The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-03
CLAIMS PUPILS
ARE UNDERFED
'sTen Per Cent Of School Chill
dren Do Not Get Enough
to Eat"
KINDERGARTEN ELECTS
Dr.. Scott Nearing Says $3.50 a Year Is
Too Little on Which to Sup
port Family.

That $3.50 year is the lowest income
in proper physical condition, was one of
several radical statements made last
night at Memorial Continental Hall by
DR.. Scott Nearing. Of the University of
Pennsylvania. DR.. Nearing spoke on
'The Child-Social Asset or Liability"
before delegates to the international
kindergarten Union. at the closing meet
Ing of the convention.
Ten per cent Of school children do not
get enough to eat the schools are turn
ing out pupils incapable of thought be-
cause their "craniums are stored with a
mass Of useless transformation" and the
social standards of society will be lower
ed IF the slums continue to increase the
population while the mentally superior
classes contribute to child aid societies,
according to DR.. Nearing. He said In
part:
I'm eighty years the average number
OF children in families of Yale graduates
has decreased from eight to less than
two. This applies to other colleges. You
cannot make a knife with steel incapable
of holding an edge; no more can you
turn out social assets when you have not
proper material
Families of lower classes are from
| two to five times as great as those in
families of the superior classes. The
| slums are contributing to the population
while We are contributing to child aid
societies. Sooner or later the dispro-
portionate increase in the slums will
lower the standards of our society.
1T is conceded that $50 to $500 a year
is necessary in America to support a
man, woman and three children so as
to maintain the standard of physical ef-
ffciency
I'VE may assume that in Little Fails,
n. Y, where 40 out of 100 men get an
average salary of less than 50 a week,
and anly 13 in 100 more than SIS a week,
nine-teenths of the people do not get
enough to eat.
You tell these people to rise In the
silk mills of Paterson one man in 100
may rise to be proprietor. The best
argument in favor of race suicide is that
the more children there are in a family,
the smaller Is the income per person.
''Three-fourths of the 800 freshmen that
come to me each year are boobies-they
can't think. Pupils in our schools can't
think. We don't train them physically.
and methods of training them intel
lectually are inefficient. Their craniums
are stored with a mass of useless mis-
information.
I'm one-haIf of the cases in indus
tries. the men are not getting adequate
salaries. Instead of the highest, the
next generation will have put in them
the poorest form of heredity.'
Officers Arc Named.
DR.. Lightner Wilmer, OF the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. in concluding his
speech on Montessori methods of train
ing. was Kissed by the teachers who had
invited him to talk, when he said let
us raise monuments to Froebel (the
founder of the modern kindergarten but
let us forget what he wrote
Dr. William Heard Fitzpatrick. of Co.
lumbia University, said that Indians
have not, as is supposed, any better
eyesight than have modernized races
Our eyes are as good as theirs he
said. land are far more serviceable
for our needs"
Other speakers at the session yesterday
were DR.. Myron T. Scudder. of New
York: Miss Anne E. George of this city,
and Miss Julia c. Lathrop, chief of the
ChiIdren's Bureau.
Announcement was made of the nomi-
nation of officers. The following were
approved as officers for the coming year
by the delegates: Mrs. Mary B. Page,
Of Chicago. president; Miss Stella Wood,
of Minneapolis, first vice president; Mrs
Margaret ]. Stannard, of Boston (re-
elected, second vice president: Miss
Myra Winchester, of Washington, d. c.,
recording secretary; Miss Catherine r.
Watkins. Of Washington, D. c., corre-
spending secretary and treasurer, and
Miss Marion Hanckel, Of Charleston, S.
c., auditor
1t was decided to hold the next conven-
ton in Springfield, Mass
Votes of thanks rendered tho w "a sb;pp-
ton Chamber of Commerce, Board of
Education and school teachers. P. P
Claxton, commissioner of education, was
also thanked.