The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-12
No "White Slave Trust" Says
q. s. Attorney Robertson.
It's All Piffle About Organiza.
ton in This Country.
READY TO RESPOND IN KANSAS
Three Special Agents Look Into
Cases in This State.
Federal Officer Criticises Purity
Congress Actions.

| If any young women who have been
reading the reports of the addresses
delivered at the Purity congress held
in Topeka this week have received the
impression that there is a live, active
white slave" trust in existence, hold
ing out allurements and offering an
easy life in return for wickedness,
these young women will do we'll to re-
wise their views. There is no socalled
easy money to be made by young
women WON BY n simply p1yv getting in touch
reason that no such trust exists, ac-
cOrding to Fred Robertson, United
! States district attorney.
The Mann act, or white slave law
has done what it was framed to do"
says Mr.. Robertson. ct has put or
ganized and cOmmercialized vice out
of business. There was a time when
men and some women, engaged in the
importation of women from Europe
and from other countries and from
state to state. The federal law made
this business dangerous for them, and
the reforms which have swept over
the cities of the country wiping out
segregated or protected districts have
eliminated any profits there might
have been in the business of procur-
ing and selling girls or women. 1t no
| longer pays. The business has been
so broken by the Mann law and an
aroused public conscience that there
is no longer any money in the bust
ness. A man might have a dozen girls
ready to go wherever he might send
them and do whatever they might be
| expected to do, and yet in business
paralance he would not be able to
turn them at a profit for the very
good reason that nobody wants them.
The risks are too great and the
chances of making money out of them
are too remote.
Isolated Cases.
''Of course there are isolated cases
| in which some man associates himself
with an immoral woman or with a
woman whom he expects to become
such, with the expectation of having
her share what money she may make.
1T is cases like these that the white
slave law is now busy with, but or
ganized vice no longer exists.
! This is a rather indicate subject
, to discuss, but I can readily see how
much public discussion of white slav-
cry such as has occurred in connec-
! ton with the holding of the Purity
congress here, might have a bad in
! fiuence, along with the good which
may have resulted. 1 believe the vice
| question has been magnified and hurt
full impressions may have been con-
i veyed to young women of a naturally
hayward disposition. The hayward
girls compose the class which needs
attention. 1t does these girls no good
to make them believe that an organ
| lied trust exists, awaiting an oppor-
tunity to reward them for misconduct.
In the hope that 1 may do some good
toward correcting this impression
am willing that what 1 say be pub
lished.
No White Slave Trust.
There is no such thing as a white
! slave trust in the United States. Not
only is there no such trust but there
| is no organization of any kind, nor
| association of individuals co-operat-
ing together to traffic in women. and
with the possible exception of two or
three cities, there is no organized
commercialized vice in any city of
considerable size in the entire United
States Among these exceptions is
! New Orleans, and possibly San Fran
cisco. In these cities, persons engaged
! in vice have at least a semblance of
| organization.
But when I say there is no such
| thing as an organization trafficking in
women, 1 do not say there are any
fewer or any more women living by
| immortality than formerly. The point
I am making is that there is no vice
| 'trust'-that to talk of white slave
! trust is silly, and that persons who
travel over the country delivering pub
| lie addresses to that effect are either
misled or are merely seeking motor !
iety for the purpose of grating living
by posing as 'reformers Agitation
and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES uhthe
now by 'reformers' of the kind. Any
conscientious movement for the adj
vancement of social purity is to be COM ,,
mended, but to organize to fight a
white slave trust when no such
| trust exists, if not harmful. is at least
| misdirected effort. If people more gen.
orally realized how effectively the
! United States government has stamped |
| out the traffic, money which is now
given to fight this non-existent traffic
| ,ierI,k 70, = ie Io6
Three Men in Kansas.
There is no law in any country
| which is more rigidly enforced than is
| the federal law against the traffic.
| Since the Mann act became a law
nearly one thousand men and women
have been convicted for violating it.
! In the district of Kansas the govern
men employs three special agents for
this purpose If a report of a violation
of the Mann law comes to me from:
any point in Kansas one of these agents
! is sent out on the case the first
train. These special agents are not de-
tectives. They are trained lawyers adj |
mitted to practice and capable. of look
; ing after any legal questions arising. |
1 have prosecuted several white slave |
cases and secured convictions but in
| no case has there ever been one iota
accused were cooperating with others. |
There has been nothing to indicate an
organization of any kind. !
IF there is any good evidence that |
white slave trust exists. and this
+; evidence is brought to me. 1 can guar
antee that any persons thus engaged
Will be put out of business in six
hours. if they are in my district and
the other federal districts of the coun-
| try are just as well organized This
| being true, there is little excuse for
professional agitators to travel over
the country raising money to fight the |
| white slave trust and there is EQUAL
| ly small reason for purity congresses
to lend themselves to the schemes of |
! such DersOnS