The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-11-13
PUBLIC HEALTH
CONSERVATION
IS IMPORTANT
OF ALL THE RESPONSIBILITIES
OF GOVERNMENT THAT OF
PROTECTING THE PUBLIC FROM
DISEASE is THE MOST ESSEN
TIAL.
A recent bulletin issued by the Flor

A recent bulletin issued by the Flor
ida State Board of Health says:
Some platitudes are worth repeating
once in a while, just as reminders.
Here's one:
Good health. besides being a good
| deal of a blessing, is about the big
gest money asset that an individual
or a community car have. It's worth
real money. 1t makes the individual
possessor OF it a plus quantity-if he
will let it. The lack of it makes him
a minus, a non producer, an expense
! instead of an Garner. And what ap-
plies to the individual is true on a
wider scale to the neighborhood. the
city, the state.
The individual can so regulate his
living as to conserve his own health
He cannot regulate that of his neigh
bors. So com plicated are the citations
of all the members of the community
that they must delegate the mana ge-
ment of their common affairs to
chosen Representatives. Such repre-
sentatives constitute our hoasted dem
ocratic form of government.
OF all the responsibilities of govern
ment, none is more important than
the conservation OF the DnnHC nedtCl
the creating and preservation Of such
sanitary conditions that health will De
possible. such as will not invite disease
and epidemic. 1t is most important
because health is the basic condition
of prosperity, a prime necessity that
makes community living possible
Men are selected for certain posi-
tions of responsibility because they
are supposed to have peculiar wisdom
and fitness, but how many men who
are charged with the administration
Of public funds realize the relative i'm
portance Of different public works that
are financed from such funds?
Men whose judgment in business
matters is beyond question, usually
are incompetent to pass upon health
matters, because they know mighty
little about them. They regard the
expert sanitarian as more or less of
a crank" until epidemic, as a result
of their own ignorance, overwhelnlS
them. Then they surrender to the
crank and follow his lead like q
flock of hungry sheep. They fail to
recognize the modern sanftarian as an
expert engineer in health matters.
quite as practical in his estimates OF
causes and effects and costs as the
business man Is in his own lines.
The UP to- date sanitarian believes
and acts on his belief, that prevention
Of disease is much cheaper than its
cure. He creates such community coli
ditions as will ward off disease and
too often the man trained to business
alone regards these precautions as TN
necessary. perhaps as a waste of pub
lie money.
A recent instance in the making up
Of the budget of one of F1orida's larg-
est cities illustrates the point The
city council cut down by several thou
sand dollars the appropriation asked
for the administration of the health
department. The result in the coming
year will mean the curtialing of the
operations of the department to the
extent of sacrificing many lives among
the new born infants of the city.
There is need of education to rem
edy such conditions, for they exist in
other Florida cities. It seems that
this education should begin with the
voter, to teach him to demand from
his representatives wisdom to admin
lister rightly the matters that concern
him most Intimately. The most eff
cient public official usually is the one !
who begins his announcement with
the formula: "At the earnest request |
and solicitation of hundreds of friends |
l have at last consented TO allow the |
use of my NAME" etc. He isn't the |
right kind.