The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-06-09

lI4.... ....n human beings IN Florida!
Arc they worth more to the Common
wealth in real money-dolars and
cents-for cash is the only possible
standard of valuation by which they
can be compared?
As Florida's Health Train passes
through the State, hundreds and
thousands of visitors come to it to
ask questions and to inspect the va
ried educational equipment. Their
queries naturally concern TIE things
in which each is most interested.
More questions are asked-a great
many more-about the curing of hog
cholera than about hookworm in chill
dlen. More men and women-a great
many more-ask about Black Tongue
in dogs than about the sanitary feed
ing of babies, and the model of the
dipping vat for the eradication of tick
in cattle, eXcites far more attention
than the miniature screened house for
the treatment of tubercular human
beings.
The death rate among children un-
der five years old, if allowed to pre-
vail among hogs and cattle would
ruin financially the breeder. An cpl
dcmic of foot rot among cattle calls
| for government experts and govern
ment appropriation to wage unrelent-
ing war, but the twenty per cent
death rate among children under five
years old causes no ripple on the sur
face of public complaccncy.
Is it because the money value of
! - LII ln tnI
in dollars and cents as can that of
Tie COW or the hog or the dog? Has
the child only a sentimental value
to be measured alone in The tears of
/ the mother? Do the expectancy
charts by which insurance companies
estimate the life chances Of the indi-
vidual, become operative only when
the child has reached adult produc-
tive years? The courts by various
decisions have placed the value Of the
average productive worker at five
thousand dollars and upward. The
average Florida hog may be worth
three dollars; the average Florida
COW, twelve dollars; and the average
Florida dog, less than nothing.
Yet the representatives of the State
Board of Health on their journey
ings up and down this great penin-
sula, are questioned much more fire.
ouently about the welfare of the
three dollar hog, the twelve-dollar cow
and the minus-quantity dog, than
about that of the baby, whose value
is beyond price, or-nothing.
Government activity. whether state
| E. l. n ar
vGtion of human health, for length
cning out the normal span OF life eX-
pectancy, is much below that cXarted
in behalf of the money producing ami
mails. The exceptions are when cpl
denies threaten and individual effort
is powerless. And the activities of
government reflects the demands of
the people.
1t is the use of wrong standards
of valuation that applies the same
rule of measurement to the human
being and to the domestic animal, Just
as wrong as to judge them by their
averdupois-to make the biggest the
most valuable. whether human or
| brute.
Not vet have the people of Florida
come to place proper value on sanl-
tGry precaution of disease, for the
prolongation of human life. AS in
dividuals we hold beyond price the
lives and health of those nearest and
dearest to US, but practically we val
ue our own COW or hog higher than
the life of the average human being
outside that circle. We don't-we
would never admit such thing, but
cur actions point that way.
We hold beyond price the life and
health of our children, but in our ig-
norance we take risks with them that
we wouldn't take with our domestic
animals. We study to be wise and
prepared in the ailments that threat
en- these animals, but chance has
most to do with the baby's welfare.
A sorrowing man, once asked the
cause of his grief, made this instinc-
tive reply: "I lost my best cow last
week, and my wife died. That was
a mighty good cow, too."-State
Board of Health Bulletin.