the problem of syphilis invariably bound
up with discussions of the social evil has been to perpetuate in popular
thought an association which simply blocks the way to any solution of
the public health problem. While the control of prostitution will
influence syphilis, ignoring syphilis, or treating it as incidental,
will never contribute anything to the conquest of either. It is one of
the most significant features of the great movements now on foot all
over the world that they have finally adopted the direct route, and are
attacking syphilis and gonorrhea as diseases and not by way of their
association with prostitution.

The agencies in this country which are making notable efforts to push
the campaign against syphilis and gonorrhea deserve every possible
support from the thinking public. The American Social Hygiene
Association is a clearing-house for trustworthy information in regard to
the problems of sexual disease, and publishes a quarterly journal.[16]
The National Committee for Mental Hygiene and its branch societies are
also engaged in spreading knowledge of the relation of syphilis to
mental disease and degeneration. State and City Boards of Health are
active in their efforts to further the campaign, and notable work is
being done by New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Rochester, New
York, both on publicity and in the provision of facilities for
recognizing and treating the diseases in question. Certain states, such
as Ohio, Michigan, and Vermont, have made steps toward an intelligent
legislative attack on different aspects of the problem. Influential
newspapers and magazines have made the idea of a campaign against these
diseases familiar enough to the public, for example, to bring a young
girl to me to ask outright without affectation that she be told about
syphilis, because she had seen the word in the paper and did not fully
understand it. The aggregate of these forces is large, and an awakening
is inevitable.

[16] Social Hygiene, New York.

To prepare ourselves for an active and intelligent share in the
movement, we should review briefly the essential elements of a public
campaign against syphilis as they have been developed by recent
investigations and legislative experiments.

+Undesirable and Freak Legislation.+--Syphilis has had a limited amount
of recognition in law, unfortunately not always wise or timely. Freak
legislation and half-baked schemes are the familiar preliminaries which
pr