New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-04-20
4 Ma TlONAl
HEAL tn BURE Al
Measure Proposed For Good
Of the American People.
NDORSED BY PRESIDENT TAFT

First Formulated by the Committee
Of American Association For Ad-
vancement Of Science-How the Pubs
lie Can Evince Its interest.
By PAULKENNADAY
[secretary Of the subcommittee on spublic-
ity of the committee of one hundred Of
the American Association For the
Advancement of Science on National
Health.l
The death rate in America might be
cut in two if we were to apply the ex-
listing knowledge of hygiene to our
living conditions
This is the statement OF so compe
tent an authority as DR.. William 81.
WEIGH Of Johns Hopkins university
and president Of the American Asso-
citation For the Advancement Of Sci
ence.
And what are we going to do about
It? The facts are cold and bare.
persons must die in the United States
during the next twelve months; equiv
alent to 100000 persons will be con-
stantly sick; over 100000 homes, con-
sisting of 25,OOO,OOO persons, will be
made more or less wretched by NOR
tality and morbidity. OF the people
living today over 5000, 900 will die Of
tuberculosis, and the federal govern
ment does not raise hand to help
them.
It is not that the people Of the Unit
ed States, with the machinery they
have established for their protection
and government, are not able to help
themselves. We can and do spend
thousands Of dollars to stamp out
cholera from our pigs. But for the
alienation or cure Of disease of our
hearts or kidneys, which will carry
off over 100000 of us. not a thing do
we do to call to our aid the mighty
power of our government.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are
expended by the department Of agri-
culture in saving the lives Of elm trees
from the attacks Of beetles. But
where is the department that will keep
that thrive in the milk they drink?
The department Of agriculture warns
our farmers over the whole land
against the blights affecting potato
plants. But that the farmers them
selves and other human beings in the
United States to the numbers of 8OOO,-
600 will perish Of pneumonia is ac-
cepted by us all with an oriental res
ignation that seems to say, Ills the
will of Allah
Vast Field Untouched.
Individual cities and separate states,
it is true, are doing much more to pro-
tect the health and lives of their citi-
Zens than ever before. But there is a
vast field untouched by any to which
the national government should apply
itself.
That the states have departments Of
agriculture of their own, agricultural
colleges, cattle inspection and meat
regulations is not considered cause for
the abandonment of the federal de-
partment of agriculture. As President
Taft said in his first annual message
to congress:
The opportunities offered for useful re-
search and the spread Of useful informa-
ton in regard to the cultivation of the
soil and the breeding of stock and the
solution of many of the intricate prob
lens in progressive agriculture have dem
onstrated the wisdom of establishing the
department Of agriculture. Similar rea-
sons of equal force can be given for the
establishment of bureau of health that
shall not only exercise the police juris-
diction Of the federal government respect
ing quarantine, but which shall also af-
ford an opportunity for investigation and
research by competent experts into ques-
tions of health affecting the whole coun-
try or important sections thereof. ques-
| tiOns which in the absence of federal gov
ernmental work are not likely to be
promptly solved
Endorsed by Physicians.
Public health officers themselves are
well nigh unanimous in the opinion
| that national health bureau would be
Of great utility, and the medical pro.
| fession has heartily and repeatedly in.
dorsed the project. #
Greater efficiency would at once re
suit from merely the consolidation il
| one bureau Of the present public health
and marine hospital service, the divi
sions of foods and drugs Of the bu
reau of chemistry and Of all the other
tional executive departments engaged
in work pertaining to human health
and sanitation. These health agencies