It is a matter of no small importance that the Christian public of America should realize that in the Oriental slavery of its Pacific Coast it faces a flood. One can gaze with indifference upon a little stream that trickles through a wall, so long as it is thought to be merely a natural spring of water; but when one is informed that this is the trickling of water through a dike which dams out the raging sea, the sensations are changed to a realizing sense of imminent peril. If some are disposed to criticise this book for leading its readers into past history and far distant countries, to tell them harrowing tales, let them know it is intended to take them for a view behind the dike,—that they may understand the source of the trickling stream of brothel slaves that, almost unobserved, flows steadily into our fair land, and know that the stream is the precursor of a flood. No mere wall of immigration restrictions will ever get control of the flow so long as men are permitted to hold slaves after they have once been landed. And for the further reason, that so soon as China and Japan have drilled a little longer with the fire-arms furnished them by Western nations, they will force a free entrance to America. The yellow flood is sure to come, and we must make ready for it. We must realize what may happen to American women if almond-eyed citizens, bent on exploiting women for gain, obtain the ballot in advance of educated American women. We must realize how impossible it is to throttle this monster, Oriental Brothel-Slavery, unless we take it in its infancy. For these reasons, we wish to sound the cry long and loud: "At once to arms! Not a moment to be lost! We cannot build a dam in the midst of the raging sea. The new dam must be finished before the old one bursts."
And beside the peril arising directly from the flood of Orientals who are accustomed to dealing with women as chattels, there will be the peril from a debased American manhood. Men cannot live in the midst of such slavery as this, tolerate it, defend it, make gain through it, patronize it, without losing all respect for woman and regard for her rights.
And then, the slave business is fast becoming a vested interest of large dimensions to American men as well as to Chinese. There are fully as many (probably more) Japanese slaves as Chinese in the United States, and at the moderate reckoning that they are worth three thousand dollars each, that represents six million dollars in capital; and at the present time the Japanese traffic is more threatening to the United States than the Chinese, with which alone this book deals.[A]
[Footnote A: When we undertook the task of writing this book we intended to include in it also a representation of the Japanese slave-trade, but have been obliged to desist for want of space.]
In these latter days, when everything in the business line tends to take on the form of trusts and combines, bent on defeating all law and exploiting the common people for gain, it casts a shadow of gloom over one's spirits to think of capitalists entering so largely upon the active culture and development of vice for pecuniary profit. This can no longer be looked upon as an evil due to the frailty of human nature and the strength of the sex appetite; it is rather the expression of a greed for gold, and should be actively combated as such. The owners of property, especially those who have a monopoly in the matter of housing vice because of municipal measures for its segregation, are most potent offenders against decency, and should be punished as such, instead of their being admitted, as too often they are, not only to good society, but to membership on the church roll.
No individual can afford to be indifferent and ignorant as to the existence of social vice in the community. The only escape from moral blight and confusion is by active conflict with the forces of evil. The wrong training of youths who grow up in the presence of tolerated evils, cannot be overcome in a single generation, nor in a single century. There is a confusion of the moral sense in the presence of evil to which one has become accustomed, that is truly terrible.
When it was first learned in England that such an official had been appointed at Singapore and Hong Kong as the inspector of brothels, the matter could scarcely gain credence. Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, in his valuable book, "A State Iniquity," in mentioning this exclaims: "Her Majesty's Inspector of Brothels! Curiosity is aroused to inquire what were the attributes, duties, rank and status of this official. From the evidence taken by the Commission [at Hong Kong], we gather that he kept a register of 'Queen's Women,' and saw that their names were duly inscribed on the door-posts of the Government establishments, as lawyers' names are inscribed on nests of Chambers in the Temple, and those of merchants and traders are written on offices in the City. He comptrolled the receipt of the fees paid by the women into the Colonial Treasury…. But, what was the fashion of his uniform? Did he attend the receptions of His Excellency and the Port Admiral? Was he allowed precedence of chaplains, or how otherwise? and was he expected to dine with the Bishop? Was he decorated on the abolition of his office, and allowed a good service pension? or is he still in the service of 'our religious and gracious Queen?'" That officer still remains in the service of the Government, both at Singapore and at Hong Kong. By the ruse of denominating all the tasks connected with the Government management of immoral houses at Singapore "protection," the Chief Inspector of brothels in this place holds a more honored place in the community than at Hong Kong. As to Mr. Scott's ironical questions in regard to that officer's rank, we cannot answer, nor whether he is invited to the Governor's receptions; but Mr. Scott would have been astounded, indeed, had he, like ourselves, first met the Chief Inspector of brothels at a reception given to ministers of the Gospel and missionaries; had he, like ourselves, been introduced to the official by a minister of the Gospel than whom none stands higher in British India, and that in terms of eulogy of the Inspector's activity in Christian work. How can we explain such a state of affairs? Just as we would explain the religiousness of early days of America and England associated with the monstrous cruelty of the slave traffic. There is often in connection with great human wrong great moral confusion, and without judging the individuals living under such conditions, we can say emphatically, those conditions are most undesirable, and attended by moral peril, especially to the young. It is a truly lamentable thing when prolonged familiarity with vicious conditions leads to such lack of discernment as to a man's true character, even among the best portion of a community. We do not wish such a state of things as this in America.
California does not lack in excellent laws (as they read, in the Statute Book), for the suppression of prostitution. There are laws against procuring; against trading in Oriental women for evil purposes; against buying or selling a female, with or without her consent, for prostitution; against a husband forcing or influencing a wife to lead an evil life; against a husband even consenting to his wife practicing prostitution; against keeping a house of ill-fame; and against knowingly renting a house for a place of prostitution. But all these laws, almost the world over, as well as in California, are weak at one point, namely, that they provide for imprisonment or fine, whereas they should provide for imprisonment and fine. This is not because the penalty would then be heavier, of necessity, but in order that the law may not be prostituted into license. The alternative of a fine instead of imprisonment defeats the object the public-spirited citizens have in demanding a law for the discouragement of vice, and places before the police officials a temptation to corruption. A mild sentence, which invariably puts the procurer or brothel-keeper in prison, is worth more than a heavy sentence by way of fine, which can be met by further oppression of his slaves. Besides, the heavier the sentence threatened, if there be an alternative fine, the more potent implement it furnishes for blackmail in the hands of corrupt police officials. Penalties by means of fines invariably tend to degenerate into a monthly squeeze to the police, in payment for toleration, and thus tend to make the police official a defender of social vice, rather than an exterminator.
It has always been considered, among experienced workers, a most difficult thing to attack prostitution itself by means of penalties, for the reason that the punishment is invariably visited with greatest severity upon the head of the female partner in shame, who is often the mere victim, while the male partner goes free. But surely those men who make a business of cultivating vice and vicious practices,—who use every sort of device to corrupt the youth and develop the trade in women, can be reached by just and wholesome laws. We cannot make men moral by act of parliament, but we can restrict their depredations.
It has long been our feeling that every form and kind of spurious marriage, such as bigamy, polygamy, illegal divorce and remarriage, seduction, adultery, and bastardy, besides constituting sometimes cause for civil action, might with good results be lifted into offenses against the State. National development depends not upon the individual but upon the family unit, and that family unit is non-existent outside the monogamous relation, or, at least, is so frail as to easily crumble. Nothing could be more vicious in moral education to the youth than the average suit for civil damages, in which the whole decision of the case is made to depend upon whether some young girl can or cannot be ruined in reputation by lawyers of the defense and by their client, concerning whom there is not a question as to their lack of a decent reputation. When the State rises to defend itself against counterfeit marriage, just as it defends itself against counterfeit coin, then the whole horizon of the life of a profligate woman will not be brought before the public gaze every time she comes into court, but will be kept in deserved obscurity, and the woman will be tried for a single offense, just as the man is tried, and not for all the offenses and indiscretions of a life-time. The penalty for such wrong doing may not be placed at even so high a figure in the Statute Book as it now stands, while accounted a civil injury, but the dignity of the trial would give serious lessons in virtue to the youth. No nation can long exist that does not incessantly discourage the practice of every sort of offense against the sanctity of the marriage relation.