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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1919)
3 THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 21, 1919. On the Eve of Their Greatest Festival, Here is a Startling Statement that a Vast Number, Rich as Well as Poor, Are Undernourished, and a Hopeful View of a New Movement for Child Betterment. Indqpr Ball Games Have Been Started as an Important Feature of Recre ation Centers. The Vegetables That Are so Necessary to Child Health. y3v - OUsTS A Boys' Shoe Shop Where Mending Was Taught as a Useful Accomplishment. fc) yy""'' rl" bhb 1 ' " ifirt1' hH 2ffiHMiaBBfHWi - 1TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTRrr w EfittataMttiBKttfaM Vfiil B Hp sjITTTTTTTTTTTTTe 8 ' fMsSsiHHflfiiassaH I BP jMHaMHrlasHBMKasssHaBiasWM MaSH Sjjgj .country friend. Then there were the CTjrffffiBy tafl isaJsP HBm?1 women who wanted to help and sent t Hk he Ice cream, or loaned their auto- : r 1 ' '-. ' noblles: a little dressmaker who had 11 Scene in an Improvised School Dormitory During a "Sleep Time" Established as a Part of the New "Better Nourished" System. BT EULA McCLART. OX the eve of the greatest of children's festivals. When the needs and wishes of children are reaching the heart of the world as at no other time, th&re is timely justifi cation for taking note of a highly significant movement that is likely to affect the welfare of children in a wide and momentous way. The movement might be expressed in a single anxious and rather dra matic question: Are a vast number of children, rich and poor, undernourished? It is said by national and interna tional authorities on education and health that the most dramatic figure today, awakening world-wide Interest in a new standard of child health, is the undernourished child. This is not so startling an announcement as the unanimous agreement of these au thorities, based on studies and sur veys, that the undernourished child IS by no means peculiar to the con gested and poor districts, but that he is found in the homes of the very rich and the well-to-do middle class where the lack of sufficient food can in no way be the responsible factor as it is with the people who, under the lash of economic conditions, find it a difficult thing to bring their children to healthy manhood and womanhood. Ignorance of food values and the proper combination of foods, plus commonsense living habits, is re sponsible for the mal-nourished chil dren of the middle and upper classes. Economic conditions, often allied by ignorance, are responsible for the mal nourished children of tne poor. in the former cases a little education of the parents will work a health revolution: in the latter the com munity not only has a moral obliga tion to the suffering children but an conomic and civic responsibility to Itself that cannot well be Ignored. Upon the civic canter rulers rests tha g-ood or bad health of the community. Undernourished children present as malignant a menace as leprosy. Mal nutrition in childhood is. indeed, a heavy collector in adult years of tolls that had much better have been spent in building up a healthy community instead of trying to cure those suf fering from diseases that are pre ventable by the birthright of all a healthy, happy childhood. Making the City Tolerable. Last summer, in New York City, the federation for child study en larged upon a method they had pre viously tried out in a smaller way. to make possible to 1000 children from 4 to 15 years of age, a healthy, happy summer within the city. All of the children who were accepted as pupils for the summer health play schools, as the seven centers where the ex periment was to he tried on a large scale Were called, were under-nour ished. The plan, briefly, was this: School opened at 8 o'clock. A daily bath followed. After the bath until lunch time there was kindergarten to keep the little ones busy, and work and play of all kinds for the older children. Then lunch the kind of a lunch every growing girl and boy should have. Of course the glass of milk that all children need with their meals and nourishing thick soups, plenty oT green vegetables and greens, eggs, cereals, fruits, sand wiches made of a flour that was guaranteed to make bone and muscle, and a cake or some sweet to top off with. Following lunch a nap for all. Then more work and play for active brains and busy fingers until 4:30. At that hour another glass of milk and some more good bread and butter. School closed at and the children returned to their homes, rested, well fed and In happy spirits, to take to those at home something of the joy and happiness they had found above the dirty, hot streets. Once a week every child Had an outing to one of the big parks or the country near by, and the picnic lunch was eaten with a relish. Ice cream was often served by some good fairy who had more money than the little children's family. Care on scientific Linen. Once a week each child was weighed and measured, and where medical care was needed a doctor from the New York Academy of Medi cine took time to make an examina tion and give advice and find a clinic where the trouble wouIR receive the best attention. Teeth were scrubbed daily and a dentist was on hand to repair cavities and other troubles, which cause all sorts of aches more enduring and serious tnan just aching teeth. Everybody in the City seemed in terested In giving the Summer Health Play School children a chance to get well. The children speclallists of the New York Academy of Medicine gave their valuable and expensive time. The board of education gave teach ers. Dr. Josephine Baker of the New York board of health supplied nurses to visit the children's homes as well as to watch over the health of the children at school. The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, which had large kitchen and lunchroom equipments, loaned the equipment. Dr. Mary Swarts Rose of Teachers' College, Columbia univer sity, gave talks to the directors of the work and the mothers who cared to come. . She told them what to give their children to eat and how to pre pare it. Then she organised some student dieticians and they visited the homes of the mothers who wanted to know how to feed their children properly, and gave them lessons ovet the meagre stoves and brought in hygiene and its relation to pure food. The home standards were improved through these visits. The Central committee of the Ethical Culture so ciety organized a canteen squad that helped the dietician in charge of pre paring the food each day at a com munity kitchen. Miles away in the country the Westchester' League of Community Workers, augmented by individual workers, shared their gar den supplies with the children who had vegetables each day picked that very morning in the gardens of their country friend. Then there wsrs ths women who wanted to help and sent .he Ice cream, or loaned their auto nomies; a little dressmaker who had no money to give so she cams and taught the girls how to make their own dresses; the daughter of one prominent woman who came to dance for the children each week; th pianists and singers who gave con certs, and Cho-Cho, the health clown, who makes health faets fun for little children with his cowbell and basket of vegetables, and hosts of others. Results of a Season's Care. At the end of the season, which, was eight weeks long, every child but two was in much batter health than when school began. Those two were suf fering from serious physical trouble which kept them from gaining. The scales and tape line, used the last day of school, showed that the major ity of the children were no longer in the undernourished class, that the good food, the fresh air, the happy. busy hours and clean habits had done all that could be wished for In eight weeks. Not contented with the summer ex perlment the Federation for Child Study Is actively trying to force the city of New York to Introduce health play schools after school hours, and is suggesting the same course to other! cities of the country. If the Federa tion members, and the other organ izations and individuals they have in terested in their practical experiment, succeed in their intention, no longer will the schoolhouse be closed at 3 o'clock. The children who have to spend the hours between school and C or 7, or even later, on the streets because they have no place else to go, until their working parents, or parent, as is often the case, comas home, tired and nervous, will have the same chance to have a daily bath, a nourishing lunch, play and work that '. ... - HtfflR lira Typical Undernourished Child Eating the an Added Glass of ight Sort of Lunch, With ilk. the summer health play school pupils have had. The dramatic figure, the undernourished child, has awakened the world to the 'need of the new child health standard and 1000 pio neers have enjoyed and benefited by being the practical demonstration of one waY democratic and logical to establish those standards, not in New Yorok city alone, but throughout the land and the great wide world. This is the encouraging word that comes with the Christmas season. Could any word, dropped Into the con sciousness of ths people, be more encouraging? PLATE GLASS REALLY FADES, SAYS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Writer Relates Incident Where Enameled Lettering Waa Removed and Sign Remained Readable at Certain Angle. THAT plate glass actually does fade seems to be indicated by the following incident vouched for by a writer in the Scientific Ameri can: Several years ago a contract was taken to supply a vertical installation of prisms in a store front of a haber dasher in the main business thor oughfare of Indianapolis. To Install the prisms properly It was found necessary to cut off five feet from the top part of the plate glass, which had been In position for a number of years and exposed to the sun's rays during much of the time. After the prisms had been installed the five-foot piece of plate glass sal vaged was thoroughly cleaned and polished and aonsigned to stock fof resale. In the course of time this sal vaged piece of glass was sold, to be used In a front window of a new resi dence in one of the principal streets in the fashionable residence section. The house was completed and the owner, having taken possession, was thoroughly enjoying the sensations of the new home, when the family be gan to receive telephone calls of a rather puzzling and perplexing na ture, asking the price and how quickly delivery could be effected In various quantities of "Shirts Made to Ordsr." The daughter of the house became thoroughly aggravated and annoyed at what she presumed was a practical Joke of some sort, proceeded to make an investigation on her own account, which resulted in the writer being requested to call at the bouse. He was greeted at the front door by Mr. Owner and asked whether the plate glass furnished was really first grade or second-handed. To the reply that, from a close inspection at that mo ment it was a beautifully polished, high-grade piece of plate, and to all appearances, absolutely without blemish, he assumed a peculiar know ing smile and asked me to walk down the street with him a short distance; turning abruptly at perhaps fifty paces, he asked me to look at the window. To my astonishment, plain ly legible at the particular angle, at which we stood, were the words: "John Doe Shirts Made to Order." What seemed to be a phenomenon was easily explained. Previous to the plate glass being removed from the show window of the haberdasher, there had been pasted white enamel led letters, "Jonn Doe Shirts Made to Order." These letters being sub jected to the direct rays of the sun for a period of years had prevented the fading of the glass (originally green) to a clear white as was the case of that portion which was not immediately back of the opaque enamelled letters. The unfaded por tion consequently stood out In con trast in its original green, but was not discernible, except at a certain angle. British Leather Trade Reviving. LONDON. Export trade In British leather goods is reviving and manu facturers say they are hoperul of capturing the higher grade American markets. An official of the interna tional shoe and leather faireays that British manufacturers are pooling resources, markets and funds In Ub effort to Increase export trade.
