Arizona republican., 1917-10-23
SOCIAL EVIL MENACE TO EFFECTIVENESS
 IF FIGHTING FORCE
rRepublican A.P. Leased wirel

CHICAGO. Oct. 23.-Dealing frankly and boldly with the social evil as menace t0 the nations military efflci- cncy. Secretary Daniels, of the navy, in am address here tonight before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America. appealed to the medical pro fcssian ito end the false double stand ard that decreases military effective ness The profession, he declared, must share it's part of the blame for the "unpardonable prudery that en- dared a fostering evil rather than have ii exposed and eradicated."
 There is not an army in the field whose effectiveness is not reduced by reason of immoral disease" said Sec retary Daniels. The navy suffers like wise ard business halts because ve nerial diseases destroys the manhood of worllmen and fighters During the last statistical year, men of the Ameri- can navy lost 141,37S days sickness from d small group of absolutely pre- ventable diseases. or rather diseases contracted by sin. This means that every day throughout the year there were 456 men disabled by this disgrace ful malady. Add to that number those required to care for the disabled and we have enough men on the non ef- .fectiVe list each day to man modern hattleship. And this does not count those who though diseased were not disabled or the danger of contagion to the clean members of the crew. In the navy in 1915. there were admit ted for treatment for veneral diseases ll2 persons in every 1000 and in the army. S4 for every 1000. the number in the army having decreased from l45 10 the 1000 after the passage of an act stopping the pay of all soldiers admitted for treatment for venerial disease The new navy laws stop the men so affected and will proba bly re duce the number to the army ration. I:ut these figures show a condition 0f immortality upon the part of the minority in both arms of the service hat challenge the thought of the authorities.
 In civil life the number affected k quite as large, proportionately. as in the military service. IL has been printed that Hecht of Vienna, stated that at one time the equivalent of three entire Austrial divisions of sixty thousand men was under treatment for venei ial disease. while the German army in Belgium, representing only a small part of the total German forces k reported during the first five months of its occupation to have furnished
 
 Anstralian officers have deplored the Iavages of this disease The late fig ures from the British army gave 7S0G0 cases, and all other countries have also been weakened.
 Sir William Coler places these in. fectious diseases at the top, as men ace in war and in peace The time has come to realize that this subtlest foe of humanity must be conquered and il cannot be conquered by denying its existence, saying it is a necessary evil CT applying palliatives. It IS deadliei than smallpox or cancer or tubercu- losis. A Canadian authority says its ravages today are more terrible fol Britain and Canada than Vimy ridge the Somme and Lens
 ''The remedy? There is but one confluence. It must be preached il the home; in the school; in the mart: of trade. in the pulpit and in mili tary camps and among shipmate: arloat The eradication of the evil eff fleets must be thorough but the teache who will be heard and needed whei the teachings of all others will fall oI deaf ears. is the word of authorit! from the medical profession. Youni men expect ministers of the gospel t call them to clean living. The preach CT seeks to save their souls. and to- many youths hardly realize they hay soul. But they know they hav bodies and the doctor is the man | whom they trust the treatment 0 their bodies When he breaches con tincnce as the only rule of life t young men and points out the dir penalty for lapses. his words have weight no other admonition possesse:
 You, gentlemen of the medical pro