New-York tribune., 1910-01-21
HEALTH OF NATION
"a Federal BUREAU.
Additiop to Commerce and La
Dor Department Expected.
Isy Telegraph 70 III. Tribune. !


New Haven, Jan. 20-It is credibly re-
ported that a federal health bureau will
be established soon. in accordance with
plank in the Republican platform Presi-
dent Taft's December message 20 Congress
and the ideas OF the Committee of One Hun
dred on National Health, which has led the
agitation in favor OF this departure. An
administration measure will be presented in
q special message TO Congress. IL is said,
and the following will be its general feat
ures:
The Department Of Commerce and Labor
90 be renamed the Department OF Com
merce. Labor and Health.
A new bureau of health to be created in
this departent. and 10 have transferred 10
II all the present functions of the Public
Health and Marine Hospital Service, now
IN the Department of the Treasury: the
pure food and drugs division Of the Bu-
reau Of Chemistry, now in the Department
O. Agriculture. and the meat inspection
service of the Bureau Of Animal Industry,
row in the Department Of Agriculture:
A bureau or children to he included
within. or closely affiliated with, the new
bureau.
A new Assistant Secretary OF the DEPART
n1ent OF Commerce Labor and Health TO
he especially responsible for the conduct
of the new health bureau, also the bureaus
of labor. immigration and the census: which
are said TO be naturally interrelated.
A ADVISORY
without pay as consutants for the new
Assistant Secretary and his bureau cniels.
thus providing the best expert advice whlch ,.,l
the countrv affords in respect TO health
matters in their many aspects.
when such national health bureau is es-
.sblished the United States will fall in line
with the governmental hygienic efforts of
foreign countries. notably those OF France
and Germany. and will do something tow
ard eliminating the gigantic human waste,
amounting 20 millions OF lives and billions
OF dollars recently reported by the Ma
ticnal Conservation Commission.
FAVORED BY Mr. TAFT.
President Taft in his December message
N Congress. speaking Of the work done by
the Department OF Agriculture, said:
Similar reasons Of equal force. can be
given for the ests blishment Of bureau OF
health that shall not only exercise the
police jurisdiction of the federel govern
nnent respecting quarantine. nut Whlch
also shall afford an opportunity for IN
vestisations and research by competent
experts into questions of health anectins
thereof. questions which. in the absence
o- federal governmental work. are not like
y TO be promptly solved
Professor Irving Fisher OF Yale. In his
recent governmental report on national Vi
tslity. asserted that the federal govern
r1ent SHOULD remove the reproach that
more pains now taken to protect the
health Of farm cattle than the health Of
human beings"
II was said TO be q national disgrace
that there are no statistics on national
sickness and death and that there Is no
accurate record of births or deaths In any
part of IN. United States n is estimated
that there are three million persons always
on the sick list. the average person losing
thirteen days year by sickness Hook
worm has two million victims, tuberculosis
claims annually half million persons and
hslf million more are injured or killed
every year In industrial accidents. School
children are in i'll health 10 the extent Of
~ to sn per cent Of their number, while
one fourth of all educated people In this
country suffer from eye strain and its
effects
Life in the United States Il has been
shown. could he heightened by fifteen
wears. raising the average span from forty
FIVE to sixty years. The checking of seven
prevent BILE diseases alone would lengthen
life by eight years. The annual waste
from preventah BILE death Is put al s1,eo0,-
oa.soa and the loss preventable sickness
Is half as great. BY eliminating needless
fatigue illness and death. the total saving
to the country might be s5.ooo,ooo.ooo.
The Committee of One Hundred on Ma
tional Health, since its organization in
April. 1907, has worked in many fields TO
advance the cause which II is hoped will
Ultimately triumph through the new fed
eral health bureau. 1t has distributed
nearly million pieces of literature and
has otherwise promoted publicity of the
national health idea.
VALUABLE COOPERATION.
II has aroused the life insurance com
psnies to the possibility Of saving millions
ot dollars by prolonging the lives OF policy
holders through sanitary means. One OF
IN. companies, the Metropolitan, has dis
tributed three million pamphlets tuber-
ouIosis among its policyholders, has en-
gagged the services of visiting nurses in
various cities TO care for bedridden policy
holders and has tried to establish, against
legal difficulties, a sanatorium for tuber-
culous invalids. The New York Life has
co-operated with the committee in an effort
10 improve the milk supply, while the
provident Savings Life has esta blished q