Country Boys Do Worse Than City Boys In Physicial Fitness for Armed Service, 1917

“Country Boys Show Up Worse Than City Boys,” from the Nov. 1, 1917, issue of The French Broad Hustler. The Hustler, Henderson County’s Leading Newspaper. Price Five Cents.

Selective Draft Examinations Find More Country Boys With Defects—Medical School Inspection Made Difference

Country boys according to recent draft data, showed up worse in their physical examinations for army service than did city boys. A greater per cent of young men from country were found unfit for military service because of physical defects than was the case with young men raised in cities. Dr. J.A. Nydegger of the United States Public Health Service, who is an authority for the comparison, accounts for this difference through the lack of medical inspection in the country schools. He says:

“While in this country most of the city schools have adopted medical inspection, most of the rural institutions have none. In this lies the fact that insanitary defects which are today barring men from the United States forces. Defective eyes, teeth, ears and throats among the youth of rural communities have been found to be due largely to conditions in the rural schools. Improper desks and seats also have caused much spinal curvature, leading to other faulty conditions. These conditions ought to be corrected at once, and school children all over the country should be examined because defects arising at their period of life as a rule cannot be overcome later.”

The State Board of Health says that this is just another surprise that the physical examinations incident to the selective draft have made known. “Everybody expected a reasonable number of rejections on account of physical unfitness among our young men,” says the board, but as they were the pick of our flock and the best of our manhood, we were more than surprised when it was learned that something like a third failed to qualify.

“This convinced us that something had to be done particularly for our young men who are now in the making. Many suggestions have been offered but medical school inspection out-weighs them all. That the country boys at least will be expected to city boy is a more evident reason that a state wide Medical School Inspection law is what is needed.

“North Carolina is probably the only State that has this law. Beginning November 1, this law goes into effect in 35 counties, and should another draft be necessary in the next several years, North Carolina’s country boys will at least be expected to show up their city cousins.”