health day in such manner as the summer round-up of children, getting children ready to enter into the schools, correction of remedial defects that are discovered by the children attending proper summer exercises, and suggesting means whereby the health of children may be improved.

Mr. FLETCHER. Would you include that in the resolution?

Doctor BALLOU. I think the resolution ought to be more intelligible as to the means for accomplishing the purpose. I have not undertaken to draft it nor have I been asked to, and I do not know that I could very well. I was trying to suggest how I think the resolution could be made more clear and be better understood by the public generally.

Mr. FLETCHER. If this is passed as it is and the President should issue a proclamation, what exactly concerning the matter would the superintendents and school executives do?

Doctor BALLOU. I can not answer that.
Mr. FLETCHER. What would you do?

Doctor BALLOU. They would have their attention directed to it.
Mr. FLETCHER. That is the point.

Doctor BALLOU. They would, perhaps, time their instructions to their administrative and supervisory officers concerning the matter of round-ups so that it would follow the issuance of the proclamation. We have already sent to administrative and supervising officers and all principals of buildings an official circular calling their attention to the fact that the Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers Associations is interested in the campaign this year for the round-up of preschool children, to get them ready for school next September. That circular has to do with children who are not yet in school. That circular asks principals to get the names of boys and girls who are coming into the schools next September and to turn that list of names of boys and girls over to the local chairman of the round-up campaign. That is part. That is just one part of the kind of thing which the superintendent could do and I think would do, and they would be more likely to do it at that particular time of the year, and there would be more incentive to do it, if they felt that everybody else was doing it. There is a real psychology and a real value in feeling that this is a common cause in which we are all embarked. Indeed, I think that is the chief value of this resolution.

Mr. FLETCHER. From the psychological standpoint, would it not be effective to have this day come on Mothers' Day, inasmuch as the mothers are so intimately identified with children and their particular problems.

Mr. ROBSION. That is a big enough day in itself.

Doctor BALLOU. I agree that it is a big enough day by itself. I do not believe you could select a better day than May 1. I do not believe it would be desirable to confuse it with Mother's Day or any other day that we now observe for obvious reasons. I think we should have to get their consent.

Mr. GREENWOOD. After all the great value is in fixing the day and centering public attention on it.

Doctor BALLOU. Yes. I think your resolution would be very materially strengthened if you could insert something between the the displaying of the flag and the concluding part of it.

Mr. GREENWOOD. I agree with you about that.

Doctor BALLOU. It would indicate the process by which you are to arrive at the conclusion.

Mr. GREENWOOD. If you go into detail of how it shall be celebrated you will make it compulsory for the States to follow that.

Doctor BALLOU. If it only suggests the means you do not bind any one to it.

Mr. GREENWOOD. That was to be left to the program.

Doctor BALLOU. You can see the point I am making there that you are dealing with the lay public as well as school people.

Mr. ROBSION. Let us have some major suggestions.

Doctor BALLOU. That is the idea. I think it is very important that you give additional information. I have only tried to express my own view. I think it is desirable that you get additional information from school people because they do occupy in this particular matter a very important position in every community, and I am sure the National Education Association, as well as the United States Bureau of Education, either one or both, could get for you within a week or 10 days information from the State commissioner of education first, and then from the superintendents of schools in the larger cities, and county superintendents, where the county system is in operation, and opinions from them would be very valuable to you.

Mr. FLETCHER. You feel they would express the universal feeling over the country?

Doctor BALLOU. I feel sure that would be very important.
Mr. FLETCHER. I do, too.

Doctor BALLOU. Their opinions are very important from the standpoint of guiding you in this matter. There is not anyone who can tell you the feeling of the school men of the country, and these agencies right here at your disposal can get that information for you, and then you have the individual opinions.

Mr. ROBSION. They would be interested in carrying out the program which they had suggested.

Doctor BALLOU. There is no question about that. It is very important.

Mr. FLETCHER. Why did you not suggest something about this in advance?

Doctor BALLOU. Within the last few days is the only time I had any knowledge of this resolution.

Mr. FLETCHER. Is that true of you, Mr. Morgan?

Mr. MORGAN. Yes.

Mr. FLETCHER. This matter has not been up before State educational groups or the District group?

Doctor BALLOU. It has never been presented to any body of educators I am identified with.

Mr. FLETCHER. Who is responsible for it?

Mr. GREENWOOD. There is the American Child Health Association, and a list of some 25 representative organizations that have been cooperating in bringing about this result which has been carried out in various communities, and this is just an attempt on the part of the organizations to coordinate the work.

Mr. FLETCHER. The American Child Health Association usually consults you people about these matters?

Doctor BALLOU. We are in close touch with them and get very great help from them in connection with the health program.

Mr. FLETCHER. This resolution seems to emphasize the flag idea so much.

Mr. GREENWOOD. There are three things, first, we fix the day so that the nation's attention would concentrate on that day, and two things point to that day to attract attention: One is the proclamation of the President, and the other the use of the flag. Those will emphasize the first point.

There are many other things that might be put into the resolution to add to its effectiveness; I have no doubt of that. There is nothing compulsory about it. It was not the idea for the Government to take anything away from the States. These different organizations tried to fix on a day so that all the organizations will coordinate on that day but they still leave it to the State boards of education and of health, or whatever organization it is, to issue instructions or a proclamation as they see fit to carry out the program as they have been doing it, but not to enforce a uniform program and make them all conform to it, which we know is impossible. We have not attempted that.

Mr. ROBSION. If the President should issue a proclamation as prescribed by the resolution and send it out, there would be nothing suggested there except to put out the flag.

Mr. GREENWOOD. We do not anticipate the President will do that, but he will do as he does at Thanksgiving, in November, put his own ideas into it as to why it should be observed, making suggestions as he pleases.

Mr. ROBSION. He could do that without the help of this.

Mr. GREENWOOD. You know they do not do it. The purpose of this is to give the sense of Congress, to urge the President to do it, call his attention to it. His attention has not been called to it, and this will call to the President's attention this matter the same as to the citizens, and to different organizations.

Mr. FLETCHER. He has already done it. President Harding and President Coolidge did it, as Doctor Tigert testified.

Doctor BALLOU. I have nothing further to add. I want to place my services at your disposal, and if I can be of any further assistance I hope you will call upon me.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD F. MCGRADY, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. MCGRADY. My organization was responsible for drafting this resolution. We are perfectly willing to have the resolution amended. I believe that Doctor Ballou has given you a very clear exposition of the case. In drafting it we hoped in the first place to get it adopted by this 1st of May. We intend to send a letter to our 29,000 organizations throughout the country the week before May 1, calling their attention to May 1 as child health day. Mrs. KAHN. That is the way to do it.

Mr. MCGRADY. We propose to hold meetings on May 1 and through our connection with various organizations we are asking them to cooperate with the school authorities in their neighborhoods in order to make this day effective as health day for the children of the Nation. I may say another reason we are very anxious to have this put on May 1 is that we are confronted every year with the

fact that May 1 has been generally recognized as a radical day when all the radicals of the world get together and talk world revolution. It might be interesting for you to know that on May 1 for the last 15 or 18 years there have been anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 meetings held in this country by the radicals, calling for a revolutionary program, denouncing the Government, asking for a change of Government, and rule by the proletariat. They have always centered upon May 1.

Mr. FLETCHER. You are inspired by a desire to neutralize that. Mr. MCGRADY. That is one thing. We want to get the workers thinking not of world revolution and destroying the Government, but thinking of the most valuable thing the Government has, the health of the children. It is our greatest asset, the health of the future fathers and mothers and defenders of the Nation.

There are many reasons why the flag should be displayed. When people find the flag flying over public buildings, they will ask why, and then they will find out that the flag is flying to call the attention of all of the people to the fact that this day has been dedicated to the health of the children of our country. We must distinguish this day from other days, and the displaying of the flag does distinguish the day, and the American Federation of Labor is prepared to take an active part in any national, State, municipal, or local program.

Mrs. KAHN. I think Mr. McGrady has made a wonderful argument for May 1.

Mr. FENN. It would be a good day for Europe, too.
Mr. MCGRADY. All over the world.

STATEMENT OF MRS. WALTER MCNAB MILLER, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR DIVISION OF PUBLICATION AND PROMOTION AMERICAN CHILD HEALTH ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK CITY

Mrs. MILLER. The American Child Health Association five years ago proposed May 1 as child health day. At first it was really only propaganda, to concentrate on one day through our publicity, which last year reached 17,000,000 newspaper clippings and magazines, articles containing the very last and most authoritative word about child health.

In the five years since May Day was inaugurated, this day has been taken over by the schools as an instrument and has been used by them to give to the children recognition for coming up to certain standards in health for which they have been working through the year. We have in our office in New York letters from most of the superintendents of public instruction in the States and from all of the divisions of child hygiene in the States, saying that they would be pleased if this day were recognized by Congress as National Child Health Day, because then the propaganda period would be over and they could use it in their school systems as part of the regular program. In addition, as Mr. Ballou and as Commissioner Tigert have said, all of the national organizations, both men and women, who are on our list as cooperating in the promotion of some form of child health on this day might use it more effectively. In the office we have over 20 proclamations from governors for the day, and

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others promised. Mr. McGrady has told you what the American Federation of Labor has done and will do. The American University Women, Congress of Parents and Teachers, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls, the General Federation, the American Legion, and some 30 other organizations are in this list, and the Department of Agriculture has sent out to every extension director a letter asking cooperation in May Day in their work with the 4-H clubs.

Mr. FLETCHER. You mean the membership of these clubs voted on this issue?

Mrs. MILLER. They have not voted in national session but their boards have approved and in every State their membership is working. The Secretary of Agriculture sent out a letter to all the State directors of extension and who in turn sent it to all the county directors, approving such use of this day. The day has become therefore simply a stock-taking day for America of what we are doing as a Nation for our children. In four other countries besides ours, India, Switzerland, France, and Ceylon, as well as in Hawaii and Alaska and Porto Rico, May Day has come to mean child-health day. Men from those countries have come into office and taken the May day material, and it is good psychology to have one day when the whole Nation thinks about child health.

In answer to your suggestion that May day might be a bad day for rural schools, as they have closed before that time, you are quite right, but Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, and other States, superintendents of schools have asked that while they unite in celebrating May day as national child-health day because the national publicity is so great, that they use the last day of the school year to give awards for anything done in the health work throughout the year. Massachusetts has adopted three standards of height, weight, and teeth, and they give tags, red, blue, and white, on those days to children that come up to the right weight and have their teeth in order and whose posture is good.

Mr. FLETCHER. I believe there is the American Hygiene and the Child Health Association. Do they cooperate?

Mrs. MILLER. Yes; every national organization.

Mr. FLETCHER. And the American Medical Association?

Mrs. MILLER. The American Medical Association leaders have said that they recognize the value of this project to health and their journal carries articles on the day.

Mr. FLETCHER. Has there been any opposition from various health faddists?

Mrs. MILLER. We have not had any opposition from any one because we try to recognize May day as a health day. We try to use it as a day of rejoicing everywhere over what America has done and the community has done for the children. It is being observed in every State of the Union.

Mr. FLETCHER. How many people are affected by what you are doing at the present time?

Mrs. MILLER. Every State in the Union. Last week the director of the divisions of child hygiene from all the States of the Union were here in Washington, and Mrs. Breckenridge and I came down to meet with them. At a tea in the Washington Club, the divisions of child hygiene told how they were using this day, and when Senator