to combat, judging from the appeal in the official organ of the exhibition in its last number, which is of sufficient interest to quote:

The success of the exhibition is already assured, from an industrial point of view, by the number of important exhibitors, British as well as French, who have taken ample space in which to show their goods to advantage; but a little more enthusiasm is still necessary on the part of our great representative firms if the opportunity afforded of securing so powerful a commercial ally as France is to be grasped. Possibly some whose names are household words among us are not gifted with prevision. At any rate, it will amount almost to a national disaster if our Captains of Industry do not foresee that the most hotly contested event in the Stadium will be child's play compared with the trial of strength between France and the British Empire in the exhibition. M. Lefevre, Chairman of the Municipal Council of Paris, whose recent visit to London with his brother councilors called forth such a remarkable demonstration of good feeling, sounded a fraternal note of warning when he said: "Parisians are anxious to deal with the United Kingdom, and would rather do so than with other nations; but to enable them to do this, British manufacturers must take the trouble to show us what they make and what they have to sell."'

A

The proposal of the exhibition emanated from the French Chamber of Commerce in London and received the warm support of the French Minister of Commerce. large representative meeting was held at the Mansion House on July 11, 1906, with the Lord Mayor in the chair, when a resolution in favor of the exhibition and approving the steps already taken, was unanimously passed. It was resolved that all profits resulting from the exhibition should be devoted to some public purpose, to be jointly determined upon by representatives of the two countries concerned. The plan met with the cordial approval of the President of the French Republic and the King of England, as well as of the French and English premiers and other ministers of the two countries.

The general committee appointed consists of over two thousand members, including many of the most prominent men of science, art, letters and business in the British empire; an executive committee is presided over by Viscount Selby, exspeaker of the House of Commons. The Duke of Argyle, brother-in-law of King Edward, is honorary president, while the presidency is undertaken by the Earl of Derby, one of the largest guarantors of

A DETAIL OF THE BRITISH APPLIED ARTS PALACE AT THE FRANCO-BRITISH EXHIBITION

the exhibition. The project was from the start an assured success. The executive committee offered the position of Commissioner-General of the exhibition to Imre Kiralfy, who accepted the appointment. As is well known, he is of international reputation both as an organizer of spectacular entertainments on both sides of the Atlantic and as a popular writer. No more suitable man could have been selected, for he rendered the same service for the British section of the Universal Exhibition at Liege in 1905 and was also Director-General of the Empire of India Exhibition, 1895; Victorian Era Exhibition, 1897; Universal Exhibition, 1898; Woman's International Exhibition, 1900; and several others.

The site secured for the exhibition at

The main entrance of the exhibition stands between the terminus of the Central London Railway (The Tube) at Shepherd's Bush and the Uxbridge Road Station, and is within the four-mile radius. This entrance hall is connected by seven other large halls with the grounds which are situated on the western side of Wood Lane. Passing through the entrance hall, the visitor enters what is called the Court of Honor, in which are located the principal buildings. Straight ahead are the gardens and the sites for the colonial exhibits; to the right the stadium for the Olympian games, and to the left the Machinery Halls. The names of

tries, of Decorative Arts and Fine Arts, Palace of Music, etc. The style of architecture of the buildings of the FrancoBritish Exhibition has not the same imposing appearance as that of the World's Fair at Chicago. It has an Oriental aspect, effective from its brilliant colorscheme which gives it a dazzling, picturesque appearance. One of the handsomest buildings of the exhibition is without doubt the Louis XV. pavilion.

How Bradford Feeds the Underfed Children in Its Schools

By John Spargo

AUTHOR OF "THE BITTER CRY OF THE CHILDREN"; "UNDERFED SCHOOL CHILDREN," ETC.

THE HE poverty problem is universal. In the most prosperous times and in the most prosperous nations, there are always many who are miserably poor, some by reason of the "sins of their fathers," others by reason of their own sins, and still others by reason of social causes beyond the control of any individual.

And wherever there is poverty, its burden falls heavily upon the little children. Among the babies of the poor the deathrate is appallingly high, and the physical development of the children of the poor is, in all countries, inferior to that of the well-to-do classes. Figures from our own New England States, from the English factory districts, from German and Russian cities and from the peasant districts of Austria and Italy, all go to prove the universality of this condition.

Recently the Municipal Council of Berlin has been considering the extension of its system of providing meals for the children in its schools who are chronically underfed. In many other European cities this system of school meals has been developed upon an extensive scale, particularly in Paris. Now England has adopted the system, an act of parliament having been passed enabling cities to provide school meals for necessitous school children whenever it seems advisable to do so.

Some two years ago, the present writer hazarded a guess that there must be at least two million boys and girls of school age in the United States who were more or less seriously underfed. That was frankly a guess, based upon wholly inadequate data, most of which was crude and lacking in scientific precision. Nothing more was

claimed for it than that it was a guess based upon the most extensive observation of the problem yet made.

There was afterward formed in New York a Committee on the Physical Welfare of School Children, consisting of many well-known philanthropic and social workers, physicians and educators, which has made an investigation into the subject upon a very small scale, but interesting and valuable nevertheless. The results of that investigation tend to confirm, upon the whole, my own estimate of the problem. They took some one thousand four hundred school children, representing various classes and nationalities, and made a careful examination of their social and physical condition.

No man knows, of course, how far those one thousand four hundred children taken from various parts of New York city can be regarded as representative of the children of the nation. To be sure of our ground, it would be necessary to have ten times as many children examined in each of the largest cities, and a proportionate number in scores of representative cities, towns and rural villages. But so far as the results go, taking them for what they are worth and I am personally inclined to the opinion that they are not far from being representative and typical of the children of the nation - it would seem that there are to-day not less than twelve million children in our public schools needing medical attention, and that not less than one million two hundred and forty-eight thousand such children are suffering from malnutrition - from underfeeding so serious in extent, and so chronic, as to have produced actual dis

ease.

Whether the condition is really so serious, or whether the best way to meet the evil is by providing school meals, are questions which ought to receive serious

and intelligent consideration. One of the strongest reasons which can be advanced in support of the creation of a Federal Health Department, with its executive head in the cabinet, is the need of careful attention to this grave problem.

In the meantime, all experiments made with a view to solving the problem, whether in this or other countries, should be carefully noted for the lessons they may afford us when we come to deal with the evil, as, in our largest cities at least, we must do at some not far-distant date. Among recent experiments that of the city of Bradford, England, is most significant.

The Bradford School Board has been exceedingly fortunate in having in its service an extremely able and wise woman, Miss Margaret McMillan, whose studies of child-psychology have given her a foremost place among students, and endeared her name to thousands of educators and workers for children's welfare. And with her have been associated many able and energetic men and women. Under her fine, wise leadership they have pushed the question of the physical welfare of the children to the very forefront.

These people found, by actual experience as teachers, that there were many children in the lower grades of certain schools who were chronically underfed. Many of them were weak and undeveloped and many others dull and listless, quite unable to learn properly. When, therefore, the "Feeding of Children Act" was passed, Bradford was among the first of the large provincial cities to adopt it. The great value of their experiment thus far lies in the thoroughness of their methods.

Instead of making a contract for certain quantities of cheap but wholesome food, and distributing it to the children in a makeshift dining-room, as some British cities had done; or setting up improvised and poorly equipped kitchens in school classrooms, as some other places had done, serving soup or oatmeal porridge daily, Bradford decided to copy the excellent example of some Swedish and one or two Italian cities, and established first of all a well-equipped cooking establishment, from which the several school dining-rooms are supplied.

With admirable civic economy, the au

thorities realized that a great deal of expense could be avoided, simply by util izing heat that was going to waste. So they partitioned off a large room next to the heating apparatus of one of the public baths and established their central food station there. Their next concern was to get the most scientific modes of cooking, and the best appliances possible. There are four immense pots for cooking the soups, stews, vegetables, and so on, with a crane for lifting them. There are machines for paring fruit and vegetables and a system of large baths for washing the vegetables before they are placed in the cooking pots or the ovens. These ovens, of which there are two, are enormous affairs with numerous shelves for tiers of dishes. The cooks are highly skilled.

There is nothing haphazard about the cooking, either: nothing is left to chance. The medical advisers have gone thoroughly into the science of food values: menus for children of different ages have been prepared, and no dinner is ever chosen unless it has been approved by the medical advisers, alike as to quality and quantity. The amount of proteids, fat and carbohydrates contained in each meal is thus ascertained. I know of no other establishment of its kind anywhere in which the science of nutrition is so carefully studied.

Another important feature is the care taken to avoid monotony in the diet. As in our well-to-do homes we seek to have a variety on our tables, so the managers of these children's dinners aim at variety. At present there are seventeen different menus, which are chosen in order, one for each day. Thus it happens that the same Idish is never served more than once in three weeks. It is almost impossible to comprehend the enormous amount of love and labor which has been expended to get these results.

When the meals have been properly cooked they are packed in wooden boxes lined with zinc, so that they can be delivered at the schools "piping hot." The municipal motor cars are laden with the boxes of food and other boxes of clean, warm dishes, and in a very little while the children are enjoying their wholesome and bounteous meal.

Let us take a peep into one of the