Note 7 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Whereas, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901, affirm that ever since November, 1898, the military authorities in Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken similar action; therefore
Resolved, That we earnestly protest against the introduction of the European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the United States for the following reasons:
1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving official sanction to vice.
2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory medical measures that are not applied to vicious men.
3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the community, everywhere fails to protect the public health.
Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that had ever tried the system.