Commercialized Prostitution in New York City Part 9

Reliable and complete statistics as to the prevalence of venereal disease, its consequences immediate and remote, are not to be had. In the absence of compulsory reporting, it is impossible to estimate the number of cases under treatment by physicians; in addition to these, large numbers endeavor to conceal the truth by foolishly resorting to quacks, advertised nostrums, etc. Figures obtainable from hospitals represent, therefore, only a fraction, probably an inconsiderable fraction, of those afflicted; as far as they go, a careful study elicits the following facts:

During the year 1911, 522,722 cases of all kinds were treated in 17 dispensaries in New York City; 15,781, or 3.01 percent of these cases, were venereally affected. The hospitals of the city possess few beds for the reception of venereal patients; nevertheless, 5,380 persons--6.33 per cent of all cases treated in 13 different hospitals--were venereally affected, about two-thirds male, one-third female. These infections occur at any time from the first to the seventieth year,--the period of greatest frequency being between 16 and 30 years of age: between 16 and 20, 796 were males and 369 females; between 21 and 25, 1,182 and 454, respectively; between 26 and 30, 692 and 268.

For several reasons these figures are far from suggesting the actual extent of venereal infection,--in the first place, because, as above stated, the hospitals receive but a fraction of the sufferers; in the second, because accurate diagnosis has only recently become feasible. The percentages increase heavily as soon as the more delicate and reliable tests devised by Wa.s.sermann and others are applied. For example, 308 adults were admitted to the medical wards of a certain New York hospital during the months of January, February, and March, 1913; though the Wa.s.sermann test for syphilis was made in the case of only 166 of these, 38, _i. e._, 23 percent of those examined, gave positive results; this is equivalent to 12.3 percent of the entire 308. Had the test been applied to all adults admitted, undoubtedly the ratio of syphilitic infection would have been higher still. As a matter of fact, the test as usually performed does not disclose all cases of infection; so that the prevalence of disease is actually greater than the tests indicate.

The civil state of the patients in the cases first mentioned is shown in the following table:

Males Females

single married widowers single married widows 640 2950 57 589 802 90

From the standpoint of occupation, every social cla.s.s is represented,--necessarily so, inasmuch as every social cla.s.s figures in the phenomena of prost.i.tution. The occupations given by male patients were as follows: professional, 52; clerical and official, 307; mercantile and trading, 250; public entertainment, 120; personal service, police and military, 186; laboring and servant, 1,181; manufacturing and mechanical industry, 932; agricultural, transportation, and other outdoor employments, 645; no occupations, 58; cla.s.sified as unknown, 8; children, 11; congenital origin, 31; schoolboys, 10; students, 10. The occupations of female patients are as follows: professional, 46; domestic and personal, 1,144; trade and transportation, 109; manufacturing and mechanical, 86; no occupations, 72; unknown, 9; schoolgirls, 21; children, 76.

In respect to the disease with which they were afflicted, 413 of the 1,563 females suffered from syphilis; 1,036 from gonorrhoea; 9 from chancroids, and 105 from complications. Eight hundred and eighty-three of the men were suffering from syphilis; 1,445 from gonorrhoea; 203 from chancroids, and 1,276 from complications.

It needs no argument to show that the cost of prost.i.tution is enormously augmented even by the amount of disease accounted for in the preceding discussion; as this represents but a small part of the whole, the totals thus reached require to be multiplied by a large factor. But the reckoning would still be incomplete, even if we knew the actual volume of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chancre; for there would remain to be included the remote effects, not less certainly due to venereal affection, and even more fateful and costly than the immediate manifestations,--paralysis, sterility, miscarriage, deformity, degeneracy, insanity,--curses that stretch even "unto the third and fourth generations." From the effort to translate such losses into dollars and cents, the boldest calculator may well shrink: yet they are a part,--a certain, inevitable part--of the cost of prost.i.tution.

CHAPTER VII

PROSt.i.tUTION, THE POLICE, AND THE LAW

In respect to vice and vice resorts, the police rules require that each police captain must report to the Commissioner all places in his precinct where disorderly, degraded or lawless people congregate, and also give notice in writing to the owner, lessee or occupant, that such room or building is so used, and that such use const.i.tutes a misdemeanor. If the owner, lessee, or occupant does not abate the nuisance, the captain is empowered to obtain a warrant for his arrest and to prosecute him as required by law. In addition, each captain is required to make charges of neglect of duty against any patrolman who fails to discover a serious breach of peace on his post, or fails to arrest any person guilty of such offense. If a house is under suspicion of being disorderly or is so in fact, the officer on the beat is required to restrain acts of disorder, prevent soliciting from windows, doors, or on the streets, and to arrest all persons so doing. He must also carefully observe all other places of suspicious nature, obtain evidence as to the character and owners.h.i.+p of such houses and report the same to his commanding officer.[229]

Between January 1 and August 1, 1912, police captains in Manhattan reported to the department 112 separate places as suspicious or disorderly; against these, they made 542 complaints. Seven complaints were made against one place in the 5th precinct, 46 against 9 places in the 16th precinct, 180 against 35 places in the 23rd. The police activities are tabulated in the following table:[230]

POLICE REPORTS

No. of Places Precinct No. Reports Involved 5 7 1 6 8 4 12 5 3 15 46 9 16 9 3 18 81 15 21 20 6 22 34 10 23 180 35 26 105 15 28 5 1 36 3 3 39 21 3 43 18 4 --- --- Totals 542 112

The following table distributes the places reported according to the character of the resort and the precinct:

POLICE REPORTS

Prost.i.tution a.s.signation Disorderly Precincts Places Houses Places Total 1 .. .. .. ..

2 .. .. .. ..

5 1 .. .. 1 6 .. .. 4 4 7 .. .. .. ..

8 .. .. .. ..

10 .. .. .. ..

12 3 .. .. 3 13 .. .. .. ..

14 .. .. .. ..

15 .. .. 9 9 16 3 .. .. 3 17 .. .. .. ..

18 .. .. 15 15 21 1 5 .. 6 22 9 1 .. 10 23 25 5 5 35 25 .. .. .. ..

26 15 .. .. 15 28 .. .. 1 1 29 .. .. .. ..

31 .. .. .. ..

32 .. .. .. ..

33 .. .. .. ..

35 .. .. .. ..

36 .. 3 .. 3 39 3 .. .. 3 40 .. .. .. ..

43 4 .. .. 4 --- -- -- -- --- Totals 64 14 34 112

On the basis of both months and precincts these reports are distributed thus:

POLICE REPORTS Separate Places-- Precincts Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Total Total ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

2 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 6 4 4 .. .. .. .. .. 8 4 7 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

8 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

10 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

12 1 2 1 1 .. .. .. 5 3 13 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

14 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

15 9 9 8 6 4 4 46 9 16 3 3 3 .. .. .. .. 9 3 18 15 11 11 11 11 11 11 81 15 21 6 5 5 1 1 1 1 20 6 22 2 3 3 3 6 9 8 34 10 23 27 29 28 22 24 24 26 180 35 25 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

26 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 105 15 28 .. 1 1 1 1 1 .. 5 1 29 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

31 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

32 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

33 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

35 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

36 3 .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 3 39 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 21 3 40 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

43 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 18 4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- --- Totals 93 90 81 66 70 71 71 542 112

It would appear thus that in the fifth precinct the same house is reported month after month; in the 18th, 11 houses are reported during five of the 6 months; in the 26th precinct, 15 houses are systematically and regularly denounced.

Our own investigation began approximately three weeks later than the above tables and ran three months longer. In its course, our investigators reported 429 parlor houses, ma.s.sage parlors, furnished room houses and hotels; and 379 saloons and miscellaneous places allied with prost.i.tution.

The 429 resorts first mentioned are distributed as follows:

INVESTIGATORS' REPORTS Total Parlor Ma.s.sage Furnished investigation Precincts houses parlors rooms Hotels Addresses

1 .. .. .. .. ..

2 .. .. .. .. ..

5 3 .. .. .. 3 6 6 .. .. 1 7 7 .. .. .. .. ..

8 .. .. .. .. ..

10 .. .. .. .. ..

12 3 .. .. .. 3 13 .. .. 1 2 3 14 .. .. 2 .. 2 15 11 .. 19 9 39 16 .. .. .. 1 1 17 1 .. 2 .. 3 18 21 8 10 8 47 21 3 .. 5 12 20 22 22 3 41 7 73 23 35 23 14 21 93 25 1 1 1 2 5 26 29 17 10 16 72 28 1 8 2 5 16 29 .. 9 .. 3 12 32 .. 1 .. 1 2 33 .. .. .. .. ..

36 .. .. .. 10 10 39 5 .. 2 1 8 40 .. .. .. .. ..

43 1 .. 3 6 10 --- -- --- --- --- Totals 142 70 112 105 429

The 379 saloons and miscellaneous places allied with prost.i.tution were discovered in the following precincts:

Saloons, etc., and miscellaneous Precincts places allied with prost.i.tution

1 2 2 5 6 11 7 10 12 13 4 14 2 15 26 16 7 17 18 26 21 17 22 45 23 39 25 14 26 61 28 16 29 2 32 23 33 1 36 26 39 29 40 4 43 24 ---- Total 379

Comparison of the police reports with those made by our investigators shows marked differences. For example: in the sixth precinct, the police report 4 addresses, our agents 18, of which 11 were saloons, etc.; in the 15th, the police found 9, our agents 65, twenty-six of them saloons, etc.; in the 21st, the police gave 6, our agents 37, seventeen of them saloons, etc.; in the 22nd, the police report 10, our agents 118, forty-five of them saloons; in the 26th, 15 and 133 respectively, 61 of the latter being saloons, etc.; in the 28th, one place is noted by the police, 32 by our agents, 16 of them saloons, etc.; in the 32nd, none by the police, 25 by our agents, 23 of them saloons, etc.; in the 33rd precinct none is reported by police, one by our agents.

In the following table, both sets of reports are arranged side by side in tabular form, all forms of disorderly resorts being grouped together:

No. disorderly No. disorderly places reported places found by by police our investigators Jan. 1- from Jan. 24- Precinct Aug. 1, 1912. Nov. 15, 1912.