The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-07-13
WILL CONSERVE
WORKERS'HEALT
Three Score and Ten Heritage
of All Men.
BIBLICAL LIFE LINE THE AIM

Have Developed Just as Efficient De-
partments Of Health as Are to Be
Found In Mcst Advanced Municipaii-
ties-Seek Longer Life of Employees.
San Francisco.-The biblical limit of
threescore and ten will eventually be
the natural heritage Of every man, and
the railroads are engaged In an earnest
effort to bring about this condition as
promptly as possible, said DIR. G.. w.
Hopkins, chief surgeon of the Chicago
and Northwestern Railway company, in
a paper presented to the Academy of
Medicine on THE Hospital Organiza-
ton of the Railway System"
DIR. Hopkins pointed out that many
large industrial enterprises had devel-
oped just as efficient departments OF
health as were to be found in the most
advanced municipalities and sometimes
made wen greater per capita expendi-
ture. The railroad physician or sur
geon had an especially fine field before
him, as the railways were finding it
their duty not only to prevent acct
dents. but to prevent disease from Grip
pling the efficiency of their armies of
employees. 1T is now a well recog-
nized fact among the arrangements of
the railroad" he said. that Ii Is just
as important to care for their sick and
injured as 1t is to maintain a certain
standard of efficiency or perfection 1
their rolling stock and roadbed."
In considering the organization of
such work he said the first considera-
ton was the proper housing of rail
way employees, In order that the man
could feel well In the environment of
a home and be free from worry and
anxiety. The next step toward eff
cheney lay in the direction of physical
examination to determine the approach
Of disease In its incipient stage.
There should be an understanding
with the workmen that this examina-
ton is not for the purpose of prepar-
ing him for the scrap pile" he said,
but for the purpose of maintaining a
condition OF bodily health that viii
materially prolong his working days,
together with a higher degree of earn
ing capacity and efficiency.
1.-TWO general methods have been in
use for some years by forty-two repre-
sentative railroads of this country,
with the general predominance in ia
vor of the hospital organization, where
the men themselves contribute a GER
tain monthly amount toward their
maintenance. Twenty-four of the for
ty-two railroads are today using the
hospital organizations, some Of which
were established al long as fifty years
ago. This was primarily brought about
on account of a certain number of
these roads running through a very
sparsely settled country, where settle
ments and doctors were few and far
between, and there were no hospitals,
and where 1t vas found that men Of
ten suffered and sometimes died be-
cause Of lack of immediate and proper
care. By a small contribution by the
men they were enabled to receive the
proper care by good men and to enjoy
the comforts that were necessary to-
ward their well being. and with but
small cost to themselves.
THE other eighteen roads employ
surgeons and hospitals and trea their
men for occupational injuries, paying
all bills for such treatment and care
without the small monthly assessment
contributed by the men. There have
been many arguments by learned econ
omists both for and against each
method"
"The Transportation of Consump-
lives" was extensively considered In
a paper by DR.. Henry b. Hemenway of
Evanston. Ill. DIR. Hemenway said
that, although consumptives were
prone to travel In greater numbers
than any other one class Of persons af-
ficted with disease, humanitarianism,
as well as law, would protect them In
their desire to travel unless 1t be shown
that their journeys particularly endan-
gered their fellow travellers. The con
ciusion TO which he came after review
Ing statistics and laws bearing on the
subject was that the dangers involved
were comparatively slight and that any
attempt at segregation of consumptiyes
during transportation was impractical
BILE.
If the federal government were to
undertake restriction of the ~avel of
consumptives In the United States. he
said, 1T could do so only IL the nuisance
were very real. One thing to be %
sidered. he said, was the fact that
most cases Of tubcrcular infection oc-
Cured during childhood and that the
large proportion of travellers were
adults. Again, If there were special
dangers to the travelling public we
should find passenger brakemen and
conductors showing a higher consump-
tive rate than similar employees on
freight trains. But the reverse Is the
case, he said, and quoted a number of
authorities to that effect.