Butte. As the list of cities was comparatively small, it seemed not
unreasonable to hope that the international traffic might be rigorously
prosecuted, with the prospect of finally doing away with it in spite of
its subtle methods, its multiplied ramifications, and its financial
resources. Only officials of vigorous conscience can deal with this
traffic; but certainly there can be no nobler service for federal and
state officers to undertake than this protection of immigrant girls.

It is obvious that a foreign girl who speaks no English, who has not the
remotest idea in what part of the city her fellow-countrymen live, who
does not know the police station or any agency to which she may apply,
is almost as valuable to a white slave trafficker as a girl imported
directly for the trade. The trafficker makes every effort to intercept
such a girl before she can communicate with her relations. Although
great care is taken at Ellis Island, the girl's destination carefully
indicated upon her ticket and her friends communicated with, after she
boards the train the governmental protection is withdrawn and many
untoward experiences may befall a girl between New York and her final
destination. Only this year a Polish mother of the Hull House
neighborhood failed to find her daughter on a New York train upon which
she had been notified to expect her, because the girl had been induced
to leave the New York train at South Chicago, where she was met by two
young men, one of them well known to the police, and the other a young
Pole, purporting to have been sent by the girl's mother.

The immigrant girl also encounters dangers upon the very moment of her
arrival. The cab-men and expressmen are often unscrupulous. One of the
latter was recently indicted in Chicago upon the charge of regularly
procuring immigrant girls for a disreputable hotel. The non-English
speaking girl handing her written address to a cabman has no means of