SWEEPING THE STREETS
SIR,—I sincerely doubt if Mr. Linton's proposals to combat prostitution, in your issue of September 20, are either the most effective or indeed the wisest. In the past legislation intended to cope with this type of social evil has not always been too successful or even wholly desirable. In the case of drunkenness, which was a serious nuisance fifty or sixty years ago, legislation was useless and has subsequently proved to be uncommonly tiresome, but penal excise taxes have dealt with the matter efficiently and fairly.
Prostitution exists not so much due to any fixed laws of supply and demand, but because it is most attractive financially to any girl considering it as a career. It is. in fact, about the only tax free occupa-
tion existent, for the Inland Revenue are, I under- stand, prepared to levy tax on practically anY occupation legal or illegal except prostitution and felony. The proceeds of a felony probably fall under the head of a capital gain, but there is no such reason for exempting prostitution. • The answer to the problem is financial. If prosti- tutes were taxed on their earnings like any other citizens the problem would be largely eliminated. To reduce the practice even further a special tax at say, 100 per cent. on the annual rent paid by a girl for her rooms would practically kill the trade. The assessment of taxes should not be too difficult, partly because the nature of the business compels the practitioner to operate in clearly defined areas to obtain custom, and partly because the operatives and their haunts are in any event well known to the police.—Yours faithfully,
L. TRAVERS
36 Cyril Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive, SW 11
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