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THE REASONS FOR THE BUSINESS.

To the motive of business profit is due beyond question the impulse which creates and upholds this traffic. The procurers who seduce or otherwise entice the women to leave their foreign homes, the importers who assist them in evading the law or who bring them into the United States for sale, the pimps and keepers of disorderly houses who exploit them body and soul, have only profit in view. The work is strictly foreign commerce for profit.

Although very many of the girls are brought here innocent, betrayed into a slavery rigid in its strictness and barbarous in its nature, the prize offered to the victim is only that of higher wages and better economic conditions. The much greater number of women who have already been living an immoral life abroad and who come to the United States willingly to continue open-eyed the practices of their former life, come to secure higher wages, often profits ten times as great as those they have received in Europe. Even though they are subject to their pimps and have little or no opportunity to save for themselves, there is yet the opportunity for higher gains, a higher economic standard of living, an opportunity for travel, and the interest of a new environment, and perhaps at times a hope of a real betterment of conditions. But the persons chiefly responsible for the development of the traffic are not the women themselves, but the keepers of houses, the pimps, and the procurers, who live by their exploitation.

RECRUITING,

Of far greater significance than the fact that the national law concerning the importation of alien women and girls has been violated are the facts showing the methods employed and the inadequacy of the law itself to protect our country against such importation. But even before a consideration of the specific methods of evading the law, or a discussion of the system used in the exploitation of these women, it is important to understand the way in which they are recruited to enter the country or to live here in violation of law.

This recruiting is carried on both here and abroad. The procurers, with cunning knowledge of human nature, play upon the weaknesses of vanity and pride, upon the laudable thrift and desire to secure a better livelihood, upon the praiseworthy trust and loyalty which innocent girls have for those to whom they have given their affection, even upon the sentiments of religion, to get their victims. into their toils; and then in the pursuit of their purposes, with a cruelty at times fiendish in its calculating coldness and brutality, they exploit the girls' attractions to the uttermost. If the victims are young and affectionate, as often happens, the procurer makes their acquaintance, treats them kindly, offers to assist them in securing a better livelihood. Their confidence and affection won, they are within his power, and are calculatingly led into a life of shame. If the procurer is a woman, the innocent girls are usually promised pleasant work for large pay.

In this connection, also, it is obviously impossible to give statistics showing whether the greater number are recruited abroad, or whether they are induced or compelled to enter the business after their

arrival in the United States. In either case the methods of recruiting do not differ materially. Though in all probability many are innocent, the majority of women and girls who are induced to enter this country for immoral purposes have already entered the life at home and come to this country as they would go elsewhere, influenced primarily by business considerations.

To the innocent girls the woman procurer offers only the inducement of work, and usually work of a menial nature, though at higher pay than that to which the girl has been accustomed at home. In one case known to the Commission a girl left her home in Europe with the consent of her parents to act as maid to the woman procurer; and there are doubtless numerous instances in which women, sometimes those of a better class, such as nurses, are offered good positions at high pay.

The investigation leads the Commission to the belief, however, that more of the recruiting of innocent young girls in Europe is done by men procurers than by women; and possibly even with women of the professional class they may be somewhat more successful, as while they can promise just as much in the way of pleasure and pay as can the woman procurer, they also probably lead the women to believe that they can assure them better protection and a greater security in the evasion of the law.

Correspondence captured in raids instituted by agents of the Commission shows some of these methods of recruiting. These letters are extremely valuable "human documents" relating to persons of the class in question. The men seem to feel affection for their families; they talk tenderly with reference to the fortunes or misfortunes of their mothers or relatives; they send polite greetings to one another and to their friends. At the same time they discuss the characteristics of the women in question with the same coolness with which they would name the good points of a horse or a blooded dog which they had for sale. Extracts from some of the captured letters follow:

An absolutely new number-tall, handsome of figure and body, 20 years and 6 months old. She wants to earn money.

The brother of Antoine and Pierre, nicknamed "dealers in live stock." I do not want to ask any favors of them; they are great rascals.

A woman the like of whom you can never find; young, beautiful, most * * and who fully decided to leave. You can well understand I gave them a song and dance. * * * Without praising her highly, she is as beautiful as it is possible to find in this world, and I hope she will serve your purpose well. * * * I will send you her photograph. Her beautiful teeth alone are worth a million.

Far more pitiful, however, are the cases of the innocent girls. A French girl seized in a raid of a disorderly house in Chicago stated to the United States authorities that she was approached when she was but 14 years of age; that her procurer promised her employment in America as a lady's maid or a companion at wages far beyond any that she could ever hope to get in France; that she came with him to the United States, and upon her arrival in Chicago was sold into a house of ill fame.

The testimony of a girl of only 17 taken in a typical case in Seattle in 1909 shows some of the methods used in recruiting their victims by those engaged in the traffic. Flattery, promises of work, lovemaking, promise of marriage to a wealthy person, seduction with

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

a 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.

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