. The Traffic in Women This is an extremely well written
book in a typical, rather cynical, French style. But in regard to two points, rather serious objection can be taken to it. The writer insists that in eighty per cent. of cases of "white slavery" it is sheer economic necessity which drives the women to this means of. 'livelihood, and he almost suggests that their action in thui helping to provide for their families at home is positiVely. meritorious. The League investigations certainly do not bear out the sug- gestion that economic conSideratioilsEire prominent to any- thing like this degree, and the &RA is to thiS extent distinctly misleading. Further, the writer derides the league'S inves- tigations, which he is, of course, entitled to do if his facts are accurate, but they are not. He speaks of the League having sent agents to the Far, East, Canada, South America, and Aiia, the fact being that it never sent them into Asia at all. He says of these agents that " they have swallowed a quantity of dust but it came from documents, not from the high road. They looked for the truth in documents ! " The fact is that the League investigators based themselves almost wholly on personal conversations with traffickers and prostitutes and only very incidentally on documents. The writer equally derides the idea of suppressing the licensed houses, observing that if the houses are shut the women will simply _walk the streets instead. He, of course, misses the whole point of the proposal regarding the licensed houses, which is based on the well- known fact that these houses, because they are a recognized place of resort, known to everyone, attract men in such numberi as to make the woman's professiOn extremely lucrative, whereas if she had to seek clients one by one in the streets she could never earn enough to be worth anything to the particular man who is' running her and 'living on her earnings.
Of the book as a work of art, however, while not endorsing Mr. Dreiser's opinion that " It is really one of the most artful and graceful blends of travel, observation, philosophy, humour, and even romance that I have ever encountered," we may concede that it is very clever and that .the reader will receive a series of mental nudges—flashes of sa'rdonic humour, fascinating. little one-line descriptions, which, taken all together, present a far more appalling picture of the world- trade in women than any amount of indignant clamour could give.
Previous page
