Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1917 — One-Half of All TaXes Goes to Pay for Results of Preventable Disease [ARTICLE]

One-Half of All TaXes Goes to Pay for Results of Preventable Disease

By QR. J. N. HURTY

Director of Public Health Work in Indiana

Ftitty onc-haif of all taxes gws to ptfy disease which in a higher state of civilization—WeXvould not have. Now, there is insanity. Mental disease is the term the doctors now prefer. Where does it come from? Why do we have mental disease? But first, as to its cost to Indiana. In round figures we plank down in cash $2,000,000 annually to care for the insane. But that is not all the cost;. for there are 6,000 insane, all adults and all withdrawn from, productive life. If each one earned SSOO per year —and this is a reasonable estimate — then the loss to the state is $3,000,000. The total loss due to insanity is, therefore, $5,000,000 each year. Turn the problems over Jo the health cranks, keep the practical politicians at bay, and the fearful annual loss would each year grow less. After one generation under-health-e¥&nk-inanagemeni~.jxe. could,.close one or two of our five asylums, and after two generations we would need only one. The saving would help cut down taxation. Then there is crime. It is a very costly accompaniment of civilization,or perhaps it would be fair to say —our stupid management. The health-cranks would prevent crime by preventing sickness and disease, for out of these 75 per cent of all crime is born,Munsterberg said, “Hygiene can prevent more crime than any law. He was Unquestionably right. Only through hygiene can we‘throw off any of the taxes laid on account of crime. —7 ———l The direct cash cost of consumption paid out of taxes is a tidy'sum—about $200,000 annually.’ Through the practical application of hygiene (which we will practically apply when we become sufficiently practical), we would, in saving thousands and thousands, increase our morality, efficiency and happiness. AVljat we need is healthier, stronger men. How shall we get them? How many such will consumption, typhoid, diphtheria, etc., bring into Ix>t us have a hygiene machine —one as good and up to date as the last machine gun. Then let the people co-operate, and then will begin the beneficent reign of hygiene.