The new standards mark an important departure from those else- 

 where referred to in this discussion, in that the minimum height is 

 raised to 63 inches from 61 inches under the standards adopted May 

 18, 1917 (but for recent change, see page 45, and for former stand- 

 ards, see page 46). This change would, perhaps, be unobjectionable 

 with regard to registrants of native ancestry, but it must be considered 

 unfortunate with reference to registrants of foreign-born parentage of 

 South-European racial origin. There can be no question but that 

 a considerable proportion of such men will probably be rejected ex- 

 clusively on the ground of deficiency in stature, but who otherwise 

 would in every respect be qualified for military service in the field. 

 If our own physical standard were to be rigorously applied to the 

 French, Italian and Portuguese armies at the present time, there un- 

 questionably would be a material reduction in man-power upon purely 

 theoretical considerations, which, considering the supreme necessities 

 of the war, might involve truly momentous consequences. It would 

 seem much more rational, therefore, to apply the recruiting standards 

 of foreign armies to American registrants of the same type of foreign 

 origins than to make use of a purely arbitrary general standard pri- 

 marily applicable to the registrants of the continental United States, 

 of a racial descent normally subject to a quite different frequency 

 distribution in height, such as those of English, Scotch, Irish, German 

 and Scandinavian parentage. The loss in man-power on account of 

 the rigorous use of this theoretical requirement as to minimum stature 

 may not, perhaps, be so very serious for this country, but in any 

 event it is seemingly as unnecessary as it is clearly unscientific. 



The new regulations are a notable contribution to a much-neglected 

 branch of medicine. To an increasing extent medical examinations are 

 being made of applicants for industrial service, and the practice of life 

 insurance has become so universal that sooner or later the larger por- 

 tion of the male population will at one time or another have been 

 subjected to one or more examinations, though, of course, for purposes 

 somewhat different from those which apply to the Army in time of 

 war. All of these examinations, however, have much in common, and 

 to the extent that the practice is made more scientifically conclusive 

 as well as generally useful the cause of preventive medicine, health- 

 conservation and efficiency in man-power will be advanced to a position 

 never heretofore realized in any country of the world. 



THE AGE PERIOD OF MILITARY SERVICE IN TIME 



OF WAR 



The war demands men, more men, and still more men. The wastage 

 in modern battles is enormous. The tendency is, therefore, to lower 

 the draft age as a matter of ready convenience, rather than to seek 

 more intelligently for the physically fit among those who are within 



102 



