The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-12-03
SEX SECRECY PERIL
School Conference Speaker Ad-
Vocates Education as Cure.
Sees the Religious Aspect and De-
elares That the viii to Do the
Right Should Go With the
knowledge of the Right.

Buffalo. n. Y.-Representatives of
the many boards of education. who
were here gathering hints for the
teaching CT sex hygiene in the high
schools at the International Congress
on School Hygiene, displayed much in
terest In an address on The Social
Emergency" delivered by Dr. Will
liam T. Foster, president of Reed col
lege, and also president Of the Pacific
Coast Federation for Sex Hygiene. DR..
Foster said In part:
Many generations have joined In
the conspiracy of science in matters
pertaining to sex and reproduction.
The result Is widespread ignorance of
matters Of the utmost Importance to
the individual and the race-ignorance
OF which many good people are proud.
During these generations in which the
home, the church and the school have
withheld the truth from young people,
other agencies have been busy dis
seminating falsehoods. Having almost
no opportunity to hear sex and matri-
mony discussed with reverence, our
young people have almost Invariably
heard these subjects discussed with
vulgarity.
Partly as a result of all this has
come the general acceptance of the
double standard of morality which has
bitterly condemned the girl-made her
an outcast of society-and excused the
boy for the same offence on the spe-
cious plea Of physiological necessity.
With the sanction of this double
standard, tacitly accepted by society,
the majority of men have grown up in
Indulgence and have developed habits
which are, or which they believe to
be, beyond their control Millions of
men who recognize no law in sex life
but their own appetites are thus con-
tributed to us by the past. They are
factors in the present situation and
must be reckoned with
"As matter Of fact the educational
phases of social reform are of most
immediate importance. Nothing can
| so prof1tably occupy the attention Of
social hygiene societies as the educa-
ton of the public.
mo aspects are more important
| than those concerning morals and re-
| ligion. The restraining fear of dis
ease may and probably will be thrown
| off by science. Whether education in
scientific aspects of the subject will
| do good or harm in a given case de-
| ponds on the extent to which moral
| and religious ideals control the con-
| duct of the individual. The made
! Quacy of mere information in matters
| of sex is painfully evident. To the
| knowledge of what is right must be
| added the will to do the right. All
| the other aspects of the social emer-
! gency treated with superhuman wis
| dom would still leave the greatest
! problem unsolved. AS moral and re.
| ligious instruction is the dominant
! alton, so the moral and religious as,
poets CT sex problems transcend the
others in Importance.
ITO attempt to deal with sex aspects
| of school hygiene, as though these
| problems were distinct from other
| phases of the social emergency is to
| invite failure from the start The
| union of the American Federation for
| Sex Hygiene and the American Vigi
| lance association is step in the right
direction, for it gives promise of see
| ing the social emergency clearly and
seeing it whole