The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-01-30
VALUE OF DIS
EASE PREVENTION.
Board of Health Bulletin)

door before the livestock is abb
stracted.
Its better to prevent disease
than to be forced to cure it, and
it's better, not only from the
viewpoint of the victim of the
disease, but also from the dollars
and cents side-the side that
concerns the employers of labor.
For, after all, the pocket is the
strongest argument with some OF
us in our relations to others, in
all matters excepting those OF
the most intimate personality.
The human side, the pitiful side,
to our sympathies, it
rarely excites us to the extent OF
giving real money.
And from this economic stand
point it is cheaper for the en-
ployer of labor to prevent sick
ness than to pay the cost of ILL
ness 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 en-
ployee, to which each is required
to. contribute proportionately to
his wages. In return the pro-
tected laborer is cared for dur
ing illness and his wages are
continued during disability
caused by disease or accident.
but rarely does the amount of
the accumulated assessment
from any individual laborer
meet the cost of medical treat
tment, nursing, etc, in his partic-
lular case. The excess OF such
cost must be met from the gen
eral fund to which all employees
have contributed or by the en-
ploying corporation itself. Elk
perience has shown that the as
sessment paid by the employed
usually do not meet the aggre-
gate cost of administering the
hospitals in which the i'll or III
jured are cared for.
Medical science has provided
practical insurance against
number of common disease, il
the form of serums which art
sure preventives Of typhoid few
er, smallpox and the ordinary
cold; and others are being devel
!yoped. They are sure to the ex
Itent that their failure has beer
reduced to an extremely small
T fraction of one per cent. Thu
is fact, it is no guess.
For the larger employers o
labor or for the smaller ones, tn
use of these preventives among
their employees is much tn
most economical use of the sicl
fund. The average expense at
tending an attack of typhoi'
fever, for instance, is close t.
$4,000. This includes the los
OF time, proper medical treat
ment, nursing, specially adapted
foods and other demands Great
ed by the disease which do no
exist without it. The cost of tn
anti-typhoid treatment-the pre-
ventive treatment-which LET
not a single death from this dis
ease in the United States Arm.
in 1913, is less than one per cent
OF this $4,000
The prevention of smailpo,
costs SO little as to be negligible
and a century of practice ha:
demonstrated its certainty.
Another cost the employer il
the interruption to service
caused by sickness. How mucl
does it cost to break in" a new
man, no matter how expert h'
may be in general, to do th'
work OF the skilled laborer in any
department: Every employer
must figure it out for himself
but each knows without figuring
that it is not small.
1t is wholly within the author
Iity of every employer to insist or
the use of disease preventives by
every laborer. 1t may be made
ia condition o employment
The United States Army. re
quires every soldier to take the
anti-typhoid treatment, and
school authorities insst on vacci-
nation against smallpox.
Economists everywhere recog-
nize in disease, slight, serious or
lepidemic, the greatest foe to in
dustrial progress. This fact was
recognized under the system Of
slavery in this country, and the
lphyysical condition of every
slave was most carefully guard
ed.
I The modern principle that pre-
vention is better than cure is
gaining recognition. 1t is OF
far-reaching importance-cco-
.nomic Importance, pocketbook