Page:Roe 1911 What women might do with the ballot.djvu/3

 By CLIFFORD G. ROE.

The white slave problem is becoming more important everyday. People everywhere are thinking about it and discussing ways and means to bring about the abolition of white slavery.

In considering this movement it is well to point out what women might do with their ballot to help bring success.

Right now political battles are being waged for and against vice, and the traffic in girls.

Great political movements are being launched against politicians who have connived at and even encouraged vice and its right hand partner, white slavery, in order to gain personal, selfish power and perhaps wealth at the expense of the nation's manhood and womanhood.

Women, having cast aside the mantle of affected prudery and false modesty, are aroused the world over. They are important factors in this great crusade for better civic morals. And that they may be spurred on to even greater efforts is the hope of the writer.

What is the white slave traffic?

It is the widely accepted term for the procuring, selling or buying, inveigling or encouraging of women for the purpose of holding, forcing or enticing them into a life of prostitution. The term white slavery, perhaps, is a misnomer, and not really descriptive, since the traffic reaches to every race and color, originating in Europe, where its victims are white; however, it is generally used to designate the business by which the vice merchant is kept supplied.

The white slave market is the traffic in girls for immoral demands. This market is governed by the laws of supply and demand. There are various social and economic causes for this