=Incomplete living.=—­The man who walks with a crutch; the man who is afflicted with a felon; the man who lacks a hand or even a finger,—­cannot experience complete living.  Through the power of adaptation the man with a crutch may compass more difficult situations than the man with sound legs will attempt, but he cannot realize all the possibilities of life that a sound body would vouchsafe to him.  The man without hands may learn to write with his toes, but he is not employed as a teacher of penmanship.  His life is a restricted one and, therefore, less than complete.  We marvel at the exhibitions of skill displayed by the maimed, but we feel no envy.  We may not be able to duplicate their achievements, but we feel that we have ample compensation in the normal use of our members.  We know instinctively that, in the solitude of their meditations, they must experience poignant regrets that they are not as other people, and that they must pass through life under a handicap.

=The sound body.=—­It is evident, therefore, that soundness of body is a condition precedent to complete living.  The body is the organism by means of which the mind and the spirit function in terms of life; and, if this organism is imperfect, the functioning will prove less than complete.  Hence, it is the province of the school to so organize all its activities that the physical powers of the pupils shall be fully conserved.  The president of a large university says that during his incumbency of seventeen years they have found only one young woman of physical perfection and not a single young man, although the tests have been applied to thousands.  College students, it will be readily conceded, are a selected group; and yet even in such a group not a physically perfect young man was found in tests extending over seventeen years.  If a like condition should be discovered in the scoring of live stock at our fairs, there would ensue a careful investigation of causes in the hope of finding a remedy.

=Personal efficiency.=—­We shall not achieve national efficiency until every citizen has achieved personal efficiency, and physical fitness is one of the fundamental conditions precedent to personal efficiency.  Here we have the blue print for the guidance of society and the school.  If we are ever to achieve national efficiency, we must see to it that every man and woman, every boy and girl, has a strong, healthy body that is fully able to execute the behests of mind and spirit.  This may require a stricter censorship of marriage licenses, including physical examinations; it may require more stringent laws on our statute books; it may require radical changes in our methods of physical training; and it may require the state to assume some of the functions of the home when the home reveals its inability or unwillingness to cope with the situation.  Heroic treatment may be necessary; but until we as a people have the courage to apply the remedies that the diagnosis shows to be necessary, we shall look in vain for improvement.