Chapter III (3)

And then it happens at times that the proprietors or their foremen by abusing their power force the working-girls who please them to yield to their desires. Engels says of this: “It is a matter of course that factory-servitude, like any other, and to an even greater degree, confers the ‘jus primæ noctis’ upon the master. In this respect also the employer is sovereign over the persons and charms of his employees. The threat of dismissal suffices to overcome all resistance in nine cases out of ten, if not in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in girls who, in any case have no strong inducements to chastity. If the master is mean enough, and the official report mentions several such cases, his mill is also his harem; and the fact that not all manufacturers use their power, does not in the least change the position of the girls. In the beginning of the manufacturing industry, when most of the employers were upstarts without education or consideration for the social hypocrisy, they let nothing interfere with the exercise of their vested rights.” [402]

Besides factory workers domestics form a very considerable percentage of the prostitutes. As the Berlin statistics cited above show the percentage of workers has diminished and that of domestics has increased. According to Dr. Blaschko the cause of the diminution of the percentage of factory workers is to be found not only in the fact that, the year 1898 being very prosperous, poverty did not come in as an important factor in the same measure as formerly, but also in the raising of the intellectual and moral plane of the Berlin working-women. It is impossible to speak of a similar raising of the plane of the domestics. The nature of their occupations prevents their forming associations; they are therefore deprived of the moral effect of the trades union. [403] The causes of the importance of the contingent furnished to prostitution by the domestics are of different kinds. Besides the reason I have just mentioned, the fact is to be noted that it is not from among the most intelligent and best of the working classes that domestic servants are ordinarily drawn. For these prefer the less dependent position of working-woman to that of domestic. In the second place there is the influence of the occupation itself. (There are still others, of which I shall speak later.)

It is easy to understand how the occupation of domestic has a demoralizing influence. Not only do young girls, often ignorant and without education, come to live in surroundings of a sort to pervert them, but there is also their dependence upon people who only demand that their work shall be well done, the lack of civilizing influences, and the isolation that deprives them of contact with their fellows, all of which lowers their moral plane. [404]

Aside from the two groups cited there are still other occupations which may exercise a demoralizing influence, such as that of barmaid, etc. [405]

Before closing our observations upon demoralizing environment as a cause of prostitution, we must fix our attention upon the evil influences to which many women are exposed, those, that is, who must provide for their own needs and do not live at home. The smallness of their wages does not permit them to rent a room by themselves but they are obliged to content themselves with a bed simply. This brings at once great moral disadvantages. But further, this arrangement drives the persons in question into the street when not at work, since often the landlords do not allow them in the house except during the night. The harmful consequences of this are sufficiently obvious. [406]

b. The maternity of girls and concubinage are among the causes of prostitution. Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [407]

Paris.

Having come from the provinces to conceal themselves in
Paris and to find resources there 280
Brought to Paris and abandoned by soldiers, traveling
salesmen, students, and other persons 404
Domestics seduced by their masters and dismissed by them 289
Simple concubines during a longer or shorter period who
have lost their lovers, and do not know what else to do 1,425
-----
Total 2,398

46% of a total of 5,183.

In the “Reports of the Select Committee”, etc. we find given as cause of prostitution: [408]

England.

Concubines abandoned by their lovers 360
Girls seduced under promise of marriage 806
-----
1,166

37.9% of a total of 3,076.

In his “Minderjährige Verbrecher” L. Ferriani gives the following: [409]

Italy.

Seduction by a lover 1,653
,, ,, employer 927
-----
2,580

24.7% of a total of 10,422.

The statistics cited show, then, that the cause named occupies a quite considerable place in the etiology of prostitution. This cause is entirely a consequence of the existing social conditions, which maintain the dependent position of woman, and of marriage, which brings it about that every woman living with a man as with a husband is despised, even when the union is due to inclination, and that life is made very hard for her, especially if a child is born of the union. However, it must be added, that this applies especially to the women of the middle classes, and that “free love” and the child that is the fruit of it, are not at all so despised among the proletariat, for, as we have seen above, the bases of the present legal monogamy have not so great an importance there. [410]

However this cause of prostitution only makes itself felt when the woman to whom it applies is also deprived of all pecuniary means. And so we come to the third category in the etiology of prostitution.

c. Poverty. As the statistics already cited have shown, almost all prostitutes spring from the classes without fortune, and the great majority of them have been at first working-women or domestics, and consequently have belonged to families without fortune. If such women, for any reason whatever, cannot find work, they are thrown into poverty. As this happens constantly in society, poor women find themselves forced into prostitution. The facts are there to prove it. In treating of the etiology of prostitution Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [411]

Paris.

Excess of poverty, absolute destitution 1,441
Loss of father and mother; expulsion from home; complete
desertion 1,255
To support aged and infirm parents 37
Eldest of the family having neither father nor mother,
to support brothers and sisters, and sometimes nieces
and nephews 29
Widows and deserted wives, to raise a large family 23
-----
2,785

53% of a total of 5,183.

The author says among other things: “Poverty, often pushed to the most frightful extreme, is still one of the most active causes of prostitution. How many girls abandoned by their families, without parents, without friends, unable to find refuge anywhere, are obliged to have recourse to prostitution in order not to die of hunger! One of these unfortunates, still susceptible to feelings of honor, strove to the last extremity before taking up a part which she regarded as extreme, and when she came to register herself it was shown that she had not eaten anything for three days.” [412]

“One would hardly believe that the career of prostitution has been embraced by certain women as a means of fulfilling their duty as daughter or mother; yet nothing is more true. It is not unusual to see married women who have lost their husbands or been deserted by them, become prostitutes with the sole purpose of not leaving a numerous family to die of hunger. It is still more common to find young girls who, not earning by their labor enough to provide for the wants of their aged and infirm parents, ply the trade of prostitute in the evening to make up what is lacking. I have found the marks peculiar to these two classes of prostitutes too often not to be convinced that they are more numerous in Paris than one would believe.” [413]

In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.”, which I have already quoted several times, are found the following figures: [414]

England.

To provide for the needs of her mother 11
,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, idle husbands 35
As a consequence of poverty or lack of work 164
---
210

6.8% of a total of 3,076.

(We must take into consideration the fact that in the case of many of the 37.9% who are put down in this same set of tables as seduced, poverty was a contributory cause.)

Ferriani gives the following table: [415]

Italy.

Deserted by husband, parents, or other members of the family 794 Death of husband, parents, or other persons contributing to their support, or other cause of poverty 2,139 To provide for the wants of children, parents, or other sick or needy members of the family 393 ----- 3,326

31.9% of a total of 10,422.

Dr. Blaschko shows that the forced idleness among garment makers during some months of each year causes an increase of prostitution. [416]

As we have seen in the first part of this work, it has been proved at various times that crime against property increases or diminishes according as the economic situation is favorable or unfavorable. If poverty is one of the causes of prostitution it must follow that the number of prostitutes will vary at the same times as the general condition. Statistics prove that this is what does actually happen. However, we need only take into consideration the figures for registered prostitutes; if we had at our disposal the figures for clandestine prostitution they would naturally show still greater modifications.

Berlin. [417]

=====+=============+=============
| Number of | To 100,000
Year.| Prostitutes | of the
| Registered. | Population.
-----+-------------+-------------
1869 | 1709 | 223
1870 | 1606 | 203
1871 | 1625 | 197
1872 | 1701 | 198
1873 | 1742 | 195
1874 | 1956 | 210
1875 | 2241 | 232
1876 | 2386 | 242
1877 | 2547 | 248
1878 | 2767 | 262
1879 | 3033 | 277
1880 | 3186 | 284
1881 | 3465 | 298
1882 | 3900 | 326
1883 | 3769 | 306
1884 | 3724 | 293
1885 | 3598 | 273
1886 | 3000 | 230
1887 | 3063 | 216
1888 | 3392 | 231
1889 | 3703 | 244
1890 | 4039 | 255
1891 | 4364 | 273
1892 | 4663 | 288
1893 | 4794 | 292
=====+=============+=============

Leaving aside the abnormal years, 1870 and 1871, we perceive that the prosperous years 1872 and 1873 give very low figures. After this period times become worse and worse, while the number of prostitutes sustains a considerable increase. From the year 1882 economic conditions began to improve, and the figures for prostitution correspondingly fell, to rise again very noticeably during the unfavorable years 1889 to 1892.

In his work “Statistik der gerichtlichen Polizei im Königreiche Bayern und in einigen anderen Ländern”, Dr. Mayr also gives convincing proofs of the parallelism between the changes in the economic situation and prostitution. [418]

However it is not only forced unemployment leading to great poverty that is one of the causes of prostitution; we must also consider as such the fact that the wages paid to women are often so small that it is impossible for them to pay even their necessary expenses, and are thus obliged to find some supplementary source of income.

In his work already quoted, “Die wirthschaftlichen Ursachen der Prostitution”, Pappritz fixes the minimum that a working woman in Berlin must have for her strictly necessary expenses at 600 marks a year. Most of the women working in factories generally earn but 500 marks. The average earnings in 1897 were 457 for dressmakers, and 354 for those who made the button-holes (hand labor). And yet the wages paid in Berlin were not the lowest—the average for all Germany was 322 marks. [419]

It will not be very difficult to quote several authors who, in treating of this subject as regards Germany, have expressed themselves in the same way. But I must be brief, and hence shall content myself with citing a passage from Dr. Frankenstein’s “Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in den deutschen Grossstädten”, in which he sums up the result of his studies upon this subject: “A very great proportion of the working-women of our great cities receive wages that are not sufficient to provide the most indispensable necessities of life, and find themselves for this cause in the dilemma either of seeking a supplementary trade in prostitution, or of falling into the unavoidable consequences of bodily and spiritual destruction.” [420]

It is evident that the same thing is true of all the countries where capitalism reigns. Here is what Faucher, for example, says in his “Études sur l’Angleterre”: “Work with the needle is so poorly paid in London that the young persons who give themselves up to it earn only three or four shillings a week, working sixteen or eighteen hours a day. The wages of a fancy needle worker, for a hard day, are from 50 to 60 centimes, while linen workers generally get 30 centimes for stitching a shirt. Nothing more frightful could be imagined than the existence of these poor girls. They must get up at four or five o’clock in the morning, at all seasons of the year, to go to work, or to receive the orders of the merchants. They work without relaxation until midnight in small rooms, where they are crowded together by fives and sixes for economy in the use of fuel and light. If they are admitted to a dressmaker’s or linen draper’s establishment, they are ill-fed, and under pretext of pressure of business are kept at their task day and night, with only four or five hours of sleep, which are further regularly limited on Saturday. This sedentary life and constant confinement ages them before their time, when phthisis spares them. Is it to be wondered at if some, frightened and disheartened at finding the way of virtue so hard, hold out their arms to prostitution?” [421]

Against these long, hard days and small wages are to be set the easy life and often quite considerable returns—at least in the beginning of their career—which prostitutes enjoy. Moreau-Christophe in his “Du Problème de la Misère” says that in London there are prostitutes who earn $100 to $150 a week, and that the average earnings are $10 a week. [422]

To conclude I wish to call attention to the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet concerning this state of things in Paris. He says: “Of all the causes of prostitution, particularly in Paris, and probably in the other large cities, there is none more active than the lack of work, and the poverty inevitably consequent upon insufficient wages. What do our dressmakers, seamstresses, menders, and in general all those who work with the needle, earn? If we compare the wages of the most capable of them with what those of only moderate abilities can make, we shall see that it is not possible for these last to procure the mere necessaries of life. And if we then compare the price of their labor with that of their dishonor we shall not be surprised that so great a number fall into a life of shame made all but inevitable.” [423]

Not only does poverty, taken in the sense of the lack of the actual necessaries of life, act as a cause of prostitution, but also that relative poverty which prevents women from enjoying luxuries which seem necessities, like jewelry and fine clothes. With these same women laziness also plays a part.

Now the general opinion with regard to these factors is that they belong exclusively to the individual nature, that they are innate to some women, and that they consequently have nothing to do with the social environment. In my opinion this is entirely erroneous. Mankind are born with certain needs. The non-satisfaction of these needs causes death or the wasting away of the organism. These needs are what we call the strict necessities. All the other wants are awakened by the environment: that is to say, each possesses them in germ, but they are latent as long as the surroundings do not develop them. For example, no one would suffer from abstaining from tobacco if he did not see someone smoking; no woman would want expensive clothes if others did not wear them; etc. The desire to dress expensively, to wear jewelry, etc., is not at all, then, an individual quality of certain working-women; the germ of this want is innate in each individual, without any exception though in different degrees. The present order of society, by permitting certain women to spend immense sums for senseless luxury, awakens in others the desire to imitate them as far as possible. Since these last have not the means necessary to shine, they seek them where they may find them, and as there is only the way of prostitution, many follow it. We may add to this that a great number of men use their money and their distinguished manners to decide those who hesitate. This is, therefore, also one of the reasons why the ranks of prostitution are so often recruited from among dressmakers and domestics, i.e. from among those who come into direct contact with the luxury of others. [424] Another cause which makes women desire expensive and useless things is their low degree of culture, which shows them nothing more preferable than the possession of luxury. And where women who have all the leisure and the means necessary to busy themselves with more serious matters set the example of frivolity, we ought not to be surprised that those without the same advantages try to follow their example.

The same is true of idleness. If each person who is capable of it would do a certain amount of work, any normal individual would be ashamed to pass the day doing nothing. But the fact that there are women who are esteemed though they remain idle, awakens in other women, who are obliged to work long and hard, the desire to do nothing also. As prostitution opens to them the means of remaining unoccupied, they have recourse to it to satisfy their desire.

The irony which comes out so often in the social life shows itself here; the rich women who despise prostitutes never suspect that they themselves are in part the cause of the fall of the others, and that placed in the same poor surroundings they themselves would not act differently. [425]

All those who rank the causes last cited among individual factors base their opinion upon the thesis, equally strange and false, that there are two kinds of persons: those who by birth are destined to command and to enjoy, and those who are destined only to obey, to work, and not to enjoy at all. Looked at from this point of view the person who rejects these conditions constitutes an individual anomaly.

Perhaps it will be objected that without admitting the existence of individual causes it will be impossible to explain why, though a great number of women live under the conditions named, only a small fraction prostitute themselves. Those who reason in this way commit the error already spoken of, of thinking circumstances the same when they really differ. There are no two persons who live under exactly the same conditions, how much less thousands. To give one example only: all the women who earn only the strict necessities of life have not been raised in the same environment. Those who have grown up in favorable surroundings have perhaps so great an aversion to prostitution that they prefer a life of poverty to one of abundance procured by prostitution. It is possible that these women would prefer suicide to selling themselves, if they came to a state of complete destitution. Secondly it is necessary that a woman should not be too ugly, or the possibility of her earning her living by prostitution is excluded. No one would claim, however, that feminine beauty is one of the causes of prostitution; placed in another environment a woman would not prostitute herself simply because of her beauty.

Although the reasons already given refute in great measure the supposed objection, it must be confessed that the question is not thus entirely answered. Just as all the beings of a certain species differ among themselves, so these women differ naturally as to their innate qualities. The one will have more decided and more numerous wants than the other, she will be less laborious, more frivolous, etc. (qualities which in themselves have nothing to do with prostitution), and, other things being equal, she will be more exposed to the temptation to become a prostitute. All this is perfectly true, but it has nothing to do with the etiology of a social phenomenon like prostitution. For we are here in the presence of two distinct problems; why, of two persons placed in the same situation (supposing that to be possible), the one is more in danger of becoming a prostitute than the other; and, second, what are the causes of the social phenomenon which is called prostitution? The answer to the first question must be that in part at least it is because people differ as to the intensity of their characteristics and of their appetites. The answer to the second is the social conditions.

When two persons of different height are fording a river, and the shorter steps into a hole and is drowned, should we have the right to say that the difference between the height of persons is one of the reasons why people are drowned? I think not. The only reason why there are people who are drowned is that a man cannot live in water—which in no way excludes the fact that a short person runs more danger of drowning than a tall one.

Now as to prostitution—the atmosphere in which certain women live is the cause of their fall, which does not prevent its being true that some of them run more risk than others. The truth of this assertion may be proved by an observation of the facts. Among women who are not prostitutes also there are more who are lazy, frivolous, etc. than those who are not. And though the former have not prostituted themselves, if they had lived in bad surroundings and in poverty they would have run more risk than the latter. If all women were exactly equal prostitution would be as general as it is now; only in this case it would be in every case the environment which would decide what woman became a prostitute, whereas in reality there are, alongside of the environment, individual differences which determine which ones run more risk than the others.

Those who believe that there are here individual causes at work always take the point of view that society is not an organism but a collection of individuals, and that consequently an examination of the individual will suffice to explain social phenomena. It is by the study of prostitution, for example, as a social phenomenon that we bring out the fact that individual differences do not play any part in the etiology of prostitution.

d. Among the causes of prostitution must not be forgotten the fact that many persons have pecuniary interests in it. Without this many women would never have become prostitutes or would not have remained such, and the opportunity for a man to procure the services of a prostitute would not be so good. Capital has settled down on this as upon every place from which profits are to be drawn. The profession of the keeper of a house of ill-fame being extremely lucrative, great sums have been invested in it. In order to furnish the necessary material for these capitalists an international commerce has been created, whose ramifications extend over almost the whole world, and in which large sums are employed, the “white-slave trade.” [426] Often before their entrance into these houses the prostitutes have already plied their trade, but many innocent girls become the dupes of the false promises of these traffickers and are given over to the keepers of houses of prostitution. In his “Der Mädchenhandel” Dr. Hatzig says: “The girls, in so far as they do not give themselves up voluntarily as objects of traffic, are generally enticed with illusory promises of a glittering future.... Advantageous positions in foreign countries are as a rule offered to them, while nothing is said of the unchaste object of the business. To this especially is to be ascribed the enormous exportation of Hungarian girls into Russia, to whom engagements as dancers in St. Petersburg are promised. When the unhappy victims have once arrived at their destination they would hardly venture to escape from the hands of the slave-trader. In helpless case, deprived of the protection of friends and country, they submit to their fate and are sold to houses of prostitution.” [427]

Once fallen into the hands of the keeper of such an establishment it is almost impossible for these women to free themselves. He holds them in all sorts of ways. For example, he will exchange their clothes for others not proper to wear in the street, and will charge them so high a price that they are in his debt; often they do not understand the language of the country; etc. Legally slavery is abolished, but in reality it always exists for these women. [428]

e. The ignorance of a part of the women, a consequence of the environment in which they were brought up, is also one of the causes of prostitution, and no inconsiderable one. Dr. Richelot gives the following figures: [429]

London (1837–1854).

==================================================+=========== Prostitutes Arrested. | --------------------------------------------------+----------- Not able to read or write | 34.98% Able to read only or to read and write imperfectly| 61.29% Able to read and write well | 3.51% Having a higher education | .22% +----------- | 100.00% ==================================================+===========

Manchester (1840–1855).

===================================================+=========== Unable to read or write | 51.61% Able to read only, or to read and write imperfectly| 47.60% Able to read and write well | .78% Having a higher education | .01% (?) +----------- | 100.00% ===================================================+===========

In the “Reports of the Select Committee, etc.” the following table is given: [430]

England.

==================================+========+====== Unable to read and write | 1,213 | 40% Able to read only | 464 | 15% Able to read and write imperfectly| 1,016 | 33% Able to read and write well | 371 | 12% +--------+------ | 3,064 | 100% ==================================+========+======

Parent-Duchatelet gives the following figures: [431]

Paris.

==========================+=======+====== Unable to sign their name | 2,503 | 56% Able to sign, but badly | 1,868 | 42% Able to sign well | 110 | 2% --------------------------+-------+------ | 4,481 | 100% ==========================+=======+======

Dr. Commenge gives the following: [432]

Paris (1878–1887).

======================================+=======+========= Unregistered Prostitutes. | | --------------------------------------+-------+--------- Able to read and write | 4,297 | 68.12% Able to read and sign their name | 988 | 15.66% Able to read but not to write or sign | 11 | 0.18% Unable to read or write | 1,012 | 16.04% --------------------------------------+-------+--------- | 6,308 | 100.00% ======================================+=======+=========

From an examination of the statistics given it is evident that the number of illiterates is very large, however they may be decreasing in number now that primary education for the children of the poorer classes is becoming more and more general. Knowing how to read and write, however, proves very little as to the culture of the individual. The statistics only show the number of prostitutes who are totally illiterate, and we must certainly count many of the others as well among the ignorant.

It is clear that ignorance alone does not lead to prostitution. But it is clear that many prostitutes would not have become such, or would not have lent an ear to the flattering offers of good positions, etc., if they had known what an abominable life awaited them.

Among the secondary causes of prostitution must certainly also be classed:

f. Alcoholism. Not only have many women been seduced when they had drunk too much, and so have become prostitutes, but the demoralization which is the result of the constant abuse of alcohol may have the same effect. [433]

g. Degeneracy. According to some physicians (among whom are Professors Lombroso and Tarnowsky, to cite only the most famous) the cause of prostitution is not to be found first in the environment, but in a pathological (or atavistic) condition. These authors have examined a certain number of prostitutes, and have drawn from this examination the conclusion that the stigmata of degeneracy often found in them indicate a state which is the cause of their misconduct; prostitution is in large part kept up by born prostitutes. [434]

There is one objection to be made to such a manner of proceeding, namely that we must in the very beginning give a precise definition of the social phenomenon which is called prostitution. This definition, which can perhaps be given only by the sociologist and not by the biologist, will show us at the outset that it is very difficult to represent anyone as born with a tendency to commit sexual acts for economic reasons. So Professor Lombroso understands a totally different thing by prostitution from what it really is. He says: “Sometimes in the beginning marriage does not even exist and prostitution is the general rule” [435] and as an example he cites that the Naïrs live in complete promiscuity. According to Professor Lombroso, then, everywhere that there is no marriage there is prostitution. In other words, according to him all nature is one grand brothel, in which, aside from the married women, all the females would be prostitutes! Truly Professor Lombroso has some sociological views all his own.

These authors claim, then, that prostitutes often present stigmata of degeneracy. An examination of the figures shows, however, that 63% of all the prostitutes examined show almost no such stigmata. [436]

For 63% of them then degeneracy cannot be the cause, nor does it follow that it is the cause in the remaining 37% of cases. For many women with these stigmata are not found at all among the ranks of prostitution. To bring out the real import of the researches in question we must put beside them the results of an examination of non-prostitutes. It is for this reason that I wish to call attention to the work of Dr. P. Näcke, “Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe”, in which the author arrives at the result that only 3% of the normal women examined by him failed to show signs of degeneracy. [437] It seems to me, then, that when we find figures so low among normal women the thesis of Professor Lombroso is not proved.

If his conclusion were true, prostitutes would be drawn from all classes of society, for degeneracy is present in all classes. But, as we have seen above, they are drawn almost exclusively from the poorer classes. Professor Lombroso thinks he has refuted this argument (which is enough to overthrow his whole theory) by saying: “The woman who, coming from the lower classes, ends by becoming the inmate of a brothel, in the upper classes becomes an incorrigible adultress....” [438] Consequently according to Lombroso there is no difference between a prostitute and an adultress. It is not necessary to combat such singular ideas: they refute themselves.

Nevertheless the theory named is not without importance for the problem of prostitution. The following quotation, taken from a recent study of Dr. Bonhoeffer shows what its importance is: “We have no more right to speak of prostitution as inborn than we should have to speak of a born drinker. The disposition brought about through the defective psychical condition is inborn. But whether a psychically defective female individual will become a prostitute is in a certain sense dependent upon chance and external conditions.” [439]

There are persons who are born with psychic defects. These persons adapt themselves to their environment only with difficulty, and have a smaller chance than others to succeed in our present society, where the fundamental principle is the warfare of all against all. Hence they are more likely to seek for means that others do not employ (prostitution, for example). If the defect of a woman has relation especially to the sexual sphere, so that she feels, for example, extraordinary sexual desires, the danger of her becoming a prostitute is very great. [440] Even when the environment in which such persons live is very favorable, it is nevertheless certain that their actions will be different from those of others, though it does not at all follow that they will infallibly become prostitutes. It is certain that these morbid cases are rare in general, and very rare among prostitutes. [441] Parent-Duchatelet says: “Finally there are girls who give themselves up to prostitution in consequence of a licentiousness which one can explain only by the action of a mental disease ...; but in general these Messalinas are rare; I have only found one opinion upon this fact, and it has been abundantly confirmed by my own researches.” [442]

This theory, that the principal cause of prostitution is to be found in innate psychic defectiveness, contains, as Dr. Blaschko says (in his “Die Prostitution im XIX Jahrhundert”), “a small grain of truth in a mass of exaggerations.” It is only a very small proportion of prostitutes who have gone into the profession for this reason, and it is certain that they would not have done so if circumstances had not contributed to bring it about. [443]

We have now arrived at the end of our observations upon prostitution. In our opinion it has been shown that it is partly the inevitable complement of the existing legal monogamy, and partly the result of the bad conditions under which many young girls grow up, the consequence of the physical and mental misery in which the women of the proletariat live, and the consequence also of the inferior position of woman in our present society. When we make exception of a few cases where a certain degeneracy enters in beside the effect of the unfavorable environment, the prostitution of today is, then, the consequence of existing social conditions, which, in their turn, spring from the economic system of our time.

It may be objected that prostitution has presented itself under other economic systems. I am not ignorant of this, but I know also that 3 × 4 = 12, and 2 × 6 = 12 also; that is to say that two different causes may produce the same result. The prostitution of our day may be the consequence of capitalism while that of earlier periods may have been the consequence of the mode of production of those times. Further, an examination of the epochs in which prostitution was a general phenomenon (it never reached proportions as great as under capitalism) [444] shows us that they did not differ much from our own in those matters which concern the question in hand, namely, the inferior position of woman, and the strong contrasts in fortunes.

Many authors who have taken up the question of prostitution declare that it is as old as humanity itself. If we understand by prostitution what it really is, and not what imagination makes it out to be, this assertion is absolutely false. Prostitution is of very ancient date, but it has not always existed. Westermarck, one of the authors best qualified to pronounce an opinion upon this matter, says: “Prostitution is rare among peoples living in a state of nature and unaffected by foreign influence. It is contrary to a woman’s natural feelings as involving a suppression of individual inclinations.” [445] I advise those who, in spite of everything, wish still to maintain that prostitution belongs to all time and all places, to investigate the peoples among whom the matriarchate exists. If they are so unfamiliar with sociology, let them look for prostitution in the country. They will find none; prostitution exists only in the cities.