The World’s Social Evil 
A Historical Review and Study of 
the Problems Relating to the Subject 
BY 
WILLIAM BURGESS 
it« 
Author of "The Bible in Shakspeare,” “The Religion of Ruskin,” 
“Land, Labor and Liquor,” etc. 
Foreword by 
DR. GRAHAM TAYLOR 
With Supplementary Chapter on 
A Constructive Policy 
BY 
JUDGE HARRY OLSON 
Chief Justice, Municipal Court, Chicago 
and Other 
IMPORTANT APPENDICES 
Saul Brothers, Publishers 
Chicago \ Copyright, 1914 
By Saul Brothers, Chicago Page 
Foreword—Graham Taylor. 
Preface—Definitions—Liberty—License 5 
Chap. I. The Ancient Evil— 
[Regulation Systems of the World IB1' 
Chap. IT. The White Slave Traffic— * 
Definition — European Sources — Its 
Spread to American—The Slave Mar- 
kets in American Cities 49 
Chap. III. The English Contagions Diseases Acts— 
Their Avowed Object—How They Were 
Passed—The Popular Uprising Against 
Them—their Repeal 81\ 
Chap. IV. Weighed in the Balance— 
/Hygiene and Police Rule in Europe— 
Venereal Diseases—The Brussels Confer- 
ences 117 
Chap. V. The Wrongs of the Legalized System— 
The Magna Charta—Repulsive Measures. 141 
Chap. VI. Extortion and Graft— 
New York Examples—Tammany Gets Mil- 
lions—Plundering and Graft—San Fran- 
cisco Scandal—Blackmail 151 
Chap. VII. The Great Black Plague— 
(a) The Venereal Peril in America. 
(b) The Menace of the Army and Navy.^™__ 
(c) Can the Plague Be Stayed? 159 
Chap. VIII. The Economic Question— 
1. Cost of the Social Evil. 
2. Poverty as a Menace—Low Wages— 
Money Value of Life—Financial 
Losses by Disease—Loss of Service— 
Summary of Losses—Bedford Hill 
Reformatory 199 
CONTENTS. Chap. IX. American Awakening— Phko 
Geneva Congress—Silence Broken—A 
Decade of Interest—Chicago Aroused— 
New York Moves—Rockefeller Grand 
Jury—International Treaty—Pandering 
Laws—The Mann Act—Injunction Laws 
in Twelve States—Recall at Seattle— 
Police Women — Vice Commissions — 
—Sunday School Interest—National Or- 
ganization 231 
Chap. X. The European Revolt— 
A Voice and a Vision—Continental Con- 
ference 275 
Chap. XI. Commerce and Conscience— 
Property Owners and Real Estate Deal- 
ers and Vice—Brewers and Saloonkeep- 
ers—Moral Delinquency of the Business 
—Letters from Paris Women—American 
Business Men Plead for a red-Light Dis- 
/ trict 285 
Chap. The War and Its Weapons— 
* Civilization’s Greatest Task—Morals the 
Supreme Appeal—Remedies, Rescue— 
Prevention—Marriage and Divorce—The 
Church’s Responsibility — The Jews 
Awakened—Christ and Woman 3 01 
APPENDICES. 
1. “A Constructive Policy.”—Judge Olson 355 
2. “Prostitution in Europe.”—A Review 369 
3. Recent Appendix to Sanger’s Efistory of Prostitution— 
A Criticism 383 
4. Injunction and Abatement Law 387 
5. Pandering Act 391 
6. Chart of Prostitution Laws 392 
7. White Slave Traffic Act 394 
8. Regulation of Immigration Law 398 
9. Bulletin of Georgia Campaign 400 Foreword 
GRAHAM TAYLOR 
THIS BOOK was prompted not only by the appeal made 
to a scholarly mind by the widely scattered data of the 
long war against vice, but also by personal experience 
on the field of action where the author has aided achievement 
in securing organized effort. So rapidly and widely has the 
struggle against the social evil spread that the local and national 
groups engaged in it are for the most part unaware of what a 
diverse world-wide movement they constitute. Each several 
line of aggressive effort has its own organization and publica- 
tions, covering the medical and psychopathic, the legislative and 
police, the educational and protective, the moral and religious 
attacks upon the hydra-headed evil. 
There are many historical reviews, technical treatises and 
official reports on various phases of the vice and the movements 
against it, but they are little known and less read by those 
actively engaged or being enlisted in the struggle. To do their 
best in the intensive effort to meet concrete situations on local 
fields which absorbs them, they need to have their view ex- 
tended to the whole field of conflict, in order to realize the 
forces and resources involved on both sides. This volume meets 
the practical need of the rank and file for definition and dis- 
crimination, for retrospect and prospect, for surveys of situa- 
tions and summaries of results, for literature and laws, for 
critical estimates of methods and inspirational suggestion. It 
does so in a way sufficiently authentic to be of reference value, 
and yet is so untechnically practical as to be immediately help- 
ful to all on the firing lines of this “war without discharge.” 
Few are so well read as not to need to be informed or re- 
minded of what these chapters record of the history of regula- 6 
The World’s Social Evil 
prostitution is described as “the offering by a woman of 
her body to indiscriminate intercourse with men, for hire.” 
A “harlot” is described as “a woman who prostitutes her 
body for hire” (see Standard Dictionary). This form of 
barter has doubtless existed in all ages of civilization, and 
in all countries where woman has been free to make a bar- 
gain for herself. Free women only can prostitute them- 
selves. 
A striking account is given in Genesis 38, where Tamar, 
who was a daughter-in-law of Judah, made a bargain with 
her father-in-law, in which she is said to have “played the 
harlot,” thus indicating that the practice of harlotry by 
actual selling of the person for a consideration, was com- 
mon in that day; and the description of a “strange woman, 
with the attire of a harlot,” given in Proverbs 7, is a 
further indication that prostitution continued to exist 
through the periods of the Old Testament history; and the 
history of nations, in their downfall, shows that this evil 
was perpetuated through the ages. This form of the social 
evil, strictly speaking, involves the freedom of a woman to 
make a contract for a price. But conditions frequently 
prevailed in various ages and in different forms, in which 
this commercial transaction was associated with oppression 
and slavery, denying the individual woman any control, or 
bargain, in the matter. 
In negro slavery the woman who was compelled to serve 
her master’s lust, was not a prostitute, within the proper 
meaning of the term. She may, or may not, have been un- 
chaste,—she rarely profited by it. In many instances she 
was far more virtuous than the man who enslaved her, and 
to speak of her as a prostitute would be an error in fact. 
The third form of this giant evil is the traffic in wom- 
anhood. This is Commercialism reduced to its lowest stage Preface 
7 
of conscienceless brutality. It is merchandise in the bodies 
and souls of women and girls, which has grown to enor- 
mous proportions in every civilized country, under systems 
of governmental toleration and license, until it is regarded 
as a commercial right and a social necessity. 
PREFACE. 
II. 
In his friendly comment upon the future of the United 
States, the Hon. James Bryce did not take into account 
the most serious factors which affect, for evil, the life of 
our country. He pointed out that * ‘ the government of our 
cities is the one conspicuous failure of the United States.” 
(*) These “jet black evils,” Mr. Bryce thinks, are ac- 
counted for in the organic weakness of our political system, 
as applied to municipal government, a consideration which 
certainly calls for the thoughtful minds of progressive 
statesmen and of all citizens. 
But if any lover of his country reviews the black cata- 
log of evils which is found in the following pages, if he 
will observe how every forward step towards better gov- 
ernment has been set back by the corruption of law— 
national, state, and city—through licentiousness and the 
graft which attends it, he will see that the cause of our 
failure lies deeper than any weakness in constructive law. 
The feverish love of money has become a national sin, 
and in our city life has brought forth a harvest of crime. 
The idols we worship are as surely debasing and corrupt- 
ing our people as the idols of the heathen debased them. 
C1) The American Commonwealth. 8 
The World’s Social Evil 
And these, our idols—may be named in two words—greed 
and license. 
Greed:—We have made money a god and we have wor- 
shipped it, until the public conscience tolerated anything— 
however vile and false, which involved a vested interest, or 
a money gain. 
Once the nation went to war against this sin. It poured 
out the blood of a million men upon our own home fields, 
to redeem the nation from the blot of slavery, long sus- 
tained in the name of “vested interests.” But we repudi- 
ated the claim at a cost of uncounted treasure and rivers 
of human blood. Forgetting this, we have rushed on in 
a wild chase of the golden god—giving license in the 
name of freedom to every form of social evil, until we 
have reached the depths of a slavery incalculably more 
vile than that from which we were delivered half a century 
ago. Moreover we have, in a large degree, consented to a 
national, state and city partnership, or have permitted our 
public servants and officials to become partners, sharing 
the spoils. 
The corruption of governing bodies, and of officials, 
through the ballot box stuffed by criminals, the perversion 
of justice by conspiracy and purchase, the official control 
of vice-revenue, the partnership of police with the whisky 
ring, the gambling trust and the vice market, are con- 
ditions which exist not because of any inherent weakness 
of our political system, nor for the lack of public protest 
against them. 
Not for lack of statesmen, or men of clear brain, nor 
because we have no men who are true, or women who are 
pure; not for lack of education and teachers are we thus 
enslaved; if the civilized world should challenge a com- 
parison of men and women—great in talent and charac- Preface 
9 
ter—or of churches, universities, colleges, schools, libraries 
and benevolent institutions, we could win the race in a 
canter. 
But we have acquired the vices of the ancient world, 
and have given to these vices the freedom of commerce 
and the license of consent. 
License:—This is our national substitute for liberty. 
We glorify liberty while we dethrone it. We substitute 
license for liberty. “Liberty to wrong is the mother to 
bondage. ” We are fostering all the children of this mother. 
Destroying liberty! By permitting any and every form 
of evil to enter into competition with legitimate commerce. 
Liberty to degrade the stage and corrupt the press,—lib- 
erty to destroy the national rest day,—liberty to traffic in 
gambling, liquor and lust,—liberty to make slaves of the 
daughters of the poor and to fatten upon their polluted 
bodies,—liberty of politicians, police and criminals—to be- 
come partners in this riot and plunder. 
Concession of liberty to do wrong is part of our un- 
written code. Parentage is weakened by it. The father 
has abdicated from his rule and the mother has forgotten 
how to enforce obedience. The child thirsts after the “lib- 
erty” that ignores restraint. The girl and the boy seek 
the freedom of lawlessness, and such freedom is conceded 
in the majority of homes. 
It is the sin of the nation,—this license—mis-called lib- 
erty, the wrong which fools the poor immigrant and fills 
the air with the spirit of lawlessness and anarchy. We 
must learn again our primary lesson, not only as a school- 
book text, but as a principle of our social being, involving 
political and moral health, recognizing that no man is free, 
and no nation is free, which departs from righteousness. 10 
The World’s Social Evil 
The change in public sentiment which has been wrought 
during the past forty years, and especially the last decade 
of that period, is not confined to any zone or country, 
but is a remarkable fact, observable throughout the 
civilized world. And the agencies which contributed to 
this change are so numerous and varied that the mere 
mention of them would not be possible within the limits 
of a volume such as this. Many of them indeed were 
only a voice—sometimes discordant and startling—but 
without which society would, probably, not yet have been 
awakened. 
Two agencies which properly belong to Chapter IX 
were overlooked at the time of writing and ought to be 
mentioned, viz: the ‘ ‘ Chicago Society of Social Hygiene ’ ’ 
and the “Spokane Society of Social and Moral Hygiene.” 
which were able pioneers in the “decade of interest” 
through the printed page. 
Another difficulty, which the author faced, was that 
new facts of historic value developed as he wrote, so that 
revision of the record was several times made necessary. 
After Chapter IX was completed and in print, the Com- 
mittee of Fifteen of Chicago made public certain facts 
of actual achievement so striking as to call for a note 
here. Briefly stated they are: 
(a) The practical closing of the red light districts 
and many other houses of ill-fame throughout the city. 
(b) Revocation of license of some of the most no- 
torious resorts in Chicago and dozens of others less 
notorious. 
(c) Reduction, by at least eighty per cent, of open 
street solicitation. 
“Never before,” says Superintendent S. P. Thrasher, “could 
it be said truthfully that there was not a house of prostitution Preface 
11 
in Chicago into which a stranger could go without strategy of 
some sort. Of course,” remarks Mr. Thrasher, “it would be 
the height of folly to assume that commercialized vice has been 
driven from our city. The exploiters and the prostitutes have 
been driven behind political and financial breastworks and are 
impatiently waiting for what they believe will be the passing 
of the reform wave. If I sense the public conscience of Chi- 
cago aright, there will be no such passing, but eternal vigilance 
is the price of a clean city. 
“It would be idle to say that the Committee of Fifteen has 
directly accomplished all this, but I have no hesitancy in say- 
ing that the conditions which were revealed by the report of 
the Vice Commission would still be enriching the vice exploit- 
ers and corrupting the city but for the activities of this Com- 
mittee. One of the best evidences of the truth of this state- 
ment is that the exploiters of women openly lay this responsi- 
bility at our door. 
“In the last year and a half, the Committee has been chiefly 
instrumental in closing more than five hundred (500) houses 
of prostitution and disorderly saloons, thereby reducing the 
income of vice nearly ten million dollars, which was largely 
paid over to male exploiters of women. This is a conserva- 
tive estimate, based upon facts in our possession. 
“During the same time the Committee has sent thirty-three 
girls home to their parents or has had them committed to cor- 
rectional institutions.” 
These concrete facts are so marked that they form 
a note of first importance in one of Dr. Graham Taylor’s 
recent editorials to the Chicago Daily News, and will be 
found of great value and interest in determining what 
may be done by the concerted and continuous action of 
citizens of other large cities. “The Continents are strewn with the ruins of dead nations 
and civilizations. What guarantee have we that our modern 
civilization with its pomp will not be ‘one with Nineveh and 
Tyre’? The most important question which Humanity ought to 
address to its historical scholars is this: ‘Why did these others 
die, and what can we do to escape their fate’? For death is 
not an inevitable and welcome necessity for a nation as it is 
for the indivdual. Its strength and bloom could be indefinitely 
prolonged if the people were wise and just enough to avert the 
cause of decay. There is no inherent cause why a great group 
of nations, such as that which is now united in Western civi- 
lization, should not live on in perpetual youth, overcoming by 
a series of rejuvenations every social evil as it arises, and using 
every attainment as a steppingstone to a still higher culture 
of individual and social life. It has never yet been done. Can 
it be done in a civilization in which Christianity is the salt of 
the earth, the social preservative? * * * * * 
“Will some Gibbon of Mongol race sit by the shore of the 
Pacific in the year A. D. 3000 and write on the ‘Decline and 
Fall of the Christian Empire’? If so, he will describe the nine- 
teenth and twentieth centuries as the golden age when out- 
wardly life flourished as never before, but when that decay 
resulted in the gradual collapse of the twenty-first and twenty- 
second centuries. 
“Or will the twentieth century mark for the future his- 
torian the real adolescence of humanity, the great emancipation 
from barbarism and from the paralysis of injustice, and the be- 
ginning of a progress in the intellectual, social, and moral life 
of mankind to which all past history has no parallel? 
“It will depend on the moral forces which the Christian na- 
tions can bring to the fighting line against evil, and the fight- 
ing energy of those forces will again depend on the degree to 
which they are inspired by religious faith and enthusiasm. It 
is either a revival of social religion or the deluge.” 
—“Christianity and The Social Crisis,” Rauschenbusch. CHAPTER I. 
HISTORY OF REGULATION. 
The attitude of States and Governments toward pros- 
titution has ever been based upon an assumption which in- 
volves two fundamental errors. These are: 
First—That, as an institution, it is a necessity, which 
may be regulated, but cannot be suppressed. 
Second—That a varying proportion of women must al- 
ways exist as chattels, to be hired, bought or sold—a sac- 
rifice to the lusts of men. 
This two-fold error has so long and so generally pre- 
vailed that historians have accepted it as inherent. 
Lecky’s plea that prostitution is a necessity as a safety 
valve for moral order is popular with many.1 
In taking a stand directly opposed to this, perfect hu- 
i“Herself (the prostitute) the supreme type of vice, she is 
ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, 
the unchallenged purity of countless homes would be polluted, 
and not a few, who, in the pride of their untempted chastity, 
think of her with an indignant shudder, would have known the 
agony of remorse and despair. On that one degraded and ig- 
noble form are concentrated the passions that might have filled 
the world with shame. She remains, while creeds and civili- 
zations rise and fall, the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted 
for the sins of the people.” . . . Sexual intercourse is an 
imperious necessity, implanted in our nature, for the gratifica- 
tion of which man will brave any danger, however great, to 
health and even life. Whether descended from the ape, or 
whether created in the image of his Maker, he is still an ani- 
mal, who, but for the humanising influences of civilization and 
Christianity, would be more savage than the wildest beast of 
the forest. If this postulate be admitted, it requires no argu- 
ment to prove that prostitution is an essential necessity of so- 
ciety. 14 
The World’s Social Evil 
man relations are not promised or prophesied. Prudence, 
restraint, and law, must ever contend against error, pas- 
sion, and selfishness. These, indeed, are the contending 
forces, through which character is developed. 
The passion, which is generally miscalled love, and which 
is often blended with love, as fragrance and color are 
united in a noxious weed, as well as in a flower;—this is 
the propagating force, which is the supreme desire of all 
mankind, and without which the human race would be- 
come extinct. That this passion will sometimes leap the 
boundaries of restraint and judgment is to be expected. 
We are not, therefore, looking for conditions of perfect 
purity, or a sinless society; at least not until some great 
change shall come in the moral order of all earthly things. 
Until that event we cannot hope for a time when there 
shall be no errors or social sins. 
But as Shakspeare says: “If the balance of our lives 
had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality 
the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us 
to most preposterous conclusions. ’ ’1 
Prof. Sheldon Amos has well said that Lecky’s “pic- 
ture is that of an endless vista of dissolute husbands in 
the midst of happy, wealthy and virtuous homes; husbands, 
wives and children, all contentedly subsisting by virtue 
of a daily immolation of outcast and downtrodden women. 
The picture is as false as its conception of humanity is 
unworthy. Bad men do not fill the world less with shame 
because they are cruel and cowardly enough to sacrifice 
to themselves the poor and the weak in the place of the 
rich and the strong. Virtue and chastity are robbed of 
their meaning when they can be purchased only at the 
price of another’s degradation.” 2 
1 Othello. a Laws for the Regulation of Vice. History of Regulation 
15 
Fornication is sin; ‘ ‘ wild oats ’ ’ can never be harvested 
as good grain, and men cannot make a virtue of a fault, 
or a right of a wrong. To follow a tempter and commit 
a sin is human; to induce others to sin by force, cunning 
or trickery is devilish. There is an appreciable margin be- 
tween a fool and a rogue—between a sin and a crime. 
When we demand of the state the suppression of vice, we 
mean, of course, the suppression of the vice that is a crime 
—the merchandise in womanhood. 
Shakspeare marked the distinction in “ Measure for 
Measure. ’ ’ 
“Thy sin is not accidental, but a trade” exclaims the 
pure-minded, self-sacrificing Isabella, wdiom her own 
brother would be redeemed by the prostitution of her body. 
That is the ground-work of our plea. Trading in sin 
is a crime, and the function of the law is to suppress crime, 
never to offer it terms of bargain or license. 
Dr. W. W. Sanger, in his “history of prostitution,” 
quotes an ancient moralist as saying to a youth on his enter- 
ing a house of ill-fame, “well done, so shalt thou spare 
matrons and maidens.” Medical practitioners of modern 
times, happily in rapidly lessening proportions, have prac- 
tically adopted similar language to the youthful men who 
have sought their professional advice. “Prostitution stains 
the earliest mythological records,” says Dr. Sanger, and 
with abundant evidence he has shown that it is also a blot 
upon the entire history of the civilization of the human 
race. 
The inferiority of women, and their subjection to the 
lusts of men, have been asserted in the most enlightened 
and human of the laws, and customs, in all ages, down 
to the present day. 
Not even the laws of Moses dealt with man and woman 16 
The World’s Social Evil 
as moral and social equals (Lev. 19:20-22), although they 
forbade prostitution (Lev. 19:29), and the traffic as em- 
ployed in Pagan religions for revenue was denounced 
(Numbers 25). 
Sanger quotes Herodotus as authority, that a law in 
Egypt significantly ‘ ‘ forbade sexual intercourse within 
the walls of the temple” and remarks that the scenes were 
so gross that they must be “left to other works, and veiled 
in a learned tongue.” Early Egypt was a veritable hot- 
bed of sensuality. Women prostitutes were not deemed 
disgraced, but their practices were approved and the re- 
ligion of the country was made contributory to, and sug- 
gestive of, immorality. Men prostitutes also were com- 
mon. 
Moses saw the degeneracy of the Jewish people, and 
especially the women—a result, in part, of their long period 
of slavery among the Egyptians—and he instituted strong 
measures to check the evils. Sanger calls attention to the 
fact that Moses “laid penalties on uncleanness of every 
kind,” and that “with the practical view of improving the 
physical condition of the race he guarded, by elaborate 
laws, against improper and corrupt unions.1 
1 The ancient Semitic religions gave a prominent place to 
the adoration of those powers in nature which either fertilize 
or produce; the worship of the sexual was prominent in their 
cults; and ritual prostitution was a recognized and wide-spread 
institution. The gods were male and female; sexual intercourse 
was part of the rites at the Shrines of Baal and Astarte in 
Phoenicia and at similar sanctuaries elsewhere. This unchas- 
tity in the religious institutions naturally affected the relations 
of social life; and sexual purity was regarded as of little mo- 
ment. Possibly in no way were the religious and domestic in- 
stitutions of Israel more markedly differentiated from those of 
the surrounding peoples than by the stress laid upon the virtue 
of chastity. The conception of the God of Israel as the Holy 
One meant, first of all, purity—purity in worship, and hence 
also in life.—Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. III. Art. on Chastity. History of Regulation 
17 
In Solomon’s day there was no recognition among the 
Hebrew people of a single standard of morals. All the 
weight of a double sin was laid upon woman. The seventh 
chapter of Proverbs contains a graphic picture of the seduc- 
tions of certain women, as a warning to young men, but 
the writings of the wise men offer no warnings to women 
and girls of the greater dangers that assail them. 
The early Phoenicians made prostitution compulsory, 
and compelled women to yield the proceeds to the sup- 
port of their goddess. This was afterwards changed in 
favor of the women, so that they could keep the proceeds 
as matrimonial prizes. 
Babylon regulated prostitution in the name of its god- 
dess (Mylitta), requiring every virgin girl to make at least 
one pilgrimage to the temple and surrender herself to the 
choice of men in honor of the goddess. A similar rule was 
observed and enforced in Armenia in honor of the god- 
dess Anaita. Chaldea also commanded prostitution by 
law. Indeed this practice prevailed in Egypt, Syria, 
Cyprus and Carthage. The Lydians and Parthians pro- 
vided that young girls might thus earn their marriage 
portion. 
In Greece prostitution early became a state monopoly 
and was so profitable that a superb temple was erected 
with the proceeds, and dedicated to Venus. Solon estab- 
lished laws for the gratification of men’s lusts. Houses 
of prostitution were provided and filled with slaves who 
were compelled to yield to all demands, and the business 
became a source of revenue to the government. One writer 
states that among the Greeks there were “just as many 
houses with male as with female prostitutes. ’ ’1 
Socrates, who is called the “wisest of the Greeks,’’ rec- 
1 “Woman in the Past, Present and Future.” Bebel. 18 
The World’s Social Evil 
ognized the courtezan, Theodota, with favor, giving her 
advice as to her relations with her lovers. Plato sought 
to abolish marriage and to regard woman only as a child- 
bearer in the interests of the state. Thus, female virtue 
was not esteemed, but rather held in contempt. It is said 
that Socrates “regarded sodomy as a privilege and sign 
of higher culture. ’ ’ 
At Sparta a system was adopted, which is credited to 
Lycurgus, in which the female was forcibly sacrificed to 
lust. 
In classic Athens there were four distinct classes of 
recognized public women, one of which, the Hetairae, ex- 
ercised vastly more influence in society and were more 
free than married women. Another class was under the 
control of the municipal police—the women being held in 
professional brothels. By the payment of a license fee, 
or tax, to the state, speculators were permitted to open 
schools for the teaching of the basest forms of immorality. 
Lecky says: “The only free woman in Athens was the 
courtezan. ’' 
Italy.—We find no official statistics of the numbers of 
female prostitutes in Italian cities at this early period, but 
Sanger states that during “Trajan’s reign the police were 
enabled to count thirty-two thousand in Rome alone, but 
this number obviously fell short of the truth. One is ap- 
palled at the great variety of classes into which the pros- 
tibulae, or registered prostitutes, were divided.” Prom the 
same source we learn that “the number of male prostitutes 
were probably fully as large as that of the females; that, 
as in Greece, the degrading phenomenon involved very 
little disgrace; that all the Roman authors allude to it as 
a matter of course.” But we do not learn that any at- 
tempt was ever made to regulate, or license, these male 19 
History of Regulation 
perverts. “The aedile abstained from interference, save 
when a youth suffered violence.” It was the duty of the 
aedile magistrate to arrest, punish and drive out of the 
city all loose prostitutes who were not inscribed on his book. 
This regulation was practically a dead letter. At no time 
in the history of the empire did there cease to he a large 
and well-known class of prostitutes who were not recorded. 
They paid no tax to the state, while their registered rivals 
contributed largely to the municipal treasury, and if they 
ran greater risks, and incurred more nominal infamy than 
the latter, they more frequently contrived to rise from 
their unhappy condition. 
The Regulation system was formerly modeled on that 
of France, and was equally rigorous. In 1888 it was abol- 
ished by Signor Crispi, who was then Prime Minister, but 
the decree remained a dead letter, and the police allowed 
such scandals in the streets that re-enactment was de- 
manded. Subsequent decrees in 1891, 1901 and 1905 have 
introduced considerable modifications. The present system 
is briefly as follows: special facilities are given for the treat- 
ment of venereal diseases in dispensaries and hospitals, and 
the cost is borne by the State; no fee is charged to such 
patients; no compulsion is exercised, and they are not even 
obliged to give their names; for out-patients there are spe- 
cial departments or dispensaries at convenient hours; in- 
patients are treated in the General Hospitals, as well as in 
special hospitals. 
Prostitution of minors is forbidden. In regard to 
adults, there is no interference with prostitutes unless they 
cause public scandal. But if two or more such women 
live together the house must have a permit from the author- 
ities ; the keeper of such a house is responsible for the 20 
The World’s Social Evil 
health of the inmates, but has no legal power to detain 
them.” 
“The rapid progress of a sensual tone in all the schools of 
Italian art in the sixteenth century, is a fact which is too man- 
ifest to be questioned, or overlooked. Sleeping like Venus of 
old upon her parent wave, Venice, at least in the period of 
her glory, comprised within herself all the influences that could 
lull the moral sentiment to repose. Wherever the eye was 
turned, it was met by forms of strange and varied and entranc- 
ing beauty, while every sound that broke upon the ear was 
mellowed by the waters that were below. The thousands of 
lights that glittered around the gilded domes of St. Mark, the 
palaces of matchless architecture resting on their own soft 
shadows in the wave, the long paths of murmuring water where 
the gondola sways to the lover’s song, and where dark eyes 
lustrous with passion gleam from the overhanging balconies, 
the harmony of blending beauties, and the languid and volup- 
tuous charm that pervades the whole, had all told deeply and 
fatally on the character of the people. At every period of their 
history, but never more so than in the great period of Venetian 
art, they had been distinguished at once for their intense appre- 
ciation of beauty and for their universal, unbridled, and undis- 
guised licentiousness. In the midst of such a society it was very 
natural that a great school of sensual art should arise, and many 
circumstances conspired in the same direction. The study of the 
nude figure, which had been the mainspring of Greek art, and 
which Christianity had so long suppressed, arose again, and a 
school of painting was formed, which for subtle sensuality of 
coloring had never been equalled. Both the sculptor and the 
painter precipitated art into sensuality, both of them destroyed 
its religious character, both of them raised it to high aesthetic 
perfection, but in both cases that perfection was followed by a 
speedy decline.”—Rationalism in Europe, Lecky, Vol. I, pp. 254 
to 256. 
Rome.—The sensualities of early Rome are known, more 
or less, to every reader of history. The records of them 
are open books to the youth of our high schools and col- 
leges. Tiberius, Caligula, Augustus and Nero are names History of Regulation 
21 
which reek with the abominations of vice, mingled with 
the cruelties that attend unbridled lust and power. 
In Rome segregation, as applied to one sex, was the 
law, licensed women being relegated to a certain prescribed 
quarter of the city. Wherever Rome ruled the license sys- 
tem prevailed, and in every country under that rule female 
prostitutes were allowed to carry on their business in pre- 
scribed quarters, and were subject to a special tax. In many 
places they were compelled to wear a special uniform. 
These women were compelled to register as prostitutes and 
to declare that they intended to make it the calling of 
their lives. Roman law aimed at closing all doors against 
the reformation of such women. 
Archdeacon Farrar writes in his “Life of Christ” of 
the morals at that time as the “bad age” when corruption 
was so universal when, in Rome, marriage had fallen 
into such contempt and desuetude, that a law had to be 
passed which rendered celibates liable to a fine. 
Is there any wonder that the “Fall” of the Roman 
Empire should so soon follow its unprecedented “Rise” to 
affluence and power, when it could be said that “ the idea of 
sanctity was so far removed from the popular divinities 
that it became a continual complaint that prayers were 
offered which the most depraved would blush to pronounce 
aloud?” 1 
We are reminded of the words of the eminent British 
statesman, Sir James Stansfeld, at the first international 
congress against commercialized vice held in Geneva, Swit- 
zerland, in 1872. “There is no Nation in the world’s his- 
tory which has given itself up to sexual vice without be- 
coming enslaved, or disappearing off the face of the earth, 
as if at the breath of God.” 
1 Suetonius, quoted by Lecky. 22 
The World’s Social Evil 
The pages of Suetonius remain as an eternal witness 
of the abysses of depravity—the hideous, intolerable 
cruelty, the hitherto unimagined extravagances of name- 
less lust that were then manifested on the Palatine. “It 
was the most frightful feature of the corruption of Ancient 
Rome that it extended through every class of the com- 
munity. Greek and Oriental captives were innumerable 
in Rome. Ionian Slaves of a surpassing beauty, Alexan- 
drian slaves, famous for their subtle skill in stimulating 
the jaded senses of the confirmed and sated libertine, be- 
came the ornaments of every patrician house, the com- 
panions and instructors of the young. The disinclination to 
marriage was so general that men who spent their lives 
in endeavoring by flatteries to secure the inheritance of 
wealthy bachelors became a numerous and notorious class. 
The slave population was itself a hotbed of vice, idleness, 
amusement and a rare subsistence were alone desired, 
and the general practice of abortion among the rich, and of 
infanticide and exposition in all classes still further checked 
the population. ’ ’1 
Tacitus informs us that “from time immemorial pros- 
titutes had been required to register in the office of the 
aedile” and Sanger says that the “prostitute once inscribed 
incurred the taint of infamy which nothing could wipe 
off. Repentance was impossible, even when she married 
and became the mother of legitimate children; the fatal 
inscription was still there to bear witness of her infamy. ’ ’ 
This has ever been true of the “license” and the “reg- 
istration” system. Once a woman is inscribed on a police 
register, as in Prance, or in England under the Contagious 
Diseases Acts, the door of hope was closed. There is more 
hope for a criminal in the penitentiary whose portrait 
1 “European Morals,” Lecky, Vol. I, pp. 263-4. History of Regulation 
23 
hangs in the rogues’ gallery than for a woman registered as 
a public prostitute. 
France.—The France of today is reaping the harvest 
of its wild oats-sowing in the Middle Ages, and all civiliza- 
tion is affected by the rampant vices which were clothed 
with gilded gayety, and spread by the influence of the 
aristocracy and the court of that country. Under Louis 
VIII., A. D. 1225, efforts were made to regulate prostitu- 
tion, which proved so disastrous that Louis IX. tried to 
cure the evil by banishing the prostitutes as exiles from 
the kingdom. “Women were seized and imprisoned, or sent 
across the frontier, and severe punishments were inflicted 
on those who returned to Paris,” but we do not read of 
any action, here or elsewhere, to punish men. 
Sanger says that “in the reign of Charles VI. the rev- 
enues of the traffic in the city of Toulouse were yielded 
to the hospitals, on condition that they would receive and 
cure all females attacked by venereal diseases; it was 
found, after six years’ trial, that it cost more than it 
yielded, and the hospitals surrendered the revenues back 
to the city.” 
Charles and his wife conducted their Court in open de- 
fiance of all forms of decency, and the insanity of the King 
is attributed, by historians, to his immoralities. 
Charles VII. was hardly an improvement on his pre- 
decessor, and his son, Louis XI., had a seraglio and a 
colony of bastards before he became King; nor did he 
abandon his immoralities when he wore the crown. 
Francis I. was an early victim of syphilis, and it is 
related that the Court in his day was the grossest and 
general conditions of morals were the worst ever known 
in France. The surrender of private ladies to the King 24 
The World’s Social Evil 
was the price paid for favors to their friends. Francis 
was another King who died of syphilis. 
Henry II. was faithful, not to his wife, but to his mis- 
tress, with whom he shamelessly appeared in public. 
During all this period indecency in art, lewd books and 
instruments of debauchery were freely sold; poets, painters 
and sculptors prostituted their genius to the basest uses, 
and no one was prosecuted for selling or distributing their 
base products. 
Charles VIII. was but a boy of 13 when he became 
King, and although his Court was conducted a little bet- 
ter, yet his personal conduct was such that his chroniclers 
say he died a victim of his passion. 
In 1684 Louis XIV. provided prisons for prostitutes; 
in 1724 they were turned over to the police, who have ever 
since been the irresponsible rulers and licensing authority 
of the brothel and its inmates. 
Parent-Duchalet, an eminent authority, states that from 
1724 to 1788 the following rules applied: 
1. Brothels were licensed by the police. 
2. Prostitutes were never troubled except on complaint 
of a responsible person. 
3. . Brothels that were disorderly were subject to the 
police. 
4. Punishment was left to the discretion of the Mag- 
istrate. 
5. Penalties rose higher toward the close of the period. 
6. Certain streets in Paris were wholly occupied by 
prostitutes and their keepers. 
France, says Benjamin Scott, “has the bad pre-emi- 
nence of being the most forward and most devoted copyist 
of the vile Grecian and Roman systems of vice-licensing.” 
“In 1796 the new Register was begun in Paris and, History of Regulation 
25 
under the government of the Revolution, agents were em- 
ployed to find and register the women. Buonaparte re- 
established the Workmen’s Guilds, amongst which that of 
the prostitutes was reckoned, and these guilds were put 
entirely under the control of the police, who kept the 
prostitutes as a distinct caste, in a prescribed quarter of 
the city, and enforced registration and submission to their 
regulations. ’ ’1 
A distinguished authority has recorded his judgment 
that the overthrow of the third Napoleon and his mag- 
nificent armies was due less to German physical superiority, 
battalions and bullets than to the emasculation of French 
manhood by the refinements of scientific vice. 
“The Government in 1903 appointed an extra Parlia- 
mentary Commission. This Commission consisted of 68 per- 
sons, 7 senators, 17 deputies, 6 professors of medicine and 
2 of law. The rest were mainly officials of Law Courts, Gov- 
ernment Departments or municipalities. The Commission 
included one woman. The report was presented in 1907 
in the form of a bill to deal with the whole matter. The 
main points in this bill are as follows: The arbitrary action 
of the police is to be put an end to by bringing the whole 
matter under the ordinary law, equal for men and women; 
no register is to be kept of prostitutes and no laws or reg- 
ulations are to be made for them other than those which 
apply to the community in general; the law is to take cog- 
nizance of prostitution in one case only, namely, its prac- 
tice by minors and then only to prohibit it absolutely; 
any person who exploits the immorality of others for his 
own pecuniary gain, even with the consent of the persons 
concerned, shall be punished; this is to include persons who 
let rooms or houses for the purposes of prostitution.” 
1 “A State Iniquity,” Benjamin Scott. 26 
The World’s Social Evil 
Spain.—Spain was one of the countries in Europe that 
resisted the Roman system in the early period. In the 
twelfth century procurers were subject to civil death. 
1. Men who trafficked in debauchery were banished. 
2. Keepers of houses were fined and the houses con- 
fiscated. 
3. Brothel-keepers who hired prostitutes—if slaves, 
were manumitted; if free, were dowried at the 
cost of the offender. 
4. Husbands conniving at prostitution, or the dishonor 
of their wives were liable to capital punishment. 
5. The Ruffians, who were the pimps and bullies, were 
banished, flogged, imprisoned or punished—any 
way to get rid of them. 
In 1556 this latter class were, on conviction, sentenced 
to ten years at the galleys; for second conviction, two hun- 
dred stripes and the galleys for life. But in later years 
Spain succumbed to the prevailing influences, and regula- 
tions were enforced similar to those in France. 
“Regulation of the French pattern is in force in most 
cities. A Royal Decree in November, 1910, ordered the 
closing of the tolerated houses in Madrid, but it does not 
appear to have had much effect. ’ ’ 
England.—State sanction of vice began in 1161 and 
assumed degrees of moral obliquity that seems incredibly 
low. Some of the prominent men of the church sought it 
as a means of revenue. Brothels called “stews” were 
actually located in church property, and at Southw’ark 
they were licensed and regulated by the Bishop. This fact 
is confirmed by various authors. Professor Sheldon Amos 
publishes a list of regulations which were sanctioned by 
Parliament in the reign of Henry II.1 
1 See “Laws for the Regulation of Vice.” History of Regulation 
27 
Repeated reference is made to the maintenance and 
regulation of these “stews” in Stow’s “Survey of the 
City of London” and Fuller’s “Church History of Brit- 
ain.” In 1381 the “stews” were farmed by William Wal- 
worth, then Lord Mayor of London. According to Fuller, 
the Southwark “stews” were suppressed in 1546, under 
the reign of Henry VIII., which, he says, “was proclaimed 
by sound of trumpet no more to be privileged and used 
as a common brothel, but the inhabitants of the same to 
keep good and honest rule.” “But,” continues Fuller, 
‘ ‘ though the sin was no longer allowed in this place, yet the 
same sin still remained. ’ ’ 
“Soon after the death of Charles I, the supremacy of the 
Puritans secured the passing of a severe enactment ‘for sup- 
pressing the detestable sins of incest, adultery and fornication.’ 
The Act was passed on the 10th of May, 1650. Incest and adul- 
tery were to be generally punished with death. In case of 
fornication, both parties were to be punished with three months 
without bail, and were to give security for good behavior for 
a year. Every common bawd, be it man or woman, wittingly 
keeping a brothel or bawdy house, for the first offense was to 
be openly whipped, set in the pillory and then marked with a 
hot iron with a B, also to be committed to the house of correc- 
tion for three years and until sufficient security be given for 
good behavior during life. The persons, a second time found 
guilty of all the last recited offenses, were to suffer death.—Par- 
liamentary History of England, Vol. 19, p. 259. 
This, at last, assumed the character of suppression in 
place of regulation, but, like the old law which Angelo re- 
vives in Shakspeare’s “Measure for Measure,”1 the ex- 
treme penal measures defeated their object. Professor Amos 
says: “From the date of the important effort of this Act 
of 1650, a hundred years passed before the next phase of 
*See “The Bible in Shakspeare,” p. 70. 28 
The World’s Social Evil 
legislation presented itself, and which extends from the 
year 1752 almost to the present age.” 
“Macaulay, describing the conditions of society in Eng- 
land when some of the noblest and purest spirits were 
driven to other lands to seek liberty and the right to wor- 
ship God, speaks of those days, “never to be recalled with- 
out a blush; the days of servitude without loyalty, sen- 
suality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, 
the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden 
age of the coward, the bigot and the slave.”1 
“In the Middle Ages prostitution was regarded as a 
necessary part of the social organization; any laws on the 
subject aimed at keeping prostitutes as a distinct class and 
exploiting them for the purposes of revenue. The great 
epidemic of syphilis in the fifteenth century led to attempts 
at penalization, sometimes of disease, sometimes of prosti- 
tution itself. On the statute books of some countries there 
are still laws which date from this earlier period. 
“The nineteenth century was the era of Regulation. The 
first definite registration of prostitutes for the purpose of 
medical control was instituted in Paris under Napoleon 
Bonaparte in 1802, and other countries by degrees followed 
suit. By the middle of the century it had spread all over 
the continent of Europe, not by legal enactments, but as 
a matter of police administration.”2 
In England a general policy of laissez faire existed. No 
other action was taken by the government of England, ex- 
cept such general police laws as were supposed to discour- 
age, or repress, prostitution, until in 1864, when the first 
of the Contagious Diseases Acts was passed. This Act was 
repealed and the Act of 1866 substituted; and this again 
lEssay on Milton. 
-Dr. H. M. Wilson, London, England. History of Regulation 
29 
was amended in 1869, extending the operation of its pro- 
visions over a wider area. 
British Colonies, Etc.—For about 100 years the mil- 
itary authorities of the British government sought to reg- 
ulate prostitution for the assumed benefit of the British 
army. Naturally, therefore, when the home government 
adopted the Contagious Diseases Acts the military depart- 
ments in India applied them, and they enforced them with 
vigor and employed more revolting methods than were oper- 
ating in England. In so doing they made the government 
a public “pander” and a gigantic “white-slave” trader. 
Dr. Ross, an army surgeon, gave the following evidence 
before the British Royal Commission in 1871: 
“When a Regiment arrives in India, a certain establishment 
is told off for each regiment as it arrives, and amongst others 
there is an establishment of prostitutes, who are housed in the 
bazaars, and regularly looked after by the matron appointed for 
the purpose, and superintended and examined by the surgeon 
of the regiment. 
“When a Regiment goes on a line of march, there is a form 
to be filled up, and in one column there is amongst the camp- 
followers one for prostitutes, showing the number who are per- 
mitted to follow the regiment; and those women we made a 
point of examining every fortnight. 
“There is a head woman under the name of the Matranee, 
who is at the head of the kusbees or prostitutes. She selects 
the women; she is told that such and such a regiment is com- 
ing into the station, and, according to whether the regiment 
has had a name sent before it or otherwise, she gets a small 
or a large number of women to come to her.” 
These practices were zealously fostered by the Authorities. 
Laws were passed and numerous official instructions were from 
time to time given in regard to them. One of these (dated 
12th July, 1884) drew attention “to the desirability, when con- 
structing free quarters for registered women, of providing 
houses that will meet the wishes of the women. Unless their 
comfort, and the convenience of those who consort with them is 30 
The World’s Social Evil 
considered, the result will not be satisfactory.” In other words, 
efforts were to be made to render immorality as agreeable as 
possible to both of the parties to it. 
Another of these instructions (which has been well desig- 
nated “the infamous memorandum”) was issued in 1886 under 
the authority of Lord Roberts—then Commander-in-Chief in 
India. It stated among other things that it is necessary “to 
arrange for the effective inspection of prostitutes attached to 
regimental bazaars, whether in Cantonments, or on the line of 
march to have a sufficient number of women, to 
take care that they are sufficiently attractive, to provide them 
with proper houses ” Is it surprising that one com- 
manding officer promptly acted on this advice by sending a 
"requisition for extra attractive women for regimental bazaar 
in accordance with circular”; and that others acted similarly? 
The Contagious Diseases Acts in England were abolished in 
1886; and in 1888, a resolution condemning the whole system 
in India, and urging its discontinuance, was carried in the 
House of Commons without anyone venturing to vote against it. 
The horrible practices, therefore, ought to have been dis- 
continued at once, but the military authorities disobeyed in- 
structions to that effect, and it was proved before a Depart- 
mental Committee in 1893 that things were going on as before. 
Consequently the British Government ordered the Indian au- 
thorities to pass an act prohibiting all those practices, or the 
making of any rules to sanction them, and this was done in 
1895. 
Queensland.—A Contagions Diseases Act is in force in 
Queensland and Cape Colony. New Zealand repealed a 
similar act in 1910/ 
No system of regulation such as the Contagious Diseases 
Acts prevails in Canada. Attempts have been made there 
to introduce it, but failed. 
Hong Kong.—In the British dependencies of China the 
same military influences were at work. Sir John Bowring 
introduced a license system in Hong Kong in 1857. The 
1 Similar ordinances were in operation in New South Wales, 
the Cape of Good Hope and other British dependencies. History of Regulation 
31 
ordinance enacting this license law contained all the most 
rigorous features of segregation, registration and license. 
Malta.—Sir Henry Storks became famous for his vig- 
orous enforcement of the system when he was governor of 
Malta, and an ordinance was passed in 1861 which was sim- 
ilar in its operation to that at Bombay. Later Storks sought 
election for a seat in the English Parliament, hut lost it 
in a perfect storm of opposition because of his attitude on 
this subject. See Chapter 3. 
Germany.—According to a German authority publio 
brothels were dissolved in 1537, and in 1551 they were again 
established and women “were provided for guests of rank 
at the expense of the town. In all towns there were brothels 
belonging to the municipality, to the Sovereign, or even to 
the Church, the proceeds of which flowed into the treas- 
ury of their proprietor.” (August Bebel.) 
In Berlin the regulations are police orders which pre- 
vail under a “Resolution of the Royal Presidency of 
Police” Dec. 18, 1850. The following is the preamble of 
that resolution: 
“ It is admitted that prostitution, that parasite of society, 
cannot be suppressed by any violent measure of any kind 
whatever; that every attempt in this direction only aggra- 
vates the evil, and that, in consequence, it is necessary to 
accord to it a certain tolerance, under police supervision, 
varying according to places and circumstances. , 
‘ ‘ The practice in different cities varies widely. In many 
places tolerated houses are encouraged and the French sys- 
tem is followed. In Bremen there is a segregated district— 
a kind of barracks where a large number of prostitutes 
live, each in her own quarters, under the strictest police 
and medical control. In Berlin, on the contrary, the police 
endeavor to enforce the law against brothels, which are 32 
The World’s Social Evil 
believed to be strongholds of the White Slave Traffic. The 
registration and sanitary supervision of known prostitutes 
is very vigorously carried out, but in Berlin, as elsewhere, 
there are a great many clandestines who escape the vigilance 
of the police.” 
Hamburg.—A public edict, of 1506, forbade the keeping 
of brothels in Hamburg and Amsterdam except by the 
municipal police themselves. Dr. Jeannel remarks, in his 
work on Prostitution, that the regulations of 1834, which 
are now in force, “appear to have something of the spirit 
of the ancient edict by virtue of which the police agents 
themselves were the brothel keepers.” 
In the Berlin regulations, as in those of Hamburg, the 
keepers of brothels are designated as men. 
Vienna.—The British Government received a dispatch 
dated March 19, 1869, from the Royal Ministry for Foreign 
Affairs, which stated that “No registry of prostitution is 
kept in Vienna, as allurement and pimping, and fraud in 
allurement are forbidden by the laws of March 27, 1852.” 
In a work on the Institutions of Austria, quoted by Shel- 
don Amos, the following statement is made: ‘ ‘ Public 
brothels are not tolerated by the police, and common women 
are sent into houses of correction; this, however, is but the 
letter of the law, not the practice, for though it has been 
stated that, owing to the present condition of morality, 
such persons are not required in that country, yet the 
Bloch, a great German authority, says that “in the middle 
ages a sufficient supply of women was imported by way of en- 
tertaining the delegates to Church congresses and the follow- 
ing proverb is quoted “Dem Studenten ist ja alles erlauht. 
To the student everything is allowed.” "Dr. Magnus Moller 
tells of a club of military officers existing in Stockholm in the 
early nineties to which no one was eligible until he could prove 
that he had had syphilis. Quite as flagrantly boys have been 
practically coerced into sowing wild oats.”—Prostitution in 
Europe, Flexner. History of Regulation 
33 
lowest calculation allows the number of common women in 
the capital to be 15,000.” 
Denmark-Copenhagen—Parent-Duchalet publishes a 
paper by M. Braestrup, Director of Police at Copenhagen, 
in which he says: “The general administration has not 
only tacitly tolerated the existence of prostitution, but it 
has given it indirectly a sort of sanction, by a royal ordi- 
nance dated the 9th of March, 1809, which has remained 
in force since that time. The situation of the common 
women does not consequently depend upon any legal pro- 
visions; they are placed under the discretionary authority 
of the police, which has insensibly acquired the control of 
prostitution, as was demanded by public morality.” Broth 
els here are not publicly licensed; there are periodical ex- 
aminations of registered prostitutes once a fortnight. Li- 
censing of brothels was discontinued a few years ago. 
“A stringent system of Regulation was in force up to 
1906, when it was abolished and the present system sub- 
stituted. Its fundamentals are—no special measures for 
prostitutes, penalties for communication of disease, free 
medical treatment for all with a corresponding obligation 
on the patient to carry out treatment.” 
In Denmark, doctors have for many years been required 
to notify all venereal cases for statistical purposes, though 
without name or address. As might be expected, the re- 
moval of the motives for concealment which are inevitable 
under Regulation coupled with the provision of free dis- 
pensaries, produced a considerable increase in the number 
of cases under treatment. The totals in Copenhagen for 
all forms of venereal disease are as follows: 
Year 
No. of Cases 
1905 ... 
1906 . . . 
7,065 
1907 ... 
8,383 
Year 
No. of Cases 
1908 ... 
9,957 
1909 . .. 
9,280 
1910 . .. 
9,274 34 
The World’s Social Evil 
Belgium and Brussels.—Belgium has the distinction 
of being the most thoroughly regulated, and is quoted in 
other countries as the model. 
Dr. Mireur in his work on prostitution says, “Things 
had arrived at a certain degree of perfection when, in 
1855, the Belgian government, desirous of further extend- 
ing these sanitary measures, invited the superior council of 
hygiene to make a supreme effort, and to elaborate a gen- 
eral regulation of prostitution, so complete and so prac- 
tical, as to be recommended to all the communes of the 
Kingdom. In 1856, the council of hygiene, in response to 
this appeal, submitted its scheme of regulation, which is 
the last and most perfect expression of the measures in- 
stituted in Belgium.” 
“The Brussels system received a great blow in 1881, by 
the revelations of the traffic in English girls and little chil- 
dren carried on in the tolerated houses with the connivance 
of the police. The system is believed to be much relaxed, 
but no very recent information is available.” 
The System includes the registration of every woman 
“known to live on prostitution” and such are forcibly ex- 
amined and registered and must appear regularly for ex- 
amination. All brothels must be licensed by the council 
of burgomasters and are divided into two classes. 
Hungary.—Police regulation is authorized by statute 
in this country. With the exception of the English “Con- 
tagious Diseases Acts” this is the only record of such legis- 
lation by a national authority, the rule being to refer the 
subject wholly to the police, who made their own laws on 
the subject and became absolute in authority over the 
women subject. 
Austria.—“Until 1873 very severe penalties were im- 
posed on all prostitutes but the law proved inefficacious, History of Regulation 
35 
as such laws always do. To remedy the scandalous condi- 
tions that prevailed regulations were introduced, and these 
have been very frequently changed and modified. The 
Penal Code at present resembles that of Germany, and is 
equally self-contradictory; a revision is under consider- 
ation. ” 
Switzerland.—“Each Canton has its own Penal Code. 
Several of the more populous Cantons have tried Regula- 
tion for longer or shorter periods; all but one have aban- 
doned it. The exception is Geneva, where a system mod- 
elled on that of Paris is in full force.” 
Russia.—“The Regulation system was introduced in 
1844, and is still in force; important protests are being 
raised against it.” 
Turkey.—“According to a report dated 1899, prostitu- 
tion was stringently regulated, and the Government de- 
rived a considerable revenue from it. No recent informa- 
tion is available.” 
Sweden.—A Regulation system of the usual pattern 
is at present in force in the larger cities. Since 1864 any 
person suffering from venereal disease is entitled to free 
treatment in a public hospital. Since that time syphilis, 
which was previously endemic in many localities, has 
gradually diminished in the towns and has become very 
rare in the country districts. The diminution, however, 
does not apply in the two large cities—Stockholm and 
Gothenburg. Prostitution is prohibited under the Penal 
Code. The age of protection for girls is 15. 
A Royal Commission was appointed in 1904 and re- 
ported in 1910. The Commission unanimously condemns 
the regulation of prostitution, and proves its failure by a 
very careful analysis of the official statistics. As preven- 36 
The World’s Social Evil 
tive measures it recommends further improvements in the 
system of free treatment and a campaign of moral educa- 
tion. The majority also recommend the adoption of cer- 
tain features of the Danish system, viz., dealing with pros- 
titutes as vagrants, and applying compulsion to venereal 
patients who neglect treatment; from these two recom- 
mendations a minority of the Commission dissents. 
Holland.—“Regulation was formerly carried out in 
most of the large towns, though it never obtained in Am- 
sterdam. Forty years ago, prostitution was registered in 
37 towns; one by one all these towns have abandoned it. In 
1911 an ‘Act against Public Immorality’ was passed, con- 
taining a clause which makes it a penal offence to encour- 
age or provide for the immorality of others for pecuniary 
benefit. This makes brothel-keeping illegal. Souteneurs 
are severely punished, and there are stringent laws for the 
protection of minors. Prostitution is not a penal offence, 
nor is the communication of disease. There are no special 
arrangements; venereal diseases are received in the hos- 
pitals like any others. The age of protection for girls is 
16.” 
Norway.—“The Regulation system was in force until 
1884. In that year brothel-keeping was prohibited, and 
in 1887 the registration of prostitutes was abolished. In 
1902 penal enactments against prostitutes were repealed. 
Thus at present the only laws on the subject are enactments 
against procuration, brothel-keeping and vagrancy.” 
Japan.—“The old Roman status, in its essential aban- 
don, is faithfully reproduced in the licensed and wholly 
undisguised Yoshiwara of Tokyo, which is quite as much 
a matter-of-fact feature of the city, in spite of its horrid 
commerce in girls, as its hotels and temples. The same 
plan of government provision for ‘regulated’ vice prevails History of Regulation 
37 
in all Japanese cities, and seems to be regarded with quite 
as much complacency as the public parks and the inno- 
cent-looking tea-houses. The inmates are virtually the 
galley-slaves of lust, having been sold by fathers and 
brothers to the cruel servitude.”1 
“In Nagasaki the prostitutes are confined to their 
brothel districts, named respectively Mornyama, Namino- 
hira, and Lornachi. The public women in the two latter 
districts voluntarily submitted themselves to medical exam- 
ination weekly. At the first inspection 56.8 per cent were 
found affected with venereal disease, which showed the 
necessity of the preventive measures being made general 
and compulsory, more especially as many of the women 
had suffered for months, even years, and presented sad 
evidences of the power of the disease. The brothels in 
which the women who are inspected periodically reside are 
indicated to the public by large numerals painted over 
the doors. 
“In the seventeenth century the Japanese Government 
set apart a special quarter in the capital where all prosti- 
tutes were to live. The example was gradually followed 
by other cities. Sanitary Regulation was introduced in 
1872 under European influence, and is now carried out 
with great thoroughness. It appears, however, that disease 
has not diminished and that prostitution is by no means 
confined to the segregated districts. In 1911 a very influ- 
ential movement arose against the whole system. 
“In nearly every large Japanese city and town the 
police collect considerable revenue annually from the traffic. 
Mr. David S. Spencer, who lived in Japan about thirty 
years, contributed an article to ‘Vigilance,’ April, 1913, 
Christian Missions and Social Progress.—Dr. James B. 
Dennis. 38 
The World’s Social Evil 
in which he says: “In 1909, Osaka had 1,948 licensed 
houses of prostitution, in which were 9,378 licensed women, 
and men paid that year $2,139,304 to the brothels. That 
means one licensed woman to every 38 men in Osaka. 
Count Okuma says there are 50,000 of these poor women 
in that empire, but it is probable that this figure is today 
too low by nearly 25,000. 
China.—‘ ‘ In China there is no licensed immorality; yet 
a state of things which is frankly acknowledged in Japan 
is simply an open secret in among the Chinese. Society re- 
gards it with a sly frown, the Government prohibits and 
professes to discipline it; yet vice festers in every city of 
China and presents some shamefully loathsome aspects. 
The traffic in young girls, especially those who may be af- 
flicted with blindness, is the usual method of supplying 
brothels with inmates. 
“The domestic slavery of the country is mostly con- 
fined to the use of purchased female children as servants, 
who often become concubines in the families of their mas- 
ters, and are sold again for this purpose. The most abomi- 
nable form of this curse is the purchase of women and girls 
for transport to distant cities for immoral uses. ’ ’— (Quoted 
by Dr. Dennis from “Forty Years in China,” by Jona- 
than Lees.) 
Bayard Taylor states it is his deliberate opinion that 
“there are some dark shadows in human nature which we 
natural shrink from penetrating,” and he says, “I have 
made no attempt to collect information of this kind; but 
there was enough in the things which I could not avoid see- 
ing and hearing—which are brought almost daily to the 
notice of every foreign resident—to inspire me with a pow- 
erful aversion of the Chinese race.”1 
‘India, China and Japan, 1855. History of Regulation 
39 
In 1885 a Committee was appointed in San Francisco 
to report upon conditions in “Chinatown.” The Rev. 
Otis Gibson, who resided in China ten years, testified before 
the Committee that the women of China, “as a general 
thing, are slaves. They are bought or stolen in China and 
brought here. They have a sort of agreement to cover up 
the slavery business, but it is all a sham.” 
In their report the Committee said: ‘ ‘ There is a moun- 
tain of testimony of a similar nature, all of which might 
properly be quoted here; but it would be simply cumula- 
tive. We have shown that Chinese prostitution exists 
among us as the basis of the most abject and satanic con- 
ception of human slavery. That it is conducted upon the 
most inhuman principles. That our own laws are success- 
fully invoked to shield, protect and foster it. That it is 
the source of the most terrible pollution of the blood of the 
younger and rising generations among us, and that it is 
destined to be the source of contamination and hereditary 
diseases among those who are to come after us, too fright- 
ful to contemplate, and, possibly, already too strongly en- 
trenched as an evil to be successfully modified, much less 
eradicated.” 
The United States. 
Attempts to Introduce the License System.—The 
regulation of the State towards the commercialization of 
sexual vice is, every year, commanding more and more at- 
tention because of its vital connection with the moral and 
physical health of the people, and in no part of the world 
is the subject of more concern than in the United States. 
Public attention has been awakened to the traffic in girls 
and to the bold effrontery of investors of capital to increase 
their revenues from vicious enterprises. 
Citizens’ movements are starting up all over the country 40 
The World’s Social Evil 
to contend with these evils. Rescue Societies are broaden- 
ing out for education and prevention; Medical Practition- 
ers are organizing in the interest of better knowledge as 
a basis of physical health; a saner view of the right attitude 
of parents and teachers in regard to the physiological facts 
for children is developing, and the literature of the subject 
is no longer left wholly to the vicious novelist or the sen- 
sational and venal quack medicine vender. At the same 
time there has been an increasing tendency among certain 
influential people of cities to approve and urge the regula- 
tion by means of so-called “ segregation ’ ’ and compulsory 
medical supervision, for the presumed purpose of (a) 
checking the spread of prostitution over all parts of the 
cities and, (b) to lessen the spread of diseases attending 
the practices of sexual vice. 
For ages the problem has engaged the minds of Rulers 
and Governments. We have had this advantage over an- 
cient nations, that we may now see what were the effects 
of the policy adopted, in different ages and countries, and 
thus avoid, if we will, the mistakes made by them. 
Especially instructive is the experience of Great Brit- 
ain, with the “Contagious Diseases Acts” (1866-68) which 
were supposed to eliminate some of the worst features of a 
license law, but which adopted and enforced the essential 
provisions of the regulation system. 
The working of that law, its effect upon the morals and 
health of the people and the public agitation against it, 
which forced the Government to repeal it in 1886, form a 
unique chapter in history, which ought to be available to 
American students of social order, and is therefore treated 
in a special chapter of this work. 
Had the system continued in England unopposed, or 
had it been triumphant against opposition, it would have History of Regulation 
41 
been held as an example for this country, and would doubt- 
less have found many advocates on the score of expediency. 
Indeed public officials, medical men and others, in the 
United States, did approve and advocate the adoption of 
similar measures while the “Contagious Diseases Acts” 
were in operation. 
In 1876 Dr. Marion Sims submitted a scheme to a large 
meeting of the medical profession in Philadelphia in favor 
of introducing a law similar in character to the English 
C. D. Acts. This move of Dr. Sims had been preceded by 
an agitation in the course of which Prof. Gross delivered 
an address to the American Medical Association at De- 
troit, Mich., June 3, 1874. In that address Dr. Gross said: 
“The only remedy for this evil (venereal diseases) is the 
licensing of prostitution, a remedy which could not fail to be 
productive of vast good in promoting the national health. One 
very great difficulty in regard to the practical operations of a 
licensing law would be the passing of a bill of an entirely un- 
exceptional character. Great judgment and care would be nec- 
essary in the selection of a proper title. If this be offensive 
or too conspicuous, it would at once call forth opposition. My 
opinion is that the entire subject should be brought in, as it 
has been in England, under the head of the ‘Contagious Dis- 
eases Acts,’ a phrase not likely to meet with serious opposi- 
tion, as it would serve as a cloak to much that would otherwise 
be distasteful to the public. The word ‘licensing’ should not 
be used at all—‘regulate’ is better, but even that has its ob- 
jections.” 
Dr. Gross’s significant reference to the name and man- 
ner of the English Contagious Diseases Acts points to the 
obvious need of an actual statement as to the history and 
working of those Acts, in order that we may be prepared 
for similar movements in favor of laws that are framed so 
as to “serve as a cloak” to the public. 
In New York legislation was adopted in 1871, but the 42 
The World’s Social Evil 
bill which was passed failed to become law because it was 
not signed by the governor. The state committee on crime 
reported in favor of a regulation law in 1876 and the 
grand jury of New York City made a presentment in favor 
of it. 
In 1877 a committee of the New York Legislature, by 
a majority of its number, recommended a license law. They 
said: “The Committee are willing to take upon them- 
selves to recommend the regulating or permitting or, If 
the word be not deemed offensive, the ‘licensing’ of pros- 
titution. . . . As to the terms, the Committee are not 
tenacious. If anybody’s conscience can be soothed, his 
moral doubts assuaged, by dropping the word ‘license’ 
and using the word ‘regulation,’ the Committee have no 
earthly objections, but that the objection to the substance 
of the proposition is an ill-founded one we cannot doubt.” 
St. Louis.—Another attempt to copy the English sys- 
tem in the United States was made in the city of St. Louis, 
Mo. We cannot obtain a better view of that experiment 
than by quoting from a letter written to the British “Medi- 
cal Enquirer” by Dr. W. G. Eliot, President of Washing- 
ton University, dated April 14, 1879. Dr. Eliot says: 
“In 1869 the system of ‘Regulation' was introduced here, 
and was in full force until 1874, with all the usual results,—a 
plausible show of superficial benefits, with deep and increasing 
demoralization, and demonstrable increase of disease. Then, by 
strong effort, after carrying the case through the Courts, which 
sustained the legality of the ordinance, the State Legislature 
repealed them. But the laws were left in a ‘muddled’ condi- 
tion, and an organized, persistent effort was begun for re-en- 
actment of the law. The attempt came in shape of an Amend- 
ment to the City Charter, to be voted on by the people at a 
special election. The vote was three to two against the Amend- 
ment. 
“But as it was evident that renewed effort would be made, History of Regulation 
43 
the case was co-incidently carried before the Legislature by 
petition of eight or ten thousand citizens, among whom were 
the Archbishop and Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, the 
large majority of Protestant clergy, and many leading physi- 
cians and lawyers. No local legislation sanctioning, permitting, 
recognizing, or regulating prostitution can now take place, un- 
der any pretence whatever. 
“Through the whole contest, English example of the C. D. 
Acts have been the greatest obstacles we have had to overcome.” 
Mr. Aaron M. Powell, speaking of the St. Louis experi- 
ment tells us that “a German municipal office-holder was 
deputed to visit Europe, to familiarize himself with the 
regulation laws there.” Under the law referred to by Dr. 
Eliot, St. Louis “was divided into six districts, with one 
medical examiner to each. Each examiner was required 
to visit the houses and apartments of prostitutes, to make 
inquiries, and, if he thought necessary, physical examina- 
tions. . . . The keepers of licensed houses were re- 
quired to pay a tax of ten dollars a month, and one dollar 
“Referring to these conditions in St. Louis, a committee of 
one hundred (1903) in presenting a memorial to the Board of 
Police Commissioners of that city, opens its brief with the fol- 
lowing statement: “More than twenty-five years ago St. Louis 
had a segregated district in which vice was licensed by law 
and where the keeper of a house of prostitution displayed her 
name over her place of business and solicited her trade like 
any other merchant. But this was in the day when unenlight- 
ened men thought that public prostitution was a ‘necessary 
evil’ not only to be recognized but to be licensed and regulated 
by the state. 
“This shameful partnership between law and crime, be- 
tween government and lust was many years ago dissolved not 
only in this city but throughout the civilized world. 
“In place of a licensed social evil St. Louis, like many other 
cities, substituted a ‘tolerated’ district. Under the scheme of 
‘toleration’ the entire traffic is illegal and the keepers and in- 
mates of bawdy houses are criminals before the law, but the 
police, for effective administrative purposes, as they aver, ‘tol- 
erate’ or ‘wink at’ such offenses as are committed within the 
boundaries of a district which they have set apart for this traf- 
fic.” 44 
The World’s Social Evil 
a week for each prostitute therein; each prostitute paying 
fifty cents a week. . . . The sequel during the progress 
of the experiment proved an increase of 34 per cent in 
the number of brothels, and an increase in the number of 
registered women of more than 35 per cent. There was an 
undoubted increase of clandestine prostitution.”1 Mr. 
Powell quotes Dr. Eliot as to the sanitary results as fol- 
lows: “What is still more startling, when the stamping 
out process is examined, it appears that while the number 
of diseased women under treatment in 1871 was 38 out of 
480, or 3.75 per cent, it has risen now to an average of 40 
out of 653, or 6 per cent. Showing the remarkable fact— 
to which, however, we have a parallel in Paris itself—that 
even among the registered and regularly-inspected prosti- 
tutes the hateful disease may increase.” 
Chicago.—A vigorous effort was made in 1871-2 to 
introduce the regulation system into this city. This was 
met by an effective opposition, and two years later, some 
physicians revived the effort. Again vigorous opposition 
was offered and an able advocate was found in Dr. An- 
drews, who published a pamphlet giving the results of such 
legislation in Europe and elsewhere. An effective blow to 
this effort to bring the system into Chicago was dealt by 
a State law which passed the legislature in 1874 by a vote 
of 115 to 6. This act provided that “it shall be unlawful 
for the corporate authorities of any city, town, or village 
in this State to grant a license to any person, male or fe- 
male, to keep what is known as a house of ill-fame or 
house of prostitution.” 
The Nation Swings Backwards.—It seems strange that 
in the most progressive country in the world there should 
be found individuals and organizations who persistently 
1 “State Regulation of Vice,” pp. 65, 66. History of Regulation 
45 
advocate a policy which has proved so disastrous in every 
country where it has been tried. 
It has been our boast that hitherto we have not legal- 
ized the license system, as applied to prostitution, by any 
state law in the Union. But in New York state an act was 
passed in the session of the legislature of 1910 under the 
title of the Inferior Courts Act. Clause 79 of that Act 
provided that— 
“On and after the first day of September, 1910, any person 
who is a vagrant, as defined, etc., shall after conviction be taken 
to a room adjacent to the court room, and there be physically 
examined by a woman physician of the Department of Health 
detailed for such purpose. 
“After such examination, the physician making the same 
shall promptly prepare and sign a written report to the court 
of the prisoner’s physical condition, and if it thereby appears 
that the prisoner is afflicted with any VENEREAL DISEASE, 
which is contagious, infectious or communicable, the magistrate 
shall commit her to a public hospital having a ward or wards 
for the treatment of the disease with which she is afflicted, 
FOR DETENTION AND TREATMENT for a minimum period 
fixed by him in the commitment, and for a maximum period of 
NOT MORE THAN ONE YEAR.” 
The purpose of this clause is entirely hidden from 
view in the title, as is the custom of advocates of this 
system. 
The clause did not provide for the treatment of dis- 
ease as such, but for the examination and compulsory 
holding of women who are prostitutes, or, to use the terms 
of the Act, “any person who is a vagrant as defined” etc., 
and “the magistrate shall commit her” for treatment of 
“the disease with which she if afflicted” and if cured “she 
shall be discharged,” etc. 
Thus, according to a statutory law of the great state of 
New York, in the year 1910, it was made a crime for a 46 
The World’s Social Evil 
prostitute to be out of health but no sueh provision was 
made against her male consorts. The law said, in effect, 
to every fallen woman: “You are guilty of no crime 
against the state if you pursue your trade under conditions 
prescribed by the law.” 
There is still a set purpose on the part of many to main- 
tain a form of registration for medical examination of 
women. In number 10, Yol. 27, March 8, 1912, of the Pub- 
lic Health Reports, Congress published an account of the 
Fifth International Sanitary Conference of American Re- 
publics. One of the resolutions adopted at that Conference 
and printed in the Congressional Document reads thus: 
“(10) Resolved, That the regulation of prostitution in cities 
and especially in seaports, is recommended; said regulation to 
be in the hands of physicians especially prepared for this kind 
of work, the necessary examinations to be carried out in fully 
equipped dispensaries, and where possible, sufficient power con- 
ferred to confine in hospital those liable to transmit venereal 
diseases.” 
The proposal herein is identical in purpose with the 
English Contagious Diseases Acts of 1866-8. In one form 
or another this proposal is constantly being submitted to 
public influential bodies for approval. The danger of it 
lies in its apparent beneficial hygienic purpose. The ad- 
vocates of it hide the fact that its operation is only con- 
templated in regard to women as a part of a system of 
“regulation of prostitution,” which offers a false security 
to frequenters of immoral houses—and always fails because 
it does not reach the male offenders who convey the disease 
to innocent persons. 
A few years ago a strong wave of public sentiment 
arose in favor of segregation but the education which at- 
tended the work of various societies, through lectures and History of Regulation 
47 
literature, and the almost unanimous condemnation of it 
in the numerous Vice Commission inquiries, have greatly 
dispelled the errors of such a policy. Practically no city 
in the United States is now prepared to adopt it. 
So far as we know, every vice commission in this country 
has unanimously rejected it (segregation) as we do now. It is 
neither more nor less than licensed vice. The people of Phila- 
delphia may not know how to deal with prostitution, but of one 
thing we are sure, they are not going to say “it is all right if 
confined to certain localities.” Some speak of “The Social Evil,” 
and lay the emphasis on the word “social”; we lay it on the 
word “evil.” 
When anything is proposed to check or reduce the social 
evil some one always inquires, what is to become of these 
women? We frankly answer at the outset that we do not know. 
Provision can be made for all who desire to abandon the life. 
But we ask some other questions by way of reply. Here is a 
trade in which several thousand women are engaged in this 
city. It is admitted by every one to be immoral and illegal, but 
waiving all questions of morality or legality, it is disease breed- 
ing; it is ruining the lives—the physical lives—of men and 
women and unborn children. Several hundred of these unfortunate 
people in this city will die this year, and, if nothing is attempted, 
their ranks will be recruited from others as yet untainted, in 
order to supply the demand next year and the years following. 
Is it rational that no effort should be made to abate this hideous 
evil because no one can tell just what is to become of the 
present lot of prostitutes? Are the health and the morals of 
the coming generation to be ruined because one is unable to 
find another place for those whose health and morals are al- 
ready gone? To ask these questions is to answer them.—Report 
of the Vice Commission of Philadelphia, 1913. “Sophistical defences all vanish in the clear day- 
light of truth. When a sale is hideously unnatural, 
intrinsically unlawful, productive of cruel miseries to 
soul and body, the purchaser also is guilty,—and here 
is thrice guilty, beyond the seller; because he is seeking 
for carnal pleasure only; she can have no pleasure, but 
much rather misery, and is in quest of money only; nay, 
of the poorer women we may say, they are in quest 
of a bare livelihood only. The fine flaunting courtesans 
who are carried away by vanity, and obtain high prices 
from rich profligate men, less deserve our pity in their 
present phase of life; only that we know them to be on 
the fatal slope down which a large number of them will 
be carried, when the men who have bought them, one 
by one, abandon them, each justifying himself by the 
large sums which he has paid! What, then, will a 
thoughtful man say is the legitimate price of virtue? 
Either virtue is empty talk or it is above all price. If 
any hardened man hold virtue to be mere talk, stern 
fact replies, that at least vice is a hideous fiend, a sub- 
stantial and terrible reality, and its propagators are 
agents of cruelty.”—The late Mrs. Josephine E. Butler. CHAPTER II. 
WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC. 
“What is the history of Fantine? It is society buying a 
slave! From whom? From misery,—from cold,—from loneli- 
ness,—from abandonment,—from privation. Melancholy barter! 
A soul for a bit of bread! Misery makes this offer,—society 
accepts. 
“The holy law of Jesus Christ governs our civilization, but 
it does not yet permeate it. It is said that slavery has disap- 
peared from European civilization. That is a mistake. It still ex- 
ists,—but it weighs now only upon woman, and it is called pros- 
titution. It weighs upon woman,—that is to say, upon grace, 
upon feebleness, upon beauty, upon maternity. This is not one 
of the least of man’s shames.” Les Miserables. Book V, Chap- 
ter II. 
The traffic in women and girls for the market of vice 
is the most degrading and enslaving of all the features of 
the regulation system. That an actual Slave-market should 
exist, organized and capitalized, with inter-state and inter- 
national exchanges, involving the liberty, honor, and life 
of thousands of girls, is the most monstrous, the most in- 
credible, and yet the most notorious of all the crimes of 
the age. 
The Encyclopedia Britannica remarks that “though it 
may co-exist with national vigor, its extravagant develop- 
ment is one of the signs of a rotten and decaying civiliza- 
tion—a place which has already marked the decadence of 
nations. ’ ’ 
The term “White Slavery” is not of American origin, 
as is sometimes said, or of so recent a date, as is supposed. 
It has come into general use, distinguishing the evil from 
that condition of human barter that so long prevailed, 
known as “negro slavery.” 50 
The World’s Social Evil 
Mr. Seligman, in his report of “The Social Evil’' at- 
tributes the use of the term to Victor Hugo and also refers 
to the use of it by the English labor leaders “to designate 
the condition of factory operatives in Great Britain.” The 
term, he says, “spread to the United States where a work 
on the subject was published in 1853.” Victor Hugo’s 
use of the term seems to have dated from 1870 when he 
wrote a letter to Mrs. Josephine Butler remarking that 
“the slavery of black women is abolished in America but 
the slavery of white women continues in Europe. ’ ’ 
Sixty years ago girls were imported to England for 
the purpose. A case was tried in the Courts of England 
and the London Times in an editorial on June 22, 1854, 
thus broke the prevailing silence of the press on the sub- 
ject of the Social Evil. 
“Surely the mind of a man, however profligate, must 
revolt at the idea of entering a mere warehouse of brutal 
passion, in which women are bought and sold like cattle 
in Smithfield market. The thing has attained the dimen- 
sions of a regular trade. Some villain—generally a for- 
eigner—chooses a proper situation for an establishment 
of this kind; he has his agents and his correspondents 
abroad; he directs them to look out, generally in France 
or Belgium, for such young women as are best adapted to 
his purpose, and that purpose is nothing less than to make 
his profit out of their prostitution. Such a person was 
the defendant in the case tried the day before yesterday 
in the Common Pleas. The girls imported by him, are, 
from the moment they are consigned to him, completely 
within his power. In a strange country, ignorant of the 
language and of the customs of the place, unable to find 
their way from one street to another, they are entirely at 
his mercy. His method of dealing with them appears to White Slave Traffic 
51 
be this: In the first place, they are bound to pay him so 
much a week for board and lodging. Then, they must 
give up one-half of all the money they receive from the 
visitors of the house. Then, any article of clothing they 
may desire, or of which they may stand in absolute need— 
any purchase they may wish to make, must pass absolutely 
through his hands. All these items of expenditure are de- 
frayed from the moiety of the receipts which the unfor- 
tunate girls, ostensibly, are allowed to consider their 
own.”1 
The Times Editorial shows that the methods adopted 
then were the same as still prevail in this hellish business. 
On June 12th, 1913, there was published from Scotland 
Yard, London, an official Report of the Second Interna- 
tional Conference on the White Slave Traffic held in Paris, 
August, 1910. 
Referring to the use of the term “White Slavery” this 
Report says: “In America the term ‘commercialized vice’ 
is more commonly used, but this is scarcely a happy expres- 
sion except in so far as it includes prostitution of all kinds 
when practised for purpose of gain. It is perhaps difficult 
to find any concise term which represents exactly the 
double signification of procuration and pecuniary advan- 
tage to the procurer which mark the essential features of 
the trade in women for immoral purposes, and it is, there- 
fore, better to retain the well-understood term of White 
Slave Traffic. 
It is well, however, to insist on these two features of 
the traffic, because there is a tendency, natural enough in 
this connection, to mix up the more prevalent and perhaps 
equally lamentable subject of prostitution, with White 
Slave Traffic. The special distinguishing mark is the pro- 
1 “The Great Social Evil,” Logan, 1871. 52 
The World’s Social Evil 
curation of girls for the gratification of the passions of 
others for the profit of the procurer, rather than the seduc- 
tion of girls with the motive of gratifying personal lust 
and passion.” 
The Report further states that at the Congress held in 
Madrid, in 1910: 
“There was a consensus of opinion that the principal if 
not the only source of White Slave Traffic is to be found 
in the ‘State Regulation of Vice,’ as it is termed in Eng- 
land, or as it may perhaps be more fully described, the 
recognition by the State of prostitution as a necessity—an 
evil which perhaps cannot be suppressed but calls for con- 
trol by registration and sanitary supervision. This system 
of registration appears to exist in some form or another in 
most countries except those under the British Government. 
It is not proposed to enter in this report into the merits 
or demerits of the question of State regulation. It suffices 
to say that since April 16th, 1886, in England no form of 
State regulation of prostitution has been sanctioned.” 
In 1875 Pastor Borel, an ardent reformer, and an elo- 
quent preacher, of Geneva, Switzerland, published a stir- 
ring appeal under the title of “The White Slavery of Eu- 
rope. ’ ’ In the course of that appeal he said: ‘ ‘ The negro 
slave trade was carried on by means of abduction or war. 
It tore individuals from their country and homes, and con- 
demned them to excessive work and cruel treatment. The 
White Slave Trade is carried on only by treachery and 
lying; and whilst it defiles the body, inoculating it with 
terrible diseases, it strikes a mortal blow at all that is pure 
and sacred in the soul. The procuresses, who are an in- 
carnation of the genius of evil, a monstrous excrescence 
of society, and the last effort of vice to surpass itself in 
what is most odious, possess the keen scent of a wild beast 53 
White Slave Traffic 
for its prey; they quickly discover the point where their 
hook will lay hold.” 
Pastor Borel quotes from an eloquent, impassioned plea 
of a Swiss lady of rank, Countess A. de Casparin, who says: 
“Whilst there are markets for it, there will be 
Yes, I will write this hideous word; there will be mer- 
chandise. 
“So long as markets for black slaves remained open in 
Christian countries, there was black merchandise for 
Christians. So long as slave markets continue to be au- 
thorized in the East there will be an African slave trade, 
with its turpitudes, and its atrocities, to supply them. And 
so long as there is with us a market for white flesh, there 
will be a trade in white slaves to sustain it. 
“Shall we any longer endure this? Shall we endure 
in the heart of Switzerland these bastiles of prostitution, 
with their bolted doors and barred windows? If it were 
proposed to establish within our walls a house for assassi- 
nation, legally constituted, organized and supervised, 
where only those would go who cut their own throats, re- 
solving to destroy both soul and body, should we consent 
to it? Now what is it, I ask, that is killed in these in- 
famous dens, in these licensed resorts? What is it, but the 
entire individual, soul and body?” 
Dr. Hippolyte Mireur, of Marseilles, a long-time champ- 
ion of State regulation of vice, as in operation in France, 
shows that the slavery “barter” of which Victor Hugo 
speaks is regarded by all who are concerned in the system, 
as a door to the bastile of slavery which ever swings in- 
ward, and from which there is no escape, until death re- 
moves the victim. He says: 
“The system of registration which regulates and legal- 
izes the sorrowful industry of the prostitute, is, in fact, the 54 
The World’s Social Evil 
sinister stroke by which women are cut off from society, 
and after which they no longer belong to themselves, but 
become merely the chattel of the Administration. They 
are cut off not from society, but from heaven, from hope, 
and from the power to repent. ’ ’ 
M. Lanaers, Chief of Police at Brussels, officially re- 
ported in 1887 that women are subjected to obligations 
without number; “they are forced, so to speak, to give 
themselves up to the first comer, however deep their repug- 
nance to him may be; they are compelled to incur heavy 
expenses and to submit themselves to the yoke of the keep- 
ers of the houses; their liberty of action is exceedingly 
limited; they must never be seen at the door or windows of 
the house; they scarcely ever go out, and then always un- 
der the escort of the mistress; in a word, they possess only 
that amount of independence which the mistress chooses to 
grant them, and the mistresses extend or control this in- 
dependence according as it suits their own interests, and 
without any reference to the will or preference of the 
women. ’ ’ 
Loaded as Cattle in France.—In 1876, Mrs. Josephine 
Butler made one of those eloquent appeals for which she 
was famous, in the following thrilling passage: ‘ ‘ Wherever 
there is a slavery there must be a slave trade, because you 
need slaves to fill up the market; women are sent from one 
country to another as slaves, bought and sold, morals 
policemen sometimes going with them and taking their 
tickets. At Liege two trucks (cars) were found at the rail- 
way station crowded with young girls,—quite young, many 
of them not more than thirteen, * crowded like cattle. ’ They 
were under the charge of one of the policemen of the sys- 
tem. He was conveying them from a certain brothel in Liege 
to hand them over wholesale to another brothel in Paris White Slave Traffic 
55 
(because these people find it desirable to have an exchange 
of slaves for it secures variety to the purchasers). These 
poor girls did not wish to be taken to Paris. Some of them 
perhaps hoped, wished, to get free, and some of them be- 
gan to cry, and the infection spread, and they all became 
more or less hysterical and said they would not go. The 
policeman thereupon put manacles upon their hands and 
fastened them behind their backs, and they were thus 
taken as slaves in chains from one brothel to the other, in 
Christian Europe. This is with the knowledge and permis- 
sion of the authorities.”1 
In the same year, a pamphlet was published by the 
“British, Continental, and General Federation for the 
Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution” bear- 
ing the title of “The European Revolt against White 
Slavery.” This pamphlet also bore the name of A. M. 
Powell of New York, as the American publisher. 
In 1887 a pamphlet was published from the pen of M. 
Emile de Laveleye, Professor at the University of Liege, 
in which he said that, ‘ ‘ The women of tolerated houses lead 
an attack against those odious practices which have lately 
horrified the public of England and Belgium, and caused 
an inquiry on the part of the English House of Lords, I 
mean that which has been justly called ‘the White Slave 
Trade ? ’ And what, in point of fact, is the function of these 
traders in human flesh but that of providing material for 
an industry which our magistrates authorize and our doc- 
tors endeavor to make innocuous?” 
Sir James Stansfeld, M. P., who was a member of Mr. 
Gladstone’s Cabinet, spoke at the Geneva Congress in 1877. 
In the course of his address he said: “You invent a 
project by which you—the State—propose to set aside a 
1 Speech at Hull, England, Oct., 1876. 56 
The World’s Social Evil 
certain number of women destined to be the slaves and the 
instruments of men’s lust; you propose, by your system of 
examination, to keep them in good condition; you find that 
you cannot, with all your care, keep them in good condition. 
Why? Because your whole conception is profoundly im- 
moral, and against nature; you have no respect for the hu- 
man body; you forget the soul within it; you think of 
making these women serve men; you acknowledge not the 
humanity, the life, the individuality of these poor instru- 
ments, and you fail because physical human nature refuses 
to lend itself to your plans.” 
The traffic in the bodies and souls of women, as a busi- 
ness for profit, did not exist in America until comparative- 
ly recent years. Writing of the moral conditions of this 
country in 1763-1776 Lecky, the historian, remarks that 
“except where slavery had exercised its demoralizing in- 
fluences, the intercourse between the sexes was singularly 
free and at the same time singularly pure. In Europe the 
hideous commerce flourished from the middle ages and un- 
der later police rule of license, toleration, and graft, was 
operated by men and sometimes by women who adopted 
up-to-date business methods; buying, selling, exchanging 
and shipping “goods,” just as cattle dealers do. Syndi- 
cates were formed for international trading and a vast in- 
terchange commerce was established. The “goods” were 
coaxed, persuaded or captured for the market according 
to circumstances. 
United States A Rich Market. 
European traffickers, finding that conditions existed in 
many American cities which offered a specially rich market, 
eagerly sought our great centers, and it is safe to say that White Slave Traffic 
57 
the United States has become the most profitable of all the 
world’s markets of human vice. 
California Cribs.—Here is a statement made by the 
late Rev. Sidney C. Kendall, of conditions as he found 
them in Los Angeles, and other cities on the Western 
coast: 
“1. There exists an international commerce in maidens, 
organized and exploited on a large scale, operating in many 
cities with the connivance of the authorities and the protection 
of the police. 
“2. Its managers are largely foreigners with jaw-breaking 
names and heart-breaking English. 
“3. Its wares are threefold (1) Japanese girls, marketed 
mainly on the Pacific coast, kept under lock and key and sub- 
jected to slow murder by continuous outrage; (2) European 
girls, scarcely less helpless than the Japanese, who are pro- 
cured by employment agencies, shipped to this country in squads 
and distributed through our citie3, according to the demands 
of trade; (3) Girls procured in this country by all means that 
lust can prompt or avarice devise. 
“4. The fourth conclusion is that women are not the orig- 
inal offenders in the Social Evil. Many of them are victims of 
a traffic that is maintained by the lust and avarice of men. 
“5. This market exists not because the ungovernable pas- 
sions of men make it an imperative necessity. It exists be- 
cause there is money in it. Its incentive is not lust, but avarice. 
“6. Men are lustful because they have every inducement 
to be so. And the greatest inducement is the existence in al- 
most every city of the open and public market in women. 
“7. The commerce in maidens is not a private vice, but a 
public business, in which great fortunes are made. 
“8. As a public business it can not continue without civic 
recognition and certain public conveniences, which it can not ob- 
tain without the passive consent of the public. 
"9. In almost every city there are laws that would sup- 
press this traffic if they were enforced. 
“10. These laws are almost universally inoperative. 
“11. They are not enforced because the public have not per- 
sistently demanded their enforcement. 58 
The World’s Social Evil 
"12. That much of the social evil that owes its existence 
to the non-enforcement of law could be abolished by the imper- 
ative demand of the entire Christian public.”—Speech at La 
Crosse, Wis., October, 1905. 
Mr. Kendall’s vigorous indictments were sustained by 
a mass of facts relating to the horrors of the traffic, which 
were perpetrated in those cities, and the revelations that 
have since been made, show that this traffic obtained a 
hold in the United States, so vast and so vile, that it would 
be unbelievable, were it not proven by many unimpeach- 
able witnesses. 
At the annual meeting of the Illinois Vigilance Asso- 
ciation held in Chicago, February, 1909, Mr. James Bron- 
son Reynolds said: 
The status of the white slave traffic is this: It is a traf- 
fic with local, interstate, national and international ramifica- 
tions. 
It has the complete outfit of a large business; large capi- 
tal, representatives in various countries, well paid agents, and 
able, high salaried lawyers. 
Its victims are numbered yearly by the thousands. 
They include not only the peasant girls of European vil- 
lages, but also the farmers' daughters of our own country. Some 
are uneducated and wholly ignorant; others have enjoyed good 
education. While most of them come from the homes of pov- 
erty, occasionally a child of well-to-do parentage is numbered 
among the victims. 
The alert agents of the traffic move from place to place, 
alluring peasant girls and farmers’ daughters from their homes, 
entrapping innocent victims at railway stations and public re- 
sorts. 
Today there is an organized system of commerce in human 
flesh between China and Japan and this country, and an organ- 
ized system of slavery in certain of our coast states. After the 
payment of money for this human property, title is passed just 
as for real estate, and the alleged property rights are respected 
by our officials. White Slave Traffic 
59 
Mr. Reynolds is especially qualified to testify on this 
subject. He investigated the traffic in Panama, Japan, and 
China, as well as on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the 
United States. In other important investigations he was a 
special commissioner of former President Roosevelt. 
The “War on the White Slave Trade,” edited by 
Ernest A. Bell, contains testimony of the best authorities 
as to the character and extent of the evil traffic. The chap- 
ters by Mr. Clifford G. Roe, Mr. Edwin Sims, and those by 
Mr. Harry A. Parkin, Chicago, mark the book as an inval- 
uable record of the facts of this monster’s grip on the 
land, and of the laws which deal with it. 
Mr. Edwin W. Sims, who, as the United States District 
Attorney of Chicago, prosecuted many of these criminal 
traffickers, said in 1909: 
“The legal evidence thus far collected establishes, with com- 
plete moral certainty, these awful facts: That the white slave 
traffic is a system—which has its ramifications from the Atlan- 
tic seaboard to the Pacific ocean, with clearing houses or dis- 
tributing centers in nearly all of the larger cities; that in this 
ghastly traffic the buying price of a young girl is $15, and that 
the selling price is generally about $200—if the girl is especially 
attractive the white slave dealer may be able to sell her for 
$400 or $600; that this syndicate did not make less than $200,- 
000 last year in this almost unthinkable commerce; that it is 
a definite organization sending its hunters regularly to scour 
France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Canada for victims; that 
the man at the head of this unthinkable enterprise is known 
among his hunters as The Big Chief.’’ 
Mr. Sims tells the stories of several typical cases. One 
of these was a child of fourteen who was “quickly and un- 
ceremoniously broken in.” 
“On arriving in Chicago she was taken to the house of ill- 
fame to which she had been sold by the procurer. There this 
child of fourteen was quickly and unceremoniously ‘broken in' 60 
The World’s Social Evil 
to the hideous life of depravity for which she had been en- 
trapped. The white slaver who sold her was able to drive a most 
profitable bargain, for she was rated as uncommonly attractive. 
In fact, he made her life of shame a perpetual source of income, 
and when—not long ago—he was captured and indicted for the 
transportation of other girls, this girl was used as the agency 
of providing him with $2,000 for his defense. 
“After she had furnished a night of servitude to the brutal 
passions of vile frequenters of the place, she was then com- 
pelled each night to put off her tawdry costume, array herself 
in the garb of a scrub-woman and, on her hands and knees, 
scrub the house from top to bottom. No weariness, no exhaus- 
tion, ever excused her from this drudgery, which was a full 
day’s work for a strong woman. 
"After her scrubbing was done she was allowed to go to 
her chamber and sleep—locked in her room to prevent her pos- 
sible escape—until the orgies of the next day, or rather night, 
began. She was allowed no liberties, no freedom, and in the 
two and a half years of her slavery in this house she was not 
even given one dollar to spend for her own comfort or pleas- 
ure. The legal evidence shows that during this period of slavery 
she earned for those who owned her not less than eight thou- 
sand dollars—and probably ten thousand dollars!” 
And with his characteristic application of facts, Mr. 
Sims adds: 
"If this is not slavery, I have no definition for it. 
“Let me make it entirely clear that the white slave is an 
actual prisoner. She is under the most constant surveillance, 
both by the keeper to whom she is ‘let’ and by the procurer 
who owns her. Not until she has lost all possible desire to 
escape is she given any liberty.” 
Clifford G. Roe gives a number of illustrations of the 
methods used by these agents of the vice market. He says: 
“The panders make no distinction between girls who 
are innocent, quiet and modest, and those who are more 
wayward, flirtatious and frivolous. The procuring of the 
former adds zest and sport to the hunt, while the latter are White Slave Traffic 
61 
easy prey for them. Girls who flirt merely for the fun of 
flirting, who go to dinners with strangers and roam about 
the streets at night, are those who are easily won by flattery 
and the appeal to vanity. ’ ’ 
Another volume,“ Panders and Their White Slaves,” 
which more than confirms the awful facts of this traffic, 
comes from the pen of Mr. Roe. It consists mainly of 
stories of the vile business, told from the author’s own ex- 
perience, as prosecutor of the law-breakers, as assistant 
States Attorney of Chicago. No one can read this volume, 
with an open mind, without reaching a conviction of the 
realities of the infernal traffic and a sense of horror fills 
us that such conditions can be possible in the United States 
without provoking a storm of public indignation and pro- 
test strong enough to drive them into the Hades from 
whence they come. 1 
The traffic thrived until its enormities, at length, awoke 
interest on the part of reformers and there followed able 
articles in the Ladies’ Home Journal, The Woman’s World, 
McClure’s, Hampton’s, Everybody’s, Pearson’s, Leslie’s, 
and others. 
United States Investigation Commission. 
But of still greater authority is the Report of the Im- 
migration Commission which was presented to Congress, 
December 10th, 1909. The following paragraphs contain 
abundant proofs of one phase of the traffic, viz: the im- 
portation of foreign women and girls for the market of 
vice: 
(1) Since the above was written, Mr. Clifford G. Roe has 
issued another book which is attractively illustrated and which 
has already reached a large sale through agents throughout the 
country. 62 
The World’s Social Evil 
Undeniable Facts of Imported Slates.—“The importation 
and harboring of alien women and girls for immoral purposes 
and the practice of prostitution by them—the so-called ‘white 
slave traffic’—is the most pitiful and the most revolting phase 
of the immigration question. It is in violation of the immigra- 
tion law and of the treaty made with leading European powers. 
This business has assumed large proportions and it has been 
exerting so evil an influence upon our country that the Immi- 
gration Commission felt compelled to make it the subject of a 
thorough investigation. Since the subject is especially liable 
to sensational exploitation, it is important that the report be 
primarily a statement of undeniable facts which may form a 
basis of reasonable legislative and administrative action to 
lessen its evils." 
Thousands Yearly—Profit is the Object.—"To the motive 
of business profit is due beyond question the impulse which 
creates and upholds this traffic. The procurers who seduce or 
otherwise entice the women to leave their foreign homes, the 
importers who assist them in evading the law or who bring 
them into the United States for sale, the pimps and keepers of 
disorderly houses who exploit them body and soul, have only 
profit in view. The work is strictly foreign commerce for 
profit.” . . . “In the judgment of practically everyone who 
has had an opportunity for careful judgment, the numbers im- 
ported run well into the thousands each year.” 
Innocent Girls Captured.—“Far more pitiful, however, are 
the cases of the innocent girls. A French girl seized in a raid 
of a disorderly house in Chicago stated to the United States 
authorities that she was approached when she was but 14 years 
of age; that her procurer promised her employment in America 
as a lady’s maid or a companion at wages far beyond any that 
she could ever hope to get in France; that she came with him 
to the United States, and upon her arrival in Chicago was sold 
into a house of ill fame.” 
A Typical Case.—“The testimony taken in a typical case 
in Seattle in 1909 shows some of the methods used in recruit- 
ing their victims by those engaged in the traffic. Flattery, prom- 
ises of work, love-making, promise of marriage to a wealthy 
person, seduction without marriage, kind treatment for a month 
or two, then travel with the procurer as wife, continual decep- White Slave Traffic 
63 
tion, then an explanation to a girl of only 17 of the life await- 
ing her, which in her innocence she could not understand, then 
experience in a house of ill-fame in Montreal, Canada, then 
personal brutality, even physical violence, taking every cent of 
the hard-earned money, transportation to Vancouver, to Prince 
Rupert, to Alaska, and to Seattle, in every city forced to earn 
money in a shameful life, with total earnings of more than 
$2,000, none of which she was able to retain.” 
Unspeakable Consequences.—‘‘This importation of women 
for immoral purposes has brought into the country evils even 
worse than those of prostitution. In many instances the pro- 
fessionals who come have been practically driven from their 
lives of shame in Europe on account of their loathsome dis- 
eases; the conditions of vice obtaining there have even low- 
ered the standard of degradation of prostitution formerly cus- 
tomary here. Unnatural practices are brought largely from Con- 
tinental Europe, and the ease and apparent certainty of profit 
has led thousands of our younger men, usually those of for- 
eign birth or the immediate sons of foreigners, to abandon the 
useful arts of life to undertake the most accursed business ever 
devised by man. 
"This traffic has intensified all the evils of prostitution 
which, perhaps more than any other cause, through the infection 
of innocent wives and children by dissipated husbands and 
through the mental anguish and moral indignation aroused by 
marital unfaithfulness, has done more to ruin homes than any 
other single cause. 
"This statement of the conditions found by the agents of 
the commission may seem strong. The more detailed state- 
ments of the facts, with evidence upon which they are made, 
will show that the picture is not painted in too dark colors and 
will make evident the necessity of remedial legislation to check 
the traffic, which, perhaps more than any other one thing, is a 
disgrace to American civilization.” 
System of Exploitation.—“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. 
“With rare exceptions not only the innocent women imported 64 
The World’s Social Evil 
into this country, but the prostitutes as well, are associated 
with men whose business it is to protect them, direct them, and 
control them, and who frequently, if not usually, make it their 
business to plunder them unmercifully. The procurer or the 
pimp may put his woman into a disorderly house, sharing prof- 
its with the madam. He may sell her outright; he may act 
as an agent for another man; he may keep her, making ar- 
rangements for her hunting men. She must walk the streets 
and secure her patrons, to be exploited, not for her own sake 
but for that of her owner. Often he does not tell her even his 
real name. She knows his haunts, where she may send him 
word in case of arrest. She knows the place given her to which 
she must come every night and give him all her earnings. She 
must deny her importation, must lie regarding her residence, 
her address, and the time she has been in the country. 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.” 
In reading these statements it is necessary to bear in 
mind that they are the testimony of government investiga- 
tors who by their official life are naturally cautious and 
conservative. 
The realism of the following picture drawn from an- 
other conservative official document rivals any condition 
ever revealed of the auction marts of negro slavery in its 
worst days. 
“An absolutely new number—tall, handsome of figure and 
body, 20 years and 6 months old. She wants to earn money. 
“The brother of Antoine and Pierre, nicknamed, ‘dealers in 
live stock.’ I do not want to ask any favors of them; they are 
great rascals. 
“A woman the like of whom you can never find; young, 
beautiful, most * * * and who fully decided to leave. You can 
well understand I gave them a song and dance. * * * Without 
praising her highly, she is as beautiful as it is possible to find 
in this world, and I hope she will serve your purpose well. 
* * * I will send you her photograph. Her beautiful teeth alone 
are worth a million.”—Senate Document No. 196, Dec. 10, 1909. White Slave Traffic 
65 
Enormous Business in 1908. In February, 1909, a 
second report was issued by the Commissioner of 
tion. This report stated that ‘ ‘ an enormous business is con- 
stantly being transacted in the importation and distribu- 
tion of foreign women for purposes of prostitution, which 
business also includes the seduction and distribution of 
alien women and girls who have entered the country in a 
regular manner for legitimate purposes, and to some extent 
of American women and girls.” 
Eight Hundrded Men Lived on the Earnings of Girls 
in Seattle.—U. S. District Attorney, Elmer E. Todd of 
Seattle, Washington, summarized the report of the Federal 
Grand Jury in May, 1909, as follows: “There are between 
seven and eight hundred men in Seattle who live from the 
revenue from the “white slave” traffic, almost all of whom 
could be reached by the State courts if proper effort were 
made. It was established by the Grand Jury that the Fed- 
eral Government had gone as far as the law allows. It is 
now up to the State authorities, who could break up this 
business in short order.” 
The Cadet System.—Very active agents are employed 
under the'name of “cadets” incidental to and a part of 
the white slave traffic. From the report of the “Com- 
mittee of Fourteen” we learn that, “The conditions under 
which the business of the social evil is carried on in this 
city of New York require the services of both the ‘cadet’ 
and of the ‘pimp,’ and it is necessary to keep the distinc- 
tion between them carefully in mind. According to the ac- 
cepted meaning of the word the ‘cadet’ is the procurer who 
keeps up the supply of women for immoral houses. By 
various means, ‘giving the girls a good time,’ force, fake 
marriages, entrapments, threats of bodily harm, seduction, 
fraud and duplicity—he leads women to become prostitutes. 66 
The World’s Social Evil 
The ‘pimp’ or protector is generally selected by a wom- 
an after she has become a prostitute. She voluntarily gives 
him more or less of her earnings, and in return he uses all 
the methods in his power, political, physical and financial, 
to protect her while she is soliciting on the street or when 
she is arrested and needs bail or fines paid. 
“Where prostitution is highly commercialized and the 
demand artificially stimulated for the profit of those not di- 
rectly involved, women alone do not conduct the business 
of prostitution. Not enough of them are willing to become 
professional prostitutes, so the ‘cadet’ must procure them 
by breaking down the natural safeguards which keep them 
from such a life. There is not sufficient natural demand 
for them, so the protector must protect them in their com- 
petition, find patrons for them and for disorderly houses, 
and stand between them and the business interests that 
prey on their earnings and frustrate, as far as possible, 
any efforts to lessen the evils by means of prosecu- 
tions. ” . 
The New York Grand Jury Report.—Stronger indict- 
ment of the existing evils could be hardly looked for from 
a body appointed and publicly announced, as was the 
Grand Jury of New York, of which John D. Rockefeller, 
Jr., was Chairman. The report says: 
"Owing to the publicity given to the inquiry at its incep- 
tion, it has been difficult to get legal evidence of the actual 
purchase and sale of women for immoral purposes, and our in- 
vestigators have been informed in different quarters that a num- 
ber of formerly active dealers in women had either temporarily 
gone out of business or had transferred their activities to other 
cities. However, five self-declared dealers in women had agreed 
upon various occasions to supply women to our agents, hut be- 
cause of their extreme caution and the fear aroused by the con- 
tinued sitting of this grand jury, these promises were fulfilled 
in only two instances, in each of which two girls were secured White Slave Traffic 
67 
for our agents at a price, in the one case of $60 each and in 
the other of $75 each. Indictments have been found against 
these two persons; one pleaded guilty and the other was con- 
victed on trial.” 
Much misunderstanding became current in the public 
mind because of newspaper headlines that this report 
found “No White Slavery in New York,” and these head- 
lines were based upon the first paragraph of the Report 
which stated: 
“We have found no evidence of the existence in the County 
of New York of any organization or organizations, incorporated 
or otherwise, engaged as such in the traffic in women for im- 
moral purposes, nor have we found evidence of an organized 
traffic in women for immoral purposes.” 
But, as Colonel Bingham says, in Hampton’s Maga- 
zine, November, 1910: 
"Of course the white-slave dealers have no international 
formal or incorporated business organization. There could be 
none in the very nature of things; but, as the grand jury said, 
there is international traffic carried on by individuals. This 
was established beyond a reasonable doubt by the investiga- 
tion started by the congressional commission. This congres- 
sional investigation showed that there was a connected chain of 
men and women trafficking in girls brought into this country 
to be used and sold as prostitutes. The chain has its largest 
center In New York and Chicago, and branch connections In 
many other cities. It operates most freely in San Francsico, 
Los Angeles, Seattle, Nome (Alaska), Omaha, Denver, and New 
Orleans.” 
When “white slavery” is understood to refer to cases 
of capture, or holding by force, girls who are wholly un- 
willing and innocent of all consent in sexual wrong, the 
mind views the most revolting of all its phases. The rec- 
ords of our courts, the reports of the Government Immi- 
gration Commission and other Vice Commissions, the re- 68 
The World’s Social Evil 
ports in newspapers, and the testimony of midnight mis- 
sion and rescue workers, abundantly show that force has 
been used to entrap the innocent and unwary in numbers 
of instances. 
Judge Gemmill of Chicago, in an address delivered on 
January 10th, 1911, referred to white slavery as a minor 
problem. In an able article which appeared in the North- 
western Christian Advocate he says: 
“The white slave traffic is based upon the proposition 
that girls are forced against their wills. The number of 
such girls in proportion to the whole number who become 
inmates of such places is very small. But one genuine 
case of this kind has been before me in two years.” Judge 
Gemmill, in the same address, says: “Hundreds of girls 
have been arraigned before me. Many, having been be- 
trayed, sought a hiding place from all the world. This 
community would be startled if it could gather together 
these poor abandoned souls of the city and confront them 
face to face.” 
If this is not a picture of slavery—what is it 1 It is cer- 
tainly not prostitution by choice or consent of will. 
The full and accepted meaning of the term “white 
slave” includes all that large proportion of “inmates” of 
brothels, who do not choose the life, but have been en- 
trapped into it by the various seductions and compelling 
methods so well known to the traffickers. “Slavery means1 
1 “Any man or woman who traffics in the sexual life of any 
woman or girl for financial reward or gain is a trafficker in 
women, and therefore is a ‘white slaver.’ In the more restricted 
meaning the ‘white slaver’ is a man who by means of coercion 
or bodily punishment compels a woman or girl against her will 
to sell herself to some other man for money which he, the 
‘white slaver,’ takes from her for his own benefit.”—Massachu- 
setts Report on White Slave Traffic. White Slave Traffic 
69 
that condition in which an individual is not master of his 
own person.’’ 
It may be estimated that at least 25 per cent of all the 
inmates of houses of prostitution are included in this defi- 
nition. Keepers of the vile dens find that the supply of 
girls for their infamous trade cannot be maintained with- 
out the aid of the “pimp” or traders of girls for the mar- 
ket of vice, and the traders could find no market for the 
girls if there were no recognized houses of ill fame. 
A girl betrayed is the principal stock in trade of the 
“house of ill fame.” 
The “house” cannot run without her and human fiends 
set traps to catch her. Depriving her of her honor, more 
dear than life itself, she becomes a slave with little or no 
hope of redemption. 
Drawn by forces she does not understand, lured by 
lies, or driven by want, she falls into the net of the hunter. 
Thus the market is supplied with fallen women. A girl 
is sold and resold into deeper and deeper depths of in- 
famy, debased, diseased, until death ends her sad career. 
Whose girls are these 1 Whose daughters will be next ? 
That the White Slave traffic continues its ravages in 
all parts of the United States is established by the fact 
that current newspapers throughout the country reeord such 
cases daily. “Vigilance” devoted several pages of each of 
its issues of September to December, 1913, for a monthly 
record of such cases collected from newspapers from a clip- 
ping bureau. In the month of September, the number of 
newspapers quoted were 104. The cases reported were: 
SEPTEMBER— 
Girl victims 14 to 17 years of age 63 
Women arrested 6 
Men arrested or sought 136 70 
The World’s Social Evil 
OCTOBER— 
Arrested 26 
Charged with White Slavery Offenses 12 
Held for Grand Jury 4 
Indicted 6 
Held for Court 2 
Convictions 14 
NOVEMBER— 
Arrested 27 
Charged 12 
Held for Grand Jury 4 
Indicted 3 
Held for Court 8 
Arraigned 7 
Trials 5 
Convictions 2 
DECEMBER— 
Arrested 31 
Charged 8 
Held for Grand Jury 3 
Indicted 7 
Held for Court 9 
Arraigned 2 
Trials 10 
Convictions 14 
The Massachusetts State Commission just issued, Feb., 
1914, says: “The detailed reports of the investigators show 
that prostitution in all its ramifications constitutes a vast 
business extending all over the State. Millions of dollars 
are invested in the parlor houses, call houses, road houses, 
apartments, lodging houses, cafes, saloons, hotels, etc., uti- 
lized in this business. The large amount of money re- 
quired to produce the income for this investment is de- 
rived from the proceeds of the prostitution of the inmates 
and the incidental sale of intoxicating drinks.” White Slave Traffic 
71 
Sources and Causes of the Traffic. 
The relative degree of the many causes which lead to 
the prostitution of women and girls cannot easily be de- 
termined. According to the experience, or study, of social 
conditions, they appear the greatest and most serious. 
Drink, low wages, dance halls and other pleasure resorts, 
poverty and seductions, lack of home training, ignorance, 
bad books, love of finery; all these are among the common 
causes,—and chief among them is alcohol. 
Dr. Prince A. Morrow says: “A large proportion of 
men and a still larger proportion of women owe their initial 
debauch to the influence of alcohol. Perhaps more than 
any other agency, alcohol relaxes the morals while it stimu- 
lates the sexual impulse. 
“Langstein’s statistics of 169 cases of venereal infection, 
comprising for the main part statistics of military men of 
different grades, are as follows: 18 were drunk at the time 
of sexual commerce; 55 were intoxicated; 85 had drunk but 
moderately; 1 was a chronic alcoholic; 48.3 per cent were 
under the influence of alcohol. M. Forel’s investigations 
show that 76.4 per cent of venereal contaminations were 
effected under the influence of alcohol, and the greatest 
number of contaminations occurred in persons below twen- 
ty-five years of age.” 
All authorities agree that alcoholism is an enormous 
factor in the social evil problem. Dr. Tait of Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in his work on “Magdalenism,” published in 
1842, says intemperance “is almost invariably associated 
with every species of crime. There are few causes of pros- 
titution more prevalent, and none more powerful.” Dr. 
Sanger stated in his “History of Prostitution,” published 
in 1856 that “not one per cent of the prostitutes in New 
York practice their calling without partaking of intoxicat- 72 
The World’s Social Evil 
ing drinks,” and Logan quotes the words of a “London 
Magdalene,” “No girls could lead the life we do without 
gin.” 
Parent-Duchalet, speaking of this class of women, says 
“they insensibly accustom themselves (to the liquor habit) 
until the practice becomes so strong as to preclude all 
chance of returning to a better state and finishes by plung- 
ing them into the lowest state of brutality.” 
We could fill a volume with similar testimonies. But it 
is sufficient to add to these here given the fact that every 
Vice Commission of recent times and every authority who 
speaks on the subject points to the intimate relation be- 
tween the saloon and the brothel, and between liquor and 
lust, not only in their close relation as cause and effect, 
but also to the fact that the worst forms of the Social Evil 
could not exist were it not for liquor and the saloon. 
The Kansas City Inquiry on Vice conditions of that 
city reported the declared ‘ ‘ causes of the first act of prosti- 
tution” on the part of 226 girls as follows: Drinking 26, 
Dancing 24, Buggy Riding, 14, Parks 17, Shows 10, At 
School 11, Coaxed 78, Forced 17, Betrayed 29. 
Thus more than 10 per cent declared their ruin as whol- 
ly due to drink and if one reflects upon the other eight 
“causes” there will be little doubt but that liquor 
was a chief contributory agent in them. Drinking and 
dancing for example as causes of prostitution are usual- 
ly related. The large proportion of those who said they 
were “coaxed” could probably have told stories of how 
liquor entered into the coaxing. 
Many contributory “causes” are shown in the evidence 
obtained by the various vice commissions throughout the 
country, as well as in the testimony of authorities in other 
lands. Some of these causes are strikingly named in the White Slave Traffic 
73 
following paragraph from the Chicago Report, page 175, 
176. 
“From the records of 156 girls committed to legal custody 
from other portions of the State than Chicago, 86 were the chil- 
dren of intemperate fathers and 13 of intemperate mothers. 
These cases of degradation in country families parallel the con- 
ditions found in many homes from which the Chicago children 
came before the court. Unregulated play in early childhood 
and prurient pleasures in youth were the occasion of the per- 
version of many of these children, both in the city and the 
small town as well as in the country. The first experience in 
sexual irregularity came to 14 Chicago girls and 22 country girls 
while at play when very young; to 45 Chicago girls and 65 
country girls it came as an incident to such forms of recreation 
as the theater, walking in the parks, picnics, skating rink, and 
buggy riding. In 3 cases the girls were going to or from church. 
To 35 Chicago girls and 39 country girls their first experience 
of wrongdoing came in the gratification of a certain curiosity; 
to 14 from Chicago and 24 from the country there was an at- 
traction of something like affection; to 23 from Chicago and 
34 from the country it meant obtaining small sums of money, 
from $1.00 to $3.00, and in some instances only some candy. 
The victims of force and fraud numbered 25 from Chicago, 62 
from the country. Those who were only ten years old or 
younger numbered 18 from Chicago, 24 from the country.” 
The seductions of men in one form or other are chiefly 
responsible for the fall of nearly all girls who are in the 
ranks of prostitution. On this point another paragraph 
from the same source reads: 
To one who hears the ghastly life story of fallen women 
it is ever the same—the story of treachery, seduction and 
downfall—the flagrant act of men—the ruin of a soul by 
man. 
It is a man and not a woman problem which we face 
today—commercialized by man—supported by man—the sup- 
ply of fresh victims furnished by men—men who have lost 
that fine instinct of chivalry and that splendid honor for 74 
The World’s Social Evil 
womanhood where the destruction of a woman’s soul is ab- 
horrent, and where the defense of a woman’s purity is truly 
the occasion for a valiant fight. 
On this subject also the words of Dr. Prince A. Mor- 
row are of special interest: 
“In tracing the essential cause of prostitution we find 
that while socio-economic conditions are contributory causes, 
we must face the fact that the taproot of this evil is grounded 
in the polygamous proclivities and practices of man. More 
than the inherited tendencies to vice in certain women, more 
than the love of finery and luxury, the laziness, the economic 
dependence, the force of want that impels many of them along 
the road to ruin, more than all these and other alleged con- 
ditions, the chief cause is the unbridled instinct of man, which 
in seeking the means of its gratification creates the supply to 
satisfy the demand. The prostitute is largely the creation of 
man’s sensual appetite. The methods of dealing with the 
social evil have been based upon a recognition of this demand 
as a necessity for men, and they fail because they endeavor 
to correct the effects without touching the cause. 
“Efforts should be directed not to making prostitution 
safe, but to prevent the making of prostitutes.’’—American 
Journal of Sociology, July, 1907. 
Until society changes social conditions there must ever 
remain with us the fallen woman. But there is a distinc- 
tion between the natural results of bad moral and social 
forces, and the merchandise of that criminal, cruel and 
entirely preventable market, where the bodies and souls of 
young girls are the stock in trade;—seduced, captured and 
sold into hopeless, irredeemable slavery. 
The Traffic Must Go. 
All the evidence in hand points clearly to the fact that 
the whole structure of this abominable traffic would fall White Slave Traffic 
75 
with the suppression of the regulated or permitted brothel. 
This does not mean that all viee would he thereby elimi- 
nated but if the market was closed the trade would cease. 
At the International Conference held in Madrid, in the 
fall of 1910, Dr. DeGraaf, a distinguished citizen of Hol- 
land, presented some important testimony on this subject 
obtained from the heads of departments of authority. 
“The French Committee,” he said, “states that the 
house of prostitution, owing to the facility which it offers 
to the traffickers for speedy realization of the profits of 
their commerce by the easy sale of their victims, is one of 
the most frequent sources of the traffic, and all the corres- 
pondents of the International Council of Women, affirm 
that the tolerated house is the principal source of the traf- 
fic ; some of them maintain that it is the only source. ’ ’ 
Said Professor Stoos, of Switzerland: “Nowhere in 
Switzerland is morality lower than in Geneva, the only 
town where Regulation still exists.” 
The Dutch Committee quotes official reports of the in- 
quiries undertaken by the municipal council of Amsterdam 
in 1895, and by Police Inspector Balkenstein in 1901, which 
declared that the women in the houses of prostitution are 
really in slavery, and that wherever these houses are tol- 
erated the purveyors are certain to find a sure market for 
women they collect and dispose of; and since the suppres- 
sion of the houses in Amsterdam in 1903 the White Slave 
Traffic has completely disappeared in that city. After the 
closure of the houses in Amsterdam the name of this city 
was erased from the annual list of the traffickers giving 
the addresses of the best buyers of women. 
The German Committee declares that the principal 
source is the tolerated houses; none but an official house 76 
The World’s Social Evil 
would be able to pay the high prices demanded for pretty 
young girls, prices which go as high as 4,800 francs. 
Dr. DeGraaf adds: “The principal question appears 
to us to be as follows: Is there any reason why we should 
only attack the traffickers? Ought we not equally to pur- 
sue the buyers? To this last question we may say that 
there has been an almost unanimous response; the buyers 
are for the most part the keepers of houses of debauchery. 
If this be so our Association cannot refuse to make a vigor- 
ous attack on the tolerated houses, and to prove to the Gov- 
ernments that they have taken the wrong road in main- 
taining the system of segregation.” 
We have only to turn to the great cities of the United 
States to observe how closely we are faced with a similar 
set of facts. 
Wherever there is a “redlight district” girls can be 
bought and sold. The great centers of vice which are, not 
only tolerated, but regulated, with a view to their con- 
tinuance and prosperity, rather than with a view to their 
suppression, are the centers of the trade in girls. 
Havelock Ellis recently remarked: 
“The white slave traffic is not prostitution; it is the 
commercialized exploitation of prostitutes. The independ- 
ent prostitute, living alone, scarcely lends herself to the 
white slave trader. It is on houses of prostitution, where 
the less independent and usually weaker-minded prostitutes 
are segregated, that the traffic is based. Such houses can- 
not even exist without such traffic. There is little induce- 
ment for a girl to enter such a house, in full knowledge of 
what it involves, on her own initiative. The proprietors of 
such houses must, therefore, give orders for the ‘goods’ 
they desire, and it is the business of procurers by persua- 
sion, misrepresentation, deceit, intoxication, to supply them. White Slave Traffic 
77 
‘The White Slave Traffic/ as Kneeland states, ‘is thus not 
only a hideous reality, but a reality almost wholly depend- 
ent on the existence of houses of prostitution/ and as the 
authors of ‘The Social Evil/ add, it is ‘the most shameful 
species of business enterprise in modern times.' In this 
intimate dependence of the white slave traffic on houses of 
prostitution, there lies, it may be pointed out, a hope for the 
future.”—Metropolitan Magazine, January, 1914. 
“The supply of women for prostitution does not come 
as largely as is commonly thought from the ranks of those 
willing or seeking to enter this life. Were this true there 
would be no necessity for the ‘cadet’ procurer, and protec- 
tor, who lead women astray; for seduction, false marriages, 
drugs, pleasure halls, drink, and force, to entice them into 
this life; and compulsory prostitution, division of fees, 
cost of living and of protection would not be used to keep 
them in such a state of subjection. The procurer and the 
combined interests are aware that if the safeguards of 
childhood can be broken down, the work of procuring 
women and patrons is easier. ’ ’1 
The panders, cadets and other procurers, who furnish 
the victims at prices according to the beauty and attrac- 
tion of the “goods” would find no purchasers in any city, 
Committee of Fourteen, New York, 1910. 
"The commission has definite information, including names 
and addresses, of many men who are procurers of women and 
girls for the business of commercialized prostitution. 
“The pimps constitute a well-recognized class of exploiters 
of women. These idle, flashily dressed, smooth-talking men, 
often with no visible means of support, may be found in every 
city of any size. They usually spend their time in low drink- 
ing places, amusing themselves by gambling, playing pool, etc. 
They are keenly on the lookout for young girls who have just 
begun a life of immorality. They openly boast of the girls 
they have seduced, and tell of their carefully planned schemes 
for the seduction of other innocent girls who have attracted 
their notice.”—Massachusetts State Commission, Feb., 1914. 78 
The World’s Social Evil 
if the brothel was suppressed by the police authorities, ac- 
cording to laws already existing in most of our States. 
Big Business in Chicago.—Dive keepers were found 
guilty of operating houses of ill-fame in Chicago on Jan. 
5th, 1914. Inspector of Morals W. C. Dannenberg ar- 
rested the two principals and forty-seven inmates in No- 
vember, 1913. The two houses adjoined each other—one 
of them “a saloon and redlight cafe,” the other “a large 
so-called hotel.” The testimony showed that thirty-six 
girls worked for the two prisoners. They “had to report 
for duty” at 3 o’clock each afternoon and remain on duty 
until 3 o ’clock next morning. 
‘‘Each of the girls had to contribute 25 cents a week to a 
fund for the payment of the professional escorts who sat at the 
table with her until a spender took his place. For each dol- 
lar’s worth of drinks bought at the girl’s table she received a 
red ticket, which she cashed in every morning at the rate of 
40 cents on the dollar. White tickets were sold to men for $2 
each, and were cashed in by the girls for 50 cents. 
“Rolls of these tickets were introduced as exhibits. The 
last serial number on the spool of red tickets was 27,000. The 
last figure on the roll of white tickets was 48,300. Attorney 
Reker computed that these figures showed that a business that 
ran as high as $150,000 had been done.”—Chicago Tribune. 
So long as a girl can be sold for sums varying from 
$15.00 to $500.00, there will be pimps—ghouls—who feed 
and fatten on human flesh; and so long as there are broth- 
els, open by the grace or apathy of law, there will be a 
market for the purchase and sale of them. It is easier to 
find a market for the sale of a stolen woman than for a 
stolen horse, and while there is a police hunt for the man 
who steals an automobile, the police force is indifferent 
to the robbery of a woman’s body and soul. 
The price of the woman is rated by her personal charms White Slave Traffic 
79 
—her youth and innocence being regarded as important 
assets. The younger and fresher a girl, the bigger the 
price. It is the only business in the world of commerce 
that puts a premium upon inexperience and ignorance. 
Compared with the chattelism of negroes, the slavery of 
girls for profit through lust, is a far more damnable depth 
of human barter. The female slave of the lust traffic has 
no redemptive feature—no domestic life—no poetry of 
love—no “daddy” and ‘ mammy” or old “auntie.” She 
is doomed to a perpetual merchandise of her body, with- 
out love or pity. Sold from one slave-hell to another— 
each a transfer to a deeper depth, without hope of a change 
for the better. “I am chained to a stake with the devil’s 
links,” said a woman who still retained sufficient of her 
youth and beauty to be clothed in gaudy satins. But when 
the remnant of her beauty fails, the human devil will let 
go her chains and cast her out—a hopeless, pitiless, de- 
spised, scorned, diseased leper, to be spurned and loathed 
until she is— 
“Mad from life’s history 
Glad to death’s mystery, 
Swift to be hurled 
Anywhere—anywhere 
Out of the world!” The self-righteous world may wrap itself in a mantle 
of prudery, and close its ears against sickening details; 
the complacent public may demur at an approach to sin 
and misery; the self-satisfied community may object to 
view wretchedness drawn from the obscurity of its hid- 
ing-place to the full light of investigation; nevertheless, 
there is now existing a moral pestilence which creeps 
insidiously into the privacy of the domestic circle, and 
draws thence the myriads of its victims, and which saps 
the foundation of that holy confidence, the first, the 
most beautiful attraction of home. 
There is an ever-present physical danger, so fatally 
destructive that the world would recoil, as from the 
sting of a serpent, could they but appreciate its 
malignity which is daily and hourly threatening every 
man, woman, and child in the community; which for 
hundreds of years has been slowly but steadily making 
its way onward, leaving a track marked with broken 
hopes, ruined frames, and sad recollections of stricken 
friends; and which now, in the full force of an impetus 
acquired and aggravated by concealment, almost defies 
opposition. 
There is a social wrong which forces upon the com- 
munity vast expenditures for an object of which they 
are ignorant; which swells the public taxes and increases 
individual outlay for a vice which has hitherto been 
studiously kept in concealment.—Introduction to the 
“History of Prostitution” by Wm. Sanger, M. D., pub- 
lished fifty years ago. CHAPTER III. 
THE ENGLISH CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS. 
How and Why Adopted. 
THE LAW IN OPERATION THE BRITISH LION AROUSED—THE 
STORM BURSTS—THE LAW IS REPEALED. 
In the year 1860 Lord Herbert, then Secretary of War 
of the British Government, called attention to the preva- 
lence of venereal diseases among men of the army and navy 
which were said to be seriously diminishing the active 
strength of the forces. It was found that the sanitary pro- 
visions for the soldiers in barracks were ‘ ‘ grossly inefficient, 
indecent, and filthy, ’ *—that there was little or nothing done 
to promote the moral and intellectual life of the men, and 
that the leisure hours of the soldiers in garrison towns were 
subject to continuous evil tendencies and resorts. Accord- 
ingly Lord Herbert introduced important changes, which 
had a marked effect, both on the moral character and be- 
havior of the men, and upon their health; venereal disor- 
ders decreased throughout the entire army, from 146 per 
1,000 men to 87 per 1,000, in six years. 
While these improvements were going on, another set 
of men were looking towards a compulsory system of regu- 
lation and registration of women who consorted with sol- 
diers and sailors, as a remedy for physical disorders. 
In 1862 the Committee recommended legislation for 
British garrison towns, but condemned the compulsory pro- 
vision for medical introspection. The advocates of the sys- 82 
The World’s Social Evil 
tem, however, regarded this compulsory feature as neces- 
sary to the success of the system. But they were fully 
aware that Parliament, as representing the people, would 
not agree to the passing of such a law if the real character 
of it were made known. Accordingly they planned, secret- 
ly, to get a bill through Parliament without arousing public 
attention. 
About this time the country was alarmed by the ravages 
of disease among cattle, and various measures were taken 
in Parliament to prevent the spread of these diseases, which 
measures were called “Contagious Diseases (Animals) 
Acts. ’ ’ 
Here was the opportunity, and also the name ready to 
hand. A bill was drafted and called by the same name, 
only that the word in bracket (animals) was dropped out 
and the word “women” wras substituted. This bill was in- 
troduced and rushed through Parliament in the following 
manner and order. 
How the Acts Were Passed:—On June 20th, 1884, at 
two o’clock in the morning, w’hen there were but few mem- 
bers present in the House of Commons, and most of these 
were indifferent and sleepy, the bill was read without a 
word of comment or explanation. One week later (June 
27th) it was read a second time, again without discussion 
or comment. Three days later (June 30th), again at 2 
a. m., a committee of state officials and others known to 
be favorable to the proposed act, was appointed and the 
bill referred. On the 15th of July this committee reported, 
and on July 20th it was read a third time and passed. 
Thus, in exactly one month, this bill was put through all 
the formal stages, and it became law, without discussion, or 
any public knowledge whatever of its nature or purpose. 
“Not one member of Parliament in twenty knew of its real The Contagious Diseases Acts 
83 
import, ’n while the daily and weekly press merely recorded 
the fact that a bill with that name had passed, assuming 
that it referred to cattle. 
This bill, which was understood to be a temporary one 
and did not provide for compulsory examination, was made 
operative in only a few garrison towns. A society was im- 
mediately organized to promote the extension of the sys- 
tem, and it was advocated in certain circles as a “benevo- 
lent measure for the benefit of the poor woman who suffered 
from the diseases in question.” Through the influence of 
this society another bill was introduced to Parliament in 
1866. This bill proposed to repeal the first act, substituting 
for it a new one, extending the system over a wider area 
and making the provisions far more stringent—including 
compulsory medical examination, fortnightly. 
The public mind had not yet been awakened on the sub- 
ject, and so this second bill was introduced and carried 
through, in a precisely similar manner as the first. 
At one o’clock in the morning of March 16th, 1866, the 
bill was read without comment, and on the 22nd it was 
read a second time. On April 9th it was referred to a com- 
mittee, the members of which included five vice-presidents 
of the society for the extension of the acts to the wThole 
population and others who had served on the former com- 
mittee; on the 26th, at two o’clock in the morning, the bill 
was recommitted. 
This Act was amended in 1869 so as to make it apply 
to places, not otherwise named, and to the territory of fif- 
teen miles around each place named. The Acts, which were 
now know as “The Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-69,” were 
*Chas. Bell Taylor, M. D., Nottingham, England. 84 
The World’s Social Evil 
in operation in eighteen military stations and naval ports 
in the southern part of England and Ireland.1 
Each district in which the Acts were operative was 
equipped, at public expense, with hospital wards for the 
medical examination and treatment of women and girls, and 
special police detectives, dressed in plain clothes, under the 
direction of the military and naval authorities, were ap- 
pointed. The sole business of the police detectives was to 
bring all women, or girls, whom they suspected, or who 
were living in circumstances of temptation, into the net, 
to be regularly, officially and systematically inspected by 
medical men. These medical officials exercised their dis- 
cretion in giving to such women a clean bill of health for 
their business, or holding them for hospital treatment. The 
examinations were often attended with the most brutal vio- 
lation of all sense of decency or gentleness, and instrumental 
introspection was the general rule. 
Violation of a Fundamental Principle of the Con- 
stitution :—When once the Acts were put into operation 
it was found that they were constructed without regard 
to the constitutional law of England and against the prin- 
ciples of equity and justice which generally prevail in all 
enlightened countries, in matters affecting the rights and 
liberty of individual citizens. In the United States their 
constitutionality would have been tested in the courts. 
Condemned by the Leading Medical Journal :—When 
the first of these Acts was passed in 1864 the “British Med- 
ical Journal” characterized it as “the grossest violation of 
the liberty of the subject that had ever been proposed to a 
British Parliament—an act which reduced women to the 
'The reader may find a brief sketch of the passing of 
these Acts in Herbert Spencer’s “Study of Sociology” which is 
substantially in accord with the above. The Contagious Diseases Acts 
85 
condition of mere animals.” This statement of a leading 
medical journal was more significant because in later years 
this same journal joined in a conspiracy of silence when the 
system was under the fire of public criticism. 
It will be seen, however, that the Journal’s sweeping 
charge against the first and mildest of the acts was a mod- 
erate statement when the actual working of the later acts 
is considered. 
1. Only One Accused in a Double Act :—These acts 
were directed against only one of two parties to the same 
offense (women only), i. e., assuming that the offense con- 
sisted of an act of prostitution. The accusation, however, 
was not against prostitution as such, but against incur- 
ring the risk of disease among soldiers; yet men were 
not subject to it. 
2. Military Law:—It placed the authority in the 
hands of military and naval officials, yet it was not directed 
against either the army or navy, but against women who 
are civilians—neither soldiers nor sailors. 
3. The Law Unequal and One Sided :—It was an un- 
equal and one-sided law. It treated one sex only—and that 
the weaker, and rarely the first offender, as the sole agent 
in a double act of wrong doing. It treated the woman as 
a criminal in an act which, in the man, was regarded as an 
“irregular indulgence of a natural impulse.” (Royal Com- 
mission Report). 
4. Accused Treated as Guilty:—It ignored a most 
important principle of Brittish law, viz.: that an accused 
person is regarded as innocent until proven guilty. 
5. Trial by Jury Denied:—It denied to the accused 
the right of trial by jury. The acts provided for the sum- 
mary commitment to prison of any woman who refused to 86 
The World’s Social Evil 
sign the “voluntary submission” or to obey an order for 
registration and periodical introspection, and she was im- 
prisoned for three or for nine months without appeal. 
6. Compulsory (Voluntary) Submission:—It created 
an instrument of self-crimination, which was placed in the 
hands of men who were professionally interested in en- 
forcing it upon unwilling women. It is a recognized princi- 
ple in the treatment of accused persons that they need not 
incriminate themselves. Yet, here was an instrument, de- 
signed and used for the purpose of inducing women and 
girls to incriminate themselves. The following is a copy 
of the so-called “voluntary submission”: 
I of in pursuance of the 
Contagious Diseases Acts, by this submission, voluntarily sub- 
mit myself to a periodical examination by the visiting surgeon 
for for calendar months from the 
date hereof. 
Dated this day of , 18.... 
Witness Signed 
The bfhnks were filled out by the officer, who usually 
entered “twelve” before the word “months,” the woman being 
required to sign her name or make her mark,—the witness being 
the same officer. 
Copies of this innocent looking document were in the 
hands of every member of the special police department, 
ready for use at any moment, as a means to persuade or 
threaten women into a life of registered prostitution. Its 
voluntary character may be imagined when it is remem- 
bered that every such officer had power to bring the accused 
girl or woman before a magistrate or judge and have her 
imprisoned for refusal to obey. It was voluntary in the 
same sense as it is a voluntary act to throw up one’s hands 
at the command of a robber who thrusts a revolver before 
one’s eyes. 
7. No Evidence Necessary to Secure Conviction :— 
It called for no evidence against an accused woman, except The Contagious Diseases Acts 
87 
the suspicion of the special policeman “that he has good 
cause to believe” that the woman whom he accuses “is a 
common prostitute.” (Clause 15.) Thus the reputation 
of any woman was at the mercy of the police against whom 
such woman had no remedy. And it should be borne in 
mind that a suspicion so directed, against any woman, is 
vital to her whole life. 
8. No Means of Redress :—It gave no right or power 
of appeal or defense against any false or damaging charges. 
Mr. Herbert Spencer pointed out in his “Study of Sociol- 
ogy” that “not only do the provisions of the acts make easy 
the establishment of charges by men who are placed under 
temptations to make them; but these men are guarded 
against penalties which are apt to be brought against them 
for abusing their power. A poor woman who proceeds 
against one of them for making a groundless accusation 
ruinous to her character, does so with this risk before her: 
that if she fails to get a verdict she has to pay the costs, 
whereas a verdict in her favor does not give her the costs; 
only by special order of the judge does she get her costs.” 
9. No Chance of Escape or Rescue:—Under these 
acts the suspected woman was condemned to a life of 
shame. Let the reader imagine a woman, subject to the 
police, whose business in calling on her is known to her 
neighbors,—branded, ticketed, registered as a “common 
prostitute,” who has been subjected to the hateful, en- 
forced, examinations,—not for the purpose of her relief or 
for rescue, but to provide her with a ticket of leave to 
further prosecute her vile business. 
10. Blackmail Made Easy:—It is not necessary to 
think of the police as worse than the average man to real- 
ize that they are liable to use their power for extortion 
and sometimes for degrading compliance with other and 88 
The World’s Social Evil 
worse demands. But it also exposes the most unprotected 
and helpless class of people to the attacks of vile men 
falsely personating the special police. And this is not an 
imaginary possibility, but many such cases occurred and 
are still occurring in countries where such laws are in 
operation. See chapter on extortion and graft. 
THE LAW IN OPERATION—MORAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS 
OF THE SYSTEM. 
The general effects of the working of this law in Eng- 
land and Ireland were much the same as elsewhere. The 
moral results and the consequences upon the rights, honor, 
liberty and life are everywhere identical. 
Royal Commission Report •—In 1870 a Royal Commis- 
sion was appointed by the government to inquire into the 
working of these Acts. This inquiry became necessary, in 
the mind of the government, because of the public uprising 
against the Acts. The commission consisted of twenty-six 
men, several of whom were well-known supporters of the 
Acts, and members of the society for extending them to the 
whole country, three others were at one time members of 
that society, but withdrew their names in presence of the 
uprising against the Acts; only one was a member of the 
association for repeal of the acts, and one was a repre- 
senative working man. 
The report was published by the government as one 
of its official Blue Books,1 a volume of 848 pages (folio size) 
and consists of: 
JThis “Blue Book” is of value because of the extensive 
inquiry which is reported in it, including testimony of many 
eminent men, such as John Stuart Mill, Professor F. W. Newman, 
and numerous medical practitioners and public officials. It con- 
tains much that is unfit for general publication, but as a refer- 
ence book on this subject it is an exceptionally important docu- 
ment. The Contagious Diseases Acts 
89 
1. The report of the commission. 
2. Minutes of the evidence taken over a period of 45 
days from 86 witnesses, and contains 20,385 questions and 
answers. 
3. A mass of statistical matter presented to the com- 
mission. 
4. Copy of the Acts, together with legal forms, etc. 
Moral Effects Upon the Women :—As to the effects 
of the law upon the character and conduct of the women 
who were subjected to it. Among those who acknowledged 
themselves as prostitutes the compulsory registration and 
examination was at first a shock, both to their remaining 
sense of modesty, and to their personal rights in regard to 
their own bodies. One witness, who lived in a town in 
which the acts were in force, the Rev. Fraser, chaplain of 
Maidstone gaol, testified before the Royal Commission that 
he knew of 31 women who refused to be examined (within 
one year) at Maidstone, 19 of whom were sent to prison 
rather than submit. There is much other evidence of simi- 
lar purport. 
There were others who were not so degraded, but who 
were poor or were otherwise liable to the suspicions of the 
police. These were often shocked and outraged by the per- 
secutions of the officers in visiting them at their homes for 
the purpose of inducing them to sign the hated “voluntary 
submission” papers, and thereby creating an odious suspi- 
cion, both in the minds of licentious men and the neighbors 
generally; and further, such women were frequently sub- 
jected to gross injustice amounting sometimes to the cru- 
ellest persecution through the powers invested in the po- 
lice, of forcing them into the ranks of registered prostitu- 
tion. Such women and sometimes young girls, if seen 90 
The World’s Social Evil 
walking with or talking to a young man, especially if he 
were a soldier or sailor (though he might be an honorable 
friend, sweetheart or a brother) found herself pounced 
upon by one of the police spies who were ever on the 
watch. Many refused to obey, some going to prison, 
others fleeing the district, like slaves from old-time own- 
ers ; and some of these sought refuge in death rather than 
submit. 
Driven to Death :—The case of Mrs. Percy was well 
known to the writer. She was the widow of an actor who, 
with his wife, had supported themselves for years at a 
local theater in Aldershot,—the largest military camp in 
England. A few months after her husband’s death, Mrs. 
Percy, and her young daughter of sixteen years, were vis- 
ited by a police spy and ordered to present themselves for 
examination. Mrs. Percy wrote a piteous letter to the Lon- 
don Daily Telegraph, describing the persecution she was 
subjected to, and left Aldershot rather than submit, re- 
moving to Windsor. There she failed to get an engagement 
and returned to Aldershot at which place she could easily 
find employment. The police, however, hunted her down 
again, and by threatening the man who employed her, that 
he would have his license taken away, he caused her dis- 
charge from employment. She was soon reduced to penury, 
and spent the last three pence in refreshment at the eating 
house of an old friend, to whom she told her wretched con- 
dition and said she would drown herself rather than sub- 
mit, for “she was not of that class.” The next morning 
she was found dead in the canal. All the facts here re- 
lated, were proved at the inquest. No attempt was made 
at the inquest to justify the police, or to prove that Mrs. 
Percy had ever been a prostitute. 
This shocking incident naturally provoked much criti- The Contagious Diseases Acts 
91 
cism of the law; some newspapers for the first time taking 
strong grounds against it. 
The sixteen years old daughter (Jennie Percy) was 
rescued by Mrs. Josephine Butler, who sent an agent to 
Aldershot to take her to Liverpool, where she lived for 
some weeks in Mrs. Butler’s own home. She afterwards 
came to the home of the writer, and in the course of a 
few months she became a much respected waiter in a res- 
taurant, and the writer can testify that she was a most ex- 
emplary young woman. 
Other Cases op Suicide :—This was not the only suicide 
traceable directly to the Acts. At least three other cases 
were known of by the writer. Rachel House, aged 28, con- 
fined in the Royal Albert Hospital, as a registered prosti- 
tute, threw herself out of the window and killed herself. 
Ellen Mulcarty, a married woman, a registered prostitute 
before her marriage, drowned herself at Millbay April 
16th, 1873. She had frequently complained of the harsh 
treatment of Inspector Anniss, one of the spy police. She 
had threatened to destroy her life rather than be compelled 
to submit and suffer. She was advised to marry the young 
man with whom she lived, but even this did not free her 
from police espionage and the fortnightly examination, and 
she chose death in preference. Elizabeth J. Brown (about 
20) drowned herself July 1, 1874. Her complaints of the 
harsh treatment by the police and painful sufferings at the 
hand of the surgeon were well known. She had made a 
previous effort to destroy herself. 
Hardening Effects Upon Some Women:—One of the 
results of the Acts was to reduce some women to a condi- 
tion of reckless indifference to all moral sense. Evidence 
was given before the Royal Commission that they some- 
times called themselves “Government women” and 92 
The World’s Social Evil 
“Queen’s women.” In the earlier stages of the working 
of the system in England, as elsewhere, the women received 
certificates from the doctors, which they used as means of 
solicitation. Agents of the London Rescue Society gave 
many instances of this in their evidence before the Royal 
Commission showing that it resulted in “the utter deaden- 
ing of conscience, which is the rapid and invariable result 
upon the minds of all women, who are taught by those reg- 
ulation systems to look upon their condition as a lawful 
one.,> 
Thus, one inevitable result of this system is to stamp 
out the last vestige of moral susceptibility of the women, 
whom it proposes to keep in a measure clean, not for the 
purpose of improving their moral, or even their physical 
condition, but to fit them temporarily for the use of men. 
In reviewing the system it is important to keep this fact 
in mind: The English Acts, the Paris police des moeurs, 
the Belgian law, or any other regulation force, makes no 
provision for the health of the women for their own sake. 
It assumes that “once a prostitute always a prostitute,” 
and oidy offers sanitary aid for the sake of the men with 
whom she consorts. 
Unequal and One Sided :—Bearing upon the inequality 
and the one-sided operation of the Acts, upon women only, 
the Royal Commission in its main report says: 
“Many witnesses have urged that, as well on grounds 
of justice and expediency, soldiers and sailors should be 
subjected to regular examinations. We may at once dispose 
of this recommendation, so far as it is founded on the prin- 
ciple of putting both parties to the sin of fornication on 
the same footing, by the obvious but not less conclusive re- 
ply, that there is no comparison to be made between pros- 
titutes and the men who consort with them. With the one The Contagious Diseases Acts 
93 
the offense is committed as a matter of gain; with the other 
it is an irregular indulgence of a natural impulse.” 
Here, then, is a positive, official statement, made de- 
liberately over the signatures of the Royal Commission, 
including one bishop, several other clergymen, and several 
doctors and legislators, openly avowing the degrading and 
unjust doctrine of an unequal standard both of morals and 
legal rights, as a basis of this system. 
The principle of these Acts, and indeed the whole sys- 
tem of regulated prostitution, stands forever condemned 
by this infamous proposition. This doctrine that what is 
wrong in women is only irregular in men is responsible for 
the utterly false education which young men face as they 
enter society. 
It is nothing that these poor outcasts were brought down 
to the very jaws of hell, by the deeds of men in the pursuit 
of “indulgence of their natural impulse.” It is nothing 
that, each new day and night, fresh victims are seduced, 
from innocence and home, into the market of lust, through 
the “irregular indulgence” of a natural impulse on the 
part of men. The one noble distinction between them is, 
that “he” is only seeking “indulgence” while “she” is 
seeking bread and clothing. He pays, she receives. The 
avowed difference is, that in paying for ‘ ‘ indulgence ” “ he ” 
is a virtuous and honored citizen, to be protected, while 
“she,” who is his partner in the same act, is a vicious crim- 
inal because she receives the money which her companion 
pays. 
Many people in modern society have disseminated this 
doctrine, justifying the “wild oats of men” and condemn- 
ing the ‘ ‘ fall ’ ’ of the girls who are the victims of those same 
wild-oats-sowing men, but it remained for an English 
“Royal Commission” consisting of clergymen, doctors and 94 
The World’s Social Evil 
legislators to frame the unholy creed into a written dec- 
laration, and deposit it in the archives of government State 
papers in England. 
The British Lion Aroused—Public Agitation Against 
the Acts :—The struggle against the Acts in England did 
not begin until some considerable time after they were in 
actual operation. 
Harriet Martineau Protests:—Before the first Act 
was passed, one distinguished lady, however, Miss Harriet 
Martineau, wrote a series of articles which were published 
in the London Daily News protesting against it, as a scheme 
which was “set about in an indirect way, with the cunning 
of conspiracy.” 
These articles were written as a protest and also as a 
warning of the danger of coming legislation on the sub- 
ject, but it fell upon no ears that were sufficiently quick 
to apprehend the danger. 
In June, 1868, a bill was introduced to the House of 
Lords for extending the operation of the Act of 1866 to 
the Metropolis of London. The Rescue Society saw the im- 
minent danger of such a proposal and called a conference 
in London, at which a strong protest was prepared and a 
copy sent to members of the House of Lords and the Com- 
mons—and the bill was withdrawn. 
The First Battle:—This was the first real battle in 
what proved to be a long continued warfare against the 
system in England. About this time, a number of persons 
opposed to the system were attracted towards each other, 
and began to make protests from various localities. 
Dr. Charles Bell Taylor, of Nottingham, an eminent 
oculist, who had lived in Paris and Berlin, and attended The Contagious Diseases Acts 
95 
the hospitals there, was well acquainted with the working 
of the system on the European continent. He began a cam- 
paign of letter-writing to the public press, but of forty 
letters sent in one week to various publications, only one 
was printed. 
Conspiracy of Silence:—A conspiracy of silence was 
evident. Everywhere the subject was treated as one not 
to be discussed—but to be “hushed up.” The press, in 
some instances doubtless, honestly, but more often, hypo- 
critically,—affected an air of concern for the morals of the 
people, and refused to discuss the subject; while on the 
other hand, frequent attacks were made upon the character 
and motives of those who were responsible for the agitation 
against the system. Some publications, notably the Satur- 
day Review, abused the reformers in true Billingsgate style, 
casting offensive and filthy epithets, especially at the women 
who were among the very choicest spirits of the land. 
Another drawback, at the beginning of the agitation, 
was the absence of prominent public men in connection 
with it, and the conservative mind of the country was not 
easily aroused to a belief in the real nature of the acts. 
But the advocates of the system grew bolder and more 
progressive in their efforts to secure its adoption on the 
whole country. As Mr. Benjamin Scott says of them— 
“the strategy of silence had succeeded, publicity damned 
them”1 
A Woman’s Petition:—In 1869, aroused by this activ- 
ity of the pro-acts party, Miss Martineau again took up 
the subject, and her personal influence with the London 
Daily News was such that she induced the Managers of 
'See “A State Iniquityby Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of 
London. 96 
The World’s Social Evil 
that journal to publish four letters to which she attached 
the signature, “An English-woman.” These remarkable 
letters aroused such an interest among influential women 
of the land that a protest which she drew up was signed 
by thousands of women, foremost among whom were the 
following: Harriet Martineau, Mary Carpenter, Florence 
Nightingale, Josephine Butler. 
This protest so ably sets forth the principles upon 
which women entered into this struggle, that it has been 
made historic. It reads as follows: 
We, the undersigned, enter our solemn Protest against these 
Acts: — 
1st.—Because, involving, as they do, such a momentous 
change in the legal safeguards hitherto enjoyed by women in 
common with men, they have been passed, not only without the 
knowledge of the country, but unknown to Parliament itself; and 
we hold that neither the Representatives of the People, nor the 
Press, fulfill the duties which are expected of them, when they 
allow such legislation to take place without the fullest dis- 
cussion. 
2nd.—Because, so far as women are concerned, they remove 
every guarantee of personal security which the law has estab- 
lished and held sacred, and put their reputation, their freedom, 
and their persons absolutely in the power of the Police. 
3rd.—Because the law is bound, in any country professing 
to give civil liberty to its subjects, to define clearly an offense 
which it punishes. 
4th.—Because it is unjust to punish the sex who are victims 
of a vice, and leave unpunished the sex who are the main cause, 
both of the vice and its dreaded consequences; and we con- 
sider that liability to arrest, forced surgical examination, and 
(where this is resisted) imprisonment with hard labour, to 
which these Acts subject women, are punishment of the most 
degrading kind. 
5th.—Because, by such a system, the path of evil is made 
more easy to our sons, and to the whole youth of England; inas- 
much as a moral restraint is withdrawn the moment the State The Contagious Diseases Acts 
97 
recognizes, and provides conveniences for, the practice of a 
vice which it thereby declares to he necessary and venial. 
6th.—Because these measures are cruel to the women who 
come under their action—violating the feelings of those whose 
sense of shame is not wholly lost, and further brutalizing even 
the most abandoned. 
7th.—Because the disease which these Acts seek to remove 
has never been removed by such legislation. The advocates of 
the system have utterly failed to show, by statistics or otherwise, 
that these regulations have, in any case, after several years’ 
trial, and when applied to one sex only, diminished disease, re- 
claimed the fallen, or improved the general morality of the 
country. We have, on the contrary, the strongest evidence to 
show that, in Paris and other continental cities, where women 
have long been outraged by this forced inspection, the public 
health and morals are worse than at home. 
8th.—Because the conditions of this disease, in the first 
instance, are moral, not physical. The moral evil through which 
the disease makes its way separates the case entirely from 
that of the plague, or other scourges, which have been placed 
under police control or sanitary care. We hold that we are 
bound, before rushing into the experiment of legalizing a re- 
volting vice, to try to deal with the causes of the evil, and we 
dare to believe that with wiser teaching and more capable legis- 
lation, those causes would not be beyond control. 
A Startling War Cry:—This protest was published 
in the London Daily News Jan. 1, 1870. It proved to be 
the most startling war-note that had yet been sounded and 
it attracted the attention, not only of the advocates of the 
system in England, but also of the Police des Moeurs of 
Paris, and the authorities of other continental cities where 
the system had been long in operation. 
In Oct. 1869, a meeting was called at which “The Na- 
tional Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Dis- 
eases Acts” was formed, with Frederick C. Banks as Sec- 
retary. There were no women in this organization, and it 
was soon felt that another society, composed of women, 98 
The World’s Social Evil 
should be formed. Accordingly “The Ladies National 
Association” was organized and Mrs. Josephine Butler be- 
came its distinguished Honorary Secretary. 
Other Societies sprang up all over the country; the 
Northern Counties League with Henry J. Wilson (after- 
wards M.P.) as President; the Friend’s Association, and 
the Midland Counties League. 
Cardinal Manning wrote a letter to the author of this 
book which appeared in the Medical Enquirer. The fol- 
lowing is a copy of the letter: 
“Westminster, Jan. 23, 1875. 
“Sir:—In reply to your note received this morning, request- 
ing me to give my opinion on the Contagious Diseases Acts, I 
have no hesitation in saying that I regard them with the strong- 
est repugnance, and with the gravest fear for the sake of the 
public morals of the country. 
“I am assured, upon trustworthy evidence, that those Acts 
have never been sufficiently discussed in the Legislature, and to 
that cause I must ascribe their present state. 
"On every ground of Christian and natural morality the 
administration of these Acts appears to me to be fatal to our 
public moral sense. 
“I can conceive of no argument that can justify these Acts, 
even in particular cases, except overwhelming sanitary reasons. 
But I am assured, upo$ evidence which I cannot doubt, that 
the alleged sanitary benefits have not been obtained. I am, 
therefore, of opinion that every dictate and law of morality re- 
quires the Repeal of the existing Acts; and in this opinion I am 
the more confirmed by the fact that they are the first introduc- 
tion into our legislation of a system, which, in my belief, has 
had disastrous consequences in other countries. 
“I may convey my meaning in the following words: Medical 
and surgical practice in the subject-matter of these Acts can be 
justified on moral grounds only where its application is free 
from immoral consequences. But such cannot be the case in 
the public and systematic administration of the Contagious 
Diseases Acts. “Henry E., Archbishop of Westminster. 
“To William Burgess, Esq.” The Contagious Diseases Acts 
99 
The following letter from Professor F. W. Newman was 
published: 
A lengthy letter also was received and published from 
Prof. F. W. Newman from which we take the following 
paragraphs: 
“Weston Super-Mare, Oct. 9, 1876. 
“Dear Sir: 
“I need not re-assert my own hatred and disgust for the 
Contagious Diseases Acts, offensive as they obviously are to 
Justice, to English Rights, and to the vital interests of Morality 
and Family life. Nor need I express my contempt for the judg- 
ment of every one, be he physician or statesman, who hopes to 
stamp out disease by measures which increase vice—the main 
and essential cause of disease. * * * * 
“More than 50 years ago I was pierced to the heart at the 
profligacies of young men at Oxford, and desired to utter some 
public cry against it, but saw no rightful opportunity. But now 
that the State has enacted unjust and pernicious laws, based 
upon moral despair, and designed to make vice healthful, every 
one of us is under duty as a good citizen, to cry aloud and 
spare not, but avow (whether we are men or women) our abomi- 
nation alike of the false doctrine and of the unjust demoralizing 
law. Many have been slow to learn the facts; but every year all 
the worthiest part of the nation will be more united against the 
law and against the evil. 
“Francis W. Newman. 
“To Mr. Wm. Burgess, Secretary.” 
No single question of moral welfare ever called forth 
more profound and deeply earnest floods of eloquence. 
Men and women came out from every sphere of social and 
political life, like prophets inspired—stirred only by an in- 
tense purpose to deliver the nation from a great political 
and moral wrong. No sense of pleasure or sentiment 
moved them, and no self-interest was sufficient to check 
them in their self-sacrificing labors. 
The anti-slavery agitation, the temperance movement, 
and others, had in them, various factors of romance and 100 
The World’s Social Evil 
social fellowship. A temperance entertainment seemed to 
be in proper form, and a concert is a suitable annex to 
a benevolent enterprise; stray stories of negro humor and 
song accompanied the abolition movement. 
But here is a theme that admits of no merry song or 
funny story. It is wholly dark, sombre, uncongenial, un- 
social, appalling. Its sole attraction lies in its call to a 
profound sense of mercy and duty. To those who bore its 
cross there was for many years nothing but a cross. Yet, 
there were not wanting, leaders from the ranks of the high 
and the lowly, many of the most distinguished in social, 
educational and political circles. 
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore wrote of a number of those, 
whom she met during her visit to England in 1878. John 
and Jacob Bright, John Stuart Mill, Cardinal Manning, the 
Taylors, the MacLarens, the Ashworths, Sir James Stans- 
feld, Prof. Stuart, Miss Frances Power Cobb, Mrs. Faw- 
cett, Madame Venturi, Mrs. Lucas, Miss Martineau, and 
others. Greatest of all, as a leader in this new abolition, 
Mrs. Josephine E. Butler. 
Mrs. Livermore says: “At Cambridge I met Mrs. Jo- 
sephine Butler. She was a very beautiful woman, but 
much worn with the long struggle, the leadership of which 
had devolved mainly upon her. She had consecrated her- 
self to the work, with no thought of withdrawing from it 
until the Acts should be repealed. Knowing no fear, she 
had appealed to the best people of every nation in Europe, 
and had drawn them into the contest, leading them so 
wisely throughout the whole nauseous contention that she 
retained their loving confidence and challenged the admir- 
ation of the world. One cannot but hope that some great 
joy will crown the life of this noble woman, to compensate 
her for those aAvful years when she went down into Hades 
to save her fallen sisters.” The Contagious Diseases Acts 
101 
The readers of this story will learn that ‘‘great joy” 
did come to “crown the life of this nolle woman.” She 
lived to see the disgraceful laws wiped from the Statute 
books of her country, and more—it was her privilege to in- 
augurate an international Federation of purity forces that 
has already borne much fruit, and is destined to change 
the mental and moral attitude of the entire world on this 
subject, abolishing the double standard—not by lowering 
it to men’s old level, but by raising both men and women 
to a nobler sense of justice, mercy and purity. 
The writer, as a humble worker in this crusade in Eng- 
land, knew Mrs. Butler and served under her leadership. 
He would gladly add his testimony, not only to her great 
and noble character, but also to her wonderful power of 
inspiring in others, something of the intense love and de- 
votion which ever moved her and permeated her speech 
and counsel with an eloquence that has rarely, if ever, 
been excelled. 
An eloquent and fitting tribute to Mrs. Butler has been 
written by an American woman in recent magazine liter- 
ature. Writing of the uprising against the Contagious 
Diseases Acts, Mrs. Spencer says: 
“By 1866, however, the nation began to understand the 
A splendid tribute is paid to Mrs. Butler at the magnificent 
Episcopal Cathedral, now in course of erection at Liverpool, 
England. In the cloisters or courts, leading to the very fine 
“Chapel of Our Lady,” already completed, there are several fine 
windows. These windows are devoted to memorials of women 
who, during the past century or two, have given their lives to 
heroic and self-sacrificing service to humanity. Here, for exam- 
ple, are portraits of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, Miss Florence Nightin- 
gale, Jeanne d’Arc; and notable among them is a portrait of 
the classic and beautiful face of Mrs. Butler in the days of her 
prime, to which is attached the following legend: 
“Josephine Butler and all true champions of purity. Josephine 
Orey was born at Milfield Hill, on the Cheviot Hills, in 1828. 102 
The World’s Social Evil 
significance of the act. And to one woman came a call to 
stir that nation to revolt. That woman was Josephine 
Butler, perhaps the most unique combination in moral re- 
form of a lawyer’s brain, a prophet’s passion, a mystic’s 
certainty of divine guidance, an orator’s power of appeal, 
a poet’s recoil from the ugliness of evil, and a mother’s 
tenderness enlarged by sorrow and sympathy to enfold a 
world of suffering and sin. When the new abolition move- 
ment has triumphed, when the traffic in womanhood has 
ceased, when the permitted brothel is unknown as an in- 
stitution, when the slavery of the prostitute is ended with 
the abolition of man’s “right of privilege” to hold her 
captive to his vicious indulgence, when these insuperable 
obstacles to a “white life for two” have been removed, 
mankind may at last begin true race culture on the basis 
of justice, wisdom and love. And when that time comes, 
the world will place high in some temple of remembrance 
of the great and good who have achieved this miracle 
of progress, the fragile figure and the sad and lovely face 
of Josephine Butler as the embodiment of the crusade 
for the better life.”—Anna Garlin Spencer in The Forum, 
June, 1913. 
Mrs. Butler Appeals to Workmen :—To the working 
men Mrs. Butler wrote with her facile pen, and to them 
She was the daughter of John Grey, a well-known agriculturist 
and political reformer, and married in 1852 Dr. George Butler 
of Exeter College, Oxford, afterwards Principal of Liverpool 
College and Canon of Winchester. 
“She took an active part in movements for the higher educa- 
tion of women; for the married women's property bill, and later 
for the removal from the statute book of a law for the regula- 
tion of immorality and in favor of moral reform in the army. 
All these movements have met considerable and some with com- 
plete success. She was the author of numerous books and 
pamphlets on social subjects, several of which have been trans- 
lated into various continental languages. Her death took place 
in 1906." The Contagious Diseases Acts 
103 
she spoke, wherever opportunity afforded, in that search- 
ing, thrilling, matchless eloquence, which was more than 
oratory—it was a message inspired—a message of right- 
eous indignation, of mother and sister sympathy, and of 
holy love. It took time, however, to arouse the conscience 
of the public. The greatest difficulty she found was to 
make men and women believe that such a system was ac- 
tually in operation in England. 
In 1870 the first meeting of workingmen to discuss the 
subject was held when Prof. James Stuart (afterwards 
M.P.) gave a course of lectures to artizans. Mr. Stuart 
urged Mrs. Butler to speak at one of these meetings. She 
shrank, at first, from speaking in public to men, but finally 
consenting, the impression made and the sympathetic hear- 
ing which these men gave her was such, that she was 
prompted to the thought that ultimate success in the 
movement lay in the co-operation of working men. 
The writer recalls an interview with Edmund Jones to 
induce him to enter the campaign. He was one of nature’s 
noblemen—an able, thoughtful, working man. Years be- 
fore, he had been a vigorous advocate of the moral sua 
sion wing of the Chartist agitation, in which Henry Vin- 
cent and Ernest Jones were distinguished as martyr agi- 
tators. Edmund was a natural born orator, whose trumpet 
voice had been heard on the temperance question for a 
quarter of a century. For more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury he had been teacher of basket-making at the Liver- 
pool School for the Blind. 
Edmund Jones Could Not Believe It :—I talked with 
him of this legalized iniquity. He replied: “There is 
some mistake. I cannot believe that there is such law on 
the Statute Books of this Country. I have heard some- 
thing of it but it is surely an exaggeration. ” * * * But I 104 
The World’s Social Evil 
can prove it; 1 will bring you a copy of the Acts and will 
show you the working of this system in England and Ire- 
land. Then he looked at me with that honest eye of his 
and exclaimed, with a rising passion which always kindled 
in him at the thought of a political iniquity: “Why, 
that’s the most infernal thing out of hell! If you can 
prove to me that all you have said of it is a fact I will 
never rest another day until the infernal thing is wiped 
out.” That same night the “infernal thing” was proven 
to him and he kept his word. The old man eloquent made 
speedy arrangements to stump the country, and his voice 
was heard everywhere; on the platforms of great halls, 
sometimes in the counsels of labor unions, appealing to his 
brother workman to resist the tide of this iniquity. Mrs. 
Butler had said—“if the working men of Great Britain 
can be aroused the day will be won.” Very soon the 
Working Men’s League was formed, and 50,000 members 
were enrolled in a few months. 
Parliament Stirred:—Meantime the agitation had been 
carried into Parliament. The first notable attack on the 
Acts in the House was made by Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P. 
(brother of John Bright) who moved that the Army esti- 
mates be reduced by 3,648 pounds (about $18,250) the 
sum asked for to maintain the special police employed 
under the Acts. This was in 1872. A bill had previously 
been presented for the repeal of the Acts by Mr. Fowler, 
but it was “counted out,” a nice little scheme of legis- 
lators to strangle any measure which is unpopular with 
them. Mr. Bright’s proposal to withdraw the funds with 
which the Acts were enforced was voted upon, with 74 
for, and 140 against. Sir Harcourt Johnstone afterwards 
led the repeal forces in Parliament for several years by 
forcing a vote each year on the question. The Contagious Diseases Acts 
105 
A Government Supporter:—But the most conspicuous 
and influential help came to the Repealers in the open and 
avowed adherence of The Right Hon. James Stansfeld. 
He was, at the time, a prominent member of Mr. Glad- 
stone’s Cabinet, a position which prevented him from be- 
coming a leader in the movement, but later, when a change 
of Government occurred, he sacrificed his place in the 
Cabinet and entered into the fight with all the vigor and 
ability of his well-known statesmanship. The London 
Times in an editorial “sincerely regretted to find a states- 
man of Mr. Stansfeld’s eminence identifying himself with 
the hysterical crusade against the Contagious Diseases 
Acts, in the discussion of which it is impossible to take 
sides without herding with prurient or with cynical fa- 
natics.” Such utterances indicate the attitude of the pub- 
lic press generally. 
It became evident, also, that although the basis of the 
struggle must rest upon the moral and constitutional ques- 
tions involved, yet in official circles the battle would have 
to be fought out on hygienic grounds. If it could be stated 
without contradiction, that the system promoted the health 
of soldiers and sailors, even though it were at the expense 
of the liberty, honor, and safety, of some women, it would 
be difficult, if not impossible, to change the official mind on 
the subject, and to get Parliament to agree to set it aside. 
A NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 
A National Medical Association was therefore organized 
at Liverpool in November, 1874. One of the first things 
done by this Association was the issue of a Manifesto, 
which is so important a document that it was circulated 
widely among statesmen and physicians in Europe. 
The medical press of the country shared in the “con 106 
The World’s Social Evil 
spiracy of silence.’’ The New Medical Association, there- 
fore, established a monthly journal, “The Medical En- 
quirer,” which was published by Secretary Wra, Burgess, 
who also acted as Assistant Editor, with Dr. J. Birkbeck 
Nevins as Chief Editor, and a number of leading medical 
men as contributors. This paper did valiant service. It 
thoroughly riddled the whole question of hygiene, in all its 
relations to the system, and it was mainly through this 
agency that the hygienic failure of the Acts was proven. 
After publishing the “Enquirer” for three years, the 
Medical Press of the Country began to discuss the subject 
and the general movement had reached the importance 
of a great public question so that the Press withdrew its 
attitude of silence and in the later days no subject of pub- 
lic agitation was more fully reported in the great news- 
papers than this. It was, therefore, deemed unnecessary 
to continue the publication except as an occassional num- 
ber might be called for. The first number was issued 
March 15, 1875, when a copy was sent to practically every 
medical practitioner in the country, and the last regular 
issue was dated Feb., 1878. 
The Fight Is On :—The fight was now on in earnest. 
Public meetings were held everywhere and, while many of 
them were brutally disturbed, and in some instances the 
very safety and life of the speakers were endangered by 
organized mobs, yet these were regarded as evidence of the 
straits to which the advocates of the system were put. 
“Whom the Gods destroy they first make mad.,f One 
of the old handbills now lies before me as I write. It 
announces two meetings in Dublin, one of them a women’s 
meeting held Oct. 1st, 1878, to be addressed by Mrs. Butler 
and other ladies. The second meeting was held in the 
great Rotunda, a tremendous gathering. The speakers an- The Contagious Diseases Acts 
107 
nounced were the Right Hon. James Stansfeld, Sir Har- 
court Johnstone, M. P., Prof. James Stuart, Mrs. Josephine 
Butler, Dr. Thos. Carson and Edmund Jones. A list of 
67 prominent local men who promised to attend was also 
given. The writer was present as the Secretary of the 
meeting and will never forget the tactics employed by the 
opponents to break it up. Medical students of Dublin were 
organized into a rowdy gang who seated themselves, at 
an early hour, in the gallery of the hall. When the pro- 
ceedings opened they threw coppers (pennies and half 
pence) down into the crowd, among whom were some boys, 
who had an inkling of possible “fun,” and a general 
scramble took place. 
Riots at Repeal Meetings:—The “gang” hooted, 
shrieked and indulged in every kind of hideous yelling, 
drowning Mr. Stansfeld’s voice, who, therefore, was only 
able to speak to the press representatives. The rising of 
Mrs. Butler to speak was the signal for a general stampede 
towards the platform, where a defense guard was quickly 
arranged, while the speakers made good their exit through 
the platform door, and the whole meeting was broken up 
in violent disorder, the police mildly pretending to aid in 
quelling the disturbance. 
This is only a sample of many of the meetings held 
throughout the country, especially when, at election times, 
the candidates were questioned on the subject. In one in- 
stance rowdies brought live sparrows into the meeting and 
let them fly, while the speaker was addressing the meeting. 
Another time Prof. Stuart arranged for a meeting of 
women and found the floor of the hall strewn with cayenne 
pepper. At another time a deliberate plot was made to 
kill Mrs. Butler and many a time her safety was threat- 
ened. 108 
The World’s Social Evil 
A striking incident of a by-election which occurred at a 
vacant constituency (Colchester) illustrates this: Sir 
Henry Storks, an ex-Governor of Malta, who had enforced 
the regulation system in that island, with great severity 
against women, was selected by his party to represent the 
Government in the election contest for Colchester. 
Mr. Storks had given publicity to his views in an open 
letter as follows: “I am of opinion that very little benefit 
will result from the best devised means of prevention until 
prostitution is recognized as a necessity 
In Colchester the liberals were quite sure of returning 
Storks. 
But the opponents of the C. D. Acts could not allow 
such a conspicuous advocate to run in without protest. Dr. 
Baxter Langley, himself a liberal in politics entered the 
field against Storks, and Professor James Stuart and Mrs. 
Josephine Butler went to Colchester and joined in the 
campaign. 
Mr. Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, thus de- 
scribed the brutality of the opposition to these valiant op- 
ponents of the C. D. Acts: 
“The blood of the liberal partisans was up. They attacked 
the hotel in which Mrs. Butler and her friends were staying, 
and when Dr. Langley began to hold public meetings they went 
mad and created a riot. Dr. Langley tried to hold a meeting in 
the theatre, but he and Professor Stuart were scarce able to 
announce their principles before they were driven from the 
platform and chased to their hotel, which they reached, Langley 
covered with flour and dirt from head to foot, his clothes torn, 
his face bleeding, and Stuart wounded in the arm by a heavy blow 
which some ruffian had inflicted with a chair. The followers 
of Storks may have justified this playfulness as one of the 
amenities of political warfare, but there was no sort of justifica- 
tion for the next thing they did. They posted on the walls an 
exact description of Mrs. Butler’s dress, in order that she might The Contagious Diseases Acts 
109 
be recognized and mobbed. Every day she had to alter her dress, 
and her friends never addressed her by her name in the street 
lest some listener should rally the ever-ready mob to attack her. 
One after another, hotel-keeper and lodging-house keeper dis- 
missed her from their houses. On one occasion, after repeated 
flights from different houses, a room was taken for her in a 
hotel, under the name of Gray. There she had gone to bed and 
was falling asleep when she heard a knock at the door of her 
room, followed by the shout of the proprietor, “Madam, I am 
sorry to find you are Mrs. Butler; please get up and dress at 
once, and leave the house. The mob are around the house 
breaking the windows. They threaten to set fire to it if you 
don’t leave at once. They have found out that you are here. 
Never mind your luggage, leave it here; dress quickly and I 
will show you out of the back door.” Then he harangued the 
mob whilst Mrs. Butler was dressing, and, led by one of the 
servant girls, ran along a little back street as fast as they could 
go, until she found shelter in the humble house of a kind-hearted 
woman. The next morning it was seen that the doors of the 
hotel had been battered, and the windows had been shattered 
by stones. 
“A Wesleyan Minister in the town wrote a letter against 
Storks, and for thus daring to express a righteous opinion, not 
held by his infuriated flock, these pious folk drove him from his 
church and the town. 
“There was nothing but the Contagious Diseases Acts to be 
heard of throughout the election struggle. As the polling day 
drew near Sir Henry Storks sent a friend to the Repealers to ask 
for terms. They replied instantly by offering a written form 
of pledge to vote for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, 
and it was said, ‘Let Sir Henry Storks sign that. If not that, 
then nothing.’ The messenger went away sorrowful.” 
Storks was beaten by a majority of 527 votes. 
The good sense of the people was sufficiently strong 
to prevent the purpose of these conspirators against free 
speech and in course of time it became evident that such 
practices were contributing to the feeling of repulsion 
against a system which could not bear the light of free 110 
The World’s Social Evil 
public discussion. Still the official mind of the governing 
classes clung to the Acts and the vested interests which 
had been created were factors to be encountered. It re- 
quired a moral earthquake to shake the country. Even 
this was at hand. 
The Storm Bursts—The Law Is Repealed :—The 
storm gathered slowly. Public feeling gradually, but 
surely, became intense and the moral sense of the elec- 
torate was getting ready for a revolution. And a revolt 
there would certainly be, unless the British Government 
could be awakened out of its indifference. 
Thus far the government refused to make “repeal” a 
cabinet question, and every year the motion of Sir Har- 
court Johnstone or Mr. Stansfeld for repeal of the Acts 
was voted down. 
Meantime the working population was beginning to 
make things lively. They viewed the Acts as an increasing 
menace to the liberty and virtue of their own daughters 
and a danger to the manhood of their boys. The working- 
men’s league became a power. Great outdoor meetings 
were held in the northern cities, where the Acts were not 
in operation, and in the subjective districts of Portsmouth, 
Plymouth and Davenport, in the south of England, and 
of Cork, and other places in Ireland, mass meetings were 
held at which the officials under the Acts stirred up small 
mobs to disturb the meetings. 
It was a great sight to witness one of the tremendous 
public meetings at London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, 
Dublin, Glasgow, and other large cities at which Mr. Stans- 
feld, disdaining the crown of glory as a Cabinet Minister, 
for the sake of the virtue and honor of womanhood and 
the ultimate deliverance of his country from human slav- 
ery, employed his powerful eloquence together with Mrs. The Contagious Diseases Acts 
111 
Butler; and often by their side the plain, home-spun bas- 
ket maker of Liverpool, Edmund Jones. 
One of the exciting factors in this agitation was seen 
in the hunted victims who committed suicide rather than 
submit to the Acts. “The ghost of Mrs. Percy would not 
down.” Men, sterling, honest workmen, heard of her 
death, whom they regarded as a martyr to the conspiracy 
of a one-sided, unrighteous and dastardly law. They 
heard of her young daughter hounded by secret police— 
insulted with the abominable “voluntary” submission pa- 
per, and vengeance was in their hearts against the men 
who framed the law which had made her an orphan. 
The question of “repeal” was therefore forced into the 
elections, and candidates for future parliamentary honors 
found it inconvenient to face their constituents without 
clean hands on the subject, or if they did, some of them 
shared the fate of Sir Henry Storks. 
The church, too, was aroused out of its slumber. It 
became a deep religious conviction over the country that 
these laws were revolting to the moral sense—an outrage 
against womanhood, and a breach of God’s law. And so 
the great heads of the church, from Cardinal Manning to 
the humble priest of the Roman Catholic, and the Bishop 
and Clergy of the Episcopal Church, as well as practically 
all the Free Church or “dissenting” people, were as one 
voice against the system. 
Meantime the National Medical Association had shown 
the fallacy of the doctrine that physical immunity for dis- 
ease can be purchased at the cost of moral depravity and 
decay. By unstinted labors and the most careful and con- 
vincing statements of facts, and the statistics of the de- 
partments responsible for the working of the system, Dr. 
Birkbeck Nevins, the president, furnished a weapon against 112 
The World’s Social Evil 
the Acts that was irresistible to any honest inquirer after 
the truth. 
But the storm suddenly swept the whole country as out 
of the darkest sky. A new infamy became known, an in- 
famy, not directly a part of the C. D. Acts but arising out 
of the conditions which those Acts fostered, together with 
the iniquitous law which made the child of 14 legally re- 
sponsible for her own ruin. 
Attracted by prospects of a harvest, through human 
female slaughter, the vampires of the continent found a 
way to open a new market for traffic. Organized bands of 
human vultures quietly opened their secret slaughter-mar- 
kets for the purchase and sale of women and girls. 
Josephine Butler, Ellice Hopkins, Ellen Tod, and other 
women knew of it, and were travailing in soul over the 
dreadful fact. 
Government officials and heads of police knew, and 
coolly regarded it as inevitable, and necessary to the social 
conditions. 
But when hell sent its worst agents to set up an auction 
block for the purchase of human souls, in a country which 
had paid $100,000,000 to free the black slaves from one of 
its dependencies, there followed such a cyclone as comes 
only once in an age to any country. 
W. T. Stead, through the columns of the Pall Mall Ga- 
zette, denounced the purchase of English maidens by rich 
debauchees who sat in high places, some of whom were not 
remote, even from the Royal Crown of England, and there 
was “something doing.” When that great newspaper ap- 
peared one day with its awfully vivid but truthful edito- 
rial, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” London, 
and all England were staggered. 
It was like the charge of John the Baptist against The Contagious Diseases Acts 
113 
Herod. In Herod’s time, Stead, like John, would have 
lost his head. As it was he was arrested and thrown into 
prison on a “technical flaw before a biased court.” But 
Stead had not written until he knew. He had heard things 
that made him shudder. Speaking to one who revealed 
some of the horrors of child-girl outrages he said “ it is 
enough to raise hell” to which his informants answered 
“it does not even raise the neighbors.” “Then I’ll make it 
raise England,” cried the intrepid editor. 
A National Sensation:—Benjamin Waugh, Honorary 
Secretary of the London Society for Prevention of Cruelty 
to Children, was in close touch with Stead through the con- 
flict and he writes thus of Stead’s revolutionary movement: 
No time was to be lost. The last weeks of Parliament had 
come; in a dozen more, it would have passed away. A plan 
struck him. He would go where he had never been in his 
life before, into the night streets and brothels of London; he 
would go himself to the hells where manhood was destroyed, 
and woman damned; he would see and hear; and then make his 
fellow countrymen see it all, and hear it all, and feel it. 
He forgot that he was a journalist; that his readers might 
not stand the shock; that his reputation might not survive; 
that if once suspected in his difficult, almost impossible decep- 
tion, the wretched traders he sought to expose would maim him, 
imprison him, kill him; he forget that he was a husband, a 
father, a brother; that Government authorities had refused to 
help him; he forgot that many able men would call him shame- 
less, mad, filthy; he forgot everything in the one daring resolve 
to kindle England with a pitiful rage, burning as his own 
against plunderers of girlhood’s virtue; and, come what would 
to himself, by the opponent will of an indignant people, force 
Parliament to amend the Bill and pass it. 
In order that he might have the benefit of their knowledge 
of why he went, he confided his object to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Cardinal Archbishop of 
Westminster, and Lord Dalhousie. To dissuasion, he returned 114 
The World’s Social Evil 
but one answer: he could not heed. To all considerations of 
personal safety, a strong sense of duty rendered him deaf and 
blind. 
He got valuable introductions from good names to the 
fashionable brothels; he personated a wealthy voluptuary; he won 
his way into the lady keeper’s private rooms, and through the 
good names he had and the free spending of money, he heard 
confidential secrets. He made acquaintance of procuresses; 
priced and bought their virgins; he entered the shuttered and 
cloth-curtained room, where shrieks were drowned of maddened 
girls; saw the chambers of children, the chloroform which the 
tender mercies of the wicked administered to “very little things,” 
and the women that healed them; he heard their inhuman laugh 
at his suggestions of pity, their confidence as to being “within 
the law.” 
The keepers of brothels knew flesh and blood very well; 
but they did not know him: he was the son of a Puritan, a child 
of the Father in Heaven: the room was turning round, the fur- 
niture swam. Again and again did he break down and stumble 
out into the dark street, giddy, with a bursting brain. It seemed 
as though it would kill him; and yet he returned again. He had 
but one thought—it must be done. * * * * 
Then came the day of his revelation. And England gave a 
great cry, a shriek of anguish, and wept, and prayed God, and 
commanded the Commons. And in four short weeks every Eng- 
lish child, under sixteen years of age, was safe behind the pro- 
tecting care of the Crown, and as for their wrong-doers, they had 
to settle with the gaol. 
The revelation—“The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon”— 
was necessarily horrible. In it he opened doors; threw back 
shutters; drew curtains; and let pitying Christian eyes see the 
sights over which voluptuous Londoners were nightly gloating. 
He showed gins and snares in which simple country girls were 
nightly caught, to leap and shriek like a hare with the feel of 
the wire on its foot; he showed the girl-poacher mad with joy 
in his damnable sport; he made us see hot stinging girlish tears, 
and hear girlish voices full of wild pitiful despair. 
He took us across the sea to the Continent, and made us 
gaze on an eager, cultivated girl who had to earn her living, The Contagious Diseases Acts 
115 
lured by the offer of a place in a Christian family as governess, 
the very place she had been seeking, and who, to get to it, had 
gratefully spent almost her last penny, finding for a Christian 
family a brothel whose shut door was henceforth, by the law of 
the land, her prison; who was awoke from her first weary 
sleep to find a gloating devil resolved to have his way with her. 
His vivid pen, and burning brain and abandoned pity, did all 
that.” 
In July of that year (1885) the venerable Lord Shaftes- 
bury made his last appeal for downtrodden humanity. And 
that noble philanthropist, who, like Tolstoi, was a born 
Aristocrat, yet, like him, gave his life for the uplift of the 
oppressed, devoted the closing public address of his long 
life in praise of Stead’s whirlwind campaign. 
Meantime the agitation had so fully entered into poli- 
tics that at the general election of that same year (1885) 
257 candidates were elected who were definitely pledged to 
vote for repeal of the C. D. Acts. 
On March 16th, 1886, Mr. Stansfeld (afterwards Sir 
James Stansfeld) rose, in the new House of Commons, 
and moved a resolution in favor of repeal, wThich was car- 
ried; and on the 18th the same statesman introduced a 
bill, which was read a second time one week later, and in 
less than a month it was passed into law, and the Con- 
tagious Diseases Acts of England were dead and buried 
forever. I thank God that it is not, for any medical skill or 
any medical care under a system of this kind, the object 
and purpose of which is to train a number of woman as 
mere instruments to be at the beck and call, at every 
hour of the night and day, of any number of lustful men; 
it is not possible, I say, for any medical skill or care 
to guarantee that those poor instruments shall not be 
the means of conveying disease from man to man. It 
is well that the moral law asserts itself in human life, 
and that it not only forbids, but that it prevents the 
success of those demoralizing miscalled hygienic laws. 
If they could succeed from their point of view, if they 
could defy the precepts and defeat the object of the 
moral law which providentially governs this world, 
then farewell to all decency and purity of life. The 
nation would then have succeeded in teaching its youth 
how, easily, constantly and safely, to sin. It would 
have familiarized it with vice in its lowest form and 
in its deepest degradation; society would become cor- 
rupt, like the corruption of the Lower Empire, from 
base to summit, and women, pure or impure, would be 
but the slaves and instruments of men; and moral and 
religious teachings would come to be received with an 
indifference and a contempt hardly attempted to be 
disguised. 
I claim to speak now, not in the language of religion 
or of morals, but in the language of science, when I say 
that it is impossible that an immoral law can be a truly 
hygienic law.—The late Sir James Stansfeld, M. P. CHAPTER IV. 
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 
Hygiene and Police Rule in Europe. 
According to the best authorities, the original pretext 
for the system of Regulation as applied to the Social Evil, 
was not the physical health of either men or women, but 
“the preservation of public order. The behavior of the 
prostitutes, not their bodies, was the object of police at- 
tention.”1 
This pretext was long ago abandoned for that of 
hygiene, as urged by medical experts and police officials. 
Dr. Diday of Lyons gave to it the title of a “system of 
making prostitution healthy.” And Dr. Mireur, Examin- 
ing Surgeon at Marseilles, says in his book on “Syphilis 
and Prostitution:” “The Administration pretends not to 
authorize prostitution, but only to tolerate it. But it is 
time to cease playing with words; let us be logical and 
let us be sincere.” * * * When a woman has sub- 
mitted herself to the surveillance of the police, certain 
obligations are imposed upon her; certain limitations are 
prescribed to her, but at the same time she acquires at 
this price the right to live by debauchery, to devote her- 
self to prostitution with impunity.” 
Paris:—For more than a hundred years Paris has 
been subject to a rigid system, with compulsory examina- 
tion of public women. Every device that could be of- 
1A State Iniquity.—Benj. Scott. 118 
The World’s Social Evil 
fered by the medical advisers, and enforced by the astute, 
and almost absolute, police authorities, have been enforced. 
“It was in Paris,” says Mr. Scott, “in the year 1802, 
that the first ‘Health Dispensary’ was opened to give ef- 
fect to the then new theory that men should be saved 
from venereal diseases by the compulsory examination of 
women, and by the incarceration of such of them as were 
suspected of having any such disease.” 
Yet, no city in the world offers stronger testimony of 
the failure of the system as a hygienic measure. For many 
years M. Lecour was the supreme head of the Paris police. 
In 1878 he said: “The administration has redoubled its 
activity, it has multiplied its Acts of repression with 
regard to prostitutes, and it has definitely succeeded in 
maintaining in a satisfactory condition the sanitary state 
of public registered girls, and yet sanitary statistics prove 
that prostitution is increasing, and that it is becoming 
more dangerous to the public health.*n 
In the same year (1873) the Paris correspondent of the 
London Medical Times and Gazette wrote: “Dr. Armand 
Despres, for thirty years surgeon to the Lourcine, the 
great hospital with upwards of 300 beds devoted solely 
to the treatment of venereal diseases in women in Paris, 
has published an important work in which he says: ‘ The 
liberty of some women has been destroyed in order to give 
security to debauched men, but the revolt has not answered 
expectation, for the women examined are not those who 
most communicate disease. It is little decent for the prac- 
titioner to place himself like a sentinel between the de- 
bauchee and the prostitute.’ Besides, the means are al- 
most always illusory, and it would be more dignified for 
the physician to keep himself out of the way.” 
1Lecour le Prostitution a Paris. Weighed in the Balance 
119 
France:—The Westminster Review, the editor of 
which was the eminent Dr. Chapman, of London and 
Paris, published powerfully written articles denouncing 
the French system as a failure. In July, 1876, the Re- 
view said: “French surgeons, having the most intimate 
practical acquaintance with the subject, thoroughly recog- 
nize that the guarantee in question is illusory. The Doc- 
tors Belhomme and Martin make the following statement: 
“This guarantee is very insignificant, sad to say, so in- 
significant even that syphilis is chiefly propagated by 
registered women. * * * Dr. Patton writes that at 
least five times out of six it is in their relations with reg- 
istered prostitutes that military men derive their syphilitic 
principle. ’ ’ 
“Dr. Alfred Fournier, who succeeded M. Ricord as surgeon 
to the Hopital du Midi, the venereal hospital for males in Paris, 
wrote a thesis on syphilitic contagion, and in conjunction with 
M. Puche, carefully traced the disease to its source in 873 cases. 
The result is contained in the accompanying table, which may 
be found in Lancereaux’s work on syphilis, vol. ii.: — 
Males infected by public prostitutes 625 
Males infected by clandestine prostitutes 46 
Males infected by kept women, actresses, etc 52 
Males infected by workwomen 100 
Males infected by servant women 26 
Males infected by married women 24 
873 
“Thus, out of 873 cases coming promiscuously under the care 
of these gentlemen, 625 contracted syphilis under the temptation 
of a false security, from women warranted clean by the gov- 
ernment inspectors. 
“Professor Andrews, Professor of Surgery, Chicago Med. 
Coll., remarked upon this point:—‘As a professional man, I have 
been compelled to laugh at the frequent instances where young 
Americans have, with infinite gullibility, cohabited with loose 120 
The World’s Social Evil 
women in Paris, because they supposed it safe, but were utterly 
astounded afterwards to find they had contracted syphilis or 
gonorrhoea. There is a mischievous error abroad as to what 
medical men can accomplish even on those who are under con- 
trol. The general supposition is, that when a physician has 
examined a woman and found no disease visible, she is entirely 
safe for her paramours. This is a fatal blunder, as many a 
man has found to his cost.’ 
“Dr. Wm. Acton tells of men who have travelled hundreds 
of miles, lured by a false security, to visit French brothels in 
London, where periodical examinations are carried out, and have 
immediately contracted venereal disease. 
“M. Lecour says: ‘Prostitution is increasing, and is now 
more dangerous than ever to the public health. Has the action 
of the police then relaxed? No; on the contrary, it has more 
powerfully organized its means of repression, of surveillance, 
and of sanitary control. It has never been more active than 
now. This is proved by the fact, that the number of daily 
arrests of unsubmitted girls is on the increase. The evil is a 
moral and social one, and cannot be controlled by the police, who 
can neither restrain nor destroy it. The evil must be over- 
come by moral, not by legislative means.” 
“A work by a celebrated syphilographer, Dr. Diday, Lyons, 
acknowledges and deplores the total failure of the system in 
France. 
“Dr. Jeannel, in his work published in 1874, states that the 
number of diseased persons is greater in Paris than in London; 
and Dr. Drysdale, of the Metropolitan Free Hospital (London), 
stated that, on going over the Paris hospitals, he was driven 
to the inevitable conclusion, that there was far more syphilis in 
Paris than in London, although the population of Paris is about 
half that of London; and this after above eighty years’ trial of 
the system, and after exhausting every possible expedient to 
ensure success. Dr. Drysdale challenged contradiction; and 
although Mr. Ricord and almost all the great continental auth- 
orities on the subject were present, the truth of the assertion 
was acknowledged. Indeed, Dr. Lefort and Auzias Turetine cor- 
roborated Dr. Drysdale’s statement, while the latter frankly 
owned that the Contagious Diseases Acts had converted French 
women into white slaves.” Weighed in the Balance 
121 
The following table, for the year 1868, gives some idea of the 
effects of the system in disseminating disease in Paris: — 
Venereal Patients treated in L’Hopital du Midi 3,185 
Venereal Patients treated in L’Hopital de Lourcine.. 1,024 
Venereal Patients treated in L’Hopital St. Lazare 1,624 
Venereal Patients treated in the ordinary Paris hos- 
pitals 1,551 
Venereal Patients treated in military hospitals 2,046 
Total 9,430 
“Address to The Medical Profession of America.” 1877. 
Amsterdam :—Dr. Huet, first physician to the hospi- 
tal in Amsterdam, published a paper in 1868, on the ef- 
fects of government superintendence of prostitution upon 
venereal diseases in the army in Holland. In some cities 
there is an amelioration, but the total number is—before the 
introduction of ordinances 1,786 cases among 15,913 sol- 
diers yearly; after the introduction, 2,241 cases in 16,810; 
i. e., 11.2 per cent before, and 13.3 per cent after the in- 
troduction of ordinances. 
Brussels:—Dr. Thierry, of Brussels—in 1874—re- 
marked: “Every day you see numerous cases of spyhilis 
in my wards; they are always severe, and often present 
difficulties of diagnosis.” 
Indeed, all trustworthy evidence goes to show conclu- 
sively that we get worse than nothing for the sacrifices 
which this kind of legislation calls upon us to make. 
“Whatever renders vice apparently safe, and increases its 
prevalence, must increase disease.” 
Great Britain:—The British experience of the sys- 
tem called for masses of statistical and expert testimony. 
The report of the Royal Commission of 1871, appointed 
for inquiry into the working of the Contagious Diseases 
Acts, after months of inquiry, with every facility for ob- 
taining information, and with the reports of the medical 122 
The World’s Social Evil 
and police officers who were in charge of the administra- 
tion of the Acts, and who were, therefore, prejudiced in 
favor of them, was given in the following words: 
“There is no distinct evidence that any diminution of 
disease among the men of the army and navy, which may 
have taken place, is attributable to a diminution of dis- 
ease contingent upon the system of periodical examination 
among the women with whom they have consorted. 
* * * We recommend that the periodical examinations 
be discontinued.” 
In regard to the following statistical tables, the reader 
is reminded that, previous to the year 1866, there had 
been no compulsory examination of women, and therefore 
it was not until 1867 that any effects of the Acts upon 
health could be observed. 
We have seen in the previous chapter that, as a re- 
sult of the sanitary and moral improvements introduced 
to the army by Lord Herbert, there had been a very de- 
cided advance in the health of the men previous to the 
introduction of the Acts. 
The following table is from statistics taken from the 
Army Reports. It presents a comparison of six years 
before the operation of the Acts and six years under them, 
in regard to the whole of the British Home Army. 
British Home Army—Annual Ratio of Secondary 
Syphilis Per 1,000 Men. 
SIX YEARS BEFORE THE ACTS. 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 1865 
1866 
32.68 
34.63 
35.9 
35.0 29.6 
24.73 
SIX 
YEARS UNDER THE 
ACTS. 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
25.1 
31.6 
26.2 
25.4 
20.3 
24.26 Weighed in the Balance 
123 
Thus, while for six years before the Acts, secondary 
disease in the British Army decreased, from a ratio of 
32.68 to 24.73, there was an immediate cessation of this 
improvement, after the Acts went into operation, and 
while fluctuating, sometimes above, and sometimes below, 
the ratio of 1866, when the Acts began to enforce exami- 
nations of women, the average of the whole period of six 
years after, was actually one-sixteenth higher than be- 
fore the Acts. Later statistics show that the longer the 
Acts were in operation, the worse the results. 
The British Navy. 
In the British Navy at Home Ports, the Reports of 
Primary and Secondary Syphilis were not separated, and 
Dr. Birkbeck Nevins shows that while the ratio of these 
diseases combined, fell 6.3 per 1,000 yearly, during the six 
years before the Acts, after that date (1866) the improve- 
ment was partially arrested, the fall being only 3.8 yearly 
for the six years after the Acts; while gonorrhoea fell from 
34.8 per 1,000 in 1862 to 20.4 per 1,000 in 1868, in the 
years 1868 to 1875, it increased to 52.5, that is to say, 
under the Acts this form of disease MORE THAN DOU- 
BLED. 
Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of London, furn- 
ishes later statistics giving the total results of all forms 
of the disease in the navy down to the year 1882, from 
which we prepare the following table: 
TABLE SHOWING RATIO OF ALL FORMS OF VENEREAL DISEASES 
IN THE BRITISH NAVY. 
Also number of days of men in hospital from these dis- 
orders based on an average strength of 20,000 men. 
Ratios of loss of service in the British Army from 
venereal diseases per 1,000 men. 124 
The World’s Social Evil 
After 13 years of Acts to Operation X 
135.$ 
240 men in hospital / 
After 10 years of Acts X 
117.8> 
210 men daily in hospital / 
Gradual extension of \ 
Acts. 150 men 93.6S 
daily to hospital. / 
No Acts previous to X. 
date. 172 men 89.5> 
dally in hospital. / 
1865 
1869 
1879 
1882 
Thus, of 20,000 men of the British Army, 172 were in 
hospital daily in 1866; in 1882, after the Acts were in full 
operation for thirteen years, there were 230 daily. 
One can only imagine what the state of the health of 
the British army and navy would have been, in course 
of time, had not the British public ultimately demanded 
and secured the total repeal of these Acts. 
The most extraordinary thing about it is that it should 
have entered into the mind of any set of men that phys- 
ical diseases, which are the direct consequence of sexual 
vice, can be cured by any system which proposes to make 
lust easy, and offers an alleged guarantee of safety. The 
fallacy of looking for grapes of physical health from this- 
tles of immoral planting is forcibly rebuked by these facts. 
How apparent also is the absurdity of attempting to 
stamp out disease by treating only one of two parties con- Weighed in the Balance 
125 
cerned in the act which produces it; and the treatment 
of that one, not for the purpose of beneficent cure, but 
to actually pave the way to increasing practices of vice. 
Dr. Charles Bell Taylor, Surgeon of the Midland (Eng- 
land) Eye Infirmary, speaking before the London Dia- 
lectical Society, scouted this one-sided legislation, as a hy- 
gienic measure in the following graphic, if not very ele- 
gant terms: 
“Whoever heard before of a sanitary law applicable to 
one sex only? What should we think of a proposal to 
stamp out the cattle plague, or any other plague, by seg- 
regating females only, while the males were left untouched 
and free to spread disease? * * * Whatever rendered 
vice apparently safe must increase its prevalence and 
this would augment disease.’’—(Medical Enquirer, June 
15, 1876.) 
APPALLING INCREASE OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 
But when the evil effects of the system upon the health 
and life of the women subjected to them are considered, 
the direct consequences are still more appalling. 
The statistics of these conditions were not given in the 
army and navy reports, but appeared in annual reports 
of Captain Harris, the head of the police department, 
having charge of the enforcement of the Acts. 
Table Showing the Annual Ratio of Deaths per 1,000 
Women from 1865—the Year Before the C. D. Acts 
Came into Operation—to 1874. 
Year 
.. 1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
Deaths per 1000 Women.. 
.. 9.8 
15.5 
10.4 
10.4 
16.7 
16.8 
20.6 
21.5 
16.4 
23.0 
Thus in the year 1865, before the operation of the Acts, 
the ratio of death among prostitutes was 9.8 per 1,000; 
under the Acts, which went into full operation in 1866, 126 
The World’s Social Evil 
and which compelled the registration and inspection of 
the women, the death rate increased, year by year, until 
in 1874 it reached 23 per cent per annum, or more than 
double the previous rate. 
A Parliamentary paper, called for by the House of 
Parliament, in 1873, gives a return of these deaths of reg- 
istered women from venereal diseases, as follows: 
1865— 4 deaths in 406 registered women, or 9.8 per 1,000 
1867—15 “ “ 1,439 “ “ “ 10.4 “ " 
1869—41 " “ 2,455 “ “ “ 26.7 
1871— “ “ 2,267 “ “ “ 20.64 “ 
1872— “ “ 2,371 “ “ “ 21.5 
This return not only confirms the statistics of Captain 
Harris; it also shows that the average life of prostitutes 
in the Garrison towns was about ten years, before the Acts, 
but under the Acts, it fell to less than five years. 
If one can be callous and indifferent as to the death 
rate among these poor creatures, there is yet the serious 
question as to the recruiting ground of those who fill 
their places, and the effects of increasing disease upon 
their men consorts, and, through these, to innocent women 
and children. 
Whose children are they who fill up the ranks of the 
army of victims, killed off, at a ratio of five years? 
IMPROVED HEALTH—WHY ?—REMARKABLE DECREASE OF 
VENEREAL DISEASES AMONG BRITISH SOLDIERS IN INDIA. 
Dr. H. M. Wilson, of London, England, published a 
statement in 1909 showing the diminution of venereal 
diseases among soldiers in India since the Contagious Dis- 
eases Acts were repealed: 
“The fall in the ratio relating to these diseases, which 
is one of the most remarkable features of the health sta- Weighed in the Balance 
127 
tistics of European troops in India during recent years, is 
common to all kinds of venereal diseases. It is attributed 
to a number of causes, among which may be mentioned, as 
being the more important, the efforts of regimental and 
other officers to occupy the spare time of the men in 
healthy pastimes, to make the regimental institutes at- 
tractive and comfortable, and to influence the men to avoid 
contracting these diseases; the better education and higher 
moral tone now existing among soldiers generally; in- 
creased knowledge of the dangers of these diseases leading 
to greater care as regards personal prophylaxis; less in- 
dulgence in alcohol; the more thorough treatment now 
carried out in all cases.” 
The statistics of this report show that in 1886 the case 
ratio of venereal disease, per 1,000 of the army, was, for 
the Home Army in 1886, 267, which gradually reduced 
every year until in 1908 the ratio was only 68.4; and 
that in the Indian Army the ratio in 1886 was 389.5, 
which also gradually lessened until in 1908 it was down 
to 69.8. 
These telling facts, and the reasons given in the re- 
port are most instructive, which ought to weigh with every 
student of social hygiene and public morality. These 
reasons are set forth in the following: 
EXTRAORDINARY SHOWING OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONDI- 
TIONS IN ENGLAND SINCE THE REPEAL OF THE 
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS. 
In times of peace armies are recruited mainly from 
classes of men who are most likely to be in danger of 
venereal diseases. The following table represents the 
number of recruits refused on account of syphilis per 
10,000, beginning with the year 1884 when the C. D. Acts 128 
The World’s Social Evil 
had been in operation for 18 years, and showing a rapid 
improvement after those Acts were repealed. Compulsory 
examinations were stopped in 1884 and the acts were re- 
pealed in 1886. 
RECRUITS 
British Isles 
Rejected on account 
of Syphilis 
per 10,000 offering 
for enlistment 
NO Regulation: 
MALADIES DECREASE 
This shows the ratio of incompetents, for army service 
because of these diseases, reduced from 106 to 16 per 1,000. 
Chart showing the remarkable diminution of venereal 
diseases in the Home (England) Army beginning with 
1884, when the Contagious Diseases Acts were in opera- 
tion, and the years since 1886, when the Acts were re- 
pealed, down to the year 1909: Weighed in the Balance 
129 
HOME A R M-Y 
British Isles 
Admissions Hospital 
Venereal Maladies 
per 1000 Soldiers 
NO Regulation: 
MALADIES DECREASE 
GENERAL POPULATION. 
Another very important testimony comes from the re- 
ports of the health of the whole population of England 
and Wales. The report of the Registrar-General gives 
the number of deaths, at all ages, registered as caused by 
venereal maladies, per million living. The figures are as 
follows: 
1884 95 
1885 90 
1886 92 
1887 85 
1888 78 
1889 82 
1890 81 
1891 80 
1892 79 
1893 82 
1894 78 
1895 80 
1896 70 
1897 72 
1898 68 
1899 67 
1900 68 
1901 64 
Note:—A large proportion of the deaths caused by venereal 
maladies takes place in public hospitals and in workhouse asy- 130 
The World’s Social Evil 
TESTIMONY OF EXPERTS, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES IN 
BRUSSELS, 1899 AND 1902. 
In 1899 an International Conference for the Prophy- 
laxis of Syphilis and Venereal Maladies was held in Brus- 
sels, under the Presidency of the Belgian Minister of 
Health and the Burgomaster of Brussels. The confer- 
ence was organized by a committee of medical experts 
in Brussels, on the initiative of Dr. Duhois-Havenith, a 
distinguished Belgian specialist. It was specialist and 
authoritative in the highest degree. Roughly speaking, it 
numbered about 360 members, of 33 nationalities. Of 
these, 107 were government delegates, representing 29 
different countries, mostly European, but including Persia, 
Japan and the United States. 
Of the entire number, 295 were doctors, and a large 
number of these held public posts in the “Service of 
Health” or as professors of the special subject. The 
65 non-medical members of the conference included min- 
isters of state, heads of police or health departments, dele- 
gates of municipalities, legal authorities and professors, 
and a few other persons individually invited on the ground 
of special competence, and representing, for the most part, 
the “sociological” side of the subject. Among these were 
several ladies. 
A conference, so constituted, meeting in the very center 
lums. In these cases the causes of death are registered under 
their true name. But this would not always be the case in pri- 
vate practice, where regard for the feelings of the relatives would 
sometimes doubtless lead to registration of the cause under some 
other name. There are also cases where the venereal malady 
is a complication, without being the principal cause of death. 
The table given, however, shows a true nucleus of the actual 
facts, and is to that extent valuable. Weighed in the Balance 
131 
of authority on the regulation system, and uninfluenced 
by anything like popular sentiment or enthusiasm, should 
have great weight on the subject. 
The proceedings of the conference and the subsequent 
one, in 1902, which was in the nature of a second call of 
the same order, constitute an encyclopedia of information 
and opinion, and has been published in several volumes by 
M. Henry Lamertine, Brussels, at a cost of 40 francs for 
the first series. 
A brief synopsis of the opinions expressed follow: 
Question: “What has been the influence of existing 
systems of regulation on the prevalence of disease?”—and 
round this question the tide of debate surged for a day 
and a half. 
Hygienic Utopias:—Dr. Blaschko, of Berlin, said: 
“A careful study of all the reports and statistics showed 
that it was impossible to establish any general rule as to 
things being better under regulation and worse in its ab- 
sence. ‘There is not one of us who is content with regu- 
lation as it exists today.’ 
“Hygienic Utopias might be very attractive in theory, 
but methods which ignored the complex interests of the 
community—economical, social, ethical—would always de- 
feat, themselves. Dr. Augagneur, of Lyons, said ‘Doctors 
were beginning to see the. uselessness of regulation; its 
partisans complained of it almost as much as its oppo- 
nents.’ ” 
Disease Not Due to Regulation :—On the other hand 
Dr. Barthelmy, one of the medical chiefs of St. Lazare, 
the great Lock-Hospital prison of Paris, replied that dis- 
ease was due to immorality, not to regulation; that pas- 132 
The World’s Social Evil 
sion was an eternal and imperative factor in human life; 
and that regulation was a means of combating its attend- 
ant evils. 
Talks of Common Sense:—Prof. Fournier, the head 
of the French delegation, discarded statistics: ‘‘There 
remained one simple argument—the argument from com- 
mon sense. Isolate an infected woman, and the infection 
would go no further; leave her at liberty, and within 
twenty-four hours three or four men would be contami- 
nated. That argument was worth all the statistics put 
together. He added a frightful picture of the varied 
forms and consequences of syphilis, and of its prevalence 
in Paris, affecting, as nearly as he could calculate, a sev- 
enth, if not a sixth, of the whole population.” 
London and New York Compared With Paris:—M. 
Pierson, Paris, replied that the gravity of the danger un- 
fortunately did not prove the value of the remedy. Dis- 
ease appeared to vary in a manner totally irrespective of 
the regulations. If regulation was indispensable to the 
public health, why were London and New York, where it 
had never existed, in no worse condition than Paris? 
Italian Doctors Speak:—The Italian doctors drew 
attention to the very serious increase of disease in Italy 
on the abolition of Cavour’s system by Signor Crispi in 
1888. Dr. Bertarelli, of Milan, while defending Cavour’s 
system, did not wish to see it restored; the world had pro- 
gressed since then, and better methods might be looked for. 
Disease Through Prostitution of Minors:—Elabo- 
ate charts and tables were produced by the Paris doctors 
—the younger Fournier, Dr. Jullien, of St. Lazare, and 
others—showing the years from 17 to 20 to be the most 
dangerous age as regards syphilitic infection. Dr. Ed- Weighed in the Balance 
133 
raond Fournier urged that minors found practicing pros- 
titution should either be placed in reformatories or com- 
pelled to return to their homes. 
Tolerated Houses Decaying:—A fact, admitted on 
all hands, was the progressive decay of the tolerated houses. 
This was attributed to various causes—to their having 
been cleared of minors by the police, and to the discour- 
agement of the white slave traffic, which deprived them of 
their most attractive inmates; to their terrors for the 
women, owing to loss of freedom, strictness and frequency 
of inspection, etc.; while, on the other hand, it was found 
that they afforded no guarantee of safety. 
Failure in Paris:—The speech of Prof. Fournier, de- 
scribing the condition of Paris after a hundred years of 
regulation, made a profound impression. It was felt that, 
whatever the great professor’s opinion, his facts spoke for 
themselves. It is hardly too much to say that there were 
moments when a sort of dismay seemed to spread through 
the assembly, as of men who begin to face for the first 
time the possibility that a cherished scheme may prove 
hopelessly impracticable. 
Tolerated Houses and the System:—M. Bourgeois, 
chief commissioner of police at Brussels, said it was the 
opinion of the Brussels medical service that the houses 
should remain, at all costs, and the women be compelled 
to live in them. 
Dr. Mireur, of Marseilles, said regulation apart from 
the houses was little better than a farce. Out of 5,000 
women on the streets at Marseilles only 300 were on the 
register. It was impossible for the police to deal with such 
numbers. He would retain the houses, abolish the police 134 
The World’s Social Evil 
des moeurs, and punish solicitation under the vagrancy 
laws. 
The Opposite View:—Dr. Perrin, also of Marseilles, 
declared that, so far as Marseilles was concerned, the 
maison toleree was a thing of the past. “That is the brutal 
fact,” he said, “and with it crumbles the whole fabric of 
the existing regulations.” 
Some defended the houses on the ground that they 
tended to clear the streets; but this was denied by Dr. 
Hoeffel and others, and Brussels itself was alleged as an 
instance, M. Hirsch asserting that 15 or 20 years ago, 
when the tolerated houses of Brussels were famous all over 
Europe, the streets were full of solicitation, but now that 
the number of these houses was greatly reduced, the streets 
were proportionately improved. 
Several Russian and other doctors spoke against them 
in the strongest terms as schools of profligacy, and as cen- 
ters of disease. 
Professors Neisser, Jadassohn, and others suggested 
that it should be plainly printed on the women’s papers 
that the medical certificate afforded no guarantee of safety 
to clients. “It must not be a certificate of health,” said 
Dr. Schrank, of Vienna, “but only a permit to practice.” 
Dutch Delegate Opposes System :—M. Rethaan 
Macare, a delegate of the Dutch government, said his gov- 
ernment had sent him to learn rather than to speak. He 
thought the doctors asked too much of the legislatures, 
and things incompatible with sound law. The vast ma- 
jority of the women outside the tolerated houses escaped 
the regulations altogether. The houses themselves were 
high schools of immorality in its worst forms. It was 
there that the procuresses of the future were trained to Weighed in the Balance 
135 
prey upon society. It was there that numbers of young 
lads began their downward course. 
Brothels the Strongholds of White Slave Traffic: 
—Mr. Percy Bunting, president of the International Con- 
ference on the White Slave Traffic, held in London in 
June, 1899; Drs. de Wyslouch and de Pouschkine, of War- 
saw; Dr. Schrank, of Vienna, and M. Yourievitch, of the 
Russian Embassy in Paris, who attacked the keepers of 
the houses as the chief instigators of the white slave traf- 
fic, and Madame Bieberboehm, of Berlin, urged various 
measures for the protection of girls, including the sup- 
pression of the regulation system, which was simply a trap 
for them. 
Education Advocated:—Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, 
the English specialist, deprecated panic and exaggeration ; 
said there were many evidences that disease was not in- 
creasing, but steadily diminishing, in England. Young 
men in public schools and colleges should be warned and 
instructed, and the instruction should include moral con- 
siderations and respect for the purity of women. 
Conference Adopts Resolutions :—The following 
resolutions were unanimously agreed upon: 
1. That the Governments should use their utmost powers 
to suppress the prostitution of girls under age. 
2. That a permanent International “Society of Sanitary 
and Moral Prophylaxis” should he constituted, having its head- 
quarters in Brussels, issuing a quarterly journal in French, Eng- 
lish, and German, and holding Congresses from time to time. 
3. That—since a thorough knowledge of venereology is one 
of the most important means of effectually combating the spread 
of disease—complete and compulsory courses of instruction in 
the subject, for all medical students, should be instituted in 
every University, so as to ensure the training of really compe- 
tent practitioners. 136 
The World’s Social Evil 
4. That guardians of orphans, and others charged with the 
education of the young, should use every effort to promote their 
moral development, and to teach them temperance and respect 
for women of all classes. 
5. That the utmost rigour of the law should be enforced 
against souteneurs (men who live on the earnings of prosti- 
tutes). 
6. That the Governments should appoint in each country 
a Commission charged to ascertain the amount of these diseases, 
apart from temporary fluctuations, among the civil population, 
to inquire into the existing means of treatment, the distribution 
of hospitals in various localities, etc., and to collect opinions and 
formulate proposals as to the best means of preventing the dis- 
semination of the malady. 
7. That the Governments should find means to warn the 
public, and especially young pgfsons, of the dangers attending 
an immoral life. 
8. That the statistics of disease should be drawn up in all 
countries on a common basis. 
SECOND BRUSSELS CONFERENCE. 
The second conference held in Brussels, September, 
1902, was constituted much the same as the first, with a 
similar personnel and included official delegates from 
the principal European governments, with several from 
the East and from the United States, besides members 
of the new International Society and a large number of 
other specialists. 
The debates themselves were a sort of echo of those 
of the previous conference. The protection of minors, and 
the necessity of providing free dispensaries for voluntary 
patients, took an even more prominent place at the second 
conference than at the first. The question of penalizing 
the communication of disease was discussed at some length, 
but opinions differed as to its practicability, and the con- 
ference attempted no decision. Professor Neisser came Weighed in the Balance 
137 
armed with a scheme for bringing venereal patients of all 
classes under a form of Regulation by means of a standing 
sanitary commission, with plenary powers to place all such 
patients under medical supervision and compel obedience 
to all the restrictions imposed; but the conference refused 
to consider it seriously. 
The Regulation System Contested :—The keenest 
debate of all was on the great subject of regulation, or no 
regulation. 
British Experience :—‘ ‘ The position of Great Britain, 
as a country which cast off the yoke of regulation after a 
comparatively brief experiment, and without attempting 
to build up any administrative substitute for it, acquires 
a peculiar interest. Dr. Ernest Lane, surgeon to the Lon- 
don Lock Hospital, and honorary secretary of the British 
Prophylactic Committee, summed up the English position. 
He said: “I can well remember the Cassandra-like prophe- 
cies as to what would take place when the Contagious 
Diseases Acts were abolished, and the woeful predictions 
of the devastating scourge of venereal diseases which would 
result therefrom, and I confess that I myself was one of 
the prophets of evil. But time has proved these surmises 
to he fallacious, for since the repeal of the Acts the amount 
of disease is less, as may he seen hy statistics, and the type 
of disease is milder, as may he proved hy observation.” 
Summary op Attitudes of Countries:—A few words 
may be added as to the present position in different coun- 
tries. 
“In Norway and Denmark the police des moeurs has been 
abolished, hut some of its powers appear to have been trans- 
ferred to the ordinary police. Dr. Pontoppidan, the Danish 
specialist, says that as regards compulsory treatment the 138 
The World’s Social Evil 
law has always been a dead letter, and that its rigid en- 
forcement would only defeat its own object, by frightening 
patients away from medical treatment. 
In Italy a complete system of gratuitous treatment in 
dispensaries and hospitals for all venereal patients has 
paved the way for the abolition of the entire system of 
police control over the women. 
In France the Extra-Parliamentary Commission ap- 
pointed by the Ministry of M. Combes, and continued under 
that of M. Clemenceau, reported in favour of the abolition 
of the police des moeurs and the initiation of a series of 
measures for the prevention of juvenile prostitution, the 
punishment of procuration, etc. 
In Germany an influential Prophylactic Society exists 
under the leadership of Professor Neisser and Dr. Blaschko; 
but here, too, opinions are divided, Dr. Blaschko relying 
chiefly on instruction and individual prophylaxis, accom- 
panied by social amelioration, and Professor Neisser and 
others urging the re-introduction of the “maison toleree,” 
which has so signally failed in France and Belgium, and 
which was abolished in Germany many years ago.”1 
In Russia an important Congress has condemned the 
Regulation system; in Germany the Duchy of Baden has 
not only declared for suppression instead of Regulation, 
but has officially asked for the appointment of an Im- 
perial Commission which is to include well-qualified women. 
This brief review of these international conferences 
offers to the world the striking fact that, after genera- 
tions of trial, under numerous forms of regulation, the 
best interpretation of the present mind of medical ex- 
Shield, London, England, Oct., 1900. Weighed in the Balance 
139 
perts and official heads show, that even the most ardent 
advocates of the system are in doubt as to the ad- 
vantages achieved, while the preponderating opinions of 
the ablest physicians and experts of the world are, that 
the whole system of regulation is a complete failure, and 
that it is fast tottering into discredit and disuse, to be 
followed by the more humane, common sense, and 
ethical law of discouragement and suppression of com- 
mercialized vice, and the substitution of education and 
abundant provision for medical treatment of venereal 
patients, without regard to sex. 
The English “Lancet,” one of the most influential 
medical journals of the world, (which in former years 
was a strong defender of the Contagious Diseases Acts) 
in reporting the Belgium Congress of 1902, said: “It 
is evident that many of those who have hitherto been 
in favor of the Regulation system, and have relied upon 
that for the prophylaxis of venereal disease, have come 
to the conclusion that it has not been productive of any 
marked diminution in the amount of such disease, and 
that other steps must be taken with a view of mitigating 
the evil.” “We are now a mighty nation. We are thirty mil- 
lions of people, and we own about a fifteenth part of 
the whole earth. We have among us, perhaps half our 
people—who have come from Europe—Germans, Irish, 
French and Scandinavians—men that have come them- 
selves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled 
here, finding themselves our equals in all things. When 
they look through that old Declaration of Independence 
they find that those old men (the early pioneers) say 
that ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal’; and then they feel that moral 
sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation 
to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle 
in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though 
they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh 
of the man who wrote that Declaration, and so they 
are. That is, the electric cord in the Declaration links 
the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, 
that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love 
of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the 
world.”—Abraham Lincoln. 
We may be sure that when Lincoln spoke of the 
“nation of thirty millions of people” he realized that 
about one-half of them were women; and now that the 
nation numbers over ninety millions of people, it is still 
a nation of one-half women. And every woman, equally 
with every man, is linked in the “electric cord” in that 
declaration of equality.—Ed. CHAPTER Y. 
THE WRONGS AND TYRANNY OF THE LEGAL- 
IZED SYSTEM. 
“Laws are intended, not to trust to what men will do, 
but to guard against wjiat they may do. ’ ’—Junius. 
Attention has been given, in some quarters, to the vice 
problem in its hygienic aspects, not too much, but too ex- 
clusively. 
If the facts of modern history were reversed, i.e. if it 
could have been shown that, under the regulation system, 
the volume of venereal diseases had been lessened, in- 
stead of increased, there would still be standing against 
it, among other wrongs, its harsh, unjust, and unequal 
treatment of the weak, for the supposed benefit or pleasure 
of the strong. 
An equal standard of law and equal standard of morals 
are the common rights of all people. 
As the late Prof. James Stuart, M. P. said: “Of all 
things in this world, there is nothing which is so desirable 
as justice. It is more difficult to act justly than to act 
mercifully or benevolently, and more good is done in the 
long run by justice than by anything else. The poorer 
and meaner any group of people the more necessary it is 
that they should be treated justly. No man and no woman 
can ever shut themselves out of the pale of justice, how- 
ever erring, however degraded they may be. 
‘ ‘ Every great battle between right and wrong has really 142 
The World’s Social Evil 
been one between justice and injustice. I think, there- 
fore, that, among the touchstones by which any system may 
be tested, one of the most immediate and decisive is the 
question, ‘ Is it just or is it unjust V Is it equal as between 
men and women, is it equal as between the rich and the 
poor ? ’ ’ 
Perhaps the most grievous of all forms of injustice is 
that which denies protection to the honor of young girls. 
Our laws are absolutely weak, and the interpreters and 
administrators of law in our common courts are corre- 
spondingly weak and indifferent on this subject. 
Lavinia L. Dock, in her excellent book, “Hygiene.and 
Morality,” reminds us that “No American state took any 
steps towards raising the age of consent until 1864” and 
that since that date, as a general thing, where the age has 
been raised because of the persistent demand of women, the 
penalty has been lessened. Arkansas, for example, raised 
the protection age from 12 to 16, in 1893. But the penalty, 
which was not less than five years, nor more than 25 years, 
was reduced to one year. Alabama and Delaware have fol- 
lowed the method of making the punishment more severe 
when the female is under 10 to 12 years, and lighter, be- 
tween the age of 14 and 16 years. Georgia is reported to 
have no statute which exactly covers the case. These are 
fair examples of the careless indifference of our laws in 
regard to child protection.1 
The result has been practically to encourage criminal 
outrage upon young girls. Of the cases of rape, only a 
few are ever brought to trial, and of those that are, the 
ages of the victims are rarely above 17, and more often, 
below 15. Of 25 cases of conviction for rape in New York, 
lChart of Laws ©tc., Appendix. Wrongs and Tyranny 
143 
from January 1 to June 30, 1909, one of the child victims 
was aged 7; one, 11; two were 12; two were 14; five were 
15; seven were 16; the remainder were 17. The crimes 
were committed by two boys of 18; two of 19; and the rest 
were men of varied ages, from 21 to 54. 
The system of regulating the trade in vice, whether by 
law, ordinance, or official practice, rests upon a theory 
which is wholly at variance with this principle of equality 
and justice. Not only is this system one-sided and grossly 
unjust in practice; it furnishes no security or protection 
for the innocent and weak. It is to the everlasting dis- 
credit of the United States that, until 1864, “no American 
state took any steps toward raising the age of consent” 
and where, because of the persistent demand of women, the 
age has been raised, penalties have been lessened.1 
Of the crimes of rape only a few are ever brought to 
trial and of those that are, the ages of victims are rarely 
above seventeen and more often below fifteen. Of 25 cases 
of conviction for rape in New York, from January 1, 1909, 
to June 30, 1909, one of the child victims was aged seven, 
one eleven, two were twelve, two were fourteen, five were 
fifteen, seven were sixteen, and the remainder were seven- 
teen. The crimes were committed by two boys of eighteen, 
two of nineteen, and the rest were men whose ages varied 
from twenty-one to fifty-four. 
The old English Magna Charta, which is the basis of 
our criminal law, provides that : 
“No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or dis- 
seized, or outlawed, or anyways destroyed, nor will we pass 
upon him, unless by lawful judgment of his peers, or by 
the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not 
Hygiene and Morality, by Lavinia L. Dock. 144 
The World’s Social Evil 
deny to any man, either justice or right.” Clause 39, 40 
King John’s Charter. 
Blackstone and Coke, and all great American authori- 
ties, agree that these clauses of the charter are the most 
important bulwark of our liberties, and DeLolme, the emin- 
ent authority on constitutional law, says “it was one of 
the articles of Magna Charta, that the executive power 
should not touch the person of the subject, but in conse- 
quence of a judgment passed upon him by his peers.”1 
“Power without right” remarked a British statesman, 
“is the most odious object that can be offered to the human 
imagination. It is not only pernicious to those who are 
subject to it, but it tends to its own destruction. Tyranny 
is detestable in every shape, but in none so formidable as 
when it is assumed by a number of tyrants. ’ ’ 
Let legislators ponder these fundamental terms, when 
they are tempted to adopt measures that would place the 
liberty and honor of women in the hands of irresponsible 
men, and let the “city fathers” of every city think well 
before they invest the police with power to control, pursue 
and impose penalties of plunder and prison on defense- 
less girls and women. 
In discussing the European system, Mrs. Josephine But- 
ler pointed out that the enforcement of the system always 
involved the danger of doing irreparable injury to inno- 
cent women. She asks: “Can it be supposed that we are 
so blind as ever to be able to fancy that it is impossible 
that under this law, an innocent woman may be accused? 
On the contrary, it is obvious that the question of a woman’s 
honor is one in which mistaken accusations are peculiarly 
likely to occur * * * We ought never to forget that the very 
*De Lolme on the Constitution, p. 354. Wrongs and Tyranny 
145 
fact of jury trial, which guards the person wrongfully ac- 
cused, does itself also, more than any other thing, pre- 
vent such wrong accusations. Nor is there any accusa- 
tion so likely to be multiplied by the absence of trial by 
jury as that against woman’s honor.” 
That Mrs. Butler did not name a merely imaginary 
danger is a matter of serious record. We have spoken, in 
these pages, of Mrs. Percy of Aldershot, England, who chose 
death rather than submit, and a number of others are rec- 
orded in “An Address to Members of the American Legis- 
lature and Medical Profession” sent to this country in 
1877 by the British Federation for the abolition of State 
Regulation of Prostitution. 
Dr. Barr of Aldershot, an Examining Surgeon, under 
the Contagious Diseases Acts, said in answer to a question 
by a member of a Parlimentary Committee, that the class 
of persons to be suspected for purposes of registration 
were “milliners and dressmakers, laborers’ wives, the wives 
of small tradesmen, and domestic servants, of course.” 
And so, this doctor,—a fair example of the cjass of 
the specialists who advocated and carried out the provisions 
of the system—regarded “married women and domestic 
servants of course,” as fit subjects to suspect and bring 
under a law, against which they had no appeal, and which, 
to many of them was worse than death, even although 
they may have been irregular in habits and, like the men 
who sought them—unchaste. 
In an ably written life-story, which appeared in book 
form, in New York in 1895, the writer who confesses her- 
self “a member of the underworld” and dedicates her 
writing “To my sister outcasts everywhere,” says: 
“Judgment Day has come for the violators of the 146 
The World’s Social Evil 
seventh holy law. While it takes two, one man and one 
woman, to break the law, but one, the woman, is held 
responsible and haled to judgment, and the man is left, as 
from the beginning, free in his independence to break all 
(the laws) he cares to, that one included * * * Let it be 
frankly acknowledged that we, the fallen outcasts, are 
not sinners above those who make us so, because on us 
alone judgment has fallen; and let it go forth that in this 
new endeavor to destroy evil, punish the guilty, lift up the 
fallen, and inaugurate millenium happiness, there shall be 
no discrimination between the parties to the guilt, and one 
step forward will be taken toward finding the way to a 
wiser method of abatement, regulation, or suppression than 
has at any time, among the sons of men, prevailed.”1 
But a demand for justice in the treatment of this social 
cancer comes from an unexpected quarter. The greatest 
authority among the defenders of the French system, a 
quarter of a century ago, was Dr. Chas. Mauriac of Paris. 
At that time Dr. Mauriac stated that there was more 
safety for immoral women in regulated houses than any- 
where. It was he who spoke of the legalized brothel as 
“the palladium of public safety.” 
Wholly different is the tone of his book, written after 
twenty years of experience of the system. He stands now 
as the logical and uncompromising opponent of specializ- 
ing legislation against woman. So clear and striking are his 
arguments that they have been copied and circulated 
largely in Europe. He says: “For ages past, efforts have 
been made to ensure the execution of regulations to pre- 
vent propagation of venereal maladies. It has been found 
impossible to accomplish this task without a permanent 
i“Social Damnation,” Louise Tresscote. Wrongs and Tyranny 
147 
outrage on personal liberty, which has been more or less 
arbitrarily sacrificed in invoking the supreme law. Woman 
has always been the victim of these coercive measures. In 
this case, as in many others, Force has dominated Right. 
With a revolting injustice, and a ferocious egotism, man 
has condemned the woman. He has caused all the re- 
sponsibility of the evils caused by prostitution, and its 
consequent diseases, to weigh upon woman. 
“It is monstrous that every woman who makes a com- 
merce of her person should be submitted to a species of 
slavery, to certain measures which pretend to control the 
quality of the merchandise, and to protect the consumer. 
The consumer, however, in the first place, is able to pro- 
tect himself in the most efficacious fashion possible; that 
is to say, by not consuming. And again, why not re- 
strain the consumer by certain obligations and measures 
which in turn will guarantee the merchandise? Will you 
ever do it? Never. How many abject creatures among 
men are more dangerous than women ? It is hardly believed 
how much there is of baseness, perversity, and absence of 
all principle existing among certain beings, who constitute 
a social calamity more degrading and repulsive than the 
worst of women prostitutes. And yet you respect these 
persons? No one dares to limit their freedom, nor to per- 
suade them to remain a single day more than they wish 
in a hospital, still less to detain them by force. But all 
this comes quite naturally in the case of women, and these 
measures in their case are considered as very mitigated 
measures. Why are not decrees and coercive measures 
enacted against all the Knights of venereal industry?— 
procurers and souteneurs, who form such a dangerous army, 
exploiters of women under every name, the combinatori 148 
The World’s Social Evil 
who are so numerous in Italy, and all that indecent mascu- 
line personality of prostitution?”1 
This is class legislation with vengeance. Can anyone 
think a more heinous and one-sided practice in law than 
this, which regards one of two parties to the same act as 
guilty of crime to be treated as condemned without trial, 
and often with no other evidence than that of suspicion; 
while the other is not even accused, or regarded as guilty 
of any wrong? 
It recalls the strange company which assembled before 
Jesus Christ with an accusation against a woman. That com- 
pany of men brought a woman “taken,” they said,“in adul- 
tery, in the very act. ’ ’ They did not bring the man or men- 
tion him as a party to the wrong. What Jesus wrote may 
be easily imagined. The one redeeming incident in the 
conduct of the men was that they read that writing on the 
ground and heard the words of Jesus, “He that is without 
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” They 
were conscience stricken and went out, one by one, begin- 
ing at the eldest, even unto the last.” John 8:9. 
treatment de la Syphilis. Paris, 1896. “Men who indulge in base vice lose the fine quality 
of conscience without knowing it. First goes the power 
to blush; then comes levity, the coarseness, the positive 
delight in obscenity, which shocks the right-minded. The 
roue loses faith in the purity of women and of men, and 
judges the world by himself. It is simply inconceivable 
to him that anyone can be other than the debased and 
polluted creature which he has valuntarily made him- 
self.”—Dr. G. F. Lydston, “The Diseases of Society.” 
“Men have no criterion to judge of purity or good- 
ness but woman. Some portion of this purity and good- 
ness always adheres to woman, even though she may 
lapse from virtue; she makes a willing sacrifice of her- 
self on the altar of affection, and thinks only of him for 
whom it is made; while men think of themselves 
alone.”—Byron. 
Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called 
Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but fruits 
which succeed it. Man flows at once to God when the 
channel of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires 
and our impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is 
assured that the animal is dying out in him, day by day, 
and the Divine being established.—Henry Thoreau. 
Since things spontaneously change for the worse, if 
they be not by design changed for the better, evils must 
accumulate without end.—Lord Bacon. CHAPTER VI. 
PLUNDER AND GRAFT. 
Among the worst of the fruits of the regulation system 
is the plunder and graft which invariably attend it. It 
has perverted politicians and police. There are, of course, 
politicians and policemen who are above the bait of bawdy 
house spoils; but wherever license, registration or police 
rule are substituted for law, there is also the graft that is 
drawn from the very bodies and souls of women who have 
been debauched through poverty, seduced by passion or 
enslaved by force, for gold. In every large city, the bosses 
of certain wards or election precincts control the ballot by 
fraud. Not only is the price paid out of the earnings of 
the poor, degraded girls of the red-light district, but the 
gangs who control them—traffickers who own them—and 
the pimps who entrap them, are the tools of the bosses; 
and the police who are supposed to be the servants of the 
people, are in the pay of the system. We have seen that 
the vice graft of New York reached colossal proportions for 
a number of years, under Tammany rule. McClure’s Mag- 
azine published an exposure of the Common Council of 
1871, which became known as the “Forty Thieves,” and in 
1865-1871 “the city was robbed of about $200,000,000 by 
Tammany, while under the rule of ‘ Boss Tweed. ’ ” In 1892 
revenue from vice assumed great proportions in that city. 
“The estimated annual blackmail by the Tammany police 
alone” was $7,000,000. Ex-Police Commissioner Bingham 
estimated that in 1910, from 1,500 to 2,000 members of the The World’s Social Evil 
152 
police force were as unscrupulous as grafters ‘‘ whose hands 
are always out for easy money.” The same authority de- 
clares in Hampton’s Magazine, in November, 1910, that 
“The fining system is the most prolific source of police 
graft in existence,” and says: “It is always easier and 
cheaper for the woman to pay bribe money than to go to 
a court, so she or her protector sound out a new man on 
a beat, or a new captain in a station. If he shows a dis- 
position to treat with them, they pay always in advance.” 
How It Was Done in New York:—The Committee of 
Fourteen reporting on “The Social Evil in New York,” 
in 1910, says: “In addition to this the main body of the 
force are continually subject to the temptation of doing 
‘favors’ for friends among politicians and others who 
are interested in the business of prostitution. The follow- 
ing illustrations are given: A policeman had been sta- 
tioned for several months in front of a notorious disorder- 
ly house, for the purpose of securing evidence and warn- 
ing prospective patrons from entering the premises. One 
night a man walked up to the door of this house and the 
warning he received was that his visit would probably cost 
him $20. 
“It is alleged that in May, 1908, an officer was detailed 
to watch three disorderly houses in one block. The pro- 
prietors of these houses made up a purse of $300, which 
was turned over to a business man on 8th Avenue. This 
money was for the purpose of having an order issued to re- 
move the officer from duty in front of these houses. With- 
in forty-eight hours the order was issued, and the officer 
was transferred to Broadway. 
“Although the records show that a number of places 
were not reported, no police officers have been tried on 
charges of neglect of duty for failure to report these places. Plunder and Graft 
153 
According to the reports published in the ‘Chief,’ 5,444 
police officers were tried on charges from September 1, 
1908, to February 28, 1909, the period covered by the re- 
ports of the police precinct captains. Not one was for fail- 
ure to report a disorderly place. A study of 500 con- 
secutive cases showed that 40 per cent, were for absence 
from post and 10 per cent, for absence from roll call. Such 
offenses as failure to report a dead cat appeared, but none 
relating to the protection from vice. 
“Such conditions could not have existed in defiance of 
the laws except through the payment of protection money, 
through favors shown politicians interested in houses of 
this character, and through political preferment of lawyers, 
magistrates and judges, and other rewards. In a recent 
interview a collector for the police in the ‘Tenderloin’ 
during the period described, stated that the amounts paid 
by the large houses varied from $400 to $600 per month. 
As an illustration, the amounts paid each month by a pro- 
prietor of a house on 21th Street, which contained thirty 
women were as follows: Plain clothes men $205; patrol- 
men $184; inspectors $100; sergeants in plain clothes $40; 
sergeants in uniform $50; total $529. In general, money 
paid for protection ivas distributed about as follows: 
Policemen on post from 8 A. M. to 2 P. M. $1.00, from 2 
P. M., to 8 P. M., $2.00, from 8 P. M. to 2 A. M., $2.00.’’ 
In November, 1900, Bishop Potter published a ringing 
letter, openly denouncing the governing forces of New 
York, and said: “When a minister of religion goes to the 
headquarters of the police to appeal to them for the pro- 
tection of the young, the innocent and defenseless, against 
the leprous harpies who are hired as runners and touters 
for the lowest and most infamous dens of vice, he has met, 154 
The World’s Social Evil 
not only with contempt and derision (of police officials) 
but with the coarsest insult and obloquy.” 
The graft scandal of San Francisco was one of the 
most startling revelations that has ever been published. 
The city was held up for robbery and plunder by its own 
government. Mayor Schmitz, with the aid of Reuch, a 
corrupt city lawyer, made appointments of men to nearly 
all the chief offices of the city, who were obedient partners 
in the gigantic swindle. In 1904 three of the officials 
“conceived the idea of opening a big house of prostitution 
in Chinatown and running it under the secret protection, 
if not under the auspices, of the municipal administration. 
After making a partnership arrangement with Schmidt and 
Reuch, they purchased an old three-story Chinese opium 
joint, which was known to frequenters of the Barbary Coast 
as the ‘ ‘ Palace Hotel. ’ ’ As the building was not adapted to 
their purposes and as it would cost a good deal to tear it down 
they had it condemned by the Board of Health, as “un- 
sanitary,” and then got the Board of Public Works to de- 
molish and remove it, at the city’s expense. Upon the site 
thus obtained they erected, at a cost of $100,000, a large 
brick building, containing 144 two-room apartments, col- 
loquially known as “cribs.” These cribs were run as 
brothels and the women who occupied them “paid rent at 
the rate of $35.00 per week for each apartment; and the 
gross receipts of the house, including the earnings of its 
inmates, were probably not less than $500,000 a year. 
The system was also a tremendous agent in the hands of 
blackmailers. In Europe, under the license system, not 
only women prostitutes, but virtuous women, sometimes ac- 
companied by their husbands or sweethearts, have been 
grossly insulted and blackmailed. The whole of the black Plunder and Graft 
155 
catalogue of these monstrous wrongs has never been re- 
corded and never will be known. 
“Thieves for their robbery have authority 
When judges steal themselves.” Measure for Measure. 
Once in a while a quarrel occurs in the thieves’ castle 
and a window pane is placed in the wall. Once in a while, 
too, one of the thieves finds that his conscience is not dead, 
and a whole dark chapter of crimes are written—crimes 
that are so black that the highway robber on the way to 
Jericho was himself a good Samaritan in comparison. Many 
abuses have been reported, especially under the European 
system. In America there are also numerous instances 
of the system which forces blackmail, directly or in- 
directly, from the price of the bodies and souls of young 
girls. At the door of an infamous house in Custom House 
Place, Chicago, before the red-light district was driven 
further south, a policeman was stationed on a certain occa- 
sion. The keeper of the house was asked why the officer 
was at the door. The answer was: “0, to scare folks 
away.” “Why? What’s up? I thought you were pro- 
tected. ’ ’ Further inquiry revealed the fact that the woman 
had been taxed $1.00 each for 500 tickets for the First 
Ward ball, and that on refusal to “stand for it,” she 
found an officer placed at her door and she supposed he 
would not he removed until she paid the money. 
On January 23, 1911, Brolaski, a converted gambler, 
told a story at a meeting in Chicago called together by the 
W. C. T. U. in the First Methodist Church. The story was 
printed in full in the next day’s Chicago Tribune. Perhaps 
all the details of the story could not have been given as 
Court testimony. But it has been told, with all detail of 
names and circumstances, so plainly, and so fully, that the 156 
The World’s Social Evil 
ridicule with which it is said to have been received in offi- 
cial circles, does not shake it from public acceptance as a 
general statement of actual facts. 
The Minneapolis Vice Commission, in its able report 
quotes the following from Dr. Dock’s work on “Hygiene 
and Morality:” 
(1) “It corrupts and demoralizes the police and offers end- 
less opportunities for blackmail and extortion. Here it may be 
emphasized that although there is in the United States no official 
recognition of vice, yet there is blackmail and extortion because 
the police in many cities, under the pressure of corrupt social 
elements, have developed a system of protection for vice which 
approaches closely to an official alliance with it. 
(2) “It exposes innocent women to persecution. Numerous 
instances of this kind are on record. Respectable girls have 
been reported to the police from motives of revenge, and self- 
supporting women have been driven from positions and thoir 
property manipulated away from them. Cases have been known 
where such victims have been driven to suicide. 
(3) “Regulation bears with special hardship on the poorest 
women. Indeed, it may be said that only the very poor and de- 
fenceless are exposed to its full horrors. The fact that immoral 
women who are able to command ample means are safe against 
the severities of the law has been frequently mentioned by 
writers belonging to different countries.” 
In Europe, where the system has so long prevailed, this 
form of outrage grew to such proportions as to menace 
the safety of people in the public streets. A few such cases 
are cited: 
“Berlin, 1872.—The Berlin correspondent of the Lon- 
don Daily Telegraph, October 26, 1872, says that arrests 
of virtuous women are made there every day and night 
by policemen in plain clothes, and they are threatened 
with being sent to prison on the charge of being ‘no better Plunder and Graft 
157 
than they should be,’ unless they give the policeman a 
bribe to let them off.” 
“ Lille, 1873.—The London Daily News, February 12, 
1873, gives an account of a gang of ruffians who had just 
been discovered in that city. They had assumed an official 
costume, and under the pretence of being ‘special police’ 
had during four years levied blackmail upon men and 
compelled young women to submit to their desires under 
the threat of placing the women on the register of prosti- 
tutes if they refused. A German youth and his sweet- 
heart resisted. The man was killed, but the woman es- 
caped and gave the alarm, and the gang of about 20 men 
were eventually arrested. The leader boasted that during 
these four years 500 Lille women had thus submitted to 
him and his accomplices.” 
“England, 1872.—The Times, April 10, 1872, gives 
the report of the conviction at Canterbury of a man for 
extorting money from a young man and his female com- 
panion on the threat of charging her with being a prostitute, 
saying that he was a policeman under the C. D. Acts. The 
Government prosecuted, because “such cases were of fre- 
quent occurrence.9} The prisoner was sentenced to five 
years penal servitude. “Society must be relieved by sound instruction of the 
horrible doctrine that the begetting and bearing of chil- 
dren are in the slightest degree sinful or foul processes. 
That doctrine lies at the root of the feeling of shame in 
connection with these processes and of the desire for 
secrecy. The plain fact is that there is nothing so sa- 
cred and propitious on earth as the bringing of another 
normal child into the world in marriage. There is 
nothing staining or defiling about it, and therefore 
there is no need for shame or secrecy, but only for pride 
and joy. This doctrine should be part of the instruction 
given to all young people.”—Charles W. Eliot, President 
Emeritus, Harvard University. 
“So live that your afterself—the man you ought to 
be—may in his time be possible and actual. Far away 
in the twenties, the thirties of the Twentieth Century, 
he is awaiting his turn. His body, his brain, his soul 
are in your boyish hands. He cannot help himself. 
What will you leave for him? Will it be a brain un- 
spoiled by lust or dissipation, a mind trained to think 
and act, a nervous system true as a dial in its response 
to the truth about you? Will you, boy of the Twentieth 
Century, let him come as a man among men in his time, 
or will you throw away his inheritance before he has had 
the chance to touch it? Will you let him come, taking 
your place, gaining through your experience, hallowed 
through your joys, building on them his own, or will 
you fling his hope away, decreeing, wanton-like, that the 
man you might have been shall never be?”—David Starr 
Jordan, Chancellor Leland Stanford Junior University. CHAPTER VII. 
A VENEREAL PERIL IN AMERICA. 
I. 
THE GREAT BLACK PLAGUE. 
An Appalling Inventory.—Based upon statements, 
experiences and opinions of physicians, public officials, and 
other responsible citizens 50 to 80 per cent, of all men, be- 
tween the ages of 18 and 30 years, contract gonorrhea. 
10 to 18 per cent, of the male population contract 
syphilis. 
40 to 60 per cent, of all operations upon women for 
diseases of the generative organs result from gonorrheal 
infection. 
80 per cent, of the inflammatory diseases peculiar to 
women are a result of gonorrheal infection. 
A large per cent, (some say one-half) of still-born and 
premature deaths of children is due to syphilis. 
25 to 35 per cent, of all cases of insanity are caused 
by syphilis contracted years before. 
15 to 20 per cent, of all blindness is attributed to these 
diseases. 
A large proportion of cases of apoplexy, paralysis and 
sudden death is traceable directly to these diseases. 
It would be gratifying indeed if we could establish any 
good grounds of doubt as to the correctness of the main 
facts represented by these statements, but, aside from cer- 
tain variations, through insufficient or incorrect data, there 
can be little doubt that the facts are substantially as given. 160 
The World’s Social Evil 
Such a catalogue of physical diseases constitutes au indict- 
ment against the entire governing and educating forces of 
America. 
The decline of nations, ancient and modern, is trace- 
able to the fact that the physical stamina and health rapid- 
ly deteriorate in proportion to the extravagances and in- 
crease of the social evil; and degeneracy sets in so rapidly 
that any government may well take alarm in the presence 
of such terrible facts as are revealed to us. It may indeed 
be said that, greater than all other perils of disease, not 
excluding that of tuberculosis, is the one prevailing and 
increasing evil known as Venereal Diseases. As Dr. Mor- 
row remarks: “No disease has such murderous influence 
upon the offspring as syphilis; no disease has such a de- 
structive influence upon the health and procreative func- 
tion of women as gonorrhea.—It is the most widespread 
and universal of all diseases in the adult and male popula- 
tion.” 
That such conditions are possible, and that the plague 
is increasing in volume, rather than lessening, means in- 
evitable national degeneracy and race suicide, to the utter 
destruction and ultimate downfall of this great nation, 
unless every force of prevention, regeneration and deliver- 
ance can be aroused to earnest, united and prompt action. 
That there may be no mistake as to the magnitude and 
malignancy of the plague the following statements, and 
authorities, are quoted: 
“In 1901 the Medical Society of the County of New 
York appointed a Committee of Seven for the ‘Study of 
Measures for the Prophylaxis of Venereal Diseases.’ Dr. 
Prince A. Morrow was Chairman, and Dr. L. Weiss, Secre- 
tary. The report of the Committee was issued from the The Venereal Peril 
161 
press of the Medical News, Dec. 21, 1901. Circulars were 
sent to 4,750 physicians and to all hospitals, dispensaries, 
etc., in greater New York, making inquiry as to the char- 
acter and extent of venereal infection. Six hundred and 
seventy-eight of these physicians answered, in a definite 
way, and from their reports the following facts are taken: 
Number of cases of gonorrhea reported for 678 physicians, 
15,038. 
Men: 12,966 (when sex was not stated the male was as- 
sumed). 
Women: 1,941. Pelvic complications in 724 cases—nearly 40 
percent. 
Children: 265 Opthalmia. 218 Valvovaginitis. 5 Urethritis. 
Number of cases of Syphilis reported, 7,200. 
Men: 5,014. 
Women: 1,657. Of this number it would seem that 988, or 
nearly 60 percent, received the infection from their 
husbands. 
Children: 61 acquired; 468 hereditary. 
This does not include, except in a very few instances, 
the number of children who died at, or before birth. For 
each of the 468 children with hereditary syphilis, who 
lived, there were probably five who died at, or before birth, 
record of which is not included in the totals given here. 
The 678 physicians reporting constitutes about one- 
seventh of the number of physicians in New York. As- 
suming that the other six-sevenths would average about 
the same proportion of cases the total number of cases of 
gonorrhea and syphilis treated in private practice by New 
York physicians, in one year, prior to 1902, would be ap- 
proximately 162,372 when the population of the city was 
less than four millions. This estimate does not take into 
account the cases treated by patent medicine venders, 
(piacks, etc. 162 
The World’s Social Evil 
In addition to the reports from the physicians, forty- 
five dispensaries and charitable institutions were asked for 
information. Nine refused. Thirty-seven gave the inform- 
ation or permitted their records to be searched. 
The result of this was that the 37 institutions showed 
14,649 cases of gonorrhoea, 7,600 case of syphilis, 9,452 
unclassified venereal diseases, making a total of 31,708. 
Based upon these reports the Committee estimated 
the number of cases of venereal diseases in Greater 
New York in one year, prior to 1911, at 225,000. 
This estimate does not include those who came to New 
York and contracted the disease, but upon whom it did not 
develop until later, nor did it include the number of sailors 
who frequent the rough district in the Bowery. 
The records of the hospitals also abound with cases of 
locomotor ataxia, rickets, cerebral and spinal accidents, 
monoplegias, hemeplegias, general paralysis, epilepsy, and 
various nervous affections of which syphilis is a frequent, 
though not always a contributing cause. 
COMPARISON OF SEVERAL CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, WITH 
VENEREAL DISEASE FOR 1901 IN NEW YORK CITY. 
Cases 
Deaths 
Venereal Disease 
225,000 
Measles 
12,530 
816 
Diphtheria 
11,001 
1,920 
Scarlet Fever 
7,387 
465 
Chicken Pox 
1,251 
1 
Small Pox 
99 
12 
Tuberculosis 
8,877 
8,154 
The number of deaths from venereal disease could not 
be ascertained. Death from these diseases is usually re- 
corded under some medical term which does not convey to 
the non-medical public the original cause of the last illness 
and death. The Venereal Peril 
163 
The following extracts from an address of Dr. Prince 
A. Morrow, published in the American Journal of Sociology, 
July, 1907, are of especial importance in this connection: 
“With tuberculosis, perhaps even more than tuber- 
culosis, social diseases, constitute the greatest social 
scourge of our modern civilization. This class of 
diseases has been aptly designated ‘The Great Black 
Plague.’ ” 
“Gonorrhoea is liable to infect the eyes of the child at 
birth. Eighty per cent, of the ophthalmia of the new 
born, and 15 to 20 per cent, of all blindness is attributed 
to gonococcus infection, to say nothing of the vulvo-vagini- 
tis, the arthritis, and other accidental infections of chil- 
dren in family life.” 
“The chief significance of these diseases as a social danger 
comes from their introduction into married life. It is the 
popular impression that they are spread exclusively through 
illegitimate sexual relations. Unfortunately, a large pro- 
portion of men contract these diseases at or before the 
marriageable age. Many of them marry ignorant of the 
fact that they are bearers of contagion to their wives and 
offspring. ’ ’ 
‘ ‘ Gynecologists tell us that 80 per cent, of the inflamma- 
tory diseases peculiar to women, and 50 per cent, of all 
the operations performed by surgeons on the maternal 
organs are the result of gonococcus infection. 
‘ ‘ One specific effect of this disease upon the pelvic organs 
of women is to extinguish the conceptional capacity. It 
is estimated that 50 per cent, of gonorrhoeally infected 
women are rendered permanently sterile. 
“If the wife is infected with syphilis, in addition to 
the risks to her individual health already referred to, the 
disease may be transmitted in full virulence to the off- 164 
The World’s Social Evil 
spring, killing them outright or resulting in physical and 
mental weaklings. From 60 to 80 per cent, of syphilitic 
children die before being born or shortly after birth. 
“It would be a conservative estimate to state that the 
morbidity from both these infections (gonorrhoea and 
syphilis) would represent 60 per cent, of the adult male 
population in this country. While these diseases may occur 
at any period of life, they are essentially maladies of early 
life. Probably 60 per cent, of infections occur before the 
twenty-fifth year. 
“The significance of syphilis as a danger to health and 
life is not measured so much by its immediate effects, as 
by the changes it sets up in certain internal organs es- 
sential to life; such as the brain, liver, heart, and arterial 
system, and which are the direct cause of death at a more 
or less remote period. It is estimated that 90 per cent, 
of cases of locomotor ataxia, a large but indeterminate 
proportion of the paralyses and general paresis are caused 
by syphilis. Recent investigations in the French insane 
hospitals show that 25 to 39 per cent, of deaths in those 
institutions may be traced to syphilis.” 
Dr. Wm. L. Holt says:—“A special committee ap- 
pointed to study the social evil and its results in New York 
in 1903 estimated that there were probably as many as 200,- 
000 syphilitics in that city. 
‘ ‘ The fact that venereal diseases find many more victims 
in America than does tuberculosis is clearly shown by the 
records of the outpatient department of the Massachusetts 
General Hospital. During the year 1904 nearly a thousand 
(983) patients were treated for venereal diseases, while 
only 430 were treated for all forms of tuberculosis. ’ ’ 
Elsewhere Dr. Morrow says: “It should be known that The Venereal Peril 
165 
the spread of tuberculosis is not simply a question of seed 
and environment, but chiefly one of soil suitable for the 
development of the tubercle bacilli. It is a fact well rec- 
ognized by the medical profession that syphilis, by lower- 
ing the vitality and weakening resistance, produces a con- 
dition favorable to the development of tuberculosis. Until 
the spread of syphilis is effectively checked the fight 
against tuberculosis will be but partially successful. 
Children Slain by Venerealism :—The murderous ef- 
fects of these diseases upon children is stated by the Chi- 
cago Vice Commission thus: “One of the saddest aspects 
of the whole problem of the social evil is the fact that 
hundreds of innocent children have become infected by 
venereal diseases. 
“During a period of twenty-seven months 600 children 
under twelve years of age have passed through the venereal 
ward of the Cook County Hospital. Sixty per cent, of 
the children had been innocently infected, twenty per cent, 
inherited the disease, and twenty-five per cent, had been 
assaulted by diseased persons. About fifteen per cent, had 
syphilis and eighty-five per cent, had gonorrhoea. 
“At one time there was an epidemic of gonorrhoea 
among little girls in the contagious ward of the County 
Hospitals. Eighty-six cases of this dreadful disease were 
brought in by fifteen children. The dreadful results 
of venereal diseases among children are almost beyond be- 
lief.” Social Evil in Chicago, p. 241. 
In confirmation of these alarming facts of disease among 
children, Dr. Clara P. Seippel, Interne at the Cook County 
Hospital (1909) says: 
“/ have personally gone over the hooks for the year 1910, 
and find that in those twelve months three hundred and 166 
The World’s Social Evil 
thirty (330) children were admitted to the venereal chil- 
dren’s ward of the Cook County Hospital. 
“Compared with six hundred in twenty-seven months, 
two years ago, this shows a decided increase, which is 
further emphasized by the fact that two of the homes which 
were formerly heavy contributors to this ward, now, (and 
have for the past year or two), took care of their own in- 
fected cases, instead of sending them to the county. 
“Of these 330 cases in 1910, 293 were girls, of whom 252 
had gonorrheal vulvo-vaginitis; 116 of these 252 came to 
the hospital with the diagnosis made, or they came for that 
reason alone. The remainder came in for other reasons, 
and the disease was discovered; that is to say, a child 
with a broken arm, or typhoid fever is brought to the 
hospital, a smear is taken of every little girl, and if gon- 
ococci are discovered she is sent to the children’s venereal 
ward. At least 90 per cent, came from their homes direct. ’ ’ 
Dr. Howard Kelly of Baltimore writes thus: “In Balti- 
more, in my own clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital 
alone, we have had over 189 cases of little children, some 
but wee babes in arms, violated, and in every instance in- 
fected with the most disgusting diseases to which flesh is 
heir, gonorrhoea or syphilis, and in a number of instances 
the poor little innocent sufferer has contracted both in ad- 
dition to her defloration. 
“Dr. Pollack, who conducts this clinic, after making a 
searching examination of our own and other local records, 
has estimated conservatively that from 800 to 1,000 chil- 
dren between the age of one and fifteen are yearly im- 
molated in our city alone on the altar of perverted brutal 
male lust, made to suffer the physical tortures, defloration, 
and often infected with these frightful diseases from which The Venereal Peril 
167 
they may never recover. Let me emphasize the fact that 
the 189 cases coming under our own direct personal in- 
spection were every one of them infected with gonorrhoea, 
and six were infected with syphilis as well.” 
Locomotor Ataxia:—Dr. Kelly states that “Most 
cases of locomotor-ataxia, now so common, are traceable 
to this source. Were it not for this disease and alcoholism, 
with their immediate or remote consequences, our Insane 
Asylums would in large measure be depopulated. Almost 
all the paralyses in men under forty come from this affec- 
tion. The Wasserman reaction shows that practically all 
prostitutes have it. New York is estimated to have 200,- 
000 syphilitic subjects and probably four times as many 
gonorrhoics. Gihon estimated that there are two million 
cases in the United States. 
The same authority tells us that these diseases are more 
to be dreaded than tuberculosis, as far as their effect upon 
the general health is concerned: 
“It must be known and recognized that these venereal 
diseases are far more contagious and far more widespread 
and far more important economically than the dreaded 
tuberculosis which we are beginning to treat so sensibly.” 
J. Bayard Clark, M. D., surgeon to Bellevue Hospital, 
New York, in an address before the Medical Society of the 
county of Westchester, at Yonkers, November 21, 1905, 
said: 
“It was not many years ago that gonorrhea was looked 
upon as a local inflammation which ran in a majority of 
cases a mild course ending in complete cure. Today we 
recognize in gonorrhea a formidable infection, which has 
invaded every tissue of the human body and from which 
no class of society is immune. Gonorrhea is said to be 168 
The World’s Social Evil 
the most widespread and universal disease affecting the 
adult male population.” 
Insanity:—Dr. Wm. Mahon, Supt. and Medical Direc- 
tor of Manhattan State Hospital, New York, says: 
“Among the patients admitted to this hospital during 
the year ended Sept. 30, 1910, there were 149 eases of 
paresis and 14 cases of cerebro-spinal syphilis. 
“During the year ended Sept. 30, 1909, the hospitals for 
the insane in the state of New York reported the following 
regarding the frequency of paresis: 731 patients were 
admitted suffering from this disease; 534 men, equal to 
15.5 per cent, of the male admissions; 197 women, equal 
to 6 per cent, of the female admissions.” 
Dr. J. P. Percival, General Superintendent of Dunning 
Hospital for the Insane, Cook County, Illinois, says: 
“During the year 1910 there were admitted 1,239 in- 
sane patients at Dunning Institution—60 per cent, male 
and 40 per cent, female. Out of this number there were 
194 paretics, or 16 per cent, due to syphilis. The scientific 
world is aware of the fact that 90 per cent, of paresis is 
caused by syphilis. Two-thirds of Chicago’s insane are 
received at Dunning, the remaining one-third are sent to 
the State institutions of Illinois.” 
In the same state, Illinois, the General Assembly of 
1911 appropriated about nine million dollars for the care 
of the insane, convicts, feeble minded children, blind, etc., 
for the succeeding two years. 
Estimates vary as to the proportion of the male popula- 
tion having been afflicted with these diseases. Dr. Morrow 
places the proportion of men who are, or who have been, 
affected by gonorrhoea, at 75 per cent, or more; and he 
says that, “The prevalence of syphilis, though not nearly The Venereal Peril 
169 
so universal, is variously estimated at from 5 to 8 per cent. 
This would mean that in a city like Chicago, there are 
at least 120,000 persons afflicted with syphilis, and through- 
out the United States there are 3,000,000 of such syphilitic 
sufferers, while three-fourths of all men, or—say 10,000,000 
of the men of the United States are, or have been afflicted 
with gonorrhoea. ’ * 
Noeggerath states that “of every thousand men mar- 
ried in New York eight hundred have or have had gonor- 
rhoea, from which the great majority of the wives have been 
affected. Incredible as these figures appear, they are of- 
fered and accredited by most careful, and conservative, 
scientific men. Who shall tell to what extent other 
diseases, such as tuberculosis, are also attributable to these 
diseases ?’’ 
These statistics, however, are not here offered as final 
or authoritative. In the nature of the case they can only 
be based upon the experience and observation of the medical 
profession. 
We incline to the opinion that some of the estimates are 
excessive—not taking into account the large proportion of 
men who rarely or never consult physicians, and who are 
probably the most free from any form of venereal taint. 
The truth is that apart from the records of the Army 
and Navy there are no accurate or scientific data on which 
to base such statistics, because venereal diseases are not 
included in the list of those which are compulsorily re- 
ported. Yet, when all this is taken into account the ratio 
of men who are, or have been, affected by this revolting 
and race-destroying disease is appalling and would certainly 
justify the most urgent attention—not only of all educa- 
tors, but also of the governing bodies of states and nation. 170 
The World’s Social Evil 
No legal action looking to the suppression of the chief 
cause of it;—which is admittedly the brothel—could be too 
drastic, and no vote of money should be deemed excessive 
which could be wisely spent in promoting a new standard 
of thought in relation to social evil and a better knowledge 
of the evils attending it, and of the causes leading to it. 
THE SOURCE OF VENEREAL DISEASE. 
It is not within the province of this work to discuss 
at length the prophylaxis of sexual hygiene. On that sub- 
ject the medical profession is the proper authority; and it 
is gratifying to observe that physicians are awakening to a 
sense of their obligations in the matter. 
But we may raise a question. The generally accepted 
idea of social diseases is that they are communicable only 
through persons already infected. In other words, if 
neither of two persons are infected, there will be no ven- 
ereal disease attending their sexual union. 
It is not made clear and we do not know that it has 
ever been definitely stated, with the weight of any author- 
ity, that these disorders originate only with sexual excess 
and uncleanness. 
Fournier, the great French authority on Venerealism, 
assumes that the contagion is wide-spread and inevitable 
through contact with persons already affected, but we have 
not seen that he traces the germs of the disease to an origin- 
al source. 
Dr. Acton treats the subject in the same manner, dis- 
missing the question of its source by this simple statement; 
“Venereal diseases are affections more or less directly the 
consequence of sexual intercourse.”1 
Wm. Acton, M. R. C. S. 1857. England. The Venereal Peril 
171 
Dr. Prince Morrow throws a little light upon the subject 
in the preface of his book on “Social Diseases and Mar- 
riage.” “Venereal diseases, in their mode of origins and 
pathological effects, strike at the very root of nature’s 
process for the perpetuation of the race. From the many 
points at which they touch the relation between the sexes, 
social morality, and the welfare of society, they are pre- 
eminently social diseases. ’ ’ 
Dr. Morrow offered some further light in a contribution 
to the “American Journal of Sociology, July, 1907.” In 
the ordinary conception, the prostitute with her cortege 
of infections is the exclusive cause of their propagation; 
but while the prostitute is the chief source, she is by no 
means the exclusive agency in its spread; she is but the 
purveyor of the infection—she returns to one or several 
consumers the infection she has received from another con- 
sumer. It is not the prostitute but her partner who carries 
the poison home and distributes it to his family. 
The question is important. There will be an added 
weight to the warnings against all irregular and immoral 
sexual union if it is shown that the primary origin of 
venereal diseases is only to be found in excess and un- 
cleanness, and that there would be no contagion to afflict 
innocent women or children if there were no sexual vice. 
If venereal diseases strike at the root of Nature’s 
process of race perpetuation it is not because the seeds of 
these fearful maladies are sown by Nature, but that they 
are direct results of her broken laws. 
To read in the various Vice Commission reports that 
women in the so-called red-light districts, frequently receive 
as many as twenty, and sometimes as many as thirty, or 
more, men in a single night, is a terrible announcement 172 
The World’s Social Evil 
which implies to our minds, the inevitableness of disease, 
even if it had not previously existed in any one of the 
numerous agents thus associated. 
The absolute suppression of a business which depends 
for its very existence upon such barbarous outrages upon 
nature, resulting inevitably in the spread of diseases, 
which decimate the population of civilized countries more 
than war, pestilence, and earthquakes combined, ought not 
to need any urging upon the governing forces of our coun- 
try. 
‘ ‘ In Germany there are 30,000 blind due to gonorrhoea, 
and with all the skill that the thorough-going Germans can 
bring to bear upon the treatment of the infection, recog- 
nized at its very outset in the eyes of the babe, nay, even 
anticipated, there yet remains an annual crop of 600 cases 
of this perfectly preventable form of blindness due to 
voluntary causes. The Venereal Peril 
173 
II 
IN THE AMERICAN ARMY AND NAVY. 
“The venereal peril has come to outweigh in im- 
portance any other sanitary question which now con- 
fronts the Army and neither our National optimism nor 
the Anglo-Saxon disposition to ignore a subject which 
is offensive to public prudery can longer excuse a frank 
and honest confrontation of the problem.”—War Report. 
The natural tendency of militarism is to attach supreme 
importance to the physical conditions of the men of Armies 
and Navies. Physique and health are regarded as the first 
essentials of their effectiveness and value. Fitness for a 
soldier, or a sailor, is gauged by a physical standard, with 
little or no reference to mental or moral ideals. 
If, therefore, it could be shown that vice contributed to 
the general health and strength of the men, every argu- 
ment against prostitution would be swept aside as irrele- 
vant to militarism. 
But we are face to face with the amazing fact that the 
HEALTH AND EFFECTIVENESS FOR SERVICE, OF THE ARMY AND 
Navy of the United States, are destroyed more by 
VENEREAL DISEASES THAN BY ALL OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 
COMBINED. 
This statement—extraordinary and sensational as it 
may seem—is made on the authority of the reports of the 
ablest and most conservative of the Military and Naval 
Department of our American Government. 
Here are statements taken from “Reports of the Secre- 
tary of War” during a period of years: 
1905 : ‘ ‘ By far the most important diseases affecting 
the efficiency of the Army during the year, have been the 
venereal, which caused 16 per cent, of all admissions, 28 174 
The World’s Social Evil 
per cent, of all noneffectiveness, and 18 per cent, of all 
discharges for disease.” p. 8. 
1906: “Venereal diseases were again by far the most 
important affecting the efficiency of the Army during the 
year, . . causing 19 per cent, of all admissions, 15 
per cent, of all discharges, and 30 per cent, of all non- 
effectiveness from diseases. There were constantly on sick 
report for this class of diseases 710 men, equal to the loss 
for the entire year of the service of about eleven companies 
of infantry. The increase noted in all the rates, except 
that for discharge, for venereal diseases indicates a most 
unsatisfactory condition.” p. 30. 
1907: “Venereal diseases were again by far the most 
important diseases affecting the efficiency of the army dur- 
ing the year. There were constantly on sick report for this 
class of affections 739 men.” p. 17. 
1908: “Venereal diseases were again by far the most 
important item affecting the efficiency of the army.” p. 21. 
1909 : ‘ ‘ Venereal diseases cause a greater sick rate than 
all of the others added together. The total noneffective rate 
for the venereal group is 11.64, while that of the other nine 
diseases in 8.88 per 1,000. p. 17. 
1910: “While the infectious diseases generally showed 
a diminishing prevalence, there is, unfortunately, no im- 
provement in the sick rate for venereal diseases, which 
caused during the year more sickness and non-efficiency 
than all other diseases named—(tuberculosis, articular 
rheumatism, malarial fevers, dysentery, acute bronchitis, 
typhoid fever, diarrhoea and enteritis, and measles), p. 15. 
1911: “The excellent sanitary record of the army has 
been marred and its efficiency impaired by the high per- 
centage of venereal diseases which causes more disability 
than all other contagious diseases combined.” p. 7. The Venereal Peril 
175 
1912: Venereal diseases still hold first place for both 
admissions and non-effective rate. Nearly one-third of the 
total number of admissions for disease were due to venereal 
diseases, p. 715. 
Surgeon-General George H. Torney, in his exhaustive 
report to the Secretary of War for 1910, furnishes a table 
showing the relative admissions to hospital for the five dis- 
eases causing the highest rates per 1,000 men from which 
the following are taken: 
Rates of admission per 1,000 men: 
Venereal Diseases 
Tonsillitis 
Bronchitis 
Influenza 
Diarrhoea 
177.46 
64.61 
36.66 
34.87 
28.06 
The report for 1912 shows a small decrease in all these 
ratios. 
The same chart also shows the “non-effective ratios per 
1,000 of mean strength for the five diseases causing the 
highest rates in the United States proper:” 
Venereal diseases 
Tuberculosis 
Tonsillitis 
Rheumatism 
Bronchitis 
11.44 11.44 
3.33 
1.03 
1.02 
.70 6.08 
The reader will see that the combined ratios of admis- 
sions to hospital for the four serious diseases named is 
163.99; the ratio of the single class of venereal diseases is 
176.46. 
And, further, that the ratios per 1,000 men, in the 176 
The World’s Social Evil 
United States army, who are rendered non-efficient by four 
other serious diseases combined, including the dreaded tu- 
berculosis, is 6.08, while the ratio for venereal diseases alone 
is 11.44, or nearly double the ratio of the other four com- 
bined. 
ALCOHOLISM AND VENEREAL DISEASES. 
It is generally recognized that one of the greatest of 
scourges that afflict soldiers and sailors, as well as civilians, 
is intemperance. Surgeon-General Torney has furnished a 
number of charts, one of which shows, that great as is the 
evil of alcoholism, it does not compare, as a cause of non- 
efficiency of the army, with the venereal peril. The same 
chart shows that there has been a steadily growing increase 
in these diseases reaching the highest mark in the last year 
reported (1909) except 1905. Beginning with the year 
1898, the following is the record. 
Table showing the admission rates for venereal diseases 
and alcoholism in U. S. Army. 
Black rules veneral. 
Faint rules alcoholism. 
Report of Surgeon General rgro, page 17 The Venereal Peril 
177 
Of conditions in the Philippines, Surgeon-General Tor- 
ney says: ‘ ‘ The first place among causes for admissions is 
still occupied by venereal diseases. Nearly 94 per cent of 
the admissions for this cause for all troops were from 
American troops. Among the Filipino troops it occupied 
the sixth place only, this marked difference doubtless be- 
ing a result of the fact that a majority of the natives are 
married. Over one-third of the total number of days lost, 
were incurred, not in line of duty; due almost entirely to 
venereal diseases.” 
ROOSEVELT’S VETO OF CERTIFIED PROSTITUTION IN 
THE PHILIPPINES. 
“Before the American occupation of the Philippines Manila 
had not more than a score of prostitutes, and was remarkable 
among the cities of the world for its freedom from this com- 
mercialized vice, but with American occupation lewd women 
came in by the boat load and ere long military authorities in 
the Islands without any authorization from the administration 
adopted a system of regulation and certification of prostitution. 
The photograph of a Philippino girl would be taken and 
reproduced by photo engraving and printed on a card with the 
opposite page containing the statement that the girl, whose pic- 
ture was presented herewith, had been examined by military 
surgeons whose name was signed below, and of course the im- 
pression was given by this certificate that escape from God’s 
retribution for sin is guaranteed. One of these cards was sent 
to Mrs. M. D. Ellis, Legislative Agent of the National W. C. 
T. U. at Washington, who had it reproduced entire and sent to 
Senators, Congressmen, Cabinet Officers and their wives, as 
proof, that for the first time under the American flag, this vice 
had been licensed, for in each case the girl concerned had paid 
a fee for this certificate. 
Many protests were sent to President Roosevelt asking him 
to take action, as having full power for suppression of this dis- 
grace, and accordingly a cablegram was sent to the Philippines, 
“by order of the President,” over-ruling this certification and in- 
cluding the words, worthy to be rung out through all the land, 
and in all the world, as having the weight of the Ex-Police Com- 
missioner of New York City, as well as the President,” “THE 
ONLY WAY TO DIMINISH THE CONSEQUENCES OF VICE 
IS TO DIMINISH THE VICE.”—Wilbur F Crafts, Baltimore. 178 
The World’s Social Evil 
The report includes a chart which gives the rate of ad- 
missions per 1,000 of the army in the Philippines, from 
which we take the following: (page 92) 
For Venereal Diseases 301.85 
Dengue 130.18 
Malarial Fevers 112:35 
Furincle & Phlegmon 64.08 
Diarrhea 59.79 
The same chart gives the rate for non-effectiveness of 
soldiers in the U. S. army as follows: 
Venereal Diseases 21.15 
Dysentery 2.99 
Malarial Fevers 2.42 
Dengue 2.30 
Diarrhea 1.17 
Senate Document No. 419 says: 
“Among the troops stationed in the Philippines, the ven- 
ereal morbidity during the year 1904 was 297 per 1,000, 
largely exceeding the morbidity from malarial fevers and 
diarrhea; 22 out of every 1,000 soldiers wrere constantly in- 
effective from venereal diseases, four times as many as from 
any other disease.” 
Surgeon-General Torney makes the following statement: 
(1910 Report—page 60) 
“Reports since the Spanish-American War show a 
steady and progressive increase in this class of diseases, so 
that the admission rate which was 84.59 per 1,000 in 1897 
has now reached the enormous figure of 196.99 per 1,000. 
These figures are greatly in excess of those which obtain in 
COMPARISON 'WITH OTHER ARMIES. The Venereal Peril 
179 
European armies, the rates for the latter being, according 
to the latest obtainable information”: 
British (at home 68.4) 75.8 
Austro-Hungarian 54.2 
French (at home 27.8) 38.8 
Prussian 18.7 
Bavarian 15.2 
Compare these with the United States, which in 1897 
was 196.99. 
THE NAVY. 
The Army Surgeon General’s Report says: ‘ ‘ The United 
States Navy has suffered to a like degree in its efficiency 
from venereal diseases.” 
The report of the Surgeon General of the Navy for 1910 
contains this ominous statement of conditions: 
“Venereal disease has resulted in a truly serious situ- 
ation, there being over 100 primary admissions for this class 
of affections during the first quarter of 1910, with an aver- 
age complement of 1,881 (a yearly admission rate of 217 
per thousand, among young men who have but recently en- 
tered the service, from such disease)—page 28.” 
That is to say: Of young men who are free from ve- 
nereal taint on entering the navy, 217 per 1,000 (more than 
21 per cent) quickly become infected, so seriously, that they 
are admitted to hospital for treatment. 
The same report remarks of the U. S. Navy Ship “Con- 
necticut ”: “ The health of the ship’s company may be 
considered as having been good during the years if we 
except the venereal diseases.” (Page 107.) 
The report of the Navy Surgeon General for 1913 shows 
a slight improvement in the last two years, viz.: 180 
The World’s Social Evil 
Admission 
Rate 
to Hospital. 
per 1,000. 
1911 
9,252 
150.68 
1912 
8,996 
145.33 
An important discussion of “The Venereal Problem in 
the Army and Navy,” by Lieut.-Col. J. R. Kean, of the 
U. S. Army Medical Corps, reprinted from “The Military 
Surgeon,” contains some valuable statistics on this sub- 
ject. He publishes a table showing the movement of ve- 
nereal diseases in the U. S. Navy for a number of years, 
from which the following table is made: 
Strength 
Aggregate 
Admission 
of Navy 
primary 
rate per 1,000 
infection: 
for Venereal: 
1900 
22,977 
1204 
52.40 
1901 
26,101 
1380 
52.87 
1902 
30,249 
1661 
54.91 
1903 
36,536 
2244 
61.42 
1904 
39,450 
2934 
74.04 
1905 
39,620 
3604 
91.38 
1906 
41,690 
4520 
108.42 
1907 
44,083 
3709 
84.14 
1908 
50,984 
4681 
91.81 
1909 
55,550 
8910 
160.49 
Lieut.-Col. Kean makes comments explanatory of the 
figures for 1908 which, if corrected, presumably would have 
increased the ratio for that year. With that proviso he 
gives the above as showing the increase of venereal diseases 
in the navy, reaching to the enormous ratio in 1909, of 
160.49 per 1,000 men. 
As in the Army, so also in the Navy, the ratio of these 
diseases is relatively greater in the United States than in 
other countries. Of six (6) great navies, the American holds The Venereal Peril 
181 
the unenviable distinction of being the worst in this re- 
spect, except Japan. Col. Kean gives the following table: 
German, 1908, mean strength 49,955; rate per 1,000 66 
French 1905, mean strength 49,935; rate per 1,000 75 
Italian 1906, mean strength 27,338; rate per 1,000 83 
British 1909, mean strength 112,700; rate per 1,000 120 
American 1909, mean strength 57,172; rate per 1,000 160 
Japanese 1908, mean strength 43,857; rate per 1,000 167 
“The Venereal Problem in the Army & Navy, 1912,” page 11. 
Senate Document No. 419, presented by Senator Owen, 
says: 
“The statistics of the Navy Department show during 
the same year (1904) that venereal disease was chargeable 
with a percentage of 25.2 of the total number of sick days 
in the hospital from all causes combined. In four years 
949 men were discharged from the navy for disability 
from venereal diseases.” 
Col. Kean quotes Fiske as an authority that “one man 
out of every seven in the navy develops a venereal infec- 
tion each year; assuming an average of four years ’ service 
to each individual, we judge that over 50 per cent of the 
personnel have a venereal disease during this relatively 
brief period of their lives.” 
Col. Kean also quotes Surgeon General Rixey as stat- 
ing, in his annual report of 1909, that during the year 
1907, if applied solely to the force afloat, this class of dis- 
ease “ivoidd have operated to render entirely inactive for 
over a month three battleships with a complement of 1,000 
officers and men each”1 
We have here the testimony of the ablest experts of 
the age. We have the experienced and equipped of army, 
navy and medical authorities; of men whose official pride 
3The Venereal Problem in the Army and Navy, p. 10. 182 
The World’s Social Evil 
would be gratified if they could tell of efficiency and high 
standards in the forces which they command, but who 
are humiliated, as duty demands of them a story of facts 
so deplorable. 
From these we learn that, if the nation needs its sol- 
diers and sailors for defense and security, their efficiency 
for such defense is depreciated and weakened to an alarm- 
ing extent, by diseases which are the direct consequence 
of the practices of the men, and which are every year be- 
coming worse and worse. 
A summary of the facts recorded would startle the 
nation if generally known. 
Take the reports of these years of experience from 
1905 to 1912 which we have quoted from the army reports. 
Note the fact that in 1908 there were 6,514 admissions 
to hospital for venereal infections, of which 4,681 repre- 
sented original infections; these cases furnished 106,526 
sick days, which represented a loss of service and treat- 
ment expense to the Government of $200,000. 1 
Let the reader turn back to the table on “Alcoholism 
and Venerealism” and observe the appalling paralysis of 
army forces. The admissions for medical treatment for 
venereal diseases in 1909 represent nearly 20 per cent of 
the entire army (196.99 per 1,000) ; 14,640 admissions oc- 
curred during the year 1908 representing 12,605 separate 
cases. To state it in other words, this means that about 
one-fifth of the army was laid aside from service, and was 
on the sick list, through venereal disease, some time during 
the year. The loss sustained in the army, in one year, 
is thus equal to about 800 men for the entire year, or more 
than the equivalent of 11 companies of infantry. 
xThe Venereal Problem—Lieut. Col. Kean, page 10. The Venereal Peril 
183 
And these losses continue, without cessation, increas- 
ing with the years. At the present rate the American 
navy is losing the service of an equivalent of 8,000 men 
in ten years, and if it continues to increase at the rate 
it has increased during the past ten years the next decade 
will show an awful loss of about 20,000 men. 
How many more are partially incapacitated is not told 
—and cannot be told. It is probable that, if all the facts 
were available, we should learn that the forces for which 
the nation pays from eighty to one hundred million dol- 
lars per year are depreciated in value for service, in a 
greater measure through these diseases, than by all other 
causes combined, not excepting war. 
As to the navy, we have seen that 50 per cent of the 
young men of the navy “have a venereal disease” at some 
time during their four years of service, and that according 
to Surgeon General Rixey the loss of service in 1907 was 
equal to the loss of active service for a full month of “three 
battleships with a complement of 1,000 officers and men 
for each battleship.” 
Nor can we measure the far-reaching effect of this im- 
pairment of human forces, drawn from the best physical 
blood of the nation, for purposes supposed to be necessary 
for national safety and security. 
"We cannot trace the flow of poisoned blood as it is 
turned, in after years, into the life stream of human gen- 
eration. 
If “war is hell” what may be said of this great 
scourge. Verily, the venereal perils are more to be feared 
than war. 184 
The World’s Social Evil 
Ill 
Can the Plague Be Stayed?—Remedies Proposed. 
Turning from these appalling facts the question arises: 
What can be done to arrest the progress of the diseases 
which are so rapidly destroying the effective value of the 
army and navy, as well as a large portion of the general 
population? After remarking in his report for 1910 that 
“The venereal peril has come to outweigh in importance 
any other sanitary question which now confronts the army 
and neither our national optimism nor the Anglo-Saxon 
disposition to ignore a subject which is offensive to public 
prudery can longer excuse a frank and honest confronta- 
tion of the problem.” Surgeon General Torney strikes 
an optimistic note as follows: 
“There is no reason to think that these diseases are 
beyond the reach of preventive medicine, any more than 
other contagious diseases, and their immunity from re- 
striction must be attributed to the public disinclination 
to discuss them and legislate concerning them. It is now 
believed by most sociologists, as well as sanitarians, that 
the evil being primarily a social one can only be reached 
by a propaganda of public discussion and education, and 
that education in sexual matters, and in the danger of 
venereal diseases, should begin with the young and be car- 
ried on by means of all the agencies to popular enlight- 
enment. A number of state and municipal health authori- 
ties, as well as private associations, are now publishing 
and distributing literature on this subject. It is believed 
that the War Department cannot do better than adopt this 
general attitude and many of these methods, including a 
philosophical indifference to criticism on the part of self- 
constituted censors of the public morals whose suscepti- The Venereal Peril 
185 
bilities are offended by a public discussion of these ques- 
tions. ’ ’ 
This is followed up with a program of supervision, 
education and restraint, which, if carried out with dili- 
gence, could not fail of some good results. The same report, 
however, contains the statement that: 
“The slight diminution in the occurrence of venereal 
diseases last year gave hope that the campaign of edu- 
cation on this subject which has been begun through the 
medical officers was beginning to bear fruit, but 1909 un- 
fortunately shows an increase not only over the preceding 
year, but over any other year of which there is record, 
except 1905.” 
Some strong measures have already been taken which, 
it is hoped, will accomplish much good. Among these 
measures are the following: 
Wearing Uniform in Grogshops:—“The wearing of 
the uniform of the army in places of ill-repute and in the 
company of disreputable companions discredited the uni- 
form and military profession, and called attention to the 
evil conduct of the wearer and would be considered a 
military offense and punished accordingly.” 
Stoppage of Payment :—The following regulation was 
passed by both Houses of Congress: 
“Any officer or enlisted man in active service who 
shall be absent from duty on account of disease, resulting 
from his own intemperate use of drugs or alcoholic liquors, 
or other misconduct, shall not receive pay for the period 
of such absence.” 
The Surgeon General says, in reference to this order: 
“This stoppage of pay will, it is believed, do as much or 186 
The World’s Social Evil 
more than anything else that can be done to lessen the 
venereal rate in the army. Until the enlisted men can 
be made to realize the necessity of the prevention of ve- 
nereal diseases not much can be accomplished.” 
Instructions:—General Orders, No. 17, says: “It is 
enjoined upon all officers serving with troops to do their 
utmost to encourage healthful exercises and physical 
recreation, and to supply opportunities for cleanly social 
and interesting mental occupations for the men under their 
command; to take advantage of favorable opportunities 
to point out, particularly to the younger men, the inevi- 
table misery and disaster which follow upon intemperance 
and moral uncleanliness, and that venereal disease, which 
is almost sure to follow licentious living, is never a trivial 
affair. Although the chief obligation and responsibility 
for the instruction of soldiers in these matters rests upon 
company officers should cooperate by occasional lectures 
or other instruction upon the subject of sexual psysiology 
and hygiene and the dangers of venereal infection.” 
Must Report:—“Commanding officers will require 
that men who expose themselves to danger of contracting 
venereal diseases shall at once, upon their return to camp 
or garrison, report to the hospital or dispensary for the 
application of such cleaning and prophylaxis as may be 
prescribed by the Surgeon General. Any soldier who 
fails to comply with these instructions, if found to be suf- 
fering from a venereal affection, shall be brought to trial 
by court martial for neglect of duty.” 
Chastity Recommended:—The “necessity” doctrine 
receives a striking blow in the following note from the 
Surgeon General’s report: “It may well be said that every The Venereal Peril 
187 
enlisted man in the army has received instruction in re- 
gard to these matters, and that they are well informed 
regarding the dangers of illicit sexual intercourse. It has 
been made clear to them also that sexual intercourse is 
not necessary for a healthy bodily condition, and that 
sexual purity is a thing that is much to be desired.” 
But, notwithstanding all these restricted and remedial 
measures, the army and navy authorities are facing the 
serious problem of an increasing rate of venereal diseases. 
There seems to be as yet no definite recognition of the 
real cause of this awful scourge. Even under the best 
conditions it could hardly be hoped that any group of 
men, in the years of their virile young manhood, with all 
the strong, natural impulses of physical life, and deprived 
of the influences of domestic circles, will be likely to attain 
a degree of physical and moral restraint that will keep 
them wholly free of the effects of intemperate and im- 
moral habits, especially when grog shops still abound and 
brothels are permitted and practically sanctioned by the 
inertness and connivance of police authorities. 
The report of the Secretary of War of 1912 gives the 
returns for 1911, and remarks as follows: “The ques- 
tion of prevention of venereal diseases has during the past 
year continued to claim much time and attention on the 
part of medical officers throughout the army and of this 
office, and much faithful work has been done in the in- 
struction of recruits and efforts in other ways to prevent 
exposure to infection and to prevent infection after ex- 
posure. It was hoped, therefore, that the good results of 
this work might be shown in the venereal statistics. This 
hope has, however, been disappointed so far as the record 188 
The World’s Social Evil 
for syphilis is concerned, and owing to the increased num- 
ber of cases of that disease the figure for all venereal dis- 
eases has increased, as shown in the following tabular 
statement. ’ ’ 
The rate of admissions to hospital of the entire army 
for venereal diseases is given as follows: 
In 1910 174.95 per 1,000 men 
In 1911 185.13 per 1,000 men 
In the study of “The Venereal Problem of the Army 
and Navy” by Lieut.-Col. Kean, he remarks that: 
“It is generally recognized by all who have studied the ques- 
tion that the prostitute is the principal purveyor of venereal 
diseases, and this is especially true of the spread of them among 
the young unmarried men who fill the ranks of armies.’’ 
In its generally accepted sense, this would mean that 
women, who reside in brothels, carry the disease from 
woman to man and then back from man to women; where- 
as, the fact is that men who voluntarily visit the pest 
houses become infected and thus become the “purveyors” 
of disease to others. As Dr. Prince Morrow says: “In 
the ultimate analysis it will be found that the male factor 
is the chief malefactor.” 
If a man knowingly visited a small-pox pest house and 
became infected, no one would blame the person through 
whom the contagion reached him; if, further, he carried 
the disease to others, society would regard him as the 
chief “purveyor” and would hold him accountable. 
On the other hand, if Lieut.-Col. Kean means that 
the brothel is the principal center of infection, and that 
from it diseases are carried to the unsuspecting public, 
then the attack should be directed against the brothel until The Venereal Peril 
189 
it is annihilated. Why tolerate and permit a house of 
contagion with open doors and allow its keepers to conduct 
a trade in vice and disease? 
“If men wish to avoid venereal disease it is in their power 
to so so, without segregating prostitutes and sending the health 
department to inspect them.” Minneapolis Vice Com. Reports— 
page 55. 
Lieut.-Col. Kean quotes Dr. Prince Morrow’s remark 
that: “The health officers of a port might as w’ell at- 
tempt to prevent importation from a plague-infested 
vessel by quarantining the infected women, while permit- 
ting the infected men to go free,” and the Colonel says 
that this statement “lacks the sense of proportion.” He 
adds that “the aim of the quarantine officer is different. 
It is to prevent the introduction of a single case of plague 
into a community which is free of it.” 
But, is not this a distinction without a difference? 
Would any quarantine officer relax his efforts to 
keep infected passengers from going free, if he learned 
that the port was already suffering from the same 
malady? And could he accomplish any good if he were 
to free all infected males and hold the females? What 
would be thought of the judgment of such an officer—to 
say nothing of his sense of equity and equality? 
The real trouble is that the military and civic authori- 
ties both persist in the old doctrine that trade in vice is 
a necessity, that suppression is impossible and that, there- 
fore, either license, or free trade in vice with police regu- 
lations, maintained by graft, is the only possible way to 
deal with the evil. To quote Lieut.-Col. Kean on this 
point: 
“It is an old saying that men cannot be made virtuous by 
Act of Parliament. It has been the universal experience of 190 
The World’s Social Evil 
mankind in all ages and among all nations that sexual incon- 
tinence cannot be prevented by legislation, and it can by no 
means be logically considered legalization for the law to recog- 
nize and attempt to diminish the evil results of practices which 
it is unable to repress. To ignore them is to imitate the tradi- 
tional habit of the ostrich.” 
If we admit that “men cannot be made virtuous by 
Act of Parliament” or Congress, we must also recognize 
that the business of government is “to make it easy to do 
right and difficult to do wrong.”1 If sexual incontinence, 
like theft or any other sin, cannot be wholly prevented 
by law, must we, therefore, provide that these sins and 
crimes shall he recognized as trades, to be permitted and 
regulated ? 
“The traditional habit of the ostrich” is a good il- 
lustration of the long prevailing blindness of men who 
close their eyes to the relation of vice and disease as 
cause and effect—that a business for profit, in the first, 
is a prolific promoter of the second. License and regula- 
tion have been tried for a hundred years or more, under 
every conceivable method of surveillance, and their signal 
failure was the key note of the Brussels conferences of 
1899 and 1905, which were attended by representative 
medical practitioners, police officials and legislators from 
nearly all countries including the United States. 
Will Lieut.-Col. Kean tell us when and where any 
government or police authorities have ever tried to sup- 
press the trade in prostitution by any sustained action 
of law—and failed? 
*W. E. Gladstone. The Venereal Peril 
191 
MARRIAGE IN THE ARMY AS A REMEDY. 
Lieut.-Col. Kean calls attention to a most interesting 
suggestion in reference to the conditions in the army. 
He quotes army statistics which show that the ratio of 
disease, per 1,000, among the white soldiers in the Philip- 
pines was 290 in 1909; of colored troops, 418; while among 
the native Asiatic soldiers it was only 49, and he re- 
marks : 
“The explanation of this surprising difference is that the 
native troops are mostly married, a reason which probably ap- 
plies also to the native troops of other nations. As these 
Asiatics are certainly not more continent and have not higher 
moral standards than the white American soldiers it illustrates 
well the enormous disadvantage in this respect of the enforced 
celibacy of the American soldier and to what a small extent 
moral and prudential considerations can make headway in op- 
position to a fundamental natural instinct.” 
This is a note of almost supreme importance. The 
suggestion that marriage is the explanation of the differ- 
ence between a ratio of 49 per thousand among native 
soldiers and 290 among white soldiers (while with the 
colored troops the ratio reaches over 400) ought to be 
accepted as a revelation, and should receive instant at- 
tention—not only of the heads of the military departments, 
but of the government and the entire nation. 
It comes with all the force of a wonderful discovery, 
amounting almost to a solution of the problem, so far as 
the army is concerned. 
The suggestion is not original with Col. Kean, but 
comes direct from the report of the Surgeon General. In 
his report for 1910 he says: 
“Among the Filipino troops it (venereal disease) occupies 
the sixth place only, this marked difference doubtless being a 192 
The World's Social Evil 
result of the fact that a majority of the native soldiers are 
married.” (Page 97.) 
Again on page 114 of the same report (1912) Surgeon 
General Torney alludes to it in these terms: 
‘‘The lower rate for venereal cases among the Filipino 
troops is believed to be due largely to the fact that a large per 
cent of them are married.” 
This is the most remarkable concession to the truth 
and unity of the moral and physical law that we ever 
remember to have seen in a military document. 
It makes one think of a passage in the Chicago Vice 
Commission Report, which attains to the dignity of a ser- 
mon : 
‘‘The Commission desires to say one more word to those 
who support the business of women’s souls, whether as bar- 
terers of the body, or those who demand the service—the 
Man. There is only one moral law—it is alike for men and 
women. Again, there is a contract called Matrimony which 
is a solemn contract made between those who love. It carries 
with it the elements of vested rights—even a solemn promise 
before God. A signature represents honor—it is there—like- 
wise a promise—it is there. Has this contract been kept 
inviolate? If not, why not?” 
“War is hell!” said General Sherman. With equal 
truth it may be said that armies in times of peace are 
death—at least so long as the brothel is permitted as an 
institution of trade. 
The plea for the regulation of prostitution, on the part 
of governments, rests mainly on the claim for health and 
effectiveness of armies. These armies are selected, re- 
cruited and maintained from the very flower of physical 
young manhood. 
From fields of industry and productive service they are The Venereal Peril 
193 
transferred to schools of physical training, with much 
idle, undirected leisure; from responsible citizenship into 
a life that calls for no sacrifice in times of peace, and in- 
volves no citizen obligations; from the circle of domestic 
relations to associations of animal impulse, with the finer 
sentiments and pure moral atmosphere absent. 
The World’s Peace Federation calls for the suspension 
of all armed forces. If this could be attained, an im- 
measurable gain would be added to purity and social or- 
der. There is no institution which contributes so largely, 
and so naturally, to social vice in any country as standing 
armies of unmarried soldiers. 
But while we maintain an army, why may not this 
suggestion of marriage be taken as the bugle cry of reform 
—a remedy in advance, of any that has ever been seri- 
ously offered? Surely what is possible to Filipino sol- 
diers is possible to American soldiers. 
It would be objected, of course, that provision for 
married couples in military stations would incur an ex- 
pense which renders a general provision for marriage 
impossible. 
But, it would be an exceedingly interesting study to 
inquire into the relative cost of a married army, with 
venereal diseases cut down to a proportion of about one 
case where there are now seven, to say nothing of the in- 
creasing worth of the men to the nation. 
And what a change might come over the conditions 
of army stations! As a general thing the presence of one 
or more companies of men stationed at a military bar- 
racks is a constant source of fear and dread to the sur- 
rounding neighborhoods. It is no slander of the men 
to say that the very presence of a company of soldiers is 194 
The World’s Social Evil 
usually regarded as a source of danger to morals and the 
reputation of the whole town suffers.1 This is in the 
order of a natural consequence—not because soldiers, or 
sailors, are a worse set of men than others. They are 
sons and brothers of American citizens, and are themselves 
American citizens, or, at least, have naturalized or given 
notice of becoming so. When they enter the army they 
would pass muster in a test of morals with the average 
boys of the country. But as soldiers they are under con- 
ditions of physical training with no obligations except to 
obey orders. Their restraints are all physical, rather than 
1A military man, whose personal friendship and critical 
judgment the writer esteems, takes exception to this comment 
on the effects of the presence of companies of soldiers to sur- 
rounding neighborhoods. I wish I could conscientiously state 
otherwise, but while I know that there are in companies of sol- 
diers, many men whom we delight to meet and to honor, I have 
not yet known of a military station which was unattended, 
more or less, with patronage of the vicious elements in the 
nearby towns and a weakening of the sense of moral safety 
among women, and I have shown why this may be expected, 
without, in any way, classing soldiers as naturally less moral 
than other men. 
My military friend also thinks that the plea for an army 
of married men is “untenable.” Perhaps it is. But the sugges- 
tion, coming so significantly in army reports, as a result of 
experience of the Filipino soldiers, is so noteworthy that I 
could not fail to call attention to it. Of course there are 
difficulties. But new conditions call for new provisions. The 
statesmanship of the future may see that an army such as 
ours need not be so frequently moved from station to station, 
in times of peace, and that it may become possible for soldiers 
to remain for longer periods at one station, subject only to call 
for special duty. We have an army of commercial travelers 
who only enjoy their homes occasionally, but who find to have 
a center point towards which their thoughts, interests and af- 
fections may turn, is mighty as a powerhouse for virtue and 
character. Might not such motor be available to soldiers and 
sailors, a port with a home towards which the minds of men 
may constantly turn—if only once in a while they can take 
refuge there—a strong leverage for economic and moral order 
and for the building up of a nobler physical manhood.—Ed. The Venereal Peril 
195 
moral. Their acquaintances are men only—men like them- 
selves who, as soldiers, have no moral purpose, no moral 
training, and no obligation outside the routine of exer- 
cise and drill. These men cannot escape the conversation 
and influence of the worst of their numbers—nor can they 
go from their places of drill and duty, as business and 
laboring men do, into an atmosphere of home. The charm 
of the domestic circle and the refining influence of chaste 
women are not available to them. 
Secretary of War Stimson, reviewing the army report 
of 1912 said: 
“I believe that the ultimate causes which make the record 
of our army in this respect shameful beyond that of the army 
of any other civilized nation are inherent in our shortcomings 
as a nation in dealing with this matter. So long as in our civil 
community, and particularly our larger cities, we continue to 
close our eyes to the magnitude and extent of the evil and re- 
frain from attacking it with the weapons which scientific know- 
ledge places in our hands, it cannot but be expected that the 
younger men in our army, leading the abnormal life of the 
soldier, will show the effect of the evil to a marked degree.”1 
It may be true that the “shortcomings” referred to 
by Secretary Stimson are more prevalent in this country 
than in some others. But would it not be well to look into 
economic conditions for some measure of the cause of the 
greater ratio of immorality and attendant diseases in our 
army and navy? We are deploring the low wages paid 
to girls as one of the causes of their downfall. Perhaps 
the reverse is true of men who have no other use for 
money than indulgence in certain habits. May it not be 
that the pay of our soldiers, so much greater than that of 
soldiers in other countries, enables them to be more reck- 
1 Cur rent Opinion. 196 
The World’s Social Evil 
less in the habit of visiting houses of ill-fame? If this 
suggestion has any weight the remedy should not be found 
in reducing the pay, but in encouraging its use in fields 
of wholesome recreation and more domestic life. 
Strong pleas are made for family life as a basis of a 
permanent American nation. Col. Roosevelt has made a 
mighty protest against “wilful sterility” and others have 
urged the duty of marriage. Yet here is a national in- 
stitution, a government enterprise, exploring the country 
for the pick of young physical manhood and enrolling these 
youthful athletes with peremptory conditions which prac- 
tically forbid marriage. Thus government is itself the 
greatest anti-marriage force in the country—holding from 
seventy to eighty thousand men from a partnership in the 
bonds of marriage with a like number of women. 
Soldiers are servants of the country—in the pay of 
the country. Is it in accordance with Twentieth Century 
civilization that these public servants shall be encouraged 
by circumstances to make war on the honor and life of 
girls, or else he consorts af abandoned women, sowing 
moral wreckage and disease—while the semi-civilized Fili- 
pino soldiers marry, and by contrast, are rarely affected 
with the venereal curse? 
What is worse? Facility of access is permitted and 
assumed to women who are, first, demoralized by men, and 
who, in turn, become sources of physical disease and moral 
death to men. This is a concession—may we not say a 
provision—made under the plea that “what has always 
been must always be,” and that the only possible remedy 
is to regulate these women and keep them ready for the 
lusts of men, with as little physical contagion as frequent 
surgery may make possible, thus offering a false sense of The Venereal Peril 
197 
security against diseases, which increase as sexual im- 
morality increases. 
But there is surely hope. Let the army authorities add 
to the recommendations referred to in Surgeon General 
Torney’s report one other, viz.: that provisions may be 
made for the accommodation of soldiers’ wives who may 
substitute a home supper table for the mess room and a 
domestic sleeping apartment for the dormitory, and a 
mighty reform will follow. 
An important note on this subject comes from an arti- 
cle on “Sanitary Service in the Russo-Japanese War,” trans- 
lated from the German by Louis C. Duncan, Captain, Medical 
Corps, U. S. Army: 
“In conclusion, there remains one great factor which 
causes a large amount of disease in all standing armies. It 
is the venereal infections. Matignon* writes thereon: The 
Japanese made war for 21 months without a woman. It is a 
thing unique in history. 
“The Russian troops brought in their camp-suite a cor- 
tege of official prostitutes; official or disguised under vari- 
ous appellations denoting a profession not far removed from 
their true one.”—The Military Surgeon March, 1914. 
♦Matignon: Enseignemento Medicany de la Guerre 
Russo-Japonaise, Paris, 1910. THE MAN’S PART. The end of the battle is not yet 
for those girls who struggle on alone and unprotected 
with their more pressing financial problems. The great- 
est menace is before her—the Man. See her as he 
meets her at the door of her place of employment! See 
her as she returns to her cheap boarding house! Huddled 
away among coarse and vulgar male companions, only, 
underfed and hungry—hungry not only for food, but for 
a decent shelter, for a home, for friends, for a sympa- 
thetic touch or word; tired from a hard day’s toil even 
to the point of recklessness—starving for honest pleas- 
ures and amusements—and with what does she meet? 
The advances of men without either a spark of bravery 
or honor, who hunt as their unlawful prey this im- 
poverished girl, this defenseless child of poverty, un- 
protected, unloved and uncared for as she is plunged 
into the swirling, seething stream of humanity; the 
advances of men who are so low that they have lost 
even a sense of sportsmanship, and who seek as their 
game an underfed, a tired and a lonely girl. 
She suffers, but what of him? She goes down, and 
is finally sacrificed to a life of shame, but what of him? 
He escapes as a “romancer.” It is not just!—Chicago 
Vice Commission Report. CHAPTER VIII. 
THE ECONOMIC QUESTION. 
I. 
“Is it possible that, in the bosom of civilization itself, may be 
engendered the malady which shall destroy it? Is it possible 
that institutions may be established which, without the help of 
earthquake, of famine, of pestilence, or of foreign sword, may 
undo the work of so many ages of wisdom and glory?” Macaulay. 
When Lord Macaulay wrote this striking interroga- 
tory, public thought had not been quickened in regard to 
the systems of regulation, as applied to the social evil, and 
their natural product, the “white-slave traffic” in rela- 
tion to national life had not been exposed as an organized 
institution. It is, however, a fair inference that the social 
evil may have been the “malady” in the mind of Macau- 
lay, for, of all causes, history points to this as the most 
wasteful destroyer of moral and physical forces. 
Not even drunkenness bears such intimate and all-per- 
vading relation to national ruin as the vices of the sexes.1 
In 1880, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, speaking in the British 
Parliament, said: “That calamities inflicted upon man- 
kind by the three great historical scourges of war, pesti- 
lence, and famine, were not so great, because not so con- 
tinuous, as those inflicted upon mankind by intemperance. ’ ’ 
We do not question so eminent an authority, nor would 
we, if we could, lessen the effect of such a voice against 
the great curse of intemperance, but it is probable that, 
if the regulation system, as applied to commercialized vice, 
had become a public issue—forced upon the attention of 
’See Chart on Venerealism and Alcoholism, Chap. VII. 200 
The World’s Social Evil 
statesmen—as the liquor question was in Mr. Gladstone’s 
time, he would have coupled these two—intemperance and 
inpurity—as the twin demons of civilization. 
The Social Evil has ever been a most serious disturbing 
agent in economic conditions. In this respect it has not 
even the claim to consideration which is often made for the 
liquor traffic. Human lust, with all its allied agencies, pro- 
duces nothing; it never adds one centime to the general 
wealth. It knows no limitations of time or circumstance. 
War is its cruel ally; peace only changes the form and 
manner of its ravages; prosperity feeds its insatiable fire; 
poverty aids in the capture of victims; every other vice is 
tributary to it. All the time—night and day—through the 
centuries, the passion and power designed by the Creator to 
bless and perpetuate life, are perverted, and the poisoned 
current flows on—wasting resources, cutting off life and 
health at their fountain, and destroying them in their 
prime. 
This evil is as disastrous to the material interests of man- 
kind as it is to their moral and physical welfare. If it 
were possible to submit by a Board of Actuaries an item- 
ized account of all the drafts made upon personal and 
public wealth, through the channels of commercialized vice, 
the audit would stagger the world. 
The traffic is called slavery; but even negro slavery was 
productive of wealth. The slavery of vice not only pro- 
duces nothing, but is wholly an absolute waste. It is a 
waste of wealth and destruction of the wealth producer. 
Considered, merely as an economic factor, the highest 
value in the world is a human being. If we could com- 
pute the human values daily destroyed by this vice, we 
should face the greatest of all losses to the sum-total of the The Economic Question 
201 
world’s resources. For it is the most prevalent and destruc- 
tive of all evils. 
Think of the women withdrawn, or withheld, from all 
forms of useful and happy life, and condemned to a brief 
period of riot and ruin. At the lowest estimate, there are 
in the United States from three to four hundred thousand 
young girls and women, living on the price of shame, and 
doomed to disease and early death at the expense of the 
commonwealth. And this is only an incident. There are 
thousands of houses that ought to be dwellings of men and 
women; instead, they are high-priced shambles of physical 
pestilence, moral decay, and financial ruin. 
Think again, of the hill of expenditures—the liquor at 
four-fold prices, the incidental robberies, the midnight 
revels, the plunder by keepers of dens, the vile gangs of 
pimps, panders and cadets, the cost of fines and prisons and 
the plunder of police-graft. All this, and much more, is 
drained from the products of labor through the channels of 
the commerce of vice. 
The Report of the Vice Commission of Chicago declares 
that the annual profits of the vice traffic in that city 
amounts to more than fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000.- 
00) controlled largely by men. The profit-sharers are 
described as those who profit off of the place of busi- 
ness—the landlord, agent, janitor, amusement dealer, 
brewer and furniture dealer; those who profit off of the act 
are the keeper, procurer, druggist, physician, midwife, 
police officer and politician. . 
As Dean Walter T. Sumner, the chairman of the Vice 
Commission, pointed out, this estimate of more than fifteen 
millions of profit means that the expenditures for this vice 
in Chicago is not less than sixty millions of dollars an- 
nually. 202 
The World’s Social Evil 
In May, 1913, the Philadelphia Vice Commission re- 
ported its work of investigation under the direction of the 
American Vigilance Association. The Commission esti- 
mated that the receipts of what are called “parlor houses” 
are at least $300 a week. They found 156 of these parlor 
houses. The investigators found also in this City approx- 
imately 2,000 street-walkers and the estimate given of the 
average receipts of these women is $25.00 per week. The 
report of the Commissioners gives the following as a sum- 
mary of the total estimated expenditures in that City 
directly to vice, and state, “we are thoroughly convinced 
that this is an underestimate rather than an overestimate: ’ ’ 
Parlor Houses 2,433,600 
Call Houses 1,216,800 
Street-walkers 2,600,000 
Total 6,250,400 
“The wage-earning power of working people depends on their 
industrial eliiciency, and this efficiency is impaired by any 
habits or diseases which lower vitality, shorten life, or hinder 
the normal growth of a healthy population. Many of the feeble 
minded, insane, blind, and deaf which have become a heavy 
burden upon the finances of modern states have fallen into a 
state of dependence through inheritance of the effects of vicious 
indulgence and venereal disease in their parents and more re- 
mote ancestors. 
The cost of medical treatment by physicians, hospitals, and 
unscrupulous “specialists” must be enormous. To our national 
shame be it said, much of this expenditure goes to paid ad- 
vertisements of the lowest type of doctors in newspapers which 
are taken into respectable families and supported by the ad- 
vertisements of great merchants. 
Some idea of the economic loss from venereal diseases may 
be gained by using such statistics as we have. Only a 
part of those affected enter hospitals, yet the figures for 
these are startling enough. In Prussian hospitals in 1877-99 
about 240,000 persons, or 58 per cent, of all patients were treated The Economic Question 
203 
for venereal disorders. In more northern lands, because greater 
care is taken, a larger ratio obtains: in Norway in 1859-70 an- 
nually 0.86 per cent of the entire population, in Sweden 1.24 per 
cent., in Denmark 2.03 per cent., in Finland 2.27 per cent. An 
official inquiry in Prussia, answered by only 63 per cent, of the 
physicians, showed that on one day, April 30, 1900, about 
41,000 persons were treated. It is thought that in all Germany 
100,000 were under care of physicians that day. Kirchner 
estimated the economic loss to Prussia alone from this cause at 
90,000,000 marks annually. 
In the great cities the situation is worse. In Christiana the 
average sick in 1859-70 were 7.66 per cent, of population; in 
Stockholm, 16.04 per cent; in Copenhagen, 25.5 per cent. In 
Russia where these maladies are rife, it is estimated that 13 to 
23 per cent of the population is infected and in some provinces 
almost all are syphilitic. 
In Berlin the number of new cases of syphilis is estimated 
to be 5,000 each year, in Paris 8,000 to 10,000. On April 30, 
1900, the cases of venereal patients reported by physicians were 
10 per cent, of the entire population of Berlin. In Copenhagen, 
where the records are unusually complete, the number of new 
cases of gonorrhea reported annually is 56,000, or about one- 
half the population. 
Of 8,500,000 persons insured in the sickness funds of Ger- 
many 6 per cent., or more than 500,000 are annually afflicted 
with venereal diseases. In Berlin 3.6 per cent, of the soldiers, 
8 per cent, of workmen, 13.5 per cent, of female waiters, 16.4 
per cent, of young salesmen, and 25 per cent, of students in the 
sickness insurance associations were treated for venereal dis- 
eases.”1 
In May, 1903, McClure’s Magazine published the fol- 
lowing from the pen of Lincoln Steffen: 
“Disorderly houses are managed by ward syndicates. Per- 
mission is had from the syndicate real-estate agent, who alone 
can rent them. The syndicate hires the houses from the owners 
at, say $35 a month, and he lets it to a woman at from $35 to 
$50 a week. For furniture the tenant must go to the ‘official 
‘Dr. Chas. R. Henderson. 204 
The World’s Social Evil 
furniture man,’ who delivers $1,000 worth of ‘fixings’ for a 
note for $3,000, on which high interest must be paid. For beer 
the tenant must go to the ‘official bottler,’ and pay $2 for a 
one-dollar case of beer; for wines and liquors to the ‘official 
liquor commissioner,’ who charges $10 for five dollars’ worth; 
for clothes to the ‘official wrapper-maker.’ These women may 
not buy shoes, hats, jewelry, or any other luxury or necessity 
except from the official concessionaires, and then only at the 
official, monopoly prices. If the victims have anything left, a 
police or some other city official is said to call and get it 
(there are rich ex-police officials in Pittsburg.”) 
All these are leeches which fatten upon the poor bodies 
of girls,—girls having a natural and a citizen’s right to 
protection from these rapacious and contemptible blood- 
suckers. 
If these many thousands of female victims of the traffic 
in the United States live only an average of five or six years, 
when they would, in domestic life, live twenty, thirty, or 
forty years, what an untold wealth of life’s highest values 
is thus consumed! 
Think also of the man—young men—for it is mostly in 
their youth and prime that men are blasted by the poison of 
this vice—often the brightest and strongest, who go down 
to death through commerce in lust. Society loses thou- 
sands on thousands of its ablest men, men of affairs, busi- 
ness and professional men, some of whom pass out and are 
buried with a medical certificate which does not hint at the 
truth, while others are living victims, slowly dying—vic- 
tims, weakened, depraved, diseased, insane. How many 
thousands of women and children are there, doomed to 
carry, in their afflicted bodies, a disease which to them is 
unspeakable,—to suffer pangs, and pains of surgery and 
drugs, ending in untimely death! These who are sacri- 
ficed are revealed only to the physician, and not all of them The Economic Question 
205 
to him. The economic measure of them can never be com- 
puted. 
Dr. Prince A. Morrow points out that Yenerealism is 
one of the most important factors in the causation of the 
destitution which requires relief. The prevention of disease 
which transforms the bread winner into the dependent up- 
on charity, has a most important economic as well as a hu- 
manitarian value. “American Journal of Sociology, July, 
1907.” Dr. Morrow also says: “The fact that these dis- 
eases constitute the most potent factor in the causation of 
blindness, deaf-mutism, idiocy, insanity, paralysis, locomotor 
ataxia, and other incapacitating and incurable affections, 
imposes an enormous charge upon the State and community. 
Millions of dollars are contributed to the support of de- 
fectives, but not a dollar for the dissemination of the sav- 
ing knowledge which might prevent.” 
“The frequency of venereal diseases varies with nations, with 
districts, and especially, with density of population. For ex- 
ample, in Germany, these diseases are more frequent in northern 
than in southern districts; more prevalent in the northeast than 
in the west, in cities, than in rural regions. Of the male popu- 
lation of Prussia on April 30, 1900, 28 in 1,000 were infected; 
in Berlin 142 in 1,000; in cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, 
100 in 1,000; in cities of over 30,000 inhabitants, 45 in 1,000; 
in the army, 15 in 1,000. The frequency of these maladies varies 
also with the social classes. Thus in Berlin, of soldiers in the 
garrison, 4 to 5 per cent, are annually affected; of wage earners 
in the central sickness insurance association, 8 per cent.; of 
female waiters registered in the local sickness insurance as- 
sociation 13.5 per cent.; but the police records show 30 per 
cent, of same class; salesmen 16.5 per cent.; students in the 
sickness insurance association 25 per cent. The figures for 
students reveal a very discouraging condition. 
Of 12,000,000 persons in the German workingmen’s insur- 
ance associations about 6 per cent., or 750,000 persons require 
medical treatment and hospital care at an annual cost of at 206 
The World’s Social Evil 
least six to seven million marks (about $1,500,000 to $1,750,000). 
To this loss must be added the loss of wages and productive 
labor caused by sickness, weakness, and the physical conse- 
quences of the attacks. 
Economic loss implies diminution of the opportunities of 
culture; and so venereal excesses and diseases both directly 
and indirectly affect adversely the educational process.”1 
Life as an Economic Asset:—This is ably set forth in 
a government report issued March 8, 1910. The report is 
edited by Irving Fisher, Professor of Political Economy, 
Yale University. 
The loss of values to the nation through venereal disease 
may appear from facts given in this report as follows: 
1. On the money value of increased vitality. 
Taking the estimates of Dr. Farr of England, which are 
based “upon the best method of estimating the economic 
value of life” the report presents a table showing the net 
worth of a person at birth, as $90.00; at five years as 
$950.00; at ten, as $2,000.00; at twenty, as $4,000.00; at 
thirty, as $4,100.00; at fifty, as $2,900.00; at 80, as $700.00. 
President David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford, Jr., 
University of California accepts these figures of the value at 
50, and adds : 
“On this basis, our vital assets could be reckoned at, 
roughly, two hundred and fifty billion dollars. Against 
this, set the one hundred and ten billions of dollars at 
which the physical wealth of the United States is figured, 
and even the most arrant materialist will admit that the 
conservation of human life is more important than the con- 
servation of forests or the eradication of diseases among 
cattle and hogs.” 
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief of the Chemistry Bureau 
aDr. Chas. R. Henderson, The Eighth Yearbook of the Nar 
tional Society for the Scientific Study of Education. The Economic Question 
207 
of the Federal Department of Agriculture, points to the 
supreme value of human health and life as factors in the 
Nation’s wealth. He says: 
“If, in the remote future, coal, iron, gold and silver 
should become extinct science would provide substitutes. But 
there is another natural asset, lying at the very basis of 
the prosperity of the country, which is sometimes overlooked, 
namely, the normal function of the human machine, commonly 
expressed by the term ‘health.’ This has more to do with the 
happiness, prosperity and utility of the human organism than 
any of the other natural assets which I have mentioned.” 
Dr. Wiley estimated the health of the people of the 
United States, in terms of money, at $540,000,000,000. This 
he made “on the basis of $600.00 per capita, average annual 
earnings, each representing a capital of $12,000 at 5 per 
cent.” 
To conserve this gigantic national asset, Dr. Wiley calls 
for a national department of health. Such a department 
would find its greatest claim for service in the subject of 
sex hygiene. 
“If we take the estimate of Professor Willcox of the 
death rate in the United States, as at least 18 per 1,000 for 
the 85,500,000 persons estimated by the census as the popu- 
lation of the United States in 1907, we have 1,500,000 as the 
number of deaths in the United States per annum. Of these 
1,500,000 deaths, 42 per cent., or 630,000, are annually 
preventable or postponable. Since each postponement would 
save on the average $1,700, the national annual unneces- 
sary loss of capitalized net earnings is 630,000 X $1,700, or 
$1,070,000,000 or about $1,000,000,000.” 
If the yearly loss of life through venereal disorders in 
the United States is estimated at 50,000, which, according 
to authorities, is a very low estimate, and taking the value 208 
The World’s Social Evil 
of human life at the above stated average, we have in this 
one item 50,000X$1,700=$85,000,000 annual loss. 
The relation of the subject to these vital statistics may 
be further seen on reference to another section of the same 
report—the Section of Hygiene. Most instructive, although 
alarming, are the following paragraphs: 
1. One disease, syphilis, infects the blood and there- 
with all parts of the body. While under proper treatment 
the disease is not always dangerous to life in the earlier 
years, yet the possibilities of transmitting the contagion 
should forbid marriage for at least three years. 
2. The leading insurance companies refuse to insure 
the life of a syphilitic person for four or five years after 
the disease was contracted, and then only upon special 
terms, for their records prove that syphilis shortens life. 
3. That the syphilitic parent may transmit the disease 
to his offspring is common knowledge. Some of his chil- 
dren are destroyed by the inherited disease before birth; 
others are born to a brief and sickly span of life; others 
attain maturity, seriously handicapped in the race of life 
by a burden of ill health, incapacity, and misery produced 
by the inherited taint, while still others escape these evil 
effects. 
One of the saddest facts in both cases is that the parent 
may escape and the children reap the results in insanity, 
tendency to consumption, and prostitution. 
Gonorrhea, while usually cured without apparent loss 
of health, has always serious possibilities; it kills about 1 in 
200; it impairs the sexual power and fertility of a much 
larger number; it often produces urethral strictures, which 
later may cause loss of life. 
4. The persistence of gonorrhea in the deeper parts 
long after it is outwardly cured leads to the unsuspected The Economic Question 
209 
communication of the disease to women with whom the in- 
dividual may cohabit. Much of the surgery performed up- 
on women has been rendered necessary by gonorrhea con- 
tracted from the husband. Should she while infected with 
this disease give birth to a child, the baby’s eyes may be 
attacked by the infection, sometimes with immediate loss of 
sight. Probably 25 per cent, of the blindness of children is 
thus caused. National Vitality: Its Wastes and Conserva- 
tion. Senate Document, No. 419. Presented by Senator 
Owen. 
Keeping in mind the economic aspect of our subject, we 
quote again from this report on “National Vitality:” 
‘ ‘ Dr. Prince A. Morrow says that the number of syphili- 
tics in the United States has been estimated at 2,000,000. 
This disease is not only in itself a danger, but it also causes 
a large number of diseases of the circulatory and nervous 
systems. 
‘ ‘ Dr. Morrow says that the extermination of social dis- 
eases would probably mean the elimination of at least one- 
half of our institutions for defectives. The loss of citizens 
to the State from the sterilizing influence of gonorrhea 
upon the productive energy of the family, and the blighting 
destructive effect of syphilis upon the offspring are enorm- 
ous. In the opinion of very competent judges social disease 
constitutes the most powerful of all factors in the degenera- 
tion and depopulation of the world. 
“What syphilis and gonorrhea represent in the lowered 
working efficiency of our population—to say nothing of the 
still more important subject of increased mortality—is im- 
possible to estimate; but it wrould be difficult to overem- 
phasize the grave danger to national efficiency from these 
and the other venereal diseases.” 210 
The World’s Social Evil 
Summing up in review, we have these various items of 
incalculable cost: 
A. Women and girls withdrawn from normal service 
and slain in the markets of vice. 
B. Young men, in the prime of youthful manhood, 
become burdens upon the public purse, instead of pro- 
ducers. 
C. Women and children, innocent victims, doomed by 
disease, and sacrificed in suffering and death. 
D. A multitude of hangers-on, ‘ ‘ profit-sharers ’ * so- 
called, as described by the New York Committee of Fourteen 
and the Vice Commissioners’ Reports of several cities. 
E. Constant drain upon national strength, as shown in 
the Report on “National Vitality”—paragraphs quoted, 
Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 
F. Estimate, quoted by Dr. Morrow, of two million 
syphilitic sufferers in the United States. This is almost 
equal to the population of our second largest city. Think 
of a great city of two millions, every man, woman and 
child, suffering from the most loathsome and disreputable 
of all diseases—fatal to bodily vigor and life. 
G. Twenty-two of every 1,000 of our soldiers in the 
Philippines were constantly disabled from venereal diseases 
—four times as many as from any other disease. 
H. In the Navy, in four years, 949 men were dis- 
charged as disabled—useless—from the same cause, and 
more than a fourth of all the sickness in the Navy was 
occasioned by it. 
Appalling price to pay ?—above all calculation—a price 
that no people can continue to pay and remain solvent!—a 
price that has involved many ancient cities and nations in 
bankruptcy and dissolution! 
The greatest items of Government expenditure are those The Economic Question 
211 
of our Army and Navy. If the reader will turn to Chapter 
VII he may see that, by far the most serious of all causes 
of disability of the men in both these wings of service, are 
classed as venereal diseases. A study of the table in the 
same chapter on the two evils of “Alcoholism and Vene- 
realism” will show that the latter exceeds all others in its 
disastrous effects upon the physical forces of both army and 
navy. Think of 800 men constantly disabled, and that 
the loss of service in the Navy equals the force of three 
battleships for a whole month of the year, each battleship 
having 1,000 officers and men! 
Colonel Kean shows that the loss of service in the army, 
in the year 1908, equaled 106,526 days, which represent a 
loss of $200,000 in that one way alone. 
If we add to these items of cost the losses to the coun- 
try involved in the broken health and weakened bodies of 
men for all future service, not in the Army and Navy only, 
but in all branches of economic service, it would probably 
show the greatest waste of forces known to mankind. 
The American Federation for Sex Hygiene prepared a 
series of exhibits which were described in the press of 
October, 1912. One of the charts gave the following figures 
of how we spend our money in the United States: 
Immorality and the social diseases (esti- 
mated) $3,000,000,000 
Intoxicating liquors 2,000,000,000 
Tobacco 1,200,000,000 
Jewelry and plate 800,000,000 
Automobiles 500,000,000 
Church work at home 250,000,000 
Confectionery 200,000,000 
Soft drinks 120,000,000 
Tea and coffee 100,000,000 
Millinery 90,000,000 
Patent medicines 80,000,000 
Chewing gum 13,000,000 
Foreign missions 12,000,000 212 
The World’s Social Evil 
The losses which directly fall upon productive service 
through vice are, as we have seen, beyond calculation. But 
there are also other losses which must be charged up against 
it. Summarized, they may be stated thus: 
1. Losses of time and labor of those withdrawn by it 
from service. 
2. Loss from wasted or non-producing capital em- 
ployed in the vice traffic. 
3. Losses through deterioration of manhood and wom- 
anhood in skill and power. 
4. Losses through wasted physical life and health. 
5. Losses by increased taxation for hospitals, insane 
asylums, and care of the diseased and dying. The General 
Assembly of the State of Illinois alone voted nine millions 
of dollars at its session of 1911 for the support of these in- 
stitutions, and it is admitted by the most competent authori- 
ties that the larger portion of this—if not all—would have 
been unnecessary but for the diseases occasioned by drunk- 
enness and vice. 
6. Loss by diverting the service of police from the 
protection of property and life to the protection of the 
institutions of vice and incidental crime. 
7. Losses arising from demoralized manhood, woman- 
hood and childhood, which greatly increase the cost of 
political, religious, social and educational progress. 
Considered from one other standpoint, we might inquire 
as to the effect of the withdrawal from legitimate and pro- 
ductive business of all the vast expenditure of capital and 
earnings in the business of commercialized vice. 
Suppose that the trinity of unlawful and destructive 
trades, gambling, drink and lust, were stopped for a single 
year, what an immeasurable change it would make on both 
sides of the Nation’s ledger accounts. The Economic Question 
213 
The Credit side would show the increased earnings of 
billions turned from markets of waste and destruction to 
those of blessing and production—plus the savings of in- 
calculable millions, the present cost of disease, insanity, 
crime and poverty occasioned by those evils. 
The Debit side would shrink so perceptibly that the 
Government of cities, states and nation would have to re- 
duce taxation, or find new avenues for the expenditure of 
their revenues. Police service could be turned to purposes 
of public safety. Criminal law courts might take long 
terms of vacation; half the insane asylums might be con- 
verted into schools and the cost of penitentiaries would be 
cut in two. 
If, to all this, the moral values could be put into the 
scale, we would have to estimate the worth of a soul as 
greater than a whole world of material wealth, and then 
add to it as many worlds as there are souls—lost through 
these devils’ agents. 
Turning from the general to the individual view of the 
subject, no greater error has ever been made current than 
that a prostitute is cheaper than a wife or that the patron- 
age of a brothel is less costly than a home. 
This is one of the lies, current along the roadway to 
hell. If the circumstances of a youth do not .justify mar- 
riage, much less will they warrant a visit to the house of 
shame. Apart altogether from the dangers which attend a 
single visit to such a den, it is the first step downward, and 
the most costly that a poor man can indulge in. It is the be- 
ginning of financial decline and home is placed further off by 
every visit. Mr. Conwell, in his excellent book, ‘ ‘ Manhood’s 
Morning, ’ ’ quotes a famous lecturer as saying: ‘ ‘ The rea- 
son there are so few marriages is because there are so many 
young men in jails and penitentiaries; tramping the coun- 214 
The World’s Social Evil 
try and loafing on street corners; spending their money in 
saloons and in questionable resorts and wasting the flower 
of their manhood in dissipation.” Let us add to this a 
warning that the “flower of manhood is wasted” before a 
youth reaches the place described by the lecturer. It is in 
those beginning steps that “manhood’s morning” is 
blighted. And unless the young men of America will make 
choice of a humble home and a pure wife, in preference to 
the poor lost woman of the brothel, our poet will cry in 
vain:— 
“God give us men—* * * 
Great hearts, strong minds, true faith and ready hands. ’ * 
“Anyone that recklessly impairs, imperils, and weakens 
bodily powers by bad hours and sensualities is a suicide.” 
COST OF THE SOCIAL EVIL. 
II. 
LOW WAGES AS A MENACE TO VICE, 
“The life of an unprotected girl who tries to make a living 
in a great city is full of torturing temptations. First, she 
faces the problem of living on an inadequate wage: Six dollars 
a week is the average in mercantile establishments. If she 
were living at home where the mother and sister could help 
her with mending, sewing and washing, where her board would 
be small—perhaps only a dollar or two towards the burden 
carried by the other members of the family—where her lunch 
would come from the family larder—then her condition might 
be as good as if she earned eight dollars per week. 
“The girl who has no home soon learns of “city poverty” 
all the more cruel to her because of the artificial contrasts. 
She quickly learns of the possibilities about her, of the joys 
of comfort, good food, entertainment, attractive clothes. Pov- 
erty becomes a menace and a snare. One who has not beheld 
the struggle or come in personal contact with the tempted soul 
of the underpaid girl can never realize what the poverty of The Economic Question 
215 
the city means to her. One who has never seen her bravely 
fighting against such fearful odds will never understand. A day’s 
sickness or a week out of work are tragedies in her life. They 
mean trips to the pawnbroker’s, meagre dinners, a weakened 
will, often a plunge into the abyss from which she so often never 
escapes.” Chicago Vice Commission Report, page 42. 
In all our large cities there are thousands of girls strug- 
gling to make ends meet, with a few dollars at one end, and 
clothing, shelter and food, at the other. 
“The census of 1900 gave the total breadwinners under 
fifteen years, as 1,750,000. Here is a little army—no, a vast 
army—of little soldiers, whose sad and silent files are full 
of menace for the republic.”1 
Miss Jane Addams tells of the wreck of a young girl 
who came from the country to Chicago, and the highest 
wages she could obtain in a department store was five dol- 
lars per week. And this was but one of many thousands, 
for, as Miss Addams points out, official reports show that 
the average employee in department stores earns about 
seven dollars a week. 
Another incident which Miss Addams gives is of a Rus- 
sian girl, who “quite recently took a place in a Chicago 
clothing factory at twenty cents a day, without in the least 
knowing that she was undercutting even that ill-paid in- 
dustry. The girl rented a room for a dollar a week, and all 
she had to eat was given her by a friend in the same lodg- 
ing house who shared her scanty fare. ’ ’ 
It is not too much to say that no class of persons in 
the present age is subject to so much danger, with so little 
preparation or protection, as the young girl who enters the 
great army of wage earners for a living. 
Miss Addams calls attention to the census reports of the 
1“The Spirit of America," Van Dyke. 216 
The World’s Social Evil 
United States which indicate that “self-supporting girls 
are steadily increasing in number each decade, until 59 per 
cent, of all young women in the nation, between the ages of 
16 and 20 years, are now engaged in some gainful occupa- 
tion. ’n 
The “Industrial Banner,” in pleading the cause of girl 
workers, says: 
“Just think of it, 55 cents a day the average wages paid in 
American factories to girls under 16 years of age. Three dollars 
and 30 cents per week to clothe and feed themselves and live 
respectably. Thousands of girls of 16 years of age earn less 
than $3.30 per week, a vast army of them get no more than 
$2 per week, and some even less than this. Even this, bad as it 
is, is not the worst feature, either. 
“The majority of these girls work in insanitary workshops, 
the more favored working 10 hours per day, the less fortunate, 
longer. Is it any wonder that living under such inhuman con- 
ditions tuberculosis carries off its victims by the hundreds? Is 
it any wonder that discouraged and hopeless thousands of these 
girls drift out upon the street? Is it any wonder that scores of 
them commit suicide every year? How is it possible for a girl 
to live on such wages, or to lead a moral life under such con- 
ditions?” 
Col. Theodore Roosevelt, in pleading for the “Con- 
servation of Womanhood and Childhood” in the December 
(1911) Number of The Outlook, says that in New York state 
‘ ‘ the eanners sometimes require women to work for seventy 
or eighty hours a week” and that a bill for limiting these 
hours was defeated in the Senate “by the action of the 
eanners. ” “ Both official and private investigations agree, ’ ’ 
says Mr. Roosevelt, “that eanners employ young girls and 
women shockingly long hours—sometimes up to one hun- 
dred and ten hours a week. I ask you to picture for your- 
‘A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, pp. 62, 80. The Economic Question 
217 
selves the wearing exhaustion, the hopeless drain of vitality, 
which such figures mean.” 
Mr. Roosevelt quotes figures to show the hours of wom- 
en’s work in respective states and says that “New York is 
behind many of the states in protecting factory workers.” 
58-hour week, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New 
Hampshire. 
56-hour week, Rhode Island. 
55-hour week, Wisconsin. 
54-hour week, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, 
Utah. 
48-hour week, Arizona, California, Washington. 
The Illinois State legislature passed a bill at its last 
session, limiting a woman’s working day to ten hours. 
The great public who daily use canned goods have little 
conception that they are put up in the state of New York, 
at the cost of barbarous conditions of child slavery. “One 
of the crying abuses, ’ ’ says Mr. Roosevelt, ‘ ‘ connected with 
child labor in this state is the employment of hundreds of 
children, five years of age and upwards, in connection with 
the fruit and vegetable canning factories in the State. Their 
work has been held to be agricultural. But it is in no sense 
agricultural. It is carried on usually in sheds structurally a 
part of, or adjacent to, the factory proper. A child labor 
colony is established around each industrial plant. Ac- 
cording to the latest official statistics (August, 1908) of 
the Labor Department, hundreds of children under four- 
teen years of age work in these canneries. Very many of 
them are under ten years of age.” 
What an indictment is written against a great state in 
these words! Think of babes of five driven to toil—children 
of ten working in the great canning industry. 
It is enough to discredit our very manhood and to make 218 
The World’s Social Evil 
us question whether there is any Christianity left when 
such outrages are committed for gain against childhood 
and especially girl children. 
Mr. Roosevelt mentions a specially pathetic case. 
“Last summer Alma Whaley, a textile-mill girl in Knox- 
ville, Tennessee, drank carbolic acid to commit suicide. When 
examined, she revealed the existence of a suicide pact among 
the textile-mill girls, whose life was such that they felt that 
death was preferable to the slavery in which they lived and 
toiled.’’ 
In a report of a study of “The Social Evil in Kansas 
City, Mo., (1911),” a table is given of the wages of 300 girls 
of that city, selected as a basis of inquiry. Of these— 
31 worked for weekly wage of $ 2 to $ 4 
123 worked for weekly wage of 4 to 6 
75 worked for weekly wage of 6 to 8 
41 worked for weekly wage of 8 to 10 
12 worked for weekly wage of 10 to 15 
18 worked for weekly wage of 15 to 20 
Thus, 270 of the 300 worked for an average wage of 
from $5 to $7, while 154, or more than half of them, worked 
for an average wage of from $3 to $5 per week. 
Similar testimony is given by Miss Zelie P. Emerson, a 
young woman of independent means who, for the sake 
of experience, engaged herself to a department store for 
three weeks of the busy Christmas season, at $6 per week. 
The Chicago Record-Herald of December 25, 1911, gave the 
following report of Miss Emerson’s experience: 
“It was hard work, but it was worth while. The one cen- 
tral thought I got from my experience is that saleswomen are 
giving up too much of their lives for an existence. They get 
about three hours a day in which to live the life of a normal 
human being, and it isn’t enough. How can they live on $6 
a week? They can’t. While I worked in the store I did not The Economic Question 
219 
let anyone know I did not have to earn my living that way. 
As a result, many of the girls became confidential and told me 
of the awful struggle they have to exist. The ten-hour law 
has proved a great blessing to them, but we should have an 
eight-hour law for women and there should be a minimum 
wage law. 
“I found that most of the girls with whom I talked paid 
$4 a week for room and board. Car fare costs them 60 cents a 
week and if they buy their lunches in the store, that costs 7 
cents a day. Room and board, car fare and 7-cent lunches 
leave a girl 98 cents a week out of her salary to pay for every- 
thing else that she needs. 
“Where men’s goods are sold the girls must look attractive. 
I spoke to some of them about powdering their faces and asked 
why they did it. 
“ ‘I might get invited out to supper and save 20 cents,’ was 
the invariable answer. Never a thought of anything except 
saving the price of a supper or car fare home.” 
These various experiences and facts represent the life 
of half our American girls—a life unknown to the woman- 
hood of a generation ago. The grandmothers of our girls 
did not dream of entering the struggle of wage-service un- 
less compelled by economic necessity. Now, almost every 
avenue of employment that offers a possible field for them 
is as keenly contested by girls, as by their brothers, and 
thousands enter the wage-earning class in the spirit of ad- 
venture, or of desire for a purse, independent of a common 
provision of the household. On this point Miss Addams 
says: 
“For the first time in history, multitudes of women are 
laboring without the direct stimulus of family history or af- 
fection, and they are also unable to proportion their hours of 
work and intervals of rest according to their strength; in addi- 
tion to this, for thousands of them, the effort to obtain a liveli- 
hood has fairly eclipsed the meaning of life itself.” 
The conditions of modern commercial life, on the one 220 
The World’s Social Evil 
hand, and the presence of need, on the other, seem to in- 
vite, and often to force, young girls into a public arena 
in which they must contend, not only with one another, but 
also with men and boys. Hence they are subject to ex- 
posure and risks for which few of them have had any prep- 
aration whatever. The result is numerous tragedies of 
body and soul. 
In April, 1911, we wrote to Miss Grace Dodge, President 
of the National Young Women’s Christian Association, urg- 
ing the support of that body at its annual Convention in 
Indianapolis, to support legislative and other measures to 
protect young women against the dangers involved in the 
traffic in vice. 
The subject was referred to the Committee on Resolu- 
tions and the following were adopted: 
Inasmuch as the utterly inadequate wages paid to thou- 
sands of young women throughout the country often hamper 
and stultify the work of the Association as a great preventive 
agency, and as the white slave traffic is admitted to be closely 
related to the lack of living wage, the Association recognizes 
its responsibility as an influential unit in the body of Christian 
public opinion, and accordingly it is recommended: 
a. That the Association shall seek to educate public opin- 
ion regarding the need of establishing a minimum 
living wage and of regulating hours born of labor com- 
patible with the physical health and development of wage 
earners. 
This cry for honest pay to youthful womanhood in the 
market of labor will be heard in every court of appeal in 
this country and throughout the world. To tax the strength, 
and starve the bodies and minds, of tens of thousands of our 
girls is a crime—not against them alone—but against the 
BETTER WAGES FOR WOMEN The Economic Question 
221 
motherhood and home life of the whole world. It is a 
draft upon the future that no nation can perpetuate or 
tolerate, and yet prosper. 
But the economic wrong is not alone the fault of cer- 
tain sets of employers. It is a fault much deeper and more 
general than can be lodged,—say against a given number 
of manufacturers—or department store proprietors. There 
are to be sure, employers who grind the pay of employees 
down to the lowest possible level and who never concern 
themselves as to the circumstances of the girls whom they 
employ—often driven to the very verge of desperation and 
starvation—men like that manufacturer of clothing, of 
whom Miss Addams tells, employing a Russian girl at 20 
cents a day, while the girl had to pay a dollar a week for a 
corner in a lodging and accept the generous help of another 
girl, nearly as poor as herself, for food enough to keep her 
alive. The indifference and moral turpitude of such a man 
is not contemptible only, it is criminal. To allow a cat, or 
a dog, to be in one’s keeping and starve it, is a subject 
for the officers of the humane society. To employ a lone 
girl whose earnings are insufficient for the barest necessities 
of life, and drive her to beggary or death, is a crime that 
some day, ere long, will be placed in the category of 
murder. 
“Are flesh and blood so cheap, mental qualifications so 
common, and honesty of so little value, that the manager of 
one of our big department stores feels justified in paying a 
high school girl, who has served nearly one year as an in- 
spector of sales, the beggarly wage of $4.00 per week? 
What is the natural result of such an industrial condition ? 
Dishonesty and immorality, not from choice, but necessity 
—in order to live. We can forgive the human frailty which 
yields to temptation under such conditions—but we cannot The World’s Social Evil 
222 
forgive the soulless corporation which arrests and prose- 
cutes this girl—a first offender—when she takes some little 
articles for personal adornment.”—Chicago Vice Commis- 
sion Report. 
It is this criminal enslavement of girl workers which 
calls loudly for action on the part of organized society and 
of government. 
The problem of working girls springs chiefly from the 
fact that they do not know how to work. They can usually 
offer only unskilled labor, which commands short pay for 
long hours. They were compelled to attend public school 
where they learned to want many things which they can- 
not honestly have, but found no opportunity to learn a 
trade, which would have been a strong bulwark against 
temptation. Even the skilled workers, are, many of them, 
thrown out of employment part of the year. In a list of 
eighty-seven industries, in New York City, there are ten 
whose season is ten months, twenty whose season is eight 
months, twenty-one whose season is six months, and others 
which are still shorter. 
Whether self-respecting girls, faint from hunger, hunt 
in vain for work, or are daily exhausted by excessive toil, 
they can hardly fail to contrast their lives with the lives 
of women who have luxuries of food and clothing, though 
“they toil not, neither do they spin.” It is infinitely to 
their honor that the great majority of working girls pre- 
serve their womanhood under such conditions. 
If we seek the true source of these conditions, we must 
look back of the present-day lack of system. How comes 
it about that so large a percentage of young, untrained 
girls, without knowledge, even of the most primary condi- 
tions of business or service—with absolutely no fitness, ex- 
cept that they have youthful hands and legs to growr weary The Economic Question 
223 
in incessant use in factory or store, are in this struggle for 
bread ? 
After all, economic law will not solve the problem with- 
out disaster to working girls which, for a time at least, 
might prove worse than those of present conditions. Right 
relations between service and wages can only obtain through 
a revolution of the present hit-and-miss, haphazard, chaotic 
conditions. As Miss Addams says: 
“Perhaps nothing in our social order is so unorganized and 
inchoate as our method, or rather lack of method, of placing 
young people in industry, whether we consider this from the 
point of view of their first positions when they leave school 
at the wayward age of fourteen, or from the innumerable places 
they hold later, often as many as ten a year, when they are 
dismissed or change voluntarily through sheer restlessness.”1 
The rate of wages is determined by a law which asserts 
itself. If competent, efficient service, such as trained sales- 
women, dressmakers, milliners or stenographers command a 
certain rate of wages, employers will not pay the same to 
untrained hands. 
Let us suppose that any one or more of the great de- 
partment stores were suddenly to announce “living wages” 
for all their employees—say a minimum of $10 or $12 per 
week; the immediate result would be the elimination of 
more than half—perhaps in some cases, of two-thirds—of 
the girls in their employ. The most natural condition of 
economic law would demand more efficient trained service, 
and a prompt response to that demand would be forth- 
coming. 
The Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, asso- 
ciated with the Chicago Woman’s Club, reports, Dec. 27, 
1911, on the subject of child labor, and remarks that:- 
xAn Ancient Evil. 224 
The World’s Social Evil 
“The 14 or 15 year old child is very helpless and ill-equipped 
to enter alone and unguarded upon her wage earning life. The 
parent is unable to advise or guide; the private employment 
office is a wholly unsuitable agency; and to the present, the 
public school has been inactive.’’ 
The trades inquired into are listed under distinct head- 
ings, the sewing trades being grouped together. The fol- 
lowing is a summary of what the investigators found to be 
the conditions in some of these trades in Chicago: 
Dressmaking—Pay, $1.50 a week for first few months; 
at end of two years, $6 to $8. 
Millinery—Assistants get $5 to $10 a week; average 
wage is $12; makers, $10 to $20; trimmers, $15 to $35; de- 
signers, average, $35. 
Braiding and embroidering—Beginners, $3.50 to $5; 
usual wage, $12 a week. 
Artificial flower-making—Beginners get $2 to $3 a week; 
average is $8. 
Bookbinding—Beginners, $3.50 to $4 a week; appren- 
tices over 16 get $5 the first year; after two years, $8. 
Engraving—Girls under 16 rarely earn over $4.50 as 
feeders. Usual wage is $11. 
Photography—Offers good opportunities for girls, but 
few girls under 16 are employed. 
Stenography (typewriting and office work)—Girls un- 
der 16 get $4 a week; others, $5, $6, up to $15, and in 
some cases, $18. 
Telephone operating—Average wage to girls $8 a week; 
experts are said to be paid as high as $95 a month. 
These facts are sufficient to establish the general rule 
that a responsibility is thrown upon young girls wholly 
out of proportion to their fitness by training or experience. 
The mistake is that girls are permitted to take the re- 
sponsibility of their own living at an age, and under cir- The Economic Question 
225 
cumstances, when they ought to be at home, or at school, or, 
failing parental or natural guardians, should be cared for 
by the State. 
It is a complete reversion of the order of providential 
care that tens of thousands of children—girls—are thrust 
into the struggle of factory and store, when they ought to 
be cared for at home. And of those who have arrived at an 
age when they might fairly be learners, no factory or de- 
partment store should be permitted to receive them, as ap- 
prentices, without a knowledge and a register of their homes 
and guardians. This means State care and provision. The 
wisdom of caring for the early youth upon whom the 
State has already expended large sums for education, until 
they are ready, by growth, experience, and training, to 
fitly enter the battle of life, must be apparent to all think- 
ing people. 
MORAL RESTRAINTS ENDANGERED BY OVER-STATEMENTS. 
Great perils lie in the direction of over-statement, or 
misstatement, of the relation of low wages or poverty to 
social vice. Two aspects of this subject are presented, 
both of which are attended with serious danger to the 
young. 
1. The first is the suggestion that the wages of sin 
are greater than that of labor. One of the most commonly 
quoted paragraphs of the Chicago Vice Commission Re- 
port is this: 
“Is it any wonder that a tempted girl who receives only 
six dollars per week working with her hands, sells her body for 
twenty-five dollars per week when she learns there is a demand 
for it and men are willing to pay the price? On the one hand 
her employer demands honesty, faithfulness and a clean and 
neat appearance, and for all this he contributes from his prof- 226 
The World’s Social Evil 
its an average of six dollars for every week. Her honesty alone 
is worth this inadequate wage, disregarding the consideration 
of her efficiency. In the sad life of prostitution, on the other 
hand, w'e find here the employer demanding the surrender of 
her virtue, pays her an average of twenty-five dollars per 
week. Which employer wins the half starved child to his side 
in this unequal battle?” 
When such a statement with the weight and authority 
of an official document reaches an inexperienced girl, she 
naturally compares her poor $5.00 a week—more or less— 
with those glittering prospects of five times the amount. 
Many girls are incapable of reasoning that, even if ob- 
tainable, instead of increasing her independence and happi- 
ness, it would mean the absolute surrender of both, with 
untold suffering, poverty and disease speedily following. 
The Commission’s own report shows that there are no 
continuous prizes of large pay to girls who enter the life of 
shame. The charges which are placed against the poor 
girl’s wages for infamy involve them in immediate and 
perpetual debt and poverty, and the wages of this sin is a 
rapidly diminishing quantity, while indebtedness increases. 
The vice trade is the only market in which the largest pay 
is to the beginner, and the steps down to beggary, disease, 
and death are short and steep. In many houses the girl is 
never paid at all. The visitor purchases a check at the door, 
which is handed her for the service, and from the aggre- 
gate sum donated by her checks are deducted by the madam 
the charges against her for board or lodging and articles of 
dress (all of which are purchased by the madam and sold 
to the inmate at a large profit), and thus she is often kept 
in debt. 
The Report has so much in it that is excellent and wise 
that one regrets to observe it limping on this very funda- 
mental matter. Referring to the youth of girls as a chief The Economic Question 
227 
asset in the market of prostitution, the report says: ‘ ‘ What- 
ever her chances may be, to stand or to fall, she is here 
in hordes, in the business world as our problem. Let us do 
something to give her at least a living wage.” 
Why not “do something” to take these hordes of girls 
out of the business world? It is their very inexperience 
and unpreparedness that make them often the easy prey 
of human wolves. And at such times it is not the small 
wages which is the main danger, but that their youth is a 
marketable article, for which fiends contend, and panders 
offer a gilded premium. 
Miss Addams, referring to the statement of a twenty- 
five dollar income for a girl “who enters an illicit life, re- 
marks: “Of course the argument is specious in that it 
does not reckon the economic value of the many years in 
which the honest girl will live as wife and mother, in con- 
trast to the premature death of the girl in the illicit trade.” 
It may be added that the girls who are said to earn 
these sums do not get them. They receive only the portion 
that the madame chooses to give, and against it all there 
are the extortionate charges which make them slaves of 
perpetual debt. To represent the wages of vice as higher, 
or in any way better, than the wages of honor and service, 
is to mislead the mind of youth and is as false to economic 
law as it is to morals. 
It is undoubtedly true that the seductions of pleasure, 
dress, and opportunity, are often aided by poverty, yet the 
more prevalent causes of the fall of girls are traceable to 
other evils. It is to the credit of the poorer girls that often 
they resist evil, even unto death. 
Does a woman ever enter this life by choice; does she, 
in ordinary, normal-girl conditions, deliberately choose 
to sell herself into a market of vice? There are doubtless 228 
The World’s Social Evil 
some who are born into an environment from which they 
have not the moral sense or desire to emerge, and who may 
be said to be born slaves, but the ordinary girl who en- 
ters this business is either seduced, deceived, coerced or 
tricked, or absolutely sold and sometimes forcibly held. 
Every man who will think back to primary causes and re- 
call what he has known of the virtue of the girls of his 
acquaintance, will be ready to affirm that nature has en- 
dowed them with an instinctive horror of indiscriminate 
commerce of their persons, and when the further question 
is asked as to those who are absolutely sold and held by 
device or force, the testimony of men of unquestionable 
authority and position is the abundant and unimpeachable 
answer. 
It is well known that the market of vice is not deter- 
mined by a natural law of supply and demand. Both are 
made fictitious by the methods of the vice dealer; the sup- 
ply of fresh attractive girls stimulates the demand among 
men and an artificial supply is created. A whole army of 
pimps, panders and slave-mongers are necessary to force the 
supply, and these all find profit in catching victims and 
consigning them to the shambles for moral slaughter. 
Katherine Bement Davis, Superintendent of the State 
Reformatory at Bedford Hills, N. Y., furnishes the follow- 
ing facts: 
Of 647 girls in the Bedford Institution 243, or 37.58 
per cent of the whole number were domestic servants be- 
fore they fell into the life of prostitution. 
Of 52 of these 243, the average wages received (with 
board) was $4.50. 
Of 52 others of this number the average wages (with 
board) was $3.00. 
In other occupations; of 110 cases the average wages The Economic Question 
229 
(without board) was $8.00. Of 100 others, the average 
wages was $4.00. 
It will be at once apparent that the earnings of domes- 
tic servants, when room and board, are considered, are much 
higher than of “other occupations.” Yet, of 647 cases, 
243 or 37.56 per cent, of them were domestic servants, 
while of factory operatives only 127 or 19.62 per cent, were 
included and those who were recorded as having “no 
work” were 92, or 14.27 per cent.1 
This is in accord with other facts and statistics well 
known to students of social reform, and it shows that 
poverty is not the chief cause of vice, although as we have 
seen it is one of many causes. Nor may it be assumed that 
there is any more inate tendency to vice in girls who enter 
domestic service than other girls. The explanation of the 
prevalence of their fall, seems to be that the domestic serv- 
ant is usually isolated from all home influences, and is a 
convenient subject for the attacks of men who know of their 
situation and circumstances. 
*Mr. Flexner, in his book, “Prostitution in Europe,” published 
since this chapter was written, remarks: 
“The servant does not lack food or shelter, and her services 
are everywhere in demand. She does not therefore resort to 
prostitution as an alternative to starvation. Animated by a 
natural desire to excuse their conduct, as most human beings 
are, the direct pressure of need is rarely assigned by prostitutes 
in exculpation of their conduct. Mrs. Bramwell Booth, than 
whom there is no more competent or sympathetic authority, 
found among 150 successive and unusually varied cases only 
2 percent who explained their prostitution by inability to earn 
a livelihood; Strohmberg discovered among 462 enrolled women 
at Dorpat only one who protested poverty as her justification; 
Pinkus, studying the incomes of 1,550 Berlin women before em- 
barking on the life, decides that 1,389 had earned enough for 
self-support. But it would be obviously unfair to say of these 
1,389 women capable of earning a living that social-economic 
conditions had nothing to do with their fall; for precisely these 
conditions create a situation capable of being exploited.” “Sex is a paradox; it is that which separates in order 
to unite. . . . This much, at least, sex has done for 
the world—it has abolished the numeral one. Observe, 
it has not simply discouraged the existence of one; it has 
abolished the existence of one. The solitary animal must 
die, and can leave no successor. . . . The two sexes 
were not only set apart to perform different halves of 
the same function, but each so entirely lost the power 
of performing the whole function that even with so great 
a thing at stake as the continuance of the species one 
could not discharge it. Association, construction, mutual 
help, fellowship, affection—things on which all material 
and moral progress would ultimately turn—were thus 
forced upon the world at the bayonet’s point. . . . 
“It is not enough to give time for mutual knowledge 
and affection after marriage. Nature must deepen the 
result by extending it to the time before marriage. In 
primitive times there was no such thing as courtship. 
. . . To give love time has been all along, and through 
a great variety of arrangements, the chief means of 
establishing it on the earth. Unfortunately, the lesson of 
nature here is being all too slowly learned, even among 
nations with its open book before them. In some of the 
greatest of civilized countries, real mutual knowledge 
between the youth of the sexes, is unattainable; marriages 
are made only by a higher kind of purchase, and the 
supreme step in life is taken in the dark.” 
Henry Drummond: “The Ascent of Man” pp. 243, 
244, 304. CHAPTER IX. 
THE AMERICAN AWAKENING. 
The awakening interest which has culminated in the 
present day movement for the abolition of commercialized 
vice and a better knowledge of the natural laws relating to 
sex, takes us back to the first International Congress held in 
Geneva, Switzerland, September, 1877. A little volume 
entitled “State Regulation of Vice,” by Aaron M. Powell, 
published in New York in 1878, contains an accurate note 
of that Congress, as the wTriter of this book, who was pres- 
ent, remembers it. The following from Mr. Powell’s ac- 
count is of permanent interest as a record of the founda- 
tion principles upon which the new abolition movement is 
based : 
“In 1875, Mrs. Josephine Butler undertook an important 
mission on the Continent, chiefly in France, Switzerland and 
Italy. Her reception in Paris was cold, and anything but en- 
couraging, but her observation in the French Capitol ot the prac- 
tical workings of the regulation system there, served to render 
still more obvious the urgent need of reformation. In Switzer- 
land she found more encouragement; and in Italy, in many 
cases, she was welcomed with enthusiasm. Out of this mission 
as a preliminary preparation, grew the International Congress 
at Geneva, September, 1877, under the auspices of the British 
Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Gov- 
ernment Regulation of Prostitution. 
“The attendance at the Congress numbered five hundred and 
ten. Among the delegates were Dr. Bertani, an eminent physi- 
cian and member of the Italian Parliament, Signor Nathan, of 
Rome, an able journalist, and co-worker with Garibaldi, Mile. 
I. 232 
The World’s Social Evil 
Mozzoni, of Milan, and Professor Colona, of Salerno. From Italy 
also came a deputation representing 1,600 societies of working- 
men. Spain was represented by Signor Zorrilla, formerly a 
leader of the Madrid Government. From Germany came Dr. 
Baur, a distinguished Court Preacher bearing a message of 
sympathy to the Congress from the Empress, also Pastor In- 
storp of Pomerania. Among the delegates from France were 
the eloquent preacher, M. Pressense, Dr. Gustav Monod, M. 
Desmoulins, a Paris Journalist, M. Leon Richer, Dr. John Chap- 
man, editor of the Westminster Review, Mile. Racult, a work- 
ing woman, and founder of a ‘Women’s Trade Union’ in Paris, 
and M. Charles Lemonnier, a leading member of the Peace and 
Liberty League. Denmark was represented by Dr. Meyer. Ma- 
dame Behrends, M. Nicholet, and M. Hutton were delegates 
from Belgium. Holland was ably represented by M. W. Vanden- 
bergh, of the Hague, and Pastor Pierson. The largest delega- 
tions were from Switzerland and Great Britain. Among the 
former were Prof. Amie Humbert, of Neuchatel, Dr. De La 
Harpe, of Lausanne, Pere Hyacinthe, Prof. Hornung, of Geneva, 
the venerable Pastor Borel, and M. Sautter de Blonay. From 
Great Britain there were, beside Mrs. Butler, her husband, the 
Rev. George Butler, and their two sons, the Right Hon. James 
Stansfeld, M. P., Sir Harcourt Johnstone, the leader of the 
Repeal Movement in the House of Commons, Prof. James 
Stuart, of Cambridge, William Shaen, Esq., and Mr. and Mrs. 
F. C. Banks, London, Mr. Ashurst, Henry J. Wilson, M. P., 
George Gillett of London, Mrs. Margaret Lucas, sister of John 
and Jacob Bright, Edward Backhouse, Esq., Edmund Jones, 
President of the Workingmen’s Repeal Association, Dr. Nevins, 
President, and Wm. Burgess, of Liverpool, Secretary of the 
National Medical Association, Henry Richard, M. P., Dr. Carson 
of Liverpool, P. W. Bunting, Mrs. Sheldon Amos, Miss Estlin, 
and Mrs. Russell Carpenter, Mrs. Richardson, R. F. Marteneau, 
Rev. W. W’astell, and Mrs. Kenway, of Birmingham, Eliza 
Wigham, of Edinburgh, Miss Todd, of Belfast, Henry Allen, 
Esq., of Dublin, and others.” 
The United States was represented by Mrs. Julia Ward 
Howe of Boston, Dr. Caroline B. Winslow, and A. C. Winslow 
Esq., of Washington, and Mr. A. M. Powell, of New York. 
“Mr. Stansfeld, as President, arraigned the regulation sys- The American Awakening 
233 
tem as a failure hygienically, as well as wrong morally; as op- 
pressive to women, delusive to men, and inconsistent with the 
principles of enlightened jurisprudence. Referring to the regu- 
lation system, he said: “These laws are and deserve to be a 
hygienic failure, because those who invented them and those 
who have administered them were unable to see that no law 
which offends against human nature can be a hygienic success. 
But they are far worse than a hygienic failure, they are an 
outrage against morality, justice, law itself; and have been and 
will be, wheresoever they are retained, a cause among the na- 
tions of the ruin of liberty and law, of a general depravation of 
morals, and of an equal physical degradation and emascu- 
lation of our race. They bring us back to the vices, the 
decadence of the Lower Empire. There is no nation in the 
world’s history which has given itself up to sexual vice without 
becoming enslaved, or disappearing off the face of the earth, 
as if at the breath of God.” 
Appealing to women, Mr. Stansfeld said: 
“The evil we attack is the very existence of prostitution. 
The existence of the legalized, sanctioned, regulated prostitution 
of women, in order to satisfy men’s ignoble desires, would be, not 
only an indignity, it would be a shame to women if they were 
not to resist it, to protest against it. I rejoice that there are 
those amongst us who do this, and I revere them for it. But 
woman, as a sex, as a class, has not yet risen to the level 
which her very sex demands from her. Many women shrink 
from this subject because of its horrors; let them, too, learn 
to bear this cross. Let them resist, as an outrage against their 
whole sex, the outrage inflicted upon these unhappy ones, 
the most degraded of their sisters. Let them study history and 
its lessons of providential progress.” 
MRS. JOSEPHINE BUTLER APPEALS TO MEN AND WOMEN. 
Mrs. Butler followed Mr. Stansfeld in an address of great 
power and eloquence. She said: “The President has uttered 
words of earnest appeal and words of hlame to us women. Yes, 
I confess it; I confess it for all women, we have been guilty in 
this matter, and not merely in the past, we are so still; we 
are not ready for all sacrifices. But a new light has arisen, a 
new era dawns upon this question; a voice has been raised, 234 
The World’s Social Evil 
feeble at first, but daily gaining strength, until at last a great 
cry has gone up which has echoed across Great Britian, Europe 
and America and resounded to the extremities of the world. A 
new influence has made itself felt, an influence which from the 
moment of its uprising, owing to the natural and providential 
law which rouses the oppressed to struggle for deliverance, was 
predestined to reach the root of the evil. What is the new 
social force which has hitherto been absent, and which is in- 
dispensable to all efficacious action upon this question? It is 
the action of women. The voice of God—as far as we may 
recognize it from the world’s history—has called to this work 
not merely a few devoted women, but a large army of women, 
who have identified themselves with the crowd of unhappy and 
degraded women who are their sisters. This forlorn class has 
recently found a voice—our voice, the voice of happier women, 
who abhor the degradation into which their sisters are sunk, 
and who love them, although they be guilty and fallen. We 
have been awakened out of our deep sleep by a terrible shock; 
but we will never sleep again. 
“You, gentlemen, will no longer find before you a silent and 
submissive class, having no will of its own, a class of women 
who have been named by Dr. Hippolyte Mireur ‘the things of 
the administration;’ you have now before you a class which, 
for the first time, has found a tongue; a revolted class, which 
comprises all the women upon the earth. It is not merely the 
unhappy class, now down-trodden, who are wronged; if they 
are wronged, we are still more so in their wrongs. 
“ ‘Inasmuch as ye have done this unto one of these little ones, 
ye have done it unto Me.’ 
“You hygienists, you legislators, you are the men; you it is 
who make the laws, who order public measures and prescribe the 
means of preserving the public health. You are learned and 
sincere men; but forget not in making your plans for the fu- 
ture that you have to take into your account the holy revolt 
of rebels who have rebelled in the name of justice and of the 
law of God. 
“Now ladies: if it is henceforth forbidden for men to under- 
take the solution of this question without the help of women; 
so also have women a moral obligation before man and before 
God to play an active and aggressive part in the execution of The American Awakening 
235 
this task. You can no longer neglect your high responsibility 
upon this question without being guilty of unfaithfulness to- 
wards men, who are your brothers, your husbands, your friends, 
your sons. Our part is not merely that of healing the wounds 
which men have made, of gathering around us and of saving 
the broken fragments of this forlorn portion of humanity, which 
have been destroyed through our selfishness and cowardice. Our 
duty it is to prevent such destruction; to unite actively and ag- 
gressively with men in every work of destruction and of recon- 
struction which has for its aim an attack upon the sources of 
the evil; our duty it is to rectify the judgment of society at 
large upon this question; to enter into the discussion and the ac- 
complishment of every measure, public or private, legislative, 
hygienic, or economic, by which its solution is sought; for 
this question, never has been, and never will he solved by 
men acting alone; so long as they act alone they must inevitably 
fail. The noblest amongst men are the first to admit this.” 
Among the English-speaking delegates, at the Congress, 
Mrs. Howe, of Boston, Mass., invited attention to the de- 
sirability of co-education for girls and boys, and of enfran- 
chisement and equal opportunities for women, and was 
listened to with marked attention. Dr. Winslow, of Wash- 
ington, read a paper before the hygienic section on the 
moral attitude of the medical women of America. 
Mr. A. M. Powell presented a paper upon “ Regulation 
Efforts in America.” Contributions were also sent from 
America by Mrs. Caroline H. Dali, of Boston, Dr. Lozier, 
of New York, and the Woman Suffrage Association of New 
York. The Congress passed a series of resolutions which 
constitute the foundation principles of this movement for 
all time. They were as follows: 
SECTION OF HYGIENE. 
The section of hygiene affirms: 
I. That self control in sexual matters is one of the indis- 
pensable bases of the health of individuals and of nations. 236 
The World’s Social Evil 
II. That prostitution is a fundamental violation of the laws 
of health. 
III. Considering that the duties of the Department of Public 
Health ought not to be restricted to the prophylaxy of the 
diseases which afflict the population, we declare its true 
function to be that of developing in the people all the 
conditions favorable to health, of which public morality 
is the highest expression. 
IV. The Section of Hygiene repudiates all systems of police 
regulation of prostitution, on account of their entire warn 
of success. It bases this view upon the following reasons, 
among others: That the compulsory surgical examination 
of women is revolting to human nature; that it can only 
reach a certain number of prostitutes; that it is not to be 
relied upon to discover the gravest constitutional form 
of disease, or to arrest its progress; and that conse- 
quently it gives a false security in regard to the health of 
the women examined. 
V. The Section of Hygiene urgently desires the removal of 
the obstacles which prevent the treatment of venereal 
diseases as readily as all other diseases, in all hospitals 
under the control of municipalities, or other public bodies, 
as well as in those supported by voluntary contributions. 
VI. The Section of Hygiene also expresses its desire that the 
ordinary police should cause decency to be respected in 
the streets and in all public places, and that it should re- 
press all public scandal, whether caused by men or women. 
I. The Section of Morality affirms: That the practice of 
impurity is as reprehensible in men as in women. 
II. That “Regulation” tends to destroy the idea of the Unity 
of the Moral Law for both sexes, and to lower the tone 
of public opinion upon this subject. 
III. That every system which organizes prostitution is an in- 
citement to debauchery; that it augments the number of 
illegitimate births, increases clandestine prostitution, and 
lowers the level of public and private morality. 
IV. That the compulsory medical examination of women, which 
is the basis of all systems of Regulation, is an outrage 
SECTION OF MORALS. The American Awakening 
237 
upon the woman, and tends to destroy every trace of 
modesty in her. 
V. That Registration is an offense against personal liberty 
and the common law. 
VI. That the State, by the system of Regulation, ignores its 
duty of equally protecting both sexes; corrupts them both 
and degrades woman. 
VII. That the State, whose mission it is to protect minors and 
assist them in their endeavors to live virtuously, does on 
the contrary, incite them to debauchery, by facilitating 
the practice thereof through the system of Regulation. 
VIII. That by authorizing houses of debauchery, and making 
of prostitution a regular profession, the State sanctions 
the immoral prejudice that debauchery is a necessity for 
men. 
IX. That an appeal be made to the conscience of all editors, 
authors, booksellers and hawkers, upon the two contin- 
ents, urging them not to aid or favor the diffusion of 
corrupt literature, licentious books, and obscene pictures. 
SECTION OF BENEFICENCE. 
I. The Section of Beneficence affirms: That the idea im- 
plied by State Regulation of Vice are incompatible with 
all ideas or endeavors after rescue and rehabilitation. 
II. That it has been proved that the Regulation of Prosti- 
tution is a great obstacle to the success of works of rescue, 
because registration and the medical examination are op- 
posed to every sentiment of female modesty; a sentiment 
never utterly extinguished in any woman, however, de- 
graded, and render more difficult that rehabilitation which 
may and ought to be hoped for in the case of every woman. 
III. That it is desirable that Homes should be everywhere es- 
tablished in which the system adopted should be as little 
penitentiary as possible, because Christian love is the only 
efficacious method of saving young girls. 
IV. That it is desirable that a system of communication be 
established to put a stop to the white slave trade in all 
countries, and to watch over the interests of woman seek- 
ing employment in all countries. 238 
The World’s Social Evil 
Resolutions in accordance with the principles set forth 
at this Congress were also adopted in the Sections of Social 
Economy and Legislation. 
The Congress thus marked the beginning of a new era 
in social progress throughout the world. It proved it pos- 
sible for a large Congress of intelligent and highly repu- 
table men and women to meet and deliberate, with a becom- 
ing delicacy, and a profound reverence for truth, upon the 
gravest of the problems which concern social science, civili- 
zation and Christianity. The oppressive silence so long 
maintained has been effectually broken. 
An address of the New York Committee was also pub- 
lished by Mr. Powell, which reads as follows: 
"New York, August 13th, 1877. 
"To the International Congress concerning Government Regula- 
tion of Prostitution: 
“The New York Committee for the Prevention of Licensed 
Prostitution hails with much satisfaction your important convo- 
cation, and sends to you most cordial greetings. 
“Our chief American city, though suffering from the great 
evil of social vice, is as yet free from such governmental regu- 
lation as would extend to prostitution legal sanction and encour- 
agement. We have, however, regulation advocates who seek to 
introduce, by authority of the State, the immoral and oppres- 
sive license system. Failing in earlier attempts, they have 
again sought to obtain for New York special legal authority to 
regulate and ‘localize’ prostitution with police and medical su- 
pervision. We are grateful that thus far they have been un- 
successful. Our chief danger is that, in some indirect, covert 
manner a regulation scheme may be thrust upon us. Our 
safety will be assured only when the regulation system shall 
have been abolished in Great Britain and on the Continent. The 
perpetuation of Governmental regulation of prostitution in Eu- 
rope is a standing menace to us in America. 
“We rejoice to note the progress of repeal work in Great 
Britain, and of the profoundly important agitation for aboli- 
tion on the Continent, especially in Italy, Switzerland, France The American Awakening 
239 
and Spain. This agitation, which has made possible your Inter- 
national Congress, marks the beginning of a social revolution 
vital to the welfare and happiness of the human race, and most 
important as allied to the progress of true Christian civilization. 
‘‘Having, in America, abolished the cruel and unjust system 
of chattel slavery, we shall resist to the uttermost the introduc- 
tion here of another, and, in some respects, a yet more odious 
slave system which, legalizing prostitution, creates for its victim 
class. We shall welcome, with thanksgiving, each new triumph 
in the interest of social purity and personal liberty in Europe, 
and shall labor and pray for a speedy, complete victory for the 
‘new abolitionists” movement. With eminent wisdom its code 
of morality exacts an indispensable, an equal, standard of per- 
sonal purity for men and women, for the rich and for the poor; 
its principles are synonymous with those of the Gospel of the 
Prince of Peace. 
“Invoking for you the guidance of Divine Wisdom in your 
deliberations, and the abundant blessings of the All-Father, we 
are your friends and co-workers. 
“A. H. Gibbons, President. 
“Aaron M. Powell, 
“Emily Blackwell, M. D., 
“William H. Hussey, 
“Anna Lukens, M. D., 
“Vice-Presidents. 
“Cornelia C. Hussey, 
“Anna Rice Powell, 
“Secretaries. 
“Elizabeth Gay, Treasurer.” 
Mr. Powell kept the fires burning while the watchman 
slept. He was Secretary of the American Purity Alliance 
for many years, and published “The Philanthropist” 
at New York. This journal was later merged into “Vigi- 
lance,” with Dr. 0. E. Janney, of Baltimore, as editor. 
One of the early pioneers who did valiant service was 
Frances E. Willard, who sought to lay the foundation of 
the new abolition—deep and strong. Under her leadership 240 
The World’s Social Evil 
the W. C. T. U. gave a foremost place to the subject of 
pure life, and the defense of womanhood. The white ribbon 
badge still emblems the chaste, as well as the sober life, 
and Miss Willard’s “White Life for Two” is a fitting me- 
morial of her own priceless life. 
Elsewhere we have noticed the work of Sidney Kendall 
and Wiley Phillips on the Pacific Coast, to which was added 
Mrs. Charlton Edholm’s noble stand to guard the girls of 
the Coast. 
II 
A DECADE OF PUBLIC INTEREST. 
For a number of years the movement met with faint 
response, but during the past decade there has been a mar- 
velous awakening which promises to lead to aggressive and 
powerful forces for righteousness in the nation. The be- 
ginning of the new century was also the beginning of a 
new public spirit in regard to the social evil. 
The conspiracy of silence which had long prevailed, was 
suddenly broken as if by a concerted plan. The most con- 
servative of the professions broke through its reserve and 
openly declared against silence and ignorance on social and 
sex hygiene. Dr. Charles W. Eliot says: “During my 
somewhat long, active life I have never seen such a change 
of public opinion among thoughtful people as has taken 
place among them within the last ten years on the subject of 
sex hygiene, using that term in its broadest sense. ’n 
The great magazines vied with each other in vivid de- 
scriptions of the social evil, and in articles of great talent 
1Address at Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. 27, 1913. The American Awakening 
241 
and much detail, portrayed the enormities and ruinous ef- 
fects of commercialized vice; newspapers everywhere joined 
in the war with characteristic enterprise and force. The 
printing press was employed also, in sending out thousands 
of different leaflets, pamphlets and books, some of which 
reached enormous sales. The popular interest was so 
aroused on the subject that fakirs found it profitable to 
sell in the streets of our cities spurious copies of parts of 
these books and of fake stories of the White Slave Traffic. 
Playwrights, quick to see the trend of public interest, 
wrote problem plays—some on the subject of sex hygiene, 
of which Brieux’s play of “Damaged Goods,” was the 
most noted and able. Others appeared on the political, 
social, and economic phases of the subject, wdiile scores of 
minor plays and picture-showrs were exhibited. 
Of course, this new activity on a subject which, in the 
past, had been regarded as a pestilence that must not be 
named, has aroused some public censorship, and it is curi- 
ous to note that some plays and books with evident moral 
intent and purpose have been suppressed because of speech 
or picture too true and accurate, wdiile salacious fiction, dis- 
gusting stage exhibits and dances, in which semi-nudeness 
and immoral suggestions are openly exploited, pass with im- 
plied approval. 
A more tangible and even more remarkable evidence 
of the moral awakening, however, is seen in the attitude of 
government—both State and Federal—and the activities of 
civic and citizen bodies in investigating actual vice condi- 
tions and in seeking remedies. 
Out of a passionate desire to see something done, big 
enough to cope with the extent and power of the organized 242 
The World’s Social Evil 
infamy, Mr. Coote1 tells of the Conference of European 
Powers, officially invited by the Government of France. 
“In July, 1902, in response to an invitation from the 
French Government, sixteen countries were represented by 
thirty-six delegates, who met at the Foreign Office in Paris, 
to consider what measures would be adopted to effectually 
break up these syndicates of evil. After five days’ delib- 
eration, the outcome of their labors was the drafting of an 
international agreement, which, in our opinion, if adopted 
by all civilized countries, would so fully protect young 
women that the moral risks attendant upon their traveling 
in any part of the world, either for business or recreative 
purposes, would be greatly reduced, if not altogether done 
away with. The soil being already prepared, the decisions 
arrived at by the official conference found ready acceptance 
by the National Committee of Europe. The subsequent 
working of this agreement has fully demonstrated its value 
and effectiveness in the suppression of the White Slave 
Traffic.” 
An International Treaty.—Mr. Edwin Sims records 
the International movement to suppress the traffic through- 
out the world. This movement, he shows, culminated on 
May 18, 1904, in a formal agreement by the Governments 
of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Brit- 
ain, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Nor- 
way, and the Swiss Federal Council and was submitted to 
the Senate of the United States and proclaimed by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, June 15, 1908. 
The most important provisions of the treaty are con- 
tained in the first three articles: 
1. Each of the contracting governments agrees to 
‘“A Vision and its Fulfilment,” p. 140. The American Awakening 
243 
establish or designate an authority who will be directed to 
centralize information concerning the procuration of wom- 
en and girls, for the purpose of their debauchery in a for- 
eign country: That authority shall be empowered to cor- 
respond directly with the similar service established in 
each of the other contracting states. 
2. Each of the governments agrees to exercise super- 
vision of railway stations, ports of embarkation and of 
women and girls in transit, in order to procure all possible 
information leading to the discovery of criminal traffic. 
The arrival of persons involved in such traffic, as procurers 
or victims, shall be communicated to diplomatic or consular 
agents. 
3. The governments agree to inform the authorities of 
the country of origin of the discovery of such unfortunates 
and to retain, pending advice, such victims in institutions 
of public or private charity. Such parties will be returned 
after proper identification to the country of origin. 
The United States Joins in the Treaty.—The note 
of International purpose duly reached the United States; 
our government was somewhat tardy in response, but, in 
1908, the treaty was carefully considered and its ratifi- 
cation advised by the Senate and proclaimed by the Presi- 
dent, on June 15th of that year. 
Mr. James Bronson Reynolds thus writes of this event: 
“If I am correctly informed, this is the first treaty re- 
lating to social morality consummated between the leading 
civilized governments of the world. This action is of the 
highest significance and importance. The provisions of 
this treaty should be generally known by our people, which 
is not the case today, and we should carefully consider our 
obligations as citizens to its proper fulfilment. It should The World’s Social Evil 
244 
be hailed as a step of progress in this twentieth century, 
which seems destined to record great improvements in social 
well-being and in the removal of inequalities of condi- 
tion. ’ ’ 
In 1901 the “Committee of Fifteen,” of New York, wras 
organized to collect evidence against the gangs of panders 
and others, and their report was published in 1902 in a 
volume edited by Dr. Edwin R. A. Seligman, which proved 
of such interest and value that a revised and standard edi- 
tion was published early in 1912. 
Following closely upon the work of the “Committee of 
Fifteen” the New York Medical Society appointed a “Com- 
mittee of Seven” to study the effect and prevalence of 
venereal diseases and their remedies. The selection of 
Dr. Prince A. Morrow, as chairman of that committee, 
proved to be of immeasurable importance and value to the 
country. As chairman of the committee Dr. Morrow pre- 
sented a remarkable report which was published in the 
Medical News, December 21, 1901, and a reprint Avas is- 
sued. (See chapter on The American Peril.) 
In May, 1904, Dr. Morrow went one step further in his 
aggressive attack on venereal diseases, advocating the for- 
mation of the American Society of Social and Moral 
Prophylaxis, and early in 1905 this society was organized. 
This proved to be the beginning of a rapid growth of 
interest in social hygiene, and Dr. Morrow’s great work on 
“Social Diseases and Marriage” has done much towards 
working a revolution in the thought of intelligent citizens 
throughout the country. It is an authority on the subject. 
Scores of smaller books by medical authors, designed to 
reach the masses, have followed it, such as those by Dr. 
Winfield Scott Hall, of Chicago, Avho has done great service 
by his lectures and books on Social Hygiene. The American Awakening 
245 
In 1905 the New York “Committee of Fourteen” be- 
gan its work. The ‘ ‘ Committee of Fifteen ’ ’ had shown that 
a very close connection exisited between professional vice 
and “Raines Law Hotels” which notoriously offered facili- 
ties for vice and were charged with being especially con- 
tributory to the seduction of young girls. As these evils 
increased, rather than abated, this committee was created 
to find a way to suppress them, and in 1907 a sub-committeq 
was formed called the “Research Committee of the Com- 
mittee of Fourteen.” 
Dr. Seligman furnished an account of the work of this 
committee in his revised volume referred to above. 
“Beginning in the year 1906, and rapidly following in 
the succeeding years, such societies were formed in Syra- 
cuse, Baltimore, Buffalo, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Hart- 
ford, Milwaukee, Detroit, Oakland, Denver, Chicago, In- 
dianapolis, Portland (Ore.), Spokane, Elkins (W. Va.), 
San Antonio, Providence, Seattle and East Orange. Of 
these eighteen societies, one-half (California, Colorado, Con- 
necticut, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, 
Texas and West Virginia) are states, the remainder, local 
associations. Many of these societies publish literature of 
their own, and are aiding materially in spreading a knowl- 
edge of the movement throughout the country, co-operating 
also with the vigilance committees, and designed to sup- 
press the White Slave Traffic. In several states, notably 
California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michi- 
gan, Ohio, North Dakota and Rhode Island, the State 
Board of Health has been induced to take up the matter 
and spread broadcast suitable literature. 
“At the beginning of the year 1910 a quarterly period- 
ical was started entitled ‘Social Diseases.’ This did its 
work so well that in June of the same year a meeting of 246 
The World’s Social Evil 
the delegates from the different societies was held in St. 
Louis, and a national organization was formed under the 
name of the American Federation for Sex Hygiene. The 
purpose of this Federation was declared to be the educa- 
tion of the public in the physiology and hygiene of the 
sex, and the study and application of every means—edu- 
cational, sanitary, moral and legislative—for the preven- 
tion of syphilis and of gonococcus infection. Dr. Morrow 
was elected president and President Emeritus Eliot, of 
Harvard University, was made honorary president, with a 
distinguished list of vice-presidents of national reputa- 
tion.” 
Notable and valuable were the resolutions of that body 
passed at the St. Louis meeting of physicians, which read 
as follows: 
“Whereas, There is ample evidence of a belief, deeply 
grounded, among the laity that sexual indulgence is neces- 
sary to the health of the normal man; and 
“Whereas, There exists, in consequence, widely dif- 
fering and double standards of moral and of physical health 
for the male and female sexes, that lead directly to the 
disease and death of many women and children: 
11 Be it resolved, That the American Medical Association, 
through its House of Delegates, hereby presents for the 
instruction and protection of the lay public, the unquali- 
fied declaration that illicit sexual intercourse is not only 
unnecessary to health, but that its direct consequence in 
terms of infectious disease constitutes a grave menace to 
the physical integrity of the individual and the nation. ’ ’1 
A still more significant demonstration of the new at- 
titude of physicians on the subject is given in the recent 
work of Dr. M. J. Exner, Secretary, Student Department of 
xThe Social Evil, pp. 227-230. The American Awakening 
247 
the International Young Men’s Christian Association. He 
publishes a statement of the problem of the significance 
of sex to young men which includes the following declara- 
tion : 
“In view of the individual and social dangers which spring 
from the widespread belief that continence may be detrimental 
to health, and of the fact that municipal toleration of prosti- 
tution is sometimes defended on the ground that sexual in- 
dulgence is necessary, we, the undersigned, members of the 
medical profession, testify to our belief that continence has 
not been shown to be detrimental to health or virility, that 
there is no evidence of its being inconsistent with the highest 
physical, mental and moral efficiency; and that it offers the 
only sure reliance for sexual health outside of marriage.” 
In addition to the able statement of the whole question, 
as it relates to young men, a list of the 367 physicians who 
signed the above is given. 
A NEW WEAPON. 
But the traffic in women and girls thus far remained 
almost undisturbed. There had been no following up of 
the Kendall and Phillips whirlwind attack in Los Angeles, 
which ultimately closed forever the vile cribs of that city. 
The white slave dealer and his henchmen, the panders, 
were intrenched behind a system more or less organized, 
with a police policy in most of our large cities which vir- 
tually guaranteed protection to the criminal vice traders for 
a price. 
A new weapon, however, was forming against commer- 
cialized vice. In Chicago, up to this time, no moral senti- 
ment existed which was at all adequate to the enormity 
of existing evils; nor was there any force to combat the 
combination of the trading conspirators against the honor 
and safety of women and girls. But a series of events 248 
The World’s Social Evil 
occurred which were destined to prove of incalculable value 
to the development of a nation-wide struggle. In 1905, 
Clifford G. Roe, a young lawyer, junior member of a Chi- 
cago law firm, wTas charged with the duty of looking after 
all criminal cases for his firm. Among these cases was one 
to defend a girl, Stella R , who was charged with lar- 
ceny. In the course of his quest for evidence in defense, 
he found that the girl had been trapped into a house of ill- 
fame and that by the aid of a man—a barber—wrho was a 
visitor at the house, she had escaped. The “madame” 
with the usual assurance that custom had begotten, brought 
a charge against the girl of stealing the clothes she wore 
when she fled. Mr. Roe tells the story in his own clear 
way.1 
Mr. Roe is a young man of highly moral character and 
of settled religious life, and he is also made of the sterling 
stuff that, once aroused to a fight, is not easily daunted. 
By process of law he secured the release of “Stella,” but 
the case started him into a line of hard thinking. Was 
this one of many such cases? Was it possible that there 
existed extensive trading of this kind which drives young 
women into practical enslavement? 
The second event was linked to the first in the follow- 
ing way: A three days’ conference was held in Chicago, 
on October 9th, 10th and 11th, 1906. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 
with his characteristic broad-minded liberality, offered the 
use of the finely equipped “Lincoln Center” for the occa- 
sion. The Chicago committee consisted of Jenkin Lloyd 
Jones, Bishop Samuel T. Fallows, Rabbi T. Schanfarber, 
John Balcom Shaw, D. D., Mrs. J. B. Caldwell, Prof. W. S. 
Jackman, Dr. David Paulson, Rev. J. F. Flint, with the 
Rev. William Burgess, then pastor of the Park Manor 
1Panders and Their White Slaves. The American Awakening 
249 
Congregational Church, as chairman of the committee. The 
announcement that the Rev. Sidney C. Kendall, of Los 
Angeles, would speak on “White Slavery,’’ attracted the 
attention of Mr. Roe, who thus learned of the amazing story 
of a great organized national and international traffic in 
girls, with its unspeakable cruelties and degradation. These 
facts were related so clearly and Mr. Kendall’s statements 
were so evidently charged with truth and conviction, that 
the young lawyer could not help taking them seriously, es- 
pecially as other local cases were already coming to his 
knowledge. 
Another link, in the chain of events, was added in the 
change of the Police Court system in Chicago (which Mr. 
Roe describes as “seething with obnoxious practices and 
customs”), to the new Municipal Court with “wider lati- 
tude,” juster methods and abler judges. 
Thus encouraged, Mr. Roe, who by this time had been ap- 
pointed assistant state’s attorney, set himself the special 
task of attacking panders and white slavers. 
“First we turned,” he says, “to those good mission workers 
who had been laboring in the brothels and slum regions. With 
all the good people of this type whom I could find, I held many 
extended interviews in my office. The tales they told me of 
the underworld were terrible, and at first I was inclined to be- 
lieve they were somewhat colored by prejudice. The Rev. 
Ernest A. Bell, who aided in the trial of Pansy Williams, and 
Deaconess Lucy M. Hall, known as the ‘mother of outcast women 
and girls,’ in particular told me of their experiences in the dis- 
trict. 
“Deaconess Hall had worked in the red-light district for 
over ten years, personally visiting houses of ill-repute and talk- 
ing with the inmates wherever she was allowed to do so, and 
in these years she had gathered a great fund of information 
which now she submitted to me. In her quiet way she had 
gone about unmolested. She had come to be regarded almost as 250 
The World’s Social Evil 
an angel by the victims of the vice system and many of them 
had confided in her when they would not and could not have 
confided in anyone else. Her protests in the past against this 
unspeakable slavery in girls had been unheeded. She had la- 
bored almost alone and was powerless to do much more than 
sympathize and console.” 
Mr. Roe then sought the aid of the Citizens’ Associa- 
tion and the Chicago Law and Order League, and while 
these organizations were unable to assume responsibility 
of the work, they promptly loaned the services of their de- 
tectives. But he early found that the way of true and 
persistent war on vice is not easy. He says: 
“As I gathered this information I discovered that I was 
entering upon a fight, practically single-handed, against some 
of the most skillful and shifty men that the office of the State’s 
Attorney had ever dealt with. There were no funds at the 
disposal of this office with which to employ detectives, and the 
only detective force the State Attorney’s office had was four men 
from the Police Department of the city. These men were always 
kept busy going out of town and bringing back prisoners who 
were arrested in other cities. Because of this lack of funds 
and lack of detectives, I often found it necessary, as had other 
Assistant State’s Attorneys, in other matters, to act in the role 
of detective. 
“From time to time I called upon some of the influential 
men of Chicago with the idea of interesting them in a fight 
against the panders, but these men were too busy to go through 
the evidence which I had collected, and instead of gaining their 
support, I generally received rebuffs and jests at the expense of 
my attitude towards the white slave traffickers, men, who, as 
well by their active as their moral support, failed us at that 
time, should have been the first to rise and strike down white 
slavery. Mr. Robert Catherwood, however, studied the question 
thoroughly and became convinced of the existence of a traffic 
and sale of women for immoral purposes. Together we dis- 
cussed many plans for the elimination of this slavery. While 
neither of us realized at that time that it would be a warfare The American Awakening 
251 
of years, and not a battle of days, we were agreed that the 
public must be awakened to the seriousness of the situation.”1 
Men who, as well by their active as their moral sup- 
port, failed us at that time, should have been the first 
to rise and strike down white slavery. Mr. Robert Cather- 
wood, however, studied the question thoroughly and be- 
came convinced of the existence of a traffic and sale of 
women for immoral purposes. Together we discussed many 
plans for the elimination of this slavery. While neither 
of us realized at that time that it would be a warfare 
of years, and not a battle of days, we were agreed that 
the public must be awakened to the seriousness of the 
situation.”1 
“Too great prominence,” says Mr. Roe, in another 
book, “cannot be given the sturdy and sacrificing efforts 
made by such workers as Rev. Ernest A. Bell, Rev. Mel- 
bourne P. Boynton, Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, and Salvation 
Army Workers, and many others who stood night after 
night in the midst of the vice exposition in Chicago. Yes, 
amid the clatter and clamor of Chicago’s shame, and 
preached and prayed for better conditions. Harassed 
and jeered at, they continued unceasingly.2 
“Rev. Ernest A. Bell had established The Midnight 
Mission in the worst part of this district as early as August, 
1904. This mission continues in its work of endeavoring 
to better social and moral conditions to this day, and may 
it long continue to help uplift the fallen.” 
The movement now began to assume more general im- 
portance. Dean Walter T. Sumner headed an investiga- 
tion on the west side of Chicago and “such eminent jur- 
'Panders and Their White Slaves. 
2Prodigal Daughters. 252 
The World’s Social Evil 
ists as Judge Julian W. Mack, Judge Philip Stein and 
Honorable Adolph Kraus, who had interested themselves 
in this matter, especially because it had been charged that 
the men engaged in the business of supplying the West 
Side levee district with new girls were chiefly young 
Jews, joined in the view that the law must he changed. 
While Mr. Roe sought the co-operation of business 
and professional men, others moved among the clergy. A 
number of small conferences were held in the fall of 1907. 
Miss Lucy A. Hall, a deaconess of the M. E. Church, and 
Mrs. Ida Evans Haines wrere persistent, amid many dis- 
couragments, in their efforts to promote a local organi- 
zation. A committee for suppression of the traffic in vice 
was created, with the Rev. Louis P. Cain, D. D., as its 
chairman. This committee continued active until early in 
1908, several groups of men and women co-operated to 
bring about a great gathering, and several hundred min- 
isters of all denominations assembled in the Auditorium of 
the Central Y. M. C. A., February 10, 1908. The meet- 
ing was presided over by Bishop W. F. McDowell, and 
the Rev. A. C. Dixon, now pastor of Spurgeon’s Taber- 
nacle, London; Mrs. Raymond Robins, Judge Fake, Clif- 
ford G. Roe and Dr. 0. E. Janney, of Baltimore, took 
part. 
Dr. Janney, as president of the National Vigilance 
Committee, addressed a second meeting in the afternoon 
of the same day, urging the organization of a State Vigi- 
lance Society, and on the motion of the Rev. William Bur- 
gess, such an association was agreed upon. Thus, the 
Illinois Vigilance Association was born. The Rev. M. P. 
Boynton, D. D., was elected president, and the Rev. Ernest 
A. Bell, corresponding secretary. A committee on leg- 
islation wras appointed, wdth Mr. Robert Catherwood as The American Awakening 
253 
chairman, and a joint committee was formed to invite 
the aid of men’s clubs, of which the following responded: 
The Union League, City Club, Hamilton Club, Iroquois, 
Jefferson, Press, Quadrangle, B’nai B’rith, Chicago Law 
and Order League, Citizens’ Association and the Illinois 
Vigilance Association. 
The effect of this move was to secure the next essen- 
tial link in the chain of events, which Judge Mack had 
declared necessary, viz., a better law against “pander- 
ing.” Air. Roe tells in his book on “Panders” how this 
was promoted and how, on July 1, 1909, the law came 
into effect which is an acknowledged model state law. With 
this new instrument of law, there followed a campaign 
of prosecution against white slavers and panderers, which 
is probably without precedent in this or any other coun- 
try. The persistent, plucky, intelligent work of Assistant 
State’s Attorney Roe resulted in the conviction of scores 
of scoundrels until over 400 convictions were obtained in 
Chicago. 
Other states sought to copy the law. The New England 
“Watch and Ward Society” of Boston became interested. 
Mr. J. Frank Chase, the secretary, published an article en- 
titled, “Pandering Around Plymouth Rock,” and a pand- 
ering law was passed in Massachusetts which Air. Chase 
says was borrowed almost verbatim et literatim from the 
Illinois law. 
The first case under this law broke up the Panama Gang 
—a story wThich might have formed a chapter from some 
romance of Turkish atrocities, and, like some others told by 
Mr. Roe, are more tragic than anything in Uncle Tom’s 
Cabin. 
During the period of activity in Chicago, events were 254 
The World’s Social Evil 
moving elsewhere which furnished other links in the chain. 
On June 6, 1908, President Roosevelt issued the procla- 
mation, making the United States a party to the Interna- 
tional treaty against the infamous transportation of women 
and girls for the white slave traffic, and in the same year 
the Immigration Act was passed, to suppress the importa- 
tion of foreign girls for such purposes. 
The White Slave Traffic Act.—In 1908, Mr. Wirt 
W. Hallam, the present Secretary of The Illinois Vigilance 
Association, who was interested in the transportation of 
lumber, suggested that the principle which governed inter- 
state transportation of goods could be applied to the inter- 
state traffic in women. Attorney Rufus S. Simmons of 
Chicago, gave a legal opinion that this suggestion was in 
harmony with law. On September first, of the same year, 
Rev. Ernest A. Bell, Superintendent of the Chicago Mid- 
night Mission, speaking at Winona, Ind., called attention 
to the accepted doctrine of the Supreme Court of the United 
States that “Congress, under the commerce clause of the 
Constitution has control of transportation between the 
states, of persons as well as of goods. ’ ’ A copy of Mr. Bell’s 
address was handed to Mr. Edwin W. Sims, who was the 
United States District Attorney at Chicago. 
In 1909 Congressman Mann, after consultation with 
Mr. Sims, introduced a bill which with characteristic vigor 
he pushed through Congress and on June 25, 1910, Presi- 
dent Taft signed the White Slave Traffic Act and it be- 
came law. See Appendix for Copy of the Act. 
The validity of this Act has been challenged on three 
separate occasions and the Supreme Court has sustained it; 
first on Feb. 24, 1913 and twice since that date. “The 
law was assailed as unconstitutional on the ground that The American Awakening 
255 
women are not articles of commerce and that the power of 
Congress to regulate interstate commerce does not apply.” 
This, however, was overruled in the decision and the New 
York Tribune regarded it as “one of the most significant 
interpretations of the Constitution as a grant of national 
power adequate to developing national needs.” 
In 1912 the Department of Justice appointed Mr. Stan- 
ley W. Finch a special commissioner to suppress the traffic 
in girls and Congress voted $100,000 to sustain the cost of 
this work. 
The Injunction and Abatement Law :—In 1909 a bill 
was prepared in Iowa, called “The Injunction and Abate- 
ment Act,” which proposed to turn the forces of law 
against the property used for immoral purposes and against 
the victimizers, instead of against the victims. Attorney- 
General George Cosson, and Mr. John Hammond, both of 
Des Moines, very vigorously championed this bill. It was 
passed into law and its provisions were immediately di- 
rected toward the red-light district of Des Moines and other 
cities of Iowa. Under the new law, the house of ill-fame 
was closed—the furnishings were confiscated, and a penalty 
of $300.00 attached to the property. 
Testimony comes from many quarters that all the gloomy 
prophecies of the evils being scattered into respectable 
neighborhoods have proved false. The safety of women and 
girls on the public streets is now assured, the crime of 
rape has almost disappeared and general crime has been 
greatly reduced. 
There may be objectors who fear that the drastic action 
of such a law might inconvenience some who are not 
actually in the business, but the real opponents are, in the 
words of U. S. Senator T. J. Brooks of Tennessee: 256 
The World’s Social Evil 
“Every mistress of every bawdyhouse; every keeper of every 
assignation house; every degraded wretch who is in these dens 
from choice; every procurer, ‘cadet,’ pimp, panderer, and white- 
slave dealer; every debauchee who places lust above honor and 
lasciviousness above virtue; every conscienceless brute who 
wants to blight innocence and glut his beastly passion on the 
jewel of some home; every heartless scoundrel who wants to 
coin money from the misfortunes of the foolish and the shame- 
less revels of the vice-seeking denizens of the underworld; 
every unprincipled landlord who had rather rent a house for a 
high price to be used as a hellish den than to rent at a lower 
rate for legitimate business; everyone who cares nothing for 
humanity but thinks ‘the world is a fraud and one who doesn’t 
play his part is a fool.’ ” 
Nebraska followed Iowa, in adopting a similar law, 
which went into effect in that State, July 10, 1911, and 
excellent results immediately followed, especially in Oma- 
ha. In the same year the Illinois Vigilance Association 
made strenuous efforts to secure the passing of a like bill 
for that State and the Senate adopted it by a vote of 39 
to 2, but a House Committee viciously killed it by prevent- 
ing a vote of the House upon it. In 1913 the Associa- 
tion made another vigorous effort, but again a conspiracy 
to defeat the bill in committee, prevented a vote being taken 
on it. 
In 1913, similar bills were passed in the states of Wash- 
ington, Oregon, California, Kansas, South Dakota, Utah, 
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Minnesota; and Senator Ken- 
yon’s bill for Washington and the District of Columbia 
was passed early in February, 1914. This bill was signed 
by President Wilson, Feb. 7th, 1914, and became law. A 
copy of the Act is given in the Appendices to this volume. 
The principle of injunction, as applied to houses of ill- 
fame, is not new. In almost every State in the Union such 
resorts are declared a nuisance by the common law. An in- The American Awakening 
257 
junction may be issued against them as nuisances to neigh- 
boring property. Such injunctions have been granted 
against property, but the process of law is technical and ex- 
pensive and does not protect the citizen against the “nuis- 
ance” unless he is a property owner, whose property suf- 
fers in value. Such action, however, has been used with 
great advantage to public morals. 
With characteristic courage, Arthur Burrage Farwell, 
President of the Chicago Law and Order League, with the 
backing of his Committee and others, at a cost of about a 
thousand dollars, went over the heads of the Mayor and 
Police authorities, in an action by injunction, under the 
common law, against owners of property in the notorious 
red-light districts of the city and a decision was given in 
the Circuit Court of Cook County in the case of Philo A. 
Otis vs. S. L. Brierly and Cira Abbott, restraining them 
from using the property for immoral purposes. 
At Seattle, Washington, a more sweeping use of injunc- 
tion proceedings was made by “The Public Welfare 
League.” On August 4, 1910, a suit was entered against 
the Mayor, Chief of Police, Commissioners of Health, City 
Council, and the owners, managers, and lessees of property 
in the district, maintaining and operating the same for im- 
moral purposes. Mr. James B. Murphy acted as the plain- 
tiff in the case. On October 12th the same year, a tempor- 
ary injunction was granted, a bond of $2,500.00 being re- 
quired. No appeal was made, within the limit of ninety 
days allowed, and the injunction became permanent. Pros- 
titution, however, was still allowed to flourish and “Con- 
tempt of Court” proceedings were issued against the city 
officials and the owners, managers, and lessees of the prop- 
erty in question. 
Meantime the Welfare League started proceedings of 258 
The World’s Social Evil 
Re-call against Mayor Hiram C. Gill, who was held respon- 
sible for much of the contempt of law. A great popular 
wave was created in the effort to get the requisite number 
of voters to sign the petition and on December 20, 1910, 
these petitions bearing 10,701 names of voters, sufficient 
under the law; and the Mayor was recalled. In the sub- 
sequent election social order was the sole issue and the 
League’s Candidate, Geo. W. Dilling, was elected. Thus the 
red-light district was effectually closed.1 
At Atlanta, Ga., an effective movement was conducted 
under the auspices of the “Men and Religious Forward 
Movement.” They prepared a series of very striking and 
forceful bulletins on the vice situation in that city; and 
showing the conditions and manner of meeting them in 
other cities. In June, 1912, they published these at in- 
tervals, as paid advertisements in the three daily papers of 
the city. One of these bulletins is published as an ap- 
pendix to this volume. In September, four months after the 
appearance of the first Bulletin, the day before the publica- 
tion of Bulletin No. 20, the Chief of Police issued the order 
which closed the segregated district and the recognized 
houses of prostitution in the city. 
Police Women:—Among the agencies which may con- 
tribute to a better moral condition in cities, and which are 
the outcome of the movement to safeguard women and girls, 
the appointment of women police officers may be named. In 
Portland, Ore., and Tacoma, Wash., they have Departments 
of Public Safety with women as officers. In Seattle, Wash., 
there are three or four police women. In Minneapolis and 
St. Paul, there are one or two in each city. Baltimore has 
‘Mr. Gill subsequently saw his mistake and courted re- 
newed confidence. Being an able administrator, public feel- 
ing turned again in his favor, and in the early spring elec- 
tion of 1914 he was re-elected mayor by a large majority. The American Awakening 
259 
three police women; Los Angeles, two, and a police matron. 
In San Antonio there are four police matrons; and in Den- 
ver, Col., there is at least one as Inspector of Dance Halls. 
In October, 1912, Chicago appointed ten police women. 
San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities are considering 
such appointments. 
The year 1910 was notable for several events that 
marked the wonderful progress of this movement. It was 
early in this year that New York appointed a special Grand 
Jury, with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., as chairman, to which 
reference is made in Chapter II of this work. 
Vice Commission Reports :—It was in 1910 also that the 
Chicago Vice Commission made its remarkable investiga- 
tion. Its report was published in a cloth bound volume 
of 300 pages, bearing the title, “The Social Evil in Chi- 
cago,” of which two editions, of 10,000 copies each, were 
privately circulated to legislators, public officials and pri- 
vate citizens. A third edition of 10,000 copies was pub- 
lished by the American Vigilance Association, and is being 
distributed, at cost, to students of social reform, libraries, 
and others. 
The Commission, appointed by the Mayor, consisted of 
thirty prominent and conservative citizens of Chicago, of 
whom nine were ministers, eight business men, five physi- 
cians, four college professors, three judges or attorneys, and 
one other. Two of the number were women, one of whom 
was a physician. Dean Walter T. Sumner was Chairman, 
District Attorney Edwin W. Sims was Secretary; and Mr. 
George J. Kneeland, chief investigator. The overwhelming 
testimony which the investigation brought resulted in an 
unanimous verdict against regulation or segregation, and 
was summed up in the opening words of the report, thus: 260 
The World’s Social Evil 
“Constant and persistent repression of prostitution 
the immediate method: Absolute annihilation of the 
ultimate ideal.” Such is the recommendation of this 
commission. That it may be put in force effectually and 
unremittingly, we further recommend: 
First: The appointment of a Morals Commission. 
Second: The establishment of a Morals Court. 
Minneapolis followed the lead of Chicago, and in Aug- 
ust, 1910, a commission of fifteen w7as appointed by the 
Mayor, with the Rev. Marion D. Shutter, D. D., as Chair- 
man, and Eugene T. Lies, Secretary. At the opening of 
the inquiry the same doubt, as to segregation, which existed 
in Chicago before the investigation, existed here, but the 
conclusions w7ere almost identical writh those of the Chicago 
Commission. The same may be said of other reports that 
followed, with remarkable unanimity of findings and opin- 
ions. The following is a list of such commissions up to the 
beginning of the present year, 1914: 
VICE COMMISSIONS AND INVESTIGATION. 
MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONS. 
Chicago, 111.: Appointed April 5, 1910; reported April 5, 
1911. 
Minneapolis, Minn.: Appointed August, 1910; reported July 
12, 1911. 
Atlanta, Ga.: Appointed April 15, 1912; reported October 
7, 1912. 
Columbia, Mo.: Appointed March, 1913. 
Columbus, Ohio: Appointed April, 1913. 
Denver, Colo.: Appointed Sept. 15, 1912; became the Den- 
ver Morals Commission, January, 1913. 
Hartford, Conn.: Appointed January, 1912. 
Jacksonville, Fla.: Appointed September, 1912. 
Little Rock, Ark.: Appointed January, 1912; reported De- 
cember, 1912. The American Awakening 
261 
Philadelphia, Pa.: Appointed May, 1912; reported April, 
1913. 
Portland, Ore.: Appointed September, 1912; first report 
January, 1912; second report August, 1912; last report Janu- 
ary, 1913. 
Shreveport, La.: Appointed April, 1913. 
Denver Morals Commission: Appointed January 31, 1913. 
Chairman, Rev. H. F. Rail. 
Minneapolis Morals Commission: Appointed March, 1913. 
Chairman, Dr. Marion D. Shutter. 
Pittsburg, Pa.: Morals Efficiency Commission, appointed 
May, 1912. Chairman, Frederick A. Rhodes. 
STANDING COMMISSIONS. 
STATE COMMISSIONS. 
Illinois: Appointed February, 1913. 
Maryland: Appointed March, 1913. 
Massachusetts: Appointed April, 1913—Reported. 
Missouri: Appointed April, 1913. 
Wisconsin: Appointed 1913. 
Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Baptist Brotherhood, appointed 
May, 1911; reported October, 1911. 
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Moral Efficiency Commission. Chair- 
man, Bishop John N. McCormick. 
Macon, Ga.: Appointed January 6, 1913. Chairman, E. W. 
Stetson. 
St. Louis, Mo.: Appointed September, 1912; first report 
February, 1913. 
LaFayette, Ind.: Ind. Church Council; reported October, 
1913. 
Lancaster, Pa.: Published February, 1914. 
UNOFFICIAL COMMISSIONS. 
Kansas City, Kans.: Reported January, 1912. 
New York City, N. Y.: Committee of Fourteen-Research 
Committee. Reported in 1910. 
New York City, N. Y.: Bureau of Social Hygiene, Janu- 
ary, 1912. Reported May, 1913. 
INVESTIGATIONS. 262 
The World’s Social Evil 
New York City, N. Y.: New York Citizens’ Committee. Re- 
ported February 27, 1913. 
Chicago, 111.: Committee of Aldermen. Appointed October 
12, 1912. Reported March, 1913. 
Peoria, 111.: By Committee of Citizens; Chairman, Rev. 
Clement G. Clarke. Investigation began January, 1914. 
Pittsburg, Pa.: Voters’ League of Pittsburg, October 4, 
1912. 
San Francisco, Cal.: Commonwealth Club of California to 
ascertain the prevalence and influence of venereal diseases. Re- 
ported February 8, 1911. 
Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse Society for the Prevention of 
Social Diseases. Social Evil Committee to ascertain prevalence 
of venereal diseases in Syracuse. Reported February, 1911. 
Syracuse, N. Y.: Made by Syracuse Moral Survey Commit- 
tee, March 25, 1912. Reported March, 1913. 
SUNDAY SCHOOL INTEREST. 
It is significant that a body so conservative, on matters 
outside the immediate domain of religious instruction as 
the International Sunday School Association, should have 
felt the importance of creating a purity department of its 
work. At the great International Conference of the United 
States, San Francisco, 1912, Mr. E. K. Mohr was appointed 
Superintendent. 
In another field of service came the remarkable con- 
tribution by Miss Jane Addams, in the series of articles 
published in McClure’s Magazine, bearing the title, “A 
New Conscience and An Ancient Evil,” afterwards pub- 
lished in a volume bearing the same title. 
Similar service and even more valuable, because con- 
tinuous, are the able articles which from time to time have 
appeared in the magazine and newspaper press, and es- 
pecially in “Vigilance” and in “The Survey” which mark 
the steps of progress in economic study and moral progress. The American Awakening 
263 
In New York, Mrs. Elizabeth Grannis has, with great 
vigor and intelligence, sustained the work of the “National 
Christian League for the Promotion of Purity.” In Chi- 
cago, Mr. John B. Caldwell, a printer, has employed him- 
self and his presses for years, more to spread the thought 
of pre-natal influences and personal purity than for his 
personal gain and, with the aid of Mrs. Caldwell, he has 
carried on the work of the National “Purity League” and 
published the Purity Journal. 
In the Northwest, Mr. B. S. Steadwell publishes The 
Light. He organized the Northwestern Purity Associa- 
tion afterwards changed to “The World’s Purity Federa- 
tion.” The Federation under Mr. Steadwell’s leadership 
has organized some excellent campaigns of educational 
value, but thus far, it has not succeeded in federating 
the forces of the movement. 
In the West, at Denver, there has long been a band of 
willing workers and all over the country there are men and 
women faithfully devoting their talents to this work. 
It has been said of many of these workers that they have 
not always acted with discretion, or good judgment; and 
it is true of this, as of other reforms, that many devoted 
In an article, published in the Continental Times of June 
6, 1914, we read that “in one of those quaint old homes of a 
by-gone aristocracy, No. 5 East Twelfth street, New York, there 
lives and labors that veteran champion of public morals and 
women’s rights, Elizabeth B. Grannis, President of the National 
Christian League for the Promotion of Purity, and an intimate, 
life-long friend of President Wilson and his family. Mrs. Grannis 
is a tiny, silver-haired woman, who has been associated for three 
generations with the foremost reformers and social workers 
of the nation.” The writer called recently at the home of this 
intensely interesting worker and found her, in her seventy-third 
year, as full of fire and service as when, years before, we met 
her at conferences on social purity. 264 
The World’s Social Evil 
men and women have undertaken measures for which they 
had neither means nor ability. 
Nevertheless, to such devoted souls who have given their 
time and service in unstinted measure, sometimes at the 
sacrifice of comfort and actual necessities, this cause owes a 
debt which can never be paid until the great summing up of 
the final Court of Justice and reward. 
Adequate National Organization :—These many unre- 
lated agfencies, directed against the wTorst foe that ever at- 
tacked any nation—the one enemy which more than any 
other, has corrupted and destroyed homes, and cities, and 
nations—have laid upon many hearts the responsibility of 
creating some efficient, well equipped, and thoroughly or- 
ganized national force which may furnish direction and aid 
for continuous service throughout the country. 
The numerous awakenings occurring, in all parts of the 
country and from various sources, are as the voice of God 
calling us to marshal our forces in the name of domestic 
purity, physical regeneration and moral salvation. 
Circumstances led Clifford G. Roe to New York, Boston, 
and other Eastern Cities in April, 1911, where for a whole 
year he labored, and during which time he met numerous 
philanthropists who were seeking a suitable channel through 
which to direct this national work. 
The National Vigilance Committee, of which Dr. 0. E. 
Janney was Chairman, and the American Purity Alliance, 
united about April 1, 1912, under the name of the Ameri- 
can Vigilance Association with Dr. David Starr Jordan as 
President, Cardinal Gibbons and Dean Sumner as Vice 
President and Charles P. Hutchinson, President of the 
Corn Exchange Bank, Chicago, as Treasurer. At the begin- 
ning, the executive, with Mr. Roe as General Counsel, was 
located at Chicago, but a change was desired with the head- The American Awakening 
265 
quarters at New York, and Miss Grace E. Dodge became 
the Treasurer and an active member of the Executive. 
Subsequently Mr. Roe entered the field as a lecturer, and 
has more recently become the President of the American 
Bureau of Moral Education, of which he is the founder, 
and he has made most successful educational tours 
through the country. 
Negotiations followed for a still further union of forces 
and on December 3d, 1913, the union of the American Vigil- 
ance Association with the American Federation for Sex 
Hygiene was completed under the new name of “The 
American Social Hygiene Association,” with the following 
as its leaders: President, Dr. Charles W. Eliot; Vice 
Presidents, Cardinal Gibbons, Dr. David Starr Jordan, Dr. 
Wm. T. Foster, Dean Walter T. Sumner, and Felix M. 
Warburg. 
There are some doubts expressed as to the wisdom of this 
new name. It seems to many that by adopting this name 
the greater moral and political ends in view are obscured, 
with a tendency to forget them. It should be remarked, 
however, that on reading Dr. Eliot’s Buffalo Address, pub- 
lished in Vigilance, November, 1913, one cannot feel that 
the President has a limited moral vision on the subject. 
It is certain that the moral issues involved will not be 
lost sight of. Already there are other forces organizing to 
emphasize and keep alive the education which is based on 
ethical and religious principles. The whole question is 
fundamentally a moral one. To the law of righteousness 
and virtue the appeal is made. Whatsoever a man (or 
nation) sows that shall he also reap. 
The issue of the Report of the Chicago Vice Commission 
made a profound impression upon that city but its recom- 
mendation for a “Morals Committee” was not carried into 266 
The World’s Social Evil 
effect. The Report was presented just before the close of 
Mayor Busse’s term of office. The City Council later passed 
a resolution calling for a Committee of aldermen to inquire 
and report. On October 12, 1912, a Committee of nine Al- 
derman was appointed. At the outset it was understood 
that “Segregation” or “Suppression” was the issue and 
intense interest prevailed and some of the Committee of 
nine admitted that they favored segregation. The hearings 
were at first held in one of the Committee Rooms of the City 
Hall, but public interest increased so that the Council 
Chamber was opened and day after day this large room was 
crowded. 
An able attorney appeared on behalf of the segrega- 
tionists and lengthy addreses were given on that side of 
the question. Among the citizens who spoke on the other 
side were the following: Attorney-General George Cos- 
son, Dr. Wm. A. Evans, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Miss Jane 
Addams, Clifford G. Roe, Jenkins Lloyd Jones, William 
Burgess, Miss Kate Adams, Father O’Callaghan, Rufus 
S. Simmons, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, Miss Maud Miner, 
Miss Virginia Brooks, John B. Hammond. Pamphlets 
Nos. 1 and 2 were published by The American Vigilance 
Association containing these addresses, and several thou- 
sands of copies have been circulated. 
The Vice Commission of Philadelphia was appointed 
by Mayor Blankenburg, May 31st, 1912, and after five 
months of investigation with the aid of the American 
Vigilance Association’s staff of workers the commission 
presented an able and exhaustive report. Its treatment 
of the subject of “education on sex hygiene” is especially 
valuable. They offer the following practical suggestions: 
That parents and educators strive earnestly to develop definite 
methods for giving the home and school life of younger The American Awakening 
267 
children a more positive influence than at present toward 
sex decency in feeling and action. 
That unclean birth and physical handicaps should be guarded 
against: 
(1) By clear teaching as to the change of scientific and tra- 
ditional estimate of chastity, and the hygiene and 
pathology of sex, both within and outside of wedlock. 
(2) By correction of the practice, among physicians, of 
keeping married women who are under treatment for 
venereal infection in ignorance of the causation, nature, 
and effects of their condition. 
(3) By the cultivation of a sentiment, professional and lay, 
in favor of making venereal diseases reportable and 
subject to such regulations as are now used to control 
less serious contagious diseases. 
(4) By warning against malpractitioners. 
(5) By preparation of leaflets, pamphlets, etc., for popular 
distribution. 
(o) For those receiving marriage license. 
(6) On prenatal care of mother and child, with empha- 
sis on the conjugal duties of the father at this pe- 
riod, which fathers too little recognize. 
(c) On care of infants for the first five years of life, 
especially emphasizing dangers of and safeguards 
against infectious diseases. 
(d) On the care, both physical and mental, of adoles- 
cent children. 
That churches, schools, universities, extension societies, educa- 
tional associations, and individuals should spread ideas af- 
fecting sex understanding and conduct. As examples of 
topics based on such ideas, now obscure in the mass mind, 
but meriting widest dissemination, we instance: 
(1) History of marriage and development of the home. 
(2) The development of the care of children as the highest 
race achievement. 
(3) The use of children in modern industry; the hope of 
their elimination from the economic field. The World’s Social Evil 
268 
(4) The causes of poverty; its effects—"the destruction of 
the poor is their poverty’’; the hope of its cure as a 
social disease. 
In an appendix to the report the subject of education 
is treated at length. Illustrations of the “Difficulties of 
Mothers”, of the “Perils in Early School Life” of chil- 
dren and of “Youth in Their Efforts to Find Help” are 
given in frank and startlingly realistic terms. The illus- 
trations referred to are of value in such a report, designed 
as it is, for the study of students of social problems, but 
are not suitable for a work intended for general circula- 
tion and use. 
An able and valuable report was issued in January, 
1913, by the Vice Commission of Portland, Oregon. A map 
was published with the report which shows, by colored 
disks, the numerous immoral resorts spread all over the 
city under several classifications and makes this remark: 
“A person might stand on the roof of one of the principal 
churches in the city and throw a stone into any one of 14 
immoral places, 10 of which are wholly immoral.” The 
conclusions of the Commission on Segregation agreed with 
those of the other commissions and are stated thus: 
Segregation does not segregate. 
It deals with only a small percentage of the sexually 
immoral. 
It promotes and justifies professional prostitution. 
It does not reduce clandestine immorality. 
It helps to establish a double standard of morality by 
stigmatizing the woman and ignoring the moral respon- 
sibility of the man. 
It rests on the false presumption that sexual immoral- 
ity is necessary. 
It fosters the debauchery of the sex instinct. 
It promotes the spread of venereal disease. The American Awakening 
269 
It affords official absolution for illegal and immoral con- 
duct. 
In so far as it is official sanction of commercial prosti- 
tution, it is the concomitant of white slavery. 
It is illegal. 
Segregation:—“I favor segregation because men need 
women, and it is better to have them collected and 
regulated in one section than allowed to spread all over 
the residence districts.” This was the actual statement 
of a man of good reputation—a man of business—and 
it is the thought of thousands. “I”, said another, “would 
license the houses and get a revenue out of it instead of 
leaving it to graft.” 
Strange that men are so slow or so unwilling to see 
the contradiction of this attitude. If vice is a necessity 
it is not wrong. If necessary, it is normal, right and law- 
ful, and ought to be as free and untrammelled as any 
other right or lawful business. 
No worse error can be promulgated than that which 
was expressed in the report of the Royal Commission of 
England, in 1871. The report says: “There is no com- 
parison to be made between prostitutes and the men who 
consort with them;—with the one sex the offense is com- 
mitted as a matter of gain; with the other, it is an irregular 
indulgence of a natural impulse.” 
Thus, a great commission, consisting of 26 men, includ- 
ing British members of parliament, one bishop, several 
other clergymen, and one working man, was so obtuse 
that it proclaimed the ancient fallacy and lie, that a 
greater sin rested upon the poor victim who sold her 
honor than upon him who bought it. It should be 
observed that in the minority who voted against it was 
the one working man. These “blind leaders of the blind” 270 
The World’s Social Evil 
would perpetuate the old doctrine that to buy the soul 
of a woman for “the indulgence of appetite” is a mild 
offense, while to sell it under the strain of temptation, 
or the pressure of need, is a crime. 
The plea for segregation, as applied to prostitution, has 
no basis in expedience or justice. The three questions 
which one may naturally ask on the subject are: 
Why? This is answered in the light of experience. 
The medical experts of Europe and of America have 
declared segregation worse than a failure as a sanitary or 
hygienic agent; and as a police measure for restricting 
the vice to a given district it is proven to be a disastrous 
blunder.1 Moreover, a “regulated” or “permitted” dis- 
trict of where vice prevails by official permission is, in its 
very nature, a vice breeding market and that overflow into 
other districts inevitably follows. 
Where? This question faces the fact that there is no 
place where such a district is “wanted” and that when 
established by police authority it is forced upon the poor 
who cannot protect themselves. ‘ ‘ No one wants the brothel 
in his own neighborhood; for that he is not to blame. 
Every one who favors segregation wants it in the other 
man’s neighborhood.” “One of the strongest advocates 
of segregation writes if the segregation plan went through 
I would not have the nerve to suggest the site, because 
if it were in the immediate neighborhood of my house, 
I would resort to an injunction to restrain the project as 
a nuisance; and I assume that everyone else would feel 
the same way.”2 
Who? The segregation plan has always discriminated 
against the woman. In no city has it ever been attempted 
appendix “Review of Prostitution in Europe.” 
2Minneapolis Vice Commission Report. The American Awakening 
271 
to segregate both the man and woman who share in the 
vice and who are equally objectionable from the point of 
view of social order, while the male partner is the most 
to be feared in regard to the spread of venereal disorders 
to innocent women and children. 
4 4 The duty of government is to make it easy to do right 
and difficult to do wrong.” So said Gladstone, the great 
British statesman. If law is to express equity and morality, 
it must first be equal and moral. What is morally wrong, 
cannot be politically right. Therefore it must be the aim 
of any nation which seeks its own safety and the con- 
servation of its people, to base its laws on right principles. 
The report of the Moral Survey Committee of Syracuse 
is a valuable study of the problem as it affects cities of 
its size (137,000 pop.). One of its recommendations is for 
a city ordinance “similar to the so-called “Tin Plate 
Ordinance” of Portland, Ore., whereby the owner of any 
building used wholly or in part as a hotel, rooming house, 
lodging house, etc., shall maintain at the principal street 
entrance a plate bearing the name and address of the 
owner or owners of the building and the land on which 
it stands. It recommends that “dance halls be placed 
under the control of accredited matrons; and that no asso- 
ciation of the dance halls with saloons or the sale of 
liquor be permitted,” and also that “women be added 
to the police force.” 
The admission of women into the politics in the State 
of Illinois promises to be a great factor in the repression 
of the social evil in that state and will certainly aid in 
other states as the suffrage is extended to them. “We are 
fighting commercialized vice and all that it implies,” said 
Miss Marion Drake in her heroic attack on the very citadel 
of all that is implied in that statement. 4 4 To oppose John 272 
The World’s Social Evil 
Coughlin (Bathhouse John) in the Aldermanic contest of 
1914, who for twenty-five years has carried the first ward 
of Chicago in his pocket, was to “beard the lion in 
its den.” 
“Several big political lessons have been driven home 
to me already,” said Miss Drake; “the most patent obser- 
vation is that women will not vote for a woman candidate 
merely because she is of their sex. Those who are looking 
for civic betterment cannot drape a few political clothes 
and a spring hat on a woman and expect her to win with- 
out massing behind her all the legitimate election ma- 
chinery that men and women can command.” 
Jack London says:—“When the women get the vote 
they will vote for prohibition. The women are the true 
conservators of the race. The men are the wastrels, the 
adventure-lovers and gamblers and, in the end, it is by the 
women that they are saved. The women know they have 
paid an incalculable price. Ever jealous for the race, they 
will legislate for the babes of boys yet to be born; and for 
the girls too, for they must be mothers, wives and sisters 
of these boys.” Jack London’s prophecy has already been 
verified. When the women of Illinois exercised their 
powders to vote for the first time, April, 1914, they put out 
of business in one day over a thousand saloons in that 
state. 
The story of “The Awakening”, thus briefly told, is 
everywhere in evidence. In every part of the United 
States, and throughout all the civilized world there is a 
mighty growing interest in a New Morality and a demand 
for the Single Standard for both sexes. 
To close forever the market of vice—to deprive it of 
commercial relations—to make the business of vice-vender 
and pander impossible—to give the liberty of life and The American Awakening 
273 
love to all women, purer honor and nobler courage and 
chivalry to all men, security and knowledge to all chil- 
dren, these are the promises and pledges of an awakening 
world: “to give light to them that sit in darkness and 
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of 
peace.” Theodore Roosevelt in his usual forceful style pub- 
lished a very able article in The Outlook early in 1911 
against the prevalent evil of willful sterility in America. 
The author of this volume addressed a letter to Mr 
Roosevelt, of which the following is a part: 
Your appeal to the willfully sterile will arrest some 
who may have a change of heart and will, but no appeal 
to those who are sterile because of vice diseases can 
avail. These include many thousands of would-be 
parents, women whose dead hopes are buried with the 
loss of maternity life, and men who knew not that death 
of posterity attends practice of vice. 
Here, then, Dr. Roosevelt, is the supreme need for 
your forceful voice and far-reaching influence. 
America needs a .conversion of morals in practice. 
The vice commissions of New York, Chicago, and other 
cities all point to the fact that our national increase of 
wealth has been attended by unparalleled increase of 
commercialized vice. 
The willful sin which you deplore, itself has its roots 
in vice and your persistent protest comes none too soon 
to arrest the evil. 
The nation needs a revival of domestic purity, and 
marriage sanctified to its end. It needs a standard of 
morals which applies equally to both sexes, that makes 
no appeal to the divorce courts for mere convenience or 
charge. It needs education in the essential things of sex 
life. 
In this age, when to know is the legal as well as the 
natural right of every child, the most potential, insistent 
and imperative call and power of nature is not to be si- 
lenced by falsehood and pruriency. 
But above all, we need a return to higher ideals, 
which revere motherhood and hold every woman’s 
honor as a thing to be defended by chivalry and law. 
William Burgess. 
May 11, 1911. Chapter X. 
THE EUROPEAN REVOLT. 
A VOICE IN THE DESERT AND A WORLD'S VISION. 
The movement which effected a revolution in the 
judicial and public mind of England—repealing the Con- 
tagious Diseases Acts1—also reached out to the continental 
nations of Europe. An influential journal described the 
agencies which affected this change in England as “a 
network of social and religious organizations.”2 The 
same authority tells how in 1874: 
“The leaders of the English movement became aware 
that their familiar opponents at home were only the advanced 
guard of a powerful International Medical Congress, which 
was vehemently demanding an international organization 
of immorality. The first International Medical Congress was 
held in Paris in 1867. The grave subject before us occupied a 
chief place in its deliberations, but a standing order of the 
Congress expressly excluded all moral considerations, and rigidly 
confined readers and speakers to the purely physical aspects of 
the question. This arbitrary and violent attempt to separate the 
inseparable, deprived the deliberations of the Congress of nearly 
all practical value, but it afforded a striking illustration of the 
narrow and defective basis on which specialists are ever prone to 
build conclusions as dangerous as they are far-reaching. The 
Paris Congress did not commit itself finally to any definite pro- 
posals, neither did the second International Congress, which took 
place at Florence in 1870. It was then resolved, however, that 
the third International Congress, to be held at Vienna in 1873, 
should prepare a suggested international law for the sanitary 
regulation of immorality.” 
Chapter III. 
•The London Quarterly, July, 1876. 276 
The World’s Social Evil 
There was a striking contrast in the deliverances and 
conclusions of these conferences and those of the Brussels 
Conferences of 1899 and 1902.1 A result of the former 
was the issuance of a manifesto, officially signed, which 
contained “the syllabus of the Infallible Council of the 
medical priesthood,”1 and declared that “this question 
belongs essentially to the medical profession” and that 
the administration of the law should be “in the hands of 
the central government, municipal and provincial authori- 
ties being unfit to carry it out.”2 
If the reader will turn to Chapter IV of this volume 
he may see that at the Brussels Conferences government 
representatives, police officials and the medical profession 
all advanced wholly and absolutely from this position. 
But before the Vienna Conference “A Voice in the 
Desert” had already been heard. In 1872 Mrs. Josephine 
E. Butler, whom the London Quarterly writer described 
as the “Herald of the great Social War,” visited Paris 
with a view to break the spell which official police au- 
thority had cast upon the whole continent, and to arouse 
the moral conscience on the subject. 
She had now been actively leading the forces in Eng- 
land, as the head of the Ladies’ National Association,which, 
it may be said, was the mother of all other organizations 
aiming at a new standard of the public conscience and 
action on the subject, and it became apparent that the 
system of license or regulation must be faced, understood 
and attacked at the roots. To Paris therefore she went for 
that purpose. 
The heads of police departments received Mrs. Butler 
with a stare of amazement and treated her with scant 
‘See Chapter IV. 
sLondon Quarterly, July, 1876. The European Revolt 
277 
courtesy; nevertheless she succeeded in visiting the prison 
of St. Lazare—“the first person who has been permitted 
to reveal some of the secrets of this modern bastile.,> 1 
Her visit to M. Lecour, the Prefect of the “Police des 
Mceurs,” was thus described by Mrs. Butler in a letter 
to Sir James Stansfeld: 
“I spent a part of my last afternoon In Paris at the Prefec- 
ture of Police. The memory of that interview is so exceedingly 
painful to me that I feared I should be unfitted for my work if 
I dwelt upon it. I was struck hy the grandeur of the externals 
of the office, and by the evidence of the irresponsibility and 
despotic sway over a large class of the people possessed by the 
man Lecour. I ascended a large stone staircase, with guards 
placed at intervals, and many people coming and going, ap- 
parently desiring audiences. The Prefect’s outer door is at the 
top of the staircase, and over it, in conspicuous letters, are 
engraved the words, “Arrests. Service of Morals” (the arrests 
being of women only). In looking at these words, the fact 
(though I knew it before) came before me with painful vivid- 
ness, that man, in this nineteenth century, has made woman his 
degraded slave, by a decree which is heralded in letters of gold, 
and retains her in slavery by a violent despotism which, if it 
were applied to men, would soon set all Paris, and not merely a 
few of its buildings, in flames. The phrase, “Service des 
Moeurs,” is the most impudent proclamation of an accepted false- 
hood. Too clearly and palpably is the true meaning of it, “Serv- 
ice de Debauche;” and M. Lecour’s conversation throughout 
showed and confirmed most powerfully the fact (though he him- 
self may be blind to it) that it is immorality, not morality, for 
which his office makes provision.” 
From France Mrs. Butler went to Italy, where she 
visited Genoa, Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan and Turin. 
“Her noble doctrine found a congenial element in the 
new life throbbing through every part of that classic 
'Medical Enquirer, Liverpool, November, 1876. 278 
The World’s Social Evil 
land. The tender soul of Mazzini was one of the first to 
hail with ecstasy the birth of a great movement against 
the most despicable and polluting vice. The splendid hu- 
manitarian instincts of Garibaldi also responded to the 
appeals of justice and mercy, and the adhesion of the 
illustrious Emancipator carried with it the popular voice 
of Italy.”1 
Mrs. Butler also went to Switzerland, where she found 
powerful allies in the eloquence of Pere Hyacinthe, the 
learning of M. J. Hornung, professor of jurisprudence at 
the University of Geneva, and the saintly influence of the 
venerable Pastor Borel, who had been engaged for many 
years in the reclamation of fallen women. Pere Hyacinthe 
gave in his adhesion in the following terms: 
"Dear Madam:—I return to my house deeply moved by the 
words which we have heard from you. One feels that God is 
with you in this heroic crusade against what you have so well- 
named ‘the typical crime,’ the gigantic iniquity of our race. God 
is with you, madam; it is necessary that men should be with 
you also. I beg that you will count entirely upon my weak but 
sincere services.” 
Mrs. Butler’s campaign looked towards moral conquest 
in the name of priceless peace and purity. In 1875 the 
International Federation for the Abolition of Government 
Regulation of Prostitution was formed and aggressive work 
was pushed through many countries with great vigor. 
From this beginning of a new world’s conflict with the 
social evil has grown organized armies in many nations. 
But there came an apparent need for a new call. Lead- 
ers in Great Britain and throughout Europe were passing 
‘London Quarterly, July, 1876. The European Revolt 
279 
away. When in the course of the present year, 1914, the 
writer visited England the last of the prominent persons 
who led the movement in that country, Henry J. Wilson, 
M. P., passed away. Mrs. Butler, Sir Hareourt Johnstone, 
M. P.; Sir James Stansfeld, M. P.; Prof. James Stuart, 
M. P.; Dr. J. Birkbeck Nevins, William T. Stead, and a 
host of others had already gone. 
Among those who entered the service in the ’70s was 
one who has become a venerable and honored leader, Wil- 
liam Alexander Coote. 
A great change in the attitude of good men and women 
had been brought about by the movement thus far carried 
forward. The advocates of regulation and license were no 
longer in possession of the field. Everywhere the medical 
world was changing its tone and teaching, the police au- 
thorities were no longer sure of their method, and the 
clergy, educators and the press all joined in declaring that 
this subject could not be treated apart from the moral 
questions involved. 
But the traffickers in womanhood had not been idle. 
They found new means of enslaving girls, new methods 
of conducting their infamous business and new markets 
for their slaves. The so-called “white slavery” became a 
world-wide business, with agents in more or less organized 
relations everywhere. 
A World’s Vision. 
In what measure mighty forces for human good have 
been set in motion through the agency of those dreams 
which occasionally come as messengers of God calling to 
new duty and sacrifice “and look like heralds of eternity” 
no recorder has told us. We think of the visions of Ezekiel, 
of Daniel, of John, and others, such as John Bunyan or the 280 
The World’s Social Evil 
more martial and insistent dream of Jeanne d’Arc. Why 
may we not record the visions of Josephine Butler and 
William Alexander Coote as divine messengers, calling to 
new endeavor and sacrifice? To a friend Mrs. Butler 
wrote in those early days of her consecration: 
“As we sat, during these calm silences which I so much love 
in Friends’ Meetings, when God seems even more present than 
when any voice of prayer is breaking the hushed stillness, I did 
not think any more of the cold winter, long journeys, cynical 
opposition, and many difficulties I knew I was going to meet. I 
knew that God is true, and that certainly I should be able to 
trample on the lion and adder. My thoughts were carried far 
beyond this near future, and a vista seemed to rise before me 
of the years to come, of some great and marvelous and beautiful 
manifestation of the power of God—of gathering hosts—an ex- 
ceeding great army—before whom will melt away the monstrous 
wickedness which men believe to be indestructible.” 
And Mr. Coote tells us in a charming little volume of 
the vision which led him forth in a missionary journey, 
the purpose of which was to open the way to united, in- 
ternational, world-wide work that would grapple with this 
evil with an efficient and conquering force. He writes: 
“In 1898, while I was revising the warning to young women 
traveling abroad, the utter hopelessness of all our methods came 
over me with a kind of physical oppressiveness which, reacting 
upon the mind, overwhelmed me with a bitterness of soul, and 
I cried out in despair, ‘How long, O Lord, how long?’ Falling, 
rather than leaning, back in my chair, I fell into a kind of 
reverie. Whether it was a Divine Vision, or a day-dream inspired 
from on high, I know not. Of its intensity and reality I had 
not, and never have had, the slightest doubt. The Vision was 
solemnly and vividly impressed upon my mind. It had not 
lasted more than ten or fifteen minutes, but during that time 
the ideas came as suggestions, and were by me transmitted to 
paper. They were these and were read clearly by me in my 
Vision: ‘That I should go to every capital of Europe. Find The European Revolt 
281 
some leading person in each and tell him the horrors of the 
White Slave Traffic. Ask him to call together the leading men 
and women and the government officials, with a view to my 
addressing them on the matter, the objects being: 
“ ‘To form a National Committee to deal with the question 
from a national and international point of view. 
“ ‘To arouse a strong public opinion throughout Europe con- 
cerning this traffic. 
“ ‘To hold an International Congress in London on the 
subject. 
“ ‘From the Congress to approach the European Govern- 
ments, asking them to hold an official conference to deal with 
the question from an international point of view. 
** ‘To make the National Committees the means in the differ- 
ent countries of bringing all this to pass.’ 
“Such was the message conveyed to me clearly and distinctly 
and I had no difficulty in immediately committing it to paper. 
Having read and re-read it, I was overwhelmed with the stupen- 
dous nature of the work thus outlined, and with my own total 
unfitness, from every point of view to undertake it. Neverthe- 
less, the conviction grew and strengthened that if God would 
make the way clear, I was willing and ready to go.”1 
Mr. Coote tells how his hopes were dampened when the 
necessary £200 was denied him from the only source he 
thought possible and how it came shortly after in a letter 
from a wholly unexpected quarter. “I shall never forget 
the effect of this letter upon me,” he says. “I had been 
much solemnized by the Vision, but the sight of the cheque 
filled me with awe-inspiring intensity.” 
Then follows a stirring story of his visit to Germany, 
Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Belgium, 
France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Bavaria, Egypt, 
South Africa, and correspondence with the United States 
and the Argentine Republic. In all of these places Mr. 
Coote was able to find kindred spirits in influential circles 
“‘A Vision and Its Fulfillment,” 3s. 6d. 282 
The World’s Social Evil 
and his beautiful little volume containing the story is 
embellished with excellent portraits of more than sixty of 
them. In most of the countries, too, a National Committee 
or Vigilance Association was formed, and at the first in- 
ternational congress held in London in 1899 an Interna- 
tional Bureau was organized in London. 
Conferences followed in Paris in 1902 and in 1910, 
and a third one in Vienna October 5-7, 1909. National 
committees were appointed representing seventeen coun- 
tries. 
The fulfilling of this vision reached its highest point 
in the great International Congress held in London June 
30 to July 4, 1913. The influential character of its mem- 
bers and adherents marked a surprising indication of 
interest among the most distinguished of governing powers 
as well as of political, clerical and social circles from all 
parts of the world. 
The Earl of Aberdeen was the President, who was 
supported by 153 “Presidents of Honor,” including five 
Royal personages, Ambassadors for France, Russia, Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Spain, Italy, Germany and the United 
States. 
Members and adherents, whose names are published 
in the Report, which is a volume of 368 pages,1 were in 
attendance from the following countries: 
Argentine Republic, 3; Australia, 1; Austria, 3; Belgium, 9; 
Brazil, 1; Canada, 16; Chili, 1; China, 1; Denmark, 3; Egypt, 
7; France, 17; Germany, 35; Great Britain, 345; Holland, 8; 
Hungary, 5; Italy, 2; Norway, 4; Portugal, 1; Russia, 13; South 
Africa, 1; Spain, 4; Sweden, 4; Switzerland, 14; United States, 9. 
“Vigilance,” the organ of the American Vigilance As- 
sociation, published in September, 1913, reported this con- 
‘Fifth International Congress—White Slave Traffic. The European Revolt 
283 
gress at length through Dr. 0. E. Janney of Baltimore, 
who was one of its representatives, and remarked edi- 
torially : 
“Perhaps never has there been a movement, seeking the 
moral uplift of the masses, which has achieved such an endorse- 
ment of radical reform as we find in the personnel of the great 
International Congress held in London in July. 
“When in 1872 the ‘Voice of the Desert’ cried alou<t to the 
women of France, no one dreamed that within forty years after, 
Emperors, Kings, Courtiers, and high ecclesiastical dignitaries 
of Europe would assemble, in person or by proxy, in one of the 
most conservative and privileged halls of the world, as an answer 
to that appeal. 
“Twenty-four countries were represented—thirteen of which 
sent government-appointed delegates, and Royal heads took a 
direct interest in the proceedings. 
“The Duchess of Albany gave a reception to the delegates 
when the Lord Chamberlain read the following message from 
King George of England: 
“ ‘His Majesty bids to each and all the delegates a cordial 
and hearty welcome to England. The King notes with particular 
satisfaction that these include representatives from almost all 
parts of the world, and His Majesty is glad that they will be able 
to visit Windsor Castle during this week. 
“ ‘His Majesty trusts that, under Divine Providence, the 
labors of the delegates of this Congress will be greatly blessed 
and aided, and desires to give expression to his true and heartfelt 
sympathy and that of the Queen in the international work for 
the protection of young womanhood. 
“ ‘The King further desires to congratulate the National 
Vigilance Association and the International Bureau for the Sup- 
pression of the White Slave Traffic in the success hitherto 
achieved, and bids them go forward with courage and energy.’ 
“The Emperor of Germany and the President of the United 
States also sent messages manifesting their interest. 
“The deliberations of the Congress covered many questions 
and the resolutions adopted prove that each subject was care- 
fully and profoundly studied.” 284 
The World’s Social Evil 
Never did an assembly of men and women contemplate 
a more essential and far-reaching crusade than this. As 
the distinguished President of the Congress remarked in 
his opening address, “No future historian of our time will 
be able to question the need and the work of this crusade, 
for it depends not on opinion, or creed, or policy, but 
upon the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and 
the sacred claims of justice and humanity.” 
And in the valediction, which closed the Congress on 
its fifth day, the Bishop of Winchester said: “We have 
been pointed to it (a new hope) by a noble woman.1 ‘A 
New Conscience and an Ancient Evil’—that has been the 
motto which she struck. As never before perhaps, we see 
today in extent and bulk and detail how the ancient evil 
works; what deviltries it prompts, and sets loose and em- 
ploys. The traffic, what is it? It is the ‘Beast’ arming 
itself with all the resources, the facilities, the appliances, 
the locomotion, and the secrecies of modern civilization. 
But in this same modern civilization, in the great demo- 
cratic peoples, whatever the form of their constitution— 
in the great modern peoples there are, thank God, other 
things astir. There is a new sense, w trust, of the true 
honor, the sacredness of human life in man and woman— 
a new conscience. The evil and the conscience—they con- 
front one another. Out of slave emancipation an abolition- 
ist crusade in the early days of the last century arose, and 
there sprang up a great impulse of human liberty, for 
the results of which we have got today still to contend, 
lest they slip through our fingers. But still that impulse 
was given, and we feel it vibrating through the European 
and American body politic ever since.” 
‘Miss Jane Addams. CHAPTER XI. 
COMMERCE AND CONSCIENCE. 
It may yet be ages before Commerce can claim to be 
standing straight up under the golden rule. In almost 
every department of business selfishness governs. “It is 
probably fair to say that the great business world is not 
appreciably influenced in its daily struggles by the con- 
sciouness that it exists to serve mankind.”1 The ethical 
standard is still so generally low that it accepts the rule 
that “he who can get should have.” A German observer 
who is also a great scholar, observes that the Ameri- 
cans, from oldest to youngest, hurl themselves into the 
chase of the dollar.2 Nevertheless the truth is begin- 
ning to possess us that the successful man is not neces- 
sarily he who gathers the most money. To have accumu- 
lated millions is not a sure testimonial of the worth of 
a citizen. 
The Commerce of a nation cannot long lag behind its 
conscience. Business must measure up to something be- 
sides a cash balance. That is why saloon keepers are not 
now in the class of reputable business men. There is a 
growing feeling too that brewers, as the real saloon 
keepers, must be classed with saloon keepers who are 
their agents. 
The business of vice-mongers and white slavers have 
never been in good repute in this country. The herd is 
now generally regarded with contempt, as beasts and birds 
and The Social Crises.” Rauschenbusch. 
'"The Approach to the Social Question.” Peabody. 286 
The World’s Social Evil 
of prey, feasting on the carcasses of women,—hanging on 
to commerce, as rats infest a noble ship. 
But Commerce too often accepts the alliance of 
questionable interests, especially when the profits are large. 
According to the Chicago Vice Commission the profits 
of prostitution in that city are more than fifteen million 
dollars annually and estimating a similar amount for other 
cities proportionately, the nation’s sum total reaches to 
an incalculable sum. 
Every dollar of this is stained with dishonor and 
blood, and certain business interests which claim to be 
honorable and respectable are in complicity with it. 
In the British House of Commons, in 1834, a “Com- 
mittee on Drink” stated that at a dinner party where the 
guests were nearly all distillers, one of them gave this 
toast:—“The distillers’ best friend, the poor prostitutes of 
London.”1 
The Vice Commission of Chicago reported that “in- 
formation has been gathered regarding 445 saloons in 
different parts of the city. The investigators have 
counted 929 unescorted women in these saloons, who by 
their actions and conversations were believed to be 
prostitutes. In fact they were solicited by more than 236 
womep in 236 different saloons, all of whom, with the 
exception of 98, solicited for rooms, ‘hotels’, and houses 
of prostitution over the saloon.” 
Yet distillers and brewers are members of Associations 
of Commerce and Boards of Trade, and, as such, exercise 
their influence against aggressive efforts to suppress the 
house of shame and judging by certain facts known to us, 
they have prevented the Vigilance Association in Chicago 
of Death.” Axel Gustafson. Commerce and Conscience 
287 
from obtaining the endorsement of the Association of 
Commerce Committees. 
Sometimes other traders, such as druggists, and even 
physicians, lend themselves to the supply of deadly drugs 
to the keepers of dens. The Chicago Vice Commission 
reports that—“In a canvass of drug stores outside the 
restricted district it was found that they do not sell more 
than three drams of cocaine and four ounces of morphine 
each month. On the other hand the four drug stores 
within this district sell at least four pounds of morphine 
and six ounces of cocaine each month.” 
“There are four druggists,” the report says, “whose 
method of catering to the prostitutes is to send clerks to 
their respective customers in the various houses of 
prostitution to solicit orders, including cocaine and mor- 
phine.” Yet these druggists remain as members of the 
honored body of pharmacists. 
The report also says, “The physician, the most im- 
portant element in the sale of cocaine, disobeys the law 
more openly than the druggist. It has been claimed that 
practically all physicians who examine inmates in houses 
of ill-fame dispense cocaine and morphine. Yet these 
physicians are members of the medical profession of the 
state. 
Many property owners and real estate agents are 
guilty of direct complicity with this business. Not only 
do they knowingly rent houses for purposes of prostitution, 
but they share the plunder of it by renting at a higher 
price than the same property would bring for any 
honorable business. 
Owners of city property are verily guilty in this 
matter. Lists of names have been published in several 288 
The World’s Social Evil 
cities showing that the owners of certain houses and flats 
which profit by the renting at exorbitant rents are often 
rich citizens, sometimes in high social standing, and some- 
times with church affiliation. Such a list of more than 
100 persons startled Chicago when in W. T. Stead pub- 
lished “If Christ Came to Chicago.”1 
The Chicago Vice Commission reported in 1910, “The 
Commission has secured a large list of owners of houses 
where prostitution is openly practiced. In some instances 
these owners are vile and abandoned men who make a busi- 
ness of exploiting these unfortunate women. And side by 
side with these men, ignorant and vile, stand so-called 
respectable citizens who are also sharing in the increased 
values from property used to extend the business of pros- 
tiution. Indeed evidence has been produced tending to 
show that a highly honored and respectable company, in 
whose hands respectable citzens entrust their money, has 
apparently assumed the trusteeship of four of the vilest 
houses of ill-fame in the restricted district. 
Another disgraceful fact is that some ostensibly respect- 
able women are owners or have control of property where 
prostitution is practiced. 
Again “several wealthy and prominent business men, 
whose advice is sought in matters pertaining to the civic 
welfare and development of Chicago, are leasing their 
houses on street and avenue for this business. 
One of these men has six houses in a part of the district 
’Mr. Stead pointed out that “It is only just to remember 
that persons who pay taxes as agents for property have often no 
means of controlling the disposition of that property. It is also 
well to state that in many cases the owners of the houses are 
only owners of the ground on which the houses stand, with next 
to no power of control over the tenants of the houses built on 
their land. In other cases they have inherited the property and 
do not know what to do with it.” Commerce and Conscience 
289 
where the most disgusting and flagrant violations of the 
law and police rules occur. Young men hardly out of their 
teens have been seen reeling in an intoxicated condition 
from one of these houses to the other. One Saturday 
night it was all one officer could do to keep a crowd of 
drunken young men moving and prevent fights on the 
streets. In one instance he brutally kicked a young fellow 
and shoved him into the street. In another instance, at 
the request of the keeper of one of these low resorts, the 
officer entered her house and threw a drunken young man 
out on the street, menacing him with his club.” 
More recently still the “Committee of Fifteen” of 
Chicago has published lists in the city newspapers of 
owners of buildings rented as resorts and vice dens. 
Mr. George Kneeland gives an illustration of the 
agencies employed by owners in New York. He tells of 
two owners of a house of ill-fame in West Twenty-eighth 
street, who on June 26, 1912, sought to rent a house on 
West Twenty-ninth street, and succeeded by the payment 
of a rental of $2,000 a year. Mr. Kneeland furnishes the 
following statement of the methods of procedure: “In 
the renting of premises for purposes of prostitution 
various devices are employed to protect agent and owner, 
despite the fact that there is an overwhelming probability 
that in most cases both possess, from the outset, guilty 
knowledge of the facts. In some places, direct respon- 
sibility is avoided through renting empty apartments to 
janitors for a rental ranging from $40 to $50 a month. 
The janitor furnishes these apartments on the installment 
plan and sublets them to prostitutes at the rate of $15 
to $18 per week. Then, in addition, he often receives 
from $3 to $5 per week to “look away,” as he terms it. 290 
The World’s Social Evil 
If the respectable families do not like it they may move; 
and many of them do move.1 
The real estate and renting agencies, with exceptions, 
have not hesitated to rent property for prostitution where 
a larger rental could be obtained thereby. “In New York 
during the month of February, 1912, a woman investigator 
visited 122 real estate agents for the alleged purpose of 
renting an apartment for immoral purposes. In each case 
the investigator endeavored to convey to the agent thd 
object for which the apartment was ostensibly desired. 
Of the 122 agents visited, only 17 refused outright to be 
parties to the transaction. A few of these were indignant, 
others said they had to be careful, and still others said the 
owners of the property were exceedingly strict. Sixty- 
seven agents agreed to rent certain apartments for this pur- 
pose and gave the investigator the addresses of 98 separ- 
ate apartments where she could conduct the proposed 
business. ’n 
“In Chicago a field investigation was made in order 
to determine whether or no flats and houses can be 
leased from real estate agents for immoral purposes. Dur- 
ing the month of October investigator visited 65 real estate 
agents and owners, most of whom were located in res- 
idential sections of the city, and in 44 instances they 
offered to rent rooms and flats. In each instance the 
investigator stated she wanted to rent the premises for 
a ‘sporting house.’ ”2 
Hotel keepers doubtless often find it difficult or im- 
possible, to protect themselves wholly from the commerce 
of vice, but there are, in every city, many who distinctly 
cater to it, while some make special provision for it. 
Commercialized Prostitution in New York, page 115. 
3The Social Evil in Chicago, page 89. Commerce and Conscience 
291 
Mr. Kneeland states that during the investigation in 
1912, “103 hotels were found which are classed as being 
assignation places, disorderly or suspicious. Evidence was 
discovered which proved that habitual prostitutes were 
openly soliciting men on the street and elsewhere to go 
to 65 of these hotels for immoral purposes. A woman 
investigator discovered 25 additional hotels where pros- 
titutes declared they could freely take customers or have 
them openly visit their apartments or rooms. This gives 
a total of 90 different hotels in Manhattan which may be 
classified as ‘ disorderly. ’ In addition to these, seven 
different hotels were discovered which prostitutes claimed 
to be able to use for immoral purposes, though admitting 
that they had to be careful not to frequent them too 
often.”1 
The Syracuse Moral Survey Committee reports that 
“32 disorderly hotels were counted and investigated in 
that city.” 
The Vice Commission of Philadelphia reports that 
“Investigation was made of 62 disorderly hotels. The 
investigatigators were solicited by 46 prostitutes to enter 
these hotels for immoral purposes; all, or practically all, 
these hotels hold liquor licenses, and knowledge of their 
existence is equally accessible to the police as it was to 
our investigators.”2 
Telegraph and telephone companies are important arms 
of public service who must free themselves of all profitable 
relations with this evil if they would continue to hold the 
confidence and support of the public. The night messenger 
Commercialized Prostitution in New York, page 35. 
3The record shows that between Sept. 22 and Oct. 5, 67 en- 
tries of this kind were made in the hotel register. 292 
The World’s Social Evil 
service of the telegraph companies make panders of boys, 
employing them in connection with houses of ill-fame: 
Young boys serve as messengers, and are admitted and 
sent into the worst places. 
“The testimony before us on this question is unfit for publi- 
cation, and shows the utter demoralization of boys of tender 
age. The telegraph companies which employ these little messen- 
gers and allow this sort of thing to go on are deserving of the 
severest censure. It is no answer to say that their officers do 
not know the facts; they must know them, or if they are in 
ignorance of them, they are purposely ignorant. We tell them 
that their messengers are going into places of vice and crime; 
that their morals are being ruined and their bodies diseased, 
and it is their duty to stop it. It may mean less profit from 
messenger service, but, as things stand today, these companies 
are allowing these boys to be morally ruined and to contract 
foul diseases, as appears from the boys’ own testimony in our 
possession, in order that these companies may earn money. The 
pending Child Labor Bill, if passed and enforced, will protect 
them hereafter, but it will not extenuate or excuse the guilt of 
those who, for the sake of business, have permitted the use of 
these children in so nefarious a trade.”1 
“The Telegraph Company occupies an office at , 
which is their nearest branch office to one of the restricted districts. 
There are about eight messenger boys employed here, ranging 
from fifteen to eighteen years of age. The majority of these 
boys are colored. These messengers are called upon to work at 
all hours of the day and night. As part of their duties they 
answer calls from prostitutes, to purchase lunch at nearby res- 
taurants, or to go to the drug stores to purchase drugs and 
various articles. In this way the messenger becomes an impor- 
tant link in the system whereby cocaine and various other drugs 
used by habitues are secured by them.”* 
Many saloons are in direct partnership with the evil 
and such can only be dealt with by the nemesis of law 
as houses of ill-fame. 
*The Vice Commission of Philadelphia, page 12. 
sThe Social Evil in Chicago, page 243. Commerce and Conscience 
293 
“The Commission has found in its investigation that 
the most dangerous immoral influence, and the most im- 
portant financial interest, outside of the business of pros- 
titution as carried on in houses, is the disorderly saloons. 
The proprietors of these places are using prostitutes as an 
adjunct to the sale of beer and liquor, and are allowing 
them to openly solicit for immoral purposes in their rear 
rooms. This is done in spite of the constant statements 
of the brewers and wholesale liquor dealers that they are 
against the use of prostitutes in saloons which they supply. ’ * 
For commercial gain, amusement houses and theatres 
sometimes ally themselves with the social evil, and these 
are responsible not only for the downfall of girls, but 
sometimes, are actual participants in the evil. There is 
much evidence of this in the reports of the various 
Vice Commissions of New York, Chicago, Kansas City, 
Philadelphia, etc. 
It must be added that the abolition of the brothel means 
also the suppression of the shady saloon. Intoxicating 
liquors sold in saloons, to which is annexed the rooming 
house or back parlor, are the most prolific and deadly of all 
the agencies employed to capture slaves for the market, 
to deaden their moral sense and bind them down. These 
saloons are not separate from, but a part of the infernal 
traffic. They are partners in the business, and sharer* 
in the plunder. They are joint murderers with the whole 
gang of pimps, panders and slave traders. 
“The commission has the addresses of 110 different 
cafes and saloons in the State habitually frequented by 
prostitutes for the purpose of securing customers. The 
investigators have actually counted 6,649 escorted or un- 
escorted women in these places, who, by the frequency of 
their presence, their actions, conversation and dress, were 294 
The World’s Social Evil 
believed to be prostitutes. In fact, the investigators have 
been either openly or secretly solicited in these places by 171 
different prostitutes to go with them to various hotels, 
apartments or furnished rooms, etc., for immoral purposes. 
These immoral cafes and saloons are also the favorite 
resorts of pimps and procurers, well-known thieves, pick- 
pockest and ex-criminals. 
Many of these immoral cafes and saloons are located in 
densely populated tenement-house districts, subjecting the 
honest poor to the most evil influences.”—Massachusetts 
Commission, Feb., 1914. 
But what is to be said of brewers and distillers who 
supply houses of ill-fame with beer and liquors, well 
knowing that these drinks are used as part of the horrible 
business and that exorbitant prices are charged for them 
in such resorts? 
“A saloon keeper of a disreputable resort in South Chicago 
declared that certain brewers are trying to buy up the licenses 
of similar resorts in that vicinity, offering $1,500 for the $1,000 
licenses. In one instance it was reported that a certain brewery 
paid $1,700 for such a license. Only recently a representative 
from a well known brewery has purchased four licenses from 
owners of saloons in the South Chicago vice district. The price 
paid for one of these licenses was $1,800. The reason these 
licenses were sold, it is said, was because of the agitation against 
the sale of beer in houses of prostitution. When things were 
running smoothly in the houses these licenses could not be 
purchased for $5,000. 
The Brewers’ Exchange, which is composed of 90 per cent, 
of the brewing companies in Chicago, has repeatedly affirmed 
that it is absolutely opposed to the sale of liquor in connection 
with prostitution. 
An investigation with reference to 236 disorderly saloons 
shows that representatives of fourteen brewing companies are 
on the surety bonds for sixty-three of these saloons. 
In addition there are a number of individuals on the surety Commerce and Conscience 
295 
bonds for other disorderly saloons who are also connected with 
brewing companies but are not given as being representatives.”1 
For enormous profits made by selling beer and other liquors in 
resorts see page 111 of same reports. 
The time has surely come when Commercial Associa- 
tions, Clubs and Boards of Trade should set up a standard 
of membership of their respective bodies which would 
exclude all who are in complicity with this business. 
No business on earth—no practices, even of barbarism, 
has so deadly an effect upon the moral sense as this. The 
death of all consciousness of the inveterate evil, resulting 
from the toleration or license of vice, as a business or 
privilege, is illustrated by letters published a number of 
years ago by Dr. Parent Duchatelet of Paris. 
A woman eighty years of age writes to the Prefect 
of Police of Paris asking that he will grant her daughter 
and granddaughter licenses to keep a Maison de tolerance 
in the following terms: 
“Eighty years of age and the mother of a large family, I 
implore, M. le Prefect, your help and protection. You, the father 
of the poor, the support of the widow and orphan, the prop of 
the afflicted, the asylum of the wretched, you will surely not re- 
fuse my request. At such an advanced age, and feeling myself 
on the point of surrendering myself to God, and appearing in 
the presence of my Creator, it is my duty to provide for the 
wants of my children, and to hand down to them the means of 
livelihood.”* 
Two others write, asking a license as a favor, in the 
following terms: 
“M. le Prefect:—I have only you as a resource to lean upon; 
burdened with a family of tender years, I implore you not to re- 
fuse me an honest means of livelihood, and of bringing up my 
children. Deprive me not, M. le Prefect, of a consolation of 
which an afflicted mother stands in so great need.”* 296 
The World’s Social Evil 
“M. le Prefect:—Mdlle. D has the honor to explain to 
you that cruel reverses of fortune, that would have driven her to 
the final act of despair, if she had not been sustained by a sen- 
timent of religion from parting with that which comes from 
above. Her grave and circumspect conduct, the care she has 
taken of her father and mother, and that she lavishes on her 
children, have won for her the esteem of the better class of 
people; being unable to bring herself to work, she desires to be 
authorized to receive at her house six women,” etc., etc.* 
Here is a translation of a certificate of character to a 
keeper of a brothel signed by twenty merchants of the 
neighborhood. It was published in L ’Avenir des Femmes: 
“We the undersigned proprietoires and merchants of the 
Boulevard de Beleville, declare Madame Louise Joly, dwelling in 
the Boulevard de la Chapelle, has kept a Maison de Tolerance 
since 1849, that many of us have known her ever since that 
time, and that she has gained the esteem of each of us through 
her morality and her goodness of heart. She is very charitable 
and always ready to render a service whenever the opportunity 
presented itself. We consider her a very respectable and honest 
woman, and a good mother of a family. She is, moreover, much 
respected in her neighborhood.”1 
But the moral obliquity represented in these letters 
is not more complete than that of the twenty business men 
who in 1912, waited upon Mayor Harrison of Chicago and 
pleaded for the re-opening of a redlight district in their 
neighborhood because the closing of it had hurt their 
business. ‘ ‘ One of the large furniture dealers of the 
West Side took back $46,000 worth of furniture which he 
had sold on the installment plan. The streets that had 
been filled with a rough element were now quiet. A group 
of twenty so-called ‘business men’ waited on the Mayor 
*Les Dames du Maitresses de Maison. 
1Social Evil in Chicago, page 126. Commerce and Conscience 
297 
to make complaint that business was dead on the West 
Side, and to ask him to ease up on his law enforcement. 
The Mayor told them ‘what he thought of them,’ and 
they went home, refusing to give their names to the news- 
paper people who wanted to write up the interview.”2 
The names of these “business men” were not given to 
the public. 
In Milwaukee, Wis., a similar petition was presented 
to District Attorney W. C. Zabel and in this case we have 
the names of the signers as they were published in the 
Milwaukee Free Press, May 30, 1912. Mr. Zabel might 
well express astonishment when he received the petition. 
Here is the petition which marks the depth of the com- 
mercial conscience in modern America: 
“Many of us are obligated upon leases and do a large credit 
business with the inhabitants of said district and have invested 
all our money in said businesses and are dependent upon them 
for the support and maintenance of our families, and we respect- 
fully represent that the sudden and abrupt wiping out of said 
district would in some instances wholly, and in others partially 
destroy our businesses,” says the petition in part. Those who 
signed the petition are: 
L. Deuster, grocer, 525 East Water street; Rossbach phar- 
macy, 559 East Water street; Louis Zoeller, meat market, 620 
East Water street; J. Jerner, grocer, 57 Juneau avenue; A. 
Cohen, Jr. & Co., grocers, 60 Juneau avenue; John R. Bruckner, 
grocer, 56 Juneau avenue; Frank Miller, grocer, 46 Juneau ave- 
nue; Gus Lass, barber, 543 East Water street; W. F. Sandrock, 
dry goods, corner East Water street and Juneau avenue; Julius 
Heimann, meat market, 40-42 Juneau avenue; William Kasik, 
36 Juneau avenue; Jim Lanzo, fruit dealer, 33 Juneau avenue; 
Gross-Saxe company, jewelers, 298 Third street; C. N. Bradley 
Coal company, 29 Juneau avenue; Bargain Shoe Store company, 
615 East Water street; Joseph Restram, 571 East Water street; 
“Pamphlet by Wirt W. Hallam. 298 
The World’s Social Evil 
N. Collion, ladies’ clothing, 40 Martin street; Thomas Dorsey, 
tailor, 32 Martin street; Frank J. Luberlich, 499 East Water 
street; Hugo Borchook, plumber, 27 Martin street; Oscar L. 
Fland, 22 Martin street; W. and B. Shoe company, 282 Third 
street, corner State; Joseph Schwori, custom shoemaker, 282 
Third street; J. Werner, cloakmaker, 289 Third street; City Hall 
Drug store, 507 East Water street; Wigart Staab, 505 East Water 
street; D. J. Williams, cigar store, 521 East Water street; Ed 
Rivers, grocer, 546 East Water street; H. Grabin, tailor, 501 East 
Water street. 
Commercialism has to do with things. When it puts 
its hands on the bodies and souls of men and women, it 
violates human and divine law. Its right to barter human 
bodies has been nobly disputed, with the sacrifice of untold 
treasure and blood. 
But the trading in souls for lust and gain is the 
culmination of all crimes. And this crime of crimes, as 
yet, remains unchallenged by organized commercial forces. 
An institution of hell on earth, offering the bribe of 
false and glittering pleasure to men, as the bait ivhich 
ensnares the soul to the destruction of mankind, at the 
very fountain and source of life; the giant curse of all 
nations, in all ages, has laid the greatest of them in the 
dust. Let Commerce purge herself of all alliance with it 
and the social evil as a trading institution will receive 
its death-blow. Let me point out a fact which is of the deepest sig- 
nificance. It is this—that so long as we women work 
for the personal reclamation and rescue of fallen women, 
men of ordinary character applaud, as well as good men. 
Even vicious men will speak affirmingly; you will meet 
with no opposition on the part of men; mark me! No 
opposition. But when you demand and labor for the 
abolition of the Institution of prostitution the scene 
changes; opposition arises, bitterness, even hatred and 
rage are aroused. . . . Evil men know that so long 
as you merely reclaim individual women from this 
miserable fate, you do no harm to their own position, 
or to the institution of prostitution, which they prefer to 
believe to be a social necessity—they know, full well, 
that by working as hard as you choose to save some 
of the female victims you do not in any appreciable 
degree decrease *he number of these victims. . . 
Then, observe, that in this war against the institution 
of vice . . . we arouse by degrees the conscience of 
the world, while acting with a definite purpose and for 
a given reason—that is, the abolition of legal prostitution. 
In aiming at this definite end we, as God’s agents and 
instruments, have attained a far wider, greater, deeper 
and nobler end—namely a revival of morality, an awaken- 
ing of the conscience of the people, a conviction that vice 
is not necessary, and a desire for purer manhood and 
juster laws. God is leading us on.” 
Mrs. Josephine Butler: Speech to the ladies at Hull, 
England, 1876. CHAPTER XII. 
THE WAR AND THE WEAPONS 
“The antagonism of principles as opposite as heaven 
and hell implies conflict, war without truce; until one 
side is victorious, then, and not till then, can there he 
peace worthy of the name.”—Josephine Butler. 
Civilization has yet to assume its greatest task. Its 
amazing progress has placed the world many marches 
forward in attainment and possessions. 
But until she breaks the chains herself has forged, 
the influence of civilization for human good will remain 
so greatly discounted that the net gain to the world will 
be in doubt. Alfred Russell Wallace, in his last published 
works declared a net loss instead of a gain.1 
What of modern war? If, in the rude wars of barbaric 
ages men were slain by the hundred, the engines of modern 
war contemplate and effect the slaughter of thousands. 
What of the modern liquor traffic? The very creation 
and agent of civilization, it is the most active and prolific 
source of poverty and crime and the ally of all forms of 
vice, without which sexual lust could never have been sus- 
tained as a business. 
What again of the satanic traffic in human flesh and 
soul values? This infernal trade in vice—this barter of 
child-women—this colossal sacrifice of womanhood on the 
altar of a two-fold lust—lust of flesh and lust of gain—is a 
‘“Social Environment and Moral Progress.” 302 
The World’s Social Evil 
juggernaut more terrible and infamous than any of the 
worst ages, or the darkest lands of idolatry. 
It is ancient, only as civilization is ancient, and its 
monumental waste and destruction are written in the dust 
and ashes of the cities and nations, once glorious in their 
pride and power.1 
No form of evil has held such continuous sway through 
the ages as this! Marked changes have taken place in 
many aspects of the conservation of human life and 
liberty. Murder, infanticide, and suicide have long since 
passed out of the list of excusable acts into that of heinous 
crimes. Slavery of men and women, as property, now 
finds no defense in the laws of any civilized country; 
economic freedom and equal franchise is in the air. 
Cruelty to animals and brutal sports, such as bull-baiting 
and cock-fighting, are buried under public odium, duels 
are almost of the past, pugilism is going, and the saloon, 
as an alcohol institution, is also doomed. 
But the moral conditions of sex life has changed only 
in form or fashion. At different periods sexual vice has 
assumed various dress. At one time, infamous and riotous, 
it flaunts under the open patronage of kings, rulers, and 
governments: 
JThe most important question which humanity ought to ad- 
dress to its historical scholars is this: “Why did these other 
nations die, and what can we do to escape their fate?” For 
death is not an inevitable and welcome necessity for a nation, 
as it is for the individual. Its strength and bloom could be in- 
definitely prolonged if the people were wise and just enough to 
avert the causes of decay. There is no inherent cause why a 
great group of nations, such as that which is now united in 
Western civilization, should not live on in perpetual youth, over- 
coming by a series of rejuvenations every social evil as it arises, 
and using every attainment as a stepping-stone to a still higher 
culture of individual and social life. It has never yet been 
done. Can it be done in a civilization in which Christianity is 
the salt of the earth, the social preservative?” Rauschenbusch. The War and the Weapons 
303 
“Men, blush not in actions black as night.” 
At another time it hides from broad daylight, or it 
assumes the air of prudes, while young souls are wrecked, 
and seeds of vile diseases are planted which reap their 
harvests down to the third and fourth generation. 
This traffic in womanhood is the very product of civiliza- 
tion’s doctrine of “necessity.” Barbarism was brutal and 
animal. But it was left to civilization to organize, regulate, 
and protect, a world-wide market with gangs of slave 
hunters, captors and traders, whose game and plunder 
are girls—from factory, store, school, and home and whose 
patrons are men from every grade and rank of society. 
Even the hell of war is associated with courage, 
heroism, and patriotism. Drunkenness and its long train 
of crimes, poverty, and disease, are the fruits of the alcohol- 
saloon, which is the ally of every form of human vice and 
degradation—but even the saloon contributes occasional 
humane shelter and some sort of social festivity. The 
pirate on the high seas or the passenger train, and the 
burglar in our cities, have no mercy on their victims, but 
the goods they steal find their way back to the marts of 
utility and value. 
But here is a foe of all humanity without a vestige of 
honor or a single qualifying feature or incident—a rebel- 
lion against innocence and honor—its very plunder—the 
blood and purity of womanhood. Here is a pirate who 
wars on domestic love and life; spreads unnameable hor- 
rors to myriads of innocent women and children, wrecks 
manhood and domestic honor, and never leaves a shred of 
salvage from the wreck. 
The ghoul who visits the battlefield to rob the dead 
is voted a despicable hound, whom, to shoot down in his 
tracks is deemed a righteous deed; but the pander, the 304 
The World’s Social Evil 
pimp, the buyer and seller of human bodies and souls for 
a price—the keeper of a house of death—are lower than 
the savages of the uncivilized world. “If,” as Shaks- 
peare says, “a babboon could speak it would disown the 
name of a pimp.” 
PROSTITUTION CAN BE SUPPRESSED. 
Remedial measures to relieve any great evil are not 
one, but many, but they must be an unit in purpose and 
aim if they are to accomplish the end in view. The social 
evil, as we have seen, is a three-fold curse, striking at 
the roots of human love and life and culminating in 
monstrous forms of slavery, through sensuality and cruel 
greed. No institution, or form of slavery, is comparable 
with the slavery of commercialized lust, either for cruelty— 
for utter degradation of the victims—or the depravity of 
the agents who exploit it; no slavery has ever wrought 
such havoc upon the physical and moral life, both of its 
victims and of society generally. Yet strange to say, 
it is the last of all the social wrongs to be openly and 
vigorously attacked by society in any effective or righteous 
way. Every other force of evil has been brought face to 
face with actual, organized forces of opposite good, tak- 
ing deliberate and concerted action against it. But 
throughout the ages, society has treated the social evil 
as an inevitable condition to be excused and provided for. 
It is at last dawning upon the minds of many that 
sensual vice is no more a necessity, as a business institution, 
than is any other form of evil, and that the attitude of 
the teacher, the preacher, and the patriot towards it, must 
be one of absolute, and unalterable opposition. But re- 
demption of men and nations can never come within The War and the Weapons 
305 
measurable distance until we engage in a common and con- 
tinuous war against all forms of this evil. 
We have seen notwithstanding that every imaginable 
device of toleration, regulation, license and police super- 
vision have been tried in vain, there are yet literary 
leaders, doctors, business men and even clergymen, whd 
cling to the delusion that moral infamy may be lessened 
by consenting to it, and that venereal diseases may be 
relieved by offering to the vicious and ignorant a false 
promise of protection against the consequences of their 
vices. 
It must not be assumed, however, that the defenders 
of this system are all immoral men. They include men 
who desire to aid reformation in society, who would re- 
strict and repress vice as well as disease, if they Enew 
how; they see that ‘ ‘ something must be done ’ ’ and, regard- 
ing the evil as too deeply rooted and too prevalent for re- 
pressive legal measures, they think that restriction and 
regulation will at least afford partial relief. But certain 
fundamental facts are overlooked: 
1. That those who occupy positions of influence, as 
doctors, authors, journalists, teachers and others, create 
public opinion, and their views, expressed in language, 
or enforced by law, become the current thought of the 
people. The educative power of law, or of legal machinery 
such as the police, must never be overlooked. All these 
confirm or discourage social habits, and especially those 
habits which have their roots in the relations of the sexes. 
2. Virtue and vice both grow more strong in soil pre- 
pared and adapted to them. Just as purity flourishes best 
where the moral atmosphere is not tainted—so impurity 
grows rank and rapidly where it is encouraged, permitted, 
paid for and hedged around with securities or protection. 306 
The World’s Social Evil 
It is of course claimed on behalf of regulation that its 
advocates neither encourage nor favor prostitution, but 
recognize it only, in order to restrict its fields of operation 
and to lessen its physical consequences, especially as they 
affect innocent persons. 
But, even if this be granted, as the ruling motive of 
all such action, the character of the treatment cannot be 
determined by it. The tree must be known by its fruit— 
not by the intention of the planters. It is the undeviating 
testimony of facts that when vice of any kind is recognized 
by regulation, i. e., by determining where and how it may 
operate, the transparent permission of legal sanction thus 
given, lends it dignity and assumed rights which greatly 
increase its influence. What the law approves, permits, 
sanctions, or allows, it stimulates. Thus, when gambling 
is tolerated, or sanctioned by police rule, the professional 
gambler has no need to apologize for his operations. He 
assumes a right in custom and law; his exploits becoming 
more daring, conspicuous and prosperous (although he 
may be heavily taxed for the permission) and, in course 
of time, he is ready to assume the rights of ordinary busi- 
ness and claims compensation if he is disturbed. 
3. The disastrous effects of a law which consents to 
conditional or regulated immorality are found, not only 
in the removal of the legal obstacles which make vice 
easier. Such law offers to sensual men, and to ignorant 
youth, the suggestion that sexual vice is no vice at all, 
if followed under regulated conditions, and thus it breaks 
down the guards and warnings, which law ought to pro- 
vide against wrongdoing. 
The nation, state, or city, which sanctions or allows 
a system of “permits” or regulation, by segregation, 
registration, or toleration, through its police or other The War and the Weapons 
307 
agents, becomes a party to the evil—a procurer for the 
vices of men; a powerful agent against the honor and 
liberties of women, and a destroyer of home life. 
Lecky’s high-flown passage, quoted in this volume,1 
is an expression of the uniform thought of ‘ ‘ regulationists. ’1 
They assume that sex-vice is a normal, unchangeable, con- 
dition of the male human, and that womanhood must 
always furnish an offering to the lusts of men,—that, for 
all time, she must either be a pet-slave of the eastern 
harem and its western equivalent, or the poor, despised 
creature of the vice shambles,—the priestess of humanity, 
indeed!—a sacrifice, bruised, tortured, diseased, enslaved, 
and slain for the sins of man. 
Yet, what true man is there who would not resent, unto 
blood, any proposal to offer his own mother, wife, sister, 
or daughter as a contribution to this sacrificial offering. 
Happily there is a great advance in the attitude of 
thinking men and women on this subject. It is not recorded 
that a single protest was offered in all that great body of 
American physicians when, in 1874, Prof. Gross openly ad- 
vocated the doctrine of necessity and the policy of license. 
But as we have shown, there are today thousands of the 
most distinguished physicians in all parts of the country— 
and of the world—who not only declare the doctrine of 
necessity false, but proclaim chastity as a normal human 
condition, in harmony with normal health and physical per- 
fection. 
Rescue and Prevention:—Born of profound pity for 
the women and girls who have been debased by men, and 
then called “fallen women,” the service of rescue has been 
maintained. Rescue is to be welcomed as an angel of mercy, 
‘See Fore-word. 308 
The World’s Social Evil 
and as the star of hope and relief, like the Red Cross Evan- 
gel on the field of battle; like Grace Darling—risking the 
dangers and hardships of the rough winds and the tem- 
pestuous sea to save an occasional ship-wrecked life. The 
rescue missionary has nobly and heroically saved many 
women and girls, who, being mortal, were also weak, and 
therefore often yielding—and sometimes sinning. 
But under unequal moral standards, Rescue delivers 
only from the bondage of life in a brothel; the woman is 
still doomed to wear the scarlet letter—reproached and 
scorned by Pharisaical society. 
Such rescue does not destroy or even weaken the insti- 
tution of commercialized vice. It is probably safe to say 
that for every one rescued, the door is thus opened for at 
least ten others to be seduced, entrapped and held in the 
bondage of this slavery. 
Just as the ministry of the Red Cross angel does not 
abate the war, nor bring peace on earth; so rescue does not 
lessen the deeds of lust, nor save the innocent from the traps 
of white slavery. 
The greater angel of deliverance is called “Preven- 
tion. ’ ’ 
This word “Prevention” in this connection, covers all 
efforts of society against the seductive and slavish condi- 
tions of the Social Evil. It strikes at the roots of the 
pestilent tree and welcomes every agency that ennobles man 
and woman—boy and girl. It recognizes every defect in 
the social organism, law, usage, hygiene, education and 
morals. 
Under the head of law are all the questions which 
government is so slow to answer. We have in every State 
great legislative bodies numbering from thirty to more 
than 300 persons—Senators and Representatives—and a The War and the Weapons 
309 
National Congress with its two great Houses of Senators 
and Congressmen. And to all these thousands of men, 
chosen to do the business of the nation and the common- 
wealths, the people pay, respectively, from a few hundreds 
to $10,000 annually. 
But party and personal interests are placed above the 
needs of humanity and the real issues of life, liberty, and 
domestic happiness are left over from year to year indefi- 
nitely. When the people ask for a fish they are given a 
stone. 
A large majority of these legislators recognize the claims 
of society for relief from pestilent gangs who prey upon 
society, and from conditions that would be a shame to 
Hottentots; but tariff, and trusts, and bills for personal 
ends, are allowed to block the way until the cry for reme- 
dies grow faint with sheer weariness. 
Marriage and Divorce are twin subjects that should, 
long ago, have been expressed in better law. That mar- 
riage should remain so long a jumble and confusion of 
crude and ill-considered laws, as many times varied as there 
are states in the Union, is to our everlasting discredit. That 
it should be possible for a couple to cross any state line and 
be legally united on terms that are invalid in another state; 
or that a marriage, which is legal in one state may not be so 
in another, is a monstrosity that might be excused if it 
were a relic of superstition in a far off heathendom. 
Marriage is the foundation of the family and ‘‘the 
family is the centre and archetype of the State, and the 
happiness and goodness of society are always dependent 
upon the purity of domestic life.”1 “Biologically, the 
family is the primary cell of the whole social organism.”2 
‘History of European Morals.—Lecky. 
"Religion in Social Action.—Graham Taylor. 310 
The World’s Social Evil 
It is useless to attempt any legislation to restrain di- 
vorce until marriage laws are first made uniform in prin- 
ciple—(the form and details being left to the State) by 
the federal government. And such uniformity should make 
absolute provision against the employment of marriage 
contracts as instruments, ready at hand, to the vice slaver. 
Provision should be made, by a uniform federal law, 
that no marriage could take place in any state without a 
public notice of the license applied for, such notice to be 
published a number of days before the issue of the license, 
and the marriage, permissable only, in the country or State in 
which at least one of the two persons has resided for a period 
of months. If prior registration is deemed necessary to the 
exercise of the ballot how much more should it be for a 
legal contract which affects the life of a family, through 
generations to come, and through them, the interests of the 
State. 
A student of this subject urges that marriage should 
be by civil contract only and that “a magistrate alone 
should have power to legalize marriage. ’ ’ 1 This would have 
the effect of eliminating the religious element, the value 
of which has been, from time immemorial, recognized. 
But the force of the civil tie is not lessened by the 
religious service, since, as the same author points out, the 
minister takes his authority from the State “by the power 
rested in me by the State I pronounce you man and wife.” 
The minister therefore performs a civil marriage tie, as 
truly, and by the same authority as a magistrate, with the 
added impressiveness of a religious obligation and vow. 
That Society may be delivered from degenerates many 
other remedies are now suggested. It is the wonder of 
thoughtful men and women that, having studied and de- 
Roman’s Share in Soul Culture.—A. Garlin Spencer. The War and the Weapons 
311 
veloped, in a marvelous degree, the species of domestic and 
other animals, transformed the wild rose into an “Ameri- 
can Beauty” and the prolific cactus into a fruitful edible 
tuber we should thus far have neglected the eugenics of 
the human species. Here is a new kindergarten—and a 
new interpreter for every grade in the school of life. 
“The first legislative recognition of a eugenic public 
policy was given by the British parliamentary measures of 
1909, providing for a ‘Maternity Benefit’ in the industrial 
insurance act, and the remission of 7s. 6d. for every child 
from the income tax upon the head of each family. ’n Here 
is the beginning of a new State-care of the family which 
may he attended with much good. 
Age of Consent :—Governing bodies are also criminally 
slow in protecting the young and weak from the ravages 
of vicious and unscrupulous men. The “age of consent” 
laws of many of our states remain, an indictment of crim- 
inal neglect, or purpose, against all our lawgivers. A chart 
in the Appendices of this volume shows that in one state 
the so-called “age of consent” is as low as 7 years; in an- 
other, 10; in three states, 12; in eight states, 14; while 
the average age in all the states and territories of the 
United States is about 15y2 years. 
Think of children of eight, ten, twelve, or even of the 
average of less than sixteen, being held by law as account- 
able for their own persons, against the villainous attacks 
of unscrupulous, designing, rascals—such as are of daily 
occurrence in every city. 
The legal age of girls and boys should be made equal, 
and then a uniform law should be agreed upon in every 
state that the legal age of 21 shall also be the “age of 
consent.” There is new reason for this equality of the 
‘Graham Taylor. 312 
The World’s Social Evil 
legal age since women are so rapidly coming into the 
political franchise. 
Saloon and Dance Hall :—The law ought also to pro- 
tect the young against all relations of the dance-hall with 
the saloon. 
There is no greater reproach upon our government—na- 
tional, state and civic—than the lack of protection for hu- 
man life, honor and liberty. If a purse is stolen the thief 
is arrested and the penalty is severe. If a girl is robbed of 
her honor, which is her chief dowry, and is of incomparably 
more concern to the state than the protection of a purse, or 
a jewel, the police are not instructed to hunt down the 
thief. 
If a man steals a horse he may be sent to the peniten- 
tiary, but if a pander steals a girl and drains her life to 
satisfy his miserable appetite or greed, even if arrested, he 
may escape under the contemptible coward’s plea that she 
consented. Even the vicious brothel keeper is carefully 
protected against action for debauching the public con- 
science or demoralizing the neighborhood. Under the com- 
mon law of the State, a man who owns the house he lives 
in may bring a civil action for damages against a person 
who sets up a brothel adjacent to his property, but if he 
is a tenant his only practical remedy is to move away, 
with the risk of a similar nuisance elsewhere. 
Injunction Law :—This defect in law will be met in a 
large measure by the Injunction and Abatement law which, 
as we have shown, is now in operation in twelve states and 
the District of Columbia, but has been defeated in some 
other states by the deplorably chaotic condition of our 
State legislatures. 
Here, however, we have a weapon which has already put 
the brothel out of business in at least one State, and is The War and the Weapons 
313 
rapidly doing it in others. And when every State furnishes 
this weapon, and the people learn how to use it—the brothel 
will go—the market of open, recognized vice will be closed; 
and when the market is closed there can be no sale of 
girls and this merchandise of death will be ended. 
THE REPRESSION OF MARRIAGE. 
The measures now advocated for the restriction and 
regulation of families by law are not to be accepted without 
question and consideration. Laws for the proper and 
orderly observance of marriage are needed; laws that will 
give security against ill-considered, hasty, marriage be- 
tween young people, or between older adventurers on the 
one side, and the young or inexperienced, on the other; laws 
that recognize the right of parents and guardians to a 
knowledge of marriage contracts beforehand; laws that 
shall hold marriage in one state to be marriage in another, 
—these are necessary steps before the question of divorce 
can be dealt with. 
But laws forbidding marriage at the behest of physi- 
cians may lead to a flood-tide of unmarried licentiousness, 
without lessening the evils they are designed to mitigate 
and will give new opportunities for the graft of quackery. 
It is probable that new zeal in the direction of eugenics 
will be attended by some errors. 
Dean Sumner’s ruling against marriage of any couple 
who do not hold a certificate of a reputable physician certi- 
fying that they are physically and mentally fit, can do no 
harm as an experiment. It is operative only as it applies 
to the Episcopal Cathedral of Chicago and to such others 
as elect to copy the method and its effects may be watched 
with interest. But when, as in Wisconsin, it is made a law 
of the State—the edict assumes a different aspect and leads 314 
The World’s Social Evil 
to various questions. What, for instance, will become of 
those who cannot pass the examination of the State, or 
other reputable, physicians? Will they abstain from mar- 
riage or, knowing their weakness, will they secure a certifi- 
cate from some less reputable physician? Or will they 
decide to live together without marriage and, if so, what 
may be the effect upon the ratio of illegitimate births ? 
Will not the raising of a legal bar against marriage tend 
to increase loose concubinage and illegitimacy, thus adding 
a new evil to that of mentally and physically defective 
births ? 
State provision for free medical advice to persons in- 
tending marriage is much needed. Parents and guardians 
of youths, of both sexes, could then be encouraged to insist 
upon a medical certificate where a taint is suspected and thus 
protect their own daughters or sons. The official Medical 
Examiner also, could then report cases of the “unfit” who 
should be refused a marriage certificate, unless birth of 
children was prevented by sterilization. 
But for the State to say to Society—thou shalt not live 
in fornication—and yet to put up an absolute bar against 
the legal marriage of many is to make provision for chaos 
in social life. 
Think again of the danger of placing the power in the 
hands of any class of men—to forbid the marriage of the 
sexes and practically to say:—you may go just as you are— 
physically fit or not fit—and dwell together, and beget 
children in illegitimacy, but you cannot marry and give 
to your union a legitimate relationship. 
The late distinguished scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, 
in his last work1 quotes Hiram M. Stanley as saying: 
‘“Social Environment and Moral Progress.” The War and the Weapons 
315 
“In the true golden age, which lies not behind but before 
us, the privilege of parentage will be esteemed an honor for the 
comparatively few, and no child will be born who is not only 
sound in body and mind, but also above the average as to nat- 
ural ability and moral force. The most important matter in so- 
ciety, the inherent quality of the members of which it is com- 
posed, should be regulated by trained specialists.” 
To this suggestion Mr. Wallace remarks: “Of course, 
our modern eugenists will disclaim any wish to adopt such 
measures as are here hinted at, which are in every way 
dangerous and detestable. But I protest strenuously 
against any direct interference with the freedom of mar- 
riage, which, is not only totally unnecessary, but would b6 
a much greater source of danger to morals and to the 
well-being of humanity than the mere temporary evils it 
seeks to cure. I trust that all my readers will oppose any 
legislation on this subject by a chance body of elected per- 
sons who are totally unfitted to deal with far less com- 
plex problems than this one, and as to which they are sure 
to bungle disastrously.” 
That society should make provision against the pair- 
ing of the unfit—the weak-minded, demented, and diseased— 
is strongly advocated by Judge Olson in the address which 
we publish as an Appendix of this volume. There are 
stupendous changes involved and many objections to over- 
come but such a scheme, so ably presented by Judge Olson1 
has the great merit of dealing gradually with these classes, 
in their youth, before they acquire a desire for marriage 
and in such a way as practically to segregate the sexes, at 
least until an age or condition, when offspring cannot be 
born to them. 
Mr. Wallace declares: “It is in the highest degree 
presumptuous and irrational to attempt to deal by com- 
’See Appendix. 316 
The World’s Social Evil 
pulsory enactments with the most vital and most sacred of 
all human relations, regardless of the fact that our present 
phase of social development is not only extremely imper- 
fect but vicious and rotten at the core. How can it be 
possible to determine by legislation those relations of the 
sexes which shall be best alike for individuals and for the 
race, in a society in which a large proportion of our 
women are forced to work long hours daily for the barest 
subsistence, with an almost total absence of the rational 
pleasures of life, for the want of which thousands are 
driven into wholly uncongenial marriages in order to se- 
cure some amount of personal independence or physical 
well-being ? ’n 
He contends that “when men and women are, for the 
first time in the course of civilization, alike free to follow 
their best impulses; when idleness and vicious or hurtful 
luxury on the one hand, oppressive labor and the dread of 
starvation on the other, are alike unknown; when all re- 
ceive the best and broadest education that the state of 
civilization and knowledge will admit; when the standard of 
public opinion is set by the wisest and the best among us, 
and that standard is systematically inculcated on the 
young; then we shall find that a system of truly natural 
selection will come spontaneously into action which will 
steadily tend to eliminate the lower, the less developed, or 
in any way defective types of men, and will thus continu- 
ously raise the physical, moral, and intellectual standard 
of the race.” 
The mode by which this will come about is thus stated 
by Mr. Wallace. 
1. “That a very moderate advance in the average age 
of marriage—which would certainly result from a truly 
1 “Social Environment and Moral Progress.’* The War and the Weapons 
317 
rational system of education combined with economic 
equality—necessarily diminishes the rate of increase of the 
population. 
2. “That every approach to educational and economic 
equality by effecting a large saving of the lives of males 
who now die from preventable causes, combined with the 
fact that male births exceed those of females, would so 
diminish the number of the latter that they would soon be- 
come less instead of, as now, more than that of males; that 
this would give them an effective choice in marriage which 
they do not now possess, together with the power of de- 
lay which for many reasons large numbers of them would 
exercise. 
3. “The law of diminishing fertility with increase of 
brain-work through education and training would further 
tend to the diminution of fertility. These three natural 
causes all tend in one direction—the equality of births 
with deaths, while their action would be so readily modified 
by public opinion as to obviate all danger of either in- 
crease or decrease beyond what was necessary for the well- 
being of each community, nation or race.” 
“As time goes on, and she (woman) acquires more 
and more economic independence, that alone will give her 
an effective choice which she has never had before. But 
this choice will be further strengthened by the fact that, 
with ever-increasing approach to equality of opportunity 
for every child born in our country, that terrible excess 
of male deaths, in boyhood and early manhood especially, 
due to various preventable causes, will disappear, and 
change the present majority of women to a majority of 
men. This will lead to a greater rivalry for wives, and 
will give to women the power of rejecting all the lower 
types of character among their suitors.” 318 
The World’s Social Evil 
“The certainty that this powerful selective agency will 
come into existence just in proportion as we reform our 
existing social system by the abolition of poverty and the 
establishment of full equality of opportunity in education 
and economic position, demonstrates that Nature—or the 
Universal Mind—has not failed or bungled our world so 
completely as to require the weak and ignorant efforts of 
the eugenists to set it right, while leaving the great funda- 
mental causes of all existing social evils absolutely un- 
touched. Let them devote all their energies to purifying 
this whitened sepulchre of destitution and ignorance, and 
the beneficent laws of human nature will themselves bring 
about the physical, intellectual, and moral advancement of 
our race.”1 
Ex-President Roosevelt’s plea for the family was in- 
spired by a statesman’s view of the dangers to any nation 
which fails to conserve family life. “The prime need,” 
he says, “is to raise the level of individual morality, and 
to encourage early marriages and a strict sense of recip- 
rocal conjugal obligations. The women who preach late 
marriages are by just so much making it difficult to better 
the standard of morality.” All other questions sink ini" 
insignificance when the stability of the family is at stake 
and, as Prof. Rauschenbausch has said, the most significant 
part of that utterance of Mr. Roosevelt’s “was that such a 
thing had to be uttered at all. In our country the decline 
has become chronic for some years past. Men marry late, 
and when the mating season of youth is once past, many 
never marry at all. In my city of Rochester, N. Y., with 
a population of 162,608, the census of 1900 showed 25,- 
219 men between the ages of 25 and 44, the years during 
which a man ought to be enjoying a home and rearing 
'“Social Environment and Moral Progress.” The War and the Weapons 
319 
children and 7,355 of them were still unmarried. There 
were 28,218 women of the same years, relatively further 
along in marriageable age than the men, and 8,109 were 
still unmarried. Now the attraction between men and 
women is just as fundamental a fact in social life as the 
attraction of the earth is in physics, and the only way in 
which that tremendous force of desire can be prevented 
from wrecking lives is to make it build lives by home con- 
tentment.”1 
The home is not only consecrated and saved by the 
child, but the nation itself is saved thereby. 
George Kibbe Turner has well said: ‘ * The chastity of 
woman is at the foundation of Anglo-Saxon society. Our 
laws are based upon it, and the finest and most binding 
of our social relations. Nothing could be more menacing 
to a civilization than the sale of this as a commodity. To 
the average individual woman concerned, it means the 
expectation of death under ten years; to practically all the 
longer survivors a villainous and hideous after-life.”2 
No thoughtful person will dispute the truth of this, but 
men have not yet learned that it is true also of men. 
Unchastity of men is the primary cause of the sale of 
woman as a commodity and of all that attend that sale, 
including the physical blight and premature death of men 
as well as women. 
Tacitus furnishes a sketch of the domestic relations of 
the ancient peoples of the German race; he does not 
portray them, of course, as noted for refinement, but he 
shows that they did not barter their wives and daughters 
for profit except on a basis of marriage. He says: 
‘Christianity and the Social Crisis, page 272. 
’McClure’s, April, 1907. The World’s Social Evil 
320 
“The matrimonial bond is strict and severe among them; 
nor is there anything in their manner more commendable than 
this. Almost singly among the barbarians, they content them- 
selves with one wife; a very few of them excepted, who, not 
through incontinence, but because their alliance is solicited on 
account of their rank, practice polygamy. The wife does not 
bring a dowry to her husband, but receives one from him. The 
parents and relations assemble, and pass their approbation on 
the presents—presents not adapted to please a female taste, or 
decorate the bride; but oxen, a caparisoned steed, a shield, spear, 
and sword. That the woman may not think herself excused 
from exertions of fortitude, or exempt from the casualties of 
war, she is admonished by the very ceremonial of her marriage, 
that she comes to her husband as a partner in toils and dangers; 
to suffer and to dare equally with him, in peace and in war; 
this is indicated by the yoked oxen, the harnessed steed, the of- 
fered arms. Thus she is to live; thus to die. She receives what 
she is to return inviolate and honored to her children; what her 
daughters-in-law are to receive, and again transmit to her grand- 
children. 
“They live, therefore, fenced around with chastity; corrupted 
by no seductive spectacles, no convivial incitements. Men and 
women are alike unacquainted with clandestine correspondence. 
Adultery is extremely rare among so numerous a people. Its 
punishment is instant and at the pleasure of the husband. He 
cuts off the hair of the offender, strips her, and in the presence 
of her relations, expels her from his home and pursues her with 
stripes through the whole village. Nor is any indulgence shown 
to a prostitute. Neither beauty, youth, nor riches can procure 
her a husband; for none there looks on vice with a smile, or 
calls mutual seduction the way of the world. Still more ex- 
emplary is the practice of those states in which none but virgins 
marry, and the expectations and wishes of a wife are at once 
brought to a period. Thus, they take one husband as one body 
and one life; that no thought, no desire may extend beyond him; 
and he may be loved, not only as their husband, but as their mar- 
riage. To limit the increase of children, or put to death any of 
the later progeny, is accounted infamous; and good habits have The War and the Weapons 
321 
there more influence than good laws elsewhere. (Tacitus, Ger- 
many and Agricola Oxford Translation.)1 
This simple note of an ancient people shows that their 
conduct was directed by nature’s laws. They followed 
nature so well that they were a race of stalwarts. They 
were simple, if barbaric. They were brave, even if brutal. 
They knew nothing of the refinements of education, ethics, 
or art; but they were chaste and in youth continent, 
obedient to nature; and they made choice of suitable mates. 
They left it to civilization to provide measures of regula- 
tion, license, and commercialization. They framed their 
life with a view to physical advantage and healthy, vigor- 
lives with a view to physical advantage and healthy, vigor- 
ous progeny. Much of what the sturdy German races owe 
to these ancestors of two thousand years ago, they, like 
other nations, have lost in modern licentiousness and the 
regulated brothel under civilization. 
Education and Morals. 
Dr. Richard Cabot has warned us that in dealing with 
love and sex there is especial need of restraint.2 The 
learned Doctor’s wise counsel must command our respect, 
but his instructive lectures3 are his testimony against leav- 
*A note to this translation by Edwin Brooks, Jr., says: 
“The chastity of the Germans, and their strict regard to the 
laws of marriage, are witnessed by all their ancient codes of law. 
The purity of their manners in this respect afforded a striking 
contrast to the licentiousness of the Romans in the decline of the 
empire, and is exhibited in this light by Salvian, in his treatise 
De Gubernatione.” 
Tacitus also says that, “The youths partake late of the pleas- 
ures of love, and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted; nor 
are the virgins hurried into marriage; the same maturity, the 
same full growth is required; the sexes unite equally matched, 
and robust; and the children inherit the vigor of their parents.” 
*What Men Live By, p. 225. 
‘Christian Approach to Social Morality. 322 
The World’s Social Evil 
ing the field to error and darkness. 
“There is no darkness, but ignorance,” says Shak- 
speare; and Jesus Christ found no figure that could per- 
sonify himself as a teacher, like light—“I am the Light 
of the World.” 
Darkness and superstition are twins. Nothing can 
overcome them but light—the great, bright, sunlight of 
truth. To those who live in the light, it seems incredible 
that any should make choice of darkness, and yet millions 
of people choose darkness rather than disturb their old 
time superstitions. 
On no subject does this love of darkness prevail as on 
that of human race hygiene. The highest conditions are 
shown and studied in every other department of life. 
Horses, cattle, and dogs, are carefully studied for race 
culture. Birds and fowls are studiously mated. Flowers 
and vegetables are subject to the utmost culture that the 
best may be produced. But in the human family, ignorance 
is preferred on the plea that knowledge is indecent. Chil- 
dren are ignorantly born and blindly allowed to grow up. 
Sex or race-hygiene is health of the race; health in 
reproduction; and health in growth and quality.1 
To ask any intelligent person: “Ought we to teach 
it?” should meet an instant answer in the affirmative. 
Yet, there is no question upon which intelligent people 
raise so many and varied objections. 
‘To those who would study this subject from the stand- 
point of education we know of nothing equal to Dr. G. Stanley 
Hall’s two volumes on “Adolescence,” published by Appleton & 
Co.; and The Eighth Yearbook of the National Society for the 
Scientific Study of Education; it is edited by Prof. Chas. R. 
Henderson of Chicago University, and is published by the Uni- 
versity Press of Chicago in two parts, I and II. The War and the Weapons 
323 
These objections are based upon one or two main points. 
1. That ignorance on this subject is innocence. There 
is an “innocence” which proceeds from ignorance. A 
mind, absolutely blank, may be said to be innocent. 
But ignorance does not always mean an entire absence 
of facts. More often it means facts perverted, misapplied, 
unrelated. In the old-time fourth of July celebrations, 
many a boy knew enough of the power of explosives to 
blow out his eyes—or his life. 
At the very dawn of intelligence children begin to in- 
quire into all sorts of problems, and of no one of them 
so insistently as of the question of sex and life. Absolute, 
total darkness on the subject is impossible, with very rare 
exceptions. 
What follows when primary facts of sex-life are learned 
through distorted and perverted channels—a grain of truth 
with a pound of evil? The mere question suggests all the 
horrors of a young imagination, peopled with perverted 
sex images, and ready to feed upon others that follow. 
Such ignorance not only blinds the eyes, but destroys the 
moral sense and power of control. 
Many a child, before it reaches the years of puberty, 
is already a pervert—not because it knows but because it 
does not know. Others who miss the perilous path in child- 
hood, come to it a little further on. 
The untaught girl meets another—of her own—perhaps 
of the other sex, and ruin follows. The untaught boy en- 
ters a circle of other boys, a little older, and he speedily 
becomes a moral pervert, a physical wreck, and a social 
danger. 
2. The second error is based on the proposition that 
knowledge on this subject suggests evil. 
Is that true? Does suggestion come of our knowledge 324 
The World’s Social Evil 
of facts, or does it come through ignorance? Is there not 
a conflict between right and wrong whenever knowledge 
faces evil suggestion? Is not knowledge a guard and a 
defence in the presence of evil? 
The suggestion of evil in sex matters—as in anything 
else—does not feed upon true knowledge, hut upon per- 
verted facts, filtered in from the sewer—from the slush 
novel; the vicious show or dance hall; or the ignorant and 
vicious companion. 
Two other questions follow. And upon them many of 
the best people seriously differ. 
The first is WHEN? 
To this question let us give one answer—NOW. 
There is no period in a human life when the facts of 
life should be hidden. They may be presented improperly, 
or out of season. That is true of any set of facts. To 
cram a child’s mind with chemistry, geography, or any 
study, in advance of its age, does harm instead of good. 
But as the child-mind develops, so as to inquire of 
facts of nature—be it the song of birds—the play of lambs 
—the birth of a kitten; or the coming of a baby, every 
inquiry should be welcome. There should be no forbidden 
question. The question of the child may be put off to a 
more convenient season, but the door should never be 
closed upon the subject as a forbidden one. 
Once let a child lose confidence in Mother, or Father, 
as the true sources of first hand knowledge, on questions 
which its very nature prompts, and it will seek the answer 
at the earliest moment from some less fastidious, but 
wholly dangerous source. 
And this is just as true of a growing boy or girl as of 
a little child. The girl who cannot get the meaning of 
her changing life from mother or father, will try to get The War and the Weapons 
325 
it elsewhere. The boy who finds his father as close as a 
clam, on subjects which are burning in his adolescent 
mind will inquire, where he will receive—not knowledge 
—but perverted, poisoned, unwholesome facts. And if 
these young people, in the dawn of their manhood and 
womanhood, find also that, at school, every question of 
physiology, biology, or anatomy is closed, the moment the 
study reaches to the human race, and every book, treating 
of the subject, is locked from them, they will feel that they 
are driven to discuss it in ways that are secret and in 
places that are dark. Such young people are ripe sub- 
jects for suggestive books, and the advertising pamphlets 
of quacks, or for the still more vile prints that are secretly 
circulated under sealed covers. 
The third question is—HOW? 
How shall we teach race, or sex hygiene? 
The answer is—exactly as ive teach any other subject 
—frankly, simply, truthfully. 
Primary facts are for primary scholars, on this, as on 
any other subject. The primary teacher is the mother. 
She it is that must instill the first truths in the minds of 
her child; and every sane mother can tell her child the 
initial truths of ordinary domestic, religious, or nature- 
life—up to the standard, or measure of her experience, or 
training. She cannot do more; but this she should be en- 
couraged to do. 
Generally speaking, on other subjects, mothers, do this. 
As the child asks, mother wfill tell the little child what 
she knows about fire and water. She will tell it that fire 
burns and destroys as well as warms and eomforts—that 
a knife is sharp and will cut the fingers, that food can be 
cooked in several ways and that pain may be relieved 326 
The World’s Social Evil 
by simple medicines, but that some medicines are poisonous 
and dangerous. 
She will tell the child about God and Heaven, Right 
and Wrong, according to the measure of her own faith, 
or training. She will tell that when summer comes, and 
the sun shines, and the rains fall, there will be grass and 
flowers, and trees and fruits. If she lives in the country 
she will tell of the birds with their young, and the kittens, 
and fowls, and the lambs. 
But let the child ask an initial or primary question 
about human life and the mother closes up. “Run away 
now Dorothy—you must not ask such questions!” 
What parents need most is a knowledge of the essen- 
tial, initial truths, and guidance as to how to impart those 
truths. And what school pupils need, is instruction in 
causes and effects—in the things that lead to a higher 
moral conception of the realness of life and the dignity of 
the race continuing process. 
Boys can be taught as boys, to reverence motherhood 
and honor all women—that an insult to any girl should be 
treated by every boy as though she were his sister. They 
can be taught that life is from within and that the law of 
sex is the same in the human race as in other forms of 
life. They need instruction as to the dangers of certain 
secret actions, and the wrong of unclean thoughts and 
language. 
Girls can be taught the meaning of their changing 
physical life, and the functions and sacredness of mother- 
hood. They can be taught that the body is a holy temple 
of generation, and that to tamper with it, or neglect it, 
is to demoralize and destroy it. 
Under the question of “How to Teach?” nothing is per- The War and the Weapons 
327 
haps so important, in relation to this subject, as the in- 
culcation of right mental and moral attitude. 
This is the first essential thing in the premises: If the 
attitude is right the average parent will not pronounce 
themselves incapable of giving initial and essential facts to 
their own children. 
The play called “The Blindness of Virtue” was based 
upon the commonly inherited superstition that this is a 
subject which cannot be spoken—an error which has grown 
with generations of prudery and hypocrisy, until intelli- 
gent parents allow their children to grow to the danger 
line and to enter life’s most serious obligations and re- 
sponsibilities blindly. In the play the heads of a family, 
are a scholarly clergyman and his cultured wife. Their 
daughter is carefully shielded from contact with society; 
and from every avenue of knowledge she is closely guarded. 
She reaches the age of seventeen, and does not know the 
meaning of her adolescent yearnings; nor does she under- 
stand the need of natural reserve, when she falls in love 
with a young man whom her father has received into his 
home as a private student. The result is a shock and a 
tragedy. 
The play may represent an extreme of circumstantial 
life among cultured people, but it is absolutely true in its 
meaning and lessons. Not merely untaught mothers and 
fathers; but cultured, educated, parents, deny all informa- 
tion to their children—not because they cannot give it, 
but because they have accepted the conventional altitude 
of silence, secrecy, and false modesty. 
The facts related by Judge Julian Mack of Cook 
County Juvenile Court ought to awaken the keenest con- 
cern on the part of parents. The saddest thing about 328 
The World’s Social Evil 
these terrible revelations is that they are typical of many 
such cases, known in every Juvenile Court. 
“During a three-years’ experience as judge of the Juvenile 
Court in Cook County there came before me several hundred 
cases of girls, ranging in age from seven to eighteen years, 
every one of whom had made a misstep. Their pitiful stories 
have impressed upon me the vital importance of two funda- 
mental duties that fathers and mothers owe to their children: 
First, that parents should at all times, from earliest child- 
hood, have that priceless possession, the genuine confidence of 
their child: a confidence which will cause the child not merely 
to obey, but also to trust and to feel implicitly that the parent 
is at all times and under all circumstances the best friend, 
the most constant companion, and the wisest and most willing 
adviser. 
Second, that, in order to earn and to deserve this con- 
fidence, parents must be frank in responding to the natural 
inquiries of their child; yea, more, they must divine the 
unspoken question at the right time, and answer it clearly 
and in a manner that will invite further questions as the 
child develops into young womanhood. 
I know the difficulties involved in this, even for the more 
intelligent and educated parents. But I know only too well 
that too many parents live in a fools’ paradise of belief that 
their silence spells ignorance and innocence on the part of 
the children. 
It cannot be too emphatically repeated that every child 
mingling with other children, whether in private or in public 
schools, is going to learn much even at the age of ten, and, 
in circles in which children are not carefully guarded, even 
as early as seven. The words picked up, the thoughts awakened, 
arouse the inquiring mind. If the silent inquiry be felt and 
responded to by the parents a relation is established which, 
developed by mutual confidences, throws a protecting mantle 
over the little one that in many cases will guard her for life. 
If the spoken or unspoken query he avoided or checked the 
first barrier is raised, which, followed by the conventional 
story, easily and quickly discovered to be untrue, destroys the 
child’s faith in her mother. This may close her lips for all The War and the Weapons 
329 
time and turn her to those who are always within reach and 
are only too ready to initiate her not only into a complete 
knowledge of but also into an experiment with the mysteries 
of life. 
Whenever a number of school children are in court for 
these wrongs one leader among the girls has invariably been 
found responsible for spreading the trouble. The boys instinc- 
tively recognize the difference in girls and know which are 
possible victims and which are not. From one of the schools 
located in an excellent region of Chicago came a girl of 
seventeen years of age. Her parents were an old couple, her 
sister a trained nurse and her brother an excellent business 
man. This seventeen-year-old girl was the baby of the family 
and in their eyes an innocent child, the object of universal 
love. The family never suspected that instead of visiting one 
of her girl schoolmates after supper, as she said she did, she 
was keeping an appointment with some of the neighborhood 
boys. Her influence led at least three other girls of from 
twelve to fifteen to follow in her footsteps. Two of her in- 
timate friends were twins of the age of fifteen, and one took 
the keenest pleasure in these clandestine meetings. The other 
twin knew practically nothing about them, as not only the 
boys, but even the girls, recognized her innate modesty and 
refrained from mentioning them in her presence. The boys 
told me that they would be ashamed and afraid to make an 
indelicate suggestion in her presence, while they hesitated at 
nothing in the presence of the other twin and her companions. 
None of these girls had the slightest knowledge of the 
physical consequences of their acts. They all realized, of 
course, that they were disobeying and deceiving their parents 
and otherwise doing wrong, but not one of them had ever been 
told anything about the origin of human life. As to whether 
this knowledge would have protected them or not I cannot 
be sure, but I believe, from my conversations with them and 
with their parents, that it would have done so. The incident 
became generally known in the school and caused a complete 
awakening of the parents in that section of the city to a 
realization of their obligations. The school is located at the 
border line between a section occupied by fairly well-to-do 
people and a section occupied by the poorer classes. Every one 330 
The World’s Social Evil 
of the boys and girls involved in this trouble came from the 
well-to-do class. 
In another case some half a dozen boys and half a dozen 
girls between the ages of ten and thirteen were involved. The 
leader here, again, was a girl of eleven years. She was one 
of the seven or eight children of a widow. This girl had never 
received the slightest instruction in these matters—in fact, she 
was the victim of parental neglect to such an extent that it 
became necessary to take her away from home. 
In a small suburb of Chicago half a dozen high-school girls 
of fourteen and fifteen years of age made a regular practice 
of receiving a company of their male fellow-students at their 
respective homes on Thursday afternoons when the mothers 
were awray attending their club meetings. These boys and girls 
were all of the so-called better classes and the mothers were 
intelligent women. In their club affairs these women had dis- 
played an active interest in communal welfare, but they had 
forgotten to gain the full confidence of their daughters; not 
one of these girls had ever been told anything of the mystery 
of life, or understood the physical consequences of her act. 
A group of seven little girls, from nine to twelve years 
of age, were the victims of a gray-haired scoundrel, all led 
on by a child of twelve, the first victim, who persuaded the 
others to follow her example. Candy and a few pennies were 
sufficient inducement in this case. 
In another case, a group of half a dozen girls of fourteen 
and fifteen years of age made it a custom, after church on Sun- 
day morning, to visit a man who gave them ice cream and 
played music for them, and the parents thought that they 
were going for a walk! 
One little girl of nine years of age, who was kept in 
ignorance of these things by her parents, was the victim of 
more than a dozen boys, ranging in age from ten to sixteen. 
She was a beautiful, innocent child. 
A widowed mother with two beautiful daughters of fifteen 
and seventeen made no attempt to instruct either of them. 
She was a weak, pleasure-loving woman, and the natural results 
followed. Both girls were faithful attendants at Sunday-school 
and church, but were easy victims of their school companions. 
The younger girl was subsequently responsible for leading three The War and the Weapons 
331 
of her girl Sunday-school mates into like adventures. 
A mother disregarded some rumors that came to her about 
her eleven-year-old daughter. She pooh-poohed them, declar- 
ing that she knew her child, and that the child’s “innocence” 
and ignorance were absolute protection to her. The mother’s 
discovery of her mistake was something heartbreaking to wit- 
ness.1 
After all it is not so much scientific knowledge that is 
needed, but simply the use of the common knowledge which 
most of us possess. 
The mother in the play is like the average mofffer. 
She has turned her child away when it craved to know; 
and now when the child has become a budding woman, 
she says: “I cannot talk with her on the subject.” The 
same is true of the average father. 
Can a woman be a mother and not know enough to 
answer her little girl’s simple, primary questions on the 
subject, as those questions naturally arise, which begin at 
three or four years of age ? 
Can a man be a father and not possess sufficient knowl- 
edge to explain to his boy that a union or marriage of the 
two sexes is necessary to generation and birth, that just 
as the birds must mate, and the boy’s pet dog must mate, 
so man and woman mates, or marries, for off-spring ? 
Shall we perpetuate the social lie; that it is perfectly 
right to teach the commerce of sexes among stock on the 
farm, or of domestic pets in the home, but the extreme 
of impropriety to apply the lesson to human beings ? 
Change the attitude, from a conspiracy of silence, to one 
of open, simple truth, and the problem of sex education 
will be halfway solved. 
Ample and efficient scientific teaching is for the 
'The Eighth Yearbook of The National Society for the Sci- 
entific Study of Education. 332 
The World’s Social Evil 
specialist, and cannot be too efficient. But to the masses— 
the millions—this is impossible. It is as impossible for 
all of us to be physiologists, as it is for all of us to be 
chemists or astronomers. 
If it were assumed that mothers could not give the 
first lesson in cooking, because they are not chemists, what 
would become of the dinner table in the average home? 
It does not depreciate a cook if she is also a chemist; but 
if it were a current doctrine that a mother could not teach 
how to make bread without explaining the law of fermenta- 
tion, how many breadmakers would there be in the next 
generation of wives and mothers? 
If fathers cannot tell their boys the essential difference 
and relation of the sexes, than Governor Dunne’s action 
in closing the State University of Illinois against race 
education to future fathers and teachers is a crime. 
Again the spirit of candor and frankness should enter 
all forms of social education on the subject. Books of 
value are not those which in the name of science, or morals, 
revel in details or enter, into descriptive scenes. It may 
help to sell a book if a story of questionable deeds is 
introduced, or a picture of sex organs is given, but the 
value of such a book depends upon its spirit and purpose. 
Any book that is fit for father or mother need not be 
locked away from the child. 
In my own library no book or picture was hidden from 
the boys or girls, unless by chance a book found its way 
there that I was ashamed of, and then I destroyed it. 
If a boy or girl found a book beyond their years they 
did not read it, but when it did appeal to them, they 
would ask me about it, and that was my opportunity. 
Pictures and plays are either educational or demoraliz- 
ing. They either teach or degrade. “September Morn” The War and the Weapons 
333 
in its beautiful simplicity, was forbidden to be displayed 
in the store windows, of Chicago, but numerous ugly and 
suggestive burlesques of the picture are displayed every- 
where in hundreds of windows. 
Plays that have no vicious purpose are censored and 
suppressed, for no other apparent reason than that they 
are avowedly directed against commercialized vice. Some 
of the so-called White Slave plays are neither artistic nor 
accurate, but they offer no commendation of vice, and their 
tendency is on the whole to attack vice. 
On the other hand, the stage where vice is paraded 
in suggestive dress and manner; where vulgar, indecent 
dances, and songs, are given, that are more than suggestive; 
such theatres are allowed to advertise the most flagrant 
displays of sensual nakedness. The tendency of all this 
is very marked. 
“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated needs but to be seen, 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” 
“Essay of Man—Pope. 
Young people should be taught that nature calls for 
the assimilation of all her secret forces for the building 
up of the human body, and that self-restraint and con- 
trol are the very essentials of good physical manhood and 
womanhood, as well as of moral purity. 
Such light as this, thrown upon the canvas that our 
youth may see it, will prepare them for the manifestation 
of the race-continuing functions, so that they will neither 
be puzzled nor frightened, nor mislead by ignorant or 
vicious agencies. 
So shall we develop a race of men and women who 
shall perpetuate the wealth, the virtue, the glory of our 
nation and so may we appropriate the Spirit of t-he Poet 334 
The World’s Social Evil 
Burns, in words addressed to his own beloved Scotland: 
“0 Scotia! my dear, my native soil! 
For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! 
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil, 
Be blest with health and peace and sweet content! 
And oh! may heaven their simple lives prevent, 
From luxury’s contagion, weak and vile! 
Then, however crowns and coronets be rent, 
A virtuous populace may rise the while! 
And stand a wall of fire around their much love’d Isle!” 
RELIGION AND CHASTITY. 
The religious education of the future must place a 
new emphasis upon chastity. It is a significant fact that 
the spiritual life of the church has been weakened in pro- 
portion to its neglect of this principle. 
Christ did not consider the soul and body as separate 
existences or separate interests. He had great respect 
for the body. 
The Apostle Paul emphasized the Christ doctrine in 
his appeal to “ present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable.” The soul itself is glorified by a pure body. 
Christ honored wedding feasts and chose them as 
themes for some of his parables. He showed himself 
strongly in love of pure domestic life, both by his habits, 
his teaching of the purity of marriage and his absolute 
disapproval of divorce. So positive and unconditional was 
his teaching on divorce that he left no room for doubt 
that true chastity must determine the worth and strength 
of the marriage vow. 
The modern church has ignored definite and honest 
teaching on this subject. Individual, personal, sex-purity The War and the Weapons 
335 
is still a forbidden subject in the average pulpit, and in 
the Bible School. The young man is warned of the 
“strange woman” but seldom indeed is the young girl 
warned of the seducer, and yet more seldom is any appeal 
made for the return or the welcome of the penitent 
woman,—more sinned against than sinning. 
The church must raise the standard of purity until 
it shall be a shame and reproach to any man who sins 
against womanhood. Until it rises, in its might and 
influence, the church must be held responsible for the low 
and unequal standard of morals. The treatment of the 
tempter and seducer as one who may sow his wild oats 
and then be welcomed as the prodigal,—for whom the 
fatted calf is killed, or, perhaps, is not even treated as a 
prodigal,—while the girl whom he has degraded, or the 
degraded girls with whom he has consorted, are rejected 
from the home and denied a place of repentance, is a 
gross breach of the law of God and the tenets of 
Christianity. 
Churchill King has well said: “It is one of the most 
puzzling phenomena of the history of the Christian 
Nations that the just human rights of woman should have 
been so slowly recognized in the face of the plain implica- 
tions of the essential teachings of Christ. A race cannot 
rise a half at a time; and no race can achieve what it 
ought while its wives and mothers are in any degree de- 
graded, whether in Occident or Orient, whatever is re- 
quired to enable woman to come to her fullest and highest 
development must be unhesitatingly granted, not only for 
her sake, but for that of the whole race.” 
Not only the underworld, with its thousands of men 
and women who cry ‘ ‘ evil be thou my good ’ ’, but the whole 
moral atmosphere must be purged of the poison of the 336 
The World’s Social Evil 
“old and chartered lie”, that what is sin and crime in 
woman is but a light, venial, offense in man. It is not 
the sensualist alone who regards unchastity as a man’s 
necessity and the outcast woman a necessary sacrifice. Men 
who stand in places of honor, and who are regarded as 
examples for the young, declare this deadly, unequal, 
and immoral doctrine. 
Vice strikes the individual at the very heart, and the 
train of consequences that follow is,—as the “Scarlet 
Letter”—not alone on the woman’s breast, but also in 
the heart of the man, who is the other and usually the 
stronger and causative agent in the breach of the law 
of chastity. Visiting his sins upon little “Pearl”, born 
an outcast of the infantile world, an imp of evil, emblem 
and product of sin.” 
“What does the scarlet letter mean, mother?” 
* * * “Mother, why does the minister keep his 
hand over his heart?” * * * 
* * * “Happy are ye, Hester, that wear the scarlet 
letter openly upon your bosom. Mine burns in secret.”2 
“Something must be done. Something will be done. 
What is done depends on who does it—the church, or the 
frenzied mob.” In this challenge to the Christian Church, 
Josiah Strong presents a fearful possible alternative. In 
his thought, either the Christian Church must save the 
country in this day of social unrest—of economic dis- 
turbance—of moral infamy—or there will be decay, 
revolution, and possible dissolution. 
Here are weighty words for the Pastor and other 
religious teachers from the pen of Dr. G. Stanley Hall: 
‘‘The world presents probably no such opportunity to religion, 
the moralist, the teacher, the wise father, the doctor who is also 
2“The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The War and the Weapons 
337 
a philosopher. There is no such state of utter plasticity, such 
hunger for vital knowledge, counsel, sound advice. Young men 
in other respects, headstrong, obstinate, self-sufficient, and inde- 
pendent, are here guided by a hint, a veiled allusion, a chance 
word of wisdom. The wisest man I know in these matters and 
the most experienced, a physician and also a religious teacher, 
goes to audiences of young men at the end of the academic year, 
who have been unmoved by the best revivalists, who are losing 
power just in proportion as they neglect to know or prudishly 
ignore this field, and wins men by the score to both virtue and 
piety. I have sat at his feet and tried to learn the secret of his 
method. It is simple, direct, concise, and in substance this: In 
these overtense cases the mind must first of all be relieved of 
worry, and it must be explained that excessive anxiety and at- 
tention are the chief provocative of nocturnal orgasms. This is 
itself often a cure. Then the assurance that such experiences, 
varying greatly with different individuals in frequency, are nor- 
mal, and that their entire absence would be ominous for sexual 
health, often comes as a gospel of joy to victims of ignorance, as 
does the knowledge that their case is common and not unique and 
exceptional.” 
“Ethical culture alone is very inadequate, and preaching or 
evangelistic work that ignores this evil is unsuccessful. Religion 
best meets these needs because it deals, if true, with what most 
affects the life of the young and what is the tap-root of so much 
that is best in them. Youth takes to religion at this age as its 
natural element. True conversion is as normal as the blossom- 
ing of a flower. The superiority of Christianity is that its corner- 
stone is love, and that it meets the needs of this most critical 
period of life as nothing else does. It is a synonym of maturity 
in altruism, and a religion that neglects this corner-stone, that 
is not helpful in this crisis, that is not entered upon now in- 
evitably, is wanting. He is a poor psychologist of religion and a 
worse Christian teacher who, whether from ignorance or prudery 
ignores or denies all this, or leaves the young to get on as best 
they may. Sex is a great psychic power which should be utilized 
for religion, which would be an inconceivably different thing 
without it, and one of the chief functions of the latter in the 
world is to normalize the former. Error blights the very roots 338 
The World’s Social Evil 
of piety in the heart, atrophies the home-making faculties, and 
kills enthusiasm and altruism.”* 
Talent and Money Needed :—Here is work for strong 
men and good women. Work which cannot be com- 
placently referred to so-called reformers, but which de- 
mands the service of philanthropists and statesmen to the 
point of sacrifice. It calls for education, moral appeal, 
legislation and enforcement of law. To make these 
agencies effective against forces which have had ages of 
concession, privilege, and profit, there is needed con- 
secrated wisdom and talent, and great resources to sus- 
tain them. 
It is deplorable that while the enormity of the physical 
and moral evil, and the social and national danger have 
been pointed out in thousands of masterly and over- 
whelming testimonies there has been so little response 
to the call for money. 
As yet this war is almost without ammunition, 
especially in the United States. A few of the many who 
have wealth have furnished means for skirmishing, but 
the real conflict against the ignorance, disease, and death, 
which attend it, and against the organized plunder of 
the enemy is miserably furnished with supplies for the 
war. 
Men and women whose labors have been unstinted— 
who shrank from no peril or sacrifice—have thus far fought 
the battles and have often been left to bear the suffering 
and the cost. 
An attack was made upon a house of ill-fame as one 
of the strongholds of vice in Chicago. It cost a thousand 
dollars or so, to bring the gatling gun of injunction, under 
the common law, against that house. Those who had the 
’Adolescence, G. Stanley Hall, pp. 463, 464. The War and the Weapons 
339 
wealth refused to help and the man who was mainly 
responsible for the attack has been harassed in payment 
of the debt.1 
Half a century ago, Miss Mary Carpenter of England 
wrote: ‘ ‘ The man who should succeed in putting a legal 
restraint on prostitution would he entitled to deep gratitude 
and a reward as noble, at the hands of the people, as any 
philanthropist who ever made their welfare his special 
and successful study.” 
Dr. Charles W. Eliot has shown that “the attack must 
be directed against the three principal causes of the pres- 
ent evil conditions,—first, against lust in men; secondly, 
against the weakness, dependence, mental deficiency, and 
lack of moral principle of the women who supply the 
demands of men; thirdly, against the greed and depravity 
of the wretches who maintain a profitable commerce out 
of this licentious demand and supply. ’,2 
The one thing lacking is the means to carry these 
weapons with full force into the war. If this be furnished 
the conflict against the evil forces of commercialized vice 
will speedily end in triumphant and complete victory. 
THE HEBREW CHURCH AROUSED. 
“When the Conference of Rabbis assembled in the year 135 
of the common era, its members met secretly in a garret in some 
obscure house in the Palestinian town of Lydda. They were in 
imminent peril of their lives by reason of the cruel persecutions 
of the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. Rabbi Akiba was the master 
spirit of the assembly. In the circle sat such eminent rabbis as 
Tarphon, Joseph the Gallilean, and Ishmael. Theirs was not the 
composure which attends mere academic discussion. With bated 
breath, they argued the question of life and death which it had 
1See chapter on “The American Awakening.” 
'Address at Buffalo Fourth International Congress on Social 
Hygiene, August, 1913. 340 
The World’s Social Evil 
fallen to their lot as the responsible leaders of the people to de- 
cide: ‘How far might one go in obedience to Rome, transgressing 
the Thorah in order to save one’s life?’ The decision was: ‘To 
save one’s life all laws should be deemed suspended excepting 
three, viz., those against idolatry, every form of licentiousness, 
and murder.”1 
A distinguished prelate of the English Episcopal 
church, the Archbishop of York, speaks thus highly of 
Hebrew family life: 
“To the Hebrew nation the family was not only the 
unit by which its numbers were counted, but the centre 
round which all its social and religious life was gathered. 
Even now, as we see in our own East End, this ancient 
people is distinguished, is marked by the closeness of the 
family tie, by the honor which it pays to motherhood, 
by the pride and care which it takes in its children. And 
this is one of the reasons of its efficiency: for, from the 
beginning to the end of human life, the efficiency of the 
nation will depend upon its family life. The sum of any 
nation’s capacities must be counted after its families; it 
is the total of the strong, pure, healthy homes which it 
contains.—The Church Times. 
Advanced ground was claimed for the Jews by Dr. 
Berkowitz in his address to the Rabbis at the Charlevoix 
Conference. 
“We have been shamed and startled by the recent 
revelation of broken homes. Is it an illusion we have 
been cherishing in holding fast our faith in the resistless 
power inherent in the sweet domesticity of the Jewish 
family? Evils unknown and undreamed of in my boy- 
hood days have of late become increasingly familiar in 
Jewish annals. Desertions, divorces, clandestine marriages, 
Quoted by Rabbi Berkowitz at the Conference of Rabbis, 
Charlevoix, Mich., July 3, 1910. The War and the Weapons 
341 
juvenile delinquency in alarming degree, prostitution and 
‘the White Slave traffic,’ all these are new and hitherto 
unknown entries in the calendar of transgressions on the 
part of Jews. Well then may our hearts tremble and 
somewhat of the solemn seriousness that rested on the 
men assembled at Lydda, now awaken in our souls. As the 
exigencies of those dreadful Hadrianic times demanded a 
clear, strong and frank pronouncement from the religious 
leaders, so upon us is the obligation to face this emergency 
which is upon us and confer together as to how we may 
strengthen and restore the moral supports of our people 
wherever they have been weakened. We may well renew 
the ordinance of Lydda and its vigorous admonition against 
those who destroy the very foundations of the moral 
life itself. 
“Ours is a double interest in this painful matter, that 
of citizens concerned for the honor of our country and 
that of Jews concerned for the honor of our faith. Every 
Jewish organization has been moved to denounce the evil 
and take steps to overcome it. The Independent Order 
of B ’nai B ’rith has been active in this cause. The Council 
of Jewish Women has been serving through its agents at 
the ports, in safe-guarding immigrant girls. The Jewish 
Immigration Societies in New York, Philadelphia and else- 
where have been exercising every vigilance. In various 
cities investigations have been conducted by private organi- 
zations and by public Grand Juries. A number of trials 
and convictions have been secured. 
“These and other movements indicate how widespread 
and how profound is the agitation, how quick is the public 
conscience and how responsive to any appeal in behalf of 
purity. This reveals the fact that we have now come 
to a remarkable period in the world’s progress along 342 
The World’s Social Evil 
these lines. That progress is definitely set towards the 
ideal which has been upheld by Israel from its earliest 
history. ’ *1 
We do not read of any insult ever offered by woman 
to Jesus, or of any slight, or discourtesy, to woman by 
Jesus. His absolute purity was so transparent to women 
that they hailed him with the deepest respect and reverence 
at all times, in all places. All his relations with them 
were attended with the beauty and dignity of pure 
beneficent love. 
The son of Mary! How delightful the love and homage 
between Mother and Son! And in the household of 
Lazarus, with Martha and Mary, how perfect the friend- 
ship ! 
It was at the behest of his mother that he honored 
the wedding feast with his presence and performed the 
first miracle recorded of him. 
It was to a woman, much married and socially dis- 
credited, that he declared the universal application of 
the spirit of worship, and to her he announced his Messiah- 
ship. His disciples “marvelled that he talked with the 
woman,” and, by all the standards of Jewish law and 
social custom it shocked them that he conversed with a 
Samaritan woman of frail character. Not only had “the 
Jews no dealings with the Samaritans,” but even had she 
been an orthodox Jewess, to accost her in a public place 
was a breach of decorum and law. 
But Jesus swept away every barrier, and opened the 
mind of this woman to the fact that' equality of all man- 
kind, before God, was only restricted by sin. “Worship”, 
JESUS AND WOMAN. 
‘Address at Conference of Rabbis. The War and the Weapons 
343 
he showed her, was not limited either to the tabernacle 
in the mountain, the temple at Jerusalem; nor by the 
absence of a priest. 
That woman was conscious of a new dignity, a new 
life flowed in her heart—the pitcher which she came to 
fill at the well was left, and the impulse of an evangel 
filled her soul. She testified in the city, of the “Prophet” 
who had revealed herself to herself. 
In the interest of women Christ enjoined a marriage 
law, more strict than that of Moses; yet he treated this, 
erring, penitent, woman with a beneficent and gracious 
tenderness that was wholly new, and absolutely too exalted 
and pure for the critics or even his disciples to under- 
stand. 
Moved by that gracious manner which welcomed the 
approach of all, and especially of women, one entered a 
room where Jesus was entertained and wept so copiously 
over his travel-stained feet that, in lieu of a towel, she 
wiped them with her abundant hair. The Pharisee who 
was entertaining Jesus, in a haughty spirit of curiosity 
murmured to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, 
would have known who and what manner of woman this 
is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner.” 
And Jesus answered with a parable which, while it 
admitted that the woman was a sinner, inspired her with 
a new sense of hope and virtue. It also expounded the 
doctrine of forgiveness with a fulness of application to her 
own case: “Her sins which are many are forgiven, for 
she loved much.” “That woman who had dried with, 
her hair the feet she had bathed in grateful tears raised 
her whole sex to a higher level. ’ 
Even more significant was the treatment of the woman 
*Ecce Homo. 344 
The World’s Social Evil 
taken to Jesus for judgment. It is only recorded that he 
wrote once, and then in the dust. What he wrote is not 
stated. But he who reads the story, as it is written, may 
supply the words which entered, as a swift messenger, 
the consciences of those men whose moral obliquity was 
so dense, and whose sense of equity and decency was so 
obscure that, while arresting the woman and subjecting 
her to the humiliation and disgrace of a public charge, 
in the presence of men only, they had taken no notice of 
the man who sinned with her. 
“And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman 
taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 
“They said unto Him, Master, this woman was taken in 
adultery, in the very act. 
“Now Moses in the lawr commanded us, that such should 
be stoned, but what sayest thou? 
“This they said, tempting him, that they might have to 
accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger 
wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 
“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up him- 
self, and said unto them, ‘He that is without sin among you, 
let him first cast a stone at her.’ 
“And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 
“And they which heard it, being convicted by their own 
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even 
unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman stand- 
ing in the midst. 
“When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the 
woman, he said unto her, ‘Woman, where are those thine ac- 
cusers? Hath no man condemned thee?’ ” 
“He had refused to judge a woman, but he had judged 
a whole crowd.”1 
In other recorded events, we notice the distinguishing 
love of women towards Jesus. The story of Mary of 
’Ecce Homo. The War and the Weapons 
345 
Magdala has reached all ends of the world and given a 
name to the noblest charity which seeks the redemption 
of woman from the deepest social disgrace and the darkest 
pit of soul loss. “It has given to Christian art the figure 
of Magdalene which, when contrasted with the Venus 
of Greek sculpture, represents a very palpable change 
which Christ has wrought in the moral feelings of man- 
kind with respect to women.”1 
It was probably this same Mary who thought the most 
costly ointment not too rich a gift for the head and feet 
of Jesus, and she gained immortal memorial. 
It was another woman—Martha—who went to meet 
Him when her brother had died and to whom He de- 
clared the doctrine of resurrection. 
“A woman was first at the tomb, the first to see the 
the risen Christ, the first to believe on him and the first 
to bear testimony to the resurrection.”2 
Here is the most significant fact in all Christ’s ethical 
teachings. While every great principle of equity and 
love is embodied in his doctrines, on this one subject only 
he gave repeated, concrete, illustrations. He showed that 
there is no sex in sin; that man and woman stand equally 
guilty in any sinful act. There is no room in the moral 
standard, as recognized by Christ, for a condemnation of 
woman that is not equally a condemnation of man. Re- 
demption of woman is as real and as complete as redemp- 
tion of man. The woman who is forgiven is forgiven much, 
and as fully as man. When Jesus is the judge a redeemed 
woman returns to home and society on precisely the same 
terms as a redeemed man. Yet he gave no parable of a 
“prodigal daughter.” Down to his day, and to the 
Homo. 
2“The Social Teaching of Jesus.” Matthews. 346 
The World’s Social Evil 
present day, society has joined the father in greeting the 
returned prodigal with the best robe and festival. No 
such welcome is given to the returned girl, even when her 
fall is the fall of a victim, and not that of a wilful 
prodigal. 
Christ showed how unjust this is. He welcomed 
Magdalene into the inner circle of his friendship, and as 
if to emphasize his attitude on the subject, he gave a spe- 
cial message of pity and welcome to each of the sinful 
women who came to him, and that one who was disgrace- 
fully brought to him by men, he sent away with joy 
and peace in her heart, while her accusers—hardened and 
unrepentant—were made to feel the sting of accusation 
and judgment. 
THE SUPREME APPEAL. 
The ultimate issue of the warfare against sexual vice, 
in all its forms, must rest upon individual and social 
purity. The appeal must finally be made to morality. The 
social evil is not primarily an economic question. Riches 
do not make men or women pure; poverty does not imply 
either vice or virtue. 
Nor is it primarily a question of hygiene. Sanitary 
laws treat of effects, and horror and fear of disease may 
scare some away from gross vice. But were it possible 
that any system of regulation or medical prophylaxis 
could lessen or destroy all diseases incident to sexual vice 
it must still be judged by its relation to morals. 
Since however, there can be no conflict between morals 
and health, or between virtue and economy, the appeal to 
righteousness stands with the sanction and authority of 
TRUTH in its eternal harmony and unity. 
Sex morality, which is order and purity, is essential The War and the Weapons 
347 
to goodness. To be a good man or a good woman is to 
be true to sexual integrity and love. All other virtues 
must be crowned with purity or they are defiled. Veracity, 
kindness, temperance, love, are all related, but sex im- 
morality bankrupts them all. Lust is the enemy of love 
and the most prolific and universal agent of discord and 
moral degeneracy. 
“When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and 
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”—James 
1:15. 
Lecky says: “The continuance of the species is only 
possible by a sensual act. We have an innate, instinctive 
perception that there is something degrading in the sen- 
sual part of our nature, something to which a feeling of 
shame is naturally attached, something that jars with 
our conception of perfect purity.”1 
This statement accords with Lecky’s theory of “neces- 
sity” and is opposed to the truth and purity of nature. 
Lexicographers define the word “sensual” as “undue in- 
dulgence”—“lewdness.” Lewdness is false to normal life 
and only conceivable to perverted human nature. It is 
the language of lust, the spurious “love” which finds 
expression in many novels, loose talk, songs, and plays; 
which associates the thought of sex union with sensualism. 
Undue, unwedded, or intemperate, indulgence is not 
necessary to the continuance of the species. On the con- 
trary, it is productive of degeneracy and weakness. It may 
be safely asserted that in the degree that the sexual act 
is governed by love and the natural desire for family, there 
is an absence of lewdness, or sensuality. 
The “feeling of shame” alluded to by Lecky, is a 
product of the thought which lust and sin have made 
Morals. Vol. I., pp. 105-6. 348 
The World’s Social Evil 
current in much of human society. In proportion to the 
pure atmosphere of home, or of any other social circle, 
there is an absence of the sense of shame in marital rela- 
tions. As the virgin woman is pure, so also is the new 
mother. The romance—the secret agitation of mother- 
hood may be accompanied with a blush, but it is not a 
blush of shame. It is the sense of a new birth, tilling her 
with wonder and mystery. Ashamed! No. If there is a 
remnant of shame in the expectant new life, it is a shame 
occasioned by the social wreckage of pure ideals, expressed 
in vulgar observation and terms. Does any normal man 
or woman feel a sense of shame when looking into the 
face of a child, born of natural and honorable alliance? 
Does any young mother feel ashamed of motherhood? 
On the other hand no person, living in a civilized 
country, can part with the pearl of chaste life, or wedded 
purity without more or less of a sense of loss. To woman, 
especially comes the consciousness of such loss, whether 
it is stolen from her by force—or yielded amidst seductive 
pleasures. Shakspeare has expressed this thought in the 
“Rape of Lucrece” after she has been rifled of her honor 
by Tarquin: 
“The light will show, character’d in my brow 
The story of sweet chastity’s decay, 
The impious breach of holy wedlock vow; 
Yea, the illiterate, that know not how 
To cipher what is writ in learned books, 
Will quote my loathsome trespass in my looks.” 
Virtue is not ignorance, nor is it innocence; it is the 
virile quality of control—the mastering of self, the direc- 
tion of force to the highest point. This is the ethical law 
applied to the individual, and every great author, poet, and The War and Its Weapons 
349 
artist, treats it as the essence of social morality. Yet 
men laugh at personal purity as a thing not normal, and 
the majority of men do not accept it as a practicable 
virtue. 
This “choice” of life and death are not spiritual or 
ethical terms only. When a man makes a choice of evil, 
he chooses death—physical as well as moral;—witness the 
physical diseases which attend sensual sin. There is no 
surer mark of the external law of “life and good” and 
“death and evil”, than in the certain attendant effects 
of virtue, on the one hand, and vice on the other hand, 
in relation to sex life. 
“The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, 
edification, instruction. There is not an hour of it hut is trem- 
bling with destinies—not a moment of which, once past, the ap- 
pointed work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck 
on cold iron. Take your vase of Venice glass out of the furnace 
and strew chaff over its transparent heat and recover that to its 
clearness and rubied glory when the north wind has blown upon 
it; but do not think to strew chaff over the child fresh from 
God’s presence, and to bring the heavenly colors back to him—at 
least in this world.” John Ruskin. 
The potentiality and value of all life is vested in its 
power of self-perpetuation through sex. All life is pro- 
creative. Flowers and trees, corn and fruits possess in 
their sex unity,—the life-germ of coming harvests. 
Birds and cattle mate for the parentage of their kind. 
Nature has determined this, for all other life, through 
instinct. And in doing this, great nature has fixed their 
limitations. 
But to mankind is given the power to direct and con- 
trol this force of reproductive life. Here is the dis- 
tinguishing quality of the human race. The choice of 
parentage—the control of sex attraction, is the supreme 350 
The World’s Social Evil 
power which exalts mankind into the realm of a moral 
world. Nothing determines a man’s moral character or 
a woman’s virtue as does the control of sex, in love and 
unity, for the perpetuation of the race. One feels that 
however good man or woman may be—in other respects 
if they degrade their sex life, they are not moral. 
This supreme choice, if uncontrolled, reduces man to 
a creature more despicable than the most repulsive of 
beasts—generating diseases and resulting in conduct that 
are unknown in the brute world. 
The true conception of this lofty function should be 
made known to every boy and girl. They should be taught 
that this power which is capable of yielding the highest 
of all physical pleasure and becomes the sacred seal and 
pledge of love, will be weakened or destroyed, and will 
become as a whip of scorpions, if it is not made the base 
of a moral quality, which is virtue. 
Ruskin traces every good thing to moral purity. “A 
bad woman may have a sweet voice, but that sweetness of 
voice comes of the past morality of her race. That she 
can sing with it at all she owes to the determination of 
laws of music by the morality of the past. Every act, 
every vice, affects in any creature, face, voice, nervous 
power, and vigor and harmony of invention, at once. Per- 
severance in righteous human conduct, renders, after a 
certain number of generations, human art possible; every 
sin clouds it, be it ever so little a one; and pernicious, 
vicious living and following of pleasure render, after a 
certain number of generations, all art impossible.” 
Philosophers differ as to the bases and meaning of 
morals, but human experience, religion and law, agree 
that it rests upon the power of choice. 
“See I have set before thee this day, life and good, The War and Its Weapons 
351 
and death and evil; therefore choose life, that thou and 
thy seed may live.” Dnet. 30:15. Prof. W. James says, 
“When this challenge comes to us it is simply our total 
character and personal genius that are on trial.”1 
The crowning glory of man is that his character de- 
pends upon his power to “choose life”. Were man only 
animal, his self-propagating force would be governed by 
instinct. But in endowing man with the choice of “life 
or death,” and giving him control over the springs and 
perpetuty of life, the Creator has established the founda- 
tion of man’s moral character. This is a essential. A man 
or woman possessing every other virtue, and missing this, 
is a moral leper. 
Not only all history, but science also, recognize the 
choice of the pure stream of life, untainted by sensual vices, 
as an essential contribution to the perfect quality of the 
vital fluid, alike in the moral and the physical being. 
Shakspeare speaks the current thought when he makes 
a woman say: 
“My chastity is the jewel of our house, 
Bequeathed down from many ancestors; 
Which were the greatest obloquy in the world 
For me to lose.”2 
The truth is the same, without distinction of sex. 
Greater than intellect, fame, or wealth, is the jewel of per- 
sonal chasteness. However, much we may differ in our 
definition of morality, we are agreed that there is in man 
and woman a moral center, based upon control of this 
fountain of life—to depart from which is to lose the 
“jewel”. 
’“The will to believe.” p. 214. 
’“All’s Well.” 352 
The World’s Social Evil 
An Epoch making book comes to hand after these pages were 
written. It should be in the hands of every teacher of youth, 
whether in school, college, or Bible class. The author claims for 
“chastity” the same active qualities which is here shown to belong 
to virtue. He says: 
“Chastity surely means nothing without some temptation to 
be unchaste. It is as soulless and dead as the ‘courage’ of those 
who are not aware of danger, or the ‘temperance’ of those who 
hate the taste of liquor. In frigid people the absence of sexual 
sin is no more virtuous than the absence of hair on a bald head. 
Purity, like health or peace, may be an accident or an apathy. It 
may be the fruit of heroic victories. Only the Eternal knows. 
No acquaintance with a man’s daily doings reveals anything de- 
cisive about the matter. Statistics and science, when asked to 
testify, have other engagements. Hence no one will ever be able 
justly to indict half the human race till a measure of temptation 
as well as of temperature is invented. With such an instrument 
who knows how many zero readings would be registered? 
We cannot praise chastity as the abstention from certain 
acts, for then normal marriage would be unchaste. We cannot 
praise it as the innocence of evil, for without temptation there 
can be no virtue. Chastity must mean victory over the enemy, 
not ignorance of his strength. We must feel the temptation and 
overcome it. By what power? By cultivating the highest type 
of personal relation to which we can attain. Whatever person, 
book, game, or art wakes us to admire or to approximate heroism 
in personal relations discourages unchastity, for heroism in per- 
sonal relations is the basis of all genuine chastity. 
By the consecration of affection we gain victory over the 
lower or impersonal affection. We do not eliminate the enemy al- 
together, but we prevent his dwelling on our territory. For un- 
chastity is domination by the impersonal love of sex rather than 
by love of an individual. Such domination (inside or outside 
marriage) disorganizes soul and body even when no visible act 
of unchastity is committed. A certain type of day-dreaming and 
novel-reading may disintegrate and ruin character more hope- 
lessly than prostitution.” Dr. Richard C. Cabot; “What Men Live 
by.” “Surely a day is coming when it will be known again 
what virtue is in purity and conscience of life; how di- 
vine is the blush of young human cheeks; how high, 
beneficent, sternly inexorable, if forgotten, is the duty 
laid, not on women only, but on every creature, in re- 
gard to these particulars? Well, if such a day never come 
again, then I perceive much else will never come. Mag- 
nanimity and depth of insight will never come; heroic 
purity of heart and eye; noble, pious valor, to amend us 
and the age of bronze and lacquer—how can they ever 
come? The scandalous bronze-lacquer age of hungry 
animalisms, spiritual impotencies and mendacities, will 
have to run its course till the Pit swallow it.”—Carlyle. 
“A race cannot rise a half at a time; and no race can 
achieve what it ought while its wives and mothers are in 
any degree degraded, whether in Occident or Orient, 
whatever is required to enable woman to come to her 
fullest and highest development must be unhesitatingly 
granted, not only for her sake, but for that of the whole 
race.”—Churchill King. 
“We are fast learning in every part of America that 
we men cannot hold another man down in the ditch 
without remaining in the ditch with him.”—Booker T. 
Washington. APPENDICES 
1. A Constructive Policy—Judge Olson. .355 
2. Prostitution in Europe—A Review 369 
3. Sanger’s History of Prostitution—New 
Appendix—A Criticism 383 
4. Injunction and Abatement Law 387 
5. Pandering Act 391 
6. Chart of Laws Against Prostitution... 392 
7. The White Slave Traffic Act 394 
8. Regulation Law—Immigration 398 
9. Bulletin of Georgia Campaign 400 APPENDIX I. 
A CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY WHEREBY THE SOCIAL EVIL 
MAY BE REDUCED 
AN ADDRESS BY 
Harry Olson, Chief Justice Municipal Court, Chicago. 
Under the supervision of the Chief of Police and the Com- 
missioner of Health of the city, a sub-committee of the Chicago 
Vice Commission, of which I was a member, in 1911, in the 
course of its investigation, visited a famous house of ill-repute 
in Chicago, which had been run openly for many years, despite 
the laws of both city and state. It was kept by a woman who 
was able, intelligent and without conscience. She could cope 
with the Chief of Police or cover up a murder with equal facil- 
ity. She answered all the requirements that one could conceive 
the devil’s wife, if he had one, might possess. So bold had 
she become, by reason of immunity from prosecution, that she 
issued circulars containing views of the rooms of her house. 
It was reported that this woman had, among the inmates in her 
house, graduates of well-known women’s colleges. The com- 
mittee made especial inquiry of the inmates, some thirty in 
number, who were brought before it separately, as to their 
schooling, age at entry into the life, and as to the prevalence 
of the black plague and other diseases. The rumors regarding 
the education of these women were not well-founded. Our in- 
quiries showed that not a single girl in the house had passed 
the grammar school grades; nearly all admitted having one 
or the other of the venereal diseases, and it was plain that 
some were feeble-minded. All claimed to have entered the life 
of prostitution at early stages—before seventeen. If this famous 
house, reputed to be the most elegant of its kind in the country, 
and which catered to those with means, had inmates all of 
whom were ignorant, most of whom were diseased, and many 
of whom were feeble-minded, what could be expected of the minor 
houses in the slums? 356 
The World’s Social Evil 
Following up this line of inquiry later, when the Morals 
Court was established in Chicago as a branch of the Municipal 
Court, where all the cases of prostitution are brought to trial, 
I caused the attending physician of the Morals Court, Dr, 
Anna M. Dwyer, to inquire of as many of the defendants as 
she could, who were charged with being public prostitutes, 
as to what ages they had left school. She has kept an account 
since the month of April, 1913, when the branch court was 
established. Three thousand five hundred and forty-six cases 
have been brought before Judge Jacob H. Hopkins of this branch 
court since April last. Dr. Dwyer put her inquiry to 564 women. 
She reports that 54 women passed through that court in the 
month of April, of whom only two had passed beyond the fifth 
grade; in May, 87, one of whom had passed beyond the fifth 
grade; in June, 94, of whom three had gone beyond the fifth 
grade; in July, 48, one of whom had gone beyond the fifth 
grade; in August, 58, only two of whom had gone beyond the 
fifth grade; in September, 90, four of whom had gone beyond 
the fifth grade; in October, 63, four of whom had gone beyond 
the fifth grade. These figures are so startling that at first 
blush it seems they cannot be true. Dr. Dwyer does not in- 
clude repeaters in her figures. She found only one high school 
graduate among all the women who passed through the court 
in a period of seven months. She declares that of those who 
were above the fifth grade only one came back to the court on 
the second charge. Dr. Dwyer conducted physical examina- 
tions of all those who were not out on bonds. These numbered 
about one-half of all those who passed through the court. She 
declares that seventy-five per cent of these are affected with 
venereal diseases. 
A psychological study of inmates of a number of adult and 
juvenile reformatories has recently been undertaken as re- 
ported by Dr. Hastings H. Hart of the Russell Sage founda- 
tion. He reports that while psychological examinations of in- 
mates of reformatories have not yet produced accurate and 
positive statistics, and while allowance must be made for the 
difference in the personal equation of the examiners, owing to 
the fact that definite standards have not yet been established, 
they have produced tentative statements which may be ac- 
cepted as approximately correct: The World's Social Evil 
357 
Per Cent 
Institution. 
Mental Defectives. 
N. Y. Reformatory for Women, Bedford 
37 
Mass. Industrial School for 
Girls, Lancaster. 
50 
Maryland Industrial School 
for Girls, Baltimore about 
60 
N. J. State Home for Girls, 
Trenton 
33 
Miss Mary R. Campbell, a psychologist, recently made an 
Intensive study of the mental status of 144 out of 235 inmates 
in the Wisconsin Industrial School for Girls at Milwaukee, 
and found 63 per cent mentally deficient. This included the 
borderline cases, the highest type of feeble-minded. 
Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, Superintendent of the New 
York Reformatory for Women at Bedford, estimates that the 
subnormal women who belong to the criminal classes, especially 
those engaged in public prostitution, number 50 per cent. 
Dr. Alberta Guibord, of Boston, found, after three months 
of intensive study of 100 cases at Bedford, that twenty-eight 
were decidedly feeble-minded, not counting any of the Moron 
class or doubtful cases, and that in addition there were eight 
insane, a total of thirty-six out of one hundred, not counting 
the highest type of the feeble-minded. 
Miss Maude Miner, an experienced probation officer of New 
York, in a letter just received, states: 
"It is true that it is the exceptional girl who is declared 
normal and not the exceptional one who is declared men- 
tally deficient. We are having every girl who comes to us 
now mentally examined by a mental expert. We find that 
the majority of girls from sixteen to twenty years of age 
have a mentality of not more than nine or ten years, and 
that many of them are not responsible for their acts. 
"I believe that mental deficiency is more responsible for 
bringing a large number of girls into prostitution than 
any other factor.” 
It has been known that the great army of prostitutes in 
our large cities is partly recruited from feeble-minded women, 
but that the percentage should be so high, is startling. Not 
until the Binet-Simon system of psychological tests for intelli- 
gence is established in our Moral Courts in Chicago can we 
there ascertain with scientific accuracy what the situation 358 
The World’s Social Evil 
really is. We have enough evidence on the subject, however, 
to point the way to a new method of combating the social evil. 
The large group of mentally retarded persons who may be 
included in the term “subnormal” number in this country, ac- 
cording to the best authorities, about three hundred thou- 
sand. The term would include the idiot, who has been defined 
to be a person “so deeply defective in mind from birth or 
from an early age that he is unable to guard himself against 
common physical dangers.” The imbecile is defined as one, 
“who by reason of mental defects existing from birth or from 
an early age is incapable of earning his own living, but is capa- 
ble of guarding himself against common physical danger.” The 
highest type of the subnormal or the so-called feeble-minded has 
been defined as the “moron, one who is capable of earning his 
living under favorable circumstances, but is incapable from 
mental defects existing from birth or from an early age (a) of 
competing on equal terms with his normal fellows, or (b) of 
managing himself and his affairs with ordinary prudence.” The 
lowest group is composed of helpless children, who are no com- 
fort to themselves, their parents or caretakers, and are gener- 
ally found in custodial institutions. The next higher group 
comprises those persons who are usually recognized as dis- 
tinctly backward or foolish. They are, perhaps, those of 
least danger to society. They have not the mentality to do 
the damage or take part in the criminal enterprises that those 
have in the highest group. The moron comprises those per- 
sons who, to the superficial view, are often considered normal, 
but merely somewhat dull and backward. The moron is unable 
to compete on equal terms with his fellows and he is unable 
to manage his own affairs with ordinary prudence. In the 
small villages of the country they frequently pass as normal 
persons, but in the stress of life in a great city the fact of 
their deficiency becomes quickly apparent. To this class be- 
long a large number of the vagrant tramps; the repeaters in 
the houses of correction, the petty thieves, the alcoholics and 
many murderers. Many of this class, not being able to com- 
pete with their normal fellows, become objects of charity, or 
adopt criminal careers. They become beggars and paupers. 
They are generally unemployed because unemployable. The 
women of this class form, in my judgment, a large per cent The World’s Social Evil 
359 
of the women in the slums of the underworld. It is now gen- 
erally believed by competent investigators that fully twenty- 
five per cent of the inmates, male and female, of jails and 
reformatories and penitentiaries belong to this class. The 
money society lays out upon them at the present time in the 
matter of police and court expenditures, their maintenance in 
workhouses, reformatories, jails and penitentiaries, should be 
used before they become inmates, and in a preventive way. 
Mental deficiency as represented by the three types of the 
subnormal which have been mentioned occurs in all classes 
of society from the highest to the lowest. The defect may be 
inborn—germinal—and therefore the hereditary failure of 
the higher structures of the brain to develop, or it may be 
acquired, as for example, through an accident or injury to 
the brain of the child in early life. The failure of the devel- 
opment of the brain may be due to injury of the child at 
birth from prolonged and difficult labor. It may also be due 
to injuries inflicted by the careless attending physician. In- 
deed, the general public has little information regarding the 
number of such injuries. 
There is still another group which includes all those cases 
due to arrest of growth of the brain from such causes as 
maternal injury or diseases affecting the developing embryo. 
These may be said to be congenital, as for example, that in- 
fectious disease syphilis, known as the black plague, which is 
responsible for so much physical and mental deficiency. The 
lower we descend in the social scale the more we find the 
effect of this disease among females. Dr. Mott, of London, has 
said that general paralysis of the insane, the essential cause of 
which is this disease, becomes more and more common among 
females. Drink, tuberculosis and lack of nutrition also con- 
tribute in causing mental deficiency, by injuring the germ 
plasm and poisoning the blood, when acted upon for long pe- 
riods of time. 
An important distinction must be made between two groups 
of the defective classes, those who may and those who should 
not enjoy social privileges as members of the community. 
From a racial and eugenic point of view the inborn or heredi- 
tary defectives are by far the most important because the 
defect is germinal and, therefore, transmissible to the offspring. 360 
The World’s Social Evil 
This class forms seventy-five per cent or more of the defective 
classes. The other twenty-five per cent or less, those whose 
defect is acquired due to accidents at birth, negligence of physi- 
cian, etc., are not so dangerous because their defect is not 
transmissible. When so many as seventy-five per cent of the 
feeble-minded are such by reason of germinal or hereditary 
taint, and since perhaps fifty per cent of the women of the 
underworld are subnormal, it becomes at once apparent that 
not only in order to reduce the number of women in public 
prostitution, but also to protect the race itself, we must adopt 
other methods of eliminating vice than those now employed. 
This is the age of preventive medicine. Preventive medicine 
has shown itself capable of removing many of the causes of 
human misery and sorrow. The hereditary mental defectives, 
and indeed the whole subnormal group, seldom develop intelli- 
gence beyond that of the normal child of twelve years. This 
degree of intelligence is not sufficient for the ordinary affairs 
of life. Since this age is the determining one in relation to 
feeble-mindedness, one would expect that the retardation in- 
cident thereto would be recognized in the public schools. Most 
children attend school at least until they are twelve years of 
age. Here then is the crux of the situation. We must look 
to the public schools for the early identification of the de- 
fectives. The Juvenile Court, of which we have been justly 
proud, begins its care of the defective child after he has be- 
come delinquent. The identification of the subnormal should 
be made before he has reached the Juvenile Court, where, as 
the result of some inevitable offense against society, he is sure 
to land. 
A recent investigation by a competent expert in a city 
in the United States of four hundred thousand population de- 
veloped the fact that the total number of permanent and tem- 
porarily subnormal children is approximately two and one-half 
per cent of the total school population in the elementary grades. 
This does not include pupils in classes for deaf and blind, but 
does include borderline cases. A survey in the same city of the 
children of the public schools showed that the subnormal chil- 
dren were not found in particular sections of the city, as in the 
case of those suffering from tuberculosis, but they were found 
scattered all over the city where schoolhouses were to be found. The World’s Social Evil 
361 
The intelligent and progressive school board in the City of 
Milwaukee caused this survey of the elementary public schools 
to be made to ascertain the total number of subnormal chil- 
dren, so that they might plan for their special education. This 
survey included the borderline cases. The mentally defective 
numbered about 1,003 in a school population in the elementary 
grades of 40,799 children. The charts showing these findings 
are by courtesy loaned to me for this occasion. I use them 
with confidence, for they were made by Miss Mary R. Campbell, 
a competent psychologist, who has had many years’ experience 
with subnormal children. 
Chart I, which follows, shows the grades in which adolescent 
subnormals were distributed. Children in these grades are from 
three to six years retarded. The fourth, fifth, sixth and sev- 
enth grades are the ones in which the adolescent subnormals 
begin to fail in school work, according to the survey made. 
It is at this level that the great majority of boys and girls 
who are not making good leave school and go to work. With 
such limited education the incapable child, of course, is not 
equal to the battle of life, and the girls go to recruit the under- 
world. 
Chart II of this survey, shows the number of adolescent 
subnormals according to age—the type of incapable child, per- 
fectly normal in appearance but mentally behind the grade for 
age, sometimes three to seven years. It is the dangerous age, 
particularly for girls, for they do not make good in school; 
they become discouraged, leave school, go to work as soon as 
fourteen years of age, and are equally incompetent sometimes 
in the business world, and fall easy prey to unscrupulous men. 
The Juvenile Court records in this same city indicate that the 
majority of girls reported there have left school while in the 
fifth, sixth or seventh grade, to go to work. A year or two 
afterwards comes their first downfall and finally court prose- 
cution. 
Chart III contrasts the pedagogical equivalent of ability 
under the per cent system of estimating a child’s mental abil- 
ity by the method employed in all public schools, with ability 
equivalent in terms of clinical psychology, showing economic 
status of child. Those included in the danger zone and below, 362 
The World’s Social Evil 
Aiu/nAer o/ SuAnormo/ CA/Zdrer> 
in 
THE Hl/BL/C SCHOOLS 
/PepoHed dune. /S/3. 
According fo Orede. 
('ampb*A 
CHART 
I 
5/fotvwo Gwoes 
m nw/cw 
/!e>o/sscesr Sssso/PMAis 
metrar a/srwst/reo 
Cmioees '* These Geeoes 
3Sms /tersmeo 
Grades 
Grades The World’s Social Evil 
363 
//u/n6er of SuSnorma/ C/u/cfren 
/n 
THE PL/BL/C SCHOOLS 
fepo/~tec/ June, /S/3. 
dcco/-c//ng /o 3g&- 
Campbell 
CHART 
II 
S//OHT/NG fltJMSfA 
Of 
/tootescenr 
SafCVO/fM/US 
Am»o//tG fo A as 
3-6 mJtBmo 6/rm 
far 4et 
flMMUi zone) 
Age 
Ago 364 
The World’s Social Evil 
CHART III The World’s Social Evil 
365 
while only 2*4 per cent of the total school population in ele- 
mentary grades, constitute about 25 per cent of the inmates of 
penal institutions and about 50 per cent of those found in the 
slums of our cities. 
The teaching of sex hygiene then in the public schools be- 
comes secondary to the more important and larger proposi- 
tion—the identification of the subnormal during school age. 
The early detection of the subnormal and their subsequent 
handling along the lines of prevention is imperative, not only 
for their own benefit and happiness, but for the protection 
of society. The public schools should be used as clearing 
houses. By this means these children may be protected so 
that they need not recruit the underworld and later be sent 
to various state institutions—jails, reformatories, penal insti- 
tutions, insane asylums, almshouses, yes and even in extreme 
cases, so they need not be subjected to capital punishment. 
The school teacher frequently is able to identify the sub- 
normal child because of the fact that he is from two to four 
years behind his grade. Generally although that is not al- 
ways true, such retardation under favorable conditions means 
that the child is defective, because of acquired causes, econ- 
omic conditions, or heredity. But the identification of these 
defects, of course, cannot be left to the school teacher. Psychol- 
ogists and physicians must be employed to report the condi- 
tions they find in regard to mental defects in every school in 
the land. Great care is necessary on the part of the physician 
in judging. Therefore, consideration must be given to each 
individual case. Pupils who are falling behind in the present 
school system might be encouraged to enter vocational schools. 
Those who are pronounced defective should try this new edu- 
cational environment. Those who are merely backward be- 
cause of bad eyes, adenoids, mouth-breathing, insufficient nour- 
ishment or misdirected effort, can be brought to normality by 
overcoming the conditions which have made them backward, 
but the other class, which is distinctly subnormal, needs dif- 
ferent handling. Once the fact has been established that a 
child is subnormal, the parents or guardian should be in- 
formed and a careful record should be kept. Special schools 
should be established for these children during the period of 366 
The World’s Social Evil 
adolescence in which they may be given special education and 
training in industrial work. It is not generally believed but 
unfortunately when the mental development is arrested, edu- 
cation above that level of intelligence is impossible. After these 
children shall have become adults, if the parents are able to 
guard them outside of institutions they may be permitted to 
do so, but if the parents should he unable to safeguard them, 
because of poverty or for any other reason, schools and homes 
should he established in detached colonies of small groups, such 
as that at Faribault, in the State of Minnesota. These special 
schools should he located near the cities where the parents can 
frequently visit them. When such institutions are located at 
long distances from the parents’ home the mother is subjected 
to unnecessary anguish because of the long separation and 
lack of information as to the child’s welfare. Such schools 
and homes should provide for work in the open air and be 
conducted so as to permit those who reside in them to lead 
happy, useful lives. 
By bravely facing the facts, and by applying psychological 
tests in the schools to identify the subnormal, and providing 
for his education and care during the period of adolescence 
in separate schools, and later, in those cases where the parents 
cannot guard them, in segregated colony homes, having ade- 
quate facilities for their welfare and happiness, we shall be 
able to deflect from the slums of our great cities those who, 
through no blame of their own, constitute fifty per cent of its 
public prostitution and its crime. With this fundamental suc- 
cess in the elimination of the social evil and of crimes, we will 
find that the removal of this class from the ranks of prostitu- 
tion, will reduce the prostitution among the normal by ten per 
cent merely by removing the helpless who are easy prey. If 
then by the effective enforcement of law we can discourage 
the respectable property owners from renting their property 
for immoral purposes, and the promoters of commercialized 
vice from plying their dastardly business under the protec- 
tion and sometimes with the connivance of public officials, we 
shall reduce the traffic by another ten per cent, and, again, if 
by the wise teaching of animal and plant husbandry in the 
lower grades, and sex hygiene in the high schools and colleges 
we can reduce it still another ten per cent we shall have a The World’s Social Evil 
367 
grand total of eighty per cent reduction. These are approxi- 
mate, not accurate figures. They are used to suggest relative 
magnitudes. It is believed that careful investigation will 
substantiate their value in this respect. They represent what 
can be accomplished by boldly facing the facts and applying 
the known remedies. You may observe that there remains a 
margin of twenty per cent, the elimination of which even the 
most sanguine of us will have to agree must be passed to an- 
other or other generations. 
The fact that so large a per cent of the women engaged in 
public prostitution are mentally deficient removes the stigma 
of social disgrace from womanhood, but we must transfer this 
stigma then to the males of the race, who commercialize the 
helplessness of these afflicted women. 
This policy of prevention will safeguard the coming gen- 
eration. It will require a decade generally to establish and 
finance this new order of things. In the meantime, before we 
can get results from such a policy of prevention, what shall 
be done to meet the awful situation? 
I. The mentally, morally and physically diseased prosti- 
tutes, both male and female, must be segregated, not for pur- 
poses of commercialization, but for purposes of sanitation. 
To preserve the integrity of the race, our generation must at 
once resort to the most drastic measures. Legislation should 
provide for the care and custody of these human derelicts. 
They should be isolated in farm colonies, the sexes in sep- 
arate institutions. When committed by the court the sentences 
should be indeterminate. 
II. The renting of property for immoral purposes, with 
knowledge, should be made a felony. Owners or agents who 
thus use their property are enemies of the race. 
III. The operating of such houses should also be made a 
felony. Individuals so engaged jeopardize the future of the 
race. 
IV. The laws directed against the social evil should be 
enforced by the public officials who have taken an oath of office 
to do so. 
V. There should be municipal control, with close super- 
vision, of all places of public amusement, and the number of 
these should be multiplied. 368 
The World’s Social Evil 
VI. There should be publicity of facts concerning the social 
evil and dissemination of knowledge pertaining to social dis- 
eases, sanitation and standards of living. 
VII. Courses of study in biology should be introduced in 
colleges and training schools for teachers. These courses should 
include methods of presenting to children facts pertaining to 
the origin of life. 
The time has come when society must employ scientific 
means to learn the causes behind the conditions it is seeking to 
improve, and the intelligence of modern business methods in 
financing the remedies indicated. This congress can do much 
to influence and guide public opinion throughout the country. 
The coming of women into a larger participation in public 
life is a distinct aid in the campaign. They will demand higher 
ideals of the candidates for public office, higher standards of 
conduct in office and more efficient service. 
In view of the fact that nearly fifty per cent of the public 
prostitutes are feeble-minded, and considering that nearly all 
of them spread infectious diseases, the idea of their being segre- 
gated and protected in so-called “Red Light Districts” and as a 
part of the settled policy of the administration of any American 
city, becomes unthinkable. APPENDIX II. 
PROSTITUTION IN EUROPE. 
A REVIEW. 
The volume issued, as the second of a series of four, by 
the Bureau of Social Hygiene, comes to hand after the MS. 
of the foregoing had been completed. 
Mr. Flexner treats of the facts of Prostitution—the De- 
mand—the Supply—the Law—Regulation—Segregation— 
Disease—Abolition. 
Under these various heads we are furnished with a new 
witness—one who has made a first hand, present day, inspection 
of the field, charged with the single mission of discovering the 
facts as existing in Europe and stating them to the world. 
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in an introduction to the 
book says the— 
“Investigation was assigned to one who had, on the one 
hand, previously given it no critical thought or attention, but 
whose studies of education in this country and abroad had dem- 
onstrated his competency to deal with a complicated topic of 
this nature. Mr. Flexner was absolutely without prejudice or 
preconception, just as he was absolutely unfettered by instruc- 
tions. He had no previous opinion to sustain; he was given no 
thesis to prove or disprove. He was asked to make a thorough 
and impartial examination of the subject and to report his 
observations and conclusions. He enjoyed the fullest possible 
facilities for his inquiries and to them and the writing of this 
book devoted almost two years.” 
The testimony of such a witness is of great value now that 
the whole problem of the regulation of vice is up to the Court 
of public opinion. 
Prostitution. Mr. Flexner quotes the French authority— 
Parent Duchatelet, who officially defines prostitution thus: 
"where several mercenary acts of immorality have been legally 
Prostitution in Europe. By Abraham Flexner. 
Published by The Century Co., New York. $1.30. 370 
The World’s Social Evil 
established, when the woman is publicly notorious, when she 
has been caught in the act by other witnesses than her accuser 
or the police agent.” 
He appears, however, to be dissatisfied with this limited 
definition, and applies the term to “any person who habitually, 
or intermittently, has sexual relations more or less promiscu- 
ously, for, money or other, mercenary consideration.” 
The use of the word “person” in the wider sense sug- 
gests that prostitution is not an act of one sex only; but in 
the next sentence he says “A woman may be a prostitute, even 
though not notorious, even though never arrested, even though 
simultaneously otherwise employed in a paid occupation.” Is 
not this ah acceptance of the old-time one-sided application of 
the term “prostitute?” 
Mr. Flexner, however, is too keen an observer to fail to 
see, as he himself puts it, in another chapter, that in every 
act of prostitution at least two parties, usually, but not always, 
of opposite sex, are concerned.” And he is also too candid 
and too honest not to recognise that “it is plainly absurd to 
speak of prostitution as if it were only, or even mainly, the 
act of the woman; as if women took to prostitution simply 
because they were marked out for a vicious life by innate de- 
pravity, or even forced into it by economic pressure.” 
Demand and Supply. Under the head of “demand” Mr. 
Flexner combats the idea that it is chargeable against any one 
set of conditions. “Demand and Supply” he claims, “are vari- 
able factors.” He puts the case in these terms: “If the pros- 
titution of women had specific causes, in the sense in which the 
term 'cause’ is used in science, then, wherever such causes are 
present, prostitution should result.” He declares that “the de- 
mand on the part of the continental male European is prac- 
tically universal; so true is this, that until quite recently 
questioned, it has been taken to be an ultimate and inevitable 
physiological fact.” 
But notwithstanding this statement of an almost universal 
male depravity on the continent of Europe, Mr. Flexner re- 
gards supply as a stimulant to demand. “Supply” he says, 
“everywhere greater than spontaneous demand, is utilized to 
create a secondary demand.” The World’s Social Evil 
371 
If this means anything—instructive or definite—it means 
that the exploitation of women and girls for the market of lust 
is a chief contributor to, and a principal source of the popular 
and almost universal belief in “necessity” and therefore of the 
practice of vice on the part of the men: 
As Havelock Ellis has recently pointed out “the white slave 
traffic is not prostitution; it is the commercialized exploita- 
tion of prostitutes.” “The proprietors of the houses,” as Ellis 
says, “give orders for the ‘goods’ they desire, and it is the 
business of the procurers by persuasion, misrepresentation, de- 
ceit, intoxication, to supply them.” 
One has only to reflect on such a business, having vast 
agencies and interchanging commerce, to perceive that it must 
be an enormous stimulant, not only of the supply, but—through 
the supply—of the demand. 
“There is no more efficient way,” says Mr. Flexner, “to 
manufacture and to develop demand than to crowd supply in an 
attractive form upon the possible buyer’s attention, when he 
is most amenable to suggestion of the requisite kind. True 
of every article of commerce, be the need for it native or ac- 
quired, this principle is nowhere more valid than in respect 
of a vice that starts with a tremendously powerful momentum, 
and is easily susceptible of still further stimulation.” 
An Old Theory Challenged. In the first chapter of the 
book the author refutes the current idea that the life of the 
women of the underworld is so brief that the average is only 
five or six years. Referring to this he says “there is no basis 
in fact whatsoever.” 
He seems to regard this as an important discovery. And 
it must be admitted that if it is found that this notion rests 
upon a popular error there must be a change of statement in 
regard to it. 
'He quotes the authority of Parent Duchatelet that of 3517 
women inscribed in Paris, 980, or about 28 percent, have been 
on the Paris list longer than seven years, but he does not tell 
us what were the average years of life of the other 2537 or 72 
percent of them. 
He gives also a table of statistics showing that, in Stock- 
holm “the inscribed women, while indicating a higher death 
rate than other groups of women, does not show anything like 372 
The World’s Social Evil 
the high rate generally named. In the seven years, given in the 
table, the death rate of other groups of women averages 7.02 
and of inscribed prostitutes, 11.6. 
Here again, however, there is no allowance made for the 
women who drop out of the inscribed list and are lost to 
police inspection. In another chapter of the book we find a 
table showing that “of 2442 women in Stockholm between 1859 
and 1884 23 percent leave in the first year after inscription. 
With a total enrolment of 3582 at Paris in 1880, 1757 women 
disappeared—46 by death, one by marriage, six to return to a 
decent life, the rest simply dropped out, eluding police control 
in one way or another.” 
What becomes of the 1757 who escape the vigilance even 
of the expert Paris police? Rescue workers and others tell of 
many instances of poor wrecks of the inscribed classes who 
die, in cellars and garrets, in destitution and obscurity. Sup- 
pose that 30 percent of these missing ones die in the course 
of the year, that would add 527 to the 46 reported dead, making 
a total of 571 out of 3682 in a single year. 
Mr. Flexner makes his strongest point in favor of this 
theory of longer life expectation among fallen women in quot- 
ing from Maurice Gregory’s book on “The European Movement 
for Abolition” that “of 11,823 women committed to Holloway 
Jail (London) in 1908, many of them prostitutes of over five 
years’ standing, only six died in the course of the year." 
Referring to these statistics however he thinks “the explan- 
ation is to be sought in the constitution of the prostitute army.” 
May it not also be sought in the withdrawal of these women, 
while in jail, from the effects of their degrading and deadly 
business? Further, it must be borne in mind that, the regis- 
tration system greatly increases the death rate among such 
women and these women, in the Holloway Jail, had not been 
subject to inscription with its accompanying compulsory ex- 
amination. 
Regulation Kills Women. We have had important testi- 
mony on this subject showing that the average life of the or- 
dinary woman prostitute is high, but that the death rate of the 
inscribed or registered women is more than double that of the 
free women. The World’s Social Evil 
373 
A table In Chapter 4 of this volume shows the enormous 
increase In the death rate of registered women. 
Sources of Supply. In regard to the "Sources of Supply” 
Mr. Flexner found that "the mentally defective are naturally 
easy prey,” thus bearing unconscious testimony to the premises 
of Judge Olson’s valuable address published herein. 
That girls seek the life, in any considerable proportion, does 
not appear to Flexner. “There is no reason,” he says, "to be- 
lieve that, as a rule, promiscuity is congenial to the woman 
from the start; it is sometimes increasingly odious. Low as the 
barrier may be, the pr'ostitute has rarely once and for all de- 
liberately stepped across it. Her demoralization is a progres- 
sive, not a summary, process. With her, the sex instinct is 
less apt to be valued at its real worth, or to be properly safe- 
guarded by deference to exacting opinion; less apt, too, to be 
reduced in comparative urgency by the volume and abundance 
of other satisfactions. The girl has, however, no notion in 
the first place of becoming a prostitute. She begins by giving 
away what ultimately she learns to sell.” 
"Sometimes demoralization has set in so early, or there has 
been so little development of intelligence or character, that the 
girl is herself from the start not only willing, but the main in- 
stigator; in other cases, with intelligence too undeveloped and 
character too unformed to urge her away from temptation, a 
vague but profound instinct holds her back until her dumb re- 
sistance has been overcome by other inducements or weakened 
by alcohol, pretended affection or interest. Despite this dark 
picture, however, most girls in the various stations described 
do resist like a stone wall.” 
In his study of this phase of the subject, Mr. Flexner finds 
that the source of supply in Europe is chiefly from the lower 
working classes and mainly the unmarried women of these 
classes. “They are,” he says, ‘‘the unskilled daughters of the 
unskilled classes. Out of 1,327 street-women of Geneva ex- 
amined between 1907 and 1911, 503 had been servants; 236 tail- 
oresses and laundresses; 120 factory workers. Of 173 registered 
Munich prostitutes (1911), 52 had been barmaids; 29 domestic 
servants; 29 factory employment. Of 2,574 clandestines in the 
same city, 721 had been servants; 608 barmaids; 255 factory 
hands; 60 stage-dancers or singers; 170 without definite call- 374 
The World’s Social Evil 
ing. Of 1,200 women enrolled in Berlin 1909-10, 431 had been 
servants; 445 factory operatives; 479 seamstresses and laund- 
resses; 145 were without vocation.” 
Education. As to the educational standing of these women 
he quotes German authorities to show that less than one tenth 
had anything beyond the most rudimentary training. Of the 
minors apprehended in 1901, only 36 percent of these over 12 
years had completed the popular elementary schools: only one- 
fifth of one percent had advanced further. 
“One finds here and there,” he says, “a stenographer, an 
elementary teacher, a former actress; but in most of these cases, 
the woman is, socially speaking, of inferior origin and intellect- 
ually not more prepossessing than others of her type. Very 
rarely indeed a person of some education, social standing, and 
personal charm is met with. A Parisian woman to whom this 
description is fairly applicable was asked as to the possibility 
of finding others like herself. “I am one in a million,” she 
proudly and truthfully answered.” 
Home Conditions. The absence of refinement and moral 
tone in the homes of many is shown to have a close relation 
to the supply. “Living conditions are responsible for the fact 
that children learn all forms of evil prematurely and forego 
all natural enjoyments. Of the inhabitants in Berlin in 1900, 
73.7 percent lived in dwellings of two rooms or less; 785,000 
lived in single rooms; 561,000 in two rooms; 5,450 in one un- 
heated room; 7,759 in a kitchen. Too frequently, the home, 
such as it is, is broken besides.” 
The absence of home relationships also is given as a cause 
of the fall into the ranks of prostitution, of domestic servants. 
He points out that servants “who fall into the ranks of prosti- 
tution show that economic pressure is not in itself a main 
cause” for the servant does not lack food or shelter and her 
services are everywhere in demand. 
“Mrs. Bramwell Booth, than whom there is no more com- 
petent or sympathetic authority, found among 150 successive 
and unusually varied cases only 2 percent who explained their 
prostitution by inability to earn a livelihood; Strohmberg dis- 
covered among 462 enrolled women at Dorpat only one who 
protested poverty as her justification; Pinkus, studying the The World’s Social Evil 
375 
incomes of 1,550 Berlin women before embarking on the life, 
decides that 1,389 had earned enough for self support. But it 
would be obviously unfair to say of these 1,389 women capable 
of earning a living that social economic conditions had nothing 
to do with their fall; for precisely these conditions create a situ- 
ation capable of being exploited.” 
The Cost. “The cost of prostitution, near and remote, di- 
rect and indirect, outruns any calculation that one would dare 
to formulate.” 
After speaking of “the money immediately involved—the 
sums paid to the prostitute,” etc., Mr. Flexner says, “We may 
not overlook the loss involved in the unproductiveness of this 
army of women; expenditure on alcohol, gifts and demoralizing 
amusements; the long score chargeable to venereal disease, in- 
cluding the loss in earnings, the outlay for treatment, both of 
the immediate victims and those still more unfortunate on 
whom, though innocent, some part of the curse and its cost not 
infrequently devolves. Upwards of 10,000 individuals are now 
annually treated for venereal complaints in the public hospi- 
tals of Berlin alone. These are essential items in the cost of 
prostitution. Of the total loss only the roughest guesses can 
be made; but it is worth noting that any estimate that en- 
deavors to include all the factors, direct and indirect, soon 
reaches into the millions. Losch, for example, has reckoned the 
annual cost of prostitution to the German Empire at something 
between 300 and 500 million marks. This outlay may be con- 
trasted with that spent by the Prussian Government on its en- 
tire educational system: its universities, secondary schools, ele- 
mentary school system, technical and professional institutions 
of all kinds involving a budget in 1909 of a little less than 200,- 
000,000 marks. Assuredly the economic burden imposed on so- 
ciety by prostitution is comparable with that due to standing 
armies, war, or pestilence.” 
The Law. In Chapter 4 Mr. Flexner treats of “Prostitution 
and the Law.” He lays down the premise that “No one hopes 
successfully to interfere by means of penal legislation with the 
occasional immorality of two individuals.” He quotes author- 
ities who claim that the dictum that “these are vices, not 
crimes” applies only to prostitution, in so far as it involves 376 
The World’s Social Evil 
only two adults “without annoyance or profit to others.” “In 
England, Italy, Norway, Holland and Switzerland there is no 
penal enactment against prostitution as such.” 
And he adds: “The change of opinion from the crime concept 
to the vice concept of prostitution accompanies and denotes not 
less, but greater, public concern on the subject. For it betok- 
ens a critical and discriminating study of the problem—a reduc- 
tion of its vast total into constituent elements, each to be met 
by its own appropriate procedure. The societies whose laws 
indiscriminately denounced all immorality as crime are con- 
spicuous for the futility of most of the steps which they took 
in dealing with it. A highly learned German authority is quoted 
as saying: “What is evil in prostitution is not necessary and 
what is necessary is not evil.” 
Regulation. Coming to the subject of Regulation in Europe 
Mr. Flexner speaks of two opposite policies, “regulation and abo- 
litionFor purposes of regulation he shows that the Conti- 
nental European police power is practically absolute and irre- 
sponsible. At Paris, he says, “Administrative punishment is re- 
garded as the very core of regulation. A registered woman has 
no legal rights. She is absolutely in the hands of the police 
inspector, who, on hearing the morals patrolman’s complaint 
against her, pronounces sentence upon her. She may, of course, 
protest her innocence, but she is allowed neither attorney to 
represent, nor witnesses to support her. Nor can the action 
of the police be reviewed by any regularly constituted court 
of justice.” 
This police power has been conceded without the deliberate 
and express sanction of a competent legislative authority. That 
is to say, no nation has legalized the system, by any definite 
act or law, except England, in passing the Contagious Diseases 
Acts and that country found it necessary to repeal the acts in 
obedience to popular demand. 
The reasons, or excuses, given for regulation are “that it 
is necessary for the preservation of order” and “that it promotes 
the public health.” 
Segregation: Both these reasons are exploded. The segre- 
gation of prostitution is proven to be an inherent failure. Mr. 
Flexner quotes statistics which he says “disposes once and for The World’s Social Evil 
377 
all of segregation. Segregation in the sense of an attempt to 
confine the prostitutes of a city, or even the majority of them 
to a single locality, or even to a few definite localities, is not 
undertaken in any European city from Budapest to Glasgow." 
Again he says: “Segregation is impracticable; more than 
this, any attempt to bring it about is also recognized to be in- 
advisable. In the first place, the impossibility of thoroughness 
creates an obvious opportunity for police corruption; a woman 
who objects to being segregated may for an adequate considera- 
tion induce the police to overlook her; and as hundreds are 
bound to be overlooked anyway, the chances of detecting fraud 
are slender. Again, a segregated quarter would give to vice the 
greatest possible prominence. Finally, it would expose to moral 
contagion those who are already most imperilled and whom 
every consideration of interest and decency should impel society 
to protect—the children of the poor. For the segregated quar- 
ter will inevitably be located where rents are low and where the 
neighbors have least influence.” 
Abolition. London’s policy for abolition, which has been 
in operation for a few years, is working out the good claimed 
for it. “Besides the transformation wrought in particular spots, 
an unmistakable general improvement is noticeable throughout 
London. This is a fact familiar to travelers returning to London 
after an interval of a few years; it was practically the unani- 
mous testimony before the Royal Commission. On this point it 
is hardly necessary to do more than to quote the words of Mr. 
W. A. Coote: ‘I have known London for the past forty years, 
and my memory goes back to quite forty-seven years. I knew 
the Haymarket and Piccadilly very well forty-seven years ago, 
and I say that London today, compared with what it was forty 
years ago, is an open-air cathedral. Everything has gone for 
the better.’ The Laws remain the same, but popular demand 
has caused, or enabled, police and courts gradually to make 
more of them." * * * * 
After an absence from London of more than thirty-five 
years, save for a brief visit eighteen years ago, the author of 
this book witnessed the marvelous changes mentioned by Mr. 
Coote, and observed that similar progress has been made in 
Liverpool and other English cities.—Ed. 378 
The World’s Social Evil 
“London has lost nothing and actually gained something 
through its abolition policy. No community has as yet envisaged 
and attacked the entire problem involved in commercialized 
prostitution,—no community, I say, whether regulationist or abo- 
litionist.” * * * * “As to the two matters now concerning 
us—order in the streets and brothels—the lowest level reached 
in London nowhere falls as low as in the continental capitals 
where regulation is in vogue.” 
“As far as order goes, therefore, it is impossible to make 
out a case favorable to regulation.” 
Sanitary Effects. In treating of the sanitary failure of the 
system, Mr. Flexner could do no more than add testimony to 
the facts already established, viz., what he calls the “absurdity 
of supposing that regulation means that the authorities are 
alive to the problem of venereal disease and that abolition 
means that they close their eyes to it. Regulation means simply 
that the police deal with a very small portion of venereal dis- 
ease; on the Continent, at least, abolition means that the health 
authorities are energetically attempting to reach more and more 
of it.” 
“Venereal disease is an evil in itself, and deserves to be 
combated with all the resources and facilities known to science 
and sanitation; but so long as prostitution exists, venereal dis- 
ease will remain serious and widespread; we have discovered 
absolutely no reason—statistical or other—to believe that regu- 
lation at all reduces its ravages; there is, however, good reason 
to believe that the bordell and the medical examination con- 
tribute to its aggravation by increasing miscellaneous commerce 
and by decreasing resistance.” 
Regulation. What, then, of its sanitary value? For the pur- 
pose of preventing disease, regulation invested the European po- 
lice with absolute and irresponsible power to compel regular med- 
ical inspection. This inspection is described by Mr. Flexner, in its 
offensive and corrupting details—its horrible instrumental force 
—its disgusting haste, “three minutes being estimated as the 
time available, while the actual operation is much less”—the in- 
evitable false security that is thus assumed by men—the cer- 
tainty of increasing immorality through this assumed security, 
and the consequent increase rather than decrease of venereal The World’s Social Evil 
379 
diseases are all viewed in panorama in this very comprehensive 
hook. 
This leads us to remark on one of the aspects of the Euro- 
pean history of the subject that Mr. Flexner seems to have 
entirely overlooked. 
Mr. Flexner closes his book with this: 
"Civilization has stripped for a life-and-death wrestle with 
tuberculosis, alcohol and other plagues. It is on the verge of a 
similiar struggle with the crasser forms of commercialized Vice. 
Sooner or later it must fling down the gauntlet to the whole 
horrible thing. This will be the real contest—a contest that will 
tax the courage, the self-denial, the faith, the resources of human- 
ity to their uttermost.’’ 
The methods and machinery of the old European Systems of 
regulation of prostitution were believed to be perfected in the 
English Acts of 1866-9, called the Contagious Diseases Acts—a 
name given to blind public observation and mislead inquirers. 
A letter appeared in the London Daily News in 1869 signed 
by four distinguished Englishwomen, Harriet Martineau, Flor- 
ence Nightingale, Mary Carpenter and Josephine E. Butler. That 
letter was afterwards signed by thousands of women, and It 
contained “a solemn protest,” which nobly expresses every prin- 
ciple involved in the present day stand taken against regulation. 
A copy of that protest is given in Chapter 3 of this volume. 
From the day that those four women published their chal- 
lenge in the London paper ''the gauntlet” has been flung down 
and never for one single day has the contest against the unequal, 
immoral and slavish system ceased. Already this war has taxed 
the courage, the self-denial, the faith, the resources of a noble 
army of women and men, who for forty-five years have fought 
against principalities and powers and against the powers of 
darkness. 
It is to he regretted that in Mr. Flexner’s important study 
of present day conditions in Europe, he should have missed the 
one great educational movement which explains the change of 
sentiment and official action which he found to have taken place. 
In Chapter four he says: ‘‘An era of scientific study may 
be fairly said to have set in. Wholesale and traditional methods 380 
The World’s Social Evil 
of attack have been discredited and are being discarded. Frank 
discussion of the subject, as a social problem, is common on the 
Continent, and is beginning to take place in Great Britain, 
where it was long tabooed.” 
But this “frank discussion” began, as shown above, in 1869. 
The Contagious Diseases Acts were passed and sustained on 
medical grounds, and the challenge on those grounds was 
promptly taken up by the opponents of the Acts. The medical 
supporters of the Acts immediately affected an air of puritanism, 
claiming that the subject was unfit for public discussion, and 
even the medical press was closed against it. But this did 
not stop the aggressive movement. Untold numbers of able 
treatises appeared, discussing the hygienic—as well as the moral 
and legal—features of the subject, and in 1875 the “Medical 
Enquirer” was started, and was maintained for three years, until 
the "conspiracy of silence” on the part of the press was broken. 
During that three years scores of the most eminent medical 
men of Great Britain entered the charge against the indifference 
on the subject, and able articles were published from the pens of 
such men as Drs. Chapman, Editor of the Westminster Review; 
Drysdale, Taylor, Nevins, Worth, Carter, Hutchinson, Routh, etc. 
This scientific movement thus begun in England, spread to 
the Continent, and was the real promoter of the Congress at 
Geneva in 1877, and the later conferences at Brussels in 1899 and 
1905, where the system was declared “a failure” from a sanitary, 
as well as a moral, point of view. 
In order to call the attention of the American people to 
this aspect of the subject, “The Medical Association for Repeal 
of the Contagious Diseases Acts” addressed a 98 page pamphlet 
to the Members of the American Legislature and the Medical 
Profession of America, and 500 copies of that pamphlet were 
sent to New York for distribution. 
It happens that we have a copy of the letter addressed to 
Mr. Aaron M. Powell, New York, which is of interest as showing 
that the social problem was being very vigorously discussed 
and that, so far from lagging behind in the conflict, Great Brit- 
ain led in It. The World’s Social Evil 
381 
NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION FOR 
REPEAL OF THE C. D. ACTS. 
Liverpool, Aug. 2, 1877. 
To Aaron Powell, Esq., 
58 Reade Street, New York City. 
Dear Sir: — 
Acting upon advice I have this day dispatched to your 
address a case containing 500 copies of “An Address to Members 
of the American Legislature and of the Medical Profession” from 
the British-Continental & General Federation for the Abolition 
of State Regulation of Prostitution and the above Association. 
This “Address” has been carefully prepared under the able 
editorship of Dr. J. Birkbeck Nevins, and has been printed and 
published in a form which we hope will be acceptable to our 
friends in America. 
I have taken the opportunity to enclose in the case a few 
of our other publications, some of which you may not have 
seen, and which will throw some light upon the various phases 
of our movement. These publications include 
20 copies of a recent address to medical men by Dr. Routh 
(an eminent medical man of London), 
10 copies each of Chapters I, II and III of “Observations by 
a Physician”, 
25 copies each of the “Medical Enquirer” for May, June and 
July, 
Sundry other pamphlets and copies of “The Shield” and 
“The National League Journal”, 
And a complimentary copy of each Volume of the Medical 
Enquirer for 1875 and 1876. 
I shall feel obliged if you will kindly acknowledge receipt 
of this letter and the goods when delivered. 
I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 
Wm. Burgess, Secretary. 
We are all witnesses that the remarkable change in the 
attitude of the public, observed by Dr. Charles W. Eliot in his 
address at Buffalo, August 27, 1913, applies to the whole ques- 
tion of social morals, and we hail the change as the hopeful 
sign of a new advent, with far reaching possibilities beyond 382 
The World’s Social Evil 
the dreams of men and women a decade ago. Ere long the 
doctrine of the necessity of vice and the consequent necessary 
commerce in womanhood will be universally exploded. The next 
generation will no more make legal “provision for the flesh to 
fulfil the lusts thereof” than we would now license “firebugs” 
or regulate the sale of tuberculosis and smallpox germs for 
revenue. 
Mr. Flexner’s book as a whole is a great contribution to this 
absorbing all-world subject. In more than 450 pages he packs in 
a vast variety of facts and proofs of the terrible realness of the 
problems involved—he fortifies the position, long since taken 
by advanced students and workers—that what is morally wrong 
cannot be legally right—that, while the police of Europe have 
developed a marvellous executive skill, and have tried every 
method that their ingenuity can devise, license and segregation 
have totally failed to regulate; that under the varied systems 
venereal diseases were an increasing menace to civilization, 
and that the commercialization of vice developed into a gigantic 
system of vice slavery which spread over into every civilized 
land. 
As a testimony against legalization or regulation of prosti- 
tution in any form it is not merely that of an expert student— 
but it is a composite witness. Here are the facts gathered from 
many countries under numerous methods of applying the regu- 
lation system, and all agree that it is as impossible to make 
vice decent or physically safe as it is to “gather grapes of thorns 
or figs of thistles.” APPENDIX III. 
THE APPENDIX TO DR. SANGER’S WORK. 
A Criticism. 
Certain statements and arguments have been made on vari- 
ous occasions based upon the supposed authority of Dr. W. W. 
Sanger’s History of Prostitution which have not been warranted 
by the author’s words. 
An edition of that work published in 1910 contains an 
article of twenty-two pages which appears as “an appendix” to 
the volume. This “appendix” follows immediately the last chap- 
ter, without any indication that it is written by another hand. 
The “appendix” is anonymous and bears no name of authorship. 
Unless, therefore, the reader takes the care to determine it 
carefully he is easily led to the error that the “appendix” is also 
a work of Dr. Sanger, and it has been so quoted on occasions of 
important public inquiry. 
Dr. Sanger published his study of this subject more than a 
half century ago, when European experiments of regulation 
were supported by the chief medical and military authorities, 
and were operated by the most accomplished and absolute police 
forces of the world. 
Had Dr. Sanger lived, himself to write a twentieth century 
“appendix” to his work he would not have ignored the great 
changes which the experience and study of the last thirty years 
have brought to the subject. He would have known that the 
English Contagious Diseases Acts had been passed into law and, 
after operating for twenty years—1866-1886—were acknowledged 
failures, not only as tending to increase immorality, but also 
as hygienic measures, and that, following the great uprising 
of public agitation, they were repealed by vote of the British 
Parliament. 
Dr. Sanger also would certainly have taken notice of the 
attitude of the leading medical authorities of all the countries 
in Europe, as represented at the Brussels Conferences of 1899 
and 1905, and of the great changes of policy in dealing with 
the subject in European cities. He would have learned also of 384 
The World’s Social Evil 
the state of the question in the light of the most careful and 
thorough investigations made in our day and country. 
Conservative men who were appointed as members of such 
bodies as the Grand Jury of New York, the Chicago Vice Com- 
mission, the Minneapolis Vice Commission, and numerous others, 
have been invariably led to see that “regulation” is a failure 
and that the only remedy, in the language of the Chicago Com- 
mission, is “constant and persistent repression of prostitution, 
the immediate method; absolute annihilation, the ultimate 
ideal." 
Dr. W. H. Evans, former health commissioner of Chicago, 
and later known as authority on sanitation and hygiene, through 
the columns of the Chicago Tribune, spoke the expression of 
many of these investigators when he said: 
"I frankly confess that when I became a member of the Vice 
Commission I shared the rather loose view of the medical pro- 
fession, that to segregate vice would be a measure looking toward 
a control of the problem of venereal disease. I had absorbed 
this point of view without any particular study, and it did not 
represent the accurate opinions or the close investigations of 
myself or anybody else. 
“It was with this point of view that I became a member of 
the Vice Commission. What I observed as a member of the 
Vice Commission sent me to the conclusion that segregation was 
not a remedy looking toward the ultimate cure of the vice evil 
from any standpoint. I assume we are all of the opinion that 
an end of sexual immorality is not going to be brought about 
quickly or as a result of the immediate operation of any of the 
measures that are proposed. The only question is as to the ad- 
vantage of one method over the other, looking toward a cure 
of the situation as rapidly as is possible. 
“The reason for concluding that segregation was not even 
a gradual cure was that it was very apparent that segregation 
did not segregate; that there were more people plying the pro- 
fession of a prostitute outside of the so-called segregated district 
than there were in that district. Regulation regulates in vary- 
ing degree according to the efficacy of the officers who are ad- 
ministering regulation. For, I assume, that we all start with 
recognition of the fact that though regulation has had no legal The World’s Social Evil 
385 
recognition that it has been in varying measure a policy in this 
city and in most cities. 
“An essential part of the idea of segregation is the fact that 
it offers a cohesion between the groups of people in whom there 
is the most venereal disease. Venereal disease is, like other 
forms of contagion, one that should be isolated and therefore 
that we will gain in using efforts to control if we will put it 
under observation and will localize it, since bringing under ob- 
servation and localizing is the method that is employed for the 
control of diseases that are very similar in their characteristics, 
at least from the contagion standpoint. 
“But if this is to be efficacious it assumes that the regula- 
tion of venereal diseases in segregated districts is comparable 
with the regulation of smallpox in a smallpox hospital, or of 
scarlet fever or diphtheria, either, in a scarlet fever or diph- 
theria hospital, or else in homes where those diseases have 
been placarded and where the diseases are under supervision. 
And one of the reasons for coming to the conclusion that segre- 
gation did not return results was the fact that the medical 
inspection that prevails in the segregated districts and that con- 
situtes one of the most important arguments in its favor—in 
fact, I believe constitutes usually the most important argument 
that is offered in its favor,—is that this medical inspection 
serves to protect,—while, as a matter of fact, medical inspection 
in houses of prostitution is no more of a success than is the 
policy of segregation in segregating this vice away from other 
parts of the community; is no more successful than is regula- 
tion; in fact, is the least successful of the three effects that are 
supposed to be the good effects of this particular line of policy. 
“A good many years ago this particular method, as a method 
of controlling vice, was adopted. It was adopted and they strove 
to carry it out in countries where government is very much 
more powerful than it is in this country. Particularly was this 
true in European countries, and quite generally it has been 
abandoned in European countries.”—Address before Committee 
of Aldermen, Chicago, November 11, 1912. 
We take issue with the writer of this anonymous “appendix” 
when he says, “from time to time since the earliest history of 
human government efforts have been made to suppress prostitu- 386 
The World’s Social Evil 
tion.” Abundant evidence is given in this volume that human 
governments have not made efforts by constitutional or sustained 
law to suppress this evil. 
Occasionally rules have been enforced by rigid reformers 
up to the extreme of persecution. Ancient Puritans exercised 
their power in this way. Shakspeare has thus dramatized an 
old law, in the over-zealous and unjust deputy in “Measure for 
Measure.” Such means have always defeated themselves, as 
when Charlemagne issued his tyrannous edicts which, as Sanger 
says, “directed vulgar prostitutes to be scourged, and treated 
the same act as a crime among the poor, and an excusable 
habit among the rich.” 
The anonymous Sanger “appendix” says this, “There are 
ample laws against prostitution, both human and divine; but all 
attempts to rigidly enforce them, whether dictated by considera- 
tions of public policy or sentiments of religious duty, have sig- 
nally failed whenever or wherever they have been made.” 
That there are divine laws, ample and qualified to meet the 
evil if obeyed, needs no statement, and that there are numerous 
statutes in our various states is readily admitted, but the laws 
of this and other countries, on this subject, have been inter- 
preted and employed to defeat the end for which they were 
supposed to exist. They have not been used to suppress the 
traffic, but generally to regulate and permit ft. There has been 
no law simple and effective—a protection against vice resorts. 
While common law has declared these to be nuisances, no 
weapon has been given the people with which to suppress them. 
Until Iowa passed the Injunction and Abatement Law no such 
weapon was available in any state. It is gratifying to know 
that a similar law has now been passed in twelve other states 
and also by Congress for the District of Columbia. 
Much more might be said about this “appendix,” but suffi- 
cient has been said to show that reference to it should be re- 
garded with caution and suspicion. The World’s Social Evil 
387 
APPENDIX IV. 
THE INJUNCTION AND ABATEMENT LAW. 
The following is a copy of the hill passed by the Sixty-third 
Congress at Washington. It was signed by President Woodrow 
Wilson on February 7, 1914, and became law from that date. 
This law is substantially the same as the Iowa Law, and also 
of other States, except where clauses have been added or omitted 
in harmony tvith State statutes: 
AN ACT to enjoin and abate houses of lewdness, assignation, 
and prostitution; to declare the same to be nuisances; to 
enjoin the person or persons who conduct or maintain the 
same and the owner or agent of any building used for such 
purpose; and to assess a tax against the person maintain- 
ing said nuisance and against the building and owner 
thereof. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That who- 
ever shall erect, establish, continue, maintain, use, own, occupy, 
or re-lease any building, erection, or place used for the purpose 
of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution in the District of Co- 
lumbia is guilty of a nuisance, and the building, erection, or 
place, or the ground itself in or upon which such lewdness, 
assignation, or prostitution is conducted, permitted, or carried 
on, continued, or exists, and the furniture, fixtures, musical 
instruments, and contents are also declared a nuisance and shall 
be enjoined and abated as hereinafter provided. 
Sec. 2. That whenever a nuisance is kept, maintained, or 
exists as defined in this act the attorney of the United States 
for the District of Columbia, or the Attorney General of the 
United States, or any citizen of the District of Columbia, may 
maintain an action in equity in the name of the United States 
of America, upon the relation of such attorney of the United 
States for the District of Columbia, the Attorney General of the 
United States, or citizen, to perpetually enjoin said nuisance, 
the person or persons conducting or maintaining the same, 388 
The World’s Social Evil 
and the owner or agent of the building or ground upon which 
said nuisance exists. In such action the court, or a judge in 
vacation, shall, upon the presentation of a petition therefor 
alleging that the nuisance complained of exists, allow a tem- 
porary writ of injunction, without bond, if it shall be made 
to appear to the satisfaction of the court or judge by evidence 
in the form of affidavits, depositions, oral testimony, or other 
wise, as the complainant may elect, unless the court or judge 
by previous order shall have directed the form and manner in 
which it shall be presented. Three days’ notice, in writing, 
shall be given the defendant of the hearing of the application, 
and if then continued at his instance the writ as prayed shall 
be granted as a matter of course. When an injunction has been 
granted it shall be binding on the defendant throughout the 
District of Columbia, and any violation of the provisions of 
injunction herein provided shall be a contempt as hereinafter 
provided. 
Sec. 3. That the action when brought shall be triable at 
the first term of court, after due and timely service of the 
notice has been given, and in such action evidence of the gen- 
eral reputation of the place shall be admissible for the purpose 
of proving the existence of said nuisance. If the complaint is 
filed by a citizen, it shall not be dismissed, except upon a sworn 
statement made by the complainant and his attorney, setting 
forth the reasons why the action should be dismissed, and the 
dismissal approved by the attorney of the United States for the 
District of Columbia or the Attorney General of the United 
States of America in writing or in open court. If the court 
is of the opinion that the action ought not to be dismissed, it 
may direct the attorney of the United States for the District 
of Columbia to prosecute said action to judgment; and if the 
action is continued more than one term of court, any citizen 
of the District of Columbia, or the attorney of the United 
States for the district of Columbia, may be substituted for the 
complaining party and prosecute said action to judgment. If 
the action is brought by a citizen, and the court finds there 
was no reasonable grounds for said action, the costs may be 
taxed to such citizen. 
Sec. 4. That in case of the violation of any injunction 
granted under the provisions of this act, the court, or in vaca- The World’s Social Evil 
389 
tion, a judge thereof, may summarily try and punish the of- 
fender. 
The proceedings shall be commenced by filing with the clerk 
of the court an information, under oath, setting out the al- 
leged facts constituting such violation, upon which the court 
or judge shall cause a warrant to issue, under which the de- 
fendant shall be arrested. The trial may be had upon affidavits, 
or either party may at any stage of the proceedings demand 
the production and oral examination of the witnesses. A party 
found guilty of contempt, under the provisions of this section, 
shall be punished by a fine of not less than $200 nor more 
than $1,000 or by imprisonment in the District jail not less 
than three months nor more than six months, or by both fine 
and imprisonment. 
Sec. 5. That if the existence of the nuisance be established 
in an action as provided in this act, or in a criminal proceed- 
ings, an order of abatement shall be entered as a part of the 
judgment in the case, which order shall direct the removal 
from the building or place of all fixtures, furniture, musical 
instruments, or movable property used in conducting the nui- 
sance, and shall direct the sale thereof in the manner provided 
for the sale of chattels under execution, and the effectual clos- 
ing of the building or place against its use for any purpose, 
and so keeping it closed for a period of one year, unless sooner 
released. If any person shall break and enter or use a building, 
erection, or place so directed to be closed he shall be punished 
as for contempt, as provided in the preceding section. 
Sec. 6. That the proceeds of the sale of the personal prop- 
erty, as provided in the preceding section, shall be applied in 
the payment of the costs of the action and abatement, and the 
balance, if any, shall be paid to the defendant. 
Sec. 7. That if the owner appears and pays all costs of the 
proceeding and files a bond, with sureties to be approved by 
the clerk, in the full value of the property, to be ascertained 
by the court or, in vacation, by the collector of taxes of the 
District of Columbia, conditioned that he will immediately abate 
said nuisance and prevent the same from being established or 
kept within a period of one year thereafter, the court, or, in 
vacation, the judge, may, if satisfied of his good faith, order the 
premises closed under the order of abatement to be delivered 390 
The World’s Social Evil 
to said owner and said order of abatement canceled so far as 
the same may relate to said property; and if the proceeding be 
an action in equity and said bond be given and costs therein 
paid before judgment and order of abatement, the action shall 
be thereby abated as to said building only. The release of the 
property under the provisions of this section shall not release 
it from judgment, lien, penalty, or liability to which it may 
be subject by law. 
Sec. 8. That whenever a permanent injunction issues 
against any person for maintaining a nuisance as herein defined, 
or against any owner or agent of the building kept or used for 
the purpose prohibited by this act, there shall be assessed 
against said building and the ground upon which the same 
is located and against the person or persons maintaining said 
nuisance, and the owner or agent of said premises, a tax of $300. 
The assessment of said tax shall be made by the assessor of 
the District of Columbia and shall be made within three months 
from the date of the granting of the permanent injunction. 
In case the assessor fails or neglects to make said assessment 
the same shall be made by the chief of police, and a return 
of said assessment shall be made to the collector of taxes. Said 
tax shall be a perpetual lien upon all property, both personal 
and real, used for the purpose of maintaining said nuisance, 
and the payment of said tax shall not relieve the person or 
building from any other penalties provided by law. The pro- 
visions of the law relating to the collection and distribution 
of taxes upon personal and real property shall govern in the 
collection and distribution of the tax herein prescribed in so 
far as the same are applicable and not in conflict with the pro- 
visions of this act. 
Sec. 9. The United States district attorney or other at- 
torney representing the prosecution for violation of this statute, 
with the approval of the court, may grant immunity to any 
witness called to testify in behalf of the prosecution. 
Passed the Senate October 27, 1913. APPENDIX Y. 
PANDERING ACT. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
any person who, by threats by himself, or through another, 
induces, or by any device or scheme inveigles, any female into 
a house of prostitution, or of assignation, in the District of 
Columbia, against her will, or by any threats or duress de- 
tains her against her will, for the purpose of prostitution or 
sexual intercourse, or takes or detains a female, against her 
will with intent to compel her by force, threats, menace, or 
duress to marry him, or to marry any other person, or if any 
parent, guardian, or other person having legal custody of the 
person of a female consents to her taking or detention by any 
person for the purpose of prostitution or sexual intercourse, is 
guilty of pandering, and shall be punished by imprisonment 
for a term of not less than one nor more than five years and 
fined not more than one thousand dollars. 
Sec. 2. That any person who, against her will, shall place 
any female in the charge or custody of any person or persons 
or in a house of prostitution with the intent that she shall live 
a life of prostitution, or any person who shall compel any 
female, against her will, to reside with him or with any other 
person for the purpose of prostitution, or compel her against 
her will to live a life of prostitution, is guilty of pandering and 
shall be punished by a fine of not less than one thousand dol- 
lars and imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 
five years. 
Sec. 3. That any person who shall receive any money or 
other valuable thing, for or on account of procuring for or 
placing in a house of prostitution or elsewhere any female for 
the purpose of causing her illegally to cohabit with any male 
person or persons shall be guilty of a felony, and upon con- 
viction thereof shall be imprisoned for not less than one nor 
more than five years. 
Sec. 4. That any person who by force, fraud, intimida- 
tion, or threats places or leaves, or procures any other person 
or persons to place or leave, his wife in a house of prostitution, 
or to lead a life of prostitution, shall be guilty of a felony, and 
upon conviction thereof shall be imprisoned not less than one 
nor more than ten years. 
Sec. 5. That any person or persons who attempt to detain 
any girl or woman in a disorderly house or house of prostitu- 
tion because of any debt or debts she has contracted, or is said 
to have contracted, while living in said house of prostitution 
or disorderly house shall be guilty of a felony, and on convic- 
tion thereof be imprisoned for a term not less than one nor more 
than five years. 
(Passed by Congress and Approved June 25, 1910.) CHART OF LAWS TO SUPPRESS PROSTITUTION 
APPENDIX VI. 
International Treaty—see pages 867-358. 
National Laws 
1. White Slave Traffic Act, June 25, 1910—see pages 358-359. 
2. Act to Define and Prohibit Pandering. June 25, 1910 — see 
page 391. 
3. Act to Regulate Immigration of Persons for Purposes of Pros- 
titution, and Others, March 6, 1910. 
States, etc. Age of Consent 
State Laws Passed Prohibiting Disorderly Houses 
Alabama 
. . 14 
Statute merely declares keeper a va- 
grant. 
Alaska 
. . 16 
Statute forbids setting up or keeping 
a house of ill fame. 
Arizona 
. . 17 
Keeping of disorderly house forbidden. 
Leasing forbidden in certain limits. 
Arkansas 
. . 16 
Statute gives cities power to suppress. 
No state law forbidding such houses. 
California 
.. 16 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping and leasing. 
Colorado 
. . 18 
Statute punishes keeper of such houses. 
Connecticut 
.. 16 
Statutes forbid keeping such houses. 
Delaware 
.. 7 
Statute forbids keeping and leasing 
such houses. 
Dist. Columbia... 
. . 16 
Injunction and abatement law, 1914. 
Florida 
. . 18 
Statute names penalty for keeping. 
Lease voidable after conviction of 
tenant. 
Georgia* 
.. 10 
Statutes forbid keeping such houses. 
Hawaii 
. . 10 
Statute forbids keeping and leasing. 
Owner may terminate lease upon no- 
tice. 
Idaho 
.. 18 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Illinois 
. . 16 
Statutes forbid: Keeping houses of 
prostitution; licensing houses of 
prostitution; keeping boats, etc., for 
prostitution. 
Indiana 
. . 16 
Statute forbids keeping or leasing. 
Iowa 
.. 15 
Injunction and abatement law, 1909. 
Statute forbids keeping or leasing. 
Kansas 
.. 18 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Kentucky 
. . 16 
No statute on subject. 
Louisiana 
. . 12 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Maine 
. . 16 
Statutes forbid keeping and leasing. 
Maryland 
.. 16 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Massachusetts .. 
.. 16 
Statute prohibits such houses. Statute 
punishes persons who knowingly 
lease. 
Michigan 
.. 16 
Keeping such house forbidden. Owner 
punished for knowingly leasing such 
hou«e. The World’s Social Evil 
393 
States, etc. Awe of Consent 
State Laws Passed Prohibiting Disorderly Houses 
Minnesota 
. 18 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Mississippi 
. 12 
No statute on subject. 
Missouri 
. 14 
Keeping and leasing forbidden. Keep- 
ing house within 100 yds. of church, 
etc., felony. 
Montana 
. 16 
Keeping and leasing prohibited. 
Nebraska 
. 18 
Injunction and abatement law, 1911. 
Using, leasing or sub-letting houses 
forbidden. 
Nevada 
. 16 
Statutes forbid keeping and letting 
within certain limits. 
New Hampshire.. 
. 16 
Statute gives cities power to suppress. 
New Jersey 
. 16 
Statute gives cities power to suppress. 
New Mexico 
. 14 
No statute on subject. 
New York 
. 18 
Statute forbids keeping and leasing 
such houses. Special laws on pros- 
titution in tenement houses. 
North Carolina... 
. 14 
No statute on subject. 
North Dakota.... 
. . 16 
Statutes forbid keeping and leasing. 
Ohio 
. . 16 
Statutes forbid keeping and leasing. 
Nuisance abated on conviction of 
owner. 
Oklahoma 
. 18 
Statutes forbid keeping and leasing. 
Oregon 
. . 16 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping houses. 
Pennsylvania .... 
. . 16 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping or leasing. 
Rhode Island 
. . 16 
Penalty named for maintaining and 
leasing. Lease voidable on convic- 
tion of tenant. 
South Carolina... 
. . 14 
No statute on subject. 
South Dakota.... 
. . 16 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statutes forbid keeping and leasing. 
Tennessee 
. . 18 
Nuisance abated on conviction of 
owner. 
Texas 
. . 15 
Statute punishes owner or lessee for 
keeping such house. 
Utah 
. . 18 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Vermont 
. . 16 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Virginia 
.. 14 
Statute forbids keeping such houses. 
Washington 
. . 18 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Keeping and leasing such houses for- 
bidden. 
West Virginia.... 
.. 14 
Statute forbids keeping and leasing. 
Wisconsin 
.. 14 
Injunction and abatement law, 1913. 
Statute forbids keeping, selling up or 
leasing. 
Wyoming 
.. 18 
Statute forbids keeping or knowingly 
leasing. APPENDIX VII. 
THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC. 
THE “MANN” ACT. 
Approved June 25, 1910. 
Section 1. States the operation of the Act in the United 
States or foreign country. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
term “interstate commerce,” as used in this Act, shall include 
transportation from any State or Territory or the District of 
Columbia to any other State or Territory or the District of 
Columbia, and the term “foreign commerce,” as used in this Act, 
shall include transportation from any State or Territory or the 
District of Columbia to any foreign country and from any foreign 
country to any State or Territory or the District of Columbia. 
Sec. 2. That any person who shall knowingly transport or 
cause to be transported, or aid or assist in obtaining transporta- 
tion for, or in transporting, in interstate or foreign commerce, 
or in any Territory or in the District of Columbia, any woman 
or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for 
any other immoral purpose, or with the intent and purpose to 
induce, entice, or compel such woman or girl to become a pros- 
titute or to give herself up to debauchery, or to engage in any 
other immoral practice; or who shall knowingly procure or 
obtain, or cause to be procured or obtained, or aid or assist in 
procuring or obtaining, any ticket or tickets, or any form of 
transportation or evidence of the right thereto to be used by 
any woman or girl in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any 
Territory or the District of Columbia, in going to any place for 
the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other 
immoral purpose, or with the intent or purpose on the part of 
such person to induce, entice, or compel her to give herself up 
to the practice of prostitution, or to give herself up to de- 
bauchery, or any other immoral practice, whereby any such 
woman or girl shall be transported in interstate or foreign com- 
merce, or in any Territory or the District of Columbia, shall The World’s Social Evil 
395 
be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall 
be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by 
imprisonment of not more than five years, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. 
Sec. 3. That any person who shall knowingly persuade, in- 
duce, entice, or coerce, or cause to be persuaded, induced, en- 
ticed, or coerced, or aid or assist in persuading, inducing, entic- 
ing, or coercing any woman or girl to go from one place to 
another in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory 
or the District of Columbia, lor the purpose of prostitution or 
debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose, or with the 
intent and purpose on the part of such person that such woman 
or girl shall engage in the practice of prostitution or debauchery, 
or any other immoral practice, whether with or without her 
consent, and who shall thereby knowingly cause or aid or assist 
in causing such woman or girl to go and to be carried or trans- 
ported as a passenger upon the line or route of any common 
carrier or carriers in interstate or foreign commerce, or any 
Territory or the District of Columbia, shall be deemed guilty of a 
felony and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of 
not more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a 
term not exceeding five years, or by both such fine and imprison- 
ment, in the discretion of the court. 
Sec. 4. That any person who shall knowingly persuade, in- 
duce, entice, or coerce any woman or girl under the age of 
eighteen years from any State or Territory or the District of 
Columbia to any other State or Territory or the District of 
Columbia, with the purpose and intent to induce or coerce her, 
or that she shall be induced or coerced to engage in prostitution 
or debauchery, or any other immoral practice, and shall in fur- 
therance of such purpose knowingly induce or cause her to go 
and to be carried or transported as a passenger in interstate 
commerce upon the line or route of any common carrier or 
carriers, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction 
thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than ten thousand 
dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, 
or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the 
court. 
Sec. 5. That any violation of any of the above sections two, 
three and four, shall be prosecuted in any court having juris- 396 
The World’s Social Evil 
diction of crimes within the district in which said violation was 
committed, or from, through, or into which any such woman 
or girl may have been carried or transported as a passenger in 
interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, contrary to the provisions of any of said 
sections. 
Sec. 6. That for the purpose of regulating and preventing 
the transportation in foreign commerce of alien women and 
girls for purposes of prostitution and debauchery, and in pur- 
suance of and for the purpose of carrying out the terms of the 
agreement or project of arrangement for the suppression of the 
white-slave traffic, adopted July twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred 
and two, for submission to their respective governments by the 
delegates of various powers represented at the Paris conference 
and confirmed by a formal agreement signed at Paris on May 
eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, and adhered to by the 
United States on June sixth, nineteen hundred and eight, as 
shown by the proclamation of the President of the United States, 
dated June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, the Com- 
missioner-General of Immigration is hereby designated as the 
authority of the United States to receive and centralize informa- 
tion concerning the procuration of alien women and girls with 
a view to their debauchery, and to exercise supervision over 
such alien women and girls, receive their declarations, estab- 
lish their identity, and ascertain from them who induced them 
to leave their native countries, respectively; and it shall be the 
duty of said Commissioner-General of Immigration to receive 
and keep on file in his office the statements and declarations 
which may be made by such alien women and girls, and those 
which are hereinafter required pertaining to such alien wom- 
en and girls engaged in prostitution or debauchery in this 
country, and to furnish receipts for such statements and decla- 
rations provided for in this act to the persons, respectively, 
making and filing them. 
Every person who shall keep, maintain, control, support, or 
harbor in any house or place for the purpose of prostitution, or 
for any other immoral purpose, any alien woman or girl within 
three years after she shall have entered the United States from 
any country, party to the said arrangement for the suppression 
of the white-slave traffic, shall file with the Commissioner- The World’s Social Evil 
397 
General of Immigration a statement in writing setting forth the 
name of such alien woman or girl, the place at which she is 
kept, and all facts as to the date of her entry into the United 
States, the port through which she entered, her age, nationality, 
and parentage, and concerning her procuration to come to this 
country within the knowledge of such person, and any person 
who shall fail within thirty days after such person shall com- 
mence to keep, maintain, control, support, or harbor in any 
house or place for the purpose of prostitution, or for any other 
immoral purpose, any alien woman or girl within three years 
after she shall have entered the United States from any of the 
countries, party to the said arrangement for the suppression 
of the white-slave traffic, to file such statement concerning such 
alien woman or girl with the Commissioner-General of Immi- 
gration, or who shall knowingly and willfully state falsely or 
fail to disclose in such statement any fact within his knowledge 
or belief with reference to the age, nationality, or parentage of 
any such alien woman or girl, or concerning her procuration to 
come to this country, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, 
and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than 
two thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, for a term not ex- 
ceeding two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in 
the discretion of the court. 
In any prosecution brought under this section, if it appear 
that any such statement required is not on file in the office of 
the Commissioner General of Immigration, the person whose 
duty it shall be to file such statement shall be presumed to have 
failed to file said statement, as herein required, unless such 
person or persons shall prove otherwise. No person shall be ex- 
cused from furnishing the statement, as required by this sec- 
tion, on the ground or for the reason that the statement so 
required by him or the information therein contained, might 
tend to criminate him or subject him to a penalty or forfeiture, 
but no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty 
or forfeiture under any law of the United States for or on ac- 
count of any transaction, matter, or thing, concerning which 
he may truthfully report in such statement, as required by 
the provisions of this section. 
Sec. 7. That the term “Territory,” as used in this Act, 
shall include the district of Alaska, the insular possessions of 398 
The World’s Social Evil 
the United States, and the Canal Zone. The word “person,” as 
used in this Act, shall be construed to import both the plural 
and the singular, as the case demands, and shall include cor- 
porations, companies, societies, and associations. When con- 
struing and enforcing the provisions of this Act, the act, omis- 
sion, or failure of any officer, agent, or other person, acting 
for or employed by any other person or by any corporation, 
company, society, or association within the scope of his em- 
ployment or office, shall in every case be also deemed to be 
the act, omission, or failure of such other person, or of such 
company, corporation, society, or association, as well as that 
of the person himself. 
Sec. 8. That this Act shall be known and referred to as 
the “White-slave traffic Act.” 
APPENDIX VIII. 
REGULATION OF IMMIGRATION. 
This act excludes from admission into the United States 
“all prostitutes, or women or girls for the purpose of prostitu- 
tion or for any other immoral purpose; persons who are sup- 
ported by or receive in whole or in part the proceeds of prosti- 
tution; persons who procure or attempt to bring in prostitutes 
or women or girls for the purpose of prostitution or for any 
other immoral purpose; all children under sixteen years of age 
unaccompanied by one or both of their parents, at the discretion 
of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor or under such regu- 
lations as he may from time to time prescribe.” 
“Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of 
any alien for the purpose of prostitution or for any other im- 
moral purpose is hereby forbidden; and whoever shall, directly 
or indirectly, import, or attempt to import, into the United 
States, any alien for the purpose of prostitution or for any 
other immoral purpose, or whoever shall hold or attempt to 
hold any alien for any such purpose in pursuance of such il- 
legal importation, or whoever shall keep, maintain, control, 
(Act Passed by Congress and Approved February 20, 1910.) The World’s Social Evil 
399 
support, employ, or harbor in any house or other place, for the 
purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose, in 
pursuance of such illegal importation, any alien, shall, in every 
such case be deemed guilty of a felony, and on conviction 
thereof be imprisoned not more than ten years and pay a fine 
of not more than five thousand dollars. Jurisdiction for the 
trial and punishment of the felonies hereinbefore set forth shall 
be in any district to or into which said alien is brought in 
pursuance of said importation by the person or persons accused, 
or in any district in which a violation of any of the foregoing 
provisions of this section occur. Any alien who shall be found 
an inmate of or connected with the management of a house 
of prostitution of practicing prostitution after such alien shall 
have entered the United States, or who shall receive, share 
in, or derive benefit from any part of the earnings of any pros- 
titute; or who is employed by, in, or in connection with any 
house of prostitution or music or dance hall or other place of 
amusement or resort habitually frequented by prostitutes, or 
where prostitutes gather, or who in any way assists, protects, 
or promises to protect from arrest any prostitute, shall be 
deemed to be unlawfully within the United States and shall 
be deported in the manner provided by sections twenty and 
twenty-one of this Act. That any alien who shall, after he 
has been debarred or deported in pursuance of the provisions of 
this section, attempt thereafter to return to or to enter the 
United States shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
shall be imprisoned for not more than two years. Any alien 
who shall be convicted under any of the provisions of this sec- 
tion shall, at the expiration of his sentence, be taken into cus- 
tody and returned to the country whence he came, or of which 
he is a subject or a citizen in the manner provided in sections 
twenty and twenty-one of this Act. In all prosecutions under 
this section the testimony of a husband or wife shall be ad- 
missable and competent evidence against a wife or husband.” APPENDIX IX. 
BULLETIN OF CAMPAIGN 
At Atlanta, Ga., the Executive Committee of the Men and 
Religion Forward Movement, published about forty bulletins 
in the daily papers of that city, paying for them as adver- 
tisements. “In September, four months after the appearance 
of the first bulletin, the day before the publication of No. 20, the 
Chief of Police issued the order which closed the segregated 
district, and the recognized houses of prostitution in the city.” 
The following is a copy of No. 1 of these bulletins: 
Ere she can walk alone, the girl clasps her doll. As child- 
hood slips away, she lays aside the toy and, with beating heart, 
innocently craving companions, seeks to be attractive. By her 
nature, God is calling her to the glory of motherhood. 
But a girl betrayed is of commercial value in the houses in 
our midst; and men set traps for her feet. 
Drawn and impelled by forces she does not understand, lured 
by lies or driven by want, she falls into the hands of her hunters. 
Her heart is broken, the instinct for motherhood destroyed; but 
in our markets there is a fallen woman—the girl—to be sold and 
resold until death, more merciful than men, gives sleep. 
The dead and unfit must be replaced with frightful frequency 
since five to seven years is the average life in the houses; while 
the traffic lasts, an inexorable law of supply and demand applies. 
In the United States sixty thousand girls and more are required 
annually to meet the needs of “the white slave trade.” 
Whence do they come? Whose girls are they? Whose daugh- 
ters will be in the next quota? 
The hunters are ever in the field and will be while the 
houses buy and sell. 
Jesus said: “All things therefore whatsoever ye would that 
men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them.” You 
would not have men give to these beasts in human form the right 
to enter your home; you would not have these houses wait to 
receive and sell those whom you love; you cannot approve these 
unspeakable things for the daughters of other men. 
Yet, forty-four houses are in our midst. Toleration of them 
authorizes the procurers to seek their prey. Their stock in trade 
is the fallen woman; for one to fall, a girl must be deceived; a 
license to the open market is a permit to the hunter to pursue and 
obtain the victims for sale therein. The World’s Social Evil 
401 
The Golden Rule requires action. 
Were you to see these harpies aflame with the hope of gain 
hovering over your home and children, you would not prate of 
“necessary evils,” nor would you rest content with praying, “Thy 
will he done”; you would fight to destroy—to uproot the root of 
the evil, the houses in our midst. You should not stand idle and 
silent while the hunters seek and the houses await for your 
neighbor’s daughters. 
The shame of these houses depending for their merchandise 
upon the seduction of girls cries out to God against us. 
None would hurt the pitiful inmates. Help in the name of 
Jesus Christ is offered those who will leave the life! But in His 
Name let us put an end to the shameful commerce! 
Laws of the State of Georgia and Ordinances of the City of 
Atlanta forbid the existence of these houses in our midst. The 
location of each one of them, the daily and nightly violation of 
the law and ordinance, is known to the police force and the police 
board, whose members are sworn to enforce the law. 
The return in gold and good to our city from the wrecked 
lives of those betrayed must be great to have induced her citi- 
zens to approve so long this open disregard of the law of God 
and man. It should not continue! 
“It is time for you to awake out of sleep.” 
Later will be shown the price paid and to be paid by innocent 
women and children for the existence of the houses in our midst. 
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE MEN AND 
RELIGION FORWARD MOVEMENT. INDEX 
Authors and Other Authorities Quoted 
Acton, Dr. Wm., London, Eng. 
Author of “Prostitution,” 120, 
170. 
Addams, Jane. Author and Phil- 
anthropist, 215, 217, 219, 221, 
262; Bishop of Winchester’s 
tribute to her, 284. 
American Commonwealth, Jas. 
Bryce, 9. 
American Journal of Sociology, 
171. 
American Vigilance Ass’n, 265. 
American Social Hygiene Ass’n, 
265. 
Amos, Sheldon, Prof, of Jurispru- 
dence, Eng. Lecky’s picture of 
the prostitute on, 14; quoted, 
26, 27, 32, 44. 
Andrews, Dr., Chicago Med. Coll. 
Gullability of Young Men on, 
119. 
Army Reports, Annual (1905- 
1913), 173-178. 
Banks, F. C., Sec. Nat’l Ass’n for 
Repeal of English C. D. Acts, 
97. 
Barr, Dr., Examining Surg. Al- 
dershot, 145. 
Bebel, A. Author of “Woman, 
Past and Present,” 17. 
Bell, Ernest A., Sup’t Midnight 
Mission, Chicago, 59, 251, 254, 
258. 
Berkowitz, Rabbi, 340. 
Bible, The, 8, 16, 17, 273, 322, 334, 
344. 
“Bible in Shakspeare,” 27. 
Bingham, Col., ex-Police Com. 
N. Y„ 67, 151. 
Blackstone, Law Authority, 144. 
Blaschko, Dr., Berlin, Hygienic 
Utopias on, 131. 
“Blindness of Virtue,” play of, 
327, 331. 
Bloch, M. D., quoted by Flexner, 
32. 
Borel, Pastor, Switzerland, 52. 
Boynton, Rev. M. P., Chicago, 252. 
Braestrup, Dr., Copenhagen, 33. 
British Royal Commission, 29. 
Bright, J., British Statesman, 104. 
Brolaski, a former gambler, 155. 
Brooks, T. J., U. S. Senator, 255. 
Brussels, Conferences, 133-6. 
Bryce, Hon. Jas., Author and 
Statesman, 9. 
Bunting:, Percy, British Philan- 
thropist, 135. 
Burgess, Wm., Author, Chicago, 
27, 248, 252. 
Burns, Robt., Scottish Poet, 334. 
Butler, Mrs. Josephine B., 48, 50, 
54, 96, 144; Mary A. Liver- 
more on, 100; Anna G. Spencer 
on, 102; Mission to Continent, 
231; Appeal to Men and Wom- 
en, 233 ; Letter on Chief of 
Paris Police, 277, 379; first tour 
in Europe, 278; Rescue and 
Abolition on, 300. 
Byron, Lord, Women and Purity 
on, 230. 
Cabot, Dr. Richard C., Physician 
and Author, 352. 
Caldwell, J. B., Chicago, 263. 
Carlyle, Thos., 353. 
Carpenter, Mary, England, 96, 339, 
379. 
Casparin, Countess, Switzerland, 
53. 
Chase, J. F., Boston, Sec. Watch 
and Ward Society, 253. 
Chapman, Dr., Physician, London 
and Paris, Editor of Westmin- 
ster Review, 119, 380. 
Chief, police organ, N. Y., 153. 
Chicago Tribune, 78, 384. 
Chicago Vice Commission Report, 
73, 78, 192, 225, 259; repression 
advocated by, 260. 
Church Times, Hebrew family 
life on, 340. 
Clark, Dr. Bayard, Surg. Bellevue 
Hospital, New York, on Gonor- 
rhoea Widespread, 167. 
Coke, Law Authority, 144. 
Conference, Paris White-Slave 
Traffic, Report of, 51. 
‘‘Commercialized Prostitution,” 
Kneeland, 289. 
Committee of Fourteen, New 
York, 77, 152. 
Committee of Seven, Medical, 160, 
244. Committee of Fifteen, Chicago, 
289. 
Committee of Fifteen, New York, 
244. 
Congress, U. S., Health Reports, 
46. 
Congress, Madrid, Report of, 62. 
Congress, International London, 
282. 
Coote, W. A., Sec. Vigilance Ass’n, 
London, 242; Vision of, 279; 
Book by, 281; European Tour 
of, 281; Congress in London, 
283. 
Cosson, Geo., Atty. Gen., Des 
Moines, 255. 
Crafts, Rev. W. F., Washington, 
D. C., 177. 
Crispi, Sig., Italy, Laws and, 19. 
“Current Opinion,” 195. 
Davis, Katherine, Supt. Bedford 
Hills Reformatory, N. Y., 228; 
quoted by Judge Olson, 357. 
De Graaf, Dr., Madrid, 75, 76. 
De Lolme, Daw authority (Brit- 
ish), 144. 
Dennis, Dr. J. B., Authority on 
China, 37. 
Despres, Dr. Armand, Hospital 
Surg. Lourcine, Treatment of 
Venerealism on, 118. 
Diday, Dr., Lyons, France, 117, 
120. 
Dock, Lavinia, Physician, 142, 156. 
Dodge, Grace, Philanthropist, 
Pres. Y. W. C. A., 220. 
Drake, Marian, Chicago, 275. 
Drummond, Prof. H., “Ascent of 
Man,” 230. 
Drysdale, Chas., Physician, Met. 
Free Hospital, London, 120. 
“Ecce Homo,” Prof. Seeley, Eng., 
344. 
Eliot, Dr. Chas. W., Pres. Emeri- 
tus, Harvard Uni., Change of 
Sentiment on, 240; Address at 
Buffalo, 265; Causes of Sex 
Vice on, 339. 
Eliot, W. E., M. D., St. Louis, Mo., 
opposed license, 42, 43, 44. 
Emerson, Zelie P., 218. 
Ency. Britannica, 49. 
Evans, Dr. W. A., Chicago, Segre- 
gation on, 384. 
Exner, Dr. M. J„ Sec. Student 
Dept. Y. M. C. A., 246-7. 
Farr, Dr., Statistician, England, 
Money Value of Life on, 206. 
Farrar, F. W., Author of “Life of 
Christ,” 21. 
Farwell, A. B., Chicago, 257. 
Finch, Stanley W., White Slave 
Commissioner, 255. 
Fisher, Irving, Prof. Yale Uni., 
206. 
Flexner, A., New York, 32, 229, 
369. 
Forel, M., France, Prostitution 
and Alcohol on, 71. 
Fournier, D. A., Paris, Authority 
on Venerealism, 119, 132, 170. 
Gemmill, Judge, Chicago, White 
Slavery on, 68. 
Genesis, Book of, 8. 
Gibbons, Cardinal, 264, 265. 
Gibson, Rev. Otis, Authority on 
China, 39. 
Gladstone, W. E„ Duty of Gov’ts, 
190, 271; Calamities of War, 199. 
Grannis, Elizabeth, Purity Work- 
er, New York, 263. 
Gross, Dr., Advocate of License 
for U. S., 41, 307. 
Gustafson, Axel, Author of 
“Foundation of Death,” 286. 
Hall, Lucy A., Deaconness, Chi- 
cago, 249. 
Hall, Dr. G. Stanley, Author of 
“Adolescence,” 337. 
Hall, Dr. Winfield Scott, Chicago, 
244. 
Hallam, Wirt W., Sec. Illinois 
Vigilance Ass’n, 254. 
Hammond, John, Des Moines, la., 
255. 
Hart Hastings, Russel Sage 
Foundation, 356. 
Hawthorne, N., Author of "Scar- 
let Letter,” 336. 
Holt, Dr. W. L., New York, 164. 
Hood, Thos., Poet, “Bridge of 
Sighs,” quoted, 79. 
Huet, Dr., Physician, Hospital, 
Amsterdam, 121. 
Hugo, Victor, “Les Miserables,” 
quoted, 49. 
Hutchinson, Jonathan, Surg., Eng., 
135. 
Immigration, U. S. Reports, 61; 
Act to Regulate, 399. 
“Industrial Banner,” 216. 
James, W. Prof, and Author, 351. 
Inferior Courts Act N. Y., 45. 
Janney, Dr. O. E„ Baltimore, 239, 
252. 
Jeannel, Dr., Authority on Ven- 
erealism, 120. 
Jesus Christ, Woman and, 148, 
342; Light and, 322; Honored 
Wedding, 333. Jewish Encyclopedia, Semitic Re- 
ligions on, 16. 
Jones, Ed., British Workman 
Leader, 103. 
Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, Chicago, 248. 
Jordan, David Starr, Pres. Emeri. 
Leland Uni., 206, 264, 265. 
Jullien, Dr., Physician, St. Lazare, 
Paris, 132. 
Junius, quoted, 141. 
Kansas City, Vice Report of, 
Causes of Vice, 72. 
Kean, Lieut. Col., Army Author- 
ity, United States, 181, 191. 
Kelly, Dr. Howard, Baltimore, 
166, 167. 
Kendall, Rev. Sidney C., Los An- 
geles, 57, 58, 249. 
King, Churchill, Woman’s Rights 
and the Church, 353. 
Kneeland, Geo., Chief Investiga- 
tor, Chicago and other Vice 
Commissions, 77, 289. 
Lamertine, H. M., Brussels, pub- 
lisher, 131. 
Lanaers, M., Police Chief, Brus- 
sels, 54. 
Lancet, The, Medical Journal, 
England, 139. 
Lane, Dr. E., Surg. London Lock 
Hospital, 137. 
Langstein, Prof., Alcohol and 
Prostitution on, 71. 
Laveleye, Emile de, Prof. Liege 
Uni., 55. 
“Laws on Prostitution,’’ by Prof. 
S. Amos, 14, 26, 27, 32, 44. 
Lecky, W. E. H., Historian, Eng- 
land, 13, 20, 56, 347. 
Lecour, M., Police Chief, Paris, 
118, 120; Mrs. Butler’s descrip- 
tion of, 277. 
Lies, Eugene T., Sec. Minneap- 
olis Vice Com., 264. 
Light, The, Purity Journal, La 
Crosse, Wis., 267. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 140. 
Livermore, Mary A., 100. 
Logan, Author of “Great Social 
Evil,” Glasgow, 51, 72. 
London, Jack, “When Women 
Vote,” on, 272. 
London Medical Times, 118. 
London Times, White Slavery, on 
50. 
London Quarterly, The, 276. 
Lycurgus, 18. 
Lydston, Dr. G. F., Chicago, 230. 
Macaulay, Lord, Author and 
Statesman, England, 28, 199. 
-Mack, Julian, Judge Cook Co. 
Juvenile Court, 253; Immorality 
of Children by, 327. 
IVIagdalenism, by Tait, Scotland, 
71. 
Magna Charta, quoted, 13. 
Mahon, Dr. W., Manhattan State 
Hospital, 168. 
Mann, James, Congressman U. S., 
254. 
Manning, Cardinal, Letter of, 98. 
Massachusetts State, Vice Re- 
port, 68, 70, 77. 
Martineau, Harriet, English Phil- 
anthropist, 94, 379. 
Mauriac, Dr., Paris Authority, 
146. 
McClure’s Magazine, 203, 266. 
Medical Enquirer, Eng., 125. 
Metropolitan Magazine, 77. 
Mill, John Stuart, Note of, 83. 
Miner, Maude, Probation Officer, 
New York, 357. 
Minneapolis Vice Commission, 
Report, 156, 189. 
Mireur, Dr., Exam. Surg., Mar- 
seilles, 34, 53, 117, 133, 234. 
Mohr, E. K., Supt. Purity Dept., 
S. A., 266. 
Morrow, Prince A., Physician, N. 
Y., 71, 74, 160, 163, 171, 189, 210, 
250. 
Moses, Jewish Degeneracy and, 
16. 
National Vitality, Its Wastes and 
Conservation, Senate Document 
No. 419 Wash., 211. 
Navy Reports. Annual, 1905-1912, 
180, 181, 183. 
New Conscience and an Ancient 
Evil, Jane Addams, 284. 
New York Grand Jury Report, 66. 
Newman, F. W., Prof, and Phil- 
osopher Eng., 83, 99. 
Nightingale, Florence, Philan- 
thropist, 379. 
Olson, Harry, Judge Municipal 
Court, Chicago, 315, 355-368. 
Outlook, The, 216. 
Owens, Senator, Senate Docu- 
ment, Wash., 209. 
Parent-Duchatelet, French Au- 
thority, 24, 33, 72; quoted by 
Flexner, 369, 371. 
Paris Conference Report, 51. 
Parkin, Harry A., Ass’t Dist. Att., 
Chicago. 
Parliamentary Hist., 27. 
Paul, The Apostle, 7; 334. Percival, Dr. L. P., Sup't Dun- 
ning hospital, 168. 
Philanthropist The, Purity Jour- 
nal, 243. 
Philadelphia Vice Com. Report, 
47. 
Pollack, Dr„ Physician, Balti- 
more, 166. 
Pontoppidan, Dr.. Danish Special- 
ist, 137. 
Pope’s Essay of Man, 333. 
Portland Vice Com. Report, 272. 
Potter, Bishop, New York, 153. 
Powell, Aaron M., New York, 43, 
55, 235, 239, 243, 380. 
Prostitution in Europe, Flexner, 
231, 369. 
Purity Journal, J. B. Caldwell, 
267. 
Rauschenbusch, W., Prof. Roch- 
ester, N. Y., Why nations fail 
on, 12, 302; family life supreme 
question of social order, 318. 
Record-Herald, Chicago, 220. 
Reynolds, James B., Counsel Am. 
Social Hygiene Assn., New 
York, 58, 243. 
Rixey, Surg.-Gen. Am. Navy, 181. 
Roe, Clifford G., Chicago, 59, 61, 
248-52. 
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., New 
York, 66, 369. 
Roosevelt, Theo., Col., Wilful 
sterility on, 196, 274; child la- 
bor on, 216; signed treaty, 242. 
Ross, British Army Surg., 29. 
Royal Commission Blue Book, 
Eng., 88; vice in men not evil 
as in women, 92. 
Ruskin, John, Author, Eng., 
Youth and, 349; traces all good 
to purity, 350. 
Sanger, Dr W. W., Author, Hist, 
of Pros., 15, 16, 23, 71, 80; Re- 
cent Appendix criticised, 383. 
Scott, Benj., Chamberlain of Lon- 
don, 24, 108, 118, 123. 
Seippel, Clara P., Physician Cook 
Co. hospital, children slain by 
venerealism on, 165. 
Seligman, Dr. E. R. A., Author 
of ‘‘The Social Evil,” 50, 244. 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 115. 
Shakspeare, W., 14, 15, 155, 303, 
322, 348, 351. 
Shield, The Organ of Ladies’ Na- 
tional Ass’n, Eng., 138. 
Shutter, Rev. D. Marion, Chair- 
man, Minneapolis Vice Com. 
264. 
Sims, Edwin W., Chicago, 59, 60, 
254. 
Sims, Dr. Marion, Regulations 
for U. S. on, 41. 
Solomon, Single standard and, 17. 
Spencer, Anna Garlin, Author, 
Mrs. Butler on, 102. 
Spencer, David S., Authority on 
Japan, 37. 
Spencer, Herbert, Scientist, Dis- 
eases acts on, 84. 
Standard Dictionary, 8. 
Stansfeld, Sir Jas., M. P., Eng., 
21, 55, 115, 116, 233, 276. 
Stead, W. D., Journalist, Eng., 
Maiden Tribute his, 112; Na- 
tional sensation by, 113; “If 
Christ Came to Chicago,” 288. 
Steadwell, B. S., Pres. Purity 
Federation, La Crosse, Wis., 
263. 
Steffen, Lincoln, Journalist, 203. 
St. Louis, Committee of, 100, 43. 
Stimson, Sec. of War, Washing- 
ton, 195. 
Stoos, Prof., Switzerland, 75. 
Stow, Author of “Survey of Lon- 
don,” 27. 
Stuart, James, M. P., Eng., 141. 
Suetonius, as a witness, 22. 
Sumner, Walter T., Bishop, late 
Dean of Chicago, 201, 264. 
Tacitus, Ancient prostitution on, 
22; Chastity of ancient Ger- 
mans, 319. 
Tait, Dr., Edinburgh, Author 
“Magdalenism,” 71. 
Taylor, Bayard, on China, 38. 
Taylor, Chas. Bell, Surg. Midland 
Eye Infirmary, Eng., a vigor- 
ous opponent of C. D. Acts, 
125. 
Taylor, Graham, Prof., Econo- 
mist, etc., Chicago, 309. 
Thierry, Dr., Brussels, prevalence 
of syphilis, 121. 
Thorem, French Author, 230. 
Torney, Surg-Gen., U. S. Army, 
184, 194. 
Tresscote, Louise, quoted, 146. 
Van Dyke, Hy., Prof. Princeton 
Uni., “The Spirit of America” 
quoted, 219. 
Venereal Problem of Army and 
Navy, Lieut.-Col. Kean, 189. 
Vigilance, Organ of A. V. A., 69; 
Dr. Eliot’s address in, 265. 
Wallace, Alfred Russel, Scientist, 
301, 315. 
Washington, Booker T., 353. Waugh, Benj., Sec. London Soc., 
Stead’s revolutionary move- 
ment in London, told by, 113. 
Wiley, Dr. Harvey, Chief, Chem- 
istry Bureau, Wash., Value of 
health and life on, 206. 
Willard, Frances, Pioneer in pur- 
ity movement, 240. 
Wilson, Henrv J., M. P., Eng., 98. 
Wilson, Dr. H. M., Daughter of 
H. J. Wilson, ardent worker 
for moral uplift, 28. 
Willcox, Prof., Statistical author- 
ity, U. S„ 207. 
Year-book of Nat’l Soc. for Study 
of Scientific Education, 203, 
206, 322. 
Zabel, W. C., Dist. Atty., Mil- 
waukee, 297. 
Topical Index 
A Decade of Awakening, 240. 
A New Weapon, 247. 
A Voice and a Vision, 275. 
Address, U. S. to European Con- 
gress, 242; British Physicians 
to Americans, 105, 380, 387. 
Adultery, Woman taken, 148, 344. 
Age of Consent, W. T. Stead on, 
113; Lord Shaftesbury and, 
115, 142, 311; Chart of Amer- 
ican laws on, 392. 
Alcohol, vice and, 71, 293; Vene- 
rialism, 176, 182. 
American, nation went to war, 
10; education, 10; license and 
liberty in, 11; Medical Ass’n 
advocate license, 41, 46; Awak- 
ening the, 235; Federation for 
Sex Hygiene the, 265; Vigi- 
lance Ass’n, 265. 
Amsterdam, regulations at, 121. 
Ancient Nations, prostitution 
and, 17. 
Army, American, statistics of re- 
liable, 169; venereal peril of, 
173; alarming increase of dis- 
ease, 174-6; loss of men by ve- 
nerealism, 182; stoppage of 
pay as a remedy, 186; chastity 
recommended, 187; Secretary of 
War on increase of venereal- 
ism, 187; prostitution principal 
cause of disease, 189; marriage 
of soldiers considered, 191; 
men who enlist are good aver- 
age citizens, 194. 
Art, Sensualism and, 20. 
Athens, prostitutes, classes in, 
18. 
Auction, Women for sale as at, 
64. 
Augustus and Nero, Vices of, 20. 
Babes of five working in canner- 
ies in U. S., 217. 
Babies’ eyes and venereal dis- 
ease, 163, 209. 
Babylon, prostitution in, 17. 
Bad pre-eminence of France, 24. 
Bedford Hill Farm, girls in, 228. 
Belgium, ideal regulations at, 34. 
Beneficence, resolutions on, 237. 
Berlin, regulations at, 31, 156. 
Bible schools, purity teaching 
needed at, 334. 
Big vice business in Chicago, 78, 
201. 
Black plague, the great, 159. 
Blackmailers, vice and, 154. 
Blindness, venereal diseases and, 
161; children and, 163; in Ger- 
many, 172; caused by gonor- 
rhoea, 209, 211. 
Boys, messengers to brothels, 
292. 
Brewers, brothels and, 294. 
British Lion aroused, 110. 
British, regulations at colonies, 
Royal Commission, action in 
India — Women furnished to 
soldiers, 29; Continental and 
general federation, 55; Royal 
Commission reported—Vice in 
men not same as in women, 
92. 
Brussels, system attacked at, 34; 
police chief on women’s sub- 
jection, 54; conferences at— 
Resolutions adopted, 130, 135. 
Brothels, white slave traffic sus- 
tained by, 134-5; principal cen- 
ter of venereal disease, 189. 
Business Men, vice dealers and, 
296-7. 
Cadet system, the, 65, 66, 77. 
Can the Plague be Stayed? 184. 
Canada, No C. D. Acts there, 30. 
Carlyle, Thos., Author, Eng., 353. 
Causes of Prostitution, traffic in 
women, numerous authorities 
quoted, 71-74; alcohol, 71, 293; 
low wages, 217-229; unchastity 
of men, primary cause of, 319; 
Dr. Chas. Eliot on, 339; Flex- 
ner on, 374. Chaldea, prostitution at, 17. 
Charlemagne, edicts of, 386. 
Chastity, Semitic relig’ons and. 
16; Urged upon soldiers and 
sailors, 187; Thoreau on, 230; 
Physicians’ declaration on, 250 ; 
Women and, 319; Religion and, 
333; Shakspeare on, 351; Dr. 
Cabot on, 352; ancient Germans 
and, 319-21. 
Chicago, license sought, 44; 
Number of cases of syphilis in, 
169; Big Vice business in, 78; 
201; Vice Commission, 259; 
Conference at, 252; Business 
men petition mayor for vice 
district, 296; Law and Order 
League, 250. 
Children, Venereal diseases, 161; 
slain by venerealism, 165; Dr. 
Seippel gives alarming facts 
of, 165; Dr. Kelly and Dr. Pol- 
lack on, 166; effects of parents’ 
diseases and, 210; blindness of, 
163, 172, 209; Babes employed 
in U. S. factories, 217; work- 
ing hours and wages of, 219; 
physical and moral degeneracy 
of, 323; Judge Mack reveals 
sad conditions, 327. 
China, British military in, 30; 
No license in—women sold, 38; 
San Francisco report on, 39; 
Bayard Taylor, 38. 
Christ, women and, 148 342; 
light and, 322; Ethical teach- 
ings of, 345. 
Christianity, Social Conscience 
and, 279; supreme need of, 337. 
Church, the, purity and, 335. 
Civilization, greatest task of, 
301; traffic in women and, 296. 
Commissions of Vice Inquiry, 
Table of, 260-262. 
Committee of Fifteen, New York, 
245. 
Committee of Fourteen, New 
York, 77. 
Committee of Seven (Medical), 
244. 
Committee of Fifteen, Chicago, 
289. 
Commerce and Conscience, 28.5; 
Dr. Lydston on, 230; shocking 
moral obliquity — instances in 
Paris, Chicago, Milwaukee, 
288, 292. 
Commercialism of Vice, 8, 36, 62, 
285. 
Constructive Policy, Judge Olson 
on, 355-368; Charts to illus- 
trate, 362, 363, 364. 
Contagious Diseases Acts, prin- 
ciple of in New York law, 45; 
How and why passed, 81-2; 
Character of, working of, 86; 
No redress — Herbert Spencer 
on, 87; moral effects of, 89; 
Suicides caused by—-Mrs. Per- 
cy’s case, 90; Women’s petition 
against, 95; Nat’l Ass’n orga- 
nized, 97; Cardinal Manning 
on, 98; Prof. Newman on, 99; 
John Stuart Mill on, 88; Par- 
liament aroused, 104; Cabinet 
Minister enters fight against, 
105; issue at elections, 110; W. 
T. Stead’s avalanche against 
them; A national sensation, 113; 
Lord Shaftesbury’s last appeal, 
115; The Acts are repealed, 
Copenhagen, regulation in, 33. 
Constructive Policy, A, Judge 
Olson, 355. 
Continuance of Species, Lecky on, 
347. 
Convictions against white slav- 
ers, 69, 70, 253. 
Cost of Social Evil, 201, 211, 212; 
Debit and Credit of the Evil, 
213. 
Crib System, Kendall on, 57; San 
Francisco and, 154. 
Dance halls, 312. 
Deaths by venereal diseases, not 
reported, 162; increase of 
among registered women, 126; 
table; of in England, 129. 
Decade of interest in subject, 
244-249. 
Declaration of physicians on 
chastity, 250, 251. 
Delegates, first European Con- 
gress at, 231. 
Denmark, regulation system of, 
33. 
Disorderly houses, ward syndi- 
cates and, 203. 
Divorce, marriage and, 309. 
Driven to death, Mrs. Percy’s 
case, 90. 
Druggists, vice vendors and, 287. 
Economic Question, The, 199; 
Social Evil and, 200; Cost of 
prostitution — money averaged 
at brothels—leeches that fat- 
ten, 201-4; Values of service, 
cost of disease; Value of 
health, life, and soul, 205-10; 
Table of comparative expendi- 
tures, 211; Summary of losses, 
212; Marriage versus brothel, 
213; Low wages — army of 
breadwinners, Jane Addams on, 
Roosevelt on, Kansas City re- 
port on, wages in various 
girls’ work, 214-225. Education, 135; Why needed, 322- 
342; Who, when, how, to teach, 
324; Need of it, Judge Mack on, 
327-9; grades of and subnor- 
mal conditions in public 
schools, 365. 
Egypt, sensual hotbed, A, 16, 17. 
England, Early sanction of vice 
in, 26; Stews of, in London, 27; 
No laws on until Charles First, 
27; Puritans’ severe act, 27; 
White slaves imported to, 50; 
Contagious Diseases Acts 
passed, 82; Extortion case re- 
ported by London Times, 157. 
Failure of regulation system in 
Paris, 133; England. 119, 380. 
Farrar, Archdeacon, on Rome’s 
corruption, 21. 
Fathers, education and, 331. 
First International Congress on 
regulation system, 231. 
Foreword, 7. 
France, reaps harvest of vice— 
its Kings and their immorali- 
ties, laws of, bad pre-eminence 
of, 23-4; Rules of brothels, 24; 
Buonaparte and license in, 25; 
Venereal diseases in, 119; 
Westminster Review on, 119. 
Germany, blindness and gonor- 
rhoea in, 172; Commission of 
Women asked for, 138. 
Ghouls, pimps and, 303. 
Gonorrhoea, prevalence of, 161; 
child-blindness and, 163; wom- 
en’s diseases and, 163; enor- 
mous proportions of, 167; Esti- 
mate two millions in U. S., 
167; proportion suffering from 
it—estimates vary, 168; Serious 
possibilities of—kills many, 
208; Dr. Morrow on its effects 
on efficiency, 209. 
Grand Jury, New York report of, 
66. 
Great Britain, Venereal Diseases 
in, 122; Navy, 123; Increased 
death rate in, 125. 
Grogshops and U. S. Army and 
Navy, 186. 
Hamburg, Edict in 1506, 32. 
Health as an economic asset, 206. 
Hebrews and family life of, 340. 
Hebrew Church, The, Conference 
of, 339. 
Herbert, Lord, on army condi- 
tions in England, 81. 
History of Regulation, 13. 
Holland, regulations at, 36. 
Hong Kong, C. D. Acts at, 30. 
Hotels, disorderly, Syracuse Re- 
ports on — hotel registers in 
evidence, 285. 
Hungary, regulations authorized, 
34. 
Hygiene, police rule and, 117; 
morality and, 142; Resolutions 
on, 239; Societies organized to 
aid, 246; Not the supreme is- 
sue, 346. 
Hygiene Utopia, 131. 
Illinois Vigilance Ass’n, orga- 
nized, 252; worked for injunc- 
tion bill, 256. 
Immigration, Commission Report 
on white slavery, 61; undeni- 
able facts — thousands yearly 
sold—innocent girls captured— 
a typical case, 62; system of 
exploiting—unspeakable atroc- 
ities—girls for sale described 
in detail, 63; law to regulate, 
399. 
Immorality commended, 15; not 
same in men as in women, 
92-3. 
Indictment of white slavery, Sid- 
ney Kendall, by, 57; James B. 
Reynolds, by, 58. 
Inequality of regulative laws, 
146; a woman of the demi- 
monde on, Dr. Mauriac on, 147. 
Inferior Courts Act, New York, 
prostitution licensed by, 45. 
Injunction an<i abatement law— 
Iowa first to pass it, 255; 
twelve states adopt it, 256; 
Congress passes it for D. C., 
256; Text of Act, 387. 
Injustice, Contagious Diseases 
Acts of, 96; Prof. Stuart on, 
141; of regulation system, 143, 
156, 157. 
Insanity, Enormous rate of 
through venerealism, 168; nine 
million dollars voted in Illi- 
nois in one year—numbers in 
asylum; Drs. Mahon and Perci- 
val on, 168. 
Insurance, Syphilis and, 208; Ger- 
many in, 205. 
International Congress, delegates 
at the Geneva, 235. 
International Federation, 278. 
International Treaty, 242; Edwin 
Sims records it, 242; Pres. 
Roosevelt signed it — text of, 
243; James B. Reynolds on, 
243. 
Italy, Vice in ancient, 18. 
Italian Art-schools, immorality 
and—Lecky on, 20; Doctors 
speak on, 132. 
Iowa Law — Injunction Act, 255. 
Japan, Commerce in girls at, 36; 
segregation at, 37; Japanese 
war without women — Russ 
troops, official prostitutes, 197. Jesus, Women taken in adultery 
to, 148; honored marriage, 333; 
woman and, 344. 
Jewish Women, guard girls, 341. 
Justice, need of, 141; Age of con- 
sent and, 143. 
Juvenile depravity, 329, 330. 
Knowledge of sex not evil, 323; 
Lecky’s contention criticized, 
347. 
Leeches and Ghouls, 204, 303. 
Life as an Economic Asset, 206; 
Value of, 208. 
Lille, women outraged at, 157. 
Locomotor ataxia, syphilis and, 
164; Dr. Kelly on, 167. 
Ladies’ National Association, 
England, 276. 
London, Venerealism in, 132; im- 
proved moral conditions of— 
Flexner on, 378. 
Losses through immorality, 214. 
Low wages, vice and, 216; Jane 
Addams and, 217; Roosevelt 
and, 218. 
Marriage, low rate of venereal 
disease in Philippine army at- 
tributed to, 191; its value to 
American soldiers, 193; Army 
reports on, 191-5; cost less than 
vice, 213; is foundation of soci- 
ety, 309; suggested restrictions 
need caution, dangers of, 313; 
Wallace protests against re- 
pression of, 316; Dr. Cabot on, 
394. 
Marriage and Divorce are twin 
subjects, 309. 
“Measure for Measure’’ quoted, 
15, 27, 155. 
Medical Ass’n to oppose license 
system, 105. 
Men, vice less than in women, 
92; can avoid venereal dis- 
eases, 189; demoralization by, 
196. 
Mental subnormals, Judge Olson 
on, 358t 
Messenger boys, house of ill- 
fame, employed at, 292. 
Militarism, tendency of, 173. 
Milwaukee merchants petition 
for red-light district, 297. 
Minneapolis Vice Commission, 
156. 
Mothers, best primary teachers, 
325. 
Moral effects of license system, 
89. 
Moral, values considered, 213; 
issues, 265; conscience degrad- 
ed, 293-298. 
Morals, resolutions of Congress, 
240; soldiers and — a military 
critic on, 194; committee of in 
Chicago, 265, 
Nation, backward swing of, 44; 
favored regulation, 146; rela- 
tion of health and life to, 209. 
National decay, 160; Macaulay 
on, 28, 201; Rauschenbusch on, 
302; vitality of, 206-209; waste 
of, 210-213. 
Navy, venerealism in, 179; table 
of, 180. 
Negro slavery, white slavery 
worse than, 8. 
New York, licensed vice in, 45; 
$200,000,000 plunder in, 151; 
How it was done, 152; Bishop 
Potter’s protest, 153; Com. of 
15, 245. 
New York, Gonorrhoea, reported 
cases, 161; comparison of ven- 
ereal with other diseases, 162; 
men affected with gonorrhoea, 
169. 
Norway, regulations at, 36. 
Ophthalmia, New York cases, 
161; Gonorrhoea a principal 
cause of, 163. 
Ostrich-like policy, 191. 
Pander’s, Cliff. G. Roe on, 253. 
Pandering, law of Illinois, Mas- 
sachusetts, 257; Text of, 371. 
Percy, Mrs., Suicide of, 90; Lon- 
don Telegraph on — daughter 
of, 91. 
Paresis, causes of, 168. 
Paris, regulation and, 117; health 
dispensary, 118; failure of reg- 
ulation, 133; syphilis in, 203. 
Pimps, panders and, 77, 293; 
Ghouls and, 303. 
Pharisees, woman and, 343. 
Philadelphia, Vice Commission, 
204, 266; against segregation, 
202, 
Philippines — prostitution 
in — Roosevelt on, 177; small 
rates of venerealism among 
native soldiers—marriages the 
cause, 191. 
Physicians advocate license, 41; 
organize Ass’n against C. D. 
Acts, 105; start new journal, 
106; failure of regulation and, 
119-121; declaration of, recom- 
mending chastity, 246-7; dis- 
pense opiates to houses of ill - 
fame, 287. 
Plunder and Graft, Tammany’s 
forty thieves and, 161; San 
Francisco and, 154; Bishop 
Potter’s protest, 153. Police graft and—prices paid, 
153, 155. 
Prevention, better than rescue, 
308. 
Price, women’s purchase of, 48; 
slave market—women for, 78; 
how rated, personal charms 
cataloged, 64, 79. 
Property owners, prostitution 
and, 287-8-9; Chicago Vice 
Com. testimony, 290. 
Prophylaxis of venereal diseases, 
committee on, 160. 
Prostitutes, Lecky on, 13; Brit- 
ish gov’t supplied them to sol- 
diers, 29; sickness of a crime, 
46; not free but slaves, Victor 
Hugo on, 49; delegates to 
church congress furnished with 
them, 32; carloads sent to 
Liege, 54; their price and mar- 
ket value, 78; practically all 
diseased, 167; unskilled work- 
ers and, 373. 
Prostitution, history of, 15; Soc- 
rates and, 18; necessity of, 28; 
alcohol and, 70, 71, 72; causes 
and extent of, 71; cost of, 70, 
211, 375; can be suppressed, 
304. 
Prostitution in Europe, Flexner 
on, 369-377. 
Psychology, Judge Olson and, 
356; tests by in public schools, 
366. 
Public opinion, change of, Dr. 
Eliot on, 244; seen in press and 
plays, 245. 
Pulpit, sex puritv and the, 334. 
Puritans, severity of, 27. 
Queen’s women, prostitutes as, 
92. 
Queensland, C. D. Acts, 30. 
Rabbis, conference of, 339. 
Race culture, urged, 267. 
Raines law, bad effects of, 245. 
Rape, age of consent and, 142; 
decrease of under injunction 
law, 255; Shakspeare on, 348. 
Real estate agents — rent prop- 
erty for vice trade, 290. 
Registration, women of, 22, 81, 
86. 
Regulation, history of, 13-48. 
Red-light, districts petitioned for 
by business men in Chicago 
and Milwaukee, 296-7; policy 
of unthinkable, 368. 
Religion, chastity and, 333. 
Remedies, 191, 316-352. 
Repeal of C. D. acts in Eng., 115. 
Rescue, prevention and, 307. 
Riots in England, 107. 
Rockefeller jury, report of, 68. 
Rome, Sensualism in, 20; Farrar 
on, 21; Fall of Empire, 21; 
Captive women in, 22. 
Russia, old system in, 35; Con- 
gress at condemned regulation, 
138. 
Saloons, prostitution and, 293, 
294; dance halls and, 312; part- 
nership in, 294. 
San Francisco, graft scandal at, 
154. 
Seattle, pimps living on girls, 65; 
mayor recalled on vice issue, 
258. 
Seduction, men and, fall of girls 
by, 73. 
Segregation, Rome and, 21; Ja- 
pan, 37; quarantine and, 189; 
opposed by vice commissions, 
268; Why? Where? Who? 269; 
Judge Olson on, 368; Dr. W. A. 
Evans on, 385; impossible to 
make a case for, 377. 
Segregation, Vice Commissions 
all reject it, 47. 
Semitic religions, vice and, 16. 
Senate documents on white slav- 
ery, 63. 
Servants, wages of, against the- 
ory of poverty as chief cause 
of vice, 229. 
Sex, power and importance of, 
337, 349. 
Sex-Education, Gov. Dunne blocks 
it in State Univ., 332. See 
Education. 
Sex hygiene, American federa- 
tion for, 246-265; advocated, 
267; importance of, 322; how 
and when to teach it, 324; not 
the supreme issue, 346; Judge 
Olson on, 365. 
Slavery, worse than, 203. 
Slaves, negro, not prostitutes, 8. 
Slave-trade, Mrs. Butler on, 54; 
California Cribs and, 57. 
Spain, Roman system in, 26. 
Social Evil, definition, 7; Macau- 
lay on, 7; Hugo on, 49; Selig- 
man on, 50. 
Soldiers, alcohol and, 176; vener- 
eal diseases and, 122, 127, 174, 
178; wearing uniform in grog- 
shops forbidden, 185; loss of 
service by disease, 182, 188; 
remedies for diseases, 190; 
marriage of, 191; a military 
critic and, 194. 
Sources, prostitution of, 52: 223, 
293, 373; Morrow on—Kansas 
Citytreport—Chicago Vice Com., 
71-74. Venereal diseases of, 
170, 171. Souls of women, 192; worth of, 
213. 
St. Louis, license law in, 32; Com. 
of 100, 43. 
Sterility, Roosevelt on, 274. 
Stews of Vice, Early England, 
27; church property used, 27. 
Sub-normal children, vice and, 
358, 366. 
Suicides, women, 90-91. 
Sunday-school interest, 262. 
Sweden, regulations at, 35. 
Switzerland, no license in, 35. 
Syracuse, morals com., 275. 
Syria, vice in, 17. 
Syphilis, how contracted, 119; 
false security offered, 120; rate 
of in British army, 122; num- 
bers afflicted with, 161, 169; in- 
sanity caused by, 168; how to 
avoid, 189. 
Tammany, police toll on social 
evil, 151. 
Telegraph service and vice trade 
—young boys as messengers, 
292. 
Telephone companies and vice 
trade, 291. 
The Man’s Part, Chicago Vice 
Commission on, 198. 
The Supreme Appeal, 346. 
Traffic, white-slave must go, 74; 
Dr. De Graaf on, 76. 
Treaty, international transporta- 
tion of women, 247. 
Tuberculosis, not so great a 
scourge as venerealism, 162, 
163, 164, 167. 
Turkey, stringent laws in, vice 
in, 36. 
Unchastity of men and prostitu- 
tion, 319. 
Unequal moral standard, 336. 
Uniform, Army and Navy, U. S. 
forbids it in grog-shops, 18,5. 
United States, license substituted 
for liberty, 10; license advocat- 
ed for, 39; medical ass’n favors 
license, 41; nation swings 
backward, 44; rich market for 
white slave trade, 56; loss of 
life by venereal diseases, 209; 
international treaty, 247. 
Unity of human interests, Lin- 
coln on, 140. 
Venereal Diseases, Paris, 118; 
British Navy, 123; Increased 
death rate, 125; improvement 
after repeal of C. D. acts in 
England, 127; testimony of ex- 
perts, 130; London and New 
York compared with Paris, 132; 
Jonathan Hutchinson on treat- 
ment of, 135; Brussels confer- 
ences on, 133-6; children slain 
by, 165; sources of, 170; alco- 
hol and, 176, 182; outweighs 
all other sanitary questions in 
army and navy, 185; remedies 
applied, 186; more to be feared 
than war, 184; economic losses 
by, 202-4. 
Venereal Peril in America, In- 
ventory of—appalling, 159 ; 
New York statistics on, 161; 
army and navy, 183: can the 
plague be stayed? 185; chastity 
for soldiers urged, 188. 
Vice, wages of, not to be com- 
pared with honest earnings, 
226; no continuous prizes in, 
228; Jane Addams on, 229. 
Vice Commission Reports, 259; 
List of, 260-2. 
Votes, women’s in Illinois, 272. 
Vigilance Ass’n, 111., 252, 256. 
Vigilance Ass’n, National, 265. 
Voice, A, and a Vision, 257-281. 
Wages, women’s, low, a menace, 
214; Jane Addams on, 215, 219; 
Roosevelt on, 217; Kansas City 
report and, 218; an experiment 
by a lady, 218; Grace Dodge 
and Y. W. C. A. on, 220; effi- 
ciency and, 222; Bedford Hills 
farm and, 230. 
War-cry, a startling, 97. 
War and its weapons, the, 301. 
Waste of life and resources, 209- 
210. 
Wealth, social evil and, 200. 
Weighed in the balances, 117. 
White slaves, loaded as cattle, 
54; described as cattle for sale, 
64; men live on earnings of, 65. 
White slavery, not American— 
Victor Hugo on, 49; Seligman— 
London Times on, 50; Cribs for, 
57; Immigration Commission 
on, 61; thrilling stories of, 62-4. 
White slave traffic, European up- 
rising against, 55; war on, 59; 
newspaper records on, 69; Mas- 
sachusetts vice report on, 68; 
reality of, 77; brothels—the 
stronghold of, 135; Suppression 
of, 249. 
White slave traffic act, How pro- 
moted and passed, 254; Text 
of, 394. 
Woman of underworld writes on 
evils, 145. 
Woman suffrage, Illinois aids 
morals, 275. 
Womanhood, traffic in, 296. Women, petition against license, 
95-6; moral effects of evils on, 
89; innocent accused, 144; 
wives and others accused by 
police, 145; affected with ven- 
ereal, 161; gonorrhoea, horrors 
of, 163; wages of, 220; multi- 
tudes working—Jane Addams 
on, 221; wages of, 222-226; ap- 
peals to, 237 ; standards of 
purity, Lord Byron on, 230; 
chastity of, 319; Jesus and, 342. 
Women of redlight—what be- 
comes of them when houses 
closed, 47. 
Working hours for girls, 219. 
Working men, Mrs. Butler’s ap- 
peal to, 102, 237. 
World’s peace, 193. 
World’s vision, a, 279. 
Worship, women and, 342. 
Young men, gullability of, 119; 
false security offered them, 
120. 
Young people, teaching them, 
333. 
Youth—Ruskin on, 349. 
Tables: Statistical and Reference 
Newspaper Records of White Slavery 69 
Syphilis in France 119 
Venereal patients in French hospitals 121 
Syphilis in British Army 122 
Syphilis in British Navy 123 
Ratios of Venereal in British Army, before and after C. D. 
Acts 124 
Death rate of registered prostitutes 126 
British Army recruits—Venereal diseases, 1884 to 1909 128 
British Army: Admissions to hospital, 1884 to 1909 129 
Venereal diseases, England, general population 129 
New York, Cases of gonorrhoea reported by 678 physicians. . 161 
New York, Comparison of diseases in 1901 162 
U. S. Army: Ratios of admission, venereal and other diseases 175 
U. S. Army: Noneffectiveness through 175 
Alcoholism and venerealism compared 176 
Diseases in U. S. Army in the Philippines 178 
Venerealism in Armies, compared 179 
Hospital Admission—Venereal, U. S. Navy 180 
Hospital Admission—Ten years’ reports 180 
Comparison, U. S. with other armies 181 
Venereal diseases in entire U. S. Army 188 
Houses of prostitution in Philadelphia 202 
Expenditures, social diseases, etc., U. S 211 
Weekly wages of women, Kansas City 218 
Wages of women in different trades 224 
Average women’s wages report 228 
Vice Commissions and Investigations 260 
Percent of Mental Defectives 357 
Laws of U. S. for suppressing prostitution 392 
1. Subnormal children in public schools, according to grade 362 
2. Subnormal children in public schools, according to age... 363 
3. Percent system of estimating mental ability 364 
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