The statistics of the Church show for its members resident in organized communities exceptionally low death-rate, high birth-rate, and high average age at death, as compared with the official reports of corresponding data for the registration area of the country at large. Of the certified causes of death "Mormons" lead the country in one, and that one is old age. The Divine promise of health, prosperity, and prolonged life are in course of rich fulfilment among the Latter-day Saints, as in part the natural effect of obedience to the word of the Lord embodied in the Word of Wisdom. -- 59 -- UNCHASTITY THE DOMINANT EVIL Infamy of a Double Standard of Virtue THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the law of personal purity as a Divine commandment, the violation of which constitutes one of the most grievous of sins. We hold that the requirement is equally binding upon both man and woman, and that a standard by which he is excused and she condemned is infamously unjust. Expressive of the attitude of the Church upon this subject, the following excerpts are taken from a pamphlet issued by the late President Joseph F. Smith, who at the time of writing was the presiding official in the Church. "What has come to be known in present day literature as the social evil is a subject of perennial discussion, and the means proposed for dealing with it are topics of contention and debate. That the public conscience is aroused to the seriousness of the dire condition due to sexual immorality is a promising indication of prospective betterment. No more loathsome cancer disfigures the body and soul of society today than the frightful affliction of sexual sin. It vitiates the very fountains of life and bequeaths its foul effects to the yet unborn as a legacy of death. "Infidelity to marriage vows is a fruitful source of divorce, with its long train of attendant evils, not the least of which are the shame and dishonor inflicted on unfortunate though innocent children. The dreadful effects of adultery cannot be confined to the erring participants. Whether openly known or partly concealed under the cloak of guilty secrecy, the results are potent in evil influence. The immortal spirits that come to earth to tabernacle in bodies of flesh have the right to be well-born, through parents who are free from the contamination of sexual vice. "It is a deplorable fact that society persists in holding woman to stricter account than man in the matter of sexual offense. What shadow of excuse, not to speak of justification, can be found for this outrageous and cowardly discrimination? Can moral defilement be any the less filthy and pestilential in man than in woman? Is a male leper less to be shunned for fear of contagion that a woman similarly stricken?