until the old barriers of silence and inaction, behind which the social
evil has so long intrenched itself, shall at last give way.

Certainly it will soon be found that the sentiment of pity, so recently
aroused throughout the country on behalf of the victims of the white
slave traffic, will be totally unable to afford them protection unless
it becomes incorporated in government. It is possible that we are on the
eve of a series of legislative enactments similar to those which
resulted from the attempts to regulate child labor. Through the entire
course of the last century, in that anticipation of coming changes which
does so much to bring changes about, the friends of the children were
steadily engaged in making a new state, from the first child labor law
passed in the English parliament in 1803 to the final passage of the
so-called children's charter in 1909. During the long century of
transforming pity into political action there was created that social
sympathy which has become one of the greatest forces in modern
legislation, and to which we may confidently appeal in this new crusade
against the social evil.

Another point of similarity to the child labor movement is obvious, for
the friends of the children early found that they needed much
statistical information and that the great problem of the would-be
reformer is not so much overcoming actual opposition--the passing of
time gradually does that for him--as obtaining and formulating accurate
knowledge and fitting that knowledge into the trend of his time. From
this point of view and upon the basis of what has already been
accomplished for "the protection of minors," the many recent
investigations which have revealed the extreme youth of the victims of
the white slave traffic, should make legislation on their behalf all the
more feasible. Certainly no reformer could ever more legitimately make