But after all, there will be no success in attempting to cope with Oriental prostitution by means of laws against prostitution and kindred vices, for the reason that the evil is a far graver one than this. Innocent children are reared for vice, and at a certain age thrust into the life through no choice of theirs; and not infrequently perfectly respectable women of mature years are kidnaped for the vile service. The effect upon the moral character of a man who resorts to a slave class of victims to his evil propensities, must be to make that man a menace to society wherever he goes, through deeds of violence which he is willing to commit, and accustomed to commit, of the worst imaginable sort.
And an attack upon the slave traffic alone will never prove adequate. The history of our country's dealing with negro slavery is instructive on this point. There were laws in abundance for the suppression of the traffic between Africa and America; it was forbidden to bring slaves into the country, and devices were invented looking to an eventual liberation of all the slaves in certain regions; but what did all these amount to, so long as slavery could exist? There had to be one sweeping, general emancipation of slaves wherever they were found, under whatever circumstances, and when the state of slavery was abolished, the trade in slaves died a natural death. The words of Mr. Francis concerning conditions at Hong Kong bear directly on this point: "Until the system of prostitution which prevails in this Colony … is declared to be slavery, and treated and punished as such in Hong Kong, no stop will ever be put to the kidnaping of women and the buying and selling of female children in Hong Kong. This buying and selling and kidnaping is only an effect, of which the existing system of Chinese prostitution is the cause."
In 1880, Mr. Berry, a member of the House of Representatives from California, made use, in a debate in the House, of the argument that "if the British authorities had not been able to prevent slavery from being practiced in Hong Kong, there would be great danger that, if an unlimited immigration of Chinese were allowed, it would be followed by the prevalence of slavery in this country."
It is perfectly true that immigration of Chinese, even though it has been greatly restricted, has been followed by the introduction of slavery into the United States, yet the premises laid down in this argument, may not pass unchallenged, for the following reasons: There was never any serious attempt to put down slavery at Hong Kong, excepting in the efforts of Sir John Smale and perhaps one or two others, whose efforts were opposed by others, and in large part defeated. The records go to show that there was at once a growth of healthy moral sentiment created among the Chinese, through Sir John Smale's endeavor, that promised much good for the future had his course of action been continued. This official planted his feet squarely upon the doctrine that all buying and selling of human beings was slavery, and that a human being cannot, in law, "become a slave, even by his own consent." And moreover this official, with Governor Hennessey's encouragement, prosecuted his cases without any tender consideration as to the demands of European libertines, who would be left with scant opportunities to be self-indulgent unless slaves were placed at their disposal. The truth is, from the foreign standpoint, the plea for brothel slavery was based upon the "necessity" of vice, and from the Chinese standpoint the plea for slavery was based upon so-called Chinese "custom." The Government was impressed that it must have consideration for the demands of libertines, and consideration for Chinese "custom." Neither of these arguments has any worth when applied to the slave conditions of California, and therefore the most serious, baffling obstacles to a removal of the evil are out of the way. Both pretexts, we maintain, were false. There is no necessity for furnishing vice to libertines; there was no lawful Chinese custom to be opposed in opposing brothel slavery. But even if these were claimed to be sufficient arguments across the water, they have no force in California. There are women, alas! willing to make a trade of their virtue for their own gain, without forcing Chinese women to make a trade of their virtue for the gain of masters. As to Chinese custom: America is not setting forth inducements for the Chinese to come and live in our midst, as did Sir Charles Elliott when he promised the Chinese the privilege of practicing their own social and religious rites and customs, "pending Her Majesty's pleasure." If Chinese or any other class of foreigners come to reside in the United States, it is with the understanding that they must conform to the laws of the country, whatever modification or radical alteration it obliges them to make in their native customs, and if they will not do this they must take the consequences.
No class of people, taken as a whole, are possessed of a greater moral sense or can be reached more readily by moral suasion, than the Chinese. We believe that if a proper condition of public moral sentiment were maintained, by the enforcement of the laws of the United States in Chinese communities, no class of people would be more delighted than the respectable Chinese themselves, who are now left in a state of terror for their own lives from the highbinders, and who often dare not bring over their lawful wives from China, to live in the midst of this reign of terror, at the mercy of slave-traders and women-stealers. Then Chinese criminals would seek safer shelter elsewhere, and respectable Chinese family life would take the place, in our Chinatowns, of a combination of criminal men and slave women. And Chinese men of weak character, separated far from home influences, would not be met on every hand by temptations of the most potent sort. Such is the real worth of the sort of Chinese character that one meets in other parts of that country from those vitiated by familiar contact with foreign profligates, that the presence of such could not but be a benefit to us, and would afford peaceable, thrifty, useful Chinese settlements in our midst, of which we would feel justly proud.
In order to see that the entrance of Chinese to our country from China is not made a cover for this dreadful slave trade, there is an urgent need of coöperation between rescue workers of the California coast and rescue workers in all the open ports of China. Chinese men are constantly returning to China to "marry," in duly prescribed form, and then return with their wives and reënter the United States, merely to put the women into the brothels. Any man who is willing to run the risk of detection can thus get a trip home to China to see his lawful wife and family, and make it a profitable business trip besides,—with all expenses more than paid by the importation, and sale of a slave. Chinese women are constantly returning to China to bring "daughters" to put in the slave pens. No woman (even lawfully married to a Chinaman), should be allowed to take a ticket at Hong Kong or any of the open ports of China for the United States, whose case has not been thoroughly investigated by days of acquaintance with a woman inspector in a house of detention, if necessary, on the other side. And no Chinese woman should be allowed to enter on this side of the water, until she has passed the second time under such surveillance in a house of detention. And such rescue workers should have the Government authority signified by a policeman's star.
The evil to be combated should be met with the right remedy. "Fitches are not threshed with a thresher, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod." Much of the failure to control brothel slavery has grown out of the application of the wrong remedy, not out of a difficulty in controlling the Chinese. These cases of trading in human flesh have generally been treated in the courts as though coming under the laws against ordinary prostitution. To illustrate:
Within the past month, three Chinese girls were captured by a rescue worker. They were cooped up, with a man who had charge of them, in a tiny closet scarcely sufficient to hold the four, which had been entered by a panel door which was securely nailed up and bags of rice piled against it. The rescuer pulled away the bags, pried open the door of the secret receptacle with her hatchet, and drew out the girls, dripping with perspiration and panting for breath, in consequence of the two hours' confinement, while the brothel was being searched for them. They were conveyed to the mission home, and were very happy, and expressed their eager wish to remain. A Chinese woman came to call at the mission home, in the absence of the superintendent, and, unfortunately, was allowed to get access to an acquaintance of these girls, and she conveyed to them a promise that if they would come back, in a very little while they would all be given their liberty. After that the girls said they wished to go, and for the following reasons: They could not dwell in safety among their Chinese people, if in debt to a brothel-keeper, for he would be always on their track, and if he could not capture them and they would not return, he would certainly secure their death at the hands of high-binders. The case came up in court. The girls told there all the details of their being recently smuggled into this country; that they were bought by their present owner for $3,030 each; that they were flogged when their earnings for their owner fell below $300 a month, and other similar details,—but they also declared their wish to go back to the brothel and to their owner. To be sure, they had expressed elsewhere a contrary wish, and the wish to return had been begotten in their hearts by the threats and inducements conveyed to them by the woman who came to the home. The judge was one who could not be bought nor bribed, and who sincerely wished the good of the girls, but they said they chose a life of prostitution, and to that life they were returned.
We do not pretend to understand as well as that judge the laws that were available, on which he rendered his decision, but this we do say: If California has not a law that will not permit the introduction of slavery into the state, even though Chinese women consent to slavery, then it needs such a law at once. Slavery is too formidable an evil for free Americans to allow its existence on the consent of enslaved Chinese women. Age of consent legislation, as applied to the question of social vice, is one thing, and consent as applied to the question of slavery, quite another thing. Sir John Smale, in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, quoting from Sir R. Phillimore on International law (vol. I, p. 316), declared that it was not possible for a human being legally to "become a slave even by his own consent." Had the matter of consent or non-consent of slaves been consulted as to negro slavery, we have no reason for believing that the negro would ever have had his freedom. Though prostitution is entangled with the conditions of servitude, under which Chinese women and girls groan in California, yet only about half the slaves are as yet prostitutes, and slavery looms up so large against the western sky, as compared with the mere consent or wish of a creature brought up from babyhood in familiarity with vice, that to consult the option of such an one in determining the existence or non-existence of slavery in America, is a thing that ought not to be tolerated for a moment.
We have shown how every Chinese girl who has escaped from her servitude to the city of refuge,—the mission home,—is received and welcomed. How the rescued and rescuer run the race for dear life, and the pursuers are obliged to turn back at the door. But what a state of things in this country which we call free! Should not the entire country be one great city of refuge? Do we not pretend that it is such to all who are oppressed? Why should not the pursuer be turned back at the Golden Gate, rather than at the door of an exceptional home in San Francisco? We are fond of saying that under the stars and stripes slavery cannot exist. We must make it good, or acknowledge, in dust and ashes of repentance, that we are hypocrites. Idle words will not do in place of deeds; we must make good our profession at any cost. Everyone of these Chinese women should be removed from the brothels, wherever these exist, consent or no consent, placed in houses of detention, instructed as to the condition of liberty of the person in which she must live, and then, if she prefers a slave's life, he deported to China,—a land in which slavery is permitted. Every Chinese man who attempts to interfere with this radical treatment of the situation, should be imprisoned or driven from the country. These "Watch-dogs," who are perfectly known to the police, both by name and by face, should be put behind bars and in stripes, for a long time to come. This is not prostitution, merely,—Oh, how tenderly men are inclined to deal with the male harlot! but for once the libertine has not a shadow of a shade of defense,—the patrons of slaves are something worse than fornicators; they are guilty of as many offenses of criminal outrage as they are guilty of visits to the slave-pens stocked with Chinese girls, and they deserve a prison sentence for every such visit.