The Nation's Health

Report Outline
Health of the Nation in Peace and War
Wartime Advances in Medical Science
Health Protections for Postwar Years

Health of the Nation in Peace and War

Problems connected with the present and future health of the people of the United States have been brought sharply to public attention during the war by new knowledge of the effects of disease upon the nation's manpower resources. Four and a half million men summoned in the draft have been rejected for military service because of physical or mental defects; uncounted millions of days of labor have been lost in war plants since Pearl Harbor as a result of illness and injury among industrial workers.

Congress is expected shortly to give consideration to a broad program for improvement of the nation's health, now and after the war. Extensive hearings have been held, and four interim reports have been submitted by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, which was directed in 1943 to “study and investigate the deficiencies in health and education of persons otherwise fit for service with the armed forces” or for employment in industry or in agriculture. Pending submission of the final report of the Committee on Wartime Health and Education, seven measures dealing with specific health problems have been introduced by individual members of Congress.

Effects of Disease on Manpower Resources

The country has been told by the Selective Service System that of the first ten million men inducted into the military forces only two million had no physical impairment. Six and a half million of the inductees had minor defects; one and a half million had major handicaps which needed correction before they could be assigned to active duty. Because of the rejection of four and a half million men found wholly unfit for service, it has been necessary to take hundreds of thousands of men with heavy family responsibilities, or possessed of skills needed in war industry, to fill Selective Service quotas.