"Then why are you here urging the appropriation of so large a sum?" he asked.
"For the same reason," I replied, "that will cause you to appropriate it."
He looked at me with some astonishment and I added:
I have not the information that justifies so large an expenditure; nobody has. The Surgeon General, who is a wise and economical administrator, has estimated that under certain contingencies this money will be required. I cannot see into the future. If there are no unforeseen casualties and no epidemics, we will neither need nor spend the money. But if the possible in war happens, and some great disaster or far-reaching epidemic befalls us, what could I say to the fathers and mothers of the Republic if I had disapproved the recommendation of the Surgeon General, and what would they say of you and the Congress if you refused to vote the appropriation? The sum may seem too large to you or to me. It is, if past experience can be depended upon. But in war, in matters of battles and wounds and death and possible epidemics, our duty is to make large provision in the hope that it may not all be needed.
The Chairman, zealous to win the war and to give every aid, led the fight for the large appropriation.
The administration at Washington, charged with the conduct of the war, early realized that health was the foundation of military efficiency, that health was dependent upon clean living, and that protection of men in uniform from drink and disease was the prime duty owed to them, to their parents, and to the world dependent, in the last analysis, upon their fitness to fight. Ignorance, intemperance and indifference were the first foes to be faced in 1917.
The war broke precedents. The first broken was to override the ancient theory that Government has nothing to do with the private life of a fighter and no duty to protect him from immoral surroundings. Our Government recognized that "the single man in khaki ain't no plaster saint." As the youths poured into the training camps, harpies set up their joints hard by. For the first time in history the Government said to them: "Thou shalt not." It drove them and their establishments from the vicinity of stations and camps.
Authority was given by Congress for the Chief Executive to establish zone systems for protection of camps. President Wilson established zones wherever sailors, soldiers, or marines were undergoing training. Appeals were made to state and local authorities for assistance. Writing early in 1917 to the Governor of Rhode Island, where military efficiency was jeopardized by failure to enforce laws, I said:
There lies upon us morally, to a degree far outreaching any technical responsibility, the duty of leaving nothing undone to protect these young men from that contamination of their bodies which will not only impair their military efficiency but *** return them to their homes a source of danger to their families and the community at large.