey Woman Kidnapped by
Two Men Who Convinced
Her Would Be Rescuers
She Was Insane.

II tomorrow. by some beneficent mir
acle, every working girl could be given
minimum wage. that would not solve
the white slave problem" said Mrs
James Lees Laidlaw yesterday There
would be traffic in women. just as there
is to-day, only the business would be
more difficult 1t would be harder TO get
the girls. The procurers and cadets
would have TO exercise more ingenuity.
more fraud, deception and terrorism than
they do even to-day As il is. they find
il difficult enough 10 get girls. 4 woman
does not 20 easily into that life. even
under the greatest economic pressure.
Fright and illness and mental deficiency
may be contributing causes. too. but as
= rule girls can't be driven by poverty.
They are drugged. shared or taken by
physical force.
"Of course. economic pressure helps
the procurer | am, therefore, very
strongly in favor of the minimum wage
TO deprive him Of even that ally The
white slavers' won't go out Of business,
though They can't afford to. Why. this
is regular business-with we'll equipped
plants and business routine. The pro-
prietors can't afford to have their plants
standing idle.
Every week some of those girls have
TO be taken to hospitals; others die.
Their places must be filed. minimum
wage or no minimum wage. else the
business faces bankruptcy. Those men
aren't going to fold their arms and calmly
20 out of business. They are going 10
work even more devilshly than before.
Decent Government a Remedy.
"The only solution Of the problem is a
decent city government which Will drive
them out of business. Our American city
governments are honeycombed with graft
from white slaves What are all these
gunner and graft givers but white slav-
ers'?
I'VE cannot look 10 the minimum wage
10 solve the problem as long as district
leaders big politicians. magistrates and
Judges not only countenance but acquire
gain from the traffic. Municipal corrup-
ton is the basic evil, which we must
STAMP out Everybody knows that IN
this city and all corrupt American cities
IN, great source of graft is the White
slave business.
Much as I believe in n minimum wage
I insist that 1t is absolutely misleading
and disingenuous 10 put the emphasis on
that or on any other Of the negative red-
sons. Violence on the part OF the pro-
curers is the cause of most girls olsap-
pearance.
This fiction about the poor. silly but
terfiies Topping into a net is wrong. The
men don't Just passively wait for their
victims They hunt them They hunt
them with taxicabs, with drugged drinKs'
with false offers of marriage, with all
kinds of deliberate devices. II girls en-
tered the life purely from economic rea-
sons there would be no need for making
a science of the business.
Yes. there is no doubt that the taxi
cab drivers are in league with the 'sys-
tenn. II you keep hearing over and over
again stories of how women are carried
deliberately TO the wrong houses, how
can YOU fail 10 generalze? friend OF
mine came down from Albany, entered
taxi and asked to be driven to a certain
number She was pretty. but she was
older than she looked. The driver stopped
al a house.
This is not the place: drive on she
ordered him. He took her 10 three differ
ent places At the third house second
man on the box took her suitcase and
started up the steps. saying This Is
where you are going. lady 1t wasn't the
place at ALL My friend just stepped out
on the sidewalk and yelled and threat
ened 70 call the police II he didn't bring
back her bag at once. He did it. thor
oughly frightened.
THE Travellers Aid Society too, in its
annual report refers TO the obviousness Of
the fact that taxicab drivers and most
public conveyances are In league with
the white slavers.
Another common device is to pretend
10 persons around that the woman Is
crazy and they (the mem are taking her
to an institution. Several instances for
which I can vouch have come within my
own experience. and have heard dozens
Of others on good authority.
Jersey Woman's Fate.
There was the young Jersey woman
who disappeared Her husband who Is q