NAWSA SUBJECT FILE Livingston, Rose REVIEWED STEPS TAKEN. Miss Rose Livingstone and Mrs. Ethel Vorce Speak to Large Audience Sunday Evening. The Lincoln Park Baptist Church [o]f West Newton was crowded to the [?oors] last Sunday evening when Mrs. [E]thel Vorce and Miss Rose Livingstone spoke on the relation of women and the ballot to the great evils [o]f the day, especially the white slave [tr]affic. The meeting was under the [a]uspices of the Newton Equal Suffrage League, of which Mrs. W. L. [?arrison], Jr., is president. Mrs. Vorce gave a brief resume of [t]he steps that woman has taken in [g]aining the privileges that she has [t]oday. The same objections that are [r]aised to Woman Suffrage today [w]ere raised centuries ago when the [s]cholars of the day denied that woman had a soul. Within the last [c]entury we have a good example of [t]he way in which woman's path has [b]een blocked in the resistance that [m]any offered to the education of women. Women are not seeking the [b]allot for the ballot's sake, but in [o]rder that they may exercise their [i]influence in making the laws of the [c]ountry. Without granting women [t]his privilege we cannot have true [d]emocracy and cannot attain a high [g]oal in our moral civilization. Mrs. Vorce then introduced Miss Rose Livingstone, better known as "the Angel of Chinatown" who has spent [t]he last nine years of her life in the New York slums, rescuing girls from [t]he white slave life. Miss Livingstone gave a very graphic description of the conditions of vice existing in our large cities. Her stories of the suffering of the girls who are forced into immoral living by cruel-hearted men brought tears to the eyes of many of the audience. She said that she believed that this great curse to the fair name of America could be done away with only by giving women the ballot. Men have had plenty of time to better conditions, and the women certainly will not do worse, and, will undoubtedly do a great deal better. Miss Livingstone's work is one that requires a great deal of courage. Day after day she takes her very life in her hand in rescuing young girls from houses of ill-fame. She goes into the worst sections of New York slums without police protection, where few persons would dare to go. On several occasions she has been severely hurt by "gunmen" and only last spring nearly succumbed to injuries received on a similar errand. She said that she was to investigate conditions in Boston soon and she expected to find them fully as bad as in New York. A collection was taken at the conclusion of the service for the benefit of the work in which Miss Livingstone is engaged. After the service opportunity was given for women to join the Equal Suffrage League. The men were also asked to sign card[s] saying that they would vote for Woman Suffrage next fall. ROSE LIVINGSTON. (This sketch is for publication.) Rose Livingston calls herself a "social worker", but in New York she is known as the "angel of Chinatown for her splendid work of the past seven years among the unfortunate victims of commercialized vice. No use to disclaim the existence of white slavery in Rose Livingston's presence. She knows. She does not try to reach hardened cases. Her work is among the little girls. Time and again she has been able to find a child who has been abducted and restore her to her friends before the awful blight awaiting her has fallen. "The girl who disappears" is no myth, as Rose Livingston will tell you. She has traced many of these to the evil resorts of New York and Brooklyn and sometimes, alone, sometimes with the help of police and city detectives she has rescued them. Night after night she labors for these little victims of a horrible social order. When she saves one she is very happy. Her work is made possible by a woman's society of a Brooklyn church which makes itself responsible for her maintenance. Two or three years ago Rose Livingston became convinced that commercialized vice would never be abolished until women have the vote. Since then she has spoken for woman suffrage wherever and whenever she has a chance. She is much interested in the Massachusetts suffrage campaign and is giving a month of her time to it under the auspices of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and in company with Mrs. Ethel R. Vorce of Cleveland, Ohio they will make a tour of the State, holding afternoon meetings for women only so that she may explain to them the dangers which beset young girls in remote places, and also evening meetings open to both men and women. -Rose Livingston- (This sketch is for the information of interested persons, but is positively not to be given to the press.) When Rose Livingston was ten years old she was abducted from her home and taken to a house in Chinatown, New York where for ten years she was held literally a prisoner. Two Chinese keepers guarded her carefully for the man who was her master. No one but this man visited her. She had two children, the first being born when she was twelve years old. This child was almost immediately taken from her. The second child was born when she was fifteen and she was permitted to keep him. He died when he was a year and a half old. For ten long years, day and night, summer and winter, Rose Livingston never saw the outside of her prison. A missionary worker managed to get acquainted with her and together they planned for her escape. She watched her chance to elude her keeper and one night got away. One of the Chinese pursued her and attacked her with a knife and left her unconscious on the sidewalk, no doubt thinking he had killed her. On her head and on one of her wrists she carries the scars of that attack to this day. She was able to make her way around the corner where the missionary worker was waiting for her. She was taken to the home of a minister and in his family she lived for months, breaking herself of the drug habit which she had acquired while living in captivity. When she got well she worked for a while for the humane society, but never for a moment could she forget the girls in Chinatown who were suffering as she had suffered. She wanted to help them and so for the past seven years she has been engaged in rescue work among the unfortunate victims of commercialized vice. The man who was responsible for her wrecked life died within the first few years after she hade (sic) her escape. Some social workers interested themselves in Rose, taught her to read and write, and a woman's society of a Brooklyn Church pays her room rent and she devotes all of her time to helping her 'poor girls', as she calls them. She says she 'trusts the Lord for her support' and that he has never failed her, though she has sometimes gone without food for several days because she had no money with which to buy any. Two or three years ago Rose became convinced that the only way to abolish white slavery was to give votes to women, and since that time she has spoken for woman suffrage wherever she has had the opportunity. She makes such an appeal as only the horrible suffering and terrible experience of her own life make possible. She knows whereof she speaks. Mr. and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw of New York are sponsors for Rose Livingston. They have investigated her life. They know the truth of the story herein told. It is because the sorrows of the poor girls in the underworld have made Rose ill that she is leaving her work among them temporarily to come into the Massachusetts campaign. The change is expected to be of benefit to her and she will be a powerful factor in stirring women to a sense of their responsibility in this matter of getting rid of commercialized vice. MASSACHUSETTS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 585 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON December 16, 1914 My dear League President: The Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association has just secured Miss Rose Livingston, New York's famous "Angel of Chinatown", together with Mrs. Ethel R. Vorce of Cleveland, Ohio for a month of meetings in Massachusetts beginning January 11th. Miss Livingston and Mrs. Vorce have recently made a campaign tour in Ohio which was so successful that Mrs. Upton, the President of the State Association writes as follows: "Their work was probably the most effective of anything we did. I consider that their meetings were about the best of any I have ever seen arranged." Miss Livingston, who was herself a former victim of the "White Slavers", tells of her experiences as a rescuer of young girls from the under-world, and emphasizes the great need of woman's aid to woman. The dramatic strength of her appeal can scarcely be exaggerated. Do you want her for a meeting in your town? Will you make the arrangements for such a meeting? It might be held in one of your churches or before some large organization of men and women or of women alone. Miss Livingston and Mrs. Vorce are capable of handling large audiences with success. We are able to offer them to the Leagues for a nominal price of $5.00, but you should be responsible for the hall, audience and wherever possible for hospitality for them while they are with you. They will take up a collection for the benefit of Miss Livingston's rescue work. In Ohio afternoon meetings "For Women Only" were often held, which attracted and converted large numbers of women who were not suffragists; in the evenings of the same day a meeting followed for both men and women. We will supply you with personal sketches of both women for advance publicity in the newspapers and with material for hand bills if you wish to distribute them in advertising the meeting. Will you let us know as soon as possible whether you wish to apply for a date? In case you are unable to do so, please let us know at once so that we may then apply direct to other organizations. We wish to give the suffrage organization the first benefit of this offer and the credit and advertisement of the meetings. Sincerely yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. Chairman Executive Board. F. Dict. GHL/MEM Mrs. Myron B. Vorce. The Corresponding Secretary of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, Ethel Ridgley Vorce, is easily the most popular speaker for suffrage in the state. Equally at home in a small parl meeting or before a turbulent street crowd, in a hall or a church, Mrs. Vorce's services are always in demand. Mrs. Vorce has had a varied experience. Born in Detroit, educated in Canada, having lived in Europe, and having engaged in work of various kind, from newspaper reporting and settlement work in New York, to singing in a stock Opera Company keeping house for her father and brother from early girlhood, her mother having died when she was but two months old, the problems and responsibilities of life have presented themselves to her in many ways. Always a suffragist, as a matter of simple justice, she early recognized women's need of the ballot as a matter of self protection and as a means of service to the State. Mrs. Vorce, since her residence in Cleveland, which dates from her marriage to Myron B. Vorce in 1902, has been active in public affairs. For three years she was president of the Municipal School League, which organization broke up the old political ring which controlled the schools. She was the first organizer of the Woman Suffrage Party of Cuyahoga County and is now its first Vice Chairman. For two years she has been an officer in the State Suffrage Association. In 1912, Mrs. Vorce accompanied her father on an extended foreign tour, attending the International Woman Suffrage Congress at Budapest, taking part in the pilgrimage of the Constitutional suffragists to London and attending many meetings, of both non-militant and militant suffragists in England. At Rome she was especially interested in the model tenements and in the Montessori school, which she saw in session. Mrs. Vorce's most distinguished qualities are her keen appreciation of justice and her unfailing sense of humor. Nothing is so difficult, so perplexing or so hopeless that she cannot find something funny in it, and her attempt to see every question from the point of view of her opponent- these two things make her particularly valuable in her active work for votes for women. An Unusual Opportunity for Service The work of Rose Livingston in Chinatown and in other sections of the American underworld is now so generally known and appreciated that it will surprise many to learn that she represents no charitable organization or other institution, and is dependent for very sustenance on the casual gifts of friends. Indeed it is probably essential to the success of her unique work that she be entirely free from restrictive supervision; but from now on it is equally essential that she be assured the means of adequate subsistance at all times, that her entire strength may be conserved for her mission. To this end the undersigned, who are intimately acquainted with Miss Livingston's life and work, have arranged to act informally as a prudential committee. Those desiring to assist through this agency in the rescue of kidnapped or erring children, and thereby in the study of the broader problem that lies back of the world-old tragedy, have an unusual opportunity for service. In the nine years of her labors, Miss Livingston, best known as "The Angel of Chinatown," has rescued hundreds of young girls, between the ages of twelve and eighteen years, from this and other proscribed districts in New York, Brooklyn, Newark and elsewhere. A large number of these girls were stolen from their homes. Records covering many of these cases are in possession of the Committee. In only one known instance has a girl reverted to the old life. The Committee is endeavoring to develop a plan by which the good of this work can be made to enlarge and endure. The privilege is extended to you to be one of one hundred,-each to contribute $10 towards the support of this undertaking, although you are welcome to a larger participation if you will. That part of the $1,000 which exceeds Miss Livingston's personal expenses for the ensuing year will be applied to the cost of rescue. A detailed report of accomplishment will be sent contributors at the close of the year. Checks should be sent to Mr. Laidlaw for acknowledgement, and correspondence addressed to Mr. Chamberlain. (Signed) Lawrence Chamberlain, 37 Wall Street, New York City. Rev. Edward Sanderson, 125 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. James Lees Laidlaw, 26 Broadway, New York City. WANTS SOME "EMOTIONALISM." To the Editor of The Herald: Mrs. William L. Putnam is reported in your columns to have said that a "very dangerous form of emotional excitement is being served out to the women of Massachusetts by the equal suffragists in the talks given by Rose Livingston under their auspices." If hot indignation against a crying evil constitutes "dangerous emotional excitement," pray let us have more of it, the kind that led Jesus to exclaim, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" and to drive the money-changers from the temple with a scourge of small cords. This seems to the writer the sort of "emotional excitement" which results from hearing Rose Livingston's talk about her work of rescuing young girls from white slavery in New York. It is "dangerous," I grant, to the evil-doer, and Miss Livingston believes it would be more so backed by the power of the ballot. The opinion of the "highest authority," which Mrs. Putnam discreetly omits to name, that Miss Livingston is "unreliable," is contradicted by those who are in a position to know about the work which has gained for her the title, "Angel of Chinatown." Would it not be well for those of us who are either unable or unwilling to take part in the crusade against white slavery, at least to refrain from criticising those who do? The suffragists do not expect to "abolish human passion." They only hope by encouraging such work as Miss Livingston's to make our cities safer for ignorant and unprotected girls. EMILY TOLMAN. Arlington, Feb. 22. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.