Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1917 — City Dwellers Must Change Habits of [ARTICLE]

City Dwellers Must Change Habits of

By Dr. D. A. Sargent

• of Harvard University

More than one-half of the male population of the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years ate unable to meet the health requirements of military service. Although the largest and strongest of our country folk are continually pouring into our great cities, like fuel into a fiery furnace, to feed what is termed our civilization, they deteriorate so rapidly that barely one of their descendants born in the city ever attains to the third generation. The reasons are that city life, with its crowded streets, smoky atmosphere, absence of sunlight and crowded quarters in stores, offices, shops, schools, dwellings rind amusement halls, leads to inevitable crowd poisoning and rapid deterioration and decay. —* " The division of labor adds further to this rapid physical impairment by requiring some to work intensely with their brains, others with their muscles .and still others with scarcely any brains or muscles at all. - It Is possible for a man to gain a livelihood by the glance of the eye, the nod of the head or the movements of one or two fingers. But the men who are successful in cities are living on the inherited physical vigor of country ancestors who developed their muscles. The descendants of city dwellers of today will not be able to hold their own in the fight for existence unless the present and next generation change their habita in cities.