President Roosevelt last week matched Edward VIII in making sexual conduct a matter for unembarrassed adult discussion. In an open letter to a conference on Venereal Disease Control in Washington, the President stated: “Since I cannot attend in person, I am glad to convey to you . . . this expression of my very deep interest in the success of your effort. . . . The Federal Government is deeply interested in . . . reducing the disastrous results of venereal disease.” That this was high time to do some plain speaking about sexual conduct was the deliberate conviction of Dr. John Hinchman Stokes, University of Pennsylvania professor of syphilology. Declared that particularly well-informed expert: “Our researches have indicated a sensible [i. e.
appreciable] trend in venereal disease away from intercourse between the sexes, and towards sodomy and pederasty.” No President had ever said or written so frankly as Franklin Roosevelt, and he might not have done so if he had not been egged on by his longtime friend and subordinate, Dr. Thomas Parran Jr. When Dr. Parran became Surgeon General of the U. S. Public Health Service last year he declared that he intended to treat syphilis and gonorrhea like other pandemic diseases (notably tuberculosis) and fight them in the open (TIME, Oct. 19 et ante).
Last week he assembled 600 doctors and social hygienists for a grand antivenereal campaign of 1937.
In direct charge is Assistant Surgeon General Raymond Aloysius Vonderlehr, 39, a determined administrator. Speaking in a tight-voiced monotone, Dr. Vonderlehr last week advised the 6.000.000 victims of syphilis, the 12,000,000 victims of gonorrhea and the unestimated victims of soft chancre (caused by Streptobacillus ulceris mollis) in the U. S.* that they may reasonably expect the following means of relief during 1937: “1) The appointment of a full-time venereal disease control officer in every State department of health.
“2) A much more liberal policy with regard to free distribution of antisyphilitic drugs [to rich and poor alike].
“3) The more general use of dark-field microscopic examination, either direct or delayed, in the diagnosis of early syphilis.
“4) The more widespread use of epidemiologic investigations in the control of syphilis.
“5) Greater persistence on the part of health officers in the attempt to obtain reliable morbidity and morality reports.
“6) The development of an increased number of facilities for the provision of treatment. [About 1,000 free, pay and part-pay clinics exist in the U. S., one clinic for every 130,000 inhabitants.] “7) The adoption of reasonable standards of efficiency by State health departments before formal recognition is given to clinics for the treatment of syphilis and gonorrhea.
“8) A much more liberal allotment of funds for direct expenditures in the control of the venereal diseases.” Under Josephine Roche, sociologically-minded Assistant Secretary of the Treasury who opened last week’s Conference, Dr. Parran has $10,000,000 to carry out the 1937 campaign. Brimming with zest, the conferees last week urged Dr. Parran to ask Congress for another $15.000,000.
Upon his promise to do so, the conferees scattered over Washington to buttonhole their Congressmen.
*Other venereal diseases, which occur too infrequently to be a U. S. public health problem: lymphogranuloma inguinale, granuloma inguinale, yaws.
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