Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-07-09

l
ravages of devastating epidemlcs, the
concentration of population III cities
the high degree of specialization IN
manufactures and similar conditions
have all increasingly emphasized
| mans dependence upon his fellow
and shown us how properly to assess
the value of the individual unit to
society at large"
The efficiency of the social unit is
conditioned more by the physical
status of the individual than by any
other one factor. Inefficiency due
to i'll health constitutes a burden to
be borne by the whole of society
rather than by the individual. This
is the addition to our social concept
which may really be regarded as a
new discovery. The sickness and dis
ability of the individual Is not a
burden which should be borne by the
individual alone, but is rather La
bility for which society, as whole,
is responsible and which should be
borne by it, unless the causes for
such disability are plainly the fault
of the individual.
Industrial insurance is the meth
cd by which the burden of physical
disability is eQuitably distributed. IN
this field, as in all others in which
it is possible to ascertain the aggre-
gate result of limited set of causes,
it is inevitable that effort at preven-
ton should at once be inauguarated.
Consequently, as soon as any system
CT Industrial insurance has been in
operation long enough to acquire
definite data as to the cause of dis
ease, it is inevitable that systematic
efforts for the prevention Of disease
will follow, just as systematic efforts
for fire prevention have followed til ,
development of fire insurance.
This involves, as DR.. Scheresch-
ewsky points out, the detection of in
cipient defects and disease among
workers and the prevention of the
development of diseased conditions
by proper precautionary measures
This can be secured only by frequent
periodical examination of employees
and frequent inspection of their en-
vironment. Not only bad shop con-
ditions but the total environment Of
the worker must be included. This
means that the unhygienic home az
wells as the unhygienic workshop
must be found, recognized and cor.
rected. and the entire surroundings
of the individual subjected to careful
scrutiny.
The inauguration of such q sys
tenn, no matter ON what basis OF
exactly at what point the dividing
| line would be drawn between the in
sured and the uninsured, would re
suit in the establishment an dmain
tcnance of suitable hygienic stand
ards of living for all classes. Enor
nous economic gains would resul
through the reduction in the loss O
working-tlme, the saving in expenses
for me diCal attendance nursing
drugs, etc., and the largely increase,
wage earning capacity through in
creased efficiency
Labor unions and workingmen ar,
coming to realize more and more tina
sound physical health is the onl,
capital which the laborer posses, an,
the belief is growing, says The Jour
nal of the American Medical Associa
ton, that it is as much the duty O
the state to protect and conserve tn
capital of the laborer as it is TO pro
tect the capital of the employer
When. labor unions July realize tn
Importance of this fact, the working
men of the country will demand tina
the state take suitable measures TO
the protection of their health.