Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-12-22
PUBLIC HEALTH CONTROL

Surgeon General Cumming de-
plores the effect of economy on ma
tional health work. This is plant
to be expected from the head Of an
undertaking who Is convinced of in
Vulnerable ways in which the service
to which he is giving his best eff
forts might be extended to the adj
vantage of society.
An important factor which such
people seem to overlook in greater or
less degree is the arousing Of people
and inspiring them to work for
themselves on their own initiative.
There is evidence that this is being
done here in Maine today very eff
fectively. Citizens are maintaining
through the Maine Public Health As
ISOLATION efforts calculated to stiTnu-
late individual and community eff
fort in the contest with disease. The
State has something valuable to
show for this effort: the public are
mot being taught to look to the
Federal Government to do that which
properly Is within their province to
do better for themselves.
There is of course a sphere of ac-
tivity for the Federal guidance and
control. DR.. Cumming says: 1T is
not possible to consider the public
health as being divided into 4S or any
other number of territorial entities,
which Of course is true within GER
tain limitations. But if it should be
found that rivalry between the
States in the cause of good health is
more effective for good results than
Federal control and the shifting onto
the shoulders Of the central govern
ment of all health responsibility then
would we appreciate the value of
limiting the scope of the central gov
eminent.
There are the international health
relations which the Federal Govern
ment must attend to. the States,
manifestly, cannot do so. Informa-
ton must be gathered. methods of
prevention for communicable dis
eases must be standardized and en-
forced. In this respect the Federal
department in this country has
demonstrated its usefulness. If the
States do not take measures to pre-
vent the spread of smallpox, for in
stance, then must the central gov
eminent take measures. Evidently
the States are not all doing what
they should as the smallpox rate In
the United States is said to be the
highest of any civilized country in
the world. Many of these cases were
very mild in form and there is the
further fact that such cases are re-
ported more thoroughly in this
country than in some of the others.
1t will be as difficult in health as
In law to draw a hard and fast line
between the State and the Federal
Government. We have succeeded
fairly well in legal relations, we
should in health matters. There EVIL
IDENTIFY is need Of both. spheres of ac-
tivity in which each may better be
supreme, fields which both should
unite in cultivating. Our own ex-
perience in Maine warrants such a
conclusion, but Maine. we see, is not
alone in that respect. The secretary
Of the Milbank Fund, used for assist
ing community public health demon
lions in New York State. reports
among the results obtained in Cat
taraugus County the previous year a
reduction in infant mortality from
90 per 1000 living births in 1928 to IS
in 1924, also a reduction of the gen.
eral death rate from 14.4 per 1000 to
1875. Manifestly the public in some
localities is being aroused to a
sense of its responsibility in matters
Of health.