The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-24
p14E.NEnTT TARLE DISEASE AND
 BUSINESS PROSPERITY


 This is g bushes mans cpUntry The business man not only controls the natural resources and the industrial and financial organization or the country but also sets the standards of conduct of morals, and even dress, and furnishes youth with the prevail ing ideals of personal achievements. This being so it seems difficult to un- kderstand the common difference or the business man to the economic iossy involved in the premature deaths ana even more in the depleted vitality, or the Iaboring masses A commission appointed by the governof of Massa- chlsetts to Inquire into the cost Of living reported that considerable element in it was the cost Of disease, which it estimated for the average Wor4singnaanss family in Wassachu- sets at about ITO of it's annual wage income Yet it is notorious that in no civilized country has life and health been 50 cheap as in the United States Ex-PresideIt Roosevelt stated several years ago, -tOur national health IS physically our greatest national as-l set President Wilson, in his message lof December End, 1913. said, The conservation of human life and energy lies even nearer to our interests than the preservation from waste of our material resounces.
 Tn the last statement by President I VV1lSOIl. nave DOIIl the ClA0 IO PcA9S l indifference and the hope of a differ l ent attitude in future. Briefly hither- Ito the business man has regarded hu- man labor as a crude raw mater1ai the amount of which, like the timber and mineral resources. was unlimited and which need not therefore be econ 1 omized. At the same time that he was walked up to the possible exhous | ton of material resources she has be- gun to appreciate the value of hu- man labor. The heads of the steeI l industry, for example, are realizing l that those processes and methods which exhaust the policy of securing lneW Ievies of fresh. labor from the farms and from foreign countries, they are beginning to appreciate can tnet be carried on forever. Moreover labor has arrived at class conscious ness It will no longer breed an endless number of children to supply the unsuitable demands of the ma I chine. The healthier, more efficient, more ambitious Iaborers have fewer children than formerly and make ev- cry effort to put these children into the higher occupations.
 Labor has moreover achieved not
 only a scarcity value. but an efficiency value. The demands of industry have changed. It is not mere labor but intelligent and highly organized types l of human beings that are now in de-
 Inand in the industrial world. Machin-
 cry. instead of degrading men into au-
 tomatons, has set a pace for human
 effort which only the alert, nervous
 mentally efficient type can. kep suA
 with.
 A sound physical constitution and a
 normal social environment are the
 necessary requirements for the high
 speed, efficient 1aborer of to-day. The burden of making a living, not only ir
 the commercial world but also in the
 industrial world. has been transfer
 red from the muscles to the nerves.
 So labor. from being a cheap com modity to be purchased at the low est figure, has become valuable in
 vestment which can be made contin- ualIy more valuable by intelligent care It is a means of production which in 2
 large social way, and also in relation
 to the peculiar requirements of a par
 ticuIar establishments, must be itsel
 produced. Thus it happens that the
 social workers and philanthropists ant labor agitators, who for many year : have been a voice crying in the vii derness against the waste of life ant health, are now met moro than hal
 way by the business man whose en
 frightened seIf-interest has been finall.