The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-08-28
Need OF National Health Department
(By Henry r. Seager, Phi. D.. Prof
of Political Economy. Columbia
University New York;

(By Henry r. Seager. Phi. D.. Prof.
of Political Economy. Columbia
University, New York;
New York, Aug. 27.-No better proof
is needed of the valuable work that
might be accomplished by a national
department Of health than is afforded
by what is actually being done by
the department of agriculture.
Through its experiment stations for
acquiring knowledge and through its
bulletins for diffusing knowledge &C
quired, among the farmers of the
country, this department is changing
American agriculture from merely
manual industry into a complex sci
ence. That there is as much room
for improvement in our methods, OF
rearing children as in our methods of
raising cattle and pigs, few will deny.
That such improvements as may be
made in the human field are vastly
more important to the nation than
those that may be made in the field OF
animal industry is self-evident Under
these circumstances, the burden OF
proof that there is some inheren. rea-
son why the national government may
not do for human beings what it is
doing SO effectively for plants ano
animals, appears to rest on those who
oppose a national department of
health
But the things that a national de-
partment Of health might undertake
are not matters of conjecture merely.
Already in many of it's departments
and bureaus. the national government
is concerned with health problems.
The war and navy departments are
constantly dealing with problems of
dietetics and sanitation. The depart
ment of commerce and labor. through
it's immigration bureau, must main
tain hospitals, and corps Of medi-
cal inspectors in different parts of
the country. Even more important is
the quarantine service Of the treasury
department, maintained solely to
safeguard the public health. Under the
government to have laboratories to de.
termine whether articles of interstate
or foreign commerce. offered for sale
are free from authorizations. The saw
ing of expense and the gain in effic-
iency that would result from the con.
solidation of these and other health
activities under a single department,
would alone justify the change. Or
ganizing health laboratories for ex-
perimental work and the publication
OF health bulletins would follow as a
matter Of course. and soon the Unit
ed States might be freed from the re-
proach of giving more attention to the
health of its live stock than of its citi-
Zens.
Considering the direction which sci
entific thought in reference to prob.
lens of health and vitality is just now
taking, nothing could be more beside
the mark than to identify the move
ment for a national department of
health with the so-called medical
trust" Wise physicians undoubtedly
favor the establishment of such de-
partment. but the movement is essen
TALLY a laymens movement. 1t was
men like Professor Irving Fisher,
president of the committee of one
hundred, whose personal experience
has led them to place more confidence
in pure air, pure food and rational ex-
ercise than in drugs, who first arous-
ed public interest in this question.
The national department of health,