New-York tribune., 1914-12-01
Members of American AS
sociation Gather in
Jacksonville.
PRESIDENT POINTS
PATH TO FUTURE
Suggests Making Private Bodies
Part of One Big
Machine.
Iny Telegraph 20 The rrIbune.l


Jacksonville, Fla, Nov. 9O.-With
probably the largest attendance ever
present on the first day of any o. its
meetings, the forty-second annual con-
vention OF the American Public Health
Association opened here tonight, Pres
ident William c. Woodward, Health
officer of Washington, presiding. he
stated that indications were that the
convention would be the greatest IN the
/ history of the organization.
The delegates were welcomed 70
/ Jacksonville by George NJ. Howell, OF
! the municipal government, the re-
sponses being made by DR.. J. W. Trask,
Of Washington, for the United states;
/ Dr. +. Montizambert, of Ottawa, for
Canada, and DR.. A. G.. Dominguez, OF
| Havana, for Cuba. DR.. Leceaga, OF
| Mexico, sent his regrets in letter.
which was read to the association.
In his annual address, President
Woodward emphasized the necessity OF
co-ordinating all the various activities
of private organizations engaged IN
public health work. He pointed out
that when the tuberculosis campaign
started the American Public Health AS
socation was not in position, financial
ly or otherwise, TO assume leadership
in a militant movement of that kind.
The same thing was true OF the or
ganizaton of the movement for the
prevention Of infant mortality, the or
ganizaton of the American School
Hygiene Association and other kindred
public health organizations.
He pointed out that the path Of the
American Public Health Association at
the present time very evidently lay IN
the direction of bringing all of the pri-
vate organizations engaged IN this work
into some kind Of cooperation, event
ually, possibly. even making them COM
/ ponent parts Of big, efficient public
health machine, with an adequate corps
of Office assistants and field workers.
/ Continuing, Dr. Woodward said:
"If as an individual obtain money
or service from some one else without
an adequate consideration, upon repre-
sentation as to some particular pur-
pose to which such money or service IS
to be put, j am under moral obligation,
and it may be a legal obligation, to ap-
ply such money or service to that end IN
the most efficient and economical way
that is open to me. Every one who has
contributed money or service toward
my activities has right to an account
ing for the funds and service expended
and a definite statement of the re-
suits accomplished.
( "Any misapplieation Of funds or SER
vice through intent or through negli-
/ gence, or any intentional or negligent
misapplcation, wasting or even failure
/ to conserve such results as may have
been achieved, is at least a breach of
trust, and may possibly be branded
even as fraud No matter what may
in the past have been held to be true,
to-day these same principles are al
most universally held to apply with
quite as much force to groups of indi-
viduals, whether in the eyes of the law
they act as a voluntary organization or
as a corporation.
"And the principles just stated that
to-day govern the operations of the
business man and the business organi-
zation apply with equal force to the
operations of the individual and the
organization engaged in philanthropic
work, which, Notwithstanding the fact
that the worker seeks 10 personal BEN
eft out of the trust he assumes, is
morally and in the eye of the law
business and a trust nevertheless.
ANY time we may spend this even !
ing in trying to determine how the vol |
unteer organizations of the territory |
here represented measure up in eff |
cheney and economy TO the standards |
set forth certainly will not be lost |
Details of organization and finance we |
must, OF course, omit, for time is too /
short to allow US to discuss them. An |
inquiry of this kind, however, to be of !
value, must be of more than merely
historical interest. IL must form the
basis of constructive criticism. II must
point out the way to greater efficiency
and greater economy in the future, if
they be possible.
"When the American Public Health
Association was organized, in 1872, pub
lie hygiene was not new science, but
IL had neither substantial backing of
law nor the support OF public opinion.
Common knowledge, il knowledge it
could be called, consisted Of beliefs in
many superstitions and empiric formu-
las handed down from father to son,
and in many theories based upon in
sufficient observation and faulty gen.
eralization.
Even the best educated layman was
wofully ignorant in matters Of hygiene.
| The medical profession laid claim to
a monopoly Of sanitary and hygienic
/ knowledge, but such knowledge as il
| possessed was applied largely to the
service of the individual, and not to the
community, and, as we now know, was
utterly inadequate even for personal
| needs. 1t was to the medical profes-
sion, however, that the association
owed its birth. for in that profession
was conceived the idea Of gathering
into one body a group of men and
women who might form a nucleus
about which public opinion might
crystalline, and so the American Pub
lie Health Association came into ex-
istence"