The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-09-09

washington, D. C. Sept s-Is
the Justly celebrated climate Of
California breeding . rAce OF giants
ON the Pacific coast The scien-
lists OF the children's bureau IN
washington think thqt It Is. al
though with true scientific caution
t1ey qualify their opinion with .
perhaps" At any rate. 1t 10 GER
tainly true that, age for age, the
school children Of California are
considerably taller and heavier
| than the run of tchbol children the
country over; and the experts In
| Washington can ind no better ex-
PLANTATION Of the phenomenon than
that Of favorable climate.
| The discovery that California
children, and there is nothing In
the record to indicate that the same
would not be true Of children VI
Oregon and Washington, are
physically superior Ito American
children rs q whole, was the most
notable revelation made in the
study of school children during the
"Children's Year." as the year 1918
was called. In that 12-mOnth some
| 1000 900 American school children.
6 years old and under, were weigh
ed and measured under the super
vision of the children's bureau. No
study of human growth on such a
scale had ever before been con-
Quoted in this country. The rec
zrJr houo ,,nrr ,,ndarwono ann 1vci G
by the government statisticians and
their conclusions are of great prac-
teal interest.
4 The tabulations show that Cali
fornia children are two-fifths of
an inch taller and three-quarters OF
; a pound heavier than children OF
the same age the country over
These quantities by themselves
seem small, but as averages they
are large. They are 50 large that II
| is probable that an observant trav.
eler, going directly into California
from the east, could with his own
; eyes notice that the Pacific coast
children are bigger than those III
! the rest Of the country.
American Bred Are Largest.
California's showing is the more
: remarkable because of the large
percentage of Italians among thu
school children weighed and meas
ured there. The Italians, these sta
:, tistics demonstrate, are below tn,
: ! general stature and weight aver
ages. Children Of Scandinavian
: parents in the United States ar,
. considerably, and those of German
parentage somewhat, above the ma
: tional averages in weight ant
: height; yet the percentage of chill
dren of these stalwart nationali
ties is exceedingly low in Califor
: mia. But with no racial reasons 70
large stature in California-on tn
contrary, with an adequate racia
| reason to account for stature lowe
| than average the California chill
dren nevertheless proved to be a
| much bigger and heavier than tn
American average as are the chill
1ren OF pure Scandinavian blood.
n It is evident therefore that, 8,
e far as the children are conc armed
G California is breeding a race of peo
j. pie as large as the Swedes, Nor
wegians, and Danes. The scie n
y tts's do not attempt>to account alb
:? sclu'fly for this tact. They sug
r sest favorable climate as :. pos
II sible cause. They also .sugg.st az
e other reason which may common
: itself even more strongly to tn
s biolog:st-namely, the principle g
k selection in the parents. The hu
d man stock IF California is a pionee
ID stock. The pioneer is a person G
le supcrioU courage and initiative. !
Is reasonable to connect corrag
S. and initiative with rugged healt
l. and health with superior physiqu,
M Thus the parent stock Of Californi
1t may be regarded as physically S.
le lect.