"Panders, the law calls these creatures, both male and female, who trade in human flesh to fill the dens of shame. These panders originated in Eastern Europe. The immediate cause at that time, was the abject poverty of the people in certain European countries and provinces.
"The early girl slave trade was carried on by the sale of girls from Eastern Europe into the Orient through the main distribution center, Constantinople. The victims of this traffic were recruited chiefly from the Ghetto of Europe in the old kingdoms of Poland, now part of Russia and Austria. The kaftan, as the procurer was then called, gathered up the girls in Galicia and Russian Poland and sold them into Asia.
"About a half century ago the girl slave trade began in the West. This was the beginning of White Slavery as we know it today. The condition of the Jewish people in Southwestern Russia, Poland, in Galicia, and in the North of Austria was deplorable. The girl slave traffic proper began first in Galicia. There, the Jewish people persecuted and oppressed, first fled for protection and were huddled together. The lands became greatly over crowded and the people became destitute and poor. They had not enough work to provide themselves with food and clothing, and the support of the daughters, who could not earn money, became a great burden.
"People who traveled through Galicia and other European provinces to investigate social conditions there, tell that it is not an uncommon thing to find two and three, and even four families living in a house with one large room, the quarters of each family being separated by a chalk line, or a string drawn across a clay floor. Housed together in this fashion, men, women and children often sleeping on the floor are brought into close and sometimes improper relations. This horrible condition in the home naturally breeds immorality.
"Year by year the condition had grown worse until word reached these poverty stricken people of the need of laborers and female help in South America. The began the flow which developed into the steady stream of immigration of girls to South America, and which afforded opportunity to the kaftan to turn the trade in women to the West.
"The business of procuring, transporting and selling girls for immoral purposes, developed to an enormous extent. With Lemberg as the principal recruiting center, many cities in Russian and Austrian Poland were infested with human leaches who made it their business to ship or personally conduct girls to the South American continent. It is reported that thousands...of these girls were induced to go upon promises of marriage and others were taken there upon the promises of securing work. There is to this day a large colony of these procurers in Buenos Ayres. However, many of them have been driven out by the stringent laws recently passed in the Argentine Republic, as part of the world wide crusade that is being made against these loathsome wretches.
"For some reason the Russian and Galician kaftan steered clear of the North American continent, and herded their victims for the slaughter in Argentinia and other South American countries.
"It was the procurers in France who first developed the business of exploiting girls to supply the vice resorts of North America. About the time the Jewish kaftan discovered the opportunities in the west for the sale of slaves, the procurer, known in his native country as Maquereaux (Mackerel) had reached the zenith of his prosperity in France during the reign of Louis Napoleon in the sixties. So well developed was the procuring business in France that the maquereaux adopted a costume of their own, consisting of black velvet trousers, a blouse, and a little silk cap, which was called the bijou.
"With the advent of the French Republic the sentiment of the public was aroused against the operation of the maquereaux, and they were driven from the country. Many of them were exiled to the Penal Colonies of New Caledonia and French Guiana. Meeting strong opposition they began to sek other fields for their foul business and traveled far and wide until today they may be found over the entire world. Many of them began trading girls in London and New York. The latter place seemed to offer them the greatest advantages and the best returns for their efforts.
"The French girl slave soon became common, not only in New York, but also in Chicago, San Francisco, and other American cities. Until the last few years the French girl brought a high price to the trader who sold her, and in consequence some of these procurers grew very righ. In many of the larger cities of the United States today the proprietors of the larger immoral houses are French people.
"Following closely on the heels of the French maquereaux in New York came the cadet. There was a great influx of Austrian, Russian and Hungarian Jews about twenty-five years ago in New York City. Among these immigrants were disreputable men and boys who had learned the art of procuring from the kaftan of Eastern Europe, and they soon began to develop this traffic in America. The crowded condition in the East side of New York gave these cadets a great field to work upon. Corrupt politicians in New York City, anxious to control the districts largely populated by foreign people winked at the development of the sale of girls by the cadets and sometimes aided in it? American bred boys, men and women, ever on the alert for making money soon grasped the idea that this was an easy way of acquiring an income. In recent years the Italians and Greeks have come into prominence in the pandering business?.
"It is deplorable that among some of these people of the East side of New York and the West side of Chicago the business of trading in women is not considered wrong, but is regarded as "business." Even the men who are well known as dealers in human flesh stand high among their own people in these communities and some have held positions of honor and respect in their religious circles?. Their idea in carrying on the occupation of buying and selling girls is regarded very much in the light that if they do not engage in this profitable business some one else will." (Roe, 97-101)
Roe's book provides an excellent description of the trafficking in women and girls in the late 1800s and early 1900s-- in the time period immediately prior to passage of the Mann Act. Because of the sensitivity of the issue being discussed and the sensitivity of Roe's readers, the ages of the women and girls are often blurred and there is no reference to pre-teens. This is a fault of much of the research that is done on sex slavery and the trafficking in women and children. Few researchers appear willing to discuss or to collect statistics or case studies on the sexual slavery of pre-teens. Statistical research rarely drops below age twelve or age nine, although it is clear that children below these two cut-off ages are enslaved, trafficked, and used sexually.