s obtainable--according to the stories of the women
themselves and the keepers of the houses--nearly all the women now
engaged in this business in our large cities are subject to pimps,
to whom they give most of their earnings, or else they are under the
domination of keepers of houses, a condition that is practically the
same.

It is the business of the man who controls the women to provide
police protection, either by bribing the police not to arrest her,
or, in case of arrest, to secure bail, pay the fine, etc., to make
all business arrangements, to decide what streets, restaurants,
dance-halls, saloons and similar places she shall frequent.

There are large numbers of Jews scattered throughout the United
States, although mainly located in New York and Chicago, who seduce
and keep girls. Some of them are engaged in importation, but
apparently they prey rather upon young girls whom they find on the
street, in the dance-halls, and similar places, and who, by the
methods already indicated--love-making and pretense of marriage--they
deceive and ruin. Many of them are petty thieves, pickpockets and
gamblers. They also have various resorts where they meet and receive
their mail, and transact business with one another, and visit.
Perhaps the best known organization of this kind throughout this
Country was one legally incorporated in New York in 1904, under the
name of the New York Benevolent Association.

It is, of course, difficult to prove by specific cases the relation
of the police to this traffic, and to establish by specific evidence
the fact generally accepted that the girls of disorderly house
keepers regularly pay the police for protection; but high police
officials, prosecuting officers, and social workers in all quarters
assert that in many, if not all of our large cities, much corruption
of this kind exists.

The importation and harboring of alien women and girls for immoral
purposes and the practice of prostitution by them--the so-called
"white slave traffic"--is the most pitiful and revolting phase of the
immigration question. This business has assumed large proportions,
and it has been exerting so evil an influence upon our Country that
the Immigration Commission felt compelled to make it the subject of a
thorough investigation.