The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-03-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN, Directcr,
Washington, d. @.
THE NATIONAL HEALTH
SHORTAGE.
washington. d. @.

| Washington. D c., March 13.-An
annual survey of the young men of tho
nation to determine their physical con-
dition and what can be done to i'm
prove it was suggested the other day
by General Pershing in an address to
some high school cadets here.
General Pershing was thinking of
his experience in the war. He re-
minded his hearers that go per cent of
| the men called for service were phys
| ically unfit, and he pointed out the
pressing need for something to remedy
| this situation.
The state of the national health as
| revealed by the draft seems to have
| been really the most sensational fact
of the war. 1t has spurred congress to
| draft and hold hearings upon compre-
| hensive measures for physical educa-
| ton. 1t seems to have made deep
| impression upon every thoughtful per-
| son in the country. If about half OF
the young men which the United
| States produces are weak, sick, under
sized, crippled. or otherwise ineffi-
cient, what is going to become of us
as nation? What is the use of pro-
ducing goods if we can't produce
men? What is a nation except the
people who compose it? If half of
those people are need1essly unfit thru
undernourishment ignorance and pre-
ventable disease, how much does our
claim to national greatness and sue
cess really amount to?
These seem to be the questions that
thoughtful Americans are asking
themssN es. They stand out all over
the voluminous hearings upon the Tess
Dill for physical education.
This measure provides for a large
appropriation to be divided among the
II in nffr ,~,1
education, on the condition that each
state must itself appropriate as much
as 1t receives from the federal govern
ment.
What Can Be Done?
Many of the leading educators and
physicians of the country appeared
before the committee on education in
connection with this bill. They agreed
unanimously that the draft had re-
vealed an alarming condition of the
public health, and that nothing could
be more important than to do what
ever can be done to remedy this con-
dition.
1T does not make any difference
how much swaterpower we have, or
how many great projects there may
be at any time" said DR.. Joseph E.
Raycroft of Princeton, 1.-The real
wealth of the nation is the health and
efficiency of its people. Nothing else
Doctor Raycroft reminded the COM
| mittee that not only did the draft
boards find it necessary to reject
about So per cent of the men as phys
ically unfit, but that from 40 to so
per cent of those accepted in the vari-
Gus drafts were found unfit after they
were in the army and had to be sert
to hospitals or to developmental bat
talions. This certainly leaves the
| number of really sound men in the
I 20
croft admits that the examinations
| were hasty and not always efficient,
but he thinks they undoubtedly erred
as much one way as the other. He
points out that the physical standard
was lowered five different times in
the effort to get enough men. In this
way four million men were raised.
Shortly before the armistice, when 1t
looked as tho fifth million would pc
needed, he said it was a serious ques-
ton whether another million men lit
to fight could be found in America.
In other words, a nation of more than
hundred million people could not
put forward five million men tit TO
carry a gun.
Most Interesting are the reasons
which various experts assigned Tor the
low physical standard Of manhood
prevailing in this country. Americans
have always thought of themselves as
a healthy race, and this as a healthy
country to live in. Now they face
the unacceptable fact that this nation
| is probably not more than SO per cent
| as healthy as it might be. To what
factors in the national life is this due?
Doctor Raycroft assigns two prin-
cipa1 ones. He calls them urbaniza-
| ton and industry. By urbanization
he means the crowding of people into
cities. He declares that, in spite of
allegations to the contrary, the re-
cruits from rural districts showed
| higher physical average than those
from the cities. Undoubtedly the
great army of poorly paid office work.
ers, who lead sedentary lives and get
almost no adequate recreation is one
big factor in the low average of health.
He further believes that we are ad-
hitting great numbers of weak immi-
grants who are lowering the national
average of physical fitness.
Not Enough to Eat.
The fact is only limited at in the
hearings, but it is well to know that
malnutrition was a great factor in
the low average of health among the
drafted men. The fact must be faced
that a great many people in the
| United States do not get enough to
eat and so have no chance to be
/ healthy. Many recruits gained great
| ly in weight and strength as soon as
| Uncle Sam began to feed them. This
movement for feeding school chill
dren. If the child gets plenty to eat
in his growing years, he stands bet
ter chance to make q good living when
he has grown up. Starve him as a
child, and you have little chance of
producing a useful man.
Epidemic diseases. such as malaria,
hookworm and trachoma, which can
be eliminated or greatly reduced, are
another great factor. as was brought
4 H. <zf ~ ~,
health service.
How much of this waste of human
| life is preventable? Probably a large
part of it is theoretically preventabIe,
but no one claims that physical educa-
ton will accomplish any miracles. 1t
is only one of many things that are
| needed. But it cannot fail to ac-
complish much good If rightly carried
out, the experts are agreed.
What oppositionTthere is to the Fess