THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE.

Evening Star, Issue 14963, 24 August 1912, Page 4

THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE.

t j Mr Archibald J. Allen, in the June ! ] number of the 'Church Quart rly Review,' j wiites on tho scciil evil in Chicago and ! i els;-where. He says: | When Mr W. T. Stead, 17 years ago, , pubiii-hed his somewhat remarkable book 'lf Christ Came to Chicago,' with a plan , | of a portion of that city upon which disorderly houses were colored red and i I saloons were shown in black, it wae . I thought by'not a'few that his fierce U>ut I I righteous svmpathy with the victims of f j w,,at has, for want of a better or more , j accurate designation,' become known as , I the White Slave Traffic had led him to I s?c more red and to paint a blacker pici tare than the facts would warrant. • ] He save that the report of the Vice ComI j miiisiou appointed by the Mayor and City - | Council of Chicago makes it cl-ar that "Mr i | Stead was not guilty of any exaggeration." ' | —" A Coinmerciilised Business."— '. j The Commission report that "prcstittt- ' '-. tion in tne city is a. commercialised busi- ; ' ucos. controlled largely by men, f ! di'ting a profit of more than three millions i ster.ing a y:ar." The Commission fix the I number oi profeasiodals in Ciiicago at yp- " j proximately 5,000. An official police list j ' .in 1910 contained 192 houses, with 2,043 ,! rooms, and flat* and a-slgiution hotels con- '. ' tailing 4,525 rooms', iisc-d' for immoral pur [Mjies. Tne Commission discovered 514 '. houses, flats, ana saloons used for immoral purposes not on.the polio; list. —Tho Underpaid Snop Girl.— j The Commission make it clear that butl for the corruption of a coiiisiderable part of j tne police fc-rce-the existing scandai would f not have attained to such gigantic propor--3 \ tior.B. In the opinion of the Commission, : economic conditions—that is, the undo.r----1 ' payment of unprotected girls in stores and , ; business houses—are an important factor ? ,' in the recruiting of the army of shame. - The Commkuion' lay special stress on the s- department stores as a source of 'supply. 1 It is proved that it is quite im.potisible for 3 a girl in a large city to live on less than - &dol a week; yet the average wages in a t department store is from 6aol to 7dol a - week, further .reduced by fines for. minor i irregularities. The department storey are f- regular, hunting grounds ior procu'resses.. . .. • ■■ —" Chicago is Hell.'-'— - Of all the black spots on the scutcheonof ... any. city, surely this annual revenue of . three mJUio'ns a year'profit made by men from the moral physical damnation of 5,000 women is probably one of • the very ; blackest, almost enough to justify the lar conic description given by a visitor to the t great Lake City • " Chicago is Hell!"