The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-30
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATTON BUREAU
By FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. C.
FEDERAL CONSERVATION OF
HUMAN LIFE.


against typhoid fever alone; and many
thousands treated for other diseases
in a great campaign for the improve
ment of American health and living
conditions, which is being prosecuted
by the federal public health service.
Primarily this campaign is de-
signed to insure the l-ealth of our
army and navy in training by the sanI-
tation of the communities Immediately
surrounding camps But it is also a
great deal more than that; it is
recognition, enforced by war, that the
health of the individual is legitimately
the care of the national government,
because the welfare of the nation de-
ponds upon the health of the individ-
ual The fate of America will, within
the next few years, depend as never
before upon it's man power We are
about to expend man power prodigal-
ly on the field of battle. With army
and navy drawing men from every
occupation, with immigration ut off,
and with the spectacle before us of a
wholesale carnage in which we are
about to participate, the fact has been
driven home to the dullest intelligence
that the nation cannot afford to toll
crate conditions, sanitary or economic,
which destroy and shorten human
life.
Circumstances are now compelling
the government to act upon this prem
Use on a gigantic scale. Federal care
for the nations health is only the
necessary complement of federal con-
servation of food and regulation of
food prices.
Altho primarily a measure - make
sanitary the environment of the
fighting man, this work is really
great and sudden extension of activi-
ties of the public health service.
which have been gradually expanding
for. AFNfW
large scale and with large powers
and funds, exactly what it has been
doing for years with limited funds,
and powers only of supervision and
suggestion.
The public health service under
the law has the duty to cooperate
with local authorities in promoting
health, and also, and more significant,
it has the right to take whatever
steps are necessary to prevent the in
terstate spread of disease. AS every
soldier and sailor is a potential inter-
gives it the broadcast powers in re-
gard to the environments of camps,
and the camps are now thickly sown
over half the nation, and will in
crease in number and size.
The need for federal action in
this matter is clearly shown in the
promptitude with which federal aid
was accepted by local authorities. For
the public health service has merely
offered to county and city health
boards in the vicinity of camps, what
ever aid they required. Those who
wanted to handle their own problems
with their own facilities were allowed
to do so. If they wanted merely fed
eral supervision and advice, a COM
missioned officer of the public health
service was detailed to give it; while
If the local authorities wanted the
government ahealth service to take
over the work entirely and supple
ment the LOCAL funds as we'll as as
Stunning the local authority, this was
done.
In the great majority of instances,
the third arrangement was accepted
This by no means implies relative in
efficiency in the local boards. It is
not to be expected that the health
department of sparsely populated
county or small town will be able
to cope with the largest sanitary prob
lens as well as the United States gov
eminent, and these local authorities
had the intelligence to perceive that
they were being offered a great and
needed boon.
Work in the Army Camps.
The case of the national army
camp at Little Rock, Ark, is an eX-
cellent illustration of the prompt CO.
operation with which the federal
service has generally met. Three civil
divisions were involved in the area
which had to be made sanit@ry, in
Guiding the towns of Argenta and
Little Rock and a part of Pulaski
county. Senior Surgeon G. c. Pierce
was placed in charge of the work in
this section. The day after his arrival,
the mayor of Little Rock, the mayor
of Argenta, the county judge and the
Little Rock chamber of commerce
all concurred in asking that this Of
lofa I-fI a
tive authority over the sanitary work
in the areas about Camp Pike. The
city of Little Rock further contributed
$4,000 for the work. the chamber
of commerce has given $4,000; the
little town of Argenta managed to
raise $4,000 for the first six months
work, and the judge of Pulaski coun-
ty wrote expressing his regret that
there were no funds in the county
treasury which he could appropriate
for the work, and added that he was
going to raise the money some way
to put up the county's part" He
raised $1,000.
It should be understood that this
work Of the public health service has
nothing to do with conditions inside
! the camps. The sanitation of these
is adequately attended to by the army
medical corps, which has complete
authority within the camps. but none
at all without. The soldier. of
! course. cannot be kept always inside
the camp Most of his leisure is spent
in the surrounding towns. His social
life is in the home of these towns. he
is a good patron of ice cream par
lors, soda fountains and restaurants:
/ in a word, he is exposed to all the
sources of infection which these towns
contain.
Causes of Disease Epidemics-
This section of Arkansas was shown
! bv the survey of the Public Health
/ Service surgeons, epidemiologists and
/ sanitary engineers to be neither bet
/ ter nor worse than many other south
/ ern small towns and rural sections in
| the south: which is to say that
malaria was prevalent, that there
4 were abundant pools of standing
water where the Anopheles mosquito.
which carries the disease. bred in
| rnrnfnsinn and nndisturhed. that san