The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-06-22
LONG LIVE HIS MAJESTY"
CRIED THE LONDON CROWDS
EDUCATION MEANS
DISEASE TO MANY
Under Modern City Condi-
tions, tuberculosis Fight
ers Are Informed.
(National News Association

Denver, Colo. June 22.-"Compul-
sorry education under modern city con-
ditions spells for many children COM
pulsory disease" was the startling
statement made in the address of Leo
nard P. Ayres. associate director of
the department of child hygiene of the
Russell Sage Foundation, New York,
delivered before the National Associa-
ton for the Study and Prevention of
tuberculosis. DR.. Ayres said in part:
The new census will tell us that
the greatest group OF industries in
Denver is that of trade and transpor
tation, in which some 10000 people are
engaged. 1t will further tell us that
the greatest sedentary class in this
city is that made of people engaged
in professional service-doctors. dem
lists and the like-including total
of some 5000 people. These will be
the official figures, but they will be
wrong, for the greatest industry in
Denver is not trade and transporta-
ton, but education; and the greatest
sedentary class is not composed OF
those engaged in professional occupa-
tions, but rather those engaged in
teaching and being taught in the pub
lie schools. ....
Society Awakening.
Society is just awakening to a
startled realization of whot school life
means to this great sedentary class.
1t means that compulsory education
under modern city conditions spells
for many children compulsory disease.
This awakening is very recent. Ten
years ago, at the meeting of the Ma
tional Education association not one
paper was devoted to considering the
physical health of school children. In
this years meeting, twenty-six ad-
dresses are devoted to that problem.
Compulsory education has brought
school men face to face with the prob
lem of what to do for the cLild who
is subnormal physically and is COM
PEELED by law to attend school. The
solution of this problem has been
found in the open air school. Started
three years ago in Providence, r. L.,
the movement has spread across the
country from city to city. until now
no fewer than thirty-two cities have
open-air schools.
What Benefits Are.
This new type of school combines
the features of school, sanitarium and
playground. In it, the children enjoy
the benefits of outdoor life even in
the dead of winter. They are warmly
clothed, given wholesome food, and
their school work reduced in quantity.
Without exception, children in these
schools are greatly benefited. They
put on weight, become rosy and heal
thy, and are more alert mentally
"Open-air schools are two or three
times as expensive per capita as ordi-
nary schools, but the real question is
not whether cities can afford to es-
tablish them, but rather whether they
can afford not to. In Denver, about
ninety children of school age die each
year of tuberculosis. On the average
they have attended public schools for
about seven years at cost to the city
Of about $500 each. This means an
annual loss each year of about $25, 900
in Denver alone. in paying for the edu-
cation of children who die of tubercu-
iosis before reaching maturity. This
amount expended in open-air schools
designed to prevent this frightful
waste would go far toward meeting the
entire expense"