THOU SHALT NOT COVET.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 271, 18 January 1918, Page 7

THOU SHALT NOT COVET.

We «ue finding it very hard to obey the Tenth Commandment in view of outspoken speeches like the one below. On behalf of our Dominion, we covet public men of the type of Secretary Daniels, the head of the U.S. Navy. What an asset to a nation are men who, holding high official positions, yet speak out clearly on the great questions concerning national righteousness, men who speak with no uncertain sound, but clearly say to soldier, sailor, and civilian alike, “Be clean.” Men who are not afraid to say, “America must cut out the cancer of immorality if she would live as a nation. SECRETARY DANIELS DENOUNCES DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALS. Secretary Daniels, in an address in Chicago before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America, on October 23, apnealed to the medical profession to “end the false double standard that decreases military effectiveness.” “There is not an army in the field whose effectiveness is not reduced by reason of immoral disease,” said Secretary Daniels. “The navy suffers likewise, and business halts because venereal diseases destroy the manhood of workmen ?nd fighters. During the last statistical year men of the American navy lost 141,378 days’ sickness from a small group of absolutely preventable diseases, or rather diseases contracted by sin. “This means that every day throughout the year there were 456 men disabled by this disgraceful malady. Add to that number those required to care for the disabled, and we have enough men on the noneffective list each day to man a modern battleship. And this does not count those who, though diseased, were not disabled, or the evil of the loathing danger of contagion to the clean members of the crew. “The remedy? There is but onecontinence. It must be preached in the home, in the school, in the marts of trade, in the pulpit, and in military camps, and among shipmates afloat. The eradication of the evil effects must be thorough, but the teacher who will be heard and heeded when the teachings of all others will fall on deaf ears is the word of authority from the medical profession.

“Young men expect ministers of the Gospel to call them to clean living. The preachei seeks to save their souls, and too many youths hardly realise they have a soul. But they know thev have bodies, and the doctor is the man to whom they trust the treatment of their bodies. When he preaches continence as the only rule of life to young men, and points out the dire penalty for lapses, his words have a weight no other admonition ixissesses. “You, gentlemen of the medical profession, deal with life and death. You bring the bodies into the world, and you close the eyes of the dead. Yours is the ministering function, the intimate touch, and out of such relation you can enjoy an amazing power of suggestion. CALLS ON DOCTORS TO HELP. “It is this power that America calls upon you to use. Tell our youths the truth. It is a duty laid upon you, not by the moral law alone, but by the law of self-preservation that operates in nations as '.ell as individuals. That duty is imperative upon you now as never before. If you perform it. and our young soldiers and sailors heed your wise counsel and mai y of them will follow your teaching with lasting gratitude—you will contribute more to the winning of the war than manufacturers of shells. “Continence is no longer a matter of morals only, though it must be enforced as the cardinal doctrine of morals. It has come to be seen as having its base in the great law of nature. New truths must take the place of ancient lies. We know now by the testimony of science that there is no foundation for a double standard for the sexes. To preach it is to preach immorality and a lowering of manhood. The lie that has lived so long must be driven out by the truth. “Only God will ever know the toll in blood and tears that this lie has taken from the heart of the world the price that the health of the race has been made to pay for its submission to a historic falsehood, young lives ruined, futures cheated of promise, children called upon to suffer for the sins of the fathers, innocent women robbed of the right to happy motherhood, and the virility of a nation sapped to its foundations. “To-day, as never before, American manhood must be clean. We must

have fitness! America stands in need of every ounce of strength. We must cut out the cancer if we would live.” —“Union Signal.”