VOL. II. JULY, 1911 No. 3 THE AMERICAN FEDERATION FOR SEX HYGIENE. The object of this JOURNAL is to furnish a report, as complete as possible, of the progress of the movement for the prevention of social diseases. The formation of the American Federation for Sex Hygiene marks a most important step in advance. As many of the recent subscribers to the JOURNAL may not be familiar with the circumstances which led to the formation of this Federation it may be of interest to present a brief resume of its origin and purposes. The object of the Federation was to bring into closer relations the various societies which have been formed in different parts of the country and thus secure co-operation and concerted action in the work in which they were mutually engaged. The Federation was organized in St. Louis, June, 1910, by a meeting of delegates from eleven of the societies of different states. Since then several new societies have come into existence and now eighteen such bodies are represented in this Federation. It was recognized that, in order to carry out the purposes of the Federation in an effective way, it was necessary, first of all, to place it on a sound financial basis. The program, as formulated, was to raise a preliminary fund of $5,000 which should be used to secure a foundation fund to be contributed by forty "Founders," who would each pledge $1,000 a year for three years. The preliminary fund was completed last fall and, at a meeting of the Executive Committee in November, arrangements were made to employ an Executive or Traveling Secretary who should devote his time and energies to securing contributions. At a subsequent meeting of the Executive Committee, it was reported that four subscriptions of $1,000 each and two subscriptions of $500 each for three years had been pledged in Boston. Since then five additional subscriptions in Boston and six subscriptions in New York have been pledged, with a number of fractional subscriptions of from $250 to $500, making altogether over $50,000 thus far pledged. It would be premature to define-certainly to delimit the field of work opening up before this Federation. The work is primarily educational. The key-note of this educational campaign has been sounded as publicity and sex instructiongeneral enlightenment of the public as to the enormous prevalence and dangers of venereal diseases to the public health, and especially to innocent members of society through their introduction into the family, and instruction of the rising generation in the laws and hygiene of sex. Already, as a result of the enlightenment of the public through the efforts of the various societies engaged in this work, there has developed a remarkable receptivity on the part of the public to a knowledge of facts in regard to these diseases which have always been covered up and concealed. In consequence of the awakening of public interest in the sex problem, a deluge of so-called sex books is now flooding the country, a few of them good, most of them indifferent, and some of them positively bad. This multiplication of harmful literature constitutes a real danger we have to face. The general public is a great infant which swallows what is given it in the way of sex literature, without the ability to distinguish between what is good and wholesome and what is adulterated and positively pernicious. It is important to separate the wheat from the chaff-to recommend what is good and condemn what is bad. In addition, many persons have entered the lecture field who are not qualified either by knowledge or experience to undertake this difficult and delicate work and who, by their injudicious utterances, offend rather than educate the public. Another danger is the precipitancy and haste with which the introduction of sex instruction in the public schools has been urged by many whose perceptions have been awakened to the need of this instruction, but who may not fully appreciate the difficulties in the way. As a matter of fact, there is, in the present organization of our educational system, an utter unpreparedness on the part of teachers, the majority of whom are young and unmarried women, to impart this instruction, and again there is a lack of elementary text-books, which would serve for the teaching of sex along biological lines. This latter, however, is a deficiency which should be readily supplied. One of the most important |