Chapter III (2)

A second condition without which successful education is impossible is that educators shall have the innate qualities necessary for their task. We should doubt, and not without reason, the common sense of anyone who dared to assert that every person was capable of becoming a good sculptor or even carpenter. Just so no one could say that everyone possesses the qualities necessary for an art as difficult as that of education.

To be a good educator it is necessary to be very fond of children, to have much patience and zeal, to know how to put one’s self on a plane with the child, to have a clear and practical intellect, especially when the teacher has a great affection for the child, since without intelligence the excess of affection will only be harmful. There are parents who possess these qualities in a very high degree, and it is only to be regretted that they teach only their own children, and not those also of parents in whom the teaching faculty is entirely lacking. Next comes the group of those who have a modicum of the requisite qualities, and finally a smaller group who have little or no aptitude for the task. The least fit to give a good education, however, are psychopathic individuals, because of their changeable disposition, their quick fits of temper, etc.

Just as educators differ greatly in their innate fitness for teaching, so different children need to be guided in different ways. If there are children who require little care in order that they may presently be able to adapt themselves to the requirements of society, others, who form the great majority, require more; while there remains a second minority who, if they are to be made fairly useful men and women, must have constant and minute attention. Among these last are to be classed the victims of heredity. If they have parents without great teaching ability, as is often the case with these psychopathic individuals, the results are even worse.

Aside from innate fitness it is necessary that an educator should have received the necessary education. The teacher without notions of psychology, of pedagogy, etc., often deceives himself, even if he has all the necessary innate qualities, and consequently warps the character of his pupils.

The instructor must learn his trade, and if this is so, why should not the educator in charge of the moral education of the child need an apprenticeship, since moral education is a task no less difficult than intellectual education (which is about all that our present schools undertake)? However, it is incontestable that in all classes of society today moral education is practiced in dilettante fashion, as was formerly the case with intellectual education. [337]

Finally, there remains the condition that the teacher should have the time necessary to perform his task, for without this the most capable cannot attain good results. Having now laid down the general conditions, let us go on to examine in a few words education as it is actually practiced in the different classes.

Let us begin with the bourgeoisie. As has already been remarked, the children in this class are often spoiled by the great luxury that surrounds them, and further by the fact that their intellect is developed at the expense of their moral qualities. As my remarks concerning capacity, character, etc., apply to all classes, it is unnecessary here to speak of them more fully. Only it must be observed that, as far as positive knowledge of pedagogy is concerned, the bourgeoisie is much superior to the proletariat, from which there follows among other things a corresponding superiority of the bourgeois education. The character of the bourgeois woman, who occupies, like all women, a lower rank in society, has generally suffered still more from her easy mode of life, and her weakness of character is transmitted to her children if she brings them up herself. This condition must be added, for society life, or in other words, the habit of doing nothing at all, is often the cause of mothers’ having their children brought up by some one who has neither natural aptitude nor acquired capacity for this task, but only takes charge of the children for the sake of a place. There are even children who are not suckled by their mothers but by nurses, since the mothers are afraid of diminishing their own charms. This proves once more the weakness of the allegation that the parents are the natural educators of the child; for we see in this case that the social environment can lead to the renunciation of duties that are really natural. [338]

The moral education of the children of the bourgeoisie is generally superficial, and has especially in view the task of teaching the children to conduct themselves according to the proprieties, much more than that of developing their real moral nature. [339] In the second place this education develops among them a very strong feeling of class, so that they consider the members of the proletariat as inferior beings, born by nature to serve the bourgeoisie, in place of seeing in them only their own fellows, who have become different merely because of fortuitous circumstances.

In the third place, our present educational system makes children egoistic, those of the bourgeoisie more than those of the proletariat. This assertion contradicts, it is true, the numerous authors who are convinced that our present education in the family is a source of altruism. [340] They are right when they say that altruistic sentiments between the members of the family themselves have their rise within the circle of the family. For a long time the life within the family constituted a man’s whole life (as it still does for a very great number of women), but in the society of today a great part of the time is passed outside of the family circle, and for this reason the opinion of these authors, though shared by many persons, is not correct. In the family circle the child, especially when he has neither brothers nor sisters, [341] soon discovers that his own interests come first, that the outside world is his enemy, and that when he grows up he must make himself as large a place there as possible. It matters little that the interests of others will then be injured. It must be added further, that if on the one side the family is an economic unity, and that the interests of the members of the family are so far parallel, on the other hand there exist opposing interests, such as inheritance, which may destroy the homogeneity of interest.

It may be objected here that in our present society, consisting as it does for the most part of adherents of Christianity, most children are taught to love their neighbor as themselves. This is true, but in a society such as ours, where the interests of all men are opposed, the effect of this commandment cannot be great, or will be practiced only in words and not in acts, and so end in hypocrisy. He who wants to follow this commandment to the letter sees himself at once defeated in the conflict of life, unless he changes his opinion. [342]

No one known to me has better characterized the existing educational system than Owen. “As society is now constituted,” he says, “no children can by possibility be really well educated. The fundamental errors upon which it has been based, filling the early mind with error and hypocrisy and all manner of conflicting ideas, opposed to facts and to nature, render it impracticable for any child to be rationally trained or treated by society. And the more education of this kind is given to children, the more they are estranged from a knowledge of themselves, or of human nature generally, and the less competent will they be to understand what society has been made to be, and yet less what it ought to be, and how it may be made what it is desirable that it should be, for the happiness and well-being of all.

“Mothers and fathers thus taught, are incompetent to teach and educate their children in the spirit, manner, and conduct, which should, for the benefit of all, be given to all children. Their affections also, especially the strong natural animal affections of the mother, are, in almost all cases too strong for the very limited powers of judging accurately respecting their own children and those of other parents, which females now acquire from their present mal-education.

“The individual family arrangements confining the child to the limited number of ideas among them—to their early deep impressions in favor of family interests and supposed rights—to the narrow and partial experience of a family and its usual small connections, are equally destructive of a good sound practical education or well-training of children.

“The individual system of society which has so long prevailed in all nations, and amongst all peoples, is also a strong barrier to the proper education of beings intended to be made rational. The individual system of society is injurious to man now, under every point of view in which it can be considered; but especially in the education of children of all classes. It confines all their strongest feelings to self first, then to family, afterwards to kindred, and then to small neighborhoods and districts, regularly and systematically training each child to become at maturity a merely localized, ignorantly selfish animal, filled with family and geographical prejudices.

“As long as this individual system shall be continued, it will be vain to expect that any child can be well educated, or properly trained to become a rational being—a man with the full physical and mental powers of humanity, intelligent, moral, and virtuous. The isolated character formed by the individual system will, as long as children shall be educated under it, and in accordance with all its innumerable errors in practice and principle, render it impossible for any child to be so educated and placed in society as not to become, more or less, a cause of anxiety to its parents. Every child under this system comes into society, at its birth, opposed by the capital and experience of society; and as it advances in its progress, and has to take part in the jostle, bustle and business of life, it has to contend for itself, often, not only against these general powers of society, but on the death of parents, or sometimes even before, with brothers and sisters, for individual property or other advantages.

“Besides, children before they have any resisting powers of mind, being forced to receive the errors of their parents and other early instructors, respecting their supposed faculties of believing and disbelieving, loving and hating, are by this process, placed through life in direct opposition to nature; and, as vice has been made, by the gross errors of our ancestors, to consist in acting in accordance with nature, and virtue in acting in opposition to it, and as nature continually impels the individual to desire to act in accordance with its own laws, in defiance of man’s unwise and unjust laws, the great probability is that children will be more liable to obey nature than man; and thus, where there are children, they must be a source of constant anxiety to parents; and that anxiety must be injurious to the best formation of the organization of the remainder of the infants that may be born to them.” [343]

We have still to fix our attention upon the sexual education of the children of the bourgeoisie. In our society the Christian sexual ethics is dominant, often even among non-Christians, without their being conscious of it. According to this system the whole sexual life proceeds from the evil one, and man would be better without any sexual instincts. [344] This is why children are generally raised in an absolute ignorance upon this subject, or even have lies told to them about it. As nature cannot be suppressed it follows that the curiosity of the child only becomes the more inflamed, and that the conduct of men in this regard becomes hypocritical. [345]

Secondly, let us take up education in the petty bourgeoisie. Upon this point we can be very brief. A part of this class joins on to the proletariat from the conditions of its life, and another part to the bourgeoisie. It is unnecessary, therefore, to speak of it at length. It is only the core of the petty bourgeoisie who, having kept the traditions of their class, show any differences in this regard. Here there is no danger of the demoralizing influence of the luxurious surroundings of the rich, and the surveillance of the father is greater, and thus the education more severe; but the limited conception of life, and the continual efforts of the parents, eager to procure advantages for their families, develop egotism among their children in a high degree.

With regard to the proletariat it has already been shown that the material advantages necessary for a sufficient education are lacking in the case of this class. Housing conditions are here of the greatest importance. Generally there is not room enough for the children at home, so that they spend the greater part of the day in the street. Then again the housing conditions are responsible for the fact that the children often are thrown with persons whose influence is harmful to them (prostitutes, etc.). And finally the small apartments bring it about that the children are too early instructed in sexual matters, and this in a bad way (through sleeping in the same small room with their parents, or in the same bed with children of the opposite sex, etc.).

Then children need to grow up in an environment not poisoned by cares, one in which poverty does not harden the heart, and extinguish all gayety, and where the knowledge necessary for education is not wanting. Further, in this class the father has generally no opportunity to busy himself with the education of his children in consequence of the long duration of his hours of labor outside of the home. A great many working men have to leave home in the morning to go to work long before their children are awake, to return only after the little ones have already been put to bed; and the situation is much the same where the laborer works at night, and consequently sleeps during the day.

The development of capitalism has led to the paid labor of married women, and consequently to one of the most important causes of the demoralization of the children of the working class. When there is no one to watch a child, when he is left to himself, he becomes demoralized. In his work, “The Condition of the Working-Class in England”, F. Engels has put the situation briefly: “The employment of the wife [in the factory] dissolves the family utterly and of necessity, and this dissolution, in our present society, which is based upon the family, brings the most demoralizing consequences, both for parents and for the children. A mother who has no time to trouble herself about her child, to perform the most ordinary loving services for it during the first year, who scarcely indeed sees it, can be no real mother to the child, must inevitably grow indifferent to it, and treat it unlovingly, like a stranger. The children who grow up under such conditions are entirely ruined for later family life, can never feel at home in the family which they themselves found, because they have always been accustomed to isolation, and they contribute therefore to the already general undermining of the family in the working class.” [346]

Finally, when, through death or otherwise, the parents are no longer in a position to support and raise their children, they are left to their fate, unless there are charitable persons or benevolent institutions that wish to take charge of them. For the state, for reasons shown above, does not lay upon itself the duty of caring for such children.

It remains now to speak of the lower proletariat, among whom prostitutes and criminals are included. The education of these persons is not only much neglected, as is often the case with the children of the proletariat, of whom it may be said that they receive a negative education—but these receive in addition a positive education in evil. It might be possible to dispute the advantages of a good education, but it is indisputable that children brought up by immoral people, or even incited to evil (prostitution or crime) run the greatest risk, unless exceptional circumstances present themselves, of becoming persons hurtful to society.

In this connection it is necessary to fix our attention, finally, upon the situation in which illegitimate children find themselves. Since marriage, at once the consequence and support of existing social conditions, is the only form of sexual union legally recognized, illegitimate children are legally and socially treated as pariahs. [347]

It is difficult to form an idea of the great number of children who, in our present society, are neglected or abandoned. The following passage may help form some conception of it: “If the reader will imagine a procession of 109,000 children marching past him, and notice attentively child after child as it goes by, he will get some idea of the extent of the suffering of children with which the ‘National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in England’ has actually had to do during the first ten years of its existence.

“The first 25,437 are sufferers from injuries inflicted upon them with boots, crockery, pans, shovels, straps, ropes, pokers, fire, boiling water, in short with every imaginable instrument that came to the hand of the brutal and vindictive parents—covered with wounds and bruises, burned, scalded, and covered with plasters and bandages.

“Then come 62,887 sufferers from neglect and starvation—covered with dirt, eruptions, and sores, trembling, in rags, half-naked, pale, weak, faint, feeble, pining, starving, dying—many of them borne in the arms of the nurses of the hospitals.

“Then come 712 funeral processions, where the maltreatment ended fatally.

“Then come 12,663 little beings, their sufferings displayed to turn the lazy and cruel benevolence of the street to those who are answerable for their pallor, leanness, and coughs—most of these, too, are still in arms, but in the arms of vile drunkards and vagabonds.

“Then come 4460 pitiable girls, victims of the lust of human monsters.

“Then come 3205 little slaves of unsuitable and harmful occupations and dangerous performances, untimely births in traveling vans, acrobats at fairs, trapeze performers and tight-rope walkers in circuses, laboring under too heavy a load, and suffering the most diverse outrages. The procession is 60 miles long and takes 24 hours to pass by.” [348]

The society spoken of above is a private institution. The extent of its labors is very limited, which is why it has not taken cognizance of a great number of the children who have been thus treated. At the time when the report containing the above figures had just appeared, it had only been in operation ten years—during the last five more effectively, as a part of the first five was taken up with the organization of its service. Finally the field of its labors includes only the United Kingdom, while capitalism reigns over a great part of the world and has everywhere the same consequences. In consideration of these facts we can form an idea of the great destitution in which a multitude of children are found, and what sort of persons children so treated are likely to grow up to be.

To sum up what has been said, we see that the system of education for the child has not always been what it is now, and that we cannot therefore speak in this connection of institutions created by nature, except as regards the relation between mother and child during the first years of the latter’s life. It has been shown, I think, that the present system of education is closely bound up with the method of production of the day. No one can deny that in this regard also we are far from living in the “best of possible worlds.” [349]

C. PROSTITUTION. [350]

By prostitution must be understood the social fact that there are women who sell their bodies for the exercise of sexual acts, and make a profession of it. The putting of one’s body at the disposal of another for the purpose of sexual intercourse constitutes then at times the sale of merchandise. To find the cause of prostitution in our present society it is necessary to begin by asking: “What are the causes for the demand for this merchandise?” These causes may be reduced to the following:

a. The difficulty or impossibility of marrying found by many men. We have already seen that in our present society there is a continually increasing number of the petty bourgeois and of those who practice the liberal professions who, in consequence of the insufficiency of their incomes, cannot marry, or only at a rather advanced age. As we have seen, also, this is not in general the case with the proletariat. They reach the maximum of their wages while still quite young, and are less exacting as regards their material needs. All this brings it about that they marry sooner and so have less recourse to prostitution. (Soldiers and seamen, who are often forced to remain unmarried, form an exception.)

b. Besides those of whom I have been speaking, those also must be mentioned who do not wish to attach themselves for life to a single woman. Further, separate education, inducing a different life for the two sexes, is often an obstacle to the easy meeting of two persons who might make a marriage of inclination. Many men renounce marriage because the intellectual plane of women is altogether different from theirs, as a consequence both of their education and of their manner of life, and also because with them the thought of improving their economic position by marriage predominates. [351]

The larger contingent of men who have recourse to prostitutes is made up of bachelors, [352] and the smaller of married men. Whence springs the following cause:

c. Often the marriage is not contracted from inclination, but for financial reasons, which brings it about that the men often indemnify themselves with prostitutes. But this is applicable also to those cases where the marriage has not been made for the reasons named, but in which, for any cause, an antipathy has sprung up between the couple, without the dissolution of the marriage, either because of the difficulty of securing a divorce, or from motives of expediency. Since monogamy does not proceed from an innate inclination, prostitution is a necessary correlative of marriage.

d. The keeping of extravagant mistresses is a pastime for those who have been demoralized by a life of luxury and ease, and at the same time is a means by which these people can get rid of their incomes.

e. Finally, prostitution is a means whereby rich perverts satisfy their inclinations.

Before leaving the causes of the demand for prostitutes there is one further matter to consider. Those who have recourse to prostitutes must necessarily have a low opinion of woman, whom they consider only as an object existing for pleasure, and thus bound to be ready, as soon as a man wishes, to furnish him what he desires, for money, and not because of affection. This vile fashion of regarding women has been universal for centuries, and is still pretty general. It is to be explained from the long-continued inferior social position of women. We have seen that this position has been improved little by little, and that the result of this improvement has been an increase in the number of men who have a higher opinion of woman, and who wish to have sexual relations with a woman only when there is a mutual affection between them. These persons form even today only a small minority, however.

In the presence of a majority still thinking quite differently it is absurd to preach total sexual abstinence to all unmarried young men, as certain moralists do (Tolstoi, for example). Though there are men who abstain without injury to their health, these moralists forget that the satisfaction of the sexual desires is one of the most important needs of the majority of men (the life of our day certainly increases these desires), and that present social conditions are the cause of men’s considering woman their inferior. Dr. Blaschko, in his work “Die Prostitution im XIX Jahrhundert”, rightly says: “The sexual requirement in the case of mankind as of all other beings is an entirely natural one. To be sure, it is not so strong and compelling as the necessity of food and drink; it can be suppressed in the case of anyone for a time, and with many permanently, without injury to the health. But what is true of this or that person does not hold for the mass of mankind, for whom sexual intercourse is doubtless a necessity.” [353]

It is now necessary to inquire why there is a sufficient supply to meet this demand. Before beginning, however, one remark must be made. The point of departure of the etiology of prostitution must be the incontestable fact that modesty is not an innate but an acquired quality. The problem is chiefly, then, what are the causes why the feeling of modesty is not sufficiently developed among certain women. The following are the principal causes:

a. Immoral environment. We shall examine this first in so far as it affects children. [354] In running over the statistics which mention the age of prostitutes one is particularly struck by the fact that a great number of them are still very young. To cite some examples: Dr. G. Richelot gives the following figures in his work “La Prostitution en Angleterre”: [355]

London, 1836–1854.

Prostitutes Sentenced in Cases of Summary Jurisdiction.

=====================+================== Age. | To the 10,000. ---------------------+------------------ From 10 to 15 years | 27 ,, 15 ,, 20 ,, | 2,463 ,, 20 ,, 25 ,, | 3,623 25 and over | 3,887 =====================+==================

Edinburgh, 1835–1842.

Prostitutes Admitted to “Lock Hospital.”

================+================== Age. | To the 1,000. ----------------+------------------ Below 15 | 42 From 15 to 20 | 662 ,, 20 ,, 25 | 199 25 and over | 97 ================+==================

In the “Reports from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Law Relating to the Protection of Young Girls” [356] the following figures may be found:

England, 1881–1882.

Received into an “Asylum for Girls and Women.”

==========+==========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ----------+----------+------------- 12 to 14 | 8 } | 14 ,, 16 | 6 } | 16 ,, 18 | 28 } | 55 18 ,, 20 | 34 } | 20 ,, 23 | 9 }| 23 ,, 25 | 25 }| 45 25 ,, 39 | 27 }| +----------+------------- | 137 | 100 ==========+==========+=============

In his work “De la Prostitution dans la ville de Paris” Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [357]

Paris, 1831.

Registered Prostitutes.

============+===========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ------------+-----------+------------- 12 years | 1 } | 13 ,, | 3 } | 14 ,, | 8 } | 15 ,, | 17 } | 16 ,, | 44 } | 23.6 17 ,, | 55 } | 18 ,, | 101 } | 19 ,, | 115 } | 20 ,, | 216 } | 21 ,, | 204 } | 22 ,, | 249 }| 23 ,, | 240 }| 24 ,, | 207 }| 76.4 25 ,, | 193 }| 26 and over | 1,582 }| +-----------+------------- | 3,235 | 100.0 ============+===========+=============

C. J. Lecour gives the following table: [358]

Paris, 1855–1869.

Registered Prostitutes.

================+===========+============= Age. | Number. | Percentage. ----------------+-----------+------------- Below 18 years | 513 | 8 From 18 to 21 | 1,704 | 26.6 Over 21 | 4,190 | 65.4 +-----------+------------- | 6,407 | 100.0 ================+===========+=============

Dr. Augagneur gives the following ages for prostitutes admitted to the hospital: [359]

Lyons.

========+===============+================+==========
Years. | Older Girls. | Younger Girls. | Total.
--------+---------------+----------------+----------
1877 | 520 (65.5%) | 274 (34.0%) | 794
1887 | 144 (68.2%) | 67 (31.8%) | 211
+---------------+----------------+----------
| 664 (66.07%) | 341 (33.73%) | 1,005
========+===============+================+==========

S. Sighele gives the following figures: [360]

Italy.

Registered Prostitutes.

=======+=================+=========+=============
Year. | Age. | Number. | Percentage.
-------+-----------------+---------+-------------
1875 | From 16 to 20 | 2,455 | 26.98
| ,, 21 ,, 30 | 4,766 | 52.50
| 31 and over | 1,867 | 20.52
| +---------+-------------
| | 9,088 | 100.00
| | |
1881 | From 17 to 20 | 2,953 | 31.90
| ,, 21 ,, 30 | 5,456 | 58.92
| 31 and over | 850 | 9.18
| +---------+-------------
| | 9,259 | 100.00
| | |
1885 | Under 20 | 3,228 | 27.76
| From 20 to 30 | 4,589 | 54.70
| 31 and over | 1,471 | 17.54
| +---------+-------------
| | 8,388 | 100.00
=======+=================+=========+=============

Dr. L. Fiaux gives the result of an official enquiry, as follows: [361]

Russia, 1889.

Out of a Total of 17,603 Prostitutes.

================+================== Age. | Percentage. ----------------+------------------ 15 and under | 0.3 } From 15 to 16 | 1.3 } ,, 16 ,, 17 | 3.5 } ,, 17 ,, 18 | 6.9 } 69.9 ,, 18 ,, 19 | 8.8 } ,, 19 ,, 20 | 10.8 } ,, 20 ,, 25 | 38.3 } 25 and over | 30.1 30.1 | ----- ----- | 100.0 100.0 ================+==================

Dr. A. Baumgarten gives the following figures: [362]

Vienna.

Prostitutes Not Registered.

=======+=======================
Age. | Number to the 1,000.
-------+-----------------------
13 | 4
14 | 19
16 | 94
17 | 97
18 | 111
19 | 119
20 | 83
+-----------------------
| 527
=======+=======================

As these figures show, there is a considerable portion of the prostitutes who are minors, but they do not tell us of the number of adults who embraced the profession while they were yet under age. As to this point, Dr. Bonhoeffer gives the following, showing the age at which the prostitutes whom he examined began the practice of their profession: [363]

Breslau.

16 years old or under 30 }
Between 17 and 18 years 44 } 54%
,, 19 ,, 20 ,, 28 }
,, 21 ,, 50 ,, 88 46%
--- ----
190 100%

Parent-Duchatelet gives the following table: [364]

Paris.

=================================+===========+============= Age at the Time of Registration. | Number. | Percentage. ---------------------------------+-----------+------------- 10 | 2 } | 11 | 3 } | 12 | 3 } | 13 | 6 } | 14 | 20 } | 15 | 51 } | 16 | 111 } | 50.4 17 | 149 } | 18 | 279 } | 19 | 322 } | 20 | 389 } | 21 | 303 } | Over 21 years | 1,610 | 49.6 |-----------+------------- | 3,248 | 100.0 =================================+===========+=============

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [365]

Russia.

=================================+================ Age at the Time of Registration. | Percentage. ---------------------------------+---------------- 11 or younger | 1.2 } 13 to 15 | 9.0 } 15 ,, 16 | 12.9 } 80.5 16 ,, 18 | 30.8 } 18 ,, 21 | 26.6 } 21 and over | 19.5 19.5 | ----- ----- | 100.0 100.0 =================================+================

A large majority of prostitutes, then, have been placed upon the registers of the police while still under age. We may very well say, moreover, without fear of mistake, that a great part of those who are registered at a later period of life have already been among the clandestine prostitutes. Dr. Augagneur says: “How many of these women, devoted indefinitely to the life of a common prostitute, would not have fled all its horrors if a society, careless of the interests of its members, had furnished them with sufficient means of defense up to the age at which they all have succumbed,—under 21 years? When a woman has not prostituted herself before 21, she will not prostitute herself later. Look for exceptions to this rule and you will find that they are very few. The woman who is older and more experienced knows the consequences of her acts; less passionate, less weak, and less impressionable, she resists better a first temptation whose consequences she is fully aware of. [366]

However this may be, it is certain that a very great proportion of the prostitutes have taken up their profession, or have been seduced, while they were still very young. Upon this latter point the following figures enlighten us: [367]

England.

=======================================+=============== Age at which Prostitutes Were Seduced. | Number. ---------------------------------------+--------------- 11 | 3 } 12 | 5 } 13 | 16 } 14 | 79 } 15 | 189 } 16 | 184 } 58% 17 | 247 } 18 | 221 } 19 | 297 } 20 | 280 } 21 | 256 } 22 and over | 1,299 42% | ----- ---- | 3,076 100% =======================================+===============

In his work, “La prostitution clandestine”, Dr. L. Martineau informs us that the age at which the prostitutes whom he observed were deflowered is distributed as follows: [368]

France.

======+==========
Age. | Number.
------+----------
5 | 1
9 | 2
10 | 2
11 | 2
12 | 5
13 | 11
14 | 31
15 | 86
16 | 87
17 | 115
18 | 93
19 | 50
20 | 37
21 | 27
+----------
| 549
======+==========
90% of a total of 607.

The facts already brought out give rise to the presumption that the ranks of prostitutes are in a very large measure recruited from the less well-to-do classes, where the neglect of children has assumed enormous proportions, and not from the more favored classes where the children are carefully guarded and kept away from unfavorable influences. The correctness of this conclusion is shown by a further examination. According to figures given in the “Reports” quoted above, only 44 out of 3,076 prostitutes, or 1.4%, came from the well-to-do classes. [369] In his “Sozialpolitisches Handbuch” Dr. Lux publishes the following table: [370]

Berlin, 1871–1878.

==========================================+==========+============= Profession of the Parents of Prostitutes. | Numbers. | Percentage. ------------------------------------------+----------+------------- Artisans | 1,015 | 48 Factory hands | 467 | 22 Lower officials | 305 | 14 Commerce and transportation | 222 | 11 Agriculture, etc. | 87 | 4 Soldiers | 26 | 1 +----------+------------- | 2,122 | 100 ==========================================+==========+=============

Dr. Bonhoeffer found that the fathers of the prostitutes whom he examined practiced the following professions: [371]

Breslau.

=======================+=====+======= Manufacture and trades | 72 | 42 Unskilled workmen | 32 | 19 Lower officials | 24 | 14 Commerce | 13 | 8 Transportation | 12 | 7 Lodginghouse-keepers | 6 | 3.5 Agriculture | 8 | 5 Traveling musicians | 2 | 1 Higher officials | 1 | 0.5 +-----+------- | 170 | 100.0 =======================+=====+=======

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [372]

Russia.

==============================================+============= Classes from Which Prostitutes Are Recruited. | Percentage. ----------------------------------------------+------------- Peasants | 47.5 Bourgeois | 36.3 Wives and daughters of soldiers | 7.2 Other classes | 4.7 Foreign subjects | 1.5 Nobles and daughters of employes | 1.8 Merchants and considerable citizens | .5 Daughters of members of the clergy | .5 +------------- | 100.0 ==============================================+=============

As the table given above shows, the Russian prostitutes are recruited in greater numbers from the bourgeoisie than in the other countries of Europe. The Russian bourgeoisie, however, cannot be compared with that of other countries. It is more like the petty bourgeoisie, as the following quotation given by Dr. Fiaux proves: “The committee considers that the great mass of the women registered belong to the lower classes.” The fact that, of 100 prostitutes, 83 come from poor families, 16 from well-to-do families, and one from a rich family, proves the same thing.

After having given the professions of 3,332 fathers of prostitutes, [373] Parent-Duchatelet arrives at the following conclusion: ... “prostitutes born in Paris all proceed from the artisan class, and ... it is not true, as some persons have assured me, that there are to be found among them a number belonging to very distinguished families; ...” [374]

In speaking of the prostitutes born outside of Paris he says: “... there is a mass of facts more than sufficient to prove to us that, as far as the class of society from which prostitutes come is concerned, the departments do not differ in any way from Paris; we see upon the last table as upon the first, only working people and those little favored by fortune, who consequently cannot take care of the education of their daughters, nor watch them, and still less provide for their needs when they have reached a certain age, ...” [375]

We must particularize these unfavorable environmental influences. And the first fact that we meet is that a part of the young prostitutes have been incited to the profession by their parents. Parent-Duchatelet mentions 16 cases in which mother and daughter were both registered prostitutes [376]; and von Oettingen quotes the following from Dr. Tait: [377]

Edinburgh.

There were found among the prostitutes:

2 mothers with 4 daughters each, or 8 in all,
5 ,, ,, 3 ,, ,, ,, 15 ,, ,,
10 ,, ,, 2 ,, ,, ,, 20 ,, ,,
24 ,, ,, 1 daughter ,, ,, 24 ,, ,,
41 mothers with 67 daughters in all

In the second place it is necessary to speak of the abandonment of the children of the poor classes. No scientist of consequence admits that the moral ideas are innate, but simply that the new-born infant is more or less fitted to appropriate such ideas. It follows that one cannot expect much from a child whose moral education has been neglected in youth, however great natural capacity he may have been endowed with. From this it follows that where there is lack of education and care because of the death of the mother, or the alcoholism of the father, or because the father and mother are both at work away from home a great part of the day, or where the morality of the parents themselves is not great, the children run great risk of being lost. The following figures support this assertion:

Von Oettingen shows that, according to Dr. Ryan, 12,000 to 14,000 prostitutes in London became such as a consequence of a neglected childhood. [378] In the “Reports of the Select Committee,” etc., the following figures are found: [379] of 3,075 prostitutes 1,481 (48%) were orphans, and 921 (29%) were half-orphans. In his “La prostitution clandestine à Paris”, Dr. Commenge gives the following figures concerning the 2,368 prostitutes whom he observed during the years from 1878 to 1887: [380]

692 (29%) were orphans;
456 (19%) had lost their mother;
811 (35%) ,, ,, ,, father.

Out of a total of 190 cases Dr. Bonhoeffer shows 72 (38%) in which the education had been positively bad (criminality or prostitution on the part of the parents, neglect, lack of surveillance, etc.); 106 cases (56%) in which the education had been probably bad; and only 12 cases (6%) in which it was proved that the education had been good. [381]

For Russia Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [382] 3.6% of the prostitutes still had father and mother; 47.5% had parents who were separated, and 18.5% were without any family.

With regard to the cause given for prostitution Dr. Augagneur says as follows: “The majority of prostitutes are born to prostitution at the same time that they are to puberty. Their moral sense, if such may be called that which no one has ever tried to awaken, is not shocked by their situation; they have prostituted themselves without shame and without regret. They have left normal and respectable society without being really aware of its existence, without the desire of ever returning thither. They have lacked the things necessary to make them respectable women—instruction in virtue, the example of their relatives, the suspicious surveillance of their mothers, and material well-being. The daughters of the people are not, at the day of their birth, of a clay inferior to that of the daughters of the bourgeoisie or of the nobility; they are naturally no less intelligent, no more perverse. And yet if you examine the civil status of a hundred prostitutes, you will find that 95 at least have sprung from the lowest strata of society. The existing social inequality, that is to say, is alone responsible for this unequal distribution.” [383]

Finally I will cite once more the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet, which is of great value, since this author is the most able sociologist who has treated of this subject. He says: “The misconduct of parents, and the bad examples of every kind which they give to their children, must be considered with regard to many girls, and especially those of Paris, as one of the causes determining their mode of life. The dossiers of each girl constantly make mention of disorder in the household, of fathers who are widowers living with concubines, of lovers of mothers widowed or married, of fathers and mothers separated, etc. What surveillance can such parents exercise over their children, and if they judge it proper to give a reprimand, or give good advice, what authority could such observations have in their mouths?

“Thus the depravity, the indifference, the necessitous position of many people of the last class provoke, or do not or cannot prevent, the corruption of the children; we may say in general with regard to a good number of prostitutes, what observation continually teaches us of criminals, that they have for the most part an ignoble origin.” [384]

In the third place, we must name as a cause of the demoralization in youth bad housing conditions. One of the most pronounced characteristics of the child is his propensity to imitate. Hence it follows that the fact that a whole family must live and sleep in one or two rooms has the most harmful consequences for the sexual morality of the children. Sexual life has no longer any secrets for the child of the poor classes at an age at which this life is still a thing unknown to the children of the well-to-do classes.

I will give here some figures to show how small the dwellings of this class are. According to an investigation made in Berlin in 1895 there were 4,718 dwellings without fireplaces, and occupied by 13,700 persons; more than 200,000 dwellings consisted of a single room with a fireplace, and 22,160 of these were occupied by more than 6 persons. There was the following percentage of “overcrowding” (in official statistics this means more than 6 persons in one room with fireplace, and more than 8 persons in two rooms with fireplace, or in one room with kitchen attached): in Königsberg 10.6; in Halle 10.3; in Breslau 9.9; in Lübeck 8.75; in Görlitz 6.91; in Leipzig 7.85; in Altona 7.62; in Munich, 4.41; in Kiel 4.46; in Mannheim 11.8. In 1890 there were living in overcrowded dwellings the following number of persons to the 1,000: in Berlin 784; in Munich 533; in Breslau 754. [385]

According to the investigation made in 1890 there were in Vienna 23,921 dwellings consisting of a single room, with 64,621 occupants, and 103,433 dwellings of two rooms, with 411,314 occupants. These two groups include 44% of the dwellings and 35% of the population. Professor von Philippovich, in the article from which these data have been taken, shows that in the districts inhabited by the Viennese working-men, Ottakring, Meidling, and Favoriten, 29.3%, 30.8%, and 31.26% respectively of the dwellings of one or two rooms were “overcrowded” (i.e. 3 to 5 persons in a room). [386]

The 1899 census of the Netherlands gave the following results: There were 307,937 dwellings consisting of one inhabited room each, and occupied by 1,172,014 persons (22.7% of the population); and there were 334,355 dwellings consisting of two rooms each (including kitchens, alcoves, and covered passages), occupied by 1,497,353 persons (29% of the population). [387]

The detailed statement shows the situation still better. There were 45,641 dwellings of only one room, with 4 persons in each; 62,548 dwellings of more than one room with 5 or 6 persons; 41,877 dwellings of only one room, occupied by 6 or more persons; 45,363 dwellings of 2 rooms which were occupied by 3 or 4 persons; 20,582 dwellings of two rooms with from 4 to 6; and 706 dwellings of two rooms with 6 occupants or more. [388]

What is often lacking besides is space to place a sufficient number of beds, or even the means of procuring them. In a great number of cases children of different sexes must sleep together in one bed, or even with adults. It also often happens that the inhabitants of these already insufficient dwellings are obliged to take night-lodgers. There are the following percentages of dwellings with lodgers: in Leipzig, 17.5; in Breslau, 12.5; and in Berlin, 15.8. [389] In Vienna 6.4% of the population are night-lodgers, and in Berlin 6.1% [390].

It goes without saying that among these persons lodging together there are some who are demoralized and dangerous to children. In his work, “Verbrechen und Prostitution”, P. Hirsch depicts these dangers as follows: “Think in how narrow a space an entire family is penned up together, so that at times a separation of the sexes is scarcely possible, at a time when the sexual instinct of the growing children is already beginning to develop. The children unhappily only too often are present at the most intimate occurrences and early lose all feeling of shame. How can decency and good morals be learned by children whose parents are obliged to take prostitutes as lodgers? Who shall protect these unfortunates from moral contamination? Often a word will be spoken in their presence, or an occurrence take place, which they are not yet, perhaps, able to understand. But the childish nature is receptive to such impressions, and what happens in their presence falls upon fruitful soil, and what has remained fixed in their memory from earliest youth, will, if later their sensuality is once aroused, bear terrible fruit. We are astonished when we hear a twelve or thirteen year old girl use language which we are accustomed to hear only from prostitutes who have followed their trade for years; we are astonished at the sophistication of persons still quite young, and are inclined at once to pass an unfavorable judgment upon them. Truly our judgment would be quite different, we should have sympathy with them, and should be made to reflect, if we came to know the holes in which these poor creatures passed their childhood.” [391]

As a cause of the demoralization of young girls we must note, finally, child labor. In the first place there are children who are sent to sell flowers, matches, etc., and this causes them to be neglected and to frequent bad company. With regard to this Hirsch says: “One has only to get into conversation with the children who sell flowers, matches, and the like on the streets of the great cities in the evening, or to overhear their talk, to be astonished at their sophistication. One would hardly believe with what shamelessness such boys speak of sexual matters with growing girls in the same situation, without blushing and quite as a matter of course, since they have been accustomed to it from earliest childhood. It is no wonder that from these circles a considerable contingent is furnished to the ranks of prostitution and crime....” [392]

A second cause is work in factories, by which girls are brought into contact with adults who, from their often coarse manners and language, and their lack of moral sentiments, corrupt these children for their whole lives. After having spoken of the other dangers which threaten the morality of children, Lecour says: “If she has escaped these dangers the child, placed too young as an apprentice, will meet other perils. There will be the contact with girls who are older and already corrupted, and workmen who respect neither youth nor innocence, who boast of debauchery, propagate immorality, and dishonor the daughters of their comrades. There will be, perhaps, the impure domination of the proprietor or foreman.” [393]

Let us now look at the influences which demoralize adult women. In the first place we must speak of the influence of profession. The following figures serve to show which are the professions from which prostitutes are recruited most: [394]

Berlin, 1855.

Factory-workers } 73 }
Seamstresses, laundry-workers } Industrial 16 } 61 %
Day-laborers } workers 23 }
Workers at home } 32 }
Domestics 22 9 ,,
Without declared profession 70 30 ,,
--- ------
236 100 ,,

1873.

Factory workers } Industrial 355 }
Workers at home and saleswomen } workers 936 } 64.3 %
Caretakers of stores } 139 }
Domestics 794 35.7 ,,
----- --------
2,224 100.0 ,,

1898.

Workwomen, seamstresses, and saleswomen 66 43.4 %
Domestics 78 51.3 ,,
With their parents 7 } 5.3 ,,
Nurses of children 1 }
--------
100.0 ,,

In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.” we find the following: [395]

England.

Domestics 1,589 60.7 %
Seamstresses, dressmakers, and other industrial
professions 967 36.9 ,,
Barmaids 64 2.4 ,,
----- --------
2,620 100.0 ,,

Breslau, 1901. [396]

Domestics 72 38 %
Factory workers 37 20 ,,
Seamstresses 28 15 ,,
Saleswomen 14 7 ,,
Dressmakers 8 4 ,,
Barmaids, flower-girls, hairdressers 13 7 ,,
Dancers 4 2 ,,
Without profession and living at home 14 7 ,,
--- ------
190 100 ,,

In Parent-Duchatelet’s “La Prostitution à Paris” figures are found showing that domestic servants, in proportion to their number, furnish the largest contingent of prostitutes, and that working-women who try to provide for their needs with the needle furnish also a very great proportion. [397] Dr. Jeannel shows that in 1859, out of 298 prostitutes registered in Bordeaux, 40% had been domestics, and 37% workwomen who had tried to live by sewing. [398] Out of a total of 6,842 clandestine prostitutes in Paris (from 1878 to 1887) Dr. Commenge found that 2,681 (39.18%) had been domestics, and 1,326 (19%) seamstresses. [399]

Dr. Baumgarten gives the following table of percentages for 1,721 prostitutes:

Vienna.

Servants 58.00
Working by the day 16.00
Cashiers 14.00
Factory workers 5.50
Office employees 0.38
Children’s nurses 0.36
Singers 0.28
Hairdressers and models 5.48
------
100.00

Dr. Fiaux gives the following figures: [400]

Russia.

Servants 45.0 %
Seamstresses 8.4 ,,
Factory workers 3.7 ,,
Laundresses 1.4 ,,
Governesses and nurses 1.3 ,,
Merchants, bakers, and others 1.3 ,,
Cigar-sellers 0.7 ,,
Singers, circus-performers, and other artists 0.3 ,,
Practicing different trades and professions 2.7 ,,
Kept mistresses 2.0 ,,
Without fixed profession 6.4 ,,
Living upon the labor of their husbands 1.7 ,,
Living in their family, or with their parents more
or less remote 22.3 ,,

These statistics show that a quite considerable number of the prostitutes have been workwomen in factories. (In Russia manufacturing is very little developed—hence the low figures there.) We may accept it as indisputable that this labor has in general very disadvantageous consequences for the morality of the workwomen.

In his work, “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, Engels depicts these consequences in the following terms: “The collecting of persons of both sexes and all ages in a single workroom, the inevitable contact, the crowding into a small space of people to whom neither mental nor moral education has been given, is not calculated for the favorable development of the female character. The manufacturer, if he pays any attention to the matter at all, can interfere only when something scandalous actually occurs; the permanent, less conspicuous influence of persons of dissolute character, upon the more moral, and especially upon the younger ones, he cannot ascertain and consequently cannot prevent. The language used in the workshops was characterized by many witnesses in the report of 1833 as ‘indecent’, ‘bad’, ‘filthy’, etc. (Cowell, evid., pp. 35, 37, and in many other places). It is the same process upon a small scale which we have already witnessed upon a great one in the great cities. The centralization of population has the same influence upon the same persons, whether it affects them in a great city or in a small factory. The smaller the mill, the closer the packing, and the more unavoidable the contact; and the consequences are not wanting. A witness in Leicester says that he would rather let his daughter beg than have her go into a factory; that they are perfect gates of hell; that most of the prostitutes of the town had the mills to thank for their present condition (Power, evid., p. 8). Another in Manchester ‘did not hesitate to assert that three-fourths of the young factory employees of from 14 to 20 years of age were unchaste’ (Cowell, evid., p. 57). Commissioner Cowell expresses it as his opinion, that the morality of the factory operatives is somewhat below the average of the working class in general (p. 82). And Dr. Hawkins says (Rept. p. 4), ‘An estimate of sexual morality cannot readily be reduced to figures, but if I may trust my own observations and the general opinion of those with whom I have spoken, as well as the whole tenor of the testimony furnished me, the aspect of the influence of factory life upon the morality of the youthful female population is most depressing.’” [401]