ears, 3; other causes, including insanity, 33. These statistics cannot 

 be considered evidence of a really serious degree of physical deteriora- 

 tion, or, in a considerable proportion of cases, as obvious evidence of 

 unfitness for military service. Nevertheless, the conclusions of Dr. 

 Hurd are entitled to weight, being in brief, that 



The findings of this board show that men of draft age who hold clerical 

 positions are the poorest physical specimens. We shall waive the question 

 whether deficient physical equipment impelled these men toward the inactive 

 occupation of the clerk, or whether the sedentary life of the clerk has resulted 

 in poor physical condition: there is probably a good deal to be said on both 

 sides. Undoubtedly chronic constipation, lack of exercise and fresh air, with 

 the resulting soft flabby muscles, would seem to be the principal causes of under- 

 weight and hernia. Take these men out of their stuffy offices and put them into 

 camp, make them live in the open with regular exercise and regular hours, and 

 they, will soon be brought up to the standard. 



The statistical tables included in the report by Dr. Hurd are not in 

 conformity to standardized methods of statistical analysis. The causes 

 of rejections according to age are not correlated to the corresponding 

 numbers of men examined, so that the true rejection ratio for different 

 causes cannot be determined from the data thus far made available. 

 It is properly suggested, however, by Dr. Hurd, that "The compilation 

 of such data from all districts of Greater New York would be of 

 enormous statistical value." Such statistics would be practically use- 

 less, unless compiled in a proper manner, for mere data on the subject 

 of army rejections are certain to be misused by those who are wrong- 

 fully alarming the public as regards the alleged physical deterioration 

 of American men of military age. 



MISLEADING CONCLUSIONS REGARDING PHYSICAL RE- 

 JECTIONS UNDER THE FIRST SELECTIVE DRAFT 

 Among others in authority, Prof. D. A. Sargent, Director of 

 Physical Training at Harvard, has given public utterance to the view 

 that "Any one who has read the Provost-Marshal General's recent 

 report and noted that from 25 to 75 per cent, of our young men were 

 exempted from military service on account of physical disability and 

 preventable disease, cannot help having some misgiving as to the future 

 of our country." Elsewhere in the same discussion, on "The Draft's 

 Showing Up of Physical Defects of Young Americans and the 

 Remedy," Prof. Sargent observes that "Yet this is the condition of 

 the United States today, where, as we have seen, over 50 per cent, of 

 our young men have been rejected as unfit for military service, while 

 the country is spending millions upon millions at the training camps 

 in trying to get those who have been accepted in fit condition to perform 

 the duties of a soldier." Now, as a matter of fact, it is not correct 

 to say that 50 per cent, of the men have been rejected for physical 

 reasons, or, in other words, on the ground of a physical impairment 

 of a sufficient degree to preclude the immediate or remote possibility 



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