The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-16
CONSERVING THE HEALTH
Scientific Movement to Make Life Longer Has Evolved Into National Health Committee That Is Accomplish
 ing Things.
By LEWIS E. PALMER

speech, a committee on national health was organized. It really originated in the medical profession some twenty years ago, but It's recent reported suc-
 cess has been largely due to the rein forcement received from laymen. The tuberculosis crusade has now become largely lay movement and to its suc- i cess is doubtless due in part the growth and strength of the work for a national health bureau and this growth and
 strength is nowhere more forcibly in- dicated than in President Tafts last , message. where he calls attention to the
 fact ''that for a considerable period. a
 movement has been gathering strength. especially among the members of the medical profession, in favor of concen- tration of the Instruments of the nation- al government which have to do with the
 promotion of the public health"
 This public health organization, known as the committee of the hundred, con- sists of the leading health men in the United States, outside of the medical
 profession, although a few physicians
 are also included. representing medical i hygienic organization.
 It has expended nearly $50000 in cam
 paign of education. and has distributed
 AZ different publications. The total
 number of pieces of mail matter sent
 out is nearly million. Newspaper clippings in the office of the committee
 in New Haven, nearly fill two enormous scrap books of 300 pages each. An
 equally important branch of publicity is
 that through the magazines; several of which give regular space to questions of health; and as New York paper re- 1 gently had 1t, one of the chief joys of the circulation managers heart lies in the subscription possibilities of articles on tuberculosis. hook-worm, pellagra, cancer and other grim maladies.
 It was largely through the work of the committee of one hundred that Pres- fdent Roosevelt added public health to his conservation program and invited the president of the conservation com mission and to write a report on this aspect of conservation. His commission on country life also included public health questions in its report. It was undoubt- edy partly as a consequence of this last
 report that Mr. Rockefeller was spurred to make his famous gift of one million dollars to eliminate the hook-worm dis ease on the southern farms.
 Recently the committee proposed to the association. of life insurance pres- idents that it was just as essential to their interests to decrease the death
 
 fire insurance or boiler explosion in- surance people to prevent fires and ex- plosions It was shown that over 40 per cent of the deaths which now occur could be postponed at an enormous saw
 ing to life insurance companies. The life insurance presidents, as a result of
 the suggestion, have appointed com
 mittee on Truman life extension" In
 the meantime the Metropolitan. the
 ,,,d
 the New York Life Insurance Company
 have made special efforts to preserve the
 health of their policy holders
 Of all the results thus far accom-
 plished, the settings in motion of this
 great commercial interest on the side of
 health and longevity. is most important.
 But the chief aim of the committee of one hundred has been aside from direct education of the public or enlisting the | co-operation of life insurance companies. It has aimed still higher--at the national government itself. Just as the Depart ment of Agriculture has revolutionized the science of farming, so a bureau of health may revolutionize the science of
 human life.
 There are still people who do not seem
 to realize that one of the chief effects ]. of a strong federal health office will be
 not to decrease but to increase the ac- tivity of the state and municipal boards of health. In fact, one of the purposes of bill before congress is to enable the public health and marine hospital ser ! vice to found a school of hygiene for the | training of state and federal health of l fcers. The ground work for public health legislation has already been laid l through the formal indorsement Of the movement by President Taft's prede- l cessor, numerous congressman. the gov ernors of states state legislatures, labor l organizations, the National Grange. in- surance and benefit organizations. such l as the Associated Fraternities of Amer ! lea. me1ical and sanitary associations,
 such as the American Medical associa-