The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-08-19
Public Health

The problem of public health is es-
sentially labor problem. The public
health depends upon the food the peo-
pie eat, the clothes they wear, the
houses they live in, the air they
breathe. And all these are determined
primarily by the income they have
and the wages they get.
Specifically, of course, the public
| health is a problem of a proper build
ing code, and of its enforcement; of
an efficient health department to in
spect dwelling conditions, and of prop
er police regulation to compel ODE
dience to necessary sanitary laws. But
the real problem lies deeper than that
Deeper than the building code and
its enforcement, the problem of pub
lie health becomes problem of rapid
transit. For if the facilities for rapid
transit are good enough and the fares
within reach of the people, they can
live out where the sun shines more,
where the houses are better and furth-
er apart.
But deeper still, the health problem
is a problem of right adjustment of
the ownership of sites. For if the
sites in the crowded centers were not
so valuable, every inch would not be
so crowded with renters And if the
crowded tenement were not so enor-
mously profitable it would have come
down long ago. If the site values
which solely by the accumulation and
concentration of collective activities
were turned into channels of social
betterment instead of private profit
and ACKNOWLEDGMENT, we would not
have these millions of humanity strug-
Cling with death in the dark. And the
appropriation of the social increment
arising from site values, to the task
of better transportation, better hous-
ing, better wages, is absolutely essen
tial to better public health. And thus
the problem runs down into a matter
of land tenure and taxation.
One of the Problems.
But once more and fundamental to
all the rest, the problem of public
health is problem of wages and labor
conditions. For If those who labor
receive a sufficient wage, the tides of
suffering humanity would turn natural
ly from the dark toward the light;
from the slum toward the cottage
from the burning pavement toward
natures caress of sunshine, grass and
open sky. Never a dying plant in
dark, damp cellar stretched so be-
seechingly its pale tendrils toward
the light that alone meant its healing
and life, as does the soul and body of
man struggle for the wages that will
give him the chance to live in the sum
light and the open.
So then the problem of public health
is not merely a problem of inspection.
regulations, building codes or hospi-
tails. Viewed broadly it is a problem
of labor, of transportation, of land ten
ure and taxation. In short, it involves
the whole social problem. It cannot be
solved apart from it.
But at every step in the effort to
solve the problem of public health we
shall encounter the opposition of GER
tain interests. The capitalistic inter
ests that are making money out of the
slum dwellings will naturally be OPP
posed to any measures that limit or
restrict their incomes. Private profits
would be affected and would have to
be surrendered to some extent, to say
the least, If better transportation ia
cilities are acquired. And those who
profit from the unearned increment