CHAPTER IV. SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 1. Purpose of Report. The purpose of this report is to discover and report as nearly as possible all the sources which supply the victims of the social vice; and also to recommend measures to restrict and suppress the supply. 2. Sources of Information. As far as possible the Commission has sought first hand sources of information, from which to discover the facts which it reports and classifies, and from which its conclusions are drawn. These sources of information are: (a) Personal histories secured from 30 women, who are either now inmates of houses of prostitution, or have been until very recently. These histories have been secured and carefully verified through repeated interviews by a woman who is the confidential friend of these women, and who has carefully safeguarded their confidence. (b) Accounts of themselves given by prostitutes to the investigators on the Commission: (1) in amusement parks under private man agement, (2) in dance halls, (3) in saloons and on the street, (4) flats and assignation hotels, (c) Delinquent girls investigated by the Juvenile A total of 179 cases whose careers, both be- (d) Records of young girls in the custody of the 2,420 While many of these girls were personally interviewed, and their cases thoroughly investigated by the Department of Social Investigation in the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, the conclusions regarding the delinquency of the total number are based upon a careful study of official and other records regarding them during an investigation continued for more than two years, and reported to the Russell Sage Foundation, by which the results of the inquiries are about to be published. (e) The investigations of the Commission on panders and cadets, dance halls, employment agencies, department stores, amusement parks under private management, lake steamers, and reports of other committees bearing on the sources of supply. (f) Investigations of the United States Immigration Commission and the Immigrants' Protective League of Chicago on the relation of immigrant women and colonies of foreign laboring men in construction camps, lodging houses in cities, and elsewhere. (g) Alienists' inquiry into the sub-normal physical and mental condition of boys and young men committed to the State Reformatory of Minnesota. (h) As the basis of estimates of the profits and male patronage of houses of prostitution:1 (1) Brief and argument of plaintiff in error before the Supreme Court of Illinois, October Term, 1908, in case of People v. Bessie Lee and Leona Garrity. (2) Books and papers of a keeper of a disorderly house showing daily and monthly receipts, which were seized by the authorities and form part of the records of the case of the prosecution. (3) Verified reports of investigators. (4) Statements made at conferences with madames and inmates of disorderly houses. (i) Conferences with representatives of reform and philanthropic agencies and other interested individuals. 3. The tabulation and classification of the data derived from these sources. 4. Summary of conditions involved in the personal histories and investigated records of 2,420 women and girls under review which suggest the recommendations herein submitted. (a) Home conditions; (b) Economic conditions; (c) Pursuit of pleasure and provision for recreation; (d) Procuring; (e) Involuntary entrance upon or continuance in prostitution under so-called "white slavery"; (f) Sub-normality as a factor in the social evil; (g) The supply of male patrons of prostitution; (h) Education in sex physiology and hygiene. 1See Chapter I, Existing Conditions, page 95. Exhaustive tables have been prepared from the data collected from 108 cases by the Commission in its investigation. For lack of space these tables are omitted and analyses of them are given instead. To show how the data were collected, one table is given as an exhibit covering the cases of thirty girls investigated in a most careful and painstaking way by a woman intimately connected with the rescue and reform work of the city. Similar tables are in possession of the Commission which have been furnished by the organizations mentioned. |