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Show WHY NOT SPIfiAK PLAINLY? Norman Hapgood's Harper's Weekly: II has boon held in lho notorious San Francisco Fran-cisco case that a man is brought within the Mann Act, tho so-called Whito Slave Act, if ho moroly pays tho'faro of a woman from one place lo another, if they aro making tho trip for purposes pur-poses doomod morally objectionable. It may or may not bo wise for tho government to under- , take to rogulato all the sox mailers in the universe, but it is cortainly idiotic to mako no distinction between the real whito slavo traffic which is tho organized inter-stato trade in vici, and those voluntary arrangomonts between tho two individuals concornod. Tho fight against organized vico as a business has begun in earnest, earn-est, and has an increasing weight of public fooling behind it. Tho dungor of a slaluto like tho Mann Acl is that, in mixing up a cruel business busi-ness wilh the ordinary concerns of private individuals, indi-viduals, it may bring about a roacllon. Tho Maim Act not only does not confine ilsolf to organized traffic, it does not confino itsolf lo prostitution organized or isolated. It undertakes under-takes to bring within the Fodoral statuto, on a technicality, purely individual and non-morcon-ary mailers and Ihus mnkos tho Federal government govern-ment interfere with lho most intimate private morals. Whatever your opinion about human rights may bo, you will admit that tho law in this instance is undertaking a considerably amount of regulation. fcw Why not speak plainly? Why noi sayf?uffil, in onacting a law forbidding professional prot-lulion prot-lulion you meant, lo oxompt you n amaTour form of posLitution and that of the unsuspected unsuspect-ed society strumpet who accompanied you across the state lino for the known, purposed and desired de-sired indulgence in "Escapades" violating the laws of every state, of every city, and slashing through tho bigger half of the Ton Commandments? Command-ments? Gentlemen of a certain practice must stand together, all right. But they should ho as frank as they are frolicksomo, and admit that, while they are opposed to any discredited woman traveling across state lines with a tOughneck gentleman who will pay for her fare, hor hotel bills and her meal tickets, they are at the same - timo strong for the privilege of themselves paying railroad and slcoping-car fare, hotel bills and dinner checks for women who already are i provided with the means of living, and don't ; have to make commerce of their bodies for their bodies' keeping. Tho hue and cry raised because of tho caso in California is a curious confession of unexpected unex-pected infamy. It publishes louder than moun-Itain moun-Itain thunder and more generally than any moral essay can circulate, tho protestor's confession of guilts-committed or intended. What "voluntary "volun-tary arrangements between two individuals" mark tho exception that should be made in tho rule? What "voluntary arrangement" is possible pos-sible excepting that which proves a social degradation fathoms below tho moral condition of tho professional prostitute who goes whore her "man" tolls her to go? Oh, I know tho difference between the bagnio and tho bedroom of a strange hotol. And I know that tho cultured cuss who can luro the wifo of his friond from one state to another; who can scare the unmarried daughter of im-pocunious im-pocunious honesty into an "escapade" with him; who can take rank as an entertainer of women other than his wifo is a damned sight lower j fToeimon of manhood than tho unspoakabblo cur who docs the samo thing for a living, and shares that living with tho victims of his cruder methods. I If tho sentiment of this land is against the law's enforcement when tho kings of commerce tako society's pets into another state by "voluntary "volun-tary arrangement," then tho peoplo who make that soutiment ought to bo honest about it, and ' give tho roughneck white slaver exactly the !; samo privilege it givos tho promoter of "purely ; individual and non-mercenary matters" who is abetting a slavery a million times more harm-;- ful to both manhood and womanhood than is commerce in tho kind f courtesans who never got into tho Charity Ball. |