Wilbur A. Sawyer, a major in the U.S. Army, addressed the American Public Health Association in 1918, arguing that the majority of venereal disease infections in soldiers came from within the civilian community. His article offers statistics regarding the infection rate of soldiers and the sources of infection. Military physicians discovered many instances of venereal disease through the military draft, which required health inspections for all drafted men. Much of the panic surrounding gonorrhea and syphilis came from numbers reported by draft boards. States were urged to create boards of health and implement public health policies related to venereal disease control, but, as the article indicates, it is questionable whether these initiatives were pursued for the health of civilians or the health of current and future soldiers.
The war against Germany is over, but the war against venereal disease is only started.
A little while ago we were fighting venereal diseases to keep them down in the army and to insure the winning of the war. Now the experience of the War Department in venereal disease control is primarily of interest as a demonstration of facts and methods of value to the civilian health officials. . . .
The draft brought in men from all walks of life and the records at the camps indicate that they brought with them the greater part of the venereal disease that the army has had to contend with.
[V]enereal disease is a large problem in the civilian population and . . . the army problem is principally the result of civilian conditions which existed before the war, and should be corrected.
When it appeared necessary to control conditions in the soldiers’ environment, the War Department put army officers and social workers into the zones around the camps to see that the laws against liquor and prostitution and health laws, or regulations, concerning venereal diseases were enforced. . . .
After the first selective draft, it was apparent that the greatest sources of venereal disease were the towns and cities from which the men came. The army then appealed to the states through their health boards to face the problem of venereal disease in order to protect the soldier of future drafts. . . .
At the same time that the soldier was being informed about venereal diseases and was receiving appeals to keep himself fit to fight, the law enforcement group was at work in the nearby communities where the soldier spent his leisure time. . . . The officers in the extra cantonment zones saw that the federal and local laws were enforced, that red light districts and houses of prostitution were closed, that street walking was suppressed and prostitution in hotels and lodging houses was kept at a minimum. At the same time arrangements were made, as far as the local laws would permit, to have all prisoners who were arrested for sex offenses examined for venereal disease and quarantined and treated if found diseased. . . .
One of the important parts of the program has been the activities of the social workers of the Section of Women and Girls of the Law Enforcement Division of the Commission on Training Camp Activities. . . . It is their duty to keep young girls from getting into prostitution and they also see that the women who are arrested or quarantined are kept properly occupied in the detention houses, hospitals, or prisons, and study the cases while under confinement. . . .
The army is being sent home clean. Will their communities make it easy or difficult for them to remain so? The war has awakened the country to the need for venereal disease control.
Source: Wilbur A. Sawyer, “Venereal Disease Control in the Military Forces,” American Journal of Public Health 9 (May 1919): 337–39, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1362507/.
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