Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...as they are by prostitution. To the woman who is friendless and in need, the only choice open is thus one of taste--in which way does she prefer to sacrifice her womanhood? The right of women to independent remunerated labor has been forced from the hands of a reluctant society. The granting of this right was inevitable for reasons we shall have to discuss in detail in the section of this book which deals with the bearing of the woman's movement upon the sexual crisis. Here, where we are concerned solely with an exposition of the necessity of prostitution, we need merely say that society never ceases to demonstrate to women its low esteem for their independent remunerated labor, by starvation rates of pay and by the enormous difficulty even at those rates of finding employment. There is only one way in which a young woman who is hungry and penniless can immediately get bread, and that is by prostitution. The logical outcome of this should be the social protection of prostitution, since it obviously satisfies a social need. It is not because prostitution is more highly remunerated than any other occupation open to women for which there exists an effective economic demand, nor yet because it requires less labor and less effort than any other occupation, that prostitution attracts a socially endangered and sinking womanly material as a candle-flame attracts moths; the chief reason for this attraction lies in the circumstance that the earnings of prostitution are paid immediately in cash, and that this field of earning is open to women whenever they are in need, whereas every other possible occupation must be diligently sought by elaborate and costly means, and the woman must long remain hungry before she can obtain the least reward for her...
