trict that they might know the
infamies that were practiced in their city.

Mr. Kendall wrote a book, "The Soundings of Hell," exposing the white
slave traffic, particularly in Los Angeles. Mrs. Charlton Edholm made
one hundred and twenty speeches in the churches, pleading that Christ's
people stamp out the traffic in girls. Mass meetings were held,
petitions were signed, circulars were sown broadcast exposing the
appalling conditions and demanding the destruction of the slave market.
On Sunday, December 15th, three thousand people from the churches
gathered at Temperance Temple and marched like an army into the crib
district--"Heaven invaded Hell."

Mr. Phillips believed in all this and helped it all along, but he also
believed that the law was made for the unholy and profane. He collected
evidence for use in court and signed complaints when no one else was
willing to do it. He was warned that if he assailed the owners of the
crib district he took his life in his hands, but he was not the man to
be deterred by threats. He found that Ballerino, an Italian millionaire,
owned many of the cribs. Mr. Phillips brought fifteen of the girls into
court to show that they were paying Ballerino $7.50 a day for each of
the sordid rooms called "cribs."

The first girl called to the witness stand perjured herself, and failure
seemed inevitable as the witnesses had been tampered with. She herself
asked to be recalled to the stand, said she had lied and wished now to
tell the truth, as the girls had been talking it over and had decided to
tell the truth. The other fourteen then gave truthful testimony.
Ballerino was convicted, an appeal to the higher courts went against
him, he was put on the chain gang and compelled to pay a fine and costs,
though he was a millionaire.

Agitation, publicity and prosecutions were maintained until the
scandalous crib district of Los Angeles was absolutely annihilated. The
French traders recognized that the city was no longer a market for girls
and turned their cargoes aside to other cities, that love these
monstrous beasts so dearly that they give them segregated districts,
where they may enslave young girls and debauch young men, with assurance
that laws are contemptible, and graft is precious, and the good people
have sand in their eyes.

The story of the destruction of the open market for girls in Des Moines
is best told in the following articles of the commissioner of public
safety, the chief