New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-03-10
LOW WAGES AID VICE,
DECLARES MRS. Gait
Most Powerful and important
Influence in Social Evil. Suf-
frage Alliance Head Says.
MESSENGERS BARE SECRETS
Young Telegraph Boys Carry
Drugs 20 Tenderloin Women,
They Tell Quaker City
Investigators.

Investigators.
Philadelphia March 9.-Declaring
,hat low wages have most important
and powerful influence OF the question
Of prostitution. Mrs. Carrie Chapman
,att president of the international
WOmen'S Suffrage Alliance. to-day
tCok issue with statements made before
the Illinois Vice Commission N Chi
cago.
Mrs Catt and DR.. Howard 4. Kelly.
If Johns Hopkins University. delivered
addresses on the vice problem at a
meeting this afternoon under the
auspices of the Equal Suffrage Society
Of Philadelphia.
Il 90 not mean 10 say that wages is
the only question involved IT, this
world problem declared Mrs. Gait.
II is not - il is probably the most
powerful and the most important in
fuenco with which we have To deal.
Il am not prepared to say that - a
week. the figure set by a witness he
fore the vice commission in Chicago. is
insufficient as living wage for a girl
entirely dependent uron herself. but on
my return 10 America from a two
wears tour of the world ! found that
the prices of most necessities of life had
risen; so this figure seems pitifullv
small"
Economic Independence Necessary.
Economic independence of women is
necessary TO the solving of the problem.
Mrs. Gait said. She told Of improved
conditions in states and in foreign
countries where women have a voice in
the government.
The wage question enters into the
cice problem 10 great extent" said
Or. Kelly. The department stores
and factories are guilty. The poor
homes are contributing causes. Neither
must the winerooms and the saloons be
overlooked in their relation to the ques-
ton.
He ridiculed the attempts at solving
the problem by segregation. and de-
clared that only the entire ObliteratiOn
# the traffic would be effectual
The Pennsylvania Child Labor AS
ISOLATION has taken a hand in the fight
sgainst the Tenderloin by summoning
BEFORE it messenger boys and getting
from them their experiences while
answering calls i'm the red light dis
trict. The result has been put in
pamphlet form in a report just issued,
snd is TO be the beginning of a battle
20 eliminate the use of boys less than
twcnty-one years old as public mes
sengers.
The names of the boys examined by
the committee are not revealed. but the
results Of these examinations are given.
one boy, sixteen years old, employed
as "a telegraph messenger. wrote from
memory the addresses of sixty-seven
tisorderly houses in Philadelphia at
which ne had answered calls. Ten boys
wrote from memory the addresses of
@33 disorderly houses TO which their
employment took them.
Get Big Tips from Resorts.
In almost every case the boys de-
cared that they would rather answer
the calls from these resorts. as the
women inmates and their visitors were
far more liberal than business men.
usually the tips at the resorts amount
Ing 10 twice as much as the regular
service
NJ. H." seventeen years old. who has
worked as a messenger for three years.
acknowledged openly that he made
great deal OF money by selling drugs
to the inmates Of the resorts He SAID
ne was acquainted with the men who
sold the drugs ana always charged the
women inmates twice the regular price.
My business usually is over by ,
o'clock i'm the morning" the hoy testi-
he'd. and then get a little sleep"
This boy practically acknowledged iic
donned the uniform of Il messenger so
II would be easier for him to handle
drug. ana that the inmates knew this
and invariably called for him when
they telephOned 10 the telegraph oiiisc.
Numerous other boys agreed that the
money paid TO them by the Telegram
companies didn't amount TO much.
and that they usually lost this on pay
night by shooting crap or playing
poker" All Of the boys preferred 10
work at night on account of the Ten
derioIn business. and several acknOWl-
edged that should they he transferred
Ia the day force they would give up
their positions.