It is within the power of every living man to rid himself of
every parasitic disease. _Pasteur._
Such facts as the following, showing the increase in health, or rather
the decrease in disease, go to prove what may be done.
Since 1882, tuberculosis has decreased forty-nine per cent; typhoid,
thirty-nine per cent. Statistics in regard to heart disease and other
troubles under personal control, however, show increase--kidney
disease, 131 per cent; heart disease, fifty-seven per cent; apoplexy,
eighty-four per cent. This means that infectious and contagious
diseases, of which the State has taken cognizance and to the
suppression of which it has applied known laws of science, have been
brought under control, and their existence today is due only to the
carelessness or the ignorance of individuals.
On the other hand, such results of improper personal living as do not
come under legal control--diseases of the heart, kidneys, and general
degeneration, matters of personal hygiene--have so enormously
increased as in themselves to show the attitude of mind of the great
mass of the people, "Let us eat and drink and be merry, what if we do
die tomorrow!"
Probably not more than twenty-five per cent in any community are doing
a full day's work such as they would be capable of doing if they were
in perfect health. This adds to the length of the school course, to
the cost of production in all directions, to increased taxation, and
decreases interest in daily life.
The trouble is that the public does not _believe_ in this waste which
comes from being "just poorly" or "just so as to be about." It has no
conception of the difference between working with a clear brain and a
steady hand, and working with a dull and nerveless tool. It must be
convinced of this in some way. General warnings have been ineffective,
and now the appeal is being made to the American people on the basis
of money loss. Thus it has been carefully estimated that the average
economic value of an inhabitant of the United States is $2,900. The
vital statistics of the United States for population give 85,500,000.
Eighty-five million five hundred thousand multiplied by $2,900 equals
$250,000,000,000 (minimum estimate), and this exceeds the value of
_all other wealth_. The actual economic saving possible annually in
this country by preventing needless deaths, needless illness, and
needless fatigue is certainly far greater than $1,500,000,000, and may
be three or four times as great.
Dr. George M. Gould estimated that sickness and death in the United
States cost $3,000,000,000 annually, of which at least one-third is
regarded as preventable.
From all sides comes testimony to the decrease in personal efficiency
of workers of all degrees. Medical science has prolonged life,
hospitals and visiting nurses have made sickness less distressful, but
have also in many cases prolonged the time and increased the cost.
Sanitary science aims to prevent the beginnings of sickness, and so to
eliminate much of the expense.
The discovery that the mosquito is the carrying agent for the yellow
fever germ has saved more lives annually than were lost in the Cuban
War. In the yellow fever epidemic of 1872, the loss to the country was
not less than $100,000,000 in gold.
"With our present population there are always about 3,000,000 persons
in the United States on the sick list.... By means of Farr's table, we
may calculate that very close to a third, or 1,000,000 persons, are in
the working period of life. Assuming that average earnings in the
working period are $700, and that only three-fourths of the 1,000,000
potential workers would be occupied, we find over $500,000,000 as the
minimum loss of earnings.
"The cost of medical attendance, medicine and nursing, etc., is
conjectured by Dr. Biggs in New York to be from $1.50 each per day for
the consumptive poor to a greater amount for other diseases and
classes. Applying this to the 3,000,000 years of illness annually
experienced, we have $1,500,000,000 as the minimum annual cost of this
kind.
"The statistics of the Commissioner of Labor show that the expenditure
for illness and death amounts to twenty-seven dollars per family per
annum. This is for workingmen's families only. But even this figure,
if applied to the 17,000,000 families of the United States, would make
the total bill caring for illness and death $460,000,000. The true
cost may well be more than twice this sum. Certainly the estimate is
more than safe, and is only one-third of the sum obtained by using Dr.
Biggs's estimate. The sum of the costs of illness, including loss of
wages and cost of care, is thus $460,000,000 plus $500,000,000 equals
$960,000,000.... At least three-quarters of the costs are
preventable."[3]
[3] Report on National Vitality, p. 119.
The cost of certain preventable diseases a year is estimated by
various authorities as:
Tuberculosis $1,000,000,000
Typhoid 250,000,000
Malaria 100,000,000
Other insect diseases 100,000,000
A hopeful sign of awakening is the endeavor by life insurance
companies to bring home to the people the possibilities of race
betterment. One company sends out among its policy holders trained
nurses, who give plain talks on health subjects and offer practical
suggestions as to hygienic living. This, to be sure, is on the
economic basis of money saving, but if that is the only thing that
will appeal to the people is it not wise to seize upon it as a lever
to lift the standard of well-being?
The possibility of saving the enormous sums that are lost by reason of
premature deaths was an alluring subject to the insurance men. It gave
to the world what, up to that time, it had lacked--a body of powerful
men who recognized that they had a financial interest in preventing
the needless death of men and women.
A table has been prepared showing that if insurance companies were to
expend $200,000 a year for the purely commercial object of reducing
their death losses, and should thereby decrease them only twelve
one-hundredths of one per cent, they would save enough to cover the
expense.
"If such a plan as this were placed on a purely scientific basis and
carried out by good business methods, and all the companies pulled
together for the common good, I should expect a decrease in death
claims of more than one per cent; and a decrease in the death claims
of one per cent would mean that the companies would save more than
eight times as much as they expended, or would make a net saving of
more than seven times the expense, which would be about a million and
a half dollars a year."[4]
[4] Hiram J. Messenger, Travelers Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn.
"While it would be impossible to state in general terms how rich a
return lies ready for public or private investments in good health,
these examples (life insurance) show that the rate of this return is
quite beyond the dreams of avarice. Were it possible for the public to
realize this fact, motives both of economy and of humanity would
dictate immediate and generous expenditure of public moneys for
improving the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, as
well as for eliminating the dangers of life and limb which now
surround us."[5]
[5] Report on National Vitality, p. 123.
Undoubtedly a moral force is to be strengthened by spreading the
biological lesson that man cannot live to himself alone, but that his
acts or failure to act affect a large number of his fellowmen. Also, a
stimulus to personal ambition is to be supplied in the suggestion of
better health and consequently more money to spend as a result.
Civic pride and private gain will be brought into the endeavor to show
man that to understand himself, to exercise the same control over his
activities that he uses over his machines, is to double his capacity,
not only for work, but for pleasure. This control is now possible
through the application of recently confirmed scientific knowledge as
to man's environment.
It is the aim of this book to arouse the thinking portion of the
community to the opportunity of the present moment for inculcating
such standards of living as shall tend to the increase of health and
happiness.
To the women of America has come an opportunity to put their
education, their power of detailed work, and any initiative they may
possess at the service of the State.
Faith, Hope, and Courage may be taken as the three potent watchwords
of the New Crusade. There is a real contagion of ideas as well as of
disease germs.