How, therefore, can the system be justified which brands and inscribes the prostitute only; which is not content with tolerating her vile trade instead of punishing it, but gives it official sanction, causing her to fall lower and lower; which finally, to crown the work, licenses the proxenetism which exploits her vice? It is difficult to imagine more complete hypocrisy, or a more contradictory system.
In former times when slavery was allowed, men's will and pleasure were sufficient to justify such measures, which created for their profit a class of female pariahs; and this was frankly and openly admitted. Nowadays, the equal rights of women which are officially recognized in civilized countries no longer allow it, and hygienic arguments only can give such modern barbarity the hypocritical appearance of justification. Lunatics and criminals are only locked up as a measure of safety, and to attempt to improve them; but their bodies are not allowed to become an object of commerce for the pleasure of other members of society.
But the results of honestly interpreted statistics contradict the apparent justification of the regulation of prostitution, in the name of hygiene. It is intended to furnish men with a means of coitus free from danger; but the facts prove that venereal disease has not been diminished by this means. The false security given to men officially by regulation makes them all the more careless. The multiplication of the sexual connections of each prostitute increases the danger of infection at least as much as the elimination of a few diseased persons diminishes it.
The corruption of the State and its officials, especially the police and the medical inspectors of brothels, the general depravity which results from official toleration, and the perversion of ideas of morality among the public, increase habits of prostitution, and with it the danger of infection. Assured of impunity the pimps and their acolytes become more and more audacious and extend their business, while the prostitutes, whose number is increased by this system, seek to escape the police and practice their trade clandestinely. It is no wonder that the swamp to be purified becomes more and more infectious. Can it be conscientiously said that hygiene has benefited? This is well seen in Geneva and in France. It is enough to compare the number of cases of venereal disease and of prostitutes in countries where regulation is in force, with those which do not employ it, to show the complete fiasco of the system from the hygienic point of view. On the average, the number of infectious cases is nearly the same with or without regulation and depends on many other causes. I cannot enter into the details here and must refer to the statistics and to the works published by the Abolitionist Federation (6 Rue St. Léger, Geneva).
Of all that has been published, nothing appears to me more conclusive than the masterly statistics of Mounier, for Holland, in 1889. Even among medical men, the originators of regulation, the abolitionist point of view is steadily gaining ground. It is beginning to be understood that the toleration of proxenetism, and even the inscription and medical inspection of prostitutes, are vicious methods of social sanitation against venereal infection.
But by the suppression of official toleration and regulation, the question of prostitution is in no way settled. This has only a negative action, important for the tactics of those who wish to upset a scandalous abuse, but which does not respond to the higher task of extirpating the root of the evil. The positive work will only begin when the State is relieved of its shameful compact with proxenetism and prostitution.
In the following chapters we shall examine the remedies which must be applied to our sexual anarchy, the result of masculine autocracy, as Russian anarchy is the result of Tsarism. I will first make a few observations from the medical and hygienic point of view, to the partisans of regulation. They exclaim that the abolitionists are fanatics, who, from their absence of scientific spirit, will deluge society with venereal disease. This bogy has no sound foundation. The State regulation of prostitution applied to certain women has not diminished the amount of venereal disease, because it does not reach it. The State concession of an unnatural vice cannot be hygienic. Moreover, it is impossible to completely disinfect prostitutes, this disinfection is quite illusory, unless it is also applied to their clients, which is impracticable.
In France, where the system of regulation has existed for a long time in its strictest form, venereal diseases are extremely prevalent; while in Switzerland, where it only exists at Geneva, having been suppressed for some years in the Canton of Zurich, they are less frequent. Geneva is not less contaminated than other towns in Switzerland, in spite of its model brothels, and Zurich has lately, by popular vote, confirmed abolition by a crushing majority, in opposition to a few interested persons who wished to reëstablish the brothels under futile and fallacious pretexts. Some clandestine brothels still exist in towns where the authorities shut their eyes.
It has also been maintained that the number of sexual misdemeanors would increase with the suppression of brothels. This is another illusion. The majority of sexual misdemeanors are due to psychic anomalies (Chapter VIII) or to the effects of alcoholic intoxication. If they have any relation to prostitution, it is rather that of being favored by its orgies.
Remedies for the Evil.—What is wanted first of all are severe laws against proxenetism. It is indisputable that commerce made with the body of one's neighbor is illegal, even when the latter gives consent. It is a crime or misdemeanor which should be prosecuted like negro slavery or usury. We should not wait for a complaint to be lodged, but prosecute proxenetism officially, for the victims are hindered by shame from coming forward. The pimps of proxenetism are recruited from the dregs of society. In this domain, as in the others, penal law should not be put in force; the object should be the protection of society and the improvement of the criminal.