In presenting the foregoing table and statements from girls, this commission does not take the position that the low wages of self-supporting girls is the sole contributing cause of their delinquency, realizing that there are thousands of girls who would endure the utmost hardships before yielding themselves to those who are ready to seduce them.  The evidence as to the effect of wage conditions is taken from the girls themselves, who, perhaps lacking adequate moral training, have, in the extremities of their position, allowed themselves to be driven “the easiest way."[23]

In the vice investigation conducted by the Illinois State Senate, 50 girls in one day testified under oath, 45 of whom said that their downfall had been due to the lack of money.  The foregoing evidence is the kind unfortunate girls would be likely to give.  Nevertheless, making due allowances, this evidence tends to confirm reports of vice commissions whose purpose has been strictly scientific.

If a conservative estimate of the proportion of vice due to low wages of girls would be 10 to 15 per cent, it must not be concluded that this represents all of the baneful moral effect of poverty.  Whatever the other non-economic causes of vice, they are aggravated where poverty exists.  Not only is this so, but alleged other causes may be partly economic.  Bad home conditions are due not only to the lack of moral discipline, but also to the lack of income.  The average wage of the adult male wage-earner of that section of the United States lying east of the Rockies and north of Mason and Dixon’s line is said to be about $600.  Sometimes the wage is as low as $500, and in only a few instances as high as $750.[24] If wage-earning men attempt to support families on these incomes, it means that they are not able to provide adequately for their wives and children.  If they do not attempt to do so, it means, taking men as they are, an increase in the army of men who support prostitution.  Professor H.R.  Seager has said that prostitution in aid of wages is the greatest disgrace of our civilization.[25] An accompanying disgrace lies in the fact that economic conditions and other factors prevent the average male wage-earner in so large a section of our country from fulfilling his desire for marriage and a home of the sort that makes for health and happiness.

Besides the low wages of women and men, other economic facts have their bearing upon sexual hygiene and morals.  These facts may be grouped under the head of industrial stress and strain which is moral as well as physical.  The underpaid factory or store girl is subject to constant fatigue.  In the rush season in department stores, girls often depend upon opiates for dulling the nervous strain.  No trade is free from its special physical strain.  There are, moreover, many morally dangerous trades.  Work as chambermaids in hotels is conspicuously perilous for girls.  The Chicago Juvenile Protective