ADDRESS TO WOMEN, LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY.

White Ribbon, Volume 15, Issue 172, 16 October 1909, Page 1

ADDRESS TO WOMEN, LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY.

By Ernest E. Hall, M.D., Victoria, B.C.

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[After showing pictures of disease.] You have seen how nature deals with those who trifle with her laws, you have seen her penalties and executions, and now can comprehend to some slight extent the harden of woe. sorrow, and wounds with unnecessary causes that our twentieth century civilisation groans under. With the very partial viewthat I have given you of society, can you wonder at the Man of Galilee weeping over the city that rejected His efforts ? Is not the chapter of suffering innocence sufficient to melt the most unsympathetic and to arouse within us a determination to take a firm stand upon this, which is, to you, one of the most important of all social considerations I speak to you as future educators and leaders. I look to you to become the pioneers in the inauguration of an era of enlightenment with regard to the matters which I have endeavoured to bring before you. Yourselves, your homes, and all that is dear to you must be protected,and without an intelligent conception of the ramifications of disease, rational

prevention is impossible. The women of America hold the key to the saving of America. So long as women tolerate a dual standard of sexual morality, so long as they view with complacency the woman who is down and out, and tolerate the man who placed her there, who patronizes and keeps her there, just so long will they continue to expose themselves to disease, suffering, and to a mortality rate to themselves and to their children impossible to I estimate.

Your physical danger lies in tolerating immorality*in men. 1 youi* safety lies in combining to ; reject as friends or suitor any man whom you know to he guilty of easy virtue. Men will measure up to the standard that you persistently ! demand. When you have combined in your demand for the same standard of morality in men that tlmv expect from you, we will see a movement of reform unprecedented in this direction. With equal educational facilities, let it be said that Behind Stanford, Jr., University, stands for an equal standard of j sexual morality. My purpose is to inform you, to protect you, and to champion the cause of succeeding generations, to throw about, you such a harrier of protective information that will he defensive against the infections that are awaiting an opportunity to transform your health, beauty, and prospects, into disease, decrepitude and death. It is right that you should know these facts. No woman should leave this university without knowing that immorality almost invariably means disease,

I that disease means degeneration of tissue, loss of function, and frequently death, and that every man who has sown his wild oat* is liable j to carry within his body, and possibly even unknown to himself, the potential of invalidism and death. 1 A man who has venereal disease has no right to marry other than ' his kind, a reformed prostitute. I do not care what pretentions of reform, I care not how thorough his conversion may be. Psychic emotion and penitential resolve are not recognised agencies for the destrucof bacteria. They have not been known to kill poisonous germs. I refuse to believe that when once a man has browsed in the by-paths of indulgence, he has any moral right to he tolerated in the issociation of marriageable possibilities. The risk to yourselves and to future generations is too groat, you can’t afford to take it. S *t yourselves resolutely against irregularity in men and it will go far towards society’s reconstruction. We are glad to see the return of the prodigal son; but purity should say, “ stand aside in an atmosphere of sanitation, until you have worked out your physical salvation, or engage in a whaling enterprise in the Antarctic Ocean.” After either of these prescriptions have been taken the enlightenment of womanhood will have advanced to the stage that will condemn him to the matrimonial hone-yard, there to ruminate upon youthful follies and broken laws. The sexual nature with which man and woman have been endowed differs in kind and degree; that of the woman being higher and nobler in aim than in man. The normal

sexual instinctof woman is primarily unselfish, that of

man supremely selfish.

Unselfish though it is by comparison. the sexual instinct of woman is the chief weapon used by man to accomplish her downfall. The sentiment of love is founded largely upon the maternal instinct in woman. and she is not always logical nor just to herself in satisfying or attempting to satisfy that craving. A young, inexperienced girl, blinded by the emotions of love and inexperienced idealism, is safe only in so far as the self-control and honour of her lover makes her safe. Voung ladies should be taught sufficient of man’s nature to put them on their guard. They should learn that familiarity, not preceded by respectful formality along prospective matrimonial lines, means disrespect and danger, and that men respect women as women respect themselves. The slightest toleration of familiarity often makes a woman's name a by-word and a reproach. As previously stated, the marriage relation particularly exposes women to infection from their husbands. Not all men who have been diseased continue to carry infection ; hut once a man has been infected he cannot be wholly certain that he is cured.

Oil, the agony of parents as they see in their offspring the ripened fruit of their evil planting! I have seen them wish the poor defectives were in the cemetery. ” The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.” Do not misunderstand me. The havoc which disease in men works in the marriage relation is not because they are lacking in conscience or sensibility, hut is largely from ignorance and from false and pernicious ideas regarding the results of these diseases. You have no doubt seen many young and attractive women, the daughters of wealth and refinement, the very flower of womanhood, become in a comparatively short time after marriage bed-ridden invalids, or at least “ never see a well day after that period” Indulgence which is wasteful, degenerating and degrading, ignorance which is inexcusable and frequently criminal, and brutality which is frequently

caused by alcoholism, is often the cause of this. The maternal instinct iies too near the centre of being to allow the fullest life to be realized external to Mother Nature’s purposes. [ have not yet seen an educated women who desired to escape maternity. Upon the other hand the wail of the childless wife is one of the most piteous cries that we are so familiar with, many of them having sinned away the day of grace and find no repentance though sought with tears. The dissatisfaction of their sexual lot so often experienced among young women, is largely due to the absence of the feminine ideals in their early education. Especially is this the fact in the study of history and literature in our public schools. In fact the whole curriculum too often is shaped to suit the male ideals. The young woman finds that she is at times a misfit, and naturally rebels. “Thearchitect of the universe knew more than those who arranged the curriculum. Our educational hoards must recognise the indications and requirements of Nature and give female ideals their proper place in national education. With a higher conception of female ideals the young woman would gain a much more satisfying outlook upon life, and avoid much unpleasant sexual introspections. In addition to what has been said upon the effect of alcohol in lessening self-control, 1 wish to impress deeply upon you that as alcohol is used to

wreck the young m.in it is also a recognised agent in cooperating towards the downfall of women. This is fully recognised by those who traffic in human degredation. A tippling woman is always under suspicion, and when once the appetite for alcohol is formed a woman will prostitute herself if necessary to obtain the money to purchase liquor. Many a woman dates her downfall from the loss of self-control owing to a bottle of wine. I hope the practice of tippling, which has become so common in some eastern centres has not become prevalent in California. i)r. Lydston says: ” If the increase of tippling among women does not

indicate a lowering of the moral standard of society, the observations and deductions of physicians and sociologists on the effect of alcohol on women are fallacious.” On account of the greater emotional development of women, alcohol is especially dangerous. Flushed with alcohol women are apt to forget the restraints of modesty. Base passions spring into expression, the conversation tends to subjects which should not he named in decent society, and when the constraints of self-respect break down with the moral elements of the brain cells, indiscretions are the natural consequence. The moral interests of the nation are in the hands of women. and the only way by which women can lead men straight is to he straight themselves. In the past woman has been the redeeming factor in race decay, but with an increase of drink among women, one of the greatest barriers to race decay has been removed, and if the consumption of alcoholics among women continue to increase as it has in some of our larger centres during the last ten years, race degeneracy. both mental and moral, will make rapid strides. The only

safety lies ,’n abstinence

complete and continual. Women of belaud Stanford, dr.. University, my task is finished. I have endeavoured to give you, only too imperfectly, the message of today’s scientific investigation into the principal causes of race degeneration- It is to the credit of vour president that he has been the first to inaugurate teachingof this character in any American University. It is a duty that every institution of learning owes to the students that they he given information relative to sexual abuses and diseases, that they may go out to face life’s responsibilities forewarned of the danger and armed for the fight, knowing something of the tactics of the arch destroyer, and the sufferings of his victims. The health, safety, and happiness of to-morrow depends upon the intelligence of to-day. Let us then prepare ourselves to so think and act that we may achieve our fullest development and that the stream of life passing to the next generation shall bear no turbulent sears of our misconduct.

but rather that the stream shall be widened and clarified, making one upward step in that great process that only now we are beginning to realize and appreciate. — The Light.