The Girl That Disappears/Chapter 5
V
GIRLS AT $60 AND $75 EACH
ALTHOUGH the grand jury conscientiously admitted that they could not find the organized and incorporated traffic insisted upon by Judge O'Sullivan as the only game they were pursuing, the presentment recorded fifty-four indictments as a part of the work of the District Attorney's office. It also reported five self-declared dealers in women who had agreed to supply human flesh and blood to the grand jury's agents, but because of the fear aroused by the newspaper accounts of the grand jury's activities only two of these sales actually were effected. Two of these girls in one sale brought $75 a piece, the other two in the other sale, $60 each.
All of these dealers boasted to the investigators of the extensive local and inter-state operations they had been able to carry on without fear of interference before the convening of the grand jury. They specifically named cities to which they had forwarded women regularly, and described their operations in the recent past as free from danger.
Of course the white slave dealers have no international formal or incorporated business organization. There could be none in the very nature of things; but, as the grand jury said, there is international traffic carried on by individuals. This was established beyond a reasonable doubt by the investigation started by the congressional commission. This congressional investigation showed that there was a connected chain of men and women trafficking in girls brought into this country to be used and sold as prostitutes. The chain has it largest center in New York and in Chicago, and branch connections in many other cities. It operates most freely in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Nome, Alaska, Omaha, Denver and New Orleans.