Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1905-11-16
Home Health
Club
By DAVID n. REEDER. Ph. D..N.n.
La Porte, Ind.

Are we degenerating? Two promi-
nent health magazines have recently
had Mysteries over report made by
ono Of the recruiting officers of the
English army in which he states that
the physical condition of English man.
hood is terribly significant and most
dsquieting."
L am going to say, however, that I
think the committee appointed to in
vestigate the subject of physical de-
generation was quite correct in making
a report entirely contrary. The Anglo
Saxon race is not. by any means, de-
generating but is growing stronger
and healthier year by year. The Home
Health Club proudly claims to be one
of the factors that is helping in no
small degree the upward tendency.
The report Of the recruiting officers
says.
perhaps the gravest feature il that
the whole question of voluntary en-
listment is affected by this deplorably
low standard Of physique of the nation
generally and British soldiers in par
ticular.
''Of the men who offer themselves
for military service every year nearly
half are rejected by the medical off,
GERS. In 1908 there were 60,861 re-
cruits, but only 29,575 were accepted.
'These figures, bear in mind, take
no account of the very large number
of men who want to join the army. but
whom the recruiting sergeants will not
even look at, we'll knowing them to be
so manifestly unfit for service that it
would be waste of time to take them
before the doctors.
There would be no dearth Of re-
cruits if all who offered were physical
ly sound enough to pass the medical
examination. With yearly quota Of
$4,000 men, the number at present
forthcoming, there would never be any
scarcity of soldiers If it were not for
tie fact that so many have to be re-
jected.
"This army Of chronic invalids is
the best the nation can produce. They
are the picked men of the country
though they are feeble in constitution
and easily succumb to disease. Such
as they are, these few chosen from the
many are the wheat winnowed from
the chaff.
1.-THE reflections have been steadily
increasing for some years past. Ten
years ago there were "a per cent. or
one in three. Now one in every two
is rejected, and solely for medical rea'
sons.
"These reflections are on account Of
defects that indicate poor physical de-
velopment in the class from which the
military are largely recruited. The
defects are deficiencies In weight and
chest measurements, weak constitu'
lions, diseases incidental to general
debility and unsound organs. Flat
feet and bad teeth are also fruitful
causes. the latter increasingly so, prov
ing that the food eaten by the men
is unwholesome, and that their daily
life is ruinous to their health"
In the last paragraph the report
gives the secret of the whole trouble.
1.-THE class from which the military are
largely recruited" How many of our
strong, rugged school boys ever offer
themselves for enlistment in the regu-
lar army? There is better work and
better pay for the American as we'll
as the English lad, and the boys with
sound bodies have sound brains as well
and they know that the great battle of
life that is to be crowned with pleas
ure, honor and glory is not to be
found in the barracks Of the regular
army.
think would almost as willingly
see enc of my sons laid in his grave
while yet clean and pure as to see him
become one of these recruits. But let
the demand come for men to defend
our homes or our honor and l am
ready, as are all other citizens. to
not say: "Go, and God be with you,"
but "Come and God will be with us
because we fight for the right" Look
at the strong, lusty men who eagerly
presented themselves when a citizen
like Theodore Roosevelt said Come"
Let any real danger menace the home
of England or America and the recuit-
ing officers will receive such a sur
prise that pessimism and talk of de-
generacy will be unheard of again. He
is mistaken when he says that those
who present themselves are the pick
and best standards of physical man.
hood which the nation produces.
CLUB NOTES.
Viroqua-Dr. David H. Reeder, La
porte, Ind.-Dear Doctor: My husband
has been a subscriber for this paper
for good many years and have been
much interested in the Home Health
club department. L would like to ask