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Hot on the heels of Universal's 1913 melodrama Traffic in Souls came scores of exposé films from a variety of studios. Smashing the Vice Trust was probably the only picture ever released by the fly-by-night Progress Film Company. Running six reels (approximately 75 minutes), the film was partially shot in Gloversville, NY, apparently a real criminal hotbed of the era. Pretty young girls are lured into the clutches of slimy white slavers, who lock the maidens up in verminous "dorm rooms" and force them into prostitution. Fortunately,the heroine escapes and notifies the authorities (who seem pretty dim up to now). New York's District Attorney Whitman made a special guest appearance in the final reel.