Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1913-10-02
SEX SECRECY PERIL
SchsOl Conference Speaker Ad-
VocateS Education as Cure.
Sees the Religious Aspect and De-
eIares That the Will to Do the
Right Should &C With the
knowledge Of the Right.

/ Buffalo. n. Y.-RepTesentatives OF
the many boards Of education. who
we're here gathering hints for the
\ teaching OF sex hygiene in the high
schools at the International Congress
| on School Hygiene. displayed much in.
/ teTest in an address on The Social
| Emergency" delivered by DR.. VIII
liam 7. 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 appettes 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 prohtably occupy the attention of
social hygiene societies as the educa-
tio3 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 thfnsubject viii |
do good or harm in 20 sI1ep case de-
bends 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
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
for it gives promise of see
ing the social emergency clearly and
seeing it whole"