The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1910-07-18
OUR CHIEF ASSET.

"The First Wealth is HEALTH
The Value of Health is the
Value of Man.
Prepared by the State Board of
HEALTH.
The first wealth is health" is
profound saying, whose truth
is so apparent that it does not
halt the imagination long enough
to permit Of complete assimila-
ton.
Progress is initiated by quality
rather than by quantity of
thought. Originality is the made
to- order suit Of a mind that
won't wear secondhand stuff,
and invention is the headlight Of
progress. These qualities Of
thought are attained only when
the mind reaches full develop
ment, and mature development
depends upon perfect health. A
nation or a State whose average
mind has the highest content of
these qualities is the most pro-
gressive n alton. Backward nations
China, for example are char
iacterized by an absence Of modern
inventions. Financial, social,
and intellectual advancement are
conditioned ultimately on health.
The value Of health is the value
OF man.
And what is the value of the
average man? Man, like any 9th.
er animal like the sheep, or cow,
or horse-has an economic value.
!, A half century ago men capable
: of furnishing only the cheapest
! labor unskilled labor = were
:. bought and sold at from $3.50 tc
: : ST. 900 apiece. The average i'm
! migrant pays taxes. and produces
! property on which others pay
!, taxes, thereby increasing the
: Governments revenue to the ex.
tent of an amount equal to the
7 Interest on a principal of 1915
The value, therefore, of the new
= ly landed immigrant is 1915. Elk
perts on fixing values, basing theil
q estimates on statistics apply.
! ing to hundreds of thousands O
y individual lives, have found tina
:, the average American produce
So, 900 more than he consumes
The vital assets of the Unite,
= States would be IS, GEO, 600 live
=, =, x 81, 800, the. value of each, Q
y $3.50, 900, coo, 900. The materis
:, wealth of our country. estimate
= by a Government expert, amount
- to $108. 600. 600, 600.
T But, us not the body NOR
- than raiment, and life more tina
"a meat?" Man is more than an ar
~; imal; man has in addition to hi
~ economic value, a higher value
~ a humanitarian value. Surely, tn
~ value existing in all, but in sue
~ quantity as to stand out in Dol
of relief in the lives of Washington
w Lincoln, Franklin, Lee, Pas
ds s eur, Shakespeare and Tennysol
~ cannot be reduced to cold. des
" metal. Who can estimate tt
: worlds loss had any of the.
W. made one of the deaths from pr
;, ventable disease which destro.
hu Is per cent Of all people befo
nv -, their twentieth year is reached
80 Who can compute the world
T.; IA loss when untimely and preve
ID table tuberculosis cut off in the
. . prime John Paul Jones, Robe
vi Louis Stevenson. John Keat
Schiller, Won Weber, Chopi
II Bichat, Laennec. Timrod, Art
mus Ward. Thoreau, and maj
others? And yet how many
such as these do we bury eve
de- year with the forty thousand b
the bies dead Of preventable disea
IN the sacrifice of our boosted ci
, = ef ilization to the Moloch of ignt
P. ance and indifference! Think
I'M the unnecessary infant gray
mt over which might truthfully
,i IN inscribed,
12 "Some mute, inglorious Milton h
for may rest,
+ Of Some Cromwell guiltless of his CO
- try's blood.