The Washington times., 1914-01-17
FINDS NO WHITE
SLAVES IN EUROPE
Rockefeller Bureau Agent Says
Vice Regulation Is
Failure.

After year Of personal investigation
In eleven European countries. Abraham
Flexner, commissioned by the Bureau
of Social Hygiene, of which John D.
Rockefeller, ir., is chairman, has come
to the conclusion that police regulation
Of the social evil in Europe is a failure
and is rapidly dying Dut. Stringent leg
islation, on the other hand. has prac-
tically stamped out the so-called white
slave traffic in young girls. and segre-
CATION, he finds, is nonexistent any
where In England or The continent.
These views. upsetting beliefs widely
current in this country as to the status
of commercialized vice in the Old
World. are set forth IN q 45O-page vol
ume to be issued today. .'..
n Sex Education Neglected.
Mr.. Flexner says sex education is the
subject of as much controversy In
Europe as in this country. No recog-
milton is given to 1t in English schools
at all. In the German empire it is
very rarely given at public schools. In
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden moth
ing either of q general or compulsory
nature exists. In fact systematic or
general sex instruction has developed
as yet nowhere in Europe.
Explaining the decline in the system
attic traffic in young girls, the writer
details successive steps in legislation
due to popular agitation in late years,
and asserts that the entrapping and
immuring of a girl may be classed as
A. IL
or robbery.
In the cases to which. from time to
time. attention has been sensationally
called. the women involved are neither
innocent nor deceived.
Several Nations Involved.
The countries from which women are
procured are believed to be mainly
Hungary. Galicia, Poland and Rumania,
the countries to which they are carried,
Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and
the Levant-
While public opinion is slowly chang
ing for the better. Mr.. Flexner believes,
he still finds that there is no social
inhibition as regards immortality in man.
Europe has been a mans world" he
writes-''manased by men and largely
for men-and cynical IneE at that
womanhood. especially Of the working
classes. The military, the aristocracy,
the student, are all conceded theiI fling.
Women, whose influence might have
teen eXerted restrainingly. have been
trained not to pry into the pre-matri-
monial records of their husbands,
fathers fashion their sons, as a rule,
after their own image.
Power of Good Women.
In the hands of good women" de-
clares Mr.. Flexner, lies the power of
reform, and 1t may be fairly said that
now, for the first time, 1t has been de-
Iiberately faced on the Continent by a
small but earnest band Of men ond
women bent upon the publication Of
life"
The volume treats at length of the
inscribed and registered women OF ~vari-
Gus European cities plying their trade
under police license. and brands the
system failure Only a fraction of
these women are enrolled.
To the licensed house, Mr.. Flexner
says, public opinion in Europe is becQm-
ing increasingly hostile. "At the pres
ent time" he says, they are permitted
in France Belgium, Austria-Hungary,
and Italy: forbidden in the German En-
pire, Holland, Switzerland excepting
Geneva), Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
tria no further concessions will, under
any circumstances, be granted, and
whenever such place closes the insti-
tuition is so much nearer extinction.
Segregation, he says, has been proved
impracticable and inadvisable and, in
fact, regulation OF anv sort Is calculated
to increase the volume of immortality.