Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade
History
Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade
Prostitution
So scandalously far can a fallen government and a fallen church depart
from the Head of the church and the Head of human government, that we
have seen kings, even the pious king of France, Saint Louis, giving a
royal permit to harlots; and the Mayor of London, William Walworth, in
1381, managing the brothels at Southwark for the Bishop of Winchester,
who owned, licensed and regulated those abominable places. The
Reformation party prevailed upon Henry VIII, in the thirty-seventh year
of his reign to end this infamy, and "this row of stews in Southwark was
put down by the king's commandment, which was proclaimed by sound of
trumpet." Thus as Dr. Fuller wrote, "This regiment of sinners was
totally and finally routed"--a warning to other vice districts, and an
example of how to deal with them.
From that date, 1545 to 1864, England gave no official endorsement to
vice. Then a wicked government, after calling the medical head of the
system of regulation in Paris to visit London, and getting the Parisian
chief of police to write a book for their information, thrust upon the
unsuspecting English nation the odious French system of legalized
vice--restricting its application at first to certain garrison towns,
but cunningly extending it to the whole country, the Crown colonies, and
Canada and India. After a heroic crusade of twenty-two years, led by
Mrs. Josephine Butler, the aroused conscience of Great Britain compelled
Parliament in 1886 to repeal the loathsome Contagious Diseases Acts.
ILLINOIS REJECTS THE PARISIAN SYSTEM.
The Statutes of Illinois show that in the year 1874, certain city
officials in this State were about to license houses of ill-fame and to
provide for enforced medical inspection of their inmates, according to
the detestable methods established a century ago in Paris--a system
which made the blood of Frances Willard turn to flame, when she saw its
workings in Paris, and made her resolve that American womanhood should
never be subjected to it. The outrageous French system of giving legal
standing to vice, and attempting to assure men that they can violate the
moral law and escape the physical penalty, is utterly repugnant to the
Anglo-Saxon conscience. As President Roosevelt cabled to the
Philippines, when he was urged to take measures for reducing disease in
the army, "The way to reduce the disease is to reduce the vice." Lord
Herbert, when Minister of War, by improving the habits of the men,
reduced the disease in the British army 40 per cent in six years,
1860-66. Under Lord Kitchener's command in India today every soldier
finds a tract in his knapsack telling him plainly the consequences of
vice, and urging him to lead a manly and honorable life. The tract was
prepared jointly by Lord Kitchener and the Bishop of Lahore.
[Illustration: CLOSED OUT AS ALL DENS OUGHT TO BE
Formerly a notorious resort containing many white slaves. Now closed, as
a result of the fight against the traffic in young girls]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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