The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1915-03-04
What It Costs
Are you fond of figures?

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ficant for Floridians,
The annual report of Stat,
Treasurer j. G. Luning of Flori
da s finances for 1914 is the sour
ce, therefore, they are accurate
This report shows that the tota
disbursements for the administra
ton the State Government fol
last year, were $3,39O,685.47. L
shows also that the expenditure,
during the same year for thu
work of the State Board of Health
were $117, 115.21.
Now, get out your pencil and dc
some figuring for yourself. The
population of the State according
to the last federal census-that OF
l9lO--was something more than
$4,000. That was an increase
in ten years of more than forty
two per cent. Allowing hte
same totals of increase during the
present decade, and Florida had
in 1914 not less than $4,000 per-
manent residents. Probably
there were more, so it is safe to
assume that that number directly
and indirectly were benefited by
these expenditures.
Omitting small fractions, we
find that the cost of state govern
ment for all purposes was three
dollars, eighty-seven and one-half
cents for each resident, counting
them all, white and black, male
and female, the young and old.
The cost of the State Board of
Health was tirteen and fourteenth
cents for each individual
Going a little further we find
that one cent of every thirty of
these total expenditures was for
the conservation Of the health of
the people of the State, to pre-
serve their greatest asset, without
which all the rest wouldn't be
worth much,-to emancipate them
from the fear of an epidemic of
yellow fever, which used to hang
like a dark, threatening cloud
over Florida every summer and
brought forth statewide sigh of
relief when September or October
came without a faint of the scour-
ge in any part of the state. Those
who lived in the state prior to
1898 will testify that this menace,
or the fear of it, was no dream.
And this is but one Of the many
benefits that belong to the State
because of it's health board; it
suggests. And this board,
which was called into existence
Immediately following the yellow
fever epidemic of 1888, found a
big fight on hand to prevent the
contagion from entering the State
from Cuba and the southern
islands and countries. The
Board has always stood as a sort
of watchdog to sound the alarm
at the possible approach OF disease
by sea or land.
In later years, as medical sci
cnce has developed sanitation and
disease prevention to the dignity
of distinct profession, its work
has been increasingly along the
lines Of educating Floridians to
raise the standards Of living, to
lessen the prevalence of diseases
that do not reach the proportions
of epidemic and to lower the
death rate--to take full advan-
tage of the conditions which in
Florida, more than elsewhere fav-
or robust healthfulness.
The lack of accurate vital Stats
ties, which show the number of
births and deaths within a given
period, the occurrence of disease,
its varieties and virulence, is a
serious hindrance to the mastery
of the health conditions of the
state, and so the Board within the
past year or more has been work
ing together such information.
NO one knows exactly-not even
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES are the
birth and death rates of Florida.
There is no basis for the dcclara-
ton that this is the most health
full state in the Union. It's only
a guess, asserted because Florida
ought to be known to have that
supremacy.
This campaign of education, to
be worth while, demands the CO.
operation of all intelligent people.
The leaders must lead, whether
they be in the ranks of private
citizenship or are invested with
| the authority and power of offion