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DRINK AND DISEASE BEING CURBED Figures made public at Washington by the Army Medical Corps furnish striking proof of the success with which social disease among the troops is be ¬ ing curbed IxitU here and in France as a result of flcaningup campaigns in communities near the camps with the cooperation of the civil authorities The disease is the greatest foe of military efficiency in any army but the vigorous campaign being waged against it among American troops has al ¬ ready gone far toward keeping the army fit fitIn In France with probably 700000 men moblized the rate reported on June 13 showed less than one new case per 1000 men each week Before the war the lowest rate in the regular army was double this thisFor For more than thirty weeks expeditionary forces have maintained an annual rate of less than 75 per 1000 or less than two new cases a week In the United States the record was even better the aver ¬ age annual rate per 1000 for that period being National Guard 76 regular army 9S National Army 128 Medical authorities estimate the annual rate in the United States for all troops at 21 per 1000 which wpud mean one new case per 1000 every two weeks weeksOf Of the total number of cases among troops in this country the statement said fivesixths were contracted before Induction into the military service Of the newly inducted men seven out of every 100 have the disease when brought to camp campThis This disease it is stated claimed more victims than any other communicable disease during the period from Septeml er to May and more men were withdrawal from active service on account of it than because of injuries Only about 100 men how ¬ ever have been discharged physically unfit for military service cures having been effected in the other cases An investigator sent abroad to inspect conditions under which our boys in France are living says The American soldier abroad is a representative American who is living upon a moral plane above the normal plane of civilian life at home homeOur Our leaders in France have not conquered the vices of society but if the American Expeditionary Force is not setting an example of moral idealism to civilian life I have walked through France with my eyes closed and my ears stopped When you see one soldier drunk do not conclude that the Ameri ¬ can army is drunk When you hear of one syphilitic or 100 do not traduce en masse the flower of American manhood now transported to France There are men and a few officers wlio represent the old idea that the soldier is necessarily the vic ¬ tim of his passions and should be encouraged to gratify them but such officers are in u decreasing ratio to the whole and such privates are exceptions to the rule
