State

Rally brings a large crowd to hear VD message. The Rev. James A. Henderson, pastor of the Oak Level Christian Church, Vance County, delivers a vigorous talk on prevalence of venereal disease. He had a capacity audience at the little white church far back in the cotton belt. VD Education Thanks lo Ilie effective work of the VU Educational Institute in llaleigli. effective steps are now” being' made in checking the rav¬ ages of venereal disease. Bt/ KILL SHARPE SUPPORTED by federal, state and private funds, a new and fundamental front has been opened up against venereal disease. At the VD Education Institute at Raleigh, N. C., a “laboratory" to forge and test weapons for use against America’s greatest scourge has been set up, and is objectively sorting out the good ones from the bad. while ceaselessly hunting for that elusive and universal grand idea which will do to syphilis what an informed public opinion did to tuberculosis and smallpox. Examination of men for the second World War showed whole¬ sale syphilitic infections and dem¬ onstrated that nothing even re¬ motely resembling control had been accomplished in the intervening 25 years. Tests of the first two 6 million selectees indicated an average of 47.7 men in every thou¬ sand were syphilitic. The rate in the South was much higher. In some states it ran to over 160 per 1,000. Unlike other agencies involved in VD control and cure, the VD Institute at Raleigh is not engaged in the medical campaign against syphilis and gonorrhea. Its sole function is to find some workable way of striking at the ignorance, fear and indifference which made VD so difficult to control. The problem of VD control, more than in any other health prob¬ lem, is one of enlightenment. Im¬ munity from smallpox and many other diseases does not depend up¬ on the individual’s will nor his co¬ operation. But to prevent and cure syphilis and gonorrhea, health officials are helpless without the individual’s will to assist himself. With this country just now bring¬ ing the VD situation boldly to the people, a number of important questions are yet to be satisfac¬ torily answered. How are the facts to be presented? To whom? By whom? How are illiterates to be reached? In a word, what educa¬ tional methods will accomplish what is desired? The VD Institute, operating with finances from the U. S. Public Health Service, the State and the Smith Reynolds Foundation, is undertaking to answer these ques¬ tions. It creates material, tests its effectiveness, makes the proven residue available to any agency. Its director, Capus Waynick, former newspaper publisher and public administrator, hopes that by this trial and error system, the sentimental, wasteful and ineffec¬ tive methods will be eliminated, and that out of his laboratory will come ideas which will make the Anti-VD appeal as simple and efficacious as the appeals which banished ТВ and other scourges. The Institute’s production meth¬ ods are similar to those of other health agencies. Posters and pamphlets are printed, a textbook for high schools is being prepared, campaigns are mapped out. The similarity ceases there, how¬ ever. Waynick says there is a growing demand among public school educators for “real" sex- education — and this, he believes, is the ultimate weapon against VD. The Institute’s textbook will go more directly and vigorously at the problem than any he has seen. Statistics show that VD flour¬ ishes along with illiteracy and pov¬ erty — the Institute is striving to find simple and dramatic means of reaching people in these circum¬ stances. The Institute thinks good posters can help in this job. Army posts are ordering the Institute's graphic offerings by the hundreds of thousands. They are already going across the international bor¬ ders, and some of them are being translated for use in Latin-Ameri- can countries. Slides and strip film sequences are being produced, with different types for different audi¬ ences. Movies, similarly typed, are planned. Waynick says that in no health field is the phrase “too little, too late” so poignantly applicable. He believes that sex education and in¬ cidental VD information must start at a new level among many young