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- 2 - have not faced the problem of assuring the strongest develop- ment, the greatest safeguards, to the so-called normal child. We had vivid proof of this during the war when about 33 per cent of the supposedly able bodied men of the country were rejected or classified as below what should be a normal health standard. It developed that a large part of these physical defects would not have occurred if there had been better health safeguards in childhood. Under these circum- stances it seemed to us clearly our duty to examine into the causes of the deficiencies of the protection of child health which bring this state of affairs about and to undertake practical measures in remedy. The first thing in all progress is to determine the facts; to determine them scientifically and by experts. The American Child Health Association has an expert staff and it has completed a vigorous investigation of the health conditions surrounding children in 86 different American cities of between 40,000 - 70,000 population. In these communities it has ex- amined into the volume and purity of milk supply, into hospi- talization and other facilities for child birth and for the care of children, into facilities for medical inspection and clinical services provided for school children, into the ed- ucational work in instruction of children as to the primary questions of health, into housing and play opportunities,