62 SPIROCH^TES 



prostitution will increase their popularity. The same argument 

 might be used, and has been used by the ultramoralists, to show 

 that it is morally wrong to attempt to cure venereal diseases, 

 since this lessens the terror of them. Such arguments might have 

 more force if syphilis were a disease which affects only the indi- 

 vidual, and was not a source of danger and burden to the com- 

 munity. Moreover it seems doubtful whether the person whose 

 character is such a combination of moral weakness and cowardice 

 that he shuns houses of prostitution only from dread of disease, 

 will not spend his time in seducing innocent girls, or in other 

 hardly less despicable crimes. It may further be pointed out 

 that disease and immorality go hand in hand. A healthy body 

 is conducive to a healthy mind, so by eliminating disease we 

 would be doing at least as much toward giving a death stab to 

 immorality as toward extending it. 



The medical supervision of prostitution, adopted as a tempo- 

 rary measure, should be accompanied by efforts toward its 

 ultimate reduction. The abolition of alcoholic drinks, the im- 

 provement of conditions in slums, the furnishing of decent 

 surroundings and wholesome sports and exercises, and the en- 

 forcement of minimum wage laws for women are all measures 

 which tend toward the reduction of prostitution, but foremost 

 of all such measures should be education; in this lies our most 

 powerful weapon against immorality and venereal disease. Hos- 

 pitals, public schools, churches, libraries and the lecture plat- 

 form all have the power of spreading the gospel of sex hygiene, 

 each in its own way, each in a way especially suited to its listeners. 

 Even the theatre can enter the field of education and it has done 

 so. The play, and the motion picture patterned after it, entitled 

 " Damaged Goods," in the estimation of the author, has done a 

 great deal of practical good. Yet many ministers, teachers and 

 newspapers, often in total ignorance of the real nature of the 

 play, and in absolute neglect of their own opportunities for 

 educating, have severely criticized the play as " immoral." Such 

 men and women, who should know better, are nothing short of 

 a disgrace to the institutions they represent and are largely 

 responsible for the present popular ignorance concerning one of 

 the matters of most vital interest to humanity sex hygiene. 



