The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1932-04-15
Pleads for y
Health Work
Cornell Chief Urged Com
tinued Support By
Public

Pointing out that the tangible
physical assets of the. nation: can
always be replaced in a short time.
but that years of effort are re-
quired to raise the level of public
health, and social standards, DR.
Livingston Farrand, president of
Cornell university, urged continued
public support OF health and social
work during the depression in a
radio address broadcast last evening
from WEAF, over a coast-to-coast
network of the National Broadcast
ing company
THE Importance of this work
cannot be oyeremphasized," he de-
cIared,. FOR the collapse of morale
and the gloom Of despair pave the
way not only for, social and moral
disintegration but for disease as
we'll. The. momentum given to this
side of social. welfare work is un-
doubtedly carrying innumerable
families past crisis which in for
mer year would have wrecked
them"
THE public is benefitting to-
day by Its previous support of
preventive work. he continued,
but went on to say that nothing can
dun solely on momentum, and that
unless the public is reminded con-
tinuously OF vital social facts the
ADVANCES and +achieverne of SCI
ence are soon replaced by folk lore
and superstition" ~
I'VE have on one hand those
tangible, material resources con-
structed or brought into being by
the hand of manhood. clothing
machinery. buildings. And on the
other hand are those intangible as
sets that can be built up only with
the heiprof nature and by the slow
processes of education, but which
nevertheless determine the vital
characteristics of a people-mental
and moral standards, the intelli-
gence level, the educational level,
self reliance, and resourcefulness.
And the keystone is health, for
with loss of health there begins
decay in those complex psyche
logical processes which determine
a nations place in the sun--opti-
mism rapidly turns to pessimism,
which In turn, is succeeded by dcs-
pair, despair subtly insidiuosly re-
places hope. 1t is but step from
despair to desperation and we find
ourselves trembling en- the brink
Of a national catastrophe"
He called attention to the edu-
cational EARLY Diagnosis CAM
paign" now being conducted by the
affiliated tuberculosis associations
throughout the country as, an ex-
ample of preventive health work
that is producing excellent results.
and declared, sour tangible resour-
ces could be DESTROYED over night
and yet be replaced in q short time
with a comparatively, Insignificant
loss to industry.
Those things. however, that are
Of the body and Of the spirit must
be maintained. or the very stand
ards Of civilization will drop and
the advances achieved by. public
health work after a quarter of CEN
tury Of effort will be wiped out, and
we shall be forced to begin all over
again. It Is therefore of vital inn
portance that we continue to main
, tain the present standards OF social
work and health protection at
whatever cost may be necessary.
Nowhere Is 1t truer than In main
tanning public health work that an
ounce OF prevention IL worth a
pound Of cure. It is far better to
erect a fence at the top OF a cliff
than to maintain hospital at the
bottom OF the sdiff."