The Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA), also popularly known as the Fosdick Commission, [1] was an umbrella agency within the United States Department of War during World War I that provided recreational and educational activities for soldiers as they trained for combat. Established in April 1917, the CTCA had the mandate to keep American troops "physically healthy and morally pure", [2] while also motivating them to fight. [3]
The Department of War established the Commission on Training Camp Activities on April 17, 1917, less than two weeks after the U.S. entered World War I. [2] Secretary of War Newton D. Baker appointed Raymond B. Fosdick to lead the new agency. [4] Fosdick was the author of an August 1916 report which found that problems with alcohol and prostitution were rife at the military training camps on the Mexican border during the Mexican Expedition. To improve the moral aspects of camp life, Fosdick had recommended public condemnation of the "illicit trades" and making alternative forms of recreation available to soldiers. [2]
Both President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary Baker sought to build support for American entry into World War I by defining the objectives of the war in terms that appealed to progressives. [2] In the international sphere, Wilson had argued that Americans would be making the world "safe for democracy" and that the U.S. was "but one of the champions of the rights of mankind". [2] [5] Domestically, American soldiers would be part of a reform program that would fight the forces of degradation that had traditionally plagued military training camps. [2] Wilson sought to reassure the public that they could entrust their young men to the military, [6] stating:
The Federal Government has pledged its word that as far as care and vigilance can accomplish the result, the men committed to its charge will be returned to the homes and communities that so generously gave them with no scars except those won in honorable conflict. [2]
By keeping alcohol and prostitutes away from soldiers, the CTCA aimed to cultivate the "man-power and manhood" of the American troops. [7]
A "twin" Commission on Training Camp Activities was later created for the Department of the Navy at the request of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. [7] [8]
The CTCA's primary objective from the start was to prevent the spread of venereal disease among American soldiers. [2] [6] [4] To address this, it introduced programs in social hygiene, education, recreation, law enforcement, and prophylaxis. [2]
Tasked with raising the morals and the morale of troops in military training camps across the U.S., the CTCA sponsored activities, including athletics, singing, movies, theatre, libraries, and lectures, as well as sex education. [9] [10] [6]
The CTCA cooperated with voluntary organizations, particularly the YMCA, which established "huts" where soldiers could engage in social activities, such as playing cards, writing letters, or attending lectures or performances. Similar camp establishments were also created by the National Jewish Welfare Board and the Knights of Columbus. [1] : 60
The agency's ideology was characterized by the Progressive Era, which strived against prostitution, alcoholism, "social diseases", and poor sanitary conditions in major cities. While attempting to eradicate these problems from training camps, the CTCA also aimed to "socialize and Americanize" native-born and foreign-born soldiers to meet the expected level of social standards and to integrate them into the armed forces. However, sources found that ethnic organizations and community leaders from these groups pushed back and attempted to preserve their own cultures. [4]
Raymond Fosdick appointed Dr. Walter Clarke of the American Social Hygiene Association to head the Social Hygiene Instruction Division of the CTCA, which created educational materials for troops such as lectures and pamphlets, with the goal of encouraging sexual continence to reduce the spread of venereal disease. [1] : 61
Whereas venereal diseases were, at the time, commonly treated as a symptom of moral or spiritual degeneration, the CTCA's instruction took a scientific, rational approach. Lecturers were advised to avoid "words of semitheological connotation, as well as all words with a sentimental or 'sob' tinge." [1] : 62
The CTCA's instruction urged sexual continence (i.e. abstinence from sex), in opposition to the sexual double standard which had prevailed in the previous century, in which women were expected to remain chaste until marriage, but it was tolerated for men to exercise their sexual energy with multiple partners. Some military officers and politicians opposed this progressive angle, and clung to the notion that men needed sexual outlets to maintain their morale or vigour. Samuel Gompers, a leader in the American labor movement, and a member of the Council of National Defense gave a spirited denunciation of the tack at a meeting of the council:
What have you been doing? Sold out to the so-called "social hygienists" and the prohibition fanatics, long-haired men and short-haired women? You shall not make the war an opportunity for these complacent so-called "reformers" to accomplish their nefarious work! When have fighting men been preached to on the beneficence of continence? The millennium has not arrived and until it does your pronouncements of yesterday will not be accepted. Real men will be men. [1] : 67
Among the tools used by CTCA educators to promote continence were gruesome imagery and stories demonstrating the consequences of venereal disease infections. Educators also pointed to what progressive physicians at the time termed "innocent infections"—that is, the potential for men to contract a disease during service and later transmit them to their wives, who may in turn transmit them to their newborn children. [1] : 65 They also sought to dispel the notion that continued sexual activity served to maintain or strengthen a man's sexual potency, positing instead that the opposite was the scientific reality: that men had finite sexual reserves, and could weaken themselves by an excess of sexual exertion. [1] : 63–64
The CTCA produced two feature length silent dramas relating to sexual hygiene in 1917, both directed by Edward H. Griffith: Fit to Fight and The End of the Road . Fit to Fight was screened for more than one million military men during the war. [11] The End of the Road was aimed at women, and was screened privately for women's groups in the US.
After the war, the CTCA gave the rights to the films to the American Sexual Health Association, which screened them commercially (Fit to Fight was edited and released under the new title Fit to Win) through the distributor Public Health Films. The films were controversial upon public release, facing censorship attempts and criticism for their graphic imagery and mentions of prophylaxis. The backlash faced by The End of the Road and Fit to Win, along with a cohort of other 1919 sex hygiene films, ultimately led to more studio censorship and were a factor in the emergence of exploitation films as a distinct niche. [12]
For native-born and foreign-born troops, the result was portrayed as allowing these citizens to retain their cultures while integrating into American culture. [4] Although a stated aim of the CTCA was to establish adequate recreational facilities for troops in camps, studies have demonstrated its programs sought to control soldiers' and women's sex lives to prevent venereal diseases and to uphold social morality. [13] The CTCA has been portrayed as "one of the last stands of an older generation of moral reformers against the onrush of a liberalizing sexual culture". [13] Historian Eric Wycoff Rogers, however, argues the agency used sexuality and sexual denial to motivate soldiers to fight harder. [3] [13] Their efforts have been described as both altruistic and propagating conservative social ideology. [14]
Paulina Luisi (1875–1950) was a leader of the feminist movement in the country of Uruguay. In 1909, she became the first Uruguayan woman to earn a medical degree and was a firm advocate of sex education in the schools. She represented Uruguay in international women's conferences and traveled throughout Latin America and Europe. She was also the first Latin American woman to participate in the League of Nations and became one its most influential early activists. Her work has had a lasting effect on women of the Americas.
The social hygiene movement was an attempt by Progressive era reformers to control venereal disease, regulate prostitution and vice, and disseminate sexual education through the use of scientific research methods and modern media techniques. Social hygiene as a profession grew alongside social work and other public health movements of the era. Social hygienists emphasized sexual continence and strict self-discipline as a solution to societal ills, tracing prostitution, drug use and illegitimacy to rapid urbanization. The movement remained alive throughout much of the 20th century and found its way into American schools, where it was transmitted in the form of classroom films about menstruation, sexually transmitted disease, drug abuse and acceptable sexual behavior in addition to an array of pamphlets, posters, textbooks and films.
Ettie Annie Rout was a Tasmanian-born New Zealander whose work among servicemen in Paris and the Somme during World War I made her a war hero among the French, yet through the same events she became persona non grata in New Zealand. She married Frederick Hornibrook on 3 May 1920, after which she was Ettie Hornibrook. They had no children and later separated. She died in 1936, and was buried in the Cook Islands.
Baltimore's The Block is a stretch on the 400 block of East Baltimore Street in Baltimore, Maryland, containing several strip clubs, sex shops, and other adult entertainment merchants. During the 19th century, Baltimore was filled with brothels, and in the first half of the 20th century, it was famous for its burlesque houses. It was a noted starting point and stop-over for many noted burlesque dancers, including the likes of Blaze Starr.
Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country.
The American Sexual Health Association (ASHA), formally known as the American Social Hygiene Association and the American Social Health Association, is an American nonprofit organization established in 1914, that cites a mission to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities, with an emphasis on sexual health, as well as a focus on preventing sexually transmitted infections and their harmful consequences. ASHA uses tools such as education, communication, advocacy and policy analysis activities with the intent to heighten public, patient, provider, policymaker and media awareness of STI prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment strategies.
Sex Hygiene is a 1942 American drama film short directed by John Ford and Otto Brower. The official U.S. military training film is in the instructional social guidance film genre, offering adolescent and adult behavioural advice, medical information, and moral exhortations. The Academy Film Archive preserved Sex Hygiene in 2007.
During the American Civil War, sexual behavior, gender roles, and attitudes were affected by the conflict, especially by the absence of menfolk at home and the emergence of new roles for women such as nursing. The advent of photography and easier media distribution, for example, allowed for greater access to sexual material for the common soldier.
The practice of prostitution in colonial India was influenced by the policies of British rule in India. During the 19th and 20th centuries the colonial government facilitated, regulated and allowed the existence of prostitution. Not only was prostitution in India affected by the policy of the Governor General of India, it was also influenced by the moral and political beliefs of the British authorities, and conflicts and tensions between the British authorities and the Indian populace at large. The colonial government had a profound effect on prostitution in India, both legislatively and socially.
The outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases in World War II brought interest in sex education to the public and the government. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, military maneuvers increased worldwide and sexual hygiene and conduct became major problems for the troops. Soldiers and sailors on assignment overseas were often lonely, had time to spare, got homesick, or were just looking for female companionship. This resulted in many men having multiple sex partners, and as a result, became a major health concern. During the Great War, venereal diseases (V.D.) had caused the United States Army to lose 18,000 servicemen per day. Although by 1944 this number had been reduced 30-fold, there were still around 606 servicemen incapacitated daily. This drop in numbers was partly because of the Army's effort to raise awareness about the dangers faced by servicemen through poor sexual hygiene, and also because of the important developments in medicine. In late 1943 a case of gonorrhea required a hospital treatment of 30 days, and curing syphilis remained a 6-month ordeal. By mid-1944, the average case of gonorrhea was reduced to 5 days, and in many cases the patient remained on duty while being treated.
The End of the Road is a 1919 American silent drama film produced by the American Social Hygiene Association. The film was directed by Lieutenant Edward H. Griffith for the purposes of health propaganda. The plot follows the lives of two young women - one raised by "the right kind of mother" and the other by a mother that is judged to be wrong. This film was targeted at young women with warnings about premarital sex and venereal disease and was notably produced during World War I.
Sybil Neville-Rolfe OBE was a social hygienist and founder of the Eugenics Society, and a leading figure in the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases. She has been described as a feminist and a eugenicist.
Jane Parker Deeter Rippin (1882–1953) was an American social worker, who founded the first detention home for female offenders. She served as the national director of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1919 until 1930. During her tenure, she saw Girl Scout membership quintuple from 50,000 to 250,000; she also oversaw the formation of local Girl Scout councils and the start of Girl Scout cookie sales.
The Chamberlain–Kahn Act of 1918 is a U.S. federal law passed on July 9, 1918, by the 65th United States Congress. The law implemented a public health program that came to be known as the American Plan, whose stated goal was to combat the spread of venereal disease.
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The history of prostitution in France has similarities with the history of prostitution in other countries in Europe, namely a succession of periods of tolerance and repression, but with certain distinct features such as a relatively long period of tolerance of brothels.
Raymond Blaine Fosdick was an American lawyer, public administrator and author. He served as the fourth president of the Rockefeller Foundation for twelve years (1936–1948). He was an ardent internationalist and supporter of the League of Nations, standing as its Undersecretary in its provisional organisation before resigning after the U.S. Senate's failure to ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations. After stepping down from his position as Undersecretary, he started his law firm and grew closer to John D. Rockefeller Jr., which would lead to a long and fruitful relationship as a friend and adviser. From his position as a trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation as well as numerous other Rockefeller philanthropies, he moved to being the president of the foundation. Fosdick lead the organisation through the difficult years of World War II before retiring and becoming an author, documenting the history of the foundation and Rockefeller Jr.'s life.
During the beginning of the late Victorian era in Cape Town, South Africa, prostitution was considered an offense but was rarely prosecuted. The majority of prostitutes during this time were local women of color, though there was a small number of European women partaking in sex work as well. As time progressed, regulations on prostitutes increased under the Contagious Diseases Acts, and Cape Town saw a rise in both European prostitutes and prostitution itself as a result of the Mineral Revolution and the Second Boer War.
Maude E. Miner Hadden (1880–1967) was a pioneer in the field of social work and an activist in the anti-prostitution movement. She was the first woman probation officer of the Magistrates' court in New York City, and the co-founder of Waverly House for Girls, the Girls Service League, the Committee on Protective Work for Girls, the Institute of World Affairs, and the Palm Beach Round Table.
Fit to Fight is a silent sex hygiene film about the dangers of venereal disease written and directed by Edward H. Griffith. It was produced by the Commission on Training Camp Activities and initially shown to American World War I soldiers. After the war, a slightly edited version was commercially released to the public in 1919, under the title Fit to Win. The film proved controversial due to its graphic imagery and its limited support for prophylaxis. It was subject to censorship attempts, and contributed to the emergence of the exploitation film as a distinct niche.
It operated through the following Divisions: Athletic; Camp Music; Executive Office; Law Enforcement; Liberty Theater; Military Entertainment; and Social Hygiene.
Programming for training camps included athletics, singing, movies, stage entertainment, libraries, and lectures, as well as unabashed modern sex education
Primary sources
