Full Employment Versus Legalized Prostitution

Two letters (Dec. 23) speak of the need to legalize and regulate prostitution. The first writer says “no better solution has been found,” and cites certain facts from ancient Greek, medieval French, and modern American history. However, both writers ignore the following facts. (1) In France licensed brothels (as envisaged by the second writer) have not existed since 1946, put out of business by the influence of a woman member of the Chamber of Deputies, who regarded them as inconsistent with the dignity of womanhood. (2) Prostitution is practically non-existent in the Soviet Union (since 1917), in mainland China (since 1949), in Cuba (since 1959), and in Switzerland (since time immemorial).

Countries where prostitution is almost non-existent have a rate of unemployment approaching zero. The present U.S. unemployment rate is ten times the present Swiss rate and twice what the Swiss rate was even in the depth of the Great Depression. So there is a neat way to solve the problem of prostitution without licensing it: namely, enforcement of the Federal Full Employment Act of 1946, providing decent, productive employment for all. Such enforcement would also reduce other illegal activities, and would have a generally beneficent social result.

JOHN H. RANDOLPH

Oxnard