SOCIAL LEGISLATION ON THE PACIFIC COAST 285 



ical would relate to the number of employees discharged. In Oregon 

 there have been a score or more of prosecutions. 



The welfare of the race and of women is further protected by 

 mothers' pension laws. These laws provide that a woman with young 

 children whose husband is dead or incapacitated shall receive compen- 

 sation if she or her children are dependent on her for support. This is 

 a protection for the disintegrating home of modem industrial society 

 and a protection for the children from the same influences that have 

 necessitated the juvenile court. California, Oregon and Washington 

 adopted such protective measures in 1913. Prior to 1913 only two 

 states, Colorado and Illinois, had mothers' pension laws. Now they 

 are found in nineteen states. 



The most widely admitted injustice to women is connected with 

 prostitution, especially in its commercial aspects. Eecent years have 

 seen a nation-wide vice fight. On the Pacific coast the fight has been 

 made, particularly in the cities, through vice commissions and reform 

 administrations; Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles being notable cases. 

 Portland has adopted what is known as the tin-plate ordinance which 

 provides that the name of the owner of every rooming house, apartment 

 and hotel must be placed conspicuously on the front of the building. 

 The purpose of the tin-plate ordinance is to fix responsibility on the 

 owners of the buildings. Cases are known where property which 

 ordinarily rents from $40 to $100 a month brings a return of $350 a 

 month when used for purposes of prostitution. The fact is on record 

 that one piece of property in San Francisco costing $8,000 brought in 

 $2,100 a week. The attack has mainly centered on the commercialized 

 nature of the social evil. The unfortunate prostitute has thus yielded 

 a large part of her earnings to the landlord, the lessee, or in some cases 

 the organization which more or less controls her. Or she is prosecuted 

 in the courts, and must pay a fine perhaps over and over again. The 

 sinister aspect of the situation is that some one other than the prostitute 

 reaps these dearly-paid-for earnings and escapes, while added suffering 

 is meted to her. This situation explains the origin of the so-called 

 red-light abatement laws. The abatement laws permit a judge to close 

 any building that is used for purposes of prostitution. The building, 

 may be opened again by giving a bond equal to the value of the building 

 with the pledge not to allow prostitution within the building. Wash- 

 ington, Oregon and California have abatement laws, modeled on the 

 recent Iowa law. The age of consent in each of these three states is 

 eighteen years. As a result of the recent experience of the Pacific 

 coast states, some headway has been made in fighting the sinister com- 

 mercialization of prostitution. 



The woman's movement in its political aspects is well developed in 

 the west. Women may now vote in each of the three Pacific coast states. 



