Euthenics, the science of controllable environment / A plea for better living conditions as a first step toward higher human efficiency

by Ellen H. Richards

The high school is now fully awake to these vital factors. Some of the best buildings in the United States are the high school buildings, those of the West excelling those of the East. By 1911 nearly every school will have a course in Sanitary Science. It may be under the name of Home Economics, or of Camp Cookery, or of House Building, but the idea of better physical environment has already taken root. In the extension of school work by the employment of the school visitor to supplement the work of the teacher in the grade schools, in Parents’ Associations, in Mothers’ Clubs, in social endeavors on every side, there is coming the study of more special branches of sanitary science, clean air, clean floors, clean clothes—where once cooking lessons were the extent to which the workers could lead.

Evolution has at last been accepted as applying to man as well as to animals. In his inaugural address, November, 1909, President H. J. Waters, of Kansas Agricultural College, said: “... for every dollar that goes into the fitting of a show herd of cattle or hogs, or into experiments in feeding domestic animals, there should be a like sum available for fundamental research in feeding men for the greatest efficiency.... We have millions for research in the realm of domestic animals and nothing for the application of science to the rearing of children.”

Evidence is not wanting that all this is to be speedily changed. Man has awakened to the fact that he is “the sickest beast alive” and that he has himself to blame, and, moreover, that it is within his power to change his condition and that speedily.

After all, human life and effort are governed largely by the conscious or unconscious value put upon the varied elements that go to make up the daily round.

It seems to be a universal law that effort must precede satisfaction, from the infant feeding to the man building up a successful business. The satisfaction grows in a measure as the effort was a prolonged or sustained one.

Well-being is a product of effort and resulting satisfaction. The child without interest in work or play does not develop; the man with no stimulus walks through life as in a dream.

The first steps in “civilizing” (?) a nation or tribe are to suggest wants—things to strive for. Struggle, with all its attendant evils, seems the lever that moves the world. It is therefore in line that health, and whatever favors it, is to be gained at the expense of struggle. The one necessary element is that men should value it enough to struggle for it.

Sanitary science above all others, when applied, benefits the whole people, raises the level of productive life.

In the rapid development of our civilization, the laboratory, the shop, the school can be the quickest mediums of suggesting wants.

In an earlier chapter, the indifference to clean conditions, the ignorance of the means of obtaining pure food and clean air, were dwelt upon, and still later the need of will to choose the right thing.