The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-05-18
REAL PATRIOTISM

me nrSt call nom England ana
France, our allies in the great war,
made upon the United States is for
medical assistance. and according to
press reports, doctors and nurses and
ambulances and hospital equipments
will be the first to be rushed across
the Atlantic.
Private advices from medical men
who accompanied the war commits
sions to this country, declare that the
demand for medical and surgical re-
lief is quite as urgent among the civ
ilian population of those two countries
as at the battle front. The losses to
the medical stats at the front appear
to have been greater proportionately
than to any other department of SER
vice-a magnificent tribute to the pro-
fession in the warning countries.
II the United States and each of the
states are to profit by the experiences
of the allies, there is suggestion in
these facts of the utmost Importance
to us. In this war every patriot is
fighting, no matter what his or her
country may be, whether on the firing
line, in the munition factories, in the
shipyards, on the farm or in the home.
1t is from the civilian population. the
men at home that the armies must be
recruited Common sense, as well as
army and navy regulations, demand
certain minimum of physical fitness
for admission to the ranks. 1t follows,
as a patriotic duty, that the great res
ervoir of civil life shall be maintained
at the highest limit of healthful eff
cheney. 1t becomes a sacred patriotic
duty that public health shall be raised
as never before since the establish
ment of the state board of health, and
that it shall be, kept at level for
which there is no precedent in Florida
or in this country The rules of per-
feet sanitation and the enforcement
of preventive measures against dis
ease, have a significance that they
never had before.
There are several things that mill
tate against sickness, for a good share
of our physical illness is a result of
idleness. The busy man hasn't much
time to think about his troubles. and
he forgets that he wasn't feeling very
we'll when he got up this morning,
and with that forgetfulness his all
ment vanishes If he is busy, very
busy, he fOrgets to worry and worry
brings most of our troubles.
If the national government, or the
state government, shall see fit to de-
cree the prohibition of the sale and
use of alcoholic liquors during the
period of the war, a prolific source Of
physical degeneration will be remov-
ed 1t is a consummation devoutly to
be hoped.
The crisis of the hour has a personal
meaning for every patriotic Floridian
and American, and the two mean the
same thing. Not yet in the hysteria
that these spring days have brought,
have we come to grasp the fullness of
the intimate personal relation to our
individual selves. We are trying hon
estly to find where and how each OF
US can do his bit" most efficiently
and most usefully for our country.
Probably we will misapply our efforts
at first, we may not find our place for
long time to come, but here is one
thing each of us can do, and the eff
fort will be the performance of pa
triotic duty-to keep ourselves in
health, at our highest level of physi-
cal health. adm then do all we can to
secure proper sanitation for the adj
vancement and maintenance of pub
lie health.