Warren sheaf., 1913-02-06

NUMBER S
schlecht luft''. and any one entering
the room would need no instrument
but his nose to assure him that
Wolpert is unquestionably correct.
The great difficulty with the aver
age man. be he professional or lay,
is that he delays correcting the evil
until the nose is offended. What the
physical effects Of such condition
may be, | shall not attempt to state,
but | know that it is the best means
for producing dullness, an irritable
ity in children and crankiness and
acerbity in teachers. It has all the
elements necessary to reproduce a
modern Xanthippe and the forty
made famous by tantalizing the
prophet Elisha. Were it not for the
blunders of builders in not making
buildings tight and for the possibil-
ity of opening windows, which orig-
inally We're intended to admit light
but not air. the conditions of most
school rooms would be unendur-
able.
My work has brought me in con-
tact with more than 200 different
schools in the state, and I L have
found but few schools wher., the
maximum amount of fresh AR is
made available through the system
of ventilation. Even in places
where mechanical ventilation has
been installed the supply of air is
often inadequate. Windows are
thrown open to get from the out
side directly the oxygen needed, and
the custom has become so common
that it hardly ever excites any COM
ment. Our thoughtless domestic
habits determine to great extent
our attitude to school ventilation.
We occasionally open a door or
window to get rid of the foul air
which has accumulated in room
occupied by two or three people,
and without much thought given to
the subject we act as if a similar
process were quite the thing for
school room occupied by more than
forty little human beings each one
making fight for existence at tre-
mendous odds. We are all quite
ready to agree that it is only pro-
per that all school buildings-old as
we'll as new-should be we'll ventiI-
ated, but when it comes. to the exc
cution hesitate on account of
the cost in money. We stop to ask
"Does it pay?" just as legislators
did before adulterated foods receiv-
ed their proper labels. Does it pay?
Does it pay to produce a race
whose physical weakness is appar-
ent in sallow compilations and I'M
dersized stature? Does it pay to
submit child to all the possible
dangers from disease which poor
ly ventilated school room is certain
, TO do? Does it pay to curtail the
physical and intellectual develop
ment of a child that survives the
ordeal, hut might have come out of
! school with much greater capacity?
Does It pay when 5000 school chill
dren in the city of Boston ha.se.
been found to have positive cases Of
tuberculosis. when New York city
, reports more than 25.O00 tuberculo-
sis children in the schools, when on
the basis Of these other investiga-
tions it is estimated by certain au-
! thorities that there are nearly L.
E! 100000 school, children in the Unit
/ ed States today who will probably
, die OF tuberculosis before they have
reached the age OF eighteen? Does
it pay to protect your child who is
yet able to resist the insidious at
tacks of this enemy of the human
race? True the school can not do
all to overcome the evils resulting
j from vitiated air, but from the
school might emanate the desire for
better conditions in the home. Well
ventilated homes are not common,
but they are not entirely unknown
and it is to be hoped that with the
increase in the number of properly
ventilated school houses may also
come an increase in the number of
ventilated homes.