MRS. I. H. EVANS by Mrs. I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

MRS. I. H. EVANS

By Mrs. I. H. Evans

The White Slave Traffic— No. 2

MRS. I. H. EVANS

In spite of the recent wide-spread agitation on the subject of the white slave trade, and the arrest and imprisonment of a few men and women engaged in it, even in spite of more stringent laws, we have little reason to believe that it will cease, or that its dangers to girls—our own, sheltered, protected, and beloved, as well as those who are homeless, poor, and alone—will be entirely withdrawn. Indeed, only a callous, selfish heart could be content with safety for its own, while thousands of other girls, as innocent, as deserving, as virtuous, as dear to Heaven, are become the victims of the despoiler, preyed upon and exploited, in many instances, by those to whom they have every right to look for protection. Parents have a duty not only toward their own daughters, to see that they are warned and guarded, but to all girls who are in danger; and it seems as if the time might soon come when none would be exempt.

The report of the special committee of the Immigration Committee, which began its work in the fall of 1907, was transmitted to Congress in December, 1909, and a portion of it was printed as Senate Document No. 196. Its statements are regarded as authentic and conservative, and therefore as having more than usual weight. While dealing directly only with the question of the importation of foreign girls into this country for immoral purposes, the number of whom, it declares, “runs well into the thousands each year,” the conditions it portrays are such as confront any girl who is enticed into such a life. A few extracts from the report show plainly some of these conditions:—

“Most pitiful for the women and most brutal on the part of the men are the methods employed for exploiting these women imported contrary to law, both those coming willingly to lead a vicious life and those lured into the country as innocent girls by deception and by their affections.”

“The procurer may put his woman into a disorderly house, sharing profits with the madam. He may sell her outright; he may act as an agent for another man; he may keep her, making arrangements for her hunting men. . . . If she tries to leave her man, she is threatened with arrest. If she resists, she finds all the men about her leagued against her; she may be beaten; in some cases, when she has betrayed her betrayer, she has been murdered.”

“Of her earnings she gets practically nothing; if she is docile and beautiful, and makes herself a favorite with the madam, she may occasionally be allowed to ride in the parks, handsomely dressed. . . . She is usually kept heavily in debt, in order that she may not escape. . . . Frequently she is not allowed to leave the house except in company with those who will watch her; she is deprived of all street clothing; . . . she often contracts loathsome and dangerous diseases, and lives hopelessly on, looking forward to an early death.”

In answer to the question, “Why don’t the girls escape?” the report has this to say:—

“An innocent girl often revolts bitterly against the life, and refuses to submit until compulsion is used. . . . If she tries to escape, he may apply for aid to any other man (in the same business) in any city in the United States. . . . Not only do these men wish to help one another, but they wish also to impress upon their own women the difficulties and danger of attempting to escape. In many cases it appears as if the police made little effort to assist the girls. . . . Instead of feeling safe with the police, they are usually threatened with the police by their masters, and sometimes they are arrested and punished on some false complaint.”

As already stated, the influence of the work of the special grand jury in New York City extended to other cities throughout the country. As a result, the officials of many cities increased their activity and vigilance in this direction. Numerous committees of investigation were appointed, and their findings give increased evidence of such traffic.

“On January 16, at Watertown, N. Y., a detective rescued three girls of respectable families, who had been abducted by a man and a woman from Utica, N. Y., on the promise of lucrative positions. The newspapers stated that the facts in this case indicated the existence of a well-organized white slave syndicate operating near the Canadian border.”

“In Los Angeles was discovered a man who has been making periodical trips to Belgium, bringing back each time a woman who, he claimed to the authorities, was his wife, but who was subsequently sold into slavery. The man was arrested in Baltimore for enticing a seventeen-year-old girl from Dauphin, Pa., to that city. On one of the prisoners was found memoranda of names and addresses of girls in nearly every city in the East. A sixteen-year-old girl, employed in a typewriter factory in Grand Rapids, Mich., was enticed into a resort by two women, and was refused her freedom. She managed to escape, and brought action against the women.”

“Such occurrences as these,” says Mrs. Rose Woodallen Chapman, “recorded from all over our land, should enforce upon our minds two vital lessons:—

“One is the need for drastic legislation in every State in the Union, looking toward the complete wiping out of this nefarious traffic.

“The second lesson is one that needs to be learned by parents and young people everywhere; and that is, that these traps are spread for young and innocent feet not alone in the big and wicked city, but in the smaller place as well. Harry A. Parkin, assistant United States district attorney of Chicago, says: ‘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 make this statement for the purpose of sounding a warning to that resident, that mother, that daughter, who sits in the schoolhouse or church pew, and believes that she is safe from the snares of the traffickers because of the remoteness or the inaccessibility 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 are

the ones who furnish the easiest victims for his snares.’”

“Parents need to be awakened to the fact that they must be watchful always if they are to insure the safety of their girls, even when living in the seclusion of their own homes. Sometimes a young girl in the country or small town is allowed to marry a man from the city, whose polished ways have blinded her natural protectors to the necessity of a full knowledge of the character and history of the man into whose hands they must put the welfare of their child. Too often has the marriage proved to be but the convenient trick of the procurer, and the girl found herself his innocent victim.

“Then, too, the girl living at home sometimes thoughtlessly picks up acquaintances at the post-office, the railroad station, when off on a picnic, and little by little comes under the insidious influence of one who is deliberately plotting her ruin.

“Parents should understand that these dangers are very real, and should do all in their power to guard against them.”

Takoma Park, D. C.