The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-16

Are you sure it was a minute",
interrupts the judge,
YES"
Take out your watch" the judge
orders. Look at it. Watch the
second hand go around until the
minute is up. Then let us know if
it was that long you looked at her"
The court is silent. Nobody moves.
All eyes stare at the detective sitting
in the witness box. Sixty seconds
pass-slowly, too slowly to give cred
ence to the story.
well, do you still think it's a
minute?", the Judge asks.
yes"
"And she said nothing?"
Yes
At this juncture the defense at
torney asked, land having looked one
full minute, did you notice any scars
on the girls body7"
mo"
The attorney thereupon calls for a
woman court doctor who had ex-
amined the girls body, to testify.
She walks up TO the witness stand,
raises her right hand, and the Judge
mumbles promise to tell the truth,
SO help"
Are there any scars on the girls
body, any visible scars7" the defense
attorney asks.
Eyes, q large scar on the thigh"
Gould anyone see 1t easily?"
eyes"
as 1t a recent SCARF"
mo"
That's ALL" the lawyer snaps,
feeling he has scored decisive point.
THE district attorney looks discon-
L certed The doctor has dealt
nasty wallop to the whole structure
of his case. Imagine dicks looking
at a girl for one full minute while
she was undressed and missing the
sight Of very large, obvious scar.
The ratty smell Of frame-up be-
gins to loom around the case.
The district attorney sums up the
facts for the judge. His short legs
walk up and down. He turns casu-
ally, llClC anu bAAC1C, 90 ppChhos
He tries to attain poise, whilst his
mouth enits poison. After all,
prosecuting attorney must prosecute,
even in the face of the most inno-
cent.
"You are aware, judge, that pris-
oners have deliberately SCARED them
selves in Jail in order to win point
in their favor. Couldn't it be-"
But" interrupts the attorney,
"the doctor says the scar is not re-
cent?" The district attorney looks
perturbed, half-defeated. He has
heard every word the doctor said.
His ears and memory are well
trained. It's his business to be alert.
But it is also his business to lunge
through some loophole, spring some
trick to heaye the defendant behind
prison bars. He tries often, but fails
your honor, you must also con-
slider that human beings are fallible.
1t is possible to overlook the scar
in this situation" His plea is feeble
The rest of the testimony is too
trumped-up, too flimsy; not even
the Judge believes it. The judge
seems eager to drop the case. 1t
echoes the doings of the recently
exposed vice squad. No use fooling
with it.
mot guilty" the judge concludes.
Upon leaving the court, one begins
Y to wonder about all the cases of
the day. One wonders about a lot
of things, about these cases of pros
titution and the way they are
solved" The problem of why girls
have to enter the profession" is
never aired in the Women's Court.
1t appears that no judge has ever
heard of our four-year crisis. The
court still asks girls if they are en-
ployed, and If they are not, a major
point is scored against them.
When ultimately found guilty, the
girls are put in prisons that are
schools of crime. There they learn
about gun-molls and dope fiends,
racketeers and degenerates. When
released, they have any of these al
ternatives to choose from. For the
crisis still keeps them unemployed.
They are ever bounded by the vice
squad and parole board. Their
prison records, ike whips, drive them
out of decent channels of livelihood
into the slums and hellish sewers Of
society.
Young proletarian daughters, their
homes smashed by the crisis, hurled
into poverty and unemployment, are
forced to give their bodies for the
price of food and shelter.
Nobody has yet taken statistics Of
the increase in prostitution during
the crisis. They are not easy to OBJ
tain. 1t Is an undercover trade that
has always thrived in capitalist So
city. and one can only guess how
big the trade is. Today safe con-
lecture would be that the economic
conditions Of our country in the past
four years has more than doubled
the profession of prostitution. An
examination of the Women's Courts,
not to speak of the increase in street
~oliciting, would greatly substantiate
this guess.
For contrast in treatment Of pros
titution, it would be good to look at
the Soviet Union. There, this So
cial evil is practically eradicated.
The few prostitutes that still exist
and are incurable, are sent to sani-
tariums, not to prisons of torture.
The others now develop in the sun o.
self-respecting, useful work Thus,
"the oldest profession" in history has
been torn up by it's roots in land
that has destroyed capitalism.
by QJJIR1