Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-02-08
THE COST or TUBERCILOSIs.

A total or $I4 4,56b,b5V was expended
in the United States in the anti-tuber-
culosis campaign in 1911. This sum
is slightly smaller than, the amount
expended in 1910, while in 1909 the
total expenditures were s8,025, 900.
Detailed figures, given out by the
National Association for the Study
and Prevention of tuberculosis, show
that every. State in the Union, with
the exception of Nevada and Wyoming
contributed something in 1911 to the
fight against the great white plague"
New York heads the list with an OUT
lay of $3.50, 900, while Utah is at the
bottom with an expenditure of only
$780, The expenditures in Kentucky
amounted to $4,000, of which S107,-
500 came from public sources and
$44,500 came from private contribu-
tions.
The report of Secretary Jacobs, of
the National Association, says the
prospects for 1912 are promising. AL
ready State Legislatures and county
and municipal bodies have appropriat-
ed more than $10,000,000 for tubercu-
losis work In addition the Federal
Government is spending about mill
ion dollars every year. The sale of
Red Cross seals appears to have been
! the reverse of remunerative, as the
secretary says the association ex-
penditures were 100000 more than
the receipts from Red Cross seals, in
dicating that considerable sum of
money must be raised otherwise. :"
+ Adequate hospital facilities, it is stat
Cd fJ,o Of l,
paign of prevention. 1t is estimated
that there are in the United States
from 100000 to 100000 consumptives
who cannot afford and who cannot
get proper hospital attention For
this number of INDECENT sick the total
available beds would not be more than
fifteen or twenty thousand, "a com
paratively negligible number in hand
ling this afflicted multitude" When
the problem is considered from this
point of view it will be recognized
that the fight against tuberculosis is
neither simple nor a short matter In
speaking of the future prospects of
the campaign the secretary says:
| Many schemes for stamping out
tuberculosis in five, ten or twenty
years have been advanced. Few of
them, however, take into account that
the securing of adequate hospital faci-
lities for 100000 more INDECENT con-
sumptives requires patience, political
Influence and education-all of which
take time. If, for example, it takes
from three months to two years to
get one county hospital of fifty. beds
in New Jersey, or from three to five
years to get score of similar institu-
tions in New York, what length of
time will be required to secure suffi-
cient number of beds for the whole
200,000-many of them scattered in
parts of the United States where the
prevention movement has only re-
Gently begun to be understood
"An annual expenditure of from
$50,000,000 to $100,000,000 would in a
comparatively short time provide ade-
quate hospital facilities for this NUM-
ber; but with the necessary slow
method of work that American condi-
tions require, the expenditure of $15,
100000 wear and much more in
!, tuberculosis prevention must be con-
tinued for many years before the
death rate of this disease will have
DCCOAiC- oO lOW az uO lOuSCl " pC
alarming.
/ The secretary does not underesti-
] mate the magnitude of the task of
combating the disease of the difficult
ties that will be experienced in get
ting the necessary "sinews of war. "
When he speaks of the hypothetic ex-
penditure of fifty to hundred mil
lions annually there may be those
who will regard the estimate as ex-
cessive or extravagant. 1t should not
be forgotten, however, that Prof.
Irving Fisher has placed the cost of
wasted human life as result of con-
sumption at a figure approximating
billion dollars year. If tubercu-
losis is costing the nation that much
it would not appear unreasonable to
spend fifty or a hundred millions a
year for stamping it out.
GSussex-Register.