The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-20
Fifteen Thousand Fallen WOm-
en- in New York.
Scarlet Army Plies in One
Borough Alone.
TOO MANY MASSAGE PARLORS
Public Dance Halls Also Con-
tribute immortality.
Poverty Is Not Blamed for Sex
Traffic.

New York. May 20.-Fifteen thou
sand women of the under world-a
scarlet army no census heretofore en-
umerated- their trade in one Dor
ough of Greater New York alone
This is the estimate of the bureau of
social hygiene, an organization of
which John D. Rockefeller, jr., is
chairman, as made public in an ab-
Btract of a forthcoming report by GEO.
j. Kneeland, a special investigator,
after a painstaking inquiry into COM
mercialiZed vice conditions in Man
haitian, extending over period of
nearly ten months.
Aside from a series of chapters
dealing in minute frankness with the
operation of notorious resorts
throughout the city, the report treats
of the dance hall evil and of the
alarming spread of the so-called mas
sage parlors. lover three hundred OF
these exist in the CITY," says the re-
port, land in many of them not the
slightest effort was made to cloak the
immoral nature of the business. OPP
orators for these establishments are
often procured by advertising in the
newspapers" Of the dance halls the
report says:
Public Dance Hall.
"The public dance hall was found
to justify the worst that has been said
of it. OF seventy-five dances reported
only five were characterized by the
investigators as decent. Nor are
these dances attended only by hard
ened profligates. Young girls-some
Innocent-others, if not entirely inno-
cent. at any rate not wholly depraved,
and young men not yet altogether vi
cious, attend the gatherings in search
of amusement and change. Many are
innocent working girls, who seek le-
ultimate recreation. The sinister ele-
ment in attendance is the hired ca
diets, who attend with the cold-blood-
ed purpose of finding new subjects
of debauchery and of subsequent eX-
ploitation for gain. These agents of
commercialized vice are usually we'll
dressed, we'll hammered, and introduce
themselves politely and easily to
strangers. They often pretend to love
at first sight and exhibit marked de-
votion by which the girls are deceived
and to which they too often yield.
When the seduction of the girls is ac-
complished, they are put on the
street, and their ruin is complete.
No Blame to Poverty.
Mr.. Kneeland argues, contrary to
the expressed views of so many in
vestigating bodies that girls do not as
a general thing take up a life of shame
because of the pinch of poverty He
holds that oftener they are victims in
their Ignorance of the agents OF COM
mercialized vice.
at is idle he says, ito explain
away the phenomena on the ground
that they are the results of the inevi- |
table weakness of human ndJures nu- |
man weakness would demand far few
er and less horrible sacrifices. Most
of the wreckage, and the worst of 1t, is
due to persistent, cunning and UNI
principled exploitation; to the band
Ing together in Infamous enterprises
of madame, procurer, brothel keeper
and LIQUOR Vender to carry on DELHI
erately a cold blooded traffic for their
Joint profit a traffic, be it added, from
which the girl involved procures at
the most, with few exceptions, her bare
subsistence, and that only so long as
she has a trade value"
One of them, the report continues, is
known as the king" He is inter-
ested in eleven houses. He is supposed |
to have great influence with the au-
thorities. and it largely depends upon
his judgment whether houses are
openly and flagrantly, or quietly and
cautiously conducted.
When external conditions are unfa-
vorable, these men ship their women
to points where conditions are more
propitious. Variations in public opin-
ion and in the attitude of the munich
pal authorities are quickly reflected
in the market. Just before the RoS-
enthal murder prices were prohibitive-
" high; since that date they have
steadily declined.
Immense Earnings in Resorts.
An attempt is made to estimate the
vast receipts of the resorts of ILL
fame, yet the investigators are frank
as to make it impossible to arrive at
any accurate total. Thirty of the most
tawdry resorts, it is pointed out, earn
O. W