life; it is equally true in our social life.  It is only by the girding-up of the whole spirit of man to go forth and meet his duty as a lover, as a husband, as a father, and it is only by the girding-up of all the powers of the woman to lead and to help, that the family is organized.  In this great human family of ours the man and the woman in days that are coming will cooeperate to remove from our midst the blackest and most fearful perversion of the natural powers of our race.  We do not believe in sitting down idly before this problem and saying, “It has always been, it always will be.”  In this great day of moral and spiritual progress, with powers that we have inherited from our forefathers in this land and other lands, we know that there is no necessary evil.  We are learning what the evil of sex is, and how it arises, and we are beginning to use the forces at hand for its destruction.  Conscience is kindling and determination is hardening among our people that this thing shall cease to be.  The ape and the tiger shall yet die from our midst, and man’s spirit shall triumph in his flesh.

FOOTNOTES: 

[59] A. Forel, The Sexual Question, chap.  XII, “Religion and Sexual Life”; William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, chap.  I; especially the first footnote.

[60] F.W.  Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, chap.  IV; especially section (d), “The Educational Significance of Monogamy.”

CHAPTER XII

AGENCIES, METHODS, MATERIALS, AND IDEALS

By William Trufant Foster

At the outset we observed that the present social emergency is not concerned merely with diseases, or physiology, or laws, or wages, or suffrage, or recreation, or education, or religion.  All of these phases of the present situation, and many others, must be taken into account in our attempted solution of the problem of sex hygiene and morals.  A person who believes that he can offer a quick and certain way out of our difficulties appears to have no comprehension of the problem.  This much, however, is certain:  the greatest need is public education.  The policy of silence has failed.  Accurate and widespread knowledge is a necessary condition of progress, whatever may be the chosen direction.  The main questions at issue concern the Agencies, Methods, Materials, and Ideals of education.[61] The following propositions are intended as a brief summary of the most important truths concerning each of those four aspects.

I. AGENCIES

1.  As there are but few parents who can and will give the necessary instruction, it must be given by other agencies, at least until a new generation of parents has been prepared to meet this responsibility.

2.  Although the failure of parents calls for the immediate action of other agencies, the instruction should be so conducted as to break down the barriers of false modesty and establish confidence between parents and children.[62]