law, order, cinema: government men

Local, national, and international concerns about white slavery led to an international conference held in 1902 and to the subsequent formulation of a treaty in 1904 calling for a “supervision … [of] stations, ports of embarkation” and international journeys to monitor and legislate against “the traffic in women.” Edward Seligman ed., The Social Evil, With Special Reference to Conditions Existing in New York City (New York: G.P. Putman Sons, 1912), 202-203

international policing of space and mobility in response to the more general crises of social displacement and dislocation caused by migratory and immigratory movement

US signs in principle in 1905National police power expanded to create Bureau of Investigation in 1908 (renamed FBI in 1935)Transnational surveillance of borders, of sexuality, and of racial hierarchies leads to the establishment of a state controlled agency of surveillance

extended to immigration acts in 1903, 1907 (and 1924)

1907 act sets up an immigration commission: “The Importation of Women for Immoral Purposes” published in 1909

“The vilest practices are brought here from continental Europe, and beyond doubt there have come from imported women and their men the most bestial refinements of depravity. The toleration with which continental races look upon these evils is spreading in this country, an influence perhaps even more far-reaching in its degradation than the physical effects which inevitably follow it.”

Report leads to Mann Act: utilizing “commerce clause” in the Constitution, makes it a felony to knowingly transport any girl or woman in interstate or foreign commerce for for the purpose of “debauchery” or “any other immoral purposes.”White Slave Traffic (Mann) Act, 395, The Statutes at Large of the United States (March 1909-March 1911), 825-27.