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of their State Council of National Defence, or if no such chairman has yet been appointed, with the county or State Child Welfare Chairman of the Council. Local chairmen who have not received instructions about the test or the detailed programme of which the test is the first feature, are directed to communicate at once with the Child Welfare Chairman of their State Council of Defence. allies are entering into the great work of child welfare with scientific thoroughness, human sympathy, and a truly patriotic enthusiasm. All workers for child welfare in Great and Greater Britain will extend sympathetic admiration to our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic, and wish every success for the Children's Year in the United States of America. We trust that the fine lead of America will stimulate thought and encourage action in this country.

MEMORANDA.

The Local Government Board of Scotland has just issued a circular (Public Health, No. x, 1918, dated May 24) on "Maternity Service and Child Welfare Schemes and Grants-in-Aid for the same" in connection with the Notification of Births (Extension) Act, 1915.

Sir James Yoxall, M.P., has stated that out of a total of 42,000 teachers in the elementary schools of England and Wales 22,000 are already serving in the Army and Navy. More than 1,600 have been killed or have died of wounds. Mr. Herbert Lewis, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, has recently stated that nearly 40,000 additional teachers, over and above pre-war staffs, will be required to carry schemes now being shaped in the great Education Bill now before Parliament.

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In a Circular [1049] to Secondary Schools, Mr. Fisher concurs in Sir A. Geddes's appeal, published in our correspondence section (p. 444), for aid from boys at secondary schools in necessary agricultural work during this summer and autumn, particularly during the hay, corn, and potato harvests, under arrangements organized by the Ministry of National Service. Arrangements made for meeting the appeal will, so far as

pupils of such schools are concerned, be under the following conditions: (1) The Ministry of National Service will not accept for agricultural work boys who are below the age of 16, except boys between 15 and 16 who are certified by the headmaster of the school as physically up to the standard of a normal boy of 16. (2) Arrangements for employment of boys will be in accordance with a detailed scheme to be prepared by the headmaster of the school with the assent of the governing body. In schools in receipt of the Board's grant this scheme must be approved by H.M. Inspector on behalf of the Board. (3) No boy will be accepted for the work without the consent of his parent or guardian. (4) The Ministry of National Service will guarantee that the conditions of the work, and the organization, supervision, housing, feeding, and payment of the groups of boys who are detailed for any particular piece of work will be satisfactory. (5) The Ministry will also certify that the employment of the boys at the particular place and time is in each case necessary in the national interest. (6) The work to which the boys are allotted will be reasonably near their homes, or in the case of boarding schools reasonably near their schools. (7) No arrangements will be made which will interfere with the holding of any O.T.C. summer camp. (8) In schools in receipt of grant the Board will be prepared to sanction adjustment or prolongation of the summer holidays. (9) As regards work during term time (whether in the summer or the autumn term) the Board will be prepared to approve, so far as is consistent with adequate maintenance of the general organization of the school, release of groups of boys in successive batches for short periods, not exceeding, say, a fortnight or three weeks, and also special arrangements for work in the immediate vicinity of the school where such work is specially needed, and would be of material use, on single days, or for half-day work over short periods, on occasions of special agricultural urgency. The Ministry of National Service are circulating their regulations for the organization of this work to headmasters. Further information required should be sought from, and offers of service made to, that Ministry.

CHILD WELFARE AND THE WORK OF NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS.

During this period of supreme testing our journal will endeavour to render every possible assistance to National Associations and Societies, Hospitals, Homes and Orphanages, and all agencies working for child welfare and desirous of publishing particulars regarding their plans, purposes and activities for rendering special assistance to childhood and youth in these days of stress and strain. Particulars should be sent, in as clear and condensed a form as possible, to the Editor, with copies of any publications, appeals, &c., which are being issued to the public.

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF

PUBLIC MORALS.

"The foundations of national glory are set in the homes of the people. They will only remain unshaken while the family life of our race and nation is strong, simple and pure." These words of His Majesty George V form the motto of the National Council of Public Morals for Great and Greater Britain, the headquarters of which are at 20, Bedford Square, London, W.C.1, with the Rev. James Marchant, F.L.S., F.R.S.Ed., as Director and Secretary. The Council have recently issued what they designate a "Reconstruction Programme 1918-1919." This deserves the thoughtful consideration of all workers for human betterment. The Council recently issued a Report on the findings of their "National Birth-rate Commission." The members of the Commission were : Rt. Rev. Bishop Boyd Carpenter, D.C.L., LL.D., D.D. (Chairman); the Very Rev. Dean Inge, D.D.; the Rt. Hon. Sir J. Gorst, LL.D. (Vicechairman); Sir A. Newsholme, K.C.B. (Principal Medical Officer Local Government Board); Dr. T. H. C. Stevenson (Superintendent of Statistics for the Registrar-General); Her Grace the Duchess of Marlborough; the Lord Bishop of Birmingham; Lord and Lady Willoughby de Broke; Lady Aberconway; the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of Barking; the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Canon W. F. Brown; Professor Sir J. Macdonell, K. C.B., LL.D.; Rt. Hon. Sir T. B. Whittaker, M.P.; Sir J. Crichton-Browne, LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.; Rev. Principal A. E. Garvie, M.A., D.D.; Rabbi Professor H. Gollancz, M.A., D.Litt.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, M.A., D.D.; Rev. R. F. Horton, M.A., D.D.; Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A., D.D.;

Rev. Thos. Phillips, B.A.; Professor G. S. Woodhead, M.A., LL.D.; Professor L. T. Hobhouse; Dr. Major Greenwood (Statistician to the Lister Institute); Dr. J. W. Ballantyne; Lieut.-Colonel F. Fremantle, M.D., R.A.M.C.; Dr. A. T. Schofield; Dr. C. W. Saleeby, F.R.S. E.; Dr. Mary Scharlieb; Dr. Florence Willey (Lady Barrett); Dr. Agnes Savill; Dr. · Ettie Sayer; Mrs. General Booth; Mrs. Geo. Morgan; J. A. Hobson, Esq., M.A.; A. G. Gardiner, Esq.; Rev. James Marchant, F.R.S.E. (Secretary). One immediate outcome of the Commission is of national and racial consequence. The Commission Report recommended that certain forms of lead which were used to destroy unborn babies with disastrous effects upon their mothers should be placed upon the poison schedule. In order to bring this about, the Council after prolonged negotiations with the Pharmaceutical Society, the British manufacturers of lead plaster, the Local Government Board and Home Office, petitioned the Privy Council with an agreed proposal to schedule diachylon as a poison, with the ultimate result that it was scheduled in May, 1917. Shops where this abortifacient was formerly sold are being watched, and the Pharmaceutical Society is prepared, in cooperation with the Council, to take stern action to enforce the law. We are glad to see that the Council are proposing a resumption and development of the Commission. Very much more remains to be done and at once. The tremendous changes wrought by the mighty upheaval of this world war profoundly affect throughout our Empire the problems of repopulation, redistribution of population, the serious deficiency of young life, the ageing of our population, the rise of the

standard of living, the grave necessity for preserving the purity of the British stock from racial poisons like the venereal diseases, which threaten to become epidemic after demobilization, and which produce degeneracy and sterility; the problem of illegitimacy, the urgency of the need for establishing a Ministry of Health, primarily for the adequate prenatal care of the nation's mothers and children, the equally urgent necessity for building homes for family life, and for discovering every possible means for the encouragement of worthy parenthoodthese are some of the further vital problems upon which the Birth-rate Commission Reconstruction Inquiry can throw more light and afford guidance to the nation. The scope of this Reconstruction Development is as follows: To consider : (1) The extreme and persistent fall of the legitimate birth-rate in the United Kingdom; and the causes and prevention of the illegitimate birth-rate. (2) The contemporary movements of population in the Dominions, and the proportional distribution of the sexes throughout the Empire. (3) The economic problems of parenthood in view of the rise of prices and taxation and their possible solutions. (4) The housing problem in relation to parenthood. (5) The present spread of venereal disease, the chief cause of sterility and degeneracy; and the further menace of these diseases during demobilization. (6) The increased industrial employment of women of child-bearing age. (7) The differential or qualitative aspects of the present birth-rate. (8) The constitution and uses of the coming Ministry of Health as an instrument of racial reconstruction. (9) The need of a Census immediately after the war, and of a permanent anthropometric department in the Ministry of Health. (10) The co-ordination of these inquiries in Great Britain and the Dominions with those of the Depopulation Commission in France and the Paris Faculty of Medicine, and of the Federal Child Welfare Bureau in the United States, and similar work in other countries. All communications with respect to the Commission should be addressed to the Rev. James Marchant, Secretary, National Birth-rate Commission, 20, Bedford Square, W.C.1. The Council has done much to further the in

sistent demand for a Ministry of Health. Lectures delivered by the Director and others have aroused widespread interest in the study of problems of the moral reconstruction of society. The Council have also accomplished excellent service throughout the Cinema Commission of Inquiry. The members of the Commission were: The Bishop of Birmingham (President); Principal Alfred E. Garvie, M.A., D.D. (Vice-President); Lieut.General Sir S. S. Baden-Powell, K. C.V.O., LL.D.; Sir W. F. Barrett, F.R.S.; Rev. Carey Bonner (Secretary, Sunday School Union); Sir Edward W. Brabrook, C.B. (Chairman, Child Study Society); Rt. Rev. Monsignor Canon W. F. Brown; Mrs. Burgwin (late Superintendent Special Schools); Mr. C. W. Crook, B.A., B.Sc. (President, National Union of Teachers); Mr. A. P. Graves, M.A. (Chairman of the Representative Managers of L.C.C. Elementary Schools); the Rabbi Professor H. Gollancz, M.A., D.Litt. (representing the Jewish Community); Dr. Marie Stopes and Mr. Edgar Jepson, B.A. (representing the Incorporated Society of Authors, Playwrights, and Composers); Dr. C. W. Kimmins, M.A. (Chief Inspector under the Education Committee of the London County Council); Mr. W. Gavazzi King (Secretary, Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association); Sir John Kirk, J.P. (Director, Ragged School Union); Mr. Sidney Lamert (Director and General Manager, London Film Company, Ltd.); Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A., D.D., and the Rev. F. C. Spurr (representing National Free Church Council); Mr. A. E. Newbould (Chairman, Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association; Director, Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Ltd.); Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.; C. W. Saleeby, M.D., F.R.S. Edin.; Rev. W. E. Soothill, M.A. (representing the Y.M.C.A.); Commissioner Adelaide Cox (representing the Salvation Army); Rev. James Marchant, F.L.S., F.R.S. Ed. (Secretary). The work of the Commission is far from being finished. It is going to co-operate with the Government in framing the permanent regulations to govern cinematograph entertainments, and in giving effect to the recommendation of a National Censorship. The recommendation of the Commission that an exhaustive and expert inquiry should be made into the pos

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sibilities of using the cinematograph for educational purposes in connection with schools and colleges has now been acted upon, and the Board of Education has promised to allow its experts to assist the inquiry in every way possible. The investigation will cover, among other important matters, the following lines of inquiry (1) A psychological investigation of the durability of cinema impressions on school children. (2) The measurement of fatigue caused by instruction by means of the cinema. (3) The carrying out of comparative tests of education by cinematographical methods with those by normal methods of instruction. (4) The directions in which the cinema would yield the most fruitful results. (5) The possibilities of the cinema in cultivating æsthetic appreciation. (6) The best means of correlating the work of the school with that of the cinema, and the most economical and effective method of using the cinema for this purpose. (7) The collection of evidence with regard to experiments which have already been carried on effectively by using the cinema for educational purposes. (8) The best methods of producing suitable films for school purposes. Recently the Council held an important Conference which sought to arouse the churches and the nation to the practical and vital work of unitedly dealing with the ethics, civics, and economics of marriage and parenthood. The speakers at this Conference included the Lord Bishops of Birmingham and Norwich; Bishop Welldon; Rev. Principal P. T. Forsyth, D.D.; Rev. Principal A. E. Garvie, D.D.; Countess of Selborne; Viscountess Falmouth; Lady Rucker; Dr. Mary Scharlieb, C.B.E.; Dr. Violet Kelynack; The Rev. and the Hon. E. Lyttelton, D.D.; Judge Ben Lindsey; Judge Henry Neil; Dr. C. W. Saleeby; Mr. Alderman Broadbent, C.B.E.; Lord Willoughby de Broke; Mr. J. A. Hobson; Sir A. Conan Doyle; Mr. Silas Hocking; Dr. W. T. Howarth; Dr. Charles Porter; Rev. Archibald Fleming, D.D.; Rev. Canon J. W. Horsley, M.A.; Rev. R. J. Campbell, M.A.; Rev. Rabbi Professor H. Gollancz, D.Litt.; Rev. F. B. Meyer, D.D.; Rev. R. C. Gillie, M.A. A report of the proceedings is to be issued at an early date. An immediate outcome of

this Conference was the further promotion of a petition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, calling upon him, as soon as practicable after the war, to lighten considerably the financial burdens upon parenthood. This petition is now being circulated throughout the country and is being extensively signed. The petition showeth that: Inasmuch as it is imperative in the interests of the nation and the Empire that the decline in the birth-rate, especially where the environment is favourable to the development of the child, should be arrested; and inasmuch as many parents have been led to restriction of family from worthy motives of affection and prudence, such as the desire to secure for their children as good and as assured a position and vocation in society as possible it is incumbent on society for its own advantage to lessen, through the State, as far as is practicable, the burden resting on parents in respect of their children, without weakening the sense of parental responsibility or encouraging any recklessness in the assumption of such responsibility. Your petitioners believe that this object can be attained in the following ways: (1) Marriage should not be fiscally penalized by the assessment of the husband's and wife's income jointly; but there should be separate assessment of each, as marriage when consummated in parenthood involves increased responsibilities. Instead of the almost negligible reduction of income-tax now allowed for each child, there should be a reduction so substantial as would enable parents without undue anxiety to face the responsibility involved in each increase of family: (a) Any such reduction should not be limited to incomes under £500, but should be determined rather by the obligations for education necessarily incurred by the parents. (b) The amount of the death duty payable on small estates should not be determined exclusively by the total amount left to all the children, but, partially at least, by the amount received by each child. (c) As indirect taxation upon the necessaries of life falls most heavily in proportion to the number of children in the family, direct taxation with adjustment to the parental responsibilities involved should to as large an extent as possible take its place. (2) A reduction of the cost of

education, especially secondary and university, is imperative if the nation and Empire are to have at command an abundant, varied, and thoroughly competent service of the higher type as is necessary for safety and progress. In serving its own interests the State would be removing one of the chief obstacles to the increase of family in homes best suited for the upbringing of children. Fitness to benefit by the educational advantages offered should be thoroughly tested; but it is a loss to the nation even more than to the individual that any child's talents should be undeveloped from the lack of educational opportunity. As in the education that is dependent on local rates efficiency is often sacrified to economy, it is urged that education should be made to a much larger degree than at present a charge on Imperial funds in order to encourage local effort. The raising of the leaving age in the elementary schools, desirable and even imperative as it is, must be recognized as greatly increasing the burden upon parents by depriving them of the wages the boys or girls would be earning, and it is only right that some adequate compensation should be devised. (3) Thoroughly competent professional aid should be at the disposal of every mother in her confinement as much for the public as individual advantage. (4) The housing of the people, which has a direct bearing on the decline of the birth-rate, is a crying scandal, and calls for immediate and effective action on the part of the State, on not merely a local but even a national scale, so as to make the existence of "slums" impossible. Your petitioners now humbly pray that you will be pleased to take such steps as may be necessary to bring the matter before His Majesty's Government with a view to the encouragement of the worthy parenthood upon which the future of our Empire depends. The National Council of Public Morals have also accomplished a notable service by the issue of a number of valuable publications dealing with vital human problems.

NOTA BENE.

The Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education of the National Council of the National Education Association,

525, West 125th Street, New York City, and the Council on Health and Public Instruction of the American Medical Association, have issued several valuable pamphlets prepared by Dr. Thomas W. Wood: "Health Charts" contains reproductions of a highly suggestive and instructive series prepared for use in schools and educational work in community centres. A set of fifty-two charts costs $5.00. We understand that the charts and pamphlets may be ordered from the American Medical Association Press, 535, North Dearborn Street, Chicago. "Health Essentials for Rural Children" seeks: (a) To state the health conditions of rural school children at the present time; (b) to propose and recommend the practical measures which seem necessary and possible for the health care of children in country schools; (c) to report praiseworthy efforts which are now being made in a few instances to provide for health care of rural school children, and which may result in giving to rural school children at least as much health care as is provided for children in the cities. "Minimum Health Requirements for Rural Schools" formulates essentials for the protection of the health of country school-going children. These publications are excellent, and we commend them to the consideration of British educationists.

The Russell Sage Foundation Library, 130, East 22nd Street, New York City, is accomplishing a far-reaching service by the issue of a bi-monthly bibliographical Bulletin. The last issue, No. 28, gives references to recent publications relating to war gardens.

The Bureau of Educational Experiments, 16, West 8th Street, New York City, is accomplishing valuable service by the issue of suggestive and informing Bulletins. The latest, No. 7 (price 10 cents), is entitled "Camp Liberty: A Farm Cadet Experiment." It is the record of a farm labour trial in which twenty-five young men of New York City participated with the farmers of a New York State community and the Bureau of Educational Experiments. Mr. Charles E. Artman, the Camp Director, furnishes an interesting report, and Jean Lee Hunt, the Secretary of the Department of Information, provides comment and evalúation, from which we take one sentence:

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