HOPE
The real significance of biological evolution has not been grasped by
the people in general. It is that man is a part of organic nature,
subject to laws of development and growth, laws which he cannot break
with impunity. It is his business to study the forces of Nature and to
conquer his environment by submitting to the inevitable. Only then
will man gain control of the conditions which affect his own
well-being.
Sickness, we know, is the result of breaking some law of universal
nature. What that law may be, investigators in scores of laboratories
are endeavoring to determine. In most diseases they have been
successful. Those remaining are being attacked on all sides, and it
may be confidently predicted that a few years will see success
assured.
Why, then, does sickness continue to be the greatest drain upon
individual and national resources? Because man, through ignorance or
unbelief, will not avail himself of this knowledge, or is behind the
times in his method. Where wisdom means effort and discomfort, many
feel it folly to be wise.
The individual may be wise as to his own needs, but powerless by
himself to secure the satisfaction of them. Certain concessions to
others' needs are always made in family life. The community is only a
larger family group, and social consciousness must in time take into
account social welfare. Moreover, a neighbor may pollute the water
supply, foul the air, and adulterate the food. This is the penalty
paid for living in groups. Men band together, therefore, to protect a
common water supply, to suppress smoke, dust, and foul gases which
render the common air unfit to breathe. The State helps the group to
protect itself from bad food as it does from destruction of property.
The development of fire protection is a good example of community
effort. The isolated farmhouse may have buckets of water and blankets
in an accessible place with which to put out an incipient fire. Then
eight or ten families build close together. The danger of one becomes
the danger of all, and a fire brigade is organized that may protect
all. When hundreds of families crowd together in a small space the
danger becomes so much the greater that a paid department with
efficient apparatus is necessary. No one complains of the infraction
of individual rights. Each one is glad to pay his share of the
expense.
In securing protection from other dangers, the individual and the
family unit are fast relying on community regulations. In fact, in
many ways the individual, when he becomes one of a crowd, must go
whither the crowd goes and at the same rate of progress.
Failure to recognize that by coming into the community he has
forfeited his right to unrestrained individuality causes an irritation
as unreasonable as harmful.
A certain control of sanitary conditions must be delegated to the
community and its rules cheerfully followed. The legal aspects of
these rules will be considered in a later chapter. Here is to be
considered only the _mental attitude_ with which the members of the
community should come together to agree upon a common defense against
disease and dirt. The spirit of coöperation must prevail over a
tendency to antagonism when certain individual rights seem to be
involved.
Numbers of families living close together are served by the same
grocer or market man. These families may agree upon their requirements
as to quality and cleanliness and publish their rules. If they do not
take interest enough to protect themselves, the community must make
rules for them. If the local officials are not vigilant enough, the
State may step in and compel the observance of sanitary regulations.
The average citizen learns of the existence of a health regulation
when he is warned that he has broken it, or perhaps is fined. His
first attitude is rebellion at the invasion of his personal liberty.
The housewife usually takes the ground that the rule is absurd or
unnecessary.
When, in the interest of the community, any law is to be enforced, how
are the people to be led from this rebellious state of mind? Perhaps
first through authority. In America we have learned to use the phrase,
"Big Stick." Authority is exactly that; it is coercion from without.
It has partial result in good; the law may be fulfilled because the
individual knows he must obey when within the jurisdiction of that
law; but if the result is simply obedience to authority and not to the
underlying principle, it will not be a force in his life or be
continued if by chance he can escape it. He will be a "tramp" in his
methods of obedience. This method can never be constructive; its value
lies in the possibility that by continuous usage or repetition the
procedure may become a habit, and from habit will come reason and
intelligence.
But the more direct and efficient way to help the individual to
realize his relation to communal right living is through education.
The former method--blind obedience--will foster the spirit of
antagonism and call the State's protection "interference," thus
weakening the efficiency of the State and of the individual, for the
State is the multiplication of its citizens; but through the latter
method the individual will carry out the law with intelligence and
interest. This will be constructive and it will be permanent, for
again, if the State is the sum of its citizens, the efficiency of the
State is the sum of the efficiency of the citizens.
Their interests are now identical, the man has become equal master
with the State; they are co-partners. His motive for right living is
greater than the letter of the law, for he is the living law, the
protest against wrong and the fulfillment of the right.
* * * * *
The next generation must be born with healthy bodies, must be nurtured
in healthy physical and moral environments, and must be filled with
ambition to give birth to a still healthier, still nobler generation.
But, as has been said, "whatever improvements may sometime be
achieved, the benefits of their influence can be enjoyed only by
future, perhaps distantly future generations. We of the present have
to take our heredity as we find it. We cannot follow the advice of a
humorous philosopher to begin life by selecting our grandparents; but
through hygiene (sanitary science) we can make the most of our
endowment."[6]
[6] Report on National Vitality, p. 55.
There is a force in the development of public opinion somewhere
between individual action and national compulsion which may be termed
"semi-public" action. It is in a measure the same sort of influence
that in a later chapter is termed "stimulative education." For
instance, a hospital for the treatment of some special ailment is
needed. Private enterprise furnishes the capital, proves the success
of the treatment, and then the community comes forward and supports
the institution. Such helps are accepted freely and are not considered
undemocratic.
The less spectacular but more effective office of prevention of the
need for charity, in the maintenance of cleanness in the markets,
streets, and shops, yes, even in the homes of the people, has been
neglected. Through lack of belief, and especially through inattention
to causes so common as to escape notice, many details of great
hygienic importance have been overlooked.
Some daring ones in commercial ventures are showing the possibilities
of a standard in cleanness, and model establishments, dairies,
bakeries, and restaurants should receive the hearty support of a
community. If they do not receive this support, it is more than
discouraging to the promoters, for _it costs to be clean_, a lesson
the community must learn. The saving of money and the consequent loss
of life through disease, or the spending of money and the saving of
life through prevention, are the alternatives.
Undoubtedly the old view of charity as tenderly caring for the
sick--because there must always be a certain amount of sickness in the
world--has held men back from attempting to make a world without
sickness. The charity worker of the past had no hope of really making
things better permanently.
The new view, based upon scientific investigation, is that it is not
charity that is needed to support invalids who once stricken must
fade away, but preventive action to give the patient hope and fresh
air. Most important of all, the experience already gained shows how
far from the truth was the old fatalistic notion of the necessary
continuance of disease.
While the support of many agencies--dispensaries, clinics, hospitals,
sanatoria, etc.--must for a time depend upon private philanthropy, the
expense is in the nature of an investment to bring in a high rate of
interest in the future welfare of the race. As soon as the belief in
the efficiency of these agents reaches the taxpayer he will willingly
furnish the funds for public agencies.
Today the child in the school is examined; then, if need be, is given
special consideration at the dispensary, then sent to school, where,
with fresh air, pure food, and hygienic surroundings, he will so
strengthen himself as to combat the ravages of disease.
The Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, New
York City, not only sends bread to fill the hungry stomach, but now
sends a wise and sympathetic worker to help women to understand food
and money values, which means a permanent help. And it no longer
simply says to the tired, worried woman who has had no education-stimulus
along the line of cleanness, "Be clean," but sends in women to make
the house an example, an exhibit of clean conditions, if you will.
Example is stronger than precept.
In the rapid growth of cities, so often beyond anticipation,
preparation for development or plans for extension have seldom been
laid. Much suffering has been wrought to the families of men in our
crowded cities, for there is no greater evil than the congestion of
streets and buildings.
Many students of social conditions of today believe that the most
serious menace is the situation best described as housing--the site,
the crowding, the bad building, poor water supply and drainage, lack
of light and air and cleanliness. All believe that it is economically
a loss to the city in general, however profitable to a very few. To
rent such buildings is a far greater crime than cruelty to animals or
even the beating of women and children.
But groups of people the wide world over are keenly awake to this
state of affairs, and though the problem is tremendous they are trying
in numerous ways to solve it.
In some cities there are at present organizations urging "city
planning," while in several foreign cities the municipality has
already made regulations. In some cities there are municipal model
tenements, but this is still a project of too small proportions to
affect the community.
Perhaps no modern movement that comprehends both the city planning and
the housing of the working people is more ideal than the "Garden
Cities" movement in England and the other countries following it.
If there is any spot on which the hand of the law should be laid, it
is the congested districts in cities and mill villages. The evil has
grown to such magnitude that the first steps will mean some drastic
measures.
The author has elsewhere called it the _Capitalists' Opportunity_.
Instead of investing in an uncertain gold mine in some distant land,
let the millions, for no less sum will suffice, be invested in a plot
of land, whether an open field or a slum district depends on local
conditions, and thereon cause to be erected habitations decently
comfortable, wholly sanitary, and place over each group an inspector
as both agent and teacher who shall be a friend to the tenants, and to
whose office they may come freely with their needs. This plan has been
in part carried out in the Model Tenements in New York, but variations
and improvements are needed. There should be more light and air, more
grass and trees, even if the buildings are fifteen-story towers.
The old story has been so often reiterated, "But the tenants will not
use the devices," that the capitalist has become callous to this
appeal. The missing link in the chain has been the instruction to go
with the construction.
All department stores, all venders of new mechanical appliances, have
come to recognize the value of demonstration, or instruction, in the
use of articles as an aid to purchase. The advocate of better
dwellings must take a leaf from the commercial book and _show how_. It
is in this that philanthropy has been weak in the past. It has assumed
a power to see, where there was only a fear of handling the strange
objects.
There is a virgin field for the capitalist who wishes to use some
millions for the prosperity of the country to build a short trolley
line to a district of sanitary houses with gardens, playgrounds,
entertainment halls, etc.; such a village to contain, not long blocks,
but both separate houses and tenements from two rooms up, possibly
several stories high, where the elders may have light and air without
the confusion of the street. Dust and noise will be eliminated. There
should be a central bakery and laundry, and, most important of all, an
office where both men and women skilled in sanitary and economic
practical affairs may be found ready to go to any home and advise on
any subject. There has never yet been such an enterprise with all the
elements worked out. Several, however, have shown the way, the Morris
houses in Brooklyn, for example.
It is easier to take a city block and construct fireproof, high
buildings than to solve transportation problems. We are losing our
fear of the high buildings as we see the great value of light and air.
There is chance for work in this direction, for in spite of rapid
transit some must live in the center of things.
Let a philanthropist or two, instead of building hospitals, set some
bright young architects and sanitarians to devising such suitable
housing conditions for city and suburbs as will obviate the necessity
for hospitals. Any lover of his kind, any one who longs for fame,
could find both it and the blessing of the homeless by this means, and
in the end get a fair return for his investment.
The Federal Department of Labor[7] has studied workingmen's houses,
but _living in the house_ has not been worked up. The housewife has no
station to which she may carry her trials, like the experiment
stations which have been provided for the farmer. Here is another
opportunity for the capitalist to hasten the time when the State will
supply these. The way will very soon be laid out and the first steps
taken.
[7] Bulletin No. 54.
For the immediate present some standard of healthful housing is
needed, and now that a similar type of house and of apartment house is
being built in all cities and towns from one ocean to the other, and
from Texas to Maine, such a standard is compatible with conditions.
A score card for houses to rent would save much wrangling. The agent
shows the card with this house's rating, and the tenant learns that
some of his wishes are incompatible with the standard, and some would
mean a much higher rent than he is willing to pay. Professor J. R.
Commons, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, has devised
a score card to serve the house hunter and householder as a standard
of comparison. This should serve the house builder as well, indicating
what the demand will be forty or fifty years hence.
At present the rating stands somewhat as follows:
Dwelling, 100 points
Location, 18 points out of 100
Congestion of buildings, 26 points
Common entrance for two or more, discredit 2 points
Basement, discredit 5 points
Sunlight, credit 16 points of the 26
Window openings, 11 points
Air and ventilation, 13 points
Structural condition, 6 points
House appurtenances, 26 points
Well outside, discredit 3 points
The final score card may vary somewhat.
For rent collectors there is also a score card.
Occupants, 100 points
Congestion of occupancy, 61 points cubic air space
1,000 cu. ft. per person, no discredit
600 cu. ft. per person discredits 20 points
Condition of air and ventilation, 18 points
Cleanliness, 21 points
A score card movement might be started as a hobby, and in the end lead
public opinion to judicial choice and action. No such movement,
however, is possible without leaders, and leaders of the right type.
The lesson for the community to be drawn from a study of crowd
psychology is that of leadership and loyal coöperation. The common man
is likely to be possessed of one idea at a time. If such an one
becomes a leader, there is danger that equally vital factors will be
overlooked. Safety is found in a combination of leaders to make an
all-round improvement.
Each individual is too busy in his own affairs to look after his own,
much less his neighbor's, health and comfort, hence community life,
with its advantages, brings its own dangers. Children in school in
contact with other children; crowds in trains, in elevators, stores,
in lecture halls, contract habits as well as diseases. The need for
large quantities of supplies at one point brings long-distance
transportation and cold storage difficulties. The man who caters to
public need does not look far ahead to consequences, and if
unrestrained may prove more of a menace than a convenience.
The safe and reasonable way is to delegate to certain persons the
making and enforcement of regulations corresponding to the needs of
the times, and then to obey them, even at some personal inconvenience.
Each community should put into the hands of its health officers the
carrying out of the rules it has agreed to as an _insurance_ against
outbreaks of disease. Does a man let his fire insurance policy lapse
because the year has passed without a fire? Even if the regulation
seems superfluous to the particular individual or family, let it be
remembered that there are inflammable spots in every community.
Eternal vigilance is the price of safety in sanitary as well as in
military affairs. As in the army, the community must delegate scout
duty to certain chosen individuals and rely on their report for
safety.