Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1921-01-07
FRIDAY. JANUARY I, 1921
FOR BETTEI, HEALTH

manner on the publlc hcalth. In an-
dition to these nearly, if not all OF
the States have bureaus or depart
ments whose sole purpose Is to pro-
tect the public health and add if pos
sible a few years to the lives of the
individuals who compose the State
and reduce the total of the time lost
through sickness, which in the aggrc
gate amounts to a staggering total.
And then in addition to all the State
and National health boards there arc
city, and county boards without num-
Der and uncounted private organiza-
tions whose objects are the same as
the public health boards.
Money and time, both public funds
raised by taxation and donations from
private purses, is being spent, often
with no definite immediate end in
view and many Of the agencies which
are working along these lines overlap
one another so that waste of time,
money and effort is unavoidable.
Countless surveys Of health condi-
tions and of the state of public and
private sanitation have been undcrta
ken both by public boards and by
private organizations and conditions
varying with the localities inspected
have been found which were inmical
to health. Remedies have been sug-
gested, laws have been passed and
campaigns instituted, many Of them
Impractical, some burdensomc and cX-
pensive and all more or less futile.
All efforts seem to have borne fruit
the value of which is far below what
it should be in proportion to the en-
ergy expended.
Out of the maze of conflicting facts
and theories which investigation in
these lines has brought out there is
one fact on which all sets of statis-
tics agree; it is Il fact so self evident
that it would seem that no invcstiga-
ton should have been needed to cs-
tablish it and that is the fact that the
higher the standard of living the less
sickness and the lower death rate; and
as II corollary to the first proposition
it may be stated that the larger the
family income the higher the standard
of living.
A careful survey Of the eau: cs Of
infant mortality has brought out this
fact in Il startling manner. Wherever
the matter has been investigated the
infant mortality rate has been in di
rect proportion to the family income.
In city or country, hy the seaside or
among the mountains. among factory
workers and farmers, in the friTid
North or in the scmi-tropic Snuth,
the only constant ratio developed 10y
the Investigations has been the family
income and the infant death rate.
Low incline, high mortality. is the
one rule without an exception. That
being the one fully established fact.
it should not take Il Solomon to de-
eide that the proper efforts of all
the various aGcnCicS for the promo
tiOn of health should bend their cncr-
gies more toward securing for all an
income which will make possible prop
er living conditions, rather than to
appoint umbcrlrSs boards, employ
thousands of trained nurses, and
spend thousands of dollars in propa-
ganda.
OF course the efforts to. better
health of the individuals Of the State
and Nation have not been without
result, but the result has not been
commensurate with the effort, nor
can it ever he while the income of
thousands of families is 80 low that
proper living is impossible. An on
ganized effort to strike at the ront
of the matter might not show 50 much
immediate result as The tactics nnw
employed but in the long run the re-
suits would appear and they would
be permanent.
Milk funds may save the lives Of Il
few babies, but paupcrAc their pa
rents. The adjustment Of conditions
SO that parents can supply proper
food to the babies would he thousands
of times better for all concerned and
would have the advantage of per-
manentcy.
1t may seem far cry from re-
strictive immigration laws and the
opening of the channels of foreign
trade to the health of child, hut the
connection is there and it is Il very real
connection. With surplus of labor
competing for employment and the
channels through which normally flow
the surplus products of the Nation
choked and production reduced in con-
sequence, the living standards of the
mass Of the people must be lowered,
and with the lowering of the stan
dards of living will come increased
death rate, an increase which the ex-
pensive activities of the various health
organizations will be powerless to pre-
vent.
That the people Of this country
should live better than the people of
l11I