Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1915 — The Money Spent on Armies Should Be Devoted to Destroying Disease Germs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Money Spent on Armies Should Be Devoted to Destroying Disease Germs

By Dr. JOHN H. FINLEY,

New York State Com-

missioner of Education

OUR awfulest enemies, the elements and germs and insect destroyers, attack, us every minute without ceasing, yet we murder one another as if we were out of our senses. THINK OF WHAT HUMANITY COULD OBTAIN IF THE FIVE BILLION WORKING DAYS THAT ARE SPENT EVERY YEAR IN DISPLACING BOUNDARY LINES COULD BE DEVOTED TO FIGHTING OUR WORST ENEMIES, THE NOXIOUS SPECIES AND OUR HOSTILE ENV J RONMENT. Our vocabulary and our spirits have, been softened, too mucli. We speak of ‘‘public service” and “doing good” when we ought to be talking of war and fighting evil. We ought to put on'our armor and not take it off till we put on our shrouds, I would have the conservation of health and the direction of education conceived of as functions of the war department scientifically and austerely administered for the common good. If you say that this is all utopian and that without war, as we now see it, we cannot foster courage and honor I have but to point to General Goethals, who has divided the continent, and to General Gorgas, who kept away Hostile diseases while this Hercules was at work. TILL WE HAVE TAXED OURSELVES FOR SCHOOLS AS EUROPE IS TAXING HERSELF FOR WARS WE SHALL NOT HAVE DONE TOO MUCH.