wd women are diseased some of the time and some lewd women are
diseased all of the time. Now, whether the lewd woman is of the
clandestine type or a professional in the house of ill-fame, it does not
matter. Some say the clandestine is the more dangerous. Why? Because no
attempt is made to have medical care. . . . That doesn't get at the real
condition at all, and so she retains disease in her body and gives it to
every one perhaps who visits her for months to come. When that is in a
woman's system, it is almost impossible to eradicate. It is shocking,
but we must know the facts. Statistics show that of the operations on
women in the hospitals of New York City year before last for the removal
of one or both ovaries, sixty-five per cent of those operations were
brought about and necessitated because of gonorrheal infection.

WOMAN IN THE AUDIENCE: And most of them were married women.

DR. HALL: A considerable proportion of them were from the house of
ill-fame. No small proportion of them were lawfully wedded, high minded,
wives and mothers. Now, it is not customary for a doctor to say to a
woman going to the hospital, "Madam, your difficulty is of a venereal
origin"--no, he says, "I find an abcess. You must get to the hospital as
soon as possible or you probably will lose your life. It is a question
of life and death to get to the hospital and have an operation." If the
doctor had said to this woman in every case "This is is of gonorrheal
origin," you can imagine what the woman would say who knew she had led
an innocent, pure life. She would say "Why?"--"You must have got it from
some man." "But I never have had any contact with any man but my
lawfully wedded husband." "Well, you must have got it from your lawfully
wedded husband then."

Our standards are not high enough. Why a lawfully wedded husband should
fix it up with his conscience to act so basely towards his wife we have
yet to find out. But it is a wrong standard and I am glad to be able to
say to the wives and mothers in this audience that almost without
exception when I say to young men "Fellows, isn't it time that we have a
single standard of purity for men and women?" they respond the same way
you have responded and it is a question of education and we must keep it
up.

Fathers and mothers in this audience--and I see there are probably
grandfathers and grandmothers--let us see to it that our children are
instructed in these matters by telling them the tru