Part 43 (1/2)

Dewey, John, THE SCHOOL AND SOCIETY and SCHOOLS OF TO-MORROW.

Quick, Herbert, THE BROWN MOUSE (Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis).

Foght, H. W., THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK.

Jackson, Henry E., A COMMUNITY CENTER--WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO ORGANIZE IT. Bulletin, 1918, No. 11, U. S. Bureau of Education.

CHAPTER XX

THE COMMUNITY'S HEALTH

PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND THE NATIONAL DEFENSE

There is nothing else that concerns the community or the nation so much as the health of its citizens. Of more than three million men between the ages of 21 and 31 examined for military service in 1918, only about 65 per cent were pa.s.sed as physically fit to fight for their country. [Footnote: Public Health Reports, U. S.

Public Health Service, vol. 34, No. 13, p. 633 (March 28, 1919).]

The remaining 35 per cent were either totally unfit for any kind of service, or were capable only of the less strenuous activities connected with warfare. Most of the defects found could have been remedied, or prevented altogether, if proper care had been taken in earlier years.

PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND THE NATION'S INDUSTRY

The nation loses by this physical unfitness in other ways than in fighting power. Investigations have shown that wage earners lose from their work an average of from six to nine days each year on account of sickness.

[Footnote 2: Public Health Reports, U. S. Public Health Service, vol. 34, No. 16, pp. 777-782 (April 18, 1919).]

The cost to the individual in loss of wages, doctors' bills, and otherwise, is a serious matter, to say nothing of the absolute want to which it reduces many families and the suffering entailed.

In addition to this, the country loses the wage earner's production. Sometimes death brings to the family permanent loss of income, and to the nation complete loss of the product of the wage earner's work. The nation spends large sums of money every year in providing for dependent families and individuals.

If each of the 38 million wage earners in the United States in 1910 lost 6 days from work in a year, how many days' work would the nation lose? How many years of work would this amount to?

At $2.50 a day (is this a high wage?) how much would be lost in wages in a year?

Get information regarding the cost of a long case of sickness, such as typhoid fever, in some family of your acquaintance (perhaps your own), including doctor's bills, medicines, time lost from work, etc.

What would such expense mean to a family living on as low wages as those mentioned on page 167?

EDUCATION AND PHYSICAL DEFECTS

Moreover, the nation loses a great deal (how much cannot be calculated) from the physical unfitness of many who keep on working, but who are not fully efficient because of bodily defects or ailments. We see the results of this even in school. Pupils who lag behind their mates in their studies are often suffering from physical defects of which their teachers, and even they themselves, may be unaware. It may be that they are ill-nourished, or that they have defective vision, or hearing, or teeth, or that they sleep in poorly ventilated rooms. The community does not get its money's worth from its schools if its children are not in physical condition to profit by them. In a similar manner earning and productive power are reduced.

PHYSICAL UNFITNESS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

It has usually been a.s.sumed that the people in rural districts are more healthy than those who live in cities; but it has been found that there is as much physical unfitness there as elsewhere. It is true that the records of the war department seem to show fewer men rejected in rural districts as totally unfit for any kind of military service; but evidence of other kinds has been collected that indicates that some kinds of disease, at least, and many physical defects are more prevalent in the country than in the city. In THE LURE OF THE LAND, Dr. Harvey Wiley makes a comparison of the death rate from certain diseases in a few states where the figures are available for both city and country.

[Footnote: Dr. Harvey Wiley, THE LURE OF THE LAND, Chapter VIII, ”Health on the Farm,” pp. 53-60.]

RURAL AND CITY SCHOOL CHILDREN COMPARED

Studies have been made of the comparative health of city and rural school children, which show results in favor of the former. Of 330,179 children examined in New York City 70 percent were found defective, while of 294,427 examined in 1831 rural districts of Pennsylvania 75 per cent were defective. The preceding chart shows the comparative prevalence of health defects among city and country children.

Investigate the following: