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diff --git a/78293-0.txt b/78293-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6da5a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/78293-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15314 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78293 *** + + + + + Prostitution in Europe + + + =Publications of the Bureau of Social Hygiene= + + + + + Prostitution in Europe + + + BY + ABRAHAM FLEXNER + + + INTRODUCTION BY + + JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. + Chairman of the Bureau of Social Hygiene + +[Illustration: Open book emblem with sunburst rays and floral border] + + NEW YORK + THE CENTURY CO. + 1914 + + + Copyright, 1914, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + _Published, January, 1914_ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. PROSTITUTION: DEFINITION AND EXTENT 3 + II. THE DEMAND 39 + III. THE SUPPLY 61 + IV. PROSTITUTION AND THE LAW 103 + V. REGULATION AND ORDER—THE STREETS 121 + VI. REGULATION AND ORDER—SEGREGATION AND BORDELLS 165 + VII. REGULATION AND DISEASE 204 + VIII. THE REAL INWARDNESS OF REGULATION 265 + IX. ABOLITION AND ORDER 286 + X. ABOLITION AND DISEASE 343 + XI. THE OUTCOME OF EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE 395 + APPENDICES 403 + Regulations of Paris + Regulations of Berlin + Regulations of Hamburg + Regulations of Vienna + Danish Law + INDEX 453 + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +In presenting to the public the second volume of the series to be issued +by the Bureau of Social Hygiene, it is appropriate to state briefly the +origin and plans of the Bureau and to indicate the place assigned to the +present study in the scheme which the Bureau has undertaken to develop. + +The Bureau of Social Hygiene was created as a result of the work of the +Special Grand Jury which investigated the white slave traffic in New +York City in 1910. It was organized only after a thorough inquiry had +been made, involving conferences with over a hundred leading men and +women in the city as to the relative value of a public commission as +compared with a private organization. The opinion prevailed that a +permanent, unofficial organization, whose efforts would be continuous, +would probably be more lasting and effective; the Bureau of Social +Hygiene was therefore established in the winter of 1911. Its present +members are Miss Katharine Bement Davis, Superintendent of the New York +State Reformatory for Women, at Bedford Hills, New York; Paul M. +Warburg, of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company; Starr J. Murphy, of the +New York Bar; and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. + +As was stated in the introduction to the previous volume, spasmodic +efforts to deal with the problem of prostitution have been made from +time to time throughout the course of history. They have failed for +several reasons: First, because, as a rule, there has been too little +accurate information as to the facts of the situation to be dealt with; +again, because they have taken too little account of the teachings of +experience elsewhere; finally, because they have been too explosive, too +discontinuous, to be effective, even if soundly conceived. + +The first book of the present series, entitled, “Commercialized +Prostitution in New York City,” was written by Mr. George J. Kneeland, +upon the completion of a careful study of conditions of vice in +Manhattan, carried on under his direction by a corps of trained +investigators. Its aim was simply descriptive; it presented a faithful +picture of contemporaneous conditions in New York. + +The present book carries the work a step further. Without raising any +question as to how far European experience is significant for America, +the author describes prostitution in Europe and discusses the various +methods of handling it now employed in the large cities of Great Britain +and the Continent. The subject is a highly controversial one. For this +reason, its investigation was assigned to one who had, on the one hand, +previously given it no critical thought or attention, but whose studies +of education in this country and abroad had demonstrated his competency +to deal with a complicated topic of this nature. Mr. Flexner was +absolutely without prejudice or preconception, just as he was absolutely +unfettered by instructions. He had no previous opinion to sustain; he +was given no thesis to prove or disprove. He was asked to make a +thorough and impartial examination of the subject and to report his +observations and conclusions. He enjoyed the fullest possible facilities +for his inquiries and to them and the writing of this book devoted +almost two years. + +It is difficult to summarize the contents of the volume. It touches many +different aspects of the problem,—the nature of modern prostitution, the +factors determining demand, the sources of supply, the various methods +used in its regulation or control, their operation and value, the effect +of abolishing regulation, and the general outcome of European +experience. Though Mr. Flexner has in no way taken America into +consideration, without question the facts he has assembled will be +highly pertinent to any discussion in this country as to the merits of +proposed legislation; for his account makes it clear that widespread +misapprehension prevails as to the policies pursued by European cities, +and their results. + +Two volumes are still to appear: an account of European police systems, +by Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick, a member of the staff of the Bureau, and +formerly Commissioner of Accounts of New York City; and a final volume +dealing with prostitution in the United States in which it is hoped that +a program soundly based may be suggested. + + JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. + + New York, Nov. 1, 1913. + + + + + PROSTITUTION IN EUROPE + + + + + CHAPTER I + PROSTITUTION: DEFINITION AND EXTENT + + Scope of investigation.—General uniformity of phenomena.—Prostitution + an urban problem.—Medieval and modern prostitution + differ.—Prostitution defined.—Need of broad conception.—Immorality + distinguished from prostitution.—Prevalence and significance of + immorality.—Prostitution not necessarily a permanent status.—Mortality + of prostitutes.—Number of prostitutes.—Forms taken by + prostitution.—Influence of alcohol.—Homosexuality.—The pimp.—The Paris + prostitute.—The cost of prostitution. + + +Prostitution will be studied in these pages from the standpoint of the +practical experience of European countries. An effort will be made to +ascertain its forms and extent, the sources from which it is recruited, +the conditions that either cause or conduce to it, the procedure of +different communities in dealing with it and with the conditions +responsible for it, the measures which have been employed by way of +combat or control, and the results which have been thus obtained. +Material will be drawn from extended personal inquiry and observation in +the larger cities of England, Scotland, France, Italy, Belgium, +Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, +Austria-Hungary,[1]—from the countries, in a word, that may be grouped +as Western Europe, because they are characterized by a considerable +degree of similarity in all that pertains to social life, national +ideals, and political institutions. + +In the countries just specified, neither law nor opinion is strictly +homogeneous: in consequence, the phenomena under consideration respond +to differences of viewpoint or pressure by somewhat altering their +external manifestations. The resulting divergencies are at times only +superficial, at times important enough to affect, perhaps, the volume of +vice itself. None the less at bottom the situation is sufficiently +similar to support the generalized method of treatment which has been +adopted in this book. Distinctions will not be ignored; but on the whole +it will appear that they serve rather to emphasize fundamental +agreement. Recent investigation, indeed, tends to show that such +agreement is of far wider scope than is here assumed; for in +prostitution, if nowhere else, the old adage holds—“There is nothing new +under the sun.” The source-books of both ancient and medieval worlds +disclose an amazing identity with modern times in this melancholy +respect.[2] + +Such differences as still persist—in regard to viewpoint, form, or +public policy,—are, at least in the area here dealt with, in a fair way +to disappear. The progress of democratic thought and government, +increasingly easy and unobstructed trading, the advance of industrialism +with the revision of the ethical code following in the wake of practical +sex equality, finally, even deliberate imitation are rapidly developing +decided homogeneity of attitude and effort in reference to many +fundamental human concerns. The student of the particular subject with +which we are occupied is, therefore, nowadays, more and more likely to +be struck by the uniformity of phenomena rather than by local or +national peculiarities, in the course of an inquiry that begins in +Glasgow and concludes in Budapest. + +At the outset it is important to observe that throughout Western Europe +prostitution has in the last few centuries undergone essentially the +same evolution. Prostitution is an urban problem, its precise character +largely dependent on the size of the town. Now the medieval town in +Western Europe was small. The really great cities of the middle ages +were all Islamic: Constantinople, Bagdad, and Cairo numbered more than a +million souls apiece, Seville and Cordova were each half as large. +Beside these the main cities of Western Europe were in point of size +insignificant: Paris had a dubious 200,000; Vienna, 50,000; London, +35,000; Cologne, 30,000; Hamburg, 18,000; Dresden, 5,000. Towns without +water communication rarely reached 25,000; many important places did not +exceed 5,000.[3] Size largely determined the character of urban life and +therewith the nature of medieval European prostitution. The inhabitants +of these hardly more than villages were well known to one another; the +family was still an intact organization; the floating population—aside +from organized movements like the crusades, pilgrimages, or armies,—was +not voluminous; at any rate the stranger was known as such. Medieval +prostitution was, in the main, of two varieties, resident or itinerant: +the former more or less commonly living in regular houses of +prostitution—the so-called bordells; the latter, either vagrant or +informally attached like the camp-follower to the temporal or spiritual +armies that swept to and fro across the continent, now waging war, now +fulfilling religious vows. But whether resident or itinerant, the +prostitute was a marked woman in the small medieval community. Even if +her vocation was plied secretly, her true character inevitably and +quickly became notorious; still more so, of course, if carried on +professionally, for then she was visibly to be discriminated by garb, +appearance, abode, and outward manner of living. The distinction between +the vicious and the virtuous woman was thus in the middle ages +uncommonly broad and clear. + +Modern conditions contrast strongly with those that I have just +sketched. The cities, themselves huge, are for practical purposes still +further enlarged by the subsidiary communities that hang about their +fringes. Berlin, for example, so late as 1816 a town of 197,000 +inhabitants, contained in 1910, 2,071,257; Charlottenburg, to mention +only one of the suburbs practically indistinguishable from it, adds +305,978. London numbers 7,252,963; Liverpool, 760,357; Glasgow, 784,496; +Paris, 2,888,110; Lyons, 523,796; Vienna, 2,031,498; Budapest, 881,600; +Munich, 596,467; Hamburg, 931,035; Dresden, 548,308; Amsterdam, 580,960; +Stockholm, 346,599; Copenhagen, 476,806; Brussels itself, strictly +speaking, a town of only 175,000, is increased to 659,000 by nine +contiguous self-governing suburbs which, for all practical purposes, +merge into it. The mere quantitative difference between the medieval +town and the modern city qualitatively transforms the problem of +prostitution. In these latter-day Babylons, the family is frequently +shattered; thousands of detached, more or less friendless, more or less +irresponsible, girls and boys pour into them to earn a livelihood under +conditions that, so far from forming, actually disintegrate character +and ambition. The situation is still further complicated by the +continuous presence of a huge floating population, in Paris, Berlin, and +London reaching into hundreds of thousands, restlessly surging in and +out, in search of trade, excitement, or amusement. Within the more or +less tightly closed circle, characteristic of a simple community, the +members of which are known to one another, mutual demands in the matter +of conduct uphold the accepted ideal and tradition; family and clan +morality thus sustain the weaker members. Moreover, whatever individuals +may be, they are known to one another as such. But in the modern +Babylons of which I am speaking, one no longer knows one’s nearest +neighbors. Temptation and inducement wax strongest, precisely where +protection and restraint have become feeblest; the conditions favor not +only irresponsibility but concealment. The mere numerical increase and +the absolute impossibility of classifying women and men as virtuous or +vicious on account of sheer ignorance of their life and character thus +profoundly differentiate medieval from modern prostitution. The former +was at once limited and definite; the latter is not only huge but vague. + +From a practical point of view, these are facts of unmistakable +importance. While thirty lewd women in a town of 3,000 inhabitants and +5,000 in a town of half a million represent precisely the same +proportion—one percent in both cases—nevertheless the quantitative +increase makes an enormous difference in the feasibility of measures +designed to deal with one aspect or another of the situation. A device +that might conceivably be effective on the smaller scale would probably +break down completely if applied on the larger. Economically, +administratively, hygienically, the problem thus changes its character, +the moment the numbers involved pass beyond a certain point. + +An additional difficulty is due to mere size; the prostitute can not be +strictly discriminated in the huge modern city. Wherever professional +prostitution has flourished, so-called clandestine prostitution has +existed. But in the middle ages clandestine prostitutes were +individually so notorious that, even when they avoided the bordell, they +frequently lived in the bordell quarter. In any event, there was no +doubt as to their business and character. In precisely the same way, +there exists to-day in Europe the avowed professional prostitute and the +equally notorious and unmistakable so-called clandestine +prostitute,—both perfectly obvious to the police as well as to the +casual observer. But a highly important distinction must be noted: of +modern prostitution this known contingent, partly outright professional, +partly so-called clandestine,[4] is the smaller and, from many points of +view, the less significant fraction. Neither by garb, appearance, abode, +or apparent manner of living are the majority of women subsisting wholly +or partly on the proceeds of sexual irregularity any longer to be +recognized. The frankly avowed prostitute is only one, and perhaps not +the most important, of the types with which this account must deal; and +this complication originates in the size of the modern city and in the +industrial and other conditions to which city growth is due. + +In the endeavor to arrive at an accurate definition of prostitution no +little effort has been expended. Different conceptions are possible +from different points of view. The continental police define +prostitution from the standpoint of registration or inscription: as a +rule they register or, where the system has been discontinued, used to +register, only professional prostitutes,—women, that is, who have no +other means of support than prostitution. From the police point of +view the prostitute is therefore an inscribed woman, or a woman who, +somehow eluding inscription, ought to be inscribed, or one who is at +any rate liable to inscription, on the ground that she earns her +livelihood through sexual promiscuity. Vast numbers, however, escape +through the wide meshes of this net. Many prostitutes are actually +engaged in some sort of remunerative work. The barmaids of the German +“Animierkneipe,”[5] the singers and dancers of low grade Varietés are +prostitutes who obtain their customers by means of their occupations; +yet they are usually exempt from inscription as professional +prostitutes because they are gainfully employed, and being exempt from +inscription they fall outside the police definition of professional +prostitution. The mere fact that partial or even pretended employment +is a protection against police interference leads many prostitutes to +keep up a more or less nominal connection with work. Of 1,177 +venereally diseased women, undoubtedly prostitutes, treated in the +municipal hospital of Zurich, only 7.9% owned to being prostitutes; +6.7% more confessed to no employment, but all the others—85.4%—claimed +a vocation of some sort.[6] It is therefore obvious that the police +definition fails to square with the facts. Parent-Duchatelet, +following an official declaration, uses the term prostitution, where +“several mercenary acts of immorality have been legally established, +when the woman involved is publicly notorious, when she has been +caught in the act by other witnesses than her accuser or the police +agent.”[7] From this definition, however, all really clandestine +prostitution is quite omitted; it suffices only for the most obvious +and necessary police purposes. By way of contrast with the narrow +conceptions above given, I shall, for reasons that will shortly +appear, consider prostitution to be characterized by three elements +variously combined: barter, promiscuity, emotional indifference. The +barter need not involve the passing of money, though money is its +usual medium; gifts or pleasures may be the equivalent inducement. Nor +need promiscuity be utterly choiceless; a woman is not the less a +prostitute because she is more or less selective in her associations. +Emotional indifference may be fairly inferred from barter and +promiscuity. In this sense, any person is a prostitute who habitually +or intermittently has sexual relations more or less promiscuously for +money or other mercenary consideration. Neither notoriety, arrest, nor +lack of other occupation is an essential criterion. A woman may be a +prostitute, even though not notorious, even though never arrested, +even though simultaneously otherwise employed in a paid occupation. + +The scope of the term is thus greatly, and, as I hope to show, +justifiably, nay necessarily, extended. Barter, emotional indifference, +and more or less promiscuity do not in modern cities characterize the +sex relations of the avowed or professional prostitute alone. They are +equally characteristic marks of the clandestine prostitute, using the +term in its literal meaning to designate the numerous class of +professional prostitutes whose real character is known only to their own +clientele and their close female companions; of the occasional +prostitute,—women who alternately emerge from and relapse into an +irregular life; of the incidental prostitute,—those who carry on more or +less prostitution without interrupting some honorable employment; of +women who practise prostitution under cloak of other occupations; of +women, who ceasing to be kept as mistresses practise prostitution as a +stop-gap until a firmer footing is once more found; of women who reserve +themselves by express arrangement for a small group, none of whom can +alone afford their support; of women, who faithful to one individual at +a time are still taken up by a succession of men paying for favors; +finally of married women, by no means always of the lowest classes, who, +perhaps irreproachable in the eyes of the world, are not above earning +through ignominy the price of luxuries.[8] Here are eight different +categories, falling outside the narrow conception of prostitution, but +nevertheless belonging to prostitution, if prostitution is conceived to +be characterized by barter, emotional indifference, and promiscuity. + +For this broad construction there exist the most substantial of grounds. +Why do we object to prostitution at all? Obviously, it is repugnant for +one or more of several reasons: in the first place, because of the +personal demoralization it entails; in the second, because of economic +waste; again, because it is by far the main factor in the spread of +venereal disease; finally, because of its intimate association with +disorder or crime. Unquestionably the full-time notorious prostitutes +who are the especial objects of police care exemplify all the counts in +this indictment; they are themselves demoralized and they spread +demoralization; they cause enormous waste; they inevitably and +invariably spread disease; as a rule they have criminal or +quasi-criminal connections. But there could be no greater mistake than +to suppose that the other categories above specified are free from +objection on these scores. Part-time prostitution, occasional +prostitution, pretentious prostitution,—all the various kinds and grades +above enumerated naturally and inevitably conduce to similar results. +They may be less conspicuous or less offensive, but they are equally +dangerous. If then prostitution is objectionable because of +demoralization, waste, disease, or crime, then it is necessary so to +define it as to include all the varieties to which one or more of the +unfortunate results in questions is attributable. The lowest forms are +most closely connected with crime and disorder, and as the police are +mainly concerned with crime and disorder, they content themselves with a +working conception of prostitution that goes no further. But the general +concern of society must regard as hardly less serious menaces to its +highest welfare the personal demoralization, the economic loss, the +spread of disease equally associated with the less gross forms of the +evil. For these are attended by personal degradation, even though some +individuals, on the whole a considerable number, ultimately react +vigorously enough to recover their self-respect; and they involve +enormous economic waste, increasing rather than diminishing with the +degree of dignity with which the business is surrounded, so that what +externally least resembles commercial prostitution is perhaps from the +economic standpoint most severely to be reprobated as such. + +It is, however, in respect to disease that the wide definition can be +most readily and fully justified. Venereal disease is the certain +harvest of any degree of promiscuity in the sex relation. The diminution +of venereal disease is one of the most pressing objects of hygienic +effort; it can be accomplished only by some sort of interference with +prostitution. It would therefore be absurd to define prostitution so +narrowly that many of the regular foci of infection remain outside the +definition and hence beyond the reach of any policy contrived for the +purpose of dealing with them. How numerous the foci are which a narrow +conception would thus ignore will be more fully shown in subsequent +chapters;[9] but enough must be said in this connection to warrant the +extension of the definition beyond the usual police lines. A statistical +study of venereal disease at Mannheim covering nine years (1892–1901) +showed that 63% of the infections were traceable to professional +prostitutes in the narrow police sense of the term, no less than 37%, +however, to the occasional, incidental, and other prostitutes here +explicitly included in the term; among whom girls in active service as +waitresses, servants, and shophands are the most important.[10] A +subsequent investigation of 594 cases disclosed 278 professionals and +316—over 50%—girls serving in one capacity or another (waitress, +seamstress, laundress, actress, etc.) as the sources of infection.[11] A +similar statistic from Hanover proves in the same way that it is from +the standpoint of sanitation absurd to limit prostitution to the +absolutely indiscriminate, professional and notorious activity: of 330 +women, to whom infections were traced, 42% (139) were outright +professionals, though only partly inscribed, the remaining 58% being +mainly girls who were simultaneously engaged in paid employments in +shops, taverns, domestic service, theaters, etc.[12] Such conditions +prevail generally on the Continent. The Munich police have lately made a +most careful study of the callings in which 2,574 clandestine +prostitutes well known to them are simultaneously engaged: 721 are +servants, 608 are waitresses, 250 factory workers, 246 seamstresses, 60 +are connected with the stage, 52 are laundresses, 40 dressmakers, 28 +models, etc. Similar results can be cited from other sources. Of 100 +venereal patients at Rouen, only 31 of the infections could be traced to +inscribed prostitutes; 69 cases were attributed to clandestines, +partials, etc.[13] Of 297 traceable infections in Stockholm, +146—practically one-half—were attributed to girls also engaged in +work.[14] The police of Hamburg are at any rate logical, for there girls +employed in bars and fish-shops may be registered as prostitutes; in +certain smaller North German cities prostitution is so commonly +associated with employment as barmaid that the latter is practically +merged with the former. Under conditions in which barmaids, shop girls, +servants, chorus-girls, etc.,[15] are either permanently or +intermittently engaged in prostitution, and when so engaged bring about +precisely the same sort of damage that is wrought by prostitutes who are +nothing else, it is manifestly illogical to use the term so as to +designate the latter class only. The fact that complication with +disorder attaches only to the lower types is assuredly no reason for +restricting the designation of prostitution to them, once we realize +that, on the score of personal demoralization, economic waste, and the +danger of disease, the more sophisticated or subtle forms of +commercialized immorality are equally dangerous and destructive. +Prostitution will therefore in these pages be construed to mean more or +less promiscuity—even transient promiscuity,—of sex relationship for +pay, or its equivalent. + +The definition just given is intended to exclude both immorality and +unconventionality in the sex relation, though, for reasons that will +appear, they require incidental discussion in an account of +prostitution. Of these unconventional or irregular sex relationships +there are in Western Europe many varieties, more or less widespread. +Most substantial is the informal union which serves as a substitute for +marriage. In these combinations mutual fidelity is expected, as well as +complete responsibility for such children as may be born. A combination +of this sort is occasionally permanent; occasionally it is converted +into marriage; oftener, perhaps, it binds only during mutual +congeniality, being dissolved when congeniality ceases, or more +frequently when one or the other member has already entered on the +stages preliminary to another combination. In the city such informal +mating of industrial workers of opposite sexes is common;[16] the shop +girl contracts an alliance of this kind with a clerk of her own class, +or not infrequently with a student or professional man, more or less +above her in rank. Of the non-legalized cohabitation of the artisans of +London, Booth remarks that at times “they behave best if not married to +the women with whom they live”;[17] occasionally two parties to previous +but unsuccessful matrimony pair off again without the intervention of +the divorce court, and “as a rule, are faithful to each other.”[18] +Somewhat similar is an informal relationship continued as such until a +child is born—or shortly after—whereupon the neglected rites may be duly +performed. The high percentage of illegitimacy is thus partly accounted +for: In Berlin 20% of the births are outside of wedlock; in all Germany, +almost 10%.[19] The incident is so common among the lower classes, +especially in the rural districts, as hardly to carry any stigma at all. +“Frequent illegitimacy,” writes Adele Schreiber, “may be the expression +of wholesome monogamous conditions, as indeed is often the case in +mountainous countries. Premarital relations are there common, are +characterized by mutual fidelity and, with exceptions of course, look +forward to marriage when a child is born and the parents are able to +establish a home.”[20] These relations must be distinguished from the +episodic connection that is a mere incident in the course of casual +companionship. Mainly in this latter sense, “immoral relations before +marriage among the lower classes are not unusual and are indulgently +regarded,”[21] writes Charles Booth of London. Devon, describing Glasgow +conditions, observes to the same effect that “girls do not seem to +suffer in self-respect nor greatly in the esteem of others, if they +yield themselves to the lad who is their sweetheart for the time. If +decency is observed, morals are taken for granted.”[22] On the Continent +these conditions also exist. “Extra-marital, especially premarital +intercourse is everywhere in the country very frequent,”[23] declares +Moll. Of certain communities in Saxony it has been deliberately asserted +that “no girl over sixteen is still a virgin”; the German peasant is +declared to have no conception of the meaning of chastity.[24] Welander +dealing with 452 prostitutes who could give a clear account of their +first lapse, found that 299 had erred while still living at home or +before leaving the country to take a position in Stockholm.[25] + +Episodic laxity unquestionably exposes the girl to dangers that readily +result in prostitution, just as it develops in her comrade the appetite +that leads him to consort with prostitutes. But in itself mere laxity is +not to be confused with prostitution. The instances above given show +indeed how widely immorality varies in ethical quality. An irregular sex +relation may indicate only carelessness of the convention that restricts +sexual congress to the married relation; it may, at the other extreme, +indicate total indifference to the ethical standard that forbids sexual +commerce unaccompanied by high emotional sanction, mutual respect, +complete responsibility for the natural result. The former is a marriage +in all but form; the latter is simple depravity; but neither involves +prostitution. A lapse—one or several—does not imply prostitution; nor is +the paid mistress a prostitute so long as her relations, emotionally +indifferent and mercenary though they be, are free from promiscuity. It +must be remembered, therefore, that irregular sex connection may not +only lack barter or promiscuity, but on the woman’s side at least may +possess high emotional coloring, whether she be mistress, unwedded wife, +or compliant sweetheart. + +In the designation of prostitute there is nothing final or +irretrievable. It is indeed one of the peculiar earmarks of modern +prostitution that thousands who flounder for a while eventually escape +from the bog. The tendency is undoubtedly towards complete +disintegration; women who drift into it may drift more and more deeply +into the morass. But the numerically more powerful drift is nevertheless +outwards; while some are overwhelmed, thousands emerge. Having +apparently started on the descent, they somehow arrest their downward +progress and clamber out,—sometimes from the very bottom, more +frequently and more hopefully, before the lower depths have been +reached.[26] Modern prostitution is therefore unprecedentedly +fluctuating in character. Johansson’s admirable studies of the data +contained in the Inspection-bureau of Stockholm “show that the same +woman who one month is in domestic service or at other work will the +next month register with the police and thus enter the ranks of +professional prostitution; the third month she will have her position +again and be freed from the requirement to undergo inspection; thus the +thing shifts for years and years.”[27] During the first three years of +registration a considerable number of the women leave Stockholm, give up +prostitution and become domestic servants or factory hands.[28] This has +been the case since modern urban conditions began: “Let us recollect,” +wrote Parent-Duchatelet, “that for the majority of public women +prostitution is a transitory estate; they quit for the most part after a +year; very few indeed remain until death.”[29] The Munich barmaid who is +sexually more or less indiscriminate inflicts upon society for the time +being the same sort of damage as the notorious prostitute; she herself +deteriorates, she exposes herself to disease, in the spread of which she +is subsequently a factor; she is therefore a prostitute. But once she +rehabilitates herself, her status changes. She is barmaid now, +prostitute no longer. The prostitution of European cities to-day is +characterized by the abundance of cases that oscillate in this way to +and fro across the dividing line. Our definition must be capable of +including these at one moment, even if they have to be omitted at +another. + +We are thus enabled to understand what has long figured as a mystery. +What becomes of the ordinary prostitute? For the common notion that her +expectation of life is some five or six years, there is no basis in fact +whatsoever.[30] It is demonstrably untrue even of the avowed +professional or registered continental harlot. Though her resistance is +weakened, an early death need not and as a rule does not ensue. Of 3,517 +women inscribed at Paris, Parent-Duchatelet[31] notes that 980—close to +28%—have been on the Paris list longer than seven years; and the Paris +list is neither the beginning nor the end of the careers of most of the +women inscribed. This is obvious from the further fact that of the 3,517 +women in question, 1,269 admitted the practice of professional +prostitution during more than five years.[32] Again, the average annual +registration of professionals with the Paris police between 1888 and +1903 was 5,549; the average annual death rate among them was 19.[33] +Johansson has made an elaborate comparison between the mortality of +inscribed prostitutes and that of the corresponding age groups of the +female population of Stockholm; the inscribed women show the higher +rate, but by no means so large as is popularly supposed:[34] + + 1870–4 75–79 1880–4 85–9 90–4 95–99 1900–3 + Percentage of + mortality among + inscribed + prostitutes 17.1 13.6 14.7 10.9 8.4 9.0 7.8 + Among corresponding + age groups of + Stockholm’s female + population 12.0 9.1 7.6 6.4 5.7 4.8 4.7 + +The mortality among the registered prostitutes of Vienna in the years +1879–1882, inclusive, averaged less than of ½ of 1%; at Berlin for +approximately the same period 1¼%;[35] for the years 1904–6, it was only +⅘ of 1%.[36] The mortality among the more cautious women, less exposed +to wind and weather and alcohol, is probably lower still. The loss to +the Paris registered list through death is negligible: of 3,582 +inscribed women in 1880, 46 died in the course of the year; of 4,770 a +decade later, 5 died; of 6,222 in 1900, 26 died. The total loss by death +in twenty years was 485.[37] English statistics, though bearing less +directly on the point, establish a similar presumption. Through the +London Venereal Hospital[38] for women, some 400 patients annually pass; +the average number of deaths during each of the last twenty years has +been less than three. If there were 10,000 prostitutes in London—a low +estimate,—there would be an annual death rate of 2,000, provided we +assume a five year lease of life: yet out of 790,000 women between 18 +and 35 resident in London, only 3,059 died in 1909. Finally, of the +11,823 women committed to Holloway Jail in 1908, many of them +prostitutes of over five years’ standing, only six died in the course of +the year.[39] The explanation is to be sought in the fluctuating +constitution of the prostitute army already pointed out. Prostitutes +disappear rather than die,—a fact of great practical significance as we +shall discover; only a part—it is uncertain of what size—remain +prostitutes: a small fraction marry, a much larger fraction return to +work; those who stick to the business wind up as the servants of younger +prostitutes, occasionally as brothel-keepers; a few of them are found as +aged hags, offering themselves for a copper coin below the bridges of +Berlin or in the dark corners of Whitechapel. + +The considerations just dwelt on make anything approaching an accurate +estimate of the number of prostitutes in a given city entirely +impossible. In the first place, because of the general flux above +described; in the second, because particular causes—the conditions of +trade, the season of the year, the presence or absence of local +festivities, such as the Wakes and Bank Holiday in Great Britain, the +October Fest at Munich, the Carnival at Cologne,[40] finally, the +varying pressure of local authorities, all operate to disturb for better +or worse the general movement above indicated. Only the roughest +approximations can therefore be made by way of obtaining an imperfect +picture; and for the most part, the guesses are not to be trusted too +far, even for that purpose. At Paris, Maxime du Camp assessed the number +at 120,000,—an estimate that has by common consent been rejected as +manifestly absurd; M. Lépine, the able and accomplished ex-Prefect of +Police, inclines to a figure varying from one-half to two-thirds as +large, say 60,000 to 80,000—itself generally viewed as much too high, +even on a liberal interpretation of the terms; MM. Yves Guyot and +Augagneur, distinguished publicists, estimate 30,000;[41] Turot, still +more conservatively, 20,000;[42] Carlier, formerly chief of the +municipal police, cuts even this moderate estimate down: he concedes +only from 14,000 to 17,000. His logic is worth noting, for I shall recur +to a similar method of calculation. He assumes that for every +clandestine prostitute actually arrested for solicitation, intoxication, +etc., “there are at least five or six more who ought to be.” Between +1872 and 1888, the non-registered prostitutes arrested averaged 2,797 +annually; according as one employs as multiple five or six, the total +would be 13,985 or 16,782. But the method is not reliable: in the first +place, because in any case the multiple is probably too small; in the +second because the fluctuation in arrests shows clearly that arrests do +not increase “pari passu” with the increase in population, while +clandestine prostitutes increase still faster.[43] There were, for +instance, 1,932 arrests in 1888—the last of the years considered by +Carlier—as against 3,769 in 1872, the first. Moreover, from 1888 to +1903, the average annual arrests numbered 2,762, a slightly smaller +figure than in the former period. Were the method sound, one must +conclude that clandestine prostitution had not increased between +1872[44] and 1903, despite the fact that population rose from 1,851,792 +to 2,660,559. + +An estimate of 80,000 was once current for London,—an unquestionable +exaggeration. The Home Office reported in 1837 that the total number of +prostitutes known to the police as living in houses of ill-fame, walking +the streets and infesting low neighborhoods was 9,409;[45] twenty years +later a similar return made by Sir Richard Mayne, Commissioner of the +Metropolitan Police, based on detailed reports from the several +districts yielded a total somewhat smaller, 8,600; a decade later the +number similarly reached had fallen to 6,515.[46] An unofficial count +recently made disclosed 8,000. If the figures for 1837 and 1857 are +fairly representative, the later ones are certainly much too low. The +probabilities are, however, that all these estimates include only +notorious and unmistakable prostitutes, excluding the numerous +clandestines and partials who figure in the continental calculations. + +Equally uncertain calculations have from time to time been put forth +respecting other great cities. Dufour estimated the clandestine +prostitutes of Berlin at 50,000 in 1896, at a time when just above four +thousand were enrolled, assuming, that is, 12 clandestine for every +registered woman.[47] In three successive years, 1889, 1890, 1891, the +morals police arrested for solicitation and similar offences 3,220, +3,537, and 4,019 women respectively; of these, 640, 735, and 792 +respectively were registered by the police on the ground that they were +incorrigible;[48] the rest were warned and released, despite the fact +that with probably few exceptions they were at the moment practising +professional prostitution.[49] It would appear, therefore, that, as the +police register only 1–5 of those they arrest, clandestine prostitution +is at least five times as extensive as professional; on this basis we +must assume 20,000 clandestine prostitutes for the German +capital—probably an underestimate, since, large numbers of clandestines +never being arrested at all, five is too small a multiple to employ. + +It is perhaps needless to quote similar estimates for other places, +except by way of driving home the enormous extent of the evil, even if +it can not be definitely appraised. The prostitutes of Vienna have been +rated at 30,000, of Glasgow at 17,000,[50] of Cologne at 7,000, of +Munich at 8,000. The police records of Rome show 5,000 women who have +been in their hands latterly for some offence connected with +prostitution;[51] a Dutch register in process of compilation at police +headquarters, Amsterdam, already contains upwards of 7,000 names; in +that city the police have the names and addresses of 968 women well +known for this avocation;[52] in Rotterdam 1,206.[53] For the German +Empire as a whole, a not unreasonable calculation of 330,000 has been +ventured, side by side with a serious, though mistaken guess of one and +one-half million.[54] But the only safe data refer to the number of +registered women and the number of arrests; and though the former are +confessedly only a small fraction, their sum total is itself not to be +passed over lightly from whatever standpoint the matter is regarded: +Paris with its 6,418 (1903), Berlin with 3,559, Hamburg with 935, Vienna +with 1,689, Budapest with 2,000. If the evil is, on the average, only +five times as extensive as these figures indicate, there is enough to be +alarmed at, without a panic-stricken incursion into the realms of +baseless fancy. + +Left to itself or to unhampered exploitation prostitution seeks +everywhere the same sort of outlets; the free professional, the +clandestine, the occasional, the partial, hunt their prey, openly or +furtively, according to circumstances, in the crowded thoroughfares of +retail trade, or loiter in cafés and theater promenades. Having found +their victim, they repair to their own rooms, to hotels, assignation +houses, etc. A large number avoid publicity and obtain their clientele +in the guise of friends through introduction or recommendation or +through the keepers of _rendezvous_-houses, who arrange appointments by +means of photographs and fill orders for patrons desiring a person of +particular type. A small and steadily decreasing number of prostitutes +suffer themselves to be immured in bordells, i. e., houses of +prostitution licensed or authorized by the police in certain towns, e. +g., in Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and in Geneva, and +conducted by a proprietor or mistress who collects the entire income, +paying the inmates a stipulated percentage. In places where bordells are +forbidden as well as in places where they exist, a non-licensed and more +or less similar establishment has sprung up,—the brothel, which commonly +represents itself as a boarding-place, where a certain number of +prostitutes have their own rooms, pay the keeper a fixed sum for their +keep and retain whatever else they earn. Into such establishments the +police of Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden, Cologne, having the right to +designate the registered prostitute’s dwelling-place, yet being +forbidden to license bordells, force as many of the women as they can +lay hold of,—a violation of the statute in spirit, as we shall shortly +perceive. In London and Berlin, the brothel takes a looser form, and +amounts usually to nothing more than the casual combination of a few +women who utilize their joint premises for carrying on their business. +It is worth noting, as we pass, though we shall return to the point, +that, whether the police favor the licensed bordell or, by stretching +their authority, force women into barracks or brothels, a segregated +district, into which the prostitutes of a city are confined, exists +nowhere in Europe, and is nowhere supposed to be either desirable or +feasible. A few streets—in Hamburg for example, are tenanted either only +or almost entirely by prostitutes under police pressure; but they do not +form a district, for they are widely separated, and they contain in any +event only a fraction of the total number of local prostitutes,—not even +all the registered women of the city. A single street in Bremen is +inhabited altogether by prostitutes; but it is absurd to speak of +segregation in reference to seventy-five women in a town containing +hundreds of others living at large. Elsewhere, at Paris, Rome, Geneva, +Vienna, Budapest, where the bordells are officially recognized and even +favored,—they are scattered throughout the respective cities, no single +street usually containing more than one or two. + +Prostitution tends, further, to associate itself with the sale of +alcohol; in consequence of which loose women congregate in low grade +drinking and amusement-places, and are utilized wherever law and custom +do not interfere, to assist in the sale of drink. I have already called +attention to the low morality of the barmaid in certain portions of the +Continent. In the German cities, outright prostitutes are employed to +push the sale of drink, by drinking with and otherwise entertaining +their already more or less intoxicated patrons; screened corners and a +quick succession of new faces characterize the so-called Animierkneipe +and American bars,[55] which are bitterly denounced as perhaps the most +demoralizing form that prostitution has as yet assumed. Hardly more than +a variation of Animierkneipe is the dance hall, varieté, or cabaret, +where the “artiste” is a prostitute mingling freely with the audience at +the conclusion of her turn and relying largely on alcohol to make her +way quickly with her casual acquaintances. Finally, pretended +employments,—cigar shops, massage-establishments, and employment +agencies illustrate in one place or another at once the timidity and the +stubbornness of the phenomenon; for though prostitution easily takes +fright and abandons any one shape under the frown of unfavorable opinion +or the pressure of the law, it tends to reappear in another guise. We +shall subsequently consider these efforts to control or suppress +particular aspects of the evil, and their consequences.[56] + +One more word is required here by way of mere description. +Prostitution in Europe as an organized business is by no means limited +to the intercourse of persons of opposite sexes. A homosexual +prostitution,—prostitution, that is, in which the parties belong to +the same sex,—has developed on a considerable scale. Notorious resorts +for those addicted to homosexuality are to be found not only in Paris +but in smaller towns, like Hamburg. Berlin is, however, probably the +main mart. In prominent thoroughfares, bars exist to which only women +resort as well as bars to which no woman gets access; and at +intervals, large homosexual balls are given, attended only by persons +of a single sex. I witnessed one such affair, at which some 150 +couples, all men, appeared. It is estimated that between 1,000 and +2,000 male prostitutes live in Berlin; forty homosexual resorts are +tolerated by the Berlin police; and it is reported that some 30,000 +persons of marked homosexual inclination reside in the German capital. + +The prostitute is everywhere attended by a complementary phenomenon—the +pimp, who lives upon her earnings, in return for which she is as a rule +treated with brutality.[57] The police estimate that something like 50% +to 90% of the prostitutes of the large European cities support men in +this fashion—not only the street-walkers and scattered prostitutes, but, +not infrequently, bordell inmates, as well.[58] The tie is easy to +describe, difficult to understand. No practical advantage accrues to the +woman, for in Europe the pimp affords her absolutely no protection +against the police; indeed, the reverse is apt to be the case, for the +police, tolerant of an inoffensive prostitute though they be, are +unrelenting in their hostility to the pimp whom they rightly regard as a +criminal, either actual or in the making. The woman may be compromised +by the association; she certainly can not be protected. One is thrown +back for an adequate explanation on the fundamental fact of sex +relation. The woman has no attachment whatsoever with her stream of +casual customers; but the pimp belongs to her. A vestige of affection, a +sense of property lies at the bottom of the connection; her blunted +sense does not revolt from the price she pays for it. This view is +strongly favored by the fact that the woman’s loyalty will endure every +strain that her mate may put upon it,—abuse, deprivation, or what +not,—every strain, except competition. The difficulties of obtaining a +conviction are practically insuperable unless jealousy loosens the +woman’s tongue.[59] + +Despite the general similarity to which I have repeatedly adverted, +there is a notion current that prostitution in Paris is subtly different +from that in other great cities, that the women are less mercenary, the +practice less odious or repulsive. Parisian prostitution enjoys indeed +the glamour of a Bohemian background and a more picturesque tradition; +but beyond this I saw no reason to think the notion well grounded. In my +observation, prostitution is even more uniform internally than +externally: it is everywhere purely mercenary, everywhere rapacious, +everywhere perverse, diseased, sordid, vulgar, and almost always filthy. +In her bloom, the Parisian cocotte possesses a bit of Gallic grace and +verbal cleverness that is perhaps denied to English, German, or +Scandinavian women of the same class. But it is soon brushed away by +excess, drink and perversion. The refined courtesan of the books is +practically as rare in Paris as in London and Berlin. Pretentious +prostitution is indeed nowadays international; there is no distinction +in type, origin, or bearing between the women of Monte Carlo, Ostende, +the Ambassadeurs, or the Palais de Dance. At different times the same +individuals may be found in all these resorts. At the lower level, all +is equally sordid everywhere. The grisette of the Bal Tabarin is, like +her English or German sister, a pathetic figure, whose livelier speech +and simulated gaiety does not hide poverty, loneliness, vulgarity, or +the ravages of overwork, irregular hours, disease, and absinthe. A day +at St. Lazare or police headquarters—and thither those who remain +prostitutes eventually come—quickly dispels any illusion one may +entertain on this score: Holloway Jail and the Inspection bureaus of +Hamburg, Vienna, and Stockholm have nothing more degraded or repulsive +to show. + +The cost of prostitution, near and remote, direct and indirect, outruns +any calculation that one would dare to formulate. Payment for service +varies from a few copper coins to several hundred marks or francs; +incidental expense for accommodations, amusements, liquor, gratuities, +gifts, may double the immediate outlay. The Berlin street girl of fair +grade demands five or ten marks;[60] with her customer she takes a cab +or taxi, for which he pays; they resort to a hotel or room of which she +has the use and for which he pays perhaps six marks more; she demands +pin-money for herself, the maid or concierge. Money is the sole object +of her effort, the whole burden of her talk. “The Berlin street-walker,” +writes Schneider, “immediately asks the stranger whom she accosts: ‘what +will you give me?’ Once at home with her, the bargaining begins anew, +for, now that she has him, she can raise her demands.”[61] Impossible as +it is to be definite, one fact stands out: the prostitute living at +large is swindled by every one who has dealings with her: her landlord, +by way of recompense for the legal risk he may run,[62] the dressmaker, +milliner, grocer, butcher, etc. The London street-walker pays three +guineas in rental where an honest family pays one. Nor is her outlay +limited to her own necessities, for she must earn enough to satisfy the +rapacity of her pimp, besides. Her business interest and bad taste lead +her to indulge in shoddy and relatively expensive luxuries, soon worn +out or discarded. The price of all this, mere livelihood, extravagance, +and rascality, her patrons pay; from them every sou is obtained. + +A clearer picture can be obtained in the case of the bordell, where +business methods prevail.[63] The more elaborate of these establishments +represent large investments. The latest bordell of Budapest required an +initial outlay of 500,000 crowns ($100,000), on which a very liberal +return is expected. Fiaux cites a second-class establishment in Paris +that yields an annual profit of 70,000 fr. and notes that the same +proprietors often run a chain of houses.[64] In these places, a minimum +price for service is usually fixed; entrance fee, tips, and alcohol are +of course “extra.” In Paris, the entrance fee at pretentious +establishments is 20 francs; from that it ranges downward as low as +five. The inevitable bottle of wine at the former also costs 20 francs; +at the latter, whatever can be wheedled or coaxed.[65] Rendezvous +establishments, incurring greater risk, charge correspondingly; 40 +francs, if modish; five, if utterly wretched. Those with a carefully +guarded clientele sometimes exact as much as 100 francs! At Stockholm, +the charge varies from a few pennies to twenty-five crowns (about +$7.50). + +In the long run, whatever the women earn, they rarely have anything to +show for it. The bordell-keeper plies them hard and then manages to keep +them in her debt. Despite the fact that they may entertain anywhere from +five to fifty guests in twenty-four hours, they do not own the clothes +on their back, when they make up their mind to leave! Schneider +calculates the minimum payment of a girl for bare living in the better +bordells of Hamburg, Leipzig, and Vienna at 300 to 600[66] marks a +month—an underestimate, as he himself subsequently avers. Seventy-five +wretched creatures are harbored in the barracks of Helenenstrasse, +Bremen, independently of each other; several of them figured out for me +the amount they must earn merely to live; from which it appeared that +10,000 marks a year each barely sufficed: the first charge for their +support was therefore 750,000 marks! In the Roman brothels, the girls +must average 10 to 12 men a night, in order to earn the high charges +made for their keep; in the lowest resort of Altona, the wretched inmate +pays 75 marks a week for her mere board and lodging; at Dresden, the +bordell women are charged up with 100 marks a week for the same bare +necessaries. Among the common prostitutes of Stockholm are found women +who claim to earn—and to spend—sums ranging from 3,000 to 12,000 crowns +annually. A careful study was made by Dr. Lindblad of 712 cases;[67] the +number of customers ran from less than one on the average daily to as +high as 20 when business was brisk; assuming 225 working days per +year,[68] the women must have averaged incomes of $1,080 each annually. +Of 569 from whom information could be obtained, 513 save absolutely +nothing, and only seven claimed to have saved a tidy sum.[69] + +I have spoken thus far only of the money immediately involved,—the sums +paid to the prostitute for her service, the sums paid out by her for her +keep. But the account is not so simple. We may not overlook the loss +involved in the unproductiveness of this army of women; expenditure on +alcohol, gifts and demoralizing amusements; the long score chargeable to +venereal disease, including the loss in earnings, the outlay for +treatment, both of the immediate victims and those still more +unfortunate on whom, though innocent, some part of the curse and its +cost not infrequently devolves. Upwards of 10,000 individuals are now +annually treated for venereal complaints in the public hospitals of +Berlin alone. These are essential items in the cost of prostitution. Of +the total loss only the roughest guesses can be made; but it is worth +noting that any estimate that endeavors to include all the factors, +direct and indirect, soon reaches into the millions. Losch, for example, +has reckoned the annual cost of prostitution to the German Empire at +something between 300 and 500 million marks.[70] This outlay may be +contrasted with that spent by the Prussian Government on its entire +educational system: its universities, secondary schools, elementary +school system, technical and professional institutions of all kinds +involving a budget in 1909 of a little less than 200,000,000 marks.[71] +Assuredly the economic burden imposed on society by prostitution is +comparable with that due to standing armies, war, or pestilence. + + + + + CHAPTER II + THE DEMAND + + Prostitution involves two parties.—Extent of demand in Europe.—Theory + of its necessity.—Is physiological impulse irresistible?—Analysis into + various factors.—Demand emanating from woman.—Effect of improvement in + social status.—Changed attitude of medical profession.—Reduction of + demand through education.—Sex education in Europe.—Influence of + demoralizing literature.—Recent improvement. + + +Prostitution is usually described and discussed from the standpoint of +the women involved alone; but the problem cannot be understood so long +as it is approached solely from that angle. In every act of prostitution +at least two parties, usually, but not always, of opposite sex, are +concerned. Now one, now the other, is either initially or more highly +responsible. Not infrequently, however, these two individuals are so far +from constituting the entire situation that they may be mere puppets in +the hands of others: the man, the victim of shrewdly devised suggestion +or excitement; the woman, the bait cunningly dangled by pimp, +brothel-keeper, or publican. Under such circumstances it is plainly +absurd to speak of prostitution as if it were only or even mainly the +act of the woman; as if women took to prostitution simply because they +were marked out for a vicious life by innate depravity or even forced +into it by economic pressure. Inclination on the one hand, need on the +other, are among the factors that will assist us to understand the +problem; but a fundamental and antecedent condition is the existence of +a market, clamoring for wares of a particular kind and furnishing an +opportunity for the forced sale of such wares as do not themselves +immediately find buyers. Instead, therefore, of explaining prostitution +as if it were caused by certain conditions affecting solely or primarily +the constitution or environment of women, I shall view it from the +standpoint of demand and supply. In utilizing these terms I do not mean +to imply that a certain volume of demand exists, to begin with, and that +this is satisfied and has to be satisfied through the production somehow +of a corresponding supply. We shall find that both demand and supply are +variable factors. The demand can within limits be stimulated or checked; +the supply can be increased or decreased; and the increase of supply can +be so manipulated as to increase demand. Moreover, a given supply can be +made to satisfy a smaller or a larger demand, so that the volume of +prostitution is a matter not only of the number of those engaged, but of +the intensity of their activity. The two partners—the man and the +woman—thus not only interact on each other, but are both played upon by +agencies lying outside themselves. This method will have the advantage +of demonstrating the interlocking relations of the man, the woman, and +the exploiter. + +That this procedure is both fair and sound a moment’s consideration will +show. If the prostitution of women had specific causes, in the sense in +which the term cause is used in science, then, wherever such causes are +present, prostitution should result. There are, however, no conditions +of which this can be affirmed. Of the number of women of whom any +particular fact or set of facts is characteristic, only a small portion +ever become prostitutes. For example: prostitutes have often been, as we +shall see, domestic servants. Yet service, even under unfavorable +conditions, cannot be said to cause prostitution, for more servants +escape than succumb. The conditions of service at most indicate whence +part of the supply will be drawn. Moreover, once engaged in +prostitution, the woman does not passively wait to be sought out by +ungratified spontaneous demand; in order to earn her own livelihood or +to satisfy the cupidity of a third party, she proceeds to create or +develop the demand for what she has to sell. At every moment there +exists a circle of habituated consumers, as well as numerous +agencies,—the women and their exploiters, for example,—actively engaged +in increasing the number of consumers and the urgency of their demands. +Demand and supply thus interact upon each other in much the same fashion +as characterizes the interplay of the market in reference to any other +commodity. The application of this conception to the discussion of +prostitution has therefore two obvious advantages: it brings out the +dual nature of the phenomenon and it suggests the commercial side +involved in the production and maintenance of prostitution on the grand +scale. + +At the present time, the demand on the part of the continental male +European is practically universal;[72] so true is this, that until quite +recently questioned, it has been taken to be an ultimate and inevitable +physiological fact. Male continence has not been required by either +tradition or opinion. A low regard for women has practically left the +matter one to be regulated by men on such standards as they themselves +approve. Indulgence begins early: Meirowsky’s investigations indicate +that at least 20% of the boys in the highest gymnasium classes are +already habituated;[73] of 106 venereally infected University students, +61% admitted intercourse before reaching the University.[74] In a Vienna +statistic covering 10,057 cases of venereal infection, over one-half +were minors, and 67% under 25 years of age. Prof. Finger, Chief of the +great Vienna clinic, concludes that these figures are actually +representative,—that perhaps one-half of all venereal disease belongs to +the youth of both sexes.[75] Welander found that of 582 Swedish men, 464 +admitted intercourse before the end of the 18th year.[76] “In the +country and in the urban proletariat, no one dreams of continence beyond +adolescence,” says Blaschko.[77] “Among the working-classes, city or +country, abstinence is excessively rare, and in the higher classes, +practically insignificant.”[78] Of 90 physicians interrogated by Prof. +Neisser respecting their sexual history, only one denied all intercourse +prior to marriage and he attributed his exemption to an early engagement +alone; twenty-eight, i. e., 32.9%, had indulged themselves while still +in the secondary school.[79] These figures have been confirmed by other +investigators.[80] Beginning thus early after puberty, sexual +intercourse on the male’s part ranges more or less widely prior to +marriage and is none too severely constrained by custom even afterwards. +Its practical universality, with the rare exceptions explicable on +religious or ethical grounds, is substantiated by the wide prevalence of +venereal complaints. “Roughly speaking,” remarked a distinguished +specialist, whose opinion, when quoted by me to his confrères has rarely +been strongly overruled,—“roughly speaking, one may say that most German +men have had gonorrhœa, and about one in five syphilis.”[81] + +No wonder that where practice is so general, theory has accommodated +itself so far as to assume that sexual intercourse on the male’s part is +necessary and wholesome. Up to recent times this has been almost +undisputed dogma. The practically universal demand was for centuries +regarded fatalistically as inevitable and incontestable; in the Middle +Ages, a sufficient supply of women was imported by way of entertaining +the delegates to church congresses.[82] A change of attitude and opinion +is, however, undoubtedly taking place. The universality of demand has +been condoned on the assumption that it represented an irresistible +physiological impulse. A good deal of attention has been latterly +expended in the effort to resolve this so-called physiological impulse +into its constituent elements, with the following results. In the first +place, however strong the spontaneous sex impulse may be, it is like any +other impulse—capable of restraint through the cultivation of +inhibitions. Except for the futile precepts of the church, European +society has for centuries been singularly free from any such effort. +Women have been regarded as inferior creatures and have contentedly +accepted the status assigned to them. They have therefore failed to +resent masculine immorality; the self-restraint that might thereby have +been imposed on men—be it much or little—has been generally lacking. +Europe has been a man’s world,—managed by men and largely for men,—for +cynical men, at that,—men inured to the sight of human inequalities, +callous as to the value of lower-class life, and distinctly lacking in +respect for womanhood, especially that of the working-classes. The +military, the aristocracy, the student, are all conceded their fling. +“Dem Studenten ist ja alles erlaubt—To the student everything is +allowed.” Where soldier and scholar freely indulge themselves without +reprobation, it is too much to expect the artisan to refrain. + +Not only has there been—up to recently, at least—no social inhibition: +there has been a strong social compulsion. Men swim with the current; +they fall in with accepted habits and customs, in order to escape being +ridiculous, and custom established in this way is practically imposed on +successive generations. Certain forms of venereal experience have been +popularly treated as marks of maturity. Dr. Magnus Möller tells of a +club of military officers existing in Stockholm in the early nineties to +which no one was eligible until he could prove that he had had +syphilis.[83] Quite as flagrantly, boys have been practically coerced +into sowing wild oats. Women, whose influence might have been exerted +restrainingly, have been trained not to pry into the prematrimonial +records of their husbands; fathers fashion their sons, as a rule, after +their own image. Indulgence brought about in this way cannot fairly be +characterized or excused as physiological, even though, once +experienced, it soon gathers intensity enough to operate on its own +account and to play the ominous rôle of suggestion to others. + +Finally, we may not overlook the part played by deliberate excitation on +the part of the woman or those in whose interests she works. +Prostitution is not merely a matter between man and woman,—the former +overtaken by a periodic impulse demanding gratification, the latter +supporting herself through the passionless sacrifice of the sexual +function. Over and above this, it is an industry, deliberately +cultivated by third parties for their own profit: and the instinct +readily lends itself to artificial exploitation. A very large +constituent in what has been called the irresistible demand of natural +instinct is nothing but suggestion and stimulation associated with +alcohol,[84] late hours, and sensuous amusements, and deliberately +worked up for the profit of third parties,—pimps, tavern-keepers, +bordell proprietors, etc. Street-walking, with the pimp across the way +ready to ply the lash; the Animierkneipe, in which the earnings of the +prostitute barmaid are wholly dependent upon the extent to which she +overmasters her guest through liquor and otherwise; the bordell, in +which heavy charges and her small proportional share force her to find +an extensive trade,—these are the most obvious examples of supply +deliberately and resourcefully engaged in creating demand. Amid +conditions as they exist in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, and the smaller +towns like Geneva which aspire to be world cities by being licentious, +growing youth is characterized not by a normal, healthy, and natural +sexual development, but by an over-stimulated and premature sex +activity—a purely artificial excitation of instinct. An artificial +supply of prostitutes is deliberately created; forced upon the market +under appropriate conditions, an artificial demand is worked up to +consume it. Every tolerated focus, through the existence of which third +parties benefit, thus soon becomes a vested interest, actively engaged +in whipping up demand and supply, reacting upon each other. Supply, +everywhere greater than spontaneous demand, is utilized to create a +secondary demand. A striking example of deliberate business organization +along these lines is to be found in Paris where, closely adjoining one +another in the rue Pigal are found a dance hall, a café and an +assignation house said to form a plant under one management. + +The sex impulse, however formidable it may be, is thus on close +investigation discovered to be not the single powerful physiological +force which it has been represented to be, resistlessly pushing towards +an instinctive object, but rather a combination of forces of very +different quality as respects both origin and intensity. Taking +prostitution and resort to prostitution as they exist in any great city +to-day, three distinct factors are readily distinguished: sex impulse, +pure and simple; social instigation or compulsion; sheer artificial +excitation. Not improbably, instinct plays a decidedly less important +part than is commonly supposed; much of what has been viewed as +physiological is undoubtedly social. Less than half of Neisser’s cases +attributed their lapse to their own impulse,—and even this impulse is +not necessarily of really spontaneous origin; of the others, 28.8% +blamed comrades for dragging them into trouble; 18.6% acted under +alcoholic excitement. In another set of 129 cases cited, less than half +acted on native impulse; alcohol figures with 23.6%; comrades, with +29.4%.[85] Nor is native impulse itself any longer regarded as a +constant or spasmodically irresistible force; it can be checked, +diverted, modified, or stimulated. It becomes stronger with indulgence; +weaker through continued repression. + +For the reasons above given, demand is no longer spoken of as if it were +a constant quantity determined at any given time and place by the +ultimate constitution of human nature and unalterable except by +transformation of the character of the race; just as it is equally +absurd to speak in fatalistic terms of the supply. Not a single factor +in either demand or supply bears this rigid elemental stamp; every +factor is capable of mitigation or aggravation by human decisions, +institutions, habits,—some of them, indeed, more or less readily so. +“Human nature”—so-called—is not the whole of it, in the sense in which +the expression is commonly used. Indeed, human nature itself may be made +better or worse by opinion, inhibition, suggestion, example. +Unquestionably, do what we will, a problem—a vast problem—will remain; +but it is an enormous gain to have learned that a considerable volume of +prostitution and of the demand for prostitution is the product of +conditions that, however difficult the task, are within limits socially +controllable. + +One must not, of course, overlook the fact that demand does not simply +take the form of the male seeking or being induced to seek the female. +The seeker is sometimes the woman herself, bent upon her own +gratification. Her own effort may thus succeed in increasing demand. It +is impossible to say with what frequency male irregularity is thus +provoked. Of Meirowsky’s 102 first offenders, 29.4% attributed their +lapse to the seductive influence of comrades, part of whom were girls; +of 28 physicians whose first offence occurred while still at school, +over one-half blamed themselves wholly; three of them threw the initial +blame on girls, all of whom were servants. But the overwhelming majority +of women involved in provocation are open or concealed prostitutes. + +The fact just stated throws an interesting light on the possibility of +reducing immorality through the cultivation of social inhibitions. We +learned in the preceding chapter that under the natural conditions that +obtain in the country and in certain sections of the urban +working-classes, girls are sometimes equally responsible partners in +sexual irregularity. Clan morality does not forbid; we may assume, +therefore, that not infrequently the woman indulges her passion +precisely as the man indulges his. But the moment that improved social +or economic position brings her under the range of more exacting ideals, +she checks herself. The first consciousness of the higher requirement +results in decidedly reducing the scope which she allows to her impulse. +It is perhaps true that self-restraint is actually easier for women than +for men;[86] but it is at any rate not achieved without effort. It is +therefore not without significance that the social sanction, as yet but +slightly operative among men, is among women of the higher classes very +generally powerful enough to reverse the animal engine. Unhappy +consequences to health are alleged, and doubtless sometimes occur; but +they are a lesser evil than disgrace, disease or pregnancy and are +endured as such. + +The analysis of demand as above outlined has already borne consequences +both theoretical and practical. In the first place, it has accomplished +a striking change in medical opinion as to the necessity of sexual +intercourse and the supposedly unfavorable results of continence. Recent +medical literature abounds in strong and authoritative expressions +utterly at variance with the traditional position. Cases of +irrepressible desire are stamped as pathological, rather than normal; as +relatively rare, rather than usual or even frequent. Continence is, in +general, increasingly regarded as both feasible and wholesome. “I am +convinced that the overwhelming majority of persons are not in the least +injured by continuous continence whether during youth or afterwards,” +writes Moll. “The longer one is continent, the more readily is +continence borne, the less is one annoyed by the sexual impulse.”[87] +Moll insists that, even in cases where neurotic disturbances occur, +these are not comparable to the damage, corporal and moral, which +attends irregular intercourse—and of course it always remains to be +proven that the disturbances in question really result from abstinence. +Pinkus, conceding that occasionally depressing symptoms attend +self-restraint, points out that “the annoyances arising from abstinence +are far from being such serious psychic disturbances as are produced by +the knowledge that one has contracted venereal disease: under which +conditions abstinence must be practised anyway.”[88] “There is not a +shadow of proof to show that continence is damaging to health.—To the +continent, continence becomes progressively easier.”[89] “Whatever +disturbances are attributable to sexual abstinence, they are usually +non-progressive and are for the most part remediable through hygienic +and therapeutic measures. On the other hand, the damages done through +intimacy with prostitutes far overshoot in number and gravity any harm +attributable to continence.”[90] Exceedingly cogent is Touton’s curt +summary: “In short, all the talk about manifestations due to abstinence +is thus far with few exceptions a hodge-podge of superficial +observations and uncritical interpretations.”[91] Again: “Altogether +healthy men, sexually normal, can, without danger of illness, for the +most part get along far into maturity without sexual intercourse, if +they do not purposely excite themselves or if temptation is not pressed +upon them, especially so, if, instead of such stimulation, they resort +to moderate exercises and adequate mental employment. The idler cannot +remain continent.”[92] Johansson urges that through the cultivation of +an inhibitory mechanism, the impulse can be limited, and subordinated to +the welfare of the individual and of society.[93] + +There is no livelier topic under discussion in connection with +prostitution than that of the methods to be pursued in order to minimize +demand, in accordance with the modern scientific view that irregular +sexual intercourse is a reducible evil. The fact that “appetite grows by +what it feeds on” pleads strongly for timely action. Instruction, with +special reference to sex-physiology, has therefore been widely and +confidently urged as the means of acquainting childhood and, later, +youth, with the essential facts of sex-physiology, so as to deprive the +facts of morbid interest and to warn the child of the dangers attending +uncleanliness. It will be worth while to give a brief account of what +has taken place in this direction in Europe and to consider what benefit +is likely to be derived from this source. + +Despite the prevalent notion to the contrary, the subject of sex +education is as yet very largely in the realm of theory or controversy. +As to this point, a strange misconception obtains. In England, one hears +that great progress has been made in this field in Germany; in Germany +one is referred with equal positiveness to Scandinavia; in Scandinavia +to Finland, whither, however, I did not pursue the will-o’-the wisp. The +facts are these: + +No recognition is given to sex-instruction in English schools at +all.[94] The head-masters and house-masters in some of the great public +schools,—notably Eton,—endeavor, however, to gain the confidence of the +boys individually, to put them on their guard and to assist them if in +distress. A series of leaflets has been issued by the church schools for +the guidance of parents, who are urged to open the subject with their +sons at the proper time.[95] In Prussia, which is representative of the +States of the German Empire, sex-instruction of any kind is very rarely +given at the popular schools;[96] in the Gymnasien,—the nine-year +secondary schools opening into the University,—a lecture on the subject +may be given to the last year class[97] by the School Director, a +teacher or a physician;[98] attendance on the part of the students is +optional. The lectures deal with the feasibility of continence, which is +strongly urged, the dangers attending sexual irregularity or +abnormality, and the misuse of alcohol; at times they are printed and +circulated. During the school year 1911, such lectures were given at 76 +Gymnasien out of a total of almost 800. Similar talks are given at +institutions for the training of teachers. Occasionally pupils before +leaving school are presented with books dealing with the topic in a +wholesome manner. This represents the sum total of school instruction on +the subject in Prussia; additional lectures, of an occasional character +are provided for parents, artisans, etc., by local branches of the +German Society for the Suppression of Venereal Disease. In Denmark and +Norway, nothing either of a general or a compulsory character exists; +Sweden practically repeats Prussia, offering no instruction in popular +schools, an optional lecture to last year students in the higher +secondary schools, particularly those for girls, in the discretion of +the headmaster or headmistress. Systematic or general instruction has +developed as yet nowhere in Europe. The educational officials of both +Prussia and Sweden distinctly hold that under existing conditions the +problem is one for the home, not the school. France is at the same stage +of development. A memorandum on the subject has been submitted to the +ministry of education, but no official action has been taken. + +In view of the paucity of our experience, much of the literature on the +subject strikes the observer as perhaps promising too much from mere +diffusion of knowledge. Undoubtedly it is beyond all question that no +boy or girl ought to be permitted to err through sheer ignorance. But it +does not follow that fuller and clearer knowledge on the part of the +growing boy and girl will itself effectively restrain; not only +knowledge, but knowledge suffused with ethical emotion is requisite.[99] +By prematurely creating images and stimulating curiosity both of which +go further than the immediate communications on the topic, knowledge +alone may either originate or increase the danger. Inhibition is +unquestionably possible and it must be educationally brought about; but +it involves not only a certain amount of intelligence on the child’s +part, but control of impulse through loyalty—instinctive or +deliberate—to precept and example. As the boy matures, the actual +dangers involved in immorality may be so depicted as to exert a +deterrent effect; but the main reliance must continue to be upon the +higher motivation. + +The importance of emotional and ethical training suggests the importance +of the home in this connection. Foreign opinion is well-nigh unanimous +in recommending that parents initiate the subject at the psychological +moment,—a moment that is rarely the same for two individuals; +subsequently the school can make its contribution, though there is as +yet no agreement as to the form or the time.[100] Some urge that it be +the natural outgrowth of general biological instruction;[101] some favor +class teaching, others individual instruction; an occasional writer +contends that, while boys should be urged to continence, they should +also be taught the use of preventives since it is well known in advance +that they will not obey![102] + +The practical difficulties are, however, very great. The researches of +Moll and others indicate that sexual instinct and curiosity awaken at +different stages in different children; something depends on the +constitution of the individual child, something on the environment. +Moreover, the parents of the children most dangerously exposed are very +often those who are most incapable of managing the situation. A little +later, when the school might intervene, the difficulty due to individual +differences has not disappeared and additional problems have also +arisen. Class instruction disregards individual variations and requires +the greatest tact and skill in presentation; the teachers are as yet +incompetent;[103] physicians lay as a rule too much stress on disease +and on mere knowledge, and are as a rule clumsy and ineffective or +skeptical respecting the ethical side, without which such understanding +of the subject as may be brought about is apt to be of slight value. The +danger that lurks in tabooing or avoiding the subject has been clearly +demonstrated; but there is danger, too, in breaking down reserve. The +more explicit the intellectual aspects of the matter are made, the more +important does it become to insist that the mere communication of the +facts cannot possibly alone attain the end toward which the movement +looks. The girl must develop character enough to resist easy +demoralization; the boy, character enough to subdue rebellious impulse. + +Still later, when boys are about to leave the Gymnasium—and therewith +their homes—in order to enter upon the freedom of University life in +strange towns, candid talks to whole classes, laying particular stress +upon the penalties attached to immorality, can be indeed given, as from +time to time they are. But, unless effective training on higher lines +has begun long before, the good to be achieved is of dubious extent: +witness the prevalence of venereal disease among last year Gymnasium and +first year University students, and the rapid, even if passing, +demoralization characteristic of the latter. + +The educational situation in reference to sex hygiene may then be +concisely put as follows: little progress has been anywhere made in +actual instruction; decided benefit is to be hoped for only where +increase of knowledge is accompanied by increase of self-control—by +loyalty, conscious and unconscious, to higher ideals of personal +behavior. + +I have mentioned above the factors and influences that tend artificially +to develop demand. Whatever makes prostitution prominent, easy, +attractive, seductive, unquestionably operates to increase demand. By +the same token, measures that deprive prostitution of prominence, +facility, attractiveness, seductiveness, reduce demand, or,—what amounts +to the same thing—hinder its artificial increase. In the modern city, +many conditions make, some purposely, some incidentally, for the +stimulus of sex appetite: glitter, luxury, the mad rush for amusement, +the stage, the café, the tavern,—all assist in the early maturity of the +sex function, the exercise of which they also facilitate. With many of +the artifices that have been employed to develop prostitution as a +business conducted for the profit mainly of third parties, I shall deal +in other chapters.[104] But certain of them may properly be considered +in this connection. + +A by no means negligible factor in stimulating appetite are erotic +books, prints, etc. Obscene objects of this character are frequently +circulated in secret in schools,—girls’ as well as boys’; occasionally +they are even advertised under more or less deceptive titles. In recent +years active efforts have been made to stamp out this nefarious trade. +An international agreement has been arrived at, according to the terms +of which the police departments of the nations who are parties thereto +cooperate in ferreting out publishers and importers of immoral +publications and in endeavoring to bring them to justice. In +France,[105] Germany,[106] Austria and elsewhere popular societies have +been formed for the purpose of making war on pornography; laws have been +strengthened and ministerial decrees emitted, establishing special +police bureaux to handle offenders.[107] The kinematograph is the most +recent invention open to abuse in this direction; to forestall which, +inspection of films has already been introduced at police headquarters +in Berlin. Many congresses, national and international, held in recent +years, are evidence of a growing determination to stop the artificial +and premature excitation of sex demand through immoral books, pictures, +plays and other representations. The total laxity which once prevailed +has been checked and increasing restraint may be looked for, as public +opinion is educated to require and to sustain it.[108] For even where +laws exist, their enforcement depends on the vigor and sympathy of +police officials and magistrates, who, in the interpretation of the +statute, in some measure take their cue from the newspapers and popular +opinion. In a recent London case, a Bow Street Magistrate convicted a +bookseller for disposing of a book, of which, in imposing punishment, he +stated that nothing “more foul or filthy” had been found in London in a +long time. Subsequently another case, involving the same book, was +brought into court; and in the latter instance, the culprit was +acquitted.[109] In Germany, the laws—long since fairly adequate—were for +years a dead letter; but recent agitation has already had a noticeable +effect. Curiously enough, the most decisive action on the part of the +authorities is feasible only in countries where the liberty of the press +is most firmly established: for only in countries thoroughly free in +spirit will the public deliberately impose limitations on itself without +fear that such restrictions may ultimately be abused to serve other ends +than those originally intended. + +Though no quantitative evidence of improving morality can be given, the +various movements above touched on supply proof that opinion is +undergoing a change which must in the end affect conduct. I was indeed +assured that a change is already perceptible to those whose knowledge +spans a sufficiently great period of time. Custom once practically +constrained the French student in the Latin quarter to swim with the +current; now it has become possible to lead a blameless life without +incurring contempt for his idiosyncrasy; an impassioned literature +appealing to the German student has made its appearance.[110] The +woman’s movement will unquestionably destroy the passivity of German +women in respect to masculine irregularities. The task of developing +continence in nations habituated to indulgence is one of inexpressible +difficulty; but it may be fairly said that now for the first time it has +been deliberately faced on the Continent by a small, but earnest band of +men and women bent upon the purification of the sexual life. + + + + + CHAPTER III + THE SUPPLY + + Relation of demand and supply.—Demand increased by forcing + supply.—Supply derived mainly from lower working-classes.—Occupations + of parents.—Occupations of women themselves.—Is the prostitute a born + degenerate?—Importance of the milieu.—Effect of loosening home + ties.—Broken homes.—Demoralization of minors.—Unmarried + mothers.—Influence of bad example.—Economic pressure.—Low and + irregular wages.—Perilous employments.—Efforts to improve + conditions.—Rescue work.—Volume of supply.—Forced supply.—White + slavery.—Employment agencies.—The pimp, bars, variety theaters, + etc.—Rescue and preventive work.—Supply capable of modification + through laws and social conditions. + + +The supply, which after a fashion responds to the demand just described, +must be considered from three distinct points of view: its sources, its +volume, its reaction on demand itself. On the face of it, the general +relation of demand and supply appears simple and mechanical: a demand +exists; somehow, thereupon, a supply springs up to meet it. The demand +thus recognized, a moving equilibrium is established. Unquestionably, as +the situation now stands, prostitution to a certain extent illustrates +this purely mechanical conception. There is a demand of such strength +and upon such terms that a supply is forthcoming: in so far as this +particular demand is concerned, outright efforts simply to deny its +satisfaction would for the most part lead to higher bidding or to +circuitous methods of gratification. Demand itself must be affected +before this situation can be essentially or fundamentally altered. There +is also a supply on hand, which will employ a high degree of ingenuity +to bring itself into relation with actual or potential demand. But, +after all, however important, this is only one aspect of the problem. +The modern merchant, in whatever commodity he may deal, is a practical, +if not a trained, psychologist. He knows that appetite not only exists, +but may be both created and developed: that, in the absence of strong +restraint, supply can be worked up to almost any extent; and that there +is no more efficient way to manufacture and to develop demand than to +crowd supply in an attractive form upon the possible buyer’s attention, +when he is most amenable to suggestion of the requisite kind. True of +every article of commerce, be the need for it native or acquired, this +principle is nowhere more valid than in respect of a vice that starts +with a tremendously powerful momentum, and is easily susceptible of +still further stimulation. The volume of the business is, moreover, not +only a question of the number of women engaged in it, but of the +intensity with which the vocation is plied. A thousand women may consort +with a thousand men in the course of a night; or, conditions favoring, +they may entertain five or ten times that number. The definition adopted +in the preceding chapter looked ahead to precisely this fact,—a fact +that will become increasingly important as we proceed. For prostitution +represents not only the periodic coming together of demand and supply; +it represents also the exploitation of artificial, instigated appetite +and overworked supply. The prostitute may indeed satisfy her own or +another’s passion; but there is no passion in the sexual drudgery which +as a rule she performs. So far then from dealing with a simple natural +or mechanical process of satisfaction, demand and supply in this matter +tend to display rather more than the complications and interrelations +characteristic of enterprise in general. + +The most striking fact in connection with the source of supply is its +practically total derivation from the lower working-classes, and mainly +the unmarried women of those classes.[111] The victims come in a highly +preponderant ratio from this definitely circumscribed milieu. Half a +century ago, Parent-Duchatelet, studying their social origins, found +that Parisian prostitutes are recruited well nigh exclusively from +artisan families; among 828 fathers, there was a bare sprinkling of +better-conditioned men.[112] These conditions still obtain. Of 11,413 +women prisoners incarcerated during several years in Milbank prison, +10,646 were the daughters of working-men, or the equivalent; 544, of +small shopkeepers; 128, of professional men; 82, of small officials; 13, +of gentlemen.[113] Of 565 Stuttgart women, the fathers were, in 172 +instances, artisans; in 84 instances, day laborers; in 60 instances, +peasants; in 31 instances, small shopkeepers. Skilled occupations were +barely represented.[114] Of 173 registered women in Munich, 95 of the +fathers were artisans; 46, day laborers; 17, peasants. Of 2,574 +so-called clandestines in the same city, the fathers were: artisans, +1,147; laborers, 944; peasants, 248; under-officials, 140.[115] Two +thousand one hundred and three women appeared on the inscription lists +of the Stockholm police between 1885 and 1904: in 179 cases, the fathers +were small landowners and lease-holders; in 42 cases, merchants; in 14 +cases, national or municipal officials: the rest were gardeners, +peasants, fishermen, mechanics, publicans, unskilled laborers, etc.[116] + +The occupations of the women themselves suggest the same conclusions. +They are the unskilled daughters of the unskilled classes. Out of 1,327 +street women of Geneva examined between 1907 and 1911, 503 had been +servants; 236, tailoresses and laundresses; 120, factory workers;[117] +of 173 registered Munich prostitutes (1911), 52 had been barmaids;[118] +29, domestic servants; 29, factory workers; 15, seamstresses; 8 had no +particular employment. Of 2,574 clandestines in the same city, 721 had +been servants; 608, barmaids; 255, factory hands; 60, stage-dancers or +singers; 170, without definite calling.[119] Of 1,200 women enrolled in +Berlin 1909–10, 431 had been servants; 445, factory operatives; 479, +seamstresses and laundresses; 145 were without vocation.[120] One +thousand five hundred women who were sent to the hospital on account of +venereal disease show the same vocations: 431 were servants; 445, +factory hands; 112 without special employment. Of 2,275 inscribed +Viennese women, 44.52% were servants; 20.55%, factory workers; 16% +without calling.[121] Of 427 admitted to a London Reformatory, 275 were +servants, 25 laundry workers; 20, factory hands; 11, dressmakers; 6, +barmaids; 33, without a vocation.[122] Of 675 cases included in another +study, 283 were servants; 114 without occupation; 52, factory girls; 12, +barmaids.[123] Another London list of 168 girls shows 2 described as +“typist and clerk,”—all the others engaged in unskilled domestic, +industrial, or mercantile labor.[124] Among Merrick’s thousands, already +referred to, one-half had been servants; one-tenth each, laundresses, +charwomen, factory hands and seamstresses; another large contingent were +barmaids: a few described themselves as governesses.[125] In the +Stockholm cases, the facts are identical: 996 were servants; 395, +unskilled workers; 266, sewing-girls; 57 were shop girls; 6 connected +with the stage.[126] Almost 7,000 Paris women, inscribed between 1878 +and 1887 illustrate the same principle.[127] + +Merrick’s data as to the educational opportunities enjoyed are also +generally sustained: less than one-tenth of his cases had had anything +beyond the most rudimentary training;[128] the German prostitutes show +at the most only the compulsory “Volksschule” education. Of the minors +apprehended during the year 1901, only 36% of those over 12 years of age +had completed the popular elementary schools; only one-fifth of 1% had +advanced further.[129] Very few indeed have acquired in any direction a +substantial degree of skill. They belong to the intellectual as well as +to the social proletariat. And this is just as true of the elaborately +dressed denizens of the Palais de Dance as of the unpretending +street-walker of Potsdamer Platz: they are, generally speaking, all of +the same origin and the same capacity. + +The foregoing statistics are obviously, however, not fully +representative, derived as they are mainly from the records of the +hospital, the police, the prison, and the rescue home. Professionals of +low grade and failures are perhaps too largely included,—the women of +the street and the brothel; the dull drudges, who are most likely to +fall into the hands of the law; the stupid, who most readily give up in +despair. The vocational designations are also in one respect somewhat +deceptive: the women involved not infrequently describe themselves in +terms not of an habitual vocation or of a position held at the moment, +but of perhaps their last occupation, or some occupation capriciously +selected from the various jobs on which they have been more or less +transiently employed. Low grade help is as a rule thus variable and +casual. For instance: 1,689 women were inscribed by the police of Berlin +in twelve months following March 1900; all declared some sort of +employment; yet only 352 had work at the moment.[130] The returns are +therefore not precisely accurate; yet from the standpoint of our +interest in them, they do more than justice to the quality of the women, +for to the extent of implying preference or capacity for one kind of +work rather than indicating aimless shifting from one to another and +then again to nothing, the impression created is more favorable than the +facts warrant. In any case, the economic competency of the prostitute is +not higher than the statistics indicate and may be lower. Exceptions, of +course, are bound to occur. One finds here and there a stenographer, an +elementary teacher, a former actress;[131] but in most of these cases, +the woman is, socially speaking, of inferior origin and intellectually +not more prepossessing than others of her type. Very rarely indeed a +person of some education, social standing, and personal charm is met +with. A Parisian woman to whom this description is fairly applicable was +asked as to the possibility of finding others like herself. “I am one in +a million,” she proudly—and truthfully—answered. + +The particular features of the milieu that involve peril I shall discuss +in a moment. Meanwhile, the fact that prostitution recruits itself from +a single social class is itself fatal to the contention that the +prostitute is necessarily a born degenerate; for if prostitution +involved born degeneracy; and if, vice versa, congenital degeneracy made +straight for prostitution, a single milieu would not furnish practically +the total supply. The definiteness of the type is, of course, +indisputable. Characteristic traits, external and internal, mark the +scarlet woman; she has a distinct gait, smile, leer; she is lazy, +unveracious, pleasure-loving, easily led, fond of liquor, heedless of +the future, and usually devoid of moral sense. Defect undoubtedly +accounts for certain cases, and especially so where a psychopathic +family strain is continuously implicated. Of 21 girls recently admitted +into a newly-established observation home in Berlin, 5 were reported as +mentally below par; of Mrs. Booth’s 150 cases discussed below,[132] 12% +were feeble-minded. In the case of prostitutes committed under the +British Inebriate Acts, the percentage naturally runs much higher: in +1909, out of 219 such immoral women, only 70 are described as of “good” +mental state; 118 were “defective”; 23, “very defective”; 8, “insane”; +_i. e._, almost 70% were below normal. “There is,” writes Dr. +Branthwaite, “almost consistent evidence here of some causative +relationship between mental defect and prostitution; but the evidence is +by no means overwhelming enough to justify more than a general +conclusion that mental defect is one of many causes for its +prevalence.”[133] Bonhöffer, studying 190 prostitutes incarcerated in +prison at Breslau, found that one hundred came from alcoholic families +and that two-thirds of them were mentally defective—hysterical, +epileptic or feeble-minded; his judgment is adverse to the existence of +the “born prostitute,” but in favor of congenital defect as providing +soil favorable to immorality.[134] One hundred and fifty-five Berlin +cases between 12 and 21 years of age, yield an equally striking result; +30% are reported as “intact,” 23%, as feeble; 43%, as psychopathic; 66% +are therefore abnormal.[135] Premature development on the sex side is +also frequently encountered. Among Lindblad’s 800 cases, 52 had had +sexual intercourse before they were 15 years old; 111 more, before they +were sixteen.[136] In these instances there was presumably a lack of +self-control, but not necessarily always a lack of the very possibility +of acquiring it, such as the degeneration argument requires. How far +these statistics are reliable, representative, or significant, it is +impossible to determine. Expert scientific study of large numbers of +women from each of the different strata of prostitution, without as well +as within prisons, reformatories, hospitals and refuges is needed in +order to clear up the question. For though degeneracy and native +depravity may account for the prostitute alone or in connection with +other facts, her conduct and qualities are also otherwise explicable. +The women involved have, as we have learned, undeveloped intelligence to +begin with; riotous sex-indulgence, the loss of shame, alcohol, +irregular hours, disease, combine to bring about speedy and far-reaching +demoralization. Moral idiocy, covetousness, aversion to work, vanity, +inclination to steal, libidinousness, may be acquired as well as native +traits; they may be qualities exaggerated, even if not altogether bred +in the course of the career. “The personality of the prostitute,” Bloch +contends, “is the result rather than the reason of her occupation.”[137] +Branthwaite holds that even the so-called “temperamental prostitute,” +with morbidly violent sexual desire, is apt to be the product of her way +of life: in the majority of his cases he believes the symptom to be a +“characteristic acquired by habit.”[138] Undoubtedly personal or +anthropological factors are usually involved: for if it were a question +of milieu alone, all affected by it would succumb. But the exact extent +to which the anthropological factor is congenital defect or only +imperfect education and protection remains as yet to be settled. + +However this may turn out, the peril of the milieu remains. It increases +in geometric ratio with the feebleness of the girl, to whatever cause +that feebleness be due. The reason of this may best be comprehended, if +the question is approached from the opposite end. Let us ask, not why +some women fall, but why others go straight. A certain number, +undoubtedly, because of sheer character; these are the women who lead +righteous lives under all circumstances whatsoever; for they are made of +the hardy fiber that withstands any kind of wear and tear. A proportion, +one has no way of knowing how large, keep straight for the mere lack of +sufficient temptation to do otherwise: “The happy accident of the +absence of opportunity has helped to the rescue of many eminent virgins +at critical moments,” George Meredith caustically remarks.[139] But a +still larger number, though doubtless persuaded of their own ethical +superiority, attribute to positive character what is really due to the +unnoticed pressure of clan opinion, and the imperceptible barriers by +which they are completely surrounded. The certain disapproval of family +and friends, the sure ostracism that attends a serious departure from +the accepted code of behavior consciously or unconsciously act as +powerful deterrents; the esteem we are taught to crave, the warnings, +expostulations, and demands of family and friends constantly on the +lookout, keep the growing child within a well-marked path; established +habit, position, responsibility for others, and ripe reason ultimately +approving the same—these function in many cases as a substitute for +fundamentally hardy character. The superiority in such instances is +trained, not inherent; and not so much narrowly educational as widely +social. The whole organization of certain strata of society supports +those who pass their lives securely within it. + +In many cases—we have as yet no way of knowing how many—the girls who +fall differ from those who go straight in lacking precisely these +supports; they are born in a stratum in which no strong supporting +bulwark of opinion and habit has been developed; or the bulwark, such as +it is, has been in one way or another broken down. The strong +characters—and they are immensely more abundant than is usually +supposed—do without it; the weaker too often succumb. Even so, their +collapse is rarely sudden. It is a hopeful fact that decency is often +only gradually and cunningly undermined. The buyer dealing with the +seasoned prostitute may go straight to his object; his purpose must be +veiled in negotiations with the beginner, who is led on by pretty +clothes, amusements, wine and glitter. There is no reason to believe +that, as a rule, promiscuity is congenial to the woman from the start; +it is sometimes increasingly odious. Low as the barrier may be, the +prostitute has rarely once and for all deliberately stepped across it. +Her demoralization is a progressive, not a summary, process. With her, +the sex instinct is, for reasons already given, less apt to be valued at +its real worth, or to be properly safeguarded by deference to exacting +opinion; less apt, too, to be reduced in comparative urgency by the +volume and abundance of other satisfactions. The girl has, however, no +notion in the first place of becoming a prostitute. She begins by giving +away what ultimately she learns to sell. + +From the above discussion, it appears that, as far as we now know, it +may be not so much individuals as environments, that are superior. +Danger lies where the environment puts up no high barrier; still more so +when the low barrier, the strong temptation, and the weak resistance, +coincide. How completely the untrained daughters of the proletariat lack +the positive protections and supports by means of which +better-conditioned girls are, even in default of their own strength, +held upright, a somewhat closer study of the facts will soon show. + +There is, in the first place, no quicker way of evading the immaterial +forces that assist in maintaining an approved line of conduct than +abrupt transplantation of an immature person into an environment within +which no such forces operate on the individual in question. Accordingly, +a heavy percentage of urban prostitutes are girls who have left home: of +168 girls in a London rescue home, 85 were born abroad; not all the 83 +English girls were London born.[140] “The servants in Manchester,” I was +told, “come almost invariably from remote counties; they have been +familiar at home with the men, with whom they walk out.” In a strange +city, without work, or with hard work, they obtain through the too +lightly prized sex function, at least for the moment, what their lot +otherwise lacks. Out of 12,707 women inscribed in Paris, two-thirds were +born outside the department of the Seine.[141] Only 213 out of 781 girls +newly enrolled in Paris in a single year were natives of the city.[142] +Of 1,376 inscribed prostitutes of Stockholm (1890–1904), only 21.1% were +natives of that city; the same proportion were born in other Swedish +cities; 57% were country girls; the rest, foreigners.[143] Many of the +prostitutes of Vienna were born in the poor districts of Galicia and +Poland. The studies of Lindblad and Welander in Stockholm show how +closely immorality has followed detachment from home in hundreds of +instances.[144] + +The home barrier is itself often so low as to constitute little or no +obstacle to demoralization,—often indeed, demoralization is of domestic +origin. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, dealing with London destitution, +describe a situation existing in all crowded European cities: “The +herding together, by day and by night, of men and women, of young and +old, of boys and girls, of all degrees of relationship or no +relationship, not only destroys health, but makes, to the ordinary human +being, the particular virtue upon which the integrity of the family +depends, wholly impracticable. Any person who has dwelt among the +denizens of the slums, cannot fail to have brought home to him the +existence of a stratum of society of no inconsiderable magnitude in +which children part with their innocence long before puberty, in which +personal chastity is virtually unknown, and in which ‘to have a baby by +your father’ is laughed at as a comic mishap.”[145] In a close in High +Street, Edinburgh, I visited with the city physician a family consisting +of father, mother, grandmother, daughter of 13, and two younger +children, all of whom slept in a single bed. Professor Blaschko declares +that “what Robert Koch once said of tuberculosis, viz., that it is a +question of living conditions, holds equally of prostitution. Living +conditions are responsible for the fact that children learn all forms of +evil prematurely and forego all natural enjoyments.”[146] Of the +inhabitants in Berlin in 1900, 73.7% lived in dwellings of two rooms or +less; 785,000 lived in single rooms; 561,000 in two rooms; 5,450 in one +unheated room; 7,759 in a kitchen.[147] Too frequently, the home, such +as it is, is broken besides. Not infrequently, necessity drives the +mother herself to become a wage-earner. Something above 2,000,000 German +women are engaged in factories, one-third of whom are married, widowed +or divorced. The children of these families,—boys and girls alike,—lack +the rearing which would be their most important safeguard. +Unfortunately, too, the tide is rising: the married women workers of +Bavaria increased absolutely in number 72% from 1895 to 1907;[148] +throughout Germany a similar rise is taking place.[149] As this increase +involves especially women between 30 and 50 years of age, it is clear +that they are driven into factories in order to support children whose +welfare requires that the mother should stay at home. In other +instances, the home is fractured by death, desertion or immorality: of +565 Stuttgart prostitutes, 64.2% were wholly or partially orphaned;[150] +of 384 London cases, only 24% had both parents alive.[151] In Lindblad’s +cases, 219 out of 772 homes are classified as “bad” or “very bad.”[152] +Ominous is the rôle played by alcohol in dissolving the home and in +undermining the constitution of the children.[153] + +The inordinately large contingent of servants is partially accounted for +on these lines; for the servant has given up her own home and does not +always make for herself another in the house she serves. She has come +from the landless country proletariat, where sexual intercourse is +either customary or not forbidden; in the city, exposure and weak +resistance make her a frequent victim. Servants between 16 and 30 years +old form one-fourth of the female population of Berlin; they bear +one-third of the illegitimate children of the population. Of the +registered prostitutes of Berlin in 1900, 60% had traveled this +road.[154] In Paris, of 6,842 clandestine prostitutes arrested and found +ill within the decade 1878–1887, 2,681—i. e., 39.18%—were +domestics.[155] Two hundred and eighty-four of Lindblad’s 800 patients +were servants, 80 more were attendants on little children, 170 +charwomen.[156] + +If the urban home often leaves its girls defenceless[157] or +demoralized, the daughters of the rural proletariat fare even worse. The +children of the landless peasant are a sheer drain—they have no economic +value to the family. I recall a characteristic instance of a girl of 27, +one of fourteen children belonging to a peasant family, eleven of whom +had died in infancy. She herself had had no rearing whatsoever. Drifting +from pillar to post, she had come to Munich, where at 17 she had a +child; since then, five others, of whom one survives, maintained by her +on her illicit earnings.[158] + +It is early demoralization that is most dangerous, and it is precisely +to early demoralization that the bad or broken home most surely leads. +In all great European cities the rapid increase of the prostitution of +minors has been noted. Without domestic protection, the girl seeks her +amusement on the streets and wittingly or unwittingly is led to her +fall. Between 1880 and 1903 the average number of minors annually +arrested for prostitution by the Paris police was 1,370,—the total, +32,885.[159] Nine hundred and seventy-five minors were arrested there +for this offence 1,638 times in 1908,—91 of them under 16; 988 minors +were arrested 1,739 times the next year,—221 under eighteen.[160] In +general it has been estimated that one-half of the minors arrested have +not yet finished their seventeenth year.[161] The Viennese authorities +declare that “clandestine prostitution in its varied forms is made up +for the most part of youthful persons. Clandestine prostitutes, +especially in so far as they are incidentally engaged as waitresses in +“Animierkneipen” and restaurants, singers and dancers, are usually +young, since, among other reasons, youth is a condition _sine qua non_ +of employment. While out of 1,000 inscribed prostitutes only 16% were +under 21 years of age, among the same number of non-inscribed arrested +on the streets, over 57% were minors.”[162] In the year 1910, of 1,319 +arrests, 823 were minors whose utter isolation is proved by the fact +that efforts to preserve some sort of family guardianship failed in 802 +instances.[163] In Cologne, 1,626 arrests were made in 1911,—1,296 of +them minors,—79 under 18 years of age. German authorities hold in +general that the danger period lies between the 12th and the 21st year: +“only a small percentage go wrong after the 21st year.”[164] Among 846 +newly inscribed prostitutes in Berlin in 1898, 229 were minors, despite +a settled policy in favor of registering adults only. There is perhaps +no better proof of the extent of demoralization during girlhood: seven +of these were mere children,—15 years old; 21 were 16 years old; and 33, +seventeen years of age.[165] Nor are conditions any better in smaller +towns. Bendig, studying prostitution in Stuttgart from 1894 to 1908, +finds 55% of the women deflowered under seventeen years of age; 70%, +between sixteen and eighteen; 97.3%, between fourteen and +twenty-five.[166] Over one-half were under twenty years of age at the +time of their registration as professional prostitutes by the police. +Through some English Rescue Homes, 745 children between eight and +fifteen years of age passed in the course of three years.[167] The +confidential memorandum dealing with 168 cases already referred to shows +that all but 30 were under twenty-one years of age. So, of 92 girls +admitted to a London Rescue Home, 50 were less than twenty-one years +old. Of 1,882 prostitutes arrested on the streets of Glasgow for +drunkenness or soliciting, seven were between fourteen and sixteen; and +314 between sixteen and twenty-one.[168] Of this type are usually the +white slave cases,—young girls for the most part enticed from poor rural +or urban homes by the promise of employment or marriage in a great city; +as also instances not altogether unknown in which mothers sell their own +children. A brisk demand for the child prostitute constitutes a strong +inducement.[169] + +Exposure sometimes originates otherwise. Sometimes the seduced servant +or shop girl, or the pregnant country lass, may lose position or caste, +and, besides, find herself responsible for the maintenance of herself +and her child, law and custom bearing all too lightly on her partner. In +point of character the girl has no longer anything to lose; meanwhile, +need presses. Eighty-three out of the 168 London cases already discussed +were of this type. In Berlin, 1,531 girls were newly inscribed in the +years 1908–9–10; of these, 636—i. e., over 41%, had borne children.[170] +Mrs. Bramwell Booth furnished me a detailed study of 150 cases, out of +which 11% were believed to be attributable to pregnancy following +seduction. Lindblad found that 62 of 800 women—7¾%—insisted that they +had become prostitutes in order to support children: of these 10 were +widowed or divorced; 34 were unmarried, but confessed to a succession of +lovers; 18 were unmarried and with but one child.[171] Children born +under such conditions represent at times the most aggravated form of the +broken home, and not a few of the girls afterwards take to irregular +lives: nevertheless, by no means universally. For, as Adele Schreiber +has forcibly pointed out, illegitimacy is a complicated phenomenon, by +no means universally involving recklessness and irresponsibility.[172] +The premarital intercourse of European boy and girl may result in an +illegitimate birth which is either preliminary to marriage or is +regarded as equivalent thereto. This fact enables us to understand why +the researches of Johansson in Stockholm[173] and Pinkus in Berlin +appear to indicate that illegitimate children contribute somewhat less +than their expected quota to the recruiting of the prostitute army. +While 17.3% of the births in Berlin during certain specified years were +illegitimate, only 13.7% of the inscribed prostitutes in the same period +were of illegitimate origin.[174] Johansson calculated that one would +expect to find 12% to 14% of the enrolled women of Stockholm to be +illegitimates: they make up only 9% to 11% of the entries.[175] +Meanwhile the situation is charged with danger, unless the father meets +his responsibility. Too often this is not the case; and a relationship +that perhaps began in passion deteriorates—the man seeking other women, +the women turning to prostitution. + +One more consideration ought to be separately mentioned, because it is +mainly and most fatally operative in the milieu with which we are +dealing,—the influence of evil example. From vicious suggestion +practically no child is free; but the children to whom our attention has +been directed may be so loosely anchored that they are easily carried +away. The ruined girl, glancing back over the path she has come, +overlooks the fundamental facts of environment and disposition and sees +only the older comrade or chance acquaintance, whose easy attainment of +fun, clothes, trinkets, she envies. Of the 800 Stockholm cases to which +I have already frequently referred, 71% attributed their final decision +to advice from tainted sources; 217, from professional prostitutes; 215, +from clandestines; 81, from immoral girls; 4, from their own +mothers.[176] + +I need hardly call attention to what the reader will already have +observed, viz., that I have frequently cited the same statistics in +different connections: for the same girl may appear as orphaned, as +servant, as ignorant, as illegitimate, as badly advised. No one +circumstance can be regarded as alone fatal; the complicated skein of +influences and associations cannot be completely disentangled. The facts +that have been adduced,—broken homes, bad homes, exposure,—do not then +act directly as causes, in the sense that the girls involved take to +prostitution “as the sparks fly upward.” Of several sisters, all placed +in precisely the same situation, only one may succumb; personal or +anthropological forces may successfully defend all the others, despite +their apparently identical position. The environment is, however, not +thus freed of responsibility,—it is merely freed of direct, simple or +sole responsibility. It does not cause prostitution; but the huge +proletariat is the reservoir from which victims can be readily drawn. +Nor are single factors characteristic of the proletariat causally +responsible; but the phenomenon attaches itself to a chain of factors +belonging in their totality to this milieu alone. Bad fathers, loose +mothers, alcoholism, poor associations, physical defect, occur +sporadically in every social stratum; but all together combined with +defective education, low economic capacity, absence of oversight and +restraint, rampant desires and meager satisfactions occur only in the +proletariat. + +We are in position now to judge the part played by economic pressure. +The preponderance of servants suggests the proper interpretation: for +the servant does not lack food or shelter, and her services are +everywhere in demand. She does not therefore resort to prostitution as +an alternative to starvation. Animated by a natural desire to excuse +their conduct, as most human beings are, the direct pressure of need is +rarely assigned by prostitutes in exculpation of their conduct. Mrs. +Bramwell Booth, than whom there is no more competent or sympathetic +authority, found among 150 successive and unusually varied cases only 2% +who explained their prostitution by inability to earn a livelihood; +Ströhmberg discovered among 462 enrolled women at Dorpat only one who +protested poverty as her justification;[177] Pinkus,[178] studying the +incomes of 1,550 Berlin women before embarking on the life, decides that +1,389 had earned enough for self-support.[179] But it would be obviously +unfair to say of these 1,389 women capable of earning a living that +social-economic conditions had nothing to do with their fall; for +precisely these conditions create a situation capable of being +exploited. Undeveloped moral character, early and careless infringement +of the sex function, drudgery, on the one hand, unsatisfied and +uncontrolled cravings, on the other,—these are all largely +social-economic in their origin and scope. It happens all too often that +girls born perhaps to pull canal boats, and with education and +intelligence hardly above their lot, possess some little fancy, or love +of pleasure, or taste in dress, without the strength of will or ideals +to content themselves with an existence of mere endurance in a world +full of enjoyment. They end by exploiting the sex function in order to +obtain the satisfactions not otherwise accessible, or to escape +difficulties and drudgeries from which they can contrive no other exit. + +Prostitution is thus of economic origin and significance in so far as +the region of economic pressure is mainly the region from which the +prostitute comes. Whether or not the family lives in this region is +primarily a question of the father’s income. The region is, however, not +statistically definable: a specified income may keep a given family or a +given individual under dangerous pressure; the same income may release +from pressure another family or another individual. Severest, of course, +where actual poverty exists, all those whose needs, desires and protests +beat vainly against the limits imposed by their resources, live within +the area of economic pressure. But the mere fact of living within the +area, whether in its darkest tract or elsewhere, is not of itself +conclusive. For the prostitute is, in the last resort, to use a +biological phrase, “individually selected” in the manner already +sketched. + +The menace of unfavorable economic conditions can be clearly discerned +in certain directions. Prostitution fluctuates with seasonal and casual +labor; in certain employments it is looked upon as a regular source of +incidental income to women workers; in other employments it offers to +girls not living at home the readiest recourse. As bearing on the part +played by casual and seasonal labor, it is important to note that the +proportion of their female help permanently employed by certain London +shops often falls as low as 25% of their maximum help; it rarely rises +above 75%:[180] that is to say, something between one-quarter and +three-quarters of the women employees of the London shops are casual +hands, turned adrift in increasing numbers as the trade barometer falls. +Charles Booth notes in addition to the “more regular members of this +varied group of women, some who take to the life occasionally; +tailoresses or dressmakers who return to their trade in busy times; +girls from low neighborhoods, who eke out a living in this way.”[181] +“It is true,” writes Wilbrandt of the irregularly employed girls in +Germany, “that when out of work, many of them succeed from time to time +in sewing more or less for private customers, or the lodging-house +keepers give them credit (‘give food to the unfortunate also at times’), +but for the majority this is no remedy. Even more than the isolated +factory workers, these girls are fairly forced to prostitution. Where +there is no serious obstacle, hardly one of this type, if isolated, but +is given to occasional prostitution.”[182] The vagrant class in trade +and industry and those dependent upon them are necessarily restless, +improvident and irresponsible.[183] + +Practically in the same category are the workers whose wages suffice +only if they live at home, in which case part of their support is borne +by other members of the family; where—as so often happens with those who +come to the city to earn a living,—this is impossible, occasional or +incidental immorality is a perilous temptation. Immorality may thus by +low or irregular wages be almost woven into the very tissue of their +lives. I was told, for example, that in certain English manufacturing +towns, such as Bradford and Sheffield, a sliding-scale is accepted among +some of the girl operatives; when wages rise above a certain point, a +virtuous life is required by public opinion; when they fall below, the +source of supplementary earnings is not scrutinized. The minimum wages +of the sewing-women, factory hands, laundresses throughout Europe do not +support the most meager sort of decent independence.[184] An official +report states that out of 226 inscribed women at Frankfort-on-the-Main, +98 were laundresses and shop-help, earning from 1.50 marks to 1.80 marks +a day,—less, that is, than 50 cents.[185] The same holds true of +superior help—dressmakers, shop-assistants, whose standards are +necessarily higher: “these girls accept wages which would not be enough +to support them if they had not a friend to help them.”[186] + +There remain the employments in which only prostitutes engage or in +which the perils are so enormous that a girl who has not fallen, soon +will fall. Irregular earnings are tacitly assumed as the major or sole +consideration in bargaining for a position. The chorus, ballet, or +cabaret girl can usually afford “the stage” because she is already +immoral and the glamor of the footlights increases her earning capacity; +the same conditions of course tend to force into immorality a girl who +has hitherto been honest. A monthly salary of 10 marks ($2.50) is paid +the dancers at the Court Theater in Hanover; the leading lady at +Eisenach draws 15 marks ($3.75) a month for a six months’ season; a +prominent soubrette at Munich states that she received an annual salary +of 3,600 marks, from which the outlay for wardrobe was 1,500 marks; one +reads of salaries of 1,200 marks conjoined with wardrobe expenses of +2,000 marks; incomes of 5,400 marks and expenses of 8,000 marks.[187] If +a decent girl objects to a salary of 20 marks a week ($5.00) on the +ground that it will not supply her necessities—living, wardrobe, +etc.—the Director retorts: “Why should you want any salary? You are a +pretty girl.”[188] The maelstrom thus tends powerfully to suck in those +not previously tainted. The English barmaids and continental +waitresses[189] are not infrequently virtuous women, leading decent +lives; but they are also often selected for the lively manners so +certain to lead, if they have not already led, to extra remuneration, +that only a nominal wage attaches to their posts. The 37,000 waitresses +in Germany are recruited from among the country or urban proletariat, +whose invaded chastity has already been noticed. Their wages are +nominal—or less; one-fourth of them are under 20 years of age.[190] It +is not surprising to find a Berlin insurance fund reporting that +waitresses make up one-half of those of its numbers venereally +afflicted.[191] In England and Wales, of 27,707 barmaids in the Census +of 1901, 18,251 were under 25 years of age.[192] Their wages range from +5 to 15 shillings a week.[193] Mrs. Booth concludes that of the +prostitutes in the West End of London, one-fourth were originally +barmaids and a still higher estimate has been made.[194] In many +establishments, irregularity either precedes employment or is common +enough to be taken into account in determining the conditions of +employment. + +Nothing would be gained by going into the foregoing matters more +thoroughly. Enough has been said to show why in the presence of the +demand previously characterized, an ample supply is forthcoming, and why +it is almost totally derived from a single social stratum. It is +derived, of course, with all sorts and degrees of difficulty. Sometimes +demoralization has set in so early, or there has been so little +development of intelligence or character, that the girl is herself from +the start not only willing, but the main instigator; in other cases, +with intelligence too undeveloped and character too unformed to urge her +away from temptation, a vague but profound instinct holds her back until +her dumb resistance has been overcome by other inducements or weakened +by alcohol, pretended affection or interest. Despite this dark picture, +however, most girls in the various stations described do resist like a +stone wall. Of all those marked at any time by a given characteristic, +the number engaged in prostitution is rarely high. The huge total is to +be ascribed to the variety of paths and cross-cuts by which the morass +may be reached. + +So much for the source of supply: let us turn for a moment to its +volume. Prostitution is an urban phenomenon; its volume increases even +more rapidly than population. For as the demand seeks particularly +younger women, the older tend to become a drug on the market. It is +therefore inevitable that, while there is a comparative dearth of the +youthful, the total supply should be in excess of the requirements. This +situation, of course, favors the exploiter; for he procures without +difficulty and on easy terms the commodity which he pushes on the +street, in the bar, the dancing hall, the café, and the brothel. + +In the case of supply, as in the case of demand, two different problems +present themselves. In so far as individual reasons alone lead a girl of +mature years to prostitution or deliberately to persist in prostitution, +preventive action is both practically and theoretically difficult; +prostitution of this kind is a reply to demand or an invitation thereto, +taken in its simplest, even if not purely physiological form. Very +different is the situation as respects supply arbitrarily developed to +satisfy a specialized or artificial appetite. The girls thus involved +are forced into prostitution; demand in the sense just mentioned has not +been brought to bear upon them. Once violently ruined, however, they +become part of the army requiring that the mass of immorality be +increased so as to sustain them. Of this type are the white slave cases, +and those led into ruin through employment agencies. In both instances, +innocent girls are lured into strange places, deceived with promises +that fail to materialize, and coerced into an immoral life, which holds +them easily enough after their demoralization is completed. How much of +the present supply is of this forced character it is obviously +impossible to say. Stead’s revelations in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ in +1885 and such incidents as the “Process Riehl”[195] at Vienna disclosed +the existence of a large and active trade in innocent girls of tender +years. + +We found that there is no reason to regard demand as a fixed quantity. +The same is obviously true of supply. Girls may be forced into +prostitution; they can also be kept out. To some extent, as they are +kept out, demand also shrinks; for the provocation is thereby reduced. +It must be altogether obvious that all social amelioration tends thus to +reduce the supply, by diminishing exposure and strain. Within the scope +of this volume it is impossible even to mention briefly the steps that +have been taken in this direction in different European countries during +recent years. Suffice it to say that every effort in social and economic +reform, education, and sanitation has tended to reduce the number of +prostitutes and to strengthen the resistance of those exposed to danger. + +In addition to indirect and slow-working processes of this kind, the +problem has been directly and in some respects effectively grappled +with. Of these efforts, the international movement for suppression of +the White Slave Traffic is the most conspicuous. There is no question +that not many years ago an extensive, though but loosely organized, +traffic in girls was carried on in large European cities. The bordells +were thus recruited with young and attractive inmates. The subject was +first brought to public notice in 1877; but little attention was paid to +it until the _Pall Mall Gazette_ published a complete exposure in 1885. +Shortly thereafter the British Vigilance Society was formed; similar +organizations were then organized in other countries and in 1899 an +international congress was held in London. Annual congresses now meet to +review progress and to suggest legislation; societies are everywhere +engaged in watching at steamboat landings and railroad stations in order +to assist unaccompanied travelers or to locate suspicious couples; and +associations in different countries endeavor by correspondence to run +down offenders and to release their victims. + +Successful prosecution is, however, as a rule, surrounded by many +technicalities. In Germany the statute provides that any one who induces +a female to leave the country for the purpose of prostitution by means +of concealment of his object is liable to penal servitude for five +years, to loss of citizenship and a fine of 150 to 6,000 marks.[196] But +as a rule the culprit, if arrested, has made an attempt only, and thus +escapes the severe penalty here imposed. To avoid this pitfall, the +congress of 1910 urged as a model provision the following: “Whoever +procures a female for purposes of prostitution, abducts, carries off, or +leads her into prostitution, even if the steps thereto occur in +different countries, shall be punished, etc.” Several countries have +proceeded on this line, notably Hungary, in a law passed in 1908. The +most advanced legislation is, however, the recent amendment of the +British Criminal Law by a provision empowering a police officer to +arrest a procurer caught with a suspected victim without the delay +involved in procuring a warrant. + +This legislation indicates the form to which the White Slave Traffic has +been largely reduced in Europe. Beyond question an innocent girl might +be entrapped, enticed, and immured in a European brothel; but if so, the +instance would be an isolated crime, like a mysterious murder or +robbery. Under existing conditions, there is absolutely no reason to +think that such cases occur frequently, though there are those who would +be quick to take advantage of any relaxation of vigilance on the part of +governments, the police, and the private organizations constantly on the +alert. In the cases to which from time to time attention has been +sensationally called, the women involved are neither innocent nor +deceived. On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that European +cities and ports are utilized for purposes of transit to South American +ports where the trade still flourishes. A trafficker may entice a girl +from Poland and Galicia on the promise of marriage or work; indeed every +police office in Europe has a list of men thus engaged. The countries +from which women are procured are believed to be mainly Hungary, +Galicia, Poland, and Roumania; the countries to which they are carried, +Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and the Levant.[197] The pair steal +through Vienna and Berlin and appear at the dock in Hamburg, Rotterdam, +London, or some less prominent port just as the boat sails for Rio +Janeiro, Buenos Aires or a South African harbor—too late to procure a +warrant or detailed proof. The new English law above mentioned is +calculated to deal with just this emergency: for it authorizes the +detention and arrest of such couples without warrant, on suspicion, and +throws the burden of proof upon them.[198] The entire White Slave +movement is thus forcible interference with the making of +prostitutes.[199] + +While the traffic in young girls has been thus greatly restricted, there +is no question that a trade in already ruined women is still carried on. +Prostitution is, as I have repeatedly insisted, a business,—a business, +too, in which novelty is an important item. Deprived of a supply of +fresh young girls, the bordell-keeper, the proprietor of cabaret, dance +hall or Animierkneipe must at least have variety. The trafficker scours +the market for the most attractive women he can procure and women are +thus kept in circulation through his efforts. He carries on his business +in European cities, in the Levant and in the large cities of South +America. + +The employment agency has been similarly employed as a means of forcibly +increasing supply. Girls are sent out as servants into disreputable +places, in the activities of which they have been induced or compelled +to take part; or, they are sent out of the country as dancers or +singers, only to find themselves, on reaching their destination, +consigned to cabarets in which theatrical entertainment is but a cloak +for the exploitation of prostitution. Newspaper advertisements and the +_poste restante_ are deceptively employed for the same purposes. Of the +numbers thus victimized no accurate statement can be given. But +preventive measures are being taken. The London County Council has +undertaken a strict regulation of the employment agency: establishments +must be annually licensed, their records must be kept according to a +specified form, inspectors are free to examine them at will. Agents are +prohibited to arrange for the employment of females abroad unless the +satisfactory nature of the employment has been clearly established; nor +even then shall an agent arrange for the employment abroad of a girl +under sixteen unless with the written consent of her parents or lawful +guardian.[200] The worst of the agencies abandoned the business as soon +as the new regulations went into effect.[201] In Austria, the Employment +Agency is regulated by the trade ordinance; the establishment must be +licensed, those conducting it must be sufficiently educated, and the +business is subject to the inspection of the safety, health and morals +police.[202] A special license must be obtained if international +operations are contemplated. Books must be kept according to a +prescribed form; girls under 18 years of age can in no case be sent out +of the country except with the permission of the Court of Chancery; +precautions are taken to insure good faith in the case of older girls; +the license can be canceled by the government without notice.[203] There +is a marked tendency to limit the business to societies or the commune. + +The pimp is connected with the supply of prostitutes in two ways: he +cultivates intimacies with the ultimate purpose of putting his victims +or associates on the street; he then drives them to the utmost, forcing +them to ply their trade with all possible intensity. He is thus an +important factor in increasing the number of prostitutes and the volume +of prostitution. How formidable an element he becomes is evident from +the fact that nowhere less than 50% and in most cities as many as 90% of +the professional prostitutes are declared by the police to support their +lovers. In Paris the proportion is given as 80% to 90%; in London at +90%. Of 93 foreign prostitutes in Zurich 85 were proved to be working +for souteneurs; of 204 at Rotterdam, 130 were known to be supporting +their lovers.[204] In form they vary; now appearing as base hangers-on, +now as paramours, again as husbands. No European city has, however, +successfully coped with the system. During September and October 1891, +350 arrests were made in Paris with only 14 convictions.[205] In London, +the numbers convicted have increased, though they are still almost +negligible: in 1902, there were 132 arrests, with 105 convictions; in +1905, 123 arrests and 95 convictions, in 1909, 201 and 167 respectively, +in 1910, 185 and 151.[206] Glasgow shows 25 successful convictions for +the same offence in 1911.[207] The present Dutch law has been in +operation since June, 1911; up to November 15, 1912, there were 39 +arrests and 30 convictions. In Vienna there were 30 convictions in 1912. +Wulffen has carefully compiled the statistics showing the extent to +which panders of all kinds—the pimp, the owner of disorderly houses, +hotels, etc.—have been prosecuted in Germany. Very striking are two +points, viz.: that the number of convictions has risen, as public +opinion has developed, and that the total represents even yet only a +small fraction of the guilty. In the entire Empire, between 1883 and +1887, convictions were obtained in only 5.18% of the cases; in the +period 1898–1902, this figure had risen to 7.37%, an increase of 50%. +Meanwhile local differences are enormous: Berlin convicted 565,—43.92% +of the accused; Cologne, 507,—39.36% of the accused; Hamburg, +193,—15.01% of the accused; Frankfort 26,—2.03% of the accused.[208] The +statutes differ somewhat in principle and detail, but the difficulty +arises partly from varying interest on the part of the authorities, +partly—nay largely, from the inherent reluctance of the woman to +testify. Perhaps this vilest on-hanger of prostitution is the most +difficult to lay hold of. + +Of the various forms which prostitution takes the bordell plays a +peculiar part in creating and intensively working supply; but, for +reasons that will appear, the bordell requires special treatment and +will occupy a separate chapter.[209] It would carry us far afield to +describe fully here the other establishments that cater to prostitutes, +directly or indirectly inducing girls to enter the life or furnishing +facilities for the intensive pursuit of the vocation. The Animierkneipe, +the Variety Theater, the café and other establishments largely derive +their profit, direct or indirect, through affording an ever increasing +supply an abundant opportunity to work up a demand, that will overtake +it. Prostitution in these forms doubtless answers in part what I have +loosely termed the physiological craving: that is to say, men bent on +gratifying appetite sometimes betake themselves to the Animierkneipe, in +the absence of which they would betake themselves elsewhere. Beyond all +doubt, however, a fair, perhaps a very large, share of the immorality +connected with these establishments is incited in them. + +In London, license to sell liquor was formerly granted to music halls; +no further licenses of this kind are granted, and one by one licenses +formerly granted are being canceled. A few well known establishments, +however, still remain, in which prostitutes loiter about the bar and in +the promenade. Regular dance halls where liquor is sold—as is the case +everywhere on the Continent—do not exist in London, though special +permits for dances in hotels and elsewhere where liquor is sold are +obtainable. A determined effort has however been made in Great Britain +to break up the close connection between prostitution and the sale of +drink. The licensing act forbids an unaccompanied woman to remain in a +café or public house longer than a reasonable time to consume her drink. +In the provincial towns this law is vigorously enforced; saloons which +violate it may be deprived of their license on the charge of harboring +prostitutes. The danger to the proprietor is a real one, for the +government takes advantage of every legitimate pretext for reducing the +number of liquor establishments. In London the law is less consistently +enforced than in the provinces: certain notorious resorts in and about +Leicester Square remind one of the continental café. + +On the Continent, however, little has been done to hinder the +exploitation of prostitution in connection with drinking, dancing, and +the theater. “In Paris, cafés, balls and theaters are from this point of +view, not the object of any particular restriction.”[210] In German +cities, these establishments fall under the regulations applicable to +business establishments and, for practical purposes, are not molested as +long as outer decency is preserved,—the term being as a rule rather +broadly interpreted. Public dance halls where liquor is freely dispensed +abound everywhere. A Zurich law sought to improve conditions by +forbidding waiters to work beyond midnight; but the law is evaded by +engaging a second set to work in the early morning hours! Stockholm +closes all public dance halls, cafés, etc., at midnight. The police +could proceed against a vicious establishment only by inducing the +license bureau to revoke the permit, a step very rarely taken. Meanwhile +of the pernicious character of these places in wrecking innocent girls +and facilitating the operations of prostitute and pimp, there is nowhere +any question. “Legitimate trade is not large enough to keep them going,” +remarked the head of the Zurich police. “The women make them pay by +increasing the amount that each customer drinks. They thus win customers +for themselves.” The difficulty in dealing with problems of this sort +arises from several factors—the overlapping of the legitimate and +illegitimate purposes which they serve, the lack of a definite public +opinion, and the dispersion of authority among various detached +departments. + +An increasingly active interference with the making and forcing of +supply is represented by rescue and protective work. Religious and +philanthropic societies maintain street workers who endeavor to reclaim +fallen women, and homes in which those in distress are received and +rehabilitated. These institutions are more highly developed in England +than on the Continent; nevertheless attractive and wholesome retreats +have been established in Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and elsewhere. +Nowhere, however, is the capacity equal to the demand or the +opportunity. Of the outcome of rescue work, the police are naturally +skeptical; but it is a striking fact that those who have been longest +engaged are the most hopeful. + +There is, however, no difference of opinion at all as to the superior +importance of prevention. Children immediately exposed to demoralization +must be removed from danger and trained to some useful and profitable +avocation,—for the girl who possesses some form of industrial skill is +least likely to err and most likely to recover herself. The French +government has recently provided for homes answering this purpose, but +the machinery by means of which children are to be got into them is so +clumsy that the legislation has proved ineffective. The recent Prussian +“Fürsorge Gesetz” of 1901 (Law on Guardianship) is much more +satisfactory. The procedure is applicable to children under 18, but +guardianship continues until the age of 21. In less serious cases, +children are placed in families under supervision; if the situation +warrants, they are interned in institutions. In Prussia, about 6,000 +children are yearly cared for on these lines, ⅓ of them girls, of whom +about 40% have already gone wrong. For the most part their domestic +environment was bad,—their birth illegitimate, the father alcoholic, the +mother immoral, etc. This law is a fair sample of modern effort on the +part of the state to control the conditions under which imperiled +children are reared.[211] Energy expended at this stage attacks the +problem of supply at its very source. + +Our consideration of demand and supply has shown the complicated +character of modern prostitution. The important point to remember, from +the standpoint of practical policy, is this. Supply is to some extent +artificially created and demand is to some extent artificially forced; +whatever may be true of minimum supply and demand, the artificial +processes in question are in greater or less degree socially +controllable or modifiable. This is, of course, not to say that powerful +commercial interests and social habits would not resist interference; +for the abnormalities in question are at once the product and for +thousands the attraction of metropolitan life. The fascination and the +curse of the great city lie thus close together,—perhaps inextricably +so, as is so effectively portrayed in the concluding scene of +Charpentier’s “Louise.” With this local pride to be a great city through +forcing the sensual pace, modern Europe is fairly mad. Berlin and Vienna +are rich and gay; the idle and curious throng thither from all quarters +of the world. Smaller towns like Geneva, smitten with envy, struggle to +imitate the license of those great capitals. In so far, prostitution is +in the broadest sense a social problem,—the problem of rationalizing +human life, and only indirectly to be grappled with. + +Precisely therefore as there is nothing absolutely fixed, predetermined, +and inevitable about the strength of demand, so there is nothing +fatalistic about supply. In general, the two move together, one—either +one—provoking the other. In the end, they have to be solved together; +but within limits, effective action attacking one can itself ameliorate +the other. Human nature is indeed weak enough on the sexual side; but +the mass of existing vice is out of all proportion to what would exist +on that account alone; and one way to abridge demand is to abridge +supply, as it is being abridged by white slave legislation, by control +of employment agencies, by care of the unprotected young and by rational +management of the drink and amusement traffic. Moreover, whatever +interferes with intensive exploitation virtually reduces supply. As +forced supply increases demand, so diminished and hampered supply to +some extent checks it. + + NOTE.—Since the above was written the Report of the Fifth + International Congress on the White Slave Traffic has appeared. It + contains a complete account of the various movements and efforts above + described. It is published by the National Vigilance Association, + London. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + PROSTITUTION AND THE LAW + + Apparent acquiescence of European communities.—Indications of + scientific study and action.—Opinion more homogenous than laws.—Is + prostitution in itself a vice or a crime?—Its exploitation a crime. + + +Despite the evidence to the contrary produced at the close of the +preceding chapter, the notion is prevalent that the conscience of Europe +has been and is, to put it euphemistically, philosophic in its attitude +towards this ancient evil; that on the Continent at least the “oldest of +professions” is simply acquiesced in, on the theory that “what can not +be cured must be endured.” Certain external appearances seem to give +countenance to this view: the prostitute walks the highway apparently +unmolested; she waits in the café and music hall for her prey; in some +cities the licensed bordell furnishes a notorious market for the buying +and selling of sensual gratification. The situation, however, is less +simple than thus appears. Society has never, as a matter of fact, for +any great length of time contentedly accepted prostitution as an +unavoidable evil. Periods of harsh and unintelligent repression have +alternated with periods of comparative but never complete indifference, +consequent upon previous failure. Recently much intelligent effort has +been directed to the comprehension of the evil and of the phenomena +contributing to and contingent upon it. An era of scientific study may +be fairly said to have set in. Wholesale and traditional methods of +attack have been discredited and are being discarded. Frank discussion +of the subject as a social problem is common on the Continent and is +beginning to take place in Great Britain, where it was long tabooed. + +I have pointed out that prostitution appears as an almost uniform +phenomenon in different European countries. The same uniformity in the +main characterizes public opinion in reference to it. I mean, not that +every nation is a unit, but that the general trend of opinion is much +the same and that the same shades of opinion exist in all countries. For +the most part, the attitude is indulgent towards the man, severe towards +the woman; on the other hand, the single moral standard has never been +so vigorously advocated in Europe as it is to-day. + +While public opinion in regard to prostitution is thus fairly uniform, +laws differ considerably; but this is of less importance than might be +supposed, because the general attitude of the authorities conforms to +sentiment rather than to statute. Laws passed under strong but transient +emotional excitement are simply not enforced, or are enforced so +capriciously that they do not affect the situation. Similarly, laws are +sometimes outlived rather than repealed. In the long run policy is in +this matter determined by dominant opinion. In France, as we shall see, +a very definite policy is pursued, not because it is laid down in the +law, but because it is in harmony with tradition and general sentiment; +in Germany public opinion not only sustains the authorities in ignoring +certain laws, but actually compels them to ignore them; in England, +policy, law and opinion are more nearly in unison. It is important +therefore to ascertain what the general substratum of foreign opinion +is, for unless harmonious therewith laws are a dead letter; judges and +juries will not convict, prosecutors and police will not act +consistently. + +We must, in the first place, recur to a point already made. Prostitution +is not a single and simple phenomenon. Certain distinctions must be +made. In one case, prostitution may be the voluntary and unobtrusive act +of two mature individuals presumably in full possession of their senses; +in the next, it may involve the exploitation under duress or otherwise +of women for the benefit of third parties; in the next case, its salient +feature may be offensive provocation by the woman for the purpose of +inducing men to indulge in immorality. From the standpoint of law, +public opinion and police policy these different phases or aspects of +the practice of prostitution present different problems. For the moment +it is only the first of these varieties with which we deal. In reference +to prostitution thus taken in its simplest form as the voluntary and +unobtrusive act of two adults, the practical and fundamental question +which confronts lawmaker and administrator is this: Is the mere act of +prostitution, is prostitution taken by and in itself, a vice or a crime? + +In general the line between vice and crime can not be clearly drawn, for +the question is one for the publicist, not one of abstract ethics. It +lies now here, now there, according to circumstances.[212] Crimes are +such acts as are reprobated by unified opinion and as such punishable by +the crude process of the law; vices are repugnant to the cultivated +instincts of society. An act—prostitution, for example, may have all the +disastrous consequences of crime, and yet in a given society not be +reachable as such. Whether it is or not depends partly on public +opinion, partly on the difficulty and the consequences of applying penal +methods. + +Whatever be the legal theory, public opinion in Europe to-day regards +the prostitution of mature individuals in the first of the senses above +characterized as in itself a vice, not a crime. We shall shortly hear +that under certain conditions professional prostitution is penalized; +but it will appear on closer examination that the penalty in so far as +it is actually sustained by opinion and enforced by the courts or +otherwise attaches not to prostitution in and for itself, and not to the +prostitute as a person, but only to certain overt acts and to certain +surrounding or attendant conditions. There is indeed a distinct tendency +against the extension of the conception of criminality to the act +itself. In other words, opinion is plainly in favor of viewing +prostitution as a vice, not as a crime, wherever the criminal view is +not forced by conditions extraneous to the person or to the mere act of +immorality. + +This can not be for the reason that prostitution is a less serious evil +than was formerly supposed: on the contrary, never before have its +disastrous consequences been so clearly and fully apprehended; nor +because the law is indifferent as to the form which sex relationship +takes, for it expressly declares in favor of the monogamous married +state. An explanation must be sought in an entirely different direction. + +I have previously pointed out the fact that prostitution is a conception +necessarily involving two factors, both equally essential. It so far +resembles slavery: if there are slaves, there must be slaveholders; if +slavery is a disgrace, then the slaveholder must bear his full portion +of obloquy. If prostitution is a vice, both parties are vicious; if it +be a crime, both parties are criminals. Now as a matter of history, no +proposition aiming at punishment has ever involved both participants. +The harlot has been branded as an outcast and flung to the wolves: she +alone,—never the man, her equal partner in responsibility. And, indeed, +not even the harlot uniformly. The poor and stupid have been the +victims; the showy courtesan, pursuing roundabout methods, has never +been molested. Something more than justice has thus been violated; the +very objects of punitive policy have been sacrificed. For prostitution +must be punished if at all, because its consequences are bad. Yet so +long as the woman alone suffers, these consequences are not abated. In +defining prostitution we recognized certain criteria as accounting for +society’s objection to its existence—the waste it involves, the disease +it spreads, the demoralization it entails. Punishment of the woman in +any particular case stops none of the these; the man simply wastes his +substance upon others; contracts disease from other women and carries it +elsewhere, even into his own family; corrupts others, in case a previous +associate has been put out of reach by the law. To make prostitution a +crime for the woman alone is therefore at once inequitable and futile. +It is likewise becoming progressively more difficult. As long as +societies were organized on the theory of male superiority, the woman +could perhaps be singled out to bear alone the burden of a dual offence. +But that day is past. Theoretically, the equal ethical responsibility of +both sexes in every relation in life is already recognized; it is +rapidly becoming incorporated in law. With the probable advent of woman +suffrage, it will become operative in fact. The stigma and consequence +of crime must therefore be either removed from the woman or affixed to +the man. + +As to the latter, certain difficulties interpose. The professional +prostitute being a social outcast may be periodically punished without +disturbing the usual course of society: no one misses her while she is +serving out her turn—no one, at least, about whom society has any +concern. The man, however, is something more than partner in an immoral +act: he discharges important social and business relations, is as father +or brother responsible for the maintenance of others, has commercial or +industrial duties to meet. He can not be imprisoned without deranging +society. Is the offence of such a nature as to make this advisable or +feasible? + +Assuredly, as matters now stand, it is not feasible. It is not feasible +for men; it is not really feasible for the women either; indeed in the +case of many women, the same difficulty arises that I have just pointed +out in the case of men. We have long since learned that the bulk of +women engaged in prostitution are also more or less otherwise employed. +They may be aiding to support their families, by their legitimate as +well as by their illegitimate earnings. Are these women to be plucked +from their employments under conditions not enforced against their male +partners? No society in which prostitution is held to implicate two +parties will tolerate it. Moreover, if the criminal charge is to lie +against the professional prostitute alone, how is the line to be drawn? +The women concerned are, as we learned, professionals one day, +incidentals the next; at some other time they may be leading an immoral +life, yet not that of a prostitute. Finally, in view of the tendency of +women to leave the life, is it wise to coerce them to cling to it by +branding them as criminals? The attempt to view prostitution as in +itself a crime is therefore inexpedient as well as unjust. + +“When society declares a certain act punishable” says Johansson, “a +general feeling of equity requires that all actions of similar nature +performed under similar circumstances be likewise declared punishable. +If it appears to be a matter of insuperable difficulty to apply the +punishment to an extent in some way satisfying the demand of the public +for a wide and equal application of the law, it is better to refrain +from any application of punishment at all. There is no reason to fear +that moral indignation and its beneficent effects on individuals will +therefore cease, for it is not the punishment that produces the +indignation.”[213] + +There is still another aspect of the problem. Investigation shows that +irregular sex intercourse on the part of the male is practically +universal on the Continent. That some of it is casual and unpaid, the +rest purely mercenary, only aggravates the difficulty; for no one +proposes to treat mere immorality as a crime and in concrete cases it +may be technically impossible to make out whether a specific act is +prostitution or immorality. An act universally indulged in by men may be +universally deplored as a weakness; it cannot be universally punished as +criminal unless all men join in penalizing one another. + +Other difficulties also arise to prevent the acceptance of the crime +concept. Prostitution and commerce therewith are indeed deplorable, but +whence, it is asked, does the State derive the right to interfere with +the voluntary exercise of personal liberty by mature individuals, so +long as no one else is disturbed thereby? We touch here the root of the +European view of the matter. The English urge that personal liberty in +this realm can be infringed only to prevent scandal,—that is, only when +something beyond mere prostitution is involved. “A woman may become +mistress or paramour,” said a high police official to me, “she may +indulge in occasional immorality as she pleases,—why not in +prostitution? She is only using her personal freedom.” Still more +plain-spoken was a Dutch authority: “A grown girl may do what she likes +with her own body.” No one hopes successfully to interfere by means of +penal legislation with the occasional immorality of two individuals; +laws aiming to punish fornication and adultery are therefore practically +dead letters, not only because proof is difficult, but because it is +commonly held to be no concern of the State, provided both parties to +the acts are willing. They are vices, therefore, not crimes, as +societies are now constituted. In the same category, contemporary +opinion in Europe is more and more inclined to place prostitution. The +unanimous enunciation of the French Extra-Parliamentary Commission +fairly expresses present day feeling: “The prostitution of women does +not constitute a crime and does not fall under the application of the +penal law.”[214] This dictum, be it noted, applies only to prostitution +in so far as it involves only two adults without annoyance or profit to +others. Nor is it to be understood as implying that society is either +indifferent or helpless. Denied the use of the criminal arm it still +possesses all the paraphernalia of education, hygiene, and social +reform. Our previous discussion of demand and supply will have suggested +that in the end enlightenment is of broader scope perhaps than +punishment,—even though, as we shall discover, the latter has its place. + +The foregoing interpretation of the present state of opinion is +confirmed by the fact that, with the qualification to be shortly +mentioned, prostitution is on the whole practically regarded in the same +light by all European nations. The qualification in question has +reference to controlled or inscribed prostitutes—who form a class apart, +are indulged or punished on lines peculiar to themselves and for +reasons, ostensible and actual, that will be fully discussed later.[215] +The point I now wish to emphasize is this: that the general attitude of +the European authorities towards prostitution in its totality is +practically the same, though the laws differ; and it is the same, +because public opinion is so nearly homogeneous. + +In England, Italy, Norway, Holland, and Switzerland,[216] there is no +penal enactment against prostitution as such. “Immorality in itself is +not an offence against the law,”[217] declares the Chief Constable of +Glasgow in a memorandum to the Corporation. A woman therefore runs no +risk of prosecution if quietly and inoffensively she receives men in her +room or house for the purpose of paid sexual intercourse.[218] In France +the ancient laws against immorality were swept away by the Code +Napoleon. Since then, an inoffensive prostitute has been absolutely free +to ply her trade without danger of molestation by the police. We shall +later learn that the police have indeed laid hands on several thousand +prostitutes whom they require to comply with certain regulations; but we +shall also see that this is but a negligible portion of the army engaged +in prostitution, that there exist peculiar reasons for singling them out +for attention, that they are not thus distinguished merely because they +are prostitutes, and that even so the police position in reference to +them is becoming increasingly untenable. + +A more complicated legal situation in Germany works out in much the same +way. On its face the penal code punishes professional prostitution for +money,[219]—i.e., prostitution is itself a crime. The section reads: +“Any woman shall be punished with imprisonment, who having been placed +under police control on account of professional prostitution, violates +regulations adopted by the police for the protection of health, order +and decency, or any woman, who, not having been placed under such +control, carries on prostitution for pay.”[220] A certain number of +women have been placed under police control; so long as these obey +police regulations affecting “health, order and decency,” their +professional prostitution is free from interference; in so far as they +are concerned, professional prostitution is not a crime. But the great +majority of German prostitutes are not under police control; they are +therefore liable to criminal prosecution as being professional +prostitutes. It is, however, a notorious fact that prosecution simply on +this score is not attempted. In Germany as in France, the inoffensive +prostitute is not molested. Practically, prostitution for money, called +a crime by the law, is treated as a vice by the authorities.[221] Women +are indeed sentenced to prison terms in accordance with provisions +quoted; but on investigation it will be discovered that they are +arrested not for prostitution, but for disorder, though they are +nominally punished as prostitutes. + +The statutory provisions respecting the prostitute’s domicile are +similarly interpreted. The law is very explicit: “Whoever habitually or +for profit assists prostitution by countenancing or affording facilities +for it, is to be punished with imprisonment for not less than one month, +and is liable to fine, besides, of from 150 to 6,000 marks, and to loss +of franchise. In case of mitigating circumstances, imprisonment can be +reduced to one day.”[222] Under the terms of this statute, the keeper of +a licensed bordell, the hotel proprietor who lets rooms for purposes of +assignation, the landlord who knows that his lodger is a prostitute, are +all guilty of crime. Nay, it has been held that merely renting a room to +a woman for the purpose is criminal even though criminal use is not +actually made of it; further, that the words “for profit” do not mean +that money must be received; food, drink, sexual gratification may form +the profit. By another section of the same law, the definition of +pandering is still further extended.[223] + +A small section of the German people would undoubtedly like to see the +enforcement of these laws attempted; but generally speaking, people +realize that suppression on such lines is unfair and impossible and that +the undertaking would be disastrous to the police. For the laws bear on +the woman and the renter, wholly passing over the man, who is at least +the accomplice and perhaps instigator. As a matter of fact, therefore, +no steps are taken against the keepers of such bordells as are conducted +on lines sanctioned by the police; inoffensively conducted _rendezvous_ +hotels are not molested; and women rent rooms freely wherever they +please, without danger to themselves or their landlords, so long as all +external proprieties are observed. That is to say, the law to the +contrary notwithstanding, prostitution is for all practical purposes a +vice, not a crime. Once more, the court calendars show more or less +numerous prosecutions for “pandering,” i. e., for infractions of the +paragraphs in question. Between 1903 and 1907, the prosecutions averaged +343 annually in Cologne; in Frankfort, 373; in Stuttgart, 57.[224] These +figures tell the tale; landlords are punished if attention is drawn to +them by scandal or otherwise; but the letter of the law, requiring +wholesale eviction, is ignored, because—among other reasons—it is +unsupported by public opinion. “Simple experience teaches that the +standpoint cannot be maintained.”[225] “The penal code proposes to +punish any one who rents a home to the prostitute,” writes Blaschko. +“That is an insupportable condition. Excessive severity leads to +arbitrary punishment of a few individuals, while the mass go unpunished. +The prostitute pays a higher rent to offset the landlord’s risk.”[226] +To the same effect writes Schmölder: “According to the law, a prostitute +is not entitled to have a domicile at all;—in practice they do +anyway.”[227] + +What has long been a dead letter, the newly projected criminal code +proposes now frankly to omit. If the present draft is adopted the law +will henceforth read: “Whoever habitually or for profit furnishes +facilities for prostitution shall be punished with imprisonment. This +provision is not to be applied to the renting of lodgings unless the +landlord undertakes to get a higher price through permitting +prostitution on the premises.”[228] The new paragraph thus seeks to free +prostitution as such from prosecution by enabling the prostitute to live +wherever a landlord is willing to rent her a room on the same basis as +anyone else; but a landlord who becomes a pander to the extent of +encouraging prostitution for the sake of obtaining high rentals remains +amenable to the law. A subsequent paragraph still further frees the +prostitute as such from punishment; it reads: “A person shall be +punished by arrest or imprisonment, who is a professional prostitute, +provided he or she violates the regulations set up for the protection of +health, order and decency.”[229] That is, the penalties are attached not +to the prostitute as such, but in so far as she oversteps limits imposed +by the police for the maintenance of health and order. Thus the law will +be squared with practice. In one respect also the proposed statute +registers an advance in public opinion, for it substitutes “person” for +“woman” and thus opens the way for a more equal treatment of the sexes. + +To the foregoing discussion, the theory and practice of other countries +add very little. A general conviction that prostitution is an evil not +to be tamely endured has led lawmakers from time to time to endeavor to +stamp it out on penal lines; but invariably the considerations +previously adduced have undermined the legislation in question. +Thereupon much ingenuity has been expended in some places in the effort +to gain another foothold. Granted,—say the lawmakers in Hungary and +Denmark—that prostitution in itself cannot be treated as a crime; at any +rate, the prostitute is a vagrant, in that she is without legitimate +means of support. She can therefore be put to hard labor as a public +menace, not because she is a prostitute, but because she is a parasite. +And in this determination,—it is argued—there is no unfairness, since +male tramps and vagrants are similarly disposed of. + +This indirect and disingenuous method of treating prostitution as a +crime has had, in practice, precisely the same fate as has befallen more +candid legislation. In the first place, it is dishonest: a vagrant is +homeless; the prostitute is a vagrant, therefore, only if she is without +a domicile. Fairness requires, therefore, that only homeless prostitutes +be taken up as vagrants and for that no special legislation is needed! +The statute will obviously not be invoked against prostitutes generally; +public opinion sustains its application only when there are other +objections than prostitution,—viz., homelessness, intoxication, etc., +and such offences can be otherwise reached. Moreover, in so far as the +prostitute is in reality aimed at through the subterfuge of vagabondage, +the man-accomplice once more escapes—an intolerable condition, as I have +already shown.[230] It remains then generally true that, despite all +legislation and endeavor to the contrary, prostitution in its elemental +form is regarded as a vice, not a crime. + +The situation as respects public opinion alters decidedly, however, the +moment the act involves others beside the two participants. As soon as +order, decency, the contamination of minors, or the interest of an +exploiter is involved, a totally different question arises. A man and a +woman may be permitted unobtrusively to arrange and carry out a +_rendezvous_. So far there appears to be no police method of dealing +with them effectively and impartially. Public sentiment is not ready; +efficient agencies have not been created; fundamental questions of +personal liberty may be raised. But when the streets are used to carry +on negotiations and thereby others are drawn into the maelstrom; when +third parties,—be they pimps, bordell-keepers, venders of liquor and +entertainment, or others,—endeavor to develop prostitution for their own +profit; when disease is communicated, not infrequently to innocent +persons: in all such cases a third party is concerned; and a public that +was more or less indifferent as to what took place between two mature +individuals has become increasingly clear as to its interest and duty. +The measures which were explained in the preceding chapter are required +and justified on this ground. The state prohibits the manufacture of +prostitutes by heavily penalizing the white slave traffic; it attacks +the pimp system on the score of its inhumanity and because it seeks to +widen artificially the scope of the prostitute’s operations; the +bordell, the liquor shop, the low cabaret are in the same category. +Wherever a case can be made out against a third party, the law tends to +become increasingly explicit and severe, for the reason that, even +though prostitution itself be only a vice, its exploitation for the +benefit of others violates every conception of humanity and needlessly +extends the range of demoralization and disease. + +The general European attitude may then be summed up as follows. The two +participants in every immoral act are more and more coming to be viewed +as of equal responsibility. Their conduct is as between themselves and +themselves alone, vicious and not criminal. It becomes criminal the +moment it becomes open, involving annoyance to others. In still higher +degree does criminality attach to any third party who profits by +promoting, stimulating, or countenancing the immorality of others. The +differentiation here indicated has by no means been consistently carried +out anywhere in practice or in theory; the laws lack codification, and +authority is more or less dispersed; but opinion is traveling in the +direction indicated, and law and administration are taking their cue +from it. + +The change of opinion from the crime concept to the vice concept of +prostitution accompanies and denotes not less, but greater, public +concern on the subject. For it betokens a critical and discriminating +study of the problem,—a reduction of its vast total into constituent +elements, each to be met by its own appropriate procedure. The societies +whose laws indiscriminately denounced all immorality as crime are +conspicuous for the futility of most of the steps which they took in +dealing with it. Results have appeared coincidentally with +discrimination. The scientific attitude has also introduced a mature and +deliberate, though not of course facile, hopefulness. A highly learned +German authority disputes even the necessity of prostitution: “What is +evil in prostitution is not necessary and what is necessary is not +evil.”[231] + +The situation as now characterized is, however, retarded and confused by +legislation, police regulations and habits of thought that represent +mere survivals from a standpoint now becoming obsolete. They are +tenaciously held to because, whatever view may be entertained as to +far-reaching policies, prostitution still exists as an evil to be +managed as part of the day’s work. Most conspicuous among the +traditional policies of the Continent is Regulation, to the examination +of which the following chapters will be devoted. + + + + + CHAPTER V + REGULATION AND ORDER—THE STREETS + + Regulation defined.—General description of the system.—Regulation in + Berlin.—Compulsory and voluntary inscription.—The Sittenpolizei + (Morals Police).—Variations from the Berlin system.—The Paris + system.—Additional variations.—Lack of legal sanction.—Administrative + punishment.—Liberality of regulation in Vienna.—Varying size of the + morals police division.—No approved system of regulation.—All alike + arbitrary in character.—Inscription lists relatively small.—General + tendency downwards.—Objections to regulation from standpoint of + rescue and preventive effort.—Objections to summary police + process.—The inscription of minors.—So-called clandestine + prostitution.—Omissions.—Disappearances.—External order in regulated + cities.—Failure of regulation to affect conditions.—Regulation + inconsistent with strict order on streets.—Arrests for infraction of + rules. + + +I have thus far endeavored to convey some notion of the complexity and +extent of modern prostitution and to point out the peculiar difficulties +that attend an effort to deal with it on simple lines. I have described +the measures now beginning to be taken to diminish demand, to abridge +supply, and to interfere with efforts to exploit the existing supply. +Endeavor in these various directions looks to gradual amelioration of +the situation now generally existing in large cities. Meanwhile, +prostitution is a phenomenon that must be dealt with by every municipal +government. What are the methods employed in Europe and with what +results? + +Generally speaking, two opposite policies are employed: regulation and +abolition. The former endeavors to handle prostitution by inducing it to +submit to certain rules; it urges that as a matter of fact prostitution +exists, is a social pest, and cannot be summarily wiped out; something +will, however, be gained for decency, health, and order, if the +phenomenon can be forced to conform to conditions laid down by the +police authorities. These conditions form the regulations from which the +policy in question derives its name. + +The opposing party—the abolitionists—agree as to the mischief due to +prostitution, as to the impossibility of extirpating it, as to the +difficulty of repressing it, as to the unwisdom of allowing it to +flourish rampant. They insist, however, that regulation fails to achieve +its purpose; worse still, as they argue, the moment prostitution is +accepted provided it submits to certain rules, the state is placed in +the position of authorizing, legalizing, or privileging the practice of +vice. While the regulationists claim that the privileges conferred do +not embody the license to do an immoral and illegal thing, but merely +involve common sense acceptance of the inevitable, the abolitionists +retort that, verbal quibbles to the contrary notwithstanding, regulation +is a compact with vice. In the present and succeeding chapters these two +opposing policies will be described and the effort will be made to +decide the issues raised by them. + +To describe regulation is by no means an easy or simple task; for the +systems in vogue in different places vary fundamentally and essentially. +They agree in stipulating that prostitutes registered with the police +must heed certain restrictions placed upon their conduct in the interest +of public order and decency, and that they must present themselves at +regular intervals for medical examination in the interest of public +health. They agree, that is, in their avowed objects. There is, however, +no general agreement whatsoever as to what is feasible or necessary in +order to attain the objects in question. The more thoroughly one +examines European practice and theory in the matter, the more one is +perplexed as to precisely what that practice and theory essentially are. +The general term “Regulation” covers up difficulties and inconsistencies +respecting which even the partisans of control are still widely at +variance. This will become clear, if, after describing the rules in +force at one place, I point out the divergencies from these that obtain +elsewhere. + +For the sake of simplicity, I shall divide the discussion into two +parts: the first dealing with registration and with regulation in so far +only as they touch the preservation of order and decency; the second, +dealing with regulation in so far as it touches the question of venereal +disease. Berlin shall furnish the basis of our discussion.[232] + +The Berlin prostitute almost invariably first comes into contact with +the police in consequence of street soliciting.[233] The plain-clothes +morals police, shortly to be described, are charged with the duty of +watching not only registered women—to see that they respect the +regulations—but also unregistered women whose actions arouse the +suspicion that they are seeking to practise prostitution for money,—the +offence which is alone obnoxious to German law.[234] We are concerned to +trace the course of the latter. + +A woman whose behavior is suspicious is, in the first instance, warned +by the officer—not arrested; if warning is unavailing, arrest follows. +Should she prove to the examining officer before whom she is taken that +she has a proper dwelling-place, she is released on undertaking to +appear next day before the morals police; if she is without dwelling or +resources, she is taken there at once. In any case, she has at police +headquarters no contact whatsoever with inscribed women, who may happen +to be under arrest at the same time. Whatever may happen elsewhere, +contamination does not occur there. Henceforth the procedure varies, +according as the girl is under 18 years of age, between 18 and 21, or +over 21. If under 18, she can nowadays in no event be inscribed; she +must be turned over to her natural or legal guardian or to the juvenile +court in order to bring her under proper conditions either in her own +home or in an institution of the required type. If the girl is between +18 and 21, the same preliminary steps are taken; the morals police +communicate with parent or guardian, as previously mentioned; and an +endeavor is made to secure wholesome conditions for her at home, in some +other family or in an institution.[235] If these efforts are +unsuccessful,—and the facilities are so far in arrears of the +requirements that successful placing is possible for only a small +fraction of the cases,—the girl, despite the fact that she is a minor, +may be inscribed, should she be re-arrested for the same offence and +adjudged guilty in court.[236] Women over 21 are at once turned over to +the courts upon arrest and after conviction may be summarily enrolled. +In addition to such enrolment by compulsion, women over 21 are also +enrolled upon their own application. + +Up to the moment of inscription, prostitution for money or its +equivalent is an offence punishable by imprisonment and hard labor; +after inscription, the state withdraws its objection. The woman is +permitted or authorized to earn her living by prostitution, provided she +obey the following directions.[237] + +She must not loiter offensively in streets and public places, nor +solicit, nor be found in the company of prostitutes or pimps;[238] +except in case of urgent need, she must not walk in the following +streets and places, viz., The Zoological Garden, Unter den Linden, +Friedrichstrasse, Potsdamer Platz, etc.;[239] she is forbidden to linger +in the vicinity of schools, churches or royal buildings, or to attend +the theater, circus, expositions, museums, or concert gardens attached +thereto;[240] she is to have no intercourse of any kind with +minors;[241] she must admit police officers at any time into her +dwelling, day or night, and give information about any person discovered +with her;[242] she must keep police headquarters constantly informed of +her address;[243] she may not reside in the vicinity of schools, +churches, or public buildings and must change her dwelling on peremptory +notice from the police.[244] Any infraction of these regulations is +punishable by imprisonment for not longer than six weeks; but the +condemned woman may also be remanded to the police, on expiration of +this sentence, for a workhouse term imposed by the police of not +exceeding two years, in their discretion. + +I have said that inscription at Berlin may be either compulsory or +voluntary; that is, an unregistered woman arrested for practising +prostitution without authorization in the shape of police registration +and thereafter either warned in vain or punished, may be inscribed by +the police, even though she protest against it; thenceforth she is +compelled to comply with the regulations above named as well as those to +be hereafter described in dealing with the sanitary aspect of police +control. This is compulsory inscription. Or, without waiting to be +forcibly inscribed, she may appear and herself request to be inscribed, +whereby she voluntarily undertakes to respect the obligations that +inscription imposes upon her. It is apparently easy to understand why a +police force, believing in the necessity of regulation as a means of +preserving decorum, and in its efficacy as a means of promoting +sanitation, should favor compulsory inscription; but why should a +prostitute herself, without pressure from the police, ever ask to be +subjected to its régime? A complete explanation will gradually emerge as +we proceed with the description and discussion of regulation; but a +partial account must be given at once. I remarked in the foregoing +chapter that prostitution for gain is in itself a crime according to the +letter of the German law; the prostitute is liable to arrest, +punishment, eviction, whenever it can be proved that she earns money +through immorality, whether she have other occupation or not.[245] +Voluntary inscription is an open confession of irregular life as a +business. Instead, however, of leading to her immediate punishment for +admitted violation of the law, confession and inscription operate in +precisely the contrary way; they relieve the woman of molestation +provided she agrees to carry on her illegal business in compliance with +police formulæ. Once inscribed, she is free to seek and to entertain +patrons as long as she does so without scandal. Inscription—voluntary or +compulsory—thus involves her submission to certain conditions, more or +less restrictive and capable of somewhat disturbing her business +operations; but it has the great advantage of relieving the prostitute +of vague dread of police interference in general. How far the conditions +to which she subscribes when registered are enforced we shall learn +later. + +The characteristic features of the Berlin regulations are then as +follows: either voluntary or compulsory inscription; arbitrary and +additional police sentence following judicial sentence, in case the +court so orders; interdiction to prostitutes of prominent thoroughfares, +amusement, and other resorts; non-inscription of minors under 18; +possible inscription of minors between 18 and 21; and complete control +of dwelling-places. As the local police are opposed to bordells and +brothels, it follows that the legalized prostitution of Berlin is +scattered through the city. + +For the enforcement of the Berlin regulations a specialized police +division, known as the Sittenpolizei or morals police, exists. Its head +is an Inspector; he is assisted by five assistants, called +Commissioners; and he commands a force of 200 patrolmen, who, in plain +clothes, walk the streets in pairs. These men have sole and complete +charge of the vice problem; the uniformed police have no duty or +responsibility in connection with prostitutes or prostitution, +intervening only in case of an emergency—a street brawl, for example, +when there are no morals police in sight. The duty of the morals force +is twofold. First, they observe the inscribed women, in order to prevent +infractions of the regulations. If a medical visit—to be described in a +subsequent chapter[246]—is missed, a morals patrolman searches for and +produces the offender; if a registered woman otherwise notoriously +transgresses her bargain, it is left to the morals policeman to take her +in hand. Secondly, the morals force is charged with the duty of watching +the uninscribed—usually called clandestine—prostitutes. I have already +told how these women are observed, warned, and if they continue to be +objectionable, arrested;—in all these steps, the morals patrolman is the +agent who deals with the prostitute. His judgment and discretion +determine who shall be warned, who shall be arrested, and thus, in the +long run, who shall be forcibly inscribed. I shall shortly explain more +fully the working of the system, but it is important at the outset to +show the reader the nature and extent of the responsibility laid on the +morals police. + +Regardless, for the moment, of the manner in which the above mentioned +regulations are executed, or the results thereby attained, it is +interesting to note that in no two German cities is the same system in +vogue. Nor do the differences touch mere matters of detail; they go to +the very root of the whole matter. Berlin has, as we have seen, in +addition to voluntary, also compulsory inscription, with scattered +prostitution; that is to say, a prostitute detected in the practice of +her vocation may be inscribed against her will; thereafter she is forced +to reside in a place approved by the police,—which place will in no +event be a brothel or a bordell. Bremen, proceeding on the basis of the +same statute, has only voluntary inscription, and women who thus offer +themselves for inscription are compelled to occupy quarters in a single +street in houses which, whatever the theory, are practically +bordells;[247] that is, no woman is inscribed except on her own +application and a woman so inscribed may remove her name from the list +at her pleasure; the sole condition being that she live in +Helenenstrasse during inscription, and remove from it to some other part +of the city whenever she cancels her enrolment; of course, cancellation +of her inscription and removal to another part of town do not +necessarily involve any change in her occupation. Therefore a small +number of Bremen prostitutes are inscribed and corralled; the rest—all +non-registered—live as and where they will. Bremen and Berlin are +therefore decidedly dissimilar. Other cities differ from them both and +from each other. Munich, for example, has, like Bremen, only voluntary +inscription, but, unlike Bremen and like Berlin, only scattered +prostitution. Stuttgart adds another variation: for, unlike Bremen, +Munich, and Berlin, the inscribed women live in scattered bordells, and +in them only. Hamburg is again different: for, like Berlin, it has both +compulsory and voluntary inscription, while, contrary to all the above +examples, the inscribed women live partly in bordells on a number of +different streets and partly in approved but scattered lodgings on the +Berlin plan. Nor are the possible combinations even yet exhausted: for +Dresden, Cologne, Frankfort, and other cities have each its own +idiosyncrasies. + +Substantially the same variations are found in the other countries and +cities that I visited. For example, in Paris, inscription is, as in +Berlin, both voluntary and compulsory; the inscribed prostitute dwells +in a bordell or not, as she pleases; she may, however, instead of living +in a bordell, leave her name and address with the keeper of an +authorized _rendezvous_ house, to which she regularly repairs or may be +summoned between certain hours; these houses, like the bordells, are +found in many sections of the city; meanwhile no part of the town is +exempt from prostitutes occupying scattered lodgings. Though they are +thickest in certain well-known sections of Montmartre and the left bank +of the Seine, they are also found in the Avenue Victor Hugo and the +fashionable streets radiating from the Arc de Triomphe. In Vienna, once +more, only voluntary inscription prevails: no woman is enrolled against +her will. But if a woman carries on professional prostitution, the +regulations make it her duty to enroll herself voluntarily; if she fails +in this duty, she may suffer seriously! The rules expressly provide that +the police shall handle the non-registered women more severely than the +registered.[248] The woman’s freedom to enroll or not as she pleases is +thus ostensible rather than actual. It is assuredly a bit casuistical to +maintain that the prostitute may inscribe herself or not—only she will +be relentlessly pursued if she fails to exercise her option in the +desired direction. Once registered, however, she may live in a bordell, +or, as all but a mere handful do, privately. At Budapest, the girl is +first turned over to a social worker who pleads with her to desist from +her evil ways. If her efforts prove unavailing, registration follows. +Meanwhile, unregistered prostitution is harried with great severity. The +Stockholm regulations also make it the woman’s duty to register;[249] +but, as the chief of the division is authorized to observe +non-registered women “suspected of immorality,”[250] it is clear that +compulsory enrolment is not impossible. + +Divergencies touch other points also: as for example, the circumstances +that lead to arrest; the registration of minors; of married women; of +women with other means of livelihood; the employment of non-judicial +administrative punishment; the cancellation of inscription; etc. Married +women can be forcibly enrolled in Paris and Berlin and, with the +husband’s consent, in Budapest. They are not even at their own request +permitted to enroll in Munich or Vienna. In one place it is argued that +marriage is often a mere form, for the husband is only the woman’s pimp; +if regulation is efficacious, or meant to be efficacious, it cannot +allow itself to be defeated by such a technicality. Elsewhere it is +argued that the institution of marriage is degraded, if a married woman +is expressly authorized by the law to practise prostitution for her +livelihood, and by inscription allowed to gain immunity for an otherwise +intolerable and illegal line of behavior. Again, in the matter of other +employment: the Berlin and Paris rules proceed on the assumption that +many occupations are either cloaks for the practice of professional +prostitution, or do not affect the character of the woman concerned. The +whole intent of inscription can therefore be defeated if the mere fact +that a woman follows some sort of occupation necessarily exempts her +from inscription. Hence women so engaged may be enrolled if they are +professional prostitutes. Indeed, the rules of some cities give these +women a certain leeway in the matter of reporting to the police so that +their other occupation may not be interfered with. The point is that +Paris, Berlin, and other North German towns see no inconsistency between +registration as a professional prostitute and simultaneous employment as +barmaid or otherwise. Bremen, Stuttgart, Munich, and Budapest take a +very different view. They regard any kind of employment as the beginning +or possibility of salvation; as soon as a girl begins to earn something +honestly, there is hope that she may clamber out of the mire; to enroll +her would be to brand her and thus to bar the road to betterment. +Finally, as to punishment: at Paris administrative punishment is +regarded as the very core of regulation. A registered woman has no legal +rights. She is absolutely in the hands of the police inspector, who, on +hearing the morals patrolman’s complaint against her, pronounces +sentence upon her. She may, of course, protest her innocence, but she is +allowed neither attorney to represent nor witnesses to support her. Nor +can the action of the police be reviewed by any regularly constituted +court of justice. The Paris police regard regulation as unworkable +without this summary administrative power. The Prussian police partly +disagree. They prefer that the courts should act in the first instance. +Only after the courts declare the woman guilty of professional +prostitution does she fall to the jurisdiction of the police. Once +there, however, she is absolutely without legal rights. At Hamburg and +Dresden it is likewise argued that prompt action, unhampered by +technicalities, is the only way to deal with such culprits, and +administrative punishment is accordingly still in vogue. The women may +without judicial trial be sent to jail on sentences running from 7 to 14 +days, with 6 months more in the workhouse if without home or occupation. + +Finally, in the matter of withdrawal from the police lists: Bremen, +Stuttgart, Vienna, and Budapest cancel inscription on request; they +regard every request as the possibility of a return to decency, and +fearful of ever interfering with such a desire, however faint, never +interpose an objection. Hamburg and Berlin, on the contrary, cancel no +inscription until the police are satisfied that the woman is in earnest; +an applicant is therefore secretly watched and on the report of an +ordinary patrolman embodying his interpretation of her comings and +goings, the ability of a prostitute to get a fresh start wholly depends. +Stockholm removes a woman from the list “until further notice” in case +she announces her decision to return to a decent life, proves to the +inspector that she has an honorable occupation or other means of +support, and after three months’ surveillance, is favorably regarded. + +In one respect, Vienna differs at least in the letter of the regulations +from all other cities. The reader will have remarked the effort of the +Berlin stipulations to remove the prostitute from human associations. +She is barred from certain streets; she is forbidden certain places of +amusement. These restrictions are not conditioned upon her conduct, but +upon the fact that she is a prostitute, and they form an important part +of the regulations not only of Berlin, but of Paris, Munich, Brussels, +and other cities. We shall have something to say later of the +enforcement of these, as well as other, rules. But, as showing once more +the total failure of any agreement as to the details, the new Vienna +regulation entirely abandons even the attempt to make the prostitute an +outcast in this sense; she is only forbidden to appear in a group of +immoral women or with a pimp. As to the rest, it is expressly declared: +“In respect to her behavior she is liable only to the same rules as to +order and decency that apply to all other persons.”[251] + +Divergencies might be still further multiplied. I might point out that +there is no agreement as to what constitutes the sort of prostitution +which must be amenable to regulation, if regulation is successfully to +achieve its purpose in preserving order and health. Germany holds that +regulation need apply to prostitution only in so far as money passes; +and the actual passing of a material consideration must be either +admitted or proved. Austria urges that no headway can be made against +such a technicality; the Vienna police, therefore, after watching and +vainly warning, arrest on suspicion. Berlin acts most rigorously when +the girl is without a definite home;[252] Stuttgart and Bremen enroll +only when the girl has a definite home, and in a bordell[253] at that. +It is clear that the variations mentioned seriously involve the nature, +scope, and applicability of the system. I shall, as I proceed, discuss +them on their merits. But I want for the present simply to call +attention to the fact that, what at long range is called a system, or +the system, of regulation, proves on fuller knowledge to be a very large +number of systems,—a confusion of systems, inconsistent with one another +in viewpoint and diverse in organization, range, operation, and even +purpose. Confusion in structure may be taken to indicate that a +satisfactory technique of regulation remains to be worked out. It +becomes, therefore, important to accompany any discussion of the merits +or demerits of regulation with a bill of particulars specifying the +precise form of regulation in question; for the variations above noted +are not immaterial or accidental. Their number and importance at once +introduce grave suspicion into the mind of the disinterested observer. + +Though systems of regulation differ thus in practically every respect, +they are singularly alike in one highly important regard: they have been +generally developed by more or less arbitrary action on the part of the +police and without the deliberate and express sanction of a competent +legislative authority. From this statement, the British Contagious +Disease Act—long since repealed—must be excepted; to the extent that +that legislation introduced regulation into Great Britain, adequate +legislative authority could not be said to be lacking in any respect; +the Belgian system, too, reposing on communal law,[254] is apparently +well authorized; such is also the case in Hungary, where two +statutes—one passed in 1876, the other in 1899,—authorize the police +regulation of prostitution. Elsewhere this is not, and never has been, +the case. But continental tradition accords to the police an extensive +jurisdiction and initiative in regard to matters more or less loosely +left within their province. In dealing with certain matters, the police +are therefore in the habit of taking summary and arbitrary action on the +basis of custom or on the warrant of ancient degrees of dubious +validity. The courts usually decline to interfere, even though, as I +shall show, they do not hesitate to impugn the adequacy of the legal +basis. The police have everywhere become acutely uncomfortable on the +subject. They cling to the powers; but they crave explicit legislative +warrant such as will place their authority beyond suspicion. This +legislative reassurance they have nowhere obtained; neither in France, +nor Germany, nor Austria has the national legislature deliberately and +unambiguously created or even sustained by statutory enactment the +police regulation of prostitution, as now carried on in those three +countries: nay, more, in certain important respects, regulation has been +practised by the police only by subterfuge in more or less plain +disregard of the letter of the statutes. + +The questions here involved are obviously of highly technical character. +The statement above made would not be greatly strengthened by the +citation of even weighty authorities, who are opposed to regulation on +principle; it would be easy to point out that their interpretation of +the law may unconsciously and even unintentionally have been influenced +by their position in reference to the policy itself. I propose therefore +to quote only jurists who are favorable to regulation, men whose +interest lies in making out the strongest possible case for its legal +warrant. As to Paris, I shall follow M. Lépine, to whom I have +previously referred as an extraordinarily able official.[255] The powers +there exercised by the police in respect to prostitution are derived +from a royal ordinance of 1684 appointing the Salpétrière for the +reception of prostitutes and vaguely prescribing that final sentences in +respect to them may be imposed by the police; by two subsequent +ordinances of 1778 and 1780 forbidding the renting of rooms to +prostitutes; and by a law of the year VIII (1799) authorizing the police +to watch prostitution, to provide for the security of the streets and to +check epidemics and infectious disease. From these general directions to +the minute specifications and exemptions of the Paris regulatory system +is indeed a far call. It is impossible seriously to maintain that they +warrant or were ever intended to warrant the procedure ostensibly +derived from them. The police themselves are so conscious of the +uncertain footing on which their system rests, that they have again and +again sought its validation through express legislation. In the year IV +(1795) of the Republic, the directory vainly asked that the legislative +body define prostitution and “give judicial proceedings a special form”; +subsequent failures to obtain explicit legislative sanction are recorded +in 1798 and in 1810,—the latter being the date of the recasting of the +penal code; legislators were at that time not prepared to forbid +regulation, but they refused to write it explicitly on the statute book. +In 1811, 1816, 1822, 1848, 1877, and 1895 similar efforts met with the +same failure. Reviewing these unavailing endeavors to establish +regulation on a secure legal basis, M. Lépine declared before the +Extra-Parliamentary Commission: “In these conditions the Police Prefect +has had no other resource but to cling to old methods which, even if not +converted into laws, have been tolerated and approved by all +governments.”[256] + +The situation is no better in the rest of France. Regulation in the +provincial cities is based on certain paragraphs of a law of April 5, +1884,[257] in reference to which M. Hennequin, of the Ministry of the +Interior, a pronounced regulationist, admits: “Without doubt, the law +does not speak expressly of morals, and prostitution is not referred to +by name in article 97:”[258] that is, the comparatively recent statute, +on which provincial regulation in France rests, does not venture to +mention the policy in defense of which it is now invoked. The Austrian +regulations are likewise a creation of the police, ostensibly pursuant +to a general statutory provision that vaguely leaves the “punishment of +professional prostitutes to the police authority.”[259] But regulation +consists not in _punishing_, but in _condoning_ prostitution, provided +certain police stipulations be complied with. Like its French prototype, +the Austrian system thus lacks statutory basis as well as express +legislative sanction; and precisely as the French defect is admitted by +M. Lépine, regulationist, so the corresponding Austrian flaw is +confessed by Dr. Baumgarten, the capable, humane and cultivated official +who presided over the morals police of Vienna: “The legal basis upon +which the present system of police regulation reposes is throughout +vulnerable.”[260] The law must be so amended, he urges, that the police +are charged, not with _punishing_ prostitution, but with _watching_ and +_controlling_ it, on lines to be devised by themselves. Only if so +amended would the present system rest on an unequivocal legal basis. +Needless to say, no such amendment has yet been carried,[261] and the +regulation system in vogue in Austria stands, because, as in France, +lacking the protection of the _habeas corpus_ writ, the outcast can +obtain no footing in court. + +The foundation of regulation in Germany is equally dubious. Paragraph +180 of the Criminal Code makes it a punishable offence to rent a room to +a prostitute. Now the moment the police inscribe a prostitute, they +register her dwelling-place; and they bear with particular severity on +prostitutes who are “without a definite domicile.”[262] Regulation[263] +begins, therefore, by flying in the face of the statute: whether +regulated prostitutes live scattered, as in Berlin, or interned, as the +Hamburg police prefer, regulation in so far as it involves their +inhabiting dwelling-places approved by the police is inconsistent with +the section quoted. Grave doubt exists further as to whether in any +event compulsory inscription is legally defensible. The present Imperial +Chancellor admitted that the law is “illogical and confused;”[264] and +the most recent decision of the Reichsgericht, involving the +interpretation of the statute, concedes that “the competency of the +police in the matter of compulsory inscription is not uncontested.”[265] +A recent ministerial instruction[266] endeavors to break the force of +objection, as far as possible without amendment of the statute, by +insisting that, though the police still retain the power of forcible +registration, it is not to be exercised in Prussia until the woman has +been regularly convicted of professional prostitution. A recent defence +of the adequacy of the legal basis pursues a line of argument itself +calculated to deepen mistrust: “The police are competent to do +whatsoever follows from the general nature of their business; they are +entitled to take such measures as are naturally dictated by their +objects. They are therefore competent to take such measures in reference +to prostitution as contribute to the achievement of police purposes. Now +the regulations governing prostitution aim to protect order and health. +Regulation is therefore a function that follows from the general +competency of the police. That is true in Prussia as in France. The +stipulations of the police regulations have therefore the force of +law.”[267] It will be observed that this author makes no pretense of +higher warrant than that of necessity as judged by a police authority +making its own rules. But perhaps still stronger evidence of the legal +insecurity of the existing systems is furnished by the radical changes +proposed in the draft of a new criminal code. Conceding that +prostitution as such is not to be punishable as a crime, it takes the +position that “it is necessary to watch prostitution” and empowers the +police to issue the necessary regulations, subject to prior enactments +on the part of the state legislatures; but these regulations may not +distinguish between controlled and non-controlled prostitutes,—they must +be applicable to all alike.[268] + +The most striking fact in connection with the operation of all systems +of regulation is the small inscription list. There are, it is true, +variations: but the largest list, that of Paris, probably includes +hardly more than one prostitute in eight, from which maximum the lists +in other cities decline rapidly to utter insignificance. The following +table exhibits the size of the inscription lists, the population of the +towns in question, and the ratio between the two.[269] + +The facts that stand out are the fractional nature of enrolment at its +very best, and the enormous variations in ratio. I shall point out the +reasons for this and later inquire for the effects.[270] + + RATIO OF INSCRIBED WOMEN TO POPULATION + Number of inscribed Ratio of latter to + Population women former + Paris 2,888,110 6,000 (Approx.) 1 to 481 + Marseilles[271] 550,619 639 1 to 861 + Bordeaux 261,678 410 1 to 638 + Lille 217,807 108 1 to 2,016 + Nantes 170,535 125 1 to 1,364 + Le Havre 136,159 136 1 to 1,001 + Toulon 104,582 325 1 to 322 + Berlin 2,071,257 3,559 1 to 582 + Hamburg 931,035 935 1 to 995 + Munich 596,467 173 1 to 3,441 + Dresden 548,308 293 1 to 1,871 + Cologne[272] 516,527 600 1 to 828 + Frankfort 414,576 300 1 to 1,382 + Stuttgart 286,218 22 1 to 13,010 + Bremen 247,437 75 1 to 3,299 + Mannheim 193,902 14 1 to 13,850 + Augsburg 102,487 6 1 to 17,081 + Munster 90,254 1 1 to 90,254 + Vienna 2,031,498 1,689 1 to 1,203 + Budapest 880,371 2,000 (Approx.) 1 to 440 + Rome 542,123 225 1 to 2,409 + Stockholm[273] 346,599 554 1 to 625 + Brussels 659,000 182 1 to 3,621 + Geneva 154,159 86 1 to 1,793 + +Different years show a considerable fluctuation in the above totals, but +the general tendency is markedly downward. Paris, for instance, +inscribed 4,519 in the year 1830, when its population was 800,000;[274] +in 1873, the registration was practically the same, 4,603; thenceforth +it declined steadily to 2,816 a decade later; since that time a +progressive rise brings it in 1903 to 6,418;[275] a decline is again in +progress, for 1910 does not exceed 6,000. At Berlin there was a steady +rise from 1886 to 1896: the list stood at 3,006 in the former year, +5,098 in the latter; since which time, despite increased population, the +enrolment declined to 3,115 in 1905;[276] i. e., almost 40%. The last +figures obtainable show a registration of 3,559. In Vienna, 1,780 stood +on the books in 1900, decreasing year by year until only 1,441 remained +in 1910; since the revision of the rules in that year, increased vigor +has brought about an increase to 1,689.[277] Hamburg has receded from +1,266 in 1903 to 935 in 1910.[278] Breslau dropped from 1,856 in 1889 to +1,045 just five years later;[279] Mannheim from 60 in 1890 to 13 in +1902.[280] Stockholm reached practically the same high water mark at +different intervals, showing the inevitable fluctuations with which, +there as everywhere else, inscription has been pursued. In 1903 the +number stood at 936,—the figure which it had also reached over a quarter +of a century before. Thereupon there came a decided drop: 119 women had +been newly enrolled in 1903; 67 were enrolled in 1904. By the year 1912, +the total enrolment—itself considerably larger than the effective +enrolment—had sunk to 554.[281] + +In most cities—as the figures above given show—regulation is moribund, +and in many quite dead. As compared with the total volume of +prostitution, the enrolment is at the best unimportant, and at the +worst, altogether negligible. Paris, as I have said, registers perhaps +one in eight. If, as is estimated, there are 30,000 prostitutes in +Vienna,[282] the maximum inscription is barely 5%. As opposed to a +registration of 225 in Rome, the police records show 5,000 women under +observation at one time or another.[283] In the year 1909, 140 women +were inscribed at Munich; during the same year, the police were keeping +track of 2,076 clandestine prostitutes: the enrolment was thus less than +7% of those actually known,—and they were only part of the whole;[284] +in 1911, with 173 women inscribed, 2,574 clandestines were under police +observation, the former about 7% of the latter.[285] + +The inexperienced outsider may jump to the conclusion that an active and +efficient police administration could easily enough gather into its net +most—or at least many—of those who now slip through. As a matter of +fact, there has been in some towns no lack of endeavor to accomplish +this very thing; but it does not, and cannot, succeed for reasons that +will be explained. And this quite regardless of the existence of any +strong sentiment adverse to regulation as such. + +Nowhere, of course, is forcible inscription possible, unless a clear +case can be made out. The police agents are therefore bound to proceed +with great circumspection. They are indeed instructed that a hundred +omissions are preferable to a single error, or apparent error. The agent +may lay hands on the poor and friendless street-walker without danger of +exciting hostile criticism; but for several reasons the more +sophisticated forms of prostitution he dare not touch. Proof is harder; +the woman has friends; the public resents interference with personal +liberty. Forcible enrolment, therefore, very quickly encounters limits +beyond which it cannot be pushed. The mere size of the force at the +disposal of the police inspectors makes little difference; Berlin has a +relatively large body of agents, Vienna a very small one. Yet the latter +achieves almost as much as the former, because neither can forcibly +detain any but the most obvious and flagrant offenders. + +But there is another difficulty, connected with the size of the morals +division. Berlin sets aside 200 men for the service; Paris 240; Vienna +6; Brussels 6; Dresden 18; Frankfort 14; Hamburg 24; Budapest 32; Bremen +3. It is complained at Berlin that 200 are inadequate; clearly then six +cannot suffice for Vienna. Yet to any proposition to increase the force +materially the objection is made that only a small body of men can be +protected against corruption or defilement. The morals police are thus +on the horns of a dilemma; if numerous enough to be aggressive they are +exposed to corruption; if few, they are inadequate. For, be it +remembered, wherever enforced inscription is in vogue, the morals police +have enormous power. It practically lies with them to say whether the +clandestine prostitute walking the streets is to be cited before the +division head for punishment and enrolment; whether the registered woman +is to be permitted with impunity to violate the stipulations above +given, or to be punished for infraction thereof. In general, the perils +to which a large force is exposed have decided the authorities in favor +of a small one; with the result that thorough and consistent action is +impossible. + +A somewhat apologetic attitude has resulted from the general failure of +even forcible inscription to make a better showing: one is told that the +police do not desire a large list; that registration is purposely +limited, etc. The concrete evidence in favor of this purpose is the +presence at the larger police establishments of a social worker who +endeavors to dissuade women from the pursuit of a vicious life; but this +explanation is not convincing. Of course, regulation has no interest in +keeping in prostitution women who can be induced to leave it; but in the +case of women who are prostitutes and who cannot be dissuaded to desist, +regulation, if effective, must certainly enroll them. Regulation has no +desire to swell the ranks; but it cannot succeed unless it has a +complete list of those really in the ranks. The police apology is an +indirect admission that under modern conditions prostitution by reason +of its protean nature cannot be catalogued. + +From the impossibility of cataloguing prostitution, other disastrous +consequences to which I have already adverted, inevitably flow. Wherever +a certain number of individuals are guilty of an offence, and but an +inconsiderable proportion of the guilty are punished, the favoritism of +the law leads inevitably into blackmail and corruption, by which it is +still further defeated. I shall discuss this aspect of the problem +somewhat more fully later on;[286] but at this point it is important to +note that, despite the unimpeachable character of the police heads, and +the splendid quality of the general force, wherever forcible inscription +is practised, that portion of the police force which comes into contact +with prostitution, viz., the morals police, is widely believed to be +contaminated. Whether with money or favors, the women buy immunity from +inscription; the patrolman, warned by his superiors that it is better to +let a hundred guilty women escape than to make one mistake, easily +conceals corruption beneath the pretense of caution. + +Forcible inscription is therefore predestined to failure. But there are +weighty objections to it even in the limited form in which it is still +employed in a few places. For it traverses at right angles the modern +spirit. Our discussion of the nature of prostitution indicated that it +is frequently only a phase through which thousands of women pass; their +individual interest and the interest of society require that every +facility for exit and oblivion should be furnished. Regulation does +precisely the reverse: it brands the scarlet letter upon the woman’s +forehead. The heedless victim of an escapade may be thus converted into +a life-long outcast; society may be saddled with her and the harm she +spreads as a permanent burden, hardly to be got rid of, so long as she +lives. And this power, which once for all deprives her of the aspiration +to improve, is ultimately lodged in the hands of an ordinary patrolman: +_his_ observation, _his_ judgment, _his_ interpretation, _his_ assertion +determine whether or not she is to be pushed across the dividing line +into the abyss: his word against the girl’s. Bad though she may be, her +reluctance to request inscription is the faint voice of her better self, +not yet completely silenced; assuredly it is the function of a society, +whose arrangements are by no means guiltless of her fate, not to +extinguish, but to foster the feeble flicker of endangered personality. +It must not be forgotten that in every city there are at this moment +thousands of women technically liable to inscription who will in their +middle twenties and later emerge from immorality and prostitution;[287] +they can for the most part emerge, precisely because they are not +inscribed; successful inscription would in most cases finally rupture +the tie that will ultimately rescue them. It may be questioned whether a +mature woman ought to be permitted by society even voluntarily to brand +herself a professional prostitute: there is no shadow of doubt that no +modern society can afford to compel her to do so.[288] + +The essentially medieval character of forcible inscription, by which +alone, I repeat, any showing at all can be made, is most clearly +illustrated by its connection with summary police power. No system of +inscription can achieve even the fractional success of the Paris and +Berlin systems if it allows the accused girl counsel and witnesses. For +the lists are kept at their present minimal size only because the police +can by summary action build them up as fast as they melt away.[289] +Frightful miscarriages of justice are bound to occur in consequence of +arbitrary action: for example, a woman leaving her wretched home in the +Rue des Cordiers is arrested by a morals policeman, in spite of her +protestations that she is on her way to procure medicine for a sick +child; while she is detained in prison, the child dies in the course of +the night.[290] Following her arbitrary detention, the Paris suspect is +brought before a police bureaucrat, who hears the accusing patrolman, +asks the girl or woman, perhaps terrified and certainly undefended, a +few questions and summarily orders her enrolment, if he so please: +thenceforth she is not only a social, but a legal outcast. She can by no +legal ingenuity be brought before a regularly constituted court; she is +amenable to police authority alone. Should she break, or be accused of +breaking, the stipulations to which she is now compulsorily +subordinated, she must accept the penalties imposed by the bureau chief, +without protest. Utter helplessness is her lot; and that too amid +conditions that conspire to bring about not improvement but further +degradation. For the accessories to Paris regulation, the depot at +police headquarters, the hospital and prison at St. Lazare are sheer +survivals into our day of the barbarous dungeons of the middle ages. +Whoso enters them may be said with truth to leave all hope behind. The +present presiding officer endeavors to impart a more or less humane +spirit to his decisions; but the conditions under which his power is +exercised would overtax the wisdom of Solomon. The task is itself wholly +out of keeping with the modern spirit. + +Essentially, the objections to summary police action are equally strong +in Germany. Dr. Lindenau argues that the woman is technically somewhat +protected against police tyranny; but, he adds: “One must none the less +grant that the procedure in question is not well known to them. +Moreover, at best it procures only a police decision reached on the +basis of the police officer’s personal impressions.” + +Insuperable difficulties thus confront a vigorous regulatory policy. If +regulation is needed to protect order and health and to prevent scandal, +then it is obviously impossible to leave it optional with the prostitute +whether she will be inscribed or not; force is absolutely necessary to +success. But to force there is at once the objection that it can be +applied to but relatively few cases at all; that it cannot be applied to +these without suspending all legal guarantees, and that, once these are +suspended, the way is open to corruption and oppression that are to a +modern community utterly intolerable. + +But we have not yet recounted all the difficulties that beset +regulation. Not even forcible enrolment can greatly swell the lists +unless the inscription of minors is allowed. That the duty of the state +towards defenceless or erring children is custodial would appear to be a +principle on which modern society had already agreed; for a minor, at +any rate, there is always at least a ray of hope. Experience already +touched on shows, further, that though prostitution is commonest in the +teens and early twenties, large numbers of those who give way in these +years recover their self-possession afterwards. Hence, forcible or even +permissible inscription of girls under twenty-one is the very acme of +unwisdom and inhumanity. Yet, without it, a substantial inscription list +is impossible. Had the Paris police refused to enroll minors their list, +already relatively small, would have almost collapsed: between 1888 and +1903, 12,471 women were inscribed at Paris, 38% of whom were minors at +the time.[291] In the year 1901, 635 women over 21 years old and 660 +minors were forcibly enrolled,—more minors than adults![292] The same +monstrous practice prevails elsewhere. The Stockholm regulations state +that as a rule girls under 17 are not to be inscribed; yet of 4,651 new +registrations between 1859 and 1904, 1,353 were under twenty years of +age;[293] of 338 women enrolled in 1905, 196 (i. e., 58%) had been +registered during their minority.[294] In Germany minors are inscribed +in Bonn, Danzig, Dessau (“but not under sixteen years of age!”), +Frankfort, where 43 were between sixteen and nineteen years of age, +Mannheim, Rostock, Wiesbaden, etc. In the small Munich enrolment—143 in +1909—there were six minors,—Munich-born.[295] Dufour’s tables show the +age of the youngest inscribed prostitute in the various German cities, +up to 1885: in East Prussia, she was fourteen years old; in the Rhine +province, Schlesien, Posen, West Prussia, Bavaria, fifteen; in eight +others over fifteen and under sixteen.[296] Berlin now refuses +inscription below eighteen and acts cautiously in case of girls between +eighteen and twenty-one; but in 1898—before the adoption of the present +policy—out of 846 newly inscribed women, 229 were minors of whom seven +were fifteen years old, twenty-one sixteen years old. But the evidence +afforded by Vienna is even more telling. The inscribed list there is on +the most favorable interpretation absurdly small: even so, 16% of those +inscribed are minors; meanwhile of non-registered prostitutes arrested +on the streets—prostitutes who, be it noted, must be enrolled if the +system is to be even fairly adequate to its intention—over 57% are +minors.[297] It is thus evident that in this essential matter, the +system is also on the horns of a dilemma: if minors are not enrolled, +the system collapses; if minors are enrolled, society perpetrates an +infamy. + +A further weakness inherent in forced inscription has already been +alluded to: it is like pouring water into a sieve. When once the obvious +cases have been gathered, the total can hardly be increased, no matter +how great the pressure. Women disappear on the one hand as fast as they +are registered on the other. In a single month in Berlin sixty dropped +out; at Cologne, though 1,200 are registered in the course of the year, +the active list is hardly half that number. So at Vienna, while 2,600 +stand on the books at the close of the year, 1,000 have vanished in the +same period, so that the effective inscription is about 1,600. +Johansson’s careful studies of the 2,442 women enrolled in Stockholm +between 1859 and 1884 show that 23% leave in the first year after +inscription.[298] With a total enrolment of 3,582 at Paris in 1880, +1,757 women disappeared,—46 by death, one by marriage, six to return to +a decent life, the rest simply dropped out, eluding police control in +one way or another. The following table exhibits the status there in +other years selected at random:[299] + + Disappeared in + Total Number of the course of the Returned to + Year Inscribed Women Year Died Married Decent Life + 1881 3,160 1,524 34 2 27 + 1884 2,917 985 39 13 6 + 1887 4,681 2,503 18 8 22 + 1893 4,793 1,121 9 8 17 + 1897 5,233 1,599 14 27 43 + 1900 6,222 823 26 39 57 + +Finally during the year 1901, 1,574 women were newly enrolled, while +1,880 dropped out; of the latter, 52 died, 34 married, 77 found other +means of subsistence, and 1,717 “disappeared.”[300] A certain point once +reached, the structure topples as fast as it is built up. At Dresden I +was frankly told: “Compulsion is useless; it only increases hiding and +disappearing.” Forcible inscription therefore cannot be operated. + +On the other hand, as I have said, if inscription is voluntary, the +whole thing goes to pieces. The size of the enrolment at Bremen, +Stuttgart and Munich, where the girl decides for herself, is absurdly +small. The inducements offered are very substantial, for if a woman +complies with the regulations the police guarantee her the unhampered +prosecution of her business. Yet even so, a vestige of surviving decency +intervenes to keep far the greater number from voluntarily branding +themselves. In Paris, out of 1,574 enrolments in 1901, only 52 were +voluntary; out of 737 in 1908, only 36 were voluntary.[301] + +Meanwhile, neither forced inscription, inscription of minors nor +inscription of working girls can build up a list that is at all +commensurate with the magnitude of the evil. The showy women of the +cafés, the boulevards, the variety theaters are absolutely free from +molestation. The Paris police “do not arrest, do not disturb, do not +even watch the well-to-do courtesans who frequent the Bois de Boulogne, +driving a fast pair of horses; who live luxuriously near the Parc +Monceau; who frequent theaters, concerts and balls,—in a word the +aristocracy of the underworld. Nor do they concern themselves with the +elegant women who in the afternoon or evening promenade on the main +thoroughfares. These have friends among the journalists,—so it is said; +they go scot-free, for fear of scandal. A third class is also immune: +the grisettes of the Latin Quarter. The demoiselles of the Boulevard St. +Michel are the faithful friends of the students: they are respected by +the police!”[302] These women are all technically called +“clandestine,”—an absurd misnomer, for their way of living is as +notorious as that of any registered prostitute in the city. A little +shrewdness enables them readily to avoid giving offence. The brunt of +the system falls upon the friendless and the stupid. The truth is that +no effort is made to secure thorough inscription,—partly because it is +foredoomed to failure, partly because it could be too easily balked by +corruption and intrigue, and partly for another reason that will appear +in due course. And this is just as true in other cities as in Paris. +Everywhere the police get hold of the dull and abandoned only. I recall +the indignant rejoinder of a Berlin street-walker, on my asking whether +she was inscribed: “No, indeed, only the stupid are inscribed.”[303] + +Let us now address ourselves to ascertaining the results of regulation. +I have stated that in favor of the system two reasons are urged,—first, +that it is necessary to the preservation of order; second, that it +promotes the public health. The two must be separately investigated. + +In respect to order on the streets, European cities of approximately the +same size are, with few exceptions, practically alike. I have pointed +out that the street-walker seeks by preference the main channels of +retail trade; there she is found in the late afternoon and evening +hours, noticeable by reason of slow gait, furtive expression, and more +or less striking garb. Her demeanor is usually restrained. If no +response is made to the invitation conveyed in a glance, she passes on; +doubtful or encouraged, she stops at a show-window or turns off into a +café or a side street. Only in the late hours of night, does she become +more aggressively provocative. This description applies to all the great +capitals—London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna; some fluctuation may be +noticed from time to time, according as police pressure relaxes or +increases; but this is also equally true of all alike. In general, it +may be said that external appearances in no one of them differ so +markedly from external appearances in the others as to imply a different +policy in reference to the phenomenon. Public opinion objects to scandal +without requiring complete suppression; to this attitude prostitution +has everywhere accommodated itself. The streets of London, in which, as +we shall see, no particular action is taken in reference to the +prostitute, are not to be distinguished essentially from those of Paris +and Berlin, in both of which minute specifications aim to exclude the +evil from prominent thoroughfares; nor are Paris and Berlin +distinguishable from Vienna, in which no such stipulations are made. +External conditions have everywhere ameliorated; the general police +attitude is everywhere understood and is everywhere much the same: hence +London without regulation, Paris with a fairly large inscription, Berlin +with a moderate one, and Vienna with a small one reach substantially the +same result. + +The same general description holds of smaller cities. To this group +belong Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfort, Munich, Rome, Budapest, Copenhagen, +Stockholm, Lyons, Glasgow, Manchester, and Rotterdam. Roughly speaking +these cities vary in population from one-half to three-quarters of a +million inhabitants. On the main thoroughfares of their retail trade, a +certain number of prostitutes stroll during the accustomed hours; in the +intervals of patrolling the streets, the women are to be found in cafés, +coffee-houses, variety theaters, in which they are for the most part as +little aggressive as when on the streets. A glance, a half whispered +invitation and a smile form the usual preliminaries, rarely carried +further, unless an encouraging response is returned. From time to time, +increased pressure on the part of the police results in perceptible +improvement of street conditions; and this happens equally in Liverpool, +without regulation, and in Cologne, with it. I visited the latter city +at a time of distinct police activity. At eleven o’clock at night the +streets on which women used to loiter were practically clear; a solitary +street-walker, very suspicious of strangers, explained that conditions +had become intolerable and “for her part, she was going back to +Frankfort.” In general, however, the stranger walking the streets of +Hamburg, Rotterdam, or Munich would be entirely unable to conclude from +their condition whether regulation was in vogue or not; or, if so, +whether it is thoroughly or perfunctorily carried out, and to which type +the system belongs. Surely, a factor that does not modify the result +cannot be important in bringing it about. + +From the preceding it may, I think, be fairly concluded that regulation +as it now exists in European cities has failed to improve order on the +streets. For, though there has been improvement, it has taken place +generally,—in cities that have regulation, in cities without it; in +cities where there is a tolerable inscription list, and in cities where +the inscription list is merely nominal. + +On the other hand particular attention must be called to the fact that +regulation itself is an obstacle to thorough cleaning of a city’s +streets; it prevents the authorities from taking vigorous measures in +this direction. The law concedes to the inscribed prostitute the +privilege of living by immorality. In so far as the women live +scattered, they must be permitted to find customers, once the right to +earn a livelihood in this way has been granted; for that purpose they +must be permitted to show themselves in the streets, in cafés and +elsewhere. Street-walking as such is not forbidden and cannot be +forbidden in a regulated city unless the same authority that authorizes +a woman to practise prostitution sets out to starve her. Hence inscribed +prostitutes have the use of the streets excepting only certain +thoroughfares and places that are mentioned in the regulations. + +But as a matter of fact not even these excepted places are—or can +be—protected from the inscribed women. Common sense refuses to consider +it a crime to walk on Friedrichstrasse, while patrolling one block below +on Charlottenstrasse is harmless; or that a woman, who is free to +promenade on Dorotheenstrasse must be fined and imprisoned for +promenading on the Linden running parallel thereto. The inscribed woman +who conducts herself without scandal on streets in which she is +tolerated, soon begins unobtrusively to invade those which are +forbidden: and so long as her demeanor is circumspect, no notice is +taken. Indeed the streets from which the licensed prostitute has agreed +to withdraw are not infrequently those where she is most at home; and a +large loophole for police favor and corruption is thus created by the +existence of rules only occasionally and capriciously enforced. But +other consequences follow. What is allowed to the inscribed woman cannot +be forbidden to the uninscribed: it is not in human nature to forbid to +the one what is so freely allowed to the other. The very fact that 6,000 +inscribed women are legally entitled to patrol most streets in Paris and +are suffered to patrol the others, makes it impossible for the police to +act vigorously and continuously against six or eight times as many +clandestines who avail themselves of the same privilege. “What effect do +the street restrictions have?” I inquired of a Paris police functionary. +“None,” he replied, “they are a dead letter.” It practically results +that the police do not systematically interfere unless scandal arises; +in which event they would interfere anyhow, whether regulation existed +or not. + +In respect to street order, regulation is, therefore, in my judgment, a +hindrance, not a help, for it is at war with its own avowed object. +Regulation is asked for that the women may be kept under control,—else, +it is argued, they will overrun the streets. Once under control, they +must be permitted to walk the streets; and if they, responsible to the +police, are permitted, how can others, not so obligated, be prevented? +Hence a measure designed to clean the streets ends by tying the hands of +the police, so that the streets cannot be vigorously cleaned. +Consequently no regulated city possesses streets as free from scandal as +the streets of Amsterdam, Zurich, and Liverpool,—all non-regulated +cities, in which a consistent and thoroughgoing course of action bearing +on all women alike is feasible. + +That regulation, so far from cleaning the streets, is inconsistent with +that effort is not only evidenced by one’s senses; it is further proved +by police reports. If regulation succeeded, the inscribed women would +give the police the least trouble: as a matter of experience, they give +them the most. Paris affords the best proof of this statement. In the +year 1903, 55,641 arrests were made among inscribed women for street +offences. Meanwhile, among the far more numerous non-inscribed only +2,821 arrests were made. In Stockholm, against 413 enrolled women in +1903, 9,908 complaints were noted and 1,273 arrests made; three years +later against 241 women, 7,515 complaints are recorded, 1,246 arrests +made. In the years 1900–1904, 34.7% of the enrolled women received hard +labor sentences.[304] So, also, in Germany: the enrolled prostitutes of +Breslau and the number of them arrested in the course of the same year +were as follows.[305] + + 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 + Enrolled 1,630 1,209 1,162 1,064 1,045 + Arrested 1,336 1,570 1,707 1,768 1,995 + +I shall recur to these figures for the purpose of showing later the true +inwardness of regulation. Meanwhile it is obvious that it does not +effectually prevent trouble. + +Attention should also be called to the ineffectiveness of regulation in +dealing with offences. The women are arrested,—sentenced now to prison +for a few days, now for longer periods or set free at once,—only to +resume the way of life that led to their apprehension. Of the 55,641 +arrests made in Paris, above mentioned, 41,719 resulted in immediate +dismissal. I watched the “trial” of a group of them,—several of whom had +been released from prison but a few hours before they were re-arrested; +one of them had spent 28 days out of the last month in St. Lazare; +others had been “sent-up” more times than they could recall. The less +hardened are so leniently dealt with that the restrictions are ignored +on the chance that nothing will come of an offence against them. + +The offence on account of which arrests are made is usually disorder in +consequence of drink; occasionally, some more serious breach has been +committed. But with these problems ordinary police and judicial methods +are surely quite competent to deal. As much has been admitted to me by +high officials in both Paris and Berlin. One of the latter indeed has +publicly proposed to drop the order function from the duties of the +morals police and to secure the health function by attaching the work to +the health department; and the new regulations of Vienna to some extent +reflect this attitude. + +Indeed, it seems somewhat absurd to hold that the regular police is +competent to cope with thieves, murderers, counterfeiters, and all other +irregular characters, crude and subtle, that are attracted like moths to +the great cities, while they lack the wit or courage to deal with the +crime and disorder in which prostitution is implicated; or that the +ordinary process of law and rules of evidence suffice for the former, +but must be waived in case of the latter! The fact is that the state of +the streets depends on the vigor of the police, the sensitiveness of the +public, the management of the drink and amusement traffic and the +attitude of the courts. An unfavorable judicial decision as to what +constitutes a nuisance may change the entire aspect of things, with or +without regulation. In Copenhagen, for example, after the abolition of +regulation, the courts held that standing about the streets was not +illegal: since which event, the main thoroughfares abound with women. +The Acting Recorder of Liverpool held in 1908 that solicitation to be +punishable under the Vagrant Act of 1854 must include actual indecency; +whereupon the Chief Constable reports that “we are going back somewhat +in keeping the streets clear of this nuisance.”[306] + +If the inscription of several thousand women in large capitals is +practically without effect in controlling the streets, it is needless to +discuss the effect of the smaller or only nominal inscription lists of +other cities. The registration of a few hundred women in Frankfort, and +of still more insignificant numbers in Dresden, Munich, Stuttgart, +Brussels, Geneva, Lille can cut absolutely no figure at all; its sole +outcome is to tie the hands of the authorities. + +So much for the streets; and in cities where prostitution is scattered, +as in Munich and Berlin, the value of regulation in respect to order +depends altogether on what it achieves in keeping the streets free from +scandal. There are those who say, however, that it is not fair to arrive +at an unfavorable verdict on this basis alone; they urge that the +regulation of scattered prostitution may fail, while the regulation of +interned prostitution may succeed. That opens up the question of +bordells to which the next chapter will be devoted. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + REGULATION AND ORDER—BORDELLS AND SEGREGATION + + The bordell defined.—Proprietor and inmate.—Licensing of bordells + increasingly rare.—Subterfuge adopted in Germany.—Rules governing + the conduct of bordells.—Number of bordells in Europe.—Insignificant + as compared with the volume of prostitution.—Europe knows nothing of + “segregation.”—Segregation never successful.—Why the bordell is + dying out.—Houses of prostitution dependent on White Slave + Traffic.—Shameless exploitation of inmates.—Effort in Vienna to + prevent exploitation.—The bordell favorable to abnormality.—The + bordell and crime.—The bordell and street conditions.—Does the + bordell reduce other forms of prostitution?—The prostitute’s + domicile. + + +Strictly speaking, the bordell is a licensed or recognized house of +prostitution, the proprietor of which is entitled to carry on the +business for which the establishment is set up. At Brussels such houses +are licensed on payment of specific fees;[307] at Paris and Vienna they +are merely authorized—tolerated by the police, nominally as long as they +comply with certain stipulations; actually, as a rule, until the +property is demolished or the business becomes unprofitable.[308] The +inmates of the bordell are employees working on a percentage basis. The +proprietor boards and lodges them and requires of them practically any +service—normal or abnormal—that the whim of a patron may demand; in +return they receive—or are credited with—part of the receipts, usually +fifty per cent. Against this sum, theoretically theirs, are usually +charged clothing, perfumery, medicines, and other extras. Their cash +receipts are therefore a diminishing quantity. Exploitation of this +sort, though nowadays generally forbidden by the police regulations, it +is practically impossible to prevent, as we shall subsequently see; in +most instances, the authorities do not even try to prevent it. + +To the licensing or toleration of outright houses of prostitution public +opinion in Europe has become increasingly hostile; at the present time, +it is permitted in France, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and Italy; it is +forbidden in the German Empire, Holland, Switzerland,[309] Denmark, +Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain. In France and Austria, no further +concessions will under any circumstances be granted; whenever, and for +whatever reason, a bordell closes, the institution is by so much nearer +to extinction. The bordell is therefore not co-extensive with regulation +and the area open to it is constantly shrinking. On the other hand, it +is, as a matter of fact, more widespread than official accounts lead one +to suppose. For in many German cities, through the connivance or +compulsion of the police, establishments are found which are bordells in +everything but name. The statutes, indeed, expressly forbid their +existence in language the purport of which is unmistakable: “Whoever +furnishes an opportunity for immorality shall be punished as a +pander.”[310] This provision makes the outright licensing or recognition +of the bordell impossible, since the keeper would be at once liable to +criminal prosecution. In police jargon,[311] therefore, licensed or +authorized houses conducted by proprietors are non-existent in Germany. +They exist nevertheless. I have pointed out that the police dictate the +dwelling-houses of registered prostitutes; they thereby condone the +technical violation of law by the landlords or mistresses of those +dwellings where registered prostitutes are authorized or ordered by them +to live. If then several women are permitted or ordered to “board” at a +particular house, an establishment is set up that is a bordell in all +but name. Technically, the girls are boarders, going through the form of +paying a certain sum for food and lodging, while conducting their +business affairs as they please; as a matter of fact little effort is +made by the mistress or the inmates to keep up the make-believe. In +reference to this matter the police or other authorities vary in candor +and straightforwardness. “We have in Cologne no bordells and no bordell +streets,”[312] says one; a similar declaration was made in Parliament by +the member for Hamburg. But in their less technical moments the police +admit the practical truth; a high police official in Cologne stated to +me that while some of the houses are really boarding-houses, others are +really bordells; a similar admission was made in Frankfort.[313] The +author quoted above as declaring that there are no bordells in Cologne, +subsequently gives a list of streets in which “bordells are found.”[314] +A questionnaire was addressed by Frau Katharina Scheven to the municipal +authorities of 235 German cities in 1904, fourteen of which frankly +admitted, and about 200 denied, the existence of bordells: but of the +latter, twenty admit that there are so-called “bordell streets,” i. e., +streets in various parts of the city in which bordells are found, +despite the fact that technically there are claimed to be none at +all.[315] Hamburg and Bremen are the most prominent examples of the +subterfuge practised by the police of certain German cities in this +matter. In different sections of the former there are “boarding-places” +to which the registered prostitute is “referred”; nor will she be +permitted to remain in the city unless she “boards” in one or another of +them, provided the police so require. Her “mistress” charges her for +rent and food. Nominally, the girl’s earnings are her own and the +mistress does not command her services.[316] As a matter of fact, the +visitor is greeted on entering by the madame and her girls,—precisely as +in a bordell; the place is notorious as a bordell; liquor is pressed +upon the guest’s attention and all partake,—just as in a bordell. The +girls exercise no freedom in selecting or submitting to their patrons. +They may be supposed to retain their earnings, paying only for what they +get; but in practice they have to use every possible device to conceal +from the mistress the amount received from their patrons—an unnecessary +precaution if the police theory were correct. Finally, the sums +ostensibly belonging to them are wiped out for the most part by “extras” +which they require or are cajoled into purchasing from or through the +so-called “landlady.” Similar establishments exist in Dresden, Cologne, +and Frankfort.[317] + +In Bremen, the mistress on the premises is eliminated and the women +maintain a certain measure of independence. The twenty-five houses of +Helenenstrasse are divided into small flats, each of which is occupied +as a housekeeping apartment by a prostitute and her servant. The places +differ from bordells in the absence of a landlady, and of a general +meeting and drinking-room. But meeting, drinking, and indirect +exploitation take place nevertheless. The Bremen establishments differ +little in operation or, as we shall see, in outcome from the +conventional bordell. Despite this very common violation of the spirit +and intent of the law in Germany, it is interesting to observe that the +courts have by no means always protected the police in their +disingenuous procedure. In Heidelberg in the year 1907 three houses of +prostitution were closed, the court holding that the connivance of the +police did not affect the punishable character of the landlord’s +offence.[318] + +Regulation applied to bordells or quasi-bordells aims to govern their +location, the number, age and medical inspection of inmates, the sale of +liquor, the money relations of mistress and girls, the maintenance of +order, and the extent to which inmates are privileged to appear on the +streets. We shall, for the present, omit everything pertaining to the +sanitary side, which will be discussed in the next chapter. On other +points, the stipulations are usually of a quite obvious character. The +maximum number of inmates, an accurate roll of whom must be kept, may +not exceed the police allowance; minors may not be employed as servants; +schoolboys are not to be admitted; police officers are to have entrance +at all times. In Vienna, bordell women are not allowed to seek patrons +on the street; the keepers are forbidden to sell liquor or to provide +music.[319] The proprietress in Paris is specifically warned of the +precarious tenure of her privilege, which will be terminated in case of +abuse, scandal, or infraction of the regulations;[320] she is also +pledged to enforce police regulations respecting the hours during which +inmates, being registered women, may patrol the streets, and to give +prompt information to inspectors regarding unusual occurrences.[321] +Inmates are forbidden to solicit at windows;[322] no attempt is made to +regulate the sale of alcohol or to prevent exploitation; nor can an +inmate decline to put herself at the disposal of any customer who +selects her, whatever his condition.[323] At Hamburg the authorities are +theoretically concerned to prohibit exploitation. On the second page of +the health record book, given to every inmate, the following +announcement is printed: “Should the ‘landlady’[324] endeavor to detain +an inmate on the ground of debts or loans, the girl is to make a +complaint to the physician who conducts the medical examination, in case +she cannot report to headquarters.” It is further provided that women +must promptly notify the police of change of residence or of absence +from town, permanent or transient; that they must not live or spend the +night in any house not approved by the police, consort with minors, +appear at doors or windows, or be found anywhere but in their dwellings +from 11 P. M. to 6 A. M. The Vienna stipulations concern themselves +particularly with the prevention of exploitation. Personal inspection on +the part of the district officer quarterly, on the part of the central +authorities semi-annually, is required. The inspection concerns itself +with the physical condition of the bordell, with its business conduct, +and other possible subjects of complaint.[325] The Budapest regulations +aim mainly to obstruct exploitation and to procure a measure of personal +freedom. It is explicitly stated that not less than one-fourth of the +girl’s earnings must belong to her and that the keeper may under no +circumstances involve her in debt for either necessaries or luxuries; +that she must be allowed to walk abroad “independently and alone” during +at least three hours a day, and an extra half day once a week; finally, +no hindrance must be placed in the way of her going to church.[326] The +Brussels regulation—to take one more example—applicable to tolerated +houses provides that no married woman shall be permitted to open such an +establishment without her husband’s consent;[327] that such houses must +not be located in busy streets or in proximity to schools, public +buildings, or “edifices consecrated to worship”;[328] “that there must +be no common hall or room for the sale of liquor;”[329] that an +inventory of the girl’s possessions be made in duplicate on her +entrance, to the end that she may know what she is entitled to on +leaving.[330] + +The following table portrays the present European situation in respect +to the existence of bordells or quasi-bordells,—their number, location, +number of inmates in connection with the number of inscribed +prostitutes, and the estimated number of non-inscribed prostitutes; it +includes only those cities which I myself visited. + + City No. + inscribed + prostitutes Estimated + No. houses not living total number + of No. of in houses of of + prostitution How located inmates prostitution prostitutes + Paris 47 Scattered 387 6,000 50,000–60,000 + Vienna 6 Scattered 50–60 1,630 30,000 + Hamburg On 8 + scattered + 113 streets 780 155 + Budapest 13 Scattered 260–300 2,000 + Dresden On 32 + different + 81 streets 293[331] Few + Frankfort 100 + 10 Scattered (about) 188 + Cologne[332] 98 Scattered 194 500 6,000[333] + Geneva 17 Scattered 86 None + Rome Over 5,000 + known to + 22 Scattered 125 100 police + Brussels Over 3,000 + known to + 6 Scattered 37 145 police + Stuttgart 10 Scattered 22 None + Bremen 25 One street 75 None [334] + Stockholm On 6 + scattered + 30 streets[335] 98 228 + ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + +Other towns make the same kind of showing:[336] + + City Population No. of Bordells No. of inmates + Augsburg 89,770 3 12 + Fürth 54,882 4 16 + Reichenbach 28,498 2 7 + Worms 28,624 2 14–16 + +A careful study of the data above given discloses a number of important +points. In the first place, omissions are significant. The bordell is +altogether non-existent in certain countries, and has been suppressed in +many large cities, though other towns in the same countries still permit +its existence. In Germany, for example, Berlin and Munich have no +bordells such as are found elsewhere in Germany. But the most striking +fact is the insignificance of the number of bordell inmates as compared +with the number of professional prostitutes. The number is on its face +too small to play any part in the management of the general problem. +Indeed, it is trifling even as compared with the number of inscribed +prostitutes, except in the few towns that actually or practically limit +inscription to bordell inmates.[337] The vast majority of prostitutes +live untouched by police control; the vast majority of the inscribed +prostitutes in Europe live scattered, not in houses of prostitution. +Some 40,000 prostitutes in Paris are wholly free of police control; of +the 6,000 registered women of the city, 5,575 live with police consent +as individuals here, there, and everywhere; the remaining 387 live in +forty bordells situated in almost as many different streets. Of 1,689 +women inscribed in Vienna, 1,630 live where they please, the regulations +expressly stating: “In so far as a prostitute possesses a dwelling-place +not shared by other prostitutes, she is not to be restricted in her +choice of a location any more than is absolutely necessary;”[338] the +remainder, something between 50 and 60, occupy six bordells located in +different sections of the city; less than one-third of Stockholm’s +registered prostitutes are quartered in its scattered bordells, and the +registered prostitutes are as everywhere else but a fraction of the +whole number. The limitation of inscription to bordell inmates at +Stuttgart and Bremen is of course a step on the way to complete +abandonment of regulation. Only rarely do even the police put forward a +more favorable interpretation, as, e. g., in Geneva, where, with 86 +women interned in bordells, I was gravely assured that not above forty +non-inscribed women strolled the streets. In company with an English +physician, I counted twenty unmistakable women between the acts at the +Kursaal that evening; at midnight, standing at a corner of the Place des +Alpes, we observed forty more in the course of a few minutes. + +The table above given disposes once and for all of “segregation.” +Segregation in the sense of an attempt to confine the prostitutes of a +city or even the majority of them to a single locality or even to a few +definite localities is not undertaken in any European city from Budapest +to Glasgow. Waiving all objections and assuming plenary and summary +police power such as exists, it is obviously easier to inscribe them +than to confine them. If, as is the case, they cannot be caught and +inscribed, how are they to be caught and segregated? European cities, +having universally failed in the attempt to inscribe prostitution, +necessarily refrain from any endeavor to segregate any considerable part +of it. Nay, more, no European city succeeds even so far as to confine to +bordells or bordell quarters even the inscribed part of the prostitute +army which has been expressly ordered to stay there. “They do not +succeed in Hamburg, Nürnberg, Altona, Mainz, and Leipzig, in confining +prostitutes to houses or to a row of streets. Even inscribed +prostitution breaks away from the streets and the houses to which it is +directed by the police,”[339]—a police, be it added, with summary power +to have its way. + +Segregation is therefore impracticable; more than this, any attempt to +bring it about is also recognized to be inadvisable. In the first place, +the impossibility of thoroughness creates an obvious opportunity for +police corruption; a woman who objects to being segregated may for an +adequate consideration induce the police to overlook her; and as +hundreds are bound to be overlooked anyway, the chances of detecting +fraud are slender. Again, a segregated quarter would give to vice the +greatest possible prominence. Finally, it would expose to moral +contagion those who are already most imperilled and whom every +consideration of interest and decency should impel society to +protect—the children of the poor. For the segregated quarter will +inevitably be located where rents are low and where the neighbors have +least influence. Objection to bordells on the part of those living in +the vicinity is, moreover, becoming increasingly louder: “Urgent +requests on the part of the public for the closing of the houses are +becoming more frequent,” says the head of the morals police of Budapest +in his last report. A few months ago, the police of Frankfort endeavored +to placate neighborhood sentiment by ordering the transfer of certain +scattered bordells to a single street adjoining the railroad. A storm of +public indignation led to the speedy abandonment of the proposal, +although fifteen houses had already been bought on speculation for the +purpose.[340] + +To what is said above as to the non-existence of segregation in Europe, +Hamburg and Bremen are sometimes said to be exceptions; not infrequently +they are described as having segregated prostitution. Such is not the +case. In both these cities inscribed prostitution is—as everywhere +else—limited, and decreasing in relative importance. In Hamburg the +bordells forced into existence by the police are found, not in a +segregated quarter, but in at least eight different streets scattered +through the town; and six of the eight streets contain houses in which +prostitutes do not reside and are not permitted to reside. But the case +is less favorable to segregation than even the foregoing statement +represents; for not even all inscribed prostitutes live on the eight +streets in question; and the non-inscribed do in Hamburg what they do +everywhere else,—quarter themselves wherever they can. + +Nor is the example of Bremen any more favorable to the feasibility of +segregation. There the entire registered list is indeed confined to one +street,—Helenenstrasse; but the separation of seventy-five women or less +in a seaport town in which hundreds of prostitutes live scattered +through the city is assuredly not “segregation.” Nor was Helenenstrasse +itself a deliberate move towards segregation. A contractor had built up +the street with twenty-six little apartment houses as a speculation in +1878,—the year of a panic in the building trade. Facing ruin, as the +houses could not be rented, he accepted the chance suggestion of a +police official that the rooms be let to prostitutes. The historian of +the incident writes: “Since that time,—more than thirty +years—notwithstanding many efforts, this step has never been repeated. +As every inhabitant knows, only a fraction of the prostitution of Bremen +utilizes this street,—altogether insufficient for the existing volume of +the traffic.”[341] Helenenstrasse is therefore perhaps the strongest +argument in Europe against the feasibility of the policy in support of +which it is mistakenly cited. + +In passing, it is interesting and significant to observe that the +impracticability of effective segregation is not new. Medieval +regulation ordered the prostitute into a bordell or forced her to wear a +costume which proclaimed her occupation. The bordells were preferably +located on the periphery of the town in the vicinity of the city gate, +i. e., in what purported to be a segregated district. Now, medieval +prostitution was indeed characteristically a bordell prostitution: a +hamlet of from two to four hundred inhabitants had its bordell; and the +number of licensed bordells kept pace with the increase of population. +We may be sure that, having undertaken to force prostitution into +bordells, and having undertaken to force bordells into a localized +quarter, medieval authority was none too tenderly or cautiously applied; +fear of error did not paralyze the official arm. Yet the policy failed! +The researches of Bloch leave absolutely no doubt on this point.[342] +“Despite the fact that municipal authorities endeavored to confine +prostitution to municipally controlled and administered bordells and +legislated severely against prostitutes living elsewhere, nevertheless +the number of scattered prostitutes was very large,—perhaps larger than +of those living in houses. In contrast with the bordell women, they were +called clandestine,—but this does not mean that there was the least +doubt as to their trade.”[343] At times the clandestines—in the sense +here indicated—lived on the very streets on which bordells were +situated, yet refused to be coerced into them; again, they +lodged—sometimes several together—with a landlady who operated a brothel +which the authorities were unable to change into a controlled bordell. A +policy that failed in the relatively small medieval town, where it +encountered no hostile sentiment and could ride rough-shod over personal +privilege, can hardly be successfully carried out in a modern +metropolis, in the face of strong ethical objection and exaggerated +sensitiveness at any invasion of individual liberty,—not to mention the +complications created by mere quantitative increase. + +If the table—to which we now return—is examined from an historic point +of view, it becomes clear that the bordell is rapidly losing ground. The +bordell is at this date illegal in Great Britain, Switzerland (except +Geneva), Holland, Denmark, Norway, and the German Empire, though in many +German towns, as I have pointed out, a subterfuge exists; in almost all +these countries it was once an acknowledged institution. In towns in +which its existence does not violate law, it is rapidly disappearing, +even though in some places the authorities favor its maintenance and +extension. Neither Paris, Vienna, Stuttgart, nor Frankfort will +authorize the opening of a new bordell; they all look forward to a time +in the near future when those still surviving will succumb to adverse +sentiment and decreasing receipts,—the causes of which I shall shortly +explain. Hamburg, where the police still strongly favor the bordell and +utilize all their tremendous power in its favor, has seen the total +number of inmates decrease from 1,050 in 1876 to 780 in 1910,—despite +the doubling of population in the same period; three houses authorized +to contain 12 girls apiece were found to harbor 2, 3, and 6 +respectively. Budapest,[344] like Hamburg, prefers the bordell, and once +maintained from 50 to 60 bordells, with 600 to 700 women; only 13, with +250 inmates, survive, despite the encouraging attitude of the +authorities. The most elaborate establishment in the city, authorized to +receive 21 girls, had at the date of my visit only 7. In Brussels there +were 7 bordells, containing 66 women, in 1890; six houses, with 37 +inmates, in 1910.[345] But most striking of all are the Paris records: +with 235 bordells, containing 1,450 women in 1841 (population +1,200,000), as recently as 1888 there were 69 tolerated houses, with 772 +inmates; in 1903 there remained 47 houses, with 387 inmates:[346] +population had meanwhile increased to 2,800,000. At the last named date, +6,031 inscribed women were living in scattered lodgings. The following +table exhibits the relation between inscribed prostitutes living in +lodgings and those interned in the bordells of Paris: + + Year Enrolled Living in bordells Living scattered + 1872 4,242 1,126 3,116 + 1882 2,839 1,116 1,723 + 1892 5,004 596 4,408 + 1903 6,418 387 6,031 + +The rest of France shows the same development in progress: Amiens had 13 +houses of prostitution in 1880, none in 1895; Havre 34 in 1875, 9 in +1895; 75 bordells in Lyons in 1840 shrank to 17 in 1895; 125 in +Marseilles in 1873 were reduced to 12 in 1899; 31 in Nantes (1855) to 12 +in 1896; 60 at Bordeaux (1869) to 16 in 1906.[347] At Rome, the 22 +authorized houses were said at the time of my visit to contain some 125 +inmates; none had its full authorized complement: a huge establishment, +with a capacity of 18, had 5 inmates; another, with capacity of 12, had +7; others, authorized to harbor 10 women, contained 4, 5, and 6 +respectively.[348] + +The causes responsible for the decay of the bordell will explain why the +bordell cannot be re-introduced, even though it were an efficacious +device for the maintenance of public order and decency and for the +diminution of disease,—points that still remain to be discussed. The +bordell prospered as long as its management was uncontrolled; its decay +set in the moment public sentiment required the slightest deference to +the dictates of humanity. For, in the first place, the bordell can be +tenanted only through the exertions of the trafficker. A few hopeless +wretches, whose independent career is over, may of their own accord seek +its food and shelter; but these are precisely the women whom the +management accepts only under pressure of necessity. Young and +attractive inmates are desired,—innocent, or, at least, beginners. Prior +to their suppression in Zurich, 60% of the inmates of its 18 bordells +had not completed their seventeenth year![349] The fact that there are +more bordells in Hamburg than experience elsewhere would lead us to +expect may be due not only to police preference, but to the fact that +inscribed minors are permitted—perhaps even forced—to enter them. Now +these eagerly desired youthful recruits are procurable as a rule only +through traffickers; the bordell therefore prospers only where +trafficking prospers. In the heyday of this infamous business, victims +were brought into the large European cities by every species of fraud +and imposition, only to find themselves imprisoned in bordells until +thoroughly broken to the trade. Thus the houses of Paris were filled +with girls enticed from their homes in the departments of the Somme and +the Rhône, or Paris itself; the bordells of Vienna and Budapest with +victims from Posen and Galicia. The local traffic in young girls, as I +have already explained, has now been largely broken up; the European +police, responding to the quick and vigorous development of humane +interest characteristic of recent years, have taken steps which +practically deprive the bordell of youth,—its most attractive asset. +Girls under 21 are as a rule no longer permitted to become inmates; at +Budapest even the bordell servant must have reached the age of forty. +The mistress whose memory goes back to a less scrupulous era is in no +doubt as to the main causes of the hard times on which her lot has now +fallen: “Something young and fresh is nowadays no longer to be +had,”[350] remarked the candid madame of a Budapest bordell. + +An outside proof that the bordell is necessarily associated with +trafficking in girls may not be amiss in this connection. The +trafficker, avoiding the aroused continental police, seeks a remote and +less perilous market. The great European cities, in which he can no +longer carry on with impunity a trade in young or innocent girls, can at +the most be utilized as way stations on the journey to Rio Janeiro or +Buenos Aires; in the latter city, 192 well-known bordells, with 1,022 +inmates of different nationalities, are found; 95 of them Russian +establishments with 532 girls, 17 Italian establishments with 92 +inmates, 22 French houses with 136 girls.[351] The victims whose obscure +trail is traceable from Galicia through Vienna and Berlin to Hamburg, +Rotterdam, or London, are nowadays discovered in the brothels of a South +American city, instead of in those of Hamburg, Brussels, or Paris. + +Meanwhile, though the European bordell can no longer be recruited with +the young, the trafficker’s business has not been completely stamped +out; nor can it be until the last recognized bordell is exterminated. +The reduced scope within which madame and trafficker operate makes it +all the more important to do the best possible under the +circumstances,—to make as attractive a showing as possible and to keep +the women moving: hence, redoubled efforts to fill orders for women of +the various types required by the different establishments and to +conduct a chain of houses so that a certain amount of novelty can be +introduced into the trade. An inspection of police records discloses the +fact that women remain on the average only a few weeks in a given house. +Through the 13 bordells of Teplitz-Schönau, Bohemia, between January 1, +1909 and July 30, 1910, 550 inmates passed: one of the bordells, +operating with two girls, had 65 different inmates during this period of +18 months.[352] In the Zurich bordells, 85% of the inmates changed +within 5 months, 63% within 2 months.[353] In the white slave bureau of +one large European police establishment, I was shown a huge list of +persons suspected or already convicted of trafficking in girls. The +traffic in youth has been hampered; but a traffic in women still +remains—a traffic which, though it will not restore prosperity to the +bordell, is absolutely dependent for its existence on the prolonged life +of the house of prostitution. I have repeatedly quoted with respect the +words of Dr. Baumgarten of Vienna; on this point, his opinion is +absolutely unmistakable: “The bordell is inseparable from the traffic in +girls,” he declared to me. Bloch’s investigations are tersely +summarized: “Without bordells, no white slave traffic.”[354] + +A notorious instance of the manner in which alone a bordell can be +successfully conducted is furnished by the so-called “Riehl case” +uncovered in Vienna in 1906. The woman conducted an establishment +containing 20 girls and paid an annual rental of 10,000 kronen ($2,000). +A large number of persons were employed to procure recruits,—old women +and young boys, offering good places in domestic service to young girls +who, having come to Vienna, found difficulty in securing work. +Employment agencies directed to Madame Riehl young and friendless +applicants. Suspicion was never aroused in the victim’s mind, for the +door bore a plate marked “Riehl’s Dressmaking Salon.” The behavior of +the madame varied: now, she made no concealment of the nature of her +business; again, she hired the newcomer as a servant, certain that +before long she would yield to the demoralization of the place. Minors +were registered at police headquarters as of full age, or forged +documents testified to the consent of the parents or guardians. The +girls lived as prisoners, so cowed by the treatment they received and so +utterly demoralized by their way of life that they made no effort to +recover their freedom even if opportunity offered.[355] + +The conscience of those authorities who are still willing to tolerate +bordells, provided girls are not involuntarily forced into them, has +revolted on another point, viz., the exploitation of the women by the +keepers. For the bordell is a business. Though theoretically only a +convenient place for the gratification of uncontrollable desire, it is +practically an establishment so conducted as to fill the pockets of the +owners, the inmates being forced to receive the maximum number of guests +that can be obtained, after which they are victimized out of their +earnings on every conceivable pretext.[356] + +Recent alterations in the police regulations seek to protect the bordell +women against exploitation; but no amount of menace or oversight +suffices to procure the enforcement of the simplest precautionary +regulations. One of the most disgusting aspects of bordell life is the +forced consumption of alcohol; the customer on entering is plied with +drink, and of course the inmates share; conviviality is procured by +general and continuous indulgence in beer, wine, and champagne. In order +to prevent complete physical disorganization on the part of the women +and to restrict the commerce in volume, the sale or use of liquor is +forbidden in the bordells of Brussels, Altona, Hamburg, Stuttgart, +Bremen, and other cities. But it goes on openly and flagrantly, +nevertheless. An Altona madame candidly admitted to me the reason: “The +business couldn’t be carried on otherwise.”[357] In the bordells of +Stockholm, champagne costing 2½ crowns a bottle is sold to guests for 15 +and the “girls are made to aid in the consumption as much as possible, +so as to increase the profits.”[358] + +The fact is that if the police wish or are willing to maintain bordells, +they cannot refuse to tolerate some of the conditions on which alone it +is worth while for the keepers to conduct them. In Vienna, Budapest, +Dresden, and elsewhere, minute specifications attempt to regulate the +charges which may be levied on the girls by the keepers. But the girl is +completely exploited nevertheless: for exorbitant prices are charged for +necessities, and extras—forbidden or not—usually swallow the remainder. +In the most wretched establishments of Altona, the minimum charge for +board and lodging is reckoned at 75 marks a week; at Stockholm, a girl +pays 5 crowns a day for board,—and various sums for “extras,”—an +“unreasonable sum,”[359] in Johansson’s judgment. The Dresden police +name 8 to 15 marks a day—the latter sum itself enough to procure +accommodations at a first-rate hotel; the girl is actually charged 15 to +18, and if anything is left to her credit it is absorbed by way of +paying for cosmetics, clothes, shoes, etc. The kind landlady is the +intermediary between girls and merchants in a series of transactions +which somehow always leave the girls penniless and amply reimburse the +landlady for her intervention. Frau Scheven related to me the story of a +young girl for whom she had procured admission to a hospital, where in +the course of her recovery the girl decided to abandon her licentious +life. When her benefactress applied to the bordell for her clothes, she +was informed that there were none; and only threats of calling the +police extorted a few meager rags—the sole asset after months of +service, despite the minute prescriptions of the authorities, aiming to +check the rapacity of the keepers. + +At Vienna a more serious effort in this direction is now made. A +periodical survey by the ranking officials of the morals bureau is +required,—the director himself as a rule being one of the party. I +possess transcripts of two reports made on a Vienna bordell. The +inspecting party included the division chief, the head of the medical +service, and one or two others of lower rank. The roll was called and +every inmate accounted for; thereupon the inmates were separately +interviewed, especially with a view to ascertaining whether their +personal freedom had been interfered with or whether they had complaints +to make in respect to exploitation. On the first inspection, the women +unanimously declared and proved, that despite the prospect of this +official review, they had been swindled out of all their earnings, even +including such incidental gratuities as they had received from visitors; +that their food was inedible, and that bed-linen was changed only once a +month. The authorities thereupon threatened the closing of the +establishment unless conditions were at once improved. Revised +regulations became effective before the next inspection, at which time +it appeared that each inmate paid something over five dollars a day for +board and lodging (26 kronen), beyond which their earnings belonged to +them; the earnings of the preceding night ran from $10 (50 kronen) to +$30 (150 kronen) apiece. The food had improved in quality, but the +condition of the linen and towels still left much to be desired. Three +of the inmates were badly bruised. The keeper was again warned that +sanitary conditions must be improved. To hinder the crassest +exploitation and to secure the most elemental cleanliness, the highest +officials,—physicians and jurists of university training—had to make a +personal inspection; even then, 6 brothels, containing from 50 to 60 +women, could not be kept entirely acceptable. Were brothels more +numerous in Vienna, it would be absolutely impossible to utilize +officers of high rank and spotless personal and professional character +for this sordid duty; if delegated to others, a source of corruption and +abuse would be created. Hence, though rules against exploitation and in +favor of decency are promulgated, successful efforts to enforce them are +practically nowhere encountered. + +Though its heyday is over, the bordell can, however, still be made to +pay, if the authorities are disposed to condone exploitation. At the +bare suggestion that a new bordell street would be created in Frankfort, +15 houses in the proposed street were promptly bought up at extravagant +prices;[360] the houses in Helenenstrasse, Bremen, valued at 327,000 +marks, cost their present owner 585,000 marks;[361] a tumbledown +medieval hovel, long utilized as a bordell in Stuttgart, was recently +sold for 60,000 marks to a “dummy” purchaser. Shortly after the +transaction, the police, heeding neighborhood complaints, decreed the +closing of the establishment; whereupon they were bitterly reproached +for summary violation of an implied contract.[362] Paris transactions +are naturally on a far higher scale: 200,000 and 300,000 francs have +changed hands for a single business.[363] Another establishment earned +70,000 francs for its owners in a single year. Like all profitable +enterprise in this generation, efficiency and economy have been still +more highly developed through organization; of 31 immoral resorts +“situated in the zone of the Champs-Élysées, near the Arc, the majority +belong to the same managers.”[364] + +Fortunately other causes conspire with the suppression of the white +slave traffic and increased control over the internal management of the +bordell to bring about its decline. Taste has changed. “The public has +lost its appetite for officially designated resorts, with their large +numbers, closed shutters, colored windows, visited nowadays usually by +strangers, provincials, and soldiers; the trade inclines rather to +houses of rendezvous, where greater discretion is practised and where, +with a little imagination, one is conscious of an air of +adventure.”[365] The women, too, are filled with the desire to enjoy +their own freedom. They prefer the reckless abandon of the streets, the +cafés, and the theaters. Under these circumstances, the girls who are +still found in bordells are as a rule the failures and the wrecks, with +too little spirit or attractiveness to make an independent success. + +In accounting for the decline of the bordell, I have inevitably touched +on the objections to be urged against its further tolerance. The +European bordell has in the first place declined because its recruitment +through young victims has been largely broken up, and because the most +flagrant forms of exploitation no longer prevail entirely unhindered. +But other equally good reasons for the suppression of the bordell may be +cited. The bordell is a veritable school of abnormality. The Paris +bordells are elaborately equipped for every conceivable form of perverse +indulgence. The inmates compete with one another in forcing upon the +youthful customer the knowledge of unnatural and artificial forms of +sexual gratification.[366] Similar excesses are practised +elsewhere,—indeed wherever the bordell is found. The Swedish women told +Dr. Lindblad that “the girl-house is the main seat of perversity; soon,” +they added, “Stockholm will be as bad as Paris.”[367] The infamous +implements employed are in full view as one enters the apartments in +Helenenstrasse. The degradation of the bordell inmate is total;[368] her +rehabilitation well-nigh impossible. She fares far worse than the +street-walker, who sometimes returns to an orderly manner of life. + +Finally, cautious as the keeper may be not to deserve the suspicion of +the police, the bordells, especially those of lower grade, are +everywhere in close touch with certain classes of criminals. Between the +lowest class of criminals and the corresponding class of prostitutes +intimate relations subsist.[369] To the low class resort the lawbreaker +betakes himself; there the outlaw receives sympathy and shelter. It is +occasionally alleged that the reverse is true: that the bordell-keepers +turn the lawbreaker over to the police, assisting the authorities in +discovering criminals. But the Dutch police, who have tried and +discarded the bordell system and who, like other police with the same +experience, would under no conditions countenance its reintroduction, +are of a different mind. “Did the bordell-keepers assist you in the +detection of criminals?” I asked. “Oh, yes,” was the reply, “after they +realized that we already knew.” + +So much for the inner side of the bordell; it remains to inquire into +its influence on external order. + +It is claimed that the bordell, by providing an ascertainable, if not +well known, resort for immoral women and their customers removes scandal +and suggestion from the public highways. Let us consider the argument in +the light of the table already given. The bordell can at most interfere +with the promenading and soliciting of the women interned in it; it +cannot reduce the prominence of non-inscribed women, or of inscribed +women living at large and expressly authorized by the police to walk all +but a few streets. The existence of 47 bordells, with 387 inmates, in +Paris does not interfere with the promenading of perhaps 50,000 +unregistered prostitutes or of 6,000 registered, but scattered, +prostitutes; the existence at Brussels of six brothels, with 37 inmates, +does not restrain 145 other registered prostitutes, resident elsewhere, +nor the several thousand non-registered women who live where they +please. The facts thus show that the pressure on the streets is nowhere +relieved by the herding of a few women—and the herding of more is +impracticable. Between Paris and Berlin there is no difference +observable: the former has bordells, the latter lacks them. The streets +of Hamburg with bordells are no better than those of Rotterdam without +them, and are distinctly inferior to those of Liverpool and Amsterdam, +both without them. Zurich without bordells is externally much more +orderly than Geneva with them. If the bordell played any part in the +maintenance of decent street conditions, cities like Berlin, Munich, and +Zurich—where there are no bordells—would be worse off than Paris, +Hamburg, or Stuttgart; or the former would require some extraordinary +agency not needed where bordells exist; as a matter of fact, the cities +in question are not worse and they neither require nor possess any +unusual machinery. + +What can be more clearly decisive on this point than the fact that just +at the time of my visit to Geneva, the chief of the department of +justice and police, in consequence of “frequent complaints, named a +special committee charged with the duty of devising means to put an +end”[370] to the sort of vagabondage we are considering? As a matter of +fact, coincidentally with the gradual extinction of the bordell, general +street conditions have improved throughout Europe; and the few towns +whose streets are strikingly free from prostitutes are without exception +towns in which neither regulation nor the bordell exists. The bordell is +not the controlling factor; police, courts, public opinion decide; and +police, courts, and public opinion are likely to be most vigorously in +favor of clean streets in communities that do not recognize prostitution +as a legitimate livelihood. + +But, more: the bordell does not necessarily or usually remove its own +inmates from the streets! The women cannot be caged; current tendency is +in just the reverse direction. The Budapest authorities, for example, +regard with horror the “inhumanity” of the Bremen restrictions. Bordell +women are becoming more and more free to come and go as they please; on +other terms they are increasingly reluctant to enter the bordell at all. +Moreover, when business lags—as indeed it tends to do—they go forth to +find patrons on the streets,—for grist must be provided for the ever +active mill. At Dresden, the courteous official who escorted me through +the bordells, explained that it would be useless to start on our round +of visits before midnight,—for the women would all be “out.” I walked +through several of the 32 streets on which bordells exist in the earlier +hours of the evening; from some houses the inmates were just emerging in +striking costumes, to others women were already returning, accompanied +by the prey picked up on the streets, in the cafés, and elsewhere. The +bordell does not, therefore, reduce street scandal even to the extent of +the number of its inmates. + +Meanwhile, though the bordell does not relieve the general +thoroughfares, it tends strongly to local scandal and disorder in its +own quarter. The eight bordell streets of Hamburg lie for the most part +close to busy streets in the heart of the city. Except in the forenoon, +when the women are sleeping off the dissipation of the previous night, +shocking scenes are observed. The pedestrian who in the afternoon +inadvertently stumbles into the Schwiegergasse is greeted from window, +vestibule, and doorstep by a volley of invitations; scantily clad women +solicit his attention from the street door in broad daylight. The dark +narrow passages in Cologne, notorious for brothels, are filled with a +procession of reckless boys and half-intoxicated men on the verge of +surrender to temptation. A beating rain did not empty the bordell +streets of Altona, or drive indoors the lightly clad women who called +out the superior attractions of their competing establishments; at +Bremen, in the summer evening, the interned women forbidden to solicit +on the street, approached all passers-by and endeavored in every +imaginable way to entice them into their barracks,—“just for a glass of +beer,” if nothing else. A recent writer, describing conditions in +Frankfort, remarks that “the presence of the policeman does not hinder +even unmistakable and utterly shameless prostitution of minors in the +Rosengasse and Metzgergasse,”[371]—two of the streets in which bordells +are found. In a few instances only,—Budapest and Rome, for example, I +encountered no street disorder in the vicinity of recognized houses of +prostitution. + +From the preceding account, it is clear that the case for regulation on +the side of public order is not strengthened by the bordell. Not +infrequently, however, it is argued that, whatever be the situation in +inland towns, the seaport has reasons of its own for requiring the +existence of bordells; without it, drunken sailors of many nationalities +will throng the highways, insulting women and imperilling children. This +kind of argument is not new; I was told by a high official in Paris that +no woman was safe from insult in the streets of Zurich, now that the +bordells had been suppressed. Both statements are equally without basis. +Rotterdam is well-nigh as important a seaport as Hamburg; its streets +suffer nothing by comparison; the streets of Liverpool are at the moment +the cleanest of all. Once more, the bordell is, to say the best for it, +immaterial. + +Nor can it even be claimed for the bordell that it lessens other forms +of prostitution. Side by side with it flourish the “Animierkneipe,” +advertising “weekly change of service,” the cabaret, dance hall, café, +cheap lodging-house, the concealed bordell, the _rendezvous_, the +_maison de passe_,—all engaged, as the bordell is engaged, not in +satisfying normal desire, but in arousing, inflaming, and perverting +lust, while at the same time thrusting upon the victim’s attention +accessible means for its gratification. Rome possesses besides 20-odd +authorized bordells, 235—perhaps more—unauthorized houses of +prostitution, well known to the police. I was escorted by an officer to +houses of both types and observed no difference beyond a somewhat +greater nervousness on the part of the keepers of the latter; Geneva +abounds in irregular lodging-houses and _maisons de passe_, lists of +which have been even furnished by anti-regulationists to the police, +without result; Amsterdam reports that it had more clandestine brothels +during the time when bordells were licensed than are to be found now +that they have been suppressed. At Paris, with bordells—as in London, +without them—every imaginable subterfuge is employed in the effort to +carry on surreptitious prostitution: chambers are advertised, foreign +language lessons announced, art objects, pearls, dressmaking, massage, +bibelots employed as baits for the curious.[372] The bordell does not +really affect this situation at all. + +Discovering, however, that bordell prostitution is disappearing, the +police of Paris and Budapest are endeavoring to maintain their grip by +authorizing or permitting _rendezvous_ establishments. At Paris, these +establishments may be opened without police permit and will not be +disturbed as long as they comply with a few simple police orders, e. g., +admitting only inscribed women or at least women regularly examined by a +physician agreeable to the police.[373] They have increased in number +from 64, with 235 women regularly in attendance, in 1900, to 243, with +770 women attached, in 1908.[374] A somewhat similar policy is pursued +in Budapest, where the police tolerate without interference the “hotel +garni” with 20 to 50 rooms, which admits only inscribed women on showing +their certificates, sells no alcoholic beverages, provides every room +with water, towels, etc., and allows no guest to remain longer than +twelve hours; these hotels are regularly visited and inspected by the +authorities. Similarly, the _maison de passe_ is recognized,—usually an +apartment of five to eight rooms, where towards six in the evening one +finds 5 to 10 girls seated around the dining-room table, sewing or +rouging while waiting for customers to drop in. But these substitutes +for the bordell are as futile as the bordell itself; police recognition +of authorized places of _rendezvous_ does not diminish in any wise the +number of hotels surreptitiously utilized for the same purpose. In +Budapest, despite the vigorous police policy, there are as many +unauthorized hotels engaged in the business as there have ever been; and +Paris is notorious for the abundance of uncontrolled resorts. The +explanation is easy. Neither the girl nor her customer desires to submit +to the stigma and notoriety involved in resorting to an authorized house +of any kind; the same motive that leads them to avoid the bordell leads +them to evade the authorized _rendezvous_. In any event, only controlled +women can resort to a controlled establishment; uncontrolled +establishments continue to command the trade of non-inscribed women,—who +always and everywhere enormously preponderate. + +Could the futility and impossibility of regulation be more clearly +exhibited? The police of Paris, Budapest, and Vienna offer the woman +every facility for the easy and unimpeded prosecution of her trade, +provided only she will submit to inscription: bordells, if she pleases; +a private lodging, if she prefers; or, if neither of these is agreeable, +hotels discreetly conducted in accessible localities, where the police +will never trouble her or her customers. In return, the authorities ask +only that she register her name, nominally submit to a few restrictions, +and undergo medical examination at intervals. Yet not even on these +favorable terms can a considerable body of women be induced to submit. +Meanwhile, whatever may be said for the bordell as a possible way of +removing prostitutes from the street, the _rendezvous_ house, now +cultivated to take its place, operates in the directly contrary fashion; +for the couples resorting to it generally meet and strike their bargains +in the streets. + +There is perhaps another point of view from which the bordell must be +considered. Whatever opinion one may form as to the ultimate fate of +prostitution in civilized society, unquestionably it must, like certain +other social evils, be reckoned with as a phenomenon to be dealt with as +part of the day’s work. I have pointed out that European opinion is +moving towards the conclusion that, for the present, third party +exploitation, overt and offensive manifestation, are aspects with which +our social and governmental instrumentalities are most likely to cope +effectively. The pimp, the bordell-keeper, the prostitute herself—when +her conduct scandalizes—with these the ordinary resources of a +well-managed municipality are increasingly competent to deal. Clearly, +however, we are thus left with the prostitute herself on our hands,—with +the prostitute, I mean, who is vicious, not criminal, leading her own +life, reprehensible of course, but without unnecessary offence to +others. In reference to this type of woman—the type, in other words, +that survives even a successful war on third parties—the first question +that arises is this: where shall she live? For even the inconspicuous +and well-behaved prostitute is a peril, inasmuch as she is a constant +and inevitable source of moral contagion,—particularly objectionable, of +course, in close contact with children and working girls. The bordell +represents one effort to solve the domicile problem, by isolation, just +as infectious disease is isolated. The analogy to disease fails, +however, for two reasons: first, because isolation is usually resisted +by the prostitute; second, because the prominence that vice obtains +through bordells—be they many or few—far outweighs any good attainable +through the forced isolation of those who can be interned. Other +positive efforts to regulate the domicile of the prostitute have also +been made,—so far, without success. The German law, as I have already +stated, forbids the professional prostitute any lodging at all; but the +law has broken down, first, because the vagrant prostitute is most +objectionable of all; second, because the statute is enforced only in +flagrant cases of abuse; third, because it is in conflict with the +regulation system in common use. + +Budapest approaches the problem differently. There bordells house a fair +number; the rest are free to live where they please, provided they give +no offence. Authorized places of _rendezvous_ are provided as above +stated, in the hope that women will thus be induced to transact business +elsewhere than in their homes. In the event, however, that a woman +persists in bringing customers to her apartment, decent tenants are in +position to protect themselves through the following enactment: “Any +tenant has the right to forbid a prostitute to continue to occupy rooms +in the house where he lives, if, before he himself moved in, he was not +told that prostitutes live in the same house; should prostitutes move in +subsequently, the tenant may dislodge them by complaining to the police. +No tenant need endure the presence of prostitutes in the building where +he resides; no tenant can be obligated to remain in a house where +prostitutes live unless he knew the fact when he made his lease. The +landlord is obligated to tell prospective tenants the truth without +being asked. If the landlord on the tenant’s demand does not evict a +prostitute, the tenant may break the lease and demand damages. These +provisions apply also to apartments used for _rendezvous_.”[375] + +How far this excellent law has affected the situation it is difficult to +tell. Its enforcement against non-registered women is difficult, to say +the least. Besides, the poor can easily be quieted by favors or +concessions. I was therefore not surprised to see children playing in +the courtyard and on the steps of houses in Budapest to which +prostitutes could be observed to be returning in the company of men; +prominent _rendezvous_ apartments were visited in large buildings +tenanted mainly by families of the working-class. Neither regulation in +general nor the bordell in particular has thus succeeded in solving the +dwelling problem. This has been frankly recognized in the revised Vienna +regulations which abandon all effort to deal with the question; +paragraph 12, previously quoted, enjoining the least possible +interference with the free choice of a dwelling-place on the part of a +prostitute who lives alone.[376] + +I have throughout this chapter considered the bordell mainly as a factor +in the program of regulation. It is from the standpoint of order +evidently futile. But from another standpoint it is worse than futile. +The bordell gives to sexual vice its most prominent advertisement. By +working on the curiosity of the young and of strangers—its main patrons, +by the way—it substantially increases demand; by requiring constant +service of its inmates, it virtually increases supply. It is therefore +absolutely at war with sound public policy which aims to reduce +both—certainly to avoid their gratuitous increase. Finally, the bordell +is the most flagrant instance of exploitation for the benefit of third +parties, which modern feeling and legislation are emphatically +determined to prevent. For the keeper’s profit men waste their substance +and are—to what extent the ensuing chapter will tell—infected with +disease; while women are dragged down to the lowest depths of +degradation and excess. The bordell is therefore something more than +futile, something more than inhuman.[377] + + + + + CHAPTER VII + REGULATION AND DISEASE + + Regulation nowadays concerned chiefly with sanitation.—Variety of + methods employed.—Berlin system.—Equipment and procedure.—Equipment in + Paris, Vienna, Brussels, etc.—Quality of medical inspection in + Berlin,—in Budapest,—in other cities,—in Paris.—Effect of medical + inspection on male indulgence.—Peculiar characteristics of + syphilis,—of gonorrhœa.—Amount of disease detected among inscribed + women.—Clinical methods inaccurate.—Deceptions practised.—Flux in + inspected body.—Failures to report.—Periods of hospital detention + brief.—Minors, usually non-inscribed, most infectious.—Inspection and + disease among clandestines.—System conceded to have accomplished + nothing hitherto.—Its possibilities remain to be proved.—No basis for + favorable expectation.—Insuperable difficulties in the way of + successful medical regulation.—Does isolation of even a small number + of infected women achieve some good?—Amount of disease depends on + amount of irregular intercourse.—The bordell and disease.—Absurdity of + linking disease and crime.—System illogical and inequitable. + + +The preceding chapters have presumably shown that regulation is not +necessary to the maintenance of public order; indeed, even the pretense +that it is needed for that purpose is now in a fair way to be generally +discarded. As I have pointed out, the traveler is rarely aware of +differences in external conditions that suggest different police methods +of restraining or controlling prostitution. Prostitution may be +described as perhaps equally prominent in Berlin and London,—one a +regulated, the other a non-regulated city. Regulation is therefore not a +factor that, from this point of view, needs to be taken into account. +Moreover, as we shall see later, the few cities in which the underworld +is distinctly inconspicuous are without regulation. For the rest, cities +long without regulation and cities that have recently dispensed with it +are at least as quiet as those that still adhere to it; nay more, to +find a really disorderly section one must resort to the bordell quarters +of regulated towns. As far as order goes, therefore, it is impossible to +make out a case favorable to regulation. + +As the argument in behalf of regulation on the score of public decency +loses force, the maintenance of the system depends more and more on the +assertion of its sanitary efficacy; and on this aspect increasing +emphasis is laid. A prominent official of the Berlin morals police, +tracing the history of the institution for me, remarked: “The historical +function of the _Sittenpolizei_ was to deal with decency; but under +present conditions the sanitary object has come to the fore. The morals +police could be dispensed with, if only their original business were in +question. They should certainly now be called the health police.” The +recent reconstruction of the Vienna system was undertaken in execution +of just such a program: “Conversion of the morals police control into a +sanitary control, and its extension as far as possible over clandestine +prostitution.”[378] The main effort to save regulation through +readjustment to modern knowledge has thus been made on the sanitary +side. In the present chapter I shall endeavor to describe regulation as +a sanitary policy and to determine what it achieves in that direction. + +The diversity previously commented on in connection with regulation +prevails also in respect to its sanitary details. Between the worst and +the best organized systems on the medical side, there is perhaps an even +greater discrepancy than between the worst and the best systems on the +side of police methods. Thus far experience has worked out no accepted +sanitary model. Important variations will be noted in reference to the +method of inspection, its quality, its frequency, the disposition made +of disease when discovered, the payment of physicians, and the extent to +which free choice of physicians is still allowed.[379] + +Berlin, where the bureau has been completely reorganized in recent +years, may serve as a point of departure. Women under control are +required to report to police headquarters for examination twice weekly, +if under 24 years of age; once a week, if between 24 and 34 years of +age; and fortnightly, if over 34. In addition, the inscribed or +controlled prostitute is re-examined whenever arrested for any offence, +regardless of the date of her last or her next regular examination.[380] +Clandestine prostitutes may be subjected to compulsory examination at +the discretion of the bureau chief,—the examination being conducted by a +woman physician attached to the division for this purpose.[381] By +special request, an examination by an approved private physician may be +substituted. In either event, the woman is herself at no expense for the +examination. + +A staff of eight police physicians and four microscopists are occupied +with medical inspection, of whom four are on duty at one time; the work +goes on daily, except Sunday,[382] from nine to twelve o’clock and from +twelve to three. The examination consists of a clinical inspection and +the use of the speculum. For the detection of gonorrhœa, microscopic +examinations of the secretions are made fortnightly in case of women +under 34; monthly, in case of older women. At any time, however, when +appearances are suspicious, the physician is instructed to ask for a +microscopic examination without waiting for the regular day. Female +assistants are provided for this work; the word of the assistant is +sufficient in case the microscopic preparation is found to be negative; +the physician must by his own observation confirm a positive result. The +medical policy of the police department is directed by a physician who +holds the rank of commissary,—the sole instance in all Europe of expert +medical control of what is admittedly a sanitary matter.[383] + +Inscribed women discovered to be infected are confined under duress in a +municipal hospital, on the theory that, being professional prostitutes, +who can maintain themselves only by plying their business, they must be +interned in order that the carrying on of their business may be +temporarily suspended. In very rare cases, however, even when found to +be diseased, they are permitted to retain their freedom provided an +approved physician makes himself responsible for their systematic +treatment, and provided, further, that there is reliable evidence to +show the possession of resources which will enable the women in question +to keep their engagement to refrain from plying their vocation for the +time being. Women are also at times released from the hospital on +condition that they report at intervals for further treatment; should +this understanding be violated, they are once more interned. + +Clandestine and occasional prostitutes if found diseased on being +arrested are somewhat differently managed. If without resources, they +are sent to the hospital; but the bureau chief may, in his discretion, +permit them to remain at large on condition that they place themselves +in charge of a competent physician. It is, however, admitted that +pledges, whether given by clandestine or registered women, are not to be +relied on. + +At both hospital and police headquarters in Berlin conscientious and +intelligent efforts have been made to provide satisfactory arrangements. +Registered and non-registered women are scrupulously separated at every +stage, on the ground that the latter group may contain young, innocent +or, at least, not yet hardened persons, who should not be further +contaminated by the carelessness of the state. Premises not adapted to +this end have, therefore, been extensively remodeled. The rooms utilized +for the medical examinations at the police headquarters are light and +equipped with a modern examining chair, hot and cold water, and electric +light; the microscopic-room has the necessary equipment for clean and +accurate work.[384] The hospital, though old and small, has been +latterly renovated and its staff reorganized. The present medical chief +of the police division in charge of venereal disease is a specialist of +distinction, who has made important contributions to the literature of +the subject on both medical and sociological sides. The division +possesses an excellent laboratory manned with trained assistants; and it +is properly equipped with microscopes, culture-ovens, animals for +experimental purposes, etc. Patients are examined separately in a clean, +well-lighted room, containing all necessary paraphernalia. Women at +different stages of demoralization,—registered, non-registered, first +offenders,—are scrupulously kept apart; clean and orderly as the women +are in appearance, there is nothing in their demeanor or surroundings to +suggest prison confinement.[385] + +In many other towns, two examinations per week for the youngest class of +inscribed prostitutes are also required; but by no means everywhere. In +Paris, for example, women in bordells are examined weekly, those at +large at least fortnightly; in Dresden examinations take place once a +week. In Hamburg, women under “light control” are examined only once a +month, and even for this examination a certificate from a private +physician may be substituted; the same is true in Cologne, where +enrolled women discovered to be diseased are permitted to obtain +treatment privately, provided they keep the police informed of their +progress.[386] At Stockholm most women report twice a week; some thirty +older women, once a week. + +Examination and treatment are not always free. Dresden requires every +inscribed woman to contribute to a sick insurance fund, paying four +marks as initiation fee, and two and a half marks weekly dues; she is +thereby entitled to 13 weeks’ hospital care if ill.[387] A sick fund, +out of which the cost of the weekly examination is also paid, is +similarly supported in Hamburg; in Bremen, the women bear the expense of +the medical inspection; Brussels permits examination to take place in +the rooms of the women on payment of five francs monthly; Stockholm +allows a woman to appear for examination privately on payment of a +crown; at Stuttgart, the examination is free at police headquarters, +paid for, if at home; in Geneva, the girls pay two francs for each +examination; in Rome the bordell stands the expense, and also, subject +to the approval of the health authorities, selects the physician. In +Vienna, girls were formerly required to pay one crown if examined at +headquarters, two crowns if examined in their rooms; but since January +1912, a system of free examination has been gradually introduced. It is +universally conceded that abuses creep in wherever the physician derives +his income in whole or in part from the women or the bordells. + +Much greater and more significant diversity exists in respect to the +equipment of the examining-rooms at police headquarters and the method +of conducting the examinations. Facilities as good as those of Berlin +exist only in Dresden, Bremen and Budapest. In the last named city, +twenty-two physicians, eight of whom come daily, are employed. Unlike +Vienna, where a physician usually examines the same woman from week to +week, the women are purposely sent to different physicians for +successive examinations,—a policy adopted in order the better to prevent +deceit, bargaining, etc. A bacteriologist is on hand to make microscopic +tests in suspicious cases. + +In all other cities the appointments are meager and antiquated, +conducing to mistaken diagnosis, on the part of even honest physicians, +and to fraud, on the part of the women. In Paris, for example, bordell +women are examined in their own quarters, where no facilities for good +work can possibly exist, where imposition is easily practised by the +women, and where the environment is apt to interfere with the +seriousness of the occasion. Examinations so conducted need not be +seriously discussed. Inscribed Parisian prostitutes living at large and +non-inscribed women who are arrested, are examined at police +headquarters, where the equipment consists of two rude chairs, an +ancient sterilizer in which a few specula are boiling, and a glass of +sterilized water in which the spatulæ used in holding down the tongue +are hastily dipped from time to time. Arrested women—whether registered, +clandestines, or mere suspects—are huddled indiscriminately with all +other varieties of female offenders, into a dark and ill-ventilated +“dépôt,” not inaptly called the “human pound.” + +In Vienna, as in Paris, the medical examination is still conducted +either at headquarters or at the dwellings of the women, though the +tendency is in the direction of concentrating work at the former. The +Viennese accommodations and facilities are distinctly better than those +of Paris, even though the establishment does not yet boast a microscope. +At Hamburg, girls arrested are clinically examined at headquarters; +inscribed women are examined in the bordells,—a convenient bordell being +selected in each neighborhood,—but beyond a deal table, and the spoon +and speculum which each girl brings, no equipment whatever is provided. + +Elsewhere facilities answer the same general description. In Brussels a +plain table is carried into the reception room of the bordell. Rome is +no better; in one establishment, on asking to see the facilities for +medical examination, I was shown a filthy old metal table and a few +dirty basins; in another, a tattered leather chair; in a third, a small +table. + +Of hospitals provided for the reception of diseased women, Budapest +possesses perhaps the best that I visited anywhere; the service contains +three hundred beds, excellent laboratories, operating and treatment +rooms of the most modern pattern. Cologne provides a satisfactory, +renovated building, with one hundred and twenty beds, equally divided +between controlled and uncontrolled women. The appointments are modern +in character, attractive in appearance. Hamburg possesses similar +facilities with one hundred and thirteen beds; Frankfort sets apart +eighty beds in an excellent institution; Bremen, forty-four; Stockholm, +sixty in an attractive building situated in a pleasant garden. In most +of these establishments a deliberate effort is nowadays made to efface +the impression of enforced detention. The Stockholm clinic, among +others, has no locked doors or barred windows, in consequence of which +the girls are rarely refractory.[388] Though the subject lies outside +our present inquiry, it should be added in passing that all continental +cities make, in addition to the above mentioned facilities, more or less +liberal provision for other venereal patients.[389] + +Conditions are less favorable in Vienna, where there is no special +hospital for diseased prostitutes; they must be distributed between the +three skin clinics of the city. Even so, there is such a scarcity of +beds that they are often kept waiting in prison several days before they +can be placed and then are dismissed too soon. But for really +disgraceful accommodations one must cite Paris. The infected Parisian +prostitute is interned in a medieval prison—St. Lazare—a name, at the +mere sound of which, the most hardened offender blanches with terror. In +this bleak dungeon, young and old, the new offender and the hopeless +hag, mingle freely; they sleep in the same huge dormitory, meet in the +same dark corridors, and get their brief airing in the same narrow +courtyard.[390] + +The quality of the examination varies widely. At Berlin, typical of the +four best, clinical inspection is made of the mouth, hands, feet, and +other external surfaces; the genitalia are invariably explored with the +speculum; microscopic examination for gonococci are made fortnightly, or +oftener in suspicious cases. The magnitude of the work may be roughly +indicated as follows: On the basis of 3,500 inscribed women, each +examined twice weekly, 28,000 clinical examinations would be made +monthly,—3,500 by each of the eight physicians. As a matter of fact, the +figures are smaller, since bi-weekly examinations are required only of +women under 24. It would be nearer the truth to estimate that each +physician makes from 1,500 to 2,000 clinical examinations monthly. In +August 1911, each of the four assistants made 2,646 microscopic +examinations for gonococci,—an average of 98 for each working-day.[391] +It is estimated that on the average three minutes are available for the +examination: but as this takes no account of time lost, the actual +duration of the operation is much less.[392] Women sent to the hospital +are discharged only after three successive negative microscopic +findings, followed by an examination at police headquarters confirming +this result.[393] + +The Budapest system is modeled on that in use in Berlin. Inscribed +prostitutes are card-indexed at police headquarters, according to the +days of the week on which they are scheduled for examination. Their +cards are removed as they appear; the cards remaining over at the close +of the day form thus a list of those who have failed to keep their +appointment. Every girl carries her own spatula. The examination does +not materially differ from the Berlin pattern, above described, except +that the microscope is utilized only whenever suspicion is aroused,—not +at regular intervals regardless of suspicion.[394] Between 600 and 700 +girls are examined daily between the hours of 9 and 2. In the month of +August 1912, 341 specimens were subjected to microscopic examination; +had the 2,200 enrolled girls been subjected on each inspection to +microscopic examination, 17,600 specimens would have been required.[395] + +Vienna is the most favorable example of the large group by no member of +which the microscope is employed at all. The women appear stripped for +the examination, which consists of a cursory clinical inspection, always +including the vagina. A wooden spatula—discarded after a single use—is +the only distinctive feature. The examination is very brief,—a matter of +seconds, not minutes. + +In the remaining cities, the examination is still less thorough. At +Hamburg, for example, the women convene in a bordell, as many as can be +accommodated crowding into the room in which batches are examined. The +physician takes a hasty look into their mouths in succession, and then +glances at the genitalia, with only occasional use of the speculum. His +hands are not cleansed before he proceeds from one girl to the next. +Only a few seconds are devoted to each case. In Cologne it is frankly +admitted that the medical examination is not “intensive.” In Geneva the +clinical inspection is confined to the mouth and the genitalia. In Rome +the examining physician assured me that “if the woman is sound, he (I) +could tell it at the first glance; he is more circumspect, if the case +is suspicious.” + +The Paris examination deserves a paragraph to itself. All day long a +dismal succession of groups of abandoned women file into the +rudely-equipped rooms in which two physicians ply their repellent task +perfunctorily. A line is formed; with open jaws and protruding tongue +they march rapidly past; the doctor uses one spatula for all, wiping it +hastily on a soiled towel from time to time. This finished, the same +group in quick succession ascends two surgical chairs to permit a +cursory vaginal inspection; the physician, stationing himself between +them, loses no time, for one woman is assuming the recumbent position +while he is engaged in the examination of another; he switches back and +forth as rapidly as the women can get up and down,—indulging in +good-humored and sometimes unseemly jocularity as the work proceeds. Of +the two physicians employed on the occasion of one of my visits, one +used a rubber glove, the other a rubber finger,—in both cases the same +for all; though wiped on a towel from time to time, neither was changed +or cleansed. On one occasion I observed one of the physicians examine 25 +or 30 girls without changing, washing, or wiping the rubber fingers he +wore; and a number of those examined were adjudged “diseased.” The +speculum was rarely used. In one instance, pressure by the finger on the +urethra discharged an abundant suspicious secretion; the same finger, +unwashed, was used in examining the next case; in another instance, the +same rubber finger was used on the genitalia and about the mouth. The +inspections consumed from 15 to 30 seconds each; “for vaginal +examinations,” so read my notes made on the spot, “it takes less time to +examine one woman than it takes another to mount the examining chair and +offer herself for examination, despite the fact that her clothing has +been adjusted before entering the room.” + +The printed accounts give the impression that the medical inspections +are more deliberately carried on. Bettmann, for example, publishes a +table in which it is stated that each examination averages 1½ minutes in +Paris, 5 minutes in Vienna;[396] to the same effect is Blaschko’s +calculation, though he himself says that even so, “the length of time +devoted to the examination is too brief.”[397] I feel sure, however, +that these and other similar estimates were arrived at by dividing the +entire time at the disposal of the physicians by the number of women to +be inspected,—a fallacious method of getting at the facts. The truth can +be learned only by observation registered on the spot. At Paris, and +elsewhere as well, much time is lost in making ready for a task which is +subsequently rushed, so that the nominal period is by no means entirely +devoted to the business in hand. + +What is the value of each of the types of medical inspection above +described? The question must be subdivided for answer; we must inquire +as to the general effect of sanitary inspection of women on +participation in irregular sexual indulgence on the part of men; as to +the utility of each of the methods in reference to the women subjected +to them, respectively; as to the effect of police control of inscribed +women on the sanitary habits of the non-inscribed; finally, as to the +incidence of venereal disease, its fluctuations and their relation to +sanitary control of prostitutes. + +Continental Europe, as I have pointed out in a previous chapter, +traditionally condones incontinence on the part of the male sex. No +single cause accounts for this phenomenon; but certainly among the most +important factors is not only the existence of a powerful instinct in +man, but also the extent to which its indulgence is facilitated by the +low social status of woman. This attitude was incorporated in, not +originally due to, regulatory systems of dealing with prostitution. The +continental attitude towards prostitution and all the machinery +developed in connection with handling it, both from the police and the +sanitary sides, were undoubtedly not originally the cause, but the +result, of an indulgent attitude towards the male sex, on the one hand, +and a disregard of woman’s dignity, on the other. + +Once instituted, however, the system itself became a factor in +perpetuating the conditions out of which it sprang. The existence of +regulation amounts to a concession by the state that a vast volume of +promiscuous intercourse is to be accepted as a fact;[398] that for this +purpose professional prostitution is recognized and, despite verbal +quibbles, authorized. For the prosecution of what is thus treated as an +essential and in a sense legitimate traffic, these women obtain a +privileged position on the streets or in quarters notorious for the use +to which they are put. The prominence thus given to immorality operates +psychologically as an incitement to it. The complacent attitude towards +indulgence implied in the mild effort made by the state to remove or +reduce its dangers indubitably diminishes internal inhibition on the +part of the male. Nothing is more certain in the domain of effort and +ethics than that good conduct is largely the response of the individual +to the expectation of society: men “can because they think they +can.”[399] Social stigma is a most powerful deterrent; social assent a +powerful stimulus. Regulation implies the absence of any expectation of +male self-restraint; it is society’s tacit assent to laxity.[400] Nay +more, it is an invitation to laxity in so far as it deprives dissipation +of one of its terrors, for the existence of medical regulation must be +interpreted as implying a certain degree of efficacy in the attainment +of its object. There can, therefore, be no question that state +regulation of vice increases the volume of irregular intercourse and the +number of those who participate in it. Certain it is that the notion +that male self-control is both possible and wholesome has spread “pari +passu” with the attack on regulation and with the elevation of the +status of woman that invariably accompanies this movement. + +The utility of regulation is thus opened to serious question not only on +ethical but on hygienic grounds. For the present, I take no position as +to the hygienic condition of the woman examined; I am looking at the +problem more broadly. Regulation tends to increase miscellaneous sexual +congress. Such congress takes place in the long run with both inscribed +and non-inscribed women. Irregularity craves variety; and infection is +the well-nigh inevitable penalty of sexual promiscuity. To whatever +extent regulation tends to increase irregular commerce by diminishing +individual and social resistance, to that extent it tends to increase +the amount of venereal disease. Therefore, even if regulation should be +found to be more or less effective, its sanitary achievement has to be +offset against the increased amount of congress to which it indubitably +conduces; one has to ask whether more congress with regulation is not +likely to result in more disease than would result from less congress +without any regulation at all. + +It is occasionally denied that the mere existence of regulation tends to +develop recklessness on the basis of assumed security. Blaschko, for +example, a distinguished authority, while conceding that here and there +an individual is misled, does not believe that the problem as a whole is +appreciably affected.[401] But Blaschko starts with the assumption that +things have always been as they are and will never be much different. My +own impressions are, however, distinctly opposed to Blaschko’s view: I +have, I think, observed unmistakable evidence that regulation is itself +one of the factors in demoralization, by reason of the prominence it +gives to prostitution, the undermining of the forces that make for good +conduct, and the illusions of safety that it creates. My notes contain +many random conversations which cannot be wholly without representative +significance as to the last named point. I happened, for example, to +call on one of the most eminent of French dermatologists at the time +when he was consulted by a wealthy Mexican gentleman who was passing the +winter in the gay capital. A prompt diagnosis of syphilis was made. +“Impossible!” rejoined the perturbed patient. “I have had nothing to do +with any woman except an inmate of a well known resort of high character +(he named the house and street), who possesses a certificate of good +health. For this security I pay 100 francs.” “You could purchase equal +security much cheaper on the streets,” replied the French savant. +Communications of precisely the same tenor have been made to me by +intelligent men—foreigners as well as Americans—in Paris, Berlin, Rome, +and Stockholm. Schneider, an exceptionally candid witness as to the +well-to-do German youth, declares: “A very large proportion of men who +hunt out official prostitutes live in the belief that sexual intercourse +with inscribed women is, in consequence of medical control, practically +without danger. In my earlier years I myself held to this view, and only +after I had taken pains to study the subject thoroughly, did I perceive +that there was no safety at all. Alas, too late! And the same thing +happens to thousands of others, who are lulled into a false sense of +security and whose moral scruples are also weakened.”[402] If such is +the state of mind among the intelligent, is it not probable that the +uneducated make the same assumption? Experienced physicians can be +quoted in support of this view. “The public is fooled. The laity is led +to believe that it is possible to distinguish diseased from healthy +prostitutes. As all the diseased ones are sent to the hospital, +relations with controlled prostitutes are free from danger. This is the +popular conclusion.”[403] The official rules themselves practically +concede the point. For the police are now at pains to disavow the +natural consequence of their own policy. The Paris regulations state in +bold type that “the card delivered to inscribed women must not be +regarded as an incentive to debauch;” and the public is commonly warned +that the medical examination is not to be interpreted as a guarantee of +safety. + +Regulation may therefore be regarded as calculated to increase the +volume of irregular intercourse: what does it accomplish by way of +rendering such intercourse harmless? + +Medical control is concerned chiefly with two diseases, syphilis and +gonorrhœa,[404] in reference to both of which its object is not +primarily to heal the woman, but rather to protect her patrons from +infection. It is therefore not essential, from the standpoint of +regulation, that prostitutes who have contracted syphilis should be +interned during the several years during which the disease runs its +regular course; it is only essential that the woman be kept under lock +and key during the infectious stages of that tedious process. And the +same is true, theoretically at least, of gonorrhœa. + +The salient points in connection with these diseases are, for our +purposes, these. Both are contracted early in the prostitute’s career. +Syphilis is a protracted affair, but the girl who has run the entire +gamut of a single infection is subsequently immune; she does not herself +freshly contract the disease. She may, of course, at any time, act as a +carrier, receiving the germ from one patron and conveying it to another, +even while herself not becoming actively infected. Having herself, +however, contracted the disease, she is highly infectious during the +primary stage, calculable in weeks, and during the secondary stage, +usually occupying from two to three years, but sometimes lasting from +five to ten. During this time, fresh manifestations, indicative of +danger, appear from time to time; but infection may also be communicated +when no signs of disease are visible. It is very important at the very +outset to get clear notions as to these points. Syphilis is highly +infectious during the entire duration of the primary local lesion. In +the secondary stage, it is highly infectious when florid; probably not +infectious, when really latent;—that is, when the disease is active only +in liver, brain, and other internal organs or tissues. But the +difficulty is that syphilis is often regarded as latent when it is +actually florid,—the signs escaping observation. At any time, infection +may take place not only in sexual intercourse, but also through the +mouth, saliva, and other secretions and contacts.[405] Relapses are also +very common. Of 722 prostitutes with secondary syphilis, 529 relapsed +1,601 times in the first year, 204 relapsed 303 times in the second +year, 90 relapsed 120 times in the third year, 53 relapsed 73 times in +the fourth year.[406] Often the symptoms are almost unnoticeable, at +times escaping the vigilance of a careful observer. The clinical history +of a syphilitic woman is by no means a sufficient assurance that she is +no longer a source of peril to her patrons. + +Gonorrhœa is wholly incalculable. No matter how frequent its attacks, no +immunity results. Prostitutes, it is true, appear to contract acute +infections less often as they grow older; but this is probably due, not +to an acquired immunity, but to toughening of the tissues and decreased +exposure to infection through falling off in business. Clinical +appearances as to the presence or cure of the disease are entirely +unreliable. Of the elements on which such judgments rest—the color, +odor, and consistency of the secretions—Güth declares: “No criterion +could be more arbitrary or deceptive, for, on the one hand, the clinical +character of the gonorrhœal excretion varies so often and so suddenly, +that a person who appears suspicious to-day may be free of secretion +to-morrow, and subsequently again show suspicious symptoms. An +apparently innocent manifestation may be infectious; a transparent +vaginal secretion may be infectious; a purulent discharge may be +non-communicable.”[407] Whether even a microscopical examination is +competent to decide the question involved is open to grave doubt. +Unquestionably the microscope can note the decrease in the number of +gonococci; but it is not yet proved that their virulence diminishes in +the same ratio. Moreover, a secretion relatively poor in gonococci may +still transmit infection, even though the secretion is so poor in them +that successive slides fail to indicate their presence.[408] Finally, +gonococci of diminished virulence quickly recover their full virulence +when transferred to a favorable membrane. + +What does regulation, as we have described it, accomplish, first, with +those examined, next, with respect to the general situation? It needs +little argument to show that the crude clinical procedures of which +Paris is typical achieve little in the way of isolating infected foci. +In the first place, the examination is so rapidly and carelessly +conducted that, if the truth were known, it might well be found to +communicate more infection than it detects, (as, for example, when a +finger, used to separate actively diseased parts, is applied uncleansed +to the same parts of others). In ascertaining clinical conditions the +commonest precautions are by no means invariably employed. One physician +examined in my presence 30 girls, using the speculum only three or four +times; all were pronounced well; his neighbor, who used the speculum +regularly found a few infected cases, such as the former must have +missed. The examining physicians realize the slipshod nature of their +work. A suspicious secretion having been noted by a bystander in the +case of a woman pronounced “well,” the physician was asked how he knew. +He shrugged his shoulders: “I don’t know; but there’s no way to tell. If +we kept cases like that, we’d keep over half.” Another of the examining +physicians disposed of a similar case in the same way: “We can’t keep +them, we haven’t space, though we aren’t sure that they are well.” Still +another: “Accurate diagnosis is impossible; under these conditions, +gonorrhœa, unless virulent, is ignored; our real effort is to detect +syphilis.” In another case, a woman pronounced “well” was leaving the +chair when, on a bystander’s skeptical remark, the physician reversed +his opinion and sent the unfortunate to St. Lazare. The total number of +women incarcerated at any one time on the score of venereal infection is +negligibly small. On the occasion of my visit to St. Lazare, 170 +venereal women were confined there, and I was informed by the chief +clerk that this was a fair average; these are the scapegoats for the +venereal disease in circulation among the prostitutes of the French +capital! Assuredly the temporary withdrawal of 170 infected women from +the thousands with whom Paris teems is utterly without influence in the +long run; more especially as these women are themselves turned adrift +before their infectiousness has passed. Regulation of this type has less +effect in reducing disease than a rainy night or a spurt of police +activity,—both temporarily diminishing the accessibility of supply to +demand and its provocative character. + +The medical examination at Geneva, Brussels, and Rome is of the same +general type and works in the same way. The City Physician of Geneva +explained to me that it required only “about an hour or so” to examine +the 86 inscribed women of that city. To my comment “this is pretty quick +work,” he replied, “Yes, but I know them!” I asked how often disease is +found. “Very, very rarely,” he candidly replied. Elsewhere I learned +that as a rule the hospital of Geneva is free of women in so far as this +source of supply is concerned. The conditions under which the +examinations are made in Brussels and Rome preclude anything beyond +primitive work. The provincial health officer at Rome declared that the +official examinations by the police physicians disclosed “very little +disease”; subsequently one of the latter conceded that “the examination +is good enough to detect primary syphilis; it is of little value +otherwise. Of course virulent gonorrhœa would be observed. But it is +absurd to suppose the others safe,—in so far as gonorrhœa is concerned, +no public woman is ever safe.” At Brussels, during the two years +preceding my visit, a total of 26 prostitutes had received hospital +treatment,—inscribed and non-inscribed. The year before—1910—nine +inscribed prostitutes and 27 clandestine were pronounced +“diseased.”[409] “The real harmlessness of the registered prostitute,” +says Dr. Baget, head of the hospital division at Brussels, “consists in +this,—that she is practically non-existent. My clinic at Hospital +St.-Pierre contains four beds for prostitutes, and even these are almost +always empty.”[410] + +The above description has dealt with regulation at its worst. In reply, +it may be fairly urged that, though showing how regulation has worked in +the past, it does not prove that better results are either unattainable +or unattained. Let us see, therefore, what happens in Vienna and most +German cities in which a more conscientious type of clinical examination +obtains. In these, at least, the examination is not in itself a direct +factor in spreading infection; for individual spatulæ and individual +specula are commonly used. If not, the instruments employed are as a +rule properly cleansed. The overburdened physicians have, however, +neither time nor facilities to make proper observations. I was present +at Hamburg at the examination of 42 women in a bordell; the whole +process occupied less than 20 minutes. These women are supposed to be +“under strict control”;[411] on another occasion, I witnessed the +examination of 50 women, some under “light control,”[412] others, +clandestine; the speculum was not generally used and the entire +transaction, including the writing of the protocol, occupied less than a +quarter of an hour. All were pronounced well.[413] The medical service +in Cologne suffers—as it suffers in all great cities—on account of the +inadequacy of the staff. “A thorough hygienic examination is impossible. +Syphilis especially in its most infectious forms can be quickly +recognized by an experienced observer; but chronic gonorrhœa can be made +out only after accurate scrutiny: the preparation and study of a +microscopic specimen demands more time than a police surgeon can +give.”[414] In consequence, the number of women who are isolated is +everywhere inconsiderable; at Cologne, on the day of my visit to the +police hospital, 30 registered women were confined for treatment; in the +course of January, 1912, 75 women were found to be suffering with +disease in Hamburg; in February, 67; in April, 53. In Vienna, the total +found diseased during five successive years was as follows: + + 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 + Soft Chancre 129 97 82 80 70 + Gonorrhœa 127 87 107 70 94 + Syphilis 224 162 185 206 168 + ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— + Total 480 346 374 356 332 + +In Berlin, during the vogue of the clinical examination, the average +number of women interned ranged from 260 in 1895–6, to 157 in 1903– +4.[415] In Stockholm, for all causes, 522 enrolled prostitutes were sent +into the hospital 955 times in the year 1904.[416] + +It is obvious that among the registered prostitutes of a city there are +at every moment many more diseased women than any of the above figures +indicate. Why are they not detected? The doctors are overburdened with +work, which is of such a nature as to make severe and uniform scrutiny +impossible. Enormous fluctuations therefore occur, fluctuations which +cannot possibly be due to sudden improvement or sudden deterioration in +the condition of the women. For instance, in Vienna, with an enrolment +of 2,569 in 1901, 1,185 women were found to be diseased; of 2,380 +enrolled in 1905, 543 were diseased; with 2,329 in 1910, 332 were +diseased. At Stockholm, between 1890 and 1904, the annual number +committed to the hospital ranged from 523 to 1,026.[417] Sixty-seven +girls were sent to the police hospital of Berlin in December, 1907; +under the same system, 349 were sent in May 1911; 230 in December of the +same year. The average daily hospital roll numbered 262 in 1897–8, 184 +in 1900–1, and 122 in 1908–9. A change of doctors is invariably followed +by an increase in the amount of disease detected,—surely not in an +increase in the amount of disease existing. Thus in 1903–4, 1,258 cases +of venereal disease were discovered in women, both inscribed and +uninscribed; a new medical staff found 1,845 cases the next year.[418] + +The utter baselessness of any confidence placed by the patron on the +fact of medical inspection is thus obvious: inspected women may not only +be diseased at the moment they are sent to the streets and bordells to +do business as sound,—but, as we shall also see, if found diseased, they +are, as a rule, even after treatment, allowed to return to their +avocation while still highly dangerous. + +But aside from such variations, the clinical method is utterly +incompetent to detect any considerable portion of infectious +disease.[419] I have already quoted Güth on the difficulty attending a +clinical diagnosis in gonorrhœa; his position can be fully sustained by +both figures and opinions. Güth himself tells of a series of cases, 35% +of which showed clinical symptoms of gonorrhœa; the microscope showed +90%.[420] The figures for three years at Budapest are highly +instructive,—those for 1907 the result of clinical examination, those of +1909 and 1911 the result of clinical assisted by some microscopic work: + + Number of enrolled Total cases venereal + Year prostitutes disease Gonorrhœa Syphilis Bubo + 1907 1,717 884 328 105 451 + 1909 1,914 2,775 1,112 897 766 + 1911 2,097 2,100 839 697 564 + +Between 1907 and 1909 the number of prostitutes increased 22%; the +amount of ascertained disease increased 137%—gonorrhœa, 156%, syphilis, +25%. So at Berlin, the number of cases detected leaped from 1,258 in +1903–4 to 3,721 in 1911–12, with change of personnel of the medical +staff and the introduction of partial use of the microscope; consider +the amount of misplaced confidence and resultant disease that medical +inspection had previously made itself responsible for! Dr. Möller of +Stockholm gives confirmatory statistics; in 1874, 19 cases of gonorrhœa +were found among 298 prostitutes by clinical methods (6 per cent.); in +1884, 64 among 431 women (15 per cent.); in 1894, 141 among 464 (30 per +cent.); partial use of the microscope in 1904 with 408 registered women +revealed 749 cases, i. e., 174 per cent. in the course of the year.[421] +Baermann at Breslau concludes after long experience that “without the +use of the microscope the question as to whether an exudate from the +urethra or cervix is infectious or harmful cannot be decided.” This +being the result of incomplete use of the microscope, to how much +infection did the privileges conferred by regulation lead in Cologne in +the year 1905, when among 2,048 prostitutes examined in the course of +the year, 148 (i. e., 7.2 per cent.) were pronounced venereally +diseased?[422] Or at Vienna, when, out of 2,116 enrolled women, 87 were +found to be suffering with gonorrhœa and 162 with syphilis in the course +of the year 1907?[423] The following table[424] shows the absurdly +inadequate amount of disease detected by clinical methods in the +prostitutes of those German cities that I visited.[425] + + No. inscribed women No. found diseased + City 1903 1905 1907 1903 1905 1907 + Berlin[426] 2,231 2,663 2,272 620 576 733 + Hamburg 1,266 1,291 920 759 719 791 + Munich 248 215 175 165 46 36 + Dresden[426] 277 394 281 248 333 426 + Cologne 500 500 500 312 212 336 + Frankfort a/M [A]449 [A]412 [A]512 341 529 493 + Stuttgart 23 16 22 22 18 28 + +Footnote A: + + About. + +The women themselves have learnt the trick of defeating the examination. +So crude an examination for gonorrhœa as that with which we are now +dealing can be eluded by thorough irrigation before examination. Güth +specifies various devices by which clinical inspection may be deceived +and declares that there are “in the large cities persons who make a +business of undertaking these manipulations for controlled women.”[427] +The more careful type of clinical examination can also be eluded: “If +one remembers that especially women who are regularly examined are +highly expert in concealing the traces of disease, one realizes that the +medical examination has after all only a relative value,”[428] writes +Professor Zinnser, who calls himself a regulationist. The bacteriologist +of the Budapest police regards these practices as serious obstacles even +to the more refined methods practised in that city. “The visible +symptoms of disease are rendered either invisible or misleading. These +disreputable physicians perform antiluetic cures and treat the urethra +with injections, thus enabling the prostitute to ply her trade.”[429] + +The actual scope of regulation is, however, less than its apparent +scope; for an inscription list of 6,000 at Paris or 3,000 at Berlin or +25 at Stuttgart does not mean that the number of prostitutes in question +is in each city under continuous, even if periodic, inspection, so that +there is a more or less stable body of approved women. No system of +inspection can be effective if it is discontinuous; hence a large +subtraction from even the possible efficacy of a limited and imperfect +system must be made on the score of irregularity. Though 6,000 women are +registered at Paris, the number who continue for a considerable period +and who come regularly to inspection is relatively small. In a few +instances, a withered hag reports for examination and one is told that +she has been under observation for 25 years or longer; but far the +greater number are constantly shifting. For example, in 1884, 1,006 +women were newly inscribed, 1,089 disappeared from the rolls; in 1886, +1,145 were inscribed, 2,283 dropped out; in 1902, 1,574 and 1,717, +respectively.[430] Some of these are, of course, restored to the list, +but as a rule only to slip away again. Of 629 women newly inscribed in +Breslau during the year 1886, 147 dropped out in the first year, 94 in +the second, 80 in the third.[431] In Vienna, as already shown, the +number of disappearances and the number of enrolments keep close +together. A small body of older women are more or less stationary; the +remainder are in perpetual transit,—and this remainder includes the +younger and more aggressive, whom effective regulation would have to +keep under continuous observation. The same is true at Berlin; additions +and disappearances from the list are as follows:[432] + + Year 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 + Newly inscribed 538 590 683 917 1,207 + Dropped out 699 696 1,105 1,069 824 + +Whether even the humane spirit of the new regulations will greatly +affect disappearances remains yet to be proved; in a single month, as +many as 60 have dropped out; in 1911, 218 disappeared.[433] + +In Stockholm, Möller found that of 857 controlled women, 286 were +missing after one month; 109 more after two months; 100 more after +three; 76 more after four: at the close of the 15th month, i. e., 5% +were left.[434] A cursory inspection of police records at Bremen showed +me that with few exceptions a woman was rarely on the rolls longer than +a few months. Of Stuttgart’s small roll of 24, 22 had been inscribed +less than a year,—of these, 10 less than a half-year.[435] + +In addition, visits are frequently missed, so that those who remain on +the rolls are examined less frequently than the regulations require. +Under the old Berlin system, more than 50% of the visits from 1888 to +1901 were thus omitted; there should have been 208,000 examinations; +94,000 were actually performed.[436] At Stockholm, out of 6,667 +examinations ordered from July to December, 1905, 2,242 were missed on +the appointed day.[437] Taking the entire period 1870 to 1912, Johansson +finds that fully 40% of the women who ought to appear at least +fortnightly for medical inspection fail to remain under regular control. +The office records seem to make a more favorable showing only because +they note merely the beginning of an interruption in the woman’s +attendance which may, however, last several weeks.[438] + +The tendency to disappear is of course strongest in the case of women +who, knowing themselves diseased, face the prospect of detention. +Between 1885 and 1899, for example, Johansson finds 156 inscribed women +who stayed away from the medical inspection; of these, 92, i. e., just +under 60%, had primary syphilitic sores.[439] In 1904, 31% of the +Stockholm women sent to the hospital missed inspection just before their +commitment. During that year 9% of the women had to be apprehended on +the charge of missing the medical visit; hence, staying away from +medical examination was more than three times as frequent among the sick +as among the general list.[440] It appears, further, that of 845 women +who between 1885 and 1906 contracted syphilis after enrolment the +primary symptoms escaped detection, through interruption of inspection +in 656 cases (77.6%).[441] Inspection is therefore apt to be terminated +by the act of the woman just at the moment when it becomes important. +The women whom the police find to be ill are therefore largely those +who, arrested for infraction of the rules, are subjected to an +unexpected examination; women who are deceived as to their condition; +and those who have bungled in the attempt to hide it or have not yet +learned how to do so. Thus the system is even less effective than the +size of the enrolment and the method of conducting the examination +themselves indicate. + +But the system undermines itself at another point: the women, if found +to be diseased, are not detained long enough. Dr. Commenge, head of the +Paris bureau, reported to the Brussels conference that in the two +decades between 1877 and 1897, 15,095 syphilitic prostitutes were +confined in St. Lazare an average of 30 days each.[442] In Vienna, +between 1893 and 1896, cases of gonorrhœa were detained from 18 to 21 +days, cases of syphilis from 21 to 27 days.[443] The police +bacteriologist of Budapest states: “One and the same prostitute might +come into the hospital repeatedly for the same infection. We know that +syphilis lasts for years; it is undeniable that, since the hospitals are +crowded and the beds therefore insufficient in number, prostitutes are +obliged to leave before they are cured;” syphilis is there kept “at +least three weeks,” gonorrhœa “at least two.”[444] At Stockholm, 174 +women with primary symptoms were detained an average of 48 days each; +140 with secondary symptoms an average of 35 days each.[445] Partially +in consequence of premature dismissal, partially in consequence of +re-infection or recrudescence, women often alternate for years between +freedom and hospital detention. Of 498 Stockholm inscribed prostitutes, +81 escaped the hospital altogether while on the lists. The following +table shows the experience of the others:[446] + + No. in hospital + Once 71 + Twice 42 + Three times 42 + Four times 41 + Five times 37 + 6–10 times 98 + 11–15 times 42 + 16–20 times 29 + 21–25 times 7 + 26–30 times 6 + 31–50 times 2 + +In Bremen it is now the practice to detain gonorrhœal patients from +three to six weeks; syphilitics were receiving at the time of my +visit[447] two injections of Salvarsan and were discharged at the end of +a fortnight. Finally, at Berlin the average length of the hospital stay +of venereally diseased prostitutes has tended steadily to decline as the +following figures indicate:[448] + + Average + stay of + each + Year prostitute + 1895–6 36.4 days + 1896–7 32.2 days + 1897–8 36.8 days + 1898–9 36.4 days + 1900–1 39.5 days + 1901–2 48.8 days + 1902–3 36.7 days + 1903–4 41.0 days + 1908–9 23.0 days + 1909–10 19.91 days + 1910–11 19.6 days + 1911–12 22.0 days + +The sudden drop since 1907 follows the introduction on a considerable +scale of ambulatory treatment, allowed theoretically on condition that +the women refrain from the prosecution of their business,—an obviously +unsafe calculation. It is clear therefore that at all times the period +of detention is too brief; hospital care goes far enough to remove the +obvious evidence of disease,—the evidence that might, if left untouched, +itself deter a more or less cautious patron. Disease being once rendered +latent, or apparently latent,[449] the customer presumes, at his own +sure cost, on the supposed safety of the woman whom medical regulation +has just discharged from the hospital as fit to prosecute her calling. + +Even if we take regulation at its word and assume that it is fairly +successful in isolating disease, it still remains true that it arrests +more healthy than diseased prostitutes and thus increases the commerce +of the undetected sick,—professional or clandestine. For the number of +supposedly well prostitutes arrested for trifling violations of the +rules is always larger, indeed much larger, than the number of ill ones. +In Paris, 35,625 such arrests were made in 1897, 32,122 in 1898. The +culprits, most of them well according to police standards, were sent to +prison to serve short sentences, for “racolage” (soliciting). I observed +the handling of a group of such cases: a girl found in the Avenue Wagram +at 1.30 A. M. pronounced “well,” got 4 days in prison; the next had just +four hours previously finished a four-day sentence; re-arrested last +night for loitering and sent back for four days more. The others were of +the same type: all were “well” and all were sent to prison. Blaschko +found the same conditions prevailing in Berlin under the old régime: +13,591 healthy prostitutes were imprisoned for “ridiculous trifles” in +the years 1897–98, while 1,998 diseased prostitutes were under +compulsory treatment:[450] that is, regulation removed seven times as +many healthy prostitutes as diseased. In 1909, 1,122 different +registered women were arrested for violation of rules, 327 different +registered women were detained on the score of illness; in 1910 and 1911 +the figures were 1,984 and 434 respectively.[451] In Stockholm, at the +close of 1911, 28 women were in the hospital, 127—supposedly well—in +prison. In Cologne, 438 registered prostitutes were detained on the +score of disease, 1,334 for violation of rules, in 1906; in 1911, 272 +for disease, 2,066 for infraction of regulations.[452] + +I have thus far dealt with registered prostitution alone: in reference +to it, I believe we are justified in asserting that the numbers treated +have nowhere been relatively large and that the methods of conducting +the examinations and their actual working greatly reduce even the +apparent efficacy of the system. In Stockholm it has been calculated +that three-fourths of the disease current escapes detection.[453] It is +therefore an incontrovertible fact that only a small part of the disease +in existence among inscribed women has been isolated and that these +diseased women have been discharged before they are very much safer: in +consequence of which, men consorting with medically inspected +prostitutes are the victims of misplaced confidence. If, then, +regulation, on account of the general attitude it encourages and on +account of the feeling of security it must logically create, has at all +enlarged the volume of irregular intercourse, it has operated to +increase, not to decrease, the volume of venereal disease. + +So much for regulation taken fairly and strictly on its own ground. But +the case against it is greatly strengthened when the remaining factors +of the situation are taken into account. Regulation has always had to be +cautious in the inscription of minors and nowadays tends more and more +to omit them altogether. It is held—and of course rightly—that no +civilized society can permit a minor to brand herself as a professional +prostitute, authorized by the community to earn her livelihood as such. +Now, immoral girls still in their minority are at once the most +attractive and the most dangerous prostitutes; ignorant and reckless, +they are quickly infected and their infection is distributed to a larger +clientele. How many infecting foci escape sanitary control by the +exclusion of minors a few figures will make clear. Out of 4,341 cases of +obviously infectious syphilis in Viennese prostitutes, 44.9 per cent. +were between 15 and 20 years of age, 38.1 per cent. between 21 and +25.[454] The chief physician of the Vienna police in 1908 gave a most +striking proof of the collapse brought about by excepting minors from +regulation,—as he admitted must be the case: in 1900, 329 prostitutes +were newly enrolled, 303 of whom (92.2%) were between 15 and 25 years of +age: in that year, 2,686 cases of venereal disease were detected among +inscribed women. In 1907, 83 prostitutes were newly enrolled, of whom 63 +were between 15 and 25 years old: 426 venereal cases were discovered in +that year. “In the same measure as the enrolment of minors declines, the +total amount of disease discovered declines correspondingly.”[455] In +the relatively few instances in which minors are still inscribed at +Berlin, the percentage of active gonorrhœa detected by the microscope is +very high: of 38 controlled girls between 18 and 20 years of age, 29, i. +e., 75% were discovered to have gonorrhœa.[456] Penzig declares that of +prostitutes under 18, fully 50% are venereally infected. Pinkus, +studying 1,357 inscribed prostitutes at Berlin found that at least 624, +i. e., 45.9% had been syphilitically infected before enrolment.[457] +Paris statistics teach the same lesson: of 12,615 unregistered minors +arrested between 1878 and 1887, 56.26% were syphilitic.[458] More recent +statistics sustain this result showing, as is claimed, that active +disease is “ten times as common” among the unregistered minors as among +the older women who are inscribed.[459] In Zurich, 39.7% of the +syphilitics described by Müller and Zürcher were between 12 and 17 years +of age, 42% between 16 and 21 years old; of those over 26 years old, +very few indeed showed active signs of the disease, proving “the +well-known saying, that the prostitute becomes syphilitically infected +at the very outset of her career.”[460] Roget at Brussels verifies this +conclusion; he states that most infections occur between 16 and 22.[461] +At Munich, of 2,686 clandestines arrested and medically examined, 711 +were found diseased, and of these, 326, i. e., over 50% were minors. +That is to say, even assuming forcible inscription of adults, over 50% +of the diseased would have been missed as the sufferers were ineligible +to enrolment on account of age. Of 88 such cases, 55 per cent. of those +15 years old were infected, 61 per cent. of those 16 years old, and 67 +per cent. of those 17 years old.[462] A Viennese estimate showed that +out of every 1,000 prostitutes arrested for offences, over 57 per cent. +were minors,—practically ineligible to inscription and medical control. +Infection takes place so early that it is believed that in general +“every prostitute who has followed the business a year is +infected.”[463] Regulation is therefore in the position of creating a +certain presumption in favor of the hygienic security of irregular +intercourse; even if it could create a monopoly in favor of inscribed +women, there would be no reason to believe in its efficacy; but as the +appetite that it fosters satisfies itself indiscriminately, the result +is that bad is simply rendered worse. + +One arrives at the same conclusion from another angle. I have repeatedly +pointed out that on any rational definition of prostitution the total +army of prostitutes is many times as large as the registered portion. +Most of these women ply their business unhindered. Having had precisely +the same history as the registered women and conducting their affairs +with similar promiscuity, disease is of course equally rife among them. +Yet, as long as they conduct themselves with discretion they are free +from police interference: in towns where compulsory enrolment takes +place (e. g. Berlin and Hamburg, etc.) they must be thrice warned before +they are arrested and compelled to submit to medical examination, with a +chance of compulsory registration; elsewhere, as at Bremen, Munich, +Stuttgart, etc., they are, if arrested for disorder, medically +inspected, but are in no event compelled by forced inscription to submit +to regular examination afterwards. Thus only the disorderly clandestine +or non-inscribed woman is ever anywhere inspected at all. The cautious +street-walker and fashionable and showy women who in Berlin frequent the +Palais de Danse[464] are never inscribed, despite their notorious +character. Women of the latter type are, in fact, nowhere enrolled; yet +they do a large business, dangerous not so much on account of syphilis, +which is with them long since a matter of the past, as on account of +gonorrhœa, from which they are chronic sufferers. How much disease +regulation in one way or another thus permits to go untouched among the +non-inscribed is made clear by the amount of disease detected among the +small part of clandestine or non-registered prostitution that the police +lay hold of. A single clinical examination of each of 12,825 +non-inscribed women arrested in Berlin in five successive years (1903– +1907 inclusive) showed 17% venereally diseased;[465] of 1,514 arrested +in 1909 and 1910, 421 were diseased.[466] At Cologne, the percentage is +much higher: 660 non-inscribed women were arrested in 1906, 178 were +infected; 1,626 were arrested in 1911, 304 were infected.[467] At +Vienna, 1,319 such arrests were made in 1910: 222 cases of infection +were discovered among them.[468] It must be emphasized that the police +surgeons get hold of these women, not because they are diseased, but +because they are disorderly. Had they remained sober and quiet, +regulation would have permitted them to continue undisturbed in the work +of spreading infection, precisely as it does not touch the thousands of +others, who, however diseased, are careful to keep the peace. The amount +of disease thus surprised is interesting as a symptom of the vastly +larger amount that wholly eludes observation; and, finally, the disease +thus detected is—like the disease occurring among inscribed women—but a +part of that actually existing among those examined; and, like all the +rest, is readmitted to circulation while still infectious after an +inadequate period of detention. An incident related by Welander may well +close this line of argument. “It is superfluous to mention,” he writes +in his account of venereal disease and prostitution in Sweden, “that the +clandestines are the main sources of infection. Recently there has been +a small epidemic of soft chancre in Stockholm. Daily, male patients thus +afflicted are admitted to the St.-Göran Hospital; but the hospital for +prostitutes, during this entire period, has received only five women +thus infected. This epidemic cannot be attributed to inscribed +women,”[469] and, further, he might have added, inscription did not +locate or isolate the infecting foci. + +I have, at the risk of being tedious, discussed the foregoing points in +considerable detail in order that we might be in position to decide +whether—whatever may be held theoretically as to the possibilities of +regulation—it has in the past operated to reduce the amount of venereal +disease. Let it be remembered that, except in three or four cities +shortly to be taken up, regulation throughout Europe has been and is of +the type above described or worse, and that in the three or four cities +in question, improvements are so recent that no effect is as yet +noticeable. Whatever, then, one may hold as a matter of theory, it is +clear that, as a matter of practice, regulation as it has been carried +on during the past century has increased, not decreased, the volume of +venereal disease. No successful experience in the past can anywhere be +quoted in its behalf. Those who believe in its possibilities are loudest +in condemning its actual results. Professor Finger of Vienna, a +regulationist, so-called, and one of the authors of the recent +improvements there, says of the usual system: “As far as the good of +regulation goes, I can speak from experience: the good can’t possibly +amount to much.”[470] Professor Neisser of Breslau, the discoverer of +the gonococcus,—a regulationist, too—declares: “If a radical +reconstruction cannot be brought about, it is better to drop the entire +system. The present system not only does not effect a real sanitary +control of the inscribed women,—it rather operates to increase the +volume of venereal disease.”[471] Professor Zinnser, of Cologne, +likewise a regulationist, opens a discussion with these words. “The +knowledge that the regulation of prostitution as generally conducted +heretofore is obsolete, defective and urgently in need of reform, is not +new.”[472] The Hamburg system, in the form in which I have above +discussed it, is the creation of Dr. Julius Engel-Reimers, whose +authority in Hamburg was, during his lifetime, so great as practically +to render criticism futile. Nevertheless in a volume of lectures on +venereal disease, published in 1908, Dr. Engel-Reimers, at the close of +a career identified with regulation, declares: “Medical control of +prostitutes has very slight influence on the incidence of syphilis and +gonorrhœa among the male population. It is absolutely clear that these +diseases are no less common where regulation exists than in places where +prostitutes enjoy unrestrained freedom to ply their trade.”[473] This is +assuredly candid, as well as startling testimony. As to the point here +touched on, viz., the incidence of venereal disease in the general +population, as far as it can be made out, I shall have something to say +when I discuss conditions in non-regulated countries.[474] For the +present it is enough to note that the authorities above quoted—and the +number can be extended—all call themselves regulationists; but it is +some new form of regulation, not regulation as it exists historically, +that they believe in. Those who defend the system and its results +against the regulationist medical authorities above quoted are in the +main police officials, whose favorable judgment will be accounted for in +the next chapter.[475] + +If regulation has, even in the opinion of authorities theoretically +inclined to believe in it, failed in the past, is there any evidence to +support an opinion favorable to it in some revised form in the future? +In certain cities, the medical examination has been reconstructed on +modern lines,—Berlin, Budapest, Bremen and Dresden; the same +modifications and improvements could be generally introduced if money +and intelligence—both procurable—were provided. Would regulation then be +efficacious as a sanitary measure? + +Let me call attention at the outset to the peculiar position in which +the system is placed the moment one asks this question. It implies that +regulation is not a policy more or less approved by experience, but an +experiment, the value of which as a possibility has nowhere as yet been +demonstrated. So far as history goes, the verdict is against its +efficacy; so far as the revised system is concerned, not even those +trying it as yet pretend to be able to assert for it any perceptible +measure of success. “I must note at the very outset,” says the candid +police bacteriologist of Budapest as recently as May 29, 1912, “that the +time which has elapsed since the new ordinance has been in force is as +yet entirely too short for us to render a final opinion concerning its +advantages.”[476] “There is no telling whether the new regulations have +accomplished anything,” said one of their authors, Dr. Dumitreanu +Agoston, to me. Regulation in its historic form is thus something worse +than a failure; in its modern form, an experiment, of whose success not +even its authors can give any evidence or venture any prediction! + +Is there any substantial reason to believe that the improved system will +successfully cope with the difficulties fatal to the old? The number +that it reaches is less rather than more. Under the clumsy old system, +Berlin enrolled 5,098 women in 1896; under the improved new system, +3,559 in 1912,—a decrease of over 30%, despite the city’s growth; under +the old system, Dresden enrolled 394 in 1905; under the new, 293 in +1912; at Budapest, the numbers are practically unchanged. The increased +leniency and humanity of the new system thus decrease enrolment and tend +to offset any advantage gained by improved medical methods. + +Nor does the new system enjoy any advantage over the old in other +important respects. Women continue to miss visits and to disappear: at +Budapest, for example, with an enrolment of 2,000, the monthly +non-attendance in 1912 ran as follows:[477] + + March 293 + April 353 + May 398 + June 315 + July 414 + August 319 + +Finally, the sick are not detained for longer periods of time: indeed, +ambulatory treatment is more apt to be allowed as the administration of +the system becomes more lenient, and thus additional loopholes are +created. + +These are, however, matters of detail on which it is not worth while to +pause longer. The issue turns mainly on the effect of the partial use of +the microscope,—at least once in two weeks at Berlin, on suspicion in +other places. How far-reaching is the improvement thus wrought among the +small number of women affected by it? + +In respect to syphilis, the situation is hardly modified at all, except +in so far as the general quality of the personnel has unquestionably +been improved by the introduction of more modern methods and a more +dignified environment. But these factors are not far-reaching. The +inscribed women have either had syphilis before inscription, in which +event no check was placed on them at the time; or they contract it +subsequently, in which case they are interned only until the active +ulceration has been converted to more or less latency, without certain +termination of the infectious character of the disease. The scope of +improved regulation in dealing with inscribed syphilitics is thus +practically as limited as that of the older form; it has no definite or +reliable effect during the dangerous primary and secondary stages and +is, of course, unnecessary in the tertiary stage. + +For the reasons just urged, neo-regulation concerns itself mainly with +gonorrhœa. Figures already given[478] show that the moment the use of +the microscope begins, the amount of gonorrhœa detected increases; +indeed, the more slides one prepares in dealing with a group of women at +a single inspection, the higher the percentage of infectious subjects. +Whether gonorrhœa is discovered in a prostitute or not is largely a +question of the microscopist’s patience: “the oftener microscopical +examinations are made, the more girls are found diseased.” Lochte +examined 172 girls once each, when 19.1 per cent. gave positive evidence +of gonococci; on a second trial, twice as many (38.6 per cent.). +Different investigators have discovered that from 50 to 65 per cent. of +inscribed women carry the gonococcus hidden in glands or folds.[479] Ten +successive daily examinations of a former servant gave negative results +for 5 days, positive on the fifth and seventh, negative, sixth, eighth, +ninth, and tenth. Instances are known in which the disease has been +contracted by a patron from a woman in whom the microscope was unable to +demonstrate the gonococcus. The explanation is obvious. When the germs +are less numerous, it is a matter of chance whether the infinitesimal +amount of the secretion examined happens to contain a sample or not; but +infectiousness exists none the less. The microscopist may not encounter +it; the customer may. In order to reduce chances of error, negative +findings on three successive days are required before release; but +Professor Pinkus told me of women released from the hospital on these +terms in the morning who—without intercourse in the meanwhile—gave +positive specimens at the police examination in the afternoon. Besides, +under sexual excitement, the gonococcus that has burrowed more deeply is +all the more apt to be exuded. The explanation is simple: “Gonorrhœa in +the male is almost invariably curable, if the patient submits to +treatment; gonorrhœa in the female is almost never cured at all.”[480] +And again: “Every prostitute, even though not acutely and violently +diseased, is always more or less infectious and not the least confidence +in her freedom from gonorrhœa can be justified.”[481] A chronic +condition supervenes that is always infectious,—and most of all so +during intercourse. Professor Havas of Budapest, long the head of the +hospital service to which diseased prostitutes were sent, a +regulationist at first, and now a strenuous opponent thereof on the +basis of experience, refused to certify released women as “well”; he +struck the word from the woman’s protocol and inserted “improved”; but +in the “improved” condition, the danger of communicating infection is +always present. + +All that I have just urged would be true even if the microscope were +constantly used. But, as a matter of fact, even where neo-regulation is +most systematically installed, the labor and the time involved are so +enormous that it has proved impracticable to institute anything beyond +occasional microscopical control.[482] What does the fortnightly +microscopic slide in Berlin prove? That at two moments in the course of +a month, a random shot failed to elicit positive proof of +infectiousness! During two weeks, the utterly incompetent clinical +examination alone threatens the woman’s withdrawal from business; should +she be even palpably infected, she may easily be allowed to continue the +distribution of gonococci during this period. At the close of two weeks, +her chances of detention momentarily increase. Yet, even so, the numbers +at any time interned show the inadequacy of the method to reach and to +isolate any considerable volume of infection. During four +months—December 1910; January February and March 1911—809 cases of +gonorrhœal infection were discovered among the registered prostitutes at +Berlin:[483] that is, on the average, the number of women in circulation +was reduced about 200 per month. On the last day of four successive +years (1908–9–10–11) the total number of interned prostitutes was as +follows: 98, 105, 140, 242.[484] In the other towns where the improved +system is in use, its inadequacy is equally striking. At the time of my +visit to Dresden (June 19, 1912), 9 inscribed and 27 non-inscribed women +were in the venereal hospital ward; at Bremen there is an average of 18 +to 20 patients of all kinds. All this is well-nigh negligible even when +compared only with the total inscription; when viewed in connection with +the total amount of prostitution and disease, it is not worth mention. + +It is, of course, urged that, be the number removed and temporarily +confined ever so small, infection is at least reduced by that amount. +The argument holds only in case the number removed is large enough to +affect the accessibility of temptation. Ten women in a bordell will, for +example, satisfy all the customers who come; if one is withdrawn—and the +percentage withdrawn by medical inspection is by no means so large—the +remaining nine will dispose of the same volume of trade. The amount of +congress is therefore hardly affected: is the amount of disease reduced? +That depends on the condition of the nine with whom the business is +transacted. Similarly, on the streets: two hundred women are withdrawn +from the streets of Berlin, on which every evening thousands of others +roam. The provocation is not perceptibly influenced. Let us follow what +happens to a prospective customer. A woman—Marie, let us say—to whose +solicitations some man would have succumbed, is in the hospital. Is her +clientele so attached to her that they will abstain until she is +released? If so, undoubtedly, there being less congress, there is less +disease in that interval. But the traffic is not organized in that way. +Marie’s customers are picked up by Gretchen or by some one else. Does +the withdrawal of 250 women reduce disease, if it involves only +redistributing business so that what would have been intercourse with +the interned Marie is transferred to others? + +That depends on the condition of the other women. Are they safe? The +vast clandestine army not hygienically supervised is no safer than it +would be if there were no medical regulation; and this army is so large +a proportion of the whole that we may declare at once that the effect of +removing a controlled prostitute is to force her business largely upon +prostitutes who are uncontrolled; and the latter are so numerous and +prominent that the business is kept to the maximum permitted by general +conditions, regardless of the forced isolation of an inconsiderable +number. Those of Marie’s customers who fall to controlled prostitutes +are hardly likely to fare better,—for the controlled prostitute is +suffering with a chronic cervical gonorrhœa which any customer may +contract. When 150 inscribed women are withdrawn from the roll of 3,000, +all having gonorrhœa in some form, when 70 women are withdrawn from the +uninscribed thousands, mostly infected, the good luck of a patron may +save him once or twice with or without regulation, but sooner or later +he will fall a victim. + +The amount of disease communicated and contracted is, therefore, in the +long run, dependent not on the existence or the non-existence of medical +inspection, but on the frequency and amount of irregular intercourse. +Professor Havas, in discussing with me the Budapest situation, urged +vehemently that there is but one factor to be reckoned with, viz., the +amount of promiscuous coitus. Whatsoever reduces such coitus, reduces +disease: a rainy night, driving women and men from the streets, an +outburst of police repression, do more to check disease than any system +of regulation; on the other hand, regulation, by making controlled—and +in consequence uncontrolled—prostitution prominent, by weakening the +inhibitions, social, individual and hygienic, increases the amount of +coitus and thereby increases the amount of disease. It is surely not +without significance that Professor Pinkus, head of the hospital for +venereally infected prostitutes, has published a book, called the +“Prevention of Venereal Disease,” in which he emphasizes the +infectiousness of all prostitutes, controlled as well as uncontrolled, +and bids his readers refrain or utilize mechanical preventives for their +protection! + +It is therefore not surprising to find how frequently afflicted men in +regulated cities refer their infection to professional prostitutes. +Pinkus, inquiring of 2,512 male patients, traced 1,571 cases (62.54 per +cent.) to prostitutes, of whom 1,350 (52.74 per cent.) were +professionals.[485] Of 661 infections in Stockholm, 297 could be traced +to their sources: 151, or over 50 per cent., were known to come from +inscribed women.[486] Dealing with 102 infected gymnasial students, +Meirowski traced little less than half to registered women.[487] + +Does the foregoing condemnation of sanitary control apply to the bordell +inmates as well as to scattered prostitutes? Or does the medically +regulated bordell offer an increasing measure of hygienic protection? +Assuredly not on the score of more thorough medical examination. In so +far as the inspection takes place in the bordell, as is the case in +Paris, Hamburg, Rome, Geneva, and Brussels, the situation is aggravated +rather than improved; for nowhere are there proper facilities, and the +women may all the more readily practise imposition.[488] Disease is +therefore not more likely to be discovered. + +On the other hand, it is more likely by far to be widely distributed: +for the bordell prostitute entertains, as we have learned, a stream of +patrons. Schrank estimated that the Vienna women averaged three to ten +visitors daily; but the number is known on occasions to have risen to +thirty or higher.[489] An authentic instance of 57 visitors in one day +is recorded;[490] the city physician of Rome vouched for a case of 60 +visitors; the mayor of Bordeaux told the French commission of a woman +who had received 82 clients in a single day.[491] The sale of alcohol in +the bordell markedly increases the range of infection, for it provokes +recklessness and banishes caution. It has been estimated that one-third +of the gonorrhœal infections are incurred while the victim is in +liquor.[492] If then, the woman is herself infected, she has enlarged +facilities for distributing disease; even if not herself infected, she +may be the carrier of disease from one of her patrons to others of the +series. The chief physician of the Vienna police remarked in a public +discussion of this point: “The prostitute is often only the carrier of +an infection. It is nothing new to find a man who has contracted disease +from a woman whom the most careful examination pronounces ‘healthy.’ +These things happen with all infectious diseases.”[493] + +Statistics favorable to this contention can be submitted; but in view of +the liability of the patient to error[494] in locating the source of his +infection, the argument is perhaps more conclusive than the figures. A +single set of statistics from Bremen that appears to prove the reverse +will be presently accounted for. More significant, however, is the +contrast between the amount of disease discovered in the bordell inmates +of Hamburg and the scattered prostitutes of Berlin:[495] + + Number inscribed women + Year 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 + Berlin 3,709 3,287 3,135 3,518 3,692 + Hamburg 1,266 1,258 1,291 1,039 920 + + Number found diseased + Year 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 + Berlin 620 505 576 660 732 + Hamburg 759 843 719 721 791 + + Percentage diseased + Year 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 + Berlin 16.7 15.3 18.3 18.7 19.8 + Hamburg 59.9 67.0 55.7 69.3 85.9 + +When the comparison is made in terms of examinations rather than +individuals, the result is similarly to the disadvantage of the bordell. +Of 1,000 examinations made of bordell inmates in Brussels between 1881 +and 1885, 2.71 per cent. showed disease; of the same number of +examinations of scattered women 2.51 per cent.[496] But perhaps the best +statistical proof is derived from Vienna, where substantially the same +methods—if poor, at any rate consistently poor—were applied to both sets +of registered women, the bordell women making regularly the worse +record:[497] + + Percentage diseased + Year 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 + Bordell inmates 13 12 15 13.5 13.5 12 + Scattered prostitutes 2 3.6 5.3 4.7 6.5 5.8 + +The bordell is particularly dangerous to youth, whose curiosity it +excites; and recklessness and ignorance characteristic of that period +results in an exceptionally high ratio of infection. Pinkus gives some +statistics collected at Kiel, showing that of 100 boys under 20, 33.75 +per cent. had been infected in the bordells of that city; of 100 men +over 20, the bordells were held responsible in only 19.75 per cent.[498] +Hecht, discussing the experience of Prague, points out the “relatively +greater frequency of infection in bordells” and attributes it +confidently to the “greater volume of their business in consequence of +their readier accessibility.”[499] + +Against the position above taken, the experience of Bremen has recently +been cited. There the percentage of infection discovered among bordell +women has been steadily reduced by the system of regulation in vogue. In +1900, the 50 inhabitants of Helenenstrasse averaged 1.4 infections each; +in 1905, the seventy-odd women there averaged .73 infections each; in +1910, .38 apiece.[500] + +Can it be fairly inferred that a strictly supervised bordell system will +thus greatly diminish danger? As a matter of fact, there is no pretense +that the total amount of venereal disease in Bremen has been perceptibly +influenced by the bordell control. The business of the bordells is +steadily shrinking; the clandestine prostitute—uncontrolled and +unregulated—thrives. Hence, even if effective, the Bremen remedy is +impossible. Seventy women can be drilled to exercise all kinds of +precaution,—but the moment the number is largely increased, supervision +collapses. The smaller number of women here interned can be forced to +provide their guests with mechanical devices—and themselves to utilize +strong antiseptic douches.[501] But it by no means follows that the same +policy could be operated wholesale. The figures are themselves, however, +without the significance attributed to them. In the first place because, +as the oft-infected prostitute suffers from chronic gonorrhœa, she is +always a menace, most of all so during coition (let the examination say +what it will); strong douches simply wash away accessible evidence. In +the second place, because the membership of the little colony is so +constantly changing that the figures do not speak for the condition of a +definite set of women. The following table brings this point out +clearly: + + Year Enrolment Jan. 1st Added during year Withdrawn + 1902 47 33 28 + 1903 52 59 41 + 1904 68 78 72 + +There was thus a constant entrance and exit, the entire membership being +transformed in a short space of time.[502] Looking through the police +records, I ascertained that one woman had been resident six years, one +or two others one and a half years; all the rest were recent additions. + +There is therefore no basis in experience for a verdict favorable to +bordells on the ground that they conduce to a form of medical inspection +that tends to diminish disease. The fact is that, though infection can +be lessened by the use of mechanical devices, the recklessness developed +in bordells consequent on alcoholic indulgence operates to prevent +rather than to encourage precautionary measures. The women never cease +to be dangerous; and as they transact an amount of business impossible +outside, the actual amount of infection is enormously increased. + +On the medical side, therefore, regulation is even weaker than on the +side of order. There is a connection between prostitution and disorder, +in such wise that some sort of police control of disorderly or criminal +prostitution might conceivably be a useful way of keeping them in easy +reach. Experience proves that the same object can indeed be otherwise +attained, and without granting enrolled prostitutes privileges which are +themselves damaging to the public and straightway involve the extension +of similar privileges to the uncontrolled. But there is still a grain of +truth at the bottom, namely, that the low grade prostitute tends to +align herself with crime and for that reason may be properly made a +constant object of police surveillance. + +It is absurd, however, to infer that machinery devised in the interest +of order is equally applicable to sanitation. On the score of order, the +police are interested in criminal and semi-criminal prostitutes. The +discreet women who ply their vocation inconspicuously and in a +businesslike spirit give no trouble and are therefore never inscribed. +Disease however, is an altogether different matter. From that there is +for the prostitute no exemption whatsoever. She contracts it +irrespective of her outward demeanor; and she communicates it, +regardless of the general decorousness of her behavior. The criminal law +runs against a part of the prostitute army; the bacteriological law +against all. A form of control adequate to the former is therefore +entirely inadequate to the latter. + +There is then on the sanitary side no support whatever for the theory of +police regulation. It assumes that those dangerous to order are the ones +most dangerous to health; that crime and disease go together; that if +the police inscribe women inclined to join prostitution and crime, they +will thus get hold of the main sources of infection. But the truth is +far otherwise. The non-criminal prostitute is at least as dangerous to +health as the criminal prostitute. The young, who cannot be inscribed; +the older, more cautious and more showy who take care not to annoy the +police; the occasionals and incidentals, who oscillate between or mingle +prostitution and work;—these are perhaps even more active agents in +spreading disease than the utterly repulsive women whose thieving or +drinking propensities make them the peculiar objects of police care on +the score of order. + +There is another objection to identifying disease and crime, as the +association of medical inspection with the police inevitably does. The +infected prostitute has been taught that the consequences of disease +resemble the consequences of crime; they lead to arrest and +condemnation,—even though condemnation means only a hospital ward. This +ward is in some places still a prison; in others, prison associations +cling to it. In consequence, the woman’s first impulse on realizing her +condition is to flee or to hide. She resorts to a quack, she employs +superficial remedies to conceal the ravages and signs of infection; and +she plies her business. Hence a few wretched or foolish girls and women +who are in ignorance of their condition or who have been suddenly +apprehended find themselves pronounced “diseased.” One sees them at St. +Lazare and other less hideous places,—all alike poor and friendless. The +more clever of the inscribed women, if diseased, disappear into remote +lodgings or to other towns; the fear of the prison hospital leads them +to conceal and to scatter infection. Nor is there any hope of breaking +off the association in the woman’s mind so long as a pretended sanitary +function is lodged in police hands. + +The women have thus completely penetrated the sanitary insincerity of +regulation. They know that they are not regulated simply because they +are prostitutes,—not even because they are diseased prostitutes. Too +many mere prostitutes are never touched; the diseased prostitute is too +rarely apprehended just on that account. A woman is inscribed because, +being a prostitute, with or without disease, she has incurred,—justly +enough, doubtless, as a rule—the suspicion and displeasure of the +police. The hygienic motive did not and does not start the machinery to +move, and its connection with ordinary police functions, methods and +spirit results in its own discredit and defeat. + +A final absurdity remains to be pointed out. What can it avail to +incarcerate for brief periods a few unhappy women, if meanwhile the +manufacture of fresh foci of infection proceeds unhampered? As long as +regulation completely omits men,[503] new sources of infection are +produced far more rapidly than by any known method they can be +eradicated. A vicious circle exists. Men infect the beginners—themselves +at the time out of reach—who in their turn infect other men. I pointed +out in the opening chapter that prostitution is a concept involving two +persons. Logic and justice alike require that both parties be considered +as equal partners in the act; and in no respect is it more completely +impossible to omit either of the two essential factors from the +reckoning than in the matter of disease. Society has chosen to overlook +the man; but nature has righted the balance by impartially distributing +disease and suffering; nor will she permit herself to be outwitted by +any one-sided scheme, even though it be far more extensive and efficient +than regulation has thus far anywhere been. + +Regulation, needless on the score of order, is thus seen to be +positively harmful in its bearing on disease. As a system, therefore, it +runs counter to the modern spirit in ethics, in politics, and in +hygiene. Why then should it still exist in places, why should it fight +so stubbornly for survival? To the answering of this question, the last +chapter dealing with the subject will be devoted. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + THE REAL INWARDNESS OF REGULATION + + Reasons for partial survival of regulation.—Policy rapidly losing + ground.—Ignorance of its details.—Political and social + conservatism.—Vested interests.—Regulation and police + corruption.—Ulterior motives.—Final objection to regulation. + + +In the course of the last three chapters I have been at pains to discuss +in detail the continental regulation of vice. I have shown that the term +regulation denotes no uniform system, but that, on the contrary, marked +variations of system exist, explicable in the main, as different +attempts to stop a gap, to prevent further collapse, or to effect a +readjustment somewhat less repugnant to modern feeling. Two reasons +continue to be advanced officially in support of the system: that it is +necessary to the police authorities for the maintenance of order, and +that it contributes to the reduction of venereal disease. The former +contention has been shown to lack substantial basis; the latter is +assuredly in most cases either insincere or mistaken,—insincere, I take +it, in Paris, where the most elementary sanitary precautions are +neglected, where the administration of the hygienic features is so +notoriously bad that one cannot but suspect the entire sanitary object; +mistaken at Vienna, where a conscientious administration continues to +labor at the task with implements and methods already obsolete. I have +shown, further, that, futile at its best, regulation is at its worst +when associated with recognized or tolerated bordells, for the bordell +is itself the scene of disorder and the hotbed of exploitation, excess, +and disease. Of the ethical argument against regulation little has thus +far been made, for it seemed better in the first place to examine the +system on its own chosen ground. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that +the ethical argument has played a part in discrediting a system, which +has suffered alike from its own obvious failure as well as from the +growing disgust of society. + +For the reasons just summarized, regulation has lost and is still +rapidly losing ground. As recently as a quarter of a century ago it was +in vogue throughout the Continent of Europe; in the seventies it enjoyed +a brief currency in Great Britain as well. It is decaying in France +where, of 695 communes having over 5,000 inhabitants, it has entirely +disappeared from 250[504] and practically from many others. In Germany, +of 162 cities, 48 have dispensed with it,[505] while it is moribund in +others. In Switzerland it survives only in Geneva; it has been wholly +abandoned in Denmark, Norway and Great Britain. A special commission has +recommended its total abolition in France; and a similar body in Sweden, +far from unanimous at the start, has unanimously come to the same +conclusion. Partisans of regulation sometimes endeavor to explain away +this general movement on the ground that in it ethics and sentimentality +have simply prevailed over science and commonsense. But the facts lie +far otherwise. Religious bodies have indeed taken a prominent part; but +there has been no lack of facts contributed and vouched for by +physicians and scientists of distinction. Among the most prominent +opponents of regulation are publicists, who have observed its futility +from the standpoint of order, and medical specialists who have become +convinced of its uselessness from the standpoint of sanitation.[506] + +For its partial survival thus far in France, Germany, and +Austria-Hungary there is no single or simple explanation; several +considerations combine to retard what is unmistakably a general movement +destined to efface the system in all its forms. Let us briefly consider +the factors in question. + +Ignorance is partially responsible. The general public is uninformed; +many intelligent people have only the vaguest ideas as to what is taking +place in the name of regulation; even the police have rarely studied the +problem except shortsightedly in relation to their own daily +necessities. In Paris, the principles involved have been indeed the +subject of acrimonious discussion for many years; but I recall the utter +amazement with which a distinguished politician, to whom I had been +referred as one keenly interested in the topic, heard that at that +moment only one hundred and seventy women were interned on the score of +disease. Other similar incidents could be given. The Budapest officials +had studied and adopted the revised Berlin procedure; the Vienna +officials had studied the Budapest and Berlin bureaus on the ground; but +other instances of painstaking examination of the workings and the +effects of regulation even on the part of those charged with its +enforcement were very rare indeed. I learned to my surprise that the +police of one town knew of other systems only what was printed,—an +inadequate basis for judgment, because the official accounts are too +favorable and quite fragmentary, conveying no accurate idea of +conditions and events; the abundant outside literature is so uneven and +so conflicting that the bureaucrat, reading it in his office, and not +knowing what to believe, neglects it almost altogether. Partisans of +retention, reform, and abolition alike fight more or less largely with +lame weapons,—reports, hearsay, and newspaper clippings. The Paris +police, for example, urge that if the morals patrol were abolished, +respectable women would not be free from molestation on the streets; and +a high official cited Zurich as a striking example. Inquiry and +observation on my part at Zurich failed to discover the slightest basis +for the statement. Non-existent statistics are frequently referred to, +to show the dreadful things that have followed in the wake of abolition +in England. Under these conditions the emotional fervor with which the +ethical argument has been pushed has had at times an effect just +opposite to that intended. The police official sees a conflict between +facts and ethics where, had the facts been dispassionately and +comparatively presented, he might remark that religious zeal was merely +sweeping away in righteous indignation the fallen timbers of a structure +condemned by its own results. + +The political and social conservatism of Europe doubtless also operates +to stay the reforming hand. Regulation of some kind has existed time out +of mind,—in classical and medieval, as in modern times. Prostitutes have +formed a class apart; and societies which respect class differentiations +readily enough transmit an institution which appears to be founded +simply on the frank acceptance of what has been, is, and will continue +to be. That much more than this is implied in and countenanced by +regulation is a consideration, the force of which is not appreciated +until the critical and inquiring spirit becomes active. + +Regulation enjoys, however, more positive and more formidable protection +than would be afforded by either ignorance or tradition. It is +identified with powerful vested interests. Of European office-holders—as +of all others—it is true that “officials rarely resign and never die.” +The officials—lay and medical—and the patrolmen directly and indirectly +connected with the morals bureau form a place-holding interest, +magnifying its own importance, stating its own case in the way that is +most likely to carry conviction and resisting interference with all the +strength of the instinct that struggles for existence. The destruction +of the system would sweep away a more or less numerous official +apparatus: commissaries and inspectors for whom there might be no other +places; examining physicians to whom the official stipend is perhaps an +important item. + +Less creditable motives are also alleged. The European police[507] bear, +on the whole, an excellent reputation. As to the capacity, intelligence +and integrity of the officials one hears no question raised. The +administration of the police furnishes a legitimate and honorable +career, comparable in prominence and dignity with that of the army or +the bench. The police president is usually a jurist of university +training who has risen to his post by promotion on the basis of merit. +His appointment has no connection with politics, and he holds office for +life or good behavior. The very patrolmen are selected with scrupulous +care. In Germany no man is appointed unless he has served as an +under-officer during his military service; in England, fresh men are +taken from the country and small towns in order to avoid connections and +associations possibly prejudicial to disinterested service. The rank and +file therefore are trustworthy and respected. Exceptions occur, but it +is nowhere believed that they are frequent or serious. + +But this exemplary reputation does not belong to the morals police. Once +more, the head officials are nowhere involved; charges of corruption and +grave impropriety on the part of the patrolmen in the morals service +are, however, all too common. The situation created by regulation is +indeed an impossible one. Prostitution is treated as inevitable; it is +authorized and “regulated” on the ground that men will indulge +themselves. And yet the morals police who are closest to it are expected +to hold aloof! Again, women are exploited by pimps, by liquor-dealers, +by bordell-keepers; yet regulation assumes that the morals police who +are every moment in position to sell favors, exemptions and privileges +will refrain from doing so.[508] + +In truth, such oversight as would insure an honest morals police +adequate to the need in point of number cannot possibly be instituted. +The task would be difficult enough if all prostitutes were treated +alike; for public opinion and official supervision could then enforce a +consistent policy. But public opinion and official supervision cannot +enforce a policy abounding in exceptions. The moment exceptions occur, +an opportunity for trading, for corruption, for collusion is created; +hence the danger arising from measures applicable to part only of the +offenders. If at the most one prostitute in six or eight or ten is to be +registered, who is to know on what basis the others escape through the +net? Who is to tell whether an officer refrains from making an arrest, +because he lacks proof, or has been bought off with money or favors? It +can occasion no surprise therefore to find it freely asserted that among +the stronger forces working for the retention of regulation must be +reckoned the personal interest of corrupt placemen, and of +liquor-dealers, dance-hall-owners, and bordell-keepers who through +regulation come into possession of a group of women whom they can +exploit. The effort to dislodge regulation in Geneva—the sole Swiss town +in which it survives—has been so far successfully resisted by a +combination of bordell-keepers, liquor-dealers, gamblers and high +livers, who proclaim Geneva as a “smaller Paris,” and urge that the +miniature should be characterized by all the gaiety and frivolity of the +prototype. In Paris it is charged that morals policemen have acted as +“go-betweens” in negotiations between brothel-keepers and street women; +that they have in some instances under threat of arrest forced girls +from the street into houses needing recruits; and that they have been +bribed to overlook infractions of the age-limit. These are not the +irresponsible charges of unknown journalists; they are made on the +authority of some of the ablest publicists in France,—a former prime +minister among them. I have in my possession a copy of a letter written +by a morals policeman to a street prostitute working for him as a pimp! +One hears of similar incidents elsewhere. Shortly before I went to +Berlin,—so I was informed—twelve men had been dismissed from the force +for unworthy conduct. A similar incident again recently took place. The +Berlin morals patrolmen are permitted to utilize registered women as +spies in order to obtain information for their guidance. A girl thus +used turned upon her employers, denouncing them as “pimps.” Of those +accused additional evidence was procured against only three; and of +these one was clearly proved to have received from her 1,000 marks. At +Frankfort I was told of instances in which it was found that police +officers lived in the very houses to which registered prostitutes were +referred. We may conclude, therefore, that the corrupt interest of +unprincipled men inside and outside the force is a factor in the +struggle to retain regulation. + +With the difficulties of the police situation in non-regulated +communities I shall deal in subsequent chapters; but it must be remarked +at this juncture that the defects of the morals police above pointed out +arise not only from the existence of this specialized force, but from +the fact that they are called on to execute a self-contradictory policy; +neither superior officers nor the public can know to whom the rules are +applicable and to whom not. But in non-regulated towns, with or without +a morals police system, the same policy is applied to all. +Street-walking is or is not allowed; bordells are or are not tolerated. +The opportunity for corruption disappears, not simply because the morals +police disappear—this is not always the case—but because an equitable +and readily controllable régime is introduced. + +There must, of course, be other motives at work to account for the +maintenance of regulation; for the police heads being, as I have urged, +men of honor and intelligence must be regarded as putting up with, while +combatting, the evils just mentioned for the sake of other objects, +which they assume to outweigh the disadvantages involved. Certain +provisions of the rules governing inscribed women give the clue by means +of which the motives in question may be arrived at; and confirmatory +evidence can also be found. + +I have frequently called attention to the fact that a woman is not +registered because she is a prostitute, nor even because she is a +diseased prostitute. The women who nightly frequent the cafés, dance +halls and variety shows are among the most notorious prostitutes in +Europe,—thoroughly well known to the police and to the public,—yet no +effort is anywhere made to inscribe them. These women are not overlooked +because their health is miraculously protected; as a matter of fact, +they have run the gamut of disease, are liable to gonorrhœal +re-infection, and are by some specialists regarded as especially +dangerous because they appear to rather better advantage than +street-walkers. The same statements apply to hundreds, in the largest +cities to thousands, of prostitutes, far more humble in aspect who ply +their trade quietly and unostentatiously on the streets. From time to +time a few of them, apprehended for drunkenness or soliciting, are +forcibly inscribed in towns permitting compulsory inscription; but for +the most part, these women do not reach the police rolls and no +systematic effort is anywhere made to place them there. Over a glass of +wine in the cafés of Montmartre or the Latin quarter one readily elicits +the tell-tale facts. The habitués of these resorts know the police and +the police know them. There is not the slightest doubt as to their +status; nightly they appear in their habitat. They are not inscribed, +even though their notoriously promiscuous relations necessarily result +in infection. They are not inscribed because they behave well. +Unaggressive in demeanor, they engage the passer-by in bantering +conversation, disclosing their purpose but rarely pushing it. Their +habits, abode, and associations are known to the police, but known to +involve no open break with order or with conventional notions of +decency. Only when crime or disorder brings them into suspicion or +prominence, do they become objects of police observation, eventually +inscribed and forced to report for medical examination—the device by +means of which they are kept under close surveillance. “The medical +visit is only the excuse made for arbitrary police power.”[509] + +The fact then that notorious prostitutes who give no offence by their +actions, associations, or movements easily evade inscription suggests at +once that inscription is not due to prostitution as such, or to +prostitution complicated by disease, but to prostitution in so far as it +is suspected of alliance with criminality or disorder.[510] This +interpretation is sustained by many facts; in the first place, by the +spy system, which has just been exposed in Berlin. The streets abound in +prostitutes to detect whom no spies are needed; yet they are for the +most part overlooked by the police. Spies are utilized to get hold of +prostitutes to whom there is some objection other than their promiscuous +sexual life. Again, everywhere in deciding the question as to whether or +not a woman should be arrested, enormous importance is attached to her +possessing a definite domicile. In Berlin, for example, girls with +“feste Wohnung” (definite domicile) are not apprehended on the streets +unless irrefragable evidence is at hand; girls who on interrogation +prove to be without “feste Wohnung” are taken up promptly. The +distinction is obviously not made on the theory that the former is not a +prostitute, while the latter is,—both are; nor on the theory that the +former is probably infectious, the latter not,—again, both are. The +significant difference is that prostitutes with “feste Wohnung” are apt +to be law-abiding and can in any case be readily laid hold of, while +prostitutes without “feste Wohnung” are apt to be criminal vagabonds of +highly elusive quality.[511] Registration enables the police to pin +these women down and by compelling them to report to headquarters at +brief intervals enables the police to keep in constant touch with a +criminal or semi-criminal element. + +There is perhaps another point worth mentioning. The continental police +are constantly concerned lest some possible source of disturbance escape +surveillance. For this reason they keep a close watch on individuals, on +political movements, social agitations, societies, etc. Prostitution is +a potential source of disturbance; the police therefore need to do +something about it, before anything happens. Fortunately, from time to +time experience shows that well-ordered and well-governed communities +may safely be less solicitous about themselves; and cities which have +discarded regulation are surprised to find that the loss of unusual +machinery and the neglect of unusual precautions have been without +baleful consequences. + +The above view—that regulation at the present day is retained because it +gives the police an additional arm in dealing with a certain class of +delinquents—is further sustained by certain explicit provisions of the +rules. For the Berlin regulations stipulate: “Registered women must at +once, at any time, day or night, admit to their rooms police officers +who come to make inspection respecting persons found with them.”[512] +Similarly in Hamburg: “Apart from all the regulations affecting +registration of addresses required of all inhabitants, registered +prostitutes must in person report within twenty-four hours every change +of address; further, if they propose to leave the city permanently or +transiently, they must in person announce the fact.[513] Police officers +wishing to view their premises must be admitted without delay.”[514] In +Paris, the rules warn women “not to resist the agents of the +authorities, nor to report falsely their names or addresses.”[515] In +Vienna, “the police may without explanation at any time forbid +prostitutes to occupy a particular house or to room with a particular +madame; the domiciles of prostitutes are to be under constant +surveillance and delegates of the police must be admitted on +request.”[516] Schneider, noting that it “is well known that the police +frequently utilize the lowest grade of prostitutes, who are accustomed +to consort with criminals, as detectives,” and that not seldom +bordell-keepers and bordell inmates are required to act as police spies, +quotes the following from the regulations in vogue at Eger: “Bordell +proprietors are in duty bound to keep close watch on strange customers +and to give the police prompt and quiet notice whenever suspicion is +aroused.”[517] The above regulations apply only to controlled women; +uncontrolled prostitutes are amenable only to the rules applicable to +all other persons. The special provisions above cited are comprehensible +if it is understood that a certain class of prostitutes, themselves of +doubtful character, consort with and conceal criminal and suspicious +characters; and the fact that regulation makes in general no effort to +be more extensive than the class in question lends color to the view +here taken. + +There is, however, other evidence to the same effect. M. Lépine the +former Prefect of Paris, has already been quoted as authority for the +statement that it is the controlled women who annoy the police. Unless +these women are enrolled not because they are prostitutes, but because +they are criminals, there would be no reason why arrested prostitutes +should prove to be mainly controlled prostitutes. If prostitutes were +enrolled without regard to criminality or criminal associates, those +arrested would be mainly non-registered women, since the latter are much +the more numerous and at least as prominent. Yet the figures everywhere +tell the opposite story. In Paris, for instance, in 1903, 55,641 arrests +were made among the inscribed women, numbering that year 6,418 women; +among the far greater number of unregistered women, 1,426 were arrested +once, 1,395 more than once,—a total, almost negligible, of 2,821.[518] +The disproportion is less marked at Berlin and the totals smaller, but +the same fact emerges: of controlled women in 1909, 1,122 were arrested; +of clandestines many times as numerous, 636; in 1910, the figures are +1,984 and 878 respectively.[519] The following table shows for a series +of years the number of women arrested by the morals police of Breslau +and the quotas contributed thereto, by inscribed, formerly inscribed, +and non-inscribed women:[520] + + Years 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 + Total arrests 1,336 1,570 1,707 1,768 1,995 + Inscribed women 1,197 1,386 1,497 1,560 1,621 + Formerly inscribed women 12 16 22 14 17 + Non-inscribed women 127 168 188 194 357 + +At Stockholm, those imprisoned are always much more numerous than those +in the hospital, as e. g., 201 in prison, 23 in the hospital in 1870; +162 as against 30 in 1890; 216 as against 74 in 1904.[521] So, of 979 +women punished between 1885 and 1889, 198 were sentenced to hard labor +twice, 146 three times, 111 four times, 10 ten times, and 2 thirteen +times.[522] That enrolled prostitution and criminal prostitution fairly +coincide is thus manifest. + +It is absurd, as we shall see when we deal with the preservation of +order in non-regulated cities, to argue that either regulation or a +special police is required in order to make these arrests. As a matter +of fact, not a few of the occasions leading to arrests are attributable +to regulation, partly in consequence of the well-nigh inevitable abuse +of the privileges extended to the inscribed prostitute, partly because +of trivial infractions of liberties enjoyed by non-inscribed and denied +to inscribed prostitutes;[523] for just as the inscribed prostitute is +authorized to do certain things without molestation, so she is forbidden +to do others that her non-inscribed sister does without +interference.[524] In any case, as disorder and crime are most rife +among registered women, it would appear that the women are registered on +the ground that they need police oversight and thus get it more +effectually. + +In the proceedings of the Paris bureau, incidents occur daily, +explicable on the theory that I have just set forth, and not otherwise. +The police possess, as I have elsewhere explained, summary power; the +girl has no witnesses, no counsel, no appeal. I watched the following +transactions, all suggestive of ulterior motive: a girl released from +St. Lazare forty-eight hours before, was brought before the police +physicians without charge of definite offence, adjudged diseased, and +sent back to prison. Clearly the police wanted her behind the bars, and +regulation enabled them to put her there and keep her there. Another had +left St. Lazare twenty-four hours previously: picked up for disorder, +she was sent back for four days. A third, arrested the previous Friday, +spent Saturday and Sunday in prison; re-arrested Monday, she received a +six days’ sentence. The fourth was arrested at 2 A. M., after being out +of prison one day. The next was asked at my suggestion, “How many terms +have you served at St. Lazare?” Her answer: “I don’t know,—too many to +count.” The prison attendant explained to me that some of these +“repeaters” spend twenty-five nights out of every month there, receiving +a constant succession of short sentences. They are hardened cases, whom +the medical inspection keeps close to the police,—the police, who, by +means of their summary jurisdiction, can put them out of the way +whenever their suspicions are aroused! The fact that clandestines thrice +arrested for “racolage” (soliciting) are compulsorily inscribed bears +witness once more to the fact that registration seeks to get hold of +only the disorderly and criminal. + +The criminal arm with which the police are thus furnished is a +plain-clothes division—a secret body moving noiselessly and armed with +summary power. The women and the bordell-owners, where bordells exist, +prosecute their business on the sufferance of this body. I have pointed +out how this situation may lead to corruption of the rank and file. It +is openly and responsibly charged that it has led even the higher +authorities in some places—notably Paris—to employ their irresponsible +power for political or other purposes. It is alleged that prostitutes +and bordell-keepers have been utilized for blackmail and espionage. +Concrete cases are always so involved in detail that the charge is hard +to substantiate; but the high character of the persons who make it +warrants the belief that it is not wholly baseless.[525] Only a few +months ago, the city of Mainz was profoundly agitated by the charge that +the matron attached to the morals bureau had been utilized illegally by +her superiors in this very direction. To one who has taken the time to +understand both the letter and the spirit of continental regulation, the +point is too clear to require extensive argument. Blaschko’s comment is +entirely sound: “Hygiene is not the reason why the police so stubbornly +hold on to regulation. For reasons that have nothing to do with hygiene +the police have a decided interest in keeping under constant observation +precisely this group of professional prostitutes. They are the women who +stand in intimate relation with the criminal world, the friends of +pimps, thieves, and burglars, often enough themselves thieves. Nobody +disputes the right of the police to watch this dangerous class. But +there is no doubt that the criminal point of view which is the real +basis of existing regulation actually gets in the way of efficient +sanitary control.”[526] + +I shall show in the chapters dealing with abolition, that, in so far as +concerns legitimate police control of the criminal element on which +Blaschko here touches, there appears to be nothing in the problem that +requires an extraordinary instrument vested with extra-legal powers; in +so far as the final explanation of the tenacity of the police is +espionage, there is no place in any modern society for an agency of this +character. Crime can be kept within bounds without giving certain +criminals the right to practise prostitution; to use the prostitute and +her exploiter as spies and for that purpose to condone or to license +their immorality traverses the modern conception of the function of the +state. + +And here we come upon the final and unanswerable objection to any form +of regulation. The modern state—the modern European state—is an +organization charged with the positive duty of securing and promoting +conditions which make for the welfare, happiness, and usefulness of +every member of society. How far it can at any moment travel in the +direction of compelling better conditions is a detail to be determined; +but certain it is that the fundamental basis of modern statesmanship is +violated by the notion that certain members can be sacrificed, body and +soul, in order to win a trivial police advantage! Prostitution exists +and on a large scale. The state is bound to face the fact, bound to +admit its present existence,—its long history in the past, its menace +for the future. But, be the outlook for its extermination or reduction +good or bad, favorable or unfavorable, at the very least the whole +weight of the state’s power and influence, direct and indirect, must be +thrown against it as wasteful, demoralizing, and infamous. If positive +measures are feasible, they must be taken; if social disapproval is even +slightly deterrent, it must be proclaimed with all the authority of +society. “The law must be a teacher” in so far at least as it embodies +an expression of what ought to be. It is absurd to suppose that the +state can take this position—whatever its value—and yet authorize +prostitution on any ground whatsoever,—absurd to preach continence and +to license vice. + +True enough, no police officer in Europe admits that regulation licenses +vice. But, whatever the legal theory be, it does, nevertheless! The +prostitute believes that she is practising a trade regulated by society, +that society simply prescribes rules for the conduct of her business. +There is, therefore, no more pathetic incongruity than that which is +presented in the morals bureau of Berlin, Munich and Budapest, where a +social worker is installed for the purpose of dissuasion, while the +police officer waits in the adjoining room ready to authorize the career +from which well-meaning but ineffective pleading has first endeavored to +deter. The permission implied in the existence of regulation is at cross +purposes with the sound attitude implied by the effort to persuade the +girl to renounce her vicious ways. The social effort under these +circumstances is little more than a sop to the popular demand that the +state address itself with all its might to prevention and to salvation +and under no circumstances to authorization. + +This then is the final and weightiest objection to regulation: not that +it fails as hygiene, not that it is contemptible as espionage, not that +it is unnecessary as a police measure, but that it obstructs and +confounds the proper attitude of society towards all social evils, of +which prostitution is one. Men can refrain; the state must do nothing to +make indulgence easier. Women must be saved, if possible; rescued, if +preventive measures have come too feebly or too late. These sentences +sum up the simple and entire duty of the state. Society must presume +that the human spark has not been utterly quenched in the wrecked +soul,—a fact that is not without support from experience. As against all +this, inscription entices the girl, offering her a _quid pro quo_ if she +crosses the line. Thus it snaps the last weak thread that ties her to +decent occupation or other associations. In its ultimate effect, +therefore, it is a compact with vice, whatever the language employed. It +may not intend to encourage vice, but by conceding to vice a privileged +position, it discourages all effort to prevent or uproot it. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + ABOLITION AND ORDER + + Meaning of term “Abolition.”—Immediate effect of abolition.—General + distinction between regulation and abolition.—Abolition not + _laissez-faire_.—Provisions of English law as to street-walking,—as to + brothels.—Legislation in Norway,—in Denmark,—in Holland,—in + Switzerland.—Public opinion an important factor.—Actual conditions as + to street-walking in London.—General improvement.—Actual conditions as + to vice resorts.—Effects of London policy.—Comparison with continental + cities.—Abolition and the police.—Conditions in provincial and + Scottish towns.—Conditions in abolition towns on the Continent.—The + suppression of bordells.—Street-walking in Copenhagen,—in + Christiania,—in Dutch cities.—No loss through abolition.—Prostitution + and vagabondage.—The domicile problem.—Prostitution and crime in + abolitionist communities.—Morals police in abolition communities. + + +The term abolition is more or less widely misunderstood. Not +infrequently it is supposed to mean “the abolition of prostitution,” and +abolitionists are represented as bent upon summarily abolishing +prostitution through statutory enactment or otherwise. As a matter of +fact, abolition refers only to the abolition of laws and police +ordinances regulating, recognizing, or licensing the practice of +prostitution;[527] and abolitionists are those who oppose all statutory +enactments or police decrees authorizing the inscription or medical +examination of prostitutes, as well as all laws which bear upon only one +of the two parties involved. Still another misconception will be exposed +in the course of the present chapter: opponents of abolition (i. e., +those favoring regulation) often assume that abolition is identical with +_laissez-faire_; they argue that if the regulatory system is swept away +no apparatus remains by means of which prostitution can be kept in +bounds, and their terrified imaginations at once conjure up pictures of +abolitionist communities overwhelmed by the rising tide of immorality +and disease. Without at all prejudging the case either in favor of or +against abolition, the notion that abolition is a purely negative policy +beginning and ending with the ignoring of prostitution may be +characterized as baseless. Unquestionably, such might be the case. A +community might refuse to recognize prostitution by regulation, and +might, like the ostrich, bury its head in the sand, refusing to admit +the existence of prostitution as a phenomenon requiring the attention of +society. But, to be candid, this is nowhere the case, though one +frequently and commonly hears it said. The abolition of regulation has +nowhere resulted in a _laissez-faire_ policy. Against both the above +errors we need therefore to be warned at the outset. Abolition means +only the abolition of regulation, not the abolition of prostitution; +abolition does not require that prostitution be ignored, overlooked, +tabooed, or treated in a spirit of prudery as non-existent: it is +entirely consistent with thorough inquiry into the whole phenomenon, and +constructive social action aiming to deal with it. + +Generally speaking, the immediate effect of abolition is to place the +mere act of prostitution in the same position as any other private vice. +The prostitute as such is like the drunkard as such, or the opium-eater. +A woman, for example, who prostitutes herself for money is in abolition +communities in the eye of the law in precisely the situation of the man +whom she has gratified: if the pair give no offence, the State takes no +cognizance of the act. The intervention of the law is conditioned not on +the act itself, but on certain conditions or results which make it +something more than an affair involving two participants. If decency is +violated, if disorder is created, if neighbors are scandalized, in some +countries if disease is communicated, society considers itself warranted +in interfering, just as it interferes in other circumstances to preserve +or to promote the peace and health of the community. So far, there would +appear to be little difference between what happens in regulated and +what happens in unregulated towns. In Paris, as in London, in Budapest, +as in Copenhagen, the mere act of irregular copulation is not regarded +as a crime, even though money passes; even in Germany, despite the +letter of the German law, which brands all non-registered professional +prostitution as criminal, inoffensive prostitution for money is treated +like ordinary immorality and is not interfered with. On the other hand, +everywhere the authorities act whenever the usual order of the community +is disturbed by prostitutes or prostitution. So far, then, I say, +regulation and non-regulation are alike. There are, however, two +distinct differences. In regulated towns, inscribed prostitutes are +treated differently from non-inscribed prostitutes; in non-regulated or +abolitionist towns, all prostitutes are regarded as alike. In regulated +towns, what is an offence if committed by a non-inscribed woman is not +an offence if done by an inscribed woman. In non-regulated towns +whatsoever constitutes a violation of law on the part of A would +constitute a violation of the law on the part of B. If street-walking is +forbidden to one, it is forbidden to all; it is not allowed to one sort +of prostitute (viz., the registered prostitute) and denied to another +(viz., the unregistered, falsely called clandestine) prostitute. If +disorderly houses are illegal, they are illegal: they are not legally +authorized for one group of women and criminal for another group. From +the standpoint of positive policy, this is a significant difference, for +it favors the formulation of a general policy applicable to the +phenomenon as a whole. Regulation is, as I have pointed out, a policy of +exceptions; and wherever a fractional policy is adhered to, the +exemptions operate as a drag upon a comprehensive program; the +exceptions impede and hamper the conception or the execution of any plan +conceived in reference to the entire problem. + +The second distinction relates to the legal forms employed in dealing +with infractions of public order. I have described the methods employed +in regulated towns; by the act of inscription the woman surrenders the +rights and privileges of a human being; she makes herself a legal, as +she is already a social, pariah. The police may use their arbitrary +powers as considerately as they will; their behavior, if humane, comes +to the outcast as a matter of grace, not of right; except through the +pressure of public opinion, the woman has no assurance of humane +treatment,—she has no recourse, no redress, no rights. In abolitionist +countries, offences against order, decency, or health committed by +prostitutes are handled precisely as are the same offences when +committed by other persons. The law operates along established lines for +all offenders alike. If summary procedure is prescribed—i. e., a hearing +before a magistrate without a jury—it is prescribed for all persons +accused of the offences in question. In any event, the accused has every +opportunity and facility to make a defense,—attorneys, witnesses, and +the right of cross-examination. She can be convicted only by regular +processes, based on the explicit law of the land; in England, a writ of +habeas corpus would promptly take her before a court of competent +jurisdiction, if any ground for arbitrary detention could be made out. I +do not say, at this juncture, that the two points just instanced are of +themselves enough to justify abolition. The issue between regulation and +abolition will in this book be decided by the outcome of a comparison +between them in respect to order and disease,—the two aspects of +prostitution with which regulation undertakes to deal. Nevertheless, the +characteristic differences above touched on cannot be overlooked, if the +situation is to be grasped in all its essential bearings. + +Though consistent in their indifference to prostitution in itself, the +statutes of abolitionist countries provide more or less amply for the +phenomena that are its prompt and well-nigh inevitable accompaniments: +so prompt and so inevitable indeed, that, for practical purposes, +prostitution itself can almost be said to be dealt with. A woman may +indeed prostitute herself with impunity; but if without reputable +occupation, she may be taken up as a vagabond. She may sell her favors +without for that act incurring the penalties of the law; but she may be +taken up for street-walking, for solicitation, for keeping a +brothel,—for any one, indeed, of the steps by means of which she +procures trade enough to keep breath in her wretched body. Abolition is +therefore not necessarily crippled in the matter of dealing with +nuisances; but the offending woman is prosecuted, not because she is a +prostitute, but because she has made herself obnoxious in practising +prostitution. + +Close as the prostitute thus always is to the clutch of the law, the +distinction in principle is broad and clear. The prostitute is an object +of police action in abolition countries only when guilty of offences +against order and decency. Her business can with difficulty be conducted +without such offences. Nevertheless, as long as police interference is +conditioned on the offences in question, no novel or dangerous police +function is created,—such as would be created if the police were asked +to intervene on the ground of immorality. In the latter case, they would +be required to discharge an entirely new duty, distinct in quality from +anything else they do: they would become “_custodes morum_”—guardians of +public morals, instead of guardians of the public peace. To do the +latter they are competent, for breaches of the peace are open, obvious, +concrete,—perceptible by the ordinary senses of sight and hearing. It is +quite different with offences in the forum of morals. These are at times +difficult to detect, and involve subtle or problematic distinctions +which the police are too crude an instrument to make. Hence, as long as +the police deal with the concrete infractions by means of which +prostitution tends to bring itself into the net, they can act +consistently; should their range be extended so as to cover prostitution +as such, a partial policy would result: they could not act, unless guilt +were obvious; and this justified failure would create precisely the +opportunity for corruption and collusion that originates from +regulation. Finally, in so far as disorder leads to police interference +with prostitution, both parties to the act may be apprehended. Were +prostitution as such made a crime, only the woman would be reached. For +all these reasons, abolition legislation has consistently viewed +prostitution as a vice, attaching penalties only to its objectionable +manifestations. + +We have seen in a previous chapter how prostitution tends to certain +forms or expressions,—street-walking and brothels, for example; how it +tends to associate itself with certain occupations or activities,—the +stage, the café, the public dance hall, and a few employments, genuine +or otherwise. The present chapter will tell how these various aspects +are dealt with in abolitionist communities and will endeavor to decide +whether regulation possesses any advantage over abolition in respect +thereto.[528] + +The English law provides:[529] “Every common prostitute or night-walker +loitering and importuning passengers for the purpose of prostitution in +any street, to the obstruction, annoyance, or danger of the residents or +passengers”[530] may be arrested by a constable[531] without warrant and +on summary[532] conviction be fined 40s. or imprisoned fourteen days. In +the Metropolitan Police District of London a prostitute is liable to the +same penalty, even though actual solicitation is not proved.[533] The +English police have therefore full power and authority to clear the +streets.[534] + +The law is equally clear on the subject of disorderly houses or +brothels. A brothel is in England defined as a “place resorted to by +persons of both sexes for the purpose of prostitution”; it need not be a +whole house and may be a single room, but it does not include a house +that is occupied by one woman who is there visited by many men for the +purposes of unlawful intercourse nor a house let out in separate +apartments to prostitutes in which the owner does not live and over +which he has no control.[535] The English definition is thus broad +enough to include not only outright resorts, where prostitutes live and +practise their trade, but _rendezvous_ houses and hotels where rooms are +let for immoral purposes to transient customers without baggage. The +Common Law viewed the brothel as a nuisance, on the same footing as a +gaming-house or any place frequented by noisy and disreputable +characters. It could be proceeded against by indictment, because it +“endangers the public peace by drawing together dissolute and detached +persons.”[536] Any person might initiate prosecution and recover a +reward, if the prosecution were successful. With the passage of the +_Criminal Law Amendment Act_ of 1885, however, more expeditious +procedure was introduced. The Act penalizes “any person who keeps or +manages or acts or assists in the management of a brothel,” permits the +use of premises he controls for the purposes of habitual prostitution or +is a party to such use.[537] Places kept for public dancing, music, and +other forms of entertainment as well as taverns, lodging-houses, etc., +must be licensed; and, as we shall see, their relations to the practice +of prostitution have been greatly affected by the general change of +policy in this respect. + +The statutes governing the provincial and Scottish cities are not the +same in all respects as those applicable to London, but in the upshot +there is little difference. The _Towns Police Clauses Act_ already +referred to is the legal warrant on the basis of which the provincial +authorities proceed. Certain towns, however, operate under special acts, +not materially different in theory or application. The law of Glasgow, +for example, runs as follows: “Every prostitute or street-walker who on +or near any street loiters about or importunes passengers for the +purpose of prostitution shall be liable to a penalty.”[538] In so far, +therefore, as the letter of the law is concerned, it is clear that +abolition in England by no means involves a policy of _laissez-faire_ as +respects the outward manifestations of prostitution. This is perhaps a +sufficient refutation of the commonly made statement that the English +law “ignores prostitution,” “shuts its eyes to it,” “refuses to +recognize its existence,” etc. As to all these points, English law +exactly corresponds with that of many continental nations; it deals, not +with prostitution in itself, but with scandal arising in connection +therewith. Further, the English law differs from that of some +continental nations in refusing to authorize or license prostitution, +but in so doing it occupies precisely the position of certain other +continental nations that maintain the same position. + +At the present time, the abolition legislation of Norway and that of +Denmark—largely modeled upon it—are perhaps the most influential of all +statutory enactments dealing with prostitution.[539] In Norway, a severe +penalty is attached to the maintenance of houses of prostitution; the +ordinary provisions of the criminal code enable the police to arrest +women for intoxication, for solicitation, and for other violations of +decency; the prostitute can also be proceeded against on the ground of +vagabondage. Persons who for their own profit aid “in the immoral +intercourse of others or take advantage of such immoral intercourse” are +liable to imprisonment up to two years.[540] + +The Danish law of 1906 follows along the Norwegian lines. It repeals the +law of 1866, by which regulation had been instituted, and, as Police +Inspector Schepelern-Larsen acutely remarked, the “prostitute’s +recalcitrancy was rewarded,” for the woman twice punished as a common +prostitute had—as elsewhere—been inscribed and was thereafter privileged +to pursue the course for entering upon which she had twice suffered a +penalty! The new law abolishes this privilege; it denounces the common +prostitute as a vagabond[541] and renders her amenable to the +consequences of vagabondage; any one who solicits or invites immorality +in such wise as to offend against the sense of shame, causes public +scandal, or annoys a neighbor is liable to punishment;[542] bordells are +expressly forbidden, and severe penalties are aimed at those conducting +places of assignation; the police are empowered to prevent keepers of +hotels, cafés, and restaurants from utilizing immoral women as +waitresses. + +The Dutch law of 1911 for the prevention of immorality bears with +especial severity on the violation of minors and the promoting of +immorality—the latter intended to suppress bordells,[543] and to prevent +third parties from profiting through the demoralization of others. Local +ordinances in some instances go even further: in Amsterdam, for example, +owners and renters are forbidden to “afford others an opportunity for +immoral acts, either customarily or in the pursuit of gain”; after such +places have been closed or ordered closed “it is prohibited to visit +them.”[544] + +Street order is a matter of local determination. At Amsterdam the +ordinance reads: “Women are forbidden to take their stand on the steps +or in the doorways of taverns and beer-houses or other houses accessible +to the public, or being within the houses to attract the attention of +passers-by to themselves by a deliberate act of communication or +exposure.”[545] But a more formidable weapon is put in the hands of the +authorities by the following proviso: “Women are forbidden to stand in +the public streets, in front of or in the vicinity of the places above +specified or on the corners of streets in which such places are situated +or _to walk up and down_ in the vicinity after a police officer has +ordered them to move on.”[546] + +It is perhaps unnecessary to enter into the question at greater length +in order to show that abolition does not mean _laissez-faire_; in all +the countries that I visited, abolition of regulation is accompanied by +definite statutory authority to deal adequately with prostitution in so +far as it imperils order and decency. Switzerland,[547] where the +discussion has thus far been left to cantonal regulation,[548] may serve +as a concluding instance. In Zurich, to take a fair representative, +persons who provide opportunity for the immorality of others or derive a +profit therefrom (i. e., bordell-keepers) are liable to heavy fine and +five years of hard labor.[549] For the maintenance of decency in public +thoroughfares, it is provided that “women who in public places offer +themselves for immoral purposes or tempt thereto may be imprisoned up to +eight days.”[550] + +Clearly, therefore, it does not follow that the laws are silent or +ineffective merely because prostitution is in itself regarded as a vice, +not as a crime; on the contrary, legislation may in non-regulated +countries be at once more comprehensive and more consistent than in +regulated communities. I have already instituted a comparison between +regulation and abolition in respect to certain points. For the sake of +simplicity, it may be well to continue this method, as we proceed. As +far, then, as the legislation goes, the police authorities of London, +Copenhagen, and Christiania evidently have a simpler, more logical and +more thoroughgoing statutory basis from which to proceed in the +protection of the public and of the prostitute herself than is possessed +by the police of any regulated town or country. For the London or +Copenhagen police can at least go as far as the police of Berlin or +Hamburg and they can act consistently in reference to all prostitutes. +They are empowered to deal with the entire phenomenon in so far as it +endangers public order; at no point are they balked by the exemptions +that regulation makes in favor of women privileged through inscription. +This point, however, must not as yet be regarded as decisive of the +issue. It still remains to be seen how the competing systems work. + +For laws do not enforce themselves. They must be converted into a policy +by the attitude of the police, by the interpretations of the courts, by +the demand of public opinion. Let us consider briefly how statutory +provisions are modified by these factors. + +Public opinion is unquestionably the most powerful of influences. Be the +letter of the law what it may, actual achievement under it will depend +first and foremost on what general sentiment demands and consistently +supports. As abolition has been brought about in part by agitation on +ethical lines, one would expect a more highly developed public opinion +in abolitionist countries. This undoubtedly exists. The suppression of +the public bordell is without question an achievement due not only to +legislation, but to popular insistence that police and courts enforce +the law. In Germany as in England, the bordell is illegal; but public +opinion in Germany being less highly developed and less articulate, the +law remains in most places a dead letter. + +Curiously enough, public opinion in this entire matter is more or less +self-contradictory. On the one hand, orderly streets, free of scandal, +are required; on the other hand, a blunder made or apparently made by +the police is violently resented. The same opinion that demands the +former stands ready to burst into flame in the event of the latter. The +Royal Commission which, in consequence of a supposed blunder, +investigated the London police, declared that “the main difficulty in +enforcing the law (as to solicitation) is caused by the +over-sensitiveness and impatience of the public whenever there seems +ground, however slight, for alleging that there has been a mistake in +arresting a woman on a charge of solicitation. Not only the particular +constable who effected the arrest, but the police as a whole find +themselves suddenly the object of public censure in the press, in +society and even in Parliament. These displays of emotion are curious in +the case of a law-abiding and law-respecting community such as ours +seeing that similar feelings of indignation are rarely aroused in cases +where men are acquitted of crime of the greatest gravity. Every one +must, however, recognize that it is a very terrible misfortune for an +honest woman or girl to be publicly tried on a charge involving an +imputation of peculiarly disgraceful unchastity. Whatever may be the +causes of, or excuses for, these gusts of popular emotion, there can be +no doubt that they tend to some extent to impair the activity of +constables.”[551] We may expect, therefore, to find actual conditions +not so good as the law to the extent that public opinion fails to +require or sustain their enforcement, and to the extent that +hypersensitiveness or hysteria is ready to attack the police where +absolutely overwhelming proof can not be furnished at the moment. + +The construction of the law by the courts—itself both a result and a +maker of opinion—is likewise an important factor in deciding what +legislation will achieve. Wherever magistrates disagree as to the +precise intention of the statute, a twilight zone is created, in +consequence of which the scope of the law is indirectly narrowed; for +official policy tends to restrict itself to acts that the courts will be +sure to uphold.[552] Finally, the rules, the policy, even the tradition +of the police department in applying statutes and judicial decisions and +in endeavoring to meet, without outrunning, the demands of public +opinion, tend now to stretch, now to restrict, the law as it stands on +the statute books. For example, the Danish statute punishes any +exhibition or act that disturbs order, offends the sense of shame, etc. +The courts, it is now pointed out, might have deprived the section of +all its force by requiring the production of a witness whose sense of +shame was actually outraged. They have, however,—undoubtedly governed by +public opinion—construed the provision to refer to conduct which would +naturally give such offence,—and the policeman’s evidence is sufficient. +This section has therefore been effective. On the other hand, the courts +have held that it is no offence for prostitutes to gather in small knots +on the streets,—as a result of which the phenomenon has latterly become +more prominent in Copenhagen. + +It is our present task to ascertain what actually happens in +abolitionist communities and to compare the results with the conditions +described in previous chapters. The practical outcome of the English +statutes, as interpreted by the courts and as demanded by public +opinion, is reflected in the regulations promulgated for the guidance of +constables by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. In respect to +brothels, the London constable is instructed to “note in his pocket-book +and report any house apparently used as a brothel.”[553] The constable +takes no further step on his own initiative; arrests are made on +direction of borough or other authorities, after complaint by neighbors +or others interested.[554] Prostitutes on the street are to be dealt +with discreetly—“not to be interfered with unnecessarily.” The names of +women acting like prostitutes are to be reported; women engaged in +soliciting are to be warned before arrest;[555] annoyance of passers-by +is to be prevented.[556] The police act on their own initiative only if +the behavior of the woman is offensive, annoying, or scandalous. The +unobtrusive prostitute is not molested. Keepers of licensed premises, i. +e., liquor establishments, refreshment houses, etc., are to be reported +if they permit prostitutes habitually to resort to their +establishments.[557] + +The limitations thus placed on the constable are partly due to the size +of the area covered. I have already had occasion to remark how certain +situations change qualitatively whenever they undergo a radical +quantitative expansion. Centralized supervision of the individual +conduct of sixteen thousand policemen dealing with so delicate a matter +as prostitution is difficult in the highest degree. When does the +conduct of a woman stamp her as a prostitute in such wise that a +magistrate will sustain the constable who apprehends her? When does her +conduct overpass the limits of toleration? Shall the patrolman enter +suspected disorderly houses for the purpose of satisfying himself as to +their character? In small towns, where everything readily becomes +notorious, it is a comparatively simple matter to check up the doings of +the police; where the head is sound and the motives are pure—as is +regularly the case abroad—more or less initiative may be safely +entrusted to a constable who is thus easily supervised. But in London +the magnitude of the task would expose the patrolman to grave danger of +corruption and collusion. He might be corruptly induced to overlook +cautious violations of the law, if it were made his duty to be the +aggressor in taking action; or he might be tempted to levy blackmail, +difficult as that would be under existing circumstances.[558] His +initiative is therefore restricted to concrete and overt instances. +Further steps depend on the action of higher authorities,—a machinery +readily set in motion by protest or complaint. The department thus has +the guarantee of both evidence and supervision, since the parties who +lodge the complaint will see to it that proper steps follow. In a +peculiar degree, therefore, it is true that in London conditions depend +on the state of public opinion. + +In consequence of the policy described above in respect to +street-walking, somewhat spotty conditions characterize the metropolis. +Women are distinctly abundant in the streets radiating from and in the +vicinity of Trafalgar Square, Oxford Circus, Regent Circus, and the +various railway stations. As a rule they conduct themselves +unobtrusively, communicating furtively with passers-by, though, after +midnight, they are at times more aggressive. Whenever the police are +sustained by the aroused public opinion of a given locality, improvement +ensues; for the inhabitants of a given neighborhood having protested +become checks on the police assigned to the district; unless action is +taken along the desired lines, suspicion is awakened and protests +accumulate. In this way, the Strand, only a few years ago one of the +scandals of London, has been rendered comparatively innocuous. Besides +the transformation wrought in particular spots, an unmistakable general +improvement is noticeable throughout London. This is a fact familiar to +travelers returning to London after an interval of a few years; it was +practically the unanimous testimony before the Royal Commission. On this +point it is hardly necessary to do more than to quote the words of Mr. +W. A. Coote: “I have known London for the past forty years, and my +memory goes back to quite forty-seven years. I knew the Haymarket and +Piccadilly very well forty-seven years ago and I say that London to-day, +compared with what it was forty years ago, is an open-air cathedral. +Everything has gone for the better.”[559] The laws remain the same, but +popular demand has caused, or enabled, police and courts gradually to +make more of them. The increased activity of the police is evidenced by +the greater frequency of arrests, 2,409 in 1901, 4,206 in 1905. The +courts have more than kept pace. Of the smaller number arrested in 1901, +274 (11.4%) were discharged: of the larger number arrested in 1905, 252 +(6.3%) were discharged.[560] The high percentage of convictions +testifies to the discrete manner in which the police discharge their +duties. + +How stands it with the brothel or disorderly house?[561] A brothel—it +may be well to repeat—is a house in which prostitutes live, to which +they bring or in which they receive their patrons. It has been held, +however, that no brothel exists where only one woman prostitutes herself +for money. The room to which the street-walker retires with her prey is +not a brothel in the meaning of the law. But wherever two or more women +occupy premises for the purpose of carrying on prostitution, a brothel +exists, no matter what the subterfuge employed,—be the quarters in +question their living-rooms, a pretended manicure or massage +establishment, or what not. Such resorts nowadays lead a stealthy, +uneasy, transient life in many sections of London, including the +suburbs. In the West End a few fashionable brothels are found, located +where they are least likely to be noticed, and transacting their +business with a limited clientele procured through introduction. Much +more frequent, but also much less stable, are the brothels of the +Haymarket region, masking as massage rooms, baths, as schools for the +teaching of foreign languages or elocution, or as rheumatism cures. The +women conducting these places advertise in certain periodicals and even +send “sandwich men” parading through Regent Street and Bond Street.[562] +The inmates are, however, very careful not to attract the attention of +others in the same house or in the neighborhood; hence the places are +open only during usual business hours, though they make appointments +elsewhere for other times.[563] The police are, of course, usually +informed; but in accordance with their policy are content to preserve +decorum until outside agencies move; whereupon the brothel is broken up, +the inmates being either arrested or dispersed. Certain sections of +London have been greatly improved by organization work of this type. For +example, the Central South London Free Church Council has been +beneficially active in South London. In 1909, this organization +prosecuted 68 brothel-keepers; in 1910, 53; in 1911, 32; the reduction +being due not to decreased vigor, but to better conditions.[564] The +activities of the police in this direction are exhibited in the +following table:[565] + + ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + Convicted, held to bail, + or committed to Reform + Taken into Custody Discharged School + Year Males Females Total Males Females Total Males Females Total + 1901 145 243 388 11 27 38 134 216 350 + 1902 142 271 413 16 25 41 126 245 371 + 1904 292 442 734 30 55 85 260 386 646 + 1905 269 431 700 29 40 69 240 390 630 + 1906 264 403 667 24 40 64 239 363 602 + 1907 187 305 492 14 27 41 173 278 451 + 1908 154 192 346 13 19 32 132 152 284[566] + 1909 184 219 403 17 17 34 160 174 334[567] + 1910 110 182 292 9 16 25 90 139 229[568] + ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + +A certain amount of repressive activity, evoked in the same +fashion—viz., by outside protest or actual disorder—goes on in reference +to assignation hotels, and other resorts apt to be frequented by +prostitutes. The public drinking-house is the object of more severe +measures, in furtherance of the policy of reducing the number of +taverns. A license is in danger of cancellation, whenever prostitutes +are harbored. + +English activity in respect to prostitution thus involves the +suppression of brothels and the gradual improvement of street +conditions. Too little is accurately known regarding the dimensions of +the prostitute army to decide how this policy affects the number of +women engaged. There can be no doubt, however, that it diminishes the +attractiveness of the career on the financial side; for the women are +practically forced to pick up their customers on the street under +conditions very unfavorable to the canvass for trade, and in the long +run diminished returns must check the recruiting process, on the +professional side at any rate. If by reason of the furtive and shifting +manner in which the trade must be plied, the volume of business is +slighter, then beyond any doubt the amount of disease disseminated and +the amount of financial waste are both correspondingly diminished. + +Our main interest at this moment is, however, comparative. London, +Berlin, Paris, and Vienna are cosmopolitan cities. London does not +regulate prostitution; all the others do. London has no morals police; +all the others have. London watches prostitution through the ordinary +uniformed force acting under strict instructions; the others employ +plain-clothes men with special powers. London possesses no arbitrary +police process; all the others do. Does London suffer in the comparison +in respect to public order and decency? Most assuredly not. The +Haymarket may perhaps be no better than the Boulevards, +Friederichstrasse, or Kärntnerstrasse; it is in any case no worse. +Conditions have improved everywhere; but I suspect there has been more +amelioration in London and that it is likely to travel further than +anywhere on the Continent. The cities differ, of course, in regard to +many important elements,—race, tradition, ideals; and these elements +affect more or less the aspects of social order with which we are +dealing. But in any event the evidence warrants us in concluding that, +taking the actual situation as we find it, the English metropolis shows +no sign that it lacks a police instrument that the others possess. To +prove that such an instrument confers no comparative advantage is, of +course, conclusive against it; but our previous examination strengthens +the case for abolition to the extent that it disclosed substantial +disadvantages on the side of regulation. + +I am by no means disposed to imply that London has exhausted the +possibilities of wise action in reference to prostitution,—that its +procedure leaves nothing to be desired. There would, for example, appear +to be no good reason why a prostitute calling herself “Nurse Dora” +should be privileged to advertise herself on billboards circulating up +and down Regent Street and Bond Street.[569] But at this juncture I am +not especially concerned to indicate the defects of any particular +abolition town. The issue is for the moment between regulation and +abolition and we are interested in ascertaining whether, as the matter +now stands, abolition communities necessarily fare worse in respect to +external order than regulation communities, and whether, in general, +abolition promises better or worse results than regulation. + +The London method, it is often urged, scatters prostitution, thus +rendering it more difficult to deal with and more dangerous to the +innocent poor. Neither assertion is, as compared with regulation on the +Continent, actually or necessarily true. In so far as prostitution tends +to be associated with crime, dispersion is sound policy; the police of +set purpose break up nests of crime. Evil-doers—prostitutes among +them—are most dangerous in gangs; dispersion strips them of power, +cunning, and daring. There are, however, limits to dispersion, fixed by +rental, character of the neighborhood, etc., in consequence of which +birds of a feather still continue to flock together. Hence the +scattering is continually interrupted by brief fortuitous settlement +here and there, or by longer joint sojournings in buildings out of which +decent people are gradually edged. This happens in London; but, +unfortunately for the contrast set up by regulationists, it happens +everywhere else as well. Prostitution is assuredly no more widely +scattered in London than in any of the other cities compared with it; +maps showing its incidence would abundantly sustain this assertion. +Berlin is in this respect precisely like London; the Berlin prostitute +lives anywhere, well-nigh everywhere, and, besides, frequently possesses +a key to a room in an apartment building close to the scene of her +nightly perambulations. In Paris and Vienna, the amount of bordelled +prostitution being negligible, the numerous non-interned women live +where they please; in Vienna, indeed, as I have pointed out, the police +rules expressly forbid needless interference with their preferences as +to domicile; in Paris, they congregate in the congenial environment of +Montmartre and the Latin Quarter; but they are not excluded from +fashionable thoroughfares such as the Avenue Victor Hugo, or the spokes +of the wheel radiating from the Arc de Triomphe. Abolition does not +suffer by comparison with regulation in this respect. + +An interesting light is shed on the relation of street and bordell, +discussed in a previous chapter, by the experience of London. Regent +Street and Piccadilly are still notorious for the number of loose women +frequenting them; but far less so than formerly when “at certain hours +they became so crowded with undesirable persons as to make the use of +the streets irksome to respectable persons.”[570] In this same area over +three hundred disorderly houses have been closed in consequence of legal +proceedings in the division of St. James, covering about three-quarters +of a square mile. The tightening of police control may explain the +improvement in street conditions; but the coincidence of improved +streets and closed brothels shows clearly that suppression of brothels +does not necessarily result in aggravation of street conditions; there +is, as I have previously pointed out, every reason to believe just the +reverse. + +A word as to the effect of abolition on the character of the police. I +have emphasized the admirable quality of the continental police, due in +the first place, unless I err, to the secure tenure, the independence, +integrity, and intelligence of the commanding officers; the weak +spot—and that of varying seriousness—is the morals division, which, +capable of proving anywhere a localized infection, has in some instances +become an open sore. That abolition is solely responsible for the +difference I do not affirm; but it is at least noticeable that the +police of the British metropolis have passed practically unscathed +through the most searching criticism,—the strongest witness in behalf of +their general probity, humanity, and helpfulness having been borne by +those who know most of their relations with prostitution. Exceptions +were indeed found; a force approximating 17,000 men could hardly be +entirely lacking in black sheep. For example, the Royal Commission +verified thirteen complaints preferred by superior officers against +constables,—one of consorting with prostitutes, twelve of relations with +brothel-keepers,[571]—all severely dealt with; but, on the whole, they +“had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the force discharge +their duties (in respect to prostitution) with honesty, discretion, and +efficiency.”[572] + +The charge most readily made relates to the corruption of constables by +prostitutes in the street with a view to securing immunity from arrest. +I have shown the practical difficulties in the way of controlling this +matter in regulated towns where certain women have the right to +promenade,—a right which can be corruptly extended to others, and no one +be the wiser; for who but the policeman can judge whether a prostitute +is entitled to the privilege of the streets? In abolition London the +situation is so far different, that any exceptions raise at once a +presumption of wrong-doing or negligence. Hence, whatever the policy +pursued, be it lax or strict, uniformity is necessary. A decade or two +ago, when public opinion was indifferent, aggressive solicitation went +on, not because it was paid for, but because no one objected; nowadays, +certain streets have been cleared and nowhere is solicitation actively +obtrusive, because public opinion is articulate and the police, however +inclined, would not dare to play favorites.[573] Sir Edward Henry, +testifying before the Royal Commission, declared: “No complaint, oral or +written, has been made to me during the three and a half years I have +been Commissioner, charging the police with levying blackmail from women +of the unfortunate class. I am satisfied that if any individual man were +to take money from these women it would come to the knowledge of his +comrades, who would look upon him as an unmitigated blackguard and that +he could not remain in the force for long. I do not say that individual +instances of taking money may not occur, but the whole force know that +any proved misconduct of this sort would be severely dealt with. It is +quite impossible that there should be any systematized blackmailing, +because the variation in the beats is so great and in a street like +Regent Street where, on either side there are parts of ten beats, it +would not be of the slightest use to a woman to bribe the first +constable she came to, because she would only go a few yards before she +came to another beat. Therefore anything like a system of blackmailing +is impracticable and certainly could not exist many days without being +known to the authorities.”[574] + +To restate briefly the upshot of the foregoing discussion: as compared +with cosmopolitan continental cities that regulate prostitution, London +has lost nothing and actually gained something through its abolition +policy. No community has as yet envisaged and attacked the entire +problem involved in commercialized prostitution,—no community, I say, +whether regulationist or abolitionist. On the whole, as we shall also +see in the next chapter, abolitionist cities have been the more active +in initiative, but the aggressive conscience of the world has too +recently awakened to have as yet achieved a great deal. As to the two +matters now concerning us—order in the streets and brothels—the lowest +level reached in London nowhere falls as low as in the continental +capitals where regulation is in vogue. + +The police of the English metropolis is under the control of the Home +Office of the National Government; in all other towns, the force is +managed by the Watch Committee of the Town Council.[575] The latter are +therefore, perhaps, a bit more sensitive to public opinion and depend +more nearly on the tone of the municipal government. Fortunately in +Great Britain this tone is nowadays high, the membership of the Watch +Committee being scrutinized with especial care. This has not, however, +always been the case. As recently as the nineties the Chairman of the +Watch Committee and head of the licensing board in Liverpool was the +attorney of the brewing interests, and brewers were largely represented +on the committee itself. It was no accident, perhaps, that with these +conditions the town possessed a protected vice district containing +upwards of four hundred houses and that the public houses (saloons) +systematically harbored prostitutes. A vigorous agitation, the machinery +of which is still preserved and in motion, resulted in a complete +rehabilitation of the local government. The liquor interest was excluded +from the Watch Committee and neither in Liverpool nor elsewhere is it +now regarded as fit to be represented thereon; the unholy alliance +between prostitution and liquor has been largely destroyed by the +ruthless cancellation of licenses; in Liverpool the number has already +been reduced from 2,500 to 1,700.[576] A determined and systematic +effort has also been made to restore the streets to decency and to +destroy brothels. For this work, in the provinces and Scotland, as in +London, no special police machinery exists. Prostitution is handled by +the regular force, uniformed or plain-clothes,—by men, that is, who deal +with all other infractions of law. There is no morals division; nor is +any effort made to list or catalogue the prostitute as such. The genial +inspector of the Birmingham police, to whom I am beholden for an inner +view of the police situation there, was conscious of no necessity for +any special machinery. He did not know how many prostitutes there were +in Birmingham,—no police officer had ever tried to find out. He could +not tell, therefore, whether they were more or less numerous. Why should +he? The law-abiding prostitute must be the concern of other agencies. +The law-breakers among them he knew and watched precisely as he knew and +watched law-breakers of other kinds. Walking the streets at midnight, he +pointed out to me women who were thieves and pickpockets,—in whom he was +interested for that reason and not simply because they were prostitutes; +and he showed me their haunts,—precisely as the haunts of law-breakers, +prostitutes and others, were pointed out to me in London. No +extraordinary mechanism,—no mechanism, I mean, not otherwise needed in +dealing with urban crime,—was needed in either place for this purpose; +and no lack of knowledge or power to cope with individuals or with +emergencies was felt or betrayed; nor was the integrity of the force +imperilled by its dealings with prostitution, for that integrity was +safeguarded by the quality of the head officers, by the principles on +which recruits were procured, and by the limitations erected by statute. + +In these circumstances, the provincial like the London brothel leads a +stealthy existence. Two or more women occupy a house or flat[577] for a +brief period. The more prosperous occupy small houses on the edge of +town; the word is passed through cab-drivers or from “friend” to +“friend.” In certain sections of Manchester the position of the window +shades and of the front door is a signal to the initiated. In the side +streets leading from Oxford Street, Manchester, many doors are +significantly ajar up to the late hours of the night. Shortly conscious +of being observed, the women fold their tents and steal elsewhere, +repeating the performance. Not infrequently, neighbors complain and the +town authorities apprehend the inmates, subjecting them to fine or +imprisonment. Statistics convey some notion of the vigor of the +policy,—none as to whether the evil decreases or increases. In +Liverpool, for example, there were 162 prosecutions for brothel-keeping +in 1902, with 147 convictions; 196 prosecutions with 116 convictions in +1910; in the nine years from 1902 to 1911, there were altogether 1,720 +arrests, 1,411 convictions.[578] In Edinburgh, the number of brothels +known to the police shows a marked diminution,—from 45 in 1901 to 29 in +1911,—not unconnected perhaps with increased severity on the part of the +authorities who arrested nine women of the larger number (45) in 1901, +thirty-five women of the smaller number (29) in 1911.[579] + +Street conditions have undergone precisely the same evolution previously +described as generally taking place. Time was—and that within recent +memory—when importuning on the main highways was well-nigh unrestrained. +Nowadays the prostitute walks more or less swiftly by, indicating her +object by a stealthy glance or mumbled word. Hoping for a nibble she +retires into a side street waiting to be approached by her supposed +quarry.[580] If disappointed, she resumes her inoffensive promenading. +The public houses are less and less used for this purpose, because the +publican fears the loss of his license. If an arrangement is perfected, +the pair retire to the woman’s room or to an assignation hotel, though +the latter operate with great caution. Parks, cabs, even railway +compartments are utilized. Not infrequently a journey to a suburb is +urged; in Liverpool, a street-walker suggested “Bootle,” several miles +distant, as the nearest place that was sure of being free from +interruption or molestation. + +The policy described keeps the brothel inconspicuous and relatively +infrequent; it renders the streets fairly unobjectionable. Does it +accomplish anything more? The officials are entirely candid on this +point. The Birmingham inspector “does not believe that the amount of +prostitution has been decreased through keeping it ‘on the move’ or +through punishment. It disappears here, to reappear there. Girls are +easily found; but”—and I shall recur to the point—“they tempt less.” A +prominent and experienced member of the Watch Committee expressed +similar views: “The present policy drives women from one cover to +another; it prevents anything like a tropical growth.” In Edinburgh the +actual number of notorious prostitutes appears to have been reduced, for +the police returns, 424 in 1901, had shrunk to 180 in 1911.[581] The +Chief Constable of Liverpool inclines also “to think that the decline of +the figures over nine years corresponds with a reduction in professional +prostitution, but it seems quite possible that the reduction is due to +the professional being ousted by the amateur.”[582] + +It seems beyond dispute that prostitution, like any other business +enterprise, suffers when deprived of the advantage of position. What +hinders, reduces. The actual number of customers that can be picked up +by a street-walker compelled to forego all positive advances, or a woman +living in a brothel the location and character of which can only be +allowed to leak out surreptitiously, is bound to be diminished; and the +diminution of customers means the diminution of waste and disease. The +inducement to join the professional ranks is thereby lessened. + +It is not pretended that repression and punishment achieve anything with +the hardened offender. The Chief Constable of Glasgow reporting to the +corporation of the city, states: “The imposition of a fine does not +prove a deterrent; any person may pay the fine and the woman continue +her way of life.”[583] The Chief Constable of Liverpool reports as “a +typical, not exceptional” case that of a prostitute fifty years old, +first convicted in 1884 and in 1910 sent to prison on her 156th +conviction.[584] In Edinburgh, coincidently with the reduction in the +number of notorious women, the number of arrests rose from 158 in 1901, +to 773 in 1911,—it reached 1,020 in 1910. Did the increased frequency of +arrests, due to the instructions issued to the police to act without +warning lead to an exodus from the city? Not improbably; but it was +futile for the reform of those who remained, for some of them were +convicted as many as eight or ten times in a single year. During the +first six months of 1911, 331 women under 23 years of age were sent to +Glasgow prison; 220 of these were convicted of importuning; only 72 of +the entire number were first offenders; among the others some had been +previously convicted as many as 34, 50, or even 69 times.[585] Nor are +hard-labor sentences more efficacious on the Continent in deterring +women from continuing a dissolute life. Of those thus punished at +Stockholm, between 1882 and 1884, 96.9% persisted in their evil courses +after the expiration of their prison terms; between 1885 and 1889, +98.3%; between 1890 and 1894, 96.7%; 96.8% in the period 1895–1899; +96.7% in 1900–2. The small remnant did not necessarily do better; they +may have left the city or escaped notice.[586] In regulation, as in +abolition communities, the system of fining and imprisoning offenders—be +they prostitutes or not—is futile, expensive, and demoralizing. + +Meanwhile, below the surface, lie the frightful evils out of which +professional prostitution comes. An acrid controversy in Glasgow between +the Inspector of the Parish and the Chief Constable throws a flood of +light on a situation which neither regulation nor abolition touches. The +former cites the volume of existing immorality, the frequent violation +of children, the existence of ice-cream shops which are merely cloaks +for indecency; the latter replies that prostitution is in itself no +crime, that arrests can be made only where habitual prostitutes are +guilty of importuning, that the difficulties of proof in case of immoral +establishments are very serious, and that incidental prostitution and +immorality lie outside the province of the police.[587] Thus even though +regulation is condemned, it is necessary to remember that the serious +problem remains. This must not be overlooked. Our immediate concern is +however, once more, simply as to whether the provincial and Scottish +towns lose anything through not possessing the regulatory apparatus +found in continental towns of the same size. There can be but one +opinion on this point: no single phenomenon can be cited tending to show +that the situation would be bettered by regulation or that it suffers +for the lack of it. + +The comparison between regulation and abolition can, however, be most +fairly made on the Continent, where the manner of living, the point of +view, and the social traditions of regulation and abolition communities +are more nearly alike. Moreover, the abolitionist cities that enter into +the comparison have all had regulatory systems,—some of them quite +recently. What have they lost through abolition? How do they bear +comparison with those that still retain regulation? + +The subject is by no means a simple one, in part at least because its +discussion has been carried on in a spirit of acrimonious controversy. +Complete and dispassionate accounts of conditions during and after +regulation either in regulated or abolitionist communities have nowhere +been prepared; the only reliable statistics in existence deal merely +with certain phases of the evil, and leave unsettled the question as to +whether other phases have become better or worse, after or in +consequence of abolition. Moreover, all the cities involved have grown +with amazing rapidity; they have become larger, richer, more luxurious, +in some ways more frivolous. They compete with each other and even with +much larger towns in brilliancy and seductiveness. This increased +playfulness is certainly reflected in the increase of some forms of +immorality without involving in any degree the issue between regulation +and abolition. + +Continental abolition has usually required two steps. In the first +place, bordells were suppressed; after a brief interval, registration +and medical inspection have been abandoned. Whatever has happened in +consequence of abolition, the mere suppression of the bordell can have +had little immediate or direct effect. The bordell was, as previously +pointed out, moribund anyway; its legal extermination involved hardly a +perceptible shock. At Zurich eighteen houses, containing fifty-seven +women were forcibly closed, at Rotterdam four with twenty women, at +Copenhagen three. On the face of the matter, it may, therefore, be +affirmed that nowhere in Europe has the closing of bordells as the first +step towards abolition involved unfavorable consequences. + +This is not to say that the other forms of prostitution—the concealed +brothel, the counterfeit employment,[588] the low drinking-shop, the +dance hall, etc., have been lessened or mitigated by the abolition of +the bordell. Whether any particular surreptitious form of bordell exists +or not is not a question of abolition or regulation, but of the law, the +manner of its enforcement, the condition of public opinion, the attitude +of the courts, and the general feasibility of effective repression. Many +of these forms were briefly characterized in the opening chapter. They +are found everywhere,—in regulated cities, such as Hamburg and Budapest, +where the bordell is officially favored; in Vienna, where, though +officially reprobated, it still continues to exist: in Munich and +Berlin, where it is no longer tolerated; and just as well in abolition +towns,—Copenhagen, Zurich, and Christiania, for example. I have no +desire to understate the facts. Resorts serving the purpose of bordells +are almost universally met with—with or without regular bordells. I have +touched on the English brothels and the Berlin bars. In Amsterdam, one +finds clubs or pretended “pensions,” to which the visitor is conducted +by a cabdriver or directed by an acquaintance or a hotel porter and in +which he is entertained in whatever fashion he prefers. Along the +Binnenrotte in Rotterdam and in the narrow out-of-the-way streets of old +Zurich, cigar shops,[589] whose outfit consists mainly of empty boxes +and bedizened females, unmistakably proclaim their purpose. The +purchaser of one of the few cigars in stock, unless an object of +suspicion, need only lay a coin of moderate size on the counter in +payment; he will soon learn that there is no change in the drawer, but +that there are other ways of squaring the account.[590] If he prove +obdurate, the drawer is somehow discovered to contain the necessary +change; if he seems to be impressionable, his attention will be called +to a photograph and the inner salon will be recommended. In many towns, +too, “American bars” are found, most of them liquor establishments +behind the counters of which prostitutes hand out liquor and encourage +assignations. The proprietors escape punishment because the assignations +are fulfilled elsewhere than on his premises. Filthy establishments more +flagrantly devoted to the same purposes exist in abolition Zurich as in +regulation Bremen.[591] + +Would these establishments revert to bordells, if the transformation +were allowed or forced? Perhaps, to a limited extent. But the change +would simply convert a few furtive and ill-patronized resorts into +notorious and well-attended bordells, the rest remaining by preference +what they now are. The net outcome would be bad, not good. Meanwhile +Christiania proves that the forms in question do not result merely from +suppression of the bordell, for the Animierkneipe with female service +does not exist there and counterfeit employments are rare. + +The weight of authority—lay and official—unquestionably favors the view +here taken,—that the suppression of the bordell has operated in the +public interest. True enough, a writer discussing the entire evolution +of the problem, claims that the disappearance of the bordell in Zurich +has been accompanied “by an increase of secret ‘hole and corner’ +prostitution, beyond the scope of the law,”[592] but no argument or +evidence shows that abolition is in any wise responsible for the fact, +if fact it be. It is assuredly not without significance as militating +towards a directly opposite conclusion that prosecutions for +pandering[593] have in the long run decreased, not increased, although +the suppression of bordells would, if general conditions actually +deteriorated, necessarily lead to an increase in the activity of the +pander. The bordells were closed in 1898: in 1895, 22; in 1896, 19; in +1897, 27 persons were convicted on the charge of pandering. During the +next three years, 30, 33, and 25; during the last five years, 13, 23, +28, 26, and 22 respectively. The learned chief of the Zurich police +declared to me that the bordell system “had earned practically universal +disapprobation. No one would now again urge the introduction of +tolerated houses, not even the unprejudiced and liberally-disposed. +Houses where a madame can hire out girls and acquire profits are not +wanted by any one.” An important official in Christiania urged that +whether regulation is desirable or not, the destruction of the bordell +was an advantage. The Amsterdam police favored their extirpation and +after fifteen years’ experience “are still opposed to them.” The +foregoing judgments are based on police grounds; assuredly the case +against the bordell would be all the stronger, were indirect +considerations also allowed to weigh. + +Nowhere does the suppression of the bordell aggravate the domicile +problem, which, as a matter of fact, settles itself in abolition towns, +just as it does in regulation towns. The English, Swiss, Dutch, and +Scandinavian prostitutes seek rooms in sections occupied by the poor, +usually paying a considerably higher rental than is paid by decent folk. +In some cases their character is concealed and their business transacted +elsewhere; in others, when neighbors or fellow-tenants are too poor or +too careless to protest, the women utilize their own lodgings. The +street-walkers of London tend to congregate in apartment houses or +“mansions” from which respectable families are crowded out; in the +provincial towns they occupy small houses. If renting of rooms to +prostitutes is in itself made a crime, the law is broken, as at Berlin, +and of course most regularly in case of the more clever and well-to-do; +or the stupid and wretched are pushed into vagabondage rather than out +of prostitution. Some interesting statistics on this point come from +Zurich where, since 1897, the renting of a domicile to a prostitute +constitutes a punishable offence. As the execution of the law has been +more efficient, the percentage of homeless prostitutes, who sleep in +public lodging-houses or elsewhere, now here, now there, betrays a +tendency to increase. Police statistics, dealing with 361 prostitutes, +in 1904, show 69.8% having a regular domicile, 30.2% without domicile; +in 1908, of 399 women, the proportions were 52.6%, 47.4% respectively; +in 1910, of 601 women, 62.2% and 37.8% respectively.[594] The domicile +problem is indeed soluble only as the general problem of prostitution +itself is solved; it is made neither better nor worse by abolition. + +The preceding discussion makes clear that the bordell played but a +slight part in the prostitution-economy of Norway, Denmark, Holland, and +Switzerland at the time of its abolition. The step was of moral rather +than of immediate practical importance. It indicated a change in the +attitude of society, that might in time produce results; but there was +no perceptible result at the moment. How stands the situation in respect +to order in the streets? Was the abolition of control attended by +increased prominence of prostitutes in the public highways of +continental towns or greater difficulty in keeping track of them, where +advisable to do so? + +Of the abolition cities that I visited, prostitutes are most prominent +in the chief thoroughfares of Copenhagen, particularly in the vicinity +of the Tivoli, a popular amusement resort in the heart of the town, and +on the street corners and open squares near-by; they loiter alone or in +small groups, making no aggressive effort to attract attention; from +time to time they retreat into the cafés or variety shows abounding in +the vicinity. The main shopping street of Christiania—Karl Johans +Gade—appears to be free of promenading prostitutes by day; at night, +they are in distinct evidence there and in amusement gardens close by; +once more their demeanor is quiet and unobtrusive. In the Hague the +street prostitute is barely noticeable; an occasional woman is +observable in the crowds that night and day push through the busy little +street on which most of the retail shops are found; others can be hunted +down in low cafés. Rotterdam—a city of different type—presents a +slightly different aspect. In the earlier hours of the evening, women +hasten to the skating-rink, dance halls and cafés. When, at midnight, +these resorts close, prostitutes appear for a while on the streets. The +streets of Amsterdam were, at the time of my visit, the cleanest I had +anywhere observed; the ordinance authorizing arrest of the prostitute +for promenading has been enforced with sufficient vigor and discretion +to attain its object. Zurich is not substantially different from other +abolition towns. As late as midnight only occasional and cautious +street-walkers were to be observed; in reply to a question, an inquirer +was informed by one of these that she would shortly leave for Geneva,—a +regulation town,—“there is too little doing here.” Women, of whose +character their appearance leaves no doubt, survey the male passer-by +and retreat into a side street to give him an opportunity to seek an +interview; but unless intoxicated, they quietly await his approach. + +The number of police arrests required in order to bring about the +conditions above described does not seem excessively large. In +Christiania, I was officially informed that “arrests for solicitation +were few”; in Amsterdam (population 580,960) 370 arrests were made in +1910, 382, in 1911.[595] The situation in Copenhagen (population +462,161) is portrayed by the following statistics: for soliciting, +offending against “the sense of shame,”[596] and “vagabondage,” 288 +arrests were made in 1907, the year succeeding the repeal of regulation; +in 1908, 344; in 1909, 432; in 1910, 414; in 1911, 353. The total, not +large in any case, is due to the inclusion of vagabondage, to the growth +of the city, and to a judicial decision to the effect that prostitutes +congregating in the streets cannot be arrested or dispersed; for out of +these casual gatherings occasional disturbances leading to subsequent +arrests sometimes arise. + +Have conditions in the towns above named been affected for the worse by +the sudden and recent change from regulation to abolition? I did not +find a single police officer who answered that question in the +affirmative. The division chief at Copenhagen stated to me: “Regulation +was entirely dispensed with in 1906; in the interval the police have +learned how to procure all the information and to take all the steps for +which at one time a morals police and regulation were supposed to be +necessary.”[597] When the new law abrogating police control was +proposed, objection was made on the ground that, in the absence of +police power to confine prostitutes to specific localities, they would +infest the whole city: “It has not happened; prostitution is more +scattered and thus more readily handled, but it does not invade all +sections. The suppression of summary police punishments has done no +harm; the ordinary courts with their usual processes have proved +adequate to maintain order and decency. Conditions are at least as good +as under the old system; some streets have been entirely freed; the main +streets are no worse; clandestine prostitution has not been aggravated; +indeed up to now nothing has happened to cause us to regret,”—with which +the grateful official “touched wood!”[598] Elsewhere, I was informed +that the former partisans of regulation were “struck dumb.”[599] If +abolition were working badly, one would hear “I told you so” from its +original opponents; there are, as a matter of fact, very few +regulationists any longer in Copenhagen, though certain points to be +shortly discussed are not yet clear. Officials of the same rank in +Christiania stated: “Regulation will never be restored.” The partisans +of regulation have steadily diminished in number and volubility. An +incident reported from Christiania, however, is interesting as showing +that everything that has happened since abolition has not necessarily +happened on account of abolition. In 1899 it was, for example, pointed +out at a medical conference in Christiania that street conditions had +become temporarily worse. The speaker attributed the fact to abolition; +but the argument was presently refuted by the statement that the real +reason for deterioration was the instruction to the police that “they +had no right to interfere with soliciting unless it was done in a +distinctly indecent manner.” Stockholm has not yet abolished regulation, +but the system has decayed so rapidly that bad results ought to be +perceptible, if regulation was really of any consequence whatsoever. I +have already called attention to the sudden drop in the new enrolments, +from 119 in 1903 to 67 in 1904; the number of annual inspections fell +from 20,849 in 1903 to 6,652 in 1911. The institution thus shrank +two-thirds within a few years, “without any resultant disadvantages from +the standpoint of public order; an activity that can be reduced 66⅔% +without a trace of inconvenience can hardly be regarded as necessary for +the public welfare.”[600] In Holland the abolition movement spread from +town to town,—an improbable course, had the absence of regulation done +harm. The Chief of the Hague police assured me that he “cherished no +regret on the score of abolishing regulation or bordells”; the division +chief admitted that, although having been a regulationist during the +regulation period, experience with the alternative system had made him a +strong abolitionist; he would “advise all cities to abolish regulation +and none to introduce it.” No stronger expressions were anywhere used +than by the Amsterdam Chief and his staff; they were outright +abolitionists; they believed regulation inseparable from police +corruption—an opinion echoed elsewhere as well; they found no greater +difficulty in handling the problems—criminal or other—in consequence of +abolition. In either case “incessant vigilance and effort” were +required. It is true that the police officials of France and Germany +give quite different accounts of what is to be observed in abolitionist +communities; but these statements are usually based on prophecies made +during the controversial period. The Swedish commission reports on +hearsay that “the experience of countries which do not have special +suppression of whole-time prostitution as such” is deplorable; but +Professor Johansson notes in reply that “it would have been well to +indicate the countries in question.”[601] Christiania alone is mentioned +by name, and as to that, candor requires them to add that “nothing +really importunate or offensive was observed in the conduct of the +women.”[602] + +I have given above the verdicts of the police who have lived under both +systems, an experience entitled to great weight. There is every +indication that the popular verdict coincides. In the Canton of Zurich, +a referendum, proposed in favor of returning to the abandoned system, +was defeated by a vote of 49,806 to 18,016.[603] A newspaper comment on +the result warns the “interests” in favor of regulation that “every +proposition emanating from them is hopeless. If ever a revision of the +present statute is undertaken, the initiative will have to come from +disinterested jurists, physicians, and judges. We hope there will be no +such occasion.”[604] + +A comparison of the streets of abolition cities with those of regulation +cities sustains the conclusion to which the preceding statements point. +Christiania is as decent as Stuttgart. As between Zurich and Geneva, the +contrast is all in favor of Zurich, though it is twice as large. Even +the seaport towns constitute no exception. Copenhagen and Rotterdam are +at least as quiet as Bremen and Hamburg; indeed it would be impossible +to find in the abolition sea-ports anything resembling the street scenes +enacted in the bordell quarters of regulated ports. The sailors’ quarter +of Rotterdam—the Schiedamschedyk—is a cosmopolitan affair, with drinking +and dance halls of variegated character. Prostitutes and their customers +come together in them; at times a woman standing in a door-way salutes a +passer-by. But up to the small hours of the night, the streets were free +of scandal. + +Reference to the statutes previously described will show the reader that +the police generally enjoy the right to proceed against the prostitute +as a vagabond. This is the abolitionist counterpart of the regulationist +provisions directed against women “without a definite domicile.” The +vagabondage proviso is largely used only in Copenhagen, where there +exists great difference of opinion as to its value. Its prominence in +the Danish law betrays the dread under which the lawmakers worked. It +was feared that simple repeal of regulation might be interpreted to mean +that the law had no objection to a woman’s earning her living by +prostitution;[605] the prostitute was therefore made expressly amenable +to punishment as a vagabond, if proved to be without proper means of +support. Most of the arrests in the statistics before given[606] are due +rather to vagabondage than to solicitation—217 out of 288, 241 out of +344, 251 out of 432, 243 out of 414, 200 out of 353. The provision +operates in this way. The police having noticed a woman walking the +streets (not soliciting) at all hours, presume her to be without +legitimate occupation; she is warned; on a second warning her name and +address are taken and a printed notice is sent, requiring her to obtain +employment and to report the fact. Between 200 and 300 notices of this +kind are annually sent; in 1909, 216 women were once punished, 45 twice, +11 thrice on this charge.[607] + +Serious objections are raised to this method of dealing with +prostitution. It is criticized as an indirect method of making +prostitution in itself a crime, and open as such to the objection that +it bears on the woman alone, and on only the stupid woman at that. +Justice would require that vagabondage be similarly treated, be the +vagabond a man or a woman; but this statute undoubtedly involves +discrimination in favor of the male vagabond. A quasi-regulatory system +might undoubtedly be introduced beneath its cover by a reactionary +official. The provision is at any rate a somewhat disingenuous +subterfuge, for, strictly speaking, the vagrant is homeless; but the +prostitute may be treated as a vagabond, despite the fact that she +possesses a home. + +From a practical point of view, there is the further objection that the +statute is so easily evaded as to make its application uncertain and +inequitable. The street-walker, attacked as a vagrant without means of +support, claims to be a servant, earning a minimum sum,—say twelve +crowns monthly; she escapes punishment by pointing to the old woman for +whom she works, though the correct relationship is just the reverse, for +the older woman is the servant of the prostitute; or the accused vagrant +becomes a cigar-vender, a “laundress,” a “friseuse,” thus increasing the +number of counterfeit employments. Like regulation, the vagrancy +provision results in harrying the dull unfortunates, while leaving the +more pretentious and the more clever quite unscathed. + +Of the other results feared in connection with abolition, none have +materialized to a perceptible extent. It was urged, for example, that +when bordells were dismantled, men would annoy respectable women on the +streets. It is indeed one of the queer features of all police dealings +with prostitution, that, whereas solicitation by a prostitute is an +offence, accosting by men is, unless outrageously flagrant, quite +overlooked. This is generally true in both abolition and in regulation +countries; but curiously enough, the evil is worse in regulated Germany +than anywhere else. In Swiss, Dutch and English towns—all abolition—the +offence is exceptional; in Berlin, many men habitually turn in order to +observe women, and at night do not hesitate to venture a word by way of +experiment. The annoyance of decent women has, therefore, not followed +as a result of abolition and is commonest in certain regulation +countries,—not, however, in my opinion, as a consequence of regulation. + +It was feared that under abolition the percentage of pimps or souteneurs +would rise; there is, however, no confirmatory evidence. Even bordell +women frequently support pimps; the low grade prostitute everywhere has +her pimp, regardless of regulation or abolition, and everywhere protects +him loyally, as the few successful prosecutions show. In something over +a year, only 39 men were arrested as pimps in Rotterdam, 30 of whom were +sentenced to hard labor in a tramp-colony for terms running from three +months to three years.[608] The bully is indeed a parasite unaffected by +the existence of either regulation or abolition as such. + +The situation as regards houses of assignation is everywhere on the +Continent in such confusion that no definite statement is possible. I +have pointed out the fact that these resorts are unopposed in Paris; are +harried from time to time in Germany, chiefly on the score of furnishing +facilities to clandestine prostitutes; are tolerated in Budapest, on +condition of submitting to certain rules,—with the result that both +regular and irregular resorts exist there. Abolition towns are in theory +hostile to _rendezvous_ houses; but it can not be said that their +prosecution has yet accomplished much more than the enforcement of +greater caution and quiet—no slight gain, to be sure,—in the conduct of +the business. The actual reduction in their number is, as far as one can +judge, nominal. + +Regulationist police are honestly afraid that abolition renders it +difficult or impossible to keep track of prostitution. I have pointed +out what seems to me the real inwardness of regulation,—that it +furnishes the police with a method of keeping in touch with criminal and +criminally-inclined prostitutes and their associates. The registered +prostitute is tethered to the police; once or twice a week she is pulled +back; she can not get far away without being noticed; if she does, her +disappearance is soon known and efforts at least are made to trace her. +Abolition is said to do away with all this and to leave the police +helpless. + +But the case is not so desperate after all. The continental police have +methods of keeping up with other people,—reputable and criminal alike; +and if the machinery which keeps up with the reputable will not answer +for the prostitute, assuredly the machinery which is with such +difficulty eluded by law-breakers will. For example, life and property +are probably equally secure in Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Birmingham. +Hamburg has a well organized regulatory system; Rotterdam is +abolitionist, but catalogues prostitutes; Birmingham is abolitionist and +ignores the prostitute until she becomes disorderly or criminal, +whereupon, like other disorderly or criminal people, she suffers as +such. “As far as crime is concerned,” a prominent London police official +remarked to me, “crime committed by a prostitute is not different from +other crime; it is handled just as other crime is handled and no +weakness has been felt in consequence of this procedure.” In this, as in +all the other points considered, if abolition has done no harm, +regulation could at best have done little or no good. Nor does it follow +that thoroughgoing abolition is at all inconsistent with just as +complete knowledge of local prostitution as is possessed by +regulationist police, should such information be desired. The English +police, as I have said, take no interest in the matter until the law is +violated,—of course, knowing and observing women given to transgression, +precisely as they know and observe other suspects. Influenced doubtless +by continental tradition, the police of abolition Rotterdam catalogue +women of suspected virtue; they possess a list of 1,465, eight hundred +of whom are professional and avowed prostitutes. The police of abolition +Zurich know 400 persons who rent rooms for prostitution though the +evidence falls short of technical completeness; in Christiania some 500 +prostitutes are known to the authorities; the Amsterdam Bureau is +preparing a list for all Holland; after four years of work it contains +some 7,000 names; similar lists of pimps, traffickers, etc., with +photographs where possible, are found there just as in regulationist +Dresden or Vienna. The houses in which the prostitutes of Amsterdam live +have also been studied. At first two, afterwards four, men were assigned +to the task with the result that increasingly complete information has +been procured. In 1908, 292 houses with 548 girls were located; in 1909, +366 houses with 656 girls; in 1910, 510 houses with 854 girls; in 1911, +597 houses with 968 girls.[609] Copenhagen, fearful of a too sudden +plunge into abolition manages through its “warnings” to reach a similar +result; some 300 to 400 women are thus kept under observation,—though, +as happens under regulation, the women do not report as systematically +as the law contemplates, some evading, some leaving, some being in +prison.[610] It is clear, therefore, that abolition is consistent with +as complete knowledge of the local situation as the authorities think it +worth while to procure; in Holland, indeed, there has been more activity +along this line since abolition than previously. + +For the sake of completeness, it is perhaps worth while to insert +another word before closing, as to the bearing of abolition on other +forms of prostitution than those I have considered at some length,—the +dance hall, the café, and similar establishments that furnish the +prostitute an advantageous opening. Neither regulation nor abolition as +such involves any particular policy in reference to these resorts. On +the Continent little has been done to insure their decent conduct or to +interrupt their connection with the exploitation of vice. In Great +Britain, the liquor and amusement traffic have been more effectually +supervised and beyond question with good results, as far as the matter +has yet gone. But effective management of the difficulties here touched +on takes us far beyond the immediate subject of our present inquiry. For +vicious liquor and amusement resorts are not bad because prostitutes +fasten upon them; prostitutes fasten upon them because they are bad. +They are problems, therefore, to be dealt with quite irrespective of +prostitution, though prostitution is indeed deprived of a foothold and +an incentive when they are thus dealt with. + +That abolition favors police honesty is the unanimous testimony of +officials who have experimented with both systems. I was informed at +Zurich that the bordell system associated with regulation had resulted +in corruption that “for so small a town had reached enormous +proportions.” An official report of the year 1892 declared that proof of +punishable pandering was rarely possible because “before the +investigation ordered could be accomplished, the accused had received +notice of their peril through some secret channel or other.”[611] Again, +in Copenhagen, I learned that, as elsewhere, at the time when police and +prostitute were closely related, corruption prevailed; a certain +inspector even owned an interest in a house of prostitution and +committed suicide on exposure. The Dutch police are outspoken to similar +purpose. As I pointed out in dealing with Germany, general corruption is +nowhere alleged and the integrity of the head officials is never +impugned; but it is believed that, wherever the partial regulatory +policy is in operation, that is, wherever one rule is applied to some +women, another to others, a condition is created favorable to more or +less demoralization. + +It is, however, obvious that, while abolition at once places all +prostitutes on the same footing before the law, it does not necessarily +follow that a morals police is superfluous. The morals police is +imperilled if it is in a position to award favors; under abolition, this +peril disappears. Now that this particular force is no longer exposed to +any peculiar danger, is it not worth retaining in the interest of +specialization? European experience does not warrant an affirmative +answer. Regulation Rome deals with its problems without morals police. +Certain towns of abolition Holland tend to create a morals division to +observe prostitution; a few men are detailed for the purpose at the +Hague; two inspectors, one social worker and twelve patrolmen at +Rotterdam.[612] Copenhagen retains a morals police. The English cities +are, of course, without any such division. It would appear that the +scope of a morals police in abolition cities is at best narrow. Certain +it is that no European city relies on the existence of the morals police +to maintain the integrity of the main body of the force. That integrity +is undoubted, but it is due, as I have already pointed out, first and +foremost to the character and tenure of the upper officials, to the way +in which patrolmen are chosen and trained, and to the sort of relation +that exists between the police department and the other government +departments. + + + + + CHAPTER X + ABOLITION AND DISEASE + + Abolition not necessarily _laissez-faire_.—Norwegian handling of + disease problem.—Danish plan.—Italian plan.—Voluntary and compulsory + provisions compared.—Denunciation of alleged sources of + infection.—Attendance at free dispensaries.—Attitude of + prostitutes,—of medical practitioners.—Notification of venereal + disease.—Hospital provisions for treatment in Great Britain,—on the + Continent.—Statistics unreliable and imperfect.—Census of venereal + disease in Prussia,—in Sweden,—Venereal disease in European + armies.—Regulation without effect in England.—Decline in amount of + disease after its abolition.—Prussian army statistics.—Statistics from + Christiania,—from Copenhagen,—from Zurich.—Fluctuations in venereal + infection.—Reduction in amount of disease.—Abolition more favorable to + such effort than regulation. + + +In the preceding chapter I remarked that though abolition may be +accompanied by a _laissez-faire_ policy, this is not necessarily the +case. The situation in respect to venereal disease best illustrates this +statement. We shall see that the public in England is well-nigh entirely +indifferent on the subject; almost total _laissez-faire_ prevails there. +Abolition Scandinavia has, on the other hand, displayed great vigor and +originality in grappling with the problem of disease. Abolition +includes, therefore, the countries least active and most active in this +respect,—both extremes. + +The Norwegians were in this matter first in the field with a scheme, the +essential points of which can be most clearly stated by means of a +contrast with regulation. Regulation endeavors to protect the public +health by safeguarding through police agencies the health of registered +prostitutes,—these prostitutes being periodically examined by police +surgeons and forcibly treated when found diseased; the distinctive +features of sanitary regulation are, therefore, its limitation to +professional inscribed prostitutes, its management by the police, and +the prison-like nature of the cure. In contradistinction to this +procedure, the unsatisfactory nature and outcome of which we have +discussed, the Scandinavian experiment, generally speaking, aims to +reach all those suffering with venereal disease, men and women alike; +and it seeks to accomplish this end by transferring the function from +the police to the health department, by the provision of free treatment, +and by endeavoring to enlist the patient’s aid in ascertaining the +source of infection, and in the isolation and cure of disease. +Separation from the police is intended to allay the patient’s dread of +becoming involved with the criminal authority, and, as nearly as may be, +to establish the feeling that venereal disease is after all a disease +and not a crime,—an evil that, aside from all else, requires +consideration on its own account The voluntary nature of submission to +treatment is intended still further to deepen the impression that the +entire matter is left to the patient’s intelligence and +self-interest—precisely as though he were otherwise afflicted; free +treatment is designed to strengthen the inducement and to dispose of the +competition of quacks. + +The Norwegian law under which this system has been organized dates from +1860; by its terms local health boards with very extensive powers in +reference to epidemic and contagious diseases were organized; and these +boards were left free to determine what precautions should be taken and +to require reports. + +In order to assist the health—not the police—authorities in controlling +the diseases in question, all physicians are required to report +daily—usually without names[613]—their venereal patients, to furnish the +patient with a copy of the laws relating to the communication of +venereal disease[614] and to require the patient to sign a statement +acknowledging the fact that he (or she) has been thus explicitly +warned.[615] The physician also endeavors to ascertain the source of the +infection and the person inculpated is reported to the Health Office. +This latter individual on calling by invitation[616] is informed of the +nature of the charge—the name of the accuser being withheld—and is +invited to submit to examination at a hospital or by a municipal +physician. No compulsion is applied; the advantages of knowing the truth +and the offer of free and skilful treatment in complete privacy form the +entire inducement. If disease is thus proved to exist, treatment can be +compelled, to the extent of forcibly confining the infected person in a +hospital. But reliable persons receive ambulatory treatment at the hands +of municipal physicians,—men, at the office of the physician, women at +the Board of Health office where a woman physician is on duty. The +police are invoked only if an individual having been “denounced” +neglects or refuses to comply with the summons of the Health Department. +Persons who, having knowledge of their infectious condition, communicate +disease, are punished with imprisonment for not exceeding three years. + +The Danish law dealing with the subject represents a gradual evolution +greatly hastened in its final stages by the Norwegian example.[617] The +proffer of free treatment dates back to 1788; a law of 1874 sought to +impose an obligation to take advantage of this opportunity; in the law +of March 30, 1906, fifteen of the eighteen paragraphs which compose the +statute deal with the problem of venereal infection.[618] The main +provisions are the following:[619] It is made a punishable offence to +communicate venereal infection even as between husband and wife; any +person who in ignorance of his or her condition infects another is +liable for the medical charges and damages; venereally infected persons +may, regardless of their ability to pay, receive free treatment from the +municipality; they are in duty bound to submit to such free treatment if +they are themselves unable to employ a physician; if the manner of +living of the patient is such as to endanger others, or if the patient +does not observe directions, or is a pauper in receipt of aid, he or she +may be forcibly interned,—_the decision to rest with the police +officials_[620]; patients can be required to continue under medical +observation even after the conclusion of their regular treatment; every +physician is obligated to hand venereal patients a printed warning +against marriage and against sexual intercourse, and to explain the +legal liabilities incurred through violation of this injunction; every +physician must report the instances in which such action has been taken +by him[621]; patients are free to indicate the supposed source of their +infection, though not obliged to do so, and the physician may in his +discretion report such alleged source to the police, who may or may not +take action thereon; a child, suffering with syphilis may not be nursed +by any one other than its own mother; nor may a syphilitic wet nurse +continue the practice of her vocation. A woman arrested for any offence +connected with prostitution or on the charge of infecting another may +with her consent be medically examined through the police; in case of +refusal to submit, the courts shall have the power to order the same; +compulsory examination must be carried out by paid municipal physicians +of the same sex as the accused; these same physicians are obligated to +examine all applicants and to treat all venereal patients without either +demanding or accepting a fee; in Copenhagen municipal clinics must be +maintained by the department of health in different parts of the city; +the patient can be required to return for treatment at appointed times +and if sent to the hospital may be compelled to remain until discharged +by the physician. Should the patient fail to obey instructions, the case +must be reported by the attending physician to the City physician, who +is authorized to take action.[622] + +The municipal clinics, maintained for the purposes above stated, seven +in number, are prominently announced on every advertising obelisk. As +indicating the direct way in which the subject is handled, I reproduce +on page 350 the bulletin.[623] + +At Rome, side by side with the ineffective municipal regulatory system +previously described, the royal government of Italy has, by a law +approved August 1, 1907, instituted a dispensary system, in many +respects closely following the Danish type. The measure provides for +“gratuitous public prophylaxis of gonorrhœa, soft chancre, and +syphilis.”[624] The dispensaries are to be organized by the communes +acting in coöperation with the ministry of the Interior, or in default +of such arrangement, by the Interior department itself; the expense is +to be borne by the commune assisted by governmental aid; physicians +shall be appointed by the government; “they shall treat without any +distinction all sufferers from venereal diseases who apply to the +dispensaries. The cure is gratuitous for all alike.”[625] Provision is +further made for hospital facilities. Supplementary sections endeavor to +bring professional prostitutes within the scope of the act. + + AT THE FOLLOWING PLACES AND FROM THE FOLLOWING PHYSICIANS, ALL PERSONS SUFFERING + FROM VENEREAL DISEASE, REGARDLESS OF ABILITY TO PAY, HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEMAND FREE + TREATMENT WITHIN THE HOURS INDICATED: + ────────┬────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + PLACE │NAME OF │ CONSULTATIONS FOR MEN + │ PHYSI- │ + │ CIAN │ + ────────┼────────┼──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────── + │ │ MON. │ TUES. │ WED. │ THUR. │ FRI. │ SAT. + ────────┼────────┼────┬─────┼───┬─────┼────┬─────┼────┬─────┼─────┬─────┼───┬───── + │ │Day │Even.│Day│Even.│Day │Even.│Day │Even.│ Day │Even.│Day│Even. + ────────┼────────┼────┼─────┼───┼─────┼────┼─────┼────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼───┼───── + Rudolph │ Ravn │12½–│ │ │ │12½–│ │12½–│ 6–7 │ │ │ │ + Berghs │ │ 1½ │ │ │ │ 1½ │ │ 1½ │ │ │ │ │ + Hospital│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │Jersild │9½– │ │ │ 6–7 │9½– │ │9½– │ │ │ │ │ + │ │10½ │ │ │ │10½ │ │ 1½ │ │ │ │ │ + Isted │Meincke │3–4 │ 6–7 │3–4│ │ │ │3–4 │ │ │ 6–7 │3–4│ + Street │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 30 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Griffen-│ Einar │2–3 │ │ │ │2–3 │ │2–3 │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ + feldt │Petersen│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Street 8│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │H. Levy │ │ 6–7 │10–│ │10– │ │ │ │10–11│ │ │ + │ │ │ │11 │ │ 11 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Osterbro│ H. │ │ │9½–│ │ │ 6–7 │9½– │ │ │ │9½–│ + Street │Sorensen│ │ │10½│ │ │ │10½ │ │ │ │10¼│ + 56 D │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │ C. E. │3–4 │ │ │ │3–4 │ │ │ 6–7 │ 3–4 │ │ │ 7–8 + │ Jensen │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Torve │ H. │ │ │8½–│ │ │ │ │ 6–7 │8½–9½│ │ │ + Street │Bonnesen│ │ │9½ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 12 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │ P. │ │ 6–7 │3–4│ │ │ │3–4 │ │ │ │3–4│ + │Haslund │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + St. │ Gold- │ │ │11–│ │ │ │11– │ │ │ │11–│ + Kongens │schmidt │ │ │12 │ │ │ │ 12 │ │ │ │12 │ + Street │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 46 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + ════════╪════════╪════╧═════╧═══╧═════╧════╧═════╧════╧═════╧═════╧═════╧═══╧═════ + PLACE │NAME OF │ CONSULTATIONS FOR WOMEN + │ PHYSI- │ + │ CIAN │ + ────────┼────────┼──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────── + │ │ MON. │ TUES. │ WED. │ THUR. │ FRI. │ SAT. + ────────┼────────┼────┬─────┼───┬─────┼────┬─────┼────┬─────┼─────┬─────┼───┬───── + │ │Day │Even.│Day│Even.│Day │Even.│Day │Even.│ Day │Even.│Day│Even. + ────────┼────────┼────┼─────┼───┼─────┼────┼─────┼────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼───┼───── + Rudolph │ Ravn │ │ │9½–│ │ │ 6–7 │10– │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ + Berghs │ │ │ │10½│ │ │ │ 11 │ │ │ │ │ + Hospital│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │Jersild │ │ 6–7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 6–7 + Isted │ Miss │10– │ │10–│ │ │ │ │ │ 2–3 │ │ │ + Street │ Ham- │ 11 │ │11 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 30 │ burger │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Griffen-│ Einar │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ │ │ │12½– │ │ │ + feldt │Petersen│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1½ │ │ │ + Street 8│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │H. Levy │ │ │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ │ │ │10–│ + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │11 │ + Osterbro│ H. │ │ │ │ │9½– │ │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ + Street │Sorensen│ │ │ │ │10½ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 56 D │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │ C. E. │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ │ │ │ │ │3–4│ + │ Jensen │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Torve │ H. │ │ │ │ 6–7 │8½– │ │ │ │ │ │8½–│ + Street │Bonnesen│ │ │ │ │ 9½ │ │ │ │ │ │9½ │ + 12 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + „ │ P. │3–4 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ + │Haslund │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + St. │ Gold- │ │ │ │ 6–7 │ │ │ │ │11–12│ │ │ + Kongens │schmidt │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Street │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + 46 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ + Venders │Miss N. │ │ 6–7 │10–│ │10– │ │10– │ 6–7 │10–11│ │ │ + Street 8│Nielsen │ │ │11 │ │ 11 │ │ 11 │ │ │ │ │ + ────────┴────────┴────┴─────┴───┴─────┴────┴─────┴────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴───┴───── + Health Board of Copenhagen, April 1, 1912. + +Between the Italian and the Scandinavian legislation above summarized +there is, however, an important distinction. The Italian scheme is +wholly and unconditionally voluntary and hygienic; it lacks altogether +compulsory features, addressing itself unreservedly to health, without +regard to either order or morals. A ministerial circular, interpreting +its scope and purpose declares: “Any construction of the law aiming to +ascertain the presence of disease is unlawful and in opposition to its +purport, because the police spirit leads to the concealment of disease +and avoidance of cure. Compulsory action is offensive to the liberty and +dignity of human personality. The prophylaxis of venereal disease is to +be kept entirely distinct from the protection of morals and the measures +of the police. The two services differ in object,—the one having a +hygienic end, the other aiming to protect public order. Confusion is +dangerous and constitutes an abuse.”[626] + +As contrasted with this thoroughgoing acceptance of the voluntary point +of view, the Danish policy retains certain vestiges of police +complicity. It includes, for example, the right of compulsory +examination in case of women arrested for offences indicative of +professional prostitution[627]; it continues to relate the police to +venereal disease, through the compulsory proviso above cited and through +the provisions encouraging the disclosure of the supposed source of the +infection.[628] + +As to the wisdom of the above mentioned provisions grave doubt exists. +They are unquestionably in conflict with the spirit animating the +statute as a whole. Dr. Santoliquido, the author and administrator of +the unqualified Italian scheme, is strongly of the opinion that the +slightest taint of police complicity or the slightest suggestion of +publicity seriously impedes the utilization of the facilities +offered.[629] The Danish lawmakers were evidently afraid to be +thoroughgoing. On the one hand they were entirely clear that regulation +failed, not only because it reached no men and relatively few women, but +because the association of disease with crime tended to drive disease +into hiding. They saw that, to entice it out, to ensure more general, +more skillful, more thorough treatment, the interest and the +intelligence of the patients had to be appealed to; they must be taught +to be cured for their own sakes and that of others; and in order that +every obstacle thereto might be removed, treatment offered in a +scientific spirit must be made free and accessible. They feared, +however, to leave the matter at this point; they felt that some +provision had to be made for backsliders; and to keep these under +treatment, even against their own inclination, the intervention of the +police was made possible. Undoubtedly the individuals immediately +concerned may thus gain,—for they may be helped. But the danger is that +unfortunate indirect effects may more than outweigh the direct favorable +effects. The vestige of the police spirit may hinder the very +transformation in the attitude of those afflicted that the legislation +hoped to bring about. Thus incidental compulsion may tend to tear down +what the law as a whole endeavors to build up.[630] + +As opposed then to the Italian policy of leaving the matter wholly to +individuals and endeavoring to educate them to take advantage of +abundant facilities, the Danish plan leaves the matter to individuals, +if the individual is willing to act intelligently; but it endeavors to +coerce the rest. There is, however, some doubt as to whether the second +part of the Danish arrangement does not tend to defeat the first. Even +under police regulation we observed that most was achieved where force +was most completely dissembled; and, wherever, as at Paris, police +regulation and voluntary hospital facilities are both provided, the +latter are far more effective than the former. Moreover, the remnant of +police compulsion is always in danger of relapsing into regulation, +applicable mainly, perhaps altogether, to women,—a policy to which we +have discovered insurmountable objections. + +From the standpoint of the theory of the law, then,—that abundant +facilities for treatment coupled with an unqualified appeal to the +intelligence and self-interest of the patient is likely to reach, on the +whole, the largest number of the afflicted—grave question may also be +raised regarding denunciation of the source of a particular venereal +infection. On its face, the transaction appears reasonable enough: a +sufferer, after interrogation by his physician or of his own motion, may +report his belief that he was contaminated by this woman or that.[631] +The information communicated by the doctor to the police is held in +strict confidence, and the person involved may be requested to call at +police headquarters; where, being informed of the nature of the +accusation, it is suggested that he (or she) consult a physician,—a +municipal physician or a physician of the individual’s own choosing; +should he (or she) be reported as ill, treatment may be compelled, if +the individual declines otherwise to submit.[632] + +On its face, I say, this looks like a not unreasonable method of +attacking infection at its source in the case of persons who lack the +conscience or the intelligence to act of their own accord; for clearly +the foci thus reached might, if left alone, have continued, ignorantly +or malevolently, to breed further contamination. Denunciation aims to +bring these concealed sources to light; offers them treatment, if they +are intelligent enough to take advantage of such opportunity; and adds +the state’s right and power to compel a proper course of action, if, for +any reason whatsoever, they are differently minded. + +As a matter of fact, the thing is by no means so simple. In the first +place, with the best intention, the patient may be mistaken as to the +source of his or her infection. Prostitution is promiscuous on both +sides. The women notoriously consort in quick succession with many men; +men often consort with different women. The periods of incubation are +more or less indefinite and variable, so that a mere reckoning back to a +particular act of intercourse is not conclusive. In one set of cases, +carefully studied from this standpoint,[633] over half of those +questioned were unable to throw any light on the subject. + +The very difficulty in question opens the way to error and abuse. +Despite the confidential fashion in which the subject is handled, the +humiliation involved in a mistaken or false accusation is no trifle. The +same principle holds here as in respect to arrest for alleged +solicitations—a single error is worse than a hundred omissions. It is a +totally different thing from a mistaken allegation that some other +infectious disease exists in a given house or person,—diphtheria, for +example, or scarlet fever. The manner in which venereal disease is +usually contracted, the implications attending its presence, set it off +in a class by itself, and open the door to abuses for which other +contagious diseases give no opportunity. A procedure that might, +therefore, be safely employed in reference to scarlet fever, if feasible +or necessary, may be totally inapplicable to syphilis. + +The experience of Copenhagen has quite fully justified these doubts. +Denunciation is an invitation to blackmail; it can be and has been +employed by men simply to rid themselves of women of whom they have +tired; for, while in theory equally applicable to both sexes, under +existing conditions women have most to fear from it. For this reason, +physicians do not regularly report to the police the alleged sources of +infection; nor do the police always act even on such denunciations as +reach them. But despite the caution with which the police act, it +happens not infrequently that denounced women prove on examination to be +free of infection. Women wishing to be revenged upon former “friends” or +lovers do not hesitate to employ the same device; and not infrequently +with a similar result. The following table shows the results of the +examinations made at the instance of the Copenhagen police during a +series of years:[634] + + ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + No. No. No. persons reported No. of + No. Men Women for not continuing these + Year Examined Men Women ill ill treatment reached + „ „ „ „ „ „ Men Women „ + 1907 410 22 388 21 172 154 37 68 + 1908 609 61 548 54 195 218 60 89 + 1909 739 36 703 28 226 238 95 112 + 1910 822 25 797 14 155 336 130 141 + 1911 780 40 740 24 160 364 117 133 + ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + +The figures above given by no means represent all the accusations filed +with the police. They are those only that the department felt justified +in following up. As the police cannot permit themselves to be made an +indiscriminate instrument of private oppression or vengeance, they use +their own discretion as to whether they will act on a given +“denunciation.” Necessarily therefore their action is so uncertain as to +be quite ineffective; with anything less than the most complete +integrity it might readily be something worse than uncertain. The +officials are therefore in serious doubt as to whether denunciation is +workable even under the comparatively simple conditions of the Norwegian +and Danish capitals; of a commission of nine persons recently appointed +to consider the question in Copenhagen, five members favored repeal; +four favored retention, not on the ground of its general value, but as a +means of reaching utterly reckless or insane individuals who go so far +as to boast of their success in disseminating disease.[635] + +But perhaps a more serious objection to denunciation from the purely +sanitary standpoint lies here;—that it continues the hurtful association +of venereal disease with the police. It works in this respect like the +reporting of patients who break off treatment without authorization. A +certain number can, of course, be laid hold of. Of 1,749 cases recorded +in the table given, 543 were compelled or induced to resume treatment. +This is, of course, so much to the good; but suppose it impedes the +wider acceptance and operation of the voluntary principle, on which, in +the long run, the success of the dispensary system depends? The large +number of disappearances above noted suggests the repellent outcome of +this traditional association, which must be completely uprooted, if +persons ill of venereal disease are to seek treatment as readily as +those ill of measles or mumps.[636] + +The final columns of the table given on page 356 deserve comment on +another score. During five years, 1,749 persons discontinued treatment +for venereal disease before they were dismissed by their physicians: of +them, 1,310 were men, 439 were women. It would appear, therefore, that +men may be less intelligent and conscientious than women in the pursuit +of regular and voluntary treatment. Either sex may, of course, be the +means of indefinitely spreading infection,—women by infecting a series +of men, men by infecting a series of women. If compulsory medical +examination and treatment (i. e. regulation) are therefore to be applied +to only one sex, they ought, in the light of the Copenhagen figures, to +be applied to men rather than to women,—for of the two sexes, +compulsion, if desirable, would be best applied to the sex that makes +the less use of voluntary opportunity. + +The problematical points above discussed do not, however, touch the +heart of the subject. At bottom, the issue between regulation and +abolition turns upon this question: are the ravages of venereal disease +more likely to be mitigated by the medical examination and compulsory +treatment of registered prostitutes, assuming such examination and +treatment to be as intelligent as they can be made, or by the provision +of free, abundant and confidential opportunities for all sufferers, +assuming that the dispensaries are as well conducted as they can +possibly be? In behalf of patient and thorough experimentation along the +latter line, the failure of regulation is of course the first and +perhaps most powerful argument. The Italian sanitarians lean largely on +another,—that compulsion can in no event be defended, since it involves +an infraction of personal liberty. In my judgment, it is a pity to raise +a metaphysical issue of this kind. Could it be once proved that +compulsion succeeds, society would probably not permit itself to be +balked by abstract principles of personal liberty; a not dissimilar +argument by anti-vaccinationists has been peremptorily overruled by most +civilized states. No individual’s liberty can be made to include the +privilege of spreading contagion, if a demonstrated method of checking +the process is known. In this volume, I have throughout endeavored to +meet regulation on its own ground. A verdict unfavorable to regulation +has been found in the first instance, not because it violates personal +liberty, but because it fails; because it is at least useless in respect +to order, and worse than useless in respect to venereal disease. In the +same way, the voluntary system is recommended, not because it is +consonant with modern theories of individuality, but because it may +prove the most effective way of throwing light upon the dark corners in +which disease huddles and multiplies. + +Experience affords as yet no conclusive proof of the superiority of the +voluntary system. Its introduction is too recent and too limited to have +as yet affected the general situation. Moreover, the system can not be +judged until communities have been educated to take advantage of it, +or—what comes to the same thing—until it becomes evident that it is +impossible to educate the afflicted to take advantage of it. Time is a +most important factor in this matter. The ancient police association +must altogether die out; even the feeling of personal humiliation about +contamination must be taught to subordinate itself to a realization of +the duty of submitting to competent treatment. It is not surprising to +find that the women formerly registered in Copenhagen used their freedom +in the first instance to stay away; the more intelligent consulted +private physicians, but the others simply ignored their condition. This +experience does not prove either the wisdom or necessity of regulation; +it proves only the baneful effect of associating hygiene with the police +and the necessity of patience until the former association is dissolved +and an entirely new association created. + +How far results may be claimed for the voluntary system, I shall +consider in a moment. But certainly the way the system operates creates +a presumption thus far in its favor. Notwithstanding the partial +retention of the police connection, the dispensaries of Copenhagen are +already treating more women than formerly were reached by regulation; in +the year 1910, of all cases reported to the Health Office, 40% had taken +advantage of the dispensaries. The following tables exhibit the +attendance of new patients at the free dispensaries during the years +1910 and 1911:[637] + + Reported + for failure + Sent into to keep up + Year Men Women Children Hospital Treatment + 1910 3,991 1,090 78 750 238 + 1911 3,748 1,165 72 644 277 + +Moreover, the attitude of the prostitutes themselves is perceptibly +changing. I mentioned above that at the outset they refused to attend +the dispensaries. I was, however, reliably informed that this is no +longer the case to anything like the same extent. Women who formerly +endeavored to “evade the whole thing” describe themselves now as only +“too glad to come.” M. Augagneur submitted to the French +Extra-Parliamentary Commission a comparative table strongly confirmatory +of the Danish experience. The record in question runs from 1876 to 1903; +it shows the number of women—registered and non-registered prostitutes +respectively—who were treated for venereal disease at the Hospice de +l’Antiquaille: in 1876, 835 registered prostitutes, 281 non-registered. +Thereafter, the former steadily declined with the inevitable +disintegration of the regulatory system; the latter tended to rise. In +the final year (1903) the registered prostitutes compulsorily treated +numbered only 180; the clandestines voluntarily treated had increased to +327,—i. e., the number receiving voluntary treatment was almost twice as +large as the number receiving compulsory treatment, despite the +continuance of the police association.[638] + +The attitude of the medical profession is an interesting indication of +the way in which the new law has worked. At the outset, nine-tenths of +the Copenhagen doctors were regulationists; even those favorable to +abolition were fearful of sudden abolition. Nowadays the medical +professions of both Christiania and Copenhagen are described as +practically unanimous against regulation. Dr. Hoff in his vigorous +pamphlet above quoted declares that the Danish law may indeed be +modified as to details; but its main outlines are secure. And this, +despite the fact that the free dispensary has practically effaced the +specialists in venereal diseases,—an incidental result philosophically +accepted by those whom it has affected.[639] + +A word as to one other peculiarity of the Scandinavian laws,—viz. the +notification of venereal disease. In Christiania, physicians are +required to report daily to the Health Department, without names, new +patients suffering with any venereal disease.[640] The Danish law is +similar; while other contagious diseases are notifiable with names, +venereal diseases are notified without names as a rule. The policeman on +the beat collects the notices as he makes his rounds. A circular, dated +July 1, 1912, institutes a similar form of notification in Sweden. It is +stated that all cases of contagious sexual disease must be reported by +the attending physician in franked envelops to the “official physician +of the province or the board of health, with the name of the disease, +the age and sex of the patient, but without name and address.” +Notification answers in general a statistical purpose; but in Denmark, a +patient who interrupts treatment may be reported by name and find +himself forced to continue treatment or to fly. It is impossible to +discover that notification itself has had any bad effects whatsoever. It +appears rather to have assisted in making the sufferer realize his +danger to others,—precisely as the notification of other diseases has +resulted in increased conscientiousness. The fear one observes among +English abolitionists, that notification may prove an indirect method of +reinstating regulation of one sex is baseless, in so far as Denmark and +Norway are concerned. + +Of the other abolition countries,—Great Britain, Switzerland and +Holland, none has as yet taken the disease problem seriously. +_Laissez-faire_—an unreasoning, prejudiced _laissez-faire_, at +that—still prevails. + +In England, the public authorities concerned with the prevention and +treatment of disease have thus far made “no organized effort to diminish +the prevalence of venereal disease,” nor would the desirability of their +interesting themselves in the matter “be accepted as indisputable.”[641] +The hospital provisions for venereal diseases are utterly inadequate. +Indoor accommodation in the large voluntary hospitals of London there is +practically none,—and this even in teaching hospitals. It is held that +“it is unreasonable to expect subscribers to spend their money on +rescuing persons from the consequences of their sins.”[642] The +Inspector for the Local Government Board reports that “no beds or wards +were reserved for infective venereal cases in any of 30 general +hospitals visited in London and the provinces. In one of the London +hospitals, a rule precluded the treatment of unmarried women suffering +from venereal disease, though no such rule existed with regard to +unmarried men.”[643] A more liberal policy characterizes the out-patient +departments, though their organization and equipment are both defective. +The poor law infirmaries and workhouses are apt to be better equipped; +and it is interesting to note in passing that the administrators of +these institutions when asked for their “opinion regarding the +advisability of endowing the guardians with the powers of compulsory +detention (of those seeking treatment for venereal complaints) were +practically unanimous in declaring that it would deter patients from +coming.” A few special hospitals called lock-hospitals (the name is +etymologically obscure, but has nothing to do with “lock-up”) are also +devoted to the care of venereal patients. Of these, recent writers +state: The lock-hospitals are pathetically meager, containing “in London +136 beds for females, 27 for males; elsewhere about 70, making perhaps +250 in the United Kingdom.”[644] Out-patient services are also found in +connection with the lock-hospital. English conditions in this respect +therefore deserve the severe language of Sidney and Beatrice Webb: “The +man or woman suffering from gonorrhœa or syphilis, even if the innocent +victim of another’s guilt, is refused admission to the voluntary +hospital; deterred, and as often as possible, hustled out of the +workhouse; and wholly unprovided for by the local health +authority.”[645] Moreover, the method of conducting the only available +resort—the lock-hospital—is more or less repellent. The patient is made +to feel that his cure ought also to be a penance. The head nurse opens +and reads all letters sent or received, a measure that marks off the +venereal from any other patient. The sanitary spirit is as yet quite +undeveloped: “I don’t believe in making it safe”—remarked the secretary +of a lock-hospital to me, just as we entered the children’s ward, where +thirty to forty innocent victims were under his care, the moral and +medical aspects of the problem as yet hindering each other in his mind! + +The abolition cities on the Continent are in respect to hospital +facilities much better off, for dermatological clinics, including beds +for venereal diseases, form part of the general hospitals in large +cities. + +I have now briefly described conditions as to the laws and hospital +provisions relating to venereal disease in various abolition countries. +The issue between abolition and regulation ought in theory to be +determinable by an inspection of statistical results, contrasting the +results in regulation and abolition countries respectively. Is this the +case? + +There are many reasons why a summary method of settling the question by +results is inapplicable. In the first place, available data are neither +sufficiently reliable nor sufficiently complete.[646] Recent +improvements in diagnostic art show the existence of venereal disease +where mere clinical examination—up to recently the sole reliance of the +physician—is incapable of discerning it; in some cases, the same +improvements now result in a negative diagnosis where superficial +appearance might formerly have led to a positive opinion. Hence one +serious defect of even conscientiously compiled figures. But there is +another serious source of error. Such general statistics as exist are in +an extraordinary degree fractional and unscientific. Only in certain +small sections of Scandinavia has a more or less accurate system of +reporting been in vogue for even a relatively short period. Elsewhere +our inferences must be based on hospital and insurance reports or rough +personal estimates. In these conditions, so narrow a question as the +issue between regulation and abolition does not lend itself to +statistical determination.[647] + +Statistics and opinion, however, both concur in an indirect contribution +to the problem. Venereal disease is shown by both to be so widely +prevalent in regulated cities that one marvels whether the situation +could really be any worse under even the most radical _laissez-faire_ +abolition. It is a truism that physicians eager to equip themselves as +specialists in venereal disease resort to the crowded clinics of Paris, +Vienna, and Berlin, all regulated towns, because there disease is found +in greatest abundance and richest variety,—a strange comment on the +alleged efficacy of regulation! On the basis of all available sources of +information, Blaschko calculates that of the clerks and merchants in +Berlin between 18 and 28 years of age, 45% have had syphilis, 120% have +had gonorrhœa; 77% have had syphilis, 200% have had gonorrhœa in +Breslau.[648] Similar inquiry among students shows according to the same +investigator, that “in the course of his four years at the University, +every student is venereally infected at least once,—a statement that no +one familiar with the facts will be inclined to question.”[649] Pinkus +declares that in Germany one man in every five has had syphilis,[650] +and that gonorrhœa averages more than one attack per man.[651] + +An attempt was made by the Prussian Government to take a census of the +amount of venereal disease among men in the Kingdom on April 30, 1900. +It developed—as far as the returns showed—that in general on that day 28 +men out of every 10,000 were infected; in Berlin, however, the average +was 142 per 10,000; in cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, 100 per +10,000; in the cities of over 30,000 inhabitants, 58 per 10,000; in +cities under 30,000 inhabitants, 45 per 10,000. The results may be +represented thus: + +[Illustration: FIGURE I.—Venereal disease among males in the population +of Prussia, April 30, 1900.] + +The inference to be drawn from Figure I is obvious: the amount of +venereal disease is in direct relation to the size of the town. The +figures given cannot accurately represent the actual totals; but they +may nevertheless give a fairly reliable indication of relative +conditions. The steady decrease with the size of the city appears to +suggest the main, perhaps the sole important concrete factor, viz., the +size of the city; a factor upon which we shall stumble again in another +connection. + +A similar inquiry was also made in Sweden, with a view to determining +how many persons were under treatment for infectious venereal disease +January 31, 1905. A questionnaire was sent to 1,264 physicians, of whom +1,181 replied.[652] The Swedish and Prussian figures are set side by +side in the following table:[653] + + SWEDEN (JAN 31, 1905) + Syph. Soft chancre Gon. + Stockholm (pop. 317,964) 23. 1.2 31.2 + Göteborg (pop. 138,030) 15.6 1.4 18.9 + Malmö (pop. 70,797) 14.4 3.1 28.6 + Norrköping (pop. 44,378) 11.3 0.3 16.8 + Whole Kingdom 3.6 0.3 5.4 + + PRUSSIA (APR. 30, 1900) + Berlin 23.6 5.8 53.2 + Seventeen cities of more than 100,000 inhab. 17.8 3.5 32.6 + Forty-two cities 30–100,000 10.8 1.9 19.6 + Whole Kingdom 5.1 1.1 9.9 + +A more definite impression is obtainable regarding the incidence of +venereal disease in European armies: do the curves thus arrived at throw +any light on the issue between regulation and abolition? The subjoined +graph (Fig. II) embodies the official statistics of the war offices of +Europe from 1881 to 1905. + +[Illustration: FIGURE II.—Venereal disease in European armies.] + +At first sight, the graph might be interpreted as a conclusive argument +in behalf of regulation. But careful consideration entirely changes its +significance. In the first place, the earlier or more unfavorable +English statistics are stated to be altogether unreliable. It is indeed +on the face of the matter impossible to credit anything like the +precipitous decline depicted. Moreover, the implied comparison is itself +unfair. A continental army includes the youth of the entire nation,—all +those between certain ages,—city and country boys alike; the good +elements dilute the showing that would be made by the bad. The English +army, on the other hand, is a volunteer force, largely recruited from +among the adventurous and the derelict,—precisely those among whom an +inordinately large proportion of venereal disease would naturally occur. +The continental curves may represent the condition of the total male +population of the ages in question; the English curve speaks for only a +single section and the two cannot be directly compared. Moreover, the +very magnitude of the discrepancy is fatal to its explanation by +regulation. The marked variations between the armies of regulated +countries,—Italy, Austria, and Prussia, indicate clearly the existence +of other factors. Finally, there is observable a general movement +downwards coinciding with the breakup of regulation on the Continent. If +regulation exerts a perceptible effect, its narrowing scope ought to be +attended by a gradual rise in the curves, instead of the reverse. + +To whatever the general differences in the curves be due, there is +nothing in them to suggest that regulation plays any rôle whatsoever. +Closer consideration of separate curves will establish this proposition +beyond dispute. The English Contagious Diseases Acts, under which +medical inspection of prostitutes was instituted, were repealed in +1886,[654] the very year in which the graph records the highest +incidence of venereal disease in the army. Repeal was followed, not by a +rise, but by a fall that, except for the interlude created by the Boer +War, has continued almost uninterruptedly from that day to this. +Regulation was at its height in England from 1870 to 1882. In the former +year, of 38,408 recruits inspected, 15.78 per thousand were rejected on +the score of syphilis; the number of recruits increased during the +period in question to 45,423, of whom in the last year of effective +regulation 10.72 per thousand were rejected for the same reason. Is this +improvement attributable to regulation? Clearly not; for the rate of +rejection has declined since abolition more rapidly than at any other +time: in 1886, 77,991 were examined and 8.18 rejected per thousand; in +1897, 59,986 were examined and 3.47 rejected per thousand.[655] + +The annual admission of enlisted men to hospitals for venereal diseases +tells the same story. In 1886—the year of the repeal, this reached the +startling total of 267.1 to the thousand; by 1900, the figure had fallen +to 93.2; it rose to 125 in 1903, and fell thereafter steadily to 66 in +1909.[656] + +The curve (page 374)[657] shows admissions, per thousand of strength, +for syphilis (primary and secondary) in the army at home and in India +for the years 1880–1908. + +[Illustration: FIGURE III.—Admissions per 1,000 for syphilis, British +army, 1880–1908.] + +Finally, a comparison made between regulated and non-regulated military +stations before and during regulation and after abolition exhibits +capricious variations indicating clearly the negative outcome of +regulation: (See Fig. IV, p. 376.) + +Col. Melville’s analysis is as follows: “The most obvious fact is the +parallelism of the curves. Though the curve for unprotected stations is +on the whole higher, they follow the same general trend. They both fall +at first, and from 1875, they both rise steadily. Regulation did not +keep disease down between 1876 and 1882; its increase in unprotected +stations was proportionately somewhat less than in the protected. The +marked increase in the protected stations after relaxation of the rules +in 1882 only continues the rise originating six years previously. Total +repeal in 1886 is followed by a very marked fall in both curves, which, +however, had begun in 1883 in the unprotected, and in 1884 in the +protected, stations.”[658] + + Statistics of + the British + Army. + Admission to + Hospital for + Venereal + Disease. Ratio + per 1,000 of + Strength. + + Year Home Army + 1882 246.0 + 1883 260.0 + 1884 270.7 + 1885 275.7 + 1886 267.1 + 1887 252.9 + 1888 224.5 + 1889 212.1 + 1890 212.4 + 1891 197.4 + 1892 201.2 + 1893 194.6 + 1894 182.4 + 1895 173.5 + 1896 158.3 + 1897 139.7 + 1898 132.7 + 1899 122.4 + 1900 93.2 + 1901 105.4 + 1902 122.7 + 1903 125.0 + 1904 107.6 + 1905 90.5 + 1906 82.0 + 1907 71.9 + 1908 68.4 + 1909 66.0 + +[Illustration: FIGURE IV.—Comparison of 14 protected with 14 unprotected +stations in respect to admissions with primary venereal sores.] + +German army statistics, intensively studied, yield a similarly negative +result as to benefits of regulation in respect to the incidence of +venereal disease. Recurring to Figure II (p. 370) we observe that the +extent of infection decreased continuously from 1881 (as in all other +armies except the Italian, where irregularities are considerable) up to +1900, despite the fact that, as has been shown, methods of medical +examination were so crude that they probably caused more disease than +they isolated. The Dutch curve has also consistently dropped,—most of +all so, since abolition.[659] In Stockholm, the statistics exhibit the +same decline, coincidentally with the gradual weakening of +regulation.[660] + +Closer inspection of the Prussian statistics brings to light the one +significant factor that we have already remarked in a previous +correction, viz., the size of the community involved. It appears that +during a series of years the percentage of venereally infected recruits +is practically constant at 7.7%, despite the ups and downs of regulation +meanwhile; but infection in different army corps shows wide +discrepancies, varying from four per cent. in the XI, XIII, and XIV army +corps to 20.7 per cent. in the III, which is stationed in and about +Berlin. The same relation holds as to recruits. In the years 1903–5, +41.3 of the Berlin recruits were venereally infected; 30 per cent. of +the recruits from Hamburg and Altona,—yet these are the most effectively +regulated towns in the German Empire. I do not mean to imply that the +amount of infection is to be accounted for by the existence of +regulation, but rather that it is clear that regulation does not lessen +it. The really important factor is the size of the town. For throughout +the period just mentioned (1903–5) the extent of infection among +recruits dwindled with the size of the places from which they were +drawn; regulation had nothing whatever to do with it. Berlin, as I have +said, showed an infection of 41.3 per cent.; towns of more than 100,000 +inhabitants 15.8 per cent.; towns between 50,000 and 100,000, 10.2 per +cent.; those between 25,000 and 50,000, 8 per cent.; smaller towns and +the country districts, 4.4 per cent. The size of the garrison has a +similar effect. A small garrison (less than 400) shows venereal +infection of 11.9 per cent. in 1905–6; a garrison between 1,000 and +3,000, 16.9 per cent.; a garrison between 5,000 and 10,000, 19.8 per +cent.; garrisons of over 10,000, 26.6 per cent. Regulation can have had +no influence whatever on these figures; and this is all the more certain +in view of the fact, that though regulation has tended to disintegrate +in the last two decades, the percentage of infection, everywhere a +matter of the size of the place or the garrison, has in this period, +everywhere in absolute amount markedly decreased: in the smallest +garrisons, from 33.2 per cent. in 1885 to 11.9 per cent. in 1905; in the +largest, from 36.8 per cent. in the former year to 26.6 in the +latter.[661] + +Evidence more direct, though of limited range in point of time, is +contributed by various towns that have adopted the abolition policy. Of +these, Christiania is by far the most satisfactory. It has the longest +record and the most satisfactory statistics; for venereal diseases have +been notifiable since 1876, though the form of notification has +undergone some modification. If diagnostic means have not been too +defective in the past, a stretch of something like 20 years is +represented by the abolition experience of the Norwegian capital, which +has increased in population during the period in question from something +below 80,000 to almost a quarter of a million. + +The official table (see p. 380) gives the local situation from 1876 to +1911, inclusive.[662] + + ════╤═══════════════╤═══════════════╤═══════════════╤═══════════════ + │ │ │ │ + │ │ │ │ + │ │ │ │ + │ │ │ │ + │ │ │ │ + │ │ │ Acquired │ Congenital + Year│ Gonorrhea │ Soft Chancre │ Syphilis │ Syphilis + ────┼────┬─────┬────┼────┬─────┬────┼────┬─────┬────┼────┬─────┬──── + „ │ Men│Women│Both│ Men│Women│Both│ Men│Women│Both│ Men│Women│Both + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1876│ │ │ 593│ 419 │ │ │ + 1877│ │ │ 909│ │ │ 134│ │ │ 297│ │ │ 33 + 1878│ │ │1040│ │ │ 166│ │ │ 311│ │ │ 31 + 1879│ 951│ 176│1127│ 200│ 114│ 314│ 211│ 154│ 365│ 21│ 15│ 36 + 1880│1208│ 219│1427│ 265│ 99│ 364│ 268│ 156│ 424│ 21│ 22│ 43 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1881│1277│ 199│1468│ 353│ 78│ 431│ 302│ 151│ 453│ 33│ 39│ 72 + 1882│1140│ 146│1286│ 580│ 127│ 707│ 308│ 188│ 496│ 21│ 23│ 44 + 1883│1100│ 186│1286│ 257│ 49│ 306│ 175│ 111│ 286│ 21│ 15│ 36 + 1884│1118│ 142│1260│ 208│ 57│ 265│ 172│ 126│ 298│ 17│ 22│ 39 + 1885│ 997│ 186│1183│ 175│ 32│ 207│ 148│ 123│ 271│ 33│ 29│ 62 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1886│1095│ 99│1194│ 292│ 65│ 357│ 163│ 101│ 264│ 25│ 14│ 39 + 1887│ 829│ 106│ 935│ 306│ 37│ 343│ 175│ 97│ 272│ 21│ 23│ 44 + 1888│ 509│ 66│ 575│ 71│ 16│ 87│ 103│ 109│ 212│ 18│ 14│ 32 + 1889│ 585│ 85│ 670│ 73│ 8│ 81│ 187│ 107│ 294│ 10│ 22│ 32 + 1890│ 679│ 60│ 739│ 213│ 25│ 238│ 330│ 178│ 508│ 16│ 13│ 29 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1891│ 759│ 42│ 801│ 180│ 15│ 195│ 303│ 170│ 473│ 10│ 10│ 20 + 1892│ 935│ 90│1025│ 192│ 13│ 205│ 355│ 208│ 563│ 9│ 18│ 27 + 1893│1069│ 97│1166│ 260│ 23│ 283│ 278│ 229│ 507│ 12│ 15│ 27 + 1894│1283│ 121│1404│ 281│ 29│ 310│ 353│ 193│ 546│ 25│ 17│ 42 + 1895│1482│ 126│1608│ 387│ 34│ 421│ 518│ 206│ 724│ 26│ 14│ 40 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1896│1471│ 149│1620│ 393│ 49│ 442│ 498│ 235│ 733│ 32│ 28│ 60 + 1897│2031│ 173│2204│ 447│ 46│ 493│ 450│ 233│ 683│ 25│ 25│ 50 + 1898│2125│ 207│2332│ 433│ 51│ 484│ 565│ 259│ 824│ 25│ 27│ 52 + 1899│1966│ 191│2156│ 491│ 44│ 535│ 543│ 221│ 764│ 35│ 34│ 69 + 1900│1871│ 170│2041│ 507│ 43│ 550│ 457│ 195│ 652│ 28│ 26│ 54 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1901│1684│ 174│1858│ 292│ 32│ 324│ 432│ 208│ 640│ 23│ 17│ 40 + 1902│1576│ 159│1735│ 418│ 37│ 455│ 368│ 196│ 546│ 20│ 28│ 48 + 1903│1570│ 183│1753│ 401│ 39│ 440│ 431│ 183│ 614│ 24│ 20│ 44 + 1904│1392│ 139│1531│ 347│ 20│ 367│ 355│ 154│ 509│ 26│ 34│ 60 + 1905│1384│ 139│1523│ 278│ 16│ 294│ 340│ 128│ 468│ 24│ 26│ 50 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1906│1108│ 132│1240│ 169│ 14│ 183│ 802│ 129│ 431│ 19│ 16│ 35 + 1907│ 903│ 112│1015│ 133│ 10│ 143│ 251│ 123│ 374│ 10│ 25│ 35 + 1908│1055│ 107│1162│ 198│ 21│ 219│ 278│ 134│ 412│ 24│ 26│ 50 + 1909│1149│ 101│1250│ 172│ 19│ 191│ 315│ 142│ 457│ 31│ 27│ 58 + 1910│1261│ 98│1359│ 206│ 14│ 220│ 332│ 141│ 473│ 27│ 13│ 40 + ────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼────┼────┼─────┼──── + 1911│1373│ 94│1467│ 327│ 27│ 354│ 356│ 163│ 519│ 19│ 17│ 36 + ────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴──── + + ════╤═════╤══════════╤══════════╤══════════ + │ │ │ │ Reported + │ │ │ │ cases of + │ │ │ Reported │ syphilis + │ │ │ total as │ as + │ │ │percentage│percentage + │ │ │ of │ of + Year│Total│Population│population│population + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + „ │ „ │ „ │ „ │ „ + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1876│ 1012│ 79 022│ 1.28│ 0.53 + 1877│ 1373│ 106 781│ 1.28│ 0.31 + 1878│ 1548│ 112 977│ 1.37│ 0.30 + 1879│ 1842│ 116 801│ 1.58│ 0.34 + 1880│ 2258│ 119 407│ 1.39│ 0.39 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1881│ 2424│ 122 036│ 1.99│ 0.43 + 1882│ 2533│ 122 424│ 2.07│ 0.44 + 1883│ 1924│ 124 155│ 1.55│ 0.26 + 1884│ 1862│ 128 300│ 1.45│ 0.27 + 1885│ 1723│ 130 790│ 1.32│ 0.25 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1886│ 1854│ 134 036│ 1.39│ 0.23 + 1887│ 1594│ 135 615│ 1.18│ 0.23 + 1888│ 906│ 138 319│ 0.66│ 0.18 + 1889│ 1077│ 143 347│ 0.75│ 0.23 + 1890│ 1514│ 151 130│ 1.00│ 0.26 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1891│ 1489│ 156 535│ 0.95│ 0.31 + 1892│ 1820│ 161 151│ 1.13│ 0.37 + 1893│ 1983│ 167 588│ 1.18│ 0.32 + 1894│ 2302│ 174 717│ 1.32│ 0.34 + 1895│ 2793│ 182 856│ 1.52│ 0.42 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1896│ 2855│ 192 554│ 1.48│ 0.41 + 1897│ 3430│ 203 337│ 1.69│ 0.36 + 1898│ 3692│ 221 255│ 1.67│ 0.40 + 1899│ 3525│ 226 423│ 1.56│ 0.37 + 1900│ 3297│ 228 929│ 1.44│ 0.31 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1901│ 2862│ 224 909│ 1.27│ 0.30 + 1902│ 2802│ 225 709│ 1.24│ 0.27 + 1903│ 2851│ 223 649│ 1.27│ 0.29 + 1904│ 2467│ 222 373│ 1.11│ 0.26 + 1905│ 2335│ 226 774│ 1.03│ 0.23 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1906│ 1889│ 229 324│ 0.82│ 0.21 + 1907│ 1567│ 231 687│ 0.68│ 0.18 + 1908│ 1843│ 235 674│ 0.78│ 0.20 + 1909│ 1956│ 239 511│ 0.82│ 0.22 + 1910│ 2092│ 244 038│ 0.86│ 0.21 + ────┼─────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── + 1911│ 2376│ 247 488│ 0.96│ 0.22 + ────┴─────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────── + +In the period covered by these statistics, the population of Christiania +has trebled; we might, therefore, expect a marked rise in the presence +of venereal disease. As a matter of fact, the incidence of syphilis was +never again so high as in the first year; with certain fluctuations, it +fell, despite the marked increase in population, from .53 per cent. in +1876 to .22 per cent. in 1911. The decline in all three diseases taken +together, though not quite so striking, is sufficiently noteworthy in +the face of general conditions that might account for a rise: 1.28 per +cent. in 1876, .96 per cent. in 1911. Abolition took place in 1887. +During some of the following years a rise is observable, explicable in +several ways: (1) It was the purpose of the law to induce disease, +hitherto hidden, to come out into the open. The breaking of the police +association, the prominence given to the free dispensary, ought to have +brought out cases that under the old order were handled secretly and +thus escaped reporting; a rise in the number recorded might mean not +more fresh cases, but merely more cases under proper treatment. (2) +Coincidently with the introduction of the new law, these diseases had to +be reported daily, instead of monthly, and greater accuracy in this +respect might account for a rise indicating not more disease, but more +complete statistics. + +The experience of Copenhagen is unfortunately too brief to be of +commanding importance; a proper system of notification was introduced +for the first time in July 1912. Available statistics, obviously very +incomplete, make the following showing:[663] + + Soft Acquired Congenital + Years Gonorrhœa Chancre Syphilis Syphilis Syphilis Total + 1907 5,684 728 1,869 39 63 8,383 + 1908 6,320 1,164 2,349 63 61 9,957 + 1909 6,029 1,034 2,108 57 52 9,280 + 1910 6,076 848 2,330 39 85 9,378 + 1911 6,500 692 2,543 66 87 9,888 + +During five years there has been on the face of the figures a rise of 18 +per cent. in the total number of cases reported. Does this indicate +wider contamination as a result of abolition? Let us consider. During +the same period the population increased from 426,540 to 462,161, (i. e. +8 per cent.), so that to some extent at least the apparent increase is +relative, not absolute. Moreover, the entire tendency, here as in +Christiania, has been to lay hold of as many infected persons as +possible; in other words, unless more cases were brought to light for +some years to come, the dispensary policy would be a failure. Indeed, in +the early years, the dispensary physicians were paid per patient, in +order to enlist their active coöperation in ferreting out foci of +infection. + +Graphic representation shows that abolition has done no harm, even +though the most unfavorable interpretation be placed upon the figures. +The rapid decline immediately prior to repeal would appear to indicate +that abolition took place when Copenhagen was, in respect to venereal +disease, in the trough of the wave. Free dispensaries brought some +hidden cases to light; hence, a brief rise,—a reaction from which is +already in progress, partly explicable, perhaps, by the extinction of +some active foci through treatment. + +The curves (pp. 383, 384, 385) show the course of venereal diseases in +Copenhagen on the basis of the Reports of the Health Department.[664] + +[Illustration: FIGURE V.—Course of syphilis at Copenhagen.] + +[Illustration: FIGURE VI.—Course of gonorrhœa at Copenhagen.] + +[Illustration: FIGURE VII.—Course of soft chancre at Copenhagen.] + +In relation to population, the following table shows the incidence of +venereal disease per 10,000 inhabitants since 1867. Needless to repeat, +only the statistics of more recent years are of any genuine +consequence:[665] + + ──────────────────────────────────── + Year Gonorrhœa Soft chancre Syphilis + 1867 128 50 49 + 1868 144 73 56 + 1869 152 92 58 + 1870 158 59 47 + 1871 148 49 42 + 1872 160 72 45 + 1873 147 71 39 + 1874 159 69 40 + 1875 162 42 33 + 1876 178 53 32 + 1877 186 46 32 + 1878 196 37 32 + 1879 194 38 41 + 1880 190 40 40 + 1881 200 54 40 + 1882 222 60 42 + 1883 226 51 45 + 1884 207 61 49 + 1885 212 51 66 + 1886 202 55 73 + 1887 183 32 59 + 1888 174 24 41 + 1889 148 31 31 + 1890 140 28 30 + 1891 129 25 31 + 1892 129 24 28 + 1893 135 20 32 + 1894 122 20 36 + 1895 118 13 40 + 1896 124 16 39 + 1897 128 22 42 + 1898 133 22 48 + 1899 125 19 48 + 1900 129 17 50 + 1901 137 24 57 + 1902 127 14 46 + 1903 125 11 43 + 1904 115 11 39 + 1905 114 11 32 + 1906 112 18 33 + 1907 129 17 45 + 1908 142 26 56 + 1909 134 23 49 + 1910 132 18 53 + 1911 140 15 58 + ──────────────────────────────────── + +Dr. Rudolf Krefting, of Christiania, has plotted out two highly +interesting curves by way of depicting and comparing the course of +events in Copenhagen and Christiania in respect to syphilis.[666] (See +Fig. VIII, p. 387.) + +[Illustration: FIGURE VIII.—Copenhagen and Christiania compared in +respect to syphilis.] + +Despite considerable variations, the dotted line shows, as we have +already observed, that there was relatively to population less syphilis +in Christiania in 1910 than in 1890; that, though the amount of disease +treated in abolition Christiania was in the years immediately succeeding +repeal greater than the amount reported in Copenhagen, conditions +rapidly improved, so that the situation is now well in hand. The maximum +was reached almost twenty years ago (1895). The Copenhagen curve +continues to rise until 1901, when it falls unaccountably, rises on +repeal of regulation and shows a declining tendency as the new system +gets to working more smoothly. In any event, Copenhagen with control and +with an imperfect system of notification actually shows almost +uninterruptedly more syphilis than Christiania without control and with +a much more thorough system of notification.[667] That abolition alone +is to be credited with the decline or with the difference between the +two cities cannot be maintained; for similar declines—less credible, +perhaps, inasmuch as the data are less reliable—are observable under +regulation also. A very marked instance I have just noted, viz., the +decline in reported cases of syphilis at Copenhagen between 1901 and +1905,—while regulation was still in vogue. That abolition with the +dispensary system treats more disease than regulation is beyond all +question; that it treats enough more to affect sensibly the disease +curves one may believe, but may not yet hold to be scientifically +demonstrated. But this is not essential, for unless the evidence is +clearly in its favor, regulation falls to the ground. As to this, there +is no question whatsoever. The medical profession, the health +authorities, the police of both Christiania and Copenhagen are well-nigh +unanimous in their conviction on the basis of experience and statistics +that abolition has done no harm; and if abolition has done no harm, +assuredly regulation can have done no good.[668] + +A single bit of evidence may also be gleaned from the experience of +Zurich. The records of the Policlinic (out-patient department or +dispensary) and the cantonal hospital are available since 1894. Bordells +were forbidden in 1897. The population of the city was at that time +140,000; by 1911, it had risen to 195,600. Yet the total number of cases +treated at the dispensary fell from 483 in the former year to 392 in the +latter. The number of venereal patients admitted to the cantonal +hospital, 114 in 1897, has now risen to 251, but the ratio to population +has decreased. These facts are indicated on Figures IX and X. + +[Illustration: FIGURE IX.—Venereal diseases, Zurich Policlinic.] + +Let us now bring together the results of the two chapters in which we +have discussed this problem. In the first place, let me remind the +reader of the absurdity of supposing that regulation means that the +authorities are alive to the problem of venereal disease and that +abolition means that they close their eyes to it. Regulation means +simply that the police deal with a very small portion of venereal +disease; on the Continent, at least, abolition means that the health +authorities are energetically attempting to reach more and more of it. + +[Illustration: FIGURE X.—Venereal diseases, Canton hospital, Zurich.] + +In the second place, we must emphasize the fact that venereal disease is +inevitably attendant upon sexual promiscuity. Venereal disease is an +evil in itself and deserves to be combated with all the resources and +facilities known to science and to sanitation; but so long as +prostitution exists, venereal disease will remain serious and +widespread; we have discovered absolutely no reason—statistical or +other—to believe that regulation at all reduces its ravages; there is, +however, good reason to believe that the bordell and the medical +examination contribute to its aggravation by increasing miscellaneous +commerce and by decreasing resistance. On the other hand, there is no +ground—statistical or other—for believing that abolition increases +disease; there is excellent reason for believing that abolition, plus a +deliberately planned and organized dispensary system, has already proved +a mitigating factor and is capable of much greater usefulness than has +yet been anywhere realized. + +This summary still leaves on our hands the problem of understanding the +fluctuations of venereal infection. But in this respect, venereal +disease is one with other infections and contagions. All alike are +subject to unaccountable ups and downs. We know as yet practically +nothing of the factors which determine the rise and fall of infectious +disease curves, or the outbreak and the subsidence of epidemics. Apart +from any prophylactic measures yet known to science, such scourges as +syphilis and gonorrhœa wax and wane. Throughout the world, there is some +evidence to suggest that aside from temporary disturbances due to +war,[669] they have been for a decade or two in the declining stage; +whether this is temporary or permanent we have absolutely no means of +telling; experience suggests the former, but time alone will tell. + +I would not, however, convey the notion that all fluctuations are +mysterious and spontaneous and that therefore nothing can be +accomplished by intelligent action. The army curves are an argument +against any such fatalistic view. With increased keenness of military +competition, every factor conducive to efficiency has to be reckoned +with; the outcome of war would, it is felt, depend not only on +battleship tonnage and the paper strength of the army, but on the health +of the crew and of the enlisted men; their physical vigor is at least as +important as smokeless powder and a powerful rifle. Almost +simultaneously, therefore, the war authorities of Europe have undertaken +to compete with the tavern and the wanton. Games are cultivated, places +of recreation provided, the spirit of emulation has been aroused; and +instruction is given,—the enlisted man is taught that continence is +possible and wholesome; he is urged, if he has indulged himself, to +employ prophylactic measures;[670] in the highly probable event of their +failure, he is to have prompt recourse to the surgeon. A successful +effort to bring about more sparing use of alcohol has perhaps done more +than anything else to make these devices and suggestions fruitful. + +The indisputable improvement that intelligent endeavor has thus effected +in all European armies is a strong argument in behalf of applying a +similar policy to the general population. I have said that venereal +disease is an evil in itself,—a serious drain on the efficiency of the +body politic. That nation which first succeeds in reducing it will have +scored heavily on its competitors. The German Society for combating +venereal disease[671] is the most vigorous organ in Europe engaged in +the cultivation and dissemination of this point of view. Waiving +consideration of other aspects of the problem of prostitution, for the +time being, it urges that the same methods be employed in the contest +with venereal disease that are invoked against other scourges: medical +research for the means of prevention, isolation and cure; enlightenment +of all those afflicted or liable to affliction in order that the willing +intelligence of the patient may cooperate with the rational intent of +the community. Thus tuberculosis, measles, small-pox, cholera and other +pests have been attacked with some measure of success. Venereal disease +offers indeed peculiar difficulties, but they are difficulties that only +strengthen the argument for intelligence and resource broadly utilized. +If this be true, the situation described does not call for regulation, +tending, as it does, to concentrate its fire upon a few foci, and to +cover up other sources of infection so that they fester in darkness, but +rather for the more liberal and enlightened policy, which, if not +identical with abolition, follows naturally in its wake. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + THE OUTCOME OF EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE + + +If the preceding pages may be assumed to have exhibited the present +condition of prostitution in Europe, the reader need not be long +detained for the purpose of summarizing the main inferences to be drawn +from them. It must be clear that prostitution is far more widespread +than superficial appearances indicate; that its roots strike deep, +socially and individually; that police regulation has proved +unnecessary, in so far as the keeping of order is concerned, and +positively harmful in its bearing on the problem of venereal disease. +Further elaboration of these points would involve needless iteration. +But we may well ask whether European experience suggests any broader +reflections with which this study may appropriately be brought to a +close. + +Whatever one may hold as to ultimate dealings with the subject, it is +clear that prostitution is at any rate a modifiable phenomenon. For +example, no matter what conditions exist at this very moment, they are +capable of aggravation. If bordells are established and allowed a free +hand in procuring inmates and business, if a community ceases to be +concerned as to the condition of the streets, as to the conduct of the +liquor and amusement traffic; there is no doubt that under these +circumstances the number of prostitutes and the volume of business +transacted by them would at once increase, and in consequence, also the +amount of waste and disease traceable thereto. + +The converse of the proposition is equally true. If prostitution and its +evils can by social arrangements be increased, they can also by social +arrangements be lessened. If unhampered exploitation and prominence make +matters worse, then interference with exploitation and prominence makes +matters better. I am not suggesting that such interference has unlimited +possibilities. Making every allowance, however, I believe that the +student of prostitution in Europe is warranted in declaring that, with +the suppression of bordells and of the white slave traffic, and the +maintenance of improved external order, a substantial amount of good has +been accomplished, even if new problems have simultaneously developed in +consequence of the growth of cities and the accumulation of wealth; +further, it may safely be maintained that these efforts have not yet +reached their limit. + +What are we fairly justified in expecting from directly repressive +action on the part of the community? Prostitution is, as I endeavored to +show in the chapters on demand and supply, a phenomenon arising out of +the complicated interaction of personal factors and social conditions. +Looked at from this point of view, the attempt to stamp it out +completely by summary, even though persistent, action, cannot be +hopefully regarded. The instrument which a municipality must use to that +end is the police. Now the police is an instrument which, serving, as it +does, many useful purposes, must be preserved as nearly intact as may +be. We have seen that contact with prostitution threatens its integrity +and efficiency. On the police, therefore, no more can be laid than it is +capable of bearing. Just what this load is must be separately determined +for every community and, in large cities, for different parts of the +same community. Where the general level of administration and discipline +is high, more can be safely demanded than in communities in which the +level is lower; where public sentiment is active and definite, the +burden may be further increased; where local organizations observe, +complain and follow up, the danger of a police breakdown is still +further diminished. + +It is evident, however, that, even amidst favorable general conditions, +the very nature of the instrument employed involves, under the +complicated conditions of modern life, limitations against which one +soon runs. Police repression can be directed mainly against professional +prostitution and its exploiters. Unquestionably it has a valuable +function to discharge in removing stimulation and reducing suggestion, +as also in minimizing opportunities for demoralization. But in so far as +the prostitute herself is personally concerned, repression becomes +operative only after the woman has been wrecked. It penalizes an +accomplished fact. Powerless to crush this fact out of existence, +powerless for the most part to transform the fact, sheer repression +might still hope to deter the beginner by its forbidding prospect; but +unfortunately, the beginner is less affected by the penalties awaiting +her, because she never believes, at the start, that she is destined to +end in the mire. If, therefore, prostitutes are manufactured by +unschooled human nature and imperfect social institutions, they cannot +in the mass be stamped out by brute force; they must be prevented rather +than suppressed,—prevented, too, on both sides, in the sense that the +sources of supply must be closed and the demand diverted into other +channels. + +Moreover, repression, in order to realize its full possibilities, +requires an abundance of institutional facilities such as now nowhere +exist. I have repeatedly adverted to the utter futility of the fines and +short term sentences hitherto generally imposed. Repression, successful +up to the limits of its inherent possibilities, must involve the +endeavor to wean the professional prostitute from one way of living and +to equip her for another. Reformatories, labor-colonies, hospitals and +similar institutions have, therefore, to be made adequate to the load +which an aggressive policy places upon them. At this moment no city +sustains even what it now requires. + +It is a further limitation of the repressive policy, as ordinarily +conceived, that it operates almost altogether upon the woman. We are +reminded of the dual nature of prostitution. It involves two partners. +Imagine every brothel closed, every street-walker incarcerated. To the +extent that stimulation and suggestion have by these measures been +reduced, demand has suffered a check. But a strong demand still remains, +unaffected by repressive measures directed merely against dissolute +women. Certain stimuli have been removed; otherwise appetite is left +where it was. Its gratification is impeded,—made more difficult and more +expensive. But these are not insuperable obstacles in the presence of +that volume of supply which, if inoffensive, is hardly reached by +repressive police measures. Indeed, part of what was offensive is +changed in form rather than entirely driven from the market. + +Repression encounters difficulty at still another point. Prostitution is +all too frequently a parasitic phenomenon that attaches itself to other +phenomena, sometimes innocuous, sometimes necessary, sometimes part and +parcel of national life or social tradition. Street-walking and the +bordell are not thus intertwined with other activities; they represent +prostitution in its barest, simplest, most undisguised form, and as such +may be, with comparative ease, successfully attacked by police methods. +But when prostitution insinuates itself into the ordinary life of the +community, subtly, inoffensively, imperceptibly taking advantage of the +forms in which business is transacted, social life carried on, or +recreation enjoyed,—then the difficulties in the way of effective action +are more serious. The cruder forms of prostitution are easily +reached;—easily, I say, because, even though the task has been nowhere +achieved, there is, in the nature of the case, no reason why a +well-governed community should fail to achieve it; but the subtler forms +present problems so different in kind that in dealing with them agencies +and influences of a totally different character must be employed. + +I do not mean that repression will have accomplished little. On the +contrary, important good is achieved at the moment and still more in the +long run. But prostitution as a formidable problem will still remain. +Repression is, on the whole, what physicians call symptomatic treatment; +it may achieve something more than alleviate the ravages, but it does +not cure the disease. It does not necessarily decrease the thing in the +same ratio in which it alters appearances. + +What would conceivably happen in a city like London if the police, +spurred and controlled by an active popular impulse, accomplished all +that could be humanly expected? Street-walking of a provocative +character would disappear; the advertised brothel would cease to exist; +the public house (saloon) would strictly enforce the law against the +harboring of prostitutes; the obvious forms of spurious employment would +be dispersed,—rendered more circumspect and much less readily +accessible; prostitutes would disappear from the lobby and promenade of +the variety theaters, etc. The pimp, the exploiter, the third-party +interest would be severely checked and, with that, the tropical growth +due to them. We may also assume that a vigorous and adequate hygienic +policy would lessen the volume of disease, and effect quicker and +completer cures. In a word, prostitution as an offensive and aggressive +activity would be more or less done for; and the loss through disease +would be minimized. + +What would be gained? The inducement to enter the life or to persist in +it would be lessened; the total volume of business and the volume +transacted by any one woman would be decreased; the financial waste +would be less; the amount of disease disseminated would be less; the +demoralization of the woman would often be less complete, less +overwhelming, less irretrievable: surely, very important gains. + +Well drawn, well codified, well executed laws could accomplish this. Any +civilized society utilizing the resources and instrumentalities that +every such society has within its reach, can, if really so minded, +ultimately reduce prostitution and its ravages so far by direct action. + +It is well worth doing; it is, humanly speaking, a possible undertaking, +even though, I repeat, nowhere as yet by any means accomplished. Let us +not, however, deceive ourselves into thinking that such a direct frontal +attack absolves us from effort in other and different directions. +Further achievement depends upon alterations in the constitution of +society and its component parts. In so far as prostitution is the +outcome of ignorance, laws and police are powerless; only knowledge will +aid. In so far as prostitution is the outcome of mental or moral defect, +laws and police are powerless; only the intelligent guardianship of the +state will avail. In so far as prostitution is the outcome of natural +impulses denied a legitimate expression, only a rationalized social life +will really forestall it. In so far as prostitution is due to alcohol, +to illegitimacy, to broken homes, to bad homes, to low wages, to +wretched industrial conditions—to any or all of the particular phenomena +respecting which the modern conscience is becoming sensitive,—only a +transformation wrought by education, religion, science, sanitation, +enlightened and far-reaching statesmanship can effect a cure. Our +attitude towards prostitution, in so far as these factors are concerned, +cannot embody itself in a special remedial or repressive policy, for in +this sense it must be dealt with as part of the larger social problems +with which it is inextricably entangled. Civilization has stripped for a +life-and-death wrestle with tuberculosis, alcohol and other plagues. It +is on the verge of a similar struggle with the crasser forms of +commercialized vice. Sooner or later, it must fling down the gauntlet to +the whole horrible thing. This will be the real contest,—a contest that +will tax the courage, the self-denial, the faith, the resources of +humanity to their uttermost. + + + + + Appendices + + + APPENDIX I + PARIS REGULATIONS[672] + + + _Duties and Prohibitions Imposed on Public Prostitutes._ + +Public prostitutes are required to report at the Health Dispensary for +medical examination at least once a fortnight at dates that will be +fixed for each case. + +They are ordered to show their sanitary cards whenever requested to do +so by police officers or agents. + +They may not walk about in public streets before the street lanterns +have been lighted, nor, in any season of the year, before seven o’clock +in the evening; nor may they remain in the streets after midnight. + +There must be nothing about their deportment or their attire that +attracts attention in an offensive manner. + +They are expressly forbidden to speak to minors or to men accompanied by +women or children, or to entice anyone in a loud voice or with +persistence. + +They are forbidden to loiter in the streets, to gather in groups, to +walk about in groups, to pass the same points too frequently, as they go +up and down, and to have their “pimps” walk with them or behind them. + +They are not permitted to be in the vicinity of churches (Catholic or +Protestant), schools and lycées, covered arcades, boulevards, the +Champs-Élysées, the railway stations and their approaches, and the +public parks. + +They are not permitted to live in houses in which there are +boarding-schools or day-schools. + +They are likewise not permitted to share their lodgings with a lover or +with another prostitute. + +They must never solicit from their windows. + +Any woman violating the above instructions, or resisting officers of +public authority, or giving wrong information as to her address or name, +incurs the risk of certain penalties, the severity of which is in +accordance with the seriousness of the offence. + +IMPORTANT NOTICE.—The card issued to prostitutes at the time of their +enrolment is not to be regarded as an authorization, and must in no way +be taken as an encouragement to vice, or as an obstacle to decent +employment. + +The card enables the administration to determine whether the public +prostitutes—in their own interest as well as in the interest of the +public health—are reporting regularly for the medical examinations which +are provided for them as long as they continue practising prostitution. + +A woman may at any time be stricken from the list and have her card +recalled, if it be shown that she no longer draws her means of +subsistence from prostitution. + +Furthermore, the necessary confirmation of the above fact will be sought +with reserve and discretion. + + + INSTRUCTIONS GOVERNING THE VARIOUS OPERATIONS OF THE MORALS SERVICE. + + + I + CLANDESTINE PROSTITUTION + +§ 1. _Searches and scrutinies carried on in private houses in +furnished-room houses, and in cafés and saloons._ + +The inspectors of the active morals service, when informed that a +certain private house or furnished-room house is being secretly used as +a resort for prostitution, will immediately report such information to +their Officier de paix, who will draw up a statement for the Chief of +Municipal Police. + +The Chief of Municipal Police will cause exact and precise data to be +gathered, which will be reported to the Préfet de Police by the Chief of +the 1st Division, who, if that be desirable, will advise the Préfet to +issue a search-warrant. + +This warrant, issued in accordance with article 10 of the Law of July +22, 1791, and having effect at any hour of the day or night, in cases of +public notoriety, shall then be transmitted to the Chief of Municipal +Police, together with a note giving the necessary directions to assist +in carrying it out. + +The inspectors ordered to the search will report to the Commissaire of +police of the quarter, to advise him of their mission, so that he may be +in readiness to furnish aid when aid shall be required. + +The authorization to live in furnished rooms, granted to prostitutes +who, by reason of their age or their infirmities, cannot secure places +in brothels, and cannot afford to live in quarters of their own, has no +other purpose than to enable them to find a home. Such authorization +does not exempt them from the consequences of the offence of practising +prostitution in the furnished rooms inhabited by them. + +It would be proper, therefore, to arrest women, if, in the course of +search made in execution of such a warrant, they should be found in the +company of men enticed by them, which fact would furthermore constitute +a charge against the keeper of the house, being an infraction on his +part of article 5 of the Ordinance of November 6, 1778. But such arrests +should not be made if the women are found with men with whom they +regularly share those lodgings, being the concubines of such men, a fact +which it would be easy to establish by referring to the list on the +police register. + +As for cafés, saloons, or other places where liquor is sold, and in +which clandestine prostitution is encouraged, the Commissaires of police +may enter such places, without a warrant, up to the closing hour, or +even later, if such establishment should remain open in violation of the +police ordinances. + +They may go through public meeting places, if necessary, in order to +ascertain infractions of article 14 of the Ordinance of November 8, +1780. + +Inspectors who, in the course of their watches, may observe conditions +constituting violations of the above nature, will inform the Commissaire +of police of the quarter.[673] + +§ 2. _Girls not under supervision._ + +Inspectors must proceed with the greatest caution in the cases of girls +not under supervision, whom they may meet in the public streets, and +must not arrest them except after a surveillance resulting in the +observation of a number of distinct acts of soliciting. + +In a public place commonly known to be a resort for prostitution, it is +proper to arrest a girl not under supervision, when there is evidence of +the actual act, or an admission on the part of the girl or of the man +found with her, that the girl has solicited him to the act of +debauchery. + +Whatever may be the circumstances under which they have been arrested, +girls not under supervision must, in accordance with the procedure +outlined in the circular of March 24, 1837, be transferred as promptly +as possible to the Bureau of the Commissaire of police of the quarter in +which the arrest has taken place, and they must there be interrogated +without delay. + +Inspectors will always adopt an attitude towards such women, that will +be in accordance with the dignity of the administration, except when +legally confirming insults or assaults made on them by such women. They +will absolutely refrain from in any way encouraging the women to solicit +them. + +When handing over a girl not under supervision, to the discretion of a +Commissaire of police, inspectors will place in the hands of such +official, unless he is in receipt of a complete declaration from them, a +detailed report of the acts of which the girl is accused. + +After having handed over a girl not under supervision, to the discretion +of a Commissaire of police, or after having aided a Commissaire of +police, while executing a warrant, in a public place, in making the +arrest of a girl not under supervision, inspectors will at once +ascertain whether such girl is really domiciled at the address given by +her, and whether she is known by the persons whose servant or employee +she states she has been. + +They will carefully gather information as to her behavior and means of +subsistence, and will report all facts thus obtained, in a special +report to the Chief of Municipal Police, who will transmit the report to +the Chief of the 1st Division. + +Inspectors should never lose sight of the fact that the object of +searches and scrutinies executed in pursuance of a warrant is to get at +women or girls who are engaged in public prostitution, and not at those +whose sole offence is an act of private debauchery, which, reprehensible +though it may be, should not expose the woman committing such acts to +the consequences that should be borne only by real prostitutes. + +For instance, the mere fact that a woman is found in a furnished-room +house, or in a public place, in the very act of debauchery, is not +sufficient evidence to show that the woman is guilty of prostitution, if +she has regular relations of this nature with the man found with her, +and if no act of soliciting to paid debauchery is set forth. It is +expressly recommended, that when women are found sleeping alone, even in +places that have a bad reputation, no steps be taken to arrest them, +unless the circumstances are such as to convince the Commissaire of +police that such women have been engaged in an act of prostitution. The +Commissaires of police will carefully, and without delay, investigate +the circumstances causing the arrest of girls not under supervision; +after having heard the arrested person, they will decide whether the +arrest is to hold good. Should they consider it desirable to take +immediate steps to ascertain certain facts, they may have a telegram +sent for that purpose to the Chief of Municipal Police, by the Officier +de paix of the arrondissement. + +They will draw up a procès-verbal of the interrogation through which +they have put the persons arrested. They are expressly forbidden to make +use of printed blanks in conducting this interrogation. + + + II + TOLERATED PROSTITUTION. + +§ 1. _Brothels._ + +Inspectors must keep tolerated brothels under daily surveillance, in +order that they may be certain that no infractions of public order and +decency take place there, and that the women keeping such houses comply +rigorously with the special requirements made of them, as well as with +the general regulations for public order, notably with those concerning +the apparel and the number of girls permitted to go out, and the hours +of leaving and returning. + +As far as departures and returns are concerned, which take place by +stealth after the closing hour, such acts do not constitute a punishable +infraction except in so far as they may be the cause of noises of a +nature to disturb the public peace. + +Inspectors will hand in without delay, in the form of a special report, +an account of any serious or extraordinary occurrence taking place in +such houses, and will repeatedly warn the mistresses of such houses that +the latter must immediately report any such event to the Commissaire of +police of their quarter, unless they have an opportunity, within the +proper hours, to notify the administrative Bureau of the Officier de +paix assigned to the morals service. + +Inspectors will strictly enforce the prohibition, issued to mistresses +of houses, forbidding them to grant admission to students of the lycées, +or of civil and military schools, when in uniform, or to any young men +under eighteen years of age, and will report any infractions of this +rule. + +§ 2. _Enrolled Women._ + +Inspectors will see to it that all the provisions of the decree of +September 1, 1842 are carried out. + +They will require individual prostitutes, not connected with brothels, +when met with in inspections of furnished-room houses or other places, +or in the course of the inspectors’ street duty, to show their cards, in +order that the inspectors may know whether the prostitutes are prompt in +reporting for medical examination, and in order that those who have +missed examinations, a list of whom is given out twice a month by the +administrative bureau, may be traced and called to account. When a girl +makes a statement in explanation of her not having the card, which the +inspector has reason to believe is untrue, he may accompany her to her +home. + +Inspectors who are ordered to bring an enrolled woman to the +administrative office, and who do not find such woman at her home, will +do no more than report that fact. They will leave no word as to the +object of their call, in order that the woman wanted may not be tempted +to conceal her whereabouts. + +§ 3. _Disappearances of girls._ + +The search for girls who have disappeared must be carried on with the +greatest possible discretion. + +In the cases of girls who have returned to their families, or who have +taken up honest work, or who appear to be no longer deriving their means +of livelihood from public prostitution, inspectors will merely report +the present circumstances of the girls, in a special report. + +Of the girls who have disappeared, only such are to be brought to the +administrative Bureau, as have been found in brothels, or in the homes +of other prostitutes, or in furnished-room houses or private houses, +when none of the circumstances given above as exempting them from arrest +under this head, is applicable to them. + + + III + TRANSFER OF ARRESTED WOMEN TO THE PRÉFECTURE. + +Prostitutes arrested by inspectors in Paris or in the suburbs, who +cannot immediately be taken to the Préfecture de Police, will be kept at +the station-houses, from which they will be sent to the Dépôt. + + + IV + (On Sodomy, here omitted.) + + + V + ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE. + +Before any other action is taken, the Interrogating Commissaire, Head of +the Morals Bureau, should examine all documents relating to the arrest +of girls not under supervision, in order to determine in what cases +there is good reason for postponing the physical examination. + +The interrogation of girls not under supervision is conducted by the +Interrogating Commissaire himself; he reads to the girl the declaration +made by her, and has her sign the procès-verbal of the interrogation; if +necessary, he interrogates the officers. + +Whenever it may be necessary to enroll a girl not under supervision, who +is of age and who refuses to submit to the sanitary and administrative +requirements, or, whenever it may be necessary to enroll a girl who _is +not of age_, the case will be decided by a commission consisting of the +Préfet or his representative, the Chief of the 1st Division, and the +Interrogating Commissaire, instead of, as heretofore, ending with a +written statement of the facts. This commission will interrogate the +woman arrested as well as the officers. + +It is important to bear in mind that prostitutes, at the time they are +enrolled, receive a printed notice informing them that on their +application their names may be removed from the surveillance lists, when +some verification has been made of the fact that they have ceased +practising prostitution. This verification should be made with +discretion and reserve. + +In the matter of disciplinary punishments imposed on enrolled women, the +procedure will continue to be as heretofore, that is, punishments will +be assigned by the Préfet, on the motion of the Interrogating +Commissaire, approved by the Head of the 1st Division. However, in any +case of appeal by an enrolled woman from the punishment imposed upon +her, such appeal shall be referred immediately to a commission +consisting of the Préfet de Police, or his representative, and two +Commissaires of Police of the City of Paris, chosen by rotation from the +list of such officials. + +Decisions of this commission will be made after hearing the arrested +person as well as the officers, if that be necessary. + +When the commission is not presided over by the Préfet in person, its +decisions must be ratified by him. + +To make certain the permanence of the service, the sub-Chief of the 3rd +section of the 2nd bureau will bear the title of _supplementary_ +Interrogating Commissaire, but his services will not be called on except +when the titular interrogating commissaire is prevented from being +present. + + + VI + MEDICAL SERVICE. + +Although no cases have as yet arisen in which it has been necessary to +use force in making the physical examination, the medical service is +recommended to refrain from taking such steps in any case in which they +may meet with resistance. + +Such an occurrence should at once be brought to the attention of the +Préfet. + + + APPENDIX II + BERLIN REGULATIONS[674] + +In the Police District of Berlin, a person of female sex who has been +assigned, because of her practising immorality as a trade, to the +surveillance of the Health Police, is subject to the following +restrictions: + +1. She must submit to medical examination as to her condition of health, +in accordance with directions given her. + +2. She must appear promptly, at the time set for her, for medical +examination, and furthermore, as soon as she observes any indication of +illness in her genitals, or in her inguinal glands, she must report at +once to the Chief of the Morals Police and state her trouble. + +3. Medical examinations ordered by the morals police, to take place in +her own home, must be permitted without resistance. + +4. When found afflicted with a venereal or skin disease, or with any +contagious disease, she is obliged to submit to being committed to such +hospital as may be designated by the authorities and to comply with the +requirements of the treatment until she is cured. Furthermore she must +punctually discharge the duties imposed upon her by the morals police in +any home treatment ordered by that body, or in any treatment +supplementary to hospital care. + +If found infested with vermin, she must submit to the treatment as +officially outlined. + +In the hospital she must comply with the orders of physicians and +officials, as well as with the rules of the house; in case an absence +has been allowed, she must report promptly on the expiration of the term +granted. + +5. She is not permitted to lounge about, in an offensive manner, in the +streets or squares of the city, to entice men to lechery by addressing +them, or to appear in the company of a person known by her to be under +the surveillance of the morals police, or known to her as a pimp. + +She is not permitted to stand or sit in doorways or entrance-gates. + +She must comply absolutely with the instructions of the criminal +officers who display the proper badges, which instructions are given for +the maintenance of public order and public decency. This does not touch +upon the rights of uniformed officers of supervision. + +6. Except for very urgent reasons, she must not enter the following +streets or places: + +Lustgarten, Tiergarten, including Königsplatz, Friedrichshain, +Humboldthain, Victoriapark, Unter den Linden, Friedrichstrasse, +Belle-Alliance-Platz, Wilhelmstrasse, Potsdamerstrasse, Bülowstrasse +from Zietenstrasse to Yorckstrasse, Linkstrasse, Lützowstrasse, +Potsdamerplatz, etc. + +7. She is not permitted to loiter in the vicinity of churches, schools, +higher institutions of learning, buildings of the Royal Government or +other public buildings, especially military barracks. She must not visit +theaters, circuses, or exhibitions, or the concert gardens connected +with them, the Zoological Gardens, the Museums, the railway stations +(unless it be to purchase a ticket for railway passage), or, finally, +any places that may be named in later orders of the police authorities. + +8. In public meeting places she must not attract undue attention to +herself. + +9. She may not enter into any manner of relation with male or female +persons under 21 years of age, and, particularly, must not engage such +persons as servants. + +10. She must guard carefully against permitting the fact of her living +in a certain house from becoming the occasion of any offence or +disturbance, either in the house itself or in the immediate vicinity. +Failing to prevent such offence, and having once been warned without +effect, she must leave the house within the time indicated by the morals +police when issuing the order of removal to her. + +11. At any hour of the day or night, she must grant immediate admission +to the police officer who calls in order to inspect her dwelling, or +procure such admission for him, and give as much information as she may +possess concerning persons found in her rooms. + +12. If she is found in any resort known to the police as a place where +prostitutes congregate, and if complaints have been made concerning +irregularities at that place, she may be ordered by the morals police to +refrain from entering such place. + +13. She must not appear at the windows of her own dwelling, or of any +other dwelling, in any manner that may give offence. + +14. When asked, she must truthfully give the address of her home. She +must personally report every change of address, at the registry of the +morals police, not later than the next prescribed medical examination. +In written petitions to the morals police, her present address must +always be given in full. + +15. She must not have her abode in the vicinity of churches, schools, or +higher institutions of learning, buildings of the Royal Government, or +other public buildings, especially military barracks, nor must she have +her abode on the streets and squares to which access is denied her in +Paragraph 6 of these regulations. As soon as her occupation of such +dwelling as may be prohibited by this paragraph (15) is discovered, it +is her duty to give up such dwelling, on the order of the morals police, +within the period indicated by that authority. + +16. She is not permitted to grant a lodging to her pimp in her own +dwelling. + +17. She must keep her control-book, and the identification card issued +to her at dismissal, in intact condition, until they are handed over to +the proper person; she must not leave either the identification card or +the control-book in the keeping of other prostitutes or of any other +persons not having any right to receive such documents. + +18. When in the offices of the morals police, she must conduct herself +quietly and decently, and comply absolutely with the instructions of the +supervising staff and the physicians. + +19. In accordance with § 361 sec. 6 and § 362 of the Penal Code for the +German Empire, infractions of these rules are punished by imprisonment +for not more than 6 weeks; the sentence may also provide that the +condemned, after paying this penalty, is to be handed over to the State +Police Department (Landespolizeibehörde), which body will have the +discretion of committing the discharged prisoner to a workhouse, or a +protectory, or house of correction, or other asylum, or of assigning her +to labor of public utility, for a period not exceeding 2 years. + +When proof is furnished of an honorable moral deportment and of the +exercise of a respectable calling, as well as in cases of marriage, +surveillance by the morals police will be discontinued on application. + +All persons of female sex who are under the surveillance of the Berlin +Morals Police, are subject to the above regulations, even though they +may actually reside in one of the following districts: + +Treptow, Reinickendorf, Tegel, Weissensee, Pankow, Tempelhof, Britz, +Friedenau, Schmargendorf. + +Persons of female sex living in Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf, +Rixdorf, Lichtenberg, Friedrichsberg, Stralau, or Boxhagen-Rummelsburg, +but subject to the morals police, not of those localities, but of +Berlin, are likewise required to observe these regulations. They must +particularly report at the Berlin Morals Police Office, on the days and +at the hours set for them, until such time as they may be assigned to +surveillance by the morals police of their own community, and made +subject to medical examinations in such community. + +These regulations go into effect on February 1, 1912. + +(A printed circular as to the nature of various venereal diseases, and +the precautions to be observed, is also given to every inscribed woman.) + + + APPENDIX III + HAMBURG REGULATIONS. (_a_)[675] + + + I + PRECAUTIONS AGAINST INFECTION WITH VENEREAL DISEASE. + +(Directions to inscribed women; omitted here.) + + + II + INFORMATION AS TO THE MANNER OF FILING CERTAIN COMPLAINTS AND AS TO + HOUSES OF REFUGE. + +Should a keeper of furnished rooms attempt to prevent the departure of a +controlled girl, or retain possession of her effects, or make any claim +for payments of whatever nature (such as repayment of money advanced, or +for articles of clothing furnished by him), the girl, if not in a +position to file complaint at the office of the morals police, should, +on the occasion of her next medical examination, apply to the officers +of the morals police, so that an investigation may be made. + +The officers are also ready to give the girls information concerning +Houses of Refuge where they may obtain shelter pending their return to a +decent mode of life. + + + III + POLICE REGULATIONS FOR WOMEN UNDER STRINGENT SUPERVISION OF THE MORALS + POLICE. + +§ 1. After being assigned to stringent police supervision, women so +assigned will submit at once to examination by the head Police Physician +or his representative, and, thereafter, to regular examination, twice a +week, by the Medical Inspector appointed by the Police Department, at +the place ordered by the Police Department, and at the time set by the +Police Department. If, in the judgment of the Police Department, +additional examinations are also necessary, the women will submit to +them also, and will report promptly at the time and place indicated for +that purpose. + +§ 2. They must immediately report to the Police Department any symptoms +of disease which they may have observed on their persons. Such immediate +report may be omitted only when the regular examination of the medical +inspector is to take place later in the day on which the symptom has +been observed. + +§ 3. At all examinations they must present themselves in clean clothing +and in a condition of sobriety and bodily cleanliness. + +§ 4. They must unhesitatingly comply with the instructions of the +medical examiners. + +§ 5. If the physician orders hospital treatment, they are obliged to +submit to being transferred to such hospital as may be appointed by the +authorities. There they must remain until the physician orders their +discharge. During their detention at the hospital they must comply with +the instructions of the physicians and officers of the institution, as +well as the directions of the nursing staff, conduct themselves in an +orderly and modest manner and observe the rules of order. It is +forbidden to bring flowers, books, foodstuffs, beverages, or tobacco, to +the hospital, without the permission of the physician, or to receive or +utilize such articles at the hospital without such permission. It is +strictly forbidden to make use of any apparatus, instrument, bandage, +chemical, or medicament, on one’s own authority. Temporary absence from +the hospital is only permitted with the approval of medical and police +authority. + +§ 6. Within 24 hours they must personally report any engagement of, or +change of residence, at the office of the morals police (City Hall, 3d +Story, Room 129), between the hours of 9 A. M. and 2 P. M., in addition +to discharging any formalities as to reports of residence that may be +required of all the members of the population. When about to leave +Hamburg, permanently or temporarily, they must likewise personally +report their departure at the same office, before 11 A. M. Within 24 +hours after returning to Hamburg, they must personally report that fact +at the office of the morals police. + +§ 7. They must immediately grant admission to the police officer who +calls in order to inspect their dwellings. + +§ 8. They must comply at once and without fail with all instructions of +the police issued to them for the preservation of peace and order, as +well as for the administrative purposes of the morals police, without +thereby forfeiting their right to lodge a subsequent protest. + +§ 9. They must likewise comply with any commands or prohibitions of the +police, other than those enumerated in these regulations, but issued in +the interests of the administration of the morals police. + +§ 10. They are not permitted: + + 1. To live or spend the night in any houses other than those approved + of by the morals police for the use of such women, to consort + with men in other than the approved houses, or to wander about + homeless, as vagrants, + + 2. To have minors in their homes, take in other persons as boarders, + or keep female servants under 25 years of age, + + 3. To grant access to their dwellings, not to mention the granting of + sexual intercourse, to persons who are minors, + + 4. To appear visibly at the window or front door of the house they + live in or of any other house, or to attempt to attract men by + tapping, knocking, calling, or in any other manner, + + 5. To accost men in the street or in other places accessible to the + general public, to entice them, either by means of beckoning or + of other gestures, or to molest them in any manner, + + 6. To appear in public in any manner that may offend decency, or to + appear in striking apparel, + + 7. To spend the hours between 11 P. M. and 6 A. M. in any other place + than in their homes, + + 8. To frequent the following streets and places: Alter Jungfernstieg, + Neuer Jungfernstieg, Alsterdamm, Neuerwall, Alterwall, + Reesendamm, Rathausmarkt, Burstah, Adolphsplatz, Grosse, + Johannisstrasse, Mönckebergstrasse, Steindamm, Reeperbahn, + Spielbudenplatz, Dammthorstrasse, Harvestehuderweg, An der + schönen Aussicht, Schwanenwik, An der Alster, and the + Wallanlagen, + + 9. To visit the following institutions, theaters, and grounds, or + the parts thereof indicated: Stadttheater, Thaliatheater, + Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hansatheater, the box seats and + orchestra stalls of the Carl Schultze Theater and of the + Hamburger Operettentheater, seats on the first level of the + Neues Operettentheater, the Museums, the Zoological and + Botanical Gardens, the Velodrom, any seats or stands at the + Races except second balcony or standing room, boxes, balcony + and stalls at the circuses, functions under the auspices of + the Allgemeiner Alster Club, particularly regattas, public + music halls and public dance halls (except those at No. 25 + Neustädterstrasse and No. 10 Mohlenhofstrasse), + + 10. To enter any saloons, restaurants, cafés, concert halls and music + halls in the City of Hamburg or in the following suburbs, united + with the City by the Law of June 22, 1894: St. Pauli, + Eimsbüttel, Roterbaum, etc., + + 11. To ride in open carriages, + + 12. To make use of any apartments in the bath-houses of this city, + other than those reserved for the use of individual bathers, and + especially, to make use of the swimming-pools of such + establishments, + + 13. To employ, or permit others to practise for them, any device or + process calculated to deceive the medical inspectors, + + 14. To support a pimp or visit the dwellings of such, or to receive + pimps in their own homes. + +§ 11. Any woman under supervision, who offers reasonable assurance that +she has completely abandoned vice as a livelihood, and is engaged in the +pursuit of a legitimate calling, may be provisionally liberated, either +wholly or in part, from the necessity of observing the regulations of +the morals police, and, in case her conduct within a certain period, the +length of which is to be designated for each special case, offers no +reason to suppose that she will continue her practice of the vicious +trade, the surveillance to which she is subject will be finally +discontinued. + +§ 12. In accordance with § 361 sec. 6 and § 362 of the Penal Code, +infractions of these regulations are punished by imprisonment for not +more than 6 weeks and commission to the State Police Department +(Landespolizeibehörde), for detention in a workhouse for not more than 2 +years. + + + HAMBURG REGULATIONS. (_b_) + POLICE REGULATIONS FOR WOMEN UNDER LIMITED SUPERVISION OF THE MORALS + POLICE. + +§ 1. After being assigned to limited police supervision, women so +assigned will submit at once to examination by the head Police Physician +or his representative, and then to the regular medical examinations that +will be set by the Police Department. + +§ 2. They must immediately report to the Police Department any symptom +of disease which they may have observed on their persons. Such immediate +report may be omitted only when the regular examination by the medical +inspector is to take place later in the day on which the symptom has +been observed. + +§ 3. At all examinations they must present themselves in clean clothing +and in a condition of sobriety and bodily cleanliness. + +§ 4. They must unhesitatingly comply with the instructions of the +medical examiners. + +§ 5. If the physician orders hospital treatment, they are obliged to +submit to being transferred to such hospital as may be appointed by the +authorities. There they must remain until the physician orders their +discharge. During their detention at the hospital they must comply with +the instructions of the physicians and officers of the institution, as +well as with the directions of the nursing staff, conduct themselves in +an orderly and modest manner and observe the rules of order. It is +forbidden to bring flowers, books, foodstuffs, beverages, or tobacco, to +the hospital, without the permission of the physician, or to receive or +utilize such articles at the hospital, without such permission. It is +strictly forbidden to make use of any apparatus, instrument, bandage, +chemical, or medicament, on one’s own authority. Temporary absence from +the hospital is only permitted with the approval of medical and police +authority. + +§ 6. Within 24 hours they must personally report any engagement of or +change of residence at the office of the morals police (City Hall, 3d +Story, Room 128), between the hours of 9 A. M. and 8 P. M., in addition +to discharging any formalities as to reports of residence that may be +required of all the members of the population. When about to leave +Hamburg, permanently or temporarily, they must likewise personally +report their departure at the same office, before 11 A. M. Within 24 +hours after returning to Hamburg they must personally report that fact +at the office of the morals police. + +§ 7. They must immediately grant admission to the police officer who +calls in order to inspect their dwellings. + +§ 8. They must comply at once and without fail with all instructions of +the police issued to them for the preservation of peace and order, as +well as for the administrative purposes of the morals police, without +thereby forfeiting their right to lodge a subsequent protest. + +§ 9. They must likewise comply with any commands or prohibitions of the +police, other than those enumerated in these regulations, but issued in +the interests of the administration of the morals police. + +§ 10. They are not permitted: + + 1. To live in a house which the police authorities have declared to + be unsuitable for them, to spend the night with men or consort + with men in any other house than their own dwelling, or to + wander about homeless, as vagrants, + + 2. To take in another person as a boarder, to have any minor children + (their own or those of others) in their rooms, or to keep a + female servant who is under 25 years of age, + + 3. To grant access to their dwellings, not to mention the granting of + sexual intercourse, to persons who are minors, + + 4. To appear visibly at the window or front door of the house they + live in or of any other house, or to attempt to attract men by + tapping, knocking, calling, or in any other manner, + + 5. To accost men in the streets or in other places accessible to the + general public, to entice them, either by means of beckoning or + of other gestures, or to molest them in any manner, + + 6. To appear in public in any manner that may offend decency, or to + appear in striking apparel, + + 7. To spend the hours between 11 P. M. and 6 A. M. in any other place + than in their homes, + + 8. To frequent the following streets and places: Alter Jungfernstieg, + Neuer Jungfernstieg, Alsterdamm, etc., + + 9. To visit the following theaters, institutions, and grounds, or the + parts thereof indicated: Stadttheater, Thaliatheater, Deutsches + Schauspielhaus, Hansatheater, the box seats and orchestra stalls + of the Carl Schultze Theater, seats on the first level of the + Neues Operettentheater, the Museums, the Zoological and + Botanical Gardens, the Velodrom, any seats or stands at the + Races except second balcony and standing room, boxes, balcony + and stalls at the Circuses, functions under the auspices of the + Allgemeiner Alster Club, particularly regattas, public concert + halls and public dance halls (except the Elbhalle and those at + No. 25 Neustädterstrasse and No. 10 Mohlenhofstrasse), + + 10. To enter any saloons, restaurants, cafés, concert halls, and music + halls in the City of Hamburg or in the following suburbs, united + with the City by the Law of June 22, 1894: St. Pauli, + Eimsbüttel, etc., + + 11. To ride in open carriages, + + 12. To make use of any apartments in the bath-houses of this city, + other than those reserved for the use of individual bathers, and + especially, to make use of the swimming-pools of such + establishments, + + 13. To employ, or permit others to practise for them, any device or + process calculated to deceive the medical inspectors, + + 14. To support a pimp or visit the dwellings of such, or to receive + pimps in their own homes. + +§ 11. Any woman under limited supervision, who offers reasonable +assurance that she has completely abandoned vice as a livelihood, and is +engaged in the pursuit of a legitimate calling, may be released from the +supervision to which she is subjected. + +§ 12. In accordance with § 361 sec. 6 and § 362 of the Penal Code, +infractions of these regulations are punished by imprisonment for not +more than 6 weeks and commission to the State Police Department +(Landespolizeibehörde), for detention in a workhouse for not more than 2 +years. + + + APPENDIX IV + VIENNA REGULATIONS.[676] + +The following police regulations for the supervision of prostitution are +issued in accordance with § 22 of the Ordinance of the Imperial +Government of Lower Austria, dated February 9, 1851, L. G. u. Reg. Bl. +No. 39,[677] on the Jurisdiction of Police Departments; and with +reference to § 5 of the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89.[678] + + + I. THE SUPERVISING AUTHORITY. + +§ 1. The supervision of female persons who make a business of selling +their bodies for vicious purposes, is incumbent on the District Police +Commissariats[679] and on the Division for Morals Police Affairs of the +Department of Police. + + + II. ASSIGNMENT TO SUPERVISION. + +§ 2. In accordance with the provisions of this edict, assignments to +supervision may be made either by the Department of Police or by the +Police Commissariats. But no such assignments may be made without the +previous declaration, on the part of the prostitutes, that they wish to +be put under supervision. + +§ 3. Women must not be assigned to supervision if they are: + + (a) girls under 18 years of age, + (b) virgins, + (c) pregnant, + (d) married and not legally divorced, + (e) afflicted with contagious diseases. + +Prostitutes with venereal diseases must be committed to hospital +treatment before their assignment to supervision. + +§ 4. Women about to be assigned to supervision must prove their +identity, and, particularly, their legal domicile, by presenting the +proper documents. If necessary, a delay may be granted within which such +papers are to be procured. This delay does not postpone the assignment +to supervision. + +They must be thoroughly interrogated on their circumstances and on the +reasons which have caused them to enter prostitution. In this +interrogation, which is to be conducted with due consideration for the +peculiarities of each case, particular effort must be made to determine +whether the women are aware of the significance of their step. + +Finally, they are to be subjected to an official medical examination. + +§ 5. Minors may be assigned to supervision only by the Department of +Police, and by that Department only when complete moral indifference, +without any hope of betterment, has been unmistakably ascertained. + +In all cases in which there is even the remotest possibility of +improvement, the assignment to supervision is to be postponed until such +time when the attempts at reform may be regarded as finally ineffective. +But every opportunity must always be offered to the legally constituted +guardians of minors, to use the influence for good imposed on them by +their position as guardians. With this object in view, such legal +guardians are to be invited to the office, but every precaution must be +taken to guard their reputations. If they reside outside of Vienna, the +necessary negotiations should, under ordinary circumstances, be carried +on directly with them, and not through the intermediation of the police +authorities of their homes. + +In order that the minor may be enabled, if possible, to return to a +decent mode of life, constant communication must be maintained, in every +case, with the Surrogate’s Office, and, wherever it is feasible, with +the charitable organizations active at the time. + +§ 6. No kind of certification of assignment to supervision is to be +given to the prostitute; yet, she is to be subjected to verbal +instruction on the essential contents of the police regulations. + +§ 7. In the case of every prostitute, her possible previous sentences +and venereal diseases are to be ascertained, either from the records of +the Vienna offices, or through correspondence with the authorities in +such localities as may previously have assigned her to supervision. + +§ 8. Prostitutes of foreign domicile whose coming to Vienna was merely +for the purpose of being assigned to supervision here, are to be +deported from the city, in application of the Law of July 27, 1871, R. +G. Bl. No. 88. + + + III. DWELLINGS OF PROSTITUTES. + +(a) _Prostitutes who practise prostitution in their own homes._ + +§ 9. Such prostitutes as practise prostitution as a trade in their own +homes are obliged, in their choice of abode, to obtain the approval of +the proper Police Commissariat. In granting this approval it must be +borne in mind that such dwellings must be as distant as possible from +the main lines of traffic, and not in the vicinity of schools, churches, +or other public buildings, and not in any other places where their +presence might give offence. + +§ 10. Such prostitutes are not permitted to live with persons in whose +households there are minors under the age of 18. + +§ 11. Not more than three prostitutes who are under supervision may live +with the same mistress of furnished rooms. + +Such lodgings as may exist when this edict goes into effect, which do +not fulfill the above requirements, are either to be gradually ordered +vacated by prostitutes, at such opportunities as may offer, or the +number of prostitutes is to be reduced to the prescribed limit. + +§ 12. In the choice of their dwellings, as much liberty as is feasible +is to be allowed such prostitutes as have homes of their own which they +do not share with other prostitutes. + +§ 13. There is to be no relation between the prostitutes and the +mistress of their rooms other than that of tenant and landlady. No other +influence must be exerted by the landlady over the prostitutes; +particularly, the landlady must have no share or percentage in the +proceeds of the vicious trade, nor must she hinder the prostitutes from +moving out of the house, nor must she serve alcoholic beverages to the +prostitutes or their customers. + +Prostitutes are not permitted to live with landladies who violate the +above regulation, provided that the nature of the offence has been +explained to the offender, without effect. + +§ 14. The Police Department is furthermore privileged at any time to +forbid a prostitute to live in a certain house, or with a certain +landlady, without assigning a reason for such prohibition. + +§ 15. Dwellings of prostitutes must be kept under constant thorough +surveillance. Admission to such dwellings must be granted at any time to +the officials sent for the purpose of inspection of the dwellings. + + +(b) _Prostitutes living in brothels._ + +§ 16. The establishment of brothels, that is, of lodgings in which +prostitution is practised as a business, and in which the mistress of +the house figures as the entrepreneur or manager of the business, is to +be prohibited. + +Brothels already in existence are to be inspected regularly, without the +previous knowledge of the inmates, both by the Commissariats and by the +Police Department, by the former at least once every three months, and +by the latter at least once every half-year. The inspections will be +conducted by an officer of the reporting staff and an official +physician. + +The inspection is to include a scrutiny of all the rooms, an examination +of the list which the mistress is required to keep (giving the name, +personal data, day of admission, and day of departure, of each +prostitute), a medical examination of the prostitutes to determine the +existence of any physical abuses or maltreatments, and an inquiry into +the manner in which all the remaining orders issued for the management +of the brothel have been complied with. + +At these inspections, furthermore, prostitutes must have an opportunity +to make any complaints of whatsoever nature, without pressure from +anyone, and it must be determined whether any difficulties are being put +in the way of their leaving the house. + +§ 17. The Commission of the Police Department may, as a result of the +inspection, adopt such measures as appear to it to be for the best +interests of the public, from the standpoint of hygiene or from that of +the Morals Police Service. + +Should the Commissariat consider such measures desirable, it must apply +for the approval of the Police Department, simultaneously submitting the +record of the inspection to the Department. + +§ 18. The employment in brothels of servants who are minors is not to be +permitted. + +§ 19. The Police Department may at any time order the closing of a +brothel; particularly, when there have been infractions of the +provisions of §§ 17 and 18, or even of § 13, the provisions of which are +intended to be applied to brothels also. + + +(c) _Prostitutes who practise prostitution outside of their homes._ + +§ 20. Prostitutes who practise prostitution outside of their homes are +not as a rule limited to any locality in the choice of their dwellings. +But even they may be forbidden to live in a certain house, when definite +acts of theirs have been the occasion of complaints that have been shown +to be well-founded. + + + IV. NATURE OF THE SUPERVISION. + +§ 21. A prostitute subject to supervision is required to report twice a +week, at times set for her, for official medical examination. + +§ 22. A prostitute found, when being officially examined, to be +afflicted with a venereal disease, is required to report for treatment +not later than 6 P. M. on the same day, at the hospital to which she is +referred by the Commissariat of the district in which she lives, under +pain of compulsory transfer, should she neglect so to report. For this +purpose, she must apply to the Commissariat of her district, for a +certificate of commitment. + +§ 23. A prostitute received at the hospital must remain there until her +discharge is ordered by the physician treating her, and while there, +must comply with all instructions. + +§ 24. A prostitute discharged from the hospital must comply with the +requirements of any additional outside treatment or observation of her +condition, by presenting herself for examination at such intervals as +may be set by the Sick Division. + +In order that diagnosis, hospital treatment, and instructions for +supplementary outside treatment may be entered on the sick card, the +latter should be enclosed with the certificate of commitment that is +sent to the office of the hospital when a prostitute is committed to +such hospital. This card remains at the hospital until the prostitute is +discharged or until the conclusion of any supplementary outside +treatment or observation that may be ordered. The Police Department must +be reminded that the card is still at the hospital, by means of a note +to that effect, written on the sheet that carries the notification of +dismissal to the Police Department. + +Should the necessity of a new commitment of the prostitute to the +hospital arise between the time of discharge and the termination of the +outside treatment, effort should be made to have her committed to the +hospital that is still in possession of her sick card, or to induce the +former hospital to send the card to the hospital in which the prostitute +has been received. + +§ 25. A prostitute under supervision must give notice within 24 hours of +every change of address, to the Commissariat of her former district as +well as to that of her new district. + +The control-sheet is at once to be sent to the proper (new) Commissariat +through the Police Department. + +§ 26. For reasons connected with the administration of the morals +police, a prostitute under supervision is not permitted to stroll +through the streets in the company of other prostitutes or of pimps, or +to grant shelter to pimps in her home. + +In other respects the prostitute is, in principle, to be bound only to +comply with those general regulations for public morality and decency +that are applicable to all persons. + +§ 27. In the interests of public order and public decency, and on +application of the Police Commissariat, orders may be issued for the +purpose of abating a nuisance due to the behavior of prostitutes +inhabiting a certain house or street in large numbers. + +But the scope of these orders must not exceed what is absolutely +required by the actual local conditions. + + + V. OFFICIAL MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF PROSTITUTES. + +§ 28. The official medical examination must include all portions of the +body, and involve, if necessary, a use of all the scientific apparatus +which has been developed by the progress of medical knowledge, and which +is at the disposal of the official physician. The use of the metroscope +is particularly recommended. + +In addition to making the examination, the physician should also, in +each case, inform the women of its purpose, as well as of the nature of +the first indications of contagious diseases, and of the danger involved +in such diseases, and of the means of preventing infection by observing +the proper hygienic precautions. + +§ 29. If the official physician finds the prostitute to be infected with +a venereal disease, he must without delay send a medical certificate to +that effect to the Police Commissariat having jurisdiction in this case. +He must warn the prostitute as to the obligations imposed upon her by §§ +22 and 23, and order her to stop having sexual intercourse, +simultaneously calling her attention to § 5, item 3, of the Law of May +24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89. + +§ 30. The physician must enter the name of any prostitute whom he +commits to the hospital in the list of inspections which he is required +to keep. + +The final hospital diagnosis, which is transmitted to the Police +Commissariat after the dismissal of the prostitute from the hospital, +must be sent to the physician for entry on his inspection list. + +§ 31. Prostitutes who fail to appear for official medical examination, +even though such failure occur only once, must immediately be reported +to the Police Commissariat, which, unless adequate reasons for the +omission are advanced, will at once cause the arraignment of such +prostitutes. Such arraignment does not preclude the instituting of penal +proceedings against the prostitutes. + +Likewise, those prostitutes that do not appear at their official medical +examination at the time set, are to be reported to the Police +Commissariat in order that penal proceedings may be instituted. + + + VI. DEPARTURE FROM SUPERVISION. + +§ 32. A prostitute desiring to retire from supervision must make +personal declaration of such desire to the Commissariat and undergo an +official medical examination. If she is found, at this examination, to +be afflicted with a venereal disease, she is to be committed to a +hospital and her declaration of departure is not to be noted until she +has been dismissed from the hospital. + +§ 33. A prostitute under supervision who evades supervision without a +previous notification of her desire to be dropped from the list, is to +be prosecuted at once, unless she is in a position to show that she has +led a decent life since ceasing to comply with the supervision. + +§ 34. The Police Department must at once be notified of names dropped +from supervision; the women’s control-sheets must accompany such +notification. + +§ 35. Any further surveillance that may be necessary after dropping a +prostitute from the lists, must be conducted in accordance with the +principles governing the supervision of prostitutes not under control. + + + VII. SURVEILLANCE OF PROSTITUTES NOT UNDER SUPERVISION. + +§ 36. It is incumbent on the Police Commissariats, as well as directly +on the Office for Morals Police Affairs, to determine what persons are +carrying on prostitution in a commercial manner, without having declared +their entrance under supervision. + +§ 37. The Imperial Safety Guard, as well as such Imperial Police agents +as are not specifically entrusted with surveillance over prostitution, +may take steps against women practising prostitution, only when the +facts have been established beyond any possibility of doubt, or when +there are special reasons for interference, as, for example, § 516 of +the Penal Code, § 1 of the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89, or § +11 of the Imperial Ordinance of April 20, 1854, R. G. Bl. No. 96. + +§ 38. Only such police officers as are specifically entrusted with the +surveillance over prostitution may accost or detain persons merely on +suspicion of their practising immorality as a trade, and then only after +having repeatedly, in the course of observations held on a number of +different days, gathered material of a nature to justify such action. + +Other police officers, when merely suspecting the practice of commercial +prostitution, will limit themselves to a report of their observations. + +§ 39. Special attention is to be paid to the lower class of saloons. + +Every legal means must be used in prosecuting the owners of such places +as may arouse suspicion by the employment therein of female persons for +other tasks than those connected with the sale of liquor. In cases that +are clear, the Labor Department must be informed of the facts. Owners of +such places must be denied all concessions within the gift of the +police, such as the license to keep open after the regular closing hour, +or to provide musical entertainment. If they already hold such +concessions, the latter are to be canceled. + +§ 40. Persons practising prostitution commercially under the cloak of +some regular calling are to be kept under the necessary surveillance. + +§ 41. Investigation must be made of all complaints against persons +suspected of procuring, or of practising prostitution commercially, as +well as of all questionable advertisements in the daily press. + +§ 42. In each case the investigation must be made with due regard for +the reputation of the person suspected, and with a discretion that +should be all the greater when the foundation for a penal case is weak. + + + VIII. TREATMENT OF COMPLAINTS. + +§ 43. Complaints made as to any offensive conduct on the part of +prostitutes in the streets or in certain houses must be carefully +investigated, and measures must be taken for the abatement of such +nuisances. + + + IX. PENALTIES. + +(a) _For prostitutes under supervision._ + +§ 44. The punishment of prostitutes under supervision, for violations of +the Police Ordinances governing the surveillance over prostitution, is +imposed by the Police Commissariats in accordance with § 5, item 2, of +the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89, and with Ministerial +Ordinance of September 30, 1857, R. G. Bl. No. 198. + +The penalty is detention for a period of from 6 hours to 8 days, +depending on a very specific examination of the various circumstances +constituting the offence. + +§ 45. In the case of insignificant irregularities, particularly in the +case of a first offence, prosecution may be omitted after the prostitute +has been properly reprimanded. + +§ 46. Legal proceedings in accordance with § 5, item 2, of the Law of +May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89, must not be instituted except when the +offence provided for in that section is committed by a prostitute who +has been punished several times by the police for a similar offence, in +other words, when it is evident, both that the case is one of persistent +disregard of police regulations, and that the severity of the penalty +imposed by the police is not commensurate with the seriousness of the +case. Under these circumstances the imposing of detention for more than +eight days, or even commitment to a workhouse or house of correction, is +permissible. + +Whenever complaints are to be filed with the courts, the exact nature of +the offence must be stated, and reasons must be advanced for asking the +aid of the courts. + + +(b) _For prostitutes not under supervision._ + +§ 47. Cases against prostitutes not under supervision may be tried +either by the Police Commissariats or by the Police Department directly. + +In connection with every trial, a résumé of the decisions made in each +case must be drawn up. + +§ 48. No punishment should be imposed on women accused for the first +time of, or arrested for the first time for, commercial prostitution, +especially when they are still young, even though the facts be beyond +doubt, unless such punishment may be required, as a repressive measure, +by the manifest depravity of the case. + +In all cases in which it may seem not unreasonable to assume that the +woman accused has been led into prostitution by circumstances of a +temporary and accidental nature only, and that consequently her return +to a respectable mode of life might be rendered more difficult by the +stigma of a police penalty, no other action must be taken than the +applying of such of the charitable provisions of § 5, as are applicable +to the particular case. + +Such charitable provisions must also be carried out, in the case of a +prostitute not under supervision, when she is a minor, against whom a +penal action has been instituted. + +§ 49. No woman accused of the practice of commercial prostitution may be +subjected to the official medical examination until the offence is +finally proved. + +§ 50. A prostitute found to be afflicted with a venereal disease at the +official medical examination, must immediately be taken to the hospital. +As a preliminary she must be informed of the rules provided for +prostitutes under supervision, in §§ 23 and 24, which rules, under these +circumstances, are applicable also to prostitutes not under supervision. + +Punishments for infractions of these obligations are to be imposed in +accordance with § 5, item 2, of the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. +89, and in accordance with Ministerial Ordinance of September 30, 1857, +R. G. Bl. No. 198. + +§ 51. Penalties imposed by the police on persons convicted of the +practice of commercial prostitution, must conform to § 5, section 1, or, +in the case of persons previously punished for similar offences, to § 5, +item 1, of the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89, and to the +Ministerial Ordinance of September 30, 1857, R. G. Bl. No. 198. + +The provisions of § 46 or of § 44 determine whether proceedings are to +be instituted, in accordance with § 5, item 1, of the above law, and +also, what is to be the severity of the punishment; yet, in assigning a +penalty, the principle must be borne in mind that a prostitute not under +supervision is to be treated with greater severity than one who is under +supervision. + +§ 52. When the police impose a penalty on a prostitute not under +supervision, the facts of the case, and, particularly, the amenability +of the accused, must be so formulated as to leave no misunderstanding in +the mind of the latter, as to the offence imputed to her. + + + X. JURISDICTION. + +(a) _Jurisdiction of the Police Department._ + +§ 53. The following business is within the jurisdiction of the Office +for Morals Police Affairs: + +1. The functions conferred on this office in its capacity as +headquarters for the surveillance of the white slave traffic, in +accordance with the edict of the Department of Police, dated August 12, +1905. + +2. All records of general nature concerning prostitutes under +supervision, concerning the houses mentioned in §§ 9 and 16, and the +mistresses of such houses, concerning prostitutes not under supervision, +concerning pimps, and concerning procuring. + +3. The instituting of proceedings to determine whether minors, or +prostitutes who ply their trade outside of their homes, are to be placed +under supervision. + +4. Orders to evacuate streets or houses inhabited by prostitutes. + +5. Management of such prostitutes not under supervision as may be traced +by the officers assigned to the office. + +6. Complete control over such trials as may, by reason of their +importance, be assigned to the office by the President. + +7. Keeping on file the complaints lodged with the Police Department, as +well as with the Police Commissariats, as to the behavior of the +prostitutes. + +8. Supervision of the Commissariats with the object of maintaining a +uniform application of the prostitution regulations. + +9. Inspection of the punishment and fine books kept by the +Commissariats. + +10. Examination of the appeals made against the judgments of the +Commissariats. + +11. Consultations at regular intervals with the officials assigned to +report on prostitution. + +12. Collecting of material having reference to the regulation of +prostitution, and advancing of proposals thereon. + + +(b) _Jurisdiction of the Police Commissariats._ + +§ 54. The application of the prostitution regulations, in all matters in +which § 53 does not stipulate the exclusive jurisdiction of the Police +Department, is incumbent on the Police Commissariats. + +The Commissariats must keep records on the following matters: + +1. Prostitutes, in their district, under supervision. + +2. Dwellings of prostitutes under supervision, who practise prostitution +in such dwellings. + +3. Mistresses or keepers of such dwellings. + +Furthermore, the Police Commissariats must transmit the following +material to the Police Department: + +(a) Weekly reports of changes occurring in their own districts, in the +number of prostitutes, + +(b) Complaints as to the behavior of the prostitutes, + +(c) Accusations of procuring, + +(d) The documents provided for in § 47, + +(e) After disposing of the cases, the reports of failure to appear for +medical examination, + +(f) The punishment-books (every month), + +(g) The records taken in the inspections of brothels. + +Finally, the Commissariats must report any changes in the number of +houses mentioned in §§ 9 and 16, as well as in the mistresses of such +houses, and they must also report all cases of failure to assign a +prostitute to supervision in spite of the fact that the necessary +preliminary condition provided in § 2 has been realized. + + + APPENDIX V + DANISH LAW FOR RESISTING PUBLIC IMMORALITY AND VENEREAL INFECTION, + CONFIRMED BY HIS MAJESTY KING FREDERICK VIII ON MARCH 30, 1906. + +§ 1. Police supervision of commercial immorality is hereby abolished. +Police action against persons practising such trade is legitimate when +it accords with the conditions, and proceeds in the manner, provided in +the legislation on vagrancy (Lovgivningen om Løsgængeri). Yet, the order +mentioned in the Law of March 3, 1860, § 2, must not be given unless +warning has been previously issued. + +§ 2. Anyone who incites or entices to immorality, in such manner, or who +displays an immoral mode of life, to such a degree, as to offend the +sense of decency, or to become a public nuisance, or to disturb those +living in the vicinity, shall be punished by imprisonment, or, under +aggravating circumstances, or for a repetition of the offence, by +commitment to the penitentiary. If there are extenuating circumstances, +the punishment may be commuted to a fine. + +The same punishment is provided for any woman who practises immorality +as a trade, provided that a male person, or a minor over two years of +age, lives in the same dwelling with her, or that she receives visits +for immoral purposes from male persons under eighteen years of age. + +Any person not previously warned or punished for one of the above +offences, may, instead of being punished, be simply warned, by the +Police Department; but no warning may be issued if the accused demands +sentence by law. + +§ 3. The keeping of brothels is prohibited. Anyone violating this +prohibition is punished by imprisonment in a house of correction or at +hard labor, or by imprisonment on common prison diet. The same +punishment is imposed on anyone guilty of procuring. Such persons as +may, with the object of pecuniary profit, grant admission to their +dwellings, to persons of different sex, in order that vicious practices +may there take place, or such as let rooms, not for the purpose of +prolonged habitation, but in order to provide an opportunity for immoral +practices, or such as admit to their houses female persons under the age +of eighteen, who are seeking gain by immoral practices, shall be +punished by detention in prison or at hard labor. In the case of a +repeated offence, the punishment may be increased to commission to a +penitentiary for a period not exceeding two years. + +It is forbidden to offer for sale, or to send out circulars concerning, +or to exhibit a signboard concerning, any device calculated to prevent +the consequences of cohabitation, to the general public, or to +individuals not personally known to the seller, or to persons not +distinctly specified. Violation of this prohibition is treated and +punished in accordance with the rules governing violations of police +regulations. + +§ 4. The same punishment as that provided in § 181 of the General Civil +Penal Code, shall be imposed on any person who, under the circumstances +described in the paragraph cited, has carnal intercourse with the person +to whom he or she is married, provided, that the latter has thereby +contracted an infection, and makes a charge to that effect within one +year after acquiring knowledge as to the contraction of the disease. + +Anyone guilty of the offence described in § 181 of the General Civil +Penal Code, or of the offence described above, must, when the other +person, without having previously been informed of the danger of +infection, becomes infected, not only indemnify the infected person for +the expenses involved in the curative treatment, but must also pay +damages to cover the sufferings and losses due to the disease. + +§ 5. Persons afflicted with venereal diseases have the right, regardless +of whether they are able or not able to defray the expenses of their +cure, to demand treatment of such diseases at the public expense. +Likewise, such persons are obliged to submit to such public treatment +unless they can show that they have already engaged proper medical +attention. If such persons are not situated in surroundings of a nature +to furnish reasonable assurance that the disease will not be transmitted +to other persons, unless such patients are removed, or, if the patients +do not comply with orders given to prevent the infection of others, they +may be committed to a hospital for treatment. When such steps become +necessary, the district judges (in Copenhagen, the Director of Police) +shall, with the approval of the Minister of Justices, issue the +appropriate orders, and compliance with the obligation thus imposed may +be forced by fines, imposed by the authorities cited, and, when such +fines are of no avail, by arraignment by the police. + +Those permanently in receipt of poor relief, who are found to be +afflicted with venereal diseases, are to be committed to a hospital for +treatment. + +§ 6. Whenever, in the course of the treatment of a disease, or at the +termination of such treatment, it is considered necessary, in view of +the danger of infection, to keep the patient under constant supervision, +he must be ordered by the physician, to present himself to the latter at +certain fixed times, or, in lieu of such action, to furnish documentary +evidence that another authorized physician has undertaken to treat him. +Blanks to be used in issuing such orders may be obtained from the proper +City or District Physician. + +If the patient violates this order, or if the physician does not desire +to treat him any longer, and if, on request to furnish evidence that his +treatment has been undertaken by another physician, he neglects to do +so, notification of this fact must be sent to the proper Public or +Examining Physician, who will then order such patient to report at the +Consultation Office, in accordance with the provisions of § 13 below. + +§ 7. It is incumbent on every physician who examines or treats a patient +for a venereal disease, to call the attention of the latter to the +contagious character of the disease, and to the legal consequences of +infecting other persons, or exposing them to infection, with the +disease, and, particularly, to warn the patient against contracting +marriage, while the danger of infection is still present. Blanks for +issuing these admonitions may be obtained from the proper City or +District Physician. + +§ 8. In his weekly reports to the proper City or District Physician, +every physician must distinctly state that he has carried out the +provisions of the above paragraph, as well as indicate the number of +persons to whom he has issued the orders described in § 6. + +Violation of the provisions of §§ 6 and 7, and of the first section of +this paragraph, shall be punished by fines not exceeding 200 kroner. Any +one in these circumstances, who gives a wrong name, business, or +address, to the physician treating him, shall be punished in accordance +with § 155 of the Penal Code. + +§ 9. An infant afflicted with syphilis may not be given to be nursed, to +any woman except the mother of the child. Nor may any nurse who knows or +thinks she is infected with this disease, accept the child of any other +woman to nurse. Violations of these prohibitions shall be punished by +imposing the penalty provided in § 181 of the General Civil Penal Code, +which also provides that any one convicted of such offence, shall, if +the disease be transmitted, not only be obliged to indemnify the person +so infected, for the costs of treatment, but shall also have to pay +damages for sufferings and losses due to the disease. The same liability +for damages shall be incumbent on such person as hands over a child whom +he knows or has reason to know to be infected with a venereal disease, +to the care of other persons, or who puts out such child to nurse, +without having previously informed the foster-parents, or the nurse, of +the fact that the child is afflicted, or suspected of being afflicted, +with syphilis, and of the danger of infection involved in relations of +this nature with such child. To put out such child to nurse is forbidden +under any circumstances that would expose other children to infection; +violation of this prohibition is punished by applying the provisions of +item 2 of the first section of this paragraph. + +These provisions are applicable also to such public authorities as put +out children to nurse, or assign them to the care of foster-parents. + +A child is considered to be suspicious, from the standpoint of syphilis, +even though no indications of the disease have put in their appearance, +in case either of the parents has contracted syphilis within the past +seven years, and three months have not yet elapsed since the birth of +the child. + +§ 10. Any one accused of one of the offences provided for in § 1, § 2, § +4, or § 9, item 2, or in § 181 of the General Civil Penal Code, may, by +his express consent, be subjected, under the auspices of the police, to +a medical examination. In case of a refusal to be examined, the court +may deliver a verdict, provided the accusation be considered +well-founded, ordering the examination to be made without the consent of +the accused. + +§ 11. The medical examinations provided in § 10 will be held at the +place indicated by the police, by the proper City or District Physician, +or by a special Examining Physician appointed for the purpose. +Compulsory examinations must be conducted, unless this right is +expressly waived by the person to be examined, by a physician of the +same sex as the latter, provided such can be found in the town itself or +within such distance from it as to cause no considerable delay, and +provided such physician is willing to conduct examinations of this +nature.—Physicians discharging such duties shall either receive an +annual salary, to be fixed by the local administration and approved by +the Minister of Justice, or, if no such salary shall have been so fixed +and approved, they shall be paid for each examination, as follows: For +examinations of individuals to be conducted at the same place and time, +4 kroner for the examination of the first such individual, and 1 krone +for each individual examined immediately thereafter; in addition they +may be reimbursed for any outlay made for their transportation. In +towns, such payments are to be made from the town treasury; in the +country, from the provincial appropriations fund; and on the Island of +Bornholm, from the provincial fund available for both town and country. +For drawing up a certificate to indicate whether or not the person +examined has been found to be afflicted with a venereal disease, no +special payment shall be made to the physician. + +§ 12. Likewise, but at times other than those set for the above +examinations, Public or Examining Physicians shall examine, and, if it +be necessary and feasible, without commitment to a hospital, shall treat +any person who applies to them or is referred to them because of +venereal infection. No payment may be required or accepted from the +patient for such services. Payment shall be made out of the public funds +in accordance with the rules followed heretofore. + +In Copenhagen there must always be on hand a sufficient number of +examining physicians, who are assigned to a daily schedule of attendance +at offices in various parts of the city, at times set by the Health +Board. + +§ 13. Whenever the Public or Examining Physician considers it necessary, +in view of the danger of contagion, to order patients to report to him +at times to be definitely set by the physician, the latter shall so +order, making use of the blanks officially provided for the purpose. + +Compliance with this order may be forced by the imposing of fines, by +the District Judge (in Copenhagen, by the Director of Police), with the +approval of the Minister of Justice, and, should this fail to produce +the desired effect, by arraignment by the police. + +§ 14. Those committed to a hospital for treatment of venereal diseases +at the public expense, shall not leave the hospital until they are +discharged by the hospital physician. Violation of this provision is +punished by imprisonment on common prison diet for not more than twenty +days, or by ordinary imprisonment for not more than one month. + +§ 15. The police may prohibit hotel-keepers, inn-keepers, and +saloon-keepers from granting shelter, in their establishments, to female +persons who have been sentenced for violating § 2 of this law, or from +employing such female persons to entertain or serve the guests in such +establishments. + +Violations of this prohibition shall be punished by fines not exceeding +100 kroner, imprisonment on common prison diet for not more than two +months, or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than three months. If +the offender has not been previously sentenced or warned for the same +offence, a warning by the Police Department may take the place of a +sentence. But no warning shall be issued if the accused demands sentence +by law. + +§ 16. In administering the provisions of this law for imprisonment or +penitentiary commitment, the rules set by Chapter II of the General +Civil Penal Code, as well as by the Provisional Law of April 1, 1905, +shall be followed. Trials for violations treated in § 2, § 6, section 2, +§ 7, § 8, section 1, § 9, § 14, and § 15, shall be conducted as regular +public police trials, but behind closed doors. Fines imposed as a result +of these public trials, are added to the police fund; in Copenhagen, to +the city treasury. + +§ 17. By the term “venereal diseases,” as used in this law, are meant +the diseases known to medical science as _syphilis_, _gonorrhœa_, and +_ulcus venereum_. + +§ 18. This law goes into effect six months after it has been printed in +the Law Journal; but the enrolment of immoral women, which has been +carried on heretofore in accordance with the Law of April 10, 1874, +shall cease at once. Simultaneously §§ 180 and 182 of the Penal Code, +and the Law of April 10, 1874, on Measures to Resist the Spread of +Venereal Infection, the Law of March 1, 1895, on Changes and Additions +in the above Law, the Law of April 11, 1901, on Additions to the two +preceding laws, and the Laws of February 11, 1863, § 8, final item, and +of February 4, 1874, § 2, section c, together with all rules, +regulations, and orders based thereon, are hereby abolished, as such +rules, regulations, and orders can no longer be enforced on the basis of +the laws in operation before the going into effect of the Law of April +10, 1874. + + + + + INDEX + + + Abolition defined, 286–287. + + Amsterdam, 297, 339. + + Animierkneipe, 10, 30, 46, 94. + + Armies, venereal disease in, 370–379, 393, 394. + + Arrests, 161–163, 278–281, 334. + + Augagneur V., 361, 379. + + + Barmaids, 88. + + Baumgarten, A., 65, 78, 140, 154, 170, 185. + + Berlin, regulation in, 123–129; + street conditions in, 157–158; + sanitary control in, 206–209, 214–215; + compared with Paris and London, 309; + regulations, text of, 415–419. + + Birmingham, 316–317. + + Blaschko, A., 42, 43, 74, 115, 143, 217, 221, 239, 282, 366, 393. + + Bloch, I., 4, 5, 49, 120, 179, 205. + + Booth, Mrs. B., 83, 88. + + Booth, C., 17, 18, 85. + + Bordells, definition, 166; + prevalence of, 166–167; + number and size, 172–174; + decay of, 180, 182; + effect on street conditions, 192–196; + effect on other forms of vice, 196–198; + in relation to disease, 256–261; + suppression of, in abolition towns, 323–324. + + Bremen, regulation in, 129–136; + bordells in, 169. + + Brothels, 292–295. + + Brussels, sanitary control in, 227. + + Budapest, regulation in, 131–136; + street conditions in, 157–158; + bordells in, 187; + rendezvous houses in, 200. + + + Christiania, 324, 328, 329, 331, 379–381, 386–388. + + Continence among males, 41–43; + wholesomeness of, 50–51. + + Coote, W. A., 304, 314. + + Copenhagen, 324, 328, 339, 379–388. + + + Danish law, 296, 346–347; + text in full, 445–452. + + Degeneracy and prostitution, 67–70. + + Denmark, venereal disease in: see Copenhagen. + + Denunciation, 353–358. + + Dispensary system, 360–361. + + Disappearances, 154–155, 234–235, 249–250. + + Dresden, regulation in, 133–136. + + Dufour, P., 143. + + Dutch Law, 296. + + + Economic pressure, 83–87. + + Edinburgh, 318. + + Employment agencies, 94–95. + + England, venereal disease in, 363–365; 371–377. + + Engel-Reimers, J., 247. + + + Fiaux, L., 23, 25, 35, 77, 111, 139, 143, 144, 155, 181, 186, 190. + + Finger, E., 42, 78, 154, 246. + + Fosdick, R. B., 269. + + + Geneva, sanitary control in, 227. + + German Empire, venereal disease in, 378–379. + + Glasgow, 320–321. + + Gonorrhœa, 224, 231–233, 244–245, 250–252. + + + The Hague, 328, 332. + + Hamburg, regulation in, 133–136; + bordells in, 168; + sanitary control in, 215, 228; + text of regulations, 420–428. + + Henry, Sir E., 313–314. + + Hirschfeld, M., 46. + + Hoff, E. M., 330, 353, 382, 389. + + Homosexuality, 31–32. + + Hospital treatment, 236–238. + + + Illegitimacy, 81. + + Immorality distinguished from prostitution, 16–19. + + Italy, abolition legislation in, 349–353. + + + Johannson, J. E., 20, 37, 51, 202, 219, 235, 236, 279, 332. + + + Kneeland, G. J., 231. + + Krefting, R., 386, 388. + + + Lépine, Louis, 24, 138–139, 140, 155, 170, 190, 278. + + Liquor and prostitution, 45, 98–99. + + Liverpool, 315–319. + + London, laws, 292, etc.; + street and brothel conditions, 302–308; + compared with continental cities, 309; + police conditions in, 312–314. + + Lyons, 158. + + + Maison de passe, 196. + + Manchester, 158, 317, 318. + + McNeil, A., 231. + + Melville, C. H., 364, 373, 375, 377, 379. + + Minors, 77–79, 152–154, 241–243. + + Moll, A., 12, 50, 82, 192. + + Morals police, 147, 270–273, 281–282, 341–342. + + Munich, regulation in, 130, 132; + street conditions in, 158–159. + + + Neisser, A., 241, 246. + + Notification of disease, 362–363. + + Norway, venereal disease in: see Christiania. + + Norwegian law, 295, 343–345. + + + Parent-Duchatelet, A.-J.-B., 10, 21, 22, 70, 73. + + Paris, regulation in, 130–136; + street conditions in, 157–158; + bordells in, 170, 190; + sanitary control in, 211, 226; + Hospital St. Lazare, 213; + medical examination, 216–218; + compared with London, 309; + text of regulations, 405, 414. + + Pimps, 32–33, 95–97, 336. + + Pinkus, F., 81, 83, 230, 234, 238, 244, 251, 257. + + Police, 397, 399. + + Prostitutes, mortality of, 21–24; + number of, 24–28; + number of inscribed, 40–46; + supply of, 63–88. + + Prostitution, cost of, 34–38; + complexity of, 39–41, 105–106; + definition of, 9–15; + fluctuations in, 19–21; + forms of, 28–31; + involves two parties, 39, 107–109; + legal attitude towards, 106, 111–117, 136–142, 288–292; + medieval, 5, 6; + modern, 6–8. + + Prussia, venereal disease in, 368–371, 377–379. + + + Rescue work, 100. + + Regulation, defined, 121–122; + decay of, 266–267. + + Regulation in various cities: see under names of cities. + + Rendezvous houses, 96–98, 200–202. + + Riehl process, 90, 185. + + Rome, sanitary control in, 227. + + Rotterdam, 328, 333. + + + Santoliquido, R., 352. + + Scheven, K., 168, 173, 266. + + Schjerning, O. v., 379. + + Schmölder, R., 116, 138, 235. + + Schneider, C. K., 22, 186. + + Schreiber, Adele, 18, 63, 77, 80, 170, 177. + + Seduction, 80. + + Segregation, 175–179. + + Servants and prostitution, 76–77. + + Sex education, 52–58. + + Souteneur, see Pimp. + + Stockholm, regulation in, 134. + + Stuttgart, regulation in, 130–136; + street conditions in, 58–59. + + Supply, sources of, 61–65. + + Sweden, venereal disease in, 369. + + Syphilis, 223, 250; + amount discovered, 228–230; + length of treatment, 238. + + + Venereal disease statistics, 366. + (For various countries, see under countries, cities, armies.) + + Vienna, regulation in, 132–136; + street conditions in, 157–158; + bordells in, 171, 188–189; + text of regulations, 429–444. + + Vigilance societies, 91. + + + Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 365. + + White, D., 364. + + White Slave traffic, 92–94; + dependent on bordells, 182–185. + + Wolzendorff, K., 142. + + + Zurich, 324, 333; + venereal disease in, 389–391. + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + The following cities were visited: London, Liverpool, Birmingham, + Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Lyons, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, + Hamburg, Dresden, Frankfort-on-Main, Cologne, Hamm, Stuttgart, Munich, + The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Christiania, + Geneva, Zurich, Vienna, Budapest. + +Footnote 2: + + This has been conclusively established by the researches of Dr. Iwan + Bloch in his great work “_Die Prostitution_,” (Berlin, 1912), one + volume of which has already appeared. Dr. Bloch has courteously placed + the proof sheets of the second volume at my disposal. + +Footnote 3: + + The evidence and authorities are exhaustively given by Bloch, _loc. + cit._, Vol. I, pp. 685, etc. Constantinople became Islamic in 1453. + +Footnote 4: + + It looks like a contradiction in terms to speak of known clandestine + prostitution. Current usage on the Continent construes “professional + prostitute” to mean a woman who has been registered by the police; any + prostitute who is not registered is therefore called clandestine. Many + of these so-called clandestines are just as notorious as the + registered professionals. The clandestine class therefore nowadays + contains known, but unregistered women, as well as unknown or not + reliably known prostitutes. It is this last named contingent that was + insignificant in medieval, and has become so numerous in modern towns. + +Footnote 5: + + The Animierkneipe is a low grade drinking-resort in which the barmaid + drinks with her customer, often in a screened nook or corner, if he + can be induced to occupy one. + +Footnote 6: + + Müller: _Zur Kenntnis der Prostitution in Zürich_. (Zurich, 1911), pp. + 11 and 44. Abundant additional illustrations will appear in subsequent + chapters, e. g. Chap. III, V, VII, etc. + +Footnote 7: + + A.-J.-B. Parent-Duchatelet: _De la Prostitution dans la Ville de + Paris_. (2 volumes, Paris, 1857) Vol. I, p. 25. + +Footnote 8: + + Adrien Mithouard in _Rapports au nom de la 2^e Commission sur la + Prostitution_, etc. (Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1904) p. 110. A. + Moll: _Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften_ (Leipzig, 1912) p. 354, + describes the same type as known in Germany: “To clandestine + prostitution are to be reckoned also girls and women of better + families who sell themselves in the salons of the pander.” So also S. + Leonhard: “Girls and women who live in comparative luxury, who have a + calling and a good social position are often prostitutes.” _Die + Prostitution_ (Munich, 1912) p. 23; also p. 20. + +Footnote 9: + + Particularly Chapter VII. It is obvious that there is wide room for + error in tracing the source of an infection, but allowance may be made + for this without affecting the argument here made. + +Footnote 10: + + H. Loeb: _Statistiches über Geschlechtskrankheiten in Mannheim. + Zeitschrift für Bekämpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten_ (Leipzig). Band + II, pp. 93 etc. Loeb admits a few persons whom my definition would + exclude,—viz., mistresses, etc., who ought to be excluded so long as + they are attached to one individual. This valuable publication will be + referred to henceforth as _Zeitschrift_. + +Footnote 11: + + Lion & Loeb, _Zeitschrift_ VII, p. 295. + +Footnote 12: + + F. Bloch: _Die nicht-gewerbsmässige Prostitution_. _Zeitschrift_, Band + X, p. 70. Bloch’s patients come from all social classes. In + _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 314 etc., Oppenheim and Neugebauer deal with + the infection of laborers alone. + +Footnote 13: + + Georges Hébart: _Où se prennent les malades vénériennes?_ Thèse de + Paris, 1906, pp. 31–34. + +Footnote 14: + + _Zeitschrift_, V., p. 286. + +Footnote 15: + + See, for example, Müller, _loc. cit_., pp. 11–13. + +Footnote 16: + + Paul Kampffmeyer: _Die Prostitution als soziale Klassenerscheinung_. + (Berlin, 1905) p. 26. + +Footnote 17: + + Charles Booth: _Life and Labor in London_ (final volume, London, 1903) + p. 41. + +Footnote 18: + + Ibid. p. 42. + +Footnote 19: + + _Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich_—quoted by J. Marcuse: + _Die Beschränkung der Geburtenzahl_ (Munich, 1913) p. 22. + +Footnote 20: + + Adele Schreiber: _Mutterschaft_ (Munich, 1912) p. 260. + +Footnote 21: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 44. + +Footnote 22: + + James Devon: _The Criminal and the Community_ (London and New York, + 1912) p. 158. + +Footnote 23: + + Moll: _loc. cit._, p. 371. Also: Kampffmeyer: _loc. cit._, p. 20. + +Footnote 24: + + Wohlrabe: _Schäden und Gefahren der sexuellen Unsittlichkeit_ + (Leipzig, 1908) pp. 8–10. Fuller accounts have been published by + Wittenberg and Hückstädt: _Die geschlechtlich-sittlichen Verhältnisse + der evangelischen Landbewohner im Deutschen Reich_ (Leipzig, 1895). + These authors are all clergymen and may take too unfavorable a view. + +Footnote 25: + + _Zeitschrift_, Vol. XI, p. 410. An opinion differing somewhat from + that in the text is held by J. Kyrle, _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 352. + +Footnote 26: + + This will appear clearly in the statistics given in Chap. V. + +Footnote 27: + + _I Reglementeringsfragen_ (Upsala, 1911) p. 63. + +Footnote 28: + + _Ibid._, p. 49. Carefully compiled tables covering the years, 1870– + 1904, are given in Prof. Johansson’s report prepared for the Swedish + Commission appointed to study the regulation of prostitution. This + report is published in four volumes in the Swedish language + (Stockholm, 1910). I shall refer to it as Report Swedish Commission. + Prof. Johansson’s researches are contained in Vol. III. For the tables + here referred to, see pp. 19–20. In 1900–4, 31.7% of the registered + prostitutes were dropped from the police rolls and of these 73.4% + engaged in some decent occupation. As this volume goes to press, a new + book by Prof. Johansson appears: _Reglementeringen I Stockholm_ + (Stockholm, 1913). Table 6, p. 62, shows that of all women enrolled + between 1859 and 1884, 36.6% left the life (sent home, obtained decent + employment, married, etc.). If this is so often the case with the + lowest type, whose emergence has been made difficult, it must be far + oftener true of the clandestine not branded by the law. “Everything + points to the likelihood that, if in their prostitution period they + have succeeded in escaping enrolment, their return to a normal mode of + life is much facilitated.” _Ibid._, p. 43. + +Footnote 29: + + _Loc. cit._, Vol. I, p. 584. + +Footnote 30: + + Parent-Duchatelet reports (_loc. cit._, p. 582) two contrary opinions + as current in his day: Some physicians hold that the prostitute has a + constitution of iron (“santé de fer”), others that she dies before + thirty. Neither view is sound. Parent-Duchatelet himself is able to + trace the subsequent career of 1,680 women out of 5,081 who were + stricken from the Paris list during a period of 10 years. They + returned to various occupations; probably many of those whom he could + not follow up did likewise (_Ibid._, pp. 584–5). + +Footnote 31: + + Quoted by C. K. Schneider: _Die Prostituierte und die Gesellschaft_ + (Leipzig, 1908) p. 187. + +Footnote 32: + + _Loc. cit._, Vol I, p. 95. + +Footnote 33: + + _Rapports_, _Conseil municipal_, _loc. cit._, p. 31. + +Footnote 34: + + _Report_, _Swedish Commission_, Vol III, pp. 105–6. + +Footnote 35: + + J. Schrank, _Die Prostitution in Wien_, two volumes (Wien, 1886), Vol. + II, pp. 220–2. + +Footnote 36: + + Schneider, _loc. cit._, p. 39. + +Footnote 37: + + Fiaux, _La Police des Moeurs_ (3 vols. Paris, 1907, 1910) Vol. III, p. + 658. M. Fiaux is the most voluminous and indefatigable of European + writers on the subject and his works are inexhaustible mines of + information and argument. + +Footnote 38: + + The Lock-Hospital; the term “Lock” has no connection with “lock-up.” + Its meaning is obscure. + +Footnote 39: + + Maurice Gregory, _The European Movement for Abolition_. (Tokyo, Japan, + 1912), pp. 44–47. + +Footnote 40: + + At the proper time subsequently, these occasions are always followed + by a perceptible rise in the illegitimacy curve. + +Footnote 41: + + Louis Fiaux: _La Police des Moeurs_, Vol. I, p. 160. + +Footnote 42: + + These estimates deal with clandestine prostitution alone, meaning + thereby, as I have already pointed out, unofficial prostitution, some + of it notorious, some concealed. Official or registered prostitution + is too small to be a factor in calculations of this kind. + +Footnote 43: + + F. Schiller in _Zeitschrift_ II, p. 312. + +Footnote 44: + + Disturbed local conditions might be assigned as the explanation of + this figure; but it is practically repeated in 1880, when the arrests + reached 3,544. + +Footnote 45: + + Gregory, _loc. cit._, p. 46. + +Footnote 46: + + William Acton, _Prostitution_ (London, 1870) p. 4. Acton quotes also + (p. 3) a police estimate of 6,371, for 1839. + +Footnote 47: + + P. Pollitz: _Die Psychologie des Verbrechers_. (Leipzig, 1909) p. 85. + +Footnote 48: + + The figures are official; they may be found in various sources, _e. + g._, A. Grotjahn, _Soziale Pathologie_ (Berlin, 1912) p. 153. + +Footnote 49: + + Studies of this point have been made in Paris by O. Commenge: _La + Prostitution clandestine à Paris_ (Paris, 1904) Chap. II. + +Footnote 50: + + _Memorandum on a Social Evil in Glasgow_, published by authority of + the Parish Council, October, 1911, p. 43. The Chief Constable in a + report to the Magistrates Committee, November 20, 1911, holds this + estimate to be a gross exaggeration. + +Footnote 51: + + Personally communicated by Police Brigadier. + +Footnote 52: + + Personally communicated by officials. + +Footnote 53: + + Th. M. Roest Van Limburgh: _In den Strijd tegen de Ontucht_. + (Rotterdam, 1910) p. 17. + +Footnote 54: + + The last named figures are quoted by Moll, _loc. cit._, p. 371. For a + discussion as to the probable number of prostitutes in Hamburg, see + _Zeitschrift_ IV, p. 183. + +Footnote 55: + + These bars often advertise “new service weekly.” A statistical return + on the waitresses of Berlin shows that 57.2% remained in one place + three months or less. Of 1,108 cases examined, 732 had more than six + places in one year, 200 more than ten, and 63 more than 20! Henning, + _Denkschrift über das Kellnerinnen-Wesen_ (Berlin, no date) pp. 13, + 14. See also: A. Meher, _Die geheime und öffentliche Prostitution in + Stuttgart_, etc. (Paderborn, 1912) p. 133, etc. See also: _Das + Animierkneipenwesen in Frankfurt a. M._ _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 59; + also, same volume, pp. 70 and 75. + +Footnote 56: + + See Chapter XI—_The Outcome of European Experience_. + +Footnote 57: + + The pimp is called “bully” in England, “souteneur,” “Louis” or + “Alphonse” in France; “Zuhälter” in Germany. + +Footnote 58: + + The pimp is said to be less common in Scandinavia than elsewhere: See + Hjalmar von Sydow, _Om Soutenörväsendet_ in _Report, Swedish + Commission_, Vol. IV, p. 12. + +Footnote 59: + + See pp. 96–7. + +Footnote 60: + + $1.25 to $2.50. + +Footnote 61: + + Schneider: _loc. cit._, p. 32. + +Footnote 62: + + For a shabby room in Berlin, the author of the “_Diary of a Lost One_” + (Berlin, 1905) p. 137, paid 180 marks a month. + +Footnote 63: + + The subject is more fully discussed in Chapter VI. + +Footnote 64: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 220. A well-known Berlin resort is capitalized at + 1,000,000 marks and has recently declared a dividend of 20%. + (_Berliner Tageblatt_, May 2, 1912.) + +Footnote 65: + + Fiaux, _loc. cit._, I, pp. 215–6, 220–221. + +Footnote 66: + + $75 to $150. + +Footnote 67: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 50. + +Footnote 68: + + Prof. Johansson calculated that a woman averages one-fourth of a year + in hospital, prison, etc. + +Footnote 69: + + _Ibid._, p. 54. + +Footnote 70: + + Quoted by Kampffmeyer, _loc. cit._, p. 34. + +Footnote 71: + + _Statistisches Jahrbuch_ (Berlin, 1910) pp. 242–3. + +Footnote 72: + + From this statement England is purposely excluded for two reasons: (1) + accurate data covering different social classes are not obtainable; + (2) family and religious life are so differently organized that there + is a very strong presumption that correct living is in certain strata + of society distinctly more probable than on the Continent. + Organizations like the White Cross Societies and The Alliance of Honor + testify to the existence of sound sentiment and promote sound + practice. But as to the extent to which continence prevails I have + been unable to form a conception. + +Footnote 73: + + _Zeitschrift_ XI, p. 47. + +Footnote 74: + + _Zeitschrift_ XI, p. 5. + +Footnote 75: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, pp. 66–68. See also pp. 37–65. + +Footnote 76: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 411. + +Footnote 77: + + _Zeitschrift_ XIII, p. 154. + +Footnote 78: + + Blaschko, in _Zeitschrift_ XIII, p. 104. + +Footnote 79: + + _Zeitschrift_ XII, p. 34. + +Footnote 80: + + See Blaschko, _Zeitschrift_ XIII, pp. 154–5. + +Footnote 81: + + “The incidence of gonorrhea is estimated at over 100%; i. e., on the + average, every man has had it. This does not mean that actually every + man has had gonorrhea, for if one person has had it six times, that + would absolve several others.” F. Pinkus: _Die Verhütung der + Geschlechtskrankheiten_ (Freiburg, 1912) p. 21. + +Footnote 82: + + Bloch, _loc. cit._, Vol. I, pp. 710–712 gives details and authorities. + +Footnote 83: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 4. + +Footnote 84: + + The rôle of alcohol is described by O. Rosenthal: _Alkoholismus und + Prostitution_ (with bibliography) (Berlin, 1905). See also M. + Hirschfeld: _Die Gurgel von Berlin_ (Berlin, no date) pp. 43, etc. + +Footnote 85: + + _Zeitschrift_ XI, pp. 6 and 60. + +Footnote 86: + + See Iwan Bloch: _Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit_ (Berlin, 1909) p. 91. + +Footnote 87: + + Moll, _loc. cit._, p. 887. See also pp. 945, etc. + +Footnote 88: + + Felix Pinkus, _loc. cit._, p. 177. + +Footnote 89: + + M. von Gruber, _Die Prostitution_ (Wien, 1905) p. 40, etc. + +Footnote 90: + + _Zeitschrift_ XIII, p. 46; see also III, p. 255. + +Footnote 91: + + Touton, quoting Troemner’s report at the Dresden Conference, 1911, + _Zeitschrift_ XII, p. 412. See also X, p. 211; for the opposite point + of view, see _Zeitschrift_ XIII, pp. 82, etc., 92, etc.; also, Max + Marcuse, _Das Liebesleben des deutschen Studenten_ (_Sexual-Probleme_ + Nov. 1908); also, _Zeitschrift_ XI, pp. 81 and 129. + +Footnote 92: + + _Zeitschrift_ XIII, p. 70. + +Footnote 93: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 214. + +Footnote 94: + + “In this grave matter, so timid and divided is public opinion, that I + have to be practically silent, ‘letting I dare not, wait upon I + would.’” John Russell, in “_Can the School Prepare for Parenthood?_” + (Eugenics Education Society, 1909) p. 4. + +Footnote 95: + + “_Papers for Boys_,” with a preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury + (To be had through the Editor, the Headmaster of Dover College, Dover, + for 6d.). + +Footnote 96: + + Frankfort-on-the-Oder is one of the few places. + +Footnote 97: + + The so-called “Abiturienten,” who are about to enter the University. + Whatever these addresses accomplish, the amount of venereal disease + found among Gymnasium students would show that the efforts are too + late. + +Footnote 98: + + It has been objected to physicians that they over-emphasize + prophylaxis. + +Footnote 99: + + Among the German writers who have emphasized this point are F. W. + Foerster, _Sexualethik und Sexualpädagogik_ (Munich, 1910), and Julian + Marcuse, _Grundzüge einer sexuellen Pädagogik_ (Munich, 1908). The + latter says with great vigor: “It were a disastrous blunder to suppose + that intellectual enlightenment in reference to matters of sex is + alone capable of preventing error and damage; the natural impulse is + far too forceful to be mastered by mere knowledge of these things. + Nay, helpful knowledge must be accompanied by training of the + feelings, discipline of the will, things of infinitely greater + importance than sheer enlightenment, both of which are foundations for + sexual instruction that must be provided for.” p. 38. + +Footnote 100: + + “In my judgment, the friends of sexual enlightenment have not yet + succeeded in devising a satisfactory way of approaching children.” P. + Groebel, _Sexualpädagogik_ (Hamburg, 1909) p. 1. As an example of what + is proposed for German schools, see Konrad Hoeller: _Die Sexualfrage + und die Schule_ (Leipzig, 1907) pp. 45, etc. + +Footnote 101: + + Expressly forbidden in Prussia. + +Footnote 102: + + “I regard it as best to mention the safety devices in school, because + I cannot hope that my injunctions to continence will be heeded by all + my pupils.” Groebel, _loc. cit._, p. 15. + +Footnote 103: + + A textbook for use in training teachers to give sex-instruction + has recently appeared in Swedish: Julia Kinberg och Alma + Sundquist—_Handledning i Sexuell Undervisning och Uppfostran_ + (Stockholm, 1910). + +Footnote 104: + + E. g., pimp, pp. 95, etc.; bordells, chap. VI; alcohol, pp. 98, etc. + +Footnote 105: + + _Fédération francaise des Sociétés antipornographiques._ + +Footnote 106: + + _Volksbund zur Bekämpfung des Schmutzes in Wort und Bild._ + +Footnote 107: + + In Austria, July 31, 1912; in Bavaria, March 6, 1906, supplemented + June 3, 1912; in Prussia, December 28, 1911. + +Footnote 108: + + The literature on the subject in German is already very extensive. As + containing data of all kinds, I may specify the following: Bohn, + _Materialien zur Bekämpfung der unsittlichen Literatur—ein + kulturgeschichtliches Denkmal für die deutsche Presse_, (Berlin, + 1905). _Berichte der ausserdeutschen und deutschen Berichterstatten_, + (Congress held at Cologne, 1904) (Berlin, 1905). E. Schultze, _Die + Schundliteratur_ (Halle, 1911). A monthly periodical dealing with the + problem in all its aspects is issued in Berlin; it is called _Die + Hochwacht_, is edited by Professor Karl Brunner and published by the + Ulrich Meyer Verlagsbuchhandlung. Summaries of all legislation bearing + on the topic are found in: _Bekämpfung der Schundliteratur—Flugschrift + der Zentralstelle für Volkswohlfahrt_ (Berlin, 1911). Roeren, _Die + Gesetzgebung gegen die unsittliche Literatur in den verschiedenen + Ländern_ (Berlin, 1905.) A Blue book on the subject has also been + issued by the English government. It is called: _Report from the Joint + Select Committee on Lotteries and Indecent Advertisements_ (London, + 1908). + +Footnote 109: + + Some explanation is found in the fact that the statute does not define + indecency. + +Footnote 110: + + For example: Hans Wegener, _Wir jungen Männer_ (Dusseldorf, 1906). + +Footnote 111: + + Adele Schreiber has calculated that 57% of German women between 20 and + 30 years old are unmarried. _Loc. cit._, p. 459. + +Footnote 112: + + _Loc. cit._, Vol. I, pp. 67–68. + +Footnote 113: + + G. P. Merrick, _Work Among the Fallen_ (London, 1890) pp. 23–24. + +Footnote 114: + + _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 18, 19. Similar results appear in statistics + given by Meher: _Die geheime und öffentliche Prostitution in + Stuttgart, Karlsruhe und München_ (Paderborn, 1912) pp. 221–222. + +Footnote 115: + + Statistics kindly contributed by the Chief of the Sittenpolizei. + +Footnote 116: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 77. + +Footnote 117: + + Manuscript communication, based on private investigation. + +Footnote 118: + + Kellnerinnen. + +Footnote 119: + + For these figures, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Chief of the + Sittenabteilung. + +Footnote 120: + + F. Pinkus, in _Archiv für Dermatologie u. Syphilis_ CVII 1–3, p. 147. + +Footnote 121: + + Baumgarten in _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 135. + +Footnote 122: + + Figures courteously communicated by the Secretary of the institution. + +Footnote 123: + + _Ditto._ + +Footnote 124: + + _Ditto._ + +Footnote 125: + + Merrick: _loc. cit._, pp. 25–26. + +Footnote 126: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 75. Dr. + Lindblad, studying 800 hospital cases, reaches the same conclusion. + _Ibid._, p. 12. + +Footnote 127: + + Analyzed by Commenge, _loc. cit._, p. 336. + +Footnote 128: + + Merrick, _loc. cit._, pp. 49–50. + +Footnote 129: + + Schiller in _Zeitschrift_ II, p. 304. + +Footnote 130: + + Statistics quoted by Grotjahn, _loc. cit._, p. 153. + +Footnote 131: + + Some confidential London statistics name a few music teachers, school + teachers, trained nurses, etc. But the percentage is very small. + +Footnote 132: + + Page 80. + +Footnote 133: + + Report of the Inspector under the Inebriate Acts, 1879 to 1900, for + year 1909 (London, 1911) p. 24. + +Footnote 134: + + Quoted by P. Pollitz, _Die Psychologie des Verbrechers_ (Leipzig, + 1909) p. 89. It must be observed that just as Branthwaite’s high + percentage is due to complication with inebriacy, so Bonhöffer’s must + be regarded as complicated by criminality. A similar investigation + dealing with the tramps and beggars of Breslau has been made by + Bonhöffer; see “_Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des grosstädtischen Bettel- + und Vagabondentums_.” (Berlin, 1900.) + +Footnote 135: + + Helene F. Stelzner, _Gibt es geborene Prostituierte?_ (Dresden, 1911) + p. 9. + +Footnote 136: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 10. + +Footnote 137: + + “_Die Prostitution_,” Vol. I, p. 331. Parent-Duchatelet describes the + type excellently: _loc. cit._, Chapter II. + +Footnote 138: + + _Report_, 1909, _loc. cit._, p. 24. + +Footnote 139: + + Letters (2 Vols., New York, 1912) Vol. II, p. 532. + +Footnote 140: + + Private communication. + +Footnote 141: + + Parent-Duchatelet: _loc. cit._, I, p. 44. Of 6,842 clandestines, + two-thirds were born outside the department of the Seine. Commenge, + _loc. cit._, p. 304. + +Footnote 142: + + M. Talmeyr, _Das Ende einer Gesellschaft_ (Berlin, no date) p. 256. + +Footnote 143: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 74. + +Footnote 144: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 28. + +Footnote 145: + + _The Prevention of Destitution_ (London, 1912) p. 306 (slightly + abridged). + +Footnote 146: + + _Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung der + Geschlechtskrankheiten_ (Leipzig, 1912) X, 6, p. 129. + +Footnote 147: + + Münsterberg, _Prostitution und Staat_ (Leipzig, 1911) p. 13. The + subject is discussed at length, with bibliography, in _Zeitschrift_ I, + pp. 134–162; and III, p. 165. + +Footnote 148: + + Rosa Kempf, _Die Industriearbeiterin als Mutter_, in Adele Schreiber’s + _Mutterschaft_ (Munich, 1912) pp. 230–243. + +Footnote 149: + + Marcuse, _Beschränkung der Geburtenzahl_, pp. 57–58. The proportional + increase looks less startling; the figures were 34.8% of the entire + female population in 1882, 38.3% in 1907. For further details, see: + Helene Simon, _Der Anteil der Frau an der deutschen Industrie nach den + Ergebnissen der Berufszählung von 1907_ (Jena, 1907) also: Robert and + Lisbeth Wilbrandt, _Die deutsche Frau im Beruf_. Part IV of “_Handbuch + der Frauenbewegung_” (Berlin, 1902). + +Footnote 150: + + _Zeitschrift_ XII, p. 19. + +Footnote 151: + + The details are: + + 124 had lost both parents + + 147 had lost one parent + + 20 did not know if parents were living or dead + + 93 had both parents alive + + ——— + + 384 + + _Report, London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution 1910– + 11._ Merrick, _loc. cit._, p. 31 gives additional statistics to the + same effect. See also: Othmar Spann,—_Untersuchungen über die + uneheliche Bevölkerung in Frankfort—a. M._ (Dresden, 1905). + +Footnote 152: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 30. + +Footnote 153: + + Branthwaite, _Report_, 1909, p. 24. + +Footnote 154: + + Wilbrandt, _loc. cit._, pp. 147, 148. + +Footnote 155: + + Commenge, _loc. cit._, p. 337. + +Footnote 156: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 12. + +Footnote 157: + + It is of course impossible to give an exhaustive account in the text. + The living-in system in vogue in English shops affords another example + of the demoralizing outcome of the broken or unnatural home. See + _Report of the Truck Committee_ (London, 1900) Vol. I, pp. 70, 71. + +Footnote 158: + + See also Adele Schreiber, _loc. cit._, pp. 243–256. + +Footnote 159: + + Fiaux, _loc. cit._, Vol. III, p. 608. See also his _L’Intégrité + intersexuelle des peuples et les Gouvernements_ (Paris, 1910) p. 206. + +Footnote 160: + + _Rapport de M. Georges Honnorat_, Chef de la Première Division de la + Préfecture de Police, presented to the VIII Congrès national du + Patronage, 1910 (pp. 6, 7). + +Footnote 161: + + Eugène Prévost, _De la Prostitution des Enfants_. (Paris, 1909) p. + 215. + +Footnote 162: + + E. Finger und A. Baumgarten, _Referat über die Regelung der + Prostitution in Oesterreich_ (Wien, 1909) p. 88 (abridged). + +Footnote 163: + + Personal communication from officials. + +Footnote 164: + + Stelzner, _loc. cit._, p. 8; also Pollitz, _loc. cit._, p. 89. + +Footnote 165: + + Schiller, _Zeitschrift_ II, p. 309. + +Footnote 166: + + _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 19, 22. + +Footnote 167: + + T. G. Cree, _The Need of Rescue Work Among Children_. (London, Church + Penitentiary Association) p. 3; Merrick’s data on the same subject are + given, _loc. cit._, p. 34. + +Footnote 168: + + _Report of the Chief Constable_ for the year ending December 31, 1909. + An even more unfavorable account is contained in the _Memorandum on a + Social Evil in Glasgow_ previously referred to. The Chief Constable in + reply holds that the memorandum exaggerates. + +Footnote 169: + + Moll, _loc. cit._, pp. 383–4. + +Footnote 170: + + Moll, _loc. cit._, p. 390. + +Footnote 171: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 24. + +Footnote 172: + + Adele Schreiber, _loc. cit._, pp. 257, 501, etc. + +Footnote 173: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 79. + +Footnote 174: + + Pinkus, _Archiv._ _loc. cit._, p. 415. + +Footnote 175: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 79. + +Footnote 176: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, p. 81. See also + Moll, _loc. cit._, pp. 393–4. + +Footnote 177: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 81. + +Footnote 178: + + _Archiv._ _loc. cit._, p. 149. + +Footnote 179: + + Lindblad studies his Swedish cases from this point of view; _Report, + Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, _loc. cit._, pp. 41, etc. + +Footnote 180: + + Statement made to me by Miss Maud Bondfield. + +Footnote 181: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 127. + +Footnote 182: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 123, with note (2). To the same effect, Hans Ostwald, + _Das Berliner Dirnentum_, 8 Abteilung—_Gelegenheitsdirnen_,—among whom + he reckons “a great mass of women and girls” more or less occupied as + singers, dancers, waitresses, shophands, models, maids, laundresses, + nurses, etc. + +Footnote 183: + + Cadbury, Matheson, & Shann: _Women’s Work and Wages_ (London, 1909) + pp. 246, 247. + +Footnote 184: + + The literature on this topic is abundant. I give by way of + illustration a few references to Munich, where the conditions have + been well investigated: Dr. Rosa Kempf, _Das Leben der jungen + Fabrikmädchen_ (Leipzig, 1911). Dr. Elizabeth Hell, _Jugendliche + Schneiderinnen und Näherinnen in München_ (Berlin, 1911). Meher, _loc. + cit._, pp. 110–148. Also, _Handbuch der Frauenbewegung_, already + mentioned, passim. + +Footnote 185: + + P. Hirsch, _Verbrechen und Prostitution_ (Berlin, 1907), pp. 101–102. + +Footnote 186: + + C. E. Collett, _Educated Working Women_ (London, 1902) p. 51. As to + conditions in Paris, see _Revue d’Economie Politique_, Aug. 1911. + +Footnote 187: + + _The German Stage and its Members_, by Dr. Charlotte Engel-Reimers + (Leipzig, 1911). + +Footnote 188: + + Wilbrandt, _loc. cit._, p. 355. The whole section is most valuable. + +Footnote 189: + + Meher, _loc. cit._, pp. 133, etc. Also: Wilbrandt, _loc. cit._, pp. + 272, etc., and the _Denkschrift_ previously cited. + +Footnote 190: + + _Denkschrift_, p. 12. + +Footnote 191: + + _Ibid._, p. 12. + +Footnote 192: + + _Women as Barmaids_ (London, 1905), p. 8. + +Footnote 193: + + _Ibid._, p. 4. + +Footnote 194: + + _Ibid._, p. 33. + +Footnote 195: + + See p. 185. + +Footnote 196: + + _Reichsgesetzbuch_, sec. 236, 237: _Auswanderergesetz_, sec. 48. + +Footnote 197: + + E. Wulffen, _Der Sexualverbrecher_ (Berlin, 1910) p. 700. + +Footnote 198: + + _Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912._ Section 1 provides: A constable may + take into custody without a warrant any person whom he shall have good + cause to suspect of having committed or of attempting to commit, any + offence against section two of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 + (which relates to procuration and attempted procuration). Section No. + 3. Any male person convicted may, in addition to imprisonment, be + sentenced to be once privately whipped, and the number of strokes and + the instrument shall be specified by the court. Section No. 7 deals + with the “bully.” + +Footnote 199: + + The most recent discussion of conditions in Germany is by + Polizeirat Dr. Robert Heindl in No. 298, _Berliner Tageblatt_. Dr. + Heindl proves the following points: (1) White Slave Traffic in + innocent German girls into foreign lands is of the utmost rarity. + (2) It is even questionable whether German ports are utilized for + purposes of transit. (3) No single case of genuine White Slavery + has been discovered in Saxony in the last ten years. The General + Secretary of the German Evangelical League for the Promotion of + Decency endorses these statements. Pastor Bohn, in _Zeitschrift + des deutsch-evangelischen Vereins_, etc., July 15, 1913, p. 49. + +Footnote 200: + + _London County Council: Public Control Department; General Powers Act + 1910._ Part V. + +Footnote 201: + + Up to Oct. 1911, 1,033 applications for license had been made, 1,000 + had been granted, 8 refused, 23 withdrawn, 2 adjourned. Report of + Public Control Committee. + +Footnote 202: + + Gesetz, Feb. 5, 1907: _Gewerbsmässige Dienst und Stellenvermittlung_. + Sec. 21a. + +Footnote 203: + + _Verordnung des Handelsministers_, May 7, 1908. + +Footnote 204: + + Limburg, _loc. cit._, p. 17. + +Footnote 205: + + Commenge, _loc. cit._, p. 90. + +Footnote 206: + + _Reports of the Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis._ + +Footnote 207: + + _Criminal Returns, City of Glasgow Police, 1911._ + +Footnote 208: + + Wulffen, _loc. cit._, p. 282. See also _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 6, 7, + for statistics of many German cities. + +Footnote 209: + + Chapter VI. + +Footnote 210: + + Statement of Prefect of Police. On the other hand the following + provision is found in the police regulations touching clandestine + prostitution: “Police commissaries may freely enter cabarets or cafés + where clandestine prostitutes are notoriously harbored, up to the hour + of closing or later if the resorts are open contrary to police + ordinance.” Annexes au rapport général de la commission + extraparlementaire (Melun, 1908), p. 3. This document in two volumes + (Procès-Verbaux and Annexes) will be referred to as Report, French + Commission. + +Footnote 211: + + The English Statute bearing on the subject is the Children Act of + 1908. + +Footnote 212: + + An interesting example of just such shifting is afforded by the opium + traffic. The smoking of opium in China had long been looked upon as at + most a harmful vice; according to E. A. Ross (_The Changing Chinese_, + p. 140) it has at length become possible to treat it as a crime and + vigorous action looking to the suppression of opium smoking is said to + be in successful operation. Public opinion had, however, first to + undergo a complete transformation. + +Footnote 213: + + _Reglementeringsfragan_, _loc. cit._, p. 51. + +Footnote 214: + + Fiaux, _loc. cit._, II, p. 873. + +Footnote 215: + + See Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII. + +Footnote 216: + + The situation in the Swiss Cantons is fully dealt with by Theodor + Weiss: _Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweiz und das schweizerische + Gesetzbuch_ (Bern, 1906). + +Footnote 217: + + Under date, Nov. 20, 1911. + +Footnote 218: + + The subject is more fully discussed in Chap. IX. + +Footnote 219: + + It will be noted that two things are punishable: Prostitution for + money; violation of regulations by enrolled women. + +Footnote 220: + + _Strafgesetzbuch für das Deutsche Reich_: 361, 6. + +Footnote 221: + + This subject will be much more fully discussed in the ensuing + chapters. An additional word may be here added for the sake of + clearness. The police can at any moment arrest a prostitute as a + criminal; but, as a matter of fact, they do not do so unless she is + guilty of something besides prostitution. If, for example, a woman + restricts her operations inconspicuously to her own room, she is no + less a prostitute amenable to the letter of the law; but the + authorities would not interfere. If, on the other hand, she made a + nuisance of herself; arrest would follow. Robbery is in Germany a + crime and is treated as such no matter how it takes place; + prostitution is a crime if additional circumstances make it worth + while to treat it as such. That is to say, in itself it is practically + not a crime, but a vice. + +Footnote 222: + + _Ibid._, Sections 180–1. + +Footnote 223: + + _Ibid._, Sec. 181. + +Footnote 224: + + _Zeitschrift_, XII, p. 6, where statistics for other German cities are + also given. + +Footnote 225: + + Wulffen, _loc. cit._, p. 682. + +Footnote 226: + + Blaschko, Art. _Prostitution_, in _Handwörterbuch der + Staatswissenschaften_ (Jena, 1910) p. 1239. + +Footnote 227: + + R. Schmölder, _Die Prostituierten und das Strafrecht_ (Munich, 1911), + p. 19. + +Footnote 228: + + _Vorentwurf zu einem deutschen Strafgesetzbuch_ (Berlin, 1909) Section + 251. + +Footnote 229: + + _Ibid._, Section 305, 4. + +Footnote 230: + + The subject is more fully treated in Chapter IX, p. 334. + +Footnote 231: + + Bloch, _Die Prostitution_, Vol. I, _loc. cit._, p. 3. It is + interesting and suggestive to encounter the same attitude in the + writings of a police commissioner. Limburg (_loc. cit._, p. 16), + protesting against the view that prostitution is a permanent + necessity, writes: “Whoever undertakes to fight vice, either by + individual labor or, where the authorities are concerned, by legal or + other measures, is by no means entering upon a hopeless cause and, + with judicious choice of weapons, has some chances of success.” + +Footnote 232: + + The Berlin regulations are translated into English and printed in full + on pp. 415–419. + +Footnote 233: + + The attention of the police is occasionally called by letters, usually + anonymous, to women accused of professional prostitution. In these + instances the police proceed with great caution, investigating fully + all the persons involved before taking any action whatsoever. + “Experience teaches that totally erroneous misconceptions of what + constitutes the offence in question usually characterize charges made + by private individuals, or that the charges spring from revenge, envy, + or gossip.” Inspector Penzig, head of _Sittenabteilung_, Berlin. + +Footnote 234: + + “_Gewerbsunzucht_” (professional prostitution) involves + “geschlechtliche Hingabe gegen Entgelt” (sexual intercourse for pay). + +Footnote 235: + + The procedure is based on the Prussian law respecting the care of + minors, of July 2, 1900, already mentioned, p. 100. + +Footnote 236: + + In conformity with _ministerial decree_, December 11, 1907. + +Footnote 237: + + It will be understood that the stipulations bearing on health are + reserved for a subsequent chapter. + +Footnote 238: + + _Polizeiliche Vorschriften_ (Berlin) Section 4. + +Footnote 239: + + Sixty-three streets and places are enumerated, Section 6. + +Footnote 240: + + _Ibid._ Section 7. + +Footnote 241: + + _Ibid._ Section 9. + +Footnote 242: + + _Ibid._ Section 11. + +Footnote 243: + + Registration of addresses is so generally required that this provision + is not offensive to the European sense; but the prostitute is + compelled to notify a change of address more promptly than other + persons. + +Footnote 244: + + _Ibid._ Section 15. + +Footnote 245: + + It is sometimes stated that according to the German law, professional + prostitution is not punishable if the woman is registered by the + police. It is therefore argued by many jurists that technically it is + not prostitution that is punishable, but non-registration. The offence + is not, so it is said, that the woman is a prostitute, but that she is + an unregistered prostitute. I have purposely avoided verbal + technicalities of this kind in order to bring the reader face to face + with the real issue. + +Footnote 246: + + See pp. 235–6. + +Footnote 247: + + See below, pp. 177–8. + +Footnote 248: + + Regulations, Section 51; see p. 441. + +Footnote 249: + + _Regulations of Stockholm_, Section 3. + +Footnote 250: + + _Ibid._, Section 10, h. + +Footnote 251: + + _Das neue Wiener Prostitutionsrealement_, June 1, 1911. Section 26. An + English translation of the Vienna regulations is given pp. 429–444. + +Footnote 252: + + “_Feste Wohnung_:” the significance of this is explained below, p. + 275. + +Footnote 253: + + Or its equivalent: see below, p. 178. + +Footnote 254: + + Of date, March 30, 1836. + +Footnote 255: + + _Rapport de M. Lépine sur la règlementation, etc._, in _Annexes; + Report, French Commission_. The extract is abridged, so as to raise no + question at this point except as to the legal basis of regulation. For + a discussion of the topic by a German jurist opposed to regulation, + see Schmölder—_Die Bestrafung und polizeiliche Behandlung der + gewerbsmässigen Unzucht_ (Düsseldorf, 1892) p. 11, etc. + +Footnote 256: + + _Report, French Commission_, Annexes p. 5. + +Footnote 257: + + Section 91, “The mayor has charge of the municipal police;” Section + 94, “he has the right to make arrests, to ordain local measures in + respect to objects confided to his vigilance and authority;” Section + 97, “it is his duty, above all, to assure order, security, and the + public health.” + +Footnote 258: + + _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, p. 36. For a severe criticism of M. + Hennequin’s stretching of the law, see Fiaux, _Police de Moeurs_, Vol. + I, pp. 41, etc. + +Footnote 259: + + _Oesterreichisches Strafgesetzbuch_ Section 509, and _Gesetz_, May 24, + 1885. + +Footnote 260: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 217. + +Footnote 261: + + _Ibid._, pp. 156–160. Dr. Baumgarten urges the substituting of the + word “Ueberwachung” (watching over) for “Bestrafung” (punishment) in + the statute. + +Footnote 262: + + _Ohne feste Wohnung._ + +Footnote 263: + + It is, of course, also true that Section 361, 6 conflicts with Section + 180. + +Footnote 264: + + _A Speech_ in Prussian House of Representatives, February 21, 1907. + +Footnote 265: + + See a review of the Court’s judgment in _Mitteilungen der deutschen + Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten_ X, pp. 49–51. + +Footnote 266: + + Dated December 11, 1907. It will be observed that this safeguard + applies only to Prussia, and there only to women who have not + previously been inscribed. + +Footnote 267: + + Dr. Jur. Kurt Wolzendorff, _Polizei und Prostitution_ (Tübingen, 1911) + pp. 57–59, abridged. Schmölder’s writings, already cited, argue + strongly against the sufficiency of the statutory basis relied on by + Wolzendorff. Blaschko points out that the other states of the Empire + have less legal warrant for regulation than Prussia (Art. on + _Prostitution_, _loc. cit._, p. 1236). + +Footnote 268: + + Vorentwurf, _loc. cit._ _Begründung_, pp. 850–853. High authorities + question even then whether the proposed changes are sufficiently + explicit to put the systems of regulation beyond all question. + Lindenau suggests a definite declaration, but there is no likelihood + of its adoption (_Die strafrechtliche Bekämpfung der Gewerbsunzucht_, + in Prof. von Liszt’s _Festschrift_). + + I am informed by a member of the Swedish Commission that regulation in + Stockholm is based on a set of instructions issued by the Grand + Governor, but never signed by him, as is regularly the custom. The + official in question is described as having been unwilling to affix + his signature to such a document; the police overlook the technical + defect. + +Footnote 269: + + For table showing numbers inscribed in German cities, as compared with + population, see A. Blaschko, _Hygiene der Prostitution_ (Jena, 1901) + p. 55. Since this date, the disproportion has been aggravated, rather + than mended. Valuable statistical tables showing date of installation + of sanitary control, number of inscribed women, their ages, etc., are + given by Dufour: _Geschichte der Prostitution_ (translated from the + French, Berlin, 5th Edition, no date) Vol. III, part 2, pp. 38–49. + +Footnote 270: + + The disproportion is practically greater than the ratios show; for the + populations given take no account of suburbs or transients; adding the + former alone, Berlin had an estimated population of 3,400,000 in 1910. + The populations given are taken from the _Statesman’s Year-Book 1913_; + the number of inscribed women as given does not always represent the + same year as the population, but the difference is negligible. + +Footnote 271: + + For the French statistics I am indebted to M. Victor Augagneur, Député + du Rhône, and to Dr. Louis Fiaux. + +Footnote 272: + + Accuracy is more difficult in dealing with Cologne than elsewhere, + because a fresh list is compiled annually and no names are removed in + the course of the year though many women disappear. A list that at the + close of the year contains 1,500 names probably amounts at no time to + more than 600, of whom about one-half regularly report to the police. + This statement is based on personal information, confirmed by Zinnser, + _Zeitschrift_ V, p. 202. + +Footnote 273: + + Enrolment for year 1912. + +Footnote 274: + + Moll, _loc. cit._, p. 371. + +Footnote 275: + + _Rapport, Conseil Munic. loc. cit._, p. 29. These and other statistics + may be found in Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_, III, pp. 907, etc.; R. + Degante, _La Lutte contre la Prostitution_ (Paris, 1909) p. 109; + Talmeyr, _loc. cit._, pp. 246–7. + +Footnote 276: + + P. Hirsch, _Verbrechen und Prostitution_ (Berlin, 1907) p. 11. + +Footnote 277: + + For these and all other Austrian statistics I am indebted to Dr. Anton + Baumgarten. + +Footnote 278: + + Official figures obtained through American Consulate. + +Footnote 279: + + _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 197. + +Footnote 280: + + _Ibid._, II, p. 96. + +Footnote 281: + + Johansson, _loc. cit._, p. 14. + +Footnote 282: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 217. + +Footnote 283: + + From official data exhibited to me at headquarters. + +Footnote 284: + + P. Bruns, _Geheime Prostitution_ (Dresden, 1911) p. 6. + +Footnote 285: + + Officially communicated. + +Footnote 286: + + In Chapters VII and X. + +Footnote 287: + + See Chap. I, pp. 21, etc. + +Footnote 288: + + It is true that registered women sometimes return to a decent life. + But registration enormously increases the difficulty and lessens the + probability of her doing so. + +Footnote 289: + + How disappearance affects the problem is explained below. + +Footnote 290: + + Meunier, _Annexes_, pp. 271–2; also _Ibid._, _passim_. See also + _Rapport de Dr. Lucas_, _Ibid._ + +Footnote 291: + + _Annexes, Report, French Com._, p 388. See also Fiaux, _Police des + Moeurs_ I, pp. 196, etc.; ditto _L’Intégrité intersexuelle des peuples + et les Gouvernments_ (Paris, 1910) pp. 205, etc.; _Rapports, Conseil + Munic._ _loc. cit._, pp. 31, etc. Commenge, _loc. cit._, pp. 599, etc. + +Footnote 292: + + Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_ I, p. 38; III, p. 609. See also Eugène + Prévost, _De la Prostitution des Enfants_. + +Footnote 293: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_ III, p. 63. + +Footnote 294: + + Welander in _Zeitschrift_ XI, p. 395. + +Footnote 295: + + Meher, _loc. cit._, p. 215. + +Footnote 296: + + _Loc. cit._, pp. 41–49. + +Footnote 297: + + Finger and Baumgarten, _Die Regelung der Prostitution in Oesterreich_ + (Reprinted) from the _Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift_ No’s. 35 + etc., 1909. + +Footnote 298: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 10. + +Footnote 299: + + Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_ III, p. 658. + +Footnote 300: + + Lépine, in _Report, French Com., Annexes_ p. 25. + +Footnote 301: + + Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_ III, p. 663. + +Footnote 302: + + Meunier in _Annexes, Report French Com._ p. 313. + +Footnote 303: + + “Nur die Dummen werden inscribiert.” + +Footnote 304: + + _Report, Swedish Com._ III, pp. 54 and 59. + +Footnote 305: + + _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 298. + +Footnote 306: + + _Report_ on the Police Establishment and State of Crime. (Liverpool, + 1910) p. 63. + +Footnote 307: + + The following schedule is in operation (_Règlement_ Sections 35, 36): + + Houses of 1st Class + 1 to 5 girls 100 francs monthly + 6 to 10 girls 150 francs monthly + + Houses of 2nd Class + 1 to 5 girls 50 francs monthly + 6 to 10 girls 75 francs monthly + + Houses of the 3rd Class + 1 to 5 girls 25 francs monthly + 6 to 10 girls 37 francs monthly + + The fees are payable to the “receveur communal.” + +Footnote 308: + + In rare cases a bordell has been suppressed on account of criminal or + too scandalous occurrences. + +Footnote 309: + + Excepting only the city of Geneva. + +Footnote 310: + + _Imperial Penal Code_, Section 180. + +Footnote 311: + + “In polizeitechnischem Sinne.” + +Footnote 312: + + _Zeitschrift_ V, p. 209. + +Footnote 313: + + “Es giebt doch Bordelle.” The distinction, if existent, is between + “Kasernierung” and “Bordellierung” (the enforced boarding-house and + the bordell). + +Footnote 314: + + _Ibid._, p. 212. “Es bestehen Bordelle in,” etc. + +Footnote 315: + + _Denkschrift über die Verthältnisse in Bezug auf das Bordellwesen_ by + Katharina Scheven: Dresden, 1904 (Tables). + +Footnote 316: + + “Ich kümmere mich nicht weiter,” said one to me. + +Footnote 317: + + It will be noted that Berlin is not in this list; the law is there + observed in both letter and spirit. + +Footnote 318: + + Adele Schreiber in _Die Kritische Tribüne_ I, p. 114. + +Footnote 319: + + Baumgarten in _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 174. + +Footnote 320: + + Lépine in _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, p. 20. For a much more exhaustive + account, however, see, in the same volume, the _Report_ of M. Meunier, + pp. 289–467, especially pp. 418–430. + +Footnote 321: + + Préfecture de Police, _Service des Moeurs, Règlement_ II (Maisons de + Tolérance), p. 6. + +Footnote 322: + + _Obligations et Défenses imposées aux filles publiques._ + +Footnote 323: + + Meunier quotes the Prefect of Police as follows: “In a house of + ill-fame a woman is unable to refuse any man who presents himself.” + _Loc. cit._, p. 420. + +Footnote 324: + + “Zimmervermieterin.” This word keeps up the fiction that the + establishment is a boarding-house, not a bordell. + +Footnote 325: + + Regulations, Section 16. + +Footnote 326: + + A German translation of the Budapest regulations is given in + _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 437, etc. For the provisions above cited, see + pp. 439, 440. + +Footnote 327: + + _Règlement sur la Prostitution_ (1904), Section 19. + +Footnote 328: + + _Ibid._ Section 21. + +Footnote 329: + + _Ibid._ Section 25. + +Footnote 330: + + _Ibid._ Section 33. + +Footnote 331: + + A few live scattered, namely, those on probation. + +Footnote 332: + + _Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft, etc._, VII. p. 2. + +Footnote 333: + + Polizeikommissar Rump, _Ibid._, p. 3. + +Footnote 334: + + Several years ago the police began to compile statistics which soon + reached 1,000, “und die lange nicht alle,” the Inspector remarked. + +Footnote 335: + + In 1904, of these thirty houses the number on each of these streets + were as follows: 3, 4, 4, 7, 11, 1. + +Footnote 336: + + The figures are taken from Frau Scheven’s _Denkschrift_. + +Footnote 337: + + _E. g._, Hamburg, Bremen, and Stuttgart. + +Footnote 338: + + _Règlement_, Section 12. She must only avoid the vicinity of schools, + public buildings, and churches. + +Footnote 339: + + Kampffmeyer, in _Zeitschrift_ III, 215. The article is an exhaustive + study of the living conditions of prostitution in Germany and + completely sustains the position taken in the text,—that the most + arbitrary police procedure is incapable of segregating prostitution, + if segregation is construed as in the text. + +Footnote 340: + + An account of the public meeting, which I was fortunate enough to + attend, is given in _Die Kritische Tribüne_, I, 10, in two articles: + Adele Schreiber. “_Zur Prostitutions—und Kasernierungsfrage_;” + Henrietta Fürth, “_Bordellstrasse?_” The same situation has just + arisen in Hamburg. The progress of the city makes it necessary to raze + certain of the houses mentioned in the text. There is vigorous + opposition to the proposal to allow the proprietors to locate + themselves elsewhere. + +Footnote 341: + + _Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft, etc._, VII, I, p. 7. + +Footnote 342: + + _Die Prostitution_, Vol. I, pp. 731–791. + +Footnote 343: + + _Ibid._, p. 780. + +Footnote 344: + + This was also formerly true of Vienna, where the regulations of 1900 + favored bordells, but failed to increase their number. + +Footnote 345: + + Other Belgian towns show the same conditions: Antwerp had 29 houses in + 1882, 3 in 1885; Liège 33 in 1881, 20 in 1895; Charleroi 10 in 1872, 3 + in 1895. + +Footnote 346: + + Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_, I, p. 211. Also Vol. II, pp. 907–8; Vol. + III, p. 664. + +Footnote 347: + + Felix Regnault, _L’Evolution de la Prostitution_ (Paris, 1907) p. 142. + +Footnote 348: + + Von Düring (_Zeitschrift_ IV, p. 113) quotes Ströhmberg as stating + that the same evolution is in progress at St. Petersburg, where 206 + bordells in 1879 decreased to 65 in 1888. Similarly, Baumgarten + (_Zeitschrift_ IX, pp 174–5) states that Prague, which had in 1903, 48 + bordells with 220 inmates, has (1908) 26, with 100 inmates. + +Footnote 349: + + _Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweiz_ (Zurich, 1913) p. 10. + +Footnote 350: + + “Etwas junges und frisches ist überhaupt nicht zu kriegen.” + +Footnote 351: + + For these figures I am indebted to official courtesy. + +Footnote 352: + + Meher, _loc. cit._, p. 150. + +Footnote 353: + + _Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweiz_, p. 11. + +Footnote 354: + + “_Ohne Bordelle, kein Mädchenhandel_.” Bloch, _Sexualleben_, p. 377. + +Footnote 355: + + Schneider, _loc. cit._, pp. 171–2. + +Footnote 356: + + See p. 257. For a detailed account of the exploitation of inmates in + Paris, see Fiaux, _Les Maisons de Tolérance_ (Third Edition, Paris, + 1896) Chapter VII. + +Footnote 357: + + “Ohne Trinken ging es nicht.” + +Footnote 358: + + Linblad in _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 65. + +Footnote 359: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 176. + +Footnote 360: + + _Kritische Tribüne_, _loc. cit._, p. 114. + +Footnote 361: + + Schneider, _loc. cit._, p. 168. + +Footnote 362: + + “The renter of these buildings charges the inscribed prostitute 8 to + 10 marks a day for a room so that the owner gets from each inmate + something like 4,000 marks a year.” Bendig in _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. + 11, 12. (Abridged.) + +Footnote 363: + + _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, pp. 424–5. See also Fiaux, _Police des + Moeurs_, I, 213–217. + +Footnote 364: + + Fiaux, _Ibid._, p. 220. + +Footnote 365: + + Lépine in _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, p. 21. + +Footnote 366: + + See Fiaux _Maisons de Tolérance_, Chapter X, etc. + +Footnote 367: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, III, p. 66. + +Footnote 368: + + See Meunier’s detailed account in _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, pp. 420, + etc. + +Footnote 369: + + See Moll, _loc. cit._, p. 366: Ostwald, _Schlupfwinkel der + Prostitution_ in _Das Berliner Dirnentum_, Vol. II. + +Footnote 370: + + _Tribune de Genève_, March 30, 1912. See also A. Guillot, _La Lutte + contre l’Exploitation et la Règlementation du Vice à Genève_ (Geneva, + 1899) pp. 138–9. + +Footnote 371: + + _Mitteilungen, etc._, X, 5 p. 96. + +Footnote 372: + + See, for example, _Annexes_, _loc. cit._, pp. 433–435. + +Footnote 373: + + A detailed account of the terms is given by M. Lépine in _Annexes_, + _loc. cit._ pp. 22–24. M. Paul Meunier (_Ibid._, 428–430) discusses + these houses and gives particulars concerning a raid on one of them in + which he himself took part. + +Footnote 374: + + Fiaux, _Police des Moeurs_, III, p. 664. + +Footnote 375: + + _Dwelling and Rent Statute_, Section 6. + +Footnote 376: + + The only exhaustive statistical study of the living problem that I + found is that made by Johansson for the Swedish Commission (_Report_, + Vol III, pp. 175, etc.) and this deals only with the registered women, + relatively few in number. Johansson divides the 400 inscribed women of + Stockholm into 5 groups as follows: + + I Living in lodgings where they receive customers 16 + II Living in girl-houses 98 + III Living in families and utilizing hotels 232 + IV Living in suburbs and utilizing hotels 23 + V Vagrants 31 + + Of course a girl does not permanently belong to any one group, but may + vary from time to time. Group III is most important. At the close of + 1904, the police had listed 34 hotels with 405 rooms, utilized by + these women. He states that the hotel is conducted “like a factory,” + the women being practically in the employ of the proprietors. That is, + the enrolled women are operated for third-party profit; less than 4% + of them work for themselves. + +Footnote 377: + + It is often said that this opinion is held only by sentimentalists and + religious persons. As a matter of fact, it is the conclusion of police + officers all over the Continent, many of whom are still administering + the system. Prominent among these is Baumgarten of Vienna, for whose + views see _Zeitschrift_ IX, pp. 183–4. The literature attacking the + bordell in a strictly scientific spirit is enormous. See Bloch, + _Sexualleben_. Index, “_Bordelle_.” For a view favorable to the + bordell, see G. Roscher, _Gross-Stadtpolizei_ (Hamburg, 1912) pp. 257– + 8. Dr. Roscher is the able and accomplished head of the Hamburg + police. + +Footnote 378: + + Finger and Baumgarten, _Referat_, p. 82. It must be noted, however, + that this health function is lodged with the police, not the health + authorities,—a fact which will be explained in the next chapter. + +Footnote 379: + + In respect to the last two items, a tendency towards a uniform policy + is discernible. + +Footnote 380: + + Inscribed women are examined by men physicians. + +Footnote 381: + + That is, non-inscribed prostitutes. As previously pointed out, + “clandestine” prostitutes may be just as notorious as inscribed ones. + +Footnote 382: + + Inscribed prostitutes who also hold positions or who are on probation + looking to release from the rolls may by special arrangement come on + Sunday for examination. + +Footnote 383: + + The present incumbent is Dr. Med. Georg Güth, Kriminalkommissar und + medizinisch-technischer Dezernent in der Verwaltung der Berliner + Sittenpolizei. + +Footnote 384: + + Güth, _loc. cit._, p. 13, gives details of equipment. + +Footnote 385: + + The preceding account is based on personal inspection and interviews, + on the leaflet issued by the bureau, entitled “_Dienstanweisung für + die bei der Sittenpolizei beschäftigten Aerzte_,” and on Penzig’s + “_Die Bekämpfung der Gewerbsunzucht durch die Sittenpolizei_,” + previously referred to. + +Footnote 386: + + This was the practice at Budapest also, until the regulations were + reformed in 1908. + +Footnote 387: + + Schneider, _loc. cit._, p. 21, gives additional instances. + +Footnote 388: + + This point will be referred to again in Chapter X. + +Footnote 389: + + An exhaustive study of Swedish conditions in regard to hospital + accommodations for venereal patients was made by Johansson and is + printed in Vol. III of the _Report of the Swedish Com._ For Germany, + see A. Guttstadt, _Krankhenhaus-Lexikon für das Deutsche Reich_ + (Berlin, 1900), passim. + +Footnote 390: + + See Eugène Pottet, _Histoire de Saint-Lazare_ (1122–1912), Paris, + 1912. + +Footnote 391: + + Güth in _Zeitschrift_ XIV, p. 11. + +Footnote 392: + + Güth, _loc. cit._, p. 10. + +Footnote 393: + + Non-registered prostitutes, if arrested, are also liable to medical + examination; the microscope is utilized in suspicious cases. The + police procedure is described by Inspector Penzig (_loc. cit._) as + follows: “After the usual questions have been asked of the accused + woman, the Inspector decides whether a medical examination shall take + place. The woman assistant (social worker) also expresses her opinion + on this point. If decided on, the examination is made by a woman + physician. As a rule the women make no objection.” + +Footnote 394: + + So also at Bremen; at Stockholm a microscopic slide is made at each + examination. + +Footnote 395: + + The Dresden procedure is not essentially different from that of Berlin + and Budapest. + +Footnote 396: + + Bettmann, _Die ärztliche Ueberwachung der Prostitution_, (Jena, 1905), + p. 50. + +Footnote 397: + + _Hygiene der Prost._, pp. 83, etc. + +Footnote 398: + + It is perhaps hardly necessary for me to state that I do not mean to + imply that if the State made no such concession, prostitution would + either vanish or at once be greatly diminished; the point is that the + attitude involved in regulation interferes with a vigorous or a + general struggle in the direction of self-restraint. + +Footnote 399: + + Vergil, _Aeneid_, Book V, line 231, Conington’s version of “Possunt, + quia posse videntur.” + +Footnote 400: + + “Still more objectionable must be considered the fact that society + helps in this way to maintain the belief among many persons that + prostitution is a necessity.” Johansson, _loc. cit._, p. 130. + +Footnote 401: + + _Hygiene der Prostitution_, p. 88. In view of the fact that within a + few pages I have twice ventured to differ with Prof. Blaschko, it is + perhaps proper for me to state that he is one of the foremost and one + of the soundest of European authorities on the entire subject. + +Footnote 402: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 107 (slightly abridged). + +Footnote 403: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 399. + +Footnote 404: + + I have paid little attention to soft chancre because it is of so much + less consequence than the two diseases on which the argument turns. + +Footnote 405: + + M. v. Gruber, _loc. cit._, p. 6. + +Footnote 406: + + _Ibid._, p. 26. + +Footnote 407: + + Güth, _loc. cit._, p. 3. + +Footnote 408: + + In the preceding account I have followed Blaschko, “_Hygiene der + Prostitution_, etc.,” pp. 1–19; Pinkus, “_Die Verhütung der + Geschlechtskrankheiten_” and Güth, _loc. cit._ + +Footnote 409: + + _Rapport Annuel, Ville de Bruxelles, Année, 1910_, p. 65. In 1898—at a + time when 172 women were enrolled—7 patients were sent to the hospital + in the course of the year (_Compte Rendu des Séances, II^e Conférence + Internationale_, Bruxelles, 1903, pp. 185–6). + +Footnote 410: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 291. + +Footnote 411: + + “Strenge Kontrolle.” + +Footnote 412: + + “Leichte Kontrolle.” + +Footnote 413: + + The hands of the physician were uncovered and were not washed until + all the examinations were completed. + +Footnote 414: + + Zinnser in _Zeitschrift_ V, pp. 204–5 (abridged). + +Footnote 415: + + Communicated by Prof. Pinkus. + +Footnote 416: + + Johansson, _loc. cit._, p. 36. + +Footnote 417: + + Johansson, _loc. cit._, p. 36. + +Footnote 418: + + Figures given by Professor Pinkus. + +Footnote 419: + + Though this book deals only with prostitution in Europe, I venture for + the purpose of conclusively establishing the uselessness of the + clinical method to refer to the researches of Dr. Archibald McNeil of + New York City. Of 647 girls examined, 20.56% had clinical + manifestations of disease; of 466 of these same girls, microscopic and + other tests showed 89.3% to be venereally infected. See Kneeland, + “_Commercialized Prostitution in New York City_ (New York, 1913), pp. + 188–190.” + +Footnote 420: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 4. + +Footnote 421: + + _Zeitschrift_ VI, pp. 232 etc. + +Footnote 422: + + _Zeitschrift_ V, p. 205. + +Footnote 423: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 172. + +Footnote 424: + + _Zeitschrift_ XIII, p. 6. + +Footnote 425: + + Bremen not included. + +Footnote 426: + + This refers to a date preceding the reform of system to be next + discussed. + +Footnote 427: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 3. + +Footnote 428: + + _Zeitschrift_ V, p. 205. + +Footnote 429: + + Translation from police journal “_Public Safety_,” May 29, 1912. + +Footnote 430: + + _Report, French Com., Annexes_, p. 259. + +Footnote 431: + + See Bettmann, _loc. cit._, pp. 177–180 for additional illustrations. + Also _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 298. + +Footnote 432: + + Pinkus, _loc. cit._, p. 71; of course some withdrawals are due to + death, change of occupation, etc. See also _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 59. + +Footnote 433: + + Personal communication. + +Footnote 434: + + _Zeitschrift_ VI, p. 275. Also Johansson, _Report, Swedish + Commission_, Vol. III, p. 47. + +Footnote 435: + + Meher, _loc. cit._, p. 157. + +Footnote 436: + + Schmölder, _Unsere heutige Prostitution_ (Munich, 1911) p. 22. + +Footnote 437: + + Johansson, _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 43. + +Footnote 438: + + _Reglementeringen_ in Stockholm, pp. 78–9. + +Footnote 439: + + Johansson, _Report, Swedish Commission_ Vol. III, p. 168. + +Footnote 440: + + _Reglementeringen_ in Stockholm, p. 41. + +Footnote 441: + + _Ibid._, p. 43. + +Footnote 442: + + Quoted by Schmölder, _loc. cit._, p. 17. + +Footnote 443: + + Gruber, _loc. cit._, p. 28. + +Footnote 444: + + “_Public Safety_.” May 29, 1912, etc. + +Footnote 445: + + Johansson, _loc. cit._, p. 155. + +Footnote 446: + + _Ibid._, p. 124; _ditto_, p. 37. + +Footnote 447: + + June, 1912. + +Footnote 448: + + For these valuable statistics I am again indebted to the courtesy of + Professor Pinkus. + +Footnote 449: + + If gonorrhœa, it is not the less dangerous on that account; in case of + syphilis, as I have previously remarked, if actually latent it is not + infectious; if just supposedly latent, as is apt to be the case, the + danger is extreme. + +Footnote 450: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 89. + +Footnote 451: + + Police report, 1911, p. 72. + +Footnote 452: + + Personal communications by officials. + +Footnote 453: + + _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol III, p. 132. + +Footnote 454: + + Neisser in _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 255. + +Footnote 455: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 194. The fact is striking even though in my + judgment certain factors affecting the result have been overlooked. + +Footnote 456: + + Privately communicated by official physician. + +Footnote 457: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 50. + +Footnote 458: + + Commenge, p. 235. These arrests are made on the score of disorder, not + of suspected disease. Minors who behave go on with impunity. This is + made clear below. + +Footnote 459: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 301. + +Footnote 460: + + _Zeitschrift_ XIV, pp. 234–5. + +Footnote 461: + + _Zeitschrift_ X, p. 108. + +Footnote 462: + + _Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift_, January 7, 1913, pp. 12, 13. + +Footnote 463: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, pp. 399–400. + +Footnote 464: + + It is said that managers of enterprises of this character require the + habituées to employ private physicians to keep them advised as to + their condition. + +Footnote 465: + + Pinkus, _loc. cit._, p. 71. + +Footnote 466: + + Police Report, _loc. cit._, p. 72. + +Footnote 467: + + Personally communicated by officials. + +Footnote 468: + + For the statistics of arrests of inscribed women and the results of + their medical examination in German cities, see _Zeitschrift_ XII, p. + 7. Also, Pinkus, _loc. cit._, pp. 72, 73; _Zeitschrift_ X, p. 108; + _ibid._, XIV, pp. 236–7. For Stockholm, _Report, Swedish Commission_, + Vol. III, p. 30. + +Footnote 469: + + _Zeitschrift_ XI, p. 417. + +Footnote 470: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 230. It is to be remarked that all those quoted + above are avowed regulationists and all are men of international + eminence. + +Footnote 471: + + _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 198. + +Footnote 472: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 413. + +Footnote 473: + + Julius Engel-Reimers: _Die Geschlechtskrankheiten_ (Hamburg, 1908), p. + 83. + +Footnote 474: + + See Chap. X. + +Footnote 475: + + A prominent lay official of the Berlin police, Dr. Lindenau, candidly + admits: “A usable set of statistics as to the effect of sanitary + regulations is not to be had.” (From “_Die strafrechtliche Bekämpfung + der Gewerbsunzucht_.”) + +Footnote 476: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 2. + +Footnote 477: + + Personally communicated by officials. + +Footnote 478: + + Pages 231–2. + +Footnote 479: + + Möller, “_Ist eine Gonorrhöekontrolle möglich?_” _Zeitschrift_ VI, p. + 233. + +Footnote 480: + + Pinkus _loc. cit._, p. 86. Some physicians hold that the latter part + of this statement is perhaps too sweeping, but all are agreed that + gonorrhœa in the female is infinitely more stubborn than in the male + and that gonorrhœa in prostitutes is practically never cured. + +Footnote 481: + + _Ibid._, p. 91. + +Footnote 482: + + Güth admits this, _loc. cit._, p. 11. See also _Zeitschrift_ II, p. + 106. + +Footnote 483: + + Privately communicated at headquarters. + +Footnote 484: + + Personally communicated by officials. + +Footnote 485: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 89. + +Footnote 486: + + _Zeitschrift_ V, p. 286. + +Footnote 487: + + _Zeitschrift_ XI, p. 6. See also articles by Loeb referred to under + Chapter I. + +Footnote 488: + + This would appear the more charitable explanation of the fact that 429 + inmates of Paris bordells showed one case of syphilis in 1902; 312 + showed none in 1903. Turot, _loc. cit._, p. 70. In the Roman brothels, + “not oftener than once in three or four months is a girl discovered + who is diseased and forced to withdraw from the house!” In one + establishment it was declared that no girl had been disbarred for + years on account of disease: an instance was however recalled—“four + years ago.” + +Footnote 489: + + Schrank, _loc. cit._, Vol. II, p. 209. + +Footnote 490: + + _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 375. + +Footnote 491: + + _Report, French Commission_, p. 110. + +Footnote 492: + + Pinkus, _loc. cit._, p. 108, with notes. In Möller’s cases at + Stockholm, 67.7% of the infected men admitted intoxication. + _Zeitschrift_ V., p. 301. + +Footnote 493: + + _Zeitschrift_ IX, p. 103. + +Footnote 494: + + This is well discussed by Oppenheim and Neugebauer in _Zeitschrift_ + XII, pp 306–7. One-half of the men interrogated were unable to give + definite answers. _Ditto_, p. 314. + +Footnote 495: + + _Zeitschrift_ XII, pp. 6–7. + +Footnote 496: + + _Ditto._ It is, of course, clear that these figures are vitiated by + the poor quality of the examinations; but undoubtedly, whatever her + own condition, the bordell prostitute can contaminate more men, if she + is herself diseased—as our argument proves her to be—and, in any + event, she is so situated as to act as a passive carrier more largely. + +Footnote 497: + + Referat, _loc. cit._, p. 104. + +Footnote 498: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 69. + +Footnote 499: + + _Zeitschrift_ VIII, p. 399. + +Footnote 500: + + The system is fully described by Weidanz in _Zeitschrift_ XIV, pp. 88, + etc. It is to be observed that nothing is said as to the amount of + disease contracted by men. + +Footnote 501: + + It is stated that 22,000 sublimate of mercury pastilles were used by + them last year. + +Footnote 502: + + _Zeitschrift_ IV, p. 81. + +Footnote 503: + + The absurdity of ignoring the male factor in any endeavor to lessen + disease is clearly shown by the following incident: In Christiania, in + 1910, among those applying for free treatment of venereal disease, + were 21 women who named their husbands as the source of infection, 6 + men who named their wives. + +Footnote 504: + + _Report, French Commission, Annexes_, p. 54. + +Footnote 505: + + Scheven, _loc. cit._, p. 11. + +Footnote 506: + + Lack of space makes a fuller historical account impossible in this + volume. The reader will find the details in “_The Social Evil: a + Report_” (New York, 1912) pp. 163–196. + +Footnote 507: + + This topic will be exhaustively considered in Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick’s + forthcoming volume _The European Police_ in this same series. I touch + it briefly here for the reason that appears in the text. + +Footnote 508: + + Lindenau grants this by implication. He argues for a change of law on + the ground that thus “an end will be put to the reproach that + controlled prostitutes are exposed to the caprice of subaltern police + officers on account of the details of the rules.” _Loc. cit._, p. 27. + +Footnote 509: + + “La visite est la seule excuse de ce règlement de police arbitraire.” + Reuss: “_La Prostitution au point de vue de l’hygiène et de + l’administration_.” Paris, 1889, p. 788. Quoted by Schmölder in + “_Staat und Prostitution_.” (Berlin, 1900), p. 13. + +Footnote 510: + + There is also an element of luck that ought to be taken into account. + Some girls fall into the hands of the morals police because they + happen to be caught doing things which others have done and continue + to do with impunity. + +Footnote 511: + + Vagabondage is elsewhere also the prime factor in registration. A + prominent Belgian publicist said to me in reference to Brussels: “Only + the women who are poor suffer from the law.” See also Chapter IX for + the _Danish law on Vagabondage_. + +Footnote 512: + + Rule 11. + +Footnote 513: + + Rule 6. + +Footnote 514: + + Rule 7. + +Footnote 515: + + _Obligations et Défenses imposées aux filles publiques._ + +Footnote 516: + + Rules 14, 15. + +Footnote 517: + + _Loc. cit._, pp. 23, 180. + +Footnote 518: + + Turot, _loc. cit._, pp. 33, 35. See also Commenge, _loc. cit._, Ch. + II. + +Footnote 519: + + _Police Report_, _loc. cit._, p. 72. I cannot make out whether + rearrests are included in these figures,—probably not. + +Footnote 520: + + _Zeitschrift_ I, p. 298. + +Footnote 521: + + Johansson in _Report, Swedish Commission_, Vol. III, p. 11. + +Footnote 522: + + _Ibid._, p. 123. + +Footnote 523: + + For example, the following table shows number of breaches of rules on + the part of the few hundred inscribed prostitutes of Stockholm: + + 1903 1904 1905 1906 + 9,908 8,191 7,159 7,515 + +Footnote 524: + + This is the situation above adverted to as leading to corruption and + injustice. + +Footnote 525: + + This appears to be especially true of Paris, where I was assured of + the fact by many persons prominent in public life,—senators, former + Cabinet Ministers, economists and physicians. My notes show their + names, which are in not a few cases honorably known the world over. I + regret that I do not feel warranted in giving them here. + +Footnote 526: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 83. + +Footnote 527: + + Strictly speaking, no community can be an abolition community unless + it has previously had regulation; but in this chapter—and indeed + generally—the term abolition is also applied to cities that, without + ever having had regulation, are opposed to the adoption of that or any + similar policy; and persons are called abolitionists if they are + opposed to the things implied by regulation. + +Footnote 528: + + Following the division made in discussing regulation, I shall in this + chapter deal with order only; disease is remanded to the succeeding + chapter. + +Footnote 529: + + A very convenient manual of English Law dealing with all phases of the + subject is available: W. A. Bewes, “_A Manual of Vigilance Law_” (2nd + Edition by W. F. Crails), London, 1905. The law dealing with + solicitation is summarized and luminously discussed in the Report of + the Royal Commission upon the duties of the Metropolitan Police, Vol + I, p. 323 (London, 1908). This report will be referred to in this + chapter as _Report, Roy. Com._ + +Footnote 530: + + _Towns Police Clauses Act, 1847_, Section 28. The Vagrancy Act of 1824 + may also be invoked against a “prostitute wandering in the public + street or in any place of public resort and behaving in a riotous or + indecent manner.” c. 83, Section 3. + +Footnote 531: + + _I. e._, patrolman or policeman. + +Footnote 532: + + Summary conviction does not mean that the woman is without witnesses + or attorney. + +Footnote 533: + + By 2 and 3 Victoria c. 47, subs. 11. + +Footnote 534: + + There are no statutory provisions expressly relating to the annoyance + of women by men in the streets. The Royal Commission was however of + opinion that insults of this kind could be dealt with under the + _Metropolitan Police Act_, 1839, Section 54, 13. See _Report_, pp. 33, + 118–120. + +Footnote 535: + + Manual, p. 8, where cases are cited. + +Footnote 536: + + Russell on _Crimes_ (6th Edition) Vol. I, p. 740. + +Footnote 537: + + _Crim. Law Amend. Act_, 1885, c. 49, Section 13. + +Footnote 538: + + _Report Roy. Com._, _loc. cit._, p. 124. + +Footnote 539: + + This is especially true in respect to the communication of venereal + contagion; but consideration of this portion of the Scandinavian + statutes is postponed to the next chapter. + +Footnote 540: + + All Norwegian laws bearing on this subject have been brought together + in a special pamphlet issued by the Norwegian Law Journal (_Norsk + Lovtidende_). A useful compilation, unfortunately no longer up to date + is: A. Faerden, _Exposé des dispositions pénales concernant les délits + contre les moeurs dans divers pays_. (Christiania, 1891.) + +Footnote 541: + + Section 1. I utilize a German translation of the Danish law; it is + called, _Gesetz zur Bekämpfung der öffentlichen Unsittlichkeit und der + venerischen Ansteckung_ (Berlin, 1907). + +Footnote 542: + + _Ibid._, Section 2. + +Footnote 543: + + _Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlander._ No. 130, Section 250 + bis. The sections of the penal code are supplemented by local + ordinances. + +Footnote 544: + + _Algemeene Politie Verordening_ Sections 201, 202. + +Footnote 545: + + _Ibid._, Section 205a. + +Footnote 546: + + _Ibid._, Section 205 bis. + +Footnote 547: + + The Swiss laws are brought together in Weiss’s book already cited. + +Footnote 548: + + This explains the continued existence of regulation in Geneva, where + the French influence is still strong. A new Federal Criminal Code is, + however, now in preparation. I am informed by jurists of high standing + that the new law will surely contain provisions which will forbid + cantonal regulation by means of a general Federal enactment. + +Footnote 549: + + _Strafgesetzbuch für den Kanton Zürich_, Sections 119, 120, 121. + +Footnote 550: + + _Strafgesetzbuch für den Kanton Zürich_, Section 128. + +Footnote 551: + + _Report, Roy. Com._, p. 125 (somewhat abridged). + +Footnote 552: + + The importance of this factor from a practical point of view is made + clear by the following considerations: “Solicitation _per se_ is not + an offence.” (_Report, Roy. Com._, p. 119). “In a prosecution under + the Metropolitan Police Act there must be evidence sufficient to + satisfy the magistrate that the woman is a prostitute. Next, there + must be evidence as to the actions of the woman showing that she was + loitering in a thoroughfare or public place for the purpose of + prostitution or solicitation; and, lastly, there must be evidence that + her action was to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers.” + _Ibid._, p. 49. + +Footnote 553: + + _Duty Hints, Metropolitan Police_, p. 11. + +Footnote 554: + + As a rule, the police observe a suspected disorderly house on the + request of the borough authorities, to whom results are communicated; + the aforesaid authorities act by warrant or otherwise. Social and + other organizations occasionally instigate prosecutions. + +Footnote 555: + + “Prostitutes cannot legally be taken into custody simply because they + _are_ prostitutes; to justify their apprehension they must commit some + distinct act which is an offence against the law.” _Report Roy. Com._, + p. 49 (quoting White Book of the Department, pp. 338–9). + +Footnote 556: + + _Duty Hints_, pp. 48, 57. + +Footnote 557: + + _Duty Hints_, pp. 35, 54. + +Footnote 558: + + Testimony of _Sir Edward Henry_, _Report, Roy. Com._ + +Footnote 559: + + _Report, Roy. Com._, p. 93. + +Footnote 560: + + _Ibid._, Return 7, XII, XIII. + +Footnote 561: + + The term “bordell,” properly meaning a licensed, recognized, or + tolerated house of prostitution, is not employed at all in Great + Britain. + +Footnote 562: + + These brothels not infrequently occupy the upper floors of buildings + in Regent Street and Bond Street, the floors below being occupied by + fashionable shops. + +Footnote 563: + + The following are all brothel advertisements clipped from a popular + one-penny weekly: + + Skilful Treatment for Muscular Ailments given daily. Hours 12:30 till + 7.—Shepherd, Edgeware Road, Marble Arch, W. (entrance in Little Queen + Street). Assistant wanted at once. + + * * * * * + + Care of hands and nails.—Miss ——, Court Chambers, Marylebone Rd., 2nd + Floor (entrance in Seymour Place). Assisted by specialist from Paris. + Hours 12 to 7. Three languages spoken. Assistant wanted. + + * * * * * + + Electrical treatment for all muscular ailments.—Apply Nurse, —— Warren + Street, Tottenham Court Road (adjoining Warren Street Tube), 1st + floor. Hours, 12 till 8. + + * * * * * + + Newly opened Establishment.—Miss ——, Nail Specialist, —— Shaftesbury + Avenue, Piccadilly Circus, W. + + * * * * * + + Specific Treatment for Rheumatism by Madame ——, —— Manchester Street, + Manchester Square, W. + + * * * * * + + A Trained Nurse Has Special Oils for Muscular Ailments.—Apply —— + Allsop Place, Flat D (entrance floor) next Madame Tussaud’s, Baker + Street Sta. + + * * * * * + + French lady would receive a few paying guests in her well-appointed + and newly-decorated house.—Apply Madame ——, Hugh St., Victoria (Two + Minutes from Station). Side entrance. Assistant wanted. + + * * * * * + + Sciatica and Rheumatism. + + Skilfully treated by nurse. Also care of the feet. —— Glass-house + Street, Regent Street; one minute Piccadilly Circus. Hours, 12 to 7. + Saturday, 12 to 6. + + * * * * * + + French lessons and conversation + Given by + Madame ——, 1 Oxford Street, W. + Hours 1 to 9. + + * * * * * + + In a single number of this sheet there are 44 unmistakable + advertisements of this kind. A few weeks later, the above + advertisements had mostly disappeared, new ones taking their place. + +Footnote 564: + + Report, July 31, 1911. + +Footnote 565: + + Compiled from the _Reports of the Commissioner of Police_. Acton, + _loc. cit._, pp. 4, 6, give police returns for 1841, 1857 and 1868. + +Footnote 566: + + In 29 cases charges were proved and order made without conviction. + +Footnote 567: + + In 34 cases charges were proved and order made without conviction. + +Footnote 568: + + In 37 cases charges were proved and order made without conviction. + +Footnote 569: + + These women conduct brothels in the sense that there are several + “nurses” or “assistants” on the premises during business hours; if the + customer is not pleased, photographs of available girls are shown and + almost any desired type is promised on appointment. + +Footnote 570: + + _Report, Royal Commission_, p. 124. + +Footnote 571: + + _Report, Royal Commission_, p. 100. + +Footnote 572: + + _Ibid._, p. 101. + +Footnote 573: + + Whether the police even now make full use of their power to clear the + streets is a matter on which opinions differ. Certain witnesses before + the Royal Commission indulged in criticism (_Report_, p. 81). The + Commission ultimately came to a conclusion on the whole favorable to + the police. In my own opinion, it is impossible to reach a single and + simple verdict. London is better or worse according to the requirement + of more or less localized public opinion, the general tendency being + towards improvement. + +Footnote 574: + + _Ibid._, p. 129, slightly abridged. Sir Edward Henry’s evidence is + fully sustained by that of Mr. Coote, p. 83. + +Footnote 575: + + The National Government is, however, not wholly without power even + over provincial police forces. Mr. Fosdick will give details in the + book previously referred to. + +Footnote 576: + + In Glasgow the number of licensed premises has steadily declined from + 1,819 in 1892 to 1,565 in 1911. _City of Glasgow Police, Criminal + Returns_, 1911, p. 56. In Birmingham, the reduction has been relative, + not absolute; there were 2,163 licensed establishments in 1881, ratio + to population 1:188; 2,368 in 1911, ratio to population 1:354. + (_Report of Police Establishment_ 1911, p. 18.) + +Footnote 577: + + In Birmingham and Manchester there are no “flats” in the London sense. + +Footnote 578: + + _Report of Police Establishment_ 1910, p. 66 (Liverpool, 1911). + Similar information is contained in the corresponding reports of other + cities. + +Footnote 579: + + For Edinburgh statistics I am indebted to the courtesy of the chief + constable, R. Ross, Esq. It will be noted that in 1911 the number of + women arrested exceeds the number of known brothels. This is accounted + for by the fact that the brothels contain several women each. + +Footnote 580: + + In the provincial cities as in London, women are more prominent in the + Arcades than in the streets, as Arcades are private property. + +Footnote 581: + + Communicated by Chief Constable. + +Footnote 582: + + _Report_, 1910, p. 67 (slightly abridged). + +Footnote 583: + + _Criminal Returns_, 1911, p. 6. + +Footnote 584: + + _Report_, _loc. cit._, p. 45. + +Footnote 585: + + _The Shield_, Nov.-Dec., 1911, p. 78. + +Footnote 586: + + _Reglementeringen i Stockholm_, pp. 91–92. + +Footnote 587: + + The documents in the case are: _Memorandum on a Social Evil in + Glasgow_, published by authority of the Parish Council, October, 1911; + _Social Evil in Glasgow, Report by the Chief Constable_. + +Footnote 588: + + I refer by this description to spurious cigar shops, manicure + establishments, etc. + +Footnote 589: + + This particular form of humbug is impossible in Austria-Hungary where + the sale of tobacco is an imperial monopoly. + +Footnote 590: + + There are between fifty and sixty of these shops in Zurich. At times a + servant is saleswoman; the prostitute herself lolls in the rear room. + +Footnote 591: + + It is no uncommon error for regulationists to suppose that these + abominations occur only or mainly in abolition towns. Such a mistake + appears to be implied in the account of Zurich by Müller and Zürcher, + _Zeitschrift_, XIV, p. 205. + +Footnote 592: + + Weiss, _loc. cit._, p. 125. + +Footnote 593: + + The word pandering is here used in a very broad sense, as a + translation of “Kuppelei” which includes all forms of promoting + prostitution. + +Footnote 594: + + Müller and Zürcher, in _Zeitschrift_, XIV, p. 198. + +Footnote 595: + + Personally communicated by police head. + +Footnote 596: + + I. e., Violation of Section 2 of the laws of 1906. + +Footnote 597: + + The number of women enrolled had been as high as 700. + +Footnote 598: + + For a detailed discussion of this point see a paper by E. M. Hoff, + “_On the Effects of the Law of March 30, 1906_” (Copenhagen, 1909). + Dr. Hoff, quoting an unfavorable utterance by Judge Cold respecting + “the armies of loose women in the Vesterbro quarter,” remarks: “If we + should go out to the Vesterbro in the expectation of unpleasant + experience in the way of public morals, we should be disappointed. + Vesterbro makes the impression of not having changed essentially since + the passage of the law. There is certainly no offence to be feared by + anyone walking through the streets; of course loose women whose manner + is not characterized by great reserve may be noted, but the same was + true formerly and had been true for years. In general, conditions can + fairly be described as quiet.” (p. 2, somewhat condensed.) I visited + the quarter at different hours, day and night, and fully concur in Dr. + Hoff’s contention that prostitution is not more conspicuous than in + similar neighborhoods elsewhere in Europe. + +Footnote 599: + + Völlig stumm. + +Footnote 600: + + _Reglementeringen i Stockholm_, pp. 132–3. + +Footnote 601: + + _Loc. cit._, p. 46. + +Footnote 602: + + _Ibid._, p. 47. + +Footnote 603: + + Weiss, _loc. cit._, p. 121. + +Footnote 604: + + Weiss, _loc. cit._, p. 123. + +Footnote 605: + + Regulation, of course, expressly recognized her right to do this, if + she were registered. + +Footnote 606: + + Page 329. + +Footnote 607: + + The penalty is the workhouse for 12 days, 18 days, etc., up to 90 + days. + +Footnote 608: + + Communicated by police authorities. + +Footnote 609: + + The police heads are careful to affirm that these figures indicate not + an increase of prostitution, but increased knowledge of its + whereabouts. + +Footnote 610: + + For the facts comprised in the foregoing account, I am indebted to the + courtesy of many officials in Holland, Denmark, and Norway. + +Footnote 611: + + Quoted in _Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweiz_, _loc. cit._, p. 37. + +Footnote 612: + + This force also has certain other duties. + +Footnote 613: + + Names are given when the physician feels that the patient is likely to + spread infection, or when the patient is sent into a hospital. + +Footnote 614: + + A copy of the following slip is given to the patient: + + Attention is called to the following sections of the Penal Code: + + Sec. 155. Whoever, with knowledge or conjecture that he is suffering + from a contagious sex disease, infects or exposes to infection another + person, by means of sexual intercourse or immoral contact, shall be + punished with imprisonment for not more than three years. + + The same punishment is provided for those who connive at enabling any + person who is known or suspected to be afflicted with a contagious sex + disease, to infect in the above manner or expose to infection, another + person. + + If the person infected, or exposed to infection, be married to the + guilty person, public prosecution shall take place only on application + by the injured party. + + Sec. 358. Imprisonment for six months or less is the punishment for + anyone who, without calling attention to the danger of infection, + + 1. Causes a child to be nursed, knowing or suspecting the child to be + afflicted with contagious syphilitic disease, or engages anyone to + nurse such child, or + + 2. Knowing or suspecting that he (or she) is suffering from contagious + syphilitic disease, enters the household of another as servant, or + remains in such service, or receives a strange child to nurse it, or + aids in bringing about such conditions. + + The same punishment is provided for those who engage or, having + engaged, retain, any person known or suspected to suffer from + contagious syphilitic disease, as nurse for a child, or who aids in + bringing about such engagement or retention in service. + +Footnote 615: + + I herewith acknowledge, that Dr. —— has called my attention to the + following points: + + 1. That I am suffering from _Syphilis_. + + 2. That my disease is contagious for at least .. years. + + 3. That I am punishable, if I in any way expose others to infection. + + Copies of Penal Code, Sections 155 and 358 received. + + Date. + Signature. + +Footnote 616: + + The invitation is as follows: + + Christiania Health Board, + Second Health Inspector. + + You are respectfully requested to report at the office at No. 55 Akers + Street, third floor, ............... as it is desired to talk to you. + + Christiania, the .......... 19.. + +Footnote 617: + + Hoff, _loc. cit._, p. 5. + +Footnote 618: + + For the text of the statute, translated into English, see Appendix. + +Footnote 619: + + It should be mentioned that in Germany too a start has been made in + this direction. + + Section 223 of the German Penal Code can be invoked against any + person “injuring the health of another;” the penalty is imprisonment + up to three years or fine up to 1,000 marks. There is considerable + agitation in favor of provisions explicitly aimed at venereal + disease. See, e. g., M. Homburger, _Die strafrechtliche Bedeutung + der Geschlechtskrankheiten_, _Zeitschrift_ XI, pp. 28, 63, and 205. + +Footnote 620: + + This is an important variation from the Norwegian prototype and + indicates the compromise spirit that here and there appears in the + Danish law. + +Footnote 621: + + The law does not require that the name of the patient be reported, but + it must be correctly given to the physician. + +Footnote 622: + + Slips containing instructions as to the nature of the disease, the + patient’s proper conduct while under treatment and the penalties to + which misconduct may lead are also, as in Norway, handed to him or + her. + +Footnote 623: + + Its dimensions are 17″ × 26″. + +Footnote 624: + + _Sanitary Laws_, revised text, Section III, Articles 136–156. + +Footnote 625: + + _Ibid._, Article 144. + +Footnote 626: + + Ministry of the Interior, Direction-General of Public Health. + Telegraphic Circular to the Prefects of the Kingdom: “_The Prophylaxis + of Venereal Diseases_.” (Abridged.) + +Footnote 627: + + If the woman objects, examination can be made only if ordered by the + court. As a matter of fact, objection is rare, as the courts would not + hesitate to grant the necessary authority. + +Footnote 628: + + This provision was in a somewhat different form included in the + _Regulatory Statute of 1866_, where it was provided that a registered + prostitute could be punished if she knowingly communicated infection; + but punishments were rare, since the girl could always shield herself + behind the fact that the police surgeons had pronounced her well—an + interesting illustration of the way in which the medical examination + may defeat its own object. + +Footnote 629: + + His views are stated in his _Report to the Tenth International + Congress of Hygiene and Demography_, held at Paris, 1900. + +Footnote 630: + + Dr. Hoff points out (_loc. cit._, p. 8) that similar police assistance + may also be procured by the health authorities in dealing with other + contagious or infectious maladies. Practically, however, it would seem + that the cases are not entirely analogous, since one of the main + difficulties in getting control of venereal disease lies in the police + association with the subject which has to be effaced. Moreover, the + repugnance to publicity, and the sense of shame attending venereal + infection are also factors to be reckoned with. + +Footnote 631: + + I take the case of an infected man; the same process applies to an + infected woman who is free to denounce the man responsible for her + condition. + +Footnote 632: + + The action of the police is based on Section 181 of the Penal Code + reading as follows: + + Sec. 181. When anyone knowing or suspecting himself to be infected + with venereal contagion, has intercourse with another person, + punishment by imprisonment shall be imposed, or, under aggravating + circumstances, detention at hard labor in the House of Correction. + +Footnote 633: + + Oppenheim and Neugebauer (_Zeitschrift_ XII, p. 314) give the results + of an endeavor to locate the sources of 2,472 infections; 1,365 of + those afflicted were unable or refused to give any helpful + information. Some patients desire to screen their partners; some are + plainly unreliable; others have offended so frequently that their + answers are mere guesses. See _Ibid._, p. 306. + +Footnote 634: + + Compiled from _Police Reports_. Slight discrepancies in the totals are + due to the occasional appearance of the same person more than once. + +Footnote 635: + + A case was reported of a man who kept a list of those he supposed + himself to have infected. + +Footnote 636: + + A counter advantage ought also to be mentioned. The fear of a possible + denunciation probably induces some who find themselves diseased to + submit to treatment. And a counter disadvantage: women are much more + often denounced than men,—a survival of the unfairness of regulation. + +Footnote 637: + + These figures may be found in the Health Reports of Copenhagen. For + the form in which they appear above I am indebted to the courtesy of + Inspector Schepelern-Larsen. + +Footnote 638: + + Annexes, _loc. cit._, p. 263. + +Footnote 639: + + Some of these were partly compensated by being made dispensary + physicians. + +Footnote 640: + + Originally the physicians made a monthly report. + +Footnote 641: + + R. W. Johnstone, _Report on Venereal Diseases_ (Local Government + Board, London, 1913) p. 1. + +Footnote 642: + + _Ibid._, p. 20. + +Footnote 643: + + _Ditto_ (all slightly abridged). + +Footnote 644: + + White and Melville, _Venereal Disease, its Present and Future_. Paper + read at Annual Congress of Royal Institute of Public Health, held at + Dublin, August, 1911, p. 15. + +Footnote 645: + + _The Prevention of Destitution_ (London, 1912) p. 33. See also notes, + pp. 43, 44. + +Footnote 646: + + Such data as exist can be found in various treatises on venereal + disease; e. g., in Blaschko, _Hygiene der Prostitution_. Summarized + statements are given by White and Melville, _loc. cit._, etc. + +Footnote 647: + + Blaschko’s summary of the defects of the statistical procedure is well + worth reproducing. Three methods have been employed: + + (1) Comparison of amount of disease found among inscribed + prostitutes with that found among non-inscribed prostitutes. + The latter is higher, but that is due less to lack of medical + control than to the lower age. + + (2) Inquiry as to source of infection. Not significant since we know + nothing of the ratio of the two groups (registered and + non-registered) to the number of their customers respectively. + + (3) a. Comparison of the incidence of venereal disease in places + with and without regulation. + + b. Comparison before and after abolition. + + c. Comparison of places where regulation has been strict with + places where it has fluctuated. These ignore other factors + that greatly influence the phenomenon in question. (Art. + _Die Prostitution_, pp. 1243–44, abridged). + +Footnote 648: + + _Hygiene der Prostitution_, _loc. cit._, p. 31. If the incidence of + gonorrhœa is placed at 200%, the average is two attacks. + +Footnote 649: + + _Ibid._, p. 32. + +Footnote 650: + + _Verhütung der Geschlechtskrankheiten_, p. 7. + +Footnote 651: + + _Ibid._, p. 21. + +Footnote 652: + + To the Prussian blank it is stated only 63.45% of the physicians + applied to responded. _Report, Swedish Com._, Vol. III, p. 1. + +Footnote 653: + + _Ibid._, pp. 15–10. + +Footnote 654: + + The laws were suspended in 1884. + +Footnote 655: + + The complete statistics taken from the _Army Medical Reports_ are as + follows: + + ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + Total number of + Report for the Recruits + Year Inspected Recruits rejected For Syphilis + „ „ Number Per 1,000 + SLIGHT REGULATION + 1866 20,410 338 16.56 + 1867 26,646 440 16.51 + 1868 23,543 303 12.88 + 1869 17,749 291 16.40 + + REGULATION AT ITS HEIGHT + 1870 38,408 606 15.78 + 1871 36,212 593 16.38 + 1872 28,390 445 15.67 + 1873 24,895 411 16.51 + 1874 30,557 481 15.74 + 1875 25,878 327 12.63 + 1876 41,809 634 15.16 + 1877 43,803 680 15.52 + 1878 43,867 665 15.16 + 1879 42,668 573 13.43 + 1880 46,108 538 11.67 + 1881 47,444 593 12.50 + 1882 45,423 487 10.72 + + REGULATION SUSPENDED + 1883 59,436 583 9.81 + 1884 66,882 707 10.57 + 1885 72,249 706 9.77 + + ABOLITION + 1886 74,991 613 8.18 + 1887 60,976 494 8.10 + 1888 49,172 382 7.77 + 1889 53,904 358 6.64 + 1890 55,367 351 6.34 + 1891 61,322 300 4.9 + 1892 68,761 318 4.62 + 1893 64,110 314 4.90 + 1894 61,985 315 5.09 + 1895 55,698 194 3.48 + 1896 54,574 202 3.71 + 1897 59,986 208 3.47 + 1898 66,502 258 3.88 + 1899 68,087 182 2.67 + 1900 84,402 188 2.22 + 1901 76,750 177 2.31 + 1902 87,609 238 2.72 + 1903 69,533 211 3.03 + 1904 70,346 178 2.53 + 1905 66,703 156 2.34 + 1906 62,371 170 2.73 + 1907 59,393 107 1.80 + 1908 61,278 113 1.84 + 1909 50,208 89 1.77 + 1910 45,671 71 1.55 + 1911 48,178 89 1.85 + + From the foregoing table one must not infer that syphilis in the + general population of Great Britain is rapidly decreasing, for it is + impossible to say whether the recruits are fairly representative. See + Johnstone, _loc. cit._, p. 8. + +Footnote 656: + + Complete figures are as follows: See page 375. + +Footnote 657: + + For this drawing and the next I am indebted to Col. Melville. + +Footnote 658: + + From C. H. Melville, “_The History and Epidemiology of Syphilis in the + more Important Armies_,” in _A System of Syphilis_ by D’Arcy Power and + J. K. Murphy (London, 1910) Vol. VI, pp. 96–98 (abridged). + +Footnote 659: + + This is not included in Figure I. It is shown, however, on + “Kurventafel A” along with all other foreign and American armies and + navies in Josef Urbach’s _Die Geschlechtskrankheiten und ihre + Verhütung im k. und k. Heere_, etc. (Wien und Leipzig, 1912) p. 13. + +Footnote 660: + + _Reglementeringen i Stockholm_, pp. 130–2. + +Footnote 661: + + The main authority consulted in the above discussion is: Otto von + Schjerning, _Sanitätsstatistische Betrachtungen über Volk und Heer_ + (Berlin, 1910) pp. 59–67. A general discussion of conditions in + European Armies is given by Col. Melville, _loc. cit._, pp. 58–72. + Urbach’s book, above referred to, gives the most recent and complete + account of the Austrian-Hungarian army and navy with frequent + references to other nations. None of these authorities are + particularly interested in the question of regulation versus + abolition, so that the facts are stated by them without reference to + their bearing on this controversy. M. Augagneur (_loc. cit._) + discusses army statistics with close reference to our topic. + +Footnote 662: + + Dr. Yngvar Ustvedt, Sundhetsinspector, _Beretning om de veneriske + sygdomme i Kristiania_, 1911 (1912) pp. 6, 7. + +Footnote 663: + + They are taken from the report mentioned in the next note. + +Footnote 664: + + _Aarsberetning angaaende Sundhedstilstandet i København_ for 1910. + (Copenhagen, 1911) p. 36. The figures for 1911 above given were + contributed by Stadslæge Dr. E. M. Hoff. + +Footnote 665: + + _Ibid._, p. 37. + +Footnote 666: + + From “Om luesoverfrelse,” (_Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening._ + Nr. 5 of 6, 1912). + +Footnote 667: + + The above comparison is partly based on Dr. Krefting’s dissertation + above cited, and on a manuscript essay in French, unpublished as yet + at the time of my visit to Christiania, which Dr. Krefting courteously + placed at my disposal. + +Footnote 668: + + I have throughout this volume refrained from attaching much importance + to mere opinions as to the results of experience with either of the + policies in question. It is indeed amazing to observe what definite + convictions are based on brief or one-sided experience or on hearsay + evidence, and this is true of abolitionists and regulationists alike. + Though opinion is thus of little weight, a change of opinion forced by + the failure of prophesied ill results to materialize may be not + without significance; and of such change there is abundant evidence in + both Christiania and Copenhagen. In the former, as late as 1898, a + discussion in the Norwegian Medical Society (reported in _Prostitution + i Kristiania_, 1899) showed the existence of regulationists in the + medical profession. Their views were vigorously combated by City + Physician Bentzen and others who proved that regulated Norwegian towns + were liable to precisely the same fluctuations that followed abolition + at Christiania (pp. 36–38). By the time of my visit (fourteen years + later) the voice of the regulationists—so I was everywhere assured—had + practically become silent—a change of attitude hardly open to + misconstruction. In Copenhagen the issue is more recent and more + controversial; but the trend of opinion appears to be in the same + direction. I was assured that it would be practically impossible to + find a physician who desired a return to the old system; Professor + Ehlers, a distinguished specialist, declared, “There is absolutely no + professional sentiment any longer in favor of regulation; the + situation is probably better and most certainly no worse”; another + physician stated: “Nothing has been lost, even if it is not yet easy + to prove what has been gained”; Dr. Hoff, the Health Officer, assured + me that regulation sentiment had entirely died out among the medical + profession. But the best proof is after all the steady encroachment of + abolition: Copenhagen would not have imitated Christiania had + abolition aggravated conditions there; now Stockholm is about to + follow suit: does not this indicate a growing and spreading disbelief + in the efficacy of regulation and a growing confidence in the + advantages of abolition? + +Footnote 669: + + E. g., the Boer War, which undoubtedly accounts for the rise in the + English army curve 1900–1903. See Figure II, p. 370. + +Footnote 670: + + In Germany, slot-machines were at one time set up in barracks and on + board warships from which for a small coin protective remedies could + be procured, but popular objection has forced their removal on the + ground that their presence suggested debauch and deceived soldiers and + sailors. But the remedies are still easily procurable; of their value, + there is grave doubt. See Melville, _loc. cit._, pp. 91–95; von + Schjerning, _loc. cit._, pp. 66, 67. + +Footnote 671: + + The Society was founded by Dr. Blaschko, and publishes the valuable + journal which I have freely cited. + +Footnote 672: + + Translation of the most recent Règlement dated October, 1878. + +Footnote 673: + + The Cour de Cassation has rendered several decisions (June 30, 1838; + July 14, 1838; March 30, 1839) to the effect that the procès-verbaux + and reports of the inspectors of police are not in themselves + sufficient, in the absence of additional proof, to establish the fact + that the infractions have occurred. The same is true of a + procès-verbal drawn up by a Commissaire of police, from the report of + an inspector of police, unless the former has verified the facts + himself. + + But these legal decisions do not deprive police officers of the right + to ascertain infractions; however, their reports must be confirmed + either by the admission of the delinquents that the facts are as + stated, or by such methods as the tribunal may consider it proper to + order. + +Footnote 674: + + Translation of the most recent regulations, dated Dec. 7, 1911. + +Footnote 675: + + Translation of most recent regulations, dated September 1, 1909. + +Footnote 676: + + Translation of most recent regulations, dated June 1, 1911. + +Footnote 677: + + _Landes-Gesetz und Regierungs-Blatt_, No. 39. + +Footnote 678: + + _Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt_, No. 89. + +Footnote 679: + + _Bezirks-Polizeikommissariaten._ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + Page Changed from Changed to + + 10 because gainfully employed, and because they are gainfully + being exempt from employed, and being exempt from + + 38 Statistiches Jahrbuch (Berlin, Statistisches Jahrbuch (Berlin, + 1910) pp. 242–3 1910) pp. 242–3 + + 207 und medizinizch-technischer und medizinisch-technischer + Dezernent in der Verwaltung Dezernent in der Verwaltung + + 277 Obligations et Défences inposées Obligations et Défenses imposées + aux filles publiques. aux filles publiques. + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Renumbered footnotes and moved them all to the end of the final + chapter. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=. + ● The caret (^) is used to indicate superscript, whether applied to a + single character (as in 2^d) or to an entire expression (as in + 1^{st}). + ● Images without captions use HTML alt text. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78293 *** |