Chapter XIII

THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE IN NEW YORK CITY.

There is no longer any doubt in the minds of the well informed that there exists a great white slave trade in the City of New York. In a recent report by General Bingham, police commissioner, he said: "This traffic is found to be of very large dimensions. There seems to be very slight difficulty in getting women into the country. The requirements of the immigration authorities are easily met by various simple subterfuges. The men who own these women are of the lowest class and seem to have an organization or at least an understanding, which is national or even international in scope. We cannot get these men. If we could the whole white slave trade would drop and the whole social evil be intensely ameliorated, because these men work a regular trust." In commenting on this statement of the police commissioner, Mr. George Kibbe Turner has the following to say in the June number of McClure's Magazine:

"If the interests of the prostitute are excellently safeguarded under the administration of the law by the magistrates' courts, the business of her political protector the cadet is doubly secure. At most he is only subject to a six months penalty as a common vagrant, but practically speaking he can never be arrested at all because the only valid evidence against him must come from the woman who supports him, who neither desires nor dares to protest against him. There are thousands of these men in New York City and their convictions do not reach a score a year. To this might be added that no local authority ever got these men and that the only successful prosecution of them and the only one they feared, has been that started by the federal authorities in Chicago and New York during the past two years. The local politician has as yet no influence with federal courts in favor of prostitution. He delivers no important part of the votes that choose the federal authorities."

General Bingham in an article in Hampton's Magazine for September, 1909, says that he might have accepted bribes during his first year in office, from gamblers, dive keepers and other criminals, amounting to $600,000 or even a million dollars. He thinks that the graft and blackmail of New York City amount perhaps to a hundred million dollars a year. He asks the question, Who receives the graft? and answers: "Patrolmen, police captains and inspectors, employees in city offices, city officials, politicians, high and low share in it. But while the uniformed policeman is getting tens or hundreds of dollars for 'protecting' a brothel, drinking or gambling resort, the city officials and politicians are getting their thousands and hundreds of thousands through graft-yielding contracts and franchises, in cash carefully conveyed, or in other emoluments rendered them in every case for betraying the public."

In the report of the Commission of Immigration of the State of New York, a commission created by the legislature of New York in 1908, the following statement is to be found regarding the white slave business in this State:

"In the State of New York, as in other states and countries of the world, there are organized, ramified and well-equipped associations to secure girls for the purpose of prostitution. The recruiting of such girls in this country is largely among those who are poor, ignorant or friendless. The attention of the Commission has been called to one organization incorporated under the laws of New York State as a mutual benefit society, with alleged purpose, 'To promote the sentiment of regard and friendship among the members and to render assistance in case of necessity.' This society is, in reality, an association of gamblers, procurers and keepers of disorderly houses, organized for the purpose of mutual protection in their business. Some of the cafes, restaurants and other places conducted by the members are meeting places for those engaged in the business of importation. The organization includes a membership of about one hundred residents of New York City, and has representatives and correspondents in various cities of the country, notably in Pittsburg, Chicago and San Francisco."

The commission has not in the report given very much of the detail of the working of this Association, but Collier's Weekly in speaking of the dismissal of General Bingham as police commissioner of New York, says: "He has been police commissioner for three and a half years. Under his strong, rough hand the disorderly houses which flourished so prosperously three years ago, imprisoning helpless immigrant women, have gone out of business. There were one hundred of them running at full speed between 23rd and 69th Street and 6th and 9th Avenue. There are scarcely twenty now and they are only operating for old time patrons. The stranger inside the city walls will not find the easy welcome for his licentiousness which 1906 and 1907 could have given him. The profession of ruining, selling, and renting out girls has been reduced. That organization known as the New York Independent Benevolent Association has had its wings clipped. The gentlemen who run this association have been checked from their vile trade by the strict regime of Bingham. For two years they have had to turn to honest or semi-honest professions instead of squeezing blood money out of little foreign girls, raped by their agents and locked up in their chain of disorderly houses in the old and new Tenderloin. They have almost forgotten the dark tragedies hidden just a fathom underground in their burial lot in Washington Cemetery—the poor murdered women, the infants one span long."

While the immigration report and Collier's Weekly enter into little detail concerning the ramifications of this Association, it is not because they have no further information regarding it, but because many of the details are so vile they could not be written.

It can be said, however, that the 126 members of this Association have operated in Newark, N. J., Philadelphia, in Pittsburg, in Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco and other cities, that they have plied their trade in South Africa, in Panama, and that different members of the Association have made repeated trips to Europe. This society has been in existence since 1896. In every large city in which an expose of the disorderly house element of the white slave traffic has been made, some of the members of that Association have been involved. At the present moment the graft investigation is going on in Chicago; one of the principal men indicted is Mike the Pike, who is well known in Philadelphia and New York. Some years ago Mike was a prominent member of the organization but quarreled with the officers and was expelled. Keller and Ullman, sent to prison by the federal authorities in Chicago for trafficking in white slaves, were members of this Association at the time of their conviction by the government. Several others indicted but never brought to trial were also members.

DISEASED CHILDREN IN THE POOR-HOUSE Scores of children suffering from disease are to be found in the charity hospitals. The white slave trade is to blame for this state of affairs

NOBODY'S CHILDREN No father—no mother—no name. Can you imagine anything more pitiful? The result of the white slave traffic

At the time of the great cleaning out of the disorderly elements in Philadelphia many members of this Association were driven out. Some of them went to New York, some to Newark. They plied their business in Newark for two or three years and when conditions became so bad that the public rose in protest and started a movement to clean out the dens of vice, it was the members of this association who stood together and fought the authorities. However, some of their members were convicted and sent to prison. The chief of police and other officials were accused of having some partnership with these men and of levying graft upon them, much in the same way as the evidence in the present Chicago graft proceedings alleges. The then chief of police in Newark, who was alleged to have been one of the men who received money from these men, went out into one of the lonely byroads outside of the city and committed suicide by shooting himself.

It has been said that some of these men were in South Africa, and it is an established fact that many of them went there and opened up houses of prostitution but were finally expelled from the country by the British Government. Some of them went to Panama (not in the Canal Zone) and opened houses there, and some of them at the present time are still doing business there.

Collier's Weekly has mentioned the cemetery owned by these men. It is quite a large section of what is known as the Washington Cemetery. Some of the women buried there, all of them foreigners, were murdered. One of them was found, the body covered with bruises and blood, and an iron bar about 18 inches long covered with blood was found near her body. Two others were strangled to death; another was found in an unconscious condition. A criminal operation had been performed which had not been successful. Several had died as the result of venereal disease. Some of the men died violent deaths; one was stabbed and died of blood poisoning. Another had his neck broken. The ages of the women varied, some were 22, 23, 24 and 25 years of age. Few of them were more than that. Fifteen babies are buried here, most of them only a few months old. In two cases coroner's inquests were held.

In the cafes frequented by these men and owned by them, one hears the vice question in its relation to the whole country discussed. The Chicago graft investigation is being discussed now and many guesses are made as to whether Mike really got the money or whether somebody put up a job on him, anyhow they all feel that Mike has distinguished himself by being so prominently connected with the men higher up.

The Association, unlike the French syndicate, imports very few women. They prey mostly on the ignorant immigrants who are already in this country in such large numbers. They are successful in securing nearly all the women they need in the large foreign centers here and are thus not under the necessity of paying the passage money of their victims to this country, but they do import some. Many of the members of this association are wealthy men. They own fine houses, automobiles, and some of them are credited with a great deal of political influence. When trouble comes to one of the members the record of the society is kept straight by passing a resolution expelling the man from the society. At the same time, the Association goes ahead and uses its money and influence to help the expelled member.

Most of the members of the Association come from Russian Poland and Galitzia, Austria. Very many of the women in their houses come from the same countries. It is interesting at this point to note that a prominent paper in Warsaw claims that they have discovered a white slave society which is practically a counterpart of the one in New York, with the difference that the Warsaw society exports the women, whereas the New York syndicate imports them. Some of the members of the New York Association are ex-criminals, having been convicted in their own country. Because of the strictness of the police in their native land, they have found it advisable to come to America. They still, however, have connections with men of their own class in those countries.

When word comes to New York that a certain city or state is wide open, some members of this syndicate go to these places and open up business. They either take their women along or after settling in a place send to some trustworthy member and have their women brought on. Practically the only charge that the local authorities of New York can bring against these men is that of vagrancy and no magistrate will convict on a charge of vagrancy when the alleged vagrant can show the deeds to property worth $20,000 or $30,000. An incident of this kind actually happened in New York three years ago.

The French syndicate as far as is known, is not an incorporated body like the Jewish organization, but that they have an organization is not questioned for a moment by those who have investigated conditions in New York City. The federal authorities have broken up a house which was alleged to be the headquarters of the French "macquereaux." Most of the women deported by the federal authorities in New York have been French women and most of the men arrested in this connection were also found to be of French extraction.

The report of the police department for 1908 shows that out of fifty-five applications for warrants for alien prostitutes, 41 were arrested, 30 were ordered deported, and 26 were actually deported. Seven cases are still pending; four were discharged and the others left the country or disappeared. Out of 19 warrants for the arrest of the alien men, 11 were arrested of whom four were sent to prison and ordered deported at the expiration of their sentence. Four were discharged; 2 cases are pending and one escaped. In most cases the men and women were French.

Owing to the vigilance of the Federal authorities, and co-operation of the police department, the French end of the business received a severe blow in the city of New York. Out of 400 French "macquereaux" known to have women in houses, at least 300 left the city when the Federal authorities began to secure convictions against some of their members. However, the decision given in the Keller-Ullman case by the Supreme Court, declaring the law which gave the Federal authorities power to imprison these men for harboring and maintaining women unconstitutional, the Frenchmen have taken heart and are coming back in increasing numbers to the city.

There are many angles to the white slave business in New York. Many women are enticed into houses of ill-fame by promises of marriage and by fake marriages. The cadet took a woman before a crooked notary public and went through a form of marriage but failed to file the agreement thereof, thereby suppressing the evidence of marriage, the purpose being to aid procurers who sometimes marry several girls in their vile purposes of compelling these unfortunates to live lives of shame, to enable them to profit by their villainy. The Commission of Immigration found that this practice had been largely suppressed by the new law requiring a marriage license. These notaries now advise as to the best way the law may be circumvented. As an illustration, one notary agreed to perform a real marriage between an investigator of the commission and a supposed Swedish girl, and to draw a contract transferring her property to the husband. The notary then advised the latter as to the best manner in which to make the new wife appear to have committed adultery so that the husband might be able to secure a divorce after having secured the girl's money.

That many of these houses in New York City are run under the guise of massage parlors is well known. Many of the women in these houses are French. A paper is published in New York in which the names and addresses of these houses are advertised. Innocent women are lured by advertisements for operators. The publisher of this paper is a notary public and is always willing to advise his advertisers how to carry on their immoral business. One of the difficulties that the Federal authorities have in putting a stop to the importation of these women into the country is the fact that very many of the women who have been actually intended for the disorderly houses are manifested to seemingly respectable people. These people, however, have some indirect connection with the business of prostitution. For instance, one man has what seems to be a perfectly legitimate and solid business as a manufacturer of women's clothes. However, his sole business is the supplying of that clothing to the disorderly houses throughout the country. It is said that women have come to work in his factory and have been turned over, after many glittering promises have been made to them, to some keeper of a disorderly house who made them inmates of his establishment. Some of the women go to work in restaurants where members of the Association have some interest, and thus the way is made easy for an introduction to the woman with the subsequent result of finding her way into a disorderly resort. Some of the procurers in New York work through the employment agencies. Since May, 1904, the Commissioner of Licenses has revoked 14 licenses of employment agents for sending girls to immoral places of whom 9 furnished immigrants chiefly. Nine other licenses were revoked for immoral conduct, eight furnished immigrants chiefly. The revocation of a license, however, is not an effective remedy, since in no case have fines or imprisonment been imposed for this violation of the law. Nine agents whose licenses were revoked for this reason are still acting as employment agents, or as runners for other employment agents. Investigators for the federal authorities and also of the State Commission of Immigration found agents in several sections of the city who are willing on payment of an extra fee to send girls to work in disorderly houses.

The same thing may be said regarding some of the immigrant homes, which are ostensibly for the purpose of protecting foreign girls on arrival in the city of New York. The federal authorities and the State Commission found homes that sent women to disorderly places. The State Commission found one home that was willing upon a donation of $5.00 to send a girl to work in a disorderly house. This donation seems not to have been recorded in the books of the home. Several other homes are at present under investigation by the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island.

Since 1901 the Sicilian or Southern Italian has played quite a prominent part in the great traffic in women in New York City. At that time, after his triumphant entry into the corrupt politics of the city, it was estimated that Italians controlled from 750 to 1,000 women. Gangs of Italian criminals have grown up in New York City as a great asset of the corrupt political machines. Men like Paul Kelly, Jimmie Kelly and other Italians masquerading under Irish names play a prominent part in Tammany politics, supplying "strong arm" men as repeaters in the elections, whom they recruit from the boxing and other athletic clubs with which they are affiliated. Jimmie Kelly manages one or two high class pugilists, but around his saloon are to be found many preliminary boxers. These men cannot make a living as preliminary boxers and must depend on something else to eke out a livelihood. Through their connection with men like Kelly they are given the protection necessary to enable them to conduct immoral resorts or to keep women soliciting on the streets, without interference from the police. In return for this immunity they help Kelly deliver the illegal vote necessary to keep the corrupt Tammany machine in power. The Italian because he is more prone to crimes of violence pays for his political protection in votes, while the Jew largely pays cash. The Italian, unlike the Jew, very rarely puts women of his own race into the awful life; there are relatively very few Italian prostitutes. The Italian traders seem likely to displace the French, as they are kinder to the women and they adapt themselves to the political environment in a way that the French do not understand.

We quote again from Mr. George Kibbe Turner in McClure's Magazine for June, 1909:

"The Jew makes the most alert and intelligent citizen of all the great immigrant races that have populated New York. He was a city dweller before the hairy Anglo-Saxon came out of the woods; and every fall the East Side resolves itself into one great clamorous political debating society.

"Out of the Bowery and Red Light districts have come the new development in New York politics—the great voting power of the organized criminals. It was a notable development not only for New York, but for the country at large. And no part of it was more noteworthy than the appearance of the Jewish dealer in women, a product of New York politics, who has vitiated, more than any other single agency, the moral life of the great cities of America in the past ten years."

It is absolute fact that corrupt Jews are now the backbone of the loathsome traffic in New York and Chicago. The good Jews know this and feel keenly the unspeakable shame of it. The American Hebrew says in an editorial:

"If Jews are the chief sinners, it is appropriate that Jews should be the chief avengers of the dishonor done to their own people, and in many cases to their own women. We feel confident that unless something is done, and done quickly, a scandal of the most intense character will break forth, and only by prompt action can its worst effects be warded off from the fair name of American Jewry."

Hon. Oscar S. Straus wrote in his report as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, for 1908:

"It is highly necessary that this diabolical traffic, which has attained international proportions, should be dealt with in a manner adequate to compass its suppression. No punishment is too severe to inflict upon the procurers in this vile traffic."

B. C.