Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-01-30

which applies alike to state ana local
health matters.
The sole excuse for a department of
health is the conservation of life and
health of the people.
Our present methods in Iowa in re-
lation to public health fall far short OF
ideal; they are antiquated and out OF
date political and not scientific.
We attempt to administer the duties
of this Office through busy practitioners
of medicine whose lives are devoted to
the daily routine of Office and outside
practice of their profession. They are
good doctors and good men; there is
no fault with the men, but with the
system.
The system is obsolete, it cannot be
repaired, or rebuilt, or braced up with
larger appropriations. Simple and ex-
peditious humiliation is the remedy
The very foundation principal of the
state board of health is unsound 1t
assumes, to start with, that every ply
stefan is a sanitarian and is equipped to
direct in matters pertaining to public
health. No assumption could be
farther from the truth.
Under our present statue the exc
cutive of the state selects, upon his in
dividual responsibility, the members OF
this board. 1t has not always been
true that the most competent men have
been chosen, not knowledge of sani-
tation, but the local political affairs,
has been the determining factor which
weighed heaviest upon the executive
mind Indeed, it has not infrequently
happened that the department of
health has been used in barter as pay
ment for political debts.
The newer politics of today demands
efficiency of service in public Office,
and in none is this so important as in
the department which deals with the
health and life of the people of the
state.
Our public health affairs in Iowa are
directed, in large degree, by the seven
physicians upon the state board of
health. They are widely scattered
throughout the state and meet in quar-
teriy session at Des Moines. AT the
end of the session they return to their
homes, taking their authority with
them. In the interim, the Office in
Des Moines is left in charge of an en-
ploye of the board, who is not mem
Der, and has no power to act upon his
own initiative If he acts at all, he
must be certain that what he may do,
may be pleasing to those in whose
service he is.
The health interests of the state are
too vastly important to thus be left in
the hands of the hired man"
The state of Pennsylvania has mod
ernized the public health movement
and has demonstrated most clearly
what may be accomplished by wise
legislative enactments along health
lines. DR.. Samuel Dixon, state health
commission of Pennsylvania, says in a
recent report, that the enactment of
1905 abolishing the state board of
health and establishing the present
health of that commonwealth, has
saved 20, 1000 lives during the past three
years; that III der the present law the
duced in such manner that their have
been twenty thousands less deaths than
under the former rate
The health laws of Pennsylvania are
along lines very similar to those out
lined in the recent message of Cover
NOR CARROLL state health commits
asioner and an advisory board, both to
be appointed by the governor and APP
proved by the senate. The commits
sioner who is both sanitarian and:phy-
stefan, is always at his desk and ready
for action and is accountable for his
acts only to the public whom he serves.
A large appropriation is placed at the
service of the commissioner, whose &C
counts are approved by the executive
council.
A commissioner of health and advis-
ory council are strongly to be COM
mended for the public health service of
Iowa, and ample appropriation should
be made for its use. One hundred
thousand dollars is none too large a
sum to be placed at the service of the
health commissioner. This apparently
large amount represents less than one
nickle per capita in Iowa, and truly,
the matter of public health are worth
half dime to every person in the
state.
Most wonderful advances have been
made in recent years in medical sci
ence, but from this knowledge the pub
lie has not profited as it should and as
it might. The medical profession is
now in possession of facts which if
known to every man would practically
Danish from off the earth one half the
diseases from which men die. Tuber-
culosis, pneumonia, typhoid fever,
diphtheria, scarlet fever, the infantile
disorders, spinal meningitis, and even
cancer, with host of others, would
yanidly disaDpear from sight if the peO-