The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1921-09-09

aware that in some of the numbering
dlstrlcts and poorer communities,
children are housed and taught in
such manner, the handicaps to
which children are placed in being
housed and taught in these ill-kept
and ventilated places, impoverish-
ed their minds and bodies, restricting
entirely any opportunity for inspira
tlon to anything better than the or
dlnary, very ordinary, things of life.
Furthermore, the average country
school days in year are 1877 while in
the city there are 1884. so that the
country child has six years of primary
school education, while the city child
has eight years, with better opportun-
tiles. Furthermore, the country child
does not know the opportunities for
higher education, how to proceed TO
get 1t If left to him or herself. and if
left to their parents they likewise
have very little idea of the require
ments, the opportunity or necessity
for it. Nine times out of ten it is
left for the child to drift as he would.
and it is also part of national freedom
for himself to select whether he shall
have any education or not. and if Of
ficials should insist as they are sun
posed to do, that all children should
attend school certain months of the
year, parents and guardians are only
too quickly inclined to give some very
plausible reason why their children
carnot attend school at that time. and
it requires considerable critical inves-
hgatlon to determine whether these
reasons are well founded or not, and
there are hundreds that are not.
When it comes to matters of sani-
tation, it is ordinarily expected that
the country has better facilities. pur
e" air, more wholesome living, better
moral character, less infectious dis
eases and other advantages too nu-
merous to mention. However. this is
proven to be entirely not the case
A. the present time, practically all of
the infant death rate, blood poison
cases of mothers and conditions which
lower the Vitality and cause the
death of a child occur in the rural
communities, due to the lack of un-
derstanding and coordinate effort Of
ITS residents to make use of the natur-
al advantages they have over the CITY.
1hese conditions are overcome in the
city only by intellectual oversight
school inspection by doctors and nur-
sses, who devote their lives to this end
1or inferior compensation and the un-
usual criticism that comes when one
interests themselves in the welfare
OF others. Forty-eight per cent of
country children have defective teeth
AGAINST 33 per cent of city children;
y per cent of children have infection
OF the tonsils in the country against
~ per cent in the city, and the tonsi
bugaboo is almost an affront to MANY
narents of the child mentioned In
deed | hate to mention it at all be
cause of the inclination of the MANY
ignorant parents to assume that we
arc attempting to profit by their un-
fortunate condition. which did NOT
confront them in their youth so they
say, and for that reason of course.
does not exist at the present time.
Practically speaking, in tonsils of
ore-half the children, by intelligent
seeking. will be found to contain pus.
The sinuses of the face and head are
likewise involved. Probably largely
due to the infection of the tonsiJs
which IS the beginning of the sewer
system in our bodies. the enlarge
ment of which makes a vacuum of
the back part Of our noses and throat,
and causes stasis of the ventilatinp
system, obstructine the natural exits
# the sinuses into the nose and back
Of the mouth, thereby producing this
danger Of infection. II is also known
that at least fonr-ffths of our dis
eascs have been halbored in our svs-
TENS for years and indeed the major
ity Of them since childhood. shorten
ing the period Of longevity by fifteen
or twenty years. Lo and behold. we
medics are supposed to treat the tail
Of a disease in place of beginning of
it and preventing its progress. This
duplicates another question which I
would very much like to discuss at the
close of this paper.
Again. while only Is per cent of
city children are defective of hearing.
country children are four times as
bad. There are % ner cent of eve
defects in country children with ONLY
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