The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-09-24
DELEGATES GATHER
FROM MANY LANDS
President Lays Stress Upon
What the United States Has
Accomplished in Panama
Canal Zone.

ASHlNGION, sept. 2o.-Wel~
NM coined by President Taft and
WV attended by about 1000 dele
delegates from all parts Of
the world, the fifteenth international
congress OF hygiene and demography
convened today. 1t was the first time
ia sixty years of existence the congress
has met in the United States.
United to free the human race OF dis
ease, these warriors for new ana
wider freedom gathered for the ex-
change of greetings in Continental
Memorial hall, tie marble home OF the
Daughters of the American Revolu'
ton.
Bureau Is Needed.
"We need to develop under govern
mental auspices bureau or depart
ment in which the funds of the govern
ment shall be expended for research or
every kind. useful in the practice and
enforcement of hygiene and preventive
incidence said President Taft today In
delivering an address of welcome to the
delegates.
'''fhat something of this sort may
grow out of the present United States
public health service there is reason to
believe continued the president,
''but it will need far greater appro..
priations and widening of the scope OF
duties before it shall fulfill the place
the medical profession of this country
has a right to expect the general gov
ernment to create in the progress of
hygiene and demography.
Tropical Hygiene.
Referring to the subject of tropical
hygiene, President Taft said:
HOur responsibilities in Cuba, Porto
Rico and the Philippines and now on
the isthmus of Panama have so en-
larped our knowledge of the possibili-
ties of successful sanitation under the
most burdensome conditions, and have
so impressed both professional men and
the laymen with the necessity for more
rigid and comprehensive health laws and
a stricter enforcement of them for the
general public good, that if the Spanish
war resulted In nothing else, it was
worth greatly more than its cost in this
useful development Of one of the most
important functions that modern gov
ernment has to discharge, as well as in
making clear the need Of an additional
branch of general education in the mat
ter of hygiene of the home and the in
dividual,
Good Work Done.
"When we first went into the tropics
our purpose was to make that region
habitable for white people. We have
demonstrated that as a possibility. Now
we are engaged in developing the trop-
ical races into strength of body and
kL.A L
never had before.
"I consider it proud record of the
American army that, through it's medi-
cal corps engaged in hygiene work in
the tropics, so many important discov-
cries as to the transmission of disease
and the methods of stopping it's spread
have been given TO the world, and all
Of this is dated chiefly from the time
of the Spanish war.
"It is very certain that but for these
discoveries the construction of the Pan.
anna canal would have been impossi-
BILE"
Brief Responses.
To President Taft 8 address, brief re.
sponses were made by the heads of the
delegations from each of the thirty,
three countries represented. This was
followed by an address by DR., Max
Rubuer OF the Emperor Frederick vii.
liam university, Berlin, president of the
permanent international commission of
the congress, on "An explanation of the
meaning of hygiene and demography in
sanitary administration Of nations, with
special emphasis on cooperative inter.
national work and historical review
of what has been accomplished to
date
Immediately after the morning ses