The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-09-15
DOLLARS VERSUS LIVES.

DOLLARS VERSUS LIVES.
Under this head, the American Med
zeal Journal publishes in part the tes-
timony furnished during the course Of
cross-examination held during the
recent hearing at Washington in the
Indiana benzoate of soda case in which
Dr. Wiley, the government chemist
was given opportunity to state some
very emphatic truths in very en-
phatic manner in answer to the quer-
les of attorneys on behest of manu-
facturers who were financially con-
cerned in the outcome of the investi-
cation. The testimony follows:
These tests are immensely import
ant to the business world and involve
thousands of dollars in property and
products" said the attorney for the
manufacturers.
II don't care a hang for the bust
ness world" DR.. Wiley replied
promptly. What ! care for is the
health of the people,
You consider that more important
| than the interests of those who have
hundreds of thousands of dollars tied
up in products and property? asked
the attorney.
Il most certainly do. Where there
are thousands of dollars involved there
are millions of lives hanging in the
balance which these investigations af-
feet. 1t is these which / consider and
not the business which may be done
by any corporation"
Those manufacturers who employ
benzoate of soda in the production
of their output are not alone in the
campaign of dollars and lives The
matter of financial loss or gain has
overshadowed, in many instances, the
small matter of public health and
prosperity. The matter of dollars and
cents has been the obstacle in the
way of securing health and happiness
for the multitudes who exist in squal-
id tenements and the women who toll
in sweatshops and the children who
labor in factories which have thus far
escaped official regulation. Life is
.God-given, the most sacred wondrous
gift bestowed upon earth, but what is
one life among the millions who pop
ulate the earth or ten lives compared
with their weight in golden dollars?
The world is awakening to the
knowledge that, first of all, health is
the thing. 1t will not be many gen.
erations hence when nations shall ask
of us not How many steel rails did
or What was the wheat crop figure
this season." as a guage of our pros
perity. but the simple, neighborly
How are you?" for the man of intel
ligence knows that a healthy, happy
people is the surest indication of pros
perity in other lines.
Great store of man-made or man
purchased treasure cannot return the
little celestial spark of life, once flick
cred out. 1t is the business of the in
dividual, the parent, the school-teach-
err, the community, the State, the Ma
ton, to look first to health of body
and of mind, then to the securement
of other things. Just how vital is the
necessity for such recognition of the
value of human life and how ridiculous
a State may make itself by misplaced
valuations is evident from the follow
ing paragraphs also published in the
medical paper:
Two items recently appeared in
Southern newspaper which apparently
have no relation and yet are extreme
ly suggestive. Here is the first one:
Hog Cholera Eradicated; A report
comes from Jackson that hog-cholera
has been entirely eradicated from the
State. Only one case was reported,
it is said, that one being near Natchez.
The usual serum was prepared and
administered with excellent effect so
that there is said to be not a single
case in Mississippi at the present time.
The livestock commission furnishes
the serum for hog-cholera free of
charge to veterinarians and in the ev-
ent of any outbreak, it can be quickly
ly administered and the disease i'm
mediately suppressed.
1.-THE second was not considered of
sufficient Importance to call for a
heading:
Without warning little John Nc
Cabe, 10 years old, son of Mrs. Eliza
beth McCabe, was stricken by the
hand of death this morning and forty
five minutes later was no more. Death
was due to spinal meningitis.
Careful examination of previous
and subsequent issues of the paper
fails to show that the State which fur
nished serum for hog cholera made
any effort to secure serum to save
the life of little John McCabe or to