Plain Facts About a Great Evil  (English, Paperback, Christabel Pankhurst)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1913. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE GOVERNMENT AND WHITE SLAVERY No wonder the Government resist the enfranchisement of women The reason of their Anti-Suffrage policy is plain. We should as soon expect the White Slave traders to welcome Votes for Women, as we should expect the Government to welcome that reform. The fact is that the Government are themselves White Slavemongers and upholders of vice. That is why they dare not meet the judgment of women voters. That the Government are bad employers, and are thus responsible for driving women into slavery, is a notorious fact. Working women have no power to elect Members of Parliament, and so cannot get the protection of an adequate fair wage clause such as working men, through their votes, can obtain. Sweating is, therefore, rampant in connection with the employment of women on Government contracts. But that is not all, and that is not the worst. The Government are directly responsible for a large measure of White Slavery. They are, in effect procurers of women for the vicious pleasures of men in the Army and Navy. The state of affairs in India is thus described by the Friends' Association for Abolishing State Regulation of Vice: The following system is now in existence practically throughout the Indian cantonments --the permanent military stations: 1. Certain houses, set aside for immoral purposes, are definitely permitted by the local authorities of the Government of India in the cantonments, with the understanding that the keepers of these houses will abide by the regulations of the Cantonment Code. 2. When a British soldier is found by the medical officer of the regiment to be suffering from disease caused by vice, he is questioned as to the supposed origin of that disease, and if the woman accused lives in one of these houses, s...