Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-06
BY WINFIELD SCOTT HALL, M. D.,
Northwestern University.
CHICAGO.

There never has been a time in the
history of the world when fighting cf.
ficiency has meant so much as it
means today. Wars Of the past have
been fought to bolster decadent dy-
nasty, to establish fanatical prop
ayanda, to secure the trade of con-
tinent. to. defend the freedom Of stray
Cling colonies, to win religious rights
or to free subject people. But this
war is to secure political, economic and
religious independence and self gov
eminent for every nation large and
small in all the world.
Insolent, arrogant autocracy has mar
shalled all of it's armed forces ad
modified all it's resources in last
effort to subjugate the world and levy
tribute upon all mankind. Autocracy
represents the powers Of darkness and
it's measures of frigbtfuIness are those
devised by the evil one. Christ stood
for freedom and right and justice.
All of the forces OF evil, military and
social, are for serfdom and autocracy;
while all of the forces of right. military
and social, are for freedom and demo-
cracy
The military forces of autocracy are
physical forces which can be accurate
ly estimated and effectively checked
with physical means. But the social
forces of darkness-prostitut and
disease-make their attack in the
plane of mind and spirit primarily and
can be met and checked by mental
and moral means only.
In the first year of the war hundreds
of thousands of soldiers and sailors
were retired for a short or long period
from the trenches or from training be-
cause of Venereal disease. If those
hundreds of thousands could have
been hurled at the Teuton line the
history of the war would have been
vastly different. Who knows but
that victory might have been won for
freedom and democracy before now.
But the insidiouS menace from behind
the lines, proved to be the most effec-
tive ally of the Huns, The military
forces of the Huns were turned back
at the Marine. They will never again
advance toward citadels of Freedom.
Have the social allies of the Huns
the forces of social darkness met their
Marne? May it not be that the Marine
for those insidious enemies is now be-
ing fought in the training camps of
the soldiers and sailors of the United
States?
The United States will have in
France this summer an army of at
least five hundred thousand men
sound. healthy. equipped, armed, NUM-
toned, trained, brave, chivalrous, and
ciean-these to be followed by other
hundreds of thousands. Such an ar
by is unconquerable. Our army must
have the smallest percentage of ven
ereal disease in all the history of the
modern warfare If this can be ac-
complished our righteous cause can
be won in a few months. But we must
first win this fight at home.
The Forces of Darkness.
These forces are prostitution and
drunkenness. The two work hand in
hand. each helps the other and they
both help the enemies of freedom and
democracy The results are seen in the
ravages of several disabling diseases.
the most serious of these being the
venereal disease, syphilis and gonor-
rhea.
Syphilis is a blood disease that is
most insidious and innocent in the pro-
gress of its early stages but at the last
! 1t is as loathsome and repulsiVe as
| leprosy. 1t is far more disabling be-
cause 1t attacks the nervous system
and usually makes one more or less
helpless. Furthermore, this dread. dis
ease is transmitted to the next genera
ton scourging the innocent victims
very much wors~ than death could be.
A young lady from Canada, telling
of the sorrow that was breaking her
| heart said: MY lieutenant went away
| a year ago so stalwart, so well train
| ed. so fine. There were two or three
months of intensive training behind
the lines; then, the trenches. He came
back a few weeks ago-a wreck. 1t
| wasn't a Boche bullet that stopped him,
| it was an unspeakable, destroying dis
ease of the blood. OF course, can
never marry him. oh! IF only he had
died in action! Such death were a
hundred times better for him and for
all of us than this living death"
Yes; with syphilis it is not the man
who catches it from a prostitute who
suffers alone. 1t is the home folks
parents, fiancee, and offspring and
the country, and society.
Bad as syphilis is. gonorrhea is
hardly less disabling and hardly less a
menace to wife. Further details may
be omitted here.
The Remedy.
Every constructive social force must