cal condition of the child when he
presents himself for registration as a wage earner.

CHAPTER XXIX

OFFICIAL MACHINERY FOR ENFORCING HEALTH RIGHTS

The argument for _getting things done_ presumes adequate active
machinery, official and private, for _doing things_ that schools are
being urged to do. The chapter on Departments of School Hygiene
suggests local, county, state, and national machinery necessary (1) to
protect the child from injuries due to school environment, school
methods, and school curriculum; (2) to getting those things done for
the child at home and on the street, need for which is disclosed by
physical and vitality tests at school. It is unreasonable to confine
the school to the activities above outlined unless health machinery,
adequate to the demands placed upon it by school and other community
needs, is devised and kept in order.

Generally speaking, adequate health machinery is already provided for
by city charters and by the state laws under which villages, townships,
and counties are organized. Quite as generally, however, machinery and
methods of adequate administration are undeveloped. How much machinery
has already been set to work by New York City is shown by the
accompanying chart. A useful exercise for individuals or school classes
wishing to study health administration would be to chart in this way
the machinery actually at work in their locality, county, and state.
Even for New York it should be remembered that this chart does not
include national quarantine, the state protection of the port, the
state dairy and health commissions, or the state and national food
inspection. To get an idea of the vast amount of attention given
to health in New York City there should be added to this chart the work
of many departments other than the department of health. The building
bureau, tenement-house department, board of water supply, sewage
commission, street cleaning, public baths and comfort stations, the
department of water, gas, and electricity, and finally the department
of hygiene and physical training in the public schools.

[Illustration: CHART SHOWING HOW NEW YORK CITY'S DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH EXERCISES IT'S AUTHORITY
Courtesy of Bureau of Municipal Research]

Five elements of adequate machinery are generally lost sight of:

1. The voter.

2. The nonvoter, subject to health laws and often apt to violate
them.

3. The mayor, governor, or president who a