The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-30
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Battling With Disease.
Especial Corrcspondence o

: In civilian circles medical records
are harder to obtain. The accurate
type of record kept by the army and
navy is not available for civilian
affairs. But the draft records show
that, in civilian life, at least $54.-
Oo0, 900 a year is the wage loss alone,
due to these social diseases. This
is simply the amount lost due to the
inability of people so afflicted to
perform any useful work. The fg-
ure Is based on daily wage of only
81, and is probably low, as disease
plays no favorites, but hits ali
classes of society, rich and poor
alike.
The American Social Hygiene So
ciety which has long conducted a
war against this plague, estimates
that the complete cost of these ills,
largely preventable is $18S, 100000
in one state, Illinois, alone. Ohio's
cost is placed by authorities at
about 500, 900. These figures
include items such as doctors fees.
lost wages, expensive drugs needed
for the cures, which are not met by
the individual. then partial costs for
maintaining hospitals for the in
sane and the blind. the cost of
treating women who become ia
fected through marriage and are
forced to undergo complicated op-
erations, much of which is met by
the taxpayer, for much of this
work is done at public expense, for
the general protection of all.
The old idea that segr egated dis
tricts tended toward safety in vice
has been exploded. it is claimed. as
the disease rate among troops in
America was about one-third that Of
troops in foreign countries, where
the open districts were in opera
ton.
Vice cannot be abolished by laws,
the board holds. Education along
the proper lines of sex is essential
The subject which has been hidden
under a blanket of assumed limo
cence must be exposed to the light
of understanding The cure will be
brought about that way.
DIR. Parker declared that boys are
naturally just as clean minded as
girls Yet boys, she holds, do not
receive in the average home, the
same instruction on physical ques-
lions which come to the girls. The
result is that the girls are more
clean-minded at the critical age. But
she also added that the whole sub
ject does not receive the attention
it needs as a primary one in life.
The home, the church, the schools,
all sidestep, she declared, and when
sex becomes part of a boys life he
has had little instruction and is
generally allowed to drift along as
best he can, exposed to the bad in
fluence, too often, of commercial
lied vice.
Predicts Tighter Laws.
The laws in the United States, Or.
Parker believes, as they relate to
stringent as time goes on. The
United States is leading among the
nations in taking action on this
question Regarding the enforce
ment of prohibition, it was thought
that the question would gradually
work itself out, when more people
had paid the price of blindness or
death from bootleg poison. But by
laws, it is not meant that
the movies would be darkened, or
that grandpa's pipe would be taken
away The entrance of women into
politics will lead to more effectuaI
laws and heavier penalties for vice
operators.
The work of the board through
out the nation is carried on through
nine district officials, each a field
representative. These in turn are
aided by field agents, located in cit
les near the army or navy posts. The
field agents keep in touch with the
officers of the armed forces
and receive weekly reports as TO
how much or how little Com1cc.-
cialized vice in each locality IS
the health of the men
Closing the red light district in ons
city resulted in cutting the disease
rate from 1879 to 81, which is cited
as health example in disease
prevention"
The field agents keep in touch
with the municipal. county and
state health officials, police officers
and other CARNATIONS. Thus very -
accurate figures are obtainable on
the Commercialized vice question.
The boards figures are also good
of the conditions which
exist among the civilian population.
these field officers the
board is quickly able to place its
hands on the vice situation in any
part of the country. The results
have been that a districts have
been closed. and that hundreds OF
cities have staged "cIean-ups' which
will have an important effect on the
future generations of Americans.