The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1913-06-11

BERLIN, June 11-As a result o
cooperation between German polic
and the officials and employees of tn,
railroads, the government today began
laying it's lines for merciless prese
cution of number of white slavers.
Already several cases have been con
cluded and a number of those who
have piled the. nefarious export trade
in women and young girls today be-
gan serving limit sentences, some o.
which are as long as forty-fve years
Owing to ignorance and poverty, some
of the provinces have been among the
principal recruiting grounds for the
slayers. The latter had strong organ
izations throughout the country and
it has only been with greatest diff
Guilty that the government has succeed
ed in ferreting them out.
Scores of young girls, deceived by
promises of marriage, big wages, and
forged letters purporting to come from
|
relatives in America, have easily been
induced to slip away with the recruit
ing agents who were sometimes wom-
en- but more often men. Hundreds of
cases of young girls disappearing have
been reported to the police. Few of
the victims ever have been heard from.
1t was when matters reached such
pass that the government issued an
edict that no girl unaccompanied by
parents or relatives should be allow
ed to sail from any German port with
out a pass. The authorities also were
instructed to investigate thoroughly
when applications were made for such
passes. The slavers circumvented the
police and the government by slipping
across the frontier into Holland, Bel
GUM or France with their victims.
AS the next move, the government
ordered that all railroad officials and
employees cooperate with the police.
Rewards and promotion were offered
to any railroad official or employee who
detected white SLAYER" taking girls
out of the country. The aid of station
, employees and conductors especially
was asked. AS result of this CO.
operation between the police and rail
road employees Germany today has
been freer of slavers than for many
years.
Despite the seeming openness of the
fight against the slavers the govern
ment conducted it's fight with unusual
secrecy. Every possible means was
taken not to put the slavers on their
guard after they had discovered the
way the government was watching
sailing vessels At last, however, the
government is giving its campaign the
widest publicity and today govern
ment report was issued telling of the
breaking up of two gangs. One was in
Silesia near the Russian frontier and
the other in Alsace Lorraine on the
French border. In each instance it
was a watchful railroad employe who
put the government sleuths on the
trails of the gang.
The Silesian gang was smuggling
girls-some of them were from thir-
teen to sixteen years old-over the
line into Austria. They were sent
thence to Trieste and from there to
Buenos Ayeres, regarded as the worlds
greatest buying" white slave market
and where many of the girls were
bought for points in the United States.
The Alsace Lorraine gang got their
victims across the line into Paris, |
Amsterdam or Brussels, from where
they were shipped to the same desti- |
nation. In the majority of cases, it
was learned through confess ions of
some of the convicted slavers who |
turned estates evidence afterwards, the |
girls were finely treated and did not |
know for what purpose they were TAX
en- until they reached Buenos Ayeres.
They imagined they were being taken
to America or South America to work
in industrial establishments and were
easily made to believe that labor and |
laws made necessary the