d. The keeping of extravagant mistresses is a pastime for those who

have been demoralized by a life of luxury and ease, and at the same time is a means by which these people can get rid of their incomes.

e. Finally, prostitution is a means whereby rich perverts satisfy their inclinations.

Before leaving the causes of the demand for prostitutes there is one further matter to consider. Those who have recourse to prostitutes must necessarily have a low opinion of woman, whom they consider only as an object existing for pleasure, and thus bound to be ready, as soon as a man wishes, to furnish him what he desires, for money, and not because of affection. This vile fashion of regarding women has been universal for centuries, and is still pretty general. It is to be explained from the long-continued inferior social position of women. We have seen that this position has been improved little by little, and that the result of this improvement has been an increase in the number of men who have a higher opinion of woman, and who wish to have sexual relations with a woman only when there is a mutual affection between them. These persons form even today only a small minority, however.

In the presence of a majority still thinking quite differently it is absurd to preach total sexual abstinence to all unmarried young men, as certain moralists do (Tolstoi, for example). Though there are men who abstain without injury to their health, these moralists forget that the satisfaction of the sexual desires is one of the most important needs of the majority of men (the life of our day certainly increases these desires), and that present social conditions are the cause of men’s considering woman their inferior. Dr. Blaschko, in his work “Die Prostitution im XIX Jahrhundert”, rightly says: “The sexual requirement in the case of mankind as of all other beings is an entirely natural one. To be sure, it is not so strong and compelling as the necessity of food and drink; it can be suppressed in the case of anyone for a time, and with many permanently, without injury to the health. But what is true of this or that person does not hold for the mass of mankind, for whom sexual intercourse is doubtless a necessity.” [353]

It is now necessary to inquire why there is a sufficient supply to meet this demand. Before beginning, however, one remark must be made. The point of departure of the etiology of prostitution must be the incontestable fact that modesty is not an innate but an acquired quality. The problem is chiefly, then, what are the causes why the feeling of modesty is not sufficiently developed among certain women. The following are the principal causes:

a. Immoral environment. We shall examine this first in so far as it affects children. [354] In running over the statistics which mention the age of prostitutes one is particularly struck by the fact that a great number of them are still very young. To cite some examples: Dr. G. Richelot gives the following figures in his work “La Prostitution en Angleterre”: [355]

London, 1836–1854.

Prostitutes Sentenced in Cases of Summary Jurisdiction.

=====================+================== Age. | To the 10,000. ---------------------+------------------ From 10 to 15 years | 27 ,, 15 ,, 20 ,, | 2,463 ,, 20 ,, 25 ,, | 3,623 25 and over | 3,887 =====================+==================

Edinburgh, 1835–1842.

Prostitutes Admitted to “Lock Hospital.”

================+================== Age. | To the 1,000. ----------------+------------------ Below 15 | 42 From 15 to 20 | 662 ,, 20 ,, 25 | 199 25 and over | 97 ================+==================

In the “Reports from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls” [356] the following figures may be found:

England, 1881–1882.

Received into an “Asylum for Girls and Women.”

==========+==========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ----------+----------+------------- 12 to 14 | 8 } | 14 ,, 16 | 6 } | 16 ,, 18 | 28 } | 55 18 ,, 20 | 34 } | 20 ,, 23 | 9 }| 23 ,, 25 | 25 }| 45 25 ,, 39 | 27 }| +----------+------------- | 137 | 100 ==========+==========+=============

In his work “De la Prostitution dans la ville de Paris” Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [357]

Paris, 1831.

Registered Prostitutes.

============+===========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ------------+-----------+------------- 12 years | 1 } | 13 ,, | 3 } | 14 ,, | 8 } | 15 ,, | 17 } | 16 ,, | 44 } | 23.6 17 ,, | 55 } | 18 ,, | 101 } | 19 ,, | 115 } | 20 ,, | 216 } | 21 ,, | 204 } | 22 ,, | 249 }| 23 ,, | 240 }| 24 ,, | 207 }| 76.4 25 ,, | 193 }| 26 and over | 1,582 }| +-----------+------------- | 3,235 | 100.0 ============+===========+=============

C. J. Lecour gives the following table: [358]

Paris, 1855–1869.

Registered Prostitutes.

================+===========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ----------------+-----------+------------- Below 18 years | 513 | 8 From 18 to 21 | 1,704 | 26.6 Over 21 | 4,190 | 65.4 +-----------+------------- | 6,407 | 100.0 ================+===========+=============

Dr. Augagneur gives the following ages for prostitutes admitted to the hospital: [359]

Lyons.

========+===============+================+========== Years. | Older Girls. | Younger Girls. | Total. --------+---------------+----------------+---------- 1877 | 520 (65.5%) | 274 (34.0%) | 794 1887 | 144 (68.2%) | 67 (31.8%) | 211 +---------------+----------------+---------- | 664 (66.07%) | 341 (33.73%) | 1,005 ========+===============+================+==========

S. Sighele gives the following figures: [360]

Italy.

Registered Prostitutes.

=======+=================+=========+============= Year. | Age. | Number. | Percentage. -------+-----------------+---------+------------- 1875 | From 16 to 20 | 2,455 | 26.98 | ,, 21 ,, 30 | 4,766 | 52.50 | 31 and over | 1,867 | 20.52 | +---------+------------- | | 9,088 | 100.00 | | | 1881 | From 17 to 20 | 2,953 | 31.90 | ,, 21 ,, 30 | 5,456 | 58.92 | 31 and over | 850 | 9.18 | +---------+------------- | | 9,259 | 100.00 | | | 1885 | Under 20 | 3,228 | 27.76 | From 20 to 30 | 4,589 | 54.70 | 31 and over | 1,471 | 17.54 | +---------+------------- | | 8,388 | 100.00 =======+=================+=========+=============

Dr. L. Fiaux gives the result of an official enquiry, as follows: [361]

Russia, 1889.

Out of a Total of 17,603 Prostitutes.

================+================== Age. | Percentage. ----------------+------------------ 15 and under | 0.3 } From 15 to 16 | 1.3 } ,, 16 ,, 17 | 3.5 } ,, 17 ,, 18 | 6.9 } 69.9 ,, 18 ,, 19 | 8.8 } ,, 19 ,, 20 | 10.8 } ,, 20 ,, 25 | 38.3 } 25 and over | 30.1 30.1 | ----- ----- | 100.0 100.0 ================+==================

Dr. A. Baumgarten gives the following figures: [362]

Vienna.

Prostitutes Not Registered.

=======+======================= Age. | Number to the 1,000. -------+----------------------- 13 | 4 14 | 19 16 | 94 17 | 97 18 | 111 19 | 119 20 | 83 +----------------------- | 527 =======+=======================

As these figures show, there is a considerable portion of the prostitutes who are minors, but they do not tell us of the number of adults who embraced the profession while they were yet under age. As to this point, Dr. Bonhoeffer gives the following, showing the age at which the prostitutes whom he examined began the practice of their profession: [363]

Breslau.

16 years old or under 30 } Between 17 and 18 years 44 } 54% ,, 19 ,, 20 ,, 28 } ,, 21 ,, 50 ,, 88 46% --- ---- 190 100%

Parent-Duchatelet gives the following table: [364]

Paris.

=================================+===========+============= Age at the Time of Registration. | Number. | Percentage. ---------------------------------+-----------+------------- 10 | 2 } | 11 | 3 } | 12 | 3 } | 13 | 6 } | 14 | 20 } | 15 | 51 } | 16 | 111 } | 50.4 17 | 149 } | 18 | 279 } | 19 | 322 } | 20 | 389 } | 21 | 303 } | Over 21 years | 1,610 | 49.6 |-----------+------------- | 3,248 | 100.0 =================================+===========+=============

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [365]

Russia.

=================================+================ Age at the Time of Registration. | Percentage. ---------------------------------+---------------- 11 or younger | 1.2 } 13 to 15 | 9.0 } 15 ,, 16 | 12.9 } 80.5 16 ,, 18 | 30.8 } 18 ,, 21 | 26.6 } 21 and over | 19.5 19.5 | ----- ----- | 100.0 100.0 =================================+================

A large majority of prostitutes, then, have been placed upon the registers of the police while still under age. We may very well say, moreover, without fear of mistake, that a great part of those who are registered at a later period of life have already been among the clandestine prostitutes. Dr. Augagneur says: “How many of these women, devoted indefinitely to the life of a common prostitute, would not have fled all its horrors if a society, careless of the interests of its members, had furnished them with sufficient means of defense up to the age at which they all have succumbed,—under 21 years? When a woman has not prostituted herself before 21, she will not prostitute herself later. Look for exceptions to this rule and you will find that they are very few. The woman who is older and more experienced knows the consequences of her acts; less passionate, less weak, and less impressionable, she resists better a first temptation whose consequences she is fully aware of. [366]

However this may be, it is certain that a very great proportion of the prostitutes have taken up their profession, or have been seduced, while they were still very young. Upon this latter point the following figures enlighten us: [367]

England.

=======================================+=============== Age at which Prostitutes Were Seduced. | Number. ---------------------------------------+--------------- 11 | 3 } 12 | 5 } 13 | 16 } 14 | 79 } 15 | 189 } 16 | 184 } 58% 17 | 247 } 18 | 221 } 19 | 297 } 20 | 280 } 21 | 256 } 22 and over | 1,299 42% | ----- ---- | 3,076 100% =======================================+===============

In his work, “La prostitution clandestine”, Dr. L. Martineau informs us that the age at which the prostitutes whom he observed were deflowered is distributed as follows: [368]

France.

======+========== Age. | Number. ------+---------- 5 | 1 9 | 2 10 | 2 11 | 2 12 | 5 13 | 11 14 | 31 15 | 86 16 | 87 17 | 115 18 | 93 19 | 50 20 | 37 21 | 27 +---------- | 549 ======+========== 90% of a total of 607.

The facts already brought out give rise to the presumption that the ranks of prostitutes are in a very large measure recruited from the less well-to-do classes, where the neglect of children has assumed enormous proportions, and not from the more favored classes where the children are carefully guarded and kept away from unfavorable influences. The correctness of this conclusion is shown by a further examination. According to figures given in the “Reports” quoted above, only 44 out of 3,076 prostitutes, or 1.4%, came from the well-to-do classes. [369] In his “Sozialpolitisches Handbuch” Dr. Lux publishes the following table: [370]

Berlin, 1871–1878.

==========================================+==========+============= Profession of the Parents of Prostitutes. | Numbers. | Percentage. ------------------------------------------+----------+------------- Artisans | 1,015 | 48 Factory hands | 467 | 22 Lower officials | 305 | 14 Commerce and transportation | 222 | 11 Agriculture, etc. | 87 | 4 Soldiers | 26 | 1 +----------+------------- | 2,122 | 100 ==========================================+==========+=============

Dr. Bonhoeffer found that the fathers of the prostitutes whom he examined practiced the following professions: [371]

Breslau.

=======================+=====+======= Manufacture and trades | 72 | 42 Unskilled workmen | 32 | 19 Lower officials | 24 | 14 Commerce | 13 | 8 Transportation | 12 | 7 Lodginghouse-keepers | 6 | 3.5 Agriculture | 8 | 5 Traveling musicians | 2 | 1 Higher officials | 1 | 0.5 +-----+------- | 170 | 100.0 =======================+=====+=======

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [372]

Russia.

==============================================+============= Classes from Which Prostitutes Are Recruited. | Percentage. ----------------------------------------------+------------- Peasants | 47.5 Bourgeois | 36.3 Wives and daughters of soldiers | 7.2 Other classes | 4.7 Foreign subjects | 1.5 Nobles and daughters of employes | 1.8 Merchants and considerable citizens | .5 Daughters of members of the clergy | .5 +------------- | 100.0 ==============================================+=============

As the table given above shows, the Russian prostitutes are recruited in greater numbers from the bourgeoisie than in the other countries of Europe. The Russian bourgeoisie, however, cannot be compared with that of other countries. It is more like the petty bourgeoisie, as the following quotation given by Dr. Fiaux proves: “The committee considers that the great mass of the women registered belong to the lower classes.” The fact that, of 100 prostitutes, 83 come from poor families, 16 from well-to-do families, and one from a rich family, proves the same thing.

After having given the professions of 3,332 fathers of prostitutes, [373] Parent-Duchatelet arrives at the following conclusion: ... “prostitutes born in Paris all proceed from the artisan class, and ... it is not true, as some persons have assured me, that there are to be found among them a number belonging to very distinguished families; ...” [374]

In speaking of the prostitutes born outside of Paris he says: “... there is a mass of facts more than sufficient to prove to us that, as far as the class of society from which prostitutes come is concerned, the departments do not differ in any way from Paris; we see upon the last table as upon the first, only working people and those little favored by fortune, who consequently cannot take care of the education of their daughters, nor watch them, and still less provide for their needs when they have reached a certain age, ...” [375]

We must particularize these unfavorable environmental influences. And the first fact that we meet is that a part of the young prostitutes have been incited to the profession by their parents. Parent-Duchatelet mentions 16 cases in which mother and daughter were both registered prostitutes [376]; and von Oettingen quotes the following from Dr. Tait: [377]

Edinburgh.

There were found among the prostitutes:

2 mothers with 4 daughters each, or 8 in all, 5 ,, ,, 3 ,, ,, ,, 15 ,, ,, 10 ,, ,, 2 ,, ,, ,, 20 ,, ,, 24 ,, ,, 1 daughter ,, ,, 24 ,, ,, 41 mothers with 67 daughters in all

In the second place it is necessary to speak of the abandonment of the children of the poor classes. No scientist of consequence admits that the moral ideas are innate, but simply that the new-born infant is more or less fitted to appropriate such ideas. It follows that one cannot expect much from a child whose moral education has been neglected in youth, however great natural capacity he may have been endowed with. From this it follows that where there is lack of education and care because of the death of the mother, or the alcoholism of the father, or because the father and mother are both at work away from home a great part of the day, or where the morality of the parents themselves is not great, the children run great risk of being lost. The following figures support this assertion:

Von Oettingen shows that, according to Dr. Ryan, 12,000 to 14,000 prostitutes in London became such as a consequence of a neglected childhood. [378] In the “Reports of the Select Committee,” etc., the following figures are found: [379] of 3,075 prostitutes 1,481 (48%) were orphans, and 921 (29%) were half-orphans. In his “La prostitution clandestine à Paris”, Dr. Commenge gives the following figures concerning the 2,368 prostitutes whom he observed during the years from 1878 to 1887: [380]

692 (29%) were orphans; 456 (19%) had lost their mother; 811 (35%) ,, ,, ,, father.

Out of a total of 190 cases Dr. Bonhoeffer shows 72 (38%) in which the education had been positively bad (criminality or prostitution on the part of the parents, neglect, lack of surveillance, etc.); 106 cases (56%) in which the education had been probably bad; and only 12 cases (6%) in which it was proved that the education had been good. [381]

For Russia Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [382] 3.6% of the prostitutes still had father and mother; 47.5% had parents who were separated, and 18.5% were without any family.

With regard to the cause given for prostitution Dr. Augagneur says as follows: “The majority of prostitutes are born to prostitution at the same time that they are to puberty. Their moral sense, if such may be called that which no one has ever tried to awaken, is not shocked by their situation; they have prostituted themselves without shame and without regret. They have left normal and respectable society without being really aware of its existence, without the desire of ever returning thither. They have lacked the things necessary to make them respectable women—instruction in virtue, the example of their relatives, the suspicious surveillance of their mothers, and material well-being. The daughters of the people are not, at the day of their birth, of a clay inferior to that of the daughters of the bourgeoisie or of the nobility; they are naturally no less intelligent, no more perverse. And yet if you examine the civil status of a hundred prostitutes, you will find that 95 at least have sprung from the lowest strata of society. The existing social inequality, that is to say, is alone responsible for this unequal distribution.” [383]

Finally I will cite once more the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet, which is of great value, since this author is the most able sociologist who has treated of this subject. He says: “The misconduct of parents, and the bad examples of every kind which they give to their children, must be considered with regard to many girls, and especially those of Paris, as one of the causes determining their mode of life. The dossiers of each girl constantly make mention of disorder in the household, of fathers who are widowers living with concubines, of lovers of mothers widowed or married, of fathers and mothers separated, etc. What surveillance can such parents exercise over their children, and if they judge it proper to give a reprimand, or give good advice, what authority could such observations have in their mouths?

“Thus the depravity, the indifference, the necessitous position of many people of the last class provoke, or do not or cannot prevent, the corruption of the children; we may say in general with regard to a good number of prostitutes, what observation continually teaches us of criminals, that they have for the most part an ignoble origin.” [384]

In the third place, we must name as a cause of the demoralization in youth bad housing conditions. One of the most pronounced characteristics of the child is his propensity to imitate. Hence it follows that the fact that a whole family must live and sleep in one or two rooms has the most harmful consequences for the sexual morality of the children. Sexual life has no longer any secrets for the child of the poor classes at an age at which this life is still a thing unknown to the children of the well-to-do classes.

I will give here some figures to show how small the dwellings of this class are. According to an investigation made in Berlin in 1895 there were 4,718 dwellings without fireplaces, and occupied by 13,700 persons; more than 200,000 dwellings consisted of a single room with a fireplace, and 22,160 of these were occupied by more than 6 persons. There was the following percentage of “overcrowding” (in official statistics this means more than 6 persons in one room with fireplace, and more than 8 persons in two rooms with fireplace, or in one room with kitchen attached): in Königsberg 10.6; in Halle 10.3; in Breslau 9.9; in Lübeck 8.75; in Görlitz 6.91; in Leipzig 7.85; in Altona 7.62; in Munich, 4.41; in Kiel 4.46; in Mannheim 11.8. In 1890 there were living in overcrowded dwellings the following number of persons to the 1,000: in Berlin 784; in Munich 533; in Breslau 754. [385]

According to the investigation made in 1890 there were in Vienna 23,921 dwellings consisting of a single room, with 64,621 occupants, and 103,433 dwellings of two rooms, with 411,314 occupants. These two groups include 44% of the dwellings and 35% of the population. Professor von Philippovich, in the article from which these data have been taken, shows that in the districts inhabited by the Viennese working-men, Ottakring, Meidling, and Favoriten, 29.3%, 30.8%, and 31.26% respectively of the dwellings of one or two rooms were “overcrowded” (i.e. 3 to 5 persons in a room). [386]

The 1899 census of the Netherlands gave the following results: There were 307,937 dwellings consisting of one inhabited room each, and occupied by 1,172,014 persons (22.7% of the population); and there were 334,355 dwellings consisting of two rooms each (including kitchens, alcoves, and covered passages), occupied by 1,497,353 persons (29% of the population). [387]

The detailed statement shows the situation still better. There were 45,641 dwellings of only one room, with 4 persons in each; 62,548 dwellings of more than one room with 5 or 6 persons; 41,877 dwellings of only one room, occupied by 6 or more persons; 45,363 dwellings of 2 rooms which were occupied by 3 or 4 persons; 20,582 dwellings of two rooms with from 4 to 6; and 706 dwellings of two rooms with 6 occupants or more. [388]

What is often lacking besides is space to place a sufficient number of beds, or even the means of procuring them. In a great number of cases children of different sexes must sleep together in one bed, or even with adults. It also often happens that the inhabitants of these already insufficient dwellings are obliged to take night-lodgers. There are the following percentages of dwellings with lodgers: in Leipzig, 17.5; in Breslau, 12.5; and in Berlin, 15.8. [389] In Vienna 6.4% of the population are night-lodgers, and in Berlin 6.1% [390].

It goes without saying that among these persons lodging together there are some who are demoralized and dangerous to children. In his work, “Verbrechen und Prostitution”, P. Hirsch depicts these dangers as follows: “Think in how narrow a space an entire family is penned up together, so that at times a separation of the sexes is scarcely possible, at a time when the sexual instinct of the growing children is already beginning to develop. The children unhappily only too often are present at the most intimate occurrences and early lose all feeling of shame. How can decency and good morals be learned by children whose parents are obliged to take prostitutes as lodgers? Who shall protect these unfortunates from moral contamination? Often a word will be spoken in their presence, or an occurrence take place, which they are not yet, perhaps, able to understand. But the childish nature is receptive to such impressions, and what happens in their presence falls upon fruitful soil, and what has remained fixed in their memory from earliest youth, will, if later their sensuality is once aroused, bear terrible fruit. We are astonished when we hear a twelve or thirteen year old girl use language which we are accustomed to hear only from prostitutes who have followed their trade for years; we are astonished at the sophistication of persons still quite young, and are inclined at once to pass an unfavorable judgment upon them. Truly our judgment would be quite different, we should have sympathy with them, and should be made to reflect, if we came to know the holes in which these poor creatures passed their childhood.” [391]

As a cause of the demoralization of young girls we must note, finally, child labor. In the first place there are children who are sent to sell flowers, matches, etc., and this causes them to be neglected and to frequent bad company. With regard to this Hirsch says: “One has only to get into conversation with the children who sell flowers, matches, and the like on the streets of the great cities in the evening, or to overhear their talk, to be astonished at their sophistication. One would hardly believe with what shamelessness such boys speak of sexual matters with growing girls in the same situation, without blushing and quite as a matter of course, since they have been accustomed to it from earliest childhood. It is no wonder that from these circles a considerable contingent is furnished to the ranks of prostitution and crime....” [392]

A second cause is work in factories, by which girls are brought into contact with adults who, from their often coarse manners and language, and their lack of moral sentiments, corrupt these children for their whole lives. After having spoken of the other dangers which threaten the morality of children, Lecour says: “If she has escaped these dangers the child, placed too young as an apprentice, will meet other perils. There will be the contact with girls who are older and already corrupted, and workmen who respect neither youth nor innocence, who boast of debauchery, propagate immorality, and dishonor the daughters of their comrades. There will be, perhaps, the impure domination of the proprietor or foreman.” [393]

Let us now look at the influences which demoralize adult women. In the first place we must speak of the influence of profession. The following figures serve to show which are the professions from which prostitutes are recruited most: [394]

Berlin, 1855.

Factory-workers } 73 } Seamstresses, laundry-workers } Industrial 16 } 61 % Day-laborers } workers 23 } Workers at home } 32 } Domestics 22 9 ,, Without declared profession 70 30 ,, --- ------ 236 100 ,,

1873.

Factory workers } Industrial 355 } Workers at home and saleswomen } workers 936 } 64.3 % Caretakers of stores } 139 } Domestics 794 35.7 ,, ----- -------- 2,224 100.0 ,,

1898.

Workwomen, seamstresses, and saleswomen 66 43.4 % Domestics 78 51.3 ,, With their parents 7 } 5.3 ,, Nurses of children 1 } -------- 100.0 ,,

In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.” we find the following: [395]

England.

Domestics 1,589 60.7 % Seamstresses, dressmakers, and other industrial professions 967 36.9 ,, Barmaids 64 2.4 ,, ----- -------- 2,620 100.0 ,,

Breslau, 1901. [396]

Domestics 72 38 % Factory workers 37 20 ,, Seamstresses 28 15 ,, Saleswomen 14 7 ,, Dressmakers 8 4 ,, Barmaids, flower-girls, hairdressers 13 7 ,, Dancers 4 2 ,, Without profession and living at home 14 7 ,, --- ------ 190 100 ,,

In Parent-Duchatelet’s “La Prostitution à Paris” figures are found showing that domestic servants, in proportion to their number, furnish the largest contingent of prostitutes, and that working-women who try to provide for their needs with the needle furnish also a very great proportion. [397] Dr. Jeannel shows that in 1859, out of 298 prostitutes registered in Bordeaux, 40% had been domestics, and 37% workwomen who had tried to live by sewing. [398] Out of a total of 6,842 clandestine prostitutes in Paris (from 1878 to 1887) Dr. Commenge found that 2,681 (39.18%) had been domestics, and 1,326 (19%) seamstresses. [399]

Dr. Baumgarten gives the following table of percentages for 1,721 prostitutes:

Vienna.

Servants 58.00 Working by the day 16.00 Cashiers 14.00 Factory workers 5.50 Office employees 0.38 Children’s nurses 0.36 Singers 0.28 Hairdressers and models 5.48 ------ 100.00

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [400]

Russia.

Servants 45.0 % Seamstresses 8.4 ,, Factory workers 3.7 ,, Laundresses 1.4 ,, Governesses and nurses 1.3 ,, Merchants, bakers, and others 1.3 ,, Cigar-sellers 0.7 ,, Singers, circus-performers, and other artists 0.3 ,, Practicing different trades and professions 2.7 ,, Kept mistresses 2.0 ,, Without fixed profession 6.4 ,, Living upon the labor of their husbands 1.7 ,, Living in their family, or with their parents more or less remote 22.3 ,,

These statistics show that a quite considerable number of the prostitutes have been workwomen in factories. (In Russia manufacturing is very little developed—hence the low figures there.) We may accept it as indisputable that this labor has in general very disadvantageous consequences for the morality of the workwomen.

In his work, “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, Engels depicts these consequences in the following terms: “The collecting of persons of both sexes and all ages in a single workroom, the inevitable contact, the crowding into a small space of people to whom neither mental nor moral education has been given, is not calculated for the favorable development of the female character. The manufacturer, if he pays any attention to the matter at all, can interfere only when something scandalous actually occurs; the permanent, less conspicuous influence of persons of dissolute character, upon the more moral, and especially upon the younger ones, he cannot ascertain and consequently cannot prevent. The language used in the workshops was characterized by many witnesses in the report of 1833 as ‘indecent’, ‘bad’, ‘filthy’, etc. (Cowell, evid., pp. 35, 37, and in many other places). It is the same process upon a small scale which we have already witnessed upon a great one in the great cities. The centralization of population has the same influence upon the same persons, whether it affects them in a great city or in a small factory. The smaller the mill, the closer the packing, and the more unavoidable the contact; and the consequences are not wanting. A witness in Leicester says that he would rather let his daughter beg than have her go into a factory; that they are perfect gates of hell; that most of the prostitutes of the town had the mills to thank for their present condition (Power, evid., p. 8). Another in Manchester ‘did not hesitate to assert that three-fourths of the young factory employees of from 14 to 20 years of age were unchaste’ (Cowell, evid., p. 57). Commissioner Cowell expresses it as his opinion, that the morality of the factory operatives is somewhat below the average of the working class in general (p. 82). And Dr. Hawkins says (Rept. p. 4), ‘An estimate of sexual morality cannot readily be reduced to figures, but if I may trust my own observations and the general opinion of those with whom I have spoken, as well as the whole tenor of the testimony furnished me, the aspect of the influence of factory life upon the morality of the youthful female population is most depressing.’” [401]

And then it happens at times that the proprietors or their foremen by abusing their power force the working-girls who please them to yield to their desires. Engels says of this: “It is a matter of course that factory-servitude, like any other, and to an even greater degree, confers the ‘jus primæ noctis’ upon the master. In this respect also the employer is sovereign over the persons and charms of his employees. The threat of dismissal suffices to overcome all resistance in nine cases out of ten, if not in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in girls who, in any case have no strong inducements to chastity. If the master is mean enough, and the official report mentions several such cases, his mill is also his harem; and the fact that not all manufacturers use their power, does not in the least change the position of the girls. In the beginning of the manufacturing industry, when most of the employers were upstarts without education or consideration for the social hypocrisy, they let nothing interfere with the exercise of their vested rights.” [402]

Besides factory workers domestics form a very considerable percentage of the prostitutes. As the Berlin statistics cited above show the percentage of workers has diminished and that of domestics has increased. According to Dr. Blaschko the cause of the diminution of the percentage of factory workers is to be found not only in the fact that, the year 1898 being very prosperous, poverty did not come in as an important factor in the same measure as formerly, but also in the raising of the intellectual and moral plane of the Berlin working-women. It is impossible to speak of a similar raising of the plane of the domestics. The nature of their occupations prevents their forming associations; they are therefore deprived of the moral effect of the trades union. [403] The causes of the importance of the contingent furnished to prostitution by the domestics are of different kinds. Besides the reason I have just mentioned, the fact is to be noted that it is not from among the most intelligent and best of the working classes that domestic servants are ordinarily drawn. For these prefer the less dependent position of working-woman to that of domestic. In the second place there is the influence of the occupation itself. (There are still others, of which I shall speak later.)

It is easy to understand how the occupation of domestic has a demoralizing influence. Not only do young girls, often ignorant and without education, come to live in surroundings of a sort to pervert them, but there is also their dependence upon people who only demand that their work shall be well done, the lack of civilizing influences, and the isolation that deprives them of contact with their fellows, all of which lowers their moral plane. [404]

Aside from the two groups cited there are still other occupations which may exercise a demoralizing influence, such as that of barmaid, etc. [405]

Before closing our observations upon demoralizing environment as a cause of prostitution, we must fix our attention upon the evil influences to which many women are exposed, those, that is, who must provide for their own needs and do not live at home. The smallness of their wages does not permit them to rent a room by themselves but they are obliged to content themselves with a bed simply. This brings at once great moral disadvantages. But further, this arrangement drives the persons in question into the street when not at work, since often the landlords do not allow them in the house except during the night. The harmful consequences of this are sufficiently obvious. [406]

b. The maternity of girls and concubinage are among the causes of prostitution. Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [407]

Paris.

Having come from the provinces to conceal themselves in Paris and to find resources there 280 Brought to Paris and abandoned by soldiers, traveling salesmen, students, and other persons 404 Domestics seduced by their masters and dismissed by them 289 Simple concubines during a longer or shorter period who have lost their lovers, and do not know what else to do 1,425 ----- Total 2,398

46% of a total of 5,183.

In the “Reports of the Select Committee”, etc. we find given as cause of prostitution: [408]

England.

Concubines abandoned by their lovers 360 Girls seduced under promise of marriage 806 ----- 1,166

37.9% of a total of 3,076.

In his “Minderjährige Verbrecher” L. Ferriani gives the following: [409]

Italy.

Seduction by a lover 1,653 ,, ,, employer 927 ----- 2,580

24.7% of a total of 10,422.

The statistics cited show, then, that the cause named occupies a quite considerable place in the etiology of prostitution. This cause is entirely a consequence of the existing social conditions, which maintain the dependent position of woman, and of marriage, which brings it about that every woman living with a man as with a husband is despised, even when the union is due to inclination, and that life is made very hard for her, especially if a child is born of the union. However, it must be added, that this applies especially to the women of the middle classes, and that “free love” and the child that is the fruit of it, are not at all so despised among the proletariat, for, as we have seen above, the bases of the present legal monogamy have not so great an importance there. [410]

However this cause of prostitution only makes itself felt when the woman to whom it applies is also deprived of all pecuniary means. And so we come to the third category in the etiology of prostitution.

c. Poverty. As the statistics already cited have shown, almost all prostitutes spring from the classes without fortune, and the great majority of them have been at first working-women or domestics, and consequently have belonged to families without fortune. If such women, for any reason whatever, cannot find work, they are thrown into poverty. As this happens constantly in society, poor women find themselves forced into prostitution. The facts are there to prove it. In treating of the etiology of prostitution Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [411]

Paris.

Excess of poverty, absolute destitution 1,441 Loss of father and mother; expulsion from home; complete desertion 1,255 To support aged and infirm parents 37 Eldest of the family having neither father nor mother, to support brothers and sisters, and sometimes nieces and nephews 29 Widows and deserted wives, to raise a large family 23 ----- 2,785

53% of a total of 5,183.

The author says among other things: “Poverty, often pushed to the most frightful extreme, is still one of the most active causes of prostitution. How many girls abandoned by their families, without parents, without friends, unable to find refuge anywhere, are obliged to have recourse to prostitution in order not to die of hunger! One of these unfortunates, still susceptible to feelings of honor, strove to the last extremity before taking up a part which she regarded as extreme, and when she came to register herself it was shown that she had not eaten anything for three days.” [412]

“One would hardly believe that the career of prostitution has been embraced by certain women as a means of fulfilling their duty as daughter or mother; yet nothing is more true. It is not unusual to see married women who have lost their husbands or been deserted by them, become prostitutes with the sole purpose of not leaving a numerous family to die of hunger. It is still more common to find young girls who, not earning by their labor enough to provide for the wants of their aged and infirm parents, ply the trade of prostitute in the evening to make up what is lacking. I have found the marks peculiar to these two classes of prostitutes too often not to be convinced that they are more numerous in Paris than one would believe.” [413]

In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.”, which I have already quoted several times, are found the following figures: [414]

England.

To provide for the needs of her mother 11 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, idle husbands 35 As a consequence of poverty or lack of work 164 --- 210

6.8% of a total of 3,076.

(We must take into consideration the fact that in the case of many of the 37.9% who are put down in this same set of tables as seduced, poverty was a contributory cause.)

Ferriani gives the following table: [415]

Italy.

Deserted by husband, parents, or other members of the family 794 Death of husband, parents, or other persons contributing to their support, or other cause of poverty 2,139 To provide for the wants of children, parents, or other sick or needy members of the family 393 ----- 3,326

31.9% of a total of 10,422.

Dr. Blaschko shows that the forced idleness among garment makers during some months of each year causes an increase of prostitution. [416]

As we have seen in the first part of this work, it has been proved at various times that crime against property increases or diminishes according as the economic situation is favorable or unfavorable. If poverty is one of the causes of prostitution it must follow that the number of prostitutes will vary at the same times as the general condition. Statistics prove that this is what does actually happen. However, we need only take into consideration the figures for registered prostitutes; if we had at our disposal the figures for clandestine prostitution they would naturally show still greater modifications.

Berlin. [417]

=====+=============+============= | Number of | To 100,000 Year.| Prostitutes | of the | Registered. | Population. -----+-------------+------------- 1869 | 1709 | 223 1870 | 1606 | 203 1871 | 1625 | 197 1872 | 1701 | 198 1873 | 1742 | 195 1874 | 1956 | 210 1875 | 2241 | 232 1876 | 2386 | 242 1877 | 2547 | 248 1878 | 2767 | 262 1879 | 3033 | 277 1880 | 3186 | 284 1881 | 3465 | 298 1882 | 3900 | 326 1883 | 3769 | 306 1884 | 3724 | 293 1885 | 3598 | 273 1886 | 3000 | 230 1887 | 3063 | 216 1888 | 3392 | 231 1889 | 3703 | 244 1890 | 4039 | 255 1891 | 4364 | 273 1892 | 4663 | 288 1893 | 4794 | 292 =====+=============+=============

Leaving aside the abnormal years, 1870 and 1871, we perceive that the prosperous years 1872 and 1873 give very low figures. After this period times become worse and worse, while the number of prostitutes sustains a considerable increase. From the year 1882 economic conditions began to improve, and the figures for prostitution correspondingly fell, to rise again very noticeably during the unfavorable years 1889 to 1892.

In his work “Statistik der gerichtlichen Polizei im Königreiche Bayern und in einigen anderen Ländern”, Dr. Mayr also gives convincing proofs of the parallelism between the changes in the economic situation and prostitution. [418]

However it is not only forced unemployment leading to great poverty that is one of the causes of prostitution; we must also consider as such the fact that the wages paid to women are often so small that it is impossible for them to pay even their necessary expenses, and are thus obliged to find some supplementary source of income.

In his work already quoted, “Die wirthschaftlichen Ursachen der Prostitution”, Pappritz fixes the minimum that a working woman in Berlin must have for her strictly necessary expenses at 600 marks a year. Most of the women working in factories generally earn but 500 marks. The average earnings in 1897 were 457 for dressmakers, and 354 for those who made the button-holes (hand labor). And yet the wages paid in Berlin were not the lowest—the average for all Germany was 322 marks. [419]

It will not be very difficult to quote several authors who, in treating of this subject as regards Germany, have expressed themselves in the same way. But I must be brief, and hence shall content myself with citing a passage from Dr. Frankenstein’s “Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in den deutschen Grossstädten”, in which he sums up the result of his studies upon this subject: “A very great proportion of the working-women of our great cities receive wages that are not sufficient to provide the most indispensable necessities of life, and find themselves for this cause in the dilemma either of seeking a supplementary trade in prostitution, or of falling into the unavoidable consequences of bodily and spiritual destruction.” [420]

It is evident that the same thing is true of all the countries where capitalism reigns. Here is what Faucher, for example, says in his “Études sur l’Angleterre”: “Work with the needle is so poorly paid in London that the young persons who give themselves up to it earn only three or four shillings a week, working sixteen or eighteen hours a day. The wages of a fancy needle worker, for a hard day, are from 50 to 60 centimes, while linen workers generally get 30 centimes for stitching a shirt. Nothing more frightful could be imagined than the existence of these poor girls. They must get up at four or five o’clock in the morning, at all seasons of the year, to go to work, or to receive the orders of the merchants. They work without relaxation until midnight in small rooms, where they are crowded together by fives and sixes for economy in the use of fuel and light. If they are admitted to a dressmaker’s or linen draper’s establishment, they are ill-fed, and under pretext of pressure of business are kept at their task day and night, with only four or five hours of sleep, which are further regularly limited on Saturday. This sedentary life and constant confinement ages them before their time, when phthisis spares them. Is it to be wondered at if some, frightened and disheartened at finding the way of virtue so hard, hold out their arms to prostitution?” [421]

Against these long, hard days and small wages are to be set the easy life and often quite considerable returns—at least in the beginning of their career—which prostitutes enjoy. Moreau-Christophe in his “Du Problème de la Misère” says that in London there are prostitutes who earn $100 to $150 a week, and that the average earnings are $10 a week. [422]

To conclude I wish to call attention to the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet concerning this state of things in Paris. He says: “Of all the causes of prostitution, particularly in Paris, and probably in the other large cities, there is none more active than the lack of work, and the poverty inevitably consequent upon insufficient wages. What do our dressmakers, seamstresses, menders, and in general all those who work with the needle, earn? If we compare the wages of the most capable of them with what those of only moderate abilities can make, we shall see that it is not possible for these last to procure the mere necessaries of life. And if we then compare the price of their labor with that of their dishonor we shall not be surprised that so great a number fall into a life of shame made all but inevitable.” [423]

Not only does poverty, taken in the sense of the lack of the actual necessaries of life, act as a cause of prostitution, but also that relative poverty which prevents women from enjoying luxuries which seem necessities, like jewelry and fine clothes. With these same women laziness also plays a part.

Now the general opinion with regard to these factors is that they belong exclusively to the individual nature, that they are innate to some women, and that they consequently have nothing to do with the social environment. In my opinion this is entirely erroneous. Mankind are born with certain needs. The non-satisfaction of these needs causes death or the wasting away of the organism. These needs are what we call the strict necessities. All the other wants are awakened by the environment: that is to say, each possesses them in germ, but they are latent as long as the surroundings do not develop them. For example, no one would suffer from abstaining from tobacco if he did not see someone smoking; no woman would want expensive clothes if others did not wear them; etc. The desire to dress expensively, to wear jewelry, etc., is not at all, then, an individual quality of certain working-women; the germ of this want is innate in each individual, without any exception though in different degrees. The present order of society, by permitting certain women to spend immense sums for senseless luxury, awakens in others the desire to imitate them as far as possible. Since these last have not the means necessary to shine, they seek them where they may find them, and as there is only the way of prostitution, many follow it. We may add to this that a great number of men use their money and their distinguished manners to decide those who hesitate. This is, therefore, also one of the reasons why the ranks of prostitution are so often recruited from among dressmakers and domestics, i.e. from among those who come into direct contact with the luxury of others. [424] Another cause which makes women desire expensive and useless things is their low degree of culture, which shows them nothing more preferable than the possession of luxury. And where women who have all the leisure and the means necessary to busy themselves with more serious matters set the example of frivolity, we ought not to be surprised that those without the same advantages try to follow their example.

The same is true of idleness. If each person who is capable of it would do a certain amount of work, any normal individual would be ashamed to pass the day doing nothing. But the fact that there are women who are esteemed though they remain idle, awakens in other women, who are obliged to work long and hard, the desire to do nothing also. As prostitution opens to them the means of remaining unoccupied, they have recourse to it to satisfy their desire.

The irony which comes out so often in the social life shows itself here; the rich women who despise prostitutes never suspect that they themselves are in part the cause of the fall of the others, and that placed in the same poor surroundings they themselves would not act differently. [425]

All those who rank the causes last cited among individual factors base their opinion upon the thesis, equally strange and false, that there are two kinds of persons: those who by birth are destined to command and to enjoy, and those who are destined only to obey, to work, and not to enjoy at all. Looked at from this point of view the person who rejects these conditions constitutes an individual anomaly.

Perhaps it will be objected that without admitting the existence of individual causes it will be impossible to explain why, though a great number of women live under the conditions named, only a small fraction prostitute themselves. Those who reason in this way commit the error already spoken of, of thinking circumstances the same when they really differ. There are no two persons who live under exactly the same conditions, how much less thousands. To give one example only: all the women who earn only the strict necessities of life have not been raised in the same environment. Those who have grown up in favorable surroundings have perhaps so great an aversion to prostitution that they prefer a life of poverty to one of abundance procured by prostitution. It is possible that these women would prefer suicide to selling themselves, if they came to a state of complete destitution. Secondly it is necessary that a woman should not be too ugly, or the possibility of her earning her living by prostitution is excluded. No one would claim, however, that feminine beauty is one of the causes of prostitution; placed in another environment a woman would not prostitute herself simply because of her beauty.

Although the reasons already given refute in great measure the supposed objection, it must be confessed that the question is not thus entirely answered. Just as all the beings of a certain species differ among themselves, so these women differ naturally as to their innate qualities. The one will have more decided and more numerous wants than the other, she will be less laborious, more frivolous, etc. (qualities which in themselves have nothing to do with prostitution), and, other things being equal, she will be more exposed to the temptation to become a prostitute. All this is perfectly true, but it has nothing to do with the etiology of a social phenomenon like prostitution. For we are here in the presence of two distinct problems; why, of two persons placed in the same situation (supposing that to be possible), the one is more in danger of becoming a prostitute than the other; and, second, what are the causes of the social phenomenon which is called prostitution? The answer to the first question must be that in part at least it is because people differ as to the intensity of their characteristics and of their appetites. The answer to the second is the social conditions.

When two persons of different height are fording a river, and the shorter steps into a hole and is drowned, should we have the right to say that the difference between the height of persons is one of the reasons why people are drowned? I think not. The only reason why there are people who are drowned is that a man cannot live in water—which in no way excludes the fact that a short person runs more danger of drowning than a tall one.

Now as to prostitution—the atmosphere in which certain women live is the cause of their fall, which does not prevent its being true that some of them run more risk than others. The truth of this assertion may be proved by an observation of the facts. Among women who are not prostitutes also there are more who are lazy, frivolous, etc. than those who are not. And though the former have not prostituted themselves, if they had lived in bad surroundings and in poverty they would have run more risk than the latter. If all women were exactly equal prostitution would be as general as it is now; only in this case it would be in every case the environment which would decide what woman became a prostitute, whereas in reality there are, alongside of the environment, individual differences which determine which ones run more risk than the others.

Those who believe that there are here individual causes at work always take the point of view that society is not an organism but a collection of individuals, and that consequently an examination of the individual will suffice to explain social phenomena. It is by the study of prostitution, for example, as a social phenomenon that we bring out the fact that individual differences do not play any part in the etiology of prostitution.