The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-19
WAR and HEALTH
TIE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic J. Haskin. Director,
Washington. D. G.
I-Are We Fit to Fight?

I-Are We Fit to Fight?
Washington, d. c., Sept. 1S.-This
is certainly one question raised by
the war. Physical examinations have
shown a large proportion OF unnt
among the nations young men. The
appointment of a committee or neur
ologists to care for the soldiers
nerves is tacit admission of the fact,
well known to the medical profession,
that we are a nation of neurotics.
Congress has taken note of the ma
tion's health, too. Mr.. Claypool OF
Ohio, has introduced a bill providing
for national board of physical Gull
ture, which is to cooperate with the
states in establishing national sys-
tenn of physical Training in schools
| for the purpose of raising men physl-
calIy fit for the army. Mr.. T1lson OF
! Connecticut, has made and widely
| distributed a speech on Walter Camp S
| Senior Service Corps" which enjoys
the patronage of eX-PreSIdent Ta1t
and other prominent men, and has Tor
its object the physical training OF men
past middle life. These two schemes,
should they both be generally adopted,
together with universal military train
| ing for young men, would provide for
the physical training of the Amer1-
can from grammar school to old age.
He needs it-that is not hard to
ton. The most impressive statistical
proof is the growth of degenerative
diseases, such as cancer, brights dis
ease, heart disease, and other organic
| ailments which spring from lack of
| exercise and too much eating Fifty
years ago America was q relatively I'M
| sanitary place, and death rates from
germ disease, such as typhoid and
| malaria, were more numerous. But
we were poorer then, we didn't have
/ i
and walked That lean and fit-look-
| ing old gentleman known to the world
as Uncle Sam was a pretty fair por-
trait of US we loowed then. Az
really representative Uncle Sam today
would have a forty-nine inch waist
| line and no whiSkerS, but q double
| chin.
The Diverted and the Underfed.
OF course out on the farms and in
| the west generally the physical aver
age is better. But nearly half of US
| live in cities now, and most of us are
getting either too much of the world S
| good things or not enough. Between
the overfed and the underfed, there is
| just narrow stratum of the rightly
| fed and adequately exercised who can
| still run down a street car or move a
piano without permanent injury or
| undue perspiration.
| Mr.. Claypoofs bill is plan for cut
| ting off this physical degeneration at
| the start by intoxicating habits of ex-
| ercise in early youth. 1t seems to be
q wise and comprehensive measure.
There is to be a federal board for
instruction IN physical culture, and an
annual appropriation. which will be
| distributed among state boards for use
| in establishing courses in physical Gull
| ture. Each state is to put up as
much as it receives from the federal
| government.
| This federal board is further to
make Investigations and hold tests for
| determining the very best exercises.
Prizes will be given to experts who
| demonstrate by actual tests upon Sc
lected subjects the value of their
| methods. In this way. a national sys-
tenn of physical culture is to be built
up, based upon the most scientific
methods, and upon combination of
state control and federal supervision.
Mr.. Camps senior service corps is a
| blow at the evil of physical degen-
| eracy in its most pernicious develop
ment. The worst of this spread of de-
| generative disease is that it takes
men off between the ages of As and
| IS, when they should have reached
the stage of greatest usefulness to
themselves, their families and the
| state. Nearly all of our business exec
utives are between these ages, and
the country can i'll spare them Just
now.
A Senior Service Corps of One.
Mr.. Camps corps consists of just a
hundred men in New Haven, Conn,
who want to keep themselves fit in
| order to meet the emergency of war
! Other senior service corps will doubt
less be established but any man who
cannot belong to such an organiza ton
may well constitute himself a senior
| service corps of one by following the
| DTinCin1PS nv
| Moderation, not only in eating and
| drinking, but in exercise, and work
| he believes to be the secret of fitness
after As. Walking and golf are the
exercises he recommends. Tennis he
believes, is too strenuous after 80. and
he does not believe that hard mill
tary hikes are good for men of mid
die age. At least four miles of walk
ing day are a necessity, and they
should be AIKEN with the head up and
accompanied by deep breathing
| Many a man finds too late that his
motor car has cost him more in health
and legs than it has in tires and gaso-
line"
Drink without eating and cal
without drinking" is another motto
offered the middle aged athlete. Five
glasses of water day between meals
are the amount recommended. Mod
crate eating is a necessity, Alcohol
If used at all must be used very SPAR
ingly, and the cocktail is especially
interdicted.
With regard to smoking, Mr.. Camp
suggests that if you leave it alone until
after lunch, you will never have q
| tobacco heart.
bath every morning, which should
be cold il you can stand it; hot if you
cannot, is necessity to good health
but perspiration is just as necessary as
water to a clean skin.
A Bad Liver and Lack of Exercise.
Mr.. Camps list of suggestions fol
his corps shows an insight into the
psychology of bad health as well a:
the physiology. He perceives thai
doubt and worry at once spring from
and cause disease. Vacillation and
doubt he characterizes as poisons fol
the nerves Envy, jealousy and wrath
are worse for the digestion than any