The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1915-01-28
FROM SEVERAL VIEWPOINTS
II is Shown Wherein An Advantage
May Accrue TO the Industrial
Pursuits of the Nation

III > DSllOL w AONNh
door before the livestock is alb
stracted.
It's better to prevent disease
than to be forced to cure it, and
it better, not only from the view
point of the victim of the disease,
but also from the dollars ana
cents side-the side that concerns
the employers of labor. For, al
ter all, the pocket is the strongest
argument with some of us in our
relations to others, in all matters
excepting those Of the most init
mate personality. The human
side, the pitiful side, appeals to
our sympathies, it rarel y exclteS
us to the extent of giving real
money.
And from this economic stand
point it is cheaper for the employ
er of labor to prevent sickness
than to pay the cost of illness or
of enforced idleness. Many OF the
great corporations of Florida, as
of other states, have established a
sort of sick insurance fund among
their employees, to which each Is
required to contribute proportions
ately to his wages. In return
the protected laborer is cared Tor
during illness and his wages are
continued during disability caused
by disease or accident. But rarely
does the amount of the accumulat-
ed assessment from any individual
laborer meet the cost OF medical
treatment, nursing, etc, in his par
ticular case. The excess OF such
cost must be met from the general
fund to which all employees have
contributed or by the employing
corporation itself. Experience has
shown that the assessments paid
by the employed usually do not
meet the aggregate cost Of admin
istering the hospitals in which the
i'll or injured are cared for.
Medical science has provided
practical insurance against a num-
Der of common diseases, in the
form of serums which are sure
preventives of typhoid fever,
smallpox and the ordinary cold +;
and others are being developed.
They are sure to the extent that
their failure has been reduced to
an extremely small fraction OF
one per cent. This is a fact it
is no guess.
For the larger employers Of la
Dor or for the smaller ones, the
use of the preventives among their
employees is much the most eco
nomical use of the sick fund. The
average expense attending an at
tack Of typhoid fever, for in
stance, is close to $4,000 This
includes the loss of time, proper
medical treatment, nursing, speci-
ally adapted foods and other de-
mands created by the disease
which do not exist without it. The
cost OF the anti-typhoid treatment
the preventive treatment
which left not a single death from
this disease in the United States
Army in 1913, is less than one per
cent of this $4,000.
The prevention of smallpox
costs so little as to be negligible,
and a century of practice has de-
monstrated its certainty.
Another cost to the employer
is the interruption to service caus-
ed by sickness. How much does
it costs to "break in" a new man,
no matter how expert he may be
in general, to do the work of the
skilled laborer in any department? ?
Every employer must figure it out
for himself, but each knows with
out fguering that it is not small,
1t is wholly within the authority
of every employer to insist on the
use of disease preventives by ev-
cry laborer. 1t may be made a
condition of employment. The
United States Army requires ev-
cry soldier to take the anti-ty-
phoid treatment, and school
authorities insist on vaccination
against smallpox.
Economists everywhere recog-
nize in disease, slight, serious or
epidemic, the greatest foe to in
dustrial progress. This fact was
recognized under the system of
slavery in this country. and the