Читать книгу Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade - Various - Страница 5

Table of Contents

I am firmly convinced that when the people of this nation understand and fully appreciate the unspeakable villainy of "The White Slave Traffic" they will rise in their might and put a stop to it. The growth of this "trade in white women," as it has been officially designated by the Paris Conference, was so insidious that it reached the proportions of an international problem almost before the people of the civilized nations of the world learned of its existence.

The traffic increased rapidly, owing largely to the fact that it was tremendously profitable to those depraved mortals who indulged in it, and because the people generally, until very recently, were ignorant of the fact that it was becoming so extensive. And even at this time, when a great deal has been said by the pulpit and the press about the horrors of the traffic, the public idea of just what is meant by the "white slave traffic" is confused and indefinite.

It is my hope and belief that this work, edited by the scholarly and devoted Ernest A. Bell, whose life of toil for the wayward and the fallen has endeared him to all who know of him and his work, will do much to make the nature, scope and perils of this infamous trade better understood.

The characteristic which distinguishes the white slave traffic from immorality in general is that the women who are the victims of the traffic are forced unwillingly to live an immoral life. The term "white slave" includes only those women and girls who are actually slaves—those women who are owned and held as property and chattels—whose lives are lives of involuntary servitude. The white slave trade may be said to be the business of securing white women and of selling them or exploiting them for immoral purposes. It includes those women and girls who, if given a fair chance, would, in all probability, have been good wives and mothers and useful citizens.

Only a little time ago there were many thousands of our best citizens who were unable to bring themselves to believe that an international traffic in white women really existed. The statement seemed too sensational for their acceptance. If any readers remain who are still unconvinced that such an international traffic is a fact, let them consider the following, quoted from the annual report for 1908, of Hon. Oscar S. Straus, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor:

"An international project of arrangement for the suppression of the white-slave traffic was, on July 25, 1902, adopted for submission to their respective governments by the delegates of the various powers represented at the Paris conference, which arrangement was confirmed by formal agreement signed at Paris on May 18, 1904, by the Governments of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and the Swiss Federal Council. This arrangement, after submission to the Senate, was proclaimed by President Roosevelt June 15, 1908, and is printed in full in the report of the Commissioner General of Immigration. The purpose of the arrangement is set forth in the preamble, which states that the several governments, 'being desirous to assure to women who have attained their majority and are subjected to deception or constraint, as well as minor women and girls, an efficacious protection against the criminal traffic known under the name of trade in white women ("Traite des Blanches"), have resolved to conclude an arrangement with a view to concert proper measures to attain this purpose'."

It is, of course, inconceivable that the distinguished representatives of these great governments would have entertained for consideration any subject not of vital and international importance.

There is still another point upon which I feel moved to place all possible emphasis—the hideous depravity and the fiendish cunning of the criminals who engage in this most abhorrent and revolting of all criminal pursuits.

Kipling said in one of his poems, describing the doings of lawless people in the camps of one of the Northern countries, that, "There is never a law of God or man runs north of Forty-nine." That and more too might be said of the districts where the white slaver grows rich from his traffic in girls. The men and the women who engage in this traffic are more unspeakably low and vile than any other class of criminals. The burglar and holdup man are high-minded gentlemen by comparison. There is no more depraved class of people in the world than those human vultures who fatten on the shame of innocent young girls. Many of these white slave traders are recruited from the scum of the criminal classes of Europe.

And in this lies the revolting side of the situation. On the one hand the victims, pure, innocent, unsuspecting, trusting young girls—not a few of them mere children. On the other hand, the white slave trader, low, vile, depraved and cunning,—organically a criminal.

In the prosecutions which I have officially conducted against this class of criminals the fact has developed that when caught they generally are willing to arrange to pay heavy fines. These offers have, of course, been refused and we have taken the position that we will in no case accept merely a fine. In all these cases already tried we have asked the court to impose jail sentences and we expect to continue that policy. Men and women who make a living and fatten off the shame, the disgrace and the ruin of innocent young girls are a menace to the community, to whom no quarter should be given.

The rule in my office with reference to this class of cases is to show no quarter—to extend no consideration of any kind. We are requiring heavy bail and asking for imprisonment in the penitentiary in case of conviction. And I may add that no criminal convictions secured as a result of my efforts have yielded me a personal satisfaction to be compared with that afforded by the conviction of those engaged in the white slave trade.

One word more: I hope soon to see the time when the laws of the land will as carefully protect the daughters of the United States from the destroying hand of the white slave trader as the international treaty agreements now protect the girl who is brought in from foreign shores.

Respectfully,

EDWIN W. SIMS.

AT WORK IN THE VICE DISTRICT—AT THE VERY DOOR OF A DEN

In some cities the charitable organizations have missionaries whose work is among the denizens of the vice districts. This picture shows one of them pleading with a lost one to give up her sinful life.

BARS WERE REMOVED BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE

Until quite recently the back and side windows of vice resorts were barred like a prison, and one of the first steps in this crusade was to get the chief of police to remove them.