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Finch, White Slave Traffic, 1912
Document 22: Stanley W. Finch, The White Slave Traffic: Address Before the
World's Purity Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1912).
Introduction
The following three documents address the changing views of female sexuality
after the turn of the century. They show how these changing views contributed to a
diminishing focus on the state age-of-consent campaigns, although many of these
campaigns extended until 1920. Historian Mary Odem contends that while many
commentators began to argue that prostitution was due to female depravity, other
reformers remained convinced that prostitutes had been tricked into a life of infamy
by "white slavers."[18] The following pamphlet argued that many girls of good
reputation were kidnapped, raped, and then forced into entering brothels. Although
this article is similar to others about white slavery that appeared ten to fifteen years
earlier, it calls for federal legislation against slavery and involuntary servitude, rather
than arguing that raising the legal age of consent would allow for white slavers to be
prosecuted.
THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC
Address by Stanley W. Finch, Chief of the Bureau of Investigation of
the Department of Justice before World's Purity Congress, Louisville,
Ky., May 7, 1912.
The white slave traffic! What is it? Whom and what does it
involve? Is it possible to suppress it, and if so how?
It is a fact that there are now scattered throughout practically
every section of the United States a vast number of men and women
whose sole occupation consists in enticing, tricking, or coercing young
women and girls into immoral lives and then either living directly off of
their illicit earnings or transferring them for a consideration to others for
a similar purpose. Their business methods have been so far developed
and perfected that they seem to be able to ensnare almost any woman
or girl whom they select for the purpose. The great majority consists of
young women and girls who have either been led to such lives by
deception and trickery or who have been driven to them by force and
fraud. The cleverly-worded advertisement for help is perhaps one of
the most insidious and effective instruments which is or can be used.
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