Page:The Future of the Women's Movement.djvu/145

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THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM : VICE
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careful study of fifty-two of the largest cities. In this city of Chicago (with a population of two millions) prostitution, they assert, is a "Commercialised Business of large proportions with tremendous profits of more than fifteen million dollars (over £3,000,000) per year, controlled largely by men, not women. Separate the male exploiter from the problem and we minimise its extent and abate its flagrant outward expression. In addition we check an artificial stimulus which has been given to the business so that larger profits may be made by the men exploiters."

A Committee of Fourteen, which made inquiry in New York City, declared: "Some of the profit-sharers must be dispensed with through the force of public opinion or by means of heavy penalties, before the growth of vice can be checked. These include those who profit off the place—the landlord, agent, janitor, amusement dealer, brewer, and furniture dealer; those who profit off the act—the keeper, procurer, druggist, physician, midwife, police officer, and politician; those who profit off the children—employers, procurers, and public service corporations; those who deal in the futures of vice—publishers, manufacturers, and vendors of vicious pictures and articles; those who exploit the unemployed—the employment agent and employers; a group of no less than nineteen middlemen, who are profit-sharers in vice." It is evident that if so many people can make a profit, this constitutes a temptation to exploiters, and if the