Date Due 13 . Prostitution in Europe publications of tbe JSureau of Social ,Prostitution in Europe 1 A BY I \l ABRAHAM FLEXNER INTRODUCTION BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. Chairman of the Bureau of Social Hygiene NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1914 H GM17 F (rl? Copyright, 1914, by THE CENTURY Co. Published, January, 1914 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE i. PROSTITUTION : DEFINITION AND EXTENT . . 3 ii. THE DEMAND 39 in. 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 vin. 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 pub- lic commission as compared with a private organization. The opinion prevailed that a permanent, unofficial or- ganization, whose efforts would be continuous, would probably be more lasting and effective ; the Bureau of So- cial Hygiene was therefore established in the winter of 1911. Its present members are Miss Katharine Bement Davis, Superintendent of the New York State Reforma- tory 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. Rocke- feller, Jr. As was stated in the introduction to the previous vol- ume, spasmodic efforts to deal with the problem of pros- titution have been made from time to time throughout vii Introduction the course of history. They have failed for several rea- sons : 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; fi- nally, because they have been too explosive, too discon- tinuous, to be effective, even if soundly conceived. The first book of the present series, entitled, " Com- mercialized 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, car- ried on under his direction by a corps of trained investi- gators. 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 ex- perience is significant for America, the author describes prostitution in E'urope 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 con- troversial 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 viii Introduction 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 ques- tion the facts he has assembled will be highly pertinent to any discussion in this country as to the merits of pro- posed 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 Euro- pean police systems, by Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick, a mem- ber of the staff of the Bureau, and formerly Commis- sioner 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 sug- gested. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. New York, Nov. I, 1913. IX PROSTITUTION IN EUROPE 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. Im- morality distinguished from prostitution. Prevalence and signifi- cance 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 coun- tries. An effort will be made to ascertain its forms and extent, the sources from which it is recruited, the con- ditions 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 re- sults 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 coun- 1 The following cities were visited : London, Liverpool, Bir- mingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Lyons, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Frankfort-on-Main, Cologne, 3 Prostitution in Europe tries, 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 phenom- ena under consideration respond to differences of view- point or pressure by somewhat altering their external manifestations. The resulting divergencies are at times only superficial, at times important enough to affect, per- haps, the volume of vice itself. None the less at bottom the situation is sufficiently similar to support the general- ized 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 view- point, 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, increas- Hamm, Stuttgart, Munich, The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Cop- enhagen, Stockholm, Christiania, Geneva, Zurich, Vienna, Budapest. 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 cour- teously placed the proof sheets of the second volume at my dis- posal. Prostitution: Definition and Extent ingly easy arid unobstructed trading, the advance of in- dustrialism with the revision of the ethical code following in the wake of practical sex equality, finally, even delib- erate imitation are rapidly developing decided homo- geneity of attitude and effort in reference to many funda- mental human concerns. The student of the particular subject with which we are occupied is, therefore, nowa- days, more and more likely to be struck by the uniformity of phenomena rather than by local or national peculiar- ities, 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 depend- ent 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, Bag- dad, and Cairo numbered more than a million souls apiece, Seville and Cordova were each half as large. Be- side 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; Ham- burg, 18,000; Dresden, 5,000. Towns without water communication rarely reached 25,000; many important places did not exceed 5,ooo. 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 8 The evidence and authorities are exhaustively given by Bloch, loc. cit., Vol. I, pp. 685, etc. Constantinople became Islamic in 1453. Prostitution in Europe another; the family was still an intact organization; the floating population aside from organized move- ments 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 spir- itual 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 un- commonly 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 sub- sidiary communities that hang about their fringes. Ber- lin, for example, so late as 1816 a town of 197,000 in- habitants, contained in 1910, 2,071,257; Charlottenburg, to mention only one of the suburbs practically indistin- guishable 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; Buda- pest, 881,600; Munich, 596,467; Hamburg, 931,035; 6 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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,- ooo by nine contiguous self-governing suburbs which, for all practical purposes, merge into it. The mere quanti- tative 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 an- other, 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 speak- ing, one no longer knows one's nearest neighbors. Temp- tation and inducement wax strongest, precisely where protection and restraint have become feeblest; the con- ditions favor not only irresponsibility but concealment. The mere numerical increase and the absolute impossibil- ity of classifying women and men as virtuous or vicious on account of sheer ignorance of their life and char- 7 Prostitution in Europe acter thus profoundly differentiate medieval from mod- ern 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 un- mistakable 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 in- crease makes an enormous diffeience in the feasibility of measures designed to deal with one aspect or another of the situation. A device that might conceivably be effec- tive on the smaller scale would probably break down completely if applied on the larger. Economically, ad- ministratively, 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 ex- isted. 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 prosti- tute 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 pro- 8 Prostitution: Definition and Extent fessional, 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 pros- titute is only one, and perhaps not the most im- portant, 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. Differ- ent 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 prosti- tution. From the police point of view the prostitute is therefore an inscribed woman, or a woman who, some- how 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 promis- 4 It looks like a contradiction in terms to speak of known clan- destine prostitution. Current usage on the Continent construes " professional prostitute " to mean a woman who has been regis- tered 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 be- come so numerous in modern towns. 9 Prostitution in Europe cuity. 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 dan- cers of low grade Varietes are prostitutes who obtain their customers by means of their occupations; yet they are usually exempt from inscription as professional prosti- tutes because gainfully employed, and being exempt from inscription they fall outside the police definition of pro- fessional prostitution. The mere fact that partial or even pretended employment is a protection against police inter- ference leads many prostitutes to keep up a more or less nominal connection with work. Of 1,177 venereally dis- eased 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, follow- ing 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 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. 6 Miiller : Zur Kenntnis der Prostitution in Zurich. (Zurich, 1911), pp. ii and 44. Abundant additional illustrations will ap- pear in subsequent chapters, e. g. Chap. Ill, V, VII, etc. 7 A.-J.-B. Parent-Duchatelet: De la Prostitution dans la Vills de Paris. (2 volumes, Paris, 1857) Vol. I, p. 25. IO Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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 character- ized 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 choice- less; a woman is not the less a prostitute because she is more or less selective in her associations. Emotional in- difference may be fairly inferred from barter and prom- iscuity. In this sense, any person is a prostitute who habitually or intermittently has sexual relations more or less promiscuously for money or other mercenary con- sideration. 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 prosti- tute, 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 ii Prostitution in Europe who carry on more or less prostitution without interrupt- ing some honorable employment; of women who practise prostitution under cloak of other occupations; of women, who ceasing to be kept as mistresses practise prostitu- tion as a stop-gap until a firmer footing is once more found; of women who reserve themselves by express ar- rangement for a small group, none of whom can alone afford their support; of women, who faithul to one in- dividual 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 irre- proachable 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 con- ception of prostitution, but nevertheless belonging to prostitution, if prostitution is conceived to be character- ized by barter, emotional indifference, and promiscuity. For this broad construction there exist the most sub- stantial 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 per- sonal demoralization it entails ; in the second, because of economic waste ; again, because it is by far the main fac- tor in the spread of venereal disease; finally, because of its intimate association with disorder or crime. Unques- 8 Adrien Mithouard in Rapports au nom de la 2* Commission sur la Prostitution, etc. (Conseil Municipal de Paris, 1904) p. no. A. Moll: Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften (Leipzig, 1912) / P- 354. describes the same type as known in Germany : " To clan- destine 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. 12 Prostitution: Definition and Extent tionably 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 objec- tion on these scores. Part-time prostitution, occasional prostitution, pretentious prostitution, all the various kinds and grades above enumerated naturally and inevi- tably conduce to similar results. They may be less con- spicuous or less offensive, but they are equally danger- ous. If then prostitution is objectionable because of demoralization, waste, disease, or crime, then it is neces- sary so to define it as to include all the varieties to which one or more of the unfortunate results in questions is at- tributable. The lowest forms are most closely con- nected with crime and disorder, and as the police are mainly concerned with crime and disorder, they con- tent themselves with a working conception of prostitu- tion that goes no further. But the general concern of so- ciety 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 vigor- ously enough to recover their self-respect ; and they in- volve enormous economic waste, increasing rather than diminishing with the degree of dignity with which the 13 Prostitution in Europe business is surrounded, so that what externally least re- sembles commercial prostitution is perhaps from the eco- nomic standpoint most severely to be reprobated as such. It is, however, in respect to disease that the wide defi- nition can be most readily and fully justified. Venereal disease is the certain harvest of any degree of promis- cuity 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 in- terference 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 cov- ering 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%, how- ever, to the occasional, incidental, and other prostitutes here explicitly included in the term; among whom girls in active service as waitresses, servants, and shop-hands are the most important. 10 A subsequent investigation of 594 cases disclosed 278 professionals and 316 over 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. 10 H. Loeb: Statistiches uber Geschlechtskrankheiten in Mann- heim. Zeitschrift fur Bekampfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten (Leipzig),. Band II, pp. 93 etc. Loeb admits a few persons whom 14 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 50% girls serving in one capacity or another (wait- ress, 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 sanita- tion absurd to limit prostitution to the absolutely in- discriminate, 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 simul- taneously engaged in paid employments in shops, tav- erns, 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 Avaitresses, 250 factory workers, 246 seamstresses, 60 are connected with the stage, 52 are laundresses, 40 dress- makers, 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 clandestities, par- tials, 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 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. 11 Lion & Loeb, Zeitschrift VII, p. 295. 12 F. Bloch : Die nicht-gewerbsmassige 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. 13 Georges Hebart: OiH, se prennent les malades veneriennes? These de Paris, 1906, pp. 31-34. 14 Zeitschrift, V., p. 286. 15 Prostitution in Europe 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 condi- tions in which barmaids, shop girls, servants, chorus- girls, etc., 15 are either permanently or intermittently en- gaged 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 promis- cuity 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 inci- dental discussion in an account of prostitution. Of these unconventional or irregular sex relationships there are in Western Europe many varieties, more or less wide- spread. Most substantial is the informal union which serves as a substitute for marriage. In these combina- tions mutual fidelity is expected, as well as complete 15 See, for example, Miiller, loc. cit., pp. 11-13. 16 Prostitution: Definition and Extent responsibility for such children as may be born. A com- bination of this sort is occasionally permanent; occa- sionally 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 ; 1G the shop girl contracts an alliance of this kind with a clerk of her own class, or not infre- quently 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 in- tervention of the divorce court, and " as a rule, are faith- ful 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 io%. 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 16 Paul Kampffmeyer : Die Prostitution als soziale Klassen- erscheinung, (Berlin, 1905) p. 26. 17 Charles Booth : Life and Labor in London (final volume, Lon- don, 1903) p. 41. 18 Ibid p. 42. 19 Statistisches Jahrbuch fur das Deutsche Reich quoted by J. Marcuse: Die Beschrankung der Geburtensahl (Munich, 1913) p. 22. 17 Prostitution in Europe 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 re- garded," 21 writes Charles Booth of London. Devon, de- scribing 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 de- cency is observed, morals are taken for granted." 22 On the Continent these conditions also exist. " Extra-mari- tal, especially pre-marital intercourse is everywhere in the country very frequent," 23 declares Moll. Of cer- tain communities in Saxony it has been deliberately as- serted 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 20 Adele Schreiber: Mutferschaft (Munich, 1912) p. 260. 21 Loc. cit., p. 44. 22 James Devon: The Criminal and the Community (London and New York, 1912) p. 158. 23 Moll: loc. cit., p. 371. Also: Kampffmeyer : loc. cit., p. 20. 24 Wohlrabe : Schaden und Gefahren der sexuellen Unsittlich- keit (Leipzig, 1908) pp. 8-10. Fuller accounts have been published by Wittenberg and Hikkstadt: Die geschlechtlich-sittlichen Ver- halinisse der evangelischen Landbewohner im Deutschen Reich (Leipzig, 1895). These authors are all clergymen and may take too unfavorable a view. 18 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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 Stock- holm. 25 Episodic laxity unquestionably exposes the girl to dan- gers that readily result in prostitution, just as it de- velops 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 eth- ical quality. An irregular sex relation may indicate only carelessness of the convention that restricts sexual con- gress to the married relation; it may, at the other ex- treme, indicate total indifference to the ethical standard that forbids sexual commerce unaccompanied by high emotional sanction, mutual respect, complete responsi- bility 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 pros- titute so long as her relations, emotionally indifferent and mercenary though they be, are free from promiscu- ity. 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 ear- marks of modern prostitution that thousands who floun- 25 Zeitschrift, Vol. XI, p. 410. An opinion differing somewhat from that in the text is held by J. Kyrle, Zeitschrift VIII, p. 352. 19 Prostitution in Europe der 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 power- ful drift is nevertheless outwards; while some are over- whelmed, 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 prosti- tution; the third month she will have her position again and be freed from the requirement to undergo inspec- tion; thus the thing shifts for years and years." 27 Dur- ing the first three years of registration a considerable number of the women leave Stockholm, give up pros- titution and become domestic servants or factory hands. 28 This has been the case since modern urban 26 This will appear clearly in the statistics given in Chap. V. - 27 7 Reglementeringsfragen; (Upsala, 1911) p. 63. 2S 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 prostitu- tion. 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: Prostitution: Definition and Extent conditions began : " Let us recollect," wrote Par- ent-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 in- discriminate 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 there- fore 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 mo- ment, 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 f 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 en- rolment, their return to a normal mode of life is much facilitated." Ibid., p. 43. 2 Loc cit., Vol. I, p. 584. 80 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 ("sante 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 21 Prostitution in Europe the avowed professional or registered continental har- lot 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 be- ginning 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 prac- tice of professional prostitution during more than five years. 32 Again, the average annual registration of pro- fessionals with the Paris police between 1888 and 1903 was 5,549; the average annual death rate among them was I9. 33 Johansson has made an elaborate comparison between the mortality of inscribed prostitutes and that of the corresponding age groups of the female popula- tion of Stockholm; the inscribed women show the higher rate, but by no means so large as is popularly supposed : 3 * 1870-4 75-79 1880-4 83-9 90-4 95-99 1900-3 Percentage of mortality among inscribed pros- titutes 17.1 13.6 14.7 10.9 8.4 9.0 7.8 Among corresponding age groups of Stock- holm's female popula- tion 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 10 years. They returned to various occupations ; probably many of those whom he could not follow up did likewise (Ibid., pp. 584-5). 31 Quoted by C. K. Schneider : Die Prostituierte und die Ges- ellschaft (Leipzig, 1908) p. 187. 32 Loc. cit., Vol I, p. 95. 33 Rapports, Conseil municipal, loc. cit., p. 31. 84 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol III, pp.ios-6. 22 Prostitution: Definition and Extent than YZ of i% ; at Berlin for approximately the same period i%'%; 35 for the years 1904-6, it was only f of i%. 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, es- tablish a similar presumption. Through the London Venereal Hospital 38 for women, some 400 patients an- nually 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 esti- mate, 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 Lon- don, only 3,059 died in 1909. Finally, of the 11,823 women committed to Hollo way 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 35 J. Schrank, Die Prostitution in Wien, two volumes (Wien, 1886), Vol. II, pp. 220-2. 36 Schneider, loc. cit., p. 39. 37 Fiaux, La Police des Moeurs (3 vols. Paris, 1907, 1910) Vol. Ill, 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. 38 The Lock Hospital ; the term " Lock " has no connection with " lock-up." Its meaning is obscure. 39 Maurice Gregory, The European Movement for Abolition. (Tokyo, Japan, 1912), pp. 44~47- 23 Prostitution in Europe 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 White- chapel. The considerations just dwelt on make anything ap- proaching an accurate estimate of the number of prosti- tutes 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 authori- ties, all operate to disturb for better or worse the general movement above indicated. Only the roughest approxi- mations 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. Lepine, the able and accom- plished ex-Prefect of Police, inclines to a figure varying from one-half to two-thirds as large, say 60,000 to 80,- ooo itself generally viewed as much too high, even on 40 At the proper time subsequently, these occasions are always followed by a perceptible rise in the illegitimacy curve. 24 Prostitution: Definition and Extent a liberal interpretation of the terms; MM. Yves Guyot and Augagneur, distinguished publicists, estimate 30,- ooo; 41 Tnrot, still more conservatively, 20,000 ; 42 Car- lier, 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 as- sumes that for every clandestine prostitute actually ar- rested 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 be- cause the fluctuation in arrests shows clearly that ar- rests 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, 41 Louis Fiaux : La Police des Mocurs Vol. I, p. 160. 42 These estimates deal with clandestine prostitution alone, mean- ing thereby, as I have already pointed out, unofficial prosti- tution, some of it notorious, some concealed. Official or registered prostitution is too small to be a factor in calculations of this kind. 43 F. Schiller in Zeitschrift II, p. 312. 44 Disturbed local conditions might be assigned as the explana- tion of this figure; but it is practically repeated in 1880, when the arrests reached 3,544. 25 Prostitution in Europe 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, walk- ing 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 dis- tricts yielded a total somewhat smaller, 8,600; a decade later the number similarly reached had fallen to 6,5 1 5. 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 proba- bilities are, however, that all these estimates include only notorious and unmistakable prostitutes, excluding the numerous clandestines and partials who figure in the con- tinental 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,- ooo 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 respec- * 5 Gregory, loc. cit., p. 46. 46 William Acton, Prostitution (London, 1870) p. 4. Acton quotes also (p. 3) a police estimate of 6,371, for 1839. 47 P. Pollitz: Die Psychologie des Verbrechers. (Leipzig, 1909) p. 85. 26 Prostitution: Definition and Extent lively; 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 enor- mous 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 I7,ooo, 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 head- quarters, Amsterdam, already contains upwards of 7,- ooo names ; in that city the police have the names and ad- dresses of 968 women well known for this avocation; 52 48 The figures are official ; they may be found in various sources, e. g., A. Grotjahn, Soziale Pathologic (Berlin, 1912) p. 153. 48 Studies of this point have been made in Paris by O. Com- menge: La Prostitution clandestine a Paris (Paris, 1904) Chap. 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. 61 Personally communicated by Police Brigadier. 62 Personally communicated by officials. 27 Prostitution in Europe in Rotterdam i,2o6. 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 mis- taken 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 it- self not to be passed over lightly from whatever stand- point 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 aver- age, only five times as extensive as these figures indi- cate, 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 prostitu- tion seeks everywhere the same sort of outlets; the free professional, the clandestine, the occasional, the partial, hunt their prey, openly or furtively, according to cir- cumstances, in the crowded thoroughfares of retail trade, or loiter in cafes 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 de- siring a person of particular type. A small and steadily 63 Th. M. Roest Van Limburgh : In den Strijd tegen de Ontucht. (Rotterdam, 1910) p. 17. 6 * The last named figures are quoted by Moll, loc. cit., p. 371. For a discussion as to the probable number of prostitutes in Ham- burg, see Zeitschrift IV, p. 183. 28 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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 Ger- many, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and in Geneva, and conducted by a proprietor or mistress who collects the entire income, paying the inmates a stipulated per- centage. 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 re- tain whatever else they earn. Into such establishments the police of Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden, Cologne, hav- ing 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 per- ceive. 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 bar- racks or brothels, a segregated district, into which the prostitutes of a city are confined, exists nowhere in Eu- rope, 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 29 Prostitution in Europe 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 prosti- tutes; but it is absurd to speak of segregation in refer- ence to seventy-five women in a town containing hun- dreds of others living at large. Elsewhere, at Paris, Rome, Geneva, Vienna, Budapest, where the bordells are officially recognized and even favored, they are scat- tered 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 inter- fere, 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, out- right 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 bit- terly denounced as perhaps the most demoralizing form that prostitution has as yet assumed. Hardly more than 65 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 uber das Kellnerinnen-Wesen (Berlin, no date) pp. 13, 14. See also: A. Meher, Die geheime und offentliche 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. 30 Prostitution: Definition and Extent a variation of Animierkneipe is the dance-hall, variete, 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 employ- ments, cigar shops, massage-establishments, and em- ployment agencies illustrate in one place or another at once the timidity and the stubbornness of the phenom- enon; 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 de- scription. Prostitution in Europe as an organized busi- ness is by no means limited to the intercourse of persons of opposite sexes. A homosexual prostitution, pros- titution, 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 Ham- burg. 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 prosti- tutes live in Berlin; forty homosexual resorts are toler- 86 See Chapter XI The Outcome of European Experience. 31 Prostitution in Europe ated 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 comple- mentary 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 Euro- pean cities support men in this fashion not only the street-walkers and scattered prostitutes, but, not in- frequently, 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 ade- quate explanation on the fundamental fact of sex rela- tion. 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 57 The pimp is called "bully" in England, "souteneur," "Louis" or " Alphonse " in France ; " Zuhalter " in Germany. 68 The pimp is said to be less common in Scandinavia than else- where: See Hjalmar von Sydow, Om Soutendrv'dsendet in Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. IV, p. 12. 32 Prostitution: Definition and Extent will endure every strain that her mate may put upon it, abuse, deprivation, or what not, every strain, ex- cept competition. The difficulties of obtaining a convic- tion are practically insuperable unless jealousy loosens the woman's tongue. 59 Despite the general similarity to which I have repeat- edly 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 pic- turesque tradition; but beyond this I saw no reason to think the notion well grounded. In my observation, prostitution is even more uniform internally than ex- ternally: it is everywhere purely mercenary, everywhere rapacious, everywhere perverse, diseased, sordid, vulgar, and almost always filthy. In her bloom, the Parisian co- cotte possesses a bit of Gallic grace and verbal clever- ness that is perhaps denied to English, German, or Scandi- navian 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 59 See pp. 96-7. 33 Prostitution in Europe livelier speech and simulated gaiety does not hide poverty, loneliness, vulgarity, or the ravages of overwork, irregu- lar hours, disease, and absinthe. A day at St. Lazare or police headquarters and thither those who remain prostitutes eventually come quickly dispels any il- lusion 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 cop- per coins to several hundred marks or francs; incidental expense for accommodations, amusements, liquor, gratui- ties, 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 ac- costs : ' 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 60 $1.25 to $2.50. 61 Schneider : loc. cit., p. 32. 34 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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. 83 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 mini- mum price for service is usually fixed ; entrance fee, tips, and alcohol are of course " extra." In Paris, the en- trance fee at pretentious establishments is 20 francs; from that it ranges downward as low as five. The in- evitable 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 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. 63 The subject is more fully discussed in Chapter VI. 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%. (Ber- liner Tageblatt, May 2, 1912.) 65 Fiaux, loc. cit., 1, pp. 215-6, 220-221. 35 Prostitution in Europe 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 pay- ment of a girl for bare living in the better bordells of Hamburg, Leipzig, and Vienna at 300 to 600 6G 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 Stock- holm are found women who claim to earn and to spend sums ranging from 3,000 to 12,000 crowns annually. < $75 to $150. 36 Prostitution: Definition and Extent 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 ab- solutely 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 serv- ice, the sums paid out by her for her keep. But the ac- count is not so simple. We may not overlook the loss in- volved in the unproductiveness of this army of women; expenditure on alcohol, gifts and demoralizing amuse- ments; the long score chargeable to venereal disease, in- cluding the loss in earnings, the outlay for treatment, both of the immediate victims and those still more un- fortunate 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 ven- ereal 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 in- clude all the factors, direct and indirect, soon reaches into the millions. Losch, for example, has reckoned the an- nual cost of prostitution to the German Empire at some- 67 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 50. 68 Prof. Johansson calculated that a woman averages one-fourth of a year in hospital, prison, etc. Ibid, p. 54. 37 Prostitution in Europe thing between 300 and 500 million marks. 70 This outlay may be contrasted with that spent by the Prussian Gov- ernment on its entire educational system : its universities, secondary schools, elementary school system, technical and professional institutions of all kinds involving a bud- get 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. 70 Quoted by Kampffmeyer, loc. tit., p. 34. Statistiches Jahrbuch (Berlin, 1910) pp. 242-3. 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 medi- cal profession. Reduction of demand through education. Sex education in Europe. Influence of demoralizing literature. Re- cent 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 ini- tially or more highly responsible. Not infrequently, however, these two individuals are so far from constitut- ing the entire situation that they may be mere puppets in the hands of others : the man, the victim of shrewdly de- vised suggestion or excitement ; the woman, the bait cun- ningly 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 be- cause 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 39 Prostitution in Europe problem; but a fundamental and antecedent condition is the existence of a market, clamoring for wares of a par- ticular 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 sup- ply. 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 fac- tors. 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 sat- isfy 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 in- teract on each other, but are both played upon by agencies lying outside themselves. This method will have the ad- vantage 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 pres- ent, prostitution should result. There are, however, no conditions of which this can be affirmed. Of the number 40 The Demand of women of whom any particular fact or set of facts is characteristic, only a small portion ever become prosti- tutes. For example: prostitutes have often been, as we shall see, domestic servants. Yet service, even under un- favorable conditions, cannot be said to cause prostitu- tion, for more servants escape than succumb. The con- ditions of service at most indicate whence part of the supply will be drawn. Moreover, once engaged in pros- titution, 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 con- sumers 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 there- fore two obvious advantages: it brings out the dual na- ture of the phenomenon and it suggests the commercial side involved in the production and maintenance of prosti- tution on the grand scale. At the present time, the demand on the part of the continental male European is practically universal ; l so true is this, that until quite recently questioned, it has 1 From this statement England is purposely excluded for two reasons: (i) accurate data covering different social classes are not obtainable ; (2) family and religious life are so differently or- ganized that there is a very strong presumption that correct living 41 Prostitution in Europe 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 prac- tically left the matter one to be regulated by men on such standards as they themselves approve. Indulgence be- gins early: Meirowsky's investigations indicate that at least 20% of the boys in the highest gymnasium classes are already habituated; 2 of 106 venereally infected Uni- versity students, 61% admitted intercourse before reach- ing the University. 3 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. 4 Welander found that of 582 Swedish men, 464 admitted intercourse before the end of the i8th year. 5 " In the country and in the urban proletariat, no one dreams of continence beyond adolescence," says Blaschko. 6 ( ' Among the working classes, city or coun- try, abstinence is excessively rare, and in the higher classes, practically insignificant." 7 Of 90 physicians in- terrogated by Prof. Neisser respecting their sexual his- tory, only one denied all intercourse prior to marriage 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. * Zeitschrift XI, p. 47. * Zeitschrift XI, p. 5. 4 Zeitschrift IX, pp. 66-68. See also pp. 37-65. 6 Zeitschrift IX, p. 411. 8 Zeitschrift XIII, p. 154. 7 Blaschko, in Zeitschrift XIII, p. 104. 42 The Demand 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. 8 These figures have been confirmed by other investigators. 9 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 ex- plicable 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 confreres has rarely been strongly overruled, " roughly speaking, one may say that most German men have had gonorrhoea, and about one in five syphilis." 10 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 whole- some. Up to recent times this has been almost undis- puted dogma. The practically universal demand was for centuries regarded fatalistically as inevitable and incon- testable; in the Middle Ages, a sufficient supply of women was imported by way of entertaining the delegates to church congresses. 11 A change of attitude and opinion is, however, undoubtedly taking place. The universality 8 Zeitschrift XII, p. 34. 9 See Blaschko, Zeitschrift XIII, pp. 154-5. 10 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 Verhutung der Geschlechtskrankheiten (Freiburg, 1912) p. 21. 11 Bloch, loc. cit., Vol. I, pp. 710-712 gives details and authori- ties. 43 Prostitution in Europe 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 con- stituent 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 immoral- ity; the self-restraint that might thereby have been imposed on men be it much or little has been gen- erally 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 in- equalities, 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 aristoc- racy, 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 com- pulsion. 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 prac- 44 The Demand tically imposed on successive generations. Certain forms of venereal experience have been popularly treated as marks of maturity. Dr. Magnus Moller tells of a club of military officers existing in Stockholm in the early nine- ties to which no one was eligible until he could prove that he had had syphilis. 12 Quite as flagrantly, boys have been practically coerced into sowing wild oats. Women, whose influence might have been exerted re- strainingly, have been trained not to pry into the pre- matrimonial 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 experi- enced, it soon gathers intensity enough to operate on its own account and to play the ominous role of suggestion to others. Finally, we may not overlook the part played by delib- erate 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 lat- ter 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 arti- ficial 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, 13 late hours, and sensuous amusements, and de- i*Zeitschrift VIII, p. 4. 13 The role of alcohol is described by O. Rosenthal : Alkohol- ismus und Prostitution (with bibliography) (Berlin, 1905). See 45 Prostitution in Europe liberately 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 ex- tensive trade, these are the most obvious examples of supply deliberately and resourcefully engaged in creat- ing 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, grow- ing 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 con- ditions, 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, re- acting upon each other. Supply, everywhere greater than spontaneous demand, is utilized to create a secondary demand. A striking example of deliberate business or- ganization along these lines is to be found in Paris where, closely adjoining one another in the rue Pigal are found a dance hall, a cafe and an assignation house said to form a plant under one management. also M. Hirschfeld: Die Gurgel von Berlin (Berlin, no date) pp. 43, etc. 46 The Demand 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 repre- sented to be, resistlessly pushing towards an instinctive object, but rather a combination of forces of very dif- ferent quality as respects both origin and intensity. Tak- ing prostitution and resort to prostitution as they exist in any great city today, three distinct factors are readily dis- tinguished : sex impulse, pure and simple ; social instiga- tion or compulsion ; sheer artificial excitation. Not im- probably, 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; iS.6% acted under alcoholic excitement. In another set of 129 cases cited, less than half acted on native impulse; alcohol fig- ures with 23.6% ; comrades, with 29.4%. 14 Nor is na- tive impulse itself any longer regarded as a constant or spasmodically irresistible force; it can be checked, di- verted, 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 transforma- tion of the character of the race ; just as it is equally ab- surd to speak in fatalistic terms of the supply. Not a ^Zeitschrift XI, pp. 6 and 60. 47 Prostitution in Europe single factor in either demand or supply bears this rigid elemental stamp ; every factor is capable of mitiga- tion 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. Unques- tionably, 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 con- trollable. One must not, of course, overlook the fact that de- mand 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 gratifi- cation. 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 cultiva- 48 The Demand tion 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 ; 15 but it is at any rate not achieved without effort. It is therefore not without significance that the social sanc- tion, as yet but slightly operative among men, is among women of the higher classes very generally powerful enough to reverse the animal engine. Unhappy con- sequences 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 al- ready 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 inter- course and the supposedly unfavorable results of con- tinence. Recent medical literature abounds in strong and authoritative expressions utterly at variance with the traditional position. Cases of irrepressible desire are 15 See Iwan Bloch: Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit (Berlin, 1909) P- 91. 49 Prostitution in Europe 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 con- tinuous 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." 16 Moll insists that, even in cases where neurotic disturbances occur, these are not com- parable to the damage, corporal and moral, which at- tends irregular intercourse and of course it always re- mains to be proven that the disturbances in question really result from abstinence. Pinkus, conceding that oc- casionally 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." 17 " There is not a shadow of proof to show that continence is damaging to health. To the continent, continence becomes progressively easier," 18 " Whatever disturbances are attributable to sexual ab- stinence, 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." 19 Exceed- 16 Moll, loc, cit., p. 887. See also pp. 945, etc. 17 Felix Pinkus, loc. cit., p. 177. 18 M. von Gruber, Die Prostitution (Wien, 1905) p. 40, etc. 19 Zeitschrift XIII, p. 46; see also III, p. 255. 50 The Demand ingly cogent is Teuton's curt summary : " In short, all the talk about manifestations due to abstinence is thus far with few exceptions a hodge-podge of superficial ob- servations and uncritical interpretations." 20 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 pur- posely 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." 21 Johansson urges that through the cultivation of an in- hibitory mechanism, the impulse can be limited, and sub- ordinated to the welfare of the individual and of so- ciety. 22 There is no livelier topic under discussion in connection with prostitution than that of the methods to be pur- sued in order to minimize demand, in accordance with the modern scientific view that irregular sexual inter- course 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 es- sential facts of sex-physiology, so as to deprive the facts of morbid interest and to warn the child of the dangers 20 Teuton, quoting Troemner's report at the Dresden Conference, IQII, 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-Prob- leme Nov. 1908) ; also, Zeitschrift XI, pp. 81 and 129. 21 Zeitschrift XIII, p. 70. 22 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 214. 51 Prostitution in Europe attending uncleanliness. It will be worth while to give a brief account of what has taken place in this direc- tion in Europe and to consider what benefit is likely to be derived from this source. Despite the prevalent notion to the contrary, the sub- ject 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, how- ever, 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. 23 The head-masters and house-masters in some of the great public schools, notably Eton, en- deavor, however, to gain the confidence of the boys in- dividually, 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. 24 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 ; 25 in the Gymnasien, the nine-year secondary schools open- 23 " 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 Parent- hood?" (Eugenics Education Society, 1909) p. 4. 24 " Papers for Boys," with a preface by the Archbishop of Can- terbury (To be had through the Editor, the Headmaster of Dover College, Dover, for 6d.). 25 Frankfort-on-the-Oder is one of the few places. 52 The Demand ing into the University, a lecture on the subject may be given to the last year class 26 by the School Director, a teacher or a physician; 2T attendance on the part of the students is optional. The lectures deal with the feasi- bility of continence, which is strongly urged, the dangers attending sexual irregularity or abnormality, and the mis- use 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 teach- ers. Occasionally pupils before leaving school are pre- sented with books dealing with the topic in a wholesome manner. This represents the sum total of school in- struction 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, of- fering 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 head-master or head-mistress. Systematic or gen- eral instruction has developed as yet nowhere in Europe. The educational officials of both Prussia and Sweden distinctly hold that under existing conditions the prob- lem is one for the home, not the school. France is at. 28 The so-called " Abiturienten," who are about to enter the Uni- versity. Whatever these addresses accomplish, the amount of venereal disease found among Gymnasium students would show that the efforts are too late. 27 It has been objected to physicians that they over-emphasize prophylaxis. 53 Prostitution in Europe 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 igno- rance. 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. 28 By prematurely creating images and stimulating curiosity both of which go further than the immediate communica- tions 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 immoral- ity may be so depicted as to exert a deterrent effect; 28 Among the German writers who have emphasized this point are F. W. Foerster, Sexualethik und Sexualpddagogik (Munich, 1910), and Julian Marcuse, Grundziige einer sexuellen Padagogik (Munich, 1908). The latter says with great vigor: "It were a dis- astrous blunder to suppose that intellectual enlightenment in refer- ence 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. 54 The Demand but the main reliance must continue to be upon the higher motivation. The importance of emotional and ethical training sug- gests the importance of the home in this connection. Foreign opinion is well-nigh unanimous in recommend- ing that parents initiate the subject at the psychological moment, a moment that is rarely the same for two in- dividuals; subsequently the school can make its contri- bution, though there is as yet no agreement as to the form or the time. 29 Some urge that it be the natural out- growth of general biological instruction; 30 some favor class teaching, others individual instruction; an occa- sional writer contends that, while boys should be urged to continence, they should also be taught the use of pre- ventives since it is well known in advance that they will not obey ! 31 The practical difficulties are, however, very great. The researches of Moll and others indicate that sexual in- stinct and curiosity awaken at different stages in dif- ferent 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 29 " In my judgment, the friends of sexual enlightenment have not yet succeeded in devising a satisfactory way of approaching chil- dren." P. Groebel, Sexualpadagogik (Hamburg, 1909) p. I. As an example of what is proposed for German schools, see Konrad Hoeller : Die Sexualfrage und die Schule (Leipzig, 1907) pp. 45, etc. 30 Expressly forbidden in Prussia. 31 " 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. 55 Prostitution in Europe might intervene, the difficulty due to individual differ- ences has not disappeared and additional problems have also arisen. Class instruction disregards individual vari- ations and requires the greatest tact and skill in presen- tation ; the teachers are as yet incompetent ; 32 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 demon- strated; but there is danger, too, in breaking down re- serve. 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 can- not possibly alone attain the end toward which the move- ment 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 Gym- nasium 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 effec- tive training on higher lines has begun long before, the good to be achieved is of dubious extent : witness the prev- alence of venereal disease among last year Gymnasium 82 A textbook for use in training teachers to give sex-instruction has recently appeared in Swedish : Julia Kinberg och Alma Sund- quist Handledning i Sexuell Undervisning och Uppfostran (Stock- holm, 1910). 56 The Demand 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, un- questionably 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 amuse- ment, the stage, the cafe, 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. 33 But certain of them may prop- erly 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 ad- 33 E. g., pimp, pp. 95, etc. ; bordells, chap. VI ; alcohol, pp. 98, etc. 57 Prostitution in Europe vertised 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 de- partments of the nations who are parties thereto co- operate in ferreting out publishers and importers of im- moral publications and in endeavoring to bring them to justice. In France, 34 Germany, 35 Austria and else- where popular societies have been formed for the purpose of making war on pornography; laws have been strength- ened and ministerial decrees emitted, establishing special police bureaux to handle offenders. 36 The kinemato- graph is the most recent invention open to abuse in this direction; to forestall which, inspection of films has al- ready been introduced at police headquarters in Berlin. Many congresses, national and international, held in re- cent years, are evidence of a growing determination to stop the artificial and premature excitation of sex de- mand 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 sus- tain it. 37 For even where laws exist, their enforcement 34 Federation francaise des Societes antipornographiques. 35 Volksbund zur Bek'dmpfung des Schmutses in Wort und Bild. 36 In Austria, July 31, 1912; in Bavaria, March 6, 1906, supple- mented June 3, 1912; in Prussia, December 28, 1911. 37 The literature on the subject in German is already very ex- tensive. As containing data of all kinds, I may specify the follow- ing: Bohn, Materialien zur Bek'dmpfung der unsittlichen Literatur ein kulturgeschichtliches Denkmal fur die deutsche Presse, (Berlin, 1905). Berichte der ausserdeutschen und deutschen B- richterstatten, (Congress held at Cologne, 1904) (Berlin, 1905). E. Schultze, Die Schundliteratur (Halle, 1911). A monthly periodi- cal dealing with the problem in all its aspects is issued in Berlin; it is called Die Hochwacht, is edited by Professor Karl Brunner 58 The Demand depends on the vigor and sympathy of police officials and magistrates, who, in the interpretation of the stat- ute, in some measure take their cue from the news- papers and popular opinion. In a recent London case, a Bow Street Magistrate convicted a bookseller for dis- posing 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. 38 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 thor- oughly 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 moral- ity 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 and published by the Ulrich Meyer Verlagsbuchhandlung. Sum- maries of all legislation bearing on the topic are found in : Be- kdmpfung der Schundliteratur Flugschrift der Zentralstelle fur Volksivohlfahrt (Berlin, 1911). Roeren, Die Gesetzgebung gegen die unsittliche Literatur in den verschiedenen L'dndern (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). 38 Some explanation is found in the fact that the statute does not define indecency. 59 Prostitution in Europe 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 incur- ring contempt for his idiosyncrasy; an impassioned lit- erature appealing to the German student has made its appearance. 39 The woman's movement will unques- tionably destroy the passivity of German women in re- spect to masculine irregularities. The task of develop- ing 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. 39 For example: Hans Wegener, Wir jungen Manner (Dussel- dorf, 1906). CHAPTER III THE SUPPLY Relation of demand and supply. Demand increased by forcing supply. Supply derived mainly from lower working classes. Oc- cupations 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 pres- sure. 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 capa- ble 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 re- action on demand itself. On the face of it, the gen- eral relation of demand and supply appears simple and mechanical : a demand exists ; somehow, thereupon, a supply springs up to meet it. The demand thus recog- nized, a moving equilibrium is established. Unques- tionably, as the situation now stands, prostitution to a certain extent illustrates this purely mechanical concep- tion. 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 grati- fication. Demand itself must be affected before this sit- 61 Prostitution in Europe uation 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 ac- tual or potential demand. But, after all, however im- portant, 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 voca- tion 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 num- ber. 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 to- gether of demand and supply; it represents also the ex- ploitation of artificial, instigated appetite and over- worked supply. The prostitute may indeed satisfy her 62 The Supply 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. 1 The victims come in a highly pre- ponderant ratio from this definitely circumscribed milieu. Half a century ago, Parent-Duchatelet, studying their social origins, found that Parisian prostitutes are re- cruited well nigh exclusively from artisan families; among 828 fathers, there was a bare sprinkling of better- conditioned men. 2 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 shop-keep- ers; 128, of professional men; 82, of small officials; 13, of gentlemen. 3 Of 565 Stuttgart women, the fathers were, in 172 instances, artisans; in 84 instances, day laborers ; in 60 instances, peasants ; in 3 1 instances, small shopkeepers. Skilled occupations were barely repre- sented. 4 Of 173 registered women in Munich, 95 of 1 Adele Schreiber has calculated that 57% of German women be- tween 20 and 30 years old are unmarried. Loc. cit., p. 459. 2 Loc. cit., Vol. I, pp. 67-68. 3 G. P. Merrick, Work Among the Fallen (London, 1890) pp. 23-24. *Zeitschrift XII, pp. 18, 19. Similar results appear in statistics fiven by Meher : Die geheime und offentliche Prostitution in tuttgart, Karlsruhe und Munchen (Paderborn, 1912) pp. 221- 222. 63 Prostitution in Europe 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, I4O. 5 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. 6 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; 7 of 173 registered Munich prostitutes (1911), 52 had been barmaids; 8 29, domestic servants; 29, fac- tory workers; 15, seamstresses; 8 had no particular em- ployment. 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. 3 Of 1,200 women enrolled in Berlin 1909-10, 431 had been servants; 445, factory operatives; 479, seamstresses and laundresses; 145 were without vocation. 10 One thou- sand five hundred women who were sent to the hospital 5 Statistics kindly contributed by the Chief of the Sittenpolizei. 6 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 77. 7 Manuscript communication, based on private investigation. 8 Kellnerinnen. 9 For these figures, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Chief of the Sittenabteilung. 10 F. Pinkus, in Archiv fur Dermatologie u. Syphilis CVII 1-3, p. 147- 6 4 The Supply on account of venereal disease show the same voca- tions: 431 were servants; 445, factory hands; 112 with- out special employment. Of 2,275 inscribed Viennese women, 44.52% were servants; 20.55%, factory work- ers; 16% without calling. 11 Of 427 admitted to a Lon- don Reformatory, 275 were servants, 25 laundry work- ers; 20, factory hands; n, dressmakers; 6, barmaids; 33, without a vocation. 12 Of 675 cases included in an- other study, 283 were servants; 114 without occupa- tion; 52, factory girls; 12, barmaids. 13 Another Lon- don list of 1 68 girls shows 2 described as "typist and clerk," all the others engaged in unskilled domestic, industrial, or mercantile labor. 14 Among 1 Merrick's thousands, already referred to, one-half had been serv- ants; one-tenth each, laundresses, charwomen, factory hands and seamstresses; another large contingent were barmaids: a few described themselves as governesses. 15 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. 16 Almost 7,000 Paris women, inscribed between 1878 and 1887 illustrate the same principle. 17 Merrick's data as to the educational opportunities en- joyed are also generally sustained: less than one-tenth 11 Baumgarten in Zeitschrift IX, p. 135. 12 Figures courteously communicated by the Secretary of the in- stitution. 13 Ditto. 14 Ditto. 15 Merrick : he. cit., pp. 25-26. 16 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 75. Dr. Lindblad, studying 800 hospital cases, reaches the same conclusion. Ibid, p. 12. 17 Analyzed by Commenge, loc. cit., p. 336. 65 Prostitution in Europe of his cases had had anything beyond the most rudi- mentary training; 18 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 i% had advanced further. 19 Very few indeed have acquired in any direc- tion 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 desig- nations 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 em- ployed. Low grade help is as a rule thus variable and casual. For instance: 1,689 women were inscribed by 18 Merrick, loc. cit., pp. 49-50. 19 Schiller in Zeitschrift II, p. 304. 66 The Supply the police of Berlin in twelve months following March 1900; all declared some sort of employment; yet only 352 had work at the moment. 20 The returns are there- fore 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 pref- erence or capacity for one kind of work rather than in- dicating aimless shifting from one to another and then again to nothing, the impression created is more favor- able 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 ; 21 but in most of these cases, the woman is, socially speak- ing, of inferior origin and intellectually not more pre- possessing 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 possi- bility 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 nec- essarily a born degenerate; for if prostitution involved born degeneracy; and if, vice versa, congenital degeneracy 20 Statistics quoted by Grotjahn, loc. cit., p. 153. 21 Some confidential London statistics name a few music teach- ers, school teachers, trained nurses, etc. But the percentage is very small. 6 7 Prostitution in Europe made straight for prostitution, a single milieu would not furnish practically the total supply. The defmiteness 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, plea- sure-loving, easily led, fond of liquor, heedless of the future, and usually devoid of moral sense. Defect un- doubtedly accounts for certain cases, and especially so where a psychopathic family strain is continuously im- plicated. 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 dis- cussed below, 22 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, " al- most consistent evidence here of some causative relation- ship 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." 23 Bonhoffer, study- ing 190 prostitutes incarcerated in prison at Breslau, found that one hundred came from alcoholic families and that two-thirds of them were mentally defective hys- terical, epileptic or feeble-minded; his judgment is ad- 22 Page 80. 33 Report of the Inspector under the Inebriate Acts, 1879 to 1900, for year 1909 (London, 1911) p. 24. 68 The Supply verse to the existence of the " born prostitute," but in favor of congenital defect as providing soil favorable to immorality. 24 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. 25 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; in more, before they were sixteen. 28 In these instances there was presumably a lack of self-control, but not nec- essarily always a lack of the very possibility of acquir- ing it, such as the degeneration argument requires. How far these statistics are reliable, representative, or signifi- cant, 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 quali- ties are also otherwise explicable. The women involved have, as we have learned, undeveloped intelligence to begin with; riotous sex-indulgence, the loss of shame, 24 Quoted by P. Pollitz, Die Psychologic des Verbrechers (Leip- zig, 1909) p. 89. It must be observed that just as Branthwaite's high percentage is due to complication with inebriacy, so Bon- hoffer's must be regarded as complicated by criminality. A similar investigation dealing with the tramps and beggars of Breslau has been made by Bonhoffer ; see " Bin Beitrag zur Kenntnis des -"' gross tad tisc hen Bettel- und Vagabondentums." (Berlin, 1900.) 25 Helene F. Stelzner, Gibt es geborene Prostituiertef (Dresden, IQH) p. 9. 26 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 10. 69 Prostitution in Europe 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 per- sonality of the prostitute," Bloch contends, " is the re- sult rather than the reason of her occupation." 27 Branthwaite holds that even the so-called " tempera- mental 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 " character- istic acquired by habit." 28 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 anthropo- logical factor is congenital defect or only imperfect edu- cation 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 feeble- ness 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 ""Die Prostitution," Vol. I, p. 331. Parent-Duchatelet de- scribes the type excellently: he. cit,, Chapter II. 28 Report, 1909, loc. cit., p. 24. 70 The Supply wear and tear. A proportion, one has no way of know- ing how large, keep straight for the mere, lack of suffi- cient temptation to do otherwise : " The happy acci- dent of the absence of opportunity has helped to the rescue of many eminent virgins at critical moments," George Meredith caustically remarks. 29 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 depar- ture from the accepted code of behavior consciously or unconsciously act as powerful deterrents; the esteem we are taught to crave, the warnings, expostulations, and de- mands of family and friends constantly on the lookout, keep the growing child within a well-marked path; es- tablished habit, position, responsibility for others, and ripe reason ultimately approving the same these func- tion in many cases as a substitute for fundamentally hardy character. The superiority in such instances is trained, not inherent; and not so much narrowly educa- tional as widely social. The whole organization of cer- tain strata of society supports those who pass their lives securely within it. In many cases we have as yet no way of know- ing 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, 29 Letters (2 Vols., New York, 1912) Vol. II, p. 532. 7 1 Prostitution in Europe 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, how- ever, 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 en- vironments, 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 re- sistance, coincide. How completely the untrained daugh- ters of the proletariat lack the positive protections and supports by means of which better-conditioned girls are, 72 The Supply 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 ap- proved line of conduct than abrupt transplantation of an immature person into an environment within which no such forces operate on the individual in question. Ac- cordingly, a heavy percentage of urban prostitutes are girls who have left home : of 168 girls in a London res- cue home, 85 were born abroad; not all the 83 English girls were London born. 30 " The servants in Man- chester," I was told, " come almost invariably from re- mote 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 mo- ment, what their lot otherwise lacks. Out of 12,707 women inscribed in Paris, two-thirds were born outside the department of the Seine. 31 Only 213 out of 781 girls newly enrolled in Paris in a single year were natives of the city. 32 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. 33 Many of the prostitutes of Vienna were born in the poor dis- tricts of Galicia and Poland. The studies of Lindblad so Private communication. 31 Parent-Duchatelet : loc. cit., I, p. 44. Of 6,842 clandestines, two-thirds were born outside the department of the Seine. Com- menge, loc. cit., p. 304. 82 M. Talmeyr, Das Ende einer Gesellschaft (Berlin, no date) p. 256. 33 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 74. 73 Prostitution in Europe and Welander in Stockholm show how closely immorality has followed detachment from home in hundreds of in- stances. 34 The home barrier is itself often so low as to consti- tute little or no obstacle to demoralization, often in- deed, 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." 35 In a close in High Street, Edinburg, 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 tubercu- losis, viz., that it is a question of living conditions, holds equally of prostitution. Living conditions are responsi- ble for the fact that children learn all forms of evil 34 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 28. 85 The Prevention of Destitution (London, 1912) p. 306 (slightly abridged). 74 The Supply prematurely and forego all natural enjoyments." 36 Of the inhabitants in Berlin in 1900, 73.7% lived in dwell- ings 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. 37 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 ris- ing: the married women workers of Bavaria increased absolutely in number 72% from 1895 to 1907 ; 38 throughout Germany a similiar rise is taking place. 39 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 36 Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft zur Bek'dmpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten (Leipzig, 1912) X, 6, p. 129. 37 Miinsterberg, 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. 38 Rosa Kempf , Die Industriearbeiterin als Mutter, in Adele Schreiber's Mutterschaft (Munich, 1912) pp. 230-243. 39 Marcuse, Beschrankung 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: Helena Simon, Der Anteil der Frau an der deutschen Industrie nach den Ergebnissen der Berufssahlung von 1907 (Jena, 1907) also : Robert and Lisbeth Wilbrandt, Die deutsche Frau im Beruf. (Part IV of " Handbuch der Frauenbewegung " (Berlin, 1902). 75 Prostitution in Europe wholly or partially orphaned; 40 of 384 London cases, only 24% had both parents alive. 41 In Lindblad's cases, 219 out of 772 homes are classified as "bad " or " very bad." 42 Ominous is the role played by alcohol in dis- solving the home and in undermining the constitution of the children. 43 The inordinately large contingent of servants is partially accounted for on these lines ; for the serv- ant 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 for- bidden; 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 Ber- lin in 1900, 60% had traveled this road. 44 In Paris, of 6,842 clandestine prostitutes arrested and found ill within the decade 1878-1887, 2,681 i. e., 39.18% were domestics. 45 Two hundred and eighty-four of Lind- * Zeitschrift XII, p. 19. 41 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 uber die uneheliche Bevolkerung in Frankfort-a. M. (Dresden, 1905). * 2 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 30. 43 Branthwaite, Report, /pop, p. 24. 44 Wilbrandt, loc. cit., pp. 147, 148. 45 Commenge, loc, cit., p. 337. The Supply blad's 800 patients were servants, 80 more were attend- ants on little children, 170 charwomen. 46 If the urban home often leaves its girls defenceless 47 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. 48 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 gifl seeks her amusement on the streets and wittingly or unwit- tingly is led to her fall. Between 1880 and 1903 the average number of minors annually arrested for prosti- tution by the Paris police was 1,370, the total, 32,- 885. 40 Nine hundred and seventy-five minors were ar- rested there for this offence 1,638 times in 1908', 91 of them under 16; 988 minors were arrested 1,739 times 48 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol III, loc. cit., p. 12. 47 It is of course impossible to give an exhaustive account in the text. The living-in system in vogue in English shops affords an- other example of the demoralizing outcome of the broken or un- natural home. See Report of the Truck Committee (London, 1900) Vol. I, pp. 70, 71. 48 See also Adele Schreiber, loc. cit., pp. 243-256. 49 Fiaux, loc, cit., Vol. Ill, p. 608. See also his L'Integrite inter- sexuelle des peuples et les Gouvernements ( Paris, 1910) p. 206. 77 Prostitution in Europe the next year, 221 under eighteen. 50 In general it has been estimated that one-half of the minors arrested have not yet finished their seventeenth year. 51 The Viennese authorities declare that " clandestine prostitu- tion 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 dan- cers, 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 ar- rested on the streets, over 57% were minors." 52 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 in- stances. 53 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 I2th and the 2ist year: "only a small percentage go wrong after the 2ist year." 54 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 50 Rapport de M. Georges Honnorat, Chef de la Premiere Division de la Prefecture de Police, presented to the VIII Congres national du Patronage, 1910 (pp. 6, 7). 51 Eugene Prevost, De la Prostitution des Enfants. (Paris, 1909) P- 215. 52 E. Finger und A. Baumgarten, Referat tiber die Regelung der Prostitution in Oesterreich (Wien, 1909) p. 88 (abridged). 53 Personal communication from officials. 64 Stelzner, loc. cit., p. 8 ; also Pollitz, loc. tit., p. 89. 78 The Supply were mere children, 15 years old ; 21 were 16 years old ; and 33, seventeen years of age. 55 Nor are conditions any better in smaller towns. Bendig, studying prostitu- tion 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. 56 Over one-half were under twenty years of age at the time of their registration as profes- sional 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. 57 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 four- teen and sixteen; and 314 between sixteen and twenty- one. 58 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 de- 65 Schiller, Zeitschrift II, p. 309. 56 Zeitschrift XII, pp. 19, 22. 67 T. G. Cree, The Need of Rescue Work Among Children. (Lon- don, Church Penitentiary Association) p. 3; Merrick's data on the same subject are given, loc. cit., p. 34. 68 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 ex- aggerates. 79 Prostitution in Europe mand for the child prostitute constitutes a strong induce- ment 59 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 1 68 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. 60 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 7^4% insisted that they had become prostitutes in or- der to support children: of these 10 were widowed or divorced; 34 were unmarried, but confessed to a suc- cession of lovers; 18 were unmarried and with but one child. 61 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 in- volving recklessness and irresponsibility. 62 The premari- tal intercourse of European boy and girl may result in 69 Moll, loc. cit., pp. 383-4. 60 Moll, loc. cit., p. 390. 61 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 24. 62 Adele Schreiber, loc. cit., pp. 257, 501, etc. 80 The Supply an illegitimate birth which is either preliminary to mar- riage or is regarded as equivalent thereto. This fact enables us to understand why the researches of Jo- hansson in Stockholm 63 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. 64 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. 65 Meanwhile the situa- tion is charged with danger, unless the father meets his responsibility. Too often this is not the case; and a re- lationship that perhaps began in passion deteriorates the man seeking other women, the women turning to prostitution. One more consideration ought to be separately men- tioned, 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 at- 63 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 79. 64 Pinkus, Archiv. loc. cit., p. 415. 65 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 79. 81 Prostitution in Europe tainment 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. 66 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 in- fluences and associations cannot be completely disen- tangled. 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 di- rect, 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 sin- gle factors characteristic of the proletariat causally re- sponsible; 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, 66 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc. cit., p. 81. See also Moll, loc. cit., pp. 393-4. 82 The Supply physical defect, occur sporadically in every social stra- tum; but all together combined with defective educa- tion, 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 sug- gests 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 de- sire 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; Strohmberg discovered among 462 enrolled women at Dorpat only one who pro- tested poverty as her justification; 67 Pinkus, 88 studying the incomes of 1,550 Berlin women before embarking on the life, decides that 1,389 had earned enough for self-support. 69 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 char- acter, early and careless infringement of the sex func- 67 Loc. cit., p. 81. fl8 Archiv. loc. cit., p. 149. 69 Lindblad studies his Swedish cases from this point of view ; Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, loc cit.,, pp. 41, etc. 83 Prostitution in Europe tion, drudgery, on the one hand, unsatisfied and uncon- trolled cravings, on the other, these are all largely so- cial-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 other- wise 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 statis- tically definable: a specified income may keep a given family or a given individual under dangerous pressure; the same income may release from pressure another fam- ily or another individual. Severest, of course, where ac- tual poverty exists, all those whose needs, desires and pro- tests beat vainly against the limits imposed by their re- sources, 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 biologi- cal phrase, " individually selected " in the manner al- ready sketched. The menace of unfavorable economic conditions can be clearly discerned in certain directions. Prostitution 84 The Supply fluctuates with seasonal and casual labor; in certain em- ployments it is looked upon as a regular source of inci- dental 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% : 70 that is to say, something be- tween one-quarter and three-quarters of the women em- ployees 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 re- turn to their trade in busy times; girls from low neigh- borhoods, who eke out a living in this way." 71 "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 pri- vate 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 oc- casional prostitution." 72 The vagrant class in trade and 70 Statement made to me by Miss Maud Bondfield. 71 Loc. cit., p. 127. 72 Loc. cit., p. 123, with note (2). To the same effect, Hans Ost- wald, Das Berliner Dirnentum, 8 Abteilung Gelegenheitsdirnen,-- among whom he reckons " a great mass of women and girls " more or 85 Prostitution in Europe industry and those dependent upon them are necessarily restless, improvident and irresponsible. 73 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 in- cidental immorality is a perilous temptation. Immoral- ity may thus by low or irregular wages be almost woven into the very tissue of their lives. I was told, for ex- ample, 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 supple- mentary 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. 74 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. 75 less occupied as singers, dancers, waitresses, shophands, models, maids, laundresses, nurses, etc. 73 Cadbury, Matheson, & Shann : Women's Work and Wages (London, 1909) pp. 246, 247. 74 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 Fabrikmddchen (Leipzig, 1911). Dr. Elizabeth Hell, Jugendliche Schneiderinnen und Naherinnen in Miinchen (Berlin, 1911). Meher, loc. cit., pp. 110-148. Also, Handbuch der Frauenbewegung, already mentioned, passim. 76 P. Hirsch, Verbrechen und Prostitution (Berlin, 1907, pp. 101- 102. 86 The Supply 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." 76 There remain the employments in which only prosti- tutes 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 con- sideration 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 con- ditions 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 prom- inent soubrette at Munich states that she received an an- nual 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,- ooo marks; incomes of 5,400 marks and expenses of 8,000 marks. 77 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." 78 The maelstrom thus tends 76 C. E. Cpllett, Educated Working Women (London, 1902) p. 51. As to conditions in Paris, see Revue d' Economic Politique, Aug. 1911. 77 The German Stage and its Members, by Dr. Charlotte Engel- Reimers (Leipzig, 191 1). 78 Wilbrandt, loc. cit., p. 355. The whole section is most valuable. 87 Prostitution in Europe powerfully to suck in those not previously tainted. The English barmaids and continental waitresses 79 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 re- cruited 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. 80 It is not surprising to find a Berlin insurance fund reporting that waitresses make up one-half of those of its numbers venereally afflicted. 81 In England and Wales, of 27,707 barmaids in the Census of 1901, 18,251 were under 25 years of age. 82 Their wages range from 5 to 15 shillings a week. 83 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. 84 In many estab- lishments, irregularity either precedes employment or is common enough to be taken into account in determin- ing 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 character- ized, an ample supply is forthcoming, and why it is almost totally derived from a single social stratum. It is de- 79 Meher, loc. cit., pp. 133, etc. Also : Wilbrandt, loc. cit., pp. 272, etc., and the Denkschrift previously cited. 80 Denkschrift, p. 12. S1 lbid, p. 12. ss lbid, p. 4. 82 Women as Barmaids (London, 1905), p. 8. 84 Ibid., p. 33. 88 The Supply rived, 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 char- acter, that the girl is herself from the start not only will- ing, but the main instigator; in other cases, with intelli- gence 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 phe- nomenon; 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 situa- tion, 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 cafe, and the brothel. In the case of supply, as in the case of demand, two different problems present themselves. In so far as in- dividual reasons alone lead a girl of mature years to 89 Prostitution in Europe 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 situ- ation as respects supply arbitrarily developed to satisfy a specialized or artificial appetite. The girls thus in- volved 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 ma- terialize, and coerced into an immoral life, which holds them easily enough after their demoralization is com- pleted. 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 in- cidents as the " Process Riehl " 85 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 85 See p. 185. 90 The Supply and strain. Within the scope of this volume it is im- possible 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 re- spects effectively grappled with. Of these efforts, the international movement for suppression of the White Slave Traffic is the most conspicuous. There is no ques- tion 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 Vigi- lance Society was formed; similar organizations were then organized in other countries and in 1899 an in- ternational congress was held in London. Annual con- gresses now meet to review progress and to suggest legis- lation; 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, sur- rounded by many technicalities. In Germany the Prostitution in Europe 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. 86 But as a rule the culprit, if ar- rested, 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 follow- ing: "Whoever procures a female for purposes of prostitution, abducts, carries off, or leads her into prosti- tution, even if the steps thereto occur in different coun- tries, 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 pro- vision 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. Be- yond question an innocent girl might be entrapped, en- ticed, 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 fre- quently, 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 86 Reichsgesetzbuch, sec. 236, 237: Auswanderergesetz, sec. 48. 92 The Supply 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. 87 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 de- tailed proof. The new English law above mentioned is calculated to deal with just this emergency: for it au- thorizes the detention and arrest of such couples without warrant, on suspicion, and throws the burden of proof upon them. 88 The entire White Slave movement is thus forcible interference with the making of prostitutes. 89 87 E. Wulffen, Der Sexualverbrecher (Berlin, 1910) p. 700. 88 Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912. Section i 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 at- tempting to commit, any offence against section two of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 (which relates to procuration and at- tempted 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." 89 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: (i) White Slave Traffic in in- nocent German girls into foreign lands is of the utmost rarity. (2) It is even questionable whether German ports are utilized for pur- 93 Prostitution in Europe 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 desti- nation, consigned to cabarets in which theatrical enter- tainment is but a cloak for the exploitation of prostitu- tion. Newspaper advertisements and the paste 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 regula- tion of the employment agency: establishments must be annually licensed, their records must be kept according poses of transit. (3) No single case of genuine White Slavery has been discovered in Saxony in the last ten years. The General Sec- retary 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. 94 The Supply to a specified form, inspectors are free to examine them at will. Agents are prohibited to arrange for the em- ployment of females abroad unless the satisfactory na- ture 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. 90 The worst of the agencies abandoned the business as soon as the new regulations went into effect. 91 In Austria, the Employ- ment 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. 92 A special license must be obtained if international opera- tions 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 per- mission of the Court of Chancery; precautions are taken to insure good faith in the case of older girls; the li- cense can be canceled by the government without no- tice. 93 There is a marked tendency to limit the busi- ness to societies or the commune. The pimp is connected with the supply of prostitutes in two ways : he cultivates intimacies with the ultimate purpose O'f putting his victims or associates on the street ; 90 London County Council: Public Control Department; General Powers Act 1910. Part V. 91 Up to Oct. 1911, 1,033 applications for license had been made, 1,000 had been granted, 8 refused, 23 withdrawn, 2 adjourned. Re- port of Public Control Committee. 92 Gesetz, Feb. 5, 1907 : Gewerbsmassige Dienst und Stellenver- mittlung. Sec. 2ia. 83 Verordnung des Handelsministers, May 7, 1908. 95 Prostitution in Europe 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 prosti- tutes and the volume of prostitution. How formidable an element he becomes is evident from the fact that no- where 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 go%. Of 93 for- eign prostitutes in Zurich 85 were proved to be working for souteneurs; of 204 at Rotterdam, 130 were known to be supporting their lovers. 94 In form they vary ; now appearing as base hangers-on, now as paramours, again as husbands. No European city has, however, success- fully coped with the system. During September and October 1891, 350 arrests were made in Paris with only 14 convictions. 95 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 15 I. 96 Glasgow shows 25 successful convictions for the same offence in 191 1. 97 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 convic- tions in 1912. Wulffen has carefully compiled the sta- tistics showing the extent to which panders of all kinds the pimp, the owner of disorderly houses, hotels, etc. 94 Limburg, loc. cit., p. 17. 96 Commenge, loc. cit., p. 90. 96 Reports of the Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis. 97 Criminal Returns, City of Glasgow Police, 1911. 9 6 The Supply 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, convic- tions were obtained in only 5.18% of the cases; in the period 1898-1902, this figure had risen to 7.37%, an increase of $0%. Meanwhile local differences are enormous: Berlin convicted 565, 43.92% of the ac- cused; Cologne, 507, 39.36% of the accused; Ham- burg, 193, 15.01% of the accused; Frankfort 26, 2.03% of the accused. 1 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 bor- dell 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 sep- arate chapter. 2 It would carry us far afield to describe fully here the other establishments that cater to prosti- tutes, directly or indirectly inducing girls to enter the life or furnishing facilities for the intensive pursuit of the vocation. The Animierkneipe, the Variety The- ater, the cafe and other establishments largely derive their profit, direct or indirect, through affording an ever 1 Wulffen, loc. cit., p. 282. See also Zeitschrift XII, pp. 6, 7, for statistics of many German cities. 2 Chapter VI. 97 Prostitution in Europe 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 im- morality 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 per- mits 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 connec- tion between prostitution and the sale of drink. The licensing act forbids an unaccompanied woman to remain in a cafe 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 de- prived of their license on the charge of harboring prosti- tutes. The danger to the proprietor is a real one, for the government takes advantage of every legitimate pre- text for reducing the number of liquor establishments. In London the law is less consistently enforced than in 98 The Supply the provinces : certain notorious resorts in and about Lei- cester Square remind one of the continental cafe. On the Continent, however, little has been done to hinder the exploitation of prostitution in connection with drinking, dancing, and the theater. " In Paris, cafes, balls and theaters are from this point of view, not the object of any particular restriction." 3 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 mid- night; but the law is evaded by engaging a second set to work in the early morning hours! Stockholm closes all public dance-halls, cafes, etc., at midnight. The po- lice 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 8 Statement of Prefect of Police. On the other hand ^ the fol- lowing provision is found in the police regulations touching clan- destine prostitution : " Police commissaries may freely enter cabarets or cafes where clandestine prostitutes are notoriously har- bored, up to the hour of closing or later if the resorts are open con- trary to police ordinance." Annexes au rapport general de la com- mission extraparlementaire (Melun, 1908), p. 3. This document in two volumes (Proces-Verbaux and Annexes) will be referred to as Report, French Commission. 99 Prostitution in Europe 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 illegiti- mate 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 pro- tective 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; neverthe- less attractive and wholesome retreats have been estab- lished 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 po- lice 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 in- dustrial skill is least likely to err and most likely to re- cover herself. The French government has recently pro- vided for homes answering this purpose, but the ma- chinery by means of which children are to be got into them is so clumsy that the legislation has proved ineffec- tive. The recent Prussian " Fiirsorge Gesetz " of 1901 100 The Supply (Law on Guardianship) is much more satisfactory. The procedure is applicable to children under 18, but guard- ianship 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 institu- tions. In Prussia, about 6,000 children are yearly cared for on these lines, ^ 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. 4 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 im- portant point to remember, from the standpoint of prac- tical 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 Char- *The English Statute bearing on the subject is the Children, Act of 1908. IOI Prostitution in Europe pentier'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 de- mand, so there is nothing fatalistic about supply. In general, the two move together, one either one pro- voking the other. In the end, they have to be solved to- gether; but within limits, effective action attacking one can itself ameliorate the other. Human nature is in- deed weak enough on the sexual side; but the mass of existing vice is out of all proportion to what would ex- ist on that account alone; and one way to abridge de- mand is to abridge supply, as it is being abridged by white slave legislation, by control of employment agen- cies, by care of the unprotected young and by rational management of the drink and amusement traffic. More- over, whatever interferes with intensive exploitation vir- tually reduces supply. As forced supply increases de- mand, so diminished and hampered supply to some ex- tent checks it. Nora. Since the above was written the Report of the Fifth In- ternational 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 Associa- tion, London. I O2 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 " old- est of professions " is simply acquiesced in, on the theory that " what can not be cured must be endured." Cer- tain external appearances seem to give countenance to this view : the prostitute walks the highway apparently unmolested; she waits in the cafe and music hall for her prey; in some cities the licensed bordell furnishes a notorious market for the buying and selling of sen- sual 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, conse- quent 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 103 Prostitution in Europe have set in. Wholesale and traditional methods of at- tack 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 character- izes public opinion in reference to it. I mean, not that every nation is a unit, but that the general trend of opin- ion is much the same and that the same shades of opin- ion exist in all countries. For the most part, the at- titude 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 cer- tain laws, but actually compels them to ignore them; in 104 Prostitution and the Law 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 har- monious 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 phenom- enon. 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 exploita- tion 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 refer- ence to prostitution thus taken in its simplest form as the voluntary and unobtrusive act of two adults, the practical and fundamental question which confronts law- maker 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. 1 Crimes are 1 An interesting example of just such shifting is afforded by 105 Prostitution in Europe 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 dis- astrous 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 en- forced by the courts or otherwise attaches not to prostitu- tion in and for itself, and not to the prostitute as a person, but only to certain overt acts and to certain surround- ing or attendant conditions. There is indeed a distinct tendency against the extension of the conception of crim- inality 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 con- ditions 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 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. 106 Prostitution and the Law 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 monog- amous married state. An explanation must be sought in an entirely different direction. I have previously pointed out the fact that prostitu- tion 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 por- tion 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 uni- formly. 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 ex- istence 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 107 Prostitution in Europe 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 there- fore at once inequitable and futile. It is likewise be- coming progressively more difficult. As long as socie- ties 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. The- oretically, 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 ad- vent 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 re- sponsible 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 108 Prostitution and the Law 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 w r omen concerned are, as we learned, pro- fessionals 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 in- expedient 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 ap- pears 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 individ- uals will therefore cease, for it is not the punishment that produces the indignation." 2 2 Reglementeringsfragan, loc cit., p. 51. 109 Prostitution in Europe There is still another aspect of the problem. Investi- gation 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 con- crete 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 there- with 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 Eng- lish urge that personal liberty in this realm can be in- fringed 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 occa- sional immorality as she pleases, why not in prostitu- tion? 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 legis- lation with the occasional immorality of two individuals ; laws aiming to punish fornication and adultery are there- fore practically dead letters, not only because proof is no Prostitution and the Law 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 pres- ent day feeling: " The prostitution of women does not constitute a crime and does not fall under the application of the penal law." 3 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 in- different 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 punish- ment, 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 qualifica- tion 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 them- selves and for reasons, ostensible and actual, that will be fully discussed later. 4 The point I now wish to empha- 3 Fiaux, loc. cit., II, p. 873. 4 See Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII. Ill Prostitution in Europe size 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 Switzer- land, 5 there is no penal enactment against prostitution as such. " Immorality in itself is not an offence against the law," 6 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. 7 In France the ancient laws against immorality were swept away by the Code Na- poleon. Since then, an inoffensive prostitute has been absolutely free to ply her trade without danger of mo- lestation by the police. We shall later learn that the police have indeed laid hands on several thousand prosti- tutes whom they require to comply with certain regula- tions; 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 posi- tion in reference to them is becoming increasingly un- tenable. A more complicated legal situation in Germany works out in much the same way. On its face the penal code 5 The situation in the Swiss Cantons is fully dealt with by Theodor Weiss : Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schiueiz und das schweizerische Gesetzbuch (Bern, 1006). 6 Under date, Nov. 20, 1911. 7 The subject is more fully discussed in Chap. IX. 112 Prostitution and the Law punishes professional prostitution for money, 8 i.e., prostitution is itself a crime. The section reads : " Any woman shall be punished with imprisonment, who hav- ing been placed under police control on account of pro- fessional 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." 9 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 con- trol; they are therefore liable to criminal prosecution as being professional prostitutes. It is, however, a noto- rious 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. 10 Women are indeed sentenced to prison terms in accordance with provisions quoted; but on in- vestigation it will be discovered that they are arrested not 8 It will be noted that two things are punishable : Prostitution for money; violation of regulations by enrolled women. 9 Strafgesetsbuch fur das Deutsche Reich: 361, 6. 10 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 Prostitution In Europe for prostitution, but for disorder, though they are nom- inally punished as prostitutes. The statutory provisions respecting the prostitute's domicile are similarly interpreted. The law is very ex- plicit : " Whoever habitually or for profit assists prosti- tution 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." 11 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 an- other section of the same law, the definition of pander- ing is still further extended. 12 A small section of the German people would undoubt- edly 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 undertak- ing would be disastrous to the police. For the laws bear on the woman and the renter, wholly passing over 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. 11 Ibid., Sections 180-1. "Ibid, Sec. 181. Prostitution and the Law the man, who is at least the accomplice and perhaps in- stigator. As a matter of fact, therefore, no steps are taken against the keepers of such bordells as are con- ducted 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 prosecu- tions for " pandering," i. e., for infractions of the para- graphs in question. Between 1903 and 1907, the prose- cutions averaged 343 annually in Cologne; in Frankfort, 373; in Stuttgart, 57- 13 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 main- tained." 14 " 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." 15 To the same effect writes Schmolder : " According to the law, a prostitute 13 Zeitschrift, XII, p. 6, where statistics for other German cities are also given. 14 Wulffen, loc. cit., p. 682. 15 Blaschko, Art. Prostitution, in Handworterbuch der Staats- wissenschaften (Jena, 1910) p. 1239. Prostitution in Europe is not entitled to have a domicile at all ; in practice they do anyway." 1G What has long been a dead letter, the newly pro- jected 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 prem- ises." 17 The new paragraph thus seeks to free prostitu- tion 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 per- son 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." 18 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 ad- vance in public opinion, for it substitutes " person " for 16 R. Schmolder, Die Prostituierten und das Strafrecht (Munich, 1911), p. 19. 17 Vorentwurf zu einem deutschen Strafgesetzbuch (Berlin, 1909) Section 251. is lbid, Section 305, 4. 116 Prostitution and the Law " 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 considera- tions previously adduced have undermined the legislation in question. Thereupon much ingenuity has been ex- pended in some places in the effort to gain another foot- hold. 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 home- less 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 opin- ion sustains its application only when there are other ob- jections than prostitution, viz., homelessness, intoxica- tion, etc., and such offences can be otherwise reached. 117 Prostitution in Europe Moreover, in so far as the prostitute is in reality aimed at through the subterfuge of vagabondage, the man-accom- plice once more escapes an intolerable condition, as I have already shown. 19 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 de- cidedly, however, the moment the act involves others be- side the two participants. As soon as order, decency, the contamination of minors, or the interest of an ex- ploiter 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 ap- pears to be no police method of dealing with them ef- fectively 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 prostitu- tion 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 ma- ture 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 19 The subject is more fully treated in Chapter IX, p. 334. Prostitution and the Law 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 con- ception 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 be- comes criminal the moment it becomes open, involving annoyance to others. In still higher degree does crim- inality attach to any third party who profits by promot- ing, 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 tak- ing 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 prob- lem, a reduction of its vast total into constituent ele- 119 Prostitution in Europe ments, 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 discrimina- tion. The scientific attitude has also introduced a ma- ture and deliberate, though not of course facile, hope- fulness. 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." 20 The situation as now characterized is, however, re- tarded and confused by legislation, police regulations and habits of thought that represent mere survivals from a standpoint now becoming obsolete. They are tena- ciously 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 Con- tinent is Regulation, to the examination of which the fol- lowing chapters will be devoted. 20 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 : " Who- ever 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." 1 2O CHAPTER V REGULATION AND ORDER THE STREETS Regulation defined. General description of the system. Regu- lation in Berlin. Compulsory and voluntary inscription. The Sit- tenpolizei (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 rela- tively small. General tendency downwards. Objections to regula- tion 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 ex- ploit the existing supply. Endeavor in these various directions looks to gradual amelioration of the situation now generally existing in large cities. Meanwhile, pros- titution 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 em- ployed: regulation and abolition. The former endeav- 121 Prostitution in Europe ors to handle prostitution by inducing it to submit to certain rules; it urges that as a matter of fact prosti- tution exists, is a social pest, and cannot be summarily wiped out; something will, however, be gained for de- cency, 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 pros- titution is accepted provided it submits to certain rules, the state is placed in the position of authorizing, legal- izing, or privileging the practice of vice. While the regu- lationists claim that the privileges conferred do not em- body 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 con- trary notwithstanding, regulation is a compact with vice. In the present and succeeding chapters these two oppos- ing 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 stipulat- ing 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 122 Regulation and Order the Streets present themselves at regular intervals for medical ex- amination 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 else- where. 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 preser- vation 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 discus- sion. 1 The Berlin prostitute almost invariably first comes into contact with the police in consequence of street solicit- ing. 2 The plain-clothes morals police, shortly to be de- 1 The Berlin regulations are translated into English and printed in full on pp. 415-419. 2 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, investigat- ing fully all the persons involved before taking any action what- soever. " 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 Sitten- abteilung, Berlin. 123 Prostitution in Europe scribed, are charged with the duty of watching not only registered women to see that they respect the regula- tions but also unregistered women whose actions arouse the suspicion that they are seeking to practise prostitution for money, the offence which is alone ob- noxious to German law. 3 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 warn- ing 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 under- taking 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 hap- pen 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 con- ditions 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 men- tioned; and an endeavor is made to secure wholesome conditions for her at home, in some other family or in 3 " Gewerbsunsucht " (professional prostitution) involves "ge- schlechtliche Hingabe gegen Entgelt" (sexual intercourse for pay). I2 4 Regulation and Order the Streets an institution. 4 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 frac- tion of the cases, the girl, despite the fact that she is a minor, may be inscribed, should she be rearrested for the same offence and adjudged guilty in court. 5 Women over 21 are at once turned over to the courts upon ar- rest 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 im- prisonment 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. 6 She must not loiter offensively in streets and public places, nor solicit, nor be found in the company of pros- titutes or pimps ; 7 except in case of urgent need, she must not walk in the following streets and places, viz., The Zoological Garden, Unter den Linden, Friedrich- strasse, Potsdamer Platz, etc. ; 8 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 ; 9 she is to have no in- 4 The procedure is based on the Prussian law respecting the care of minors, of July 2, 1900, already mentioned, p. 100. 5 In conformity with ministerial decree, December n, 1907. 6 It will be understood that the stipulations bearing on health are reserved for a subsequent chapter. 7 Poliseiliche Vorschriften (Berlin) Section 4. 8 Sixty-three streets and places are enumerated, Section 6. 9 Ibid. Section 7. 125 Prostitution in Europe tercourse of any kind with minors; 10 she must admit police officers at any time into her dwelling, day or night, and give information about any person discovered with her; 11 she must keep police headquarters constantly in- formed of her address ; 12 she may not reside in the vi- cinity of schools, churches, or public buildings and must change her dwelling on peremptory notice from the police. 13 Any infraction of these regulations is punish- able 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 deal- ing 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. Section 9. 11 Ibid. Section II. 12 Registration of addresses is so generally required that this pro- vision is not offensive to the European sense; but the prostitute is compelled to notify a change of address more promptly than other persons. 13 Ibid. Section 15. 126 Regulation and Order the Streets It is apparently easy to understand why a police force, believing in the necessity of regulation as a means of pre- serving decorum, and in its efficacy as a means of pro- moting sanitation, should favor compulsory inscription; but why should a prostitute herself, without pressure from the police, ever ask to be subjected to its regime? A complete explanation will gradually emerge as we proceed with the description and discussion of regula- tion; but a partial account must be given at once. I re- marked 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, punish- ment, eviction, whenever it can be proved that she earns money through immorality, whether she have other oc- cupation or not. 14 Voluntary inscription is an open con- fession of irregular life as a business. Instead, how- ever, of leading to her immediate punishment for ad- mitted 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 formulae. Once inscribed, she is free to seek and to entertain pa- trons as long as she does so without scandal. Inscrip- tion voluntary or compulsory thus involves her submission to certain conditions, more or less restrictive and capable of somewhat disturbing her business opera- 14 It is sometimes stated that according to the German law, pro- fessional 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-registra- tion. The offence is not, so it is said, that the woman is a prosti- tute, 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. I2 7 Prostitution in Europe tions; but it has the great advantage of relieving the prostitute of vague dread of police interference in gen- eral. 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 in- scription; arbitrary and additional police sentence fol- lowing judicial sentence, in case the court so orders; in- terdiction 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 fol- lows that the legalized prostitution of Berlin is scattered through the city. For the enforcement of the Berlin regulations a special- ized 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 com- mands 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 regula- tions. If a medical visit to be described in a subse- quent chapter 14a is missed, a morals patrolman searches See pp. 235-6. 128 Regulation and Order the Streets 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, ar- rested ; 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 out- set to show the reader the nature and extent of the re- sponsibility 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 in- scription, 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 re- side in a place approved by the police, which place will in no event be a brothel or a bordell. Bremen, proceed- ing 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 prac- 129 Prostitution in Europe tically bordells ; 15 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 in- scription, and remove from it to some other part of the city whenever she cancels her enrolment; of course, can- cellation of her inscription and removal to another part of town do not necessarily involve any change in her oc- cupation. Therefore a small number of Bremen pros- titutes 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 inscrip- tion, but, unlike Bremen and like Berlin, only scat- tered 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 com- pulsory; the inscribed prostitute dwells in a bordell or 15 See below, pp. 177-8. 130 Regulation and Order the Streets 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 regu- larly repairs or may be summoned between certain hours ; these houses, like the bordells, are found in many sec- tions of the city; meanwhile no part of the town is ex- empt 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 fash- ionable 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 ex- pressly provide that the police shall handle the non-reg- istered women more severely than the registered. 16 The woman's freedom to enroll or not as she pleases is thus ostensible rather than actual. It is assuredly a bit cas- uistical to maintain that the prostitute may inscribe her- self 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, un- registered prostitution is harried with great severity. The Stockholm regulations also make it the woman's duty 16 Regulations, Section 51 ; see p. 441. Prostitution in Europe to register ; 17 but, as the chief of the division is author- ized to observe non-registered women " suspected of im- morality," 18 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 adminis- trative 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 en- roll 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 in- stitution of marriage is degraded, if a married woman is expressly authorized by the law to practise prostitu- tion 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 inscrip- tion can therefore be defeated if the mere fact that a woman follows some sort of occupation necessarily ex- empts her from inscription. Hence women so engaged 17 Regulations of Stockholm., Section 3. 18 Ibid, Section 10, h. 132 Regulation and Order the Streets may be enrolled if they are professional prostitutes. In- deed, 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 pro- fessional prostitute and simultaneous employment as bar- maid 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 hon- estly, 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, pro- test her innocence, but she is allowed neither attorney to represent nor witnesses to support her. Nor can the ac- tion 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 pros- titution 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 133 Prostitution in Europe 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 in- scription 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 in- terpose an objection. Hamburg and Berlin, on the con- trary, 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 pa- trolman 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 in- spector 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 re- move the prostitute from human associations. She is barred from certain streets; she is forbidden certain places of amusement. These restrictions are not condi- tioned upon her conduct, but upon the fact that she is a prostitute, and they form an important part of the regula- tions not only of Berlin, but of Paris, Munich, Brussels, 134 Regulation and Order the Streets 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 agree- ment as to the details, the new Vienna regulation entirely abandons even the attempt to make the prostitute an out- cast in this sense ; she is only 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 be- havior she is liable only to the same rules as to order and decency that apply to all other persons." 19 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 amen- able 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 ma- terial consideration must be either admitted or proved. Austria urges that no headway can be made against such a technicality; the Vienna police, therefore, after watch- ing and vainly warning, arrest on suspicion. Berlin acts most rigorously when the girl is without a definite home ; M Stuttgart and Bremen enroll only when the girl has a definite home, and in a bordell 21 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 10 Das neue Wiener Prostitutionsrealement, June I, 1911. Sec- tion 26. An English translation of the Vienna regulations is given pp. 429-444- 20 " Feste Wohnung:" the significance of this is explained below, P- 275. 21 Or its equivalent : see below, p. 178. 135 Prostitution in Europe 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, inconsist- ent with one another in viewpoint and diverse in organi- zation, 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 dis- cussion of the merits or demerits of regulation with a bill of particulars specifying the precise form of regula- tion 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 prac- tically every respect, they are singularly alike in one highly important regard: they have been generally de- veloped by more or less arbitrary action on the part of the police and without the deliberate and express sanc- tion 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 lack- ing in any respect; the Belgian system, too, reposing on communal law, 22 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 regula- tion of prostitution. Elsewhere this is not, and never 22 Of date, March 30, 1836. 136 Regulation and Order the Streets has been, the case. But continental tradition accords to the police an extensive jurisdiction and initiative in re- gard to matters more or less loosely left within their prov- ince. 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 an- cient 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 uncomfor- table on the subject. They cling to the powers; but they crave explicit legislative warrant such as will place their authority beyond suspicion. This legislative reas- surance they have nowhere obtained; neither in France, nor Germany, nor Austria has the national legislature de- liberately and unambiguously created or even sustained by statutory enactment the police regulation of prosti- tution, 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 mak- ing out the strongest possible case for its legal warrant. 137 Prostitution in Europe As to Paris, I shall follow M. Lepine, to whom I have pre- viously referred as an extraordinarily able official. 23 The powers there exercised by the police in respect to pros- titution are derived from a royal ordinance of 1684 ap- pointing the Salpetriere 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 epi- demics and infectious disease. From these general di- rections to the minute specifications and exemptions of the Paris regulatory system is indeed a far call. It is im- possible seriously to maintain that they warrant or were ever intended to warrant the procedure ostensibly de- rived 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 legis- lative body define prostitution and " give judicial pro- ceedings 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 23 Rapport de M. Lepine sur la reglementation, 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 regula- tion. For a discussion of the topic by a German jurist opposed to regulation, see Schmolder Die Bestrafung und poliseiliche Be- handlung der gewerbsmassigen Unzucht (Dusseldorf, 1892) p. n, etc. 138 Regulation and Order the Streets 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. Re- viewing these unavailing endeavors to establish regula- tion on a secure legal basis, M. Lepine declared before the Extra- Parliamentary Commission : " In these con- ditions 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 govern- ments." 24 The situation is no better in the rest of France. Regu- lation in the provincial cities is based on certain para- graphs of a law of April 5, i884, 25 in reference to which M. Hennequin, of the Ministry of the Interior, a pro- nounced regulationist, admits : " Without doubt, the law does not speak expressly of morals, and prostitution is not referred to by name in article 97 : " 26 that is, the comparatively recent statute, on which provincial regula- tion in France rests, does not venture to mention the policy in defense of which it is now invoked. The Aus- trian regulations are likewise a creation of the police, ostensibly pursuant to a general statutory provision that vaguely leaves the " punishment of professional prosti- tutes to the police authority." 27 But regulation con- 24 Report, French Commission, Annexes p. 5. 25 Section 91, "The mayor has charge of the municipal police;" Section 94, " he has the right to make arrests, to ordain local meas- ures 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." 26 Annexes, loc. cit., p. 36. For a severe criticism of M. Henne- quin's stretching of the law, see Fiaux, Police de Moeurs, Vol. I, pp. 41, etc. 27 Oesterreichisches Strafgesetsbuch Section 509, and Gesetz, May 24, 1885. 139 Prostitution in Europe sists not in punishing, but in condoning prostitution, pro- vided certain police stipulations be complied with. Like its French prototype, the Austrian system thus lacks stat- utory basis as well as express legislative sanction; and precisely as the French defect is admitted by M. Lepine, regulationist, so the corresponding Austrian flaw is con- fessed 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 vulner- able." 28 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 de- vised by themselves. Only if so amended would the present system rest on an unequivocal legal basis. Need- less to say, no such amendment has yet been carried, 29 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." 30 Regulation 31 begins, therefore, by flying in the face of Zeitschrift IX, p. 217. 29 Ibid., pp. 156-160. Dr. Baumgarten urges the substituting of the word " Ueberwachung " (watching over) for "Bestrafung" (punishment) in the statute. 30 Ohne feste Wohnung. 31 It is, of course, also true that Section 361, 6 conflicts with Section 180. 140 Regulation and Order the Streets 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 dwell- ing-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 de- fensible. The present Imperial Chancellor admitted that the law is " illogical and confused ; " 32 and the most re- cent decision of the Reichsgericht, involving the inter- pretation of the statute, concedes that " the competency of the police in the matter of compulsory inscription is not uncontested." 33 A recent ministerial instruction 34 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 pros- titution. 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 what- soever 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 con- tribute to the achievement of police purposes. Now the regulations governing prostitution aim to protect order 32 A Speech in Prussian House of Representatives, February 21, 1007. 33 See a review of the Court's judgment in Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft sur Bek'dmpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten X, pp. 49-51. 34 Dated December n, 1907. It will be observed that this safe- guard applies only to Prussia, and there only to women who have not previously been inscribed. 141 Prostitution in Europe and health. Regulation is therefore a function that fol- lows 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." 35 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 ex- isting systems is furnished by the radical changes pro- posed 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 neces- sary regulations, subject to prior enactments on the part of the state legislatures; but these regulations may not distinguish between controlled and non-controlled pros- titutes, they must be applicable to all alike. 38 The most striking fact in connection with the opera- tion of all systems of regulation is the small inscription 35 Dr. Jur. Kurt Wqlzendorff, Polisei und Prostitution (Tubingen, 1911) pp. 57-59, abridged. Schmolder'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). 38 Vorentwurf, loc. cit. Begrundung, pp. 850-853. High authori- ties question even then whether the proposed changes are suffi- ciently explicit to put the systems of regulation beyond all ques- tion. Lindenau suggests a definite declaration, but there is no likelihood of its adoption {Die strafrechtliche Bekdmpfung der Gewerbsunzucht, in Prof, von Liszt's Festschrift}. I am informed by a member of the Swedish Commission that regu- lation 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. 142 Regulation and Order the Streets 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. 37 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. 38 RATIO OF INSCRIBED WOMEN TO POPULATION Number of in- Ratio of lat- Population scribed women ter to former Paris 2,888,110 6,000 (Approx.) i to 481 Marseilles 39 550,619 639 I to 861 Bordeaux 261,678 410 I to 638 Lille 217,807 108 I to 2,016 Nantes 170,535 125 I to 1,364 Le Havre 136,159 136 I to 1,001 Toulon 104,582 325 I to 322 Berlin 2,071,257 3,559 I to 582 Hamburg 931,035 935 I to 995 37 For table showing numbers inscribed in German cities, as com- pared with population, see A. Blaschko, Hygiene der Prostitution (Jena, 1001) p. 55. Since this date, the disproportion has been ag- gravated, 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. Ill, part 2, pp. 38-49. 38 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 States- man'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. 39 For the French statistics I am indebted to M. Victor Augag- neur, Depute du Rhone, and to Dr. Louis Fiaux. Number of in- Ratio of lat- scribed women ter to former 173 i 293 600 [ to 3,441 to 1,871 to 828 300 to 1,382 22 to 13,010 75 1 to 3,299 to 13,850 to 17,081 1,689 2,000 (Approx.) : to 90,254 to 1,203 [ to 440 225 i to 2,409 554 i to 625 182 I to 3,621 86 I to 1,793 Prostitution in Europe RATIO OF INSCRIBED WOMEN TO POPULATION Population Munich 596,467 Dresden 548,308 Cologne 40 516,527 Frankfort 414,576 Stuttgart 286,218 Bremen 247,437 Mannheim 193,902 Augsburg 102,487 Munster 90,254 Vienna 2,031,498 Budapest 880,371 Rome 542,123 Stockholm 41 346,599 Brussels 659,000 Geneva 154,159 Different years show a considerable fluctuation in the above totals, but the general tendency is markedly down- ward. Paris, for instance, inscribed 4,519 in the year 1830, when its population was 800,000 ; 42 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; 43 a de- cline is again in progress, for 1910 does not exceed 6,000. At Berlin there was a steady rise from 1886 to 1896: the 40 Accuracy is more difficult in dealing with Cologne than else- where, 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 regu- larly report to the police. This statement is based on personal in- formation, confirmed by Zinnser, Zeitschrift V, p. 202. 41 Enrolment for year 1912. 42 Moll, loc. cit., p. 371. 43 Rapport, Conseil Munic. loc. cit., p. 29. These and other sta- tistics may be found in Fjaux, Police des Moeurs, III, pp. 907, etc. ; R. Degante, La Lutte contre la Prostitution (Paris, 1909) p. 109; Talmeyr, loc. cit., pp. 246-7. 144 Regulation and Order the Streets list stood at 3,006 in the former year, 5,098 in the lat- ter; since which time, despite increased population, the enrolment declined to 3,115 in 1905 ; 44 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 i,689- 45 Hamburg has re- ceded from 1,266 in 1903 to 935 in igio. 46 Breslau dropped from 1,856 in 1889 to I >4S J us t fi ye years later; 47 Mannheim from 60 in 1890 to 13 in I9O2. 48 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 cen- tury before. Thereupon there came a decided drop : 1 19 women had been newly enrolled in 1903; 67 were en- rolled in 1904. By the year 1912, the total enrolment itself considerably larger than the effective enrolment had sunk to 554- 49 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 en- rolment is at the best unimportant, and at the worst, al- together negligible. Paris, as I have said, registers per- 44 P. Hirsch, Verbrechen und Prostitution (Berlin, 1907) p. n. 45 For these and all other Austrian statistics I am indebted to Dr. Anton Baumgarten. 40 Official figures obtained through American Consulate. 47 Zeitschrift I, p. 107. 48 Ibid, II, p. 96. ^Johansson, loc. cit., p. 14. 145 Prostitution in Europe haps one in eight. If, as is estimated, there are 30,000 prostitutes in Vienna, 50 the maximum inscription is barely 5%. As opposed to a registration of 225 in Rome, the police records show 5,000 women under ob- servation at one time or another. 51 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; 52 in 1911, with 173 women inscribed, 2,574 clandestines were under police observation, the former about 7% of the latter. 53 The inexperienced outsider may jump to the con- clusion 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 mat- ter of fact, there has been in some towns no lack of en- deavor 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, un- less a clear case can be made out. The police agents are therefore bound to proceed with great circumspec- tion. They are indeed instructed that a hundred omis- sions 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 crit- 60 Zeitschrift IX, p. 217. 51 From official data exhibited to me at headquarters. 52 P. Bruns, Geheime Prostitution (Dresden, 1911) p. 6. 68 Officially communicated. 146 Regulation and Order the Streets icism; but for several reasons the more sophisticated forms of prostitution he dare not touch. Proof is harder; the woman has friends; the public resents in- terference 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; Dres- den 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 re- membered, 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 infrac- tion thereof. In general, the perils to which a large 147 Prostitution in Europe 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 pur- suit of a vicious life; but this explanation is not convinc- ing. 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 con- ditions prostitution by reason of its protean nature can- not be catalogued. From the impossibility of cataloguing prostitution, other disastrous consequences to which I have already adverted, inevitably flow. Wherever a certain num- ber 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 ; 54 but at this point it is important to note G * In Chapters VII and X. 148 Regulation and Order the Streets 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 prostitu- tion, 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 dis- cussion 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 re- verse: 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 per- manent 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 o>f 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 149 Prostitution in Europe 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 en- dangered 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 prosti- tution ; 55 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 ulti- mately 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. 56 The essentially medieval character of forcible inscrip- tion, 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. 57 Frightful mis- carriages O'f justice are bound to occur in consequence of arbitrary action: for example, a woman leaving her 55 See Chap. I, pp. 21, etc. 66 It is true that registered women sometimes return to a de- cent life. But registration enormously increases the difficulty and lessens the probability of her doing so. 57 How disappearance affects the problem is explained below. 150 Regulation and Order the Streets 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. 58 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 be- fore a regularly constituted court ; she is amenable to po- lice authority alone. Should she break, or be accused of breaking, the stipulations to which she is now compul- sorily subordinated, she must accept the penalties im- posed by the bureau chief, without protest. Utter help- lessness is her lot ; and that too amid conditions that con- spire to bring about not improvement but further degra- dation. 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 58 Meunier, Annexes, pp. 271-2 ; also Ibid, passim. See also Rapport de Dr. Lucas, Ibid. Prostitution in Europe 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 per- sonal impressions." Insuperable difficulties thus confront a vigorous regu- latory 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 sus- pending 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 defence- less 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 inhuman- 152 Regulation and Order the Streets ity. 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. 59 In the year 1901, 635 women over 21 years old and 660 minors were forcibly enrolled, more minors than adults ! 60 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; 81 of 338 women en- rolled in 1905, 196 (i. e., 58%) had been registered dur- ing their minority. 62 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. 63 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. 64 Berlin 59 Annexes, Report, French Com., p 388. See also Fiaux, Police des Moeurs I, pp. 196, etc.; ditto L'Integrite intersexuelle des peu- ples et les Gouvernments (Paris, 1910) pp. 205, etc.; Rapports, Con- seil Munic. loc cit., pp. 31, etc. Commenge, loc. cit., pp. 599, etc. 60 Fiaux, Police des Moeurs I, p. 38; III, p. 609. Eee also Eugene Prevost, De la Prostitution des Enfants. 61 Report, Swedish Commission III, p. 63. 62 Welander in Zeitschrift XI, p. 395. 63 Meher, loc. cit., p. 215. 64 Loc. cit., pp. 41-49. 153 Prostitution in Europe now refuses inscription below eighteen and acts cau- tiously 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 six- teen 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 prosti- tutes who, be it noted, must be enrolled if the system is to be even fairly adequate to its intention over 57% are minors. 65 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 65 Finger and Baurngarten, Die Regelung der Prostitution in Oesterreich (Reprinted) from the Wiener Medizinische Wochen- schrift No's. 35 etc., 1909). 154 Year 1881 ... Total Number of Inscribed Women 3,160 Disappeared in the course of the Year I.C24 Died -?4 1884 ... . .2,017 085 ^O 1887 . . .4,681 2.W* 18 i8m . . .4,70^ 1,121 Q 1807 . . . 5,2^ I.CQQ 14 IQOO . . .6.222 823 26 Regulation and Order the Streets and 1884 show that 23% leave in the first year after in- scription. 66 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 : 67 Returned to Decent Married Life 2 27 13 6 8 22 8 17 27 43 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." 68 A certain point once reached, the structure topples as fast as it is built up. At Dres- den I was frankly told : " Compulsion is useless ; it only increases hiding and disappearing." Forcible in- scription 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 in- ducements offered are very substantial, for if a woman complies with the regulations the police guarantee her 66 Loc. dt., p. 10. 67 Fiaux, Police des Moeurs III, p. 658. 68 Lepine, in Report, French Com., Annexes p. 25. 155 Prostitution in Europe the unhampered prosecution of her business. Yet even so, a vestige of surviving decency intervenes to keep far the greater number from voluntarily branding them- selves. In Paris, out of 1,574 enrolments in 1901, only 52 were voluntary; out of 737 in 1908, only 36 were voluntary. 69 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 cafes, the boulevards, the variety theaters are absolutely free from molesta- tion. The Paris police " do not arrest, do not disturb, do not even watch the well-to-do courtesans who fre- quent the Bois de Boulogne, driving a fast pair of horses; who live luxuriously near the Pare 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 de- moiselles of the Boulevard St. Michel are the faithful friends of the students: they are respected by the police!" 70 These women are all technically called " clandestine," an absurd misnomer, for their way of living is as notorious as that o 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 I9o6. 41 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, con- tained 4, 5, and 6 respectively. 42 29 houses in 1882, 3 in 1885; Liege 33 in 1881, 20 in 1895; Charleroi 10 in 1872, 3 in 1895. 40 Fiaux, Police des Moeurs, I, p. 211. Also Vol. II, pp. 907-8; Vol. Ill, p. 664. 41 Felix Regnault, L'Evolution de la Prostitution (Paris, 1907) p. 142. 42 Von During (Zeitschrift IV, p. 113) quotes Strohmberg ss stating that the same evolution is in progress at St. Petersburg, 181 Prostitution in Europe 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 main- tenance of public order and decency and for the diminu- tion of disease, points that still remain to be discussed. The bordell prospered as long as its management was un- controlled; its decay set in the moment public sentiment required the slightest deference to the dictates of hu- manity. For, in the first place, the bordell can be ten- anted 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 ac- cepts only under pressure of necessity. Young and at- tractive inmates are desired, innocent, or, at least, be- ginners. Prior to their suppression in Zurich, 60% of the inmates of its 18 bordells had not completed their seventeenth year ! 43 The fact that there are more bor- dells 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 per- haps 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 in- famous business, victims were brought into the large European cities by every species of fraud and imposition, 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 in- mates. 43 Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweis (Zurich, 1913) p. 10. 182 Regulation and Order Bordells only to find themselves imprisoned in bordells until thor- oughly broken to the trade. Thus the houses of Paris were filled with girls enticed from their homes in the de- partments of the Somme and the Rhone, 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 vig- orous development of humane interest characteristic of re- cent 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," 44 remarked the candid madame of a Budapest bordell. An outside proof that the bordell is necessarily as- sociated with trafficking in girls may not be amiss in this connection. The trafficker, avoiding the aroused con- tinental 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 establish- ments with 532 girls, 17 Italian establishments with 92 44 " Etwas junges und frisches ist uberhaupt nicht zu kriegen." 183 Prostitution in Europe inmates, 22 French houses with 136 girls. 45 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 op- erate makes it all the more important to do the best pos- sible 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 inspec- tion of police records discloses the fact that women re- main on the average only a few weeks in a given house. Through the 13 bordells of Teplitz-Schonau, Bohemia, between January i, 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, 46 In the Zurich bordells, 85% of the inmates changed within 5 months, 63% within 2 months. 47 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 45 For these figures I am indebted to official courtesy. te Meher, loc. cit., p. 150. 47 Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweiz, p. n. 184 Regulation and Order Bordells 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 re- peatedly quoted with respect the words of Dr. Baum- garten 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 investiga- tions are tersely summarized : " Without bordells, no white slave traffic." 48 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, hav- ing 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 48 " Ohne Bordelle, kein Madchenhandel." Bloch, Sexualleben, p. 377- 185 Prostitution in Europe received and so utterly demoralized by their way of life that they made no effort to recover their freedom even if opportunity offered. 49 The conscience of those authorities who are still will- ing to tolerate bordells, provided girls are not involun- tarily 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 ob- tained, after which they are victimized out of their earn- ings on every conceivable pretext. 50 Recent alterations in the police regulations seek to pro- tect the bordell women against exploitation; but no amount of menace or oversight suffices to procure the en- forcement 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 ; con- viviality is procured by general and continuous indulgence in beer, wine, and champagne. In order to prevent com- plete 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, Al- tona, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Bremen, and other cities. But it goes on openly and flagrantly, nevertheless. An Al- 49 Schneider, loc. cit., pp. 171-2. BO See p. 257. For a detailed account of the exploitation of in- mates in Paris, see Fiaux, Les Maisons de Tolerance (Third Edition, Paris, 1896) Chapter VII. 186 Regulation and Order Bordells tona madame candidly admitted to me the reason : " The business couldn't be carried on otherwise." 51 In the bordells of Stockholm, champagne costing 2^ 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." 52 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 neverthe- less: for exorbitant prices are charged for necessities, and extras forbidden or not usually swallow the re- mainder. In the most wretched establishments of Al- tona, 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 " ex- tras," an " unreasonable sum," 53 in Johansson's judg- ment. The Dresden police name 8 to 1 5 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 51 " Ohne Trinken ging es nicht." 52 Linblad in Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 65. 63 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 176. I8 7 Prostitution in Europe 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 bene- factress applied to the bordell for her clothes, she was in- formed 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 him- self as a rule being one of the party. I possess tran- scripts of two reports made on a Vienna bordell. The in- specting 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, es- pecially with a view to ascertaining whether their per- sonal 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 un- less conditions were at once improved. Revised regula- tions became effective before the next inspection, at which time it appeared that each inmate paid something over 1 88 Regulation and Order Bordells five dollars a day for board and lodging (26 kronen), beyond which their earnings belonged to them ; the earn- ings 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 san- itary conditions must be improved. To hinder the crass- est exploitation and to secure the most elemental cleanli- ness, the highest officials, physicians and jurists of uni- versity 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 im- possible to utilize officers of high rank and spotless per- sonal and professional character for this sordid duty; if delegated to others, a source of corruption and abuse would be created. Hence, though rules against exploita- tion and in favor of decency are promulgated, success- ful efforts to enforce them are practically nowhere en- countered. Though its heyday is over, the bordell can, however, still be made to pay, if the authorities are disposed to con- done 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 ex- travagant prices ; 54 the houses in Helenenstrasse, Bremen, valued at 327,000 marks, cost their present owner 585,- ooo marks ; 55 a tumbledown medieval hovel, long util- 54 Kritische Tribune, loc. cit., p. 114. 55 Schneider, loc. cit., p. 168. 189 Prostitution in Europe ized as a bordell in Stuttgart, was recently sold for 60,- ooo marks to a " dummy " purchaser. Shortly after the transaction, the police, heeding neighborhood com- plaints, decreed the closing of the establishment; where- upon they were bitterly reproached for summary viola- tion of an implied contract. 56 Paris transactions are naturally on a far higher scale: 200,000 and 300,000 francs have changed hands for a single business. 57 An- other 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 re- sorts " situated in the zone of the Champs-Elysees, near the Arc, the majority belong to the same managers." 3S Fortunately other causes conspire with the suppres- sion 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 nowa- days 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." 59 The women, too, are filled with the desire to enjoy their own freedom. They prefer the reckless abandon of the 56 " The renter of these buildings charges the inscribed prosti- tute 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. II, 12. (Abridged.) 87 Annexes, loc. cit., pp. 424-5. See also Fiaux, Police des Moeurs, I, 213-217. 08 Fiaux, Ibid, p. 220. 69 Lepine in Annexes, loc. cit., p. 21. IQO Regulation and Order Bordells streets, the cafes, and the theaters. Under these circum- stances, 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 in- evitably 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 an- other in forcing upon the youthful customer the knowl- edge of unnatural and artificial forms of sexual gratifi- cation. 60 Similar excesses are practised elsewhere, in- deed 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." G1 The infamous implements em- ployed are in full view as one enters the apartments in Helenenstrasse. The degradation of the bordell inmate is total ; 62 her rehabilitation well-nigh impossible. She fares far worse than the street-walker, who sometimes re- turns to an orderly manner of life. Finally, cautious as the keeper may be not to deserve 60 See Fiaux Maisons de Tolerance, Chapter X, etc. 61 Report, Swedish Commission, III, p. 66. 62 See Meunier's detailed account in Annexes, loc. cit., pp. 420, etc. Prostitution in Europe 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 crim- inals and the corresponding class of prostitutes intimate relations subsist. 03 To the low class resort the law- breaker betakes himself; there the outlaw receives sym- pathy and shelter. It is occasionally alleged that the reverse is true : that the bordell keepers turn the law- breaker 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 dif- ferent 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 re- mains to inquire into its influence on external order. It is claimed that the bordell, by providing an ascer- tainable, 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 prom- inence 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 bor- dells, with 387 inmates, in Paris does not interfere with 63 See Moll, loc. cit., p. 366 : Ostwald, Schlupfwinkel der Prostitu- tion in Das Berliner Dirnentum, Vol. II. 192 Regulation and Order Bordells the promenading of perhaps 50,000 unregistered prosti- tutes 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, resi- dent 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 bor- dells is externally much more orderly than Geneva with them. If the bordell played any part in the main- tenance 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 re- quire 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 conse- quence of "frequent complaints, named a special com- mittee charged with the duty of devising means to put an end " 64 to the sort of vagabondage we are consider- 64 Tribune de Geneve, March 30, 1912. See also A. Guillot, La Lutte centre I' Exploitation et la Reglementation du Vice a Geneve (Geneva, 1899) pp. 138-9. 193 Prostitution in Europe ing? As a matter of fact, coincidentally with the grad- ual 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 po- lice, 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 liveli- hood. 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, re- gard with horror the " inhumanity " of the Bremen re- strictions. 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 cafes, and elsewhere. The bordell 194 Regulation and Order Bordells 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 pe- destrian who in the afternoon inadvertently stumbles into the Schwiegergasse is greeted from window, vesti- bule, 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 pro- cession 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 su- perior attractions of their competing establishments; at Bremen, in the summer evening, the interned women forbidden to solicit on the street, approached all pass- ersby 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 police- man does not hinder even unmistakable and utterly shameless prostitution of minors in the Rosengasse and Metzgergasse," 65 two otf the streets in which bordells are found. In a few instances only, Budapest and 65 Mitteilungen, etc., X, 5 p. 96. 195 Prostitution in Europe 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 strength- ened 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 argu- ment 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 suf- fer nothing by comparison ; the streets of Liverpool are at the moment the cleanest of all. Once more, the bor- dell 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, cafe, cheap lodging-house, the concealed bordell, the rendezvous, the maison de passe, all engaged, as the bordell is en- gaged, 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 2O-odd au- thorized 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 ob- 196 Regulation and Order Bordells served no difference beyond a somewhat greater nerv- ousness 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 im- aginable 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. 66 The bordell does not really affect this situa- tion at all. Discovering, however, that bordell prostitution is dis- appearing, the police of Paris and Budapest are endeav- oring to maintain their grip by authorizing or permitting rendezvous establishments. At Paris, these establish- ments may be opened without police permit and will not be disturbed as long as they comply with a few sim- ple police orders, e. g., admitting only inscribed women or at least women regularly examined by a physician agreeable to the police. 67 They have increased in num- ber from 64, with 235 women regularly in attendance, in 1900, to 243, with 770 women attached, in iQoS. 68 A somewhat similar policy is pursued in Budapest, where 68 See, for example, Annexes, loc. cit., pp. 433-435. 67 A detailed account of the terms is given by M. Lepine in An- nexes loc. cit. pp. 22-24. M. Paul Meunier (Ibid, 428-430) dis- cusses these houses and gives particulars concerning a raid on one of them in which he himself took part. 68 Fiaux, Police des Moeurs, III, p. 664. 197 Prostitution in Europe 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 bor- dell 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 en- gaged 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 notori- ety involved in resorting to an authorized house of any kind ; the same motive that leads them to avoid the bor- dell leads them to evade the authorized rendezvous. In any event, only controlled women can resort to a con- trolled establishment; uncontrolled establishments con- tinue 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 198 Regulation and Order Bordells 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 con- trary 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 civ- ilized 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 conclu- sion 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 199 Prostitution in Europe 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 part- ies 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 ob- jectionable, 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, how- ever, 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 pro- fessional 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. Au- thorized 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 200 Regulation and Order Bordells event, however, that a woman persists in bringing cus- tomers 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 con- tinue to occupy rooms in the house where he lives, if, before he himself moved in, he was not told that prosti- tutes live in the same house; should prostitutes move in subsequently, the tenant may dislodge them by complain- ing 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 ten- ant'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." 69 How far this excellent law has affected the situation it is difficult to tell. Its enforcement against non-regis- tered 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 apart- ments 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 aban- 69 Dwelling and Rent Statute, Section 6. 2O I Prostitution in Europe don all effort to deal with the question; paragraph 12, previously quoted, enjoining the least possible interfer- ence with the free choice of a dwelling place on the part, of a prostitute who lives alone. 70 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 stran- gers 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 in- crease. Finally, the bordell is the most flagrant instance of exploitation for the benefit of third parties, which mod- ern feeling and legislation are emphatically determined to prevent. For the keeper's profit men waste their sub- 70 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 reg- istered 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. 2O2 Regulation and Order Bordells stance 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. 71 T1 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 lit- erature attacking the bordell in a strictly scientific spirit is enormous. See Bloch, Sexualleben. Index, " Bordelle." For a view favor- able to the bordell, see G. Roscher, Gross-Stadtpolizei (Ham- burg, 1912) pp. 257-8. Dr. Roscher is the able and accomplished head of the Hamburg police. 203 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 char- acteristics of syphilis, of gonorrhoea. Amount of disease de- tected among inscribed women. Clinical methods inaccurate. De- ceptions practised. Flux in inspected body. Failures to report. Periods of hospital detention brief. Minors, usually non-inscribed, most infectious. Inspection and disease among clandestines. Sys- tem conceded to have accomplished nothing hitherto. Its possibili- ties 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 promi- nent 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 ac- 204 Regulation and Disease count. 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 ef- ficacy ; 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 ob- ject 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 pro- gram : " Conversion of the morals police control into a sanitary control, and its extension as far as possible over clandestine prostitution." * 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 sani- 1 Finger and Baumgarten, Referat, p. 82. It must be noted, how- ever, that this health function is lodged with the police, not the health authorities, a fact which will be explained in the next chapter. 205 Prostitution in Europe tary policy and to determine what it achieves in that direc- tion. The diversity previously commented on in connection with regulation prevails also in respect to its sanitary details. Between the worst and the best organized sys- tems on the medical side, there is perhaps an even greater discrepancy than between the worst and the best sys- tems 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. 2 Berlin, where the bureau has been completely reor- ganized in recent years, may serve as a point of de- parture. 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. 3 Clan- destine prostitutes may be subjected to compulsory ex- amination at the discretion of the bureau chief, the examination being conducted by a woman physician at- tached to the division for this purpose. 4 By special re- 2 In respect to the last two items, a tendency towards a uniform policy is discernible. 3 Inscribed women are examined by men physicians. 4 That is, non-inscribed prostitutes. As previously pointed out, " clandestine " prostitutes may be just as notorious as inscribed ones. 206 Regulation and Disease quest, an examination by an approved private physician may be substituted. In either event, the woman is her- self at no expense for the examination. A staff of eight police physicians and four micro- scopists are occupied with medical inspection, of whom four are on duty at one time; the work goes on daily, except Sunday, 6 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 de- tection of gonorrhoea, 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 with- out 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 sani- tary matter. 6 Inscribed women discovered to be infected are confined under duress in a municipal hospital, on the theory that, being professional prostitutes, who can maintain them- selves only by plying their business, they must be in- c Inscribed prostitutes who also hold positions or who are on probation looking to release from the rolls may by special ar- rangement come on Sunday for examination. 6 The present incumbent is Dr. Med. Georg Guth, Kriminalkom- missar und medizinizch-technischer Dezernent in der Verwaltung der Berliner Sittenpolizei. 207 Prostitution in Europe terned 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 re- tain their freedom provided an approved physician makes himself responsible for their systematic treat- ment, and provided, further, that there is reliable evi- dence 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 treat- ment; should this understanding be violated, they are once more interned. Clandestine and occasional prostitutes if found dis- eased on being arrested are somewhat differently man- aged. If without resources, they are sent to the hos- pital ; 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 clan- destine 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 careless- ness of the state. Premises not adapted to this end have, therefore, been extensively remodeled. The rooms utilized for the medical examinations at the police head- 208 Regulation and Disease quarters are light and equipped with a modern examining- chair, hot and cold water, and electric light; the micro- scopic-room has the necessary equipment for clean and accurate work. 7 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 sub- ject 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. 8 In many other towns, two examinations per week for the youngest class of inscribed prostitutes are also re- quired ; but by no means everywhere. In Paris, for ex- ample, 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 7 Giith, loc. cit., p. 13, gives details of equipment. 8 The preceding account is based on personal inspection and in- terviews, on the leaflet issued by the bureau, entitled " Dienstan- weisung fur die bei der Sittenpolizei beschaftigten Aerste," and on Penzig's "Die Bekdmpfung der Gewerbsunzucht durch die Sitten- polizei," previously referred to. 209 Prostitution in Europe 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. 9 At Stockholm most women report twice a week; some thirty older women, once a week. Examination and treatment are not always free. Dres- den 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 en- titled to 13 weeks' hospital care if ill. 10 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; Stock- holm allows a woman to appear for examination pri- vately on payment of a crown ; at Stuttgart, the examina- tion is free at police headquarters, paid for, if at home; in Geneva, the girls pay two francs for each examina- tion; 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. 9 This was the practice at Budapest also, until the regulations were reformed in 1908. 10 Schneider, loc. cit., p. 21, gives additional instances. 210 Regulation and Disease 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 examina- tions. 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 bacteri- ologist is on hand to make microscopic tests in sus- picious 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 dis- cussed. 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 spatulae 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 of- 211 Prostitution in Europe fenders, into a dark and ill-ventilated " depot," not in- aptly 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 ac- commodations 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 descrip- tion. In Brussels a plain table is carried into the re- ception 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 vis- ited anywhere; the service contains three hundred beds, excellent laboratories, operating and treatment rooms of the most modern pattern. Cologne provides a satis- factory, 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; Frank- 212 Regulation and Disease fort 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 Stock- holm clinic, among others, has no locked doors or barred windows, in consequence of which the girls are rarely refractory. 11 Though the subject lies outside our pres- ent inquiry, it should be added in passing that all con- tinental cities make, in addition to the above mentioned facilities, more or less liberal provision for other venereal patients. 12 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 court-yard. 13 11 This point will be referred to again in Chapter X. 12 An exhaustive study of Swedish conditions in regard to hos- pital accommodations for venereal patients was made by Johansson and is printed in Vol. Ill of the Report of the Swedish Com. For Germany, see A. Guttstadt, Krankhenhaus-Lexikon -fur das Deutsche Reich (Berlin, 1900), passim. 13 See Eugene Potter, Histoire de Saint-Lazare (1122-1912), Paris. 1912. 213 Prostitution in Europe The quality of the examination varies widely. At Ber- lin, 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 fort- nightly, 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 th,e four assistants made 2,646 microscopic examinations for gonococci, an average of 98 for each working-day. 14 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 dura- tion of the operation is much less. 15 Women sent to the hospital are discharged only after three successive nega- tive microscopic findings, followed by an examination at police headquarters confirming this result. 16 The Budapest system is modeled on that in use in 14 Guth in Zeitschrift XIV, p. n. 15 Giith, loc. cit., p. 10. 16 Non-registered prostitutes, if arrested, are also liable to medi- cal 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 examina- tion 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." 214 Regulation and Disease 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 re- moved 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. 17 Be- tween 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 in- spection to microscopic examination, 17,600 specimens would have been required. 18 Vienna is the most favorable example of the large group by no member of which the microscope is em- ployed at all. The women appear stripped for the ex- amination, which consists of a cursory clinical inspection, always including the vagina. A wooden spatula dis- carded 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 con- vene in a bordell, as many as can be accommodated crowding into the room in which batches are examined. 17 So also at Bremen ; at Stockholm a microscopic slide is made at each examination. 18 The Dresden procedure is not essentially different from that of Berlin and Budapest. 215 Prostitution in Europe The physician takes a hasty look into their mouths in suc- cession, and then glances at the genitalia, with only oc- casional 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 con- fined to the mouth and the genitalia. In Rome the ex- amining 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 as- cends two surgical chairs to permit a cursory vaginal in- spection; 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 an- other; 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 oc- casion 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 216 Regulation and Disease of the physicians examine 25 or 30 girls without chang- ing, washing, or wiping the rubber ringers he wore; and a number of those examined were adjudged " diseased." The speculum was rarely used. In one instance, pressure by the ringer on the urethra discharged an abundant sus- picious 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 med- ical inspections are more deliberately carried on. Bett- mann, for example, publishes a table in which it is stated that each examination averages 1^2 minutes in Paris, 5 minutes in Vienna ; 19 to the same effect is Blaschko's cal- culation, though he himself says that even so, " the length of time devoted to the examination is too brief." 20 I feel sure, however, that these and other similar esti- mates 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 19 Bettmann, Die arztliche Ueberwachung der Prostitution, (Jena, 1905), P. 50. 20 Hygiene der Prost., pp. 83, etc. 217 Prostitution in Europe 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 in- spection above described? The question must be sub- divided 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 dis- ease, 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 phe- nomenon; but certainly among the most important fac- tors is not only the existence of a powerful instinct in man, but also the extent to which its indulgence is facili- tated by the low social status of woman. This attitude was incorporated in, not originally due to, regulatory sys- tems of dealing with prostitution. The continental atti- tude towards prostitution and all the machinery developed in connection with handling it, both from the police and the sanitary sides, were undoubtedly not orginally 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 con- 218 Regulation and Disease cession by the state that a vast volume of promiscuous intercourse is to be accepted as a fact; 21 that for this purpose professional prostitution is recognized and, de- spite verbal quibbles, authorized. For the prosecution of what is thus treated as an essential and in a sense legiti- mate 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 so- ciety : men " can because they think they can." 22 Social stigma is a most powerful deterrent ; social assent a pow- erful stimulus. Regulation implies the absence of any expectation of male self-restraint; it is society's tacit assent to laxity. 23 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 inter- preted as implying a certain degree of efficacy in the at- tainment of its object. There can, therefore, be no ques- 21 It is perhaps hardly necessary for me to state that I do not mean to imply that if the State made no such concession, prosti- tution 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. 22 Vergil, Aeneid, Book V, line 231, Conington's version of " Pos- sunt, quia posse videntur." 23 " Still more objectionable must be considered the fact that society helps in this way to maintain the belief among many per- sons that prostitution is a necessity." Johansson, loc. cit., p. 130. 219 Prostitution in Europe tion 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 accom- panies 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 con- dition 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-in- scribed women. Irregularity craves variety; and infec- tion is the wellnigh inevitable penalty of sexual promis- cuity. 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 con- gress without any regulation at all. It is occasionally denied that the mere existence of regulation tends to develop recklessness on the basis of as- sumed security. Blaschko, for example, a distinguished authority, while conceding that here and there an indi- vidual is misled, does not believe that the problem as a 220 Regulation and Disease whole is appreciably affected. 24 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 regula- tion is itself one of the factors in demoralization, by rea- son of the prominence it gives to prostitution, the under- mining 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 with- out 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 propor- 24 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. 221 Prostitution in Europe tion 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." 25 If such is the state of mind among the intelligent, is it not probable that the uneducated make the same assumption? Ex- perienced 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 prosti- tutes. As all the diseased ones are sent to the hospital, relations with controlled prostitutes are free from danger. This is the popular conclusion." 26 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 harm- less? Medical control is concerned chiefly with two diseases, 25 Loc. cit., p. 107 (slightly abridged). "Zeitschnft VIII, p. 399. 222 Regulation and Disease syphilis and gonorrhoea, 27 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 in- terned 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 gonorrhoea. 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 be- coming actively infected. Having herself, however, con- tracted the disease, she is highly infectious during the primary stage, calculable in weeks, and during the sec- ondary 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 27 1 have paid little attention to soft chancre because it is of so much less consequence than the two diseases on which the argu- ment turns. 223 Prostitution in Europe 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. 28 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. 29 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. Gonorrhoea is wholly incalculable. No matter how fre- quent 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 dis- ease are entirely unreliable. Of the elements on which such judgments rest the color, odor, and consistency of the secretions Gtith declares : " No criterion could be more arbitrary or deceptive, for, on the one hand, the clinical character of the gonorrhoeal excretion varies so 28 M. v. Gruber, loc. cit., p. 6. 29 Ibid, p. 26. 224 Regulation and Disease often and so suddenly, that a person who appears sus- picious to-day may be free of secretion to-morrow, and subsequently again show suspicious symptoms. An ap- parently innocent manifestation may be infectious; a transparent vaginal secretion may be infectious; a puru- lent discharge may be non-communicable." 30 Whether even a microscopical examination is competent to decide the question involved is open to grave doubt. Unques- tionably the microscope can note the decrease in the num- ber of gonococci; but it is not yet proved that their viru- lence diminishes in the same ratio. Moreover, a secre- tion relatively poor in gonococci may still transmit infec- tion, even though the secretion is so poor in them that successive slides fail to indicate their presence. 31 Finally, gonococci of diminished virulence quickly re- cover their full virulence when transferred to a favorable membrane. What does regulation, as we have described it, ac- complish, 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 care- lessly 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 30 Giith, loc. cit., p. 3. 31 In the preceding account I have followed Blaschko, " Hygiene der Prostitution, etc.," pp. 1-19; Pinkus, "Die Verhutung der Ge- schlechtskrankheiten" and Giith, loc. cit. 225 Prostitution in Europe commonest precautions are by no means invariably em- ployed. 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, gonorrhoea, unless virulent, is ignored ; our real effort is to detect syphilis." In another case, a woman pronounced " well " was leav- ing 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 av- erage; 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 226 Regulation and Disease in factiousness 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 primi- tive work. The provincial health officer at Rome de- clared that the official examinations by the police phy- sicians 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 gonorrhoea would be observed. But it is absurd to suppose the others safe, in so far as gonorrhoea 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-in- scribed. The year before 1910 nine inscribed pros- titutes and 27 clandestine were pronounced " diseased." 32 32 Rapport Annuel, Ville de Bruxelles, Annee, 1910, p. 65. In 227 Prostitution in Europe " 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." 33 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 Vi- enna and most German cities in which a more conscien- tious type of clinical examination obtains. In these, at least, the examination is not in itself a direct factor in spreading infection; for individual spatulse and individ- ual specula are commonly used. If not, the instruments employed are as a rule properly cleansed. The overbur- dened 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 " ; 34 on another occasion, I witnessed the examination of 50 women, some under " light control," 35 others, clandestine ; the specu- lum 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. 36 The 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 Seances, II e Conference Internationale, Bruxelles, 1903, pp. 185-6). ** Zeitschrift VIII, p. 291. 34 " Strenge Kontrolle." 35 " Leichte Kontrolle." 36 The hands of the physician were uncovered and were not washed until all the examinations were completed. 228 Regulation and Disease 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. Syph- ilis especially in its most infectious forms can be quickly recognized by an experienced observer; but chronic gon- orrhcea can be made out only after accurate scrutiny : the preparation and study of a microscopic specimen de- mands more time than a police surgeon can give." 37 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 Gonorrhoea 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 I9O3~4. 38 In Stockholm, for all causes, 522 enrolled prostitutes were sent into the hos- pital 955 times in the year i9O4. 39 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 37 Zinnser in Zeitschrift V, pp. 204-5 (abridged). 38 Communicated by Prof. Pinkus. 89 Johansson, loc. cit., p. 36. 229 Prostitution in Europe 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 num- ber committed to the hospital ranged from 523 to i,O26. 40 Sixty-seven girls were sent to the police hospital of Ber- lin 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 dis- ease detected, surely not in an increase in the amount of disease existing. Thus in 1903-4, 1,258 cases of ve- nereal disease were discovered in women, both inscribed and uninscribed; a new medical staff found 1,845 case s the next year. 41 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 re- turn to their avocation while still highly dangerous. 40 Johansson, loc. cit., p. 36. 41 Figures given by Professor Pinkus. 230 Regulation and Disease But aside from such variations, the clinical method is utterly incompetent to detect any considerable portion of infectious disease. 42 I have already quoted Giith on the difficulty attending a clinical diagnosis in gonorrhoea ; his position can be fully sustained by both figures and opin- ions. Giith himself tells of a series of cases, 35% of which showed clinical symptoms of gonorrhoea; the microscope showed 90 %. 43 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: Year IQO7 Number of enrolled prostitutes . .1,717 Total cases venereal disease 884 Gonorrhoea ^28 Syphilis 105 Bubo 45 1 IQOQ . .1,014 Wi-J. 2,775 ^j~n~r 1,112 *j 897 766 IQII , ..2.0O7 2.IOO 830 yrt 607 ' >^ 564 Between 1907 and 1909 the number of prostitutes in- creased 22% ; the amount of ascertained disease increased T 37% gonorrhoea, 156%, syphilis, 2$%. So at Ber- lin, 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 con- fidence and resultant disease that medical inspection had previously made itself responsible for! Dr. Moller of Stockholm gives confirmatory statistics; in 1874, 19 42 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 in- fected. See Kneeland, " Commercialised Prostitution in New York City (New York, 1913), pp. 188-190. 43 Loc. cit., p. 4. 231 Prostitution in Europe cases of gonorrhoea 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. 44 Baermann at Breslau con- cludes 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 vene- really diseased ? 45 Or at Vienna, when, out of 2,1 16 en- rolled women, 87 were found to be suffering with gonor- rhoea and 162 with syphilis in the course of the year I9O7? 46 The following table 47 shows the absurdly in- adequate amount of disease detected by clinical methods in the prostitutes of those German cities that I visited. 48 No. inscribed women No. found diseased City 1903 1905 1907 1903 1905 1907 Berlin 49 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 49 277 394 281 248 333 426 Cologne 500 500 500 312 212 336 Frankfort a/M . ..*449 *4i2 * 512 341 529 493 Stuttgart 23 16 22 22 18 28 * About. 4 *Zeitschrift VI, pp. 232 etc. 45 Zeitschrift V, p. 205. Zeitschnft IX, p. 172. 47 Zeitschrift XIII, p. 6. 48 Bremen not included. 49 This refers to a date preceding the reform of system to be next discussed. 232 Regulation and Disease The women themselves have learnt the trick of de- feating the examination. So crude an examination for gonorrhoea as that with which we are now dealing can be eluded by thorough irrigation before examination. Giith specifies various devices by which clinical inspec- tion may be deceived and declares that there are " in the large cities persons who make a business of under- taking these manipulations for controlled women." 50 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 con- cealing the traces of disease, one realizes that the medical examination has after all only a relative value," 52 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 pty her trade." 52 The actual scope of regulation is, however, less than ks 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 discon- tinuous ; hence a large subtraction from even the possible 50 Loc. cit., p. 3. 51 Zeitschrtft V, p. 205. 52 Translation from police journal " Public Safety," May 29, 1912. 233 Prostitution in Europe 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 con- siderable period and who come regularly to inspection is relatively small. In a few instances, a withered hag re- ports 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, i, 006 women were newly inscribed, 1,089 disap- peared from the rolls; in 1886, 1,145 were inscribed, 2,283 dropped out; in 1902, 1,574 and 1,717, respec- tively. 53 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. 54 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 : 55 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 53 Report, French Com., Annexes, p. 259. 54 See Bettmann, loc. cit., pp. 177-180 for additional illustrations. Also Zeitschrift I, p. 298. 55 Pinkus, loc. cit., p. 71 ; of course some withdrawals are due to death, change of occupation, etc. See also Zeitschrift VIII, p. 59. 234 Regulation and Disease will greatly affect disappearances remains yet to be proved ; in a single month, as many as 60 have dropped out; in 1911, 218 disappeared. 56 In Stockholm, Moller 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 i5th month, i. e., 5% were left. 57 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. 58 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 sys- tem, more than 50% of the visits from 1888 to 1901 were thus omitted; there should have been 208,000 examina- tions ; 94,000 were actually performed. 59 At Stockholm, out of 6,667 examinations ordered from July to Decem- ber, 1905, 2,242 were missed on the appointed day. 60 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 attend- ance which may, however, last several weeks. 61 56 Personal communication. 67 Zeitschrift VI, p. 275. Also Johansson, Report, Swedish Com- mission, Vol. Ill, p. 47. 58 Meher, loc. cit,, p. 157. 59 Schmolder, Unsere heutige Prostitution (Munich, 1911) p. 22. 60 Johansson, Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. 43. 61 Reglementeringen in Stockholm, pp. 78-9. 235 Prostitution in Europe 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. 62 In 1904, 31% of the Stockholm women sent to the hospital missed inspection just before their commitment. Dur- ing 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. 62a It appears, further, that of 845 women who be- tween 1885 and 1906 contracted syphilis after enrolment the primary symptoms escaped detection, through inter- ruption of inspection in 656 cases (77-6%). 62b In- spection is therefore apt to be terminated by the act of the woman just at the moment when it becomes impor- tant. 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 ef- fective 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, re- 62 Johansson, Report, Swedish Commission Vol. Ill, p. 168. 62a Reglementeringen in Stockholm, p. 41. p. 43. 236 Regulation and Disease ported to the Brussels conference that in the two dec- ades between 1877 and 1897, 15,095 syphilitic prosti- tutes were confined in St. Lazare an average of 30 days each. 63 In Vienna, between 1893 and 1896, cases of gonorrhoea were detained from 18 to 21 days, cases of syphilis from 21 to 27 days. 64 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," gonorrhoea " at least two." 65 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. 66 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 prosti- tutes, 8 1 escaped the hospital altogether while on the lists. The following table shows the experience of the others : 67 B . No. in hospital ...... 71 42 42 41 37 98 42 29 7 6 2 63 Quoted by Schmolder, loc. cit., p. 17. 64 Gruber, loc. cit., p. 28. ^"Public Safety." May 29, 1912, etc. 66 Johansson, loc. cit., p. 155. 67 Ibid, p. 124; ditto, p. 37. 237 Prostitution in Europe In Bremen it is now the practice to detain gonorrhceal patients from three to six weeks; syphilitics were re- ceiving at the time of my visit 68 two injections of Sal- varsan 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 : 69 Year Average stay of each 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 1910-1 1 19.6 days 191 1-12 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, 70 the customer presumes, at 68 June, 1912. 69 For these valuable statistics I am again indebted to the courtesy of Professor Pinkus. 70 If gonorrhoea, 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. 238 Regulation and Disease 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 re- mains true that it arrests more healthy than diseased prostitutes and thus increases the commerce of the unde- tected sick, professional or clandestine. For the num- ber 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, 3 2 > 122 m 1898. The culprits, most of them well according to police standards, were sent to prison to serve short sentences, for " ra- colage " (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 sen- tence ; 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 regime: 13,591 healthy prostitutes were im- prisoned for " ridiculous trifles " in the years 1897-98, while 1,998 diseased prostitutes were under compulsory treatment : 71 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 71 Loc. cit., p. 89. 239 Prostitution in Europe 1,984 and 434 respectively. 72 In Stockholm, at the close of 1911, 28 women were in the hospital, 127 sup- posedly 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. 73 I have thus far dealt with registered prostitution alone : in reference to it, I believe we are justified in as- serting that the numbers treated have nowhere been rel- atively 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. 74 It is therefore an incon- trovertible 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 strength- ened when the remaining factors of the situation are taken into account. Regulation has always had to be 72 Police report, 1911, p. 72. 73 Personal communications by officials. 74 Report, Swedish Commission, Vol III, p. 132. 240 Regulation and Disease 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 per- mit a minor to brand herself as a professional prosti- tute, authorized by the community to earn her liveli- hood 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 in- fected and their infection is distributed to a larger clientele. How many infecting foci escape sanitary con- trol by the exclusion of minors a few figures will make clear. Out of 4,341 cases of obviously infectious syph- ilis in Viennese prostitutes, 44.9 per cent, were between 1 5 and 20 years of age, 38.1 per cent, between 21 and 25. 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 prosti- tutes 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." 76 In the relatively few in- stances in which minors are still inscribed at Berlin, the percentage of active gonorrhoea detected by the micro- 75 Neisser in Zeitschrift I, p. 255. 7Q Zeitschrift IX, p. 194. The fact is striking even though in my judgment certain factors affecting the result have been over- looked. 241 Prostitution in Europe scope is very high : of 38 controlled girls between 18 and 20 years of age, 29, i. e., 75% were discovered to have gonorrhoea. 77 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 in- fected before enrolment. 78 Paris statistics teach the same lesson: of 12,615 unregistered minors arrested be- tween 1878 and 1887, 56.26% were syphilitic. 79 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. 80 In Zurich, 39.7% of the syphilitics de- scribed by Miiller and Ziircher 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 out- set of her career." 81 Roget at Brussels verifies this conclusion ; he states that most infections occur between 1 6 and 22. 82 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 of the diseased would have been missed as the suf- 77 Privately communicated by official physician. 78 Loc. cit., p. 50. 79 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. 80 Zeitschrift VIII, p. 301. 81 Zeitschrift XIV, pp. 234-5. 82 Zeitschrift X, p. 108. 242 Regulation and Disease ferers 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. 83 A Viennese estimate showed that out of every 1,000 prostitutes arrested for offences, over 57 per cent, were minors, practically in- eligible 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." 84 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 defini- tion 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 pre- cisely the same history as the registered women and con- ducting 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 enrol- ment takes place (e. g. Berlin and Hamburg, etc.) they must be thrice warned before they are arrested and com- 83 Miinchener medizinische Wochenschrift, January 7, 1913, pp. !, 13- 84 Zeitschrift VIII, pp. 399-400. 243 Prostitution in Europe pelled 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 after- wards. Thus only the disorderly clandestine or non-in- scribed woman is ever anywhere inspected at all. The cautious street-walker and fashionable and showy women who in Berlin frequent the Palais de Danse 85 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 gonorrhoea, 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 de- tected among the small part of clandestine or non-regis- tered 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 ij% venereally diseased; 86 of 1,514 arrested in 1909 and 1910, 421 were diseased. 87 At Cologne, the percentage is much higher: 660 non-in- scribed women were arrested in 1906, 178 were infected; 1,626 were arrested in 1911, 304 were infected.- 98 At Vienna, 1,319 such arrests were made in 1910: 222 cases 85 It is said that managers of enterprises of this character re- quire the habituees to employ private physicians to keep them ad- vised as to their condition. 86 Pinkus, loc. cit., p. 71. 87 Police Report, loc. cit., p. 72. 88 Personally communicated by officials. 244 Regulation and Disease of infection were discovered among them. 89 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 undis- turbed 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 dis- ease 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 in- fectious 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.-G6ran Hospital; but the hospital for prostitutes, during this entire period, has received only five women thus infected. This epi- demic cannot be attributed to inscribed women," 90 and, further, he might have added, inscription did not locate or isolate the infecting foci. 89 For the statistics of arrests of inscribed women and the re- sults of their medical examination in German cities, see Zeit- schrift 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. Ill, p. 30. o Zeitschrift XI, p. 417. 245 Prostitution in Europe I have, at the risk of being tedious, discussed the fore- going 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 mat- ter of theory, it is clear that, as a matter of practice, regu- lation as it has been carried on during the past century has increased, not decreased, the volume of venereal dis- ease. No successful experience in the past can anywhere be quoted in its behalf. Those who believe in its possi- bilities are loudest in condemning its actual results. Pro- fessor 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 possi- bly amount to much." 91 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." 92 Professor 91 Zeitschrift IX, p. 230. It is to be remarked that all those quoted above are avowed regulationists and all are men of inter- national eminence. 82 Zeitschrift I, p. 198. 246 Regulation and Disease Zinnser, of Cologne, likewise a regulationist, opens a dis- cussion with these words. " The knowledge that the regulation of prostitution as generally conducted hereto- fore is obsolete, defective and urgently in need of re- form, is not new." 93 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 criti- cism 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, de- clares : " Medical control of prostitutes has very slight influence on the incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea among the male population. It is absolutely clear that these diseases are no less common where regulation ex- ists than in places where prostitutes enjoy unrestrained freedom to ply their trade." 95 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. 95 For the present it is enough to note that the authorities above quoted and the num- ber 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 de- fend the system and its results against the regulationist medical authorities above quoted are in the main police 93 Zeitschrift VIII, p. 413. 94 Julius Engel-Reimers : Die Geschlechtskrankheiten (Ham- burg, 1908), p. 83. 5 See Chap. X. 247 Prostitution in Europe officials, whose favorable judgment will be accounted for in the next chapter. 96 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 gen- erally introduced if money and intelligence both pro- curable were provided. Would regulation then be ef- ficacious as a sanitary measure? Let me call attention at the outset to the peculiar posi- tion 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 con- cerned, 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 bac- teriologist of Budapest as recently as May 29, 1912, " that the time which has elapsed since the new or- dinance has been in force is as yet entirely too short for us to render a final opinion concerning its advan- tages." 97 " There is no telling whether the new regu- 96 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 strafrecht- liche Bekdmpfung der Gewerbsunzucht.) 97 Loc. cit., p. 2. 248 Regulation and Disease lations have accomplished anything," said one of their authors, Dr. Dumitreanu Agoston, to me. Regulation in its historic form is thus something worse than a fail- ure; in its modern form, an experiment, of whose suc- cess not even its authors can give any evidence or ven- ture any prediction! Is there any substantial reason to believe that the improved system will successfully cope with the diffi- culties 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 im- proved 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 un- changed. The increased leniency and humanity of the new system thus decrease enrolment and tend to off- set 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 ex- ample, with an enrolment of 2,000, the monthly non- attendance in 1912 ran as follows: 1 March 293 June 315 April 353 July 414 May 398 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. 1 Personally communicated by officials. 249 Prostitution in Europe 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 in- troduction of more modern methods and a more dignified environment. But these factors are not far-reaching. The inscribed women have either had syphilis before in- scription, 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 cer- tain termination of the infectious character of the dis- ease. 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 gonorrhoea. Figures already given 2 show that the moment the use of the microscope begins, the amount of gonorrhoea detected increases; indeed, the more slides one prepares in dealing with a group of women at a single inspection, the higher the percent- 2 Pages 231-2. 250 Regulation and Disease age of infectious subjects. Whether gonorrhoea is dis- covered 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 dis- eased." Lochte examined 172 girls once each, when 19.1 per cent, gave positive evidence of gonococci; on a sec- ond trial, twice as many (38.6 per cent.). Different in- vestigators have discovered that from 50 to 65 per cent, of inscribed women carry the gonococcus hidden in glands or folds. 3 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 ex- amined happens to contain a sample or not; but infec- tiousness 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 ex- amination in the afternoon. Besides, under sexual ex- citement, the gonococcus that has burrowed more deeply 8 M611er, "1st eine Gonorrhoekontrolle moglich?" Zeitschrift VI, P- 233. 251 Prostitution in Europe is all the more apt to be exuded. The explanation is simple : " Gonorrhoea in the male is almost invariably curable, if the patient submits to treatment; gonorrhoea in the female is almost never cured at all." 4 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 gonorrhoea can be justified." 5 A chronic condition supervenes that is always infectious, and most of all so during inter- course. 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 in- stalled, the labor and the time involved are so enormous that it has proved impracticable to institute anything be- yond occasional microscopical control. 6 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 inf ectiousness ! Dur- ing two weeks, the utterly incompetent clinical examina- 4 Pinkus loc. cit., p. 86. Some physicians hold that the latter part of this statement is perhaps too sweeping, but all are agreed that gonorrhoea in the female is infinitely more stubborn than in the male and that gonorrhoea in prostitutes is practically never cured. 5 Ibid, p. 91. *Giith admits this, loc. cit., p. n. See also Zeitschrift II, p. 106. 252 Regulation and Disease tion alone threatens the woman's withdrawal from busi- ness; should she be even palpably infected, she may easily be allowed to continue the distribution of gono- cocci 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 in- adequacy of the method to reach and to isolate any con- siderable volume of infection. During four months December 1910; January February and March 1911 809 cases of gonorrhoeal infection were discovered among the registered prostitutes at Berlin : 7 that is, on the average, the number of women in circulation was re- duced about 200 per month. On the last day of four successive years (1908-9-10-11) the total number of in- terned prostitutes was as follows : 98, 105, 140, 242. 8 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 pa- tients 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 prostitu- tion 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 7 Privately communicated at headquarters. 8 Personally communicated by officials. 253 Prostitution in Europe bordell will, for example, satisfy all the customers who come ; if one is withdrawn and the percentage with- drawn 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 af- fected: is the amount of disease reduced? That de- pends on the condition of the nine with whom the busi- ness is transacted. Similarly, on the streets: two hundred women are withdrawn from the streets of Ber- lin, 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 cus- tomers 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 trans- ferred to others? That depends on the condition of the other women. Are they safe? The vast clandestine army not hy- gienically 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 prom- 254 Regulation and Disease inent that the business is kept to the maximum per- mitted 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 gonorrhoea which any customer may contract. When 150 inscribed women are withdrawn from the roll of 3,000, all having gonor- rhoea 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 ex- istence or the non-existence of medical inspection, but on the frequency and amount of irregular intercourse. Professor Havas, in discussing with me the Budapest sit- uation, urged vehemently that there is but one factor to be reckoned with, viz., the amount of promiscuous coitus. Whatsoever reduces such coitus, reduces dis- ease: 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 signifi- cance that Professor Pinkus, head of the hospital for venereally infected prostitutes, has published a book, 255 Prostitution in Europe called the " Prevention of Venereal Disease," in which he emphasizes the infectiousness of all prostitutes, con- trolled 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 pro- fessionals. 9 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. 10 Deal- ing with 1 02 infected gymnasial students, Meirowski traced little less than half to registered women. 11 Does the foregoing condemnation of sanitary control apply to the bordell inmates as well as to scattered prosti- tutes? 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 im- proved; for nowhere are there proper facilities, and the women may all the more readily practise imposition. 12 Disease is therefore not more likely to be discovered. 9 Loc. cit., p. 89. wZeitschrift V, p. 286. ^Zeitschrift XI, p. 6. See also articles by Loeb referred to under Chapter I. 12 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 256 Regulation and Disease 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. 13 An authentic instance of 57 vis- itors in one day is recorded ; 14 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. 15 The sale of alcohol in the bordell markedly increases the range of in- fection, for it provokes recklessness and banishes caution. It has been estimated that one-third of the gonorrhoeal infections are incurred while the victim is in liquor. 10 If then, the woman is herself infected, she has enlarged fa- cilities 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 con- tracted disease from a woman whom the most careful ex- amination pronounces ' healthy.' These things happen with all infectious diseases." 17 Statistics favorable to this contention can be submit- 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." 13 Schrank, loc. cit., Vol. II, p. 209. 14 Zeitschrift I, p. 375. 15 Report, French Commission, p. no. 16 Pinkus, loc. cit., p. 108, with notes. In Moller's cases at Stock- holm, 67.7% of the infected men admitted intoxication. Zeitschrift V., p. 301. 17 Zeitschrift IX, p. 103. 257 Prostitution in Europe ted ; but in view of the liability of the patient to error 18 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 re- verse 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 : 19 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 dis- advantage 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. 20 But perhaps the best statistical proof is derived from Vienna, where substantially the same methods if poor, at any 18 This is well discussed by Oppenheim and Neugebauer in Zeit- schrift XII, pp 306-7. One-half of the men interrogated were unable to give definite answers. Ditto, p. 314. ^Zeitschrift XII, pp.6-7. 20 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. 258 Regulation and Disease rate consistently poor were applied to both sets of registered women, the bordell women making regularly the worse record : 21 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 col- lected 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 P 61 " cent. 22 Hecht, discussing the experi- ence of Prague, points out the " relatively greater fre- quency of infection in bordells " and attributes it con- fidently to the " greater volume of their business in con- sequence of their readier accessibility." 23 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. 24 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 21 Referat, loc. cit., p. 104. 22 Loc. cit., p. 69. 23 Zeitschrift VIII, p. 399. 24 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. 259 Prostitution in Europe amount of venereal disease in Bremen has been percep- tibly influenced by the bordell control. The business of the bordells is steadily shrinking; the clandestine prosti- tute uncontrolled and unregulated thrives. Hence, even if effective, the Bremen remedy is impossible. Sev- enty women can be drilled to exercise all kinds of precau- tion, 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 an- tiseptic douches. 25 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 gonorrhoea, she is always a menace, most of all so during coition (let the exam- ination 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 en- tire membership being transformed in a short space of time. 28 Looking through the police records, I ascer- tained that one woman had been resident six years, one 25 It is stated that 22,000 sublimate of mercury pastilles were used by them last year. 26 Zeitschrift IV, p. 81. 260 Regulation and Disease 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 less- ened by the use of mechanical devices, the recklessness developed in bordells consequent on alcoholic indulgence operates to prevent rather than to encourage precau- tionary measures. The women never cease to be dan- gerous; and as they transact an amount of business im- possible outside, the actual amount of infection is enor- mously increased. On the medical side, therefore, regulation is even weaker than on the side of order. There is a connec- tion 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 keep- ing them in easy reach. Experience proves that the same object can indeed be otherwise attained, and without granting enrolled prostitutes privileges which are them- selves 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 con- stant object of police surveillance. It is absurd, however, to infer that machinery devised in the interest of order is equally applicable to sanita- tion. On the score of order, the police are interested in criminal and semi-criminal prostitutes. The discreet 261 Prostitution in Europe women who ply their vocation inconspicuously and in a businesslike spirit give no trouble and are therefore never inscribed. Disease however, is an altogether dif- ferent matter. From that there is for the prostitute no exemption whatsoever. She contracts it irrespective of her outward demeanor; and she communicates it, re- gardless 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 in- adequate 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 danger- ous 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 propen- sities 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 262 Regulation and Disease consequences of crime; they lead to arrest and condem- nation, even though condemnation means only a hos- pital 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 igno- rance of their condition or who have been suddenly ap- prehended 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 san- itary 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, doubt- less, 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 dis- credit and defeat. 263 Prostitution in Europe A final absurdity remains to be pointed out. What can it avail to incarcerate for brief periods a few un- happy women, if meanwhile the manufacture of fresh foci of infection proceeds unhampered? As long as reg- ulation completely omits men, 27 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 reck- oning 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 ef- ficient 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. 27 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. 264 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 mo- tives. 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 dif- ferent attempts to stop a gap, to prevent further col- lapse, or to effect a readjustment somewhat less re- pugnant 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 precau- tions are neglected, where the administration of the hy- gienic 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 ob- solete. I have shown, further, that, futile at its best, 265 Prostitution in Europe regulation is at its worst when associated with recog- nized 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 regula- tion 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 eth- ical 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 in- habitants, it has entirely disappeared from 250 1 and practically from many others. In Germany, of 162 cities, 48 have dispensed with it, 2 while it is moribund in others. In Switzerland it survives only in Geneva; it has been wholly abandoned in Denmark, Norway and Great Brit- ain. 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 1 Report, French Commission, Annexes, p. 54. 2 Scheven, loc. cit., p. 1 1. 266 The Real Inwardness of Regulation prominent part ; but there has been no lack of facts con- tributed and vouched for by physicians and scientists of distinction. Among 1 the most prominent opponents of regulation are publicists, who have observed its fu- tility from the standpoint of order, and medical specialists who have become convinced of its uselessness from the standpoint of sanitation. 3 For its partial survival thus far in France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary there is no single or simple ex- planation ; 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 prob- lem 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 mo- ment only one hundred and seventy women were in- terned on the score of disease. Other similar incidents could be given. The Budapest officials had studied and adopted the revised Berlin procedure; the Vienna offi- cials had studied the Budapest and Berlin bureaus on the ground; but other instances of painstaking examina- 3 Lack of space makes a fuller historical account impossible in this volume. The reader will find the details in " The Social Evil: a Re- port" (New York, 1912) pp. 163-196. 267 Prostitution in Europe tion 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 frag- mentary, 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 alto- gether. 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 Zu- rich 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 fol- lowed 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. 268 The Real Inwardness of Regulation Regulation of some kind has existed time out of mind, in classical and medieval, as in modern times. Pros- titutes have formed a class apart ; and societies which re- spect class differentiations readily enough transmit an in- stitution 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 inquir- ing 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 interfer- ence 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 Euro- pean police 4 bear, on the whole, an excellent reputation. As to the capacity, intelligence and integrity of the offi- 4 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. 269 Prostitution in Europe cials 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 se- lected with scrupulous care. In Germany no man is ap- pointed 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 dis- interested 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 no- where involved; charges of corruption and grave im- propriety 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 them- selves. 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 reg- ulation assumes that the morals police who are every moment in position to sell favors, exemptions and privi- leges will refrain from doing so. 5 6 Lindenau grants this by implication. He argues for a change 270 The Real Inwardness of Regulation 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 diffi- cult enough if all prostitutes were treated alike; for public opinion and official supervision could then en- force a consistent policy. But public opinion and official supervision cannot enforce a policy abounding in excep- tions. 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 ar- rest, 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 liq- uor-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 character- ized by all the gaiety and frivolity of the prototype. In Paris it is charged that morals policemen have acted as 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 po- lice officers on account of the details of the rules." Loc. cit., p. 27. 271 Prostitution in Europe " 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 pub- licists 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 un- worthy conduct. A similar incident again recently took place. The Berlin morals patrolmen are permitted to utilize registered women as spies in order to obtain in- formation 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 offi- cers lived in the very houses to which registered prostitutes were referred. We may conclude, there- fore, 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 chap- ters; but it must be remarked at this juncture that the defects of the morals police above pointed out arise not 272 The Real Inwardness of Regulation only from the existence of this specialized force, but from the fact that they are called on to execute a self-contra- dictory 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 disap- pears, not simply because the morals police disappear this is not always the case but because an equitable and readily controllable regime 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 intelli- gence must be regarded as putting up with, while com- batting, the evils just mentioned for the sake of other ob- jects, 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 cafes, dance halls and variety shows are among the most notorious prostitutes in Eu- rope, 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 gon- 273 Prostitution in Europe orrhceal re-infection, and are by some specialists regarded as especially dangerous because they appear to rather better advantage than street-walkers. The same state- ments 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 cafes of Montmartre or the Latin quarter one readily elicits the tell-tale facts. The hab- itues 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 conver- sation, 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 prom- inence, do they become objects of police observation, eventually inscribed and forced to report for medical ex- amination the device by means of which they are kept under close surveillance. " The medical visit is only the excuse made for arbitrary police power." 6 6 " La visite est ia seule excuse de ce reglement de police arbi- 274 The Real Inwardness of Regulation 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. 7 This inter- pretation 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 promis- cuous sexual life. Again, everywhere in deciding the question as to whether or not a woman should be ar- rested, enormous importance is attached to her possess- ing a definite domicile. In Berlin, for example, girls with " feste Wohnung" (definite domicile) are not ap- prehended 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 in- fectious, the latter not, again, both are. The signifi- cant difference is that prostitutes with " feste Wohnung " are apt to be law-abiding and can in any case be readily traire." Reuss : " La Prostitution au point de -vue de I'hygiene et de I' administration." Paris, 1889, P- 788. Quoted by Schmolder in " Staat und Prostitution." (Berlin, 1900), p. 13. 7 There is also an element of luck that ought to be taken into account. Some girls fall into the hands of the morals police be- cause they happen to be caught doing things which others have done and continue to do with impunity. 275 Prostitution in Europe laid hold of, while prostitutes without " feste Wohnung " are apt to be criminal vagabonds of highly elusive quality. 8 Registration enables the police to pin these women down and by compelling them to report to head- quarters at brief intervals enables the police to keep in constant touch with a criminal or semi-criminal ele- ment. 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 ex- perience shows that well-ordered and well-governed communities may safely be less solicitous about them- selves; 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 8 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. 276 The Real Inwardness of Regulation respecting persons found with them." 9 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. 10 Police offi- cers wishing to view their premises must be admitted without delay." n In Paris, the rules warn women " not to resist the agents of the authorities, nor to re- port falsely their names or addresses." 12 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." 13 Schneider, noting that it " is well known that the police frequently utilize the lowest grade of prostitutes, who are accustomed to con- sort 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 regula- tions 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." 14 The above regulations apply only to controlled women; uncontrolled prostitutes are amenable only to the rules applicable to all other per- Rule, ii. 10 Rule 6. 11 Rule 7. 12 Obligations et Defences inposees aux filles publiques. 13 Rules 14, 15. 14 Loc. cit., pp. 23, 180. 277 Prostitution in Europe sons. The special provisions above cited are compre- hensible if it is understood that a certain class of pros- titutes, 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. Lepine the former Prefect of Paris, has already been quoted as authority for the statement that it is the con- trolled 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 con- trolled prostitutes. If prostitutes were enrolled without regard to criminality or criminal associates, those ar- rested would be mainly non-registered women, since the latter are much the more numerous and at least as prom- inent. 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 un- registered women, 1,426 were arrested once, 1,395 more than once, a total, almost negligible, of 2,82 1. 15 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. 16 The following table shows for 15 Turot, loc. cit., pp. 33, 35, See also Commenge, loc. cit., Ch. II. 16 Police Report, loc. cit., p. 72. I cannot make out whether re- arrests are included in these figures, probably not. 278 The Real Inwardness of Regulation 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-in- scribed women : 17 Years 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 Total arrests 1,336 1,570 1,707 1,768 1,095 Inscribed women I,i97 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 igo/].. 18 So, of 979 women punished between 1885 and 1889, 198 were sentenced to hard labor twice, 146 three times, in four times, 10 ten times, and 2 thirteen times. 19 That enrolled prostitu- tion and criminal prostitution fairly coincide is thus mani- fest. 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 in- evitable abuse of the privileges extended to the inscribed prostitute, partly because of trivial infractions of lib- erties enjoyed by non-inscribed and denied to inscribed prostitutes ; 20 for just as the inscribed prostitute is au- 17 Zeitschrift I, p. 298. 18 Johansson in Report, Swedish Commission, Vol. Ill, p. n. 19 Ibid,, p. 123. 20 For example, the following table shows number of breaches of 279 Prostitution in Europe thorized to do certain things without molestation, so she is forbidden to do others that her non-inscribed sister does without interference. 21 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 oc- cur 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 follow- ing 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 Fri- day, 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 attend- ant explained to me that some of these " repeaters " rules on the part of the few hundred inscribed prostitutes of Stock- holm: 1903 1904 1905 1906 9,908 8,191 7,159 7,515 21 This is the situation above adverted to as leading to corruption and injustice. 280 The Real Inwardness of Regulation spend twenty-five nights out of every month there, re- ceiving 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 dis- orderly 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 cor- ruption 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 irre- sponsible 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 base- less 22 Only a few months ago, the city of Mainz was profoundly agitated by the charge that the matron at- 22 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. 28l Prostitution in Europe tached 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 re- quire extensive argument. Blaschko's comment is en- tirely 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 bur- glars, often enough themselves thieves. Nobody dis- putes 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." 23 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 con- ception of the function of the state. 23 Loc. cit., p. 83. 282 The Real Inwardness of Regulation And here we come upon the final and unanswerable ob- jection 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 sacri- ficed, body and soul, in order to win a trivial police ad- vantage ! 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 re- duction 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 waste- ful, 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 pros- titution 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 sim- 283 Prostitution in Europe ply 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 de- mand 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 un- necessary 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 re- frain; 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 284 The Real Inwardness of Regulation 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. 285 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 con- ditions 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 aboli- tion 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 misunder- stood. Not infrequently it is supposed to mean " the abolition of prostitution," and abolitionists are repre- sented 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 ; 1 and abolitionists are those who oppose all statutory enactments or police decrees author- izing the inscription or medical examination of prosti- 1 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. 286 Abolition and Order tutes, 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 as- sume 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 over- whelmed 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 ignor- ing 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, re- fusing to admit the existence of prostitution as a phe- nomenon 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 regula- tion 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 287 Prostitution in Europe is to place the mere act of prostitution in the same posi- tion 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 pre- cisely 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 war- ranted in interfering, just as it interferes in other circum- stances 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 pro- fessional prostitution as criminal, inoffensive prostitu- tion 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 com- munity is disturbed by prostitutes or prostitution. So far, then, I say, regulation and non-regulation are alike. There are, however, two distinct differences. In regu- lated towns, inscribed prostitutes are treated differently from non-inscribed prostitutes ; in non-regulated or abo- 288 Abolition and Order litionist 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 in- scribed woman. In non-regulated towns whatsoever con- stitutes a violation of law on the part of A would con- stitute 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 regis- tered prostitute) and denied to another (viz., the un- registered, falsely called clandestine) prostitute. If dis- orderly 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 phe- nomenon 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 em- ployed 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 le- gal, 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 pub- lic opinion, the woman has no assurance of humane treat- 289 Prostitution in Europe ment, 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 pre- scribed for all persons accused of the offences in ques- tion. 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 con- victed 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 dif- ferences 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 wellnigh inevitable accompaniments : so prompt and so inevitable indeed, that, for practical purposes, prosti- tution itself can almost be said to be dealt with. A woman may indeed prostitute herself with impunity ; but 290 Abolition and Order 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 keep- ing 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 nec- essarily 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 in- terference 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, dis- tinct in quality from anything else they do: they would become " custodes morum " guardians of public mor- als, 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 dif- ficult to detect, and involve subtle or problematic distinc- tions which the police are too crude an instrument to 291 Prostitution in Europe make. Hence, as long as the police deal with the con- crete 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 prostitu- tion 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 pros- titution, 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 legis- lation has consistently viewed prostitution as a vice, at- taching 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 cafe, the public dance hall, and a few employments, gen- uine or otherwise. The present chapter will tell how these various aspects are dealt with in abolitionist com- munities and will endeavor to decide whether regulation possesses any advantage over abolition in respect thereto. 2 The English law provides : 3 " Every common prosti- 2 Following the division made in discussing regulation, I shall in this chapter deal with order only; disease is remanded to the suc- ceeding chapter. 3 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 deal- ing 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. 292 Abolition and Order tute or night-walker loitering and importuning passen- gers for the purpose of prostitution in any street, to the obstruction, annoyance, or danger of the residents or passengers " 4 may be arrested by a constable 5 without warrant and on summary 6 conviction be fined 405. or imprisoned fourteen days. In the Metropolitan Police District of London a prostitute is liable to the same pen- alty, even though actual solicitation is not proved. 7 The English police have therefore full power and author- ity to clear the streets. 8 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. 9 The English definition is thus broad enough to include not only outright resorts, where prostitutes live and practise their trade, but rendezvous houses and * 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. 5 /. e., patrolman or policeman. 6 Summary conviction does not mean that the woman is without witnesses or attorney. 7 By 2 and 3 Victoria c. 47, subs. u. 8 There are no statutory provisions expressly relating to the an- noyance 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 Re- port, pp. 33, 118-120. 9 Manual, p. 8, where cases are cited. 293 Prostitution in Europe hotels where rooms are let for immoral purposes to tran- sient 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." 10 Any person might initiate prosecution and recover a re- ward, if the prosecution were successful. With the pas- sage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, how- ever, 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. 11 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 au- thorities proceed. Certain towns, however, operate un- der special acts, not materially different in theory or ap- plication. The law of Glasgow, for example, runs as follows : " Every prostitute or street-walker who on or 10 Russell on Crimes (6th Edition) Vol. I, p. 740. 11 Crim. Law Amend. Act, 1885, c. 49, Section 13. 294 Abolition and Order near any street loiters about or importunes passengers for the purpose of prostitution shall be liable to a pen- alty." 12 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 per- haps a sufficient refutation of the commonly made state- ment 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 connec- tion 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 pre- cisely the position of certain other continental nations that maintain the same position. At the present time, the abolition legislation of Nor- way and that of Denmark largely modeled upon it are perhaps the most influential of all statutory enact- ments dealing with prostitution. 13 In Norway, a severe penalty is attached to the maintenance of houses of pros- titution ; the ordinary provisions of the criminal code en- able the police to arrest women for intoxication, for solic- itation, and for other violations of decency; the prosti- tute can also be proceeded against on the ground of vaga- bondage. Persons who for their own profit aid " in the immoral intercourse of others or take advantage of such 12 Report Roy. Com., loc. cit., p. 124. 13 This is especially true in respect to the communication of venereal contagion; but consideration of this portion of the Scan- dinavian statutes is postponed to the next chapter. 295 Prostitution in Europe immoral intercourse " are liable to imprisonment up to two years. 14 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 com- mon prostitute had as elsewhere been inscribed and was thereafter privileged to pursue the course for en- tering upon which she had twice suffered a penalty ! The new law abolishes this privilege; it denounces the com- mon prostitute as a vagabond 15 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 ; 16 bordells are expressly forbidden, and severe penalties are aimed at those con- ducting places of assignation; the police are empowered to prevent keepers of hotels, cafes, and restaurants from utilizing immoral women as waitresses. The Dutch law of 1911 for the prevention of immoral- ity bears with especial severity on the violation of minors and the promoting of immorality the latter intended to suppress bordells, 17 and to prevent third parties from 14 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, Expose des dispositions penales con- cernant les delits contre les moeurs dans divers pays. (Christiania, 1891.) 15 Section i. I utilize a German translation of the Danish law ; it is called, Gesetz zur Bekampfung der offentlichen Unsittlichkeit und der venerischen Ansteckung (Berlin, 1907). 10 Ibid, Section 2. 17 Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlander. No. 130, Sec- 296 Abolition and Order profiting through the demoralization of others. Local ordinances in some instances go even further : in Amster- dam, 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." 18 Street order is a matter of local determination. At Amsterdam the ordinance reads : " Women are forbid- den 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 at- tention of passers-by to themselves by a deliberate act of communication or exposure." 19 But a more formidable weapon is put in the hands of the authorities by the fol- lowing 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." 20 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, abo- lition of regulation is accompanied by definite statutory authority to deal adequately with prostitution in so far as it imperils order and decency. Switzerland, 21 where tion 250 bis. The sections of the penal code are supplemented by local ordinances. 18 Algemeene^ Politie Verordening Sections 201, 202. 19 Ibid, Section 2053. 80 Ibid., Section 205 bis. 21 The Swiss laws are brought together in Weiss's book already cited. 297 Prostitution in Europe the discussion has thus far been left to cantonal regula- tion, 22 may serve as a concluding instance. In Zurich, to take a fair representative, persons who provide oppor- tunity 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. 23 For the maintenance of decency in public thoroughfares, it is provided that " women who in public places offer themselves for im- moral purposes or tempt thereto may be imprisoned up to eight days." 24 Clearly, therefore, it does not follow that the laws are silent or ineffective merely because prostitution is in it- self 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 be- tween 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 legis- lation goes, the police authorities of London, Copenhagen, and Christiania evidently have a simpler, more logical and more thorough-going statutory basis from which to proceed in the protection of the public and of the prosti- tute herself than is possessed by the police of any reg- ulated town or country. For the London or Copenha- gen police can at least go as far as the police of Berlin 22 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 en- actment. 23 Strafgesetzbuch fur den Kanton Zurich, Sections 119, 120, 121. 24 Strafgesetzbuch fitr den Kanton Zurich, Section 128. 298 Abolition and Order 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 or- der; 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 re- garded 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 sup- ports. As abolition has been brought about in part by agi- tation on ethical lines, one would expect a more highly de- veloped public opinion in abolitionist countries. This un- doubtedly exists. The suppression of the public bordell is without question an achievement due not only to legis- lation, 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, or- derly streets, free of scandal, are required; on the other hand, a blunder made or apparently made by the police is 299 Prostitution in Europe 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, de- clared that " the main difficulty in enforcing the law (as to solicitation) is caused by the over-sensitiveness and im- patience 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 Par- liament. 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, rec- ognize 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 consta- bles." 25 We may expect, therefore, to find actual con- ditions 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 25 Report, Roy. Com., p. 125 (somewhat abridged). 3 Abolition and Order a result and a maker of opinion is likewise an impor- tant factor in deciding what legislation will achieve. Wherever magistrates disagree as to the precise inten- tion of the statute, a twilight zone is created, in conse- quence of which the scope of the law is indirectly nar- rowed; for official policy tends to restrict itself to acts that the courts will be sure to uphold. 26 Finally, the rules, the policy, even the tradition of the police depart- ment 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 dis- turbs 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 evi- dence is sufficient. This section has therefore been ef- fective. 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. 26 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. 301 Prostitution in Europe 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 re- flected 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." 27 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. 28 Prosti- tutes 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 ; 29 annoyance of passers-by is to be prevented. 30 The police act on their own initiative only if the behavior of the woman is offensive, annoying, or scandalous. The un- obtrusive prostitute is not molested. Keepers of licensed premises, i. e., liquor establishments, refreshment houses, etc., are to be reported if they permit prostitutes habit-' ually to resort to their establishments. 31 "Duty Hints, Metropolitan Police, p. n. 28 As a rule, the police observe a suspected disorderly house on the request of the borough authorities, to whom results are com- municated; the aforesaid authorities act by warrant or otherwise. Social and other organizations occasionally instigate prosecutions. 29 " Prostitutes cannot legally be taken into custody simply be- cause 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). Hints, pp. 48, 57. 31 Duty Hints, pp. 35, 54. 302 Abolition and Order 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 qual- itatively whenever they undergo a radical quantitative ex- pansion. Centralized supervision of the individual con- duct of sixteen thousand policemen dealing with so del- icate 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 con- duct overpass the limits of toleration? Shall the patrol- man 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 in- itiative 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 in- duced 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. 32 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 com- plaint. The department thus has the guarantee of both evidence and supervision, since the parties who lodge the 82 Testimony of Si? Edward Henry, Report, Roy. Com. 303 Prostitution in Europe complaint will see to it that proper steps follow. In a peculiar degree, therefore, it is true that in London con- ditions depend on the state of public opinion. In consequence of the policy described above in re- spect to street-walking, somewhat spotty conditions char- acterize the metropolis. Women are distinctly abun- dant 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 them- selves unobtrusively, communicating furtively with pass- ers-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 hav- ing 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. Every- 34 Abolition and Order thing has gone for the better." 33 The laws remain the same, but- popular demand has caused, or enabled, police and courts gradually to make more of them. The in- creased 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 num- ber arrested in 1901, 274 (11.4%) were discharged: of the larger number arrested in 1905, 252 (6.3%) were discharged. 34 The high percentage of convictions testi- fies to the discrete manner in which the police discharge their duties. How stands it with the brothel or disorderly house ? 35 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 ex- ists, no matter what the subterfuge employed, be the quarters in question their living-rooms, a pretended man- icure or massage establishment, or what not. Such re- sorts 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 33 Report, Roy. Com., p. 93. 3 * Ibid., Return 7, XII, XIII. 35 The term " bordell," properly meaning a licensed, recognized, or tolerated house of prostitution, is not employed at all in Great Britain. 305 Prostitution in Europe their business with a limited clientele procured through introduction. Much more frequent, but also much less stable, are the brothels of the Hay market region, mask- ing 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. 36 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. 37 The police are, of course, usually informed ; but in accordance with their policy are content to preserve 36 These brothels not infrequently occupy the upper floors of build- ings in Regent Street and Bond Street, the floors below being oc- cupied by fashionable shops. 37 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. (en- trance in Little Queen Street). Assistant wanted at once. Care of hands and nails. Miss , Court Chambers, Maryle- bone Rd., 2nd Floor (entrance in Seymour Place). Assisted by spe- cialist from Paris. Hours 12 to 7. Three languages spoken. As- sistant wanted. Electrical treatment for all muscular ailments. Apply Nurse, Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road (adjoining Warren Street Tube), ist floor. Hours, 12 till 8. Newly opened Establishment. Miss , Nail Specialist, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus, W. Specific Treatment for Rheumatism by Madame , Man- chester Street, Manchester Square, W. A Trained Nurse Has Special Oils for Muscular Ailments. Apply Allsop 306 Abolition and Order 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. 38 The activ- ities of the police in this direction are exhibited in the following table : 39 Convicted, held to bail, or committed Taken into Custody Discharged to Reform School en ~ ed 1 3 O . "j u o ^ to H JSj fe H 3 H i90i 145 243 388 ii 27 38 134 216 350 1902 .142 271 413 16 25 41 126 245 37i 1904 .292 442 734 30 55 85 260 386 646 1905 .269 43i 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* 1909 .184 219 403 17 17 34 1 60 174 334 41 1910 .no 182 292 9 16 25 90 139 229*2 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 meas- ures, in furtherance of the policy of reducing the number Place, Flat D (entrance floor) next Madame Tussaud's, Baker Street Sta. French lady would receive a few payrng guests in her well- appointed and newly-decorated house. Apply Madame , Hugh 307 Prostitution in Europe of taverns. A license is in danger of cancellation, when- ever prostitutes are harbored. English activity in respect to prostitution thus involves the suppression of brothels and the gradual improvement ef street conditions. Too little is accurately known re- garding 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 St., Victoria (Two Minutes from Station). Side entrance. As- sistant 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 , i Oxford Street, W. Hours i to 9. In a single number of this sheet there are 44 unmistakable ad- vertisements of this kind. A few weeks later, the above advertise- ments had mostly disappeared, new ones taking their place. 38 Report, July 31, 1911. 39 Compiled from the Reports of the Commissioner of Police. Acton, loc. cit., pp. 4, 6, give police returns for 1841, 1857 and 1868. 40 In 29 cases charges were proved and order made without con- viction. 41 In 34 cases charges were proved and order made without con- viction. 42 In 37 cases charges were proved and order made without con- viction. 3 08 Abolition and Order 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, compara- tive. London, Berlin, Paris, and Vienna are cosmopol- itan 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 plainclothes men with special powers. London possesses no arbitrary police process ; all the others do. Does London suffer in the comparison in re- spect to public order and decency? Most assuredly not. The Haymarket may perhaps be no better than the Boule- vards, Friederichstrasse, or Karntnerstrasse ; 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 ac- tual 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 dis- advantages on the side of regulation. I am by no means disposed to imply that London has 309 Prostitution in Europe 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 bill- boards circulating up and down Regent Street and Bond Street. 43 But at this juncture I am not especially con- cerned 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 prosti- tution, 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 conse- quence 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 48 These women conduct brothels in the sense that there are sev- eral " 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. 310 Abolition and Order joint sojournings in buildings out of which decent peo- ple are gradually edged. This happens in London ; but, unfortunately for the contrast set up by regulationists, it happens everywhere else as well. Prostitution is as- suredly no more widely scattered in London than in any of the other cities compared with it ; maps showing its in- cidence would abundantly sustain this assertion. Berlin is in this respect precisely like London ; the Berlin prosti- tute lives anywhere, wellnigh 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 prostitu- tion 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 in- terference with their preferences as to domicile; in Paris, they congregate in the congenial environment of Mont- martre 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 com- parison with regulation in this respect. An interesting light is shed on the relation of street and bordell, discussed in a previous chapter, by the ex- perience of London. Regent Street and Piccadilly are still notorious for the number of loose women frequent- ing 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." 44 In this same area over three-hundred dis- 44 Report, Royal Commission, p. 124. Prostitution in Europe orderly 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 nec- essarily result in aggravation of street conditions; there is, as I have previously pointed out, every reason to be- lieve 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 in- telligence 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 aboli- tion 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 be- half of their general probity, humanity, and helpfulness having been borne by those who know most of their re- lations with prostitution. Exceptions were indeed found ; a force approximating 17,000 men could hardly be en- tirely lacking in black sheep. For example, the Royal Commission verified thirteen complaints preferred by su- perior officers against constables, one of consorting with prostitutes, twelve of relations with brothel-keep- ers, 45 all severely dealt with; but, on the whole, they 45 Report, Royal Commission, p. 100. 312 Abolition and Order " had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the force discharge their duties (in respect to prostitution) with honesty, discretion, and efficiency." 46 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 prac- tical 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 police- man can judge whether a prostitute is entitled to the privilege of the streets? In abolition London the situa- tion 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 be- cause it was paid for, but because no one objected; nowadays, certain streets have been cleared and no- where is solicitation actively obtrusive, because public opinion is articulate and the police, however inclined, would not dare to play favorites. 47 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 Commis- 48 Ibid, p. 101. 47 Whether the police even now make full use of their power to clear the streets is a matter on which opinions differ. Certain wit- nesses 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 opin- ion, the general tendency being towards improvement 313 Prostitution in Europe sioner, 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 mis- conduct 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 cer- tainly could not exist many days without being known to the authorities." 48 To restate briefly the upshot of the foregoing discus- sion : 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 aboli- tionist. 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 * & Ibid., p. 129, slightly abridged. Sir Edward Henry's evidence is fully sustained by that of Mr. Coote, p. 83. 3H Abolition and Order 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 con- tinental capitals where regulation is in vogue. The police of the English metropolis is under the con- trol of the Home Office of the National Government; in all other towns, the force is managed by the Watch Committee of the Town Council. 49 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, how- ever, 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 re- garded as fit to be represented thereon; the unholy al- liance between prostitution and liquor has been largely 49 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. 315 Prostitution in Europe destroyed by the ruthless cancellation of licenses; in Liverpool the number has already been reduced from 2,500 to i,7oo. 50 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 Birming- ham 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 offi- cer had ever tried to find out. He could not tell, there- fore, whether they were more or less numerous. Why should he ? The law-abiding prostitute must be the con- cern 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 mid- night, 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 60 In Glasgow the number of licensed premises has steadily de- clined from 1,819 in l %9 2 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 1354. (Report of Police Establishment 1911, p. 18.) 316 Abolition and Order mechanism, I mean, not otherwise needed in dealing with urban crime, was needed in either place for this pur- pose; 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 deal- ings 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 51 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 be- ing observed, the women fold their tents and steal else- where, 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 ar- 51 In Birmingham and Manchester there are no " flats " in the London sense. 317 Prostitution in Europe rests, 1,411 convictions. 52 In Edinburgh, the number of brothels known to the police shows a marked diminu- tion, from 45 in 1901 to 29 in 1911, not unconnected perhaps with increased severity on the part of the au- thorities who arrested nine women of the larger number (45) in 1901, thirty-five women of the smaller number (29) in 191 1. 53 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 wellnigh unre- strained. 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. 54 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 52 Report of Police Establishment 1910, p. 66 (Liverpool, 1911). Similar information is contained in the corresponding reports of other cities. 53 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. 64 In the provincial cities as in London, women are more promi- nent in the Arcades than in the streets, as Arcades are private property. 318 Abolition and Order nearest place that was sure of being free from interrup- tion 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 Bir- mingham 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 prom- inent 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 num- ber of notorious prostitutes appears to have been re- duced, for the police returns, 424 in 1901, had shrunk to 1 80 in 19 1 1. 55 The Chief Constable of Liverpool in- clines 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 reduc- tion is due to the professional being ousted by the amateur." 56 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 85 Communicated by Chief Constable. 86 Report, 1910, p. 67 (slightly abridged). 3*9 Prostitution in Europe of which can only be allowed to leak out surreptitiously, is bound to be diminished ; and the diminution of custom- ers means the diminution of waste and disease. The in- ducement to join the professional ranks is thereby les- sened. 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." 57 The Chief Con- stable 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 I56th con- viction." 58 In Edinburgh, coincidently with the reduc- tion 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 con- victed of importuning; only 72 of the entire number were first offenders ; among the others some had been pre- viously convicted as many as 34, 50, or even 69 times. 59 Nor are hard-labor sentences more efficacious on the 57 Criminal Returns, 1911, p. 6. 68 Report, loc. cit., p. 45. *The Shield, Nov.-Dec., 1911, p. 78. 320 Abolition and Order 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 rem- nant did not necessarily do better; they may have left the city or escaped notice. 59a In regulation, as in abolition communities, the system of fining and imprisoning offend- ers 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 im- morality, the frequent violation of children, the existence of ice-cream shops which are merely cloaks for inde- cency; 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. 60 Thus even though regulation is condemned, it is necessary to remem- ber that the serious problem remains. This must not be overlooked. Our immediate concern is however, once 5 a Reglementeringen i Stockholm, pp. 91-92. 60 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. 321 Prostitution in Europe 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 situa- tion 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 alke. 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 com- parison 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 dis- passionate accounts of conditions during and after regula- tion 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 conse- quence of abolition. Moreover, all the cities involved have grown with amazing rapidity; they have become larger, richer, more luxurious, in some ways more friv- olous. They compete with each other and even with much larger towns in brilliancy and seductiveness. This increased playfulness is certainly reflected in the increase 322 Abolition and Order 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 ex- termination 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 mat- ter, it may, therefore, be affirmed that nowhere in Eu- rope has the closing of bordells as the first step towards abolition involved unfavorable consequences. This is not to say that the other forms of prostitu- tion the concealed brothel, the counterfeit employ- ment, 61 the low drinking-shop, the dance hall, etc., have been lessened or mitigated by the abolition of the bor- dell. Whether any particular surreptitious form of bor- dell exists or not is not a question of abolition or regula- tion, 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 open- ing chapter. They are found everywhere, in regulated cities, such as Hamburg and Budapest, where the bordell is officially favored; in Vienna, where, though officially 61 1 refer by this description to spurious cigar shops, manicure es- tablishments, etc. 323 Prostitution in Europe reprobated, it still continues to exist : in Munich and Ber- lin, 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 univer- sally 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 cab- driver 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, 62 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. 63 If he prove obdurate, the drawer is somehow discovered to contain the neces- sary change; if he seems to be impressionable, his atten- tion 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 be- hind the counters of which prostitutes hand out liquor and encourage assignations. The proprietors escape 62 This particular form of humbug is impossible in Austria- Hungary where the sale of tobacco is an imperial monopoly. 63 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. 3 2 4 Abolition and Order punishment because the assignations are fulfilled else- where than on his premises. Filthy establishments more flagrantly devoted to the same purposes exist in abolition Zurich as in regulation Bremen. 64 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 unques- tionably favors the view here taken, that the suppres- sion 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 bor- dell in Zurich has been accompanied " by an increase of secret * hole and corner ' prostitution, beyond the scope of the law," 65 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 militat- ing towards a directly opposite conclusion that prosecu- tions for pandering 65a have in the long run decreased, not 64 It is no uncommon error for regulationists to suppose that these abominations occur only or mainly in abolition towns. Such a mis- take appears to be implied in the account of Zurich by Mtiller and Ziircher, Zeitschrift, XIV, p. 205. 65 Weiss, loc. cit., p. 125. Ma The word pandering is here used in a very broad sense, as 325 Prostitution in Europe 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, 2 7 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 respec- tively. 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 un- prejudiced and liberally-disposed. Houses where a madame can hire out girls and acquire profits are not wanted by any one." An important official in Chris- tiania urged that whether regulation is desirable or not, the destruction of the bordell was an advantage. The Amsterdam police favored their extirpation and after fif- teen years' experience " are still opposed to them." The foregoing judgments are based on police grounds; as- suredly the case against the bordell would be all the stronger, were indirect considerations also allowed to weigh. Nowhere does the suppression of the bordell aggra- vate the domicile problem, which, as a matter of fact, settles itself in abolition towns, just as it does in regula- tion towns. The English, Swiss, Dutch, and Scandi- navian 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 a translation of " Kuppelei " which includes all forms of promoting prostitution. 326 Abolition and Order 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 congre- gate in apartment houses or " mansions " from which re- spectable 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 prostitu- tion. 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 exe- cution 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 domi- cile, 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. 66 The dom- icile 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 66 Miiller and Ziircher, in Zeitschrift, XIV, p. 198. 327 Prostitution in Europe in the attitude of society, that might in time produce re- sults; 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 in- creased 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 Copen- hagen, 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 at- tract attention; from time to time they retreat into the cafes 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 pros- titute is barely noticeable; an occasional woman is ob- servable 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 cafes. Rotterdam a city of different type presents a slightly different aspect. In the earlier hours of the even- ing, women hasten to the skating-rink, dance halls and cafes. When, at midnight, these resorts close, prosti- tutes 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 328 Abolition and Order of the prostitute for promenading has been enforced with sufficient vigor and discretion to attain its object. Zu- rich 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 oppor- tunity 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 in- formed that " arrests for solicitation were few " ; in Amsterdam (population 580,960) 370 arrests were made in 1910, 382, in 191 1. 67 The situation in Copen- hagen (population 462,161) is portrayed by the fol- lowing statistics : for soliciting, offending against " the sense of shame," 68 and " vagabondage," 288 arrests were made in 1907, the year succeeding the repeal of regula- tion; in 1908, 344; in 1909, 432; in 1910, 414; in 1911, 353. The total, not large in any case, is due to the in- clusion of vagabondage, to the growth of the city, and to a judicial decision to the effect that prostitutes con- gregating in the streets cannot be arrested or dispersed; for out of these casual gatherings occasional disturbances leading to subsequent arrests sometimes arise. 67 Personally communicated by police head. 68 1. e., Violation of Section 2 of the laws of 1906. 329 Prostitution in Europe Have conditions in the towns above named been af- fected 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 affirma- tive. 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." 69 When the new law abrogating police con- trol 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 sec- tions. 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 hap- pened to cause us to regret," with which the grateful official " touched wood ! " 70 Elsewhere, I was informed 69 The number of women enrolled had been as high as 700. 70 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 expecta- tion of unpleasant experience in the way of public morals, we should be disappointed. Vesterbro makes the impression of not hav- ing changed essentially since the passage of the law. There is cer- tainly no offence to be feared by anyone walking through the streets; of course loose women whose manner is not characterized by great 330 Abolition and Order that the former partisans of regulation were " struck dumb." 71 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 re- ported from Christiania, however, is interesting as show- ing 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 con- ference in Christiania that street conditions had be- come 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 dis- tinctly indecent manner." Stockholm has not yet abolished regulation, but the system has decayed so rapidly that bad results ought to be perceptible, if regula- tion 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 m T 93 to 6,652 in 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 dif- ferent hours, day and night, and fully concur in Dr. Hoff's contention that prostitution is not more conspicuous than in similar neighbor- hoods elsewhere in Europe. 71 Vollig stumm. 331 Prostitution in Europe 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 66 2-3% without a trace of inconvenience can hardly be regarded as necessary for the public welfare." 71a In Holland the abolition movement spread from town to town, an improbable course, had the absence of regula- tion 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 abo- litionists ; 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 "'^Reglementeringen i Stockholm, pp. 132-3. 332 Abolition and Order in question." 72 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 con- duct of the women." 73 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 pop- ular verdict coincides. In the Canton of Zurich, a refer- endum, proposed in favor of returning to the abandoned system, was defeated by a vote of 49,806 to i8,oi6. 74 A newspaper comment on the result warns the " in- terests" 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." 75 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 de- cent as Stuttgart. As between Zurich and Geneva, the contrast is all in favor of Zurich, though it is twice as large. Even the sea-port 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 Schie- damschedyk is a cosmopolitan affair, with drink- ing and dance halls of variegated character. Prosti- 72 Loc. cit., p. 46. 74 Weiss, loc. cit., p. 121. 73 Ibid, p. 47. 76 Weiss, loc. cit., p. 123. 333 Prostitution in Europe tutes 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 pro- visions directed against women " without a definite dom- icile." 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 ; 76 the pros- titute was therefore made expressly amenable to punish- ment as a vagabond, if proved to be without proper means of support. Most of the arrests in the statistics before given 77 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, pre- sume 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 ob- tain employment and to report the fact. Between 200 and 300 notices of this kind are annually sent; in 1909, 76 Regulation, of course, expressly recognized her right to do this, if she were registered. 77 Page 329. 334 Abolition and Order 216 women were once punished, 45 twice, n thrice on this charge. 78 Serious objections are raised to this method of deal- ing 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 un- doubtedly involves discrimination in favor of the male vagabond. A quasi-regulatory system might undoubt- edly be introduced beneath its cover by a reactionary official The provision is at any rate a somewhat dis- ingenuous subterfuge, for, strictly speaking, the vagrant is homeless ; but the prostitute may be treated as a vaga- bond, despite the fact that she possesses a home. From a practical point of view, there is the further ob- jection 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 va- grant becomes a cigar-vender, a " laundress," a " friseuse," thus increasing the number of counterfeit em- ployments. Like regulation, the vagrancy provision re- sults in harrying the dull unfortunates, while leaving the 78 The penalty is the workhouse for 12 days, 18 days, etc., up to 90 days. 335 Prostitution in Europe more pretentious and the more clever quite unscathed. Of the other results feared in connection with aboli- tion, none have materialized to a perceptible extent. It was urged, for example, that when bordells were dis- mantled, men would annoy respectable women on the streets. It is indeed one of the queer features of all police dealings with prostitution, that, whereas solicita- tion 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 coun- tries ; but curiously enough, the evil is worse in regulated Germany than anywhere else. In Swiss, Dutch and Eng- lish 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 regula- tion. 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. 79 The 79 Communicated by police authorities. 336 Abolition and Order bully is indeed a parasite unaffected by the existence of either regulation or abolition as such. The situation as regards houses of assignation is every- where 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 furnish- ing 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 ren- dezvous houses; but it can not be said that their prose- cution has yet accomplished much more than the en- forcement 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 pros- titution. 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 crim- inally-inclined prostitutes and their associates. The reg- istered 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 disappear- ance 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 con- tinental police have methods of keeping up with other 337 Prostitution in Europe people, reputable and criminal alike; and if the ma- chinery 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 ex- ample, life and property are probably equally secure in Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Birmingham. Hamburg has a well organized regulatory system ; Rotterdam is aboli- tionist, but catalogues prostitutes ; Birmingham is abo- litionist and ignores the prostitute until she becomes dis- orderly or criminal, whereupon, like other disorderly or criminal people, she suffers as such. " As far as crime is concerned," a prominent London police official re- marked 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 con- sequence of this procedure." In this, as in all the other points considered, if abolition has done no harm, regu- lation could at best have done little or no good. Nor does it follow that thoroughgoing abolition is at all in- consistent with just as complete knowledge of local pros- titution 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 ob- serve other suspects. Influenced doubtless by continen- tal 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 evi- 338 Abolition and Order dence falls short of technical completeness; in Chris- tiania some 500 prostitutes are known to the authorities ; the Amsterdam Bureau is preparing a list for all Hol- land; after four years of work it contains some 7,000 names ; similar lists of pimps, traffickers, etc., with photo- graphs where possible, are found there just as in regu- lationist 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 informa- tion 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. 80 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 reg- ulation, the women do not report as systematically as the law contemplates, some evading, some leaving, some being in prison. 81 It is clear, therefore, that abolition is consistent with as complete knowledge of the local sit- uation 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 80 The police heads are careful to affirm that these figures indi- cate not an increase of prostitution, but increased knowledge of its whereabouts. 81 For the facts comprised in the foregoing account, I am indebted to the courtesy of many officials in Holland, Denmark, and Nor- way. 339 Prostitution in Europe have considered at some length, the dance hall, the cafe, and similar establishments that furnish the prosti- tute an advantageous opening. Neither regulation nor abolition as such involves any particular policy in ref- erence 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 Brit- ain, the liquor and amusement traffic have been more effectually supervised and beyond question with good re- sults, 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 prosti- tution, though prostitution is indeed deprived of a foot- hold 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 sys- tem associated with regulation had resulted in corrup- tion that " for so small a town had reached enormous proportions." An official report of the year 1892 de- clared 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." 82 Again, in Copenhagen, I learned that, as elsewhere, at the time 82 Quoted in Die Prostitutionsfrage in der Schweis, loc. cit., p. 37- 340 Abolition and Order when police and prostitute were closely related, corrup- tion prevailed ; a certain inspector even owned an interest in a house of prostitution and committed suicide on ex- posure. The Dutch police are outspoken to similar pur- pose. As I pointed out in dealing with Germany, gen- eral 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 opera- tion, 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 retain- ing in the interest of specialization? European expe- rience does not warrant an affirmative answer. Regula- tion 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. 83 Copenhagen retains a morals police. The English cities are, of course, without any such division. It would ap- pear 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 83 This force also has certain other dutites. 341 Prostitution in Europe the integrity of the main body of the force. That in- tegrity 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 patrol- men are chosen and trained, and to the sort of relation that exists between the police department and the other government departments. 342 CHAPTER X ABOLITION AND DISEASE Abolition not necessarily laissez-faire. Norwegian handling of disease problem. Danish plan. Italian plan. Voluntary and com- pulsory provisions compared. Denunciation of alleged sources of infection. Attendance at free dispensaries. Attitude of prosti- tutes, of medical practitioners. Notification of venereal disease. Hospital provisions for treatment in Great Britain, on the Conti- nent. Statistics unreliable and imperfect. Census of venereal dis- ease 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 abo- lition 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 indif- ferent 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. 343 Prostitution in Europe Regulation endeavors to protect the public health by safe- guarding through police agencies the health of registered prostitutes, these prostitutes being periodically ex- amined by police surgeons and forcibly treated when found diseased; the distinctive features of sanitary reg- ulation are, therefore, its limitation to professional in- scribed 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 exper- iment, generally speaking, aims to reach all those suffer- ing with venereal disease, men and women alike; and it seeks to accomplish this end by transferring the func- tion from the police to the health department, by the provision of free treatment, and by endeavoring to en- list the patient's aid in ascertaining the source of infec- tion, 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 treat- ment 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 other- wise 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 344 Abolition and Disease boards with very extensive powers in reference to epi- demic 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 au- thorities in controlling the diseases in question, all phy- sicians are required to report daily usually without names 1 their venereal patients, to furnish the patient with a copy of the laws relating to the communication of venereal disease 2 and to require the patient to sign a statement acknowledging the fact that he (or she) has been thus explicitly warned. 3 The physician also 1 Names are given when the physician feels that the patient is likely to spread infection, or when the patient is sent into a hospital. 2 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 suffer- ing 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 applica- tion 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 con- tagious 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, hav-- ing 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. 3 I herewith acknowledge, that Dr. has called my attention to 345 Prostitution in Europe 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 4 is informed of the nature of the charge the name of the accuser being withheld and is invited to submit to examina- tion at a hospital or by a municipal physician. No com- pulsion 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 ex- tent of forcibly confining the infected person in a hos- pital. But reliable persons receive ambulatory treatment at the hands of municipal physicians, men, at the of- fice 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 " de- nounced " neglects or refuses to comply with the sum- mons of the Health Department. Persons who, having knowledge of their infectious condition, communicate disease, are punished with imprisonment for not exceed- ing three years. The Danish law dealing with the subject represents a 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. 4 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 19 346 Abolition and Disease gradual evolution greatly hastened in its final stages by the Norwegian example. 5 The proffer of free treat- ment dates back to 1788; a law of 1874 sought to im- pose an obligation to take advantage of this opportunity ; in the law of March 30, 1906, fifteen of the eighteen para- graphs which compose the statute deal with the prob- lem of venereal infection. 6 The main provisions are the following: 7 It is made a punishable offence to com- municate 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 mu- nicipality ; they are in duty bound to submit to such free treatment if they are themselves unable to employ a phy- sician; 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 9 ; patients can be required to continue under medical observation even after the conclusion of their regular treatment; every physician is obligated to 5 Hoff, loc. cit., p. 5. 6 For the text of the statute, translated into English, see Appendix. 7 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 im- prisonment 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 Be- deutung der Geschlechtskrankheiten, Zeitschrift XI, pp. 28, 63, and 205. 8 This is an important variation from the Norwegian prototype and indicates the compromise spirit that here and there appears in the Danish law. 347 Prostitution in Europe hand venereal patients a printed warning against mar- riage and against sexual intercourse, and to explain the legal liabilities incurred through violation of this in- junction; every physician must report the instances in which such action has been taken by him 9 ; 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, suf- fering 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 ar- rested 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 re- fusal 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 mu- nicipal 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 at- tending physician to the City physician, who is author- ized to take action. 10 9 The law does not require that the name of the patient be re- ported, but it must be correctly given to the physician. 10 Slips containing instructions as to the nature of the disease, the 348 Abolition and Order 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. 11 At Rome, side by side with the ineffective municipal regulatory system previously described, the royal gov- ernment of Italy has, by a law approved August i, 1907, instituted a dispensary system, in many respects closely following the Danish type. The measure provides for " gratuitous public prophylaxis of gonorrhoea, soft chancre, and syphilis." 12 The dispensaries are to be or- ganized by the communes acting in cooperation with the ministry of the Interior, or in default of such arrange- ment, 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 ven- ereal diseases who apply to the dispensaries. The cure is gratuitous for all alike." 13 Provision is further made for hospital facilities. Supplementary sections en- deavor to bring professional prostitutes within the scope of the act. Between the Italian and the Scandinavian legislation above summarized there is, however, an important dis- tinction. The Italian scheme is wholly and uncondi- tionally voluntary and hygienic; it lacks altogether corn- 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. 11 Its dimensions are if'x26". 12 Sanitary Laws, revised text, Section III, Articles 136-156. 13 Ibid., Article 144. 349 c H \> a ::::::::: ^. _' i3 : :.. crt X rt Q G : - * : : 7 T ? : : "iR ; oo ; * a . . <, ,5 . : : . . . J > UJ :>o : : o : .0 . Z ID s u. K rj Q c > W :- ^ : 7 r 9 s s. "& ; oo ; f~ ; ; t~ i- ; , 5 c g U) : : ;::: - ^ ::::::: S 2 : M I ! : : [ [ : 5" JLTATIONS FOR p X s- Q U4 X a c y W ** :^ M?NM r* * ' * M 2^ !$ ! 15- ; .TAT1ONS FOR W P S t- a K B a a > M : : S : : : i i 6 ; ' t~- t- '. : !> J> : Z O CONSUl & X a : : : * ^ 2 c W t~ I '. ^ < w S a > a ; 5- ^5- 5- : . . o >o o h fr a : : r ? 2 r T " 2 si. iR m S : H >, a :;& M :::::: : innniM c u :^ 5" i ^ i a si HMMH s 2 w z a s> _ K M Q i*U .... " 2 r r : : f : NS T A H m *-Ns Hi-fs MO ^i rt a i : S : : : : : r : : o ;*.. . 0. X NAME OF PHYSICIAN 5 a a a =x SS 5 o .-2 o2 ij fc S g c5 6 3.s^ s-gs-s ^-S Sa K 2 2* . n' S SUK^O NAME OF PHYSICIAN a c ilS a a _, w h. m O ^ T3 J5 P 6 w X 1 a." u fl^upae 3g s g-6uSS^ -gj Z SefJOi^o^ "S -** S3 i>- 3 :| |.S KO-S^O -| of Copenhagen, 3 S 2 5 o y w PLACE "_ "^oo S t S>0 iPl!iJ !i 5* g 10 S t jZ 9 S S OT a: - OH PLACE S_ 2 M g* g W S - "a r ^.I-^II^" 5 e 1*^5" 2 -! ] S o H w | J3 tl 350 Abolition and Disease pulsory 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 conceal- ment of disease and avoidance of cure. Compulsory ac- tion is offensive to the liberty and dignity of human per- sonality. 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 aim- ing to protect public order. Confusion is dangerous and constitutes an abuse." 14 As contrasted with this thoroughgoing acceptance of the voluntary point of view, the Danish policy retains certain vestiges of police complicity. It includes, for ex- ample, the right of compulsory examination in case of women arrested for offences indicative of professional prostitution 15 ; it continues to relate the police to vene- real disease, through the compulsory proviso above cited and through the provisions encouraging the disclosure of the supposed source of the infection. 16 As to the wisdom of the above mentioned provisions 14 Ministry of the Interior, Direction-General of Public Health. Telegraphic Circular to the Prefects of the Kingdom : " The Prophylaxis of Venereal Diseases." (Abridged.) 15 If the woman objects, examination can be made only if or- dered by the court. As a matter of fact, objection is rare, as the courts would not hesitate to grant the necessary authority. 16 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 communi- cated infection ; but punishments were rare, since the girl could always shield herself behind the fact that the police surgeons had 351 Prostitution in Europe 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 un- qualified Italian scheme, is strongly of the opinion that the slightest taint of police complicity or the slightest sug- gestion of publicity seriously impedes the utilization of the facilities offered. 17 The Danish lawmakers were evi- dently 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 thor- ough 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 mat- ter 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 individ- uals immediately concerned may thus gain, for they may be helped. But the danger is that unfortunate in- direct effects may more than outweigh the direct favor- able effects. The vestige of the police spirit may hinder the very transformation in the attitude of those afflicted pronounced her well an interesting illustration of the way in which the medical examination may defeat its own object. 17 His views are stated in his Report to the Tenth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held at Paris, 1900. 352 Abolition and Disease that the legislation hoped to bring about. Thus inci- dental compulsion may tend to tear down what the law as a whole endeavors to build up. 18 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 pro- vided, 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 un- qualified 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 par- 18 Dr. Hoff points out (loc. cit., p. 8) that similar police assist- ance 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 at- tending venereal infection are also factors to be reckoned with. 353 Prostitution in Europe ticular venereal infection. On its face, the transaction appears reasonable enough : a sufferer, after interroga- tion by his physician or of his own motion, may report his belief that he was contaminated by this woman or that. 19 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. 20 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. De- nunciation 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. 19 I take the case of an infected man ; the same process applies to an infected woman who is free to denounce the man responsi- ble for her condition. 20 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 in- fected with venereal contagion, has intercourse with another per- son, punishment by imprisonment shall be imposed, or, under ag- gravating circumstances, detention at hard labor in the House of Correction. 354 Abolition and Disease 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, care- fully studied from this standpoint, 21 over half of those questioned were unable to throw any light on the sub- ject. 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 mis- taken or false accusation is no trifle. The same prin- ciple holds here as in respect to arrest for alleged solicita- tions a single error is worse than a hundred omis- sions. 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 pres- ence, 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 21 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. 355 Prostitution in Europe or necessary, may be totally inapplicable to syphilis. The experience of Copenhagen has quite fully justified these doubts. Denunciation is an invitation to black- mail; 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, un- der 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 denuncia- tions as reach them. But despite the caution with which the police act, it happens not infrequently that de- nounced women prove on examination to be free of in- fection. 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 : 22 c 52 No. persons report- Sj c E ed for not continu-^s *~! r*i -*J *T"1 ing treatment 1 w d-a C I !=< ^ Men 1 Vomen S| O D '/ v f-5 55 Szj S? U IQO7 4IO 22 388 21 172 154 37 68 1908 . .600 61 O v -"~' 548 54 218 y? 60 89 1000 7 TO 36 O*T W 70^ J" 28 226 238 95 112 IOIO 822 K/ V 25 / v o 707 14 155 336 130 141 IOII 780 J 40 / y/ 740 *" 24 **J*J 160 364 117 133 "T v / ^^ T^ \J V T The figures above given by no means represent all the accusations filed with the police. They are those 22 Compiled from Police Reports. Slight discrepancies in the totals are due to the occasional appearance of the same person more than once. 356 Abolition and Disease 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 venge- ance, they use their own discretion as to whether they will act on a given " denunciation." Necessarily there- fore 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 de- nunciation is workable even under the comparatively sim- ple conditions of the Norwegian and Danish capitals ; of a commission of nine persons recently appointed to con- sider 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. 23 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 dis- 23 A case was reported of a man who kept a list of those he sup- posed himself to have infected. 357 Prostitution in Europe appearances above noted suggests the repellent outcome of this traditional association, which must be com- pletely uprooted, if persons ill of venereal disease are to seek treatment as readily as those ill of measles or mumps. 24 The final columns of the table given on page 356 de- serve 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 con- scientious 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 Copen- hagen 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, how- ever, touch the heart of the subject. At bottom, the is- sue between regulation and abolition turns upon this ques- tion: are the ravages of venereal disease more likely to be mitigated by the medical examination and compul- 24 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. 358 Abolition and Disease sory 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 pos- sibly be? In behalf of patient and thorough experimen- tation 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 prin- ciples 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 dem- onstrated method of checking the process is known. In this volume, I have throughout endeavored to meet reg- ulation on its own ground. A verdict unfavorable to regulation has been found in the first instance, not be- cause 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 throw- ing light upon the dark corners in which disease hud- dles and multiplies. Experience affords as yet no conclusive proof of the 359 Prostitution in Europe 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 ad- vantage 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 im- portant factor in this matter. The ancient police as- sociation 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 sub- mitting 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 reg- ulation; 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 sys- tem, 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 dis- pensaries. The following tables exhibit the attendance 360 Abolition and Disease of new patients at the free dispensaries during the years 1910 and 1911 : 25 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 '" de- scribe 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 1'Antiquaille : in 1876, 835 registered prostitutes, 281 non-registered. Thereafter, the former steadily declined with the inevitable disintegration of the regulatory sys- tem; the latter tended to rise. In the final year (1903) the registered prostitutes compulsorily treated numbered only 1 80; the clandestines voluntarily treated had in- creased to 327, i. e., the number receiving voluntary treatment was almost twice as large as the number re- 25 These figures may be found in the Health Reports of Copen- hagen. For the form in which they appear above I am indebted to the courtesy of Inspector Schepelern-Larsen. 361 Prostitution in Europe ceiving compulsory treatment, despite the continuance of the police association. 20 The attitude of the medical profession is an interest- ing 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 abo- lition were fearful of sudden abolition. Nowadays the medical professions of both Christiania and Copenhagen are described as practically unanimous against regula- tion. 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 inciden- tal result philosophically accepted by those whom it has affected. 27 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 suf- fering with any venereal disease. 28 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 I, 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 en- 26 Annexes, loc. cit., p. 263. 27 Some of these were partly compensated by being made dis- pensary physicians. 28 Originally the physicians made a monthly report. 362 Abolition and Disease velops 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 no- tification 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 conscientious- ness. The fear one observes among English abolitionists, that notification may prove an indirect method of rein- stating 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 unrea- soning, 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 vene- real disease," nor would the desirability of their interest- ing themselves in the matter " be accepted as indisput- able." 29 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 29 R. W. Johnstone, Report on Venereal Diseases (Local Govern- ment Board, London, 1913) p. i. 363 Prostitution in Europe their money on rescuing persons from the consequences of their sins." 30 The Inspector for the Local Govern- ment Board reports that " no beds or wards were re- served 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." 31 A more liberal policy characterizes the out-pa- tient departments, though their organization and equip- ment are both defective. The poor law infirmaries and workhouses are apt to be better equipped; and it is in- teresting to note in passing that the administrators of these institutions when asked for their " opinion regard- ing the advisability of endowing the guardians with the powers of compulsory detention (of those seeking treat- ment for venereal complaints) were practically unan- imous in declaring that it would deter patients from com- ing." 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 vene- real patients. Of these, recent writers state : The lock- hospitals are pathetically meager, containing " in Lon- don 136 beds for females, 27 for males; elsewhere about 70, making perhaps 250 in the United Kingdom." sz Out-patient services are also found in connection with the lock-hospital. English conditions in this respect S( >Ibid, p. 20. 31 Ditto (all slightly abridged). 82 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. 364 Abolition and Disease therefore deserve the severe language of Sidney and Beatrice Webb : " The man or woman suffering from gonorrhoea or syphilis, even if the innocent victim of another's guilt, is refused admission to the volun- tary hospital; deterred, and as often as possible, hus- tled out of the workhouse; and wholly unprovided for by the local health authority." 33 Moreover, the method of conducting the only available resort the lock-hos- pital 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 pa- tient. The sanitary spirit is as yet quite undeveloped: " I don't believe in making it safe " remarked the sec- retary 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? 33 The Prevention of Destitution (London, 1912) p. 33. See also notes, pp. 43, 44. 365 Prostitution in Europe 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. 34 Recent improvements in di- agnostic art show the existence of venereal disease where mere clinical examination >up to recently the sole re- liance 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 seri- ous defect of even conscientiously compiled figures. But there is another serious source of error. Such general statistics as exist are in an extraordinary degree frac- tional and unscientific. Only in certain small sections of Scandinavia has a more or less accurate system of re- porting 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 reg- ulation and abolition does not lend itself to statistical determination. 35 34 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. 35 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 366 Abolition and Disease Statistics and opinion, however, both concur in an in- direct 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-jaire 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 reg- ulated 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 gonorrhoea; 77% have had syphilis, 200% have had gon- orrhoea in Breslau. 36 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 ques- tion." 37 Pinkus declares that in Germany one man in every five has had syphilis, 38 and that gonorrhoea aver- ages more than one attack per man. 39 An attempt was made by the Prussian Government to take a census of the amount of venereal disease among places where it has fluctuated. These ignore other factors that greatly influence the phenomenon in question. (Art. Die Prostitution, pp. 1243-44, abridged). 36 Hygiene der Prostitution, loc. cit., p. 31. If the incidence of gonorrhoea is placed at 200%, the average is two attacks. 37 Ibid., p. 32. as Verhutung der Geschlechtskrankheiten, p. 7. 38 Ibid., p. 21. 367 Prostitution in Europe 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 un- der 30,000 inhabitants, 45 per 10,000. The results may be represented thus: I All Prussia 26% 00 m /' '':' ' -': : ,'?' ' HH ^A Berlin l42/ 00 o ! ' - ' : iiv, ~~. ..^ rw -. ~, \ Cities having '^m more -than 100.000 Inhabitants I00% 00 Cities hav'mg \ more than 30.000 Inhabitants 58/ 000 Cities Saving less than 30.000 Inhabitants 45% M FIGURE I. Venereal disease among males in the population of Prus- sia, 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 ac- curately represent the actual totals ; but they may never- theless give a fairly reliable indication of relative condi- tions. 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. 368 Abolition and Disease A similar inquiry was also made in Sweden, with a view to determining how many persons were under treat- ment for infectious venereal disease January 31, 1905. A questionnaire was sent to 1,264 physicians, of whom 1,181 replied. 40 The Swedish and Prussian figures are set side by side in the following table: 41 SWEDEN (JAN 31, 1905) PRUSSIA (APR. 30, 1900) Soft Soft Syph. chancre Gon. Syph. chancre Gon. Stockholm (pop. Berlin 23.6 5.8 53.2 317,964) ....23. 1.2 31.2 Seventeen cities Goteborg (pop. of more than 138,030) 15.6 1.4 18.9 100,000 inhab..i7.8 3.5 32.6 Malmo (pop.) Forty-two cities 70,797) 14.4 3.1 28.6 30-100,000 ...10.8 1.9 19.6 Norrkoping Whole King- ( pop. 44,378). 1 1. 3 0.3 16.8 dom 5.1 i.i 9.9 Whole King- dom 3.6 0.3 5.4 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. At first sight, the graph might be interpreted as a conclusive argument in behalf of regulation. But care- ful 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. More- 40 To the Prussian blank it is stated only 63.45% of the physicians applied to responded. Report, Swedish Com., Vol. Ill, p. I. pp. 15-10. 369 270 260 250 240 230 220 210 200 190 100 170 160 J50 140 130 120 110 100 90 60 TO 60 50 do 30 1881 UK 1885 18?. I8?f ll!S M SSI '? jir 9J ms nc 7 4M t oc mi wz 1903 HIM *0i 270 250 250 240 230 ZZQ 210 200 100 100 170 160 ISO 140 130 120 1 10 100 90 60 70 SO SO 40 30 20 to Jft '* ^ ^ Jj 1 ^ ' ^ 1 ^ ^ 4J fe Jfi 1 * ^ g* ^ *S B TB i ^ ' 5 \ \ \ 1 \ \ \ \ _. i /-, V \ \ V \ V^ J \' V \ V \ T! \ \ 3 ^ "V / ^ V * *J. \ 1 * r^ 1 icJ i ^^ * i ,/ ^ * x < v , V X /, it *^ ' iK ' " x^ & * * ^ . l x* X / Ti* \; A ^.. '\ ^ s,/ u 3-t ri J_ n ?a r v V ^ 1 N X* ^ .-\ *v V % 5 V, -A v "> ti V ^ s \ 0^" n** d ( "^ , * *j X -*0 o, /q ^ j c> \ \ ,/- ,"d "V, g oo' . - 3 -! -W 1 'N .-~ - 1 -, in "' FIGURE II. Venereal disease in European armies. 370 Abolition and Disease over, the implied comparison is itself unfair. A conti- nental 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 ad- venturous and the derelict, 'precisely those among whom an inordinately large proportion of venereal dis- ease 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 varia- tions 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 per- ceptible 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 role whatsoever. Closer consideration of separate curves will establish this proposition beyond dis- pute. The English Contagious Diseases Acts, under which medical inspection of prostitutes was instituted, were repealed in i886, 42 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 42 The laws were suspended in 1884. 371 Prostitution in Europe 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 re- jected per thousand; in 1897, 59,986 were examined and 3.47 rejected per thousand. 43 43 The complete statistics taken from the Army Medical Reports are as follows : Report Recruits rejected for the Total number of For Syphilis Year Recruits Inspected Number Per 1,000 SLIGHT REGULATION 1866 20,410 338 16.56 1867 26,646 440 16.51 1868 23,543 33 12.88 1869 17.749 291 16.40 REGULATION AT ITS HEIGHT 1870 38,408 606 1 5.78 1871 36,212 593 16.38 1872 28,390 445 15-67 1873 24,895 4ii 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 9-8l 1884 66,882 707 10.57 1885 72,249 706 9.77 372 Abolition and Disease 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 I909. 44 The curve (page 374) 45 shows admissions, per thou- sand of strength, for syphilis (primary and secondary) in the army at home and in India for the years 1880- 1908. Report Recruits rejected for the Total number of For Syphilis Year Recruits Inspected Number Per 1,000 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 54,574 302 3.71 1897 59,986 208 3-4 1 ? 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. 44 Complete figures are as follows : See page 375. 46 For this drawing and the next I am indebted to Col. Melville. 373 tS60 1889 1890^ 189$ 4400 1908 270 bo 'ei 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 '94 95 '96 97 98 99 00 01 02 bJ 04 05 06 '07 be 260 A 250 / 1 240 1 J 230 1 1 \ 220 ' \ 210 I I 1 1 1 200 1 1 i 190 \ 1 1 1 1 ISO / 1 1 i i 1 1 170 I 1 1 I ISO 1 1 I 1 *' \ ISO r 1 | 1 140 / \ 1 130 f-. / LD 1 1 1 ISO / v \ 1 1 i 1 \ \ 110 \ ; k < I \ 100 -.' !- $ A \ 90 V ^ \ 1 90 \ X \ 70 S S t i i 60 \ 50 \ f \ \ \ 40 I ] f A \ > 30 y V / \| \ t \ 20 V ^ IO i \ Army at Home ^~^ FIGURE III. Admissions per 1,000 for syphilis, 1908. 374 British army, 1880- Abolition and Disease Finally, a comparison made between regulated and non-regulated military stations before and during regula- tion and after abolition exhibits capricious variations in- dicating clearly the negative outcome of regulation: (See Fig. IV, p. 376.) Col. Melville's analysis is as follows : " The most ob- vious 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. Regula- tion did not keep disease down between 1876 and 1882 ; its increase in unprotected stations was proportionately somewhat less than in the protected. The marked in- crease 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 Statistics of the British Army. Admission to Hospital for Venereal Disease. Ratio per 1,000 of Strength. Home Home Year Army Year Army 1882 246.0 1896 158.3 1883 260.0 1897 139.7 1884 270.7 1898 132.7 1885 275.7 1899 122.4 1886 267.1 1900 93.2 1887 252.9 1901 105.4 1888 224.5 I 9 2 122 -7 1889 212.1 1903 125.0 1890 212.4 1904 107.6 1891 1974 1905 90.5 1892 201.2 1906 82.0 1893 194-6 1907 71-9 1894 182.4 1908 68.4 1895 173.5 I 99 66.0 375 m r-J H / ^ o , X Pi ' / j / y 9 is X / a / / -o i > > N / i A x s JE fl . l ' \ ? / tj <- 7 ^ ^ a ,- > ** 7 ag ^ x ' / p w 1* |< x _ v f rt 4) pll in .-- W ~^. *^ J3 >> **i IS N *^^ ^. ^~, -4-J ^ 1 \ J X 1 * % v "5 - ,s* '\ o'g "~ "-H .^ \ Pn a v \ \ 2". 2 10 i ) . , , en \< / / 6 o N ' ,'' f rt - ,' x / 'C ' *^ -. x' / * . jr x ' ^ ' u 2! s "^ / Ls / y M m p at ** \3 M. I* * ^ 1* i 1 / y a <0 X( / * / > 3 x^ "" . '' 1 X . c< I S !c J; \ S ^ C f C p s C s , S ? C C C C n c c 376 Abolition and Disease begun in 1883 in the unprotected, and in 1884 in the pro- tected, stations." 46 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 infec- tion decreased continuously from 1881 (as in all other armies except the Italian, where irregularities are con- siderable) 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. 47 In Stockholm, the statistics exhibit the same decline, coincidentally with the gradual weakening of regulation. 47a Closer inspection of the Prussian statistics brings to light the one significant factor that we have already re- marked in a previous correction, viz., the size of the com- munity 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 regula- tion 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 40 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). 47 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 Verhutung im k. und k. Heere, etc. (Wien und Leipzig, 1912) p. 13. 47a Reglementeringen i Stockholm, pp. 130-2. 377 Prostitution in Europe 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 exist- ence of regulation, but rather that it is clear that regula- tion 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 re- cruits 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 inhabi- tants 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 betwe-en 1,000 and 3,000, 16.9 per cent.; a garrison between 5,000 and 10,- ooo, 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 disinte- grate in the last two decades, the percentage of infection, everywhere a matter of the size of the place or the gar- rison, 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, 378 Abolition and Disease from 36.8 per cent, in the former year to 26.6 in the lat- ter. 48 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 dis- eases 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. 49 In the period covered by these statistics, the popula- tion of Christiania has trebled; we might, therefore, ex- pect 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, 48 The main authority consulted in the above discussion is : Otto von Schjerning, Sanitatsstatistische Betrachtungen uber Volk und Heer (Berlin, 1910) pp. 59-67. A general discussion of condi- tions 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 bear- ing on this controversy. M. Augagneur (loc. cit.) discusses army statistics with close reference to our topic. 49 Dr. Yngvar Ustvedt, Sundhetsinspector, Beretning om de vener- iske sygdomme i Kristiania, 1911 (1912) pp. 6, 7. 379 ta i co ro TO co o'oo'o'o ooooo i-lt-WI' CO CO CO CO - ooooo ooooo o oooo I ~ CO COt- CO O5 CMCMCOOCO o>t-io>oe< CSOO-tCO ooooo -t woo C^iOO . cr. to e* M CO i> -f O -< CJ CTJ >t-COO3O -MS t-t-t-QO COC 3 00 CO CO C - 30 CO CO C 380 Abolition and Disease it fell, despite the marked increase in population, from 53 P er cent in 1876 to .22 per cent, in 1911. The de- cline 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 : ( I ) 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 dis- pensary, ought to have brought out cases that under the old order were handled secretly and thus escaped re- porting; 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, in- stead 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 sys- tem of notification was introduced for the first time in July 1912. Available statistics, obviously very incom- plete, make the following showing : 50 Soft Acquired Congenital Years Gonorrhoea Chancre Syphilis Syphilis Syphilis Total 1907 5,684 728 1,869 39 63 8,383 1908 6,320 1,164 2,349 63 6l 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 80 They are taken from the report mentioned in the next note. 381 Prostitution in Europe 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 cooperation in ferreting out foci of infection. Graphic representation shows that abolition has done no harm, even though the most unfavorable interpreta- tion be placed upon the figures. The rapid decline im- mediately 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 prog- ress, 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 Re- ports of the Health Department. 51 In relation to population, the following table shows the incidence of venereal disease per 10,000 inhabitants 51 Aarsberetning angaaende Sundhedstilstandet i Ktfbenhaun for 1910. (Copenhagen, 1911) p. 36. The figures for 1911 above given were contributed by Stadslsege Dr. E. M. Hoff. 382 >T dj 1 3 S -a > a s o u o c o 384 o e "**i ***, \ o ^> ^ / (0 ^ ^ : o \ : in \ o 1 ^ t \ o 1 / ,'' ' 1O / , .- o / \ CM / O ^ ^* ; -- - / O \ s : Q \ : 0> \ O) \ X 0) / <0 / \ \ I- \ L 01 \ r 10 < a / / in | / a " N ^ -a. c / k ^e._a CM ,-' \ Ou 0) \_ t / at \ o o> \ r violations of the Police Ordinances governing the sur- 439 Prostitution in Europe veillance over prostitution, is imposed by the Police Com- missariats in accordance with 5, item 2, of the Law of May 24, 1885, R. G. Bl. No. 89, and with Ministerial Ordi- nance 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, particu- larly 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 per- sistent 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 circum- stances 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 resume of the decisions made in each case must be drawn up. 48. No punishment should be imposed on women ac- cused for the first time of, or arrested for the first time for, 440 Appendices commercial prostitution, especially when they are still young, even though the facts be beyond doubt, unless such punish- ment may be required, as a repressive measure, by the mani- fest depravity of the case. In all cases in which it may seem not unreasonable to as- sume that the woman accused has been led into prostitu- tion 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 ap- plying 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 ex- amination 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 in- formed of the rules provided for prostitutes under super- vision, in 23 and 24, which rules, under these circum- stances, are applicable also to prostitutes not under super- vision. 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 con- victed of the practice of commercial prostitution, must con- form to 5, section I, or, in the case of persons previously punished for similar offences, to 5, item I, of the Law of 441 Prostitution in Europe 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 pro- ceedings are to be instituted, in accordance with 5, item i, 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 super- vision 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 pros- titutes not under supervision, concerning pimps, and con- cerning 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 super- 442 Appendices vision 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 Presi- dent. 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 judg- ments of the Commissariats. 11. Consultations at regular intervals with the officials assigned to report on prostitution. 12. Collecting of material having reference to the regula- tion 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 prac- tise prostitution in such dwellings. 3. Mistresses or keepers of such dwellings. Furthermore, the Police Commissariats must transmit the following material to the Police Department: 443 Prostitution in Europe (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 pro- vided in 2 has been realized. 444 APPENDIX V DANISH LAW FOR RESISTING PUBLIC IMMOR- ALITY AND VENEREAL INFECTION, CON- FIRMED BY HIS MAJESTY KING FRED- ERICK VIII ON MARCH 30, 1906. i. Police supervision of commercial immorality is hereby abolished. Police action against persons practis- ing such trade is legitimate when it accords with the condi- tions, and proceeds in the manner, provided in the legisla- tion on vagrancy (Lovgivningen om L0sgsengeri). 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 com- mitment to the penitentiary. If there are extenuating cir- cumstances, 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. 445 Prostitution in Europe 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 dwell- ings, to persons of different sex, in order that vicious prac- tices 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 de- tention in prison or at hard labor. In the case of a re- peated offence, the punishment may be increased to com- mission 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 de- vice 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. Viola- tion 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 para- graph 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 con- traction 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 pre- 446 Appendices viously 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 de- fray the expenses of their cure, to demand treatment of such diseases at the public expense. Likewise, such per- sons are obliged to submit to such public treatment unless they can show that they have already engaged proper medi- cal attention. If such persons are not situated in surround- ings 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 Minis- ter of Justices, issue the appropriate orders, and compliance with the obligation thus imposed may be forced by fines, im- posed 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 com- mitted to a hospital for treatment. 6. Whenever, in the course of the treatment of a dis- ease, 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 docu- mentary evidence that another authorized physician has undertaken to treat him. Blanks to be used in issuing such 447 Prostitution in Europe 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 is- sued 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 circum- stances, 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 448 Appendices 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 con- victed 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 dam- ages 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 sus- pected 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 in- fection; violation of this prohibition is punished by apply- ing the provisions of item 2 of the first section of this para- graph. These provisions are applicable also to such public au- thorities as put out children to nurse, or assign them to the care of foster-parents. A child is considered to be suspicious, from the stand- point 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 i, 2, 4, or 9, item 2, or in 181 of the Gen- eral Civil Penal Code, may, by his express consent, be sub- jected, under the auspices of the police, to a medical ex- amination. In case of a refusal to be examined, the court 449 Prostitution in Europe may deliver a verdict, provided the accusation be considered well-founded, ordering the examination to be made with- out the consent of the accused. II. 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 Phy- sician appointed for the purpose. Compulsory examina- tions 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 con- siderable delay, and provided such physician is willing to conduct examinations of this nature. Physicians discharg- ing such duties shall either receive an annual salary, to be fixed by the local administration and approved by the Min- ister 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 I krone for each individ- ual 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 appropria- tions fund ; and on the Island of Bornholm, from the prov- incial fund available for both town and country. For drawing up a certificate to indicate whether or not the per- son examined has been found to be afflicted with a vene- real disease, no special payment shall be made to the phy- sician. 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 com- mitment to a hospital, shall treat any person who applies 450 Appendices to them or is referred to them because of venereal infec- tion. 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 con- siders 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 im- posing 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 ef- fect, 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-keep- ers, 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 fe- male persons to entertain or serve the guests in such estab- lishments. 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 451 Prostitution in Europe 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 i, 1905, shall be fol- lowed. Trials for violations treated in 2, 6, section 2, 7, 8, section I, 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, gonorrhoea, and ulcus venereum. 1 8. This law goes into effect six months after it has been printed in the Law Journal ; but the enrolment of im- moral 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 I, 1895, on Changes and Additions in the above Law, the Law of April II, 1901, on Additions to the two preceding laws, and the Laws of February n, 1863, 8, final item, and of Feb- ruary 4, 1874, 2, section c, together with all rules, reg- ulations, and orders based thereon, are hereby abolished, as such rules, regulations, and orders can no longer be en- forced on the basis of the laws in operation before the go- ing into effect of the Law of April 10, 1874. 452 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, 4I5-4I9- 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; preva- lence of, 166-167; number and size, 172-174; decay of, 180, 182; effect on street condi- tions, 192-196; effect on other forms of vice, 196-198; in re- lation 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; rendez- vous 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- 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. 453 Index Edinburgh, 318. Employment agencies, 94-95. England, venereal disease in, 363-365; 371-377- Engel-Reimers, J., 247. Fiaux, L., 23, 25, 35, 77, ill, 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 dis- ease in, 378-379. Glasgow, 320-321. Gonorrhoea, 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, pp. 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. Lepine, 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 conti- nental cities, 309; police con- ditions 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 ex- amination, 216-218; compared with London, 309; text of regulations, 405, 414. 454 Index 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, fluctua- tions in, 19-21 ; forms of, 28- 31 ; involves two parties, 39, 107-109; legal attitude to- wards, 106, 111-117, 136-142, 288-292; medieval, 5, 6; mod- ern, 6-8. Prussia, venereal disease in, 368-371, 377-379- Rescue work, 100. Regulation, denned, 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. Schmolder, 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 dis- covered, 228-230; length of treatment, 238. Venereal disease statistics, 366. (For various countries, see under countries, cities, ar- mies.) 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; de- pendent on bordells, 182-185. Wolzendorff, K., 142. Zurich, 324, 333; venereal dis- ease in, 389-391. 455 QL OCT171994 PRINTED IN U.S.*. CAT. NO. 24 161 Bfcf A nnn /no 01 o oo * CO HQ117 F6l9p 191 1 * Flexner, Abraham Prostitution in Europe MEDICAL SCIENCES LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE IRVINE, CALIFORNIA 92664