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
Buffalo is not the only city which is a hunting ground of white slave
traffickers. I think it safe to say that every city, village and hamlet
whose daughters are fair to look upon, has been or will be, as time
proceeds, the hunting ground of some procurer or agent for the white
slave syndicate. I do not say this rashly, nor for the purpose of
startling villagers where the church bell and the school bell are
practically the only sounds which break the peace and quiet of the
community, but I make the statement for the purpose of sounding a
warning to that very resident, that very mother, that daughter, who sits
in that schoolhouse or in that church pew and believes that she is safe
from the snares of the traffickers because of the remoteness or the
inaccessibility or otherwise of her peaceful village. It is not alone
the large cities that furnish beautiful girlhood to lives of shame and
debauchery. It is not necessary to go to New York, Pittsburg,
Philadelphia or Kansas City to procure beautiful and attractive girls.
It is well known that out on the prairies, in Texas, in Missouri, in
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, in fact all over our great west, there are as
beautiful types of womanhood as ever graced God's footstool. It is these
that the trafficker is seeking. They it is who furnish the easiest
victims for his snares.
As a prosecuting officer I personally can testify to the fact that very
many cities and villages now have in the red light district of Chicago
and other cities, daughters who, if their names were mentioned in their
home cities, would bring shame and disgrace to prominent and honest
people. There are girls from cities in the interior, girls from small
villages with hardly a thousand inhabitants, and girls from villages of
this size and cities of varying population from that on up to cities of
the size of Boston and Pittsburg and other great commercial and social
centers. There are of course some cities which furnish more women for
prostitution than others. I shall not publish a comparative list, but
will suffice by giving a list of cities scattered broadcast from which
have come girls and women to the great white slave market in Chicago
within my own personal experience. Cities which have furnished girls and
women for this purpose are as follows: Toledo, Ohio; Youngstown, Ohio;
Detroit, Michigan; Muskegon, Michigan; Montreal, Canada; Troy, New York;
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Peoria, Illinois; Bloomington, Illinois; St.
Louis, Missouri; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; New York; Davenport, Iowa;
Moline, Illinois; Livonia, Pennsylvania; Whitehall, Michigan; Waseca,
Minnesota; Charleston, Illinois. I know that the above statement will
cause a thrill in some of the cities which I have mentioned, but I
believe that the agitation upon the white slave question has reached a
point where false modesty should no longer prevent the public from
knowing the exact situation however much it may cause them to feel a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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