ollowing points that
merit the serious consideration of those who are struggling for higher
health standards.

1. _There is many a slip 'twixt the making of a law and its
enforcement._ If laws regarding hygiene instruction are not enforced,
we should not be surprised. It has been nobody's business to see
whether and how hygiene is being taught. The moral crusade spent itself
in forcing compulsory laws upon the statute books of every state and
territory. Making a fetish of _Legislation_, the advocates of
anti-alcohol and anti-tobacco instruction failed to see the truth that
experienced political reformers are but slowly coming to
see--_Legislation which does not provide machinery for its own
enforcement is apt to do little good and frequently will do much harm._
Machinery, however admirably adapted to the work to be done, will get
out of order and become useless, or even harmful, unless constantly
watched and efficiently directed. Of what possible use is it to say
that state money may be withheld from any school board which fails to
enforce the law regarding instruction in hygiene, if state officials
never enforce the penalty? So long as the penalty is not enforced for
flagrant violation, what difference does it make whether the reason is
indifference, ignorance, or desire to thwart the law? Fortunately, it
is easy for each one of us to learn how often and in what way the
children in our community are being taught hygiene, and how the schools
of our state teach and practice the laws of health. If either the
spirit or the letter of the law regarding instruction in hygiene is
being violated, we can measure the penalty paid in health and morals by
our children and our community. We can learn whether law, text-book,
curriculum, or teacher should be changed. We can insist upon discussion
of the facts and upon remedies suggested by the facts.

2. _Teachers give as one reason for neglecting hygiene, that they are
often compelled to struggle with a curriculum which requires more than
they are able to teach and more than pupils are able to learn in the
time allowed._ While an overcharged curriculum may explain, it surely
does not justify, the violation of law and the dropping of hygiene from
our school curriculum. If there is any class of citizen who should
teach and practice respect for law as law, it is the teacher. Parents,
school directors, county and state superintendents, university
presidents, social workers, owe it not