work is only to waste potential citizenship. Citizens
who use themselves up in the mere getting of a living have no surplus
strength or interest for overcoming incompetence in civic business, or
for achieving the highest aim of citizenship,--the art of
self-government for the benefit of all the governed.

CHAPTER XXI

PERIODICAL PHYSICAL EXAMINATION AFTER SCHOOL AGE

Governor Hughes, in his address to the students in Gettysburg College,
pleaded for such lives that strength would be left for the years of
achievement. How many men and women can you count who are squandering
their health bank account? How many do you know who are now physically
bankrupt? The man who is prodigal of his health may work along all
right for years, never realizing until the test comes that he is
running behind in his vitality. The test may be hard times, promotion,
exposure to cold, heat, fever, or a sudden call for all his control in
avoiding accident. If his vitality fails to stand the test, his career
may be ruined, "all for the want of a horseshoe nail": because of no
health bank account to draw upon in time of need,--failure; because of
vitality depleted by alcohol, tobacco, overeating, underexercise, or
too little sleep,--no power to resist contagious diseases; because of
ignorance of existing lung trouble,--a year or more of idleness,
perhaps poverty for his family; or there is neglected ear or eye
trouble,--and thousands of lives may be lost because the engineer
failed to read the signals.

Adults are now examined when applying for insurance or accident
policies, for work on railroads, for service in the army and on the
police and fire forces of cities that provide pensions. It is somewhat
surprising that the hundreds of thousands who carry life insurance
policies have not realized that a test which is rigorously imposed for
business reasons by insurance companies can be applied by individuals
for business reasons. Generations hence the state will probably
require of every person periodic physical examination after school age.
Decades hence business enterprises will undoubtedly require evidence of
health and vitality from employees before and during employment, just
as schools will require such evidence from teachers. It is, after all,
but a step from the police passport to the health passport. Why should
we not protect ourselves against enemies to health and efficiency as
well as against enemies to order? But for the prese