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
"If you mean by the White Slave Traffic the placing of young girls in a
brothel for a price, it most undoubtedly is a real fact, based upon
statements that have been made in my court during the past three months
by defendants, both men and women, who have pleaded guilty to that
crime, and in a sense it is both interstate and international.
"Not one, but many shipments, of which I have personal knowledge based
upon testimony of people who have pleaded guilty, many shipments come
from Paris and other European cities to New York; and from New York to
Chicago and other western points; and from Chicago as a distributing
point to the West and the Southwest; and on the western coast, coming in
to San Francisco and other ports there. Yes, it is a real fact; and it
is something that we have got to take notice of, and something that,
while it may have been developed largely during the last ten years, the
national government itself has recently taken notice of its existence.
"There are three specific classes of what we might call white slave
traders. First, the man or woman who conducts the brothel; and if I had
more time I would like to tell you something about the ways and means
used by these people to keep at least a large number of their girls
there. Second, the man who acts as a sort of broker, dealing in girls,
transferring them from one brothel to another. The third class is the
lowest of all--those men and women, largely women, who make a business
of procuring girls for the brothel. These three classes make a living
off that traffic and the profit therefrom."
Bishop Anderson of the Episcopal diocese of Chicago says: "The mind of
the public is moral, and if it can be convinced of the actual state of
affairs the public conscience will soon be aroused and something good is
bound to be accomplished. Accurate and conservative information, if
spread broadcast, will go far to accomplish the great work which we have
in hand."
St. Paul had a like confidence in the public intelligence and
conscience, and in the usefulness of information spread broadcast to end
the White Slave Traffic. The apostle wrote on this subject in 2 Timothy,
3:6-9: "For of these are they that creep into houses and lead captive
silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning
and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and
Jambres withstood Moses so do these men also resist the truth, men of
corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no
further, for their folly shall be known unto all men, as theirs also
came to be." St. Paul here intimates that publicity will overthrow the
traffickers in women as the opponents of Moses were overwhelmed in
Egypt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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