For all these items she is charged exorbitant rates. Her share, therefore, with these items deducted, is sometimes small. Usually the keeper plays also upon her vanity if she wishes to go out of the house, supplying her with street clothes at exorbitant prices, with jewelry, and with money for spending, so as to keep her always in debt to the house, even though she is making a large sum of money. Usually these women have not the gift of saving. They are not businesslike and can be readily kept in debt. They are made to believe often that if they escape without payment they will be captured, exposed, and arrested; and they are beaten, and threatened, sometimes with murder, if they attempt to escape.

PROFITS OF THE TRAFFIC.

In naming the business of importing women the "white-slave traffic" the public has instinctively indicated the fact that the business is maintained for profit. It is probably no exaggeration to say that if means can be devised of stripping the profits from it the traffic will cease.

While many thousands of people are making a good living out of this business, it would be too much to say that large fortunes are derived directly from it. The large sums, frequently though not regularly made, are often quickly squandered in gambling and dissipation. The belief that a single corporation is largely controlling this traffic in the United States is doubtless a mistake. The number of women imported by any one person or organization is probably quite limited. It has been estimated by United States District Attorney Sims that one man engaged in the traffic who forfeited two bonds of $25,000 each for himself and wife was probably worth some $87,000. So far as can be learned, he was the wealthiest of the importers in Chicago at the time of the investigation there. He was also a disorderly-house keeper and probably derived the largest profits from the use of his girls rather than from selling them; his profits might have been large, although probably not so great, if his girls had been native-born American instead of imported.

The rules governing the profits from the prostitution of women living in the United States in violation of section 3 of the immigration act are those governing the profits in any business in that

A woman is worth to her procurer the price for which he sells her, less the cost to him of recruiting and importing her.

A woman is worth to the pimp, or disorderly-house keeper (where he is also her procurer), the amount of her earnings less (a) the cost of importing or recruiting her, or her purchase price; (b) the cost of her support; (c) the expenses of the business.

The data secured as to the amounts made in the business show that profits vary with the locality where the traffic is carried on, with fluctuations in social, financial, and political conditions, with the personality of the alien, and with the nationality and business ability of her exploiter.

To guard against the sensational beliefs that are becoming prevalent, it is best to repeat that the agents of this Commission have not learned that all or even the majority of the alien women and girls practicing prostitution in the United States in violation of the immigration act were forced or deceived into the life; that they have

not learned that all who entered the life unwillingly or unknowingly are desirous of leaving it; and they have not proved that alien women as a class are more quickly degraded than native women, though from their ignorance of the language and customs they are at times less able to guard themselves. Moreover, since in Europe the feeling regarding sexual immorality is much less pronounced than in the United States, the women presumably in many instances have not the consciousness of degradation from their fallen condition that in some instances causes the American girl her keenest suffering.

They have learned that a large number of alien women and girls are being imported (sometimes unwillingly, but usually willingly) into the United States and distributed throughout the several States for the purposes of prostitution; that alien women and girls in considerable numbers have been so deceived or taken advantage of by procurers that they have found themselves in conditions which practically forced them into practicing prostitution; and that all of those engaged in the exploitation of these alien women or girls use every means of degrading them, in order to keep them in the life as long as they are able to earn money.

Often the lure to the woman is evidently not more in the amount of money made than in the apparent ease and excitement of making it. Even the smallest profits made in the exploitation of women are, however, sufficient to tempt the man who is willing to be supported by a woman's shame in order that he may be free to drink or gamble, and to tempt the woman who has no desire to earn an honest livelihood.

It is obvious that the qualities required for the securing of these profits are the daring and shrewdness of the criminal rather than the energy and industry necessary for success in a legitimate business.

THE PRICE OF GIRLS.

It is of course impossible to state any regular price that is paid for girls, or the regular expenses of importing and placing them. The traffic is largely individual with both the importer and the girl, and the cost varies materially.

The expressions "buying girls," "selling girls," etc., also vary in meaning. In order to test the assertions frequently made regarding the ease with which girls could be "bought "at employment agencies for such purposes or could be secured through employment agencies for work as servants in disorderly houses, agents of the Commission applied to certain employment agencies, asking for girls to work in disorderly houses. Girls were delivered by employment agencies to a room hired for the purpose of making the test, for the payment of a $5 fee or even less; but in cases like this the employment agent is in no proper sense "selling" the girl. He is simply paid a fee for his work as an agent, though he is doing a vile business.

On the other hand, testimony shows that when an importer sells a girl to a disorderly-house keeper or to a pimp, and frequently into what is practically slavery, he often receives $500, and in certain cases twice or three times that sum; an amount sufficient to cover the expense to which he has been put in securing the girl, his own expenses, and a substantial profit.

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Different still is the work of a man who as an agent lures a girl into a house where she is overpowered, or who, by false stories of profit and perhaps promise of marriage, seduces the girl and then delivers her in her misfortune into the hands of a keeper of a house of prostitution. Work of this kind is done sometimes for sums as low as $15. This, again, may be quite different from a sale into practical slavery, because the girl may in many cases leave the house if she can make a friend outside or has enough independence of disposition to assert herself.

In the investigation of Japanese procurers it was learned that Japanese girls could be secured in Seattle to be taken to houses in Chicago or New York for $400 each, with the understanding that if several girls were taken at one time the price would be somewhat less. One Japanese procurer wished to have a specific contract, and the girls were to understand that they must work out the prices that were paid for them. Japanese girls are frequently placed in houses where their customers are men of any nation. Chinese girls, on the contrary, with very rare exceptions, are placed in houses patronized only by Chinese. Moreover, owing in part to the small number of Chinese women in the United States, and in part to the difficulty of importing Chinese women on account of the Chinese-exclusion act, the prices paid for them range from $2,000 to $3,000, or even more. It is but natural that the importer or purchaser, as a consequence, takes all precautions to lessen the likelihood of his financial loss.

The success or failure of the business depends in large measure upon whether there is a rigid or a lax enforcement of the law. When in New York City, under Police Commissioner Bingham, a determined effort was made to close the houses, the complaints throughout the tenderloin and other disreputable districts were many and loud. Business was poor, fines were frequent and heavy. In consequence, girls by the hundreds were taken or sent by their exploiters to other cities. The agents of the Commission saw in Chicago, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and elsewhere, girls of whom they had not known in New York, and who stated that they had left New York on account of the poor business there. When the rigid enforcement of the law relaxes, the news spreads with wonderful rapidity, and the statement that the city is "wide open" means the flocking back of this element from other States, and an increased tendency toward the violation of the laws of importation.

In shifting girls from one State or one city to another, it is customary for the disorderly-house keeper who is to receive a girl to advance her transportation. The girl has then to make money enough to pay back this loan and her own expenses. If the girl has a pimp, the balance must be sent to him.

All concerned in the exploitation of immigrant women under the system above described seem to share the profits, except the immigrant girl herself. Although she earns the money at enormous cost to her, she is rarely able to retain anything.

Briefly stated, the distribution of the profits derived from the services of alien women in the United States, in violation of section 3 of the immigration act, is directly to the procurer, importer, purchaser, pimp, or disorderly-house keeper, the receivers of fines and license fees, and sometimes the police, and indirectly to the landlords,

boarding-house keepers, restaurant keepers, the police, saloon keepers, physicians, and keepers of other establishments.

During the month of October, 1908, over $5,000 was paid into the police fund in Seattle, Washington, as fines by prostitute womeneach woman being fined $10 a month. A large proportion of these women were aliens.. The same custom obtains in many cities.

As a result of the work of this Commission in its investigation into violations of section 3 of the immigration act, fines and forfeited bail were paid into the United States Treasury, through the United States district attorney at Chicago, amounting to $125,000. The pity of it is that the money to pay the fines had been earned not by the worst criminals but by their exploited victims.

INTERSTATE AND LOCAL CONDITIONS.

The importation and exploitation of alien women is doubtless affected very materially by local conditions, economic and administrative. The agents of the Commission learned, for example, that whereas formerly the city of Buffalo was a considerable center for the importation of women from Canada, under the existing administration the laws against the practice of prostitution were so rigorously enforced that that city was no longer a desirable port of entry. In consequence, when women were brought across from Canada at that port, they generally did not stop in the city but went immediately beyond to some interior point.

At the time of the Commission's investigation in New York it was almost impossible for the procurers to find a satisfactory place in any house of prostitution for a woman imported in violation of section 3. The reason for this was that many houses were closed because of raids and fear of investigation; that those still remaining open were run on a small scale, so that the demand for girls was light; and that the houses, especially those where aliens were formerly placed, were continually raided. The effect of this activity upon the houses was that many of the most notorious keepers, especially Frenchmen, had left the city, and were doing business in the cities of the West, where the dangers were not so great; that nearly all of the alien women brought to New York were living with their pimps instead of in disorderly houses; and that a large proportion of these aliens were soliciting on the street rather than remaining in the houses. All of these practices tended to affect quite decidedly the custom of importation, if not its extent.

The continual raiding of the houses in the so-called "tenderloin " and other well-known districts had beyond question scattered the practice of prostitution from these houses into tenement houses and small apartment houses throughout the city.

Some of the clubs at which the procurers stopped on their travel to and from Europe still remained open. One of the best-known was raided as a result of the investigation made by the Commission, and several hundred letters were found there addressed to procurers and pimps throughout the country, letters which had apparently come from all parts of the world. Most of them mentioned facts which indicated that the business between the correspondents constituted a violation of the immigration law.

It is, of course, difficult to prove by specific cases the relation of the police to this traffic and to establish by specific evidence the

fact generally accepted that the girls and disorderly-house keepers regularly pay the police for protection; but high police officials, prosecuting officers, and social workers in all quarters assert that in many, if not all, of our large cities much corruption of this kind exists. Most of the girls questioned on this point by the Commission's agents said that payments were made to the police to insure their protection from too frequent arrests. It is, of course, a violation of the law for the police to demand or receive such money; but, according to the persons interviewed, the woman who did not pay for protection was frequently arrested, while the woman who did pay was only arrested when the policeman must "make good" at headquarters. When the women understood this situation they did not complain. When a police officer, a plain-clothes man, was shifted, he naturally felt obliged to make arrests. Under the circumstances he would, of course, arrest the women to whom he was under no obligations. When a house of prostitution was raided, the police usually did not bring the woman practicing prostitution to court. They arrested instead the woman ostensibly managing the house. The real proprietor is comparatively seldom found within reach of arrest, although he pays the fine and furnishes bail.

The women arrested for practicing prostitution or for soliciting on the streets and brought into the magistrate's court in New York City soon learned to know, or their men did for them, the temper of each magistrate. For example, they knew that one magistrate would release all women without fines, another would place them on probation, a third would send them to the workhouse, a fourth would fine them $2, and a fifth would invariably fine them $10. It was a matter of common knowledge when a certain magistrate would be sitting. The severe judge had few cases-women paid more to the police or kept out of sight when he was holding court-and the lenient one had his court room filled every evening. In the latter case women were arrested frequently, sometimes twice in one month. It was a common occurrence for women to be placed on probation, even though they had previously served several times in the workhouse. So quickly were cases disposed of that many women within ten minutes after being brought into the court were placed on probation and had disappeared, not to be heard from until the next time they were arrested. Sometimes from 50 to 100 of these cases were disposed of in one night.

RESULTS OF THE TRAFFIC.

This importation of women for immoral purposes has brought into the country evils even worse than those of prostitution. In many instances the professionals who come here have been practically driven from their lives of shame in Europe on account of their loathsome diseases; the conditions of vice obtaining there have even lowered the standard of degradation of prostitution formerly customary here. Unnatural practices are brought largely from continental Europe, and the ease and apparent certainty of profit have led thousands of our younger men, usually those of foreign birth or the immediate sons of foreigners, to abandon the useful arts of life to undertake the most accursed business ever devised by man. This traffic has intensified all the evils of prostitution which, through the infection of innocent wives and children by dissipated husbands and