SYMPOSIUM ON SCIENCE AND RECONSTEUCTION 41 



The war and the necessary protection of the fighting 

 forces made it possible to seize the prostitutes in the five 

 mile zones surrounding military camps, and to subject 

 them to thorough examination. Moved by the exigencies 

 of the war, the cotirts were ready and willing to impose 

 sentence which was suspended so that these unfortunate 

 women might be placed in hospitals for scientific treat- 

 ment at the expense of the county in which they were 

 found. The program which is now being carried out, and 

 which will continue to be carried out throughout the 

 state, gives better promise of the control of isolated vice 

 districts and the reasonable suppression of vice than any 

 program that has been contemplated or adopted in the 

 past. The quarantining and placarding of premises in 

 which there are persons venereally infected, seems to go 

 further than any form of police regulations. This program 

 is no more di'astic than conditions of peace-time wotild 

 warrant, but I feel satisfied that the tremendotis strides 

 which have been made could not have been accomplished 

 in a decade had it not been for our participation in the 

 war. 



The accent which has been placed upon the importance 

 of sound physical condition of the people, together with 

 the almost prodigal liberality of the federal government in 

 attaining desirable ends during the war, will have its 

 effect upon the public health history of the nation for all 

 times to come. The Federal government has appropriated 

 large sums of money for the warfare against venereal dis- 

 ease, and is meeting state appropriations with dollar for 

 dollar grants of funds. 



Early in the war, when men were found to be tubercu- 

 lous or physically unfit, they were discharged from mili- 

 tary cantonments either as "in line of duty" or "not in line 

 of duty", depending upon the length of time they had been 

 in service. After a few months, this policy was abandoned 

 and every man wlio was accepted in a military cantonment 

 was regarded as "in line of duty,'' the Federal government 

 assuming the responsibility of his financial compensation 

 just as though he had sustained his «iisability through 

 wounds on the field of battle. As months went by, and as 

 troops began to return from the front, the government 

 policy was made even broader and more generous. Instead 

 of being discharged with pensions or financial grants, and 



