In the health section of your issue for April 19, the writer saw your
article on Courses on Sex Hygiene. Considering the fact that these
lectures were given expressly for social workers, it was surprising to
learn that only the first few were well attended. If there is any
subject demanding the attention of social workers, it surely is this
most important one.
About eighteen months ago a young woman, a member of the Factory
Committee of the Wolf Company’s plant, incidentally mentioned the
interest taken in a series of lectures on this subject given to members
of a girls’ club in one of the main social houses on the East Side. The
question of giving these lectures was immediately taken up with the
management, with the result that four series of four lectures each were
given to about 175 employes. This was the first time that many of these
workers had the opportunity of learning, in a dignified and instructive
manner, the interesting story of reproduction.
The lectures were given by Nellie M. Smith whose book containing these
talks, The Three Gifts of Life[1] has recently been published, and many
of those who attended the lectures purchased copies of this volume with
the intention of giving them to their mothers or younger sisters to
read.
Footnote 1:
The Three Gifts of Life. By Nellie M. Smith. Dodd, Mead & Co. 138 pp.
Price $.50; by mail of THE SURVEY $.56.
These same lecturers are now being given by a large industrial
corporation in this city which is always ready to investigate
thoroughly, any work that makes for the betterment of the life of its
workers. Furthermore, the question of giving these lectures to six other
manufacturing establishments is now being seriously considered.
It might be well to mention that these lectures were merely announced to
the workers and in no case was attendance compulsory. They were given
without charge during regular working hours.
Our workers have surely benefited by the knowledge gained through this
course and the writer trusts that many other manufacturing concerns will
give this matter serious thought. It is an established fact that the
worker cannot get full production from any power machine unless the
human machinery is properly cared for, and but few persons thoroughly
understand how to best care for themselves.