The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-07

but in this day of packing houses and quick railroad transportation the human appetite is a false guide and 1t Is surely true that a large pro portion of the men and women of to- day are digging their graves with the teeth"
 "Education Is the remedy for most of our dietetic ills and 1t is gratifying to sec that in the last few years the schools and colleges, particularly those that have departments of home economics, are beginning to teach the clements. the physiology of digestion and nutrition. The home demonstra- tion agents are also doing much to spread the gospel of rational eating The health authorities should also aid In teaching the public that properly nourished body is the best insurance against diseases of all kinds.
 Death Rate After Fifty
 The average length of human life has increased In the last 25 years; but 1t has been due to the prevention of diphtheria and other infectious di- seases of childhood; and typhoid fever, malaria. yellow fever and other germ diseases The application of the known facts regarding the puri7 fication of the milk and water sup PAACh OA SAilOS Nuc BcACAhA hSo of the knowledge that orange or to- mato juice is necessary for the per feet nutrition of infants has reduced the mortality among children by about 25 per cent.
 The public should also know that during the last quarter of a century the death rate after 50 has increased. In my opinion the increased consump- ton per capita of meat and sugar accounts partly for the greater num- Der of people who are sick and die of diseases of the arteries, heart and kidneys. When our health authorl- ties and the public learn that life saved from the chronic degenerative diseases Ia as valuable as one saved from typhoid fever and that 1t also helps to lower the death rate, then the health and longevity records of our people will be greatly improved.
 Cow and n Garden
 The greatest health problem of today is in teaching the public the known facts regarding diet and nu- triton. When parents learn that a cow and a garden for every family is as essential to good health as Is a comfortable house In which to live they have gone q long way towards the successful rearing of their chii- dren. The unfortunate city dweller cannot have his own COW, and his own garden. but the dairyman and the truck farmer can supply him and his family with the milk, butter and fresh vegetables that should be the most important part of his daily food. A quart of milk A day, fresh fruit and green vegetables every day In the year. added to bread and a little meat, fowl or fish, and light des- sert once day, make up the perfect nutritional day.
 The properly nourished person of any age Is less liable to catch the contagious diseases than the fat and the lean classes. have never seen a well nourished individual develop tuberculosis and when all the people know what and how much to eat. and live accordingly, the great white plague" will disappear from the earth. So will all other diseases be decreased, but health, happiness. eff cheney and longevity will be increased and scientific medicine will have achieved another great triumph.
 Soon after the signing of the armistice l saw demonstrated on a large scale the relation of food to health. l made investigation regard ing 1ood conditions and nutritional diseases in Germany, Austria, Italy. France and Belgium; and while I did not see any who were actually dying of starvation l saw hundreds of thou sands who were not far from it. was Informed by physicians and the civil authorities in those countries that during the war there had been an enormous increase in tuberculosis the anemias and other diseases in which under nutrition is the great predtsposing cause. The poorly Ch gs.r
 diphtheria and other diseases of childhood and in all the countries I visited, children because they lacked food, died by the thousands from pre- ventable diseases.
 The Crimes of senator.
 Since I visited those countries though they did not suffer so much as Armenia and parts of Russia and the Balkan states, I am sure that hundreds of thousands of the men. women and children that saw have died because they could not get the food that was in America. I think that the greatest crime of this age, next to the war itself, was per petrated by the peace slackers in the united States Senate, who in order to destroy the man whom they knew to be the greatest statesman S- was VI 1ht Othti dEt, kept the United States from helping Europe.
 The League of Nations, in ad- dition to its efforts to prevent war. has provisions whereby one country may help another when famine and diseases stalk in the land; and had our country done its duty by be- coming part of the League, miil- ions now dead in Europe and in the near East would be living to bless our people. This is not political speech but from the viewpoint of the nutrition and health of the people of the world. cannot refrain saying that 1t was 8 sad day for humanity when the ideaiism and the sympa- thetic broad world view of Woodrow Wilson was replaced in our national government by tho greed and mar row prejudice of Newberry ana Lodge and their satellites
 Tn discussing starving Europe I should not forget to mention that in Germany in which country overeat- ing, particularly of meats, was the custom before the war and for that reason the Germans suffered in- ordinately from arterial heart and kidney diseases and diabetes. since the war their sickness and death rates over fifty have decreased, while diabetes disease due solely to overeating was said to have ai- most disappeared. Thus adversity has it's compensations and Americans can learn a lesson from the forced reduction of food among the fat Germans.
 Dangers of Prosperity
 Though the people of the United States commit many sins and errors in diet that affects our health and longevity records, I believe that we eat more rationally than do the in- habitants of any other country. Partly for that reason the Americans are the most efficient people In the