LEGAL PROVISIONS 



and assist the establishment or continuance of voluntary 

 agencies, and associate with itself representatives of voluntary 

 associations for the purpose. 



" (2) This section shall come into operation on the first 

 day of January, nineteen hundred and eight." 



The English lawmakers are not quite so verbose and prolix 

 in statute drafting as are their American contemporaries, and the 

 interpretation and construction of this short act was compre- 

 hensively treated by the Board of Education in a memorandum 

 issued on November 22, 1907,* before the act became effective, 

 for the guidance of the administrative officers charged with the 

 execution of the statute. 



This course differs somewhat from the American system. 

 In the United States, the construction and interpretation of 

 statutes are left finally to the courts. This procedure is a lengthy 

 and involved process. In view of the fact that the memorandum 

 of the English education authorities referred to has the practical 

 effect of a parliamentary enactment in the execution of the law, 

 it may be well to quote from it somewhat extensively. 



In stating the scope and purpose of the act the memorandum 

 uses the following words : 



"The Board desire therefore at the outset to emphasize that 

 this new legislation aims not merely at a physical or anthropometric 

 survey or at a record of defects disclosed by medical inspection, but at 

 the physical improvement, and, as a natural corollary, the mental and 

 moral improvement, of coming generations. The broad requirements 

 of a healthy life are comparatively few and elementary, but they are 

 essential, and should not be regarded as applicable only to the case of the 

 rich. In point of fact, if rightly administered, the new enactment is 

 economical in the best sense of the word. Its justification is not to be 

 measured in terms of money but in the decrease of sickness and incapacity 

 among children and in the ultimate decrease of inefficiency and poverty 

 in after life arising from physical disabilities." 



A further statement which concludes the same section of the 

 memorandum is as follows: 



* Board of Education of Great Britain. Memorandum on Medical Inspec- 

 tion of Children in Public Elementary Schools, Circular 576. 



175 



