Chicago Tribune
SEES LIFE TERM TO CURB
PANDERS.
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Clifford G. Roe Predicts New Laws, Speaking Before the City Club.
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CALL SEGREGATION EVIL
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Arthur Burrage Farwell and the Rev. E. A. Bell Address Hawkeyes
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The enactment of laws imposing life imprisonment on men convicted of engaging in traffic in women and girls was predicted yesterday by Clifford G. Roe. He was speaking before the City club on "Warfare Against Organized Traffic in Girls and Women." Mr. Roe also advocated the registration of all women inmates of resorts under direction of the health department.
In another discussion of the subject before the Hawkeye Fellowship club’s weekly luncheon at the Grand Pacific hotel, the Rev. Ernest A. Bell of the Midnight mission , and Arthur Burrage Farwell, attacked the segregation of vice. They said the system nourished vice and declared its friends were the divekeepers and "misguided theoriest."
In his address Mr. Roe said the present police system of handling the traffic in women had marked faults.
"I do not believe that when these women are taken out of the resorts they should be sent home, as is done now," he said. "I believe they should be kept until the procurers are caught, if possible, or until the persons who have held them shall have been caught.
Suggest Central Bureau Plan.
"Under the plan of a central bureau I would suggest that these girls be questioned, stating under oath how old they are, where they came from, and whether they have been lured into the resorts. If they are under age and have been compelled to stay hold them until the man is found.
"The resort owner should be required to state under oath whether he had paid anything for the girl. When the procurer has been found the proprietor can be punished for perjury if he has made a false statement.
"When the pandering law was passed the legislators did the best the could. Public sentiment had not been aroused then to the extent or nature of the evil. Now the laws are becoming more stringent on the subject. In time conviction as a pander will result in a life sentence, and in my opinion it will have a salutary effect on those engaged in the traffic.
Attacks Segregation of Vice.
Speaking before the Hawkeyes, the Rev. Mr. Bell said:
"When that half mile square of perdition was set apart by the men we have hired to protect our city, the people who had been working to save girls threw up their hands. You can understand how enterprising business men would pour into a rich territory that was suddenly thrown open to them. You may not be accustomed to look at the girl traffic in that light, but it is the same thing.
"The arguments for a vice district are to be heard from a minister or two who have churches far from the center of crime, from a few misguided theorists in theological chairs, and from their fellow advocate and admirer, the glittering hag who runs the resort. They use the same arguments, but she argues even more eloquently than they, because she is arguing for her profits."
Farwell Supports Mission Pastor
Mr. Farwell, head of the Law and Order league, supported the arguments of the Rev. Mr. Bell.
"I used to think the liquor traffic was the greatest foe of the race," he said, "but now I know that it is the social evil. It strikes the roots of disease and crime into the third and fourth generation. If men would stop and think of the terrible advantage that is given to the social evil by giving it an set place in which it is tolerated no vice district would be set apart. If crime must be, then let crime hide and slink from the terrors of the law. Never give it a place where it can raise its vile head in immunity."
