reason underlying this wide variation in the non-eligibility of applicants 

 for military service during a period of peace.* 



The army rejection rate is governed not only by physical and medical 

 considerations but also by the numerical requirements of the service, 

 primarily the permissible maximum of enlisted strength. The 

 preceding table is an excellent illustration of the very limited 

 value of recruiting statistics in efforts to prove that there has been 

 physical progress or deterioration, as the case may be. For such a 

 profound range in the rejection rate as is here indicated could not, of 

 course, have any definite relation whatever to the actual physical con- 

 ditions of the population concerned. 



In amplification of the preceding table for both the white and the 

 colored troops, combined, the following table is included, exhibiting the 

 results separately for the two races : 



RECRUITING EXPERIENCE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY 

 (White and Colored) 



•Figures represent recruits examined up to July 31, 1906. 



According to this table the rejection ratio was, as a rule, higher for 

 the white than for the colored, although, as is well known, the average 

 American negro is of a distinctly lower degree of physical resistance 

 to disease than the average white man. 



IMPORTANT CHANGES IN RECRUITING STANDARDS 



Changes in recruiting standards are, therefore, of the first importance 



in connection with the practical use of recruiting statistics. According 



to Munson, "The minimum limit of stature for the recruit has varied 



greatly in our service. Shortly after the Revolution it was fixed at 



* These statistics must not be confused with the corresponding returns of the Adjutant 

 General of the Army, as given on page 85. 



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