Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1908 — The National Health. [ARTICLE]

The National Health.

The idea of the government turning doctor, to put it baldly, will not be relished in these days. We are becoming reconciled to paternalism in many directions where there seems to be work that the federal government can do better than any other power. Doctoring in the ordinary sense is not in this class. For one thing, there la a popular notion that half the doctoring in this age is useless and that people who indulge in it should foot the bills. But It is not proposed that the national public health department, now being advocated, shall undertake to feel the pulse and hand out paragorlc and quinine by wholesale. The Ictla is to head off sickness and thus banish the pill box and all that goes with it. The country has health boards and bureaus without number. They are doing good work, and the field is covered in so far as investigating causes and studying and applying cures are concerned. But back of this work lies prevention, and in this field the national health officers are expected to find legitimate scope and an excuse for being. This is the day of interstate activity and of the Interdependence of communities separated by state lines. Air breathed and water drunk In one state may be polluted in another. and so on. The national staff will, of course, be made up of men from all the states, and jealousy and friction should be reduced to a minimum.