THE SOCIAL 
EMERGENCY 
EDITED BY W.T.FOSTER THE 
SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals 
EDITED BY 
WILLIAM TRUEANT FOSTER 
1*1 
PRESIDENT OF REED COLLEGE 
PRESIDENT PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION FOR SEX HYGIENE 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
CHARLES W. ELIOT 
PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
(Cfte lAitaerjSitJe pte&a Cambridge COPYRIGHT, I914, BY WILLIAM TRUFANT FOSTER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
GTfje JMberafoe 3&r tw 
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A PREFACE 
This volume is the outgrowth of an extension 
course conducted by Reed College in Portland, 
Oregon, in 1913. The course was offered to 
teachers and to workers in various other fields 
of social service as an outline of the main prob- 
lems of social hygiene and morals and as a 
guide to further study. An edition of forty-five 
hundred copies of the syllabus of the course was 
soon exhausted, and there appeared to be a suf- 
ficient demand for the publication of some of 
the lectures. 
The chapters are the various lectures, con- 
densed by the editor, but otherwise substan- 
tially as given, with the exception of chapters 
i, ii, and xii, which are here presented for the 
first time. In the original course, Reed Col- 
lege fortunately had the services of Calvin S. 
White, M.D., and L. R. Alderman, officers of 
the Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Their ad- 
dresses have been omitted, because they were 
prepared rather to meet local conditions and 
the needs of the course than for the general PREFACE 
public. For the same reason the greater part 
of the addresses of William House, M.D., and 
of the editor have been omitted. 
The Social Emergency does not purport to 
be a comprehensive or systematic treatment of 
the problems of sex hygiene and morals; it pre- 
sents merely the views of a number of persons 
on certain phases of the subject. Although no 
writer is responsible for the ideas of any other 
writer, yet nearly all the writers have read and 
approved all the chapters. Furthermore, the 
editor has had the aid of other competent 
critics. The proof has been read by Maurice 
Bigelow, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Teachers 
College, Columbia University; by Calvin S. 
White, M.D., Secretary of the State Board of 
Health of Oregon and President of the Oregon 
Social Hygiene Society; and by William Snow, 
M.D., Secretary of the American Social Hy- 
giene Association. Others, including Edward 
L. Keyes, Jr., M.D., and Harry Beal Torrey, 
Ph.D., have read the particular chapters con- 
cerning which they could give expert opinion. 
The editor is grateful to all these men, and to 
Florence Read, Secretary of Reed Extension 
Courses, who has given valuable aid. With PREFACE 
their help he has endeavored to avoid the 
errors, the exaggerations, the narrowness of 
view, and the hysteria that characterize some 
of the current discussions concerning sex and 
the social evil. 
If there is one dominant truth in this volume, 
it is that any plan for meeting the social emer- 
gency that would relax the control of moral and 
spiritual law over sex impulses is antagonistic, 
not only to physical health, but as well to the 
highest development of personality and to the 
progressive evolution of human society. 
W. T. F. 
Reed College, 
Portland, Oregon, 
April, 1914. CONTENTS 
Introduction. By Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., 
President Emeritus of Harvard Uni- 
versity 1 
I. The Social Emergency. By William 
Trufant Foster, Ph.D., LL.D. . . 5 
II. Various Phases of the Question. By 
William Trufant Foster .... 13 
III. Physiological Aspects. By William 
House, M.D., Member of the Execu- 
tive Committee, Oregon Social Hy- 
giene Society 25 
IV. Medical Phases. By Andrew C. 
Smith, M.D., Member of the Oregon 
State Board of Health .... 32 
V. Economic Phases. By Arthur Evans 
Wood, A.B., Instructor in Social Eco- 
nomics, Reed College; Member of the 
Vice Commission, Portland, Oregon . 45 
VI. Recreational Phases. By Lebert 
Howard Weir, A.B., Field Secretary 
of the Playground and Recreation 
Association of America .... 70 CONTENTS 
VII. Educational Phases. By Edward 
Octavius Sisson, Ph.D., Commissioner 
of Education for the State of Idaho; 
recently Professor of Education, Reed 
College 84 
VIII. Teaching Phases: for Children. By 
William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., A.B., Min- 
ister of Church of Our Father, Port- 
land ; Member of the Executive Com- 
mittee, Oregon Social Hygiene Society 104 
IX. Teaching Phases: for Bots. By 
Harry H. Moore, Executive Secre- 
tary, Oregon Social Hygiene Society 127 
X. Teaching Phases: for Girls. By 
Bertha Stuart, A.B., M.D., Director 
of the Gymnasium for Women, Uni- 
versity of Oregon 154 
XI. Moral and Religious Phases. By 
Norman Frank Coleman, A.M., Pro- 
fessor of English, Reed College . . 168 
XII. Agencies, Methods, Materials, and 
Ideals. By William Trufant Foster 190 
List of References 203 
Index 219 THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY THE 
SOCIAL EMEEGENCY 
INTRODUCTION 
Charles W. Eliot 
This book is a collection of essays by several 
authors on the various aspects of social hy- 
giene, and on the proper means of forming 
an enlightened public opinion concerning the 
measures which society can now, at last, wisely 
undertake against the vices and evils which in 
the human race accompany bodily self-indul- 
gence and lack of moral stamina. 
Till within five years, it was the custom in 
families, churches, and schools to say nothing 
about sex relations, normal or abnormal; and 
in society at large to do nothing about the 
ancient evil of prostitution, to provide neither 
isolation nor treatment for the worst of con- 
tagious diseases, and to regard the blindness, 
feeble-mindedness, sterility, paralysis, and in- 
sanity which result from those diseases as THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
afflictions which could not be prevented. The 
progress of medicine within twenty years, both 
preventive and curative, has greatly changed 
the ethical as well as the physical situation. 
The policy of silence and concealment concern- 
ing evils which are now known to be pre- 
ventable is no longer justifiable. The thinking 
public can now learn what these evils are, how 
destructive they are, and by what measures 
they may be cured or prevented. With this 
knowledge goes the responsibility and duty of 
applying it in defense of society and civilization. 
This book is a sincere effort, first, to sup- 
ply the needed knowledge of terrible wrongs 
and destructions; and secondly, to indicate 
cautiously and tentatively the most available 
means of attacking the evils described. It is an 
attempt to enlighten public opinion on one of 
the gravest of modern problems — indeed, the 
very gravest, with the exception of the warfare 
between capital and labor. The book is not 
intended for children, or even for adolescents, 
but rather for parents, teachers, and ministers 
who have to answer the questions of children 
and youth about sex relations, or deal sympa- 
thetically with the victims of sexual vice. INTRODUCTION 
3 
All efforts to deal directly with sex relations 
in schools, churches, and clubs are hampered, 
and must be for some years to come, by the 
lack of competent instructors in that difficult 
subject. So far as instruction in educational 
institutions is concerned, it seems as if the nor- 
mal schools and the colleges for men or for 
women must be selected for the first experi- 
ments on class instruction. Family instruction 
is in most cases impossible; because neither 
father nor mother is competent to teach the chil- 
dren what needs to be taught about both the 
normal and the disordered sex relations. The 
ministers and priests are as a rule equally in- 
competent. They can give precepts or orders, 
but not explanations or reasons. Considerate 
managers of large industries ought to have a 
keen interest in all social hygiene problems, be- 
cause they nearly concern industrial efficiency; 
but it is only lately that business men have be- 
gun to understand the close connection between 
public health and industrial prosperity, and 
most of them are not well informed on the sub- 
ject. 
Against prostitution and drunkenness gov- 
ernments of many sorts have been struggling 4 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ineffectually for centuries. These two evils go 
together; but whether taken separately or to- 
gether no government has yet adopted an effec- 
tive mode of dealing with them. Fortunately 
medical science has lately placed in the hands 
of government, and of private associations, ef- 
fective means of defense against the social vices 
and their consequences; and the new social 
ethics call loudly on all men of good will to en- 
list in the warfare against these ancient evils, 
which to-day are more destructive than ever 
before, because of the prevailing industrial and 
social freedom, and the new facilities for indi- 
vidual traveling, and the migration of masses 
of men. 
This book is intended to arouse public senti- 
ment, spread accurate knowledge, check rash 
enthusiasm, and promote well-informed and 
resolute action. CHAPTER I 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
William Trufant Foster 
Concerning matters of sex and reproduction 
there has been for many generations a con- 
spiracy of silence. The silence is now broken. 
Whatever may be the wisdom or the folly of 
this change of attitude, it is a fact; and it con- 
stitutes a social emergency. 
Throughout the nineteenth century the taboo 
prevailed. Certain subjects were rarely men- 
tioned in public, and then only in euphemistic 
terms. The home, the church, the school, and 
the press joined in the conspiracy. Supposedly, 
they were keeping the young in a blessed state 
of innocence. As a matter of fact, other agen- 
cies were busy disseminating falsehoods. Most 
of our boys and girls, having no opportunity 
to hear sex and marriage and motherhood dis- 
cussed with reverence, heard these matters dis- 
cussed with vulgarity. While those interested 
in the welfare of the young withheld the truth, 
those who could profit by their downfall poi- 6 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
soned their minds with error and half-truths. 
An abundance of distressing evidence showed 
that nearly all children gained information con- 
cerning sex and reproduction from foul sources, 
— from misinformed playmates, degenerates, 
obscene pictures, booklets, and advertisements 
of quack doctors. At the same time the social 
evil and its train of tragic consequences 
showed no abatement. The policy of silence, 
after many generations of trial, proved a 
failure. 
The past few years have seen a sudden 
change. Subjects formerly tabooed are now 
thrust before the public. The plain-spoken 
publications of social hygiene societies are dis- 
tributed by hundreds of thousands. Public 
exhibits, setting forth the horrors of venereal 
diseases, are sent from place to place. Motion- 
picture films portray white slavers, prostitutes, 
and restricted districts, and show exactly how 
an innocent girl may be seduced, betrayed, and 
sold. The stage finds it profitable to offer 
problem plays concerned with illicit love, with 
prostitution, and even with the results of 
venereal contagion. Newspapers that formerly 
made only brief references to corespondents, THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
7 
houses of bad repute, statutory offenses, and 
serious charges, now fill columns with detailed 
accounts of divorce trials, traffic in women, 
earnings of prostitutes, and raids on houses. 
Novels that might have been condemned and 
suppressed a few decades ago are now listed 
among “the best sellers.” Lectures on sex hy- 
giene and morals are given widely, over four 
hundred such lectures having been given under 
the auspices of a single society. Fake doctors, 
while obeying the letter of new laws, are bolder 
than ever in some directions and use the alarm 
caused by the production of Damaged Goods, 
for example, as a means of snaring new vic- 
tims. Generations of silence, enforced by the 
powerful influence of social custom, have been 
suddenly followed by a campaign of pitiless 
publicity, sanctioned by eminent men and 
women, and carried forward by the agencies of 
public education that daily reach the largest 
number of human beings — namely, the press, 
the motion picture, and the stage. 
This far-reaching change in the customs of 
society is fraught with immediate dangers, 
because we do not know whether the mere 
knowledge of facts concerning sexual processes, 8 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
vices, and diseases will do a given individual 
harm or good. The effect of such information 
upon any person is unquestionably determined 
by his physiological age, by his nervous sys- 
tem, by the manner and time of the presenta- 
tion of the subject; above all, by his will power 
and the controlling ideals that are acquired 
along with scientific facts. As yet, we have not 
discovered thoroughly trustworthy pedagogi- 
cal principles, administrative methods, and 
printed materials for public education in mat- 
ters of sex. So difficult and complicated are the 
problems, and so disastrous are mistakes in 
this field of instruction, that the home, the 
church, and the school — the institutions to 
which young people should naturally look for 
truth in all matters, the agencies best qualified 
to solve the problems — are extremely cau- 
tious and conservative. While these agencies, 
which are concerned primarily with the wel- 
fare of the individual, the family, and society, 
have made some efforts to solve the problems, 
and to discover a safe and gradual transition 
from the old order to the new, other agencies, 
concerned primarily with making money, have 
rushed in to exploit the new freedom and the THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
9 
universal interest in matters of sex. This pass- 
ing of the old order, and the invasion of the new 
order before we are prepared for it, constitute 
the social emergency of the twentieth century. 
Great as are the industrial and political revolu- 
tions of modern times, it is doubtful if anything 
so deeply concerns the coming generations as 
our measure of success in confronting the pres- 
ent social emergency. 
In no other phase of social education are 
mistakes so serious. Other changes, demanded 
by new ideas of the function of the school, have 
been made prematurely and clumsily, but with- 
out grave danger. We have adjusted ourselves 
readily enough to compulsory education, nor- 
mal schools, higher education for women, ex- 
pert supervision, the kindergartens, physical 
training, industrial schools, university exten- 
sion, care of defectives, and vocational guid- 
ance. Every new type of school and every new 
subject has been introduced before there were 
teachers trained for the new work. We stum- 
bled along. Few were greatly concerned over 
mistakes in the teaching of penmanship and 
spelling and millinery and Latin and algebra. 
Few protested against the inefficient teaching 10 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
of physiology as long as it rattled only dry 
bones, and had no evident relation to the phys- 
ical functions and health of the student. But 
the moment men proposed to teach a subject of 
vital consequence, there was a cry of protest — 
and rightly. 
Here mistakes will not do: here incompetent 
teachers cannot be trusted. Ill-advised efforts 
to teach sex hygiene may aggravate the very 
evils we are trying to assuage. Because the 
subject is of vital importance, education in 
sexual hygiene and morals must proceed cau- 
tiously and conservatively; according to tried 
methods, psychologically sound; always under 
the control of men and women of maturity, who 
see the present emergency in its many phases, 
who know how to teach, whose character is in 
keeping with the highest ideals of their work, 
and who approach their subject with reverence 
and their pupils with the joy and inspiration 
which come from a large opportunity to serve 
mankind. 
Unhappily, not all of those who have been 
stimulated by the new freedom of speech to 
thrust themselves forward as teachers of sex 
hygiene, and as social reformers, are safe lead- THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
11 
ers. Some are ignorant and unaware that en- 
thusiasm is not a satisfactory substitute for 
knowledge. Some are hysterical. At a recent 
purity convention, a woman said, “I know lit- 
tle about the facts, but it is wonderful how 
much ignorance can accomplish when accompa- 
nied by devotion and persistence.” That dec- 
laration was applauded. Some people appear 
to believe that they will arrive safely if they go 
rapidly enough and far enough, even though 
they may be going in the wrong direction. 
Many retard the movement for social hygiene 
by making statements they do not know to be 
true, especially in respect to the extent of sex- 
ual immorality, the number of prostitutes, and 
the prevalence of venereal disease. Young 
people of opposite sexes, finding evidence on 
every hand that the traditional taboo is re- 
moved, discuss the subject for personal pleas- 
ure. 
The books in the field of social hygiene 
which have most scrupulously and success- 
fully avoided everything that might be sexu- 
ally stimulating are not the ones bought by the 
largest numbers. The demand for erotic pub- 
lications is so great as to warn us in advance 12 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
that the new freedom will prove dangerous for 
many whose minds are already unclean. The 
propaganda for social purity is unlike many 
others, in that there is special danger of doing 
injury to the very ones in special need of help. 
The fact that the young, the ignorant, the 
hysterical, and the sexually abnormal, as well 
as commercialized agencies, are using the new- 
found license in dangerous ways is reason 
enough for the liberal and whole-hearted sup- 
port of the American Social Hygiene Associa- 
tion and affiliated societies. 
These private organizations are striving to 
meet the present social emergency. They are 
temporary expedients. Their chief aim is pub- 
lic education. They should frustrate the efforts 
of all dangerous agencies and hasten the day 
when the home, the church, and the school 
shall meet their full responsibilities in the 
teaching of sexual hygiene and morals. CHAPTER II 
VARIOUS PHASES OP THE QUESTION 
William Trufant Foster 
It is necessary to take into account all phases 
of the social emergency. The question is not 
merely one of physiology, or pathology, or dis- 
eases, or wages, or industrial education, or rec- 
reation, or knowledge, or commercial organi- 
zation, or legal regulation, or lust, or social 
customs, or cultivation of will power, or re- 
ligion. It is all of this and more. The danger 
is that we shall see only one or two sides of a 
many-sided problem. A solution may appear 
adequate because it leaves essential factors out 
of consideration. 
One physiological factor in the situation is of 
fundamental importance, namely, the discrep- 
ancy between the age of sexual maturity and 
the prevailing age of marriage, — an artificial 
condition largely determined by social customs, 
by modern educational systems, and by stand- 
ards of living. While society has set forward, 
generation after generation, the age at which 14 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
marriage seems feasible, the age of puberty has 
remained virtually the same. This unnatural 
condition — as artificial as the clothes we wear 
— is a phase of the emergency which should 
be considered by those who condemn as ■ un- 
natural and forced the education of adolescent 
boys and girls in sexual hygiene and morals. 
Partly as a result of this has come the general 
acceptance of the double standard of chastity 
which has bitterly condemned the girl — made 
her an outcast of society — and excused the 
boy for the same offense, on the false plea of 
physiological necessity. 
With the sanction of this double standard, 
tacitly accepted by society, thousands of pros- 
titutes have been harbored and protected. 
What shall we do with them? We may drive 
them out of certain districts and certain houses, 
and even certain cities, but they are still with 
us, and we are responsible for them. If they 
are denied resorts where men seek them, they 
will seek men. Most of them are unable, with- 
out special training, to earn a living in any 
other way, and many of them would not if they 
could. A majority are mentally defective and 
should be wards of society. Any plan which VARIOUS PHASES OF THE QUESTION 
15 
fails to take care of these women — adequately, 
permanently, and humanely — ignores one of 
the greatest of the problems which history, 
with the sanction of society, has made a factor 
of the present emergency. 
The medical phase of the present situation 
is not often ignored, except by those who hold 
that there is no such thing as disease. All 
countries are alarmed over the prevalence of 
venereal infection. Definite information, how- 
ever, concerning the extent of these diseases, 
the sources and conditions of contagion, and 
the complications and results, is not to be had; 
because society still persists in treating vene- 
real diseases as not subject to public registra- 
tion and control, in spite of their terrible attacks 
on tens of thousands of innocent victims. 
The fear of contracting disease has long been 
used in attempts to promote a single standard 
of chastity. Such fear has no doubt played its 
part and will continue to keep many prudent 
men away from prostitutes. But in looking for- 
ward to the work of the next generation, we 
must face the need of higher motives than the 
fear of disease, for science may at any time dis- 
cover positive safeguards against contagion, 16 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
thus diminishing one of the factors of the pres- 
ent emergency and by the same stroke accen- 
tuating others. 
Of the economic phases of the emergency, 
there are some which directly affect the wage- 
earner. One is the failure of wages to keep pace 
with the higher cost of living; another is the 
increase in the number and proportion of wage- 
earning women and the resultant keenness of 
competition for places; another is the fact that 
women workers are for the most part unorgan- 
ized and unprotected; another is the occasional 
effect of supplementary wages of vice in lower- 
ing the wages of women in industry; still an- 
other is the constant temptation of shop-girls 
to imitate their patrons’ vulgar displays of 
finery. But of all the economic factors con- 
tributing to the moral breakdown of girls, the 
most general and inexcusable is the failure of 
our public schools to provide vocational train- 
ing, although it is certain that above fifty per 
cent of all girls leave the schools to become 
wage-earners. Failure to gain a living wage is 
undoubtedly one of the causes, though seldom 
the sole cause, of the first delinquency of some 
girls. VARIOUS PHASES OF THE QUESTION 
17 
Other economic conditions serve to promote 
and intrench the business of prostitution. 
These conditions are as real as any other factors 
and will block reform until they are squarely 
met. One of these is the excessive profit on 
property used for immoral purposes. The 
fact that such property is often owned by 
persons who pass as respectable members of 
society does not make the problem easier. 
Then there is the intimate connection between 
the sale of intoxicating liquors and commercial- 
ized prostitution, as definitely revealed by the 
investigations of every vice commission. 
Another economic factor intrenching pros- 
titution as a business is the commercial or- 
ganization which continues to do an interna- 
tional and interstate business, partly because 
of our inadequate white-slave laws and in- 
adequate appropriation for enforcement. 
Most important among the economic aids to 
prostitution as a business are the high immedi- 
ate wages of vice in contrast with the low wages 
of virtue. A girl in the shop, or factory, or office 
may be capitalized at six thousand dollars; in 
theclutches of a procurer, she may become worth 
twenty-six thousand dollars. As a prostitute, 18 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
she “earns more than four times as much as 
she is worth as a factor in the social and indus- 
trial economy, where brains, intelligence, virtue, 
and womanly charm should bring a premium.” 
In an average lifetime, to be sure, the wages 
of one woman in industry are greater than the 
earnings in the short life of one prostitute; but 
from the viewpoint of the man who pockets 
most of the earnings, it is more profitable to kill 
off a dozen women than to keep one at decent 
work through an average lifetime. This eco- 
nomic condition is revealed to the cast-out 
woman after a few years, on the brink of the 
grave; but at the outset of her brief career, she 
sees the immediate gain, not the ultimate ruin. 
There are other economic factors which will 
aid all movements for social hygiene when they 
are more clearly perceived by those engaged in 
reputable business: first, the loss to honest in- 
dustry due to the reduced efficiency of sexual 
perverts, of the diseased, and of those who, 
through their ignorance, have been kept in 
worry by “leading specialists”; and, in the 
second place, the inevitable reduction in the 
profits of legitimate business due to the exces- 
sive profits of illegitimate business. VARIOUS PHASES OF THE QUESTION 
19 
The recreational pursuits of young people 
are other factors of immediate concern to those 
who would see the problems of social hygiene 
in their entirety. Adolescent boys and girls 
spend most of their leisure time either in whole- 
some physical activity conducive to normal sex 
life or in various forms of amusement fraught 
with danger. In seeking innocent recreation, 
young people can hardly escape contact with 
amusements cunningly devised to excite sex 
impulses and at the same time to lower respect 
for woman. The bill-boards and the picture 
post-cards, the penny-in-the-slot machines and 
the motion pictures, the exhibits of quack 
doctors, vaudeville performances, many so- 
called comic operas, popular new songs, the 
dress of women approved by modern fashion, 
— these all help at times to prepare young 
people to fall before the special temptations 
that beset all commercial recreation centers. 
Especially dangerous are the saloons, billiard 
rooms, dance-halls, ice-cream parlors, road- 
houses and amusement parks. Both male and 
female enemies of decency frequent these re- 
sorts. They are often schools of sexual immo- 
rality, with clever and persistent teachers. Un- 20 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
less we take them into due account, we cannot 
see the whole problem of education in sexual 
hygiene and morals. 
Then there are the legal phases of the situa- 
tion. We must consider, on the one hand, 
how much can be accomplished by legislation, 
in view of all the known factors in the situa- 
tion. Our courts, for example, in spasmodically 
or regularly rounding up women, fining them 
ten or fifteen dollars apiece, and turning them 
loose, are trying to meet the social emergency 
by shutting their eyes to nine out of ten of its 
essential features. Their policy gives a clean 
bill to the male prostitute, arrests the woman, 
takes away a part of her earnings, sets her free 
under the necessity of seeking new victims to 
offset the fine, offers her no incentive to lead 
any other life, incidentally increases opportuni- 
ties for police graft, and virtually gives the sanc- 
tion of the law to the whole nefarious business. 
The ostrich with his head buried in the sand 
sees our gravest social problem about as clearly 
and wholly as do many who are administering 
laws concerning prostitution in American cities. 
The impotence of laws passed in advance 
of public education and public demand is a VARIOUS PHASES OF THE QUESTION 
21 
difficulty often overlooked. Some reformers 
seem to think they can eliminate the social 
evil by getting a law passed. They urge state 
legislatures to pass laws requiring every school 
to teach sex hygiene. These people think they 
are going straight at a solution; but they fail 
to see the patent fact that there are not now 
enough competent teachers for this work; no, 
not one teacher for every hundred schools. 
Another example of futile legislation is the 
California law requiring the reporting of cases 
of venereal diseases. One could easily list a 
score of laws in the domain of sexual morals 
which are ineffective, either because in their 
very nature they could not be enforced, or be- 
cause the public do not wish to have them 
enforced. Perhaps there are no factors of the 
social emergency so frequently left out of ac- 
count as the relation of public education to 
public opinion and the relation of public opin- 
ion to the possibility of law enforcement. 
As a matter of fact the educational phases 
of social reform are of most immediate import- 
ance. Nothing can so profitably occupy the 
attention of social hygiene societies as the edu- 
cation of the public. If groups of social work- THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ers come to serious disagreement on other phases 
of the present emergency, — if the discussion 
of restricted districts, minimum-wage laws, 
health certificates for marriage, and reporting 
of diseases divides the group into warring camps, 
— all can unite in favor of spreading certain 
truths as widely as possible; and it is not diffi- 
cult to agree on at least a few of the many 
methods which have already proved effective 
in educational campaigns. 
At the outset of our attempt to educate the 
general public in matters of sex, we face certain 
factors which govern the scope, time, place, 
and method of any successful efforts. Failure 
to give these factors due consideration has 
brought many attempts to early and unhappy 
ends, and convinced some people that ignorance 
is safer than such education. 
We must reckon carefully with the centuries 
of social tradition which have resulted in the 
taboo on the subjects of sex and reproduction. 
It may be that this conspiracy of silence has 
proved a failure; it may be that it has no basis 
worthy of intellectual respect. It may be that 
all people should welcome the new freedom of 
speech. These are not issues in the process of VARIOUS PHASES OF THE QUESTION 
23 
education. Our first concern is the actual state 
of the public mind; we begin with that or else 
we fail. 
Biologically the all-inclusive issue concerns 
the survival of the race. Nature has no 
favorites: the fittest of the human stock will 
survive after others have degenerated and dis- 
appeared; the fittest animals will ultimately 
people the earth. Sexual degeneracy is the sur- 
est road to race extinction. 
No aspects are more important than those 
concerning morals and religion. The restraining 
influences of the fear of disease may and prob- 
ably will be thrown off by science. Whether 
education in scientific aspects of the subject will 
do good or harm in a given case depends on the 
extent to which moral and religious ideals 
control the conduct of the individual. The in- 
adequacy of mere knowledge in the realm of sex 
hygiene is painfully evident. To the knowledge 
of what is right must be added the will to do 
the right. As moral and religious instruction 
is the dominant educational need of the present 
generation, so the moral and religious aspects 
of sex problems transcend all others in im- 
portance. THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
These are the most important phases of the 
social emergency. It is difficult to see them in 
all their intricate relationships and to realize 
that in any one approach we touch only one 
side of a many-sided problem. The great ma- 
jority of our people see only the superficial as- 
pects, or see one particular phase in distorted 
perspective, because that is brought close to 
them through a special case of misfortune. 
Even social workers are in danger of narrow- 
ness of vision because of devoted service in 
particular fields. The aim of the following chap- 
ters is to consider successively and in right re- 
lationships various aspects of the social emer- 
gency. CHAPTER III 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 
William House 
All instruction in the physiology of reproduc- 
tion as an aid to sexual hygiene should be so 
conducted as to give assurance that the won- 
ders of the origin and development of life in 
all its millions of forms be taught in a respect- 
ful, even reverent, spirit. Naught in the uni- 
verse is more marvelous than the beginnings 
of life. Naught else compares with the wonders 
of growth and development. 
Rightly taught, reproduction may be cleansed 
from the foul interpretations which have soiled 
the minds of countless children, and may be 
made into a body of wonderful and sacred truths 
capable of fortifying youthful minds against the 
uncleanness and indecencies which have con- 
tributed so largely to sexual impurity. If it 
be never forgotten that human ingenuity has 
been taxed in untold numbers of unsuccessful 
experiments to produce life by other than THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
nature’s methods, while the power of reproduc- 
tion resides in even the lowliest of living organ- 
isms, the mystery and marvel are multiplied 
a hundredfold, and the subject of reproduction 
is invested with a halo of splendid and inspiring 
proportions. 
The sex organs are the agencies by which 
every plant and every animal, each after its 
kind, brings into the world a succeeding genera- 
tion. Sex activity is the result of sex impulse. 
The imperative need of reproduction in the 
scheme of nature is responsible for the pres- 
ence of sex impulse as it occurs in every normal 
adult animal. Were it not for this impulse the 
earth would soon become void of life. The 
human sex impulse is a powerful one, thought 
compelling, at times well-nigh overmastering. 
Though in the main good, it sometimes pro- 
duces harmful results. Among the lower ani- 
mals the sex function is exercised without 
thought or knowledge of consequence, restrained 
only by the limitations of physical power,—the 
power to obtain by might, by conquest. In 
fully developed mankind, the mind acts as a 
constraining force which may control or even PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 
27 
completely subdue physical manifestations of 
sex impulse. 
In adolescents — those who are approaching 
maturity, but are in a transition state, neither 
man nor child — sex desire may be as strong as 
in those of riper years. Many who are passing 
through this period know little or nothing of 
the forces that pulse through their frames 
and seem to consume them with unquenchable 
fires. These forces are the sex impulses, the 
beginning of sex life and sex activity. And as 
every work of man or nature while in a state of 
transition is unstable, less firmly founded, more 
easily destroyed or injured than at any other 
time, so it is that the adolescent finds himself 
in greater danger than at any other time of life. 
Consumed with incomprehensible desire, which 
he cannot gratify, he is the victim of circum- 
stances which cause him distress, yet admit 
of no relief. 
Probably all marriage laws have as their real 
object the protection of child life. Without 
marriage laws there could be no organized 
society and the human race would soon sink 
to the level of the animal world in general. 
Under present social conditions marriages are 28 
THE SOCIAL'EMERGENCY 
put off longer and longer. Each succeeding 
generation is marked by an increase in the age 
of those who marry. But the conditions which 
cause late marriages in no way lessen the sex 
impulses or mitigate the distress which these 
impulses cause. The impulse to multiply is 
neither greater nor less than in the past when 
marriages generally occurred earlier. Fortu- 
nately it is weaker in the female than in the 
male. There are those who believe that the 
male must exercise it if he would achieve his 
full strength of mind and body. Certain politi- 
cal and philosophic sects take cognizance of 
this belief and advocate legalized provision for 
the gratification of the sex impulse even to the 
extent of providing for the destruction of the 
lives of the unborn. 
The most pernicious of the false beliefs 
regarding physiological necessity are as fol- 
lows : — 
1. That a life of sexual continence is not con- 
sistent with the best physical health. 
2. That the exercise of the sex function is 
necessary to the full development and preserva- 
tion of “manly power,” — the power of pro- 
creation. PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 
29 
3. That the sexual impulse in man is so im- 
perious that it is impossible to control it and, 
therefore, a sexually continent life cannot be 
expected of man. 
4. That, therefore, the moral standard which 
we apply to woman cannot be applied to man. 
To correct these erroneous beliefs about the 
sex function, Dr. M. J. Exner brought together 
the testimony of the foremost medical authori- 
ties of the United States. He drew up a state- 
ment regarding sexual continence, and sub- 
mitted it to leading physiologists for criticism 
so as to bring its phraseology wholly within the 
requirements of scientific precision. It was 
then submitted for indorsement to leading 
medical authorities throughout the country. 
The ready and hearty response of 370 of these 
men in indorsing the declaration leaves no 
doubt as to the conviction of the leading men 
of the medical profession on this question. 
The declaration is as follows: — 
“ In view of the individual and social dangers 
which spring from the widespread belief that 
continence may be detrimental to health, and 
of the fact that municipal toleration of prosti- 
tution is sometimes defended on the ground 30 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
that sexual indulgence is necessary, we, the 
undersigned, members of the medical profes- 
sion, testify to our belief that continence has 
not been shown to be detrimental to health or 
virility; that there is no evidence of its being 
inconsistent with the highest physical, mental 
and moral efficiency; and that it offers the only 
sure reliance for sexual health outside of 
marriage.” 1 
The erroneous beliefs concerning physiologi- 
cal necessity have been propagated chiefly on 
the authority of advertising medical fakers, 
whose business depends on misrepresentation 
and deceit, men whose methods exclude them 
from the ranks of reputable physicians. They 
are also taught by those within the ranks of the 
profession who are ignorant or unscrupulous or 
both, and who for the most part have no higher 
incentive in their profession than the pursuit 
of the dollar. The teaching of these men is in 
most cases more an expression of their own 
1 The full list of authorities is given in The Physician's 
Answer, by M. J. Exner, M.D., Secretary, Student Department, 
International Committee, Young Men’s Christian Associations, 
Association Press, New York, 1913. This is the best treatment 
of the question of physiological necessity. It is freely quoted 
in this chapter. [Editor.] PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS 
31 
vicious habits than of real conviction. Both 
wholly misrepresent the teaching and attitude 
of the great majority of physicians who consti- 
tute the reputable body of the profession. 
Dr. William H. Howell, Professor of Physi- 
ology at Johns Hopkins University, says: 
“There is no evidence whatsoever that the 
sexual appetite or the act of reproduction has 
any physiological relationship to the preserva- 
tion of the integrity of the individual. This 
appetite has been created or evolved and made 
strong in us for an entirely different purpose. 
A sexual necessity exists only so far as the in- 
tegrity of the race is concerned; so far as the in- 
dividual is concerned his sexual functions may 
be unused or he may be completely unsexed 
without any injury to his bodily health.” CHAPTER IV 
Andrew C. Smith 
MEDICAL PHASES 
Some idea of the prevalence of venereal dis- 
eases in the United States may be obtained 
from the following statistics of the census for 
1910. The registration area covered a popula- 
tion of 48,877,893 persons. The figures are 
here extended to cover a population of 90,000,- 
000 people: Deaths ascribed to venereal disease, 
5275; spinal cord diseases, 2598; paresis, 4845. 
Other diseases partly due to syphilis: softening 
of the brain, a term indiscriminately used to 
cover a number of diseases including brain 
syphilis and paresis, 2111; paralysis, usually 
meaning apoplexy, but always including many 
cases of brain syphilis, 14,479; premature birth, 
by some believed to be the result of syphilis 
in one half of all cases, 34,174; congenital de- 
bility, deaths due in many cases to feebleness of 
the child resulting from syphilis, 25,285; blind- 
ness, one fourth the total number of blind in 
this country estimated at 15,000 to 20,000. MEDICAL PHASES 
Many estimate that over half of the entire 
male population have had gonorrhea. The 
principal reason for this alarming distribution 
among all classes of these infections and their 
steady increase is ignorance and misunder- 
standing of physiological facts, particularly 
the viciously false teaching of the street corner 
that sexual activity is a physiological necessity. 
These diseases would be arrested were there 
a widespread knowledge of their disastrous 
effects. Although young men hear the mis- 
chievous lie that “gonorrhea is no worse than 
a bad cold,” thousands of them are punished 
with sterility as a result of the disease. Nearly 
all the neglected cases result in so-called as- 
cending infections, reaching the bladder and 
kidneys and causing many deaths, and many 
men carry the infection in dormant form, to 
infect innocent wives in later years. 
Appalling as are the consequences of gonor- 
rheal infection in men, they are not so fatal or so 
far-reaching as syphilis. The causative para- 
site of this disease spares not a single tissue in 
the body and may disturb any or all of its func- 
tions, not even mentality escaping. As a cause 
of death it is extremely frequent. Our statis- 34 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tics ordinarily ascribe to syphilis but a small 
percentage of the deaths actually due to it; 
for instance, many of our cases of spinal dis- 
ease, paralysis, arterial and other organic dis- 
eases are tabled under other names, although 
directly due to syphilis. 
In women gonococcic infections are even 
more destructive than in men, as it is extremely 
common for the infection to extend to the tubes 
and to the peritoneal cavity, thus necessitating 
dangerous and mutilating operations, generally 
followed by sterility and often by death. Syph- 
ilis, though less frequent in women than in 
men, is nearly if not quite as fatal as in men, 
and otherwise similar in its baneful effects. 
The child suffers the most tragic results of 
venereal infection, for it is always wholly in- 
nocent, yet infected to a greater or less extent, 
if the parents be syphilitic, and frequently 
if the birth - canal be gonorrheally infected. 
Although silver nitrate is a remedy for gonor- 
rheal infection, if applied to the eyes imme- 
diately after birth, nevertheless the babe fre- 
quently suffers with infected eyes, and not 
infrequently with blindness. 
If the child’s sad infection is syphilis, in- MEDICAL PHASES 
35 
stead of gonorrhea, there are still other mis- 
eries in store for it. If it is not so fortunate 
as to be stillborn, it may have infection that 
ranges from almost imperceptible degrees to 
the most loathsome extent that it is possible 
for animal tissue to harbor. Its brain may be 
so invaded by the syphilitic parasites that it 
can never attain any degree of mentality; its 
spinal column maybe so involved that paralytic 
conditions will surely result; and if these nerve 
centers escape special involvement, other or- 
gans may be affected, such as the stomach, 
bowels, and liver; if these escape, the bones may 
be so deficient in vitality as to be incapable of 
sustaining the frame as development proceeds; 
the skin only may be involved, or the mucous 
membranes so affected as to make of the child 
a perpetual snuffler and inefficient breather. 
In most cases of lesser as well as greater mental 
defect, the tests show syphilitic infection. 
Endless are the complications that may be 
visited upon the innocent progeny of syphilitic 
antecedents. 
The gonorrheal infections occur in the 
mucous membranes lining the cavities, espe- 
cially those of the urethra and female genital 36 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tract. It is in these tissues that the germ of 
gonorrhea finds lodgment, and once there its 
development is hard to interrupt. Although the 
growth of the gonorrheal germ produces acute 
symptoms, such as discharge and pain, these 
pass off under treatment in a few weeks. Un- 
fortunately the disease is far from cured, for 
the microbe has found its natural habitat in 
the inter-cellular structure of the genital mu- 
cus, from which it cannot readily be dislodged, 
and from which it may invade other tissues. It 
may remain in a state of latency for an indef- 
inite time; then transferred to a new field, it 
may resume its original activities. While in this 
stage of latency it is difficult to destroy. At 
this time it is more likely to be further dissemi- 
nated, as the patient, ignorant of the condition, 
is more likely to convey the disease, which so 
often occurs in married life after a long for- 
gotten infection. 
The gonococcus (the microbe of gonorrhea) 
is a pus - producing bacterium, occurring in 
pairs, resembling in form two coffee grains, 
generally with a distinct interval of separation. 
Although its natural habitat is the mucous 
membrane lining the genito-urinary tract, it MEDICAL PHASES 
37 
may invade the muscular and serous and other 
tissues. It often affects the Fallopian tubes 
and ovaries and the serous lining of the pelvic 
and abdominal cavities. The deeper sub-mu- 
cous tissues of the uterus and the male genito- 
urinary tracts are also frequently involved, 
it being sometimes impossible to eradicate it 
from these deeper retreats. From these deeper 
tissues it is more commonly taken up by the 
circulation and deposited in distant parts, fre- 
quently in the joints. When it becomes thus 
systematically disseminated, the so-called sec- 
ondary or metastatic lesions are almost as 
numerous, though not as virulent, as syphi- 
litic infection. Recent pathological researchers 
have found that occasionally the gonococcus 
becomes the causative factor in inflammations 
of the muscles, tendons, and glands, and in 
inflammatory conditions of the lungs, kidneys, 
heart, and even the brain, spinal cord, and the 
serous membranes enveloping these great cra- 
nial and spinal viscera. 
The individuality and characteristics of the 
syphilis microbe were not positively deterr 
mined until in 1905, Schaudinn, of Germany, 
convinced the medical world that it was a 38 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
spiral, corkscrew-like organism, from a quarter 
to one millimeter in thickness, and from four 
to twelve millimeters in length. It is not so 
discriminating as the gonococcus in its points 
of inoculation, nor is it as vulnerable to at- 
tack; and it is vastly more destructive to the tis- 
sues invaded. It spares no tissue in the human 
frame, and resists destruction by any known 
drugs of vegetable origin. When in a latent 
state its presence was often impossible to de- 
termine until, two years after its discovery, a 
test was worked out by Wasserman, also of 
Germany, by which diagnosis of the infection 
may be made, — even in latent form, — as in 
a hereditary case where no clinical manifesta- 
tions have yet asserted themselves. There is 
another valuable blood test worked out by No- 
guchi. With these two tests we are now able 
to diagnose the disease, almost absolutely, and 
follow up the treatment till cure is complete, 
except in some of the incurable brain and spinal 
cord cases. 
In 1909, Ehrlich determined, after a series of 
laboratory experiments on animals inoculated 
with the syphilis germ (spirochseta pallida), that 
a complex compound, with arsenic as its base, MEDICAL PHASES 
39 
had the desired effect of destroying the para- 
site, in a dose not poisonous to the animal. This 
compound, first designated as “ 606,” repre- 
senting its number among his many labora- 
tory experiments, he later named “salvarsan.” 
With the assistance of his clinical friends, he 
soon demonstrated the action of his compound 
on man, and gave it freely to the world. Al- 
though it is now almost universally used, it has 
not proved to be the absolute cure that it was 
hoped it would be, as some of the spirochaetee 
seem to be hidden away where they are pro- 
tected from the circulating poison, — to bring 
forth new progeny, — thus producing so-called 
recurrence. 
The possibility of the infection of innocent 
persons is always uppermost in the mind of the 
medical man, and should equally concern the 
layman. Contaminated articles and utensils, 
such as towels and common drinking - cups, 
have caused many infections. This danger is 
greater from syphilis than from gonorrhea, for 
the reason that the spirochseta pallida is more 
virulent than the gonococcus. In our own 
fields, camps, and mines, it is common for men 
to drink from one jug or dipper. Infection 40 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
almost surely follows if one of the crowd lias 
a syphilitic sore on the lip. So intense is the 
activity of the spirochseta pallida in the pri- 
mary stage that it may be borne to innocent 
parties by unwashed clothes and utensils of 
any kind, that have been in recent contact 
with a primary syphilitic sore. A dentist’s 
or a doctor’s instruments, for instance, are 
extremely dangerous as infection carriers, if 
they are not thoroughly sterilized by boiling. 
The danger of infection in syphilis and gonor- 
rhea depends largely upon the virulence of 
the individual infection. As some living tu- 
bercle bacilli may be harbored and thrown 
off with impunity, while others will destroy 
the strongest man, regardless of all treat- 
ment, so some spirochaetse or gonococci may 
be safely disposed of, while others are most 
deadly. 
Of all the sad instances of germ infection, 
the saddest are those from venereal germs, for 
they are disseminated mostly in vice, and in- 
oculated into the innocent through ignorance. 
A common cause of infection of the innocent 
is the false popular belief that venereal germs 
are transmitted only in sexual congress. The MEDICAL PHASES 
41 
truth is that any part of the body is in danger 
of inoculation from syphilis if the germ be 
virulent. So may any membranous point be 
infected by the gonococcus, whether conveyed 
by hand or instrument or fabric. This explains 
the number of gonococcic infections occurring 
in girl children. They come in membranous 
contact (at the outlet of vagina or rectum, or 
in the eye) with a contaminated article of 
clothing, or with the contaminated hands of 
an infected person. Ignorance is the cause 
of nearly all venereal infections. Why, then, 
should venereal infection not be eradicated? 
With adequate education, if there is not 
eradication, there will at least be compensa- 
tion, for the sacrifice will be mainly of those 
who will not accept education — the unfit. 
The possibility of recovery from syphilis is 
greater at present than it has been in the past, 
but we cannot yet say that the disease is ab- 
solutely curable in a given case. WThile most 
cases treated early with salvarsan, and fol- 
lowed by judicious use of mercury, are curable, 
there are nevertheless those which do not 
thus respond, and which in spite of all treat- 
ment go from bad to worse, till the patient’s THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
miseries are ended in insanity, paralysis, and 
death. 
While the venereal diseases are the greatest 
physical evils to be attributed to sex igno- 
rance, there are others chargeable to the same 
cause. There are, for instance, important 
physiological phenomena pertaining to sex 
development, ignorance of which is often 
baneful to the developing adolescent of either 
sex. When the boy’s voice begins to change, 
and hair begins to appear on his face and body, 
and more thrilling sensations occasionally 
command his attention, he should be told, 
modestly but distinctly, that a pure and manly 
function is developing within him, the sole 
object of which is reproduction, and he must 
not consider it in a vulgar way, nor discuss it 
with others than his parents or physician or 
minister. Tell him that these physical changes 
of oncoming manhood are due to the establish- 
ment of the secretion of the procreative fluid, 
— the semen, — and will be safely cared for 
by nature. Fortify him against the mental 
pollution of the quack advertisement, and the 
satanically false teaching of ignorant associ- 
ates that sexual intercourse is physiologically MEDICAL PHASES 
43 
necessary, by impressing him with the fact 
that nature cares for the disposal of the semi- 
nal secretion. When clearly made aware of 
these simple sex principles, and convinced that 
it is unmanly and depraved to consider them 
vulgarly, the rapidly developing manly boy 
will not become a masturbator or a frequenter 
of bawdy-houses and a victim of the gonococ- 
cic or spirochsetic infections; nor will he be- 
come a moral assassin, a seducer of girls. 
The sister, no less than the brother, needs 
pure, plain, non-prudish sex education. If her 
mother is not qualified to impart it, she, like 
the boy, should seek the aid of her minister, 
or physician, or a qualified school teacher; 
better a few suggestions from an experienced, 
modest source than many suggestions from in- 
experienced and often lewd companions. As 
the brother was told of the physical phenomena 
accompanying his sex development, so the sis- 
ter should be apprised of the physiological 
necessity of her periodical functions, and of 
nature’s kindly care and development of her 
delicate and wonderful sex mechanism, the sole 
divine purpose of which is maternity. It will 
only fortify her maidenliness to tell her that 44 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
much of the world is deceitful and degrading in 
sex matters, and that if she would be a per- 
fect woman, mentally and physically, she must 
vigilantly guard her virtue, maintaining abso- 
lute purity, not only with persons of the oppo- 
site sex, but with persons of her own sex, and 
the person of her own self. Incalculable good 
can be done toward the uplift of wayward 
humanity by sex education. CHAPTER V 
ECONOMIC PHASES 
Arthur Evans Wood 
In any effort for social improvement it is neces- 
sary to know conditions that make both for 
and against success. This is especially so in 
social hygiene, for it is closely related to all 
aspects of modern life. Lack of education and 
false instruction are largely responsible for sex- 
ual immorality. It is not so generally known 
that economic conditions are responsible for 
vice, opinions on this matter ranging all the 
way from a denial that economic conditions 
have anything to do with vice to the assertion 
that vice would disappear with the increase in 
the incomes of working-people. Assuming that 
ignorance is the fundamental cause of vice (an 
assumption which does not “stand to reason ”) 
the results of ignorance must manifest them- 
selves through the institutions of society. 
Some institutions, such as slavery, encourage 
vice. Likewise, any caste system, such as feu- 
dalism in the Middle Ages, in which there must 46 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
be depths as well as heights, supplies the vi- 
cious classes. The aim of this chapter is to 
show that, while modern economic conditions 
do not create “the social evil” they furnish an 
environment favorable to its spread. If this 
is so, an improvement in these conditions must 
accompany all other measures for the eradica- 
tion of vice. 
| One of the most significant facts of the in- 
dustrial evolution of the last half-century is the 
increase in the number of women who have 
become wage-earners outside the home. Ac- 
cording to the Federal Census the number of 
females fifteen years of age and over, employed 
as breadwinners in 1900, was 5,007,069, an 
increase of 34.9 per cent over the number thus 
employed in 1890.1 The largest number in any 
one occupation, 1,213,828, were servants and 
waitresses. Of this class the domestics were 
not employed “outside the home.” The homes, 
however, were not their own, and salutary in- 
fluences of home life do not exist for the major- 
ity of domestics. In the decade between 1900 
and 1910 the increase in the number of wage- 
earning women has been even more accelerated 
1 Statistical Abstract of U.S., p. 263. (1911.) ECONOMIC PHASES 
than in previous decades, and to-day prob- 
ably from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 women in 
the United States are industrially employed. 
One important aspect of this influx of women 
into industry is that the proportion of those 
in domestic and personal service, which has 
always been women’s work, has decreased; 
whereas the proportion of those in manufac- 
turing, trade, and transportation, which are 
new employments for women, has increased.1 
This means that not only are working-girls and 
women leaving the homes, but they are also 
abandoning in increasing numbers those occu- 
pations to which in times past their sex has 
been most accustomed. It is impossible that 
this prodigious change in the sphere and work 
of women should not be accompanied by some 
change in the social and moral standards that 
were nourished in the seclusion of the home. 
Miss Jane Addams has made the suggestion 
that perhaps the superior reputation of women 
for virtue is due to the fact that, generally 
speaking, women have been secluded from the 
influences of the world.2 
1 Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U.S., vol. ix, p. 20; 
“ History of Women in Industry.” 
2 A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, chap. I. 48 
TIIE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
The increase in the proportion of girls en- 
gaged in non-domestic pursuits means that 
industrial vocations for women are becoming 
more dissociated from the arts of home-mak- 
ing, — a fact which is doubtless the cause of 
many an inner struggle. 
In the present lack of industrial education 
young girls who must work to support them- 
selves or their families drift about from place 
to place with no definite vocational aims. Fre- 
quently they come to the offices of child labor 
commissions wanting work, but not knowing 
what they can do, or even what they would 
like to do. If they do find work, it is rarely of 
a sort that offers incentives for a career. Lack 
of skill, of interests, and of ambitions result in 
industrial inefficiency. They are also the usual 
accompaniments of moral delinquency. 
Even where opportunities for industrial 
training are offered, they may not lessen the 
disparity between industrial opportunities that 
exist for girls and womanly tastes. A recent 
report on the need for a trade school for 
girls in Worcester, Massachusetts, advocates a 
school that will train for skill in the machine- 
operating trades, because there is most de- ECONOMIC PHASES 
49 
mand for workers in these trades.1 One might 
think in reading the report that machines for 
stitching corsets and underwear provided the 
ideal vocation for women. Biological consider- 
ations, if no others, would favor distribution of 
wage-earning women away from the mechani- 
cal pursuits into those which are more or less 
associated with the domestic arts. 
A further significance for social hygiene of 
the entrance of women into industry is that it 
places a strain upon the spirit of chivalry which 
is a basis of right relations between the sexes. 
Chivalry in men has accompanied the compar- 
ative seclusion of women from the world, and 
is due to those instincts which lead men to pro- 
tect those who are weaker than themselves. The 
term “the weaker sex” has a sound physiolog- 
ical basis. With the passing of the domestic 
system of industry, however, the seclusion of 
women becomes more and more a thing of the 
past. In factory and shop they mingle promis- 
cuously with men. Crowds of young working- 
girls in every large city at the noon hour throng 
the streets. If they walk to and from work 
1 A Trade School for Oirls, U.S. Bureau of Education, Bul- 
letin no. 17, pp. 52 jf. (1913.) THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
50 
they sometimes have to pass unprotected 
through parts of the city given over to vice.1 
They thus become familiar with vice conditions 
and are often subject to ungentlemanly, if not 
insulting, conduct. There are in every com- 
munity a number of men who are decent only 
under restraint, and the economic position of 
wage-earning girls weakens that restraint. 
Moreover, the phrase “the weaker sex” has 
lost some of its significance. Many occupa- 
tions, such as clerking, stenographing, laun- 
dering, and certain kinds of unskilled factory 
work are almost entirely taken over by women, 
who labor throughout the same working-day 
as men, and usually at a lesser wage than men 
would receive for the same kind of work. Under 
these conditions, to talk of the physical weak- 
ness of women is to accuse our civilization of 
cruelty. 
Around wages most of the discussion has 
centered concerning the economic aspect of 
vice. The investigations conducted through- 
out the country have revealed a great variety 
of opinion concerning the relation between low 
wages and immorality. There has been much 
1 Portland, Oregon, Vice Commission, Report, p. 188. (1913.) ECONOMIC PHASES 
51 
confusion of thought on the question. It is true, 
on the one hand, that injustice is done to wage- 
earning girls and women of the country when 
the report is circulated that the difference be- 
tween morality and immorality is only one of 
dollars and cents. On the other hand, to deny 
that low wages paid to working-girls has any 
bearing on the question of vice is evidence of 
failure to grasp the moral problem involved. 
Morality, to be sure, is always expressed in the 
overcoming of difficulties. Yet we can hold a 
person blameworthy only if in the full posses- 
sion of his or her faculties. A poorly nourished, 
fatigued girl has no such self-possession. If she 
does not earn enough on which to live, and 
“goes wrong,” her inadequate wage is a factor 
in her wrong-doing, and the one who pays it to 
her cannot be rid of his share of the responsi- 
bility. “Sin is misery, piisery is poverty. The 
antidote for poverty is income,”1 says Professor 
Simon N. Patten, who is doing a vast deal to- 
ward bringing economics and morals on speak- 
ing terms with each other. 
Vice investigations in Chicago, Minneapolis, 
Portland, Oregon, Philadelphia, and elsewhere 
show that there are many economic factors 
1 Social Basis of Religion. 52 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
besides wages involved as causes of vice. Some 
of these other factors are housing, hours of work, 
morally dangerous employments, associations 
at work, and fatigue. The wage, however, is 
more important than all of these, for the wage 
largely governs living conditions, associations, 
and recreation. The wage often makes the dif- 
ference between life as mere existence and life 
with the opportunities for self - improvement 
that should belong to a human being. 
It will be of value, then, to note some of the 
facts about wages that have appeared in recent 
surveys made by the Consumers’ League of 
Oregon, by the State of Massachusetts, and by 
the Federal Government. After showing that 
the minimum cost of living for a self-support- 
ing woman in Portland is $10 a week, the Ore- 
gon Survey shows that in the nine principal 
occupations employing women in Portland, 
from 22 to 92 per cent are receiving less than 
$10 a week. The table is as follows: — 
Department stores 58.2 
Factories 74.7 
Hotels and restaurants .. .49.2 
Laundries 92.6 
Offices (clerks) 46.4 
Occupations 
Per cent 
under $10 
Offices (stenographers).. 22.4 
Printing-shops 56.1 
Telephone exchanges. .. 50. 
Miscellaneous 48.7 
Occupations 
Per cent 
under $10 ECONOMIC PHASES 
53 
Another table shows that in five different em- 
ployments, — laundries, factories, offices, de- 
partment stores, and miscellaneous employ- 
ments,— out of 509 women all but 31 (office 
workers) close the year with a deficit.1 
A significant point is that among all but fac- 
tory workers the excess of expenditures over 
incomes is greatest among those who live at 
home. This disproves the statement often 
made that those who live at home do not need 
a living wage. In conclusion, the Report of the 
Oregon Survey says: “The investigation has 
proved beyond a doubt that a large majority of 
self-supporting women in the State are earning 
less than it costs them to live decently; that 
many are receiving subsidiary help from their 
homes, which thus contribute to the profits of 
their employers; that those who do not receive 
help from relatives are breaking down in health 
from lack of proper nourishing food and com- 
fortable lodging quarters, or are supplementing 
their wages by money received from immoral 
living.”2 
1 Social Survey Committee of Consumers’ League of Oregon, 
Report, pp. 21, 22. 
2 Ibid., p. 24. THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
The Massachusetts Commission on Mini- 
mum Wage Boards reports even lower stand- 
ards in wages for women. Among wage-earn- 
ing girls and women over 18 years of age, 93 
per cent of the candy-workers, 60 per cent of 
the workers in retail stores, and 75 per cent of 
laundry-women receive less than $8 a week.1 
In the cotton textile industry, among the 8021 
women over 18 years of age whose wages were 
investigated, 38 per cent received less than $6 
a week.2 Among the individual stories that 
are buried in the Report, the following are 
typical: — 
Ernestine is an eighteen-year-old Canadian girl, 
very pretty and neatly dressed. Her parents both 
died several months ago and left her utterly alone, 
without living relatives. She worked as a stock girl 
at $4.50 a week for two months, was laid off, and 
went to a summer hotel as waitress for $3 a week, 
room and board. She worked there for two months, 
or until the season was over, and then came to an- 
other store for $5 a week. She pays $1.50 for her 
room, including light and heat, has no carfare, does 
her laundering, except for shirt waists which cost 
her $.30 during the summer. She goes without 
1 Massachusetts Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, 
Report, pp. 51, 114, 157. 
2 Ibid., p. 191. ECONOMIC PHASES 
55 
breakfast, or eats only a banana, gets her lunch for 
ten or fifteen cents, and her dinners for twenty or 
twenty-five cents. She has never paid more than 
twenty-five cents for a meal since she started to 
work. She is just a child, and is quite bewildered 
over the problem of facing life on $5 a week, and is 
terribly afraid of debt. She is intelligent and clever.1 
Jennie is a frail little body, about 40 years old. 
After working 16 years in a Boston department store 
her wage was $5 a week. . . . For eleven years 
Jennie’s little $5 a week had been the sole support of 
herself and her aged mother. . . . When her aston- 
ished employer learned that she had worked 16 
years in his store and attained a wage of only $5 a 
week, he raised it $1. So the wage is supplemented 
by the girls (in the store) underpaid themselves, but 
comprehending the woman’s need. . . . Thus seven- 
teen years of faithful service to one master has won 
for Jennie this position of semi-dependence upon 
charity, increasing anxiety over an unprovided-for 
future, and declining health as a result of her pitiless 
struggle to stretch a miserable $5 over the cost of 
support of herself and mother.2 
The most comprehensive report has been 
made by the Federal Government, and in- 
cludes a survey of conditions among women 
1 Report of Massachusetts Commission, as above cited, p. 188. 
* Ibid., p. 114. 56 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
in stores and factories in seven cities.1 Accord- 
ing to this report the average earnings of the 
women in retail stores of these cities is $6.88 in 
the case of those who live at home, and $7.89 in 
the case of those who are “adrift.”2 Among 
the factory women of these cities the average 
wage of those who live at home is $6.40, and 
of those who are “adrift,” $6.78. The Boston 
investigation shows that from 11,000 to 12,000 
women and girls were living in lodging- or 
boarding-houses at an average cost of $5.18 a 
week for prime necessities, leaving only $2.24 
for clothing and all other expenses. The fol- 
lowing comment is made on this government 
report by the Massachusetts Minimum Wage 
Commission: — 
Although more than half the adrift women (in 
Boston) live in lodging- or boarding - houses, — 
numbering be it remembered between 11,000 and 
12,000 girls and women, — two thirds of them lack 
the use of a sitting-room and must entertain men 
as well as women in their bedrooms. Not a few 
1 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, vol. v. The cities included 
were Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, Min- 
neapolis, and St. Louis.! 
* By “adrift” is meant the condition of a self-supporting 
woman who is alone or of a widow with children to support. ECONOMIC PHASES 
57 
indications were seen in the course of the investi- 
gation of the demoralizing results of this practice. 
Many of the young women in lodgings were young 
and were friendless and were earning very low pay. 
Eighteen per cent of those who were reported with- 
out the use of a sitting-room were under twenty-five. 
The housing or food, or both, were reported as bad 
for a number of these perilously defenceless young 
women.1 
Consideration of wages and standards of 
living leads to the question, What is a living 
wage? Studies in different parts of the country 
agree that it is about $10 a week. An estimate 
made by social workers for the Massachusetts 
Minimum Wage Commission places the mini- 
mum at $10.60 for girls who are adrift, and 
$8.37 to $8.71 for girls and women living at 
home. This estimate, however, made no allow- 
ance for unemployment, sickness, accident, or 
old age.2 The Portland Vice Commission and 
the Consumers’ League of Oregon have adopted 
a $10 minimum.3 The first conference called 
by the Oregon Industrial Welfare Commission 
adopted $9.25 a week, or $40 per month, as 
“the sum required to maintain in frugal but 
1 Report of Massachusetts Commission, p. 213. 2 Ibid., p. 222. 
3 Report of Portland Vice Commission, p. 165. 58 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
decent conditions of living a self-supporting 
woman employed in mercantile establishments 
in Portland.”1 To this, however, representa- 
tives of the employees on the conference made 
objection, stating that a straight $10 a week 
minimum was the only safe one. 
If the minimum is rightly placed at $10, 
and if the investigations are true in showing 
that the majority of self-supporting women 
the country over are receiving less than this 
amount, we may now come to a more detailed 
discussion as to the relation between under- 
payment and vice. It is just here that it is easy 
to jump at conclusions. Most people approach 
social questions not with a scientific mind, but 
with preconceptions which mar their judgment. 
For example, the socialist exaggerates the 
effect of bad wage conditions, and the Wom- 
an’s Auxiliary Department of the police exag- 
gerate the influence of home conditions. Again, 
personal testimony is unreliable, because, on 
the one hand, victims of the social evil are lia- 
ble to blame external conditions; and, on the 
other hand, well-fed, well-housed investigators 
often underestimate the bad moral effect of 
poor nourishment and fatigue. 
1 Morning Oregonian, July 24, 1913. ECONOMIC PHASES 
59 
Of this much we may be certain: low wages 
mean poor living, which involves poor housing, 
poor food, no savings, and either no recreation 
or dependence on others for it. In the federal 
report on living conditions of women in stores 
and factories, it is estimated that in the seven 
cities where the investigation took place ap- 
proximately 65,000 women are adrift.1 Since 
the majority of these are receiving less than 
the minimum cost of a decent living, they are 
“perilously defenseless young women.” 
Another federal report,2 bearing directly on 
the relation between conditions of work and 
vice, concludes that whereas few girls “go 
wrong” on account of poverty, the misstep 
once taken, poverty and want are powerful 
deterrents to reform. A fourfold classification 
is made of immoral women, as follows: (1) Un- 
married mothers; (2) girls who leave and re- 
gain the path of virtue, having their fling for 
the sake of good times; (3) occasional prosti- 
tutes, who enter the career as a business for a 
while; (4) professional prostitutes. Mention 
1 Referred to on p. 211 of the Report of the Massachusetts 
Commission on Minimum Wage Boards. 
2 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, vol. xv, pp. 81, jf.; “Re- 
lation of Occupation and Criminality of Women.” 60 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
should be here made of this report, because its 
total effect is to minimize economic causes 
of prostitution, placing the responsibility else- 
where than on industrial conditions. It is to 
be noted, however, that it does emphasize the 
indirect effects of poverty, and does speak of 
the moral danger lurking in certain occupations, 
and of the bad effects of the lack of industrial 
education. 
More definite responsibility for vice is as- 
cribed to low wages in the reports of vice com- 
missions. The Chicago Report says that of one 
group of 119 immoral women, 18 came from 
department stores, and 38 said that they had 
taken up the career for the need of money. 
The Portland Report presents 22 women as 
“Cases in which Low Wage and Vice are 
closely associated.”1 The Report continues: — 
In presenting the foregoing table and statements 
from girls, this commission does not take the posi- 
tion that the low wages of self-supporting girls is the 
sole contributing cause of their delinquency, realiz- 
ing that there are thousands of girls who would en- 
dure the utmost hardships before yielding them- 
selves to those who are ready to seduce them. The 
1 Report of Portland Vice Commission, p. 176. ECONOMIC PHASES 
61 
evidence as to the effect of wage conditions is taken 
from the girls themselves, who, perhaps lacking 
adequate moral training, have, in the extremities 
of their position, allowed themselves to be driven 
“ the easiest way.” 1 
In the vice investigation conducted by the 
Illinois State Senate, 50 girls in one day testi- 
fied under oath, 45 of whom said that their 
downfall had been due to the lack of money. 
The foregoing evidence is the kind unfortunate 
girls would be likely to give. Nevertheless, 
making due allowances, this evidence tends to 
confirm reports of vice commissions whose 
purpose has been strictly scientific. 
If a conservative estimate of the proportion 
of vice due to low wages of girls would be 10 to 
15 per cent, it must not be concluded that this 
represents all of the baneful moral effect of 
poverty. Whatever the other non-economic 
causes of vice, they are aggravated where 
poverty exists. Not only is this so, but alleged 
other causes may be partly economic. Bad 
home conditions are due not only to the lack of 
moral discipline, but also to the lack of income. 
The average wage of the adult male wage- 
Report of Portland Vice Commission, p. 176. 62 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
earner of that section of the United States lying 
east of the Rockies and north of Mason and 
Dixon’s line is said to be about $600. Some- 
times the wage is as low as $500, and in only a 
few instances as high as $750.1 If wage-earning 
men attempt to support families on these in- 
comes, it means that they are not able to pro- 
vide adequately for their wives and children. 
If they do not attempt to do so, it means, tak- 
ing men as they are, an increase in the army of 
men who support prostitution. Professor H. R. 
Seager has said that prostitution in aid of 
wages is the greatest disgrace of our civiliza- 
tion.2 An accompanying disgrace lies in the 
fact that economic conditions and other factors 
prevent the average male wage-earner in so 
large a section of our country from fulfilling his 
desire for marriage and a home of the sort that 
makes for health and happiness. 
Besides the low wages of women and men, 
other economic facts have their bearing upon 
sexual hygiene and morals. These facts may be 
grouped under the head of industrial stress and 
strain which is moral as well as physical. The 
1 Scott Nearing, Wages in the United States, pp. 208 ff. 
2 American Labor Legislation Review, vol. hi, no. 1, p. 88. ECONOMIC PHASES 
63 
underpaid factory or store girl is subject to 
constant fatigue. In the rush season in depart- 
ment stores, girls often depend upon opiates for 
dulling the nervous strain. No trade is free 
from its special physical strain. There are, 
moreover, many morally dangerous trades. 
Work as chambermaids in hotels is conspicu- 
ously perilous for girls. The Chicago Juvenile 
Protective Association says, “The majority of 
girls who work in hotels go wrong sooner or 
later.” The modern department stores, which 
employ the majority of young working-girls, 
offer temptations. Mrs. Florence Kelley refers 
to work in these stores as “the most dangerous 
to morals and health of all occupations into 
which children can go.” 1 Of course, it may be 
said that a “good girl” will not go wrong. It 
may also be said that a good social order will 
not place even good girls daily under conditions 
that are liable to bring about a physical or 
moral breakdown. Closer analysis of human 
character reveals the fact that physical and 
moral health are more closely associated than 
we have hitherto believed them to be. 
According to statistics about female offend* 
1 Social Diseases, vol. hi, no. 3, p. 9. 64 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ers, domestic service is morally the most 
dangerous employment.1 The reasons for this 
are two: the social ostracism and the loneliness, 
and the low grade of worker. Each of these 
causes augments the influence of the other. 
The application of industrial standards to this 
neglected form of work should lead to improve- 
ments. 
For those dependent upon employment 
offices, the seeking of a job may involve moral 
danger. The practice of private employment 
bureaus in sending unsuspecting girls to im- 
moral places under the pretext of finding legit- 
imate employment is common. The director 
of the Municipal Employment Bureau in 
Portland says that the managers of houses are 
sometimes so bold as to telephone to the 
bureau for girls, telling for what purpose the 
girls are wanted.2 One of the private bureaus 
was detected several times cooperating in such 
practices. The menace of such places can 
scarcely be overestimated. 
We may now conclude our review of the 
1 See Portland Vice Commission Report, p. 193; also Woman 
and Child Wage-Earners, vol. xv. 
* Portland Vice Commission Report, p. 192. ECONOMIC PHASES 
65 
economic phases of social hygiene. Economic 
conditions to-day are under indictment as en- 
dangering the health and morals of working- 
girls and women. Moral delinquency may arise 
through temptations met and hardships en- 
dured at the place of work; through scanty 
wages, inadequate for daily necessities; through 
lack of sympathetic consideration on the part of 
employers; through the stupidity of the commu- 
nity in adhering to worn-out educational meth- 
ods that do not train wage-earners for earning 
a livelihood; through lack of protective legisla- 
tion in regard to hours and conditions of labor. 
As a matter of fact, each of these conditions 
has been found to be an accompaniment of 
vice; and taken all together they constitute an 
environment that makes clean living difficult. 
Against the dark background of modern indus- 
try should be portrayed the luxurious condi- 
tions that are apparently enjoyed by those who 
have taken “the easiest way.” In ancient 
society the status of the prostitute was that of 
slave: to-day it is that of an industrial citizen.1 
If the program of social hygiene comprehended 
only talking about sex to working-girls — to 
1 E. R. Seligman, The Social Evil, Introduction. 66 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
laundry-girls, for example, who, after a day’s 
work of ten hours at the machines, go at night 
to their boarding - houses where they wash 
dishes to eke out a living, — then this program 
would not be unlike the advice of a physician 
who tells a poor man with tuberculosis that he 
must go to the country for a year and live on 
cream and eggs. 
Even in the case of wage-earning girls who 
adopt loose ways to satisfy extravagant desires, 
their tastes are established by women of the 
wealthy and middle classes. The leisure of 
these women is due to their wage-earning sis- 
ters, who in factories and mills make the cloth, 
prepare food-stuffs, and do all sorts of tasks 
that formerly kept women of the upper classes 
at home. Through the instinct of imitation, 
combined with the American feeling of democ- 
racy, the habits of the well-to-do determine 
the ambition of many a working-girl. 
Other factors are industrial arrangements 
which segregate men in construction and lum- 
ber camps for a part of the year, and then, 
without providing for their further employ- 
ment, turn them loose into cities where only 
saloons welcome them and cash their checks, ECONOMIC PHASES 
67 
and where disease-infected lodging-houses are 
their only places of abode. Furthermore, 
standing armies take thousands of able-bodied 
men out of normal industrial relationships, and 
keep them in camps that become the congre- 
gating places of prostitutes. 
The most hopeful phase of the whole problem 
is that it lies within the power of the State to 
transform the industrial environment through 
progressive legislation. The law cannot form 
character, but it can protect that which has 
been developed through voluntary effort. Vice 
is partly a by-product of industrial chaos 
which can be eradicated by industrial organ- 
ization. When working-people can establish 
themselves more generally in homes of their 
own, — “every man under his vine, and 
under his fig tree,” as it were, — then they will 
be able to give more time to their children, and 
will perhaps cooperate better in the program 
for sex instruction. 
Economic improvements should include a 
minimum wage for women, and one for men 
based upon the needs of a family; the eight- 
hour day; insurance against sickness, old age, 
and accidents; relief of unemployment; one 68 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
day’s rest in seven for all continuous industries; 
industrial education compulsory for all chil- 
dren; abolition of child labor; and amelioration 
of conditions under which women work. 
When wage standards are raised, there arises 
the problem concerning those who cannot earn 
a living wage. “Who will pay poor, ignorant 
Mary Konovsky more than $6.90 a week?” is 
a question asked by a manufacturer during a 
minimum-wage discussion in New York State. 
The reply is, If Mary is really not worth more, 
she must be sent by the State to an industrial 
school until she can earn her living; and if she 
should be proved to be mentally deficient (as 
about 50 per cent of prostitutes are said to be), 
then she must be placed in an institution where 
she can be humanely and permanently cared 
for. The impossible alternatives are that she 
should be denied a living wage when she can 
earn it, or that she should be allowed to drift, 
in danger of becoming the prey of vicious men. 
Meanwhile, before the machinery of a full 
legislative program can be set to work, the 
field is open for voluntary philanthropic en- 
deavor. Welfare work in stores and factories 
that is done by some one who acts, not as a ECONOMIC PHASES 
69 
detective with condescending side interests in 
welfare, but whole-heartedly and sympathet- 
ically, can avail much. Real social work in 
business establishments should be profitable to 
employers as well as to employees. The aim of 
all public and private effort should be to make 
industry not the occasion of stumbling, but 
what it should be, the universal means of 
progress. CHAPTER VI 
RECREATIONAL PHASES 
Lebert Howard Weir 
This chapter is in no sense an attempt to dis- 
cuss pathologic sex problems, but rather to 
show the necessity of providing facilities for 
normal, wholesome living for all the people dur- 
ing their leisure time. This will solve many of 
the vexing sex problems. 
At the outset, it is important to contrast 
the 27,000,000 hours a year, during which the 
school has charge of all the children, with 
the 135,000,000 hours at the children’s free 
disposal. Yet we are inclined to charge the 
schools with the responsibilities of many fail- 
ures in the physical and moral make-up of grow- 
ing boys and girls. The greater part of the edu- 
cation of the boys and girls is received outside 
of school through the various activities which 
fill up these 135,000,000 hours a year. Society 
has, therefore, a great responsibility in directing 
the activities of the free time of young people. 
People employed in the home, store, fac- RECREATIONAL PHASES 
71 
tory, shop, or office, in a year of 365 days 
spend about 2880 hours of this time in sleep. 
Taking the average working-day as nine hours 
and the number of working-days in the year 
as 300, excluding Sundays and holidays, each 
person is employed in needful occupations 
2700 hours during the year. Out of the work- 
ing-days, a total of 2100 hours are at each per- 
son’s disposal to use as he sees fit. Of the 
remaining 60 days, 15 hours of each day are 
for free use, — or a total of nearly 35 per cent of 
the entire year. What are the children, young 
people, and adults doing with this time? 
One answer is found in the records of the 
juvenile court, in rescue homes, in reforma- 
tories, in the police and criminal courts, in jails 
and penitentiaries, in hospitals for the treat- 
ment of venereal diseases, the insane and 
feeble-minded; another in the fallen women 
(and men, too), of whom so much has been said 
of late; another in the crowded saloons and 
busy restaurants in the heart of the city, with 
their music, bright lights, food, liquor, and 
overdressed, painted women with their con- 
sorts; still another in the billiard-rooms and the 
moving-picture theaters. THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
72 
The extent to which people of all ages and 
races resort to the moving - picture show is 
known by few people. In Portland, Oregon, 
a weekly attendance of 5000 is reported for a 
house with a seating capacity of 175; a weekly 
attendance of 3500 for a house seating 75; a 
weekly attendance of 25,000 for a house seating 
500. Another with a seating capacity of 567 
reports a weekly attendance of 22,000. The 
attendance of all the moving-picture houses in 
any city is a startling revelation of the use of 
the time of the people. 
All forms of leisure-time consumption are 
offshoots of the one great common meeting- 
place of all the people, the street. The street is 
more than an avenue for traffic. It is the social 
meeting-place of many of the inhabitants. It 
is the playground of nearly all the children. Its 
glitter and glare, its lights and shadows and 
care-free spirit, attract boys and girls. They 
come as moths flutter about the candle flame 
and often with equally disastrous results. The 
call of the street is irresistible. It is the sim- 
plest, most convenient avenue for the satis- 
faction of that hunger for pleasure, excitement, 
amusement, and recreation, common to all RECREATIONAL PHASES 
73 
ages, all races, and both sexes. It is the avenue 
for the spontaneous outpouring of the spirit 
of democracy. No matter how thickly the city 
may scatter its playgrounds, its athletic fields, 
boating and swimming centers and recreation 
buildings, the street will always have to be 
reckoned with as the one great all - engulfing 
factor in the use of the leisure time of the 
people. 
Surely the possibilities for good or evil are 
infinite when the spirit of youth and age play 
free, willingly receiving impressions on every 
hand. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases 
the ministry in this field of infinite character- 
building possibilities has fallen into the hands 
of men who for the most part reckon its possi- 
bilities only in terms of the nickels, dimes, and 
dollars that pass over the bar or counter or 
through the box office. Many of them conceive 
low opinions of the recreation desires of the 
people, furnishing the lurid, the risqu6, the 
bold, the daring forms of entertainment, or 
coupling it with other lines of business, as in 
the case of the saloon, with unfortunate social 
results. 
Can the city afford the commercial exploita- THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tions of so much of this valuable time? The 
answer must be that it can afford it only when 
the ideals of the men conducting these various 
forms of amusement are as high as the best that 
the community would demand if managing 
similar institutions. The saloon proprietor is 
not interested primarily in the physical and 
moral welfare of his patrons or in the general 
social welfare of the city. He provides various 
forms of recreation to increase the patronage 
of the bar; it is an unwritten law that those 
who avail themselves of the card-tables, of the 
pool- and billiard-tables, the moving-picture 
shows in the saloons, and who hear the music, 
must patronize the bar. Thirty-six per cent of 
the pool and billiard licenses are held by men 
holding saloon licenses, and in all the large pool- 
and billiard-halls, especially in the center of 
the city, not connected directly with saloons, 
liquor is served upon the demand of the pa- 
trons. The evil of the situation is significant 
when it is remembered that the larger percent- 
age of the patrons of those places are men under 
twenty-five years of age. Profanity is common, 
and usually gambling is permitted. Often 
these pool- and billiard-parlors are the “hang- RECREATIONAL PHASES 
75 
outs” of vicious, depraved young men who live 
upon the earnings of unfortunate women. This 
use of the leisure time of men is physically, 
morally, and socially dangerous and should not 
be permitted. 
The public skating-rink is fairly free from 
objectionable features, but boys and girls at- 
tending without proper chaperons often form 
undesirable acquaintances. Women of the 
street and their male companions often attend. 
Juvenile court officials are aware of the immo- 
ralities springing from this source. 
The amusement parks present almost un- 
limited possibilities for the formation of unde- 
sirable acquaintances. The fact that they are 
open in the evening, and not lighted in all 
parts, the presence of cafes where liquors can be 
had, inadequate police protection, the secrecy 
possible through the presence of large crowds, 
the size of the parks, the distance from the 
homes in the city, and the unchaperoned attend- 
ance of large crowds of young people, all make 
amusement parks dangerous without closer su- 
pervision by public authorities. 
In former days the road-house ministered to 
the legitimate needs of wayfaring travelers. 76 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
To-day the name “road-house” is synonymous 
with the “bawdy-house” of the city. Located 
just beyond the borders of towns and cities, 
beyond police supervision, catering to men and 
women who desire secrecy for their revels and 
orgies, the road-house is one of the worst pos- 
sible institutions now ministering to the leisure 
time of the people. 
In some sections of this country, the public 
excursion, both by land and water, is as bad 
as the road-house. Instead of being a time of 
relaxation and recreation, a time of freedom 
from cares of the workaday life and enjoyment 
of pure air, sunshine, and beauties of nature, 
and of fine social relationships of people, the 
excursions have become dissipations of physical 
and moral energy. With proper supervision 
and with proper standards on the part of pro- 
moters of transportation companies, the public 
excursion can be a fine constructive factor in 
the use of the leisure time of the people. 
Festivals and carnivals conducted by the 
people of a community, commemorative of na- 
tional holidays or of historical events or of 
religious life, are often admirable. But when- 
ever the festival or carnival becomes a com- RECREATIONAL PHASES 
77 
mercial enterprise for the purpose of attract- 
ing crowds to the city, for advertisement and 
for gain by merchants and hotel proprietors, 
young people are in danger. The city becomes 
the mecca for undesirable men and women who 
prey upon the susceptibilities of the people, 
animated by the festival spirit. The hotels are 
the temporary homes of women of the street. 
Every large festival of this kind has been fol- 
lowed by social evils of the most virulent type. 
Many a girl and many a boy, yielding to the 
influences of the abandonment of the crowd, 
take the first step in sexual vice. This type of 
festival is not socially profitable to a commu- 
nity, where the commercial aim and purpose 
predominates. The commercial exploitation of 
the recreation and social needs of the people 
is usually productive of sexual immorality. 
A characteristic feature of American life is 
the club, union, society, or order spontaneously 
formed by the people. No matter what the 
fundamental purposes of these groups may be, 
whether for protection against sickness, acci- 
dent, and industrial evils, whether for the study 
of art, music, and literature, or for the promo- 
tion of physical activities, the primary bond 78 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
that brings the group together and holds it 
together is the social instinct of mankind. 
Those which administer to the play and recre- 
ation life of their members most efficiently are 
strongest. The dances, card parties, lectures, 
entertainments, and other social activities con- 
ducted by such groups are usually under the 
best kind of social control, far better than any 
type of commercial amusement and perhaps 
better than most public - supervised amuse- 
ments. The strength is in the comparative 
smallness of the group, the personal acquaint- 
ance of the members, the presence of older 
people with the young, and the existence of 
individual and group responsibility and ideals. 
Far better social control would result if all 
public dances and public skating-rinks and 
excursions were conducted on this group or 
society basis. 
One field of neglected social activity is the 
home as a recreation and social center. The 
day of the “party” seems to be past. Parents 
have thus lost one strong hold on the character 
development of their children. Thousands of 
parents in the modern city have lost the social 
spirit of the home because of crowded living RECREATIONAL PHASES 
79 
conditions, but there are also thousands, espe- 
cially in the Western cities, who still have indi- 
vidual homes; every such home should be the 
primary social and recreation center for adoles- 
cent boys and girls. The revival of the small 
group social in the home for the young people 
would be a constructive contribution to some 
of the moral problems of the young. 
In the leisure - time activities of children, 
the Sunday supplement or “ funny sheet ” of 
the newspaper is of importance. The funny 
sheet appeals not so much through humor as 
through glaring color and grotesque pictures 
which violate every canon of color combination 
and of art. Exaggerated types of mischievous 
children and freakish adults, and equally freak- 
ish and unthinkable mechanical devices, are 
favorite subjects. Disobedience of children, 
premature and unnatural childish love-affairs, 
domestic infelicity, the privileges and advan- 
tages of bachelorhood are paraded Sunday 
after Sunday before the susceptible minds of 
millions of children. 
Multitudinous as are the private agencies 
administering to the leisure-time activities of 80 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
all the people, neither the commercial amuse- 
ments nor the numerous spontaneous private 
organizations answer all the requirements of 
social and recreative needs of the people. On 
the one hand, commercial amusements, while 
used and enjoyed by masses of the people, have 
been objects of danger and distrust because of 
their anti-social effects. On the other hand, the 
private society, club, order, and organization are 
essentially narrow, and formed with other pur- 
poses and ideals in view than ministering to the 
social and recreative needs and desires of the 
people. The providing of ample facilities for 
the fullest and most wholesome use of the lei- 
sure time of the people is a community respon- 
sibility, just as important to the public welfare 
as a system of public education. 
This community sense of responsibility did 
not in the beginning have the wide constructive 
vision which characterizes it to-day. It was 
designed first as a corrective of pathological 
social ills, especially relative to childhood and 
youth. Congestion in the modern city, an inci- 
dent and a result of specialization and expan- 
sion of American industrial and commercial 
life, caused living conditions inimical to the RECREATIONAL PHASES 
81 
health and morals of all the people. As usual 
the children suffered most. Deprived of light, 
air, wholesome living quarters, play space, and 
the advantages of a real home, they fell easy 
victims to disease, sickness, death, and, what is 
worse, to the disease and death of ideals and 
morals. Juvenile faults and crimes increased at 
an alarming rate. The therapy of play was 
applied. It was soon found, however, that the 
great mission of playgrounds was not as a 
therapeutic agent, but as a preventive and 
constructive force. The movement took on 
large, positive, constructive aims, purposes, 
and ideals. It expanded into the playground 
and recreation movement, with emphasis upon 
the latter, aiming to provide for and direct the 
leisure-time activities of all the people. Play 
was restored as the right of every child, without 
which no wholesome physical, mental, and 
moral growth is possible. 
As constructively related to other great 
social problems, the playground and recreation 
movement was found almost universally appli- 
cable. Sexual immorality and the white-slave 
traffic are combated by recreation centers 
where young women obtain under normal con- 82 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ditions the highest ideals and satisfy the spirit 
of youth, which is the sign of life itself. 
The scope of this larger movement is as 
follows: It promotes the establishment of play- 
grounds within walking distance of every child; 
athletic and sport fields for older boys and girls 
and for men and women; boating and swim- 
ming centers and parks for the use of all; recre- 
ation and social centers in municipal recreation 
buildings and in school buildings, where all the 
people of a community, irrespective of race 
or creed, may find opportunity for the fullest 
possible recreation and social life; it promotes 
school and municipal camps, tramping-clubs, 
and other activities that cultivate the habit of 
outdoor life; physical education and athletics 
in the schools that reach every child, instead of 
a few as now; it stands for school playgrounds, 
in connection with every school; it seeks to 
provide facilities through which musical, lit- 
erary, dramatic, and artistic talents of the 
people may find encouragement and expres- 
sion, and for a constructive social supervision 
of all commercial amusements. 
Yet playgrounds and recreation centers are 
not free from social dangers. Many of the moral RECREATIONAL PHASES 
83 
dangers of commercial amusements may arise in 
municipally owned and managed systems of 
recreation. In fact, public playgrounds have 
become such moral menaces as to warrant their 
closure in the interests of public welfare. Some 
of the worst cases of sexual immorality coming 
to the juvenile courts arise in public play- 
grounds. This is the result of bringing large 
numbers of young people into a common play 
place without the most careful supervision, 
guidance, and direction. The physical growth 
and health, the morals, the happiness, and the 
ideals of citizenship of great masses of the people 
are so deeply involved in the right use of the 
leisure time of the people that to conduct their 
activities in any way but according to the high- 
est standards is a civic crime. CHAPTER VII 
EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
Edward Octavius Sisson 
The education of youth as it exists has a great 
gap wherever the subjects of reproduction and 
sex are concerned. Children are taught at 
home many things about every other part of 
their lives, but usually nothing about this; at 
school they learn the anatomy and physiology 
of bones and muscles, of sense-organs, and 
nervous system, of glands and alimentary 
canal, of respiration and circulation; but a 
sudden silence falls just before sex is reached. 
We study everything about life except its 
origin, and in ignoring that we lose a most fas- 
cinating and beautiful field of inquiry, an essen- 
tial part of knowledge, and a vital element in 
moral intelligence.1 
The aims of sex education may be stated in 
the main as follows: — 
1 An examination of tables of contents and indexes of standard 
school texts in nature study and biology will reveal the almost 
universal absence of all ideas relating to sex and reproduction. 
There are two or three recent exceptions. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
85 
(1) The first aim is individual prudence. 
Every normal human being must undergo cru- 
cial tests and solve vital problems in his own 
sex life. The most beautiful successes of life 
and its most conspicuous failures are both 
exceedingly frequent in the realm of sex. The 
conditions of the sexual life are sufficiently alike 
in all normal cases so that the experience of the 
race is valuable to the individual in meeting his 
own problems. Each child as he passes onward 
through youth to maturity is treading a road 
new to him, not lacking in danger and pitfalls, 
nor without opportunities for great reward. 
Education must give him all the available 
advance information concerning the road he 
is to travel. 
(2) The second aim is general intelligence. 
Sex is a universal element in all living beings, 
with the exception of the very lowest; it per- 
vades the life of the spirit as well as the life of 
the body. No man, therefore, can be intelligent 
concerning things in general without a clear, 
definite and accurate knowledge of the funda- 
mental facts of sex. One of the strongest new 
visions concerning sex is the marvelous way in 
which it ramifies into all fields of thought and 86 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
action. Not a few of the most eminent workers 
in modern science incline to consider all aspects 
of human life, including even religion itself, as 
emanations or processes from the sex basis. 
Such in particular are G. Stanley Hall in Amer- 
ica and Freud in Germany. Without going to 
such extremes we may still recognize the fact 
that in all sorts of physical and psychic prob- 
lems in morals, religion, and sociology, sex 
plays an important part and must be under- 
stood if we are to grasp the situation and its 
meaning.1 
(3) The third aim is social enlightenment, 
The human spirit in our own day is manifestly 
addressing itself to the solution of the special 
social problems which involve the sexual life of 
men. Three of these problems may be specified: 
(a) The so-called “social evil,” including not 
merely prostitution, but also all other forms of 
waste and injury through sexual errors; (b) the 
problem of family life, including marriage and 
the rearing of children, as well as pathological 
aspects such as desertion and divorce; (c) the 
vast problem of eugenics or race culture. 
1 G. Stanley Hall, Educational Problems, vol. I, pp. S88-97; 
Thomson and Geddes, Problems of Sex, pp. 5-17. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
87 
In all these fields the problems of sex are 
involved. Men and women who desire to bear 
their whole burden as members of a progressive 
society must contribute to the solution of these 
great social problems, and to do this wisely 
they must know something about the basic 
facts of sex life.1 
The first and basic part of sex education is 
bodily regimen: children and youth must live 
an abundant, vigorous, wholesome physical 
life.2 Cities have threatened to be the “graves 
of the human species” in this respect. Seden- 
tary life chokes and misdirects the currents of 
nervous energy and the very circulation of the 
blood. The lad who plays vigorously, even 
violently; who can “get his second wind,” turn 
a handspring, do a good cross-country run, 
swim the river, possesses a great bulwark of 
defense against sexual vice, especially in its 
secret forms. 
The revival of play, of play for all, boys and 
girls, weak as well as strong, is one of the most 
hopeful movements on foot to-day. Let us base 
1 Thomson and Geddes, op. cit., pp. 46-52; Saleeby, Parent- 
hood and Race Culture; Morrow, Social Diseases and Marriage ; 
Hall, Educational Problems, vol. x, pp. 424-43. 
2 Fisher, National Vitality; Hall, Youth, chaps, ix, v, vi, xn. 88 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
our promotions from grade to grade, and espe- 
cially for “graduation ” from school, partly upon 
physical tests, requiring each student to make 
of himself physically, not a record-breaking 
athlete, but the best that can be made out of 
the stuff in him. 
Food, sleep, clothing, bathing, fresh air, — 
all these are vital also; whatever turns the flow 
and thrill of life into wholesome channels, 
abolishes indolence, stagnation, morbidity, and 
fosters abundance of bodily life, — such is the 
regimen of sex health. 
No bodily regimen can be effective without 
mental control. Nowhere does mind affect 
body more immediately and powerfully than 
in the realm of sex. The educator has two great 
tasks in this respect: first to improve the gen- 
eral environment in which the young must live 
and develop. As things are, our streets, store- 
windows, books and magazines, and especially 
public amusements, such as theaters and dance 
halls, abound in sexual suggestion and stimu- 
lation.1 These agencies stimulate an excessive 
1 “What makes a Magazine?” Twentieth Century Magazine, 
September, 1912, pp. 11-20; The Exploitation of Pleasure. 
Russell Sage Foundation. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
89 
stream of sexual desire, with all its physical 
accompaniments, in boys and men: the natural 
and inevitable result is an overwhelming im- 
pulse toward illicit satisfaction in self-abuse or 
sexual immorality. Society in self-defense and 
in the interest of its youth must wage war upon 
this mercenary exploiting of the sex impulse. 
Licentious thinking is the great foe of conti- 
nence; the saying of Jesus may be paraphrased 
thus with physiological correctness: “He that 
looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath 
already committed the sexual act in his nerv- 
ous system.” 
Hence, the second task in this connection is 
to arouse and arm the youth against the lusts 
of the mind, and lead him in a resolute fight for 
mastery over his own thoughts. “ Do not harbor 
in your mind anything you would fear to have 
your enemies know, or blush to have your friends 
know,” is a good motto for boys and youth. 
When we come to instruction in matters of 
reproduction and sex, the first principle is that 
it should be given in organic relation with the 
rest of life and thought. It arises naturally in 
two main connections: in response to the child’s 
own questions and problems; and as part and 90 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
parcel of biological science. The common ques- 
tions of the little child, “Where does the baby 
come from?” or perhaps even earlier, “How 
does the hen make the eggs?” — an actual 
question of a four-year-old — are the signal 
and the open door for easy and natural enlight- 
enment. Seize the opportunity: tell the truth, 
as simply and briefly as possible, and the begin- 
ning is made; watch for and utilize all such 
opportunities, as they come, and the main road 
of the task is marked out; shock is minimized, 
if not eliminated, mutual confidence is engen- 
dered, and a priceless reward may be won. But 
if at that first question we falter, quibble, 
blush, lie, jest, or repel, we have entered the 
wrong road which leads eternally astray. Let 
no question ever be either ignored or neglected, 
least of all repelled. It is the golden opportu- 
nity for parent, teacher, or friend. To guar- 
antee against the child seeking promiscuous 
and irresponsible sources of information, let 
his questions ever find the warmest welcome 
and kindest response at the parent’s knee.1 
1 See Mrs. Woodallen Chapman, The Moral Problem of the 
Children, esp. pp. 61-93. Also the chapter in this book on the 
education of children. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
91 
Now the movements of the child’s own mind 
in matters of sex and reproduction may either 
be actual questions more or less explicit, or 
they may be subtler seekings for light, — hints, 
vague inquiries, gropings after what he cannot 
phrase or hesitates to utter; these inward stir- 
rings are vital, and the alert and sympathetic 
and patient parent can in the main perceive 
them and bring them to light. But success need 
not be hoped for in this respect unless first the 
beginnings are attended to; uncounted parents 
can testify to the infinite difficulty of breaking 
to the boy or girl the silence long practiced with 
the child. Nor will occasional or spasmodic fits 
of interest and action by the parent achieve 
much; Emerson’s proverb holds inflexibly 
here; “What wilt thou have?” quoth God; 
“pay for it and take it.” Pay we must in time, 
in thought, in perseverance and patience, in 
study of the problems and self-preparation for 
the task. Happily the progress of sex hygiene 
among adults is yearly increasing the number of 
fathers and mothers who are awake and active. 
We have spoken of meeting the motions of 
the child, as though the educator might never 
need to take the initiative; in all probability 92 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
that might be true in an ideal state. As things 
are it would be unsafe to rely absolutely upon 
questions; the parent and on occasion other 
educators must take the initiative in some 
cases. In doing so, however, the most scrupu- 
lous care should be taken to be sure that the 
mind of the learner is ready for the particular 
instruction. 
In biological instruction what is needed is 
not an artificial appendix or addendum, but 
simply that we should cease to mutilate science 
by omitting its most fruitful and essential 
elements. Nature study for little children is 
the first available field; it should begin even 
before the kindergarten age, with the simplest 
and easiest observations, and proceed by gentle 
gradations of progress; it finds abundant and 
fascinating material in growing plants, eggs, 
brooding chickens, kittens, puppies, and, best 
of all, the new baby, where the home questions 
and the nature study meet in a profound emo- 
tional and intellectual experience.1 
1 An epoch-marking book in this field is Miss Torelle’s Plant 
and Animal Children and How They Grow. (Heath.) See also 
pamphlet, The Origin of Life, by R. E. Blount. (Scott, Foresman 
& Co.) EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
93 
The botany, zoology, physiology, and hy- 
giene of the upper grades and the high school 
are the natural mediums for further scientific 
treatment.1 It will probably be found advis- 
able to separate the sexes for this part of the 
work, and have boys taught by men and girls 
by women. Not a few high schools and colleges 
are already carrying on such instruction with 
entire success. 
It seems quite clear that the school must set 
itself, wisely, indeed, but also resolutely and 
effectively, to provide clear, true, scientific 
knowledge of the origin of life and the laws of 
sex. The educator can, must, and will answer 
truly and purely, all questions in these matters 
on which the child and youth are now left 
to random, miscellaneous, clandestine sources, 
and get vile, false, and pernicious answers. 
As childhood passes into youth and the pu- 
bertal changes begin, the objective curiosity of 
the earliest years passes gradually into the in- 
1 “ The Teaching of Sex in Schools and Colleges,” Social 
Diseases, October, 1911. Addresses by G. Stanley Hall, Maurice 
A. Bigelow, Josiah Strong, Charles W. Eliot, and Mary Put- 
nam Blount, Sexual Reproduction in Animals : the Purpose and 
Methods of teaching it. Proceedings N.E.A., 1912, pp. 1324-27. 94 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tense concern of personal problems. The gen- 
eral principle is the same: do not drag in the 
subject of sex and reproduction, but do not 
evade or ignore it when it appears; deal with it 
truly, purely, honestly, fearlessly, as an essen- 
tial and organic part of truth and life. 
The safe and happy outcome in these per- 
sonal problems can be guaranteed in only one 
way — that the young person should be able to 
turn with complete confidence and little em- 
barrassment to some trusted and intimate 
counselor, preferably the parent, but otherwise 
physician, pastor, older friend, with whom he 
has already discussed sexual questions, and 
who he knows will receive his advances with 
sympathy, answer his questions with frankness 
and intelligence, and hold his confidence sacred. 
Happy the youth or maiden who has such a 
guide in the crises of unfolding powers and 
perils. 
The chief problem of this part of the educa- 
tion is the accurate and timely adaptation of 
what is taught to the needs of the successive 
periods of development. Hence chronological 
or “calendar” age and school grade are both 
unreliable guides to the educator: a group of EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
95 
fifteen-year-old boys, or of eighth grade boys> 
includes some who are children not yet entered 
upon pubescence, others who are mature, — 
that is, have attained the power of reproduc- 
tion, — and still others who are in process of 
change. These three groups cannot be treated 
identically; each period has its own peculiar 
needs. The problem of sorting out the individ- 
uals and meeting the needs of each group is 
difficult because of our traditional neglect of 
the whole task. But of any particular lesson we 
may agree with him who says, “Better a year 
too early than an hour too late.” 
The earliest safeguard, rather regimen than 
instruction, is the inculcation of the idea and 
habit of “Hands off” the sex organs. The little 
child is taught this by his mother, and it be- 
comes second nature. The pre-pubescent boy 
and girl may receive some slight but impressive 
additional perception as to the danger of med- 
dling in any way. They should also be warned 
strictly against any other person who offers to 
tamper with their sex organs or adjacent parts 
of the body. Let them understand that they 
are justified in any means of defense, the fist, a 
club, or a stone; and that the offender is forever 96 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
damned by his act and must never again be 
trusted; and, of course, that they should at 
once lay the whole case before their parents or 
other persons in authority. 
The special instruction of the pre-pubescent 
and pubescent periods is as yet by no means 
fully agreed upon among experts. We can give 
here only a few points that seem fairly clear. 
(1) Girls should know in advance enough of 
the general facts of menstruation so that the 
onset of the period may not cause, as it now 
does in thousands of cases, shock and some- 
times dangerous errors of conduct. They 
should also know that the sexual nature of men 
is active and aggressive instead of passive and 
defensive as in the woman; and that hence the 
woman must in general take the leading part in 
the control of the sexual relation, or, at least, of 
those preliminary intimacies that tend to cul- 
minate in sexual union. If it be contended that 
this is a delicate and difficult idea to convey, 
liable to be exaggerated and to produce false 
attitudes, the answer is that if difficulty is to 
deter us we may as well stop the whole task of 
sex education before we begin; and moreover 
that the disasters now resulting from ignorance EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
97 
are ten times worse than any probable results 
of instruction. 
This sexual difference means not only that 
the girl must be intolerant of improper ad- 
vances, but also that for her own sake and that 
of her sister women she must beware of con- 
duct, attitudes, or forms of dress that tend un- 
duly to excite the sexual impulses in boys and 
men. 
In view of the enormous morbidity and mor- 
tality inflicted upon innocent women and their 
children by sexual disease, the girl should learn 
the main facts concerning the nature, effects, 
and incidence of gonorrhea and syphilis. 
Health certificates of prospective bridegrooms 
will probably be more easily enforced if such 
intelligence becomes general. The time for 
such instruction is difficult to state, and would 
vary with the social environment; probably 
late adolescence would be early enough in most 
cases; earlier information is indispensable for 
girls who by reason of their economic or social 
status are peculiarly exposed to sexual tempta- 
tion and danger. 
Training for motherhood, a great gap in our 
educational system, is a closely related theme, 98 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
of incomparable importance, but beyond the 
scope of this work. 
(2) Boys should learn early the rewards of 
continence: that the conservation of the sex- 
ual secretions is the indispensable condition of 
manly growth in stature, muscular powers, 
voice, heart, and brain. They should learn the 
possibility and healthiness of continence — al- 
ways understanding that mental continence is 
the prerequisite of physical continence. 
They should know in good time that noc- 
turnal emissions are quite normal, when not 
too frequent, and indicate not lost manhood or 
the danger of it, but merely the fact that the 
sexual glands are now for the first time all 
developed and active. This is one of the sim- 
plest and most commonplace facts in the whole 
range of sex knowledge, yet, through ignorance 
of it, unknown multitudes of boys have suffered 
anxiety sometimes amounting to terror, have 
become moody and dejected, lost interest in 
work and studies; and finally thousands of 
them, ashamed to ask counsel or enlightenment 
from any decent source, have had recourse to 
the venereal quack, who so artfully spreads his 
snares for them in daily paper and widely cir- EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
99 
ciliated pamphlet. Once the victim is in his 
hands there is almost no limit to the evil that 
may result.1 High-school principals tell of 
watching the faces of their boys during a lec- 
ture on sex hygiene and noting the visible signs 
of relief and new hope when the lecturer ex- 
plained the true nature and meaning of emis- 
sions. 
So far as the so-called “sexual necessity” is 
concerned, let boys understand that it is un- 
known among animals; that its completest 
embodiment is found in degenerates and im- 
beciles; and that athletes, thinkers, priests, 
scholars, warriors, the finest men of every type, 
hold their passions strictly subject to their 
wills. Let them know that the world is well 
supplied with wretches whom this very “sexual 
necessity” has robbed of their precious virile 
powers, but that the cases of impotence 
through chastity are certainly unproved and 
probably non-existent except in the imagina- 
tion of people who want to believe in them. 
And finally that numberless fathers of big 
healthy families were as chaste as the wives 
who bore their children. 
1 Hall, G. S., Adolescence, vol. i, pp. 459-62. 100 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Boys should learn that the man who insists 
on premarital sexual necessity has two roads 
open to him — one that of the libertine and se- 
ducer, the most contemptible of creatures; the 
other that of the whore-follower, whom nature 
perpetually menaces with vile and pestilential 
plagues, making him a misery to himself and a 
menace to all clean persons who associate with 
him, especially his future wife and unborn chil- 
dren. 
This involves, at least for the present state 
of society, some information regarding the two 
chief venereal diseases: that all prostitutes, 
professional or otherwise, are sooner or later 
infected, and that no reglementation can give 
security. They should know something of the 
horrors of syphilis, its loathsomeness, its ex- 
traordinary power to penetrate to the physio- 
logical Holy of Holies, poison the germ cells, 
and damn in advance the unborn children of its 
victim. They must know the fatal treachery 
of gonorrhea: how it lurks unsuspected in the 
victim who supposes himself cured, and strikes, 
like a bolt out of clear sky, blinding newborn 
infants, and robbing innocent wives of mother- 
hood, health, or life itself. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
101 
To object to this instruction because it is 
gruesome, or because it may seem like intimi- 
dation, is sentimentalism: in this matter, as 
elsewhere in the realm of knowledge, the truth 
should scare no one who does not need to be 
scared. It is better to be safe than sorry; and it 
is better to be scared than syphilitic. “I dare 
do all that may become a man,” says Macbeth; 
“who dares do more is none”; let a man dare if 
he will with his own body, aye, his own soul; he 
is but a coward who does not shrink from buy- 
ing voluptuous moments with the hazard of 
wife and child. Hydrophobia is far less perilous 
than venereal disease, and if one hundredth as 
many were attacked by it the world would be 
placarded with scarlet danger signs; the man 
who decried the precautions as intimidation 
would be shut up in a home for imbeciles. If 
this is intimidation, let us have more of it. 
Above all, boys should learn the beauty and 
glory of the true relation of the sexes; the bond 
of love and unity between man and woman 
truly married — in soul as well as body. As he 
cherishes and vindicates the honor of his father 
and mother and sisters, so should he be taught 
to use his intelligence and heart to hold sacred 102 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
in youth the powers and functions that will 
enable him to become in turn husband and 
father, to give a clean soul and body in mar- 
riage to a pure woman, and to pass on the germ 
of life to the children of his body. A few lessons 
on heredity will show him that he is but the 
steward of an inheritance that has come down 
from a thousand ancestors and may well be 
perpetuated through generations to come. 
Prudence is good; but no narrow selfish motive 
will meet the need. The lad who is “good” 
merely for the sake of his own skin is usually a 
poor creature; the finest lad — who might per- 
haps hazard his own individual fate — will 
refuse to gamble with the souls and bodies of 
those others who shall be his own flesh and 
blood. No virtue is safe that is not enthusias- 
tic: and only altruism is truly enthusiastic. 
The boy and girl, now young man and young 
woman, must both learn that prostitution is 
a social sin:1 the “scarlet woman” has been 
truly called the eternal priestess bearing the 
sins of humanity. This is a vast theme; we 
have got beyond the realm of mere sex educa- 
tion;— but truth is one, and life is one, and 
1 Jane Addams, A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. EDUCATIONAL PHASES 
103 
neither logic nor humanity will consent to our 
stopping short of the whole truth. Social intel- 
ligence — the illumination of man’s life with 
man — the scientific and spiritual comprehen- 
sion of the apostolic dictum, “We are all mem- 
bers one of another” — and “if one member 
suffer, all members suffer with it” — these are 
the great arrears of education. But there never 
was a time when the spirit of man moved so 
rapidly forward as here and now, and the 
movement for sex education is but one striking 
phase of the great advance. CHAPTER VIII 
TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr. 
My children when they were little were fasci- 
nated with a book which their mother used to 
read to them, called Mother Nature and Her 
Helpers. Each chapter or lesson was made up 
of interesting information and ideas suggested 
by the pictures. At the head of the first chapter 
was a picture of a mother sitting by a cradle 
with every surrounding and circumstance of 
humble, happy home life. Succeeding chapters 
were upon the cradle and the home of plants 
and animals. Ovaries of plants and nests of 
birds and squirrels were all set forth in terms 
of the child’s experience of home life, home- 
building, home - protecting, and feeding the 
baby. Doubtless the design of the author was 
to lead the child to an understanding and 
appreciation of its own home life and love by 
showing it home life in its origins and elements. 
But an equally important implication lay in the TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
105 
fact that the child was brought into its inti- 
macy with plant and animal life along the angle 
of its own human experience and of its own 
home ideals. After such an introduction to the 
homes of plants and animals, whenever it 
should seem best to apprise the child of the 
details of plant and animal reproduction, the 
additional facts would instantly find their 
places in close relation to facts already famil- 
iar and already related to his highest childish 
affections and ideals. 
For the basis of sexual instruction for a child 
should be the difference, not the similarity be- 
tween man and animals. If the basis is made 
the similarity between man and animals, the 
child, as time goes on and as its own sexual life 
increasingly awakens, may tend to imitate an- 
imals, may attempt to justify the natural and 
unrestrained promiscuousness of its own in- 
stincts, may justify unrestrained sexual life in 
the name of nature as against the alleged arti- 
ficialities of civilization. The basis must be 
human, not animal; moral, not biological. 
Biology goes far to explain humanity, but 
the interpretation is found in the spiritual af- 
fections, experiences, and implications of fam- 106 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ily life. The family life of animals is consti- 
tuted of animal instinct freely followed. The 
family life of man would be ruined by the free 
following of animal instinct. There is a distinct 
danger in all so-called sex instruction of children 
which makes plant and animal life the norm. 
The definite and clean instruction of chil- 
dren in the physical facts of reproduction may 
rightly and wisely begin with the simple facts, 
anatomical and functional, of plants and ani- 
mals; but it is important that a true philosophy 
lie back of this instruction. Man is not only a 
higher order of mammalia; he is a worshiper 
of God and capable of practicing his presence. 
And from this base our instruction to children, 
drawn from the anatomical and functional life 
of plants and animals, must always subserve 
the moral, the spiritual superiority of man and 
the human family. 
The little child will understand and even 
idealize plant and animal life if he learns of 
plant and animal life first in human terms. His 
moral development is menaced if this process is 
reversed so that a counter-tendency is set up, — 
a tendency to interpret the human functions 
in animal terms. It is better for the child to TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
107 
humanize animal relationships than to ani- 
malize human relationships, — and this can be 
achieved only through a constant observance of 
the human basis in the sexual as indeed in all 
phases of a child’s education. The little book 
which I mentioned at the beginning does just 
this, — it introduces the child to the home life 
of animals, it interprets animal life in ideal 
terms. It lays a basis for relating later informa- 
tion of sex functions to the home life of plants 
and animals. At the proper time in a child’s 
development, he is prepared to place a true and 
intelligent value upon the differences between 
the home life of animals and the home life of 
human beings, and to justify intelligently and 
with full consent of mind and sanction of con- 
science the differences of sexual practice as 
between plants and animals on the one hand 
and human beings on the other. He is prepared 
to see that it is enough for the sex life of plants 
and animals that it be physically and biologi- 
cally normal. It is not enough for the true and 
ideal family life of man that the sex relation 
should be biologically normal. It must be mor- 
ally normal — normal, that is, to the highest 
human interests. 108 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
The more concrete and detailed problems of 
method would not be serious if every child’s 
mind were a blank or even if its instincts were 
analogous to normal animals. But neither is 
the case, and the problem of method and means 
of instruction is therefore amazingly compli- 
cated. If the sex life of a child were analogous 
to that of normal animals, it would not awaken 
at all until puberty. And if the child’s mind 
were a blank on sex matters, it need only be 
kept from the invasion of wrong ideas from out- 
side. But the sex life of a child begins long 
before puberty, — both physically and men- 
tally. In the child, the physical signs are more 
or less detached from the mental signs, — at 
this or that phase of a child’s life, the one or the 
other may have precedence; but the two are 
subtly interrelated, and tend to contribute to 
each other. In the human being a sex life that 
is normal, both biologically and morally, is an 
achievement; not a thing which would take 
care of itself if the child were left alone and 
merely kept ignorant of the abnormal. The 
human child is born abnormal, — that is to 
say, with latent possibilities of sexual abnor- 
mality, physical and mental, — and this by TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
109 
virtue of the mere fact that he is not only with 
the animals a creature of instinct, but with 
humanity a being with ideas. 
This statement is doubtless oftener true of 
the sex life of boy children than of girl chil- 
dren; but it is a fact and a very important fact, 
and it lies at the bottom of the problem when 
we come to consider the details of instructional 
method. If it were not for these facts, it would 
make no difference who imparted sex informa- 
tion to the child, so the facts were accurately 
told; and it would make no difference what 
facts were given, or at what age the child re- 
ceived them, if no lies were conveyed. But be- 
cause the child’s physical and mental sex life 
awakens early, and because every child has 
latent tendencies to abnormality and latent 
responsiveness to the abnormal, it is of critical 
importance that we decide who shall teach the 
individual child, when the child shall be in- 
formed, and what the child shall be told. It is 
of critical importance because, if the instruc- 
tion comes wrongly, we may, even with good 
intentions, contribute to the very abnormality 
that we wish to forefend or overcome. With 
some children we could perhaps safely take 110 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
chances so far as the self-a wakening of sex life 
is concerned if we did not know that it is 
impossible, without more harm than good, to 
keep the child from such perfectly normal re- 
lations with other children as almost certainly 
will expose it to disastrous misinformation and 
suggestion. 
Whatever ought to be said of the impor- 
tance of the home tradition and ideals and the 
general physical and moral regimen of the 
child (and these are of supreme importance), 
the facts of the last two paragraphs lay the 
ground for this general statement: that in 
the case of a child whose moral and sexual 
environment has been bad and perverting, 
proper sex instruction cannot make matters 
worse, whereas in the best families much harm 
may arise from the lack of such instruction. 
If any information is imparted to the child 
at all, the first instruction should properly 
come from one or other of the child’s parents. 
It is sometimes the case that opportunity for 
the first information is presented when the 
child asks questions. And the supposed ques- 
tion of the child is, “Where did the baby come 
from?” Our course would be much smoother TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
111 
if every child asked its mother or father this 
question, or if every child began with this par- 
ticular question, or if every child asked any 
question at all. Sometimes the child asks the 
nurse this question; sometimes the child is an 
only child or for some other reason this ques- 
tion never occurs to it; sometimes the child’s 
first question pertains to some curiosity about 
its own navel, or “where eggs come from,” or 
“why the hen makes them,” or “how they get 
into the hen,” or what is meant by “half shep- 
herd and half St. Bernard.” But children do 
not ask the questions that the books say they 
ask, and ready-made answers do not always 
apply. 
Whether a child asks the conventional ques- 
tions or the unexpected questions, and whether 
it asks questions or not, the parent ought to 
have some pretty definite notion of when, 
what, and how to tell a child. A child’s ques- 
tions about the baby should be answered truth- 
fully; all such replies as escape by the stork, 
cabbage-patch, or grocer-boy route should be 
avoided. It goes without saying that chil- 
dren’s questions should be met seriously and 
even reverently, and that parents should never 112 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
speak of nor allude lightly, jokingly, or irrev- 
erently to sex relationships in the child’s pres- 
ence. 
A child may ask a question prematurely, or 
at a time when the parent finds it impossible to 
answer in such a way as to make the desired im- 
pression or to avoid the undesirable impression. 
The postponement should be frankly a post- 
ponement, and the parent should answer the 
question at some later time chosen by the par- 
ent and upon the parent’s own motion. If the 
child never affords the parent a natural open- 
ing for the first or later conversation, the par- 
ent should make the opening by reference to 
the recent arrival of a baby in the child’s home, 
or in some neighbor’s family, or even to the 
arrival of kittens or chicks. 
Such preliminary information should come 
at or near the first asking of questions, or if no 
questions are asked, at any convenient time 
between the ages of six and eight years, and in 
any case before the child goes to school or min- 
gles much away from home with other chil- 
dren. It is a mistake to suppose that very 
much need be said to the young child. If the 
child’s normal curiosity is satisfied in a clean TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
113 
way from the right source, that is sufficient. 
Especially should it be advised of the truth 
about those facts concerning which it is liable 
to be misinformed in its contacts with other 
children. Only, parents ought to remember 
that their child, however carefully brought up 
and protected, at any time and of its own 
motion, may itself be that corrupting “other 
child” against which we are so sedulously 
warned! 
Or, again, the child when it has been duly 
instructed by parents may without harmful 
intentions talk too freely with other children. 
It may do some harm to other children in this; 
but what is more likely, it may receive harm 
by calling out uninformed and hurtful conver- 
sation from the other side. For this reason, a 
parent in talking to children should be careful 
to explain that they should not talk to others. 
If they are properly brought-up children, their 
modesty will respond, and their trained obe- 
dience will keep faith. 
This is the place to try to make clear the im- 
portance of such secrecy and confidence be- 
tween parents and child. There is a secrecy 
which adds a glamour of pleasurable naughti- 114 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ness, leading straight to prudery and pruriency 
with all their consequences. Such secrecy is 
the sort that develops when parents do not 
take the child into their confidence. Such 
harmful secrecy is not to be confounded with 
the confidence between parent and child. In 
opposing the harmful kind of secrecy, there are 
those who very wrongly, as I believe, object to 
any secrecy; who say, “All things are clean; 
why should any difference whatever be made 
between the lungs or the stomach, and the sex 
organs; it is often the very making of any 
distinction that causes and helps cause all the 
trouble.” Now the case against all secrecy 
would be valid if the premises of the argu- 
ment were sound. Roughly speaking, lungs are 
lungs, and stomachs are stomachs, but the sex 
organs and their impulses, reflexes, and irra- 
diations are connected with the subtlest com- 
plexes of mind and affections, inextricably con- 
nected with everything human, with further 
irradiations into the entire social body. 
By all that makes it important to prevent 
the private and mutual secrecies of children, 
by so much and ten times more is it important 
to establish confidential secrecy between par- TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
115 
ent and child. For in so doing, you not only 
prevent the undesirable secrecy, but you build 
normally on modesty; you lay foundations for 
a true sense of shame, disgust, and disgrace; 
and in doing so, set up one of the strong de- 
fenses against perversions and prurient allure- 
ment and seduction. 
Prudery should be made impossible and true 
modesty conserved by proper secrecy in sex 
matters, and back of that by the proper atti- 
tude, conversation, and practice in the child’s 
familiar domestic functions. Prudery and 
modesty must not be confounded; for by as 
much as we condemn the one, ought we to 
value the other. 
Up to the time, then, that a child goes to 
school, everything has probably been done 
that can be done so far as its instruction is con- 
cerned, (1) if the child has been kept as far as 
possible from foul suggestions from others; (2) 
if the child has had its questions honestly 
answered or temporarily though unevasively 
postponed; (3) if the child knows from its par- 
ents’ lips that it came into the world from its 
mother’s body, first growing there “beneath 
its mother’s heart” until it was strong enough 116 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
to be born; and that the mother would never 
have wished to have her child grow in her body 
had it not been that there was a strong man 
who would care for both mother and little 
child with great love and tenderness; that there 
has to be a father to love the mother and child, 
and that, therefore, mother and child must 
love the father, and the child must love both 
father and mother, and that this love is what 
makes the home; and (4) if in the process of 
imparting information, confidence has been 
established and modesty conserved. 
Any one who has ever seen a group of six- to 
ten-year-old boys and girls stand side by side 
and gaze with rapt but natural wonder and de- 
light at a bureau drawer or chest full of the 
beautiful little garments waiting and ready for 
an expected child can never doubt the wisdom 
of a child’s knowing from the start some better 
version of the story than any of the evasive 
temporizings of the conventional parent. 
What shall the parent do who has never 
spoken of these things to his child until now 
the child is ten, eleven, or twelve years of age, 
and especially if the parent has given the child 
one of these evasive answers in reply to its TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
117 
innocent questions? It may be said in passing 
that if the parent has thus evasively answered 
the child’s first questions, he will never be 
bothered in all probability with any more 
questions. For the best way to set up the bar- 
rier is to answer questions falsely; and oneway 
to establish confidence and to facilitate further 
communication is to answer truthfully. 
The child may know more or less than you 
think it knows. The parent does not know 
what a ten-or twelve-year-old child knows or 
does not know. Again, a parent does not know 
at what time or in what way or to what extent 
the child’s sexual life and impulse have al- 
ready awakened. And the parent does not 
know to what extent the child may know 
“what ain’t so.” It is a mistake in most cases 
for the parent to try to find answers to these 
questions by questioning the child. For just as 
a parent may start wrong by deceiving the 
child, so the child may start wrong by deceiv- 
ing the parent, and even a pretty good child, 
especially after it has been deceived by the 
parent, is likely to follow the same cue when 
it is questioned by the parent. The parent 
should not tempt the child to such a misstep. 118 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Again, the parent, whether mother or father, 
should never try to open the conversation or 
resume it at a time when the boy or girl is 
likely to be interrupted or distracted or is eager 
at the moment to be somewhere else and do- 
ing something else. The mother and daughter 
quietly sewing together, or the father and son 
off for a walk, or sitting on a log, or lying on the 
grass, are ready for a confidential talk. 
If the boy or girl was deceived in response 
to its first questions, the father or mother may 
retract in some such way as this: “Do you 
remember, Molly, that when you asked me 
where your baby brother came from, I told 
you the doctor made us a present? Well, that’s 
the way fathers and mothers answer little chil- 
dren, just as we told you that Christmas pres- 
ents came from Santa Claus. You came to 
know that papa and mamma are Santa Claus 
and that Santa Claus is a fairy story — and so 
you have probably already learned how the baby 
came. The baby really grows in the mother’s 
body — did you know that? Do you know 
how long it takes for it to grow there? No? 
It takes nine months. Before you were born, 
you were growing inside of your mother’s body. TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
119 
The blood from your mother’s body flowed 
into your body; in this way your body grew. 
When the baby comes out of its mother’s body, 
it does not hurt the baby, but it hurts the mo- 
ther. It was so when you were born, but your 
mother was so happy to think she was to have 
a baby and to feel it growing inside her body 
that she did not think much about the pain. 
If your mother is ever a little tired and cross, 
you must remember that she loves you beyond 
anything that pain can measure and that she 
deserves your tenderest care.” 
At this or some other fitting time, the father 
or mother may give the child some further inti- 
mation of the process by which the child comes 
to grow in the mother’s body, and in some such 
way as follows: “Some one may have told you 
how babies come to grow in their mothers’ 
bodies. But most people are ignorant about 
these things. I think I can explain it to you 
a little if you will look for a moment at this 
flower that I have in my hand, because the 
coming of a baby in the mother’s body is in 
some ways like the coming of the seed in the 
body of the flower. You have probably learned 
at school in your nature-study work that these 120 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
are — what? Yes, the petals. And these are 
stamens, and this is the pistil. Do you notice 
the powder on the end of the stamen? That is 
called pollen. If you put that powder under a 
magnifying glass, each grain will look like a 
grain of wheat. Now, do you notice that the 
pistil spreads out here at the base like a vase 
with a narrow neck and big bowl? I am going 
to cut the thick part open. Do you notice those 
tiny things like seeds? Yes, those are seeds, but 
they would not grow just by themselves. A 
grain of that pollen gets on to the end of the pis- 
til (sometimes the wind, sometimes a bee puts 
it there), and immediately it begins to send a 
long thread from itself right down the center of 
the pistil, and this thread carries at the front 
the heart of the pollen grain, and when it 
reaches the tiny seed the two go together and 
the heart of the pollen joins with the heart 
of the seed and then it is a true seed and can 
grow, — and can grow into another plant 
that can have flowers that can have seeds, 
and so on almost forever. No one fully under- 
stands this very wonderful fact. We only 
know that it is a fact, — that the heart of a 
seed from a father flower had to join to the TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
121 
heart of a seed of a mother flower before a true 
seed that can grow into a plant is born. And 
we only know that something like this is true 
about father and mother animals, and that 
something like this is true of our own human 
father and mother.” 
So much to show how the parent may “break 
in,” for that is often the crucial thing. After 
the start is made, details may be found in the 
books provided for just this purpose.1 Indeed, 
after beginning, it is sometimes better to put 
the right book into the boy’s hands; or better 
yet to read the book with the child. Espe- 
cially is the latter course preferable if the book 
seems at any point unwise, — and there are 
few books prepared for children which are not 
at some point or other unwise. Only, in all 
this process of definite instruction in which 
analogies from the life of plants and animals 
are used, the instructor must make sure that 
the illustrations are thought of as analogies for 
the anatomy and biology only, and guards 
must be reserved, implicitly and explicitly, 
against the child’s supposing that everything 
1 A classified bibliography is provided at the end of this 
volume. 122 
in plants and animals is normal for human be- 
ings. All that the child learns of reproduction 
of plants and animals should be related to 
the home and affectional life even of animals, 
and the analogy between animals and man 
should stop far short of that to which in all 
the animal world there is no real analogy — 
the life and meaning of the higher order of 
human family life. 
If the proper person to teach the child is the 
parent and if the parent does not know how, 
the obvious thing to do is to call the parents 
together and to try to teach them how. Be- 
sides meetings for parents (fathers and mothers 
together), excellent results have come from 
meetings for fathers and sons addressed by 
a man, and from meetings for mothers and 
daughters addressed by a woman. 
The following details as to arrangement and 
conducting of parents’ meetings may be of 
value. For such meetings in the public school, 
the consent of the local school board must be 
obtained. This ought not to be granted if 
those seeking permission are either cranks or 
quacks. The Viavi people are said to be ob- 
taining such permission for use of schoolhouses 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
123 
under the specious plea of social hygiene. 
Others, well intentioned but with extreme 
purist ideas and unwise methods, occasionally 
volunteer their services. The school authori- 
ties should be cautious. But when those who 
apply are intelligent and honest and above 
question as to their standing and judgment, 
school boards ought not only to consent, but 
to support and cooperate. A grudging con- 
sent, mixed with indifference, finds its way by 
capillary attraction to the school principals 
and teachers and constitutes a real hindrance. 
When the consent of the school authorities has 
been obtained, the next step is the selection 
and training of speakers and the notification of 
the parents. Where permitted, the notices or 
invitations should be sent out by the school 
in which the meeting is to be held, by mail, 
sealed, to every home in the district whence 
pupils in that school come. This should be 
done even if the local society has to pay the 
postage. If the school authorities will not or 
cannot do this, then cards of invitation should 
be sent home through the pupils. In either 
case, the invitation should be so worded as to 
do no harm to the children who may read it. 124 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Parents’ meetings may be addressed by two 
speakers, a physician and a layman. The two 
speakers should get to the schoolhouse in time 
to see that the speaker’s desk and chair are 
not on a high platform too far from the little 
group of parents. The chair and table should 
be brought down to the floor close to the seats 
and the parents brought forward. The princi- 
pal of the school should introduce the layman 
accompanying the physician, to be chairman 
of the evening. The chairman should make 
a brief address, as outlined in the syllabus pro- 
vided by the Committee on Education of the 
Society, introducing the physician. The physi- 
cian should make a brief address as outlined in 
the syllabus, and then, after proper explana- 
tions, the physician should resume his chair. 
Both physician and layman, seated, should 
engage in a dialogue, in which the layman 
should endeavor with all the intelligence, sym- 
pathy, and skill at his command to put him- 
self in the place of the humblest parent in the 
room and ask such questions of the physician 
as such a parent might ask or ought to ask. 
For example: — TEACHING PHASES: FOR CHILDREN 
125 
Layman, “Doctor, I have a little boy four 
years old. When ought I to talk to him about 
sex matters ? ” 
Physician, “When the child asks questions.” 
Layman, “What do you mean by that?” 
Physician, “ Well, — suppose the child asks 
where the baby came from? ” 
Layman, “ What do you say if the child asks 
that?” 
Physician, “ I would tell it that the baby grows 
in its mother’s body,” etc. 
Layman, “ I have a little boy eight years old to 
whom I have never talked about these things. What 
do you advise? ” 
Physician, “I would take the first opportunity, 
some time when the boy is not likely to be inter- 
rupted. Refer to some newly arrived or expected 
baby and tell him frankly where the baby comes 
from.” 
Layman, “ But Doctor, I have already told him 
that a stork brought the baby.” 
Physician, “ Then tell him you told him that as a 
fairy story like the Santa Claus story, but that now 
he is old enough to know the truth. Then tell him 
the truth.” 
Layman, “ But I find it hard to talk about these 
things and I am afraid my child might ask me ques- 
tions I could not answer.” 
Physician, “ There are books, a list of which will 
be handed you, which you can read, and parts or 
all of which you can read to your child.” 126 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Layman, “ What if my child asks me a question 
I can’t answer.” 
Physician, “ Don’t dodge or evade. If you must 
postpone an answer, do so frankly with a promise 
that when you can you will answer, or that you will 
put him in the way of getting good information by 
reading or otherwise.” 
This conversation should be extended to 
apply to adolescent boys and girls and to young 
men and women. Enough has been given to 
show the nature and spirit of the dialogue. The 
people’s interest never flags. The layman 
must ask all the strategic questions, and he 
must keep at it until he gets answers in simple, 
understandable terms. If the physician uses 
“function” or “coordinate” or “puberty” or 
“adolescence” or other academic terms, the 
layman must force simple words at every turn; 
and in any attempts to describe what a parent 
should say to a child, the layman should take 
care that a child’s comprehension is reached 
and that the parent is guided as to vocabu- 
lary. Both speakers should lift the level of their 
counsels above that of mere physical prudence; 
they should explain and duly emphasize the 
moral issue. CHAPTER IX 
TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
Harry H. Moore 
The adolescent boy is the hope of our race. He 
is the man in the making. Whether he is to be 
a constructive force, a nonentity, or a destruc- 
tive force depends largely on influences during 
this period. In adolescence the processes of 
destruction are quick and sudden. Statistics 
of reformatories and prisons show that either 
crime itself or the moral breakdown which 
leads to crime begins in boyhood. A study of 
the lives of great constructive characters shows 
that their success was largely determined by 
influences during this period. Certainly, there 
is no more important task for our nation than 
the training of our boys. 
Adolescence begins at puberty, the transi- 
tion period during which the sex functions come 
into full prominence. Its beginning is marked 
by great physical changes. There are also men- 
tal and psychic changes. This fuller develop- 128 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ment of sex means for the youth new power, 
new emotion, new capacities for enjoyment of 
life. At this time the will should emerge as an 
asset of character. The boy now desires more 
knowledge of the new world in which he finds 
himself. He wants to see it by day and by 
night. He wants to be physically active, or 
entertained. He belongs to some sort of gang 
and is loyal to it. His is an age of hero wor- 
ship. 
If the knowledge and the entertainment he 
finds is wholesome, if the gang is a good one, if 
the hero is a noble character, if, with emotion 
and new powers, there is also a strong will, all 
goes well. But if these influences are not help- 
ful and the will is weak, the result may be 
quickly disastrous.1 
Inquiry into the lives of any considerable 
number of adolescent boys leads one to believe 
that there exists what almost might be called a 
conspiracy of silence, misinformation, and bad 
influence against most boys of this age. Par- 
ents for the most part either evade or answer 
untruthfully the questions of their six-, seven-, 
1 John L. Alexander (editor), Boy Training. Association 
Press, New York, especially pp. 11 to 22. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
129 
and eight-year-old boys regarding birth and 
reproduction. From this time on, nearly all 
boys receive many false and low ideas regard- 
ing sex, marriage, and the relationship between 
men and women. 
After the stork story, there come incorrect 
versions of reproduction from boy companions. 
Then come notes at school, picture cards, comic 
weeklies, quack advertisements, and unwhole- 
some vaudeville acts. These destructive in- 
fluences come, for the most part, entirely un- 
solicited, in response to a normal desire for 
knowledge and clean entertainment. Boys 
seldom go to their first shows to see what is 
vulgar or sensual. They go for clean fun, gym- 
nastics, magicians, and other legitimate amuse- 
ments. The unwholesome features are thrust 
upon them. 
As a result of these influences on the impres- 
sionable mind of the growing boy, he comes to 
regard sex as low and vile instead of sacred. 
He acquires a vulgar vocabulary which he 
necessarily uses in his thinking and sometimes 
in his conversation. The silence and evasive 
answers of adults withhold healthful knowl- 
edge and increase curiosity. Curiosity often 130 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
leads to investigation, which often results dis- 
astrously. 
The specific evil results are of three kinds: 
(1) masturbation; (2) needless mental suffering 
due largely to ignorance; (3) illicit intercourse. 
Masturbation is prevalent among boys. 
Two hundred and thirty-two replies were re- 
ceived to a question asked college students re- 
garding their severest temptations of school 
days. Of these, one hundred and thirty-two 
said that masturbation had been one of their 
severest temptations and one hundred and 
thirty-one said they had yielded to it.1 Similar 
inquiries have brought similar results. The 
sum total of vitality lost to humanity by this 
practice is great. 
There is much needless mental suffering 
among boys and young men due to ignorance 
and false ideas advanced by quacks. Ground- 
less fear, brooding anxiety, and despair some- 
times start before adolescence and often last 
into the twenties. Physical peculiarities of no 
consequence sometimes cause boys to fear that 
they are abnormal. Unaware of the fact that 
1 Pedagogical Seminary, vol. ix, no. 3. Worcester, Massachu- 
setts. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
131 
spontaneous nocturnal emissions are to be ex- 
pected, many suffer mental anguish. Accord- 
ing to one writer, a single New York dealer 
had 3,000,000 “confidential” letters, “written 
to advertising medical companies and doctors, 
mostly by youth with their heart’s blood.”1 
Large sums of money are obtained by quacks 
everywhere for treating normal conditions. 
Many men have applied to the Advisory De- 
partment of the Oregon State Board of Health 
after years of worry. Although those who apply 
are no longer boys, most of their troubles began 
in boyhood. A large proportion of the suffering 
could have been avoided by simple instruction 
in sexual hygiene. 
Social vice often occurs in adolescent boy- 
hood, both as a direct result of unmastered pas- 
sion and as an indirect result of individual vice. 
In some cases, the habits a boy forms in his 
early ’teens make him a subject of venereal dis- 
ease in later life. A doctor writes, “I am aware 
that it is popularly supposed that self-abuse 
and sexual intercourse are antagonistic — by 
many, the one is regarded as a necessary alter- 
native of the other. So far from being a pro- 
1 G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 459., 132 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tective, the former is a most powerful provo- 
cative of the latter. According to my own 
observation, it is not the strongly sexed, the 
most virile young men, who are most given to 
licentiousness, but those whose organs have 
been rendered weak and irritable from this un- 
natural exercise — in whom the habit of sen- 
sual indulgence has been set up, and in whom 
self-control has not been developed by exer- 
cise.” 1 This combination of silence, misin- 
formation, and bad influence causes a damnable 
attitude of mind on the part of the boy toward 
women, love, marriage, and the home.2 
The experience of a Chicago business man 
with his sixteen-year-old son is told in a recent 
popular magazine. Whether an actual occur- 
rence or not, it is typical of conditions in most 
any city. 
I do not desire to convey the idea that our boy 
was a wicked boy. He was not. He was just the 
average type of what we call the “upper middle- 
1 Prince A. Morrow in the Transactions (vol. i, p. 88) of the 
American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. 
2 Charles Wagner, The Simple Life, p. 131. (McClure, Phillips 
& Co.) Caleb Williams Saleeby, Parenthood and Race Culture. 
(Moffat, Yard & Co.) Francis G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the 
Social Question, p. 162. (Grosset & Dunlap.) TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
133 
class ” boy. He was merely tuned to the low moral 
tone of the city. Vice to him was not a monster of 
hideous mien. He had seen it from childhood. . . . 
I knew that a greater part of his ideas on patriot- 
ism, on women, on the sanctity of marriage were 
but reflections of views he had heard expressed, 
often tritely and cleverly, and cynicism born of 
hearing such things flaunted over the footlights or 
dished out as “ clever ” in the newspapers. 
In the father’s earnest efforts to understand 
the remedy for the situation, he is reminded of 
his own experience when he began life in the 
city. He continues: — 
The boy’s words awakened memories. I recalled 
the sense of shocked and shamed decency I felt 
when first I came to the city, a boy almost, and 
fresh from the country; how I tossed in my bed try- 
ing to see as right things that every one in the city 
appeared to accept as a matter of course, but that, 
from earliest boyhood I had been taught to regard 
as wicked. I could not for many months become 
accustomed to seeing immodestly dressed women 
on or off the stage, or to hearing half-veiled inde- 
cency flaunted from the stage, blazoned in the news- 
papers, or used even in ordinary conversation. I 
could not get used to . . . scenes and actions directly 
forbidden as unforgivable at home.1 
1 “What my Boy Knows,” American Magazine, New York, 
April, 1913. 134 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
We are horrified by certain vices, the public 
now and then cries out against specific mani- 
festations of lust, and sometimes it is with diffi- 
culty that mobs are restrained from violence. 
But about much of our immorality there is 
an attractiveness that has made it acceptable 
and even wins for it applause. The influence is 
there, and it is insidiously and perniciously 
working itself into the minds of our boys. 
Many commercialized amusements now ex- 
ploit the sex impulse. It is impossible to meas- 
ure the effects of such exploitation. 
There are brighter pictures. Those who 
have intimate relation with hundreds of boys 
learn to admire the American boy for his ear- 
nest desire to be clean and strong and for his 
attitude toward the sacred things of life. If we 
give the boy positive help, we may expect him 
to grow into noble manhood. We would not 
remove him from all the evil in the world, 
but we may expect a minimum of harm as a 
result of contact with evil. We may not ex- 
pect to keep him away from all foul talk; but 
we may make foul talk disgust rather than 
attract him. The American boy is normally 
clean. If we will do our part, he will respond. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
135 
William Holabird represents a type which may 
well be taken as an example in sex education. 
While chiefly known to the public as a golfer, 
Holabird was catcher on the school baseball team, 
half-back on the eleven, held the gold medal for the 
inter-class track meet, and, in fact, excelled in all 
athletic sports. As a scholar he always ranked high. 
He was devotion itself to his parents, his brothers 
and sisters, respectful to his elders, a leader among 
his associates, and beloved by all who knew him; 
tall in stature and muscled like a Greek god, with 
clear-cut, delicate, refined, and manly features. . .. 
With a rare combination of strength and gentleness 
accompanied by a bearing and life well illustrating 
“He was one of nature’s noblemen.” ... A splendid 
athlete, with a life without a spot or stain, he was a 
natural leader and a model for all the fellows in the 
school. The younger boys followed and imitated 
him. ... He hated everything false or unclean or 
vulgar. To us all, men and boys alike, it was an 
inspiration to know him.1 
Our standards for boys and men have been 
too low. Charles Wagner says, in writing of 
youth and love: — 
Chastity has a host of enemies.... These ene- 
mies are quick to throw at your head, as an unan- 
1 Robert E. Speer, Young Men Who Overcame, p. 21. (Fleming 
H. Revell Co., Chicago.) 136 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
swerable argument, “ He who tries to play the 
angel, plays the fool.” 
But he continues: — 
Many play the fool who have never tried to play 
the angel. They have not fallen into the mud be- 
cause they tried to fly too high, but because they 
began too low down. ... A society which permits 
license in youth, and counsels it, degrades love. . .. 
Sin against love at its base, — in youth, — and the 
life of the whole nation is torn, and suffers immeas- 
urably. . . . The rule of conduct here is chastity. 
Every infraction is a sin. Though this law may 
seem difficult and severe, it is the only safe one. 
Morality without it is but rubbish.1 
A start has been made. During the last dec- 
ade, we have declared that we must no longer 
have two standards of purity, one for the man 
and another for the woman. We recognize a 
difference between the nature of the man and 
the nature of the woman; but as our goal and 
as our standard for practical life, we have 
abandoned “the double standard.” This is a 
great advance, for our young people as a whole 
measure up fairly well to standards which so- 
ciety as a whole sets for them. It is entirely 
within reason to expect a large majority of our 
1 Charles Wagner, Youth, pp. 248-50. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
137 
boys to reach full maturity and marriage with 
an absolutely clean record, as far as personal 
and social purity are concerned. In fact, we 
should be constantly working toward a time 
when the personally impure boy and the so- 
cially impure young mail will be eliminated. 
Both the men and the women of our nation 
must demand this. 
There are many ways by which we may 
guide and help the adolescent. Only the ab- 
normal boy is not active and curious. If we 
do not provide wholesome activity, boys are 
likely to find activity which is destructive in 
its influence. Therefore, we must do far more 
than mitigate bad influences. We must plan 
proper regimen. We must supply a steady 
succession of constructive activities as well as 
definite instruction to satisfy curiosity. No 
other course will do. 
In the matter of regimen, wholesome food, 
sufficient sleep, proper clothing, bathing, fresh 
air, and physical exercise are of great impor- 
tance. The life and energy and passion of the 
adolescent boy must not be checked, but di- 
verted into wholesome and constructive chan- 
nels. 138 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Excessive mental labor, a sedentary life, perni- 
cious reading, idleness, can transform into a tor- 
menting and persistent desire that which without 
it would have been easily mastered. On the other 
hand, a healthful regimen, energetic habits, amuse- 
ments, and physical fatigue are diversions so useful 
that, thanks to them, the most critical years pass 
by unnoticed,1 
A daily cold shower, followed by a vigorous 
rubdown, is beneficial if the boy reacts favor- 
ably to it. The bath acts as a sedative. 
The value of gymnasium work, track and field 
athletics, swimming, and “hiking”is constantly 
demonstrated in the lives of American boys. 
Athletics are to be recommended as possessing a 
positive prophylactic value against the indulgence 
of sensual propensities. Physical exercise serves 
as an outlet for the superabundant energy which 
might otherwise be directed toward the sexual 
sphere. In the period of “storm and stress ” which 
characterizes pubescence and which often leads to 
nervous perturbation and excitement. . . there is 
no better divertitive from sexual thoughts than 
active athletic exercises pushed to the point of phys- 
ical fatigue, as a relief to nerve tension.2 
1 Charles Wagner, Youth, p. 246, 
2 The Boy Problem, Educational Pamphlet no. 4, p. 26, of the 
American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 105 West 
40th Street, New York. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
139 
In addition, physical exercise tends to de- 
velop an ambition to excel, to become phys- 
ically strong and robust. With such an am- 
bition, boys realize, intuitively to a certain 
extent, that to succeed they must refrain from 
vice. Physical exercise has a fourfold moral 
value: it substitutes wholesome activity for 
vice; it serves as an outlet for excess of nervous 
energy; it develops the will; it develops ambi- 
tion to be virile. All wholesome recreation is 
an enemy of impurity. Jane Addams says that 
recreation is stronger than vice, and that rec- 
reation alone can stifle the lust for vice.1 Rec- 
reation which involves physical activity is the 
most helpful to the adolescent boy. 
The boy’s companions are important. Emer- 
son says, “You send your child to the school- 
master, but ’t is the schoolboys who educate 
him.”2 Books which contain high ideals of 
manhood and also of womanhood are obviously 
helpful, as are also dramas of this character. 
And finally those general principles of moral 
and religious education must be used, without 
1 Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, p. 20. 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 
* Emerson, Education, p. 38. Riverside Monograph Series. 140 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
which we can have no strong foundation for 
clean living. 
If we have failed to give proper instruction 
previous to adolescence, we now have a golden 
opportunity (and in thousands of cases, our last 
opportunity) to save the adolescent to a life of 
purity. As a rule, he has ideas of sex life which 
are, at least, unwholesome. Curiosity is at a 
high pitch, and passion is likely to be strong. 
Nevertheless, the ambitions and ideals of a boy 
at adolescence are high. He will fight to be 
clean if he understands that clean living means 
the acquisition of strength. He would rather 
have virility than anything else in the world. 
As to method, let us deal with the boy as a 
creature with reason. The best plan is to place 
before boys a standard of virile manhood, and 
then to show how such a standard may be met 
by clean living. Real characters who have 
achieved high standards of vigor should be 
shown as heroes worthy of imitation. Lincoln 
is known by most adolescent boys to have been 
a man of great physical strength. He was “a 
man without vices, even in his youth, but full 
even in ripe age of the sap of virility.”1 The 
1 Henry Bryan Binns, Abraham Lincoln, p. 356. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
141 
effect of clean living upon nations may also 
be spoken of. Charles Kingsley writes of the 
Teuton:1 — 
It was not the mere muscle of the Teuton which 
enabled him to crush the decrepit and debauched 
slave nations. ... It had given him more, that pur- 
ity of his: it had given him, as it may give you, 
gentlemen, a calm and steady brain, and a free 
and loyal heart; the energy which comes from self- 
restraint; and the spirit which shrinks from neither 
God nor man, and feels it light to die for wife and 
child, for people and for Queen. 
Because thousands of our boys are now 
growing into manhood who will never receive 
the advantages of such a plan as we hope will 
be worked out during the next decade,— 
boys who are now at the danger point, — an 
emergency exists that must be met in the best 
way possible. For these boys, we are now 
forced to give single talks or short series of 
talks. Just what facts should be mentioned in 
a talk to any particular group of boys is a mat- 
ter which must always be governed by the age, 
development, and environment of the boys con- 
cerned. 
1 Charles Kingsley, The Roman and the Teuton, p. 40. 142 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
The first task for a teacher or a speaker giv- 
ing a single lesson or a series of lessons is to set 
up a high standard of manhood. The lessons 
may concern the development and the con- 
servation of virility. The teacher may explain 
that virility means not only muscular strength, 
but endurance, energy, will power, and cour- 
age; and that in addition to these, a true man 
has chivalry, — he is concerned for the welfare 
of others, especially for the safety of women 
and children. He must possess more than 
physical prowess; he must possess human vir- 
tues or he is no better than a brute. The need 
for the conservation of virility in the race as 
well as in the individual should be explained. 
Boys should see that the conservation of vi- 
rility in men is of far more importance than the 
conservation of our water-power or our mines, 
— that we owe a duty not only to ourselves, 
but to the nation and to the next generation. 
A statement somewhat like the following can 
then be made: “It is our duty to pass on to the 
next generation at least a little more vitality 
than we inherited from the past generation. It 
is, therefore, important that we understand the 
main facts of reproduction, so that now we may TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
143 
live right and make no mistakes which may 
cause us to reproduce inferior children when we 
are mature.” The speaker may then describe 
the wonderful and beautiful process of repro- 
duction in plants, and explain that human re- 
production is a similar process. 
Under the subject of the development of vi- 
rility, much time should be spent upon a dis- 
cussion of various ways by which virility can 
be developed. The relative values of various 
kinds of physical exercise, proper eating, the 
value of fresh air and of sufficient rest should 
be emphasized. It may then be said that in 
addition to these things an important source 
of virility is the absorption of the secretions of 
various glands by the blood. 
The speaker may make a statement similar 
to this: “When our bodies were designed, we 
were given reproductive organs for two dif- 
ferent and distinct purposes. We have re- 
ferred to the second and final purpose of repro- 
duction. You already knew more or less about 
that. The earlier function of the reproductive 
organs is not understood by most boys. It is 
this: the rebuilding of boys into men. The first 
purpose and, in some respects, the most im- 144 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
portant purpose of the reproductive organs is 
to rebuild a boy into a man. It would be abso- 
lutely impossible for us to become men were 
it not for these organs. I will explain this by 
three illustrations.” 
These three illustrations are generally very 
effective: an explanation of the influence of the 
thyroid gland upon development; a compari- 
son of two horses, one of which was castrated 
when a colt; and the effect of castration upon 
boys in Oriental countries. 
The speaker may then say that the testicles 
do two things: first, manufacture the male 
germ cells, spermatozoa, which are the most 
highly potentialized and highly energized por- 
tions of matter in all living nature; and, sec- 
ond, secrete a substance that is absorbed by 
the blood, giving tone to the muscle, power 
to the brain and strength to the nerves. It 
should be made clear that this is one of the 
great sources of virility. From the illustra- 
tions referred to, a boy is likely to draw con- 
clusions regarding the vital importance of the 
functions of the testicles and regarding any 
possible misuse of them. It may be well at this 
point to use a cross-section drawing showing TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
145 
the scrotum, the testicle, the seminal vesicle, 
and the bladder.1 Some teachers will consider 
it desirable to add that some boys, who do not 
understand the high purposes of these organs, 
misuse them; that when such boys realize their 
mistake, if they stop absolutely and at once, 
nature comes to the rescue and restores virility. 
The talks should be essentially constructive. 
To warn boys against horrible effects of mas- 
turbation and to tell them things not to do is 
a poor method. It is far better to explain that 
by keeping clean a boy may acquire virility. 
The boy can draw conclusions. 
In referring to the normality of seminal emis- 
sions, it should be explained that the fluid ex- 
creted by a nocturnal seminal emission comes 
from the seminal vesicles up in the body. This 
will show that the loss of fluid involved in a 
nocturnal emission is different from the loss 
caused by masturbation.2 In this connection, 
boys should be warned against quack doctors; 
also against their advertisements which are 
often worded to scare the ignorant. 
1 Winfield S. Hall, M.D., From Youth into Manhood, p. 32. 
Association Press, New York. 
2 Hall, Reproduction and Sexual Hygiene. 146 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
The venereal diseases should be referred to 
in talks to adolescent boys. In this connec- 
tion, the four sex lies may be vigorously con- 
tradicted. These are (1) that gonorrhea is no 
worse than a bad cold; (2) that sexual inter- 
course is necessary for the preservation of 
health; (3) that emissions are dangerous and 
lead to debility, lost manhood, and insanity; 
and (4) that one standard of morality is right 
for men and another for women. 
It should be explained that although both 
animals and human beings are endowed with 
the sex instinct, only human beings have the 
gift of control. That the sex instinct is a great 
blessing, and not a curse, should be made clear. 
It may be stated that various blessings are 
sometimes converted into sources of destruction 
when not controlled. A spirited horse is a 
source of great enjoyment, but if not con- 
trolled may maim us for life. Fire is a great 
blessing and a great joy to us when we are 
camping by a lake or in the mountains; but, 
beyond our control, it may cause forest fires. 
Temper, the capacity for anger, is highly de- 
sirable; but it must be controlled or murder 
may result. We must control the sex instinct, TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
147 
or it may control us and sink us lower than the 
brutes. On the other hand, if we control this 
instinct, we gain virility, a keener appreciation 
of the beauties of life, and life itself becomes 
richer and fuller. 
In conclusion, the appeal should be for clean 
living for the sake of physical strength and 
vigor, not for one’s own sake, but for the sake 
of country and future wife and children. 
The standard toward which we are working 
in sex education involves the dissemination 
throughout the school curriculum of such in- 
formation as we now give in a single talk. In 
addition to such nature-study work and simple 
biology and physiology and hygiene as should 
be included in the lower grades, there should 
be instruction in biology and in personal hy- 
giene required for all upper-grammar and all 
high-school students, as soon as well qualified 
teachers are available. In personal hygiene a 
proper amount of sex hygiene should be incor- 
porated; and with the treatment of other dis- 
eases, gonorrhea and syphilis should be given 
adequate attention; the idea of the whole plan 
being to place all these matters in their proper 
setting, without undue emphasis on matters of 
sex. 148 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
Either (first) as a part of one of these courses, 
or (second) as a part of some other general 
course, or (third) as a separate course, the fol- 
lowing subjects should be considered: — 
1. What is virility? 
(a) Virility and the next generation. 
(b) Virility and our nation. 
(c) Types of virility. 
2. Muscle, exercise, and virility. 
(a) How, when, and where to exercise. 
(b) “Second wind.” 
(c) Rest. 
(d) Will power. 
3. Food, good blood, and virility. 
(a) What to eat. 
(b) Tobacco. 
(c) Clogged-up machines. 
(d) Blood and other body fluids. 
4. Fresh air, bathing, and virility. 
(a) Sleeping-porches, camping. 
(b) How to bathe. 
(c) Change of clothes. 
5. Virility and disease. 
(a) Disease generally an unnecessary 
evil. TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
149 
(b) Relative seriousness of tuberculosis, 
typhoid, syphilis, gonorrhea, diph- 
theria, colds, headaches, adenoids, 
enlarged tonsils. 
(c) Body and mind. 
6. Virility and certain glands. 
(а) Importance of the thyroid gland and 
the testicles. 
(б) Difference between stallion and geld- 
ing. 
(c) Seminal vesicles. 
(d) Quack doctors. 
7. Virility and reproduction. 
8. Fatherhood and the next generation. 
In our attitude toward the boy, we must 
show him that we respect him, that we have 
faith and confidence in him, and expect great 
things of him. We should meet him on the 
level of a boy’s everyday interests in sport, 
use simple language, and no unnecessary tech- 
nical terms. Some workers with boys unwisely 
force confessions of guilt. We should respect 
the boy’s right of privacy. 
When we deal with boys in the mass, the 
grouping is difficult. Boys who have reached 150 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
the period of puberty should be in a separate 
group from pre - pubescents, and boys who 
are well advanced in adolescence — those who 
have been pubescent for two or three years — 
should be taught in still a third group. This 
applies to single talks as well as to courses of 
instruction. 
As far as we know the best basis of division 
between the pubescent and pre-pubescent boy 
(when physical examinations are not possible) 
is the change of voice. Only one who under- 
stands these matters well and knows the boys 
should do the grouping. Even such a man 
should not adopt an arbitrary basis of group- 
ing but must take one boy at a time and place 
him in the group for which he seems best 
fitted. 
We should endeavor to include the father in 
our plans of sex instruction and be careful not 
to break down such confidence as exists be- 
tween father and son. We shall find that only 
a small proportion of fathers give their sons 
any instruction in sexual matters, and that it 
is difficult to stir them to action. In one in- 
vestigation, it was found that one hundred 
boys out of one hundred and twenty-one TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
151 
had received no sex instruction from their 
fathers.1 
When confidence between father and son 
does exist, we should help the father rather 
than relieve him of his task. It is difficult to 
discover fathers who have confidential relations 
with their boys unless each family is dealt with 
separately. The Oregon Social Hygiene Society 
has conducted father and son meetings, and 
has required the father either to accompany the 
boy or sign a card signifying his willingness to 
have his son attend. Few fathers have at- 
tended, sometimes none at all. On one occasion 
there were thirty-five boys and not one father.2 
Requiring permission may be regarded as an 
assumption that the talk is questionable; and, 
furthermore, the requiring of special permis- 
sion is likely to create an undesirable attitude 
on the part of the boy. Plans for father and 
son meetings which will be free from these 
objections will possibly be developed by other 
schools or social hygiene societies. Our aim is 
1 From an investigation conducted by Dr. Winfield S. Hall. 
2 “A Social Emergency,” First Annual Report of the So- 
cial Hygiene Society of Portland, Oregon, and the Bulletin of 
the Oregon Social Hygiene Society, vol. i, no. i. 152 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
so to educate one generation of boys that when 
they become fathers they will inform their sons 
regarding these sacred relationships and func- 
tions of life. 
The boy is normally clean and wholesome. 
His first question regarding the origin of life 
is a good question. When denied wholesome 
information, the further investigation which 
often follows is indicative of desirable quali- 
ties of character. Later, though disturbed 
by false ideas which have been forced upon 
him, he still wishes to be clean and strong. He 
desires to master low passions. He would 
rather have muscular strength and endurance 
and energy and will power and courage and 
chivalry than any amount of money. He 
shudders at the thought of causing suffering 
to an innocent woman or child. He would 
sacrifice his life for the girl whom he regards 
as the personification of loveliness and purity. 
If we will but deal with him fairly and hon- 
estly, he will see in birth an ever - recurring 
miracle; he will regard his body as a sacred 
temple; he will see in sex power a source of 
richer and fuller life; he will respect women; he TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS 
will regard marriage as the most sacred rela- 
tionship in life. Thus noble manhood, a na- 
tion’s greatest asset, will in large measure be 
achieved. CHAPTER X 
TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
Bertha Stuart 
The normality of the reaction to sex knowledge 
depends upon the physical and mental train- 
ing of the child. Our thoughts concerning girls 
run in fixed grooves. We believe that, in baby- 
hood, instinct leads them to prefer dolls to their 
brothers’ guns and a little later renders them 
less active physically and more gentle and tract- 
able mentally. Because of this supposed differ- 
ence in instincts and because of a well-defined 
picture in our own minds of the final product 
we wish to evolve, we build a structure ex- 
ternally fair, but lacking the foundation to en- 
able it to resist the stress of time and circum- 
stance. Because of our traditionally different 
ways of dealing with girls and boys, we have 
produced girls who are not healthy little ani- 
mals, but women in miniature with nervous 
systems too unstable to cope successfully with 
the strain of our modern complex life. 
The stability of the nervous system is de- TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
155 
pendent upon the proper development of the 
fundamental centers. Incomplete development 
of the lower parts means incomplete develop- 
ment in the higher. These fundamental cen- 
ters are stimulated to growth and develop- 
ment especially by the activity of the large 
muscle masses. Not only is the development 
of the brain and nervous system dependent 
upon muscular activity, but the growth and 
activity of the vital organs as well, — the 
heart, lungs, and digestive system, — and the 
normality of sex life. 
All this we acknowledge in the case of the 
boy. Even with him, we fail to live up to our 
convictions, as is shown by the long hours of 
inactivity in school and the lack of suitable 
activities during recess periods. But on the 
whole we encourage the boy to run and climb 
and jump and take distinct pride in these ac- 
complishments. 
The same accomplishments in our girls occa- 
sion alarm; we have an ideal of gentle wom- 
anhood. Even though unrestrained up to the 
time she attends school, the girl then enters 
upon the long career of physical repression 
which characterizes her training. Parents, 156 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
teachers, neighbors, and schoolmates often 
seem to conspire to curb all the natural im- 
pulses upon which her health and rounded de- 
velopment depend. 
Aside from the reproductive organs, the 
physical mechanism of the girl is much like 
that of the boy. There is no peculiarity in the 
structure of the reproductive organs to pro- 
hibit vigorous activity. The development and 
health of these organs and their ligamentous 
supports are dependent primarily upon the 
quality and free circulation of the blood, both 
of which are preeminently the result of fresh 
air and exercise. If the muscular system in 
general is well developed, there is no reason 
why the muscular and ligamentous structure 
of the reproductive organs should not be 
equally well developed. To insure their proper 
development, exercise is essential. 
A questionnaire answered by girls at the Uni- 
versity of Oregon shows that, with few excep- 
tions, plays and games were not indulged in 
throughout the high - school period and sys- 
tematic playing ceased for the majority in the 
seventh and eighth grades. This custom pre- 
vails throughout the country. Just at the time TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
157 
when a girl needs abundant and free open-air 
play to develop the muscles, train endurance 
of the heart, and increase the capacity of the 
lungs, she omits it altogether. This is one of the 
chief factors in the anaemias and poor circula- 
tion common in that period. The derangement 
in the blood results in digestive disturbances 
and loss of appetite, followed by headache 
and lassitude which further disincline the girl 
for activity. Add to this the nervous strain 
incident to endeavors to carry on a successful 
social career, the nerve tension resulting from 
the unhygienic clothing assumed at this time, 
the lack of the steadying influence of home 
responsibilities, and we have ample cause for 
the nervous, high-strung girl who is becoming 
so common that we are in danger of regarding 
her as the normal girl. 
So greatly has the school curriculum en- 
croached upon the home that the girl has no 
longer time to share its responsibilities, nor is 
there longer time for the family reading-circle, 
or music, or games for the maintenance of the 
unity and fellowship of the home. This condi- 
tion cannot but react unfavorably upon the 
nervous system. If the brain is not rested and 158 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
the emotions satisfied by the relationships in 
the home, a feverish unrest, a nervous irritabil- 
ity, a futile search supplant the calmness of 
spirit, stableness of reactions and depth of con- 
tentment which must be long continued to 
become a habit of mind. 
Our school systems of to-day are designed 
for a girl as strong physically as a boy; in fact, 
stronger than most of our city boys. Our girls 
should possess as much vitality as our boys; 
but until we change our methods of dealing 
with girls, we must treat them as they exist 
and not as the normal individuals we hope 
some day to evolve. Most girls have disor- 
ders,— “nervousness,” headache, backache, 
constipation, colds, fatigue, or pain at the 
menstrual period. So common are these dis- 
turbances that we consult a physician only in 
extreme cases, and rarely seek the cause of the 
condition or attempt more than temporary 
relief. A pain which under ordinary circum- 
stances would receive medical attention is 
viewed with resignation when coincident with 
the menses. As a consequence of this neglect, 
many girls suffer unnecessary drains upon their 
vitality. TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
159 
We find all degrees of menstrual pain. It 
may be so mild as to be little more than dis- 
comfort, or so intense that unconsciousness 
results. The pain may be sharp and knife-like, 
or it may be a dull ache. It may be localized, 
low down in one or both sides, distributed over 
the whole abdomen or concentrated in the 
back. With this pain, there may be headache, 
or a headache may be the only symptom. Fre- 
quently there is gastro-intestinal disturbance 
— nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, or constipa- 
tion. In anaemic cases fainting is common. 
Local or operative treatment is not as a rule 
necessary, for the majority of cases yield to a 
strict regime of hygienic living. The regime 
should include regulation of sleeping, of eating, 
of hours of work and relaxation, of dressing and 
of exercise. The exercise should be prescribed 
and directed by a person trained in medical 
gymnastics. 
Frequently mental disturbances are asso- 
ciated with the phenomenon of menstruation. 
The most usual symptoms are heightened irri- 
tability, hysterical manifestations and depres- 
sion. Depression is often the only symptom; to 
some girls the premonitory “blues” signify the 160 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
approach of the period. Occasionally we en- 
counter the reverse, an excessive stimulation 
and feeling of well-being and strength. There 
is some loss in the power of concentration. In 
normal cases, however, this loss is less than 
many people suppose it to be. Lassitude and a 
feeling of general debility are confined chiefly 
to the anaemic cases. 
The mental symptoms clear up as the physi- 
cal condition is improved, aided by a sensible 
attitude toward the whole process. Often girls 
who suffer some pain live through the whole 
month in dread of the period. This attitude 
should be changed, by lessening the pain and 
by psychic therapy. Psychic therapy has 
proved successful in obstinate cases. 
The girl who suffers considerably from any 
of these disorders at the monthly period should 
be relieved from the strain of examinations, 
the classroom, and lessons which must be 
learned, although mental hygiene requires that 
her mind be kept active and her interests in 
quiet pleasures stimulated. She should not 
be left to introspection and morbidness or to 
the sickly sentimental thoughts often recom- 
mended for her. This alone would cause her TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
161 
to exhibit some of the so-called “phenomena” 
of adolescence. Many of these phenomena 
are abnormal and are traceable to low phys- 
ical vitality and lack of strong mental inter- 
ests. The menstrual period should not be at- 
tended by pain or discomfort; nor should our 
girls be brought up to regard it as a time of 
sickness. When our girls are taught that nor- 
mal girls experience no indisposition at this 
time, they will not be resigned to pain. The 
high-school life of the girl below the average 
in physical vitality cannot be regulated to her 
advantage in a co-educational school. Cities 
should maintain girls’ high schools, taught by 
women teachers, for all girls upon whom the 
stress and strain of competition with normal 
individuals would react unfavorably. In the 
majority of cases, menstrual pain in girls is due 
to nerve tension, anaemia and poor circulation, 
improper clothing, and mental attitude. The 
girls who experience no pain are those who 
have led an active out-of-door life and have 
never stopped playing. 
The character and arrangement of a girl’s 
clothing is one of the most important matters 
in her whole regimen. Clothing may neutral- 162 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ize the beneficial effects of her otherwise hy- 
gienic habits. The long-continued even though 
light pressure of the corset — and it is seldom 
light — interferes with the free circulation of 
the blood. The alteration in intro-abdominal 
pressure is conducive to misplacements of 
abdominal and pelvic organs; the anterior 
pressure on the iliac bones, the result of the 
modern long hip corset, is a fruitful source 
of partial separation of sacro-iliac joints —the 
cause of many backaches. Respiration is 
limited, the free play of abdominal muscles is 
prevented, constipation is promoted, and di- 
gestion is impaired. The strain on muscles and 
nerves caused by high-heeled shoes is a prolific 
source of headache and backache and reduced 
efficiency. Women have no conception how 
greatly their susceptibility to fatigue is in- 
creased and their total efficiency reduced by 
their methods of dress. The pity is that the 
majority will not learn unless the decrees of 
fashion change. 
The hygienic problems of girls in industry 
will largely disappear when it becomes a mat- 
ter of common knowledge that industrial effi- 
ciency is dependent upon physical efficiency. TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
163 
The physical efficiency of the worker cannot 
be maintained at its highest standard when 
the period allotted to rest is too short to allow 
the body to rebuild its tissues and dispose 
of the toxic products of fatigue. All activity 
must be balanced by rest. If this equilibrium be- 
tween expenditure and income is disturbed, ex- 
haustion ensues. If long continued, it results in 
permanent impairment of health. The organ- 
ism poisoned by its own toxic products is in- 
capable of productive effort and the output 
will steadily diminish as the fatigue increases. 
The present long working day causes a pro- 
gressive diminution in the vitality of the 
worker, defeats its own end, and leaves the girl 
weak in the face of temptations. 
The housing of unmarried girls is a very 
serious question. Homes for working-girls re- 
quire skillful management and a matron of in- 
sight and sympathy. The bedrooms may be 
small, but well lighted and ventilated. There 
should be a sunny dining-room, a library, sev- 
eral small parlors, attractively furnished, a 
gymnasium which could be used for dancing, 
shower baths, and an assembly room for con- 
certs, lectures, and moving pictures. This 164 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
should be in charge of a trained social leader 
who would direct entertainments and stimu- 
late wholesome interests. With an establish- 
ment of this kind we should not find so many 
of our girls on the streets or seeking diversion 
in cheap theaters and dance halls. When girls 
are able to live, — not simply exist in the dead- 
ening monotony of alternation between work 
and sleep, — their heightened mental activity, 
interest, and enthusiasm will prove a valuable 
asset to employers. 
One of the chief requisites of the mental 
training of girls is a knowledge, supplied at the 
right time and in the right way, of the funda- 
mental principles of reproduction. With such 
knowledge the girl’s mind will not be distracted 
by curiosity, or become morbid, when, instead 
of intelligent response, the girl meets with eva- 
sions and attempted concealments. She should 
not receive this knowledge in the form of iso- 
lated facts, but as a correlated part of a great 
whole to be assimilated gradually. The girl 
who is trained in this way will understand and 
accept human reproduction as a natural process. 
Questionnaires show that a majority of girls 
hear the facts of reproduction at the age of TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
165 
seven or eight, a few younger, and a few at the 
age of ten, — almost none at a later age. The 
majority hear these facts from children a year 
or two older, a few from their mothers, and the 
rest from books. A large number experience a 
feeling of disgust which remains with them 
until they receive better information. Their 
questions disclose a depth of ignorance and 
misconception which is appalling. 
Girls, at the age of twelve, thirteen, or 
fourteen, should have presented to them 
a course in physiology which includes the 
anatomy and hygiene of the reproductive or- 
gans. This is carefully omitted from present- 
day secondary-school textbooks. This course 
should use charts, pictures, and models. The 
significance of menstruation, the hygiene of 
the period, and the causes and prevention of 
pain should be explained. Under the hygiene 
of the period, the daily bath should be urged, 
with caution against chills, in which lies the 
only possibility of injury. The fertilization of 
the ovum and cell division may be described 
by use of the blackboard and embryological 
models of the later stages of development. 
The forces which bring about labor can be 166 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
explained without unduly stressing the attend- 
ing pain. 
The course would be incomplete without a 
discussion of the necessity of careful selection 
in marriage from the eugenic standpoint. The 
perils and results of the venereal diseases 
should be told simply and frankly. The in- 
struction in eugenics, like that in reproduction, 
should be progressive and indirect, at least up 
to the age of seventeen or eighteen years. 
Again it may be correlated with plant life by 
pointing out the beauty of strong, hardy plants 
and their relation to the seeds. Children can 
be taught to save the seeds of the most beau- 
tiful blossoms for the following year. Instruc- 
tion can be continued with the lower animals. 
The child will then grow up with the idea that 
strength and vigor and freedom from disease 
are desirable qualities, and must exist in the 
parent if they are to exist in the offspring. The 
idea can be readily carried over to the human 
family. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, 
the influence of heredity and the effects of the 
racial poisons should be fully explained, and 
emphasis laid upon qualities necessary for ra- 
cial betterment. TEACHING PHASES: FOR GIRLS 
167 
For our girls the first need is a sounder phys- 
ical organism, which can be attained only 
through the systematic continuance of physi- 
cal activities through childhood and girlhood; 
the second need is sounder mental interests, 
which can be attained only through the system- 
atic guidance of the mental activities through- 
out childhood and girlhood; and the third 
need is instruction in laws of reproduction. CHAPTER XI 
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
Norman Frank Coleman 
Personal and social hygiene in matters of sex 
are, in very important ways, dependent upon 
moral and religious training. On the other 
hand, morals and religion are in important 
ways dependent upon forces set free by the 
growth and activity of sex instincts and powers. 
One of the most significant facts in modern so- 
cial progress is its recognition of this interde- 
pendence of mind and body. We have learned 
that physical health depends upon peace of 
mind, hopefulness, courage, and many other 
things that have seemed in the past to be purely 
mental or spiritual; and we have learned also 
that the character of people and the spirit in 
which they do their work depend upon their 
health, upon conditions of food and warmth 
and shelter, things which in the past have been 
regarded as affecting only the physical man. 
It is now somewhat out of date to set physical 
conditions over against moral and religious; MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
every great human problem is more and more 
clearly seen in this day to involve all these 
conditions in its rise, and to require thoughtful 
consideration of them all for its solution. As 
we face the problems of sex, we must recognize 
the importance of fresh air, exercise, whole- 
some food, clean cups and clean towels, and we 
must also recognize the importance of clean 
thoughts and high purposes. We must know 
clearly the facts of biological and medical sci- 
ence, and with them in mind we must touch 
the springs of conduct in affection and imagi- 
nation. Our aim must be to achieve that mas- 
tery over the forces of life finely expressed by 
Browning’s Rabbi ben Ezra: “Nor soul helps 
flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul.” 
We may consider, first, how, in matters of 
sex, flesh helps soul; second, how soul helps 
flesh; and third, how in normal childhood and 
youth soul and flesh grow together in mutual 
help. 
The first great outstanding fact is that the 
physical powers of sex reach maturity in the 
same years in which the moral and religious 
instincts are greatly quickened. If we recall 
our youth, we must realize that, in the years 170 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
between twelve and twenty, our lives were 
greatly disturbed and perplexed, and also 
greatly exalted and inspired by desires and 
impulses partly toward the opposite sex and 
partly toward the service of God and our fel- 
lows. In the normal adolescent boy or girl 
there is a powerful expanding and enriching of 
sex thoughts and desires and purposes. There 
is also a rapid development of social sympathy 
and passion; the revolutionary movements of 
all lands are recruited from those who like 
Shelley have in their youth vowed, — 
“ I will be wise, 
And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies 
Such power, for I grow weary to behold 
The selfish and the strong still tyrannize 
Without reproach or check.” 
And there is a wonderful flowering of the young 
life in religious feeling and aspiration; a large 
majority of religious conversions take place in 
adolescence. 
We can scarcely escape the conviction that 
these are not different awakenings, but rather 
different phases of the one great awakening of 
the young life as it prepares for the tasks and 
responsibilities of manhood and womanhood. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
The part that sex development plays in this 
awakening has been variously stressed by dif- 
ferent special students of the physiology and 
psychology of adolescence. Some scientists have 
not hesitated to give it first place and to treat 
social passion and religious enthusiasm as sec- 
ondary manifestations of sex energy.1 How- 
ever that may be, we know that each speaks 
naturally in terms of the other. The religious 
mystic of the Middle Ages was devoted to the 
Divine Lover or the Heavenly Lady, and the 
modern revolutionary is wedded to the Cause. 
On the other hand, the lover naturally adopts 
the language of religion to express his devotion 
to the lady of his heart. The water-tight com- 
partment theory of life is in these days thor- 
oughly discredited*. We know that the various 
powers of soul and body are related and in- 
terdependent, and we feel sure that the devel- 
oping powers of sex do have very vital relation 
to developing powers of moral purpose and 
religious aspiration. In support of this rela- 
tion we recall the unfortunate effects upon the 
171 
1 A. Forel, The Sexual Question, chap, xn, “Religion and 
Sexual Life”; William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 
chap, i; especially the first footnote. 172 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
character of those who by chance or the bar- 
barity of men have been desexed in childhood. 
We must allow for other factors at work here, 
yet the clearly established facts of the stunt- 
ing of mental and moral growth in desexed 
children reinforce our own experience and 
observation, and indicate that the energies 
that are developed with sex and maturity 
are largely available for moral and religious 
growth. The youth with full sex consciousness 
and impulse is normally the youth of abun- 
dant energy for moral and religious activity. It 
seems, therefore, quite fundamental to the 
right understanding of sex that we consider 
the body, not the enemy of the soul, but its 
friend; not a clog upon the spiritual growth of 
boy and girl advancing into manhood and wom- 
anhood, but an important source of energy for 
the upward climb. 
When we turn to the second part of our dis- 
cussion and ask how in matters of sex soul 
helps flesh, the need and the fact are clearer 
and perhaps more urgent. Dante found the 
souls of the lustful in the second circle of 
hell, driven hither and thither by warring 
winds, — MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
173 
“The stormy blast of hell 
With restless fury drives the spirits on, 
Whirled round and dashed amain with sore annoy.” 
Here we have clear recognition of the two great 
characters of sex impulse, its violence and its 
fitfulness. In the one character it needs to be 
subdued that it may not destroy; in the other 
it needs to be directed that it may build up. 
As we look back through history, and as we 
look abroad through our land and through all 
civilized lands, one of the most conspicuous 
facts concerning the powers of sex is their 
frightful destructiveness. The spectacle of 
wasted manhood and womanhood, of depleted 
powers in body, mind, and soul, is in history 
and in present society appalling. It is so op- 
pressive that it has driven many thoughtful 
men and women to despair. Men otherwise 
hopeful and purposeful here become gloomy 
and fatalistic; they have no hope that lust will 
ever be effectively controlled. 
Such pessimism, however, contradicts the 
history as well as the instincts of the race. In 
the face of great evils there have always been 
those who would sit down in discouragement 
and despair; every great destructive force in 174 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
human history has daunted some men to the 
point of inactivity. Yet the evils have been 
controlled. Ignorant and fearful people have 
said, “This thing is beyond human power; it 
is useless for us to struggle against fate.” Yet 
men of vision and of courage have struggled 
and won. No man of moral passion and reli- 
gious purpose can adopt an attitude of passive 
submission to the forces of destruction. We 
can admit no necessary evil, or the battle of 
human progress is lost. We ask ourselves so- 
berly, therefore, how this tremendous outrush 
of destructive energy may be controlled. The 
answer is plain. Men have by the agency of 
fire itself constructed the means by which fire 
is controlled and domesticated; they have 
turned disease against itself, and by the agency 
of antitoxins have conquered it; they are 
learning to arouse and organize the fighting 
spirit of men against its own most ancient and 
fearful expression and are enlisting soldiers of 
peace in a war against war. Even so the race 
depends upon the higher affections for control 
of the lower, and lust is controlled by love. I 
talked once to a young man in college who had 
given himself to sexual vice when he had been MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
175 
in high school; until a year before I spoke with 
him, he had supposed that virtually all men 
were and must be sexually indulgent. For 
twelve months he had kept himself clean. I in- 
quired why and how. He replied simply that 
he had fallen in love with a young woman and 
wished to marry her. His former course now 
seemed to him shameful and unmanly. Lust 
yielding to love! In one of his sonnets to the 
woman who afterward became his wife, Ed- 
mund Spenser says: — 
“You frame my thoughts and fashion me within: 
You stop my tongue and teach my heart to speak: 
You calm the storm that passion did begin: 
Strong through your cause, but by your virtue weak.” 
In our own experience, as far as we have 
achieved victory in our own bodies and minds 
over our baser passions, we have achieved it 
by the power of the higher affections. It is a 
fact of common experience that love calms the 
storm that passion did begin. So Spenser’s 
lady strengthened passion by her charm, but 
weakened it by her virtue. 
Nor is this the only higher affection that, in 
the practical experience of men, has controlled 
and transformed animal passion. Thousands 176 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
of fully sexed men have, through the centuries, 
turned their bodily and mental energies so 
fully to devoted service for God and their fel- 
lows as to rise above the clamoring demands of 
physical appetite, in the vigorous terms of the 
New Testament making themselves eunuchs 
for the kingdom of God’s sake. This is a hard 
saying, and the experience it treats of must al- 
ways be confined to a small number of men; 
yet it goes far toward demonstrating a general 
possibility, and it should effectively dispose 
of the “necessity” argument, by which men 
often excuse their vicious practices. 
One thing more should be said on this sub- 
ject of control. Not only are the higher, more 
spiritual affections the most effective masters 
of the lower; they are the only effective mas- 
ters. Public reprobation can do much, but it 
is ineffectual with large numbers of relatively 
unattached members of society, and it is impo- 
tent against secret vice. Motives of cautious 
fear are always weak with full-blooded and 
generous youth, and they are likely to become 
weaker with all men as medical science dis- 
covers ways to prevent or escape the most ob- 
viously fearful consequences of sexual license. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
177 
A familiar phrase comes to my mind, as no 
doubt it comes to yours: “The expulsive power 
of the higher affections”; yet I think that 
phrase is not quite suitable. It is not a ques- 
tion of expulsion. It is not wholly a question 
of control; it is mainly a question of direction. 
What we need to-day with boys and girls for 
the solving of the sex problems is to direct 
those energies, which in their false direction are 
destructive, into right and healthful ways; that 
is, we need to socialize and elevate that affec- 
tion, which in baser forms has aspects of ugly 
animalism. 
As one of the solutions of the problem of 
control it has been proposed to separate the 
sexes in the adolescent years. From my point 
of view, this would defeat our object. In the 
association of boys and girls during the adoles- 
cent period, we may enlist the higher affections 
for the control and the direction of the powers 
that are set free by sex impulses developed in 
that very period of life. 
What happens in the experience of the nor- 
mal boy? In this period of early adolescence 
he finds within himself a wonderful quickening 
of mind, — impulses, feelings, longings that he 178 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
does not understand. These impulses, feelings, 
longings, perplex him, it may be for years. 
They reach out vaguely, blindly toward the 
opposite sex, sometimes in a perverted way, 
but oftener naturally and honestly. Then the 
young man falls in love. At once his more or 
less vague, cloudy, incoherent, formless feel- 
ings and purposes are concentrated, directed, 
and fixed in devotion to a young woman whom 
he idealizes, almost deifies. That is the first 
stage in the natural directing and forming of 
sex powers and impulses toward social, moral, 
and religious ends. Of course the young man 
may discover, after a while, that the first ob- 
ject of his fancy is not so angelic as he thought. 
By and by his fancy changes and may rove to 
several other maidens before he reaches ma- 
turity; but each successive experience, if he is 
true to his better self, concentrates his affec- 
tions and directs them, until, if he is fortunate, 
in the course of time he finds his true mate 
and enters upon marriage. He is now fairly 
equipped for what most of us know to be a long 
course in the discipline of the selfish, the per- 
sonal, the more or less brute desires and ambi- 
tions of man. Here he learns to subject him- MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
179 
self, his own comfort, his own ends, his own 
ambitions, to the good of his wife and her 
happiness, to the good of his children and the 
satisfaction of their needs. Then, more and 
more, after having concentrated the powers 
of his spirit through faithful courtship and 
through happy marriage and fatherhood, the 
man is able to diffuse these same energies 
through many channels, for the protection of 
all sorts and conditions of women and children. 
The man is now a citizen, a member of society, 
with developed powers of social sympathy, of 
social energy. How has he developed these 
powers? Not by any supposition that the 
early sex instincts he felt in his boyhood were 
wholly animal and must be atrophied by dis- 
use, but by gathering and directing them into 
the right channels. Direction, like control, 
depends upon enlightened, purposeful, persist- 
ent love. 
In the third place, we may consider how, in 
matters of sex, the flesh and the soul may grow 
together in mutual help. The essential facts 
and the vital importance of the sex life appeal 
to the developing boy or girl in four great rela- 
tions, in relation to father and mother, in rela- 180 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
tion to the strength and grace of his or her own 
body and mind, in relation to his or her future 
family, and in relation to society in general. 
These appeals come in successive periods and 
open the way to healthful instruction and guid- 
ance from childhood up to manhood and wom- 
anhood. 
Sex questions first arise in the child’s mind 
in connection with parenthood. The first 
thing a little boy or girl needs to know is that 
the young life is sheltered and fed during long 
months in the mother’s body, and that the 
father had a share in that life. Is it not amaz- 
ing that in this twentieth century we find many 
girls twelve years old and over who do not 
know that their father had any share in start- 
ing their lives? I knew of a girl nineteen years 
old, a student in college, who did not know that 
a man had any essential part in bringing chil- 
dren into the world, but supposed, when any 
question of illegitimate childbirth was raised, 
that possibly God punished a bad woman by 
sending her a baby before she was married. It 
is little short of criminal that many girls are 
allowed to reach adolescence with no sex 
thought or image clearly in their minds except MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
181 
such as they have received directly or indi- 
rectly from animals. If boys and girls knew 
from the beginning that a part of the father’s 
life and a part of the mother’s life united to 
form the beginning of their lives, the question 
of sex would begin on a plane where there were 
religious, moral, and spiritual associations, and 
an atmosphere of love and holiness. These 
young people could then see the facts of sex 
clearly instead of through the mists of prurient 
fancy and suggestion as they see them now.1 
The boy and girl who know these two tremen- 
dous facts of the nurturing care of the mother 
before birth, and the cooperation of the father 
and mother in the beginning of life, are forti- 
fied against the principal moral and spiritual 
dangers that they are to face in the future. 
The next information and guidance needed 
by our boys and girls concerns the influence of 
sex upon their own development. The objec- 
tion is continually raised that it is not well for 
little children to have sex thoughts emphasized 
in their minds. But at present no boy or girl 
grows up and plays among other children, or 
1 E. W. Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, chap, iv; espe- 
cially section (d), “The Educational Significance of Monogamy.” 182 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
hears talk on the streets, or goes to work in 
factory or store, without hearing these facts 
emphasized day by day, emphasized unhealth- 
ily and distorted shamefully. We propose sim- 
ply to have the emphasis shifted and lightened, 
for it will be lightened if the facts are given 
truly and in right relations. Boys and girls 
should learn, at the same time they are learning 
facts of nutrition, excretion, respiration, and 
circulation of the blood, those facts regarding 
sex which are most important for healthy 
growth of mind and body. They should know 
that the organs of reproduction have a definite 
relation to the natural and healthful develop- 
ment of the full powers of their bodies in future 
years; that internal secretions of these organs 
coming into the blood help to build up bones 
and muscles, help to make their nerve fibers 
active and vigorous, help to form their brains, 
and help to equip them for manly strength and 
womanly grace in the years that are to come. 
These are very simple matters. These facts of 
sex can be conveyed by just a few sentences 
of clear, considerate, wise information at the 
right time, in relation to the other facts of 
bodily development. MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
183 
Considering now the period of puberty, we 
find additional needs, for no boy or girl reaches 
puberty, under ordinary conditions, without 
knowing that it brings the possibility of father- 
hood and motherhood, brings the possibility of 
that process that we call fertilization, in which 
the life of plants and animals begins. The boy 
or girl who reaches this age has a right to know 
what fertilization means, and what fertiliza- 
tion implies; has a right to the simple bio- 
logical facts which will tell him the relation 
between the life of the parents and the life 
of the child, the mysterious relation in body 
and mind that we call heredity. The begin- 
ning of the socializing of sex energy and sex 
power depends upon recognition of the fact 
that this power that develops in the young 
man and young woman at puberty is not to 
be used for selfish gratification, is not pri- 
marily a source of pleasure, but has a very di- 
rect relation to the health, intelligence, and 
happiness of others. This relation may be en- 
forced by a simple study of succeeding genera- 
tions of flowers and the ways in which forms, 
colors, and sizes originate and are handed 
down from generation to generation in wonder- 184 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
ful variety. Or it may be illustrated from an 
observation of the beginnings of sex in infu- 
soria; how tiny animals in stagnant water grow 
to full size and each divides simply into two to 
form a new generation; how this simple asexual 
process continuing for several generations re- 
sults in growing weakness and old age, steadily 
decreasing size, steadily decreasing vitality, 
until there comes a time when one infusorian 
unites with another. There sex begins. That 
union of two individuals is required to restore 
youth, to refresh vitality and energy, and to 
produce greater variety in the forms of life. 
When a boy or girl knows these simple facts, 
he is better able to understand the power of re- 
production than he can possibly be if they are 
not before him, or if all he has heard has been 
ceaseless reiteration of the pleasures of selfish 
indulgence of sex appetite. 
Finally, when the boy and the girl come into 
later adolescence and face manhood and wom- 
anhood, they are ready to know some of the 
larger social aspects of sex. They are ready to 
know of the diseases brought on by perverted 
sex habits; of the frightful waste of those who 
give themselves to licentiousness, the frightful MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
185 
waste of strength and youthful energy not 
only in those that actually go down, but in 
those that survive. More than that, seeking 
right relations of themselves to society, they 
need to know the social aspects of sex. The 
young man needs to know what it means for a 
woman to bear a child; he needs to know the 
social and economic dependence of the preg- 
nant woman and of the young mother, so that 
he may realize what the power of fatherhood 
means in the actual work of society. I cannot 
imagine any man talking glibly of the neces- 
sary evil, or of man’s inability to control sex 
passions, if he knows the social facts of sex. 
Any young man who knows even a part of the 
burden his mother bore for him, if he has a 
spark of manhood in his being, is surely for- 
tified against temptation to selfish indulgence. 
If, beyond that, he can see the relation of the 
home to society, the relative steadiness and 
dependability of a worker with a wife and chil- 
dren, who bears the home burdens in a man’s 
way, as compared with the floating, homeless 
wanderer who walks our streets; if he knows 
these central facts and the dependence of the 
home upon the faithfulness of the man and the 186 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
presence of the man, if he has a spark of patriot- 
ism in his heart, he must realize in his thought 
and in his practice the necessity for the social- 
ization of that passion which, though it begin 
in individual and selfish forms, issues in such 
fateful social consequences. 
The solution of this great, urgent, pressing 
problem, which we are feeling the weight of 
more and more in these years of careful inves- 
tigation of our social conditions, will come in 
frankly recognizing the beginnings upon which 
the whole sex life in mind and body is based, 
and in transforming fundamentally important 
animal instincts and desires into higher affec- 
tions, humanizing them for the sake of the 
loved one, for the sake of family, for the sake of 
the social brotherhood and sisterhood in which 
we are members. 
My closing word is one which seems to me 
most significant of the true, the beautiful, the 
victorious way out of so much discouragement 
and so much crime, — that is the word “con- 
secration.” That word includes two essential 
ideas, the ideas of sacredness and cooperation. 
The problems of sex will never be solved until 
the sacredness of sex is recognized, for sex is MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
187 
vitally and indissolubly bound up with the two 
greatest facts that you and I know. The great- 
est fact of the organized world around us is 
life, the greatest fact of the spiritual world into 
which we lift our souls is love, and the be- 
ginnings of life and the beginnings of love 
are in sex. No boy or girl will readily under- 
stand what life means except as he has some 
clear, wise teaching about sex; no boy or girl 
will fully understand what love means except 
through recognition of the dignity and worth 
and purity of the fundamental facts and pow- 
ers of sex. 
Who shall give this enlightenment? I think 
it must be clear that this enlightenment can- 
not be given by the very young and inexpe- 
rienced person, that the facts can be rightly 
given only by some person who knows their 
sacredness for himself or herself. They can be 
given best by a mature person who has seen 
and felt what they mean. In the long run, I 
have no doubt that our boys and girls will get 
the information that they must have from their 
parents, for the father and the mother are the 
best qualified to give it. I have named both 
the father and the mother, for the solution of 188 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
our problem is not only in knowing the sacred- 
ness of sex, it is also in working together for the 
elevation of sex life. We shall not be able, we 
men, in the future, to sit down and say, “Oh, 
well, John will learn from his mother”; “ Mary’s 
mother will make that clear to her”; “Their 
mother does these things.” It will not be pos- 
sible for the socializing of the sex instincts and 
the ripening of the sex powers to be made 
clear to young people except as men and 
women both recognize the sacredness of the sex 
relation and undertake to make things clear to 
boys and girls. Men must give up their selfish 
indifference to evil conditions, and women — 
some women — must give up the bitterness 
and hardness that come into their hearts and 
their faces when they think of the suffering 
that their sex has endured at the hands of man. 
This is not a problem for one sex. It cannot be 
solved by either half of the great whole of hu- 
manity. We know this to be true in our per- 
sonal life; it is equally true in our social life. It 
is only by the girding-up of the whole spirit of 
man to go forth and meet his duty as a lover, as 
a husband, as a father, and it is only by the 
girding-up of all the powers of the woman to MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PHASES 
189 
lead and to help, that the family is organized. 
In this great human family of ours the man and 
the woman in days that are coming will co- 
operate to remove from our midst the black- 
est and most fearful perversion of the natural 
powers of our race. We do not believe in sitting 
down idly before this problem and saying, “It 
has always been, it always will be.” In this 
great day of moral and spiritual progress, with 
powers that we have inherited from our fore- 
fathers in this land and other lands, we know 
that there is no necessary evil. We are learning 
what the evil of sex is, and how it arises, and 
we are beginning to use the forces at hand for 
its destruction. Conscience is kindling and 
determination is hardening among our peo- 
ple that this thing shall cease to be. The ape 
and the tiger shall yet die from our midst, and 
man’s spirit shall triumph in his flesh. CHAPTER XII 
AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS, AND IDEALS 
William Trufant Foster 
At the outset we observed that the present 
social emergency is not concerned merely with 
diseases, or physiology, or laws, or wages, or 
suffrage, or recreation, or education, or religion. 
All of these phases of the present situation, and 
many others, must be taken into account in 
our attempted solution of the problem of sex 
hygiene and morals. A person who believes 
that he can offer a quick and certain way out of 
our difficulties appears to have no comprehen- 
sion of the problem. This much, however, is 
certain: the greatest need is public education. 
The policy of silence has failed. Accurate and 
widespread knowledge is a necessary condition 
of progress, whatever may be the chosen direc- 
tion. The main questions at issue concern the 
Agencies, Methods, Materials, and Ideals of 
education.1 The following propositions are in- 
' 1 The best expression of the consensus of opinion of those who 
should know most about the subject is the Report of the Special AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
191 
tended as a brief summary of the most im- 
portant truths concerning each of those four 
aspects. 
I. AGENCIES 
1. As there are but few parents who can and 
will give the necessary instruction, it must be 
given by other agencies, at least until a new 
generation of parents has been prepared to 
meet this responsibility. 
2. Although the failure of parents calls for 
the immediate action of other agencies, the in- 
struction should be so conducted as to break 
down the barriers of false modesty and estab- 
lish confidence between parents and children.1 
3. As the public school is the only agency of 
formal education that reaches nearly all of the 
children of the nation, sex instruction must 
eventually be given in all public schools; only 
thus can we bring forward a new generation 
of parents, equipped with the knowledge and 
desire to do their duty by their children. 
Committee on the Matter and Methods of Sex Education issued by 
the American Federation for Sex Hygiene, New York, December, 
1912. 
1 Sex Education, by Ira S. Wile, M.S., M.D. (New York, 1912), 
aims to assist parents to banish the difficulties and to suggest a 
course of instruction. It is a brief and wholly admirable treatise. 192 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
4. As a majority of our boys and girls do not 
enter high school, some instruction in matters 
of sex should be given in grammar schools. 
5. No community should introduce direct 
sex education into the schools as a part of the 
curriculum, until it has informed parents, cul- 
tivated favorable public opinion, and obtained 
the services of teachers who are qualified for 
the work by nature and by special prepara- 
tion. 
6. All normal schools and all college depart- 
ments of education should at once embody, in 
their courses for teachers, instruction in the 
matter and methods of sex education, and ade- 
quate instruction should be provided for teach- 
ers now in service; and within a reasonable 
time after such opportunities have been offered 
in a given State, certificates to teach in that 
State should be granted only to those who have 
had the prescribed preparation. 
7. As there is not now a sufficient number of 
public school teachers prepared to teach sex 
hygiene, such teaching must be done in part, at 
least for many years, by private agencies. 
8. Lectures should be arranged for parents 
by churches, schools, colleges, clubs, granges, AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
193 
boards of health, and other organizations; but 
no one should be accepted as a lecturer until 
he is approved by a board of health, social 
hygiene society, college, or other organiza- 
tion which is unquestionably competent to 
pass judgment on the qualifications of the 
speaker. 
9. Since there are adults in every commu- 
nity that will not be reached, even when sex 
education becomes a part of the day-school cur- 
riculum, such instruction should be offered in 
continuation schools, in social settlements, in 
Young Men’s Christian Associations, in college 
extension courses, in factories, stores, lumber- 
camps, car-shops, — indeed, wherever the happy 
connection can be made between those who 
need the help and those who are surely quali- 
fied to give help.1 
II. METHODS 
1. Sex instruction as a rule should not be iso- 
lated; it should not be prominent; it should be 
an integral part of courses in biology, hygiene, 
1 Progress, the second annual report of the Oregon Social 
Hygiene Society, gives some account of the most extensive 
public education that has been conducted in this country. 194 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
and ethics. “Specialists” in sex education are 
undesirable as teachers of boys and girls, in or 
out of school. 
2. As there is a discrepancy between the age 
of puberty and the age of marriage, due to ar- 
tificial conditions of modern society, it is im- 
portant that sex consciousness and sex curi- 
osity should develop slowly: accordingly, sex 
instruction, unlike instruction in other sub- 
jects, must seek to satisfy rather than to stimu- 
late interest in the subject; questions must be 
answered truthfully, but the answers must not 
lead the curiosity of the child beyond the infor- 
mation that is immediately necessary for the 
guidance of his own conduct. 
3. The aims of sex education can be fully 
attained only by the encouragement of every 
means for keeping the mind occupied through- 
out waking hours with wholesome thoughts 
and the body sufficiently active in vigorous 
work and play, preferably out of doors. 
4. Lectures and class instruction should be 
provided only for carefully selected groups: 
almost nothing can be gained, and much may 
be lost, by presenting the subject before mis- 
cellaneous audiences. AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
195 
5. At every age, in every class, there are 
likely to be individuals who need certain in- 
struction not needed by the entire class: such 
instruction should be given privately. 
6. Books dealing directly with human sex 
life should not be given to children before the 
age of puberty; some of the books most widely 
used are dangerous; instruction should come 
directly from parent or teacher. 
7. Traveling exhibits, made up of concrete 
and vivid materials, and prepared with due 
consideration of all the accepted principles of 
sex education, may be used effectively and in- 
expensively to bring the truths before many 
thousands of adults in many places.1 
8. Against commercialized prostitution, the 
educational campaign should be one of pitiless 
publicity: the public should know the names of 
all persons engaged in promoting the business, 
whether they are prostitutes (including female 
and male), or liquor dealers, owners of houses, 
owners of real estate, lessees, proprietors, finan- 
cial backers, policemen, or politicians; their 
1 The Exhibit of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society has been 
Been by over 50,000 people, at a total cost of less than two cents 
for each person. 196 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
connection with the traffic should be pro- 
claimed by means as effective as the “tin- 
plate” signs for disorderly houses. 
9. Reliable investigations should be made 
further to reveal the relationships between 
sexual immorality and venereal diseases, on 
the one hand, and, on the other hand, be- 
tween sexual immorality and ignorance, low 
wages, injurious clothing, lack of wholesome 
amusements, low dance-halls, grills, moving- 
picture houses, vaudeville shows and so- 
called legitimate theaters, mental deficiency, 
armies and navies, and — most important of 
all — the liquor traffic; and the outcome of 
such investigations should be made known 
through persistent campaigns of public edu- 
cation. 
10. The conclusions of every vice commis- 
sion and of every other dependable investiga- 
tion — not the details — must be kept before 
the public, until the truth is common knowl- 
edge that segregation never segregates; that 
safeguarding clinics never safeguard; that medi- 
cal control never controls; that official protec- 
tion of immorality increases immorality; and 
that, if there be any such thing as a necessary AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
197 
evil, it is not the shameless partnership of gov- 
ernment and vice.1 
III. MATERIALS 
1. Elementary nature-study for children and 
biological study for boys and girls of high- 
school age may lead gradually and safely to 
the teaching of plant and animal reproduction, 
provided that the subject is not left on the plane 
of animal life; it is a mistake to suppose that the 
teaching of biology necessarily promotes right 
conduct in matters of sex. 
2. Subordinate and incidental to instruction 
in normal sex processes, warning should be 
given of the dangers of individual vice, illicit 
sexual intercourse, and venereal diseases; but 
such instruction should be given only to groups 
that are homogeneous in respect to sex, physi- 
ological age, and social environment, or pref- 
erably, to individuals.2 
1 Especially valuable are the two volumes by Abraham 
Flexner, written for the Bureau of Social Hygiene. See List of 
References. 
2 See American Youth, New York, April, 1913 (“Sex Educa- 
tion Number”). An article by George W. Hinckley tells of the 
ideal way in which he gives individual instruction to his boys at 
Good Will Farm, Hinckley, Maine. 198 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
3. Instruction concerning venereal disease, 
which leaves the impression that the chief 
danger of illicit intercourse is “getting caught,” 
should not be tolerated: knowledge of facts, 
though scientifically accurate, is not neces- 
sarily protection to the individual or to so- 
ciety. 
4. As sex instruction for young people has 
none but practical aims, hygienic and moral, 
only such knowledge concerning sex processes, 
reproduction, and diseases should be given at 
each period as is necessary for the welfare of 
the individual at that period. 
5. The practice of masturbation is suffi- 
ciently common among both boys and girls to 
call for warnings to all children at the earliest 
ages; any teacher or parent should be qualified 
to help in individual cases. 
6. The education of adolescent boys must 
stress the six great truths that will fortify them 
against the main arguments of the enemies of 
decency and health: — 
(1) Sexual intercourse is not a physiologi- 
cal necessity; continence was never known to 
impair physical or mental vigor. 
(2) There can be but one standard of chas- AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
199 
tity; the purity a man demands for his sister, 
he must achieve for himself. 
(3) Seminal emissions are natural among 
healthy men; usually they need cause no 
concern. 
(4) Gonorrhea is a terrible disease, with 
tragic consequences that one can never fully 
foretell; syphilis is worse. 
(5) Every woman who offers her body for 
prostitution is, sooner or later, a probable 
source of contagion; clean living is the only 
positive safeguard against venereal disease. 
(6) Nearly every “advertising specialist” is 
a criminal of the most contemptible type; the 
only safe adviser is the doctor in reputable 
standing who is not afraid to sign his name to 
his prescription or to his advice. 
IV. IDEALS 
1. “The function of education is to guide 
the intellect into a knowledge of right and 
wrong, to supply motives for right conduct, and 
to furnish occasions by which alone can moral 
habits be cultivated.” (Drummond.) 
2. The first aim of sex education is necessa- 
rily to bring about an open-minded, serious, if 200 
THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY 
possible a reverent, attitude toward sex and 
motherhood, in place of the traditional secrecy 
and vulgarity; a teacher who cannot do this 
should do nothing.1 
3. In so far as the sex life of animals is made 
the basis of instruction, the difference between 
man and the lower animals is the point to em- 
phasize; otherwise the facts of animal life may 
appear to justify irresponsible sex activities, 
whereas the glory of man is his control over 
animal instincts. 
4. Since it is not ignorance of what is right, 
but rather the will to do the right, that is usu- 
ally responsible for sexual delinquency among 
adults, the program of public education must 
include more effective moral education in all 
grades of all schools; every subject, properly 
taught, is a means of cultivating will power, of 
strengthening character; but the school cur- 
riculum is now made to yield but a small part 
of its possibilities. 
5. The appeal must be made to self-respect 
and to chivalry; especially through history and 
1 “Sex-instruction as a Phase of Social Education,” in Reli- 
gious Education, 1913, by Maurice A. Bigelow, is one of the best 
articles on this subject. AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS 
201 
literature the idea of sex must be spiritualized; 
the right education of the emotions is funda- 
mental.1 
6. Through the study of heredity and eugen- 
ics, the social responsibility of the individual 
may be made to serve as a higher incentive for 
right conduct than the fear of disease. 
7. If there is one truth concerning sex edu- 
cation that needs emphasis above all others, it 
is that all plans for meeting the social emer- 
gency must strengthen the control of moral 
and spiritual law over sex impulses; otherwise 
sex education may be antagonistic not only to 
physical health, but as well to the highest de- 
velopment of personality and to the progres- 
sive evolution of human society. 
1 F. W. Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem. No book on 
this subject has reached a higher plane of idealism. At the same 
time it is scientifically sound. LIST OF REFERENCES 
CHAPTERS I, II 
General Survey 
Prepared by Maida Rossiter, Librarian, Reed College 
Addams, Jane. A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. 
New York, 1912. 
American Federation for Sex Hygiene. Report of the Sex 
Education Sessions of the Fourth International Con- 
gress on School Hygiene. New York, 1913. 
American Medical Association. Nostrums and Quackery. 
Chicago. 
Bloch, Iwan. Sexual Life of our Time in its Relation 
to Modern Civilization; tr. by Eden Paul. St. Louis, 
1911. 
Brieux, Eugene. Damaged Goods. In his Three Plays. 
New York, 1911. 
Commonwealth Club of California. The Red Plague. 
Commonwealth Club of California. Transactions, vol. 
yi, no. 1, May, 1911; vol. vm, no. 7, August, 1913. 
Dealey, J. Q. The Family in its Sociological Aspects. 
Boston, 1912. 
Ellis, Havelock. Task of Social Hygiene. Boston, 1912. 
Flexner, A. Prostitution in Western Europe. New York, 
1913. Bureau of Social Hygiene Publications. 
Prostitution in the United States. (In prepara- 
tion.) Bureau of Social Hygiene Publications. 
Foerster, F. W. Marriage and the Sex Problem; tr. by 
Meyrick Booth. New York, 1912. 
Forel, August. Sexual Question; tr. by C. F. Marshall. 
New York, 1908. 204 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
Fosdick, R. D. European Police Systems. New York, 
1913. 
Kneeland, G. J. Commercialized Prostitution in New York 
City. New York, 1913. Bureau of Social Hygiene 
Publications. 
Morrow, P. A. Social Diseases and Marriage. New York, 
1904. 
Northcote, Hugh. Christianity and Sex Problems. Phila- 
delphia, 1906. 
Seligman, E. R. A., ed. Social Evil. Ed. 2, rev. New York, 
1912. 
Sisson, E. O. Educational Emergency. Atlantic Monthly, 
vol. 106, pp. 54-63, July, 1910. 
Thomson, J. A., and Geddes, P. Problem of Sex. New 
York, 1912. 
Westermarck, Edward. History of Human Marriage, 
New York, 1903. 
Willson, R. N. American Boy and the Social Evil. Phila- 
delphia, 1905. 
Zenner, Philip. Education in Sexual Physiology and 
Hygiene. Cincinnati, 1910. 
CHAPTER HI 
Physiological Aspects 
Reproduction 
Exner, M. J. The Physician’s Answer. New York, 1913. 
Howell, W. H. Textbook of Physiology. Ed. 4. Philadel- 
phia, 1911. 
Landois, Leonard. Textbook of Human Physiology. Ed. 
10. Philadelphia, 1904. 
Marshall, F. H. A. Physiology of Reproduction. New 
York, 1910. LIST OF REFERENCES 
205 
Heredity and Eugenics 
Castle, W. E. Heredity. New York, 1911. 
Darbishire, A. D. Breeding and the Mendelian Theory. 
New York, 1911. 
Davenport, C. B. Heredity in Relation to Eugenics. New 
York, 1911. 
Ellis, Havelock. Problem of Race Regeneration. New 
York, 1911. 
Jordan, D. S. Heredity of Richard Roe. Boston, 1911. 
Kellicott, W. E. Social Direction of Human Evolution. 
New York, 1911. 
Punnett, R. C. Mendelism. New York, 1911. 
Saleeby, C. W. Methods of Race Regeneration. New York, 
1912. 
Parenthood and Race Culture. New York, 1909. 
Walter, H. E. Genetics. New York, 1913. 
Winship, A. E. Jukes-Edwards; a Study in Education and 
Heredity. Harrisburg, 1900. 
CHAPTER IV 
Medical Phases 
Dock, L. L. Hygiene and Morality; Medical, Social and 
Legal Aspects of Venereal Diseases. New York, 1910. 
Fisher, Irving. National Vitality. Washington, 1910. 
U.S. 61st Cong., 2d Sess. Senate Doc. 419. 
Hall, W. S. Biology, Physiology, and Sociology of Repro- 
duction; also, Sexual Hygiene. Ed. 11. Chicago, 1906. 
Keyes, E. L. Observations of the Persistence of Gonococci 
in the Male Urethra. American Journal of the Medical 
Science, January, 1912. 
Morrow, P. A. Social Diseases and Marriage. Philadel- 
phia, 1904. 
Taylor, R. W. Practical Treatise on Genito-Urinary and 
Venereal Diseases and Syphilis. Ed. 3. Philadelphia, 
1904. 206 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
CHAPTER V 
Economic Phases 
Adams, T. S., and Sumner, H. L. Labor Problems. Ed. 8. 
New York, 1911. Chap. i. 
Addams, Jane. A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. 
New York, 1912. 
Butler, E. B. Women and the Trades. New York, 1909. 
Flexner, Abraham. Prostitution in the United States. New 
York. (In preparation.) Bureau of Social Hygiene 
Publications. 
Prostitution in Western Europe. New York, 1913. 
Bureau of Social Hygiene Publications. 
Fosdick, R. D. European Police Systems. New York, 
1913. Bureau of Social Hygiene Publications. 
Goldmark, Josephine. Fatigue and Efficiency. New York, 
1912. 
Kelley, Florence. Some Ethical Gains through Legislation. 
New York, 1905. 
Kneeland, G. J. Commercialized Prostitution in New York 
City. New York, 1913. Bureau of Social Hygiene 
Publications. 
More, L. B. Life Earner's Budgets; A Study of Stand- 
ards and Cost of Living in New York City. New York, 
1907. 
Roe, C. G. Panders and their White Slaves. Chicago, 
1910. 
Ryan, J. A. A Living Wage. New York, 1910. 
Sanger, W. W. History of Prostitution. New York, 1913. 
Seligman, E. R. A., ed. Social Evil. Ed. 2, rev. New 
York, 1912. Chap. i. 
Streightoff, F. H. Standard of Living among Industrial 
People of America. Boston, 1911. 
U.S. Bureau of Labor. Women and Child Wage-Earners 
in the United States. Washington, 1911-12. Vols. 5, 15. 
U.S. Immigration Commission. Steerage Conditions; LIST OF REFERENCES 
207 
Importation and Harboring Women for Immoral Pur- 
poses. . . . Washington, 1911. U.S. 61st Cong., 3d 
Sess. Senate Doc. 753. 
Reports of Commission, vol. 37. 
Vice Commission Reports. 
A list of vice commissions is printed at the end of 
these references. 
CHAPTER VI 
Recreational Phases 
Addams, Jane. Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. New 
York, 1912. 
Allen, W. H. Civics and Health. Boston, 1909. 
Camp-Fire Girls of America. Manual. New York, 1913. 
Chicago Vice Commission. Report, 1911. 
Collier, John. Moving Pictures; Their Function and 
Proper Regulation. Playground Magazine, vol. 4, pp. 
232-39, October, 1910. 
Health Department Control of Venereal Diseases. Social 
Diseases, vol. 2, nos. 2-3, April and July, 1911. 
Israels, Mrs. C. H. Dance Problem. Playground Maga- 
zine, vol. 4, pp. 242-50, October, 1910. 
Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. Reports on 
dance halls, moving picture theaters, saloons, depart- 
ment stores, etc. Chicago, 1911-12. 
Minneapolis Vice Commission. Report, 1911, pp. 129-31. 
Perry, C. A. Wider Use of the School Plant. New York, 
1910. 
Playground Association of America. Proceedings, 1907 
to date. New York, 1908 to date. 
Russell Sage Foundation. Recreation Bibliography. 
New York, 1912. 
Ward, E. J., ed. Social Centers. New York, 1913. 208 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
CHAPTER VII 
Educational Phases 
American Federation for Sex Hygiene. Proceedings, 1913. 
New York, 1913. Report of the Sex Education Ses- 
sions of the Fourth International Congress on School 
Hygiene and the Annual Meeting of the Federation at 
Buffalo, August 27-29, 1913. 
Report of Special Committee on the Matter and 
Methods of Sex Education. Presented before the Sub- 
Section on Sex Hygiene of the Fifteenth International 
Congress on Hygiene and Demography, held in Wash- 
ington, D.C., September 23-28, 1912. New York 
City, 1913. 
Cocks, O. G. Engagement and Marriage: Talks vnth 
Young Men. New York, 1913. Sex Education Series. 
Study no. 4. 
Cook, W. A. Problems of Sex Education. Journal of Edu- 
cational Psychology, vol. 4, pp. 253-60, May, 1913. 
Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Phila- 
delphia, 1900-10. 6 vols. 
Hall, G. S. Adolescence. New York, 1908. Chap. vi. 
Educational Problems. New York, 1911. Chap. vii. 
Hall, W. S. Sexual Knowledge. Philadelphia, 1913. 
Strength of Ten. 1909. 
Henderson, C. R. Education urith Reference to Sex. Na- 
tional Society for the Scientific Study of Education. 
8th Yearbook, 1909. 
Lyttleton, Edward. Training of the Young in Laws of Sex. 
New York, 1900. 
Manny, F. A. Bibliography of Sex Hygiene. Educational 
Review, vol. 46, pp. 168-76, September, 1913. 
Moll, Albert. Sexual Life of the Child. New York, 1912. 
Phelps, Jessie. Teaching of Sex in Normal Schools. Na- 
tional Conference of Charities and Corrections. Pro- 
ceedings, 1912, pp. 267-70. LIST OF REFERENCES 
209 
Putnam, H. C. Sex Instruction in Schools. National 
Society for the Scientific Study of Education. 8th 
Yearbook, 1909, pt. 2. 
Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. Educational 
pamphlets. 
No. 1. Young Man's Problem. 
No. 2. Instruction in Physiology and Hygiene of Sex for 
Teachers. 
No. 3. Relations of Social Diseases with Marriage and 
their Prophylaxis. 
No. 4. Boy Problem. 
No. 5. How my Uncle the Doctor instructed me in Mat- 
ters of Sex. 
No. 6. Health and Hygiene of Sex. 
Thomas, W. I. Sex and Society. Chicago, 1907. 
Wagner, Charles. Youth. New York, 1905. Book 3. 
Warthin, A. S. Sex Pedagogy in the High School. In 
Johnston, C. H., ed., High School Education. New 
York, 1912. 
Wile, I. S. Sex Education. New York, 1912. Bibliogra- 
phy, pp. 149-50. 
Willson, R. N. American Boy and the Social Evil. Phila- 
delphia, 1905. 
Education of the Young in Sex Hygiene; A Text- 
book for Parents and Teachers. Philadelphia, 1913. 
CHAPTER VIII 
Teaching Phases 
For Children 
Chapman, Mrs. Rose Wood Allen. How Shall I Tell my 
Child f Chicago, 1912. 
Hall, W. S. Strength of Ten. 1909. 
Lyttleton, Edward. Training of the Young in Laws of Sex. 
New York, 1900. 210 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
Moll, Albert. Sexual Life of the Child. New York, 
1912. 
Morley, Margaret. Renewal of Life. Chicago, 1906. 
Torelle, Ellen. Plant and Animal Children ; how they grow. 
Boston, 1912. 
CHAPTER IX 
Teaching Phases 
For Boys 
Boys' Venereal Peril. Chicago, 1911. (16-18 years.) 
Hall, W. S. From Youth into Manhood. New York, 1910. 
(11-15 years.) 
Instead of Wild Oats. Chicago, 1912. 
John's Vacation ; A Story for Boys. Chicago, 1913. 
Life's Beginnings. New York, 1912. (10-14 yrs.) 
Lowry, E. B. Truths ; Talks with a Boy concerning himself. 
Chicago, 1911. 
Morley, M. W. A Song of Life. Chicago, 1902. (Young 
men.) 
Oker-Blom, Max. How my Uncle, the Doctor, instructed 
me in Matters of Sex. Society of Sanitary and Moral 
Prophylaxis. Educational Pamphlet no. 5. (10-14 
years.) 
Sperry, L. B. Confidential Talks with Young Men. 
Wegener, Hans. We Young Men. Philadelphia, 1911. 
(21 years and upward.) 
Wilson, R. N. American Boy and the Social Evil. Phila- 
delphia, 1905. (18 years and upward.) 
Nobility of Boyhood. Philadelphia, 1910. (14-18 
years.) 
Young Man's Problem. New York, 1912. Society of Sani- 
tary and Moral Prophylaxis. Educational Pamphlet 
no. 1. LIST OF REFERENCES 
211 
CHAPTER X 
Teaching Phases 
For Girls 
Chamberlain, A. F. The Child; A Study in the Evolution 
of Man. Ed. 2. London, 1911. 
Cleaves, M. A. Education in Sexual Hygiene for Young 
Working Women. Charities and the Commons, vol. 15, 
pp. 721-24, Feb. 24, 1906. 
Dudley, Gertrude, and Kellor, F. A. Athletic Games in the 
Education of Women. New York, 1909. 
Gesell, A. L. Normal Child and Principles of Education. 
Boston, 1912. 
Goldmark, J. C. Fatigue and Efficiency. New York, 
1912. 
Gordon, H. L. Modem Mother. New York, 1909. 
Hall, W. S. The Doctor’s Daughter; A Story for Girls. 
Chicago, 1913. 
Life Problems; A Story for Girls. Chicago, 1913. 
Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games. Boston, 
1907. 
Lowry, E. B. Herself; Talks with Women concerning them- 
selves. Chicago, 1911. 
False Modesty. Chicago, 1912. 
• Confidences; Talks with a Young Girl concerning 
herself. Chicago, 1910. 
Mosher, E. M. Health and Happiness. New York, 1912. 
Oppenheim, Nathan. Care of the Child in Health. 
■ Development of the Child. New York, 1908. 
Partridge, G. E. Genetic Philosophy of Education. New 
York, 1912. 
Plain Talks with Girls about their Health and Physical 
Development. Salem, 1912. Oregon State Board of 
Health. Circular no. 4. 
Puffer, J. A. The Boy and his Gang. Boston, 1912. 212 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
Saleeby, C. W. Woman and Womanhood. New York, 
1911. 
Smith, N. M. Three Gifts of Life. New York, 1913. 
Sperry, L. B. Confidential Talks with Young Women. 
Chicago, n. d. 
Tyler, J. M. Growth and Education. Boston, 1905. 
CHAPTER XI 
Moral and Religious Phases 
Abbott, Lyman. Womanhood. Oregon Social Hygiene 
Society. Circular no. 16. 
Bible. Mark x, 2-12. Compare Deut. xxiv, 1-4. 
Bible. Matt, v, 27-30. 
Bible. I Cor. 7. 
Foerster, F. W. Marriage and the Sex Problem. New 
York, 1912. 
Hall, G. S. Adolescence. New York, 1908. Chaps, xm- 
xv. 
Hamilton, Cosmo. A Plea for the Younger Generation. 
New York, 1913. 
James, William. Varieties of Religious Experience. New 
York, 1911. Chap. I. 
PERIODICALS 
The following periodicals are sources of news in regard 
to sex education, sex hygiene, and allied subjects: — 
American Breeders' Magazine; A Journal of Genetics and 
Eugenics. Published quarterly by the American 
Breeders’ Association. Washington, D.C. Sent to 
members, annual membership, $2.00. 
American Medical Association: Journal. Published 
weekly by the American Medical Association, 535 
Dearborn Avenue, Chicago, 111. $5.00 yearly. LIST OF REFERENCES 
213 
American Physical Education Review. Published monthly 
by the American Physical Education Association, 
Springfield, Mass. $3.00 yearly. 
Eugenics Review. Published quarterly by the Eugenics 
Education Society, 6, York Buildings, Adelphi, London. 
4s. 6d. yearly. 
Journal of Educational Psychology. Published monthly, 
except July and August, by Warwick & York, Balti- 
more, Md. $2.50 yearly. 
Social Diseases. Published quarterly. 105 West 40th 
Street, New York City. $1.00 yearly. 
Survey; A Journal of Constructive Philanthropy. Pub- 
lished weekly by the Survey Associates, 105 East 22d 
Street, New York City. $2.00 yearly. 
Vigilance. A monthly magazine correlating constructive 
efforts for the suppression of the social evil. Published 
monthly by the American Vigilance Association, 150 
Fifth Avenue, New York City. $1.00 yearly. 
U. S. Commissioner of Education. Monthly record of cur- 
rent educational publications. Bibliography, published 
monthly, devotes one section to sex hygiene. Sent free 
from Commissioner’s Office, Washington, D.C. 
ORGANIZATIONS INTERESTED IN SOCIAL 
HYGIENE 
American Federation for Sex Hygiene. Combined with 
American Vigilance Association to form American 
Social Hygiene Association. 
American Health Defense League. 37 Liberty Street, 
New York City. 
American Medical Association. 535 Dearborn Avenue, 
Chicago. Secy., Dr. Alex. R. Craig. 
American Purity Alliance. 207 East 15th Street, New 
York City. 
American Social Hygiene Association. 105 West 40th 214 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
Street, New York City. Secys., Dr. William Snow, 
J. B. Reynolds. 
American Unitarian Association. Department of Social 
and Public Service. Committee on Sex Education and 
Hygiene. Boston, Mass. 
American Vigilance Association. Combined with Ameri- 
can Federation for Sex Hygiene to form American 
Social Hygiene Association. 
Bureau of Social Hygiene. Members: Davis, Katharine 
B. Warburg, Paul M.; Murphy, Starr J.; Rockefeller, 
John D., Jr., Chairman. P.O. Box 579, New York City. 
California Social Hygiene Society. San Francisco. Secy., 
C. N. White. 
Chicago Society of Social Hygiene. 100 State Street, 
Chicago. Secy., W. T. Belfield. 
Colorado Society for Social Health. Denver, Colo. 
Committee of Fourteen. 27 E. 22d Street, New York 
City. Secy., F. H. Whitin. 
Commonwealth Club of California. 804 First National 
Bank Building, San Francisco, Cal. 
Connecticut Society of Social Hygiene. 42 High Street, 
Hartford, Conn. Secy., T. N. Hepburn. 
Detroit Society for Sex Hygiene. 33 High Street E., 
Detroit, Mich. Secy., Raymond E. Van Syckle. 
Friends’ Committee on Philanthropic Labor. Park Ave- 
nue and Laurens Street, Baltimore, Md. 
Illinois Vigilance Association. 153 Lasalle Street, Chicago. 
Indiana Society of Social Hygiene. 723 Hume-Mansur 
Building, Indianapolis, Ind. Secy., Dr. H. G. Hamer. 
Indiana State Board of Health. Indianapolis, Ind. 
International Congress on School Hygiene. Fourth 
meeting held in Buffalo, August 27-29, 1913. 
International Purity Association. 
Juvenile Protective Association. 816 South Halsted 
Street, Chicago. 
Los Angeles Society of Social Hygiene. 311 Higgins 
Building, Los Angeles, Cal. LIST OF REFERENCES 
215 
Maryland Society of Social Hygiene. 15 E. Pleasant 
Street, Baltimore, Md. Secy., Howard C. Hill. 
Massachusetts Association of Boards of Health. Boston, 
Mass. 
Massachusetts Society for Sex Education. 7 Hancock 
Avenue, Boston, Mass. 
Massachusetts State Board of Health. State House, 
Boston, Mass. 
Mexican Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis of 
Venereal Diseases. 
Milwaukee Society of Social and Moral Hygiene. Mil- 
waukee, Wis. 
National Conference of Charities and Corrections. 
Angola, Ind. Secy., Alexander Johnson. 
National Consumers’ League. 105 East 22d Street, New 
York City. 
National Education Association. Ann Arbor, Mich. 
Secy., D. W. Springer. 
National Purity Association. 79 Fifth Avenue, Chi- 
cago. 
New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Social Diseases. 
East Orange, N.J. Secy., Dr. Thomas N. Gray. 
New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford. 
Laboratory of Social Hygiene. Supt., Katharine 
Bement Davis. 
New Zealand Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. 
Oregon Social Hygiene Society. 703 Selling Building, 
Portland, Ore. Secy., H. H. Moore. 
Oregon State Board of Health. 720 Selling Building, 
Portland, Ore. Secy., Dr. Calvin S. White. 
Pacific Coast Federation for Sex Hygiene. Portland, Ore. 
Secy., H. H. Moore. 
Pennsylvania Society for the Study and Prevention of 
Social Diseases. 1708 Locust Street, Philadelphia. 
Secy., R. N. Wilson. 
Rhode Island State Board of Health. State House, Provi- 
dence, R.I. 216 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
St. Louis Society of Social Hygiene. St. Louis, Mo. Secy., 
Dr. H. E. Kleinschmidt. 
School of Eugenics of Boston. 168 Newbury Street, 
Boston, Mass. 
Seattle Society of Hygiene. League Building, Seattle, 
Wash. Secy., Dr. Sydney Strong. 
Social Purity and White Cross Movement. The Philan- 
thropist, P.O. Box 2554, New York City. 
Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. 611 Tilden 
Building, 105 West 40th Street, New York City. Secy., 
Dr. E. L. Keyes, Jr. 
Spokane Society of Social and Moral Hygiene. 420 Old 
National Bank Building, Spokane, Wash. Secy., Dr. 
J. R. Lantz. 
Texas State Society of Social Hygiene. San Antonio, 
Texas. Secy., Dr. T. Y. Hull. 
Triennial Congress for the Suppression of the White Slave 
Traffic. Fifth meeting held in London, June 30-July 4, 
1913. 
Washington State Board of Education. Olympia, Wash- 
ington. 
West Virginia Society of Social Hygiene. Elkins, West 
Va. Secy., O. G. Wilson, Supt. of Public Schools. 
World’s Purity Federation. LaCrosse, Wis. Pres., B. S. 
Steadwell. 
REPORTS AND INVESTIGATIONS 
Municipal 
Atlanta, Ga. Vice Commission. Report, 1912. 
Chicago. Vice Commission. Social Evil in Chicago. 
Chicago, 1911. 
Cleveland. Vice Commission. Report, 1911. 
Columbia, Mo. Vice Commission. Appointed March, 
1913. LIST OF REFERENCES 
217 
Columbus, Ohio. Appointed March, 1913. 
Denver, Colo. Vice Commission. Appointed September 
15, 1912. Became Denver Morals Commission January 
31, 1913. 
Grand Rapids. Morals Efficiency Commission of the 
Citizens. To carry on work started by Committee of 
41. 
Hartford, Conn. Vice Commission. Appointed January, 
1912. 
Jacksonville, Fla. Vice Commission. Appointed Septem- 
ber, 1912. 
Kansas City. Vice Commission. Report, 1912. 
Little Rock, Ark. Vice Commission. Report, 1912. 
Macon, Ga. Vice Commission. Appointed January, 
1913. 
Minneapolis. Vice Commission. Report, 1911. 
New York City — 
Seligman, E. R. A., ed. Social Evil. New York, 1912. 
Kneeland, G. J. Commercialized Prostitution in New 
York City. New York, 1913. 
Philadelphia. Vice Commission. Report. Philadelphia, 
1913. 
Portland, Ore. Vice Commission. Report, 1913. 
Rochester. Vice Commission. Report. 
St. Paul, Minn. Morals Committee. Report. 
San Francisco — 
Commonwealth Club of California. Report on Preva- 
lence of Venereal Diseases. February, 1911. 
Shreveport, La. Vice Commission. Appointed April, 
1913. 
Syracuse. Moral Survey Committee. Report on the Social 
Evil in Syracuse. 1913. 
State 
Illinois. Vice Commission. Appointed February, 1913. 
Maryland. Vice Commission. Appointed March, 1913. 218 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
Massachusetts. Vice Commission. Established April, 
1913. 
Missouri. Vice Commission. Appointed April, 1913. 
Wisconsin. Vice Commission. Established May, 1913. 
Standing Commissions 
Pittsburg, Pa. Morals Efficiency Commission. Ap- 
pointed May, 1912. Chairman, Frederick A. Rhodes. 
Minneapolis. Morals Commission. Appointed March, 
1913. Chairman, Dr. Marion D. Shutter. 
Denver, Morals Commission. Appointed January 31, 
1913. Chairman, Rev. H. F. Rail. 
New York. Committee of Fourteen. 
Chicago. Morals Court. INDEX 
Addams, Jane, cited, 47, 139. 
Adolescence, a critical period, 
127; begins at puberty, 127; 
information and entertain- 
ment sought during, 128, 
129; evils to which it is ex- 
posed, 130-34; ways in which 
the boy may be helped dur- 
ing, 137-41. 
Adolescents, sex impulse in, 27. 
Agencies of sex education, sum- 
mary, 191-93. 
American Social Hygiene Asso- 
ciation, 12. 
Amusement parks, dangers of, 
19, 75. 
Armies, dangers of their camps, 
67. 
Athletics, benefits of, 138. See 
Play. 
Bathing, benefits of, 138. 
Bill-boards, evils of, 19. 
Billiard rooms, dangers of, 19, 
74. _ 
Biological aspect of the social 
emergency, 23. 
Blindness, sometimes due to 
venereal infection, 32, 34. 
Boating, 82. 
Bodily regimen. See Regimen. 
Books, 7, 11, 195. 
Boston, report on women’s 
wages in, 56, 59. 
Botany, study of, in upper 
grades and high schools, 93. 
Boy Problem, The, quoted, 138. 
Boys, pre-pubescent and pubes- 
cent instruction to be given 
to, 98-102; teaching phases 
for, 127-53; adolescence of, 
127-30; evils to which they 
are exposed (masturbation, 
mental suffering, illicit inter- 
course), 130-34; are normally 
clean, 134, 152; ways in 
which they may be helped 
during adolescence, 137-41; 
subjects and methods of in- 
struction for, 142-49; condi- 
tions to be observed in giving 
instruction to, 149-52. 
Camps, construction and lum- 
ber, 66; military, 67; school 
and municipal, 82. 
Card parties, 78. 
Carnivals, 76, 77. 
Castration, effect of, 144. 
Chastity, double standard of, 
14, 136, 146. 
Chicago, report on women’s 
wages in, 56, 59. 
Chicago Juvenile Protective 
Association, quoted, 63. 
Chicago Vice Commission, re- 
port of, 60. 
Child labor, abolition of, 68. 
Children, infection in, 34, 35. 
Clean living, importance of, to 
be indicated to the boy, 140, 
141, 147. 
Clothing of girls, 157, 161, 162. 
Clubs, social, 77, 80. 
Colleges, instruction in sex re- 
lations to begin in, 3; sex ed- 
ucation for teachers to be 
given in, 192. 
Commissions, vice, 51-61. 
Companions of the boy, 139. 220 
INDEX 
Consecration, 186, 187.’ 
Consumers’ League of Oregon, 
57. 
Contagion, sources and condi- 
tions of, 15. See Venereal in- 
fection, Venereal diseases. 
Control. See Self-control. 
Cost of living, 16. See Wages 
and vice. 
Dance-halls, 19. 
Dances, 78. 
Degeneracy, sexual, road to 
race extinction, 23. 
Department stores, employ- 
ment of girls in, 63. 
Diseases. See Venereal dis- 
eases. 
Domestic service, 46-48, 64. 
Double standard of chastity, 
14; abandonment of, 136, 
146. 
Dress of women, 19. 
Drunkenness and prostitution, 
3, 4. 
Economic phases of immoral- 
ity, 16-18, 45-69; women as 
wage-earners, 46; wages and 
immorality, 50-62; indus- 
trial stress, and dangers in 
seeking employment, 62-64; 
improvements recommend- 
ed, 67, 68; bibliography, 206, 
207. 
Education, industrial, compul- 
sory, recommended, 68; pub- 
lic, the greatest need, 190; 
summary of agencies of, 191- 
93; of methods of, 193-97; 
of materials of, 197-99; of 
ideals of, 199-201. See Edu- 
cational phases, Instruction, 
Teaching phases. 
Educational phases of the so- 
cial emergency, 21-23, 84- 
103; aims of sex education, 84- 
86; bodily regimen, 87, 88; 
mental control, 88, 89; first 
principle of instruction in 
reproduction, 89-92; nature 
study, botany, etc., 92, 93; 
pre-pubescent and pubescent 
instruction, 93-102; differ- 
ence between man and ani- 
mals the basis of instruction, 
105, 106; first instruction, 
106; a true philosophy must 
lie back of instruction, 106, 
107; bibliography, 208, 209. 
Ehrlich, his cure for syphilis, 
38, 39. 
Eight-hour day, 67. 
Employment bureaus, 64. 
Excursions, 76. 
Exner, Dr. M. J., statement of, 
regarding sexual continence, 
29, 30 n. 
Family, not competent to in- 
struct in sex relations, 3. 
Federal Government, report on 
women’s wages, 55, 56. 
Federal report (Woman and 
Child Wage-Earners), 59. 
Festivals, 76, 77. 
Freud, his view of sex basis, 86. 
Girls, pre-pubescent and pubes- 
cent instruction to be given 
to, 96-98; teaching phases 
for, 154-67; stability of ner- 
vous system, 154-58; men- 
struation and menstrual pain, 
159-61; clothing of, 161,162; 
in industry, 162, 163; hous- 
ing of unmarried, 163, 164; 
instruction to be given on re- 
production, 164-67. 
Girls’ high schools, 161. 
Gonorrhea and the gonorrhea 
microbe, 33-39,100,1146,199. INDEX 
221 
Hall, G. Stanley, his view of 
sex basis, 86. 
Holabird, William, 135. 
Home, the, as recreation and 
social center, 78, 79. 
Hotels, employment of girls in, 
63. 
Housing of unmarried girls, 
163, 164. 
Howell, Dr. William H., quoted 
on the sexual appetite, 31. 
Hygiene. See Social emergency, 
Reproduction. 
Ice-cream parlors, 19. 
Ideals of sexeducation, 199-201. 
Illinois State Senate, vice in- 
vestigation made by, 61. 
Immorality and wages, 16, 17, 
50-62. 
Industrial education for wom- 
en, lack of, 48. 
Industrial efficiency, connected 
with social hygiene problems, 
3, 18. 
Industrial stress, its bearing 
upon sexual hygiene and 
morals, 62-64. 
Infection. See Venereal infec- 
tion. 
Instruction in sex hygiene and 
the physiology of reproduc- 
tion, what, when, and by 
whom to be given, 3, 10, 25, 
42-44, 90-102, 106, 110-122, 
142-49, 179-89, 191; mis- 
takes in, serious, 9; list of 
subjects to be considered, 
148, 149; conditions to be 
observed in giving, 149-52; 
for girls, 164-67. See Edu- 
cation, Educational phases, 
Teaching phases. 
Instructors in sex relations, lack 
of competent, 3, 10, 11, 192. 
Insurance, recommended, 67. 
Intoxicating liquors and com- 
mercialized prostitution, 17. 
Investigations into immorality 
and diseases, 196. 
Kelley, Florence, quoted on 
department stores, 63. 
Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 141. 
Lectures, 7, 78, 192, 193. 
Legislation and prostitution, 
20, 21. 
Living wage. See Wages. 
Love, as controller of passion, 
174-78. 
Marriage, age of, and age of 
sexual maturity, discrepancy 
between, 13, 27, 28. 
Marriage laws, object of, 27. 
Massachusetts Commission on 
Minimum Wage Boards, re- 
port of, 54-57. 
Masturbation, 130-32, 145, 
198. 
Materials of sex education, 
summary, 197-99. 
Medical phases of immoral- 
ity, 15, 16, 32-44; statistics 
of venereal diseases in the 
United States, 32; the mi- 
crobes of syphilis and gonor- 
rhea, 36-39; infection of 
innocent persons, 39-41; pos- 
sibility of recovery, 41; bib- 
liography, 205. 
Medicine, means of defense 
against social evils provided 
by, 2, 4. 
Menstrual pain, 159-61. 
Menstruation, 159-61. 
Mental suffering among adoles- 
cents, 130, 131. 
Methods of sex education, sum- 
mary, 193-97. 
Minimum wage, 67. INDEX 
Ministers, not competent to 
give instruction in sex rela- 
tions, 3. 
Minneapolis, report on wom- 
en’s wages in, 56, 59. 
Moral and religious phases of 
the social emergency, 23, 
168-89; bibliography, 212. 
Mother Nature and Her Help- 
ers, 104, 107. 
Motion-pictures, 6, 19, 72. 
Muscular activity, importance 
of, 155-58. 
Nature study, 92. 
Nervous system, stability of, 
154-58. 
Newspapers, 79. 
New York, report on women’s 
wages in, 56, 59. 
Noguchi, his test of the syphilis 
microbe, 38. 
Normal schools, instruction in 
sex relations to begin in, 3; 
sex education for teachers to 
be given in, 192. 
Novels, 7. 
Opiates, 63. 
Orders, social, 77, 80. 
Oregon, surveys made by the 
Consumers’ League in, 52, 
53. 
Oregon Social Hygiene Society, 
151, 195 n. 
Paralysis, 32, 34. 
Parenthood, 180, 181. 
Parents, confidence between 
child and, in matters of re- 
production, 89-92, 110-22; 
meetings for, 122-26. See In- 
struction. 
Paresis, 32. 
Parties, social, 78. 
Passion, controlled by love, 
174-78; by religious fervor, 
176. 
Patten, Prof. Simon N., quot- 
ed, 51. 
Pessimism, 173. 
Philadelphia, report on wom- 
en’s wages in, 56, 59. 
Physical exercise, 138,139. See 
Play. 
Physiological phases of immo- 
rality, 13-15, 25-31; instruc- 
tion in physiology of repro- 
duction, 25; the sex impulse, 
26-28; belief in physiological 
necessity of gratification, 28- 
31, 33, 99, 146, 176, 198; bib- 
liography, 204, 205. 
Physiology, study of, 93. 
Picture post-cards, 19. 
Play, 81-83, 87, 88. 
Playgrounds, 81-83. 
Pool-halls, 74. 
Portland, Ore., women’s wages 
in, 52,53; attendance at mov- 
ing-picture shows in, 72. 
Portland, Ore., Municipal Em- 
ployment Bureau, 64. 
Portland, Ore., Vice Commis- 
sion, 57, 60. 
Priests, not competent to give 
instruction in sex relations, 
3. 
Problem plays, 6. 
Property, used for immoral pur- 
poses, 17. 
Prostitutes, urhat is to be done 
with them, 14; status of, 65. 
See Prostitution. 
Prostitution, past efforts to 
deal with, 1, 3; physiological 
factors of, 13-15, 25-31; 
medical phase of, 15, 16; eco- 
nomic phases of, 16-18; com- 
mercialized, 17, 18, 195; and 
recreational pursuits, 19; 
legal phases of, 20, 21; and INDEX 
223 
public education, 21-23; 
moral and religious aspects 
of, 23; biological aspect of, 23. 
See Social emergency. 
Psychic therapy, 160. 
Public opinion, relation of, to 
public education and to law 
enforcement, 21. 
Quack doctors, 7, 18, 30, 130, 
145, 199. 
Recreation centers, 81-83. 
Recreation movement, 81-83. 
Recreational phases of the so- 
cial emergency, 19, 70-83; 
bibliography, 207. 
Regimen for boys, 87, 88, 137. 
Religious aspect of the social 
emergency, 23, 168-89; bib- 
liography, 212. 
Reproduction, silence hitherto 
in regard to, 1, 2, 5, 6; recent 
change of attitude in regard 
to matters of, 6, 7; dangers 
in this change of attitude, 7- 
12; instruction in, 25, 89- 
102,106,110-22,164-67;the 
impulse toward, 26-28; in- 
struction in, at present lack- 
ing, 84; aims of instruction 
in, 84-86; a true philosophy 
must lie back of instruction 
in, 106, 107; bibliography, 
204. See Instruction. 
Road-houses, 19, 75, 76. 
St. Louis, report on women’s 
wages in, 56, 59. 
St. Paul, report on women’s 
wages in, 56, 59. 
Saloons, 19, 74. 
“Salvarsan,” 39. 
Schaudinn, his determination 
of the syphilis microbe, 37. 
Schools, responsibility of, 70; 
sex instruction should be 
given in, 191. 
Seager, Prof. H. R., cited, 62. 
Self-control, the importance of, 
88,146,147,174-79,200,201. 
Seminal emissions, 131, 145, 
146, 199. 
Sex, matters of, connection be- 
tween moral and religious 
matters and, 168-89; sacred- 
ness of, 186, 187. 
Sex impulse, 26-28. 
Sex life of child, 108-10. 
Sex relations, silence hitherto 
in regard to, 1, 2, 5, 6; lack of 
competent instructors in, 3; 
recent change of attitude in 
regard to matters of, 6, 7; 
dangers in this change of 
attitude, 7-9; mistakes in 
teaching of, serious, 9. See 
Instruction, Reproduction. 
Sexual maturity, age of, and 
age of marriage, discrepancy 
between, 13, 27, 28. 
Sexual necessity, belief in, 28- 
31, 33, 99, 146, 176, 198. 
“606,” 39. 
Skating-rinks, 75. 
Social emergency, the, what 
constitutes, 9; phases of, 13- 
24; physiological phases, 13- 
15, 25-31; medical phases, 
15, 16, 32-44; economic 
phases, 16-18, 45-69; recrea- 
tional phases, 19,70-83; legal 
phases, 20, 21; educational 
phases, 21-23, 84-103; bio- 
logical phases, 23; moral and 
religious phases, 23, 168-89; 
teaching phases: for children, 
104-26; teaching phases: 
for boys, 127-53; teaching 
phases: for girls, 154-67. 
Social hygiene, movement for, 
retarded by many, 11; books 224 
INDEX 
on, 11. See Social emergency, 
Reproduction. 
Societies, of social hygiene, 12. 
Society, sex life in relation to, 
184-86. 
Spinal diseases, 32, 34. 
Stage, the, 6, 19. 
Standard of chastity, double. 
See Double standard. 
Standards of living, 50-62. 
Sterility, 33, 34. 
Street, the, as an attraction, 72, 
73. 
Sunday supplement, 79. 
Swimming, 82. 
Syphilis, and the syphilis mi- 
crobe, 32-39, 100, 199; infec- 
tion of innocent persons, 39- 
41; possibility of recovery 
from, 41. 
Teachers of sex hygiene, in- 
struction to be provided for, 
in normal schools and col- 
leges, 192. 
Teaching phases of the social 
emergency, for children, 104- 
26; for boys, 127-53; for 
girls, 154-67; bibliography, 
211, 212. 
Tramping-clubs, 82. 
Traveling exhibits, 195. 
Unemployment, relief of, 67. 
Unions, social, 77. 
Venereal diseases, in the United 
States, statistics of, 32; rea- 
son for frequency of, 33; 
gonorrhea and syphilis, 33- 
39, 100,146, 199; as affecting 
children, 34; infection of in- 
nocent persons, 39-41; possi- 
bility of recovery from, 41. 
Venereal infection, prevalence 
of, 15, 32; fear of, not suffi- 
cient motive in promoting 
chastity, 15; effects of, 32-44; 
in men, 32, 33; in women, 34; 
in children, 34, 35; of in- 
nocent persons, 39-41. See 
Venereal diseases. 
Vice commissions, 52-61. 
Vice in adolescents, 131-34. 
Vice investigations, 51-61. 
Virility, importance of, to be 
taught, 142-49. 
Vocational training, 16. 
Wage-earners, women as, in- 
crease of numbers, 46. See 
Women. 
Wages and vice, 16, 17, 50-62. 
Wagner, Charles, quoted, 135, 
136, 138. 
Wasserman, his test of the 
syphilis microbe, 38. 
“Weaker sex, the,” the phrase 
has lost some of its signifi- 
cance, 49, 50. 
Welfare work, 68, 69. 
Woman’s Auxiliary Depart- 
ment of the Police, 58. 
Women, infection in, 34; as 
wage - earners, increase of 
numbers, 46; drift of, from 
domestic service, 47; lack of 
industrial education for, 48; 
loss due to emergence from 
seclusion, 49; th§ phrase 
“ the weaker sex ” has lost 
some of its significance, 49, 
50; connection of wages and 
immorality among, 51-62; 
bearing of industrial stress on 
morals of, 62-64; dangers to, 
in seeking employment, 64; 
summing up of their eco- 
nomic condition, 65, 66. 
Zoology, 93.