The Mena weekly star., 1910-05-12

The United States is supposed to be worth little over a hundred billion of dollars.
 The annual income is a billion dol. lars.
 The annual expenditure is billion dollars
 The annual loss to the people of the United States by preventable death and preyentable sickness on a fair com mercial value is not less than four billions of dollars. In 25 years. with out interest, without compromising, it would double the value of our national assets over and above our natural in crease under ordinary conditions.
 Loss by Preventable Death.
 We lose by preventable death 630,- 000 human beings annually. We have on an average 3,000,000 of people seri- ously sick from one years end to an other, who must be waited on by other people.
 The average human being. during life Is capable of producing over s5,000 of net average value on a conservative estimate and these 630.000 people are worth over three billions of dollars, and three million sick people, who must be cared for, represent loss of productive energy and of waste in talk ing care of them a thousand million more, a total of four billions annually Some Startling Figures.
 These gigantic figures are hard to comprehend. Imagine, if you please, that you saw 630,000 human beings in a single year lowered into the grave, you would see buried over one person every minute, 72 open graves every hour, 1,750 burials every day; 52,50O funerals every month; 630,000 bodies of men. women and children laid in the grave every year, and in single census over 6,300,000 human beings lost to the nation by preventable causes and loss of commercial value nearly equal to one-half the entire national wealth within a single census decade.
 I have offered abundant proof of this striking truth before the senate of the United States in my remarks on Senate Bill 6O49, proposing to estab- fish a department of public health. The proof rests on the data collected by the most learned men in the United States.
 What are these preventable deaths due to? To polluted drinking water to infected milk, infected ice, to i'm pure foods and drugs, to unsanltary sewerage, unsanitary housing. to tuber- culosis, to typhoid and malarial fever, and a number of other preventable di- seases.
 Human Life Most Important.
 The conservation of our natural re. sources is of great importance, the conservation of our coalfelds, forests, water powers. mineral wealth, the de- yelopment of good roads, the improve ment of our national waterways, the conservation of the fertility of our soil, the conservation of our livestock. our horses, our cattle, our sheep. our swine. but far more important is the conservation of human life and of the physical efficiency of the American people
 Everybody agrees to the wisdom of his proposition. The real question is how shall we accomplish this? l be- lieve in department of public health. because in fighting disease and in fight ing death due to preyentable disease, 1t Is a contest between intelligence and ignorance, and all the authority, dig nity and power of the general govern ment must be put behind the truth and behind the best methods of dealing with disease in order to make the peo- pie realize it's value and its truth.