GRAPH ILLUSTRATING TABLE XXXII

Wages in Domestic Service

Table XXXIII
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

SOCIAL RELATIONS

Table XXXIV
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

RESIDENCE OF GIRL BEFORE ENTERING PROSTITUTION

Table XXXV
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

CAUSE OF FIRST SEXUAL OFFENSE

Table XXXVI
INSTITUTION CASES, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

PROSTITUTION, PRACTICED CONTINUOUSLY OR OCCASIONALLY

Table XXXVII
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

WEEKLY EARNINGS FROM PROSTITUTION

Table XXXVIII
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

DISPOSITION OF EARNINGS FROM PROSTITUTION

Table XXXIX
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

DISEASES INCIDENTAL TO PROSTITUTION

(Clinically Determined)

Only institution cases are counted in which a physical examination has been given. All are taken from the records of Waverly House and the Church Mission of Help. But all of their cases were not examined. That is, out of 158 cases where they deemed an examination desirable 52.5 per cent were found to be diseased.

Table XL
CASES IN INSTITUTIONS, OTHER THAN BEDFORD

CAUSES. REASONS GIVEN BY THE GIRL

GRAPH ILLUSTRATING TABLE XLI

Wages in Domestic Service

Table XLI
STREET CASES

BIRTHPLACE

Table XLII
STREET CASES

EDUCATION

Table XLIII
STREET CASES

PROSTITUTION, PRACTICED CONTINUOUSLY OR OCCASIONALLY

Table XLIV
STREET CASES

AGE

Table XLV
STREET CASES

WEEKLY EARNINGS FROM PROSTITUTION

Table XLVI
STREET CASES

OCCUPATIONS

Table XLVII
STREET CASES

CAUSES OF FIRST SEXUAL OFFENSE

Table XLVIII
STREET CASES

CAUSES. REASONS GIVEN BY THE GIRL

In many cases, more than one reason was given, which explains the large total.

Table XLIX

RANK NUMERICALLY OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES CONTRIBUTING TO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY COMPARED WITH THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD 2363 PROSTITUTES

Table L

COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY AS TO BIRTHPLACE COMPARED WITH BIRTHPLACE OF 2363 PROSTITUTES

Table LI

COMPARISON OF EARNINGS AT PREVIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF BEDFORD CASES WITH THOSE OF OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND WITH THE STREET CASES

CHAPTER IX

Preventive agencies cover a very wide range, beginning of course with the home and family, the school and the church; but important as these and similar institutions are, they are too general to come within the scope of this chapter. There are, however, certain societies and institutions which exert a potent though indirect influence,—among them the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, the Society for the Prevention of Crime and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. A few institutions render more direct service,—the Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls and the Children’s Aid Society, for example. These, with the Home for the Friendless, the Sheltering Arms, the girls’ departments of the Catholic Protectorate, the Juvenile Asylum, and other organizations maintain homes for the young. There are, moreover, numerous settlements with a hold on the young through kindergartens, clubs, and friendly services, doing a quiet but constantly effective preventive work; independent girls’ clubs, thirty special ones in New York, providing opportunities for friendship, recreation and training; some societies, such as the Girls’ Friendly, offering attractions to girls who have few advantages in their homes. The work of the Committee on Amusements and Vacation Resources of Working Girls has been active in the difficult dance hall problem, previously shown to be an important factor in the exploitation of prostitution. The Travelers’ Aid Society, which assists incoming women of all classes at railway stations and docks, is a valuable safeguard. This society definitely helped 18,562 persons in the year 1912. Of these, 5,161 were from seventeen to twenty-five years of age, and nearly all women. Similar work for traveling colored girls is done by a department of the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes. The Big Sisters assist girls who have already come to the point of grave danger. Working along the lines already marked out by the Big Brothers’ Movement, women of devoted abilities are taking little girls who have already yielded to temptation and endeavoring to win them to useful lives.

Homes for working girls and women, though touching this need indirectly, touch it strongly. There are many of these homes, maintained by philanthropic and religious boards of women; seventeen hundred women are accommodated in them. Their economic value has long been realized; their moral and social importance is beginning to be appreciated. Their usefulness as preventive agencies probably varies with the degree of experience, resourcefulness, and sympathy possessed by those who are directly in charge.

Among the more definitely preventive agencies may be mentioned, first, societies of a national scope which aim to create healthy sentiment by emphasizing the grave dangers of the social evil. Such are the American Federation of Sex Hygiene and the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, operating through meetings, lectures and printed matter; the American Vigilance Association, which, originally organized to secure legislation and law enforcement as respects the white slave traffic, has now extended its operations so that it is actively engaged in a propaganda that touches the entire field of commercialized vice; it publishes a monthly periodical, Vigilance.

Prominent among local organizations is the Committee of Fourteen, originally organized for the suppression of the Raines Law Hotels, now occupied in combating all manifestations of commercialized sexual vice in New York. It endeavors to secure more vigorous and effective action by all departments of state and city government having power to suppress vice; and it also strives to improve conditions in saloons and hotels through the influence and control over such places exercised by brewers and surety companies.

Two societies doing important work in other lines are strongly interested in educational preventive work—the New York Probation Association and the Church Mission of Help. Both make special appeal to churches, to societies, and to clubs of women. The Probation Association organizes among working girls protective leagues, fourteen of which leagues have been started. Their main purpose is to secure the help of girls in protecting other girls. They endeavor to raise the tone of conversation in places where girls assemble and work. Lectures on sex hygiene are given, wholesome recreation is encouraged, and higher ideals of life cultivated. The Church Mission of Help organizes bands of women, principally in Episcopal churches, to study the needs of wayward girls and to give help as they are able. Both of these societies encourage parents, guardians, and girls in need to come to them for advice and help, thus making their work more personal.

The foregoing direct agencies mainly exert their preventive influence on the public en masse. The more definite and concrete examples of preventive work appear in the work of homes which concern themselves with individuals in distress. They take girls, some of them very young girls, who are subject to bad influences, who are incorrigible, or who for various reasons find difficulty in their home life. Of such homes there are several. Those reaching the larger numbers are represented by the Children’s Department of the House of Mercy and the House of the Good Shepherd. For colored girls the work on the larger scale is done by the Howard Orphan Asylum, which maintains a house at Kings Park, Long Island. The smaller homes, of which there are at least six in New York, deal more personally with the individual girl. Their capacity ranges from 25 to 75. Of this type is the Free Home for Young Girls, managed by an incorporated association of church women. The inmates, mostly sent by guardians and friends, are from eleven to seventeen years of age. A real home life is maintained. Most of the girls attend the public schools. All are taught sewing, simple cooking, laundry work, and housework. They remain two or three years and are sent out to friends or to situations with approved surroundings. In Brooklyn the Training School and Home for Young Girls cares for and trains girls by a method similar to that of the Free Home. Two of these homes are partly preventive and partly reformative—the House of the Holy Family and the Washington Square Home. The first named is conducted by the Association for Befriending Young Girls, under the immediate charge of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, and cares for 75 young girls, mostly Roman Catholics. Instruction in ordinary school branches is given. Physical exercises, manual training, and domestic science are taught. Special attention is given to the matter of amusements; religious as well as friendly care is provided. Provision is made for all girls leaving the home. Correspondence with Sisters and visits to the home are encouraged. This home cared for 177 girls in 1912.

The Washington Square Home is a non-sectarian institution. It provides a home for indefinite periods for girls who have erred or who are in danger of so doing. They come voluntarily to the home. Twenty-seven can be accommodated and the home is usually full. Of the 64 received in 1912, fifty were Protestants, 12 Roman Catholics, and 2 Hebrews. The average age of the girls is 18. Instruction in housework, laundry, and plain sewing is given. Girls are kept as long as necessary to train for self-support.

All these homes maintain good discipline and friendly relations. The girls usually go out equipped to live and with a strong appreciation of what has been done for them. Unfortunately their facilities are very limited in consequence of the meager resources. Usually from three to eight girls occupy a room when, as a matter of principle, each girl should be given her own cubicle. Moreover, the capacity is far below what is required.[315] Even as it is, valuable preventive results have been accomplished in case of those girls who have been reached.