FEDERAL AID FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, Wednesday, January 12, 1921. The committee met at 8 o'clock p. m., Hon. Simeon D. Fess (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. This is a hearing on H. R. 12652, known as the physical education bill, a bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Capper and in the House by the chairman of the Committee on Education, upon which there were joint hearings last session. However, the House committee members were so busy that they could not attend the hearings, except in one or two sessions, consequently the hearings really were a Senate hearing and not a joint hearing of the Senate and House committees. Since that I have received quite a number of letters from a great many sources, representing wide geographical divisions and also numerous interests.

Many of these communications indicate that there is a desire to have the hearings reopened so that those various associations could be heard. The committee thought it was proper to reopen the hearings and set to-night as the time because there are other committees having hearings, such as the Ways and Means Committee, during the day, and members of our committee desire to attend those hearings. Secondly, we thought it better all around to have the hearings in the evening.

I have communications from quite a number of different interests saying they would be heard. I think that all of the different associations that wrote me are represented here, and it is quite necessary for us to not unduly prolong the hearings and to avoid, if possible, too much duplication for the sake of the record. Consequently, I have asked that those who want to be heard make an arrangement by which all can be heard but not every person who appears. That is impossible. That would not be allowed by the committee on account of duplication of the record, so I have asked Judge Smith, of Boston, to sort of take charge of that matter to-night. (The bill is here printed in the record in full, as follows:)

[H. R. 12652, 66th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To provide for the promotion of physical education in the United States through cooperation with the States in the preparation and payment of supervisors and teachers of physical education, including medical examiners and school nurses, to appropriate money and regulate its expenditure, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted, etc., That there is hereby annually authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sums provided in section 3 of this act, to be paid to the several States for the purpose of cooperating with the States in the preparation and payment of

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supervisors and teachers of physical education, including medical examiners and school nurses, and the sums provided for in sections 8 and 12 for the use, respectively, of the Bureau of Education of the Department of Interior and the Bureau of the Public Health Service of the Treasury Department for the administration and execution of this act, which sums shall be expended as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. That the purpose and aim of physical education in the meaning of this act shall be more fully and thoroughly to prepare the boys and girls of the Nation for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship through the development of bodily vigor and endurance, muscular strength and skill, bodily and mental poise, and such desirable moral and social qualities as courage, self-control, self-subordination, cooperation under leadership, and disciplined initiative. The facilities for securing these ends shall be understood to include comprehensive course of physical training activities; periodical physcal examination; correction of postural and other remediable defects; health supervision of schools and school children; practical instruction in the care of the body and in the principles of health; hygienic school life; sanitary school buildings, playgrounds, and athletic fields and the equipment thereof; and such other means as may be conducive to these purposes.

SEC. 3. That for the purpose of cooperating with the States in the preparation of supervisors and teachers of physical education, including school medical examiners and school nurses, through State normal schools and other State institutions equipped for such service; and for the purpose of cooperation with the States in the payment of said supervisors and teachers, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, the sum of $10,000,000, and for each subsequent year an amount sufficient to allot $1 per child of school age to each State which shall have accepted the provisions of this act. The number of such children shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of this act: Provided, That in no year shall any State use less than one-fifth of its total allotment for the preparation of supervisors and teachers of physical education.

SEC. 4. That for the year ending June 30, 1921, the appropriation provided for in section 3 of this act shall be allotted to the States in the proportion which the population of each State between the ages of 6 and 18 years, inclusive, bears to the total population of the United States between the ages of 6 and 18 years, inclusive, not including outlying possessions, as determined by the decennial census of 1920: Provided, That the amount allotted to each State shall not exceed $1 per child of school age (6 to 18 years, inclusive). Thereafter the appropriations provided for in section 3 shall be allotted to such States as shall have accepted the provisions of this act on the basis of $1 per child of school age, as determined by the last preceding decennial census of the United States.

SEC. 5. That for the purpose of administering this act there is hereby established in the Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior a Division of Physical Education, to be in charge of a director of physical education. There shall be in said division such specialists, assistants, clerks, and other employees as may be necessary for the administration of this act.

SEC. 6. That the Commissioner of Education, through the Division of Physical Education, shall from time to time make and publish uniform rules and regulations to aid the States in carrying out the provisions of this act, and shall make or cause to be made studies, demonstrations, and reports to aid the States in the organization and conduct of physical education in elementary, secondary, continuation and normal schools and in other State institutions in which teachers are prepared.

SEC. 7. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Education, through the Division of Physical Education, to cooperate with the Division of Child Hygiene of the United States Public Health Service as hereinafter provided; and to cooperate with the Children's Bureau and such bureaus and agencies of the Federal Government as may have relations with the physical education of children of school age as defined in section 2 of this act.

SEC. 8. That there is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Bureau of Education out of the moneys in the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $300,000 annually, to be available from and after the passage of this act and for the purpose of paying salaries in the District of Columbia and elsewhere and of making studies, demonstrations, and reports; and of paying all incidental expenses, including printing, traveling expenses, office rent in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and such other expenses as the Secre