The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-08-26
RESPECT FOR EXPERIENCES
eBy the state Board of Health

iolS0u upou MIN the necessity of q
higher authority
A trespassing upon his legal rights
brings an appeal to the courts. In
his health and physical yigor he dis.
regards the laws of hygiene, but
when sickness threatens, he sends
for the doctor in a hurry. And the
idea occurs: Why doesn't he ward
off emergencies by having in mind
always the fact that transgression
Of established laws are quite likely
to bring punishment?
Most of us have to learn by expert
ence, our own, because We are un-
Iwflling to profit by the experience OF
others. It is a slower process and
much more expensive and in the
end we have to come to it anyway.
4 In times of peace prepare for
trouble. We cannot all be specialists
in all directions. Life is too short.
In our extremes we turn to those
who know more than we in those
lines in which we are ignorant. Then
why don't we turn before our neces-
sity forces us to it?
The affairs of Florida's board of
health are directed by skilled work
ers. That they are men of expert
ence is proven by the fact that they
fill these places of responsibility and
have filled them thru long years.
| 1t is proved also by the record of the
board since its organization in 1889
This record has won the comment
| by the board of health officers of a
lneighboring commonwealth that
Florida's board of health is the only
one worthy of the name in the
Southern states. 1t is only the unin-
formed who belittle its accomplish
ments.
Yet this record and the experience
that has made it possible, are some
times attacked or ignored or BELT
| tied, probably for the reason that the
critics are ignorant of the far-reach-
ing plans by which the board safe
guards the public health. These
critics are not specialists in health
matters
Florida's health board occupies a
position unique in all the states, par
tfcularly in its relations to the Unit
ed States Public Health Service
When, in 1901, Florida's quarantine
stations were coded to the control of
| the federal government, it was with
the provision that the state health
officer should become supervisor of
the stations and the advisor of the
public health service in their man
agement. Being in close touch with
the conditions in this state, he be-
came, and remains, in effect the ex-
ecutive officer of this service in Flori-
da, because in the dozen years or
more his counsel and advice have in
variably become the governing rule.
In this way and by reason of this
close intimacy between the state and
the United States health authorities,
working in harmony, Florida of all
the states is the best equipped by ex-
perience and weight of authority, to
combat the emergencies of threaten
ed epidemic and to ward off such
danger from foreign sources.
The position of Florida's board
during the present summer, when
plague has menaced the state, has
been in accord with the highest med
ical authority and experience in the |
world. The urgent advice that sea-
ports and inland cities of the state
should take every precaution against |
the invasion of the plague, has been
backed by this authority 1t has de-
clared the situation not alarming. |
but serious and has urged precau- |
tions accordingly. 1t has earnestly |
recommended these measures not as
an absolute prevention of plague, but |
as decidedly towards diminishing of |
the chances of its reaching Florida |!
In this position the board has had |
the almost unanimous support of /
the Florida press. but this support of |
these policies has been marred by an
occasional be1ittling of these efforts, |
which has had the moral effect of di- |
rect opposition.
IF Florida's newspapers do not
give the heartiest support of the
work and methods of the board, in I
it's work for the state, its efficiency
must be lessened. and the progress
of the state in sanitation is greatly |
s1ackened