Evening star., 1952-04-02

partly fiction and partly fact.
. At the top, the separation is
real enough. Until recent get
Fourth Of a Series.
!.
togethers were held at the urging
lof the District Commissioners,
most local government leaders
were complete strangers to each
Iother.
4 At its Lowell level, however, the
Icurtain is riddled with loop-holes.
staff and field workers of the pub
lie agencies have found they can
mot do the jobs assigned to them
without close cooperation with
their opposite numbers in neigh
boring Jurisdictions. Admittedly,
this cooperation is mostly on a
purely personal basis. The ques-
Ition is whether it is adequate to
achieve what seems to be the goal
of integration enthusiasts pool
ling Of community resources and
facilities to provide common
standards Of service throughout
the Metropolitan Area.
So far as government services
are concerned. the answer is no.
/ After public transportation, the
services most often mentioned as
standing in the need of integra-
tion are health, welfare and pub
|lic protection services, which in
Iclude fire, police and civil defense.
It might be helpful to take each
|of these up separately from an
area point of view.
i HEALTH.
There is probably no field of
community service where the need
for area coordination is greater.
There is no argument about the
fact that the general health Of a
community is indivisible. Disease
is no respecter Of political bound
aries. Equally obvious is the fact
that most Of the public and pri-
vate health facilities of the area
are concentrated inside the Dis
trict.
With certain exceptions, the
public facilities of the District
might just as we'll not exist, so far
as most suburban residents are
concerned.
The District has its Health De-
|partment. The adjoining counties
and independent cities have theirs.
In general, the health services of
1.-THE suburban areas are oriented,
not toward the District, as logic
would suggest, but toward the
States, as political considerations
demand.
On the positive side Of the
ledger one can cite the, Inter
state Commission on Control Of
the Potomac River Basin, which
Us doing good work in pollution
IcontEol on an .educationaL ana
ADVISORY basis. and an outfit set
up some years ago known as the
Metropolitan Health Officers As
sociation.
The association Is made UP Of
top health officials from WASH
ington and the surrounding coun-
ties in Maryland and Virginia.
District Health Officer Daniel
Seckinger is the chairman. Meet
ing at irregular intervals, it has
approached some Of the problems
raised by the areas divided
health Jurisdictions.
Long Way to Go.
The association has made prog
ress toward standardization of
local health regulations. such as
those covering quarantine of
communicable diseases. It still
has a long way to go. In the case
lof regulations setting standards
for milk purity, for example, there
is no uniformity throughout the
area. The reasons are compli-
Gated, but the result is simple.
Standards for the District are
stricter than those of the sub
urban counties. It Is q matter Of
periodic embarrassment for all
concerned to have to defend the
proposition that milk considered
safe for babies on one side Of a
street may not be considered
safe for babies on the other side.
The Health Ofiicers' Association
has even made some limited
progress toward the pooling of
area health facilities. Until re-
Gently, q suburban resident vir-
tually had to collapse on the
streets Of Washington before he
could be taken to a public hospital
inside the District. Now, all the
surrounding counties have entered
into an agreement with the Dis
trict for treatment of acute polio
cases in Children's or Gallinger
Hospitals. In the case Of some
counties. the District has agreed
to take on a small number of
other communicable disease cases
at the going daily rate. Others
have contracts with private hos
pitals In the District for hospitali-
zation Of persons on public as
Sistance rolls.
The fact remains. however, that
some suburban dwellers receive a
few Of the public health benefits
normally available to residents of
a large city. There are areas in
which a person who comes down
with smallpox or meningitis, for
example. has no public hospital of
any kind open to him. What care
isuch patients get. they get at
home
Money . Controlling Factor.
i AS in all area problems, the
question Of public health services
comes down to q question Of