The citizen., 1913-10-03
SEX SECRECY PERIL
School Conference Speaker Ad-
vocates Education as Cure.
Sees the Religious Aspect and De-
clares That the Will 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 of 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 soined 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-
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 en- 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 proftably occupy the attention of
social hygiene societies as the educa-
ton of the public.
No 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-
pends 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 sGperhuman wis
dom would still leave the greatest
problem unsolved. AS moral and re-
ligious instruction is the dominant
educational need of the present gener-
alton, so the moral and religious as
poets of 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 a step in the right
direction, for it gives promise of see
ing the social emergency clearly and
seeing 1t whole"