The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-09-03

of the privations that many of our children have experienced, the ap- plicants are not meeting the re- quirements of physical strength and mental equipment comparable with the youth of the sturdy stock from which came the recruits for 1917 and 1918. Illiteracy was more often the complaint in those days, but now it is being found that neglect of handicapping physical condi- tions, bad teeth. bad eyesight and bad hearing, etc, caused in the main by the lack of proper nour- ishment of the youth of America, is responsible for the rejection of applicants. Youths applying for en- listment are being rejected because
 -f physical conditions caused by under -nourishment and neglect. The biggest drawbacks are bad eyesight and underweight.
 Delinquency Problem
 Juvenile delinquency is a prob lem of youth and is taking its toll This can and must be pre- vented. But it is going to take more than just talk to do it.
 It is not going to be an easy or even a popular task to enlist and retrain help in the interest of child welfare in this time of more spectacular activity in connection with world affairs. There will be, as always, those serious minded and sincerely interested individuals who know that the child is the future of the race and of our Nation and will work against great competitive interests to hold some public at tention to the child welfare needs
 Members of The American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary
 have pledged themselves to that child welfare responsibility an d l, should do everything within their power to not have the needs of !, children neglected. The glamour of the more fleeting war work" &C., tivity may attract and enlist the aid of many men and women, but !, unless they also continue concern
 in the present youth problems, they
 will find themselves faced with even greater and more expensive : youth problems to overcome later } The American Legion must not [ permit itself to lessen its efforts in the interest of and for the bene- fit of children.
 }, Square Deal
 , Our goal "A Square Deal for
 Every Child" is and must continue to be as important now as at any time in the past in The American Legion. The work of education and spreading information on child well
 fare subjects must continue to be major program of The American Legion. We with our experience of 1917-18 are more responsible than
 any others for what happens to this youth of today on which our future national well-being depends
 If we were sincerely concerned !, with the problem of youth during less emergent times, we should now , be concerned even more with those [ same problems. If we are not or
 the job along these lines, there will
 be influences at work to destroy r all that we hold dear.
 Child health should be even a greater civic concern in a time of emergency. It is of the greatest importance that the child be kept healthy in a time of emergency :. Disease, infection, contagion, take on epidemic form unless the pre- ventive and protective measures are , exercised It costs Jess to avoid epidemicS than to overcome them Our child health insurance pro- }; gram should be adopted in every
 community in the interest of ma
 ternal and infant health, elimina- tion of congenital syphilis in chil-
 dren, elimination of crippling con-
 ditions and care and treatment of
 crippled children and immunization
 against other preventable disease.