THE ECONOMICS OF HELL.
EVERY newspaper reader has learned something in recent
years of the infamous methods of the "white slave traffic," but it is probable that moat people, however deep their indignation, have the habit of thinking that the worst things happen in some other place than that in which they live. For it is difficult for even the most alert imagination to convince itself that hidden infamies are common. " Such things," one is inclined to say, "may happen in New York, Vienna, or Paris, but here in London it is impossible." But it is not impossible; and if it is not impossible it is as well that every grown person should know what the machinery is of the commerce known as the " white slave traffic." It is useless to dismiss outrages with a shrug of incredulity because they are not patent, and cowardly to refuse to investigate them because they are not pleasant. In his "Daughters of Ishmael" (London : Stephen Swift, 6s.) Mr. R. W. Kauffman has written with a purpose and, so far as we can judge, with absolute sincerity, which can be the only justification in a book of this kind. He writes of New York, but the traffic goes on in most cities all the world over.
He describes how an innocent working-class girl is trapped by a suave scoundrel, who picks an acquaintance with her in the street. To the reader this "ponce" seems a flashy brute whose infamy is betrayed in every word and look. But the girl's life at home is a dull and unending drudgery, not even rewarded by the engaging love of sympathetic parents. To her this man is, first of all, a way of escape ; he offers to marry her, tells her that he has fallen in love with her at first sight, and expands upon the bright and easy life of the great city where he lives. To her inexperience he seems a miracle of affability and consideration, and her first mistrust evaporates. After all, thousands of girls have run away to be married. Marriage is perfectly respect- able. And when she returns to her home with a husband even her parents will forgive their happy and well-to-do daughter. Thus she accepts the offer of a runaway marriage. When New York is reached the man discovers with an air of infinite chagrin that it is too late for them to be married that day. The parson, who has been spoken of as being always obligingly ready to marry people on being summoned by telephone, is not available. What can be done? One of two things : the girl must entrust her honour to the man in advance, or a home must be found for her with the man's friends for the night to await the marriage on the next day. A man serving only his own selfishness would play for the former solution, but the oily and insinuating agents of the regular white slave traffic characteristically suggest the latter. It seems so safe and reasonable ! Very likely the girl, frightened and be- wildered, and feeling that she is already too far compromised to draw back, would accept any plan. At all events there is no difficulty whatever in. persuading her to go to the house of the man's friends. This house is of course a house where she will be robbed of her honour and kept prisoner to make money for the proprietors by means of her dishonour.
But it may be said, " Surely it is not possible in a civilized country, where there are laws and police to enforce them, for a girl to be kept prisoner. She could burst out. She could inform on her captor and put the police on the track of the whole gang concerned in her ruin." But it must be remembered that such possibilities have not been forgotten by the organizers of the white slave traffic. Girls are chosen for their inexperience, and are frequently beguiled to other countries where they cannot speak a word of the language. Then, again, they are paralysed by their position; they have themselves consented to their ruin in the first place, and they are too much ashamed to make any public acknowledgment of it. In Mr. Kauffman's story the girl has ringing in her ears the memory of the awful curse which she had heard her father utter hypothetically against any daughter of his who should bring dishonour on her home. Finally, the proprietors of the house can actually keep their victims without clothes, behind barred shutters, and without food, so that communication with the outside world is impossible. The period of revolt during which the
starved and terrified victim refuses to do what she is told does not last very long, and when once it is ended it is ended for ever.
What happens in New York can and does happen in varying degrees in other cities. Mr. Masefield in his preface to Mr. Kauffman's book tells of a case within his swn knowledge in London. A girl was engaged as a servant in Bloomsbury. Her mistress took away her clothes, telling her plainly why she did so. Luckily the girl had the presence of mind to smash a window and shout for help, and rescuers came from the street. "Had she," says Mr. Masefield, "been a little less ready, and a lot less fortunate, there can be no doubt that she would have remained to the life of Mr. Kauff- man's chief character." But though cases of this kind may occasionally happen in London and other English cities we must never forget that there is one great difference between our cities and those of the United States. In many American cities the police are corrupt and wink at or even assist the brothel-keepers in imprisoning their victims. Here there is no suggestion of any such infernal degradation of the instru- ments of justice. Our police have their faults, but no one accuses the Force of becoming "procurers of the Lords of Hell."
We do not intend to follow here the downward course of the chief character in Mr. Kauffman's story—those for whom the book is written can read it for themselves. We think the author exaggerates the difficulties in the way of her attempts to reform her life. Such a succession of rebuffs is quite credible, but we cannot believe that it is typical. What we are concerned with is the extraordinary picture the book gives of the economics of this devilish trade. The typical " ponce " who is described by Mr. Kauffman has not even the negative merit of ruining his victims in a fit of passionate temptation. He lays his plans in cold blood, achieves them in cold blood, and pockets his money— there is a regular market price of some fifteen to twenty pounds for delivering a new slave—in cold blood, and proceeds in cold blood to plot the next capture. The other point to notice is, as we have said above, that the main- tenance of disreputable houses in countries where they are illegal thrives in proportion to the connivance of the police. In London, for this reason, establishments of this kind are comparatively few. But in New York, under the corruption which survives the intermittent cleansings, such houses are often protected because they afford a certain revenue of perquisites and because they, moreover, direct a political influence which it would be unwise for the wirepullers of Tammany to alienate. Mr. Kauffman describes how the trapped girl first became aware of the system of bribery. A policeman called at the house and was given a, drink as a matter of routine. There was some amiable conversation between the pro- prietress (Rose) and the policeman (Larry Riley), which gaily assumed that the policeman was carrying out his proper duties in guarding the house on his beat. " Larry's on this beat nights," Rose explained to the girl, " an' him and the lieutenant look after us—don't you, Riley P" " Well, what use is a friend if he don't take care of ye; Miss Rose P " answers the policeman. " We do the bist we can." Presently the policeman, after giving a pleasant account of his domestic happiness with his wife and children, prepares to go, and Mr. Kauffman continues :— " lie went out, still smiling, and, as he did so, Violet saw Rose, after stooping hurriedly, place in his hands a yellow bill. As the door closed, there came into the younger woman's eyes the question that she would not have dared to ask. Yep, nodded Rose, 'that's my week's pay for what they call protection.' Isn't he afraid to take it ?' Violet, thus encouraged, inquired. "rho man above him isn't afraid to take two-thirds of it,' said Rose, 'an' the boat of it goes past him to the district boss—it's the regular system with the regular prices. Oh, no, ho ain't afraid ; ..n' if you ever tried to live on a copper's pay, you'd soon bo afraid not to take it.' Violet, returning to the parlour, bit her lip: there was indeed small help to be had from the law."
Later in the story one sees the house used as a pawn in the intrigues of rival politicians. One of them informs on the house so that it is impossible for the boss under whose juris- diction it comes to overlook the case. The house is raided and suppressed, and a little later still when it is convenient for the informer to be " in " with the house and its familiars we behold it re-established with the connivance of the police. One of the political uses- of such houses is said to be that they furnish addresses for bogus voters. The woman Rose in this story secretly bribes both municipal factions, because she can never be sure which side will be in the position of powerful friend after the next elections.
Even if the author has exaggerated—and we are not sure that he has not, for he often writes of the very existence of modern society as though it were a sort of crime, and we cannot help mistrusting this habit of mind—there is quite enough of truth to prove that the chief factor in the economics of the white slave traffic is a corrupt police. To ensure the absolute honesty of the police is the first of proven-, five measures. Suppressive laws directed in general against vice often do more harm than good, because they drive it underground and make the type of it that remains more virulent. If the law tried absolutely to suppress prostitution, one effect would be that the price of the material of the trade would go up. While this might mean an outward improve- ment it would certainly produce secret infamies more terrible than those described in this book.
The essential thing is to punish with vigour and persistence the slightest violation of personal liberty. Unlawful detention; in a brothel or the throwing of obstacles in the way of escape, like the sequestration or hiding of clothes or shoes, should be punished with the utmost severity, and the victims should be actively encouraged to seek the protection of the law, and given the amplest assurances that, however deep they may sink, they are in no sense to be regarded as outlaws. The law will protect them no less readily than the most virtuous part of the community. Thus the door of escape would always be open to the wretched victims of the white slave traffic. They would soon learn to use their rights.
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