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Rev. Charles F. Akecl
Writes on
“White Slave Traffic Act”
a Misnomer.
The Law’s Purpose Explained by Dr. Aked,
Noted San Francisco Divine and For
mer Pastor to John D. Rockefeller in
Cleveland.
By RfiV. CHARLES F. AKED
T hi: wo
"wliitt
Written for The t
worst thing about the
■bite slave traffic act” Is
its title. No such phrase
ought to have been employed. It
is inaccurate and misleading. It
throws a person off the track in
discussing the rights and the
wrongs of it. And in such cases as
those of Diggs and Caminetti it en
ables a caviler to say they are
prosecuted under a law which was
never intended to apply to offenses
like theirs. It supplies Caminetti,
if he is correctly reported, with a
reason for saying, “I am not a
white slaver and I will not plead
guilty to-sueh a charge.”
Mr. Mann, the author of the act.
is to blame for giving such a title
to the statute. Every man in Con
gress who voted for it is to blame.
It is strange that such a phrase
was allowed to pass the officials of
Congress.
Section S. the final section of the
act. reads: “That this act shall be
known and referred to as the
white slave trafvc act.” But the
description of the act with which
it opens—as every act of Congress
opens—is vastly different:
An act to further regulate
interstate and foreign com
merce by prohibiting the trans
portation therein for immoral
purposes of women and girls,
and for other purposes.
That is a sane statement. One
can understand it. And it does
not misrepresent the purpose of
the statute. Diggs is not a white
slaver, and it is absurd to say that
he is. Caminetti would not
plead guilty to white slavery, and
a plea of guilty under this statute
would not be so interpreted except
by uninformed persons who have
not read the act and have been
carried away by its unfortunate
title.
The Real Purpose.
The real purpose of the act needs
to be better understood. And the
details of the Athanasaw case
ought to be widely known. Good
men and women ought to know
what powers the United States
Government has taken to itself.
And the other kind of men and
women do well to ponder the risks
they run.
The case of Louis Athanasaw
was carried on appeal to the Su
preme Court of the United States.
And the language of the Supreme
Court flings a blazing light upon
the amazingly wide comprehensive
ness of the new law. These are
the facts:
An Atlanta girl saw an adver
tisement for chorus girls. She ap
plied and was taken on at a salary
of $20 a week, with hoard and
room in the theater. She was sent
from Georgia to a place in Florida
—and this armed the United States
for her protection. She came
within the reach ot a law which
deals with “interstate commerce.”
She arrived at the Florida town in
in the early morning, and at lunch
on the flrUt day, she testified, there
was “smoking, cursing and such
language that I couldn't eat.” In
the afternoon Athanasaw. the man
ager of the theater, came to her
room and made improper proposals
to her. At night she was required
to go into the “boxes.” Here again
she found “smoking, drinking and
cursing.” There were four boys in
the box where she sat. One saw
that she was both innocent and
frightened. He had pity on her;
threatened to go for a policeman,
and got her out of the place un
harmed.
This is the whole story, and upon
these facts the jury found Athana
saw' guilty. The judge sentenced
him to six months’ imprisonment.
The instructions given by (he
judge to the jury included these
striking words:
The question here is of in
tent: what was the intent with
which defendants brought her
here? That she should live an
honest, moral and proper life?
Or that she came and they en
gaged and contracted with her
for the purpose of her enter
ing upon a condition which
might be termed debauchery or
might lead to a condition of
debauchery?
Intent Important.
The Supreme Court found that
these instructions were perfectly
proper. In the view a the high
est court of the United Sfades a
man is guilty under this so-i ailed
w hite slave traffic act whe n he
places a girl in conditions which
are likely eventually to leaj d her
into immoral conduct-if he cross
es a State line to do it. andjlias the
full thtention of his acts. (And the
Supreme Court went further aijd
added these striking wordy:
Granting the testimony to be
true, of which the jury was the
judge, the employment to which
she was enticed w’as an effi
cient school of debauchery of
the special immorality which
the statute was designed to
cover.
tlanta Georgian. %
Small wonder that the court de
clared the act to have a "more
comprehensive prohibition” than
that which we call “white sla
very!” Induce a girl to take a
position as chorus girl, or waitress,
or anything else where she has to
put up with “smoking, drinking
and cursing,” where she has to go
around w ith boys out on the spree,
where she has to resist improper
proposals—and take her across a
State line to this end—and the law
ca n now pounce down upon you!
While this is the scope of the
act, and while this is the carefully
thought-out design and purpose of
the act, it is ridiculous to call it a
white slave truffle act, and still
more ridiculous for persons to go
on saying that it ought not to be
invoked against such offenses as
those of which Diggs and Cami
netti are accused.
‘Segregation” Failure.
The exceeding breadth of the act
illustrates a world-tendency. In
every country in the world there
is dissatisfaction with conditions
which allow of the exploitation of
women for the passions or the
profit of men. “Segregation.” for
instance, it is now recognized, has
failed in every city on earth. And
every thinker knows that as a pol
icy it has failed. The change that
has come over human thought is
embodied in the newest legislation
of a score of widely separated na
tions. The best brains and the
largest hearts in our own city see
this clearly. During an interval
in the Diggs trial the other day,
the ablest lawyer in court whis
pered to me: “Can you really
grasp the changed attitude of the
public mind toward offenses like
this? Try to imagine such a trial
as this five and twenty years ago!”
One can not imagine it. But it is
part- of a movement wide as the
civilized world.
England moves along with the
rest of the nations. The white
slave act which the British Par
liament has passed is what it pro
fesses to be—an act directed
against the real white slaver. And
Great Britain has brought hack
the whipping post. The man who
entraps and holds or sells a girl
and makes his profit out of her is
now tied up and lashed with the
“cat.’' There was a stormy debate
ill Parliament when this was pro
posed. Men of the “Oh-make-the-
scoundrels-happy” school cried out
against the inhumanity of it. One
of them asserted that' no jailer or
prison warder would tie found to
“brutalize himself” by carrying
out suieh a sentence. And sturdy
Will Crooks, a labor member, and
the idol of hundreds of thousands
of British Workingmen, ajose in
his wrath. It is a matter of com
mon knowledge that many of the
men who engage in this nefarious
trade iii London are natives of the
south and southeast of Europe.
Crooks shouted: “If there is no
jailer willing to do it, you can send
for me. And if I’m on my summer
holiday I’ll pay my expenses home
for the pleasure of putting my
mark on the back of some infamous
foreign scoundrel who enslaves
English girls. And when I’m
through with the job I’ll find a
hundred honest workingmen who’ll
take it up without any pay but the
satisfaction of protecting the Eng
lish home.”
Flogging Revived.
It was a Government measure,
and the bill as introduced provided
floggiug as a punishment on the
second conviction only. Parlia
ment took the matter out of the
Government’s hands, amended the
bill to include floggfhg for the first
otfense. and carried it by a great
majority. My friend Philip Snow
den, membtr of Parliament for
Blackburn, one of the most bril
liant men in the House, “the
prophet of the labor movement.”
voted for the flogging clauses. His
not less brilliant wife, when she,
was here in America a few months
ago, declared against the flogging
clauses for which her husband had
voted. And she did it on the
ground that under the law only-
men are to be flogged—not women
guilty of the same offense. She
feared that such a provision would
tend to throw the trade in girls
into the hands of women. Whether *
Mrs. Snowden would flog the wom
an-fiend, the frightful creature who
joins with men in running down
girls and in debauching them, was
not made clear.
Will the day come in America
when we shall be willing to flog
men for this hateful crime? And
even discuss as a possibility the
wisdom of flogging women, too?
IF THE LAWS THAT WE
HAVE ARE ENFORCED. THE
NEED WILL NEVER ARISE;
it is quite certain that they have no leaning toward drunkenness,
if their characters are good, and if it is not convenient to keep
them at home.
The two classes that may well go to college are the very dull
and those that are moderately dull. The very dull need four
years to learn the very little that a boy learns in college. And
the moderately dull might as well be college graduates as not—
since it is probable that they will never be much.
The boy of real power and ability is unjustly treated when
he is sent to college.
He has in his brain an active machine that under college
rules is forced to go slowly. And an active brain WILL NOT
GO SLOWLY; it will get into mischief if it is not kept fully oc
cupied.
You may say of college life, as the French proverb says of
travel, that it FORMS youth, when it does not DEFORM youth.
"IjC8 voyages formrnt la ieunrssr, quoad Us nr la deforment pas."
The trouble with the average college boy is that he spends
four years, picking up the FOUNDATION of an education—and
then spends the rest of his life satisfied with the foundation.
Education is not reading; education is THINKING.
You might read all about all the lives of all the great men
that ever lived—and you wouldn't be any more of a man unless
you had THOUGHT INTELLIGENTLY concerning what you
had read.
Lincoln had read perhaps a half-dozen good books. But
over every word and every sentence and every idea HE HAD
THOUGHT. His brain wasn't stuffed. It wasn't fed ENOUGH,
it was true, but IT WAS FED. And Lincoln was able to write
the Gettysburg address that no college graduate that the coun
try has yet produced could equal. Even as a mere boy, express
ing to the public his desire to be elected to a trifling office, he
was intellectually, in power and thought and judgment, far
ahead of the college graduate whom our friend describes as one
possessing original ideas.
The greatest curse that can be inflicted upon a young boy j
is the curse of conceit. Unfortunately, college and the reading j
of a few books fills with conceit a great many of the boys who
amount to little'—and they are a majority.
The graduate comes out of college, having read this book 1
James Kinney, a college graduate, a man with “a degree,’’
wants to form a college graduates' union to get for the gradu
ates decent pay.
His view of life represents the view of thousands. So we
pnnt his letter in full gladly—with comment of our own not en
tirely agreeing with the college graduate view.
Editor Atlanta Georgian'
Sir—it would give me consid
erable pleasure if you would w’rite
an editorial on the following sub
ject :
THE COLLEGE MEN S MUTl
AL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION."
Nowadays business men are sur
feited with greed and the desire
for their own aggrandizement, with
no thought of their employee, ex
cept ae an hireling serving the
employer’s unjust ends. These
employers are merely spokes in a
commercial wheel that may be
replaced at any time. It makes no
difference whether or not one
spoke is morn polished than oth
ers so long as the wheel hums,
and the operator in the form of the
employer or stockholder is bene
fited. System, or custom, or both,
rules the business world. In this
respect the college nun, with his
original Ideas and power of judg
ment, is greatly handicapped His
promotion is governed more by
length of service than by merit.
He is bound, as it were, by the
shackles of system and a machine-
like existence As a concrete case,
take the transportation companies,
which embody system in its most
advanced form. It seems to be an
established fact that, notwithstand
ing college men constitute a very
large number here, yet the cleri
cal forces of tiiese companies are
the least paid of any similar forces.
It is no trouble for a degree man
to secure employment with these
ceive lor his skill? A mere pit*
lance. In other words, the highest
type of organization is ever crying
for the college man. yet will not
pay him a lust wage With few
exceptions, the positions of any
Importance that are held by col
lege men to-day have been ob
tained not through merit, but
through Influence, political or oth
erwise A fine state of affairs for
him who has spent the best four
years or more of his life and thou
sands of dollars besides in prepara
tion.
The only remedy, to the writer’s
mind, lies in organization If the
justification is well founded for the
existence of labor unions, then
why not for a college men’s mutual
benefit association? Both have the
same thing In common—the de
mand for a just wage for their
services. Alone the laborer or
tradesman is at the mercy of an
employer. In unionism, however,
he finds added strength and the
power to protect his Interests. So
It will be with the college man
when he unites with his fellow col
legians in the one common cause—
that of securing a jus! wage for
his services.
Assuring you ihai 1 will deeply
appreciate the full Insertion of
this letter in your paper, and if
convenient, an editorial, thereon,
and welcoming the co-operation of
other collegians in the foundation
of such an association, l have the
pleasure to remain.
Yours very truly.
JAMES KINNEY
companies, but wbat does he re
About a labor union especially for college men we say NO.
Men are MEN, and if they are going to unite they should
unite as MEN and not as separate individuals with a piece of
sheepskin neatly painted.
It would be well, as this newspaper has often said, if the
young man in the black coat and patent leather shoes holding a
clerk s position had BRAINS ENOUOH TO UNITE WITH ALL
HIS FELLOW CLERKS FOR MUTUAL AID AND PROTEC
TION
The ideal union would be a union of intelligent men at the
ballot box, voting for better conditions.
Strange as it may seem, now that we have a republic and
universal suffrage, men actually COULD solve their material
problems with the ballot if they would
But we still cling to the stupid methods of the Middle Ages;
we still believe that prosperity can come only by uniting in
guilds, to get all we can for ourselves and give as little as pos
sible to others.
Let Mr. Kinney, if he has the power, start a union of men
who work with their brains, clerks, et cetera, if he thinks he can
make a success of it. We doubt his success. Such men lack
solidarity and class consciousness.
As for Mr. Kinney's view of the college graduate and his
superior ability, we can not agree with him.
The college graduate has no ORIGINAL IDEAS as a rule.
Reading for several years what OTHERS have thought, said
and done does not create “original ideas.’’
And the college man, as a rule, has NOT power of judg
ment.”
On the contrary, the boy out of college is usually lacking in
judgment as he is in original ideas.
Judgment is born of EXPERIENCE—it does not come
through hearing what other men have done—although all infor
mation is valuable.
The ordinary boy out of college is a BOY, in the full sense of
the word. He has missed four years of his manhood, having
spent most of that amount of time '' rah-rahing ’ ’ with boys, 1
wildly excited about football, baseball and rowing, singing about
his alma mater—about as far removed from real life and real ac
complishments as the Grand Llama of Thibet.
If the average college boy had “power of judgment” and
“original ideas" he would know better than to take a position
as clerk in a transportation company. He would have judgment
enough to get a job helping at something with a future.
Those unable to go to college often pity themselves, but they
need not do so. The four years that a boy spends in college,
from nineteen years to twenty-three years of age. are as a gen
eral rule wasted, when nothing of worth happens.
Two classes of boys may perhaps safely be sent to college, if
I If you saw the King of Carrion—a vulture—beating bis wing
As he fled to his bitter eyrie—and the prey from his claws aswing
i Was a child—a little maiden—a girl—would you dare stand by
[ Unwhipped by all human feelingR 'till he vanished through clouded sky?
i AH, never! A shot quick sighted—a bullet that whips and stings,
And a quick, kind death for the maiden neath the pall of the broken wings.
When daily you see the vulture in the ranks of the underpaid—
The carrion crow of low- wages bearing off prey, afraid,
Cowering, tortured, screaming, doomed to a grewsome death.
A death of slow-hung agony, of shame, of tortured breath,
Will you fire no shot at the cause of it all ’till the pitiful price is paid,
And Vice, secure in its clouded nest, feasts high on the soul of a maid 1 ’
—L. L.
and that book, and he imagines, poor little creature, that he is
superior to the man who walks along the railroad track looking-
for loose spikes and really paying attention to his work.
Unhappy are the sons of the rich who reach manhood with
out being made to realize that they must work and think for
themselves.
Unhappy also are many of the thousands sent to college,
taught to IMITATE the ways of the rich, filled with the foolish
ambitions of the rich, relying for success upon the childish,
easily-broken and forgotten friendships of college days—and
then kicked out into the world, to find that a college graduate
with a pen in his hanu sitting at his desk is no better than any
other boy able to multiply, add, divide or copy in a fair hand
writing.
If the college boys of this country want to form a union,
let it be not a union for compelling employers to pay them more
than they pay somebody just as good as themselves.
Let the college graduates form a union FOR THE CONTIN
UATION OF THEIR EDUCATION. WHICH WAS ONLY BE
GUN AT COLLEGE.
Let the boys determine to finish, in their hours of leisure, at
about the age of seventy, the education of which the foundation
was laid during the college years.
Such a union would be a benefit to boys, and, above all, it
might be of use to the nation.
We really need in this country men WITH ORIGINAL
IDEAS AND POWER OF JUDGMENT, and we have very few
of them, indeed.
And of these few, a very trifling and insignificant minority
come from the colleges.
Our friend says some college graduates are only spokes in
a wheel.
So they are. But that is not the employer’s fault. It is the
fault of the human spoke.
If a man IS a spoke, he must expect to be USED as a spoke.
If he is a human orange, with only a little juice in him, he
must expect to be squeezed.
Spokes are for wheels and oranges are for squeezing.
This is a practical world.
Better civilization will give better opportunity—beginning
before birth, and the v«~i»3 zj •■»»»; mm »r#»Ves will be fewer.
Nest
The Vulture’s
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published by THE GEORGIA l COMPANY
At 20 Rant Alabama St Ulanta, Ga.
Entered a* aeeond-rlajiF matter at poatoffice fit Atlanta, -indei act of March 2. 1*72
flubBcrlptlon Price—Delivered b> carrier 10 cents a week By mail, $5.00 a year.
Payable In Advance.
The College Man~=He Rarely Has
“Original Ideas" and Still More Rarely
“Power of Judgment."
The Man Who Is Only “a Spoke” Must Be Used as a Spoke- -The
Man Who Is an Orange Must Expect To Be Squeezed.
(Copyright, 1913.)
EDITORIAL RAGE
The Atlanta Georgian