The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-09-02
PROCRESSIvISM
THREATENS RACE
So Or. Eliot Tells Congress
on School Hygiene.
SEGREGATE DETECTIVES! !

President Emeritus of Harvard and
President of the Congress Recon-
mends Segregation as the Only soIu-
tion Of Observation-Disclosures Pro-
notes Own Destruction.
The fourth international congress on,
school hygiene-the first to be held
on American soil-which has been in
session at Buffalo, heard some direct
language from DR.. Charles w. Eliot,
president emeritus of Harvard and
president of the congress.
THE progressive civilization of the
last 100 years." he said, ''has worked
terribly against the health and per-
petuity of the whole race. This is seen
in the reduced vitality Of the multi
tudes that inhabit closely built cities,
in the diminishing size of families, in
the incapacity of many women for
bearing and nursing children and in
the disproportionate increase in the
number of the insane, the defective
and the criminally inclined.
such cities as Paris, London, Ber-
lin, New York and Chicago bear wit
ness to the fact that modern civiliza-
ton is all the time preparing and pro-
noting its own destruction.
Segregation For Detectives.
ut is a plain duty of the state to
provide segregation of the defective
the insane and the habitual criminal
in order to prevent the breeding of
human beings from such stock 1t is
not yet clear how good breeding can
be promoted among free men and wo-
men, but 1t is clear now bad breeding
can and should be prevented.
"The outcome of this international
congress should be the enlightenment
of society concerning the means of de-
Tending civilization against its own
tendencies of decay and dissolution
and the strengthening of the social
resolution to put into execution all the
measures which Christian ethics and
the medical arts and sciences recon-
mend.
Among defensive measures against
the evils which crowded cities and the
factory system have brought on man
kind the subject of this comparatively
new sort of congress, school hygiene,
is of first importance. The evils which
result from bad housing, overcrowd-
ing and unwholesome excitement IN
cities and from the factory system
which prevails in many important in
duStries have their worst effect on
children and young people. 1t is to
the rising generation, therefore, that
preventive and remedial measures may
be most hopefully applied"
Over 1000 Scientists Present.
Attending the congress were upward
Of 1000 scientists and educators these
coming from every civilized land. On
behalf of the federal government Sec,
retary Wilson of the department of la
Dor extended the nations hand OF
} friendship to the visiting delegates
He said that school hygiene is one OF
the greatest problems Of the present
day and was followed by DR.. John A
Ferrell Of the Rockefeller sanitary
commission Of Washington, who told
of the work of the commission in the
Sou'heAh III olaleS, anu Wuere, dcCoruluS
to his paper, the investigators had eX
amined 661,5S1 persons, and Of this
number had found 329,573 infected
with hookworm.
"As an Indirect cause Of DEATH" DR.
Ferrell said, ''the hookworm has nc
equal. In many localities so to 10C
per cent Of children in the schools
have been found to be infected. These
make 30 per cent less Of progress than
do the healthy children"