Evening journal., 1919-10-03

pc or an order in camp. or In any way I
10 qualify as competent soldiers.
Is That causes a shudder TO run dow
IN your spinal column. DO you know tina
- In the United States today there ar
: seven and a half million people owe
u sixteen years Of age who can neither
e read nor write English or any othel
e language? Surely, you say-'what els'
e could you expect in a country wher,
= there are twelve or fifteen million
ignorant Negroes-where we have been
r receiving for years the scum OF Hitter
/, ate Europe"
e wait a minute. or that illiterate
/. multitude Of seven and half million
!. ffty-nine per cent are white and TWEEN
a ty-nine per cent are native born white
Americans. Those OF That multitude Of
4 illiteracy who are over twenty-One
\ years Of age out-vote the metropolitan
cities Of New York Chicago and phila-
delphla and number more votes than
any single State In the Union except
New York.
10 is against background such as
this that we come In this campaign TO
say that, while the Government has
arranged certain theoretical forces for
the relief OF existing conditions. the
vital necessity just now is an interpret
ling and executive force 10 put into local
translation theories that are stlll float
ing nebulOusly in nOthingness.
Throughout the United States the
average community spends a per capita
average Of s2.sJ a year for police and
flre protection. IL spends an average
Of ss.75 for education OF all grades
while for the health OF its people the
average community spends a maximum
total OF tweniy-nlne cents per capita
| per year. There is one State among
our forty-eight where The total approLl
priation for health purposes amounts |
to $1,000 a year, which Is the relay sal
airy that commands the service Of a
State Public Health O1lcer.
During The nineteen months OF the |
war we lost 5000 OF our men on the |
fleld Of honor killed by the enemy in |
action. During these same nineteen |
months 1000 American babies died |
100000 babies die every year before they |
are twelve months old; 10000 Of them |
do not live a month 1888 1863 women died |
last year in our Public Health registra-
tiOn area in childbirth This stipend
ous dlmunltion Of vital power was
largely unnecessary. Nine-tenths of
those women and three-fOurths on those
children might be saved from needless
and preventable death n we were as
careful OF human life as we are OF
breeding pigs and registering dogs
Last year 100000 people died In the
United States OF consumption alone.
We have constantly a million invalids,
100000 bed-ridden from that one dis
case. Seventy-flve per cent. OF those
deaths are between eighteen and forty
i've. That one disease costs us two bill
lion dollars year, in actual loss and
waste. or our present population. II
things continue as they are, six per
cent. still eventually die Of tuberculosis.
and yet tuberculosis Is absolutely cur
able. United effort and a determined
sentiment can wipe II out. We know
This because Victoria In Australia has
done it,-done u by taking both public
health and public money out OF politics
and operating along distinctive Red
Cross lines for the public good.
Typhoid sweeps the country now
and again. 10 exists all the time in the
average community. and yet typhoid IS
not disease-it is a crime. II is not a
sickness-it is a disgrace. 10 reflects
not upon scientific inactivity. nor lack
1f theoretical knowledge, but is a re-
lection upon the ordinary decency OF a \
community, for typhoid fever can be !
contracted in only one way-and that
~ either eating or drinking dirt and
llth-by taking into the digestive tract H
ne Lying germ that has come from the I
'owel discharge Of a person having ty-
mold; that permits food and water and 3
he ordinary contacts OF daily life to be 3
contaminated and poisoned by what we II
10 not like TO even think about in terms y
4 decency. q
In 1918, out OF our Army OF nearly s
our million men-what General Perish IN
lg called the cleanest army the world y
yer knew-only twenty-three men died 4
7 typhoid In our civil communities 6
the United States during the same 4
me, 10000 people died. What influence u
Mess It be a local organization fully &
hormed-a prudently directed force =
lcn as the American Red Cross SUD- q
led can copewi or make the slight Il
- Impression upon the problem Of do ~
estio sanitation and hygiene. 81
wish that the American Red Cross -
luld take It's stand boldly and without 'l
)ology as crusade against the Infinite "
enace OF venereal disease. That is the ~
0st threatening danger IN our Ameri- ~
m life today In its mag m
tude-a magnitude unsuspectlne In u
at Instead OF being held by quaran- e.
ne ana combatted by prophylaxis. II &0
alks unsuspected amidst our life -
"a Hne linen-a bane 10 the present: IL
ad alike In rags and decked IN purple ~
lncalculable menace TO the future BY
lghting manhood; blasting girlhood. 50
'eratlng womanhood: making mother M
od a curse; binding little children. VI
inning the years TO come with an ~
utterable load OF anguish. misery and eSlt
rrow. -
What influence other than an or 4
nization such as the Red Cross can ~
e and master problems such as these ~
does not aim to displace the Govern -
mt u docs what the Government Il 1
mot do. II does not aim 10 dlsplsce ~
church; II does what the church 8N3
not done. u does not aim to in S
Ide upon the school: Il goes where rr Z
school may not reach IA does moi yp1
2 10 disregard the medical profess Hi9
n u goes In this great struggle. as ~
went amid the sangulnary baitle- II
rs OF war, TO stand beside the sur- u
MO be the Reserve Corps OF the 81
ny-to be arms and hands and ewes nv
feet TO the heart Of a nation that 80
IS with allonging that Is immeasur- |
e-tnat Tor The destiny and the duiv SES
the years TO come-the America ~ 6Nf
borrow should measure i'm N tbo eSsH
tern or the America that should be ut