The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1917-03-03
GET A GARDEN.

GET A GARDEN.
The owner of every vacant lot in
Chicago should be willing to donate its
use during the coming Summer fol
growing table vegetables to anyone
who will agree to cultivate it, provi,
ded, of course, he does not want to use
it himself.
There are within the city limits of
Chicago thousands of acres of idle
land. 1t is all, or most of it at least,
land that with proper cultivation can
be made highly productive. 1t would
be far better to devote the idle, vacant
lots of Chicago to growing table vege-
tables, than to allow them to remain
as they are, simply waste places and
depositaries for unsightly rubbish of
every kind.
The Philadelphia Vacant Lot Garden
ing Association, in existence now for
several years, has demonstrated be-
yond any doubt the value to any COM
munity of vacant lot gardening. When
looked at from almost any angle, it be-
comes a health proposition. An under
fed and improperly nourished people
will be sickly people. People that are
properly fed and nourished will be
healthy. This is fundamental.
There are in Chicago many thou
sands of people who would be both
willing and anxious to do outdoor
gardening, provided only they might be
given the soil to work. 1t would be a
fine thing to bring idle people and idle
land together. Bodily health and vigor
are to be gained by outdoor work such
as gardening. Fresh air, sunshine and
exercise tend to make people strong
and well. If only the vacant lots of
the City of Chicago can be utilized
along these lines, thousands of tons of
table foodstuffs may be raised, and will
certainly have an important bearing on
reducing high prices to the consumers
of Chicago.
Let everyone get busy and talk va
cant lot gardening. The people of Chi
cago can raise within the city limits
enough foodstuffs to materially reduce
the amount that would be needed to be
shipped in from outside. At all events
it is an experiment worth trying. The
planting season will soon be here. Now
is the time to get ready for it.
The U. S. Public Health Service is
responsible for the statement, that in
this country not less than 100000
workers lose an average of nine days
each year on account of sickness. I'm
Gle Sam s health officials also estimate
that counting medical treatment at one
dollar per day, together with the atten-
dant loss of wages, costs the workers
of the country approximately $6S0,000,-
600. There is no doubt either, but much
of this sickness is due to both the
ignorance and carelessness of the work
ers themselves. In other words, this
tremendous economic loss is largely
preventable. Two things seem to be
needed to better these conditions,
health education and health insurance
The latter, just now, is being much dis
eussed by both economic and social
workers; but without a plan of health
education to help it along, health in
surance alone will be found difficult
and expensive method of relief.
Alcoholism has long ceased to be
question of morals. 1t is now recog-
nized as one of the eountry's most i'm
portant health problems. This is why
all over the country we find health
officials preaching against the excessive
use of alcoholic stimulants and indeed,
urging total abstinence as the surest
way of prolonging life and insuring
bodily health and vigor.
1t is fair to say that our primitive
ancestors, who first lived in sanitary
tree tops with no floors to spit upon,
and inhabited we'll ventilated caves
untrammeled by storm windows, fur.