[Presented by....U.S. Public Health Service. Federal Security Agency. A Sound Masters Production]
[Written by...Oscar Saul. Photography...James Lillis. Music...Tom Bennett.
Narrator...Arnold Moss. Directed by...Owen Murphy.]
[A marching band in uniform marches down the street in formation, led by a drum major.]
[Banner reading We Can Do It Again hangs from upstairs windows in a house, with people leaning out waving.]
[Marchers and music continue; children are shown lining the street.]
This is the portrait of a veteran.
This is the portrait of a man who was ready to do whatever his country asked.
This is the portrait of a veteran who would fight again if he could.
[Elderly man walks slowly with walking canes in both hands]
No, he wasn't wounded. It wasn't an enemy shot that crippled him. It's not a wound of
battle that makes him walk this way.
Yet, this soldier was crippled by the war.
He was one of the tens of thousands of men who were mobilized. Away from home, away from
friends, away from old habits.
He was struck by an enemy in the blood by a germ: the spirochete.
The germ that causes syphilis.
Syphilis that came and seemed to go away, but stayed in the blood to cripple him later on.
This is the portrait of the veteran of World War I. A portrait of one of the thousands
of soldiers just taken from duty by syphilis.
One of the thousands crippled, some killed, by the enemy in the blood.
But, this is a sickness and death that is preventable. Syphilis can be fought and beaten.
And in the laboratory they are fighting it.
In the laboratory, they found new and powerful weapons against syphilis.
There's the microscope test that searches out the spirochete and helps the doctor find
an early infection.
There's the blood test that can search the blood for syphilis. Doctors send blood samples
here for laboratory testing.
[Images of three people appear in front of the technician]
The technician examines the blood and finds -- negative. This patient is not infected.
[Image of man on the left smiles and disappears.]
Negative. This patient is not infected.
[Image of woman on the right smiles and disappears]
Positive -- danger. This patient may have syphilis and the doctor examines him for other
signs and does a second blood test to check the first.
[Image of man in the middle looks distressed and disappears]
If the patient is infected, then it can be treated. Infection can be fought with the
weapons of the laboratory.
The infection can be conquered if the patient takes the full course of treatment.
The laboratory's found the chemicals that cure syphilis: bismuth, mercury, arsenic.
Early treatment with these chemicals is insurance against a child born dead or crippled. Insurance
against a heart weakened by syphilis.
Yes, the battle in the laboratory is well fought, but this is only half the fight.
Here, is where the other half of the fight is to be made. Here in the schools and colleges.
Here where syphilis strikes at the fighting strength of the country and the Navy.
And among the soldiers, here, we must fight. And in the mills and plants where the nation's
work is done.
Here, where the people are. This is where venereal disease strikes.
And this is where the other half of the fight must be fought.
It can only be fought here, among the people and by the people. By people who know the
enemy, how he strikes, and how to strike back.
Know the danger spots of the city, the places where the disease begins.
[A sign in front of an establishment reads Joe's]
[People are seen dancing inside Joe's.]
The places that infect the city and infect its people. The places with the easy pickups.
Yes, these are the danger spots...the places that breed syphilis.
Know the other danger spots. The dark, the hidden streets, the places that are whispered about.
[A man walks slowly down a darkened street.]
These are the danger spots. Here, the disease begins. Yes, here it begins.
[Aerial view of city]
Here, a new chain of infection starts.
A chain of infection that will take lives of children to be born and bring people to
hospitals, to insanity, and to blindness.
Here, it begins...
[Image of one family with lines extending out it.]
and spreads, from one part of the city to another. From one person to many people.
One infected person carrying infection to many people;
the infection spreading from them to countless others.
[Four lines extend out from a image of a man labeled 'Infected," to reach four women.]
[Man ambles down darkened street toward a storefront with a white sign reading "Men's Doctor.]
And with the disease, come the quacks.
The charlatans who thrive wherever people are ignorant, who bring disaster wherever
people have failed to fight syphilis.
The quacks who promise cures, but never cure.
[An ad reading Treat Syphilis with Dr. Welch's 6006 looms in front of the man.]
Authoritative voice: Don't worry, kid. I can cure you. It's no worse than a bad cold. I'll clear it up for ya.
Here, drink this. Cure is guaranteed!
[Ads for remedies promising cures appear and grow larger in front of the man, whose back is turned.]
Quack: 30 years as a specialist in men's diseases, a dollar a bottle, it's cheap, kid - you can't
go wrong with this stuff. You can't go wrong!
You can't go wrong! You can't go wrong!
[Health Department. Veneral Disease Clinic]
But he can go wrong. He will go wrong unless the people fight with knowledge, with treatment,
with blood tests to search the enemy out.
Yes, the people must fight to guard against the blindness that syphilis may cause.
To prevent the insanity the disease can bring.
To prevent the crippling, the broken minds, the twisted limbs, the suffering and the poverty.
All these the people must fight.
And the fight must be swift and hard because every day the casualties mount.
Thousands of sick and idle, and important jobs are left undone.
Production is sabotaged by syphilis.
[Amount of raw material to be processed piles up over time]
And men already under arms are struck by the disease.
In 1917, the army lost seven million days from active duty. Syphilis is the sniper, the saboteur
behind the lines.
But it strikes not in the field, not in the camps, but in the towns. That is where syphilis
must be fought.
So, if the people learn, they'll go to the doctors in the clinics to find the skills
that will make them safe.
If each person will guard himself, he can help destroy this waster of America.
He can save his own and the nation's strength for production.
For the nation's security. For all the work and joy of living.
The people can raze this shadow from the land, from their homes, if the people learn,
if they fight syphilis.
[The End. A Sound Masters Production]
[U.S. Public Health Service. 1798]