p. 11 | The "Vice Trust"

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 10, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 35.

The "Vice Trust"

THE "white slave traffic" is a term that has been but very recently coined. A later expression still is the "vice trust." Both expressions refer to degraded and degrading vices that attack the heart of the civilized world.

As every one knows, the "white slave" is a young girl that has been stolen in much the same way that Negroes formerly were stolen from Africa, only there is this difference: The Negro was taken to some plantation or other place of physical servitude, where he had to work under a taskmaster; but the young girl is taken to a city and sold to a mistress who compels her to lead the life of a prostitute. Of all the awful things that men have conceived, it would seem that this one goes to the bottom of the pit of degradation and heartless wickedness, not to speak of cruelty.

But the "vice trust" presents another phase of the modern systems of iniquity. This is the age of trusts. It is the time when men seek for personal gain, to get control of various lines of business and manufacture, so that they may "corner" the profits. And in following the promptings to form "trusts," even the vices and crimes of men have not been overlooked.

When we boast of our great civilization, it should cause the perspiration of shame to stand out on our faces as we call to mind the vice-laden element that has such a foothold in all the great cities of the world; and we should further shudder at the thought that these traffickers in vice have become so entrenched that they are to an alarming extent in league with unprincipled officers of the law. Through this source, the "vice trust" has become so strong and brazen that it assumes to control the operations of wickedness in such a way as to bring the highest possible gain to the few who are in command.

How appalling it is to think that vice has reached such awful depths in this time that it is absolutely unsafe for a young girl, particularly if she be in a large city, to go out without a strong protector! Every day's news tell of the young girls that are stolen, and in many cases they are never heard from again. They are taken to brothels, and after four or five years in a life of enforced shame, they are passed on to unknown graves. Thousands and thousands of the young women of the nations are called for each year by this "vice trust," in order that those in command may thrive on the gains of iniquity.

There is no denying that these conditions exist. The evidence is too abundant and too well known to require any proof. But what do such things signify? What do they tell concerning our civilization that we have held forth with so much pride? Will not the following scripture serve to give us some light upon the subject?

"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. . . . Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. . . . I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left." Luke 17:26-36.

This scripture manifestly brings to view judgment scenes when "one shall be taken, and the other left." And in this time when "the Son of Man is revealed," we are told that it will be as it was in the days of Lot. Lot lived in Sodom in the most corrupt time of its history, and barely got out through the urging of the angels, in time to save himself from going down when the city was destroyed for its wickedness by the judgment of Jehovah. "Sodom," the city of Lot's dwelling-place, has come to be a synonym of the worst conditions of vice that can prevail.

Are the conditions of this time to teach us that the whole world is rapidly becoming a modern Sodom, and that it is rapidly getting ready for its plunge into the great lake of fire that is so abundantly described in the sacred Book? The God of righteousness and truth, He who overthrew the ancient Sodom, can not suffer the things that are making the "vice trust" of to-day, to go much farther.

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