Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-07-14

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Washington, July 14.-The move
ment for an executive department OF
the government to have charge of pub
lie health matters and to be presided
! over by secretary of public health,
is being strongly agizated just now.
| The effort to get such department
established is not new one but no
| tice has lately been directed toward
\ 1t by~reason Of the activity of the COM
mittee Of one hundred on national
health Of the American Association for
the Advancement Of Science. Irving
Fisher is the president of the commit
tee and in the list of vice presidents
appear such names as those of Rev.
Lyman Abbott Of New York, Jane
Adams of Chicago, Archbishop Ire
land Of ST. Paul and John Mitchell.
The committee has been organized
with the object Of the betterment of
the national health and it is sending
citizens all over the country in the
hope Of enlisting support for the de-
partment Of health idea.
At present the public health and
marine-h hospital service, organized as a
bureau under the treasury department,
looks after health and quarantine mat
ters in so Tar as the federal govern
ment devotes attention to them. But
it is contended that the paramount
question before the people of the
country is their health, that execu-
tive department with broad powers
should be organized to give minute at
tention to health questions and that
only some adequate national organiza-
ton in the cause Of good health can
grapple with the situation.
In the literature that the commit
tee Of one hundred is sending out it is
declared that the life waste in this
country is appalling. that for nation
to permit great wastes to go un-
checked Is more than a suicidal policy
and that race homicide is an evil more
destructive than race suicide. Four
great wastes are enumerated, the
more lamentable because unnecessary.
They are preventable death, prevent
able sickness, preventable conditions
OF low physical and mental efficiency
and preventable ignorance:
"The facts are cold and bare-1,-
SOC, 900 persons must die in the United
States during the next twelve months;
equivalent to 100000 persons will be
constantly sick; over 100000 homes.
consisting Of 25,o00,00o persons, will be
made more or less wretched by mortal
ity and morbidity." This is the Ian
guage Of the committee in urging that
the time has arrived when the govern
ment should organize it's forces more
effectively for the cause Of good health.
1--WE look with horror on the black
plague of the middle ages" says the
committee. t'The black waste was but
passing cloud compared with the
white waste visitation. OF the people
living today, over 100000 will die of
tuberculosis, and the federal govern
ment does not raise hand to help
them"
The grewsome comparison is made
to the effect the department Of agri-
culture spends $7,0OO,0O0 every year on
plant health and animal health, but,
with the exception of the splendid
work done by Doctors Wiley, Atwater
and Benedict, congress does not d.
rectly appropriate one cent for promot-
ing the physical well-being Of babies.
"ThousanSs have been expended in
stamping ost cholera among swine,
but not one dollar was ever voted for
eradicating pneumonia among human
beings. Hundreds OF thousands are
consumed in saving the lives of elm
trees from the attacks of beetles; in
warning farmers against blights affect
ing potato plants; in importing Sicilian
bugs to fertilize fig blossoms in Cali
fornia; in ostracizing various species
of weeds from the ranks Of useful
plants and in exterminating parasitic
growths that prey on fruit trees. In
fact, the department Of agriculture has
expended in the last ten years over
SAG, 0O0,00O But not a wheel of official
machinery at washington was ever set
in motion for the alienation or cure
OF diseases of the heart or kidneys
which will carry off over 100000 of
our entire population. Eight millions
will perish of pneumonia and the en-
tire event is accepted by the American
people with a resignation equal to that
of the Hindoo, who in the midst of In
describable filth, calmly awaits the day
Of the cholera"
IN IQe next CELSIUS pC1AOu, AiiOA y
than 100000 infants under two years
Of age, will end their little spans of
life while mothers sit by and watch
in utter helplessness. And yet this
number could be probably decreased
by as much as one-ha1f. But nothing
is DONE"
It is pointed out that the state rights
doctrine can be applied against the
department Of agriculture as effective
lly as against national department for
health.
President Roosevelt is in sympathy
with the purposes Of the committee of
one hundred, having expressed him
self as follows: "Our national health
is physically our greatest national as
set. To prevent any possible deteriora-
ton Of the American stock should be
a national ambition"
The committee Is urging both politi-
cal parties to take up the movement
for a national health department. 1t
| Is likely much will be heard Of this
subject the next session Of congress.
While congress is slow to create more
executive departments, by reason of
the expense, it is clear that it is go
ing to be subjected to strong pressure
to authorize one In charge Of public
health in the near future.
Reversal of Form.
Scranley, have you abandoned the