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"
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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.