Sec. 39. The Young Woman's Attitude towards Manhood

[Sidenote: Women should have ideals.]

Among those who agree heartily with the proposition that by education the young man's attitude towards womanhood (Sec. 30) should be cultivated I find, to my surprise, many who object to any parallel attempt to influence young woman's ideals of manhood. I say that I am surprised because it has long seemed to me that many of the faults of men are largely traceable to the fact that women as a sex have not been able to hold a high standard for manhood; and, therefore, I wonder when some thinking women question the desirability of trying to influence young women by organized instruction. Of course, we must not forget that before the coming of the economic and social freedom of women there were very few of them who were able to maintain a stand for their ideals of manhood; but this is no longer true in a great and rapidly increasing group of the individualized and educated classes. Therefore, it seems clear that if the better groups of women want a higher type of manhood capable of better adjustment in marriage, it is important that they consider ways and means of molding the minds of young women with reference to ideal manhood.

[Sidenote: Ideals and disappointment.]

Occasionally I have met a strange view of life in some men and women who have grown pessimistic from revelations concerning the sexual-social problems and who think that true manhood is so rare that emphasizing it with young women will lead to ideals that can rarely be realized in actual life; and therefore, for women so influenced there will be increasing discontent and disappointment in marriage or deliberate celibacy. No doubt this is in part true, as witness the many highly educated women who have written or said that there seem to be few attractive marriageable men of their own age. However, it is rare indeed that such women say that life would have meant more without the higher education and its resulting ideals that have stood in the way of marriage such as might be happy for uneducated women. This is in line with the fact that many cultivated men and women find that education has given unattained ideals and unsatisfied ambitions and strenuous life and disappointments, but it is rare that they long for the care-free and animal-like happiness of the tropical savage. We must remember that education gives us keener feeling for life's pains, but it also compensates by giving soul-satisfying appreciation of its joys. So it seems reasonable to believe that while educating young women to believe in and demand a higher ideal of manhood in its natural relations to womanhood will certainly make disappointments more heart-pressing for some, it will just as surely make realization the supreme happiness of others. And as adjustment of manhood and womanhood through the larger sex-education becomes more and more abundant and more and more perfected, the sum total of human happiness will increase.

Looking thus towards the ultimate good, I must refuse to accept the hopeless and depressing view that all young women should be kept ignorant of their relation to men and life in order that the absence of ideals of manhood may protect some women against possible disappointment by men.

Sec. 40. The Young Woman's Attitude towards Love and Marriage

[Sidenote: Reasons not same as for men.]

In the preceding lecture to the parents and teachers of young men I emphasized the importance of developing the young man's ideals of love and marriage primarily because such ideals have so often helped men morally in character-formation and character-protection. I feel sure that this is not the chief reason why the ideals of young women should be developed along parallel lines. On the contrary, it seems to me that those representative women are right who think that the first reason why ideals of young women should be influenced is that there is need of a radical change in the attitude of a very common type of young women who are flippant and disrespectful concerning love and marriage, and whose influence on the morals of men is decidedly bad because they often give unguided young men their first and strongest impressions concerning women. A second reason, which is equally applicable to both sexes, is that advance understanding of the relations of love and marriage is likely to lead to happy and satisfactory adjustment in marriage.

[Sidenote: Men naturally lead in love.]

Perhaps the flippant and disrespectful attitude concerning affairs of the heart develops in many young women because they do not consciously feel in advance of experience the demand for affection which comes so naturally and spontaneously to many, possibly to all, normal young men whose views of life have not been artificially twisted. I fully realize the treacherous nature of the ground on which walks one who tries to compare the two sexes concerning their relative attitudes towards love, but certain it is that the novelist's descriptions of men as the leaders and aggressors in love is not fiction but the common fact of real life. Man's tendency towards leadership in love is not scientifically explained by any superficial assumption that established social conventions have repressed an original spontaneity of women. On the contrary, there are the best of physiological and psychological reasons for believing that the social conventions have arisen as an expression of masculine aggressiveness and natural tendency towards leadership in affairs of the heart. The accepted fact is that many young women have no understanding of or demand for affection until experience has taught them its place in life. In the records of real life, as well as in fiction, many a young woman's possibilities of happiness have been lost because she did not understand herself when love came into her experience.

[Sidenote: Affection in marriage.]

Another side to the problem of the young woman's relation to love and marriage is brought to our attention by the lamentable fact that many wives lose interest in devoted husbands when the children come. This is probably true in at least half the families; and many matrimonial disharmonies are the result. This is really one of the greatest problems of marriage which cultured women should consider seriously; for even more than in most other sex problems, it is one for the solution of which women are in a position to take the leading part. This problem is especially important in these days when the household inefficiency, personal extravagance, and desire for social position of numerous young women of eighteen to thirty are having an enormous influence in advancing the age of marriage because many of the best types of young men pause and consider seriously the impossibility of adjusting a small salary to the ideas of their women friends as to what is the minimum of a family budget. Add to such facts a growing pessimism of young men regarding inconstant affections of wives with children, and the need of special educational attack is evident.

[Sidenote: The duty of parents.]

From whatever side we look at the question whether the larger sex-education should somehow try to mold the ideals of young women with regard to love and marriage, we see reasons why parents should encourage their maturing daughters to get some advance understanding of such relation. If parents are themselves unable to help their daughters to this understanding, they can at least exert great influence by their own attitude, and they can approve the reading of books, and perhaps there may be opportunity for hearing lectures by women who understand life.

[Sidenote: Books.]

With regard to good literature that will help in this line, there are chapters in many of the books mentioned at the end of this lecture, and in more or less indirect form in the general literature suggested in the preceding lectures concerning young men, and in Sec. 12 which deals with the general educational problem of marriage.

Sec. 41. Reasons for Pre-marital Continence of Women

[Sidenote: Many women do not need reasons.]

Many women who have lived protected lives have declared themselves unable to understand why a young woman should need reasons for pre-marital continence; and these women are probably right so far as the great majority of the daughters of families in good social conditions are concerned. As pointed out in earlier lectures, there is abundant evidence that the average adolescent girl who is protected against external sexual stimuli and influenced constantly by the prevailing ideals which demand chastity of women, is not likely to need any arguments why she should avoid pre-marital incontinence. Moreover, there seems to be little danger that the average girl with good social environment will ever question her ideals of chastity unless under the stress of overwhelming affection; in other words, there is little possibility that such women will be interested in the strictly mechanical, non-affectionate, and unsentimental sexual relations which must inevitably characterize the common prostitution of men.

[Sidenote: Unprotected girls.]

Note that I am referring to the average young woman in good social environment, and for the moment omitting the vast class of so-called "unprotected" girls. Moreover, I am speaking of the "average," and I am not forgetting that medical journals and books record many exceptions. Nevertheless, we must not be misled by medical literature, for naturally the physician sees the women whose lack of health leads them to seek professional advice, and it is well known that in sexual lines women commonly become decidedly unhealthy before they consult physicians. As testimony concerning the average normal women, I have the greatest confidence in the statements of thoughtful women with sound scientific attitude; and such are my authority for the view that maintaining pre-marital continence is not one of the serious problems for the average young woman with good domestic and social environment.

Now, while I admit in advance that the problem of pre-marital continence is not of great significance in the personal lives of the great majority of the type of women who are likely to hear or read this lecture, I do believe that this is the type of women who ought to think over the problem as it concerns the atypical girl of good social groups and the "unprotected" girl of more unfortunate groups. I cannot see, therefore, why it is not best and safest that all girls should learn from parents or reliable books or teachers the main reasons for pre-marital chastity.

[Sidenote: The girl who needs help.]

The atypical girls of good social groups who need guidance regarding pre-marital continence are of two types: either one with intensive sexuality which is often modifiable by medical or surgical treatment; or one of probably normal instincts but with radical sexual philosophy. The first type needs not only emphatic instruction regarding continence, but more often medical help, either for general health or for correction of localized sexual disturbance. The second type must be treated exactly as suggested for young men, because they are the women whose anarchistic repudiation of laws and convention in general has led to their acceptance of a single standard of morality for men and women, but one of freedom from monogamic ideals. This type of women, long well known in the student groups of Paris and in Russian universities, is becoming more and more evident in America, especially among some well-educated young women who have dropped their ideals of chastity because they have found attractiveness in more or less superficial studies of radical socialism. Many of these radical women frankly say that they would like to marry the "right man," but failing to find that rare species, they claim their right to sexual freedom in more or less capricious liaisons. Others of these women are so highly individualized that marriage is beneath their contempt, either because it will "interfere with a career" or because the legal aspects and ecclesiastical ceremonies still suggest the old-time subjection of the wife to the husband. Women who are in a position to know from personal knowledge of radical people declare that there are still relatively few educated women who deliberately cut loose from monogamic standards; and that they are most commonly found among certain intimate and unconventional groups of students and professional workers, especially those who are united in "Bohemian life" by artistic or literary interests. But while such sexually anarchistic women are not common in America, there is reason for fearing that, unless some unexpected check comes to this undercurrent towards sexual freedom, it may be found ten or twenty years hence that a surprisingly large number, but never a majority, of unmarried young women have fallen into the sexual promiscuity that is so common among unmarried men of the same ages.

[Sidenote: Radical sex literature.]

Chief of the influences that lead a certain number of well-educated young women towards sexual freedom is radical printed matter. We are now getting in America a wide distribution of bold literature of the "free love" type, some of it with a scientific superficiality that will convince many beginners in the study of sexual problems. Much of this literature is translation or adaptation of books and articles by European authors; and I have previously remarked that abroad the ideals of sexual morality—and judging from the Great War, of morality in other lines—is frankly quite different from that upheld here. But some of this radical literature is American in origin. In addition to certain books and pamphlets, which might be advertised by giving names, I think of two New York medical journals, with a popular circulation, edited by a successful but much criticized physician, which rarely publish an issue without frank approval and even arguments for extra-marital relations other than prostitution, particularly for those who for one reason or another, unwelcome or voluntary, are leading celibate lives. The influence of such writings on young women who are inclined towards radicalism in all things is probably enormous, and it is unfortunate that vigorous opposition literature is not published and widely circulated.

[Sidenote: Same instruction as for men.]

In conclusion, it is clear that the problem of pre-marital continence is not limited to young men, for the "unprotected" girl from a low-grade home and environment, and the uninformed girl from the best of homes, and the radical girl from the most educated circles may, innocently or deliberately, select the pathway to unchastity. For these kinds of young women the educational problem is the same as for young men. They should have essentially the same instruction. And, in the case of both sexes, it is only by contrasting the good and evil that education can point out the worth-whileness of chastity.

[Sidenote: Indirect responsibility.]

There is a special aspect of the problem of pre-marital chastity of men that young women should understand, and that is their indirect responsibility for the unchastity of many men. In discussing dancing (Sec. 35) and extreme dress (Sec. 36), it has been indicated that women as a sex have a tremendous responsibility for the temptations of men. The same is true in the case of flirting or more extreme familiarities with men. However sure a young woman may feel of her own power of self-control, she should not consider lightly her possible part in a chain of events which may lead men to unchastity with other women. Many a man driven into the white heat of passion by thoughtless or deliberate acts of a pure girl has gone direct to seek relief of tension in the underworld. Of course, the girl in this case is not directly responsible for the downfall of the man; but I wonder if there is not moral, if not legal, responsibility for one who knowingly leads or helps another to the brink of a precipice from which he voluntarily falls.

I am perfectly well aware that many good people will be horrified by the very suggestion that young women should be taught their responsibility for their men associates. Some will declare that the advocates of sex-education propose to destroy the innocence and romance in young women's lives. Others of the horrified ones will remain complacent because they believe that unchastity is caused by "innate depravity" of men. I am sorry to disagree with such people who are sincere, but the established facts point clearly to the conclusion that it is the duty of the mothers and teachers of girls to make them understand their relations to men and their responsibility for helping young men avoid sexual temptations. This is necessary when innocence stands in the way of the maximum safety and happiness of young people.

Sec. 42. Need of Optimistic and AEsthetic Views of Sex by Women

[Sidenote: Many women pessimistic concerning sexuality.]

The most significant point in the sex-education movement at present is the fact that numerous women of the most intelligent groups are tending rapidly towards accepting an optimistic and aesthetic view of sexual relationships so far as these are normal and ethical and guided by affection. However, this higher philosophy of sexual life is still very far from being universal among educated women, and it is probably true that to the great majority of them sexuality has no aesthetic meaning but is simply a very troublesome physical function and an animal method for perpetuating the human species. That such an attitude should be common is not surprising, for in recent years numerous educated women have gained abundant information concerning abnormal sexuality, while very few have caught glimpses of the higher possibilities of the sexual functions. The truth is that it has been and still is difficult for most women to get well-balanced knowledge of sexual normality. There are hundreds of books and pamphlets that deal with amazing boldness with the sexual mistakes of human life, but there is not in general circulation to-day any printed matter which deals with normal sexual life with anything like the frankness and directness that is common in widely circulated literature on social vice and its concomitant diseases. Likewise, it is difficult for women to get the true view of sexual life from personal sources, for the vulgar side of sexuality is the one usually discussed by most people, some of whom revel in obscenity, some have had personal experiences that have caused ineradicable bitterness, and some more or less sincerely believe that knowledge of vice is of value as a safeguard or an antidote. The bright side of the sexual story is rarely told in conversation, either because it is unfamiliar or because it is the sacred secret between pairs of individuals who together have found life in all its completeness.

[Sidenote: AEsthetic outlook.]

Fortunately, this depressing emphasis on sexual abnormality is beginning to disappear, and we see sure signs of coming attention to sexual health rather than to disease and to purity rather than to vice. Leading women are beginning to give, through the impersonal medium of science and general literature, some definite and helpful testimony concerning the pathway to the essential good that is bound up in sexuality. It is especially important that young women of culture should be helped to this point of view, and as far as possible before they learn much concerning the dark problems that have originated from failure to keep sexual functions sacred to affection and possible parenthood. The educated women of to-day who have acquired and retained faith in the essential goodness of human sexual possibilities, and who at the same time have an understanding of the mistakes that weak humans are wont to make, are sure to play a most important part as teachers and mothers and leaders in the movement which is already guiding numerous intelligent men and women to a purified and noble view of the sexual relationships. As I see the big problems that demand sex-education, the future will depend largely upon the attitude of women. It is an essential part of the feministic movement. In the past there have been many alarming signs of a destructive sex antagonism that charged men with full responsibility for existing sex problems. But the advance guards of feminism are beginning to recognize that there are all-essential relationships between the sexes, and that only in sex cooperation can there be any permanent solution of the great questions. It is a great advance from the sex hostility of Christabel Pankhurst's "Plain Facts on a Great Evil" to the co-working attitude of Louise Creighton's "Social Disease and How to Fight It," of Olive Schreiner's "Woman and Labor," of Ellen Key's "Love and Marriage," and of Gascoigne Hartley's "Truth About Woman," all of which give us hope that women with optimistic and aesthetic interpretation of sex are coming to take the lead towards a better understanding of the relations of sex and life.

Sec. 43. Other Problems for Young Women

Concerning several other problems that have been discussed with special reference to young men, it seems best that all young women should be informed sometime between sixteen and twenty-two, the age limit depending upon maturity of the individual, home life, and social environment.

[Sidenote: Prostitution.]

With regard to prostitution, it seems important that girls should know the essential facts recommended in the lecture concerning boys. The "unprotected" girl of low-grade environment will often need some of this knowledge before she is fourteen (and in some cases, even twelve) years old. On the other hand, the average "protected" girl need not know until several years later. It seems possible that too early familiarity with the existence of sexual vice might tend to make some young women accept it as part of the established order of things; and, hence, the girl whose environment is protective and whose moral training has been complete will be perfectly safe without knowledge of vice and will be more likely to take an opposition attitude if she learns the facts concerning prostitution when she is approaching maturity. Even then the essential information should be given in such a way that the young woman will see the gravity of the social situation and, at the same time, not develop a spirit of sex hostility. Here, again, I must recommend Louise Creighton's "Social Disease and How to Fight It" as not only pointing out the nature of the great evil, but also recognizing that the existing situation can never be improved except by the sympathetic cooperation of the best men and women.

[Sidenote: Dancing.]

With regard to dancing, young girls should be taught that certain forms of this exercise are not approved by the most refined people. Before maturity, they should not know the physiological reason for this disapproval. In fact, I know many men and women who think it best that most women, even mature, should not have their attention called to the sexual dangers of dancing. For my part, I cannot see how women with such ignorance can cooperate with the best men in reducing the admitted dangers to a minimum.

[Sidenote: Dress.]

With regard to dress as a sexual problem, some mothers think they can handle the problem with their young daughters by emphasizing modesty and without further explanation; but the drawing power of fashions is so great that most young women are quick to revise their ideas of modesty to suit the latest style. Is it too much to hope that large numbers of young women would accept such facts as were stated in the lecture for young men (Sec. 36), and would be sincere enough to dress so that their attractiveness may appeal more to the aesthetic and less to the physical natures of men?

[Sidenote: Merely a man's views.]

In this lecture concerning the special teaching of young women, I have attempted nothing more than an outline of the impressions that I have gained from books and from representative women who are interested in the larger sex-education. I have not tried to make the discussion as extensive as that for young men, first, because I cannot believe that young women in general need so much special instruction; and, second, because only women can adequately advise concerning the sex-educational problems of young women. However, since the women who might be expected to know the truth about women have failed to agree on so many points, it may be worth while for a man to contribute some suggestions based on the most scientific information offered by some very reliable women.

[Sidenote: Books.]

Among the books which touch the special problems for young women, I am most favorably impressed by the following: Hall's "Life Problems" in the first thirty-two pages is adapted for girls of twelve to fourteen, and the remainder for older girls. Some parents are not enthusiastic about the story form, but the facts are well selected and presented. The last chapter of Smith's "Three Gifts of Life" is worth reading, but the first chapters are unscientific. For almost mature young women, there are chapters of Rummel's "Womanhood and Its Development," of Wood-Allen's "What a Young Woman Should Know," of Lowry's "Herself," and of Galbraith's "Four Epochs of a Woman's Life." The last two are decidedly medical in point of view. The part for girls in Scharlieb and Sibley's "Youth and Sex," and some chapters of March's "Towards Racial Health," are good. The last two chapters of Geddes and Thomson's "Sex" will be appreciated by many intellectual young women. Hepburn's sentimental little story "The Perfect Gift" (Crist Co., 3c) has helped many young people improve their aesthetic outlook. There are some helpful ideas in Henderson's "What It Is To Be Educated" (Houghton Mifflin Co.). While disagreeing (Sec. 46) with Dr. Richard Cabot's extreme emphasis on a mystical religious solution for problems of sex, I recognize that many young women have been helped by his "The Christian Approach to Social Morality" (Y.W.C.A.), and by his "What Men Live By."



X

CRITICISMS OF SEX-EDUCATION

In the preceding lectures we have considered the arguments for sex-instruction. It will now be helpful to review some of the writings of those who oppose or at least point out the defects of the commonly accepted plan of sex-instruction. None of those writers whom I shall quote is known to be absolutely opposed to all sex-instruction, but some of them would limit the instruction so much that there would be little hope of the general movement having an important influence.

Sec. 44. A Plea for Reticence Concerning Sex

[Sidenote: Agnes Repplier.]

Miss Agnes Repplier, the distinguished essayist, discusses in the Atlantic Monthly (March, 1914) the plain speech on sex topics that are before the public to-day. While she holds no brief for "the conspiracy of silence," which she admits was "a menace in its day," she maintains that "the breaking of silence need not imply the opening of the flood-gates of speech." She goes on to say:

[Sidenote: Present frankness.]

"It was never meant by those who first cautiously advised a clearer understanding of sexual relations and hygienic rules that everybody should chatter freely respecting these grave issues; that teachers, lecturers, novelists, story-writers, militants, dramatists, social workers, and magazine editors should copiously impart all they know, or assume they know, to the world. The lack of restraint, the lack of balance, the lack of soberness and common sense were never more apparent than in the obsession of sex which has set us all ababbling about matters once excluded from the amenities of conversation.

"Knowledge is the cry. Crude, undigested knowledge, without limit and without reserve. Give it to boys, give it to girls, give it to children. No other force is taken account of by the visionaries who—in defiance, or in ignorance of history—believe that evil understood is evil conquered.

"We hear too much about the thirst for knowledge from people keen to quench it. Dr. Edward L. Keyes, president of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, advocates the teaching of sex-hygiene to children, because he thinks that it is the kind of information that children are eagerly seeking. 'What is this topic,' he asks, 'that all these little ones are questioning over, mulling over, fidgeting over, worrying over? Ask your own memories.'

[Sidenote: One child's life.]

"I do ask my memory in vain for the answer Dr. Keyes anticipates. A child's life is so full, and everything that enters it seems of supreme importance. I fidgeted over my hair which would not curl. I worried over my examples which never came out right. I mulled (though unacquainted with the word) over every piece of sewing put into my incapable fingers, which could not be trained to hold a needle. I imagined I was stolen by brigands, and became—by virtue and intelligence—spouse of a patriotic outlaw in a frontierless land. I asked artless questions which brought me into discredit with my teachers, as, for example, who 'massacred' St. Bartholomew. But vital facts, the great laws of propagation, were matters of but casual concern crowded out of my life and out of my companions' lives (in a convent boarding-school) by the more stirring happenings of every day. How could we fidget over obstetrics when we were learning to skate, and our very dreams were a medley of ice and bumps? How could we worry over 'natural laws' in the face of a tyrannical interdict which lessened our chances of breaking our necks by forbidding us to coast down a hill covered with trees? The children to be pitied, the children whose minds become infected with unwholesome curiosity are those who lack cheerful recreation, religious teaching, and the fine corrective of work. A playground or a swimming pool will do more to keep them mentally and morally sound than scores of lectures on sex-hygiene.

[Sidenote: Personal teaching approved.]

"The world is wide, and a great deal is happening in it. I do not plead for ignorance, but for the gradual and harmonious broadening of the field of knowledge, and for a more careful consideration of ways and means. There are subjects which may be taught in class, and subjects which commend themselves to individual teaching. There are topics which admit of plein-air handling, and topics which civilized man, as apart from his artless brother of the jungles, has veiled with reticence. There are truths which may be, and should be, privately imparted by a father, a mother, family doctor, or an experienced teacher; but which young people cannot advantageously acquire from the platform, the stage, the moving picture gallery, the novel or the ubiquitous monthly magazine."

There is much in Miss Repplier's paragraphs which will win hearty approval from those who have come to believe, as advocated throughout this series of lectures, in conservative teaching of sex-hygiene and a larger outlook for sex-education.

[Sidenote: Current frankness not due to sex-education.]

No doubt there has been too great a loss of a certain kind of reticence and a substitution of crude frankness, but it has not been caused by the sex-education movement. On the contrary, there are two evident sources of the plain speech of which Miss Repplier and others have complained: First, the commercializing of sex by novelists, dramatists, theater managers, and publishers—many of whom are reaping a golden harvest and few of whom have any sincere interest in promulgating sexual information to any end except their own pocketbooks. Second, the development of the feminist movement which has its deepest foundation in the age-old sexual misunderstandings of women by men, and which has led on and on into social and political complications of gravest significance. The very nature of the feminist revolt from masculine domination made plain speaking on sex matters inevitable.

[Sidenote: Reaction against sensational frankness.]

Neither of these sources of plain speech need give us cause for alarm, for a great reaction is already coming. The sensationalism of sexual revelations has had its day, and the intelligent public is recovering its balance. A lurid novel or play resembling "Damaged Goods" or "The House of Bondage" or certain vice-commission reports would not now be accepted by some prominent publishers who recently would not have hesitated to seize a first-class commercial opportunity in this line. The fact is that sexual sensationalism has ceased to pay because the intelligent public knows the main facts and has become disgusted with crude frankness that amounts to lasciviousness. On the side of feminism there is hope in the widespread disgust with Cristabel Pankhurst's "Plain Facts on a Great Evil" as compared with the very general approval of Louise Creighton's polished masterpiece, "The Social Evil and How to Fight It." This represents exactly the present attitude of numerous men and women who calmly discuss together the great problems of life fearlessly and without any elements of lasciviousness such as some people seem to think is necessarily associated with either unsexual or bisexual discussion of sex problems.

[Sidenote: Not a typical case.]

Miss Repplier's description of her own lack of youthful interest in things sexual is of value simply as applied to a limited number of extra-protected girls. Her experience teaches us nothing regarding boys or even girls under average conditions. We know beyond any doubt that average children in or near adolescence do seek the kind of information that Miss Repplier denies having thought about. It is not "pressed relentlessly upon their attention" by teachers, but by instinct and by environment. Playground and swimming pools and religious influence and work are all helpful in our dealings with young people, but all together they are inadequate without some information concerning sex.

[Sidenote: Conclusion.]

Finally, Miss Repplier, like so many other critics of sex-instruction, has in mind only the physical consequences of wrong-doing. Here again is the influence of the pioneer sex-hygiene. However, she pleads for the "gradual and harmonious broadening of the field of knowledge and for a more careful consideration of ways and means" for sex-instruction. This makes us believe that she will favor the larger sex-education which gives a place to "the cheerful recreation, the religious teaching, the childish virtues, the youthful virtues, the wholesome preoccupation," as well as essential knowledge of physical facts; and all as factors in preparing young people consciously and unconsciously to face the inevitable problems of sex. On the whole, we must regard Miss Repplier's discussion as a helpful contribution to the saner aspects of sex-education.

Sec. 45. A Plea for Religious Approach to Sex-instruction

[Sidenote: Cosmo Hamilton.]

Another prominent author who does not agree with the current tendencies of sex-instruction is Cosmo Hamilton in his little book entitled "A Plea for the Younger Generation" (Doran Co.). He agrees with the sex-education writers that children should be instructed early, and as far as possible by their parents; but he wholly disagrees with the method of biological introduction. He would have parents go straight to the heart of the matter and tell the child, as simply and truly as can be, just how he came into the world. And he would fill the teaching with reverence by using as an illustration the birth of the babe of Bethlehem. Referring to those who in recent years have been working for a scientific introduction to sex-education, Mr. Hamilton says:

[Sidenote: Religious appeal.]

"I think that these professors and scientists are wasting their time, and I have written this small volume not only in order to make a plea for the younger generation as to the way in which they shall be taught sex truths, but also in order, if possible, to prove to the advanced thinkers of the day that it is not old-fashioned to beg that God may be put back into the lives of His children, but a thing of urgent and vital importance. Without faith the new generation is like a city built on sand. Without the discipline and the inspiration of God the young boys and girls who will all too soon be standing in our shoes will go through life with hungry souls, with nothing to live up to, and very little to live for."

[Sidenote: Many not reached by religious appeal.]

All this is very good so far as it appeals to the religious type of mind, but Mr. Hamilton seems to forget that vast numbers of people cannot be approached from this point of view. How can the illustration of the Christ-child help those who do not accept certain orthodox religious beliefs?

Sec. 46. The Conflict between Sex-hygiene and Sex-ethics

[Sidenote: Richard Cabot.]

It has been said in an earlier lecture that several writers have declared that sex-ethics and sex-hygiene are essentially conflicting and should not be associated in teaching; that is to say, that hygienic facts should not be taught with the hope of improving morals. Most prominent of those who have declared that hygienic and moral teaching should be dissociated is Dr. Richard C. Cabot, of Boston. I shall give in this lecture attention to his writings because they have tended to introduce confusion by critical attention to certain weak details and unessentials in the original suggestions for sex-education, and by wrongly assuming that the original "sex-hygiene" was aimed at improved morals, whereas it was aimed directly at health. In a paper entitled "Consecration of the Affections (often misnamed 'Sex-hygiene')," read at the fifth (1911) Congress of the American School Hygiene Association, Dr. Cabot attacked the kind of sex-instruction that is limited to sex-hygiene. He has later returned to the attack on many occasions. I shall quote a number of his paragraphs and follow each with a discussion of its contents.

[Sidenote: Hygiene and conduct.]

(1) "The straight, right action in matters of human affection has nothing to do with hygiene. For hygiene has no words to proclaim as to why you and I should behave ourselves. Hygiene has the right and the duty to make clear the perverted and the diseased consequences of certain errors. But these consequences are far from constant.... Let us disabuse our minds, then, of the idea that there are always bad physical consequences of mistake, error, or sin in this [sex] field, and that those consequences are reasons for behaving ourselves. But even if there were such consequences, I think it even more mischievous for us to preach a morality based upon them."

That hygienic knowledge makes many people control their sexual selves is beyond dispute. Because the consequences of sexual error are far from constant is a weak argument against pointing out possible results. The consequences from pistols are far from constant, and yet I have no doubt that Dr. Cabot would teach small boys the danger of shooting themselves and other people.

[Sidenote: Hygiene and ethics for health.]

The last quoted sentence suggests Dr. Cabot's whole basis of contention against sex-hygiene. He seems to have inferred from the earlier papers, especially those by Dr. Morrow, that the hygiene of sex is to be taught as an approach to morality. On the contrary, the truth is that the aim of most of the first leaders in sex-instruction was to teach hygiene and ethics primarily in order to improve health. Dr. Morrow and others believed that hygienic teaching would secondarily react on sexual morality; but the original aim of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis was to limit the spread of venereal disease by sanitary, moral, and legal means. In other words, moral appeals were to aid in checking disease, and knowledge of disease was not claimed to improve morality, although such knowledge might react against immorality. It is this misunderstanding or overlooking of the real reasons for teaching concerning sex health that seems to have led Dr. Cabot into apparent opposition to the general movement for sex-instruction. One infers from all his lectures that he believes it good to teach hygiene for health, ethics for morality, and biology for science; but that these should not be correlated because to him they are unrelated. It seems to me that he has simply been misled by the overenthusiasm of some of the first writers on sex-hygiene and by the widespread use of that limited term instead of sex-education.

[Sidenote: Is sex-hygiene immoral?]

(2) "Now I say that the preaching about sex-hygiene that is going on in recent books and in the periodical press is immoral in its tendency. It is like saying, 'Don't lie, for if you do, you won't sleep at night, and insomnia is bad for the health.'"

If insomnia often follows lying, then it should be taught as one reason why falsehoods should be avoided. This is not opposed to ethical teaching, for at the same time we can teach the other reasons for not telling lies. Likewise, sex-hygiene offers certain reasons for conduct and may be supplemented by sex-ethics.

[Sidenote: Information and morality.]

(3) "The attempts to consecrate affection and to safeguard morality by teaching in public or private schools what is called 'sex-hygiene' will, I believe, prove a failure. I have very little confidence in the restraining or inspiring value of information, as such. I have seen too much of its powerlessness in medical men and students. No one knows so much of the harm of morphine as the physicians do, yet there are more cases of morphine habit among physicians than among any less informed profession. It is, of course, easy to make young children familiar with the facts of maternity and birth. Compared to the ordinary methods of concealment and lying by parents to children about these matters this is doubtless an improvement, but it does almost nothing to meet the moral problems of sex which come up later in the child's life. One may know all about maternity, without knowing anything of the difficulties and dangers of sex. Many have thought that by thorough teaching of the physiology of reproduction in plants and animals we can anticipate and to a considerable extent prevent the dangers and temptations referred to above."

It is not proposed "to consecrate affection" or "to safeguard morality" by hygienic knowledge; but simply to protect health. Of course, information will not restrain everybody; but if physicians did not know the dangers of morphine many more would be victims of the drug. Dr. Cabot overlooks the fact that physicians know how to use and obtain morphine, while other professional men do not. Teaching concerning maternity and birth will not directly meet the moral problems of sex, but it will help develop an attitude, "a consecration of the affections," that will guard against the dangers of sex. Such teaching to children is only one of many steps in the scheme of sex-education. No responsible advocate of sex-instruction claims that teaching children concerning the reproduction of animals and plants does anticipate and prevent sexual temptations; but it is a foundation for practical knowledge of human sex problems. I have elsewhere referred to the effect of such studies on attitude.

[Sidenote: Contagion of personality.]

(4) "The positive moral qualities which make us immune to the dangers of sex are obtainable not through warnings as to dangers, but through the more positive activities just alluded to. All that is most practical and successful in this field of endeavor may be summarized as the contagion of personality, human or divine. What is it that keeps any of us straight unless it is the contagion of the highest personalities whom we have known, in man and God?"

We must admit that, perhaps, "positive moral qualities" are not obtainable through warnings, but in this pragmatic age we must have good social results gained by any honorable means. Many people are kept from crime by warnings of the law. Of course, this is not a "positive moral" result for the unethical individual who must be restrained by fear of legal consequences, but we do not worry about the individual when society gains. Likewise, a man kept from sexual promiscuity by fear of disease is not more positively moral, but he is a better member of society. No one will deny the importance of personality in its influence on positive moral qualities; but there are many people who are not influenced by personality, either human or divine. Other kinds of control, such as hygienic and legal, are necessary for such people.

[Sidenote: Good and evil.]

(5) "A positive evil can be driven out only by a much more positive good. The lower passion can be conquered only by a higher passion."

Here, again, Dr. Cabot seems to misunderstand the aim of hygienic teaching regarding sex. It is not expected "to conquer the lower passion" by hygiene, but to help keep it under control to the end that personal and social health will be improved. The opium evil (certainly a positive one) is being driven out of China by military methods that are good only in their results in suppressing the drug. Likewise, hygiene of sex will be a practical good in so far as it may reduce the venereal curse. "Positive good" in Dr. Cabot's moral sense is only of limited application so far as the majority of people are concerned. In fact, the whole idea of solving the sexual problems by "consecration of the affections" makes its strong appeal only to those who have already grasped the higher view of sex and do not need sex-instruction. Other people cannot understand the phrase. We must find some more direct and practical attack on the sex problems for the masses; and I believe that this means scientific teaching which improves attitude, and hygienic teaching which protects personal and social health. It is worth while to get these results even if we do not succeed in improving morals. That, I believe, is another and quite independent problem.

[Sidenote: Dissociation of hygienic and moral teaching.]

In an address published in the Journal of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, Vol. V, No. 1, January 1914, Dr. Cabot contended that the hygienic and moral aspects of sex-education should not be associated. It is possible that the following review and criticisms may be based upon a misinterpretation; but if so, I shall not feel lonely, for at the close of the discussion, Dr. Cabot said to his audience, "it is evident that I have not succeeded in touching even the surfaces of your minds, and have not made an atom of impression in making the distinction which I desired to make."

Dr. Cabot's main points are quoted below, and my comments follow each quotation.

(1) "Sanitation can often be conveyed effectively by information, but morality cannot be conveyed by telling things."

[Sidenote: Teaching morals.]

It is certainly true that sanitation can be taught by words. That words concerning moral things have no value is a proposition which Dr. Cabot did not clearly and convincingly support.

(2) "People often make sanitary mistakes from ignorance. So far as you are ignorant you cannot be immoral. Morality is conditioned upon knowledge of the right and wrong in question."

[Sidenote: Immoral or unmoral.]

Of course, one who is ignorant is unmoral and not immoral, but this does not divorce sanitary and moral problems of social disease. An ignorant and unmoral man may have unsanitary sexual habits, but enlighten him regarding venereal disease and his habits make him immoral.

(3) "I cannot see that biology has moral value."

[Sidenote: Moral value of biology.]

But it may have moral influence just as literature and history and biography may have. Of course, pure biology alone will not make people more sexually moral, but no responsible biologist has ever claimed that it will.

(4) "In morals, we are dealing with the will, and if we believe that the will is guided by intelligence, we must believe that all people who know what is right will do what is right."

[Sidenote: Knowledge and will.]

It does not follow that to know what is right is to do what is right. All depends upon the relative weight of opposing factors. A medical student may know the facts regarding venereal disease; but he also knows the fact that his sexual instincts are insistent. The fact of his passion may be more weighty than his scientific knowledge; and his will may be guided by intelligent choice based on comparison of the two opposing facts. Hence, it is illogical to contend that knowledge may not influence moral conduct and that the will is not guided by intelligence.

[Sidenote: Cultivation of morality.]

(5) "Any good achieved in any branch of morality helps all morality. A person who learns any kind of self control is helped toward all kinds. Anything that helps self control in one field will help in all fields, the field of sex as well as others. Whatever makes a person more obedient to conscience in matters of truth or courage will help him in matters of chastity. We get morality not by consciously cultivating particular virtues, but by making ourselves useful men and women, by practice and by the love and imitation of our betters. Thus, morality is cultivated in hundreds of ways all at once."

This is sound, but it is in no logical way opposed to any other aspect of sex-instruction discussed in this series of lectures.

(6) "Wherever the conditions of intimacy and interest exist,—intimacy with the right person and interest in the right thing,—moral training is going on."

[Sidenote: Influence of individuals.]

This is Dr. Cabot's strongest point. He believes in the moral influence of individuals. So do all leading advocates of sex-instruction or of any other form of moral education. This is in no sense opposed to any accepted proposition of sex-education.

(7) "Sanitation may increase immorality.... I do care more for morality than for sanitation. Where the two conflict I want morality to lead and to govern."

[Sidenote: Morals rather than health.]

Right here is the basis for Dr. Cabot's repeated attacks on the sex-education movement. He believes that morality and sanitation are decidedly conflicting. His address fails to support this idea with regard to a single point concerned with the proposed sex-education. He mentioned only two points wherein there is apparent conflict, namely, prophylaxis that allows immorality while avoiding venereal disease, and prevention of conception. Neither of these is directly involved in the sex-education movement, and their immoral bearings are highly debatable.

[Sidenote: Ethics of venereal antisepsis.]

Venereal prophylactics may increase promiscuity of some unmoral and immoral men, but if universally and scientifically used by such men, there would be little or no infection of innocent women and children. Therefore, I assert that the good that would come from the use of prophylactics by those who do not recognize moral control would be far more significant than the fact that venereal prophylactics might encourage immorality. Those who would use prophylactics would be no worse morally than they were before, but society would gain hygienically.

[Sidenote: Ethics of contraception.]

Regarding the morality of prevention of fertilization, the best of people hold opposing views. A great specialist in tuberculosis who entered the discussion of Dr. Cabot's paper convinced most of his hearers that hygienic prevention of fertilization of tubercular women is a very moral act for a physician to advise. The real question of morality involved in the problem of contraconception is not whether it is immoral that sperm-cells should be prevented from swimming on towards an egg-cell, but whether there is morality in a sexual union that has its meaning only in affection and is not definitely intended for propagation. It is obviously a complicated problem of hygiene, psychology, ethics, aesthetics, religious beliefs, social traditions, and personal prejudice; and it is absurd to allow it to become entangled in the general propositions of sex-education. As I have often said in this series of lectures, the larger sex-education aims at making the best possible adjustments of sex and life. If the aesthetic demands of affection are in real conflict with the animal function of propagation, then a pragmatically ethical solution is found in intelligent control of the original function. Ideally, the animal function of propagation should be associated with the possibilities of affection that have developed in the highest human life; but there are numerous cases in which there must be dissociation of the functions of affection and propagation, or the alternative is sexual asceticism. Which is moral? This is a question concerning which the individual must weigh his personal views and decide. Only the bigoted victims of arrogance will see immorality in the one who disagrees with him on this question. I insist, then, that even if advanced sex-education for adults should some day come to involve the problem of contraconception, there will be no conflict between hygienic knowledge and ethics, if the teaching leads to more perfect adjustment of sex and life.

[Sidenote: Dr. Neumann's view.]

Probably the great majority of workers in the sex-education movement do not in the least agree with Dr. Cabot's attempts to dissociate hygienic and moral problems. A far more helpful view is that expressed by Dr. Henry Neumann, leader of the Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society:

"Problems of hygiene, whether of sex, or nutrition, or temperance and the like, are no less moral problems. They are problems of habit; and habits are impossible without strong incentives to start them and keep them going.... Ethical instruction is often misunderstood to be barren preaching. It is nothing of the sort. It consists in clarifying views of life. It begins with the fact that there are certain tendencies in our nature which may work ill or good. Then it tries to show to what these lead. It uses what is best in us to make over what is worst. That is why problems of sex-hygiene should be regarded as at bottom problems of sex-morality."

Sec. 47. The Arrogance of the Advocates of Sex-education

In an article in the Educational Review, February, 1914, Superintendent Maxwell, of New York City, writes concerning what he calls "the teaching of child hygiene" as follows:

[Sidenote: Dr. Maxwell's criticisms.]

"There are those to-day who claim that sexual information and problems should be thrust upon the attention of boys and girls by the teachers in the public schools, that this teaching is necessary for the protection of virtue and the prevention of disease, and that, if anyone hesitates to encourage the spread of such literature and the teaching of such knowledge, he is an arrant and presumptuous blockhead. The arrogance of the extreme advocates of child hygiene blinds them to certain all-important truths. The first is that our teachers are not prepared, and, in too many cases, are not the most suitable persons to teach the subject. The second is that to bring the adolescent mind face to face with sexual matters engenders the habit of dwelling upon the sexual passion, and in that may lie spiritual havoc and physical ruin. A premature interest in the sexual passion debases the mind and unsettles the will. The third is that parents have no right to ask the teacher to do the work that is peculiarly theirs.

"And yet some good may emerge from this discussion. Parents may be incited to do their duty in placing sex information before their children whenever conditions demand such knowledge. And principals and teachers, particularly principals, whenever they have the acuteness to detect the tendency to wrong-doing, will no longer hesitate to utter the word of warning in season. As for the extravagant claims made for the teaching of sex-hygiene, I have too much faith in the good sense of the American people to believe that it will ever be generally and regularly taught in American schools. Surely, we have learned something since the law compelled us to teach the untruths regarding the effects of stimulants and narcotics that were published in the early school manuals of physiology and hygiene."

[Sidenote: Reply to Dr. Maxwell.]

I comment as follows: (1) Dr. Maxwell refers only to the "extreme advocates." They did exist in abundance a few years ago, but are already rare in the group of well-known educators. (2) Most teachers are not prepared and never can be prepared to teach the human aspect of sex problems, especially the hygienic in the strict sense. (3) Conservative sex-instruction such as was advocated by the advisers of the American Federation for Sex-hygiene (see "Report" by Morrow and others, 1913) aims to guard against "premature interest in the sexual passion." (4) While I sympathize with Dr. Maxwell's view that teaching the elementary hygiene of sex is the parent's duty, I am forced to recognize the futility of advocating that all or even a respectable minority of parents should undertake their duty (see Sec. 4). The truth is that most of them will not, and cannot if they will, try to do so. (5) Dr. Maxwell's idea that sex-hygiene should be taught only when an astute principal or parent "detects wrong-doing" is, to say the least, an educational theory that will astonish one who knows even the elementary facts regarding the secrecy of the sexual life of young people in general. Will he next be logically consistent and advocate that all moral education should be given only after children show signs of wrong-doing? (6) Sex-hygiene, as Dr. Maxwell understands it to be concerned directly and solely with human sexual problems, will never be taught in American schools controlled by people of good sense; but sex-instruction from the larger viewpoint is taught in some of the best of Dr. Maxwell's high schools. (7) All advocates of sex-instruction who have a national reputation for educational sanity agree that legislation is most undesirable. (8) It is obvious that like so many others who have become confused regarding the sex-education movement, Dr. Maxwell has been impressed chiefly by the pioneer work that emphasized only hygienic teaching regarding sex.

Sec. 48. Lubricity in Education

Ex-President Taft has expressed his views against the sex-education movement. The newspapers quote as follows from an address delivered in Philadelphia in 1914:

"There is another danger in our educational influences and environment. I refer to the spread of lubricity in literature, on the stage and indirectly in education, under the plea that vice may be avoided by teaching the awful consequences. By dwelling on its details and explaining its penalties, sexual subjects are obtruded into discussion between the sexes, lectures are delivered on them, textbooks are written, and former restraints of modesty are abandoned.

[Sidenote: Mr. Taft's alarm.]

"The pursuit of education in sex-hygiene is full of danger if carried on in general public schools. The sharp, pointed and summary advice of mothers to daughters, of fathers to sons, of a medical professor to students in a college upon such a subject is, of course, wise, but any benefit that may be derived from frightening students by dwelling upon the details of the dreadful punishment of vice is too often offset by awakening a curiosity and interest that might not be developed so early and is likely to set the thoughts of those whose benefit is at stake in a direction that will neither elevate their conversations with their fellows nor make more clean their mental habit.

"I deny that the so-called prudishness and the avoidance of nasty subjects in the last generation has ever blinded any substantial number of girls or boys to the wickedness of vice or made them easier victims of temptations."

[Sidenote: Evident misunderstanding.]

The above requires little comment, for its misunderstandings are obvious to one who has followed the sex-education movement. Clearly Mr. Taft has been impressed by the social-hygiene side of the problems and does not realize the existence of a larger outlook for sex-education. Like so many other writers who seem to know little concerning the sexual life of children, especially of boys, Mr. Taft fears "the awakening of curiosity and interest"! This, of course, depends upon the facts taught and the age of the learner, but it hardly applies to children in or near adolescence who are taught along the lines suggested by the committee of the American Federation for Sex-Hygiene (1913). The last paragraph quoted from Mr. Taft will be denied completely by all who are familiar with the problems of adolescent education. To say the least, it is unfortunate that a man prominent in law and statesmanship should have lent the weight of his name to such superficial conclusions that are so obviously based on exceedingly limited information regarding both the established facts of sex and the most approved methods of sex-instruction.

Sec. 49. Conclusions from the Criticisms of Sex-education

I have selected for discussion the criticisms of several of the most prominent people who have expressed opposition to the sex-education movement. I think that all the important lines of arguments against the movement are represented in the extracts that I have quoted. We have seen that all of the criticisms have decidedly vulnerable points. Most of them refer to the discarded sex-hygiene of ten years ago; but some of them prove that the authors are quite ignorant of the sex problems that must be faced by numerous young people.

[Sidenote: Criticisms important.]

With the hope of locating the weaknesses of sex-education, I have for years examined carefully every criticism published, and it seems to me thoroughly scientific to conclude that all the important criticisms have not harmed the essentials of the sex-education movement; but, on the contrary, have been helpful in forcing reconstruction. In fact, the present-day conception of the larger sex-education must be credited to the severe critics more than to the friends of the original narrow movement for reducing venereal disease by hygienic instruction.



XI

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF THE SEX-EDUCATION MOVEMENT

Sec. 50. The American Movement

[Sidenote: Dr. Morrow leader in America.]

In America the movement for sex-education began with the organization of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis on February 9, 1905, under the leadership of Dr. Prince A. Morrow. It is true that before this time there were various local and sporadic attempts at instruction concerning sexual processes, but such teaching was chiefly personal and there was no concerted movement looking towards making sex-instruction an integral part of general education. In 1892, thirteen years before the organization of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, a group of members of the National Education Association considered briefly the importance of instructing young people. However, this meeting was of ephemeral significance and had no genetic relation to the present-day movement. Other early interest in sex-instruction is indicated in Professor Earl Barnes's bibliography which was published in his "Studies in Education," Vol. I, p. 301, 1897.

The educational activities, especially the publications of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, soon attracted the serious attention of numerous physicians, ministers, and educators in various parts of the United States; and about twenty other societies for study and improvement of the sex problems were organized within a few years after the original society.

[Sidenote: Original aim for sanitary ends.]

The sex-education movement both in Europe and America had its origin as an attempt to check the spread of the venereal or social diseases. The idea that education should work for sexual morality for its own sake and not simply for protection against venereal diseases has only recently begun to appear in the literature of sex-education, and so far it seems to have made only a limited impression on many of those who have been active in the prophylactic campaign against social disease. In fact, the tardy recognition of the moral aim of sex-education makes it seem probable that very little interest would have been aroused in the movement if it had been organized on purely ethical grounds and without any reference to the sanitary problems of social diseases. To one who looks at sexual morality as a question of right conduct which brings its own rewards, it is a shock to find so many thinking people who accept calmly the traditional views of the relation of the sexes and seem to take no interest in the immorality of men except as it is likely to lead to venereal disease or to illegitimacy which demands forced marriage or monetary payments. The truth is that the civilized world at large is very far from a working code of sexual morals which will be practiced because of promised rewards rather than because of probable punishments. It is natural, then, that the sex-education movement should have started with a proclamation of physical punishments for immorality rather than an offer of ethical and psychical rewards for morality.

[Sidenote: Both sanitary and moral.]

However, the fact that sex-education, under the name of "sex-hygiene," was at first a sanitary propagandism need not interfere with the larger development of sex-education. It now seems probable that before many years pass we shall learn how to make a satisfactory combination of both the sanitary and moral sides of sex-education, and so it is best that the educational movement started on the foundation of the undisputed facts of sanitary science which have made a powerful impression on the people who do and who do not recognize a code of sexual morals.

[Sidenote: Medical interest.]

The deep interest of the medical profession is directly responsible for the close association between the beginning of the sex-education movement and the diseases of immorality. At the organization meeting of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, Dr. Prince Morrow in the opening paragraph of his address said: "We have met for the purpose of discussing the wisdom and the expediency of forming a society of sanitary and moral prophylaxis. The object is to organize a social defense against a class of diseases which are most injurious to the highest interests of human society." Thus, the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis started as an avowed enemy of the social diseases and so it has continued to the present. The very name of its official journal, Social Diseases,[19] indicated the central idea of the Society. Likewise, most of the local American societies for sex-hygiene have names including such phrases as "social hygiene," "prevention of social diseases," "sanitary prophylaxis"; and only one, the Massachusetts Society for Sex Education, has a name which does not directly suggest the medical problems of sex.

[Sidenote: In Europe.]

In Europe, the sex-instruction movement has been concerned chiefly with spreading information concerning the social diseases. In 1902 an international congress for consideration of the venereal diseases was held in Brussels, and this congress recommended that in all countries there should be organized sanitary, social, moral, and legal societies for the prophylaxis of these diseases. As a result of this recommendation, prophylactic societies were formed in France, Germany, Italy, Holland, the United States, and other countries. Of these, the German society for the prevention of venereal disease became the strongest, with over five thousand members and twenty branch societies.

[Sidenote: National societies.]

The fact that the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis was organized by a group of people in New York City tended from the beginning to make it a local society. While for several years it took the lead in sex-hygiene and enrolled members residing in many parts of the United States, it was never a national organization. In recent years the word "American" has been omitted from its name, and its work has been limited to New York City and vicinity.[20] Many independent state and city societies were organized within a few years after the original sex-hygiene society in New York. This multiplication of societies called attention to the need of a national organization, and in 1910 the various societies were affiliated in the American Federation for Sex-Hygiene. Dr. Morrow was the leading spirit in the Federation until his death. In 1913, the Federation and the American Vigilance Association (a society especially concerned with the social evil) were united in the American Social Hygiene Association. Its offices are at 105 West 40th Street, New York City.

Sec. 51. Important Steps in the Sex-education Movement in America

May 23, 1904. Dr. Prince Morrow's plea for the organization of a society of sanitary and moral prophylaxis, read before the Medical Society of the County of New York.

February 9, 1905. Organization meeting of the American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, in New York.

March, 1906. Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Diseases organized.

October, 1906. Chicago Society of Social Hygiene organized.

December, 1907. Portland (Ore.) Social Hygiene Society organized.

October, 1908. Spokane Society of Social and Moral Prophylaxis organized.

June, 1910. American Federation for Sex-Hygiene organized.

1911. Oregon Social Hygiene Society organized.

July 20, 1912. Resolution of the National Education Association favoring training of teachers with the view, ultimately, of sex-instruction in schools.

September 23-28, 1912. Meeting of subsection on sex-hygiene, Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography. Washington, D.C.

February, 1912. Organization of American Vigilance Association.

October, 1913. Merging of the American Federation for Sex-Hygiene and the American Vigilance Association into the new American Social Hygiene Association.

1913. Organization of Pacific Coast Federation for Sex-Hygiene, changed to Pacific Coast Social Hygiene Association in June, 1914.

July, 1914. The National Education Association, at Minneapolis, adopted the following resolutions in line with the latest principles of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis and the American Social Hygiene Association:

"The Association, re-affirming its belief in the constructive value of education in sex-hygiene, directs attention to the grave dangers, ethical and social, arising out of a sex consciousness stimulated by undue emphasis upon sex problems and relations. The situation is so serious as to render neglect hazardous. The Association urges upon all parents the obvious duty of parental care and instruction in such matters and directs attention to the mistake of leaving such problems exclusively to the school. The Association believes that sex-hygiene should be approached in the public schools conservatively under the direction of persons qualified by scientific training and teaching experience in order to assure a safe moral point of view. The Association, therefore, recommends that institutions preparing teachers give attention to such subjects as would qualify for instruction in the general field of morals as well as in the particular field of sex-hygiene."

Sec. 52. The Future of the Larger Sex-education

[Sidenote: Public has lost interest in sensationalism.]

I hear many questions as to the probable future of sex-education. I am asked: "Is it moribund?" "Is it a disappearing fad?" "Has not the high tide of interest passed?" No doubt such questions are inspired by the oft-repeated statement that public interest in sexual questions has waned decidedly in the last few years. This is true, and it is a most fortunate indication of approaching sanity. The public interest in the last decade has been most deplorable, because it has centered in the abnormal and sensational aspects of sex. Authors have vied with each other in presenting the most lurid cases of social diseases, white slavery, sexual perversions, and every other available aspect of sexual degeneracy. Of course, the reading public was bound to grow tired of this, just as it wearies of a horrible murder trial or of a sensational divorce case. It is certainly true that there is a marked decline of general interest in sexual abnormality and sensationalism; but that does not mean that the sex-education movement is moribund.

[Sidenote: Sex-education permanent.]

The wave of sensational revelation has passed; but the intelligent public is no longer ignorant of the nature and causes of the great problems of sex, and is well aware that young people need definite guidance for facing the facts of life. It is unthinkable that intelligent parents who are now well informed concerning sex will ever again stand for the old policy of mystery and silence. It is, therefore, impossible to believe that there is any danger of sex-education disappearing. Of course, we have not reached a permanent system of sex-education. There certainly will be vast changes in our approved subject matter and methods of teaching; but the main idea of the sex-education movement is gaining support every day.

[Sidenote: Sex-education fundamental.]

There is another reason why sex-education will be permanent. In addition to the great need of educational help with information and influence which will mold the individual life with regard to the problems of sex, it must be evident to all that even the legislative, sanitary, social administrative, religious, ethical, and other attacks upon the problems depend upon knowledge and attitude, at least of the leaders. Look at the problems of sex outlined in the earlier lectures from whatever angle we will, and it appears that, in the final analysis, education offers the only key to a possible solution. Therefore, I assert that sex-education—the larger sex-education—is an absolutely fundamental factor in every phase of the social-hygiene and sex-ethical movement.

[Sidenote: Ultimate effect of sex-education.]

In closing the last lecture of this series, let me state my confession of faith in sex-education: It is certainly only one of several possible lines of attack on the alarming sex problems of our time; but it offers the most hopeful outlook towards improved sexual morals and health, both physical and psychical. However, we shall gain nothing of permanent value by extravagant claims or hopes as to the ultimate effect of sex-education. We must expect incomplete results. It will not entirely solve the sex problems for all individuals who receive instruction; but it will solve all of the problems of many individuals and help many others. It will not eradicate the social evil and its characteristic diseases, but it will protect many young people and so reduce the sum total of awful consequences. It will not prevent all divorces and matrimonial disharmonies, but already the biological teaching is helping and some day the social-ethical problems will be understood and then most intelligent men and women will understand the fundamental principles for permanent and harmonious monogamic marriage. Finally, sex-education will not enforce universal sexual morality in conformity with our accepted code, but it will help many individuals through decisive battles with sex-instincts.

[Sidenote: Sex-Education and general education.]

Such are some of the lines along which extreme claims and hopes for sex-education have been and are still being made. There is some truth in each; in fact, there is more than enough to justify the present movement for sex-education. To all those who see nothing in the movement because it will not solve all the sex problems which have created a demand for special instruction, we may reply by simply pointing to the fact that general education makes some better and more efficient citizens, but many times it fails to give desirable results. We believe in general education because it aims to offer all individuals help in preparation for more efficient life, although it succeeds only in part. Likewise, we should stand for the instruction of all young people in matters concerning sex because it is certain that such knowledge will function completely in many lives and will work appreciable good in many others.

[Sidenote: A permanent and essential part of education.]

I cannot believe that sex-education is one of the long line of modern educational fads which quickly pass their day, for no other phase of education so closely touches life. History and geography and even a large part of the "three Rs" may be of little use in the lives of numerous people, but sex-education deals with problems which the normal human life cannot possibly avoid and which each individual must be prepared to solve for himself. Therefore, we may confidently assert that instruction concerning the most important aspects of sex processes and relationships will soon be recognized as an absolutely necessary part of a rational and efficient scheme for the education of young people.

[Sidenote: The never-ending problem of good and evil.]

The larger sex-education is sure to have a permanent place in the never-ending work of preparing coming generations for the highest development of life's possibilities. Each succeeding generation of young people must be prepared by educational processes to face intelligently and bravely the problems of sex that are sure to come into every normal life. Of course, sex-education at its best development can do no more than give the individual a basis for intelligent choice between good and evil; but here, as in all other upward movements of human life, the decision must depend upon a clear and positive recognition of the advantages of the good as contrasted with the evil. Hence, the one essential task of sex-education in its broadest outlook is to guide natural human beings to recognition and choice of the best in the sexual sphere of life. And in so far as each coming generation of individuals may be thus guided by the larger sex-education, the problems of sex will be pragmatically solved, for the social aggregate of human life will become better, happier, nobler, truer, more in harmony with the highest ideals of life, more like our vision of perfected humanity.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] The name was changed in 1913 to Journal of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis.

[20] While this book was in press, the name was changed to New York Social Hygiene Society.



XII

SOME BOOKS FOR SEX-EDUCATION

I have decided to publish only the names of selected books which seem to me to be the best for teachers, parents, and young people. In making the selection, I have considered several hundred books which bear on the sex problems in an educational way, and have decided to reject the majority of them. While there might be some value in a long list with critical notes on books that I cannot recommend, it would be a worse than thankless task to compile such an annotated bibliography; for the compiler would surely add to his collection of enemies many authors whose books deserve severe criticism. The sudden and sensational publicity concerning matters of sex and the possibility of commercial exploitation has produced an avalanche of sex books, some good, many bad, and the majority ordinary. Evidently, most of the authors, including numerous physicians, have written to order and without special preparation.

The books of the following lists are not all deserving of unqualified recommendation. In fact, some of them are included because they are the least objectionable of their much-needed kind, and others because they have some good grains that the reader will find worth picking from a mass of non-nutritious but, fortunately, non-poisonous chaff.

I have not included many books which I recognize as important for readers thoroughly trained in science, but which are dangerous for the average reader of literature on sex.

It is possible that I may have overlooked some very good books that I have not intended to ignore; and I shall be glad to have my attention called to books which deserve recognition.

Special bibliographies have been published in Wile's "Sex-Education," March's "Towards Racial Health," Geddes and Thomson's "Sex," and Foster's "Social Emergency."

Publishers.—In most cases the first part of the names of well-known publishers has been given. Unless otherwise mentioned, they have offices in New York City. In addition, the following abbreviations have been used:

A.M.A. = American Medical Association, Chicago.

A.S.H.A. = American Social Hygiene Association, 105 West 40th St., New York City.

S.S.M.P. = Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 105 West 40th Street, New York City.

Association Press = press of the National Board of the Y.M.C.A., New York City.

FOR EDUCATORS AND PARENTS

ADDAMS, JANE. "A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil." Macmillan. $1.00. (Contains all the average reader needs to know concerning prostitution.)

BOK, EDWARD, Editor. "Books of Self-Knowledge for Young People and Parents." Revell. $.25 each.

BIGELOW, M.A. "Relation of Biology to Sex-Instruction in Schools and Colleges." Journal of Social Diseases, II, 4, October, 1911.

CABOT, RICHARD C. "The Christian Approach to Social Morality." National Y.W.C.A., New York. $.50.

CABOT, RICHARD C. "What Men Live By." Houghton Mifflin. $1.50. (A book that has helped many people.)

CABOT, R.C. "Consecration of the Affections." Proceedings of Fifth Cong. Amer. School Hygiene Assoc., III, 1911, p. 114. Also in Amer. Phy. Ed. Rev., XVI, 1911, pp. 247-253. (See "Criticisms of Sex-Education" in Sec. 46 of this book.)

COCKS, ORRIN G. "The Social Evil and Methods of Treatment." Association Press. $.25.

CREIGHTON, LOUISE. "The Social Disease and How to Fight It." Longmans. $.35. (A splendid essay on social impurity from a modern woman's viewpoint. Constructive and optimistic.)

ELIOT, C.W. "Public Opinion and Sex-Hygiene." A.S.H.A. $.05.

ELIOT, C.W. "School Instruction in Sex Hygiene." Proceedings of Fifth Cong. Amer. School Hygiene Assoc., 1911.

ELLIS, HAVELOCK. "The Task of Social Hygiene." Houghton. $2.50. (Certain chapters concern sex-education.)

GALLOWAY, T.W. "Biology of Sex." Heath. $.75.

GEDDES, PATRICK, and THOMSON, J. ARTHUR. "Sex." Holt. $.50. (Excellent.)

GEDDES and THOMSON. "The Problems of Sex." Moffat. $.50.

FOSTER, W.T. "The Social Emergency." Houghton. $1.35. (Twelve excellent essays by President Foster, Reed College, and nine others, on social hygiene and education.)

HALL, G. STANLEY. "Adolescence." Appleton. 2 vols. $7.50.

HALL, G.S. "Youth: Its Education, Regimen and Hygiene." Appleton. $1.50.

HALL, G.S. "Needs and Methods of Educating Young People in Hygiene of Sex." Pedagogical Seminary, XV, March, 1908.

HALL, G.S. "Teaching of Sex in Schools and Colleges." Journal of Social Diseases, II, 4, October, 1911.

HALL, WINFIELD S. "Sex Training in the Home." Richardson, Chicago. $1.10.

HENDERSON, CHAS. R. "Education with Reference to Sex." University of Chicago Press. Part I, 78 cts.; II, 80 cts. (Part I demonstrates need of sex-education; II, the educational problems.)

HERTER, C.A. "Biological Aspects of Human Problems." Macmillan. $1.50. (Sexual instincts, pp. 182-252; sex-education, 306-316.)

HIME, MAURICE C. "Schoolboys' Special Immorality." Churchill, London. $.40. (For masters of boarding schools.)

HODGE, C.F. "Social Hygiene in Public Schools." School Science and Mathematics, April, 1911.

HOWARD, W.L. "Start Your Child Right." Revell. $.75. (Readable, sensible, helpful to parents.)

LOWRY, EDITH B. "False Modesty: That Protects Vice by Ignorance." Forbes. $.50. (Arguments for sex-instruction in home and school.)

LOWRY, E.B. "Teaching Sex-Hygiene in the Public Schools." Forbes. $.50. (Useful for parents and teachers.)

LYTTLETON, E. "Training the Young in the Laws of Sex." Longmans, Green. $1.00. (Heartily approved by many educators.)

MARCH, NORAH H. "Towards Racial Health." Routledge, London. $1.00. (Very helpful book for parents and teachers.)

MORLEY, MARGARET W. "Renewal of Life." McClurg. $1.10. (Nature-study basis for teaching children.)

MORROW, BALLIET, and BIGELOW. "Report of Special Committee on Matters and Methods of Sex-Education." A.S.H.A. $.05.

MORROW, PRINCE A. "Teaching of Sex-Hygiene." A.S.H.A. $.03. (A splendid address.)

MORROW, P.A. "The Boy Problem." S.S.M.P. $.05. (Helpful to parents.)

MORROW, P.A. "The Sex Problem." S.S.M.P. $.03. (A fair statement of the double morality problem.)

PARKINSON, WILLIAM D. "Sex and Education." Educational Review, January, 1911. (Stands for ethical and aesthetic teaching primarily.)

SCHARLIEB and SIBLY. "Youth and Sex." Dodge. $.25.

SELIGMAN, E.R.A. "The Social Evil." Putnam. $1.50. (A good survey of the evil, based on the work of the Committee of Fourteen in New York.)

WILE, IRA S. "Sex Education." Duffield. $1.00. (A very useful book for parents.)

WOOD-ALLEN, MARY. "Teaching Truth." Crist Co. $.50. (Suggestions for mothers' talks to young children.)

"Social Hygiene." A quarterly journal of the A.S.H.A. $2.00 per year, free to members.

FOR GIRLS

ADDAMS, JANE. "Spirit of Youth and the City Streets." Macmillan. $1.25.

CHAPMAN, ROSE WOODALLEN. "How Shall I Tell My Child?" Revell. $.25.

DODGE, GRACE H. "A Bundle of Letters to Busy Girls." Funk. $.50.

HALL, JEANNETTE W. "Life's Story." Steadwell, La Crosse, Wis. $.25. (Biological facts for girls of 10 to 16.)

HALL, W.S. "Life Problems: A Story for Girls." A.M.A. $.10. (A good pamphlet for girls of 12 to 18 years.)

HALL, W.S. "The Doctor's Daughter: Studies about Life." A.M.A. $.10. (On nature-study basis, for girls under 12 years.)

HOOD, MARY G. "For Girls and the Mothers of Girls." Bobbs-Merrill. $1.00.

HOWARD, W.L. "Confidential Chats with Girls." Clode. $1.00.

SMITH, NELLIE M. "The Three Gifts of Life." Dodd, Mead. $.50. (A girl's responsibility. For girls 15 to 18, who have no more than grammar-school education. In general, sentimental and unscientific; but Chapter IV, "Gift of Choice," is excellent.)

TORELLE, ELLEN. "Plant and Animal Children: How they Grow." Heath. $1.00. (Useful as a nature-study reader concerning reproduction of animals and plants.)

WOOD-ALLEN, MARY. "Almost a Woman." Crist Co. $.50. (A story for girls of 12 years.)

WOOD-ALLEN, MARY. "What a Young Girl Should Know." Vir Co., Philadelphia. $1.00. (For girls under 12 or 14.)

FOR BOYS

HALL, W.S. "John's Vacation." A.M.A. $.10. (On nature-study basis, for pre-adolescent boys.)

HALL, W.S. "Chums." A.M.A. $.10. (For adolescent boys.)

HALL, W.S. "Developing into Manhood." Association Press. $.25. (Biological basis, for boys of 15 to 18 years.)

HALL, W.S. "Life's Beginnings." Association Press. $.25.

HALL, W.S. "Youth." Association Press. $.25. (For boys 10 to 12.)

HOWARD, W.L. "Confidential Chats with Boys." Clode. $1.00.

JENKS, J.W. "Life Questions of School Boys." Association Press. $.25.

JEWETT. "The Next Generation." Ginn. $.75. (Elementary eugenics.)

TORELLE, ELLEN. "Plant and Animal Children." (See under books for girls.)

TREWBY, ARTHUR. "Healthy Boyhood." Longmans. $.40.

WOOD-ALLEN, MARY. "Almost a Man." Crist Co. $.50. (Similar to "Almost a Woman." For pre-adolescent boys.)

FOR WOMEN

DRAKE, E.F.A. "What a Young Wife Ought to Know." Vir Co., Philadelphia. $1.00.

GALBRAITH, ANNA. "Four Epochs of a Woman's Life." Saunders, Philadelphia. $1.50. (Medical in style. Certain sections relating to heredity are not satisfactory.)

HALL, W.S. "Sexual Knowledge." Intern. Bible House, Philadelphia. $1.00.

KEY, ELLEN. "Morality of Woman and other Essays." Seymour, Chicago. $1.00. (Ideal morality as a basis for marriage. Good introduction to author's "Love and Marriage.")

LOWRY, E.B. "Herself." Forbes. $1.10. (In general, accurate. Medical style.)

MARTIN, H.N. "Human Body—Advanced Course." Holt. $2.50. (Last chapter, on reproduction, excellent.)

RUMMEL, LUELLA Z. "Womanhood and Its Development." Burton Co., Kansas City. $1.50. (One of the best books for mature women. Poorly printed.)

SCHREINER, OLIVE. "Woman and Labor." Stokes. $1.25. (Important for the feminist movement.)

WEST, MRS. MAX. "Prenatal Care." Bulletin of Children's Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Labor. (A very practical pamphlet.)

WOOD-ALLEN, MARY. "What a Young Woman Should Know." Vir Co., Philadelphia. $1.00. (The best-known book, preferred by the majority of mothers.)

FOR MEN

EXNER, M.J. "Problems and Principles of Sex-Education." Association Press. $.10. (Study of college men, and an essay on principles.)

EXNER, M.J. "The Physician's Answer." Association Press. $.15. (Summary of opinions of numerous physicians concerning the problems of young men.)

EXNER, M.J. "The Rational Sex Life for Men." Association Press. $.15. (Good, and helpful to many young men.)

HALL, W.S. "From Youth into Manhood." Association Press. $.50. (Highly approved and widely used.)

HALL, W.S. "Instead of Wild Oats." Revell. $.25. (Bok Series, Biological and Sociological basis.)

HALL, W.S. "Reproduction and Sexual Hygiene." Wynnewood, Chicago. $.90. (Very useful book, but criticized by many who disagree with the hygienic part.)

HALL, W.S. "Sexual Knowledge." Intern. Bible House. Philadelphia. $1.00. (Useful for both men and women. Includes the best of the above book.)

HOWARD, WILLIAM LEE. "Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene." Clode. $1.00. (Sensational and exaggerated statements concerning social diseases; language unnecessarily offensive in places; but discussion of "continence" is good.)

HOWELL and KEYES. "The Sexual Necessity." S.S.M.P. $.03.

LOWRY, E.B., and LAMBERT, R.J. "Himself: Talks with Men concerning Themselves." Forbes. $1.00. (Accurate in facts; not well arranged; not "the best book," as the publishers claim.)

LYDSTON, G. FRANK. "Sex Hygiene for the Male." Riverton, Chicago. $2.25. (Readable, fairly reliable, but not worth the price.)

MARTIN, H.N. "Human Body—Advanced Course." Holt. $2.50. (Last chapter, especially in 1910 edition.)

MOORE, H.H. "Keeping in Condition." Macmillan. $1.00. (A physical training book.)

MORROW, PRINCE A. "Health and Hygiene of Sex." S.S.M.P. $.05. (The best-known pamphlet for college men.)

SPEER, ROBERT E. "A Young Man's Questions." Revell. $.80.

SPERRY, LYMAN B. "Confidential Talks with Young Men." Revell. $.75.

STALL, SYLVANUS. "What a Young Husband Ought to Know." Vir Co., Philadelphia. $1.00. (This and the next are useful to men who prefer a religious approach to sexual information.)

STALL, SYLVANUS. "What a Young Man Ought to Know." Vir Co., Philadelphia. $1.00.

WILSON, ROBERT N. "American Boy and the Social Evil." Winston. $1.00.

FOR THE MARRIED

COCKS, ORRIN G. "Engagement and Marriage." Association Press. $.25. (Talks to young men, but young women should be interested.)

COWAN, JOHN. "Science of a New Life." 1869. $3.00. (Obsolete, unreliable, unscientific; but widely sold by magazine advertising.)