The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-13
MAINTAINING HEALTH MENACE

Not so many years ago the services of the health board and of the health officer were more or less pe1.functory, and their duties confined mainly to vaccination, posting of quarantined houses and removal of infectious cases to the pesthouse Their function was principally to take a hand in emer- gencies when epidemics were in pro gress. Their duty was to lock the doors after the enemy had entered i; to be the minute men of a city over which no guard had been placed.
 Nowadays, the situation, at least theoretically, is reversed. The func- tion of the public health service is not primarily to combat epidemics, but to prevent them. The program in ac- cordance with which certain illnesses may be prevented from attaching themselves upon a population is well defined If there is failure to take such preventive measures, the blame lies upon one of two official units, or upon both. The blame lies first upon the health authorities if they fail to call to the attention of the civil au- thorities the danger and source of preventable ills, and the plan and cost of protection against them. The blame lies directly upon the civil authorities if, having been informed by the health executive, they fail to act by making such provision as will protect the health of the people.
 In the case of the various garbage dumps within the municipality of Bir- mingham, it appears that the civil au- thortes are fully informed as to what is necessary to remove the men, ace of flies and their attendant ills of typhoid, meningitis and the like. In this enlightened day no civil gov erning body can be excused for such a lamentable policy as actually pro- vides breeding place for mans deadly enemy, the house-fly, and, in- stead of joining properly in measures to protect the public health, in reality maintains a condition that nullifies health expenditures in other direc- tions. There are occasions when of ficial discretion and unpardonable negligence are separated by veil that is very, very thin.
 The health officer says that the city maintains breeding places for flies, not only on the Avenue prop erty, but also at many other centers throughout the city. Thus the city's policy with respect to garbage is not only to dispose of it in such a way as to constitute an ever-present health menace, but even so operates as to distribute that menace as widely as possible. The health officer says that a public incinerator is the only solu- ton of the problem, but the city con- mission counters with the reply that 1t costs money to do that. There we have the same attitude towards the public health which counseled the cur tailment of milk inspections and the consequent danger to public health, while the matter of saving few dol lars month was being discussed, a discussion that could have proceeded as efficiently without such curtailment of health service. The peoples health is secondary. Dollars are placed in the scale against human lives and the dollars are heavier.
 That is not the enlightened or even the commonsense attitude. Here is present and malicious condition that threatens the health and lives of the people of Birmingham. The only log ical and defensible course for the municipal authorities to follow, is to wipe out that threat at once, even if meanwhile the city garbage has to be hauled to some remote ravine, pend ing the construction of the incinera- tors.