out marriage, kind treatment for a month or two, travel with the procurer as wife, continual deception; then an explanation to the girl of the life awaiting her, which in her innocence she could not understand, experience in a house of ill fame in Montreal, Canada, personal brutality, even physical violence, being allowed not one cent of the hard-earned money; then transportation to Vancouver, to Prince Rupert, to Alaska, and to Seattle, in every city being forced to earn money in a shameful life, with total earnings of more than $2,000, none of which she was able to retain; finally release by arrest and readiness to be deported if only the story of her shame can be kept from father and mother, sisters and brothers. This is but one of many such cases.

Edwin W. Sims, United States district attorney in Chicago, makes the following statement, the evidence for which is on file in his office:

The hirelings of this traffic are stationed at certain points of entry in Canada where large numbers of immigrants are landed to do what is known in their parlance as "cutting-out work." In other words, these watchers for human prey scan the immigrants as they come down the gang plank of a vessel which has just arrived and "spot " the girls who are unaccompanied by fathers, mothers, brothers, or relatives to protect them. The girl who has been spotted as a desirable and unprotected victim is properly approached by a man who speaks her language and is immediately offered employment at good wages, with all expenses to the destination to be paid by the man. Most frequently laundry work is the bait held out, sometimes housework or employment in a candy shop or factory.

The object of the negotiations is to "cut out" the girl from any of her associates and to get her to go with him. Then the only thing is to accomplish her ruin by the shortest route. If she can not be cajoled or enticed by the promises of an easy time, plenty of money, fine clothes, and the usual stock of allurements or a fake marriage then harsher methods are resorted to. In some instances the hunters really marry their victims.

As to the sterner methods, it is, of course, impossible to speak explicitly beyond the statement that intoxication and drugging are often resorted to as a means to reduce the victims to a state of helplessness, and sheer physical violence is a common thing.

Those who recruit women for immoral purposes watch all places where young women are likely to be found under circumstances which will give them a ready means of acquaintance and intimacy, such as employment agencies, immigrant homes, moving-picture shows, dance halls, sometimes waiting rooms in large department stores, railroad stations, manicuring and hairdressing establishments. The men watching such places are usually suave in manner, well dressed, and prosperous looking. They become acquainted as intimately as possible with the young aliens, then use every conceivable method of betraying them.

Many of the girls now engaged in prostitution have told agents of the Commission of the desire of procurers and disorderly-house keepers to obtain innocent young girls. They consider them particularly desirable because they have no pimp to demand a share of their earnings or to remove them from the disorderly house at will, and they will last longer, and therefore be more profitable. The proprietor of such a house will even pay a large price for such a girl. Among the papers taken from the Dufaur house, Chicago, in June, 1908, was a letter from a man in London asking Dufaur to send $200 for the passage of himself and woman from London to Chicago, and a receipt showing that the money had been received from Dufaur. Another letter was from a woman in Brussels addressed to Mr. and Mrs.

Dufaur asking if they had a place for the writer's 18-year-old sister who wished to come to America." Still other evidence showed that Dufaur had paid $1,000 for an exceptionally attractive girl.

METHODS OF IMPORTATION.

To secure entries into the country contrary to law, these immoral women or the deluded innocent victims of the procurers are usually brought in as wives or relatives of men accompanying them; as maids or relatives of women accompanying them; as women entering alone, booked to friends or relatives or to a home, and representing themselves as looking for work; as wives coming to men supposed to be their husbands, or, in the case of Japanese, their proxy husbands. Many imported women are brought by way of New York. Of late, many come through Canada. On the Pacific coast, San Francisco and Seattle are the chief ports of entry.

As explained in the note, some Japanese women doubtless come to this country to meet their proxy husbands when their purposes are entirely legal and proper; but it can be readily seen how liable the custom is to abuse, and in the opinion of the immigrant inspectors a large majority of the women coming in this way are intended for purposes of prostitution. If, however, the marriage ceremony is duly performed, the officials feel that nothing more can be done. It is practically impossible to prove the intention before the fact.

Chinese women can enter this country under the law only when appearing as wives or daughters of the Chinese men who are of the admitted classes, such as merchants, students, travelers, government officials. Doubtless in many instances women are brought in as

These letters are on file in the office of the United States district attorney in Chicago.

In both China and Japan it is a well-known custom for marriage to be arranged by the parents or trusted relatives or friends of the contracting parties without the parties having seen each other before the ceremony. In fact, in many localities in certain social circles it is considered scarcely proper for the contracting parties to have had any personal acquaintance before the marriage. In Japan, if for any reason it is not convenient for both of the parties to be present at the marriage ceremony, one or both of them may be represented by a friend standing as his proxy. It is a custom for Japanese men residing in the United States thus to contract marriages with women in Japan, they sending their photographs and receiving those of their intended brides, so that they have in this way a picture acquaintance. The marriage is then consummated in Japan by a friend of the groom taking the pledges for the husband. This marriage is legal under the Japanese law. When such a marriage has been contracted, the bride comes to America to meet her husband, whom she has known before only by reputation and whom she has seen only by photograph. It is a custom in at least several of the United States ports for the immigration authorities to require a marriage under the laws of the United States before the woman married in this way is permitted to land. Persons familiar with the Japanese law have in many instances argued that this second marriage under the laws of the United States gives no additional validity to the marriage, and that the insistence upon such a second marriage is disrespectful to a sister nation. On the other hand, the immigration authorities have felt that this, at any rate, secured a legal marriage in certain cases where, without such a ceremony it might well be that the woman was being imported for the purposes of prostitution. To give additional security in such cases it is insisted that the alleged husband shall be able to establish his good standing in the American city in which he lives.

wives of members of these exempt classes and are then sold to keepers of houses. Under the conditions ruling in the Chinese quarters of our cities, such women become really slaves; doubtless in many cases they have been slaves at home. Unless they are redeemed through purchase by some man who is ready to marry them their position is practically that of permanent slavery, although theoretically they are allowed in certain instances to earn the money for the purchase of their liberty. Under the methods of exploitation followed in Chinese houses, as well as those kept by others, such self-purchase is, however, almost, if not quite, impossible.

A plan followed frequently in importing Japanese women for immoral purposes is to marry them upon their arrival to Japanese men whose status as native Americans has been established. In some instances Americans pretend to marry Japanese girls in Japan and bring them into America as their wives. Doubtless these cases

are rare.

In the majority of the cases investigated by the agents of the Commission the women imported in violation of section 3 of the immigration law traveled second class on the steamers, with the exception sometimes of Chinese and Japanese. The reasons for the selection of second-class instead of first-class passage are: First, the saving of expense; second, the less likelihood of detection, since their appearance would often show that they were out of place in the first cabin. Shrewd importers do not usually bring in alien women and girls on third-class tickets, because the inspection of third-class passengers on both railroads and steamers is stricter than that of second and first class passengers, although the law is the same for all. Every alien woman entering for the first time, traveling alone third class, booked for New York, is supposed to be detained at Ellis Island until she is called for by some relative or friend. If the relative or friend fails to appear, the woman is then often discharged to one of the immigrant homes, which assumes the responsibility of finding her friends or of assisting her to find a suitable place in which to live. If she is booked to any place outside of New York or its immediate vicinity she is seldom detained for further inquiry.

Care is usually taken to have women and girls booked to some pretended relative or friend, or other person, presumably respectable. In many instances, however, they have been booked directly to disreputable places. The examination of manifests at Ellis Island by the agents of the Commission proved that formerly many women who gave as addresses well-known disorderly houses in the city of New York had been admitted without serious difficulty, as were several women who were booked for Seattle and San Francisco, and gave addresses in the districts where the prostitutes lived. Within the past year or two there has been much greater care taken in this regard.

A letter addressed to a member of the Commission from an employee of the Immigration Service in the Department of Commerce and Labor gives a list of 25 men and women whose baggage was sent to one of the best known French resorts the so-called French Club, at 124 West Twenty-ninth street-although the passengers themselves were usually manifested to other places. In September, 1907, the character of the house became clearly known, and since then such manifestings have ceased. The house was broken up at the time the Immigration Commission closed its investigation.

MARRIAGE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS.

In certain cases where there seemed some doubt regarding admission, the immigration authorities have permitted women who may technically at least have been subject to deportation under the law to remain in this country if they married American citizens. In some instances the woman has been allowed to stay if she married the person to whom she was booked, even though the man was a foreigner. There is every reason to believe that this device is followed by professional prostitutes who have no intention whatever of giving up their practices or of making a home for the men whom they marry. Presumably in many such instances the man is himself a pimp, and is taking the risk of bigamy, having already been married.

DIFFICULTIES OF DETECTION.

It is often extremely difficult to prove the illegal entrance of either women or procurers. The inspector has to judge mainly by their appearance and the stories they tell. Two French procurers and pimps bringing girls with them were, in 1908, detained at Ellis Island because they claimed to be chauffeurs and appeared to be entering in violation of the contract-labor law. At length, however, they were allowed to land, and went direct to the French headquarters named above, telling the story to their fellow-criminals, and joking at the expense of the immigration officials.

On the Canadian border some two years ago an immigration inspector stopped by mistake the wife of a prominent citizen of one of our leading commercial cities, a woman against whose character suspicion had never been raised. The inspector was judging merely by her appearance and manner in replying to his questions. Fortunately the inspector in charge learned her name and standing before she was given the reason for her detention. An excuse was made, with a polite apology for the inconvenience caused, and she went on, not knowing why she had been stopped. If such mistakes were committed frequently, the service would soon be discredited. An inspector is not likely to run the risk. The possibility of such mistakes permits almost any reasonably well-behaved woman, with some ingenuity in framing skillful answers to the usual inquiries, to enter the United States, whatever her character. The higher the social standing the woman seems to have, the more cautious the inspector is about causing her unnecessary delay and trouble.

SYSTEM OF EXPLOITATION.

The strongest appeal to the instincts of humanity in every rightminded person is made by a consideration of the brutal system employed by these traffickers in every way to exploit their victims, the hardened prostitute as well as the innocent maiden. The methods probably are not essentially different in the houses of prostitution filled with American girls, or on the part of the pinps who are exploiting them, from those obtaining in houses filled with foreign girls lately imported, or among the foreign women on the streets whose knowledge of English is barely enough to enable them to give an invitation. It is probable that a somewhat larger proportion of the

wi

of

th

al

tl

h

a

i

I

340

American girls are free from the control of a master: and yet a ing to the best evidence obtainable-the stories of the women selves and the keepers of houses-nearly all the women now each. in this business in our large cities are subject to pimps to who give most of their earnings, or else they are under the domination! keepers of houses, a condition which is practically the same. A administration of the law, driving girls out of disorderly b depriving them of their earnings on the streets, seems at t drive the girls for protection and care into the clutches of the p who as the price of their care take most or all of their earning thus the system of subjection to a man has become common.

As has been already intimated, the motive dominating the curer or pimp is that of commercial profit; the first thing to be de when a woman is imported is to place her where she can make mor for him quickly and plentifully. The person bringing her into the country may

Take her with him to a lodging house or boarding house where le lives, engaging another room elsewhere where she may take men Put her into a disorderly house. If the house is not his own, be usually shares profits with the manager and reserves the right a remove his woman.

Sell her to the keeper of a disorderly house, or to a pimp, or some intermediary.

Turn her over to his principal, if he has been acting merely as agent.

In the first-named case she must walk the streets and secure her patrons, who are to be exploited, not for her own sake but for that of her owner. Often he does not tell her even his real name. She knows his haunts, where she may send him word in case of arrest and she knows the place to which she must come every night and give him all her earnings. She must deny her importation, must le regarding her residence, her address, and the time she has been in the country. If she tries to leave her man, she is threatened with arrest. If she resists, she finds all the men about her leagued against her; she may be beaten; in some cases when she has betrayed her betrayer she has been murdered.

It is the business of the man who controls the woman to provide police protection, either by bribing the police not to arrest her, or in case of arrest to secure bail, pay the fine, etc.; to make all business arrangements; to decide what streets, restaurants, dance halls. saloons, and similar places she shall frequent. If she is a foreigner, she is taught where to solicit, what expressions to use, where to take her men, how much to charge, and other like information. Above all, she is compelled to learn that she must give all her earnings to her man, must receive neither protection nor help from anyone else, and especially must never betray him. As a precaution, he seldom tells her his real name, giving her only the name by which the police or his fellows know him-as "Red Sam" or "Blink." The French have often very expressive titles, such as "Albert le Belge," "Louis L'Escalier," "Henri le Juif," "Frederick le Voleur," "George le Tête de Veau," "Carl le Terreur des Jeunes Filles," and "Maurice le Cocher."