CHAPTER I

THE SOCIAL EMERGENCY

_By William Trufant Foster_


Concerning matters of sex and reproduction there has been for many
generations a conspiracy of silence. The silence is now broken. Whatever
may be the wisdom or the folly of this change of attitude, it is a fact;
and it constitutes a social emergency.

Throughout the nineteenth century the taboo prevailed. Certain subjects
were rarely mentioned in public, and then only in euphemistic terms. The
home, the church, the school; and the press joined in the conspiracy.
Supposedly, they were keeping the young in a blessed state of innocence.
As a matter of fact, other agencies were busy disseminating falsehoods.
Most of our boys and girls, having no opportunity to hear sex and marriage
and motherhood discussed with reverence, heard these matters discussed
with vulgarity. While those interested in the welfare of the young
withheld the truth, those who could profit by their downfall poisoned
their minds with error and half-truths. An abundance of distressing
evidence showed that nearly all children gained information concerning sex
and reproduction from foul sources,--from misinformed playmates,
degenerates, obscene pictures, booklets, and advertisements of quack
doctors. At the same time the social evil and its train of tragic