The Punta Gorda herald., 1916-01-27


will admit that it has no draw
backs-for perfection is not real
ly to be expected this side the
Pearly Gates, but in Florida the
expectancy of good, healthy
working efficiency is at least
equal to the expectancy OF bright
sunshiny days and invigoratlng
breathable air.
A big asset of Florida is eli
mate, so much advertised that
Jealous neighbors have seriously |
declared that it is really her only |
resource. But it is a condition
of clean air, saturated with the
salt of the surrounding oceans,
with a temperature that encour-
ages out-of-door living all the
year round. 1t gives an adyan-
tage of untold, unreliable value
over the sections where lower
temperatures demand an indoor
existence through many months
of the year. Vigorous men and
women love outdoors and that s
exactly why Florida is thronged
today and in this particular win
ter season with greater numbers
of northern visitors probably
than ever before in her history.
| But climate is not the only re-
source favoring health. 1t is
easy, very easy, to forfeit this adj
vantage by neglect of the laws
that govern the transmission OF
disease, and ignorance of these
laws does not avert the results Of
their fracture.
Within the last few years-two
: or three-this state has walked up
to the commercial advantages of
good roads and within the fifty
odd counties she is spending al
most six million dollars in their
r construction.
, More than twenty-five years a.
go she walked up to the CONNER
cial advantages of good health,
and under the authority of the
, Legislature of 1889 and of subse-
quent gatherings of the solons al
Tallahassee, she has been spend
ing half mill tax on all the as
sessible property in the state, tt
secure and to preserve it.
1t is a fact that no state is bet
ter equipped today, as result O.
this wise decision back in the S0''
| to combat disease directly anC
through the education of the peo
pie to knowledge how to Obtain
: this advantage for themselves by
J better sanitation and better liv
ing. 1t is quito within the re
membrancc of young men tina
) the announcement of yellow feve
/ in any Florida city brought ;
/ shudder through all the state, ant
h it's nearer approach to any givel
II locality crowded the trains will
II refugees to the North. Now, sucl
II an alarm would be answered will
u reference to the State Board o
, Health. But such alarms don
come any more, for this diseas
and others have been banishet
and their coming made as impos
sible as human knowledge ant
foresight can make anything i'm
possible.
Experts alert and in closes
touch with the constant advance
of medical science, are in charg
of the health situation. They ar
backed by the authority of tn
state, with supreme authority i
emergencies, they are equippe'
with laboratories in widely scat
tered parts Of the state for tn
study of disease in the individua
and in epidemics-it is a condi
tion of preparedness that has fo
years prevented the necessity o
war.
The education of the people 0
Florida to a better knowledge O
their physical selves, of the law
of health and sanitation, has bee
one of the efficient weapons in tn
fight against disease invasion an
epidemic. And the most recen
addition to this educational {
quipment is the Health Trair
now on its initial journey throug
the state. The three remodele
Pullmans, with their panels an
models and steromotorgraphs an
literature in charge of thorough
ly competent representatives 0
the Board of Health, have bee
throngcd with people earnestl
eager to learn. These peopl
have returned to learn more, the
have brought the school children
and their interest shows the edr
cational value of this travelin
school.
If it be really a fact that i
knowledge is power, the people @
Florida have within their reac
the facilities for becoming NOR