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MAN NOW AT HIS BEST The big average height of the men drafted into the United States army is being widely commented upon in the press and it appears that the facts justify the favorable remarks bping made Records of the quartermasters office show that the Ameri ¬ cans who are donning the army uniform today arc higger than the men who fought in former wars The size most In demand for the standard army shoe in the past was 7 E while the average size of the marching shoe today is S I and that of the field or trench shoe 9 E The styles are issued for it has been found by experiment that soldiers require a larger shoe for the trenches it being necessary to wear two pairs of socks at a time in cold and wet weather Similarly the present day American soldier has to be provided with a size larger than his predecessor in coats shirts and breeches He is a bigger man all around which is decidedly satisfactory from the national point of view viewEvents Events in other belligerent lands since the war be ¬ gan have served to prove that men generally arc as strong physically and morally as ever they were in history The long campaign in the trenches in Eu iighting men of the past were submitted to in the worst of the numerous old wars They have stood that test ami the hundreds of thousands who sur ¬ vive the cannons blast and the rifles bullet will emerge physically flue specimens of manhood manhoodIt It is not necessary to look to the United States or over to Europe to see that the human race has not deteriorated Canada is a small nation com ¬ pared with its tremendous neighbor and with other allies It has a population at the census of 1911 of 7200000 about half of whom are males Out of the young men part of this total 5001000 men have measured up to the several medical test of the army and some tens of thousands of others have been examined and rejected for minor defects that do not interfere with their life as civilians and do not threaten to shorten their days appreciably The men who were taken to the field of war have lived in the open through the heat of summer and the cold and snow and wet of winter and the thunder of guns has been constantly in their ears earsThe The stress of the deadliest warfare has not broken their spirit and they stand ready today to face at ¬ tack from a powerful enemy and to deliver it in return In view of these facts the little bodies of gloomy and narrowminded persons who meet peri ¬ odically and resolve that the race is degenerating physically and morally should rest from their croak iiig for the time being Actual conditions are con ¬ founding their slanderous assertions The race is stronger today than ever Montreal Gazette
