South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-05-14

Physical examinations are en-
phatically the order of the day All
sorts and conditions of men and
women are being searchingiy exam
med. factory workc $. drafted men.
office staffs and department store
forces And as the business OF
physical examinations is to discover
physical defects, the general i'm
preston produced is that the human
machine is little better than a bum
die of breakdowns, and its most
striking Characteristic is its ten
dency to get out of order
We are lugubriously assured that
all sorts of grave physical defects of
the heart, the kidneys the nervous
system are increasing at an appall-
ing rate, and there are plenty Of
statistics TO apparently support the
claim.
But something like a reaction is
now setting in and while not be-
lifting the gravity of the defects
discovered, we are beginning to cen
ter more attention upon the fact
that the human machine somehow
still works in spite of them. &c pur
sc muove," C'and yet it mOves") as
Calico said Of the earth The more
defects we discover the more we
marvel at the resources and power
Of the body to overcome them and
carry on" in some sort Of fashion.
The more parts" the body-machine
has TO get out of order the more
spares" il has in hand 10 draw
upon to fill the gap. Compensate"
as the technical term has IT,
While it is of great importance TO
discover and correctly size up the
weak spot. we are no longer focuss-
ing our attention so exclusively upon
il. on the contrary we instinctively
turn from il to the rest of the body
works TO see where we can find
substitute, wheel or shaft, or aux
iliary force which will do part duty
/ for it, or temporarily relieve il
from the worst of its strain, so as
to give it opportunity 70 catch up
and recover it's balance
In other words. we are coming to
attach more importance to broader
views of the body as a whole. not
so solely how many weak spots it
/ has but how many strong places and
| RESOURCES in reserve. How does II
maintain its balance and do it's
work and how can il be helped to
do even better. We are concerned
] not quite so much with what a
mans weaknesses are but with what
\ his strength is. And in any body
still up and at work the strong and
/ healthy parts practically always
I have clear majority over the weak
and defective ones, often a wide one.
This has always been the method
\ of the thoughtful physician with his
individual patient but when men
come to be examined in large NUM-
| hers, whether for industry, for life
/ insurance of for the army. the idea
\ Of rejection naturally tends 10 be-
come first and dominant. OF weed
\ ing out certain ones and excluding
/ them. labeled unfit" OF finding out
what a man is unfit for rather than
what he is fit for
But a reaction from this negative
and wholesale point OF view soon
set in and is gathering force every
\ day. And this reversal is not only
+ theoretically reasonab bic and humane
but works well in actual practice.
! For instance, when universal phys
I ical examinations were first proposed
\ in industrial establishments. they
We're bitterly objected TO by organ
lied labor on the ground that they
would result in throwing out OF en-
I plovment all men who were begin
ming 10 break down and who would
thereafter md great difficulty in
getting another job and probably
only at greatly reduced wages.
M r,hnn the nn,,,o i,tn no+,,.