Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-27
A DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

The Iowa Health Bulletin, issued by
the state board of health. in it's cur
rent issue reprints an address deliver
ed by DR.. J. Pease Norton, assistant
professor in political economy at Yale
university, which makes strong
argument for national organization
of health, DR.. Norton holds that to
permit great. wastes to go unchecked
is more than suicidal policy, for an
evil more destructive than race sui
eide is race homicide. The four great
wastes of our civilization he enumer-
ates as preventable death, preventable
sickness, preventable conditions Of low
physical and mental efficiency and
preventable ignorance The facts he
declares are cold and bare one million
five hundred thousand 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 25,000,0O0 persons, will be made
more or less wretched by mortality
and morbidity.
DR.. Norton goes on to show what the
government is doing in the preserva-
ton of animal and plant life. He says:
The department of agriculture
spends seven million dollars on plant
health and animal health every year,
but, with the exception Of the splendid
work done by Doctors Wiley, Atwater
and Benedict, congress does not di-
rectly appropriate one cent for pro-
noting the physical well-being of
babies. Thousands have been expend-
ed in stamping out cholera among
swine, but not one dollar was ever
devoted 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 affecting potato plants; in i'm
porting Sicilian bugs to fertilize fig
blossoms in California; in ostracizing
various species of weeds from the
ranks of the useful plants, and in ex-
terminating parasitic growths that
prey on fruit trees. In fact, the depart
ment Of agriculture has expended dur
ing the last ten years over forty-six
millions of dollars.
But not wheel of the official ma
chinery Washington was ever set in
motion for the alienation or cure of
diseases of the heart or kidneys, which
will carry off over six millions of our
entire population. Eight millions will
perish Of pneumonia and the entire
event is accepted by the American peo-
pie with resignation equal to that of
the Hindoo, who, in the midst of in
describable filth, calmly awaits the
day of the cholera
During the next census period more
than six million 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 probably be decreased
by as much as one-half. But nothing
is done.
DR.. Norton admits that there must
arise many differences of opinion with
respect to the practical division of
powers in the organization of a ma
tional department of health, and the
details would necessarily be the sub
ject Of careful investigation, but such
an organization, he says, should have
as it's head secretary who should
be member Of the executive cabinet
and Its purpose should be to
take all measures calculated, in
the judgment of experts, to decrease
death, to decrease sickness, and to in
crease mental and physical efficiency
of citizens.