South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-10-28
COUNTRY GIRLS
ARE VICTIMS OF
WHITE SLAVERS
Education Needed to Stamp
Out the System Entirely,
According to Clifford Roe in
Talk at EIkS' Temple.

clifford Roe. who iectured before a
large audience in the Elks' temple
Monday evening on the white slave
traffic, became an apostle Of humanity
quite by accident. He never intended
bei:g anything but corporation law
yer. he says.
4 case which involved the liberty
OF an unfortunate girl turned his at
fention TO the one phase of the trag-
ady that underlies the lawyers bus
ness. The call of human misery
was more insistent than his ambition
and he became a refOrmers. Now
all OF his time is given 10 the de-
struction OF a system that makes the
white slave possible.
Mr.. Roe is young and cheerful for
all that he must see much in life
that is saddest. He Is neither the
austere lawyer or the Over-zealous
reformer. He just goes about his
work, ne doesn't regard IL as a mis-
sion, in a business-like human way.
The eight years that have interven-
ed since the first girl claimed his at
tention are flied with achievements
that have brought liberty and hope
TO her unfortunate class.
Took Hold of Case.
Mr.. Roe was then the junior mem
Der OF a firm Of corporation lawyers.
Criminal cases were not desired by
the firm and when they came were
delegated TO the junior member just
because he was the junior member.
The case Of the girl was among
them and was brought to him by
barber who had rescued her from a
house of ill-fame. Her story intro
duced him TO white slavery and the
hideous system by which 1t was
maintained.
He secured her liberty but she, and
the class she represented, did not
leave his mind. Later he became at
taChed to the district attorneys Of
flee in Chicago and there he had an
opportunity to probe deeper into the
evil. Four hundreds convictions of
men who trap girls into immoral
lives, is a part OF his accomplish
ment.
But he has done much more. He
has begun an agitation which has
opened the eyes Of the public to a
traffic il at first refuse to believe
existed. He has brought about the
enactment OF laws making the pun
ishment of white slavers possible. He
has stimulated the enforcement Of
laws. He has brought about the re-
demption of hundreds of girls and
n vigorous prosecution OF their De-
trayers that is becoming an effective
check on the system.
Messenger of Crusade.
Mr.. Roe came to South Bend as a
messenger of a crusade that is aimed
TO stamp out the system entirely. 1t
is planned to bring all the cities of
the country into close cooperation in
pursuing the white SLAYER. to bring
about the enactment OF laws leading
to the suppression of vice in cities,
and TO educate the nation to an ap-
probation Of the dangers that sur
round young women.
The traffic now, Mr.. Roe says is
largely from country TO city. To edu-
cate the rural communities he is in
teresting the college men and women
who go back TO small towns. These
he expects will lead in a study of
vice conditions and in the dissemina-
ton of knowledge that will warn
country girls Of the menace of the
cities.
In the end, Mr.. Roe believes, the
crusade against white slavery will
serve other purposes. 1t will aid in
the elimination Of vice because IL
Will reveal the horrors of vice. 1t
is helping. he thinks, 10 bring about
woman suffrage because il is proving
that the moral influence Of women is