cited examples; others may be adduced. The Pure Food and Drugs Act (June 30, 1906, 34 Stat. 768, c. 3915) is a conspicuous instance. In all of the instances a clash of national legislation with the power of the States was urged, and in all rejected.

Our dual form of government has its perplexities, State and Nation having different spheres of jurisdiction, as we have said, but it must be kept in mind that we are one people; and the powers reserved to the States and those conferred on the Nation are adapted to be exercised, whether independently or concurrently, to promote the general welfare, material and moral. This is the effect of the decisions, and surely if the facility of interstate transportation can be taken away from the demoralization of lotteries, the debasement of obscene literature, the contagion of diseased cattle or persons, the impurity of food and drugs, the like facility can be taken away from the systematic enticement to and the enslavement in prostitution and debauchery of women, and, more insistently, of girls.

This is the aim of the law expressed in broad generalization; and motives are made of determining consequence. Motives executed by actions may make it the concern of Government to exert its powers. Right purpose and fair trading need no restrictive regulation, but let them be transgressed and penalties and prohibitions must be applied. We may illustrate again by the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Let an article be debased by adulteration, let it be misrepresented by false branding, and Congress may exercise its prohibitive power. It may be that Congress could not prohibit the manufacture of the article in a State. It may be that Congress could not prohibit in all of its conditions its sale within a State. But Congress may prohibit its transportation between the States, and by that means defeat the motive and evils of its manufacture. How far-reaching are the power and the

means which may be used to secure its complete exercise we have expressed in Hipolite Egg Co. v. United States, 220 U. S. 45. There, in emphasis of the purpose of the law, we denominated adulterated articles as "outlaws of commerce" and said that the confiscation of them enjoined by the law was appropriate to the right to bar them from interstate transportation and completed the purpose of the law by not merely preventing their physical movement but preventing trade in them between the States. It was urged in that case as it is urged here that the law was an invasion of the power of the States.

Of course it will be said that women are not articles of merchandise, but this does not affect the analogy of the cases; the substance of the congressional power is the same, only the manner of its exercise must be accommodated to the difference in its objects. It is misleading to say that men and women have rights. Their rights cannot fortify or sanction their wrongs; and if they employ interstate transportation as a facility of their wrongs, it may be forbidden to them to the extent of the act of June 25, 1910, and we need go no farther in the present case.

The principle established by the cases is the simple one, when rid of confusing and distracting considerations, that Congress has power over transportation "among the several States"; that the power is complete in itself, and that Congress, as an incident to it, may adopt not only means necessary but convenient to its exercise, and the means may have the quality of police regulations. Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, 215; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed. 856. We have no hesitation, therefore, in pronouncing the act of June 25, 1910, a legal exercise of the power of Congress.

There are assignments of error based upon rulings on the admission and rejection of evidence and upon the instructions to the jury and the refusing of instructions.

The asserted errors are set forth in twenty-five bills of exceptions and the special assignment of errors in this court occupy twenty-eight pages of the record, and present the constitutional objections to the law in all the aspects that counsels' ingenuity can devise. A like ingenuity has been exercised to represent the many ways in which the conduct of the accused can be viewed and shown to be inconsistent with a guilty purpose. To discuss them all is unnecessary. We shall pass more or less rapidly over those we consider to be worthy of attention.

1. It is contended that there is variance between the indictment and the proof in that the indictinent charges that the women were transported over the Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company's road and that the Government failed to prove that such road was a line extending from New Orleans to Beaumont, Texas, these places marking the beginning and end of the transportation of the women. Further, that the proof showed that their tickets were purchased over the Southern Pacific Road. The indictment alleges that the Texas & New Orleans Railroad was a part of the Southern Pacific System, and was commonly known as the "Sunset Route," and there was through transportation. The variance is not much more than verbal, and that it prejudiced their defense in any way is not shown. If it is error at all it does not appear to have caused even embarrassment to the defense. But was it error? See Westmoreland v. United States, 155 U. S. 545, 549. Also § 1025, R. S.

2. The evidence does not show that the defendants or either of them induced, etc., the women to become passengers in interstate commerce. The particulars are recited wherein it is contended that the evidence is deficient. It is not necessary to review them. It was for the jury to consider and determine the sufficiency of the evidence, and we cannot say they were not justified by it in the judgment they pronounced.

3. It is contended that Florence Baden persuaded her sister Gertrude to go to Beaumont and an instruction of the court is attacked on the ground that it declared the charge of the indictment was satisfied against the defendants if Florence acted for them. There was no error in the instruction under the circumstances shown by the record.

4. Error is assigned on the refusal of the court to give certain instructions requested by defendants. To consider them in detail would require a lengthy review of the evidence, for they present arguments on certain phases of it as to the degree of persuasion used or its sufficiency to induce or entice the women. There was no error in refusing the instructions.

5. The court permitted the women to testify as to the acts of Effie Hoke at her house at Beaumont restraining the liberty of the women and coercing their stay with her. Such testimony was relevant. The acts illustrated and constituted a completion of what was done at New Orleans. They were part of the same scheme and made clear its purpose.

There were other instructions asked by which the jury was charged that they could not convict Effie Hoke for the character of the house she kept or Economides for the business he conducted. The charge of the court sufficiently excluded both views. It explained the act of Congress and the offenses it condemned and directed the attention of the jury to them.

6. Defendants complain that they were not permitted to show that the women named in the indictment were public prostitutes in New Orleans. Such proof they contend was relevant upon the charge of persuasion or enticement. This may be admitted, but there was sufficient evidence, as the court said, of the fact of the immorality of their lives and explicitly ruled that they could be shown to be public prostitutes. The court, be wever, excluded

Argument for Plaintiffs in Error.

227 U. S.

certain details sought to be proved. Under the circumstances there was no error in the ruling.

In conclusion we say, after consideration of all errors assigned, that there was no ruling made which was prejudicial to defendants.

Judgment affirmed.

ATHANASAW AND SAMPSON v. UNITED STATES.

ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA.

No. 588. Argued January 7, 8, 1913.-Decided February 24, 1913.

Hoke v. United States, ante, p. 308, followed to effect that the White Slave Traffic Act of June 25, 1910, is constitutional. The White Slave Traffic Act of 1910 against inducing women and girls to enter upon a life of prostitution or debauchery covers acts which might ultimately lead to that phase of debauchery which consists in sexual actions; and in this case held that there was no error in refusing to charge that the gist of the offense is the intention of the person when the transportation is procured, or that the word "debauchery" as used in the statute means sexual intercourse or that the act does not extend to any vice or immorality other than that applicable to sexual actions.

THE facts, which involve the constitutionality and construction of the White Slave Act and validity of an indictment and conviction thereunder, are stated in the opinion.

Mr. W. A. Carter and John P. Wall filed a brief for plaintiffs in error:

The White Slave Act is unconstitutional, because it violates § 2, Art. IV, of the Constitution of the United