Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee to Investigate the White Slave Traffic and Kindred Subjects

In 1913, a legislative committee researched prostitution in Wisconsin in the hope of eliminating it. Chaired by Sen. Howard Teasdale of Sparta, it sent hundreds of questionnaires to civic leaders around the state, examined 605 witnesses at hearings in 13 Wisconsin cities, conducted interviews with 311 leaders in 30 other towns, and took testimony from everyone from priests to prostitutes. It even sent undercover investigators into brothels and taverns in 35 communities. The report of the committee is presented here because it shines light on classes of people who are often hidden from history. The document has no table of contents and only a very short index, so the following page references may be helpful (you can also search the full text). Private investigators' reports on pimps, prostitutes, and madams are given on pages 14, 23-26, and 180-184, respectively. A table showing the characteristics of 60 prostitutes appears on pages 20-22, and statistics on prostitution in Milw