The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-02
FROM OTHER PENS
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.

Louisiana commands credit for an
innovation in the matter of preaching
the gospel of health. The credit is all
the more deserved because Louisiana
has not heretofore been very active in
matters of progress in any direction.
Other states and cities have sent out
exhibit trains, showing the products
and resources of the farm and factory,
but Louisiana is the first state to send
to demonstrate in the small towns and
rural communities the best methods
of securing better sanitary conditions.
The health train idea originated
with DR.. Oscar Bowling, president of
the Louisiana state board of health,
who is making tour of the state. His
train consists of a car in which there
is an exhibit of modern methods of
curing and preventing disease, another
in which it is shown how food should
be cared for and prepared, and third
car in which the doctor and his assist
ants live while preaching the gospel
of health
No greater service could be per-
formed than this work for the i'm
provement Of the health of the peo-
pie. the greatest asset of any state or
nation. There is room In every state
for campaign for better sanitary
conditions of living and working, bet
ter water supply, adequate sewerage,
cleanliness in slaughter houses, diaries.
markets and bakeries, healthful con-
dittons in schools, auditoriums, jails,
restaurants, railroad stations and
other places where people gather in
large numbers. There il a wide and
fertile field, too, for the instruction of
the people in the methods of caring
for food supplies and preparing food.
st. Paul Pioneer Press.
WHY GOVERNMENT IS ExPENSIV
The tremendous cost Of maintaining
the federal government is a subject for
statesmen to talk about in every cam
paign, but none of them has had the
hardihood to make the reduction of
expenses his especial mission in pub
lie life. The member of congress who
solves the problem will strike popu-
lar chord in public sentiment every
where, except, perhaps, in Washing
ton. But there is no likelihood OF re-
vision of expenses until the established
system of conducting the governments
business is reorganized- An under
standing Of the conditions at the ma
tiona1 capital makes it a matter of
little difficulty to comprehend why the
statesmen shirk this particular re-
sponsibility. The magnitude of the
government is an appalling revelation
that awaits every new representative
or senator. His first impression is that
| it Is a wonderfully big machine, and
his second is that congress is a mighty
small part of the works" Where to
begin to reduce expenses Is a problem
that looms up in discouraging proper
lions the more he studies the situa-
| ton.
Every congressman knows that
there is extravaganza everywhere in
the conduct of the federal governm emit.
He sees it in every place in Washing
ton and understands that it should be
corrected. Nothing is palmer than
that the big concern is full of leaks
through which the public funds are
running to waste every day; but any
one ofthe leaks that a single states
man could stop would amount to such
small saving that he grows discour-
| aged at the result, gives up the fight,
lsurrenders to The Things That Are.
and goes along with the general
scheme.
About the most effective way to
waste time in Washington is to try to
| interest congressman or the federal
officials in a plan to reduce the cost OF
running the City
Times.