VICTORY OVER VICE IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 285, 18 March 1919, Page 4

VICTORY OVER VICE IN THE AMERICAN ARMY.

In every great army the question of disease resulting from sexual vice is of serious important c, it only from the point of view of etfec tiveness. It is immensels to the credit of the Surgeon (General of our Army, of (ieneral Pershing, and of the Commission on t raining Camp Activities, that in this war thes have fought the evil fairly and squarely. In the face of scepticism they have believed in and enforced prohibition, repression, education, and punishment as opposed to toleration, inspection, and regulation. The results, as pointed out by Mr Raymond It. Fosdick, in an article in the “New Republic,” have been excellent. In this country there was no open opposition; the difficulties to he contended with were chiefly those re latirfg to men on leave of absence and the dtfngers of large cities. The

vicinity of a ramp was kept *afe In stein and rigorous authority, the measures were thorough, and withoip parallel in am other country, says Mr Fosdick. Hut in France for generations the view has obtained that prohibition was impossible, that the only alleviation was through license of houses and constant insertion of registered inmates. “So sincerely did they hold this belief that p.ostitution facilities for soldiers were officially offered to our high commend. (ieneral Pershing would have none of this. He issued the st'ictest orders to his officers; he even told his commanders that their reports and statistics on this subject would he used as “a basis in determining the commander’s efficiency and the suitability of his continuing in command.” One commander accepted the offer to take over a licensed house for American use; (ieneral Pershing at once put it “out of bounds,” and removed the commander. An order urging sexual continence and the maintenance of high moral standards of living was followed by search tor brothels, the stationing of military police to refuse access to whole disti:'ts which had been put out of bounds, the enforc mg of scientific treatment of men who had been rxposed. punishment for all who evaded treatment or disobeyed prohibitory

regulations. Even the French scepticism was shaken by the results. In one base

port where the houses had been open for three months and were then closed for three months, the rate of diseased cases fell from sixteen to two pei thousand men. Ihe total per cent, of sexual disease in our army, lure and overseas, has been almost negligible as compared with other army records. In France three* 1000 bed hospitals had been prepared for venereal patients; it was expected that they would be tilled by a certain date in aceonlancc with the statistic of past expei ience They were not used at all. Instead, in that time three hun died cases only were treated, mostlv in regimental and field infirmaries. In one body of 741.1 men only one case of venereal disease developed in seven weeks.

(ieneral Pershing, in a letter to Ford Milner, has recorded his conviction that “abolition as distinguished from regulation is the only effective mode of combating this age-long evil.” And in urging co-operation between the (iovernnirnts to this end, he .peaks fcelinglv of “the menace 10 the young manhood in the army forces,” and urges military and civil co operation on the common ground of humanity and in "ucortlance with the well-considered conclusions of the best scientific minds.

Mr Fosdick pays a high tribute to (imeral Pershing and our military authorities generally when he says; “When the history of America's parti< ipation in the great war comes to he written, no finer achievement will I) • recorded to her credit than tTie unending battle against sex indulgercc and venereal disease in the armv.-

Exehange. In startling contrast to the above stands out the incompetence of our military authorities in dealing with this menace. F.ditor “White Ribbon.”