Chicago Tribune
WHITE SLAVE WAR WELL
SUPPORTED.
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Religious and Civic Societies Pledge Aid in Suppressing the Evil.
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METHODISTS TO HEAR ROE
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Strenuous Foe of Vice Will Address the Laymen’s Council at Rockford.
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The crusade against white slavery under the leadership of former Assistant State’s Attorney Clifford G. Roe went forward with increased vigor yesterday. The work begun under Mr. Roe’s leadership by the public spirited members of the B’nai B’rith, the Commercial club, and later taken up by the various organizations of churchmen, was assured of support by the laymen of the Methodist church.
The Jewish Courier, the organ of orthodox Jews in Chicago, also printed a lengthy interview with Adolf Kraus, in which he appealed to all the Jews to see that all panderers are landed behind prison bars.
Mr. Roe was encouraged by the almost universal support he is receiving in the fight. With the assistance of a private secretary he spent the entire day in his home, 5700 Drexel avenue, preparing for the fight against procurers of girls.
The changing of the Illinois Vigilance association, formed to fight the traffic in vice, to a national association called the American Vigilance association, and its purpose to work for similar laws in regard to pandering in other states as have been passed recently in Illinois is looked upon as an important move by Attorney Roe.
Roe to Address Methodists
Mr. Roe was requested to be present at a meeting of the council of Methodist laymen in Rockford next Friday and speak on the white slave traffic. He accepted the invitation.
"The laymen already have expressed their willingness and anxiety to enter the fight," he said, "and they have invited me to inform them in what manner they should take up the fight."
"The Illinois Vigilance association contemplates forming a lecture bureau to educate parents in the dangers of the white slave traffic. The Rev. Ernest A. Bell, will continue as secretary of the enlarged organization. Edward Sims, United States District Attorney, has been offered a position on the Advisory board and I have accepted a position on the advisory board.
"The forces in the crusade are increasing day by day and they are going to work in harmony. We are receiving the cooperation of the police department, the federal authorities, the churchmen and civic organizations."
Mr. Roe then asserted that traffic in girls is carried on, as a rule, by organized bands. He cited a recent case of a confession of a person convicted of pandering.
Confession of White Slaver
"The case I mention was that of Dora Douglas, arrested and found guilty of pandering in Chicago last winter," he said. "She was accused of bringing Kitty Schay from Milwaukee to Chicago and placing her in a resort. The girl afterwards escaped by the aid of a friend, and the Douglas woman was convicted and sentenced to a term in the bridewell."
Miss Schay, who was 20 years old, met the Douglas woman at a dance hall in Milwaukee, according to testimony given at the trial. She was offered a good poition in Chicago and when brought here was sold into white slavery. She was detained in a south side resort for two months, until a frequenter of the resort, learning her story, aided her to escape.
The convicted woman, in her confession, says she herself, six years previously, met a fat similar to that of Miss Schay.
"I became an inmate and afterwards was given charge of a resort," Mrs. Douglas said. "In this position I brought girls to Chicago and was working for an organized band of white slave traders. Now, I don’t see how justice is completely satisfied because I am thrown into prison, for I was only one small link in the chain. I nevertheless must be locked up while the band of procurers, the owners of the dives, and the city officials are profiting by the income from the dives."
"We must war upon this disreputable element," the Jewish Courier quoted Mr. Kraus as saying. "We must show the world that we do not tolerate such criminal dealings. By helping to crush the white slave traffic we will show the world how repellent these people are to the Jewish community.
"This is a question which every Jew on the west side must be interested in. They must organize and do all in their power to help bring before the bar of justice the persons engaging in the white slave traffic.
The Courier editorially asserted that in the previous fights on vice it has frequently been threatened by rowdies. It calls attention to its frequent attacks upon the west side vice district and to the warning which it has given parents as well as children to be on their guard against the human vultures who prey upon young girls. It chides the reformers who are there only to talk and advise when there are sensational developments, and urges systematic and continued work and watchfulness.
The Daily Press, another Jewish paper, appeals to the various synagogues to throw themselves body and soul into the struggle for cleanliness and decency.
"Will the orthodox synagogues remain indifferent and at a distance in this great struggle for the honor of the Jewish nation?" the paper asks. "We believe not."
