Scranton Wochenblatt. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1865-1918, 1910-03-31

In the last five years the state OF
Pennsylvania has been engaged in
conservation work of an extremely
important and fundamental kind. With
President Roosevelt 1t believes that
the preservation of the peoples nat
ural resources should begin with the
preservation of the people themselves.
The public cannot conscientiously per
NIT the wasteful sacrifice of its forests
and its other forms of natural wealth,
but even less conscientiously can 1t
permit the wantom sacrifice of its
children's lives.
In maintaining a fully equipped
state health department and engaging
on a large scale in this great warfare
against disease, Pennsylvania has TAX
en- a foremost stand for real modern
civilization The creation of govern
mental agencies for the preservation
of the public health marks a new con-
ception of governmental responsible
fly. The work thus far marks only
the beginning-merely suggests the
good which this department, under
the direction of DR.. Samuel G. Dixon,
the commissioner. has in view.
In the last thirty years the atti-
tude of the public towards Ill health
has radically changed. Until the re.
searches Of that resourceful genius,
Louis Pasteur. disclosed the real
cause of contagious diseases, the aver
age mans conception was practically
that which had prevailed In the mid
die ages. The infections were merely
manifestations of the inscrutable
WISDOM OF Providence, expressions of
divine wrath; punishments for sinful
human kind. Even the scientist re-
garded them as fundamental facts of
nature, like death ITSELF which every
one must uncomplainingly accept Pas
teur, however, in few mastery ex-
perirnents, brushed aside all this ig-
norancs and superstition. He showed
thai all contagious diseases had a
clearly defined and obvious origin.
They were not mysterious visitations.
without tangible cause and insuscep-
tible to tangible control. They were
caused by an infinitely large universe
of infinitely small forms of vegetable
and animal life. He demonstrated
that the connection between these
malevolent micro-organisms and the
ensuing disease was as close as that
between sunlight and heat. And he
also Immediately drew the inevitable
conclusion. II the world were once
rid Of these organisms, he declared,
It would be rid of contagious diseases
"Tt is now within the power of the
world"-such was the deduction
which he drew from his experiments,
ito rid itself of all contagious dis.
eases"
Setting Pace In Health Work.
This was the goal at which Pasteur
aimed; that has been the goal at
which all movements for improving
the peoples health have necessarily
aimed since. And this was the ulti-
mate ambition which led, five years
ago, to the organization of the Penn
sylvania State Department of Health,
a Pennsylvania in which there shall
be no young men and women Ian
gushing away with tuberculosis; a
Pennsylvania in which no children
shall die of diphtheria; a Pennsylva.
MA in which there shall be no ty.
phoid, no scarlet fever, no smallpox,
no meningitis, no dysentery, no ma.
laria-this is the kind of PENNSYLVANIA
which the State Department of Health
hopes ultimately to create. It does
not expect to reach this goal in a
year, or ten years perhaps not in a
single generation, but this is the ideal
that 1t has constantly in mind. 1t re.
cognizes the fact that. so long as any
of these diseases exist, their preva
lonce is a distinct reproach to the
state. 1t is a reproach simply be.
cause the method eliminating them Is
known. The old theory of government
as power which protects its citi
zens only from foreign foes and native
marauders is giving way to new stan
dards Of civilization. The greatest
enemies to the state are those which