Hellraisers Journal: From The Progressive Woman: Socialists and “The Traffic in Girl Slaves” by Josephine Conger-Kaneko

Quote Mother Jones, Great Church upon Bodies of Girls, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 21, 1910
Warning the American Public of the Widespread Traffic in Women

From The Progressive Woman of July 1910:

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The Traffic in Girl Slaves

The First of a Series of Articles Written
for the Purpose of Arousing the American Public
to a Realization of the Menace of the
Widespread Traffic in Its Women

JOSEPHINE CONGER-KANEKO

A Business Proposition.

There are certain fundamental laws underlying every business enterprise—the law of supply and demand, and the unearned increment, or profits. There is no business on the face of the earth today that would trouble itself about living a week, were there no profits in it.

The latest edition of the Webster-Morris dictionary gives this definition of prostitution: “The act of prostituting the person to lewd purposes for hire.” The prostitute, then, is sold, or sells herself, for hire for profits.

I want you to keep these facts in mind through the whole of this article, and all others that may follow on the subject.

It is the Socialist contention that if we remove the profits from prostitution, that evil would die out. “But,” protests the reader, “what are you going to do about the demand? The demand is tremendous; it makes possible the business. What will you do about that?”

And again the Socialist answers: “The demand is an overstimulated one. It is an unnatural creation of wrong social conditions. Particularly so of conditions affecting the factors that supply it. Give woman economic and political freedom, and she will cease to supply the demand. Render it profitless to her, and it will die for lack of stimulation. A normal balance will then be struck between the sexes, giving rise to a single, instead of a double, standard of morals, such as we have today.

But we know that neither the profits nor the demand will go so long as capitalism, which is fundamentally a profit system, stimulating every money-making enterprise, no matter what its evil extent, exists. The most we can hope to do is to educate the public mind in regard to the inroads made upon the physical and moral health of society by this riotous, unchecked cancer, known as the social evil, and thus destroy one of the worst, yet most tenacious, props of the present system. Too long have we considered ignorance on this most vital of questions a virtue, with the result that we have the fearful statistics quoted above from “Letters of a Physician to His Daughters.”

Beginning of the Roe Prosecutions.

In December, 1906, Clifford G. Roe, then assistant state’s attorney of Illinois, tried Morris Goldstein in Chicago for forgery. During the trial facts were disclosed which finally led to the discovery that Goldstein was a pander in the White Slave Traffic, and had recently brought a girl from Duluth. Minn., and put her in a resort.

A little later a pander brought Agnes (now married) to the city, put her through all the tortures of the “breaking-in” process, and placed her in a resort. (It may be stated here that until recently in Chicago—and even yet in many other cities—a girl or woman had no protection under the law, if it could be proven that she was of unchaste character prior to any prosecution she might bring against any person or persons for assault. Because of this the houses were reluctant to take girls who had not first been “broken in.” Agnes escaped, appealed to the courts for protection, and the story she told of the mistreatment that had been accorded her was so terrible that Mr. Roe became interested, not only in the one case, but in white slavery in general.

He made investigations, questioned hangers-around in the court room, and found sufficient corroborative material to satisfy himself that the cases he had tried were not mere accidental, isolated affairs, but were part of a great business scheme that had its organization, its agents, panders, pullers-in, and all the essential paraphernalia for a successfully conducted enterprise.

So impressed was Attorney Roe with the menace of the situation to society in general that he determined to devote all of his time to fighting it. A campaign of publicity was started, a commission was granted and a corps of detectives set to work, hunting out and running down panders for prosecution.

Panders Driven from the City.

Since the first of October nearly forty cases have been tried through Attorney Roe’s office alone, and between nine hundred and one thousand panders driven out of the city.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the office so far was the apprehension and conviction of the Chicago-St. Louis gang. The principals in this case were Morris Van Bevere, Madame Julia Bevere and David Garfinkle. This gang had codes and signals, and panders and agents scouring the country for girls. It was the custom, of these to offer employment to the victims. And let us state in passing that the working girl is the chief victim of the pander. She is offered a good position in the city, with fair wages, and a good time. The pander is smooth, he is in earnest (there is money in it for him), sympathetic and persuasive. Without any thought of harm, the girl signs a contract for employment and is whirled away as quickly as possible to the city and to her doom. It is bad business, and it must be disposed of swiftly and silently. If the girl is easily reached through her emotional nature, the pander makes love to her, proposes marriage, and, if necessary, actually goes through a ceremony which she believes to be genuine.

The Bogus Lover.

Shortly after the conviction of the Chicago-St. Louis gang, on January 28, 1910, one Clarence Gentry was convicted of pandering and sentenced to six months in the House of Correction, and a fine of $300 and costs. He was found guilty of selling Mildred Clark into a life of slavery. Mildred was the beautiful daughter of an old, but impoverished southern family of Nashville, Tenn. She was seventeen years old, and was working in a laundry. At a dance last November she met Gentry, who pretended love at first sight. He proposed marriage, Mildred accepted him, and in three days eloped with him to Chicago. Gentry had told Mildred of a home he possessed in Chicago, but took her to what he called a rooming house. Here she was locked in a room, and her clothes taken from her to prevent her escape. This is one of the tricks always resorted to when a girl is forced into such a life against her will.

While trying to write a letter to her mother, Mildred was discovered by Gentry, who beat her, swore at her, used every method to intimidate her, even taking the finger of a dead person from his pocket, and saying: “This is what becomes of girls who ‘snitch’ (tell).” He told her if any visitors asked questions to tell them she was from another section of the south, had been married, and had been in a sporting house before.

While engaged in a revival meeting in Chicago, Gypsy Smith led a religious parade through the Red Light District, during which one of Mr. Roe’s detectives found Mildred and helped her to escape from her bondage.

Another method of the bogus lover is typified in the action of Jacob Jacobson, who met Adell…..in Lincoln Park (Chicago) last Fourth of July. He took her home and asked to call again. He visited Adell a few times, was introduced to her mother, and brought with him a friend. Louis Brodsky. He asked Adell to get a girl for Louis. She introduced her friend, May…..and the four took walk in one of the parks. The young men represented themselves as wealthy gentlemen from New York City. They pretended love at first sight, and soon eloped with the girls.

After taking them to an amusement place on the salary of one of the girls who worked in a department store, they then took them to a place out on the Strand, which they said was a rooming house. In telling the story Attorney Roe said the brutality to which the girls were subjected in the breaking-in process was too terrible put into print.

Two days later, while trying to sell one them into a disorderly house, Brodsky was caught by a Roe detective, and all concerned in the business were arrested and convicted. One of the girls has since been working in a department store and one is at home.

Procured by Promising Employment.

Lida….., who was working as a cashier in a 5c theater in Lafayette, Ind., was approached by J. T. Mehl, who promised her a better position in Chicago. She signed a contract with him, and was placed in a house on the West Side. She escaped almost immediately, whereupon Mehl became frightened and confused, was caught, and sentenced to six months in a House of correction, and fined $300 and costs.

On May 18, 1910, a man by the name of Harry Cohen was found guilty by the judge of bringing Jennie Konivich from New York and putting her into a house, on promise of a position. Two days later Abe Greenberg and Ben Wagner were found guilty of a similar charge, were sentenced to a House of Correction for six months, and fined $300 and costs.

A Cry of Warning to Parents.

Nothing that I could say regarding the carelessness of parents in bringing their sons and daughters up in the world ignorant of its pitfalls could carry the weight that the following confession and cry of warning from a pander’s victim should give with the readers of this article. She says:

This man, whom I had no reason suspect, sought me with the offer of a good place to work. He promised me a good salary, and as I was then without work, I accepted the place in perfect good faith. I had never heard that girls were bought and sold. It seems to me that good people, pious fathers and mothers who let their girls grow up and go out into the world without a word of real instruction that will protect them in such crises, which may come in life to any woman, are not wholly innocent—I am tempted to say are frightfully guilty—of the destruction of their own daughters.

(To be continued.)

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The Mills of Mammon,

By Jas. [H]. Brower, is a white slave story will make your hair stand on end. Not only that, the curse of the capitalist system in its every department, is shown in such a manner as to sicken and disgust the most enthusiastic supporter of the present order. Get a copy of this book for you library, and lend it to all your neighbors and friends—they will read it. Price, $1. The P. W. Pub. Co., Girard, Kan.

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[Emphasis and photograph of Josephine Conger-Kaneko added.]