CHAPTER XXIII.
THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
On Monday, February 8, 1909, The Illinois Vigilance Association, an organization having for its object the suppression of traffic in women and girls, held its second annual conference against this evil. The meeting was held in the auditorium of the Young Men's Christian Association, in Chicago.
Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, professor of physiology in Northwestern University Medical School, spoke on the subject that is the title of this chapter, and was followed by Judge Julian W. Mack. Their plain, chaste, truthful words gave no offense to the refined ladies and gentlemen, and young ladies and young gentlemen, who composed that large audience of nearly a thousand people. Instead of offense, appreciation and gratitude were in every heart.
The addresses of these two eminent men are here reproduced word for word from the stenographer's report, not omitting the enlivening interruptions from a woman in the audience, herself a physician and much interested in this reform.
CHAIRMAN BOYNTON: "The White Slave Traffic and the Public Health" is the topic of the address by Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, Professor of Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School:
DR. WINFIELD SCOTT HALL: Ladies and Gentlemen: It might be of interest to note in passing that my interest in this matter has been directed particularly along educational lines, to know that since the first of October, 1908, I have addressed young men and boys on this subject to the number of not less than twenty thousand, mostly in the colleges and high schools, setting forth to them in perfectly clear and simple language the proper hygiene and physiology of the sexual system, teaching them the methods of right living.
As to this nefarious traffic that we have just been hearing about, and the relation of that traffic to the public health, I would like in one sentence to sum up a parallel between this white slave trade and the black slave trade that continued from the time of the Colonies to the memory of many of us present. I believe that we have not yet expiated and paid the price of that slave trade and it may be many generations yet before we pay for it. Blood flowing in rivers is a part of that price, from the hearts of the noblest sons of America. This white slave trade must be paid for in blood. Who are the primary victims? In most cases, pure minded girls, ambitious to go out and earn a higher wage and think they can send home wages to father and mother, and they fall into these snares that are set for them.
