Overview

From the Introduction. In approaching the subject of the social evil the distinction must be kept in mind between, first, the constant element which bears little relation to social and economic changes, to fluctuations of population or to localities or classes, and which is found in a clandestine relation in which some degree of regard is intermingled, quite as much as in professional prostitution; and, second, the business of prostitution, which is conducted for the profit of many shareholders, and which is stimulated as a trade in other lines of commerce and expansion. This is an age of great inventions, of business activity involving intense competitive struggle, of strenuous effort to obtain wealth quickly by not too scrupulous means, with the concomitant obscuring of cause and effect. It is an age of spending, of the prevalence of a high cost of living and a reckless sacrifice of human life to industry. Youth is gravitating toward the city, away from home, religious and personal ideals, breaking the moorings of the past before the newer social ideal is grasped. Freedom of thought, liberty of action, self expression, were never more dominant. It is inconceivable that these characteristics of the age should not influence the total moral life. The economic and political and industrial changes are resulting in a new body of law which expresses a growing social conscience with reference to wealth, power and official responsibility. It has been the purpose of the Research Committee to study social growth as expressed in the laws passed to regulate prostitution in its various phases, and to ascertain whether social legislation in this respect is keeping pace with industrial and political legislation and similarly expresses a developed consciousness on the part of the people toward moral integrity. Hitherto most studies of the social evil have been made as a result of public protest against some aggravated conditions, or have dealt with some especial manifestation of it. Such treatment usually gives a disproportionate view of a subject having many and varied elements closely related to other human activities. The ''white slave traffic has been the subject of investigations, treatises and reform movement; the Raines Law hotels have been attacked by themselves; midwives have been studied and regulations passed. These and a dozen other illustrations which might be given of separate non-co-ordinated studies and movements; have not resulted in a comprehension of the subject nor in an intelligent discussion or treatment of it as a whole. New York City, the field studied, presents an unusually complex situation, and has an extraordinary responsibility because of this, and by reason of its relation to the rest of the country. No city in the world receives each year so many persons of foreign nationality, bringing continental standards. Four-fifths of the stream of immigration pass through this port, and more than one-fourth are said to remain here. The majority are not familiar with city life and temptations, and many bring with them an experience and point of view not well adapted to the city strain. Probably no other city has 800 private employment agencies, all competing for fees. Many hundreds of young women, detached from parental ties and children, come to the city alone from Europe or from country districts looking for work, and undertake single handed to make their way. In the small village or town there are neighbors, if not parents, whose opinion and good will are valued; in the city this restraint is easily lost. It is stated that there are 122 blocks in New York where the density of population is 750 people to the acre. This concentration of people, together with the strenuous industrial pace, absence of adequate facilities for recreation, creates a situation calling for every safeguard, moral, educational and legal, which can be erected.

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