WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC PROSECUTION

Evening Star, Issue 15308, 7 October 1913, Page 2

WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC PROSECUTION

IN SAN FRANCISCO,

CONVICTION OF ONE DEBAUCHEE. 'Em trial of two prominent citizens £ r ?? clBC .° m , lder the provisions of the Californian White Slavery Act has been attracting enormous interest on the Pacific Coast, not only on account of the social standing of the offenders, but because of the degree of immorality that is alleged to permeate the higher-grade girls’ schools of that city. When tho trial opened on August 15 the court room was invaded by operators on behalf of the moving pic. ture shows,‘'who threw themselves in front of Misfees Warrington and Norris the chief actors in the sordid drama! It is not unusual iu au American court of law to see snapshots and even flashlight pictures taken by photographers representing the daily Press; but the presence of cinema operators, armed with a cumbersome tripod and buzzing clockwork, is an innovation of which the presiding Judge (Justice Vaufleet) expressed his keen disapproval, and fined an operator, who had been previously warned, £lO. Miss Marsha Warrington and Miss Lola Norris, already quite unnerved by their long ordeal in court, testifying against the prisoners, Diggs and Caminetti, went into hysterics. Miss Warrington, before she left the witness box, admitted, under cross-examination, a long intimacy with Diggs before tho elopement. She swore, however, that she had been a good girl until Diggs lured her into his office, made her drunk with champagne, and misled her. The crossexamination, which was very severe, was designed to ' show that she had shown friendship for other men. Counsel for tho defence, on being interrupted by the Court, argued that under tho Californian statute designed to protect women and girls from immoral adventurers and procuresses he was justified in endeavoring to prove that “this schoolgirl had a past.” * But the Court ruled him out, holding that he could prove as niuch as ho liked about the girl’s relations with Diggs, but that attacks on.tho general character of the witness, involving friendship for other men, -were inadmissible. This ruling was regarded as a setback by the defence. _ Counsel, however, succeeded in obtaining from the reluctant witness an admission that her adventure with Diggs in tho Pullman car on the night of the ride to Reno was not her first. She also admitted drinking cocktails and other alcoholic drinks, visiting country hotels, and even dancing ragtime, but denied stoutly that Diggs had made her presents of money, or that she had asked him to buy her costumes.

Mias Norris followed Miss Warrington. into tho witness box.. Like Miss Warrington, she is a very pretty girl, aged 18. Both have been attending the same high school. Miss Norris will figure as the chiefwitness against Drew Caminetti, son of the United _ States CommissionerGeneral of Emigration, and. she was examined as a corroborative witness in tho case against Diggs. She swore that she had lived a good life and resisted Caminetti’s attentions until after they had taken up their quarters at Bend. Like Miss Warrington, she swore that they had been induced to leave homo because of representations by the prisoners that an article concerning them and defaming their characters was to bo published in a local newspaper. That this representation lacked a basis of truth has already been proved to the Court by the evidence of newspaper editors. “ Tho two prisoners told us,” added this witness, “that wo must go away with them, but I said I did nob see how my mother would stand tho shock. Diggs replied: ‘I guess she’ll get over it; it T s only bullets that kill.’ ”

Diggs presented a sorry spectacle on the witness stand as ho declared that it was not ho who planned that the party composed of Caminetti and Miss Warrington should forsake their wires, children, and parents and go to Reno, but that Miss Warrington was responsible. The pretty schoolgirl exercised a baleful yet compelling influence over him, and when ho wanted to leave Sacramento for a time, because Ins father had threatened him with arrest, it was Miss Warrington who declared that he could not get rid of her if ho tried. That was why, he swore, lie went to Reno. Miss Warrington insisted. that Miss Norris should accompany them, or otherwise she would tell all. Diggs flushed furiously when ho said: “I was trying to let her down easily, trying to have nothing more to do with her, but she would always get the upper hand of me.” Mrs Diggs, who is only 25, gave her testimony composedly, and was restricted by order of the Court to corroborating her husband’s statements that she had been aware of Ids relations with Miss Warrington, that his father meant to make trouble, and that she herself had threatened action against her husband and Warrington. Judge Vaufleet, who presided, took occasion on August 14 to deny from tho Bench the charges made by tho San Francisco Press that tho two accused, being the sons of prominent politicians, would escape punishment; and he asked the jurors individually to say whether they had been approached by any friend or relative of the men charged. Though negative answers were returned, the Judge gave instructions to the police to keep stricter watch over the jury. Special Prosecutor Roche (appointed by tho State to take the place of Mr Mac Nab, tho former State Prosecutor, who resigned because, as ho alleged, the calling of tho present case to trial was delayed through political influence at Washington) began his denunciation of Diggs late in the afternoon, and resumed the next morning for an hour. He declared that Diggs was the ringleader qi the outrageous expedition to Reno, and _ that the evidence proved that tho girls had been coerced into leaving California and living with Diggs and Caminetti as wives, thereby holding over the girls’ heads reports of exposures in the local Press which were never contemplated. Mr Roche said that Diggs might have been forgiven for dethroning the virtue of Marsha Warrington, might have boon forgiven for taking her to Reno, and for ninny of the things which ho did; but Diggs’s action in forcing his wife, who had boon true to her marital vows and loyal to him through everything, to dine with his mistress was an insult to all womanhood, and the most cowardly notion any man could commit. *'' Maury Diggs was found guilty on August 21 of the charge of “ White Slavery,” and sentence will bo passed on him later. The maximum p'enalty is 20 years’ imprisonment. In the meantime he is allowed out on hail of £4,000. Drew Caminetti was to have boon tried the following week. All suggestion that powerful political influence will bo exerted by Washington at the instance of the fathers of tho two defendants has been neutralised by the completeness of the case as presented by the Government Prosecutor, and, more especially, by the Judge’s remarkable charge to the jury. Tho Judge held that the defendant who took the schoolgirls from one State to another for an improper purpose was amenable under the White Slave Act, and he also held that it was immaterial what the character of the two girls involved by these charges was at tho time of the acts charged. Among those who have been specially engaged' to. report this case is the Rev. Dr Charles Aked, who formerly filled the pulpit of Mr Rockefeller’s church in New York. He praises the reticence of the American Press, " which is practised by only a few newspapers in England. A majority of the daily journals in England would,” he declared, “have printed this cross* examination in fulL”