home to know that he had visited such a place? No; he
would let the girl get out the best way she could; even though he might
promise to help her. Girls are told of or perhaps have witnessed others
who tried to escape, have seen their failure and punishment, and are
thereby cowed into submission. They are always held upon the pretense of
being indebted to the house, and this indebtedness has long been the
backbone of the white slave system. From the time the girl is first sold
into the house she is constantly in debt. First, for the money the owner
gave to the procurer for her, next, for her parlor clothes, then for the
money her procurer borrows from the owner on her as his property, goods
and chattel. The bonds of slavery are thus fastened upon these poor
mortals by a system of debt and vice that the people of this great
country little realized existed until lately.

Fighting against this slave trade under the archaic Illinois laws was
quite disheartening because it was almost impossible to get more than a
fine upon the charge of disorderly conduct. The laws were so full of
loopholes that the traders laughed at the idea of being prosecuted.
However, in Illinois, at least, we have choked the laugh. The features
once wreathed in smiles begin to show the lines of worry and fear, for a
new law called the Pandering Act has been passed. This went into force
July 1st, 1908. The new law is good, but experience has shown where
improvement is necessary. Without exception, in cases I have tried,
certain wholesome-minded jurors have said after concluding the case,
that the penalty was too light for the first offender. It should be made
more severe. Therefore an effort is now being made to make the first
offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary from one to ten
years. Then, also, there should be a new law covering the bringing a
female person of any age into the state or taking her out of the state
for immoral purposes. The age limit should be omitted from the present
Illinois law, which does not punish those bringing girls over the age of
eighteen into the state. While other states are sending for copies of
the Illinois pandering and other white slave laws, the state legislation
will soon be uniform upon this subject, the United States government
should be alive to the situation also. At present it has only the
immigration laws regulating the importation of immoral women to fall
back upon. A federal law under the int