The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1908-09-03
FOR YOUR
HEALTH'S SAKE
DR.. j. N. Mccormack Tells
How to Keep Well
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF SICKNESS
May Bel Prevented BY Right
Living

DR.. J. N. Mccormack of Bowling
Green, Kentucky, delivered an address
at the opera house Thursday evening
upon the subject, Things About Doc
tors Which Doctors and Other People
Ought to Know" There was a goodly
number of people present to hear Dr..
Mccormack, but not as many as should
have been there and for that reason
we publish the doctors address in full
this week. DR.. McCormack's talk was
full of good sound reasoning and is
worthy of the consideration of every
citizen. DR.. Mccormack said:
A remarkable meeting was called
at the White House by President
Roosevelt in May last. The govern.
ors of all the states and many of the
great leaders of thought and indus
trial activity were brought together
to discuss and suggest methods for
the arrest of the blind, senseless
waste of the nations fundamental re-.
sources which, in the mad rush for
wealth, have reached such proportions
as to constitute grave public dan
ger. 1t is more than passing strange
that in the call our great, versatile
president, with mind so remarkable
for its interest in practical humanitar-
ian problems, great or small, should
have totally overlooked the greatest
of all drains upon our nations wealth,
the one which is most constant, and
the prevention of which is most prac-
tically within reach.
The greatest asset of every nation
must always be in it's vigorous popu-
lation, in it's healthy men, women and
children. Farms, factories, mines, for
ests, transportation facilities, and
other similar sources of commercial
and industrial wealth, have little val
lie except with such a population to
operate and enjoy them. The drain
upon this asset in this country every
year from preventable diseases and
deaths, and as the result of vicious
living, is estimated at more than one
third of the entire sick and death
rate, and the growing complexity of
the sanitary problems upon which
these things largely depend incident
to the rapidly increasing density of
both our urban and rural populations,
has so impressed the leading political
economists of the great universities
that their faculties and the American
3 SAssociation for the Advancement OF
Science have inaugurated broad
movement to arouse and educate pub
Elic sentiment as to the Importance
and gravity of the subject and more
recently have organized the American
\ Health League, with headquarters at
New Haven, Connecticut, already with
many thousand members, to conduct
the propaganda. I urge that every
citizen in this country interested in the
welfare of his family and his kind
should at once become a member OF
this great lay organization, and re-
xceive it's literature, devoted to secur-
ing healthy bodies, homes and coun-
try.
These economists figure that on
an average there are 100000 deaths
in this country every year, with
100000 cases of sickness, affecting
the peace. comfort and material pros
perity of 100000 homes and 25,000,-
900 people. They insist that over
x Aone.third of this enormous sick and
death rate, constituting a tax upon
families. homes and wealth OF the
nation, almost beyond human calcula-
tion. is distinctly preventable. AS an
argument for peace it has shown that
100000 men were killed in both ar
mics during the five years of the civil
war. AS an argument for better
health laws and policies, they show
that 100000 persons have died from
tuberculosis in this country within the
last five years, and that probably over
,1,50O,000 are constantly sick OF 1t.
They show a large sick rate, with
B0. 1000 'eaths annually from typhoid
fever and large disease and death
Fate from diptheria. cholera infantum,
dysentery, scarlet fever, measles and
other diseases preventable with pres
ent knowledge, and urge that with
proper governmental assistance this
J; list should be constantly extended.
They then state within the last ten
years, through the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, $4O,OOO.OOc
have been expended, and 1t is now