PUBLIC HEALTH AND PUBLIC OPINIONSource: The Public Health Journal, Vol. 13, No. 6 (JUNE, 1922), pp. 284-285Published by: Canadian Public Health AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41972862 .

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Editorial

PUBLIC HEALTH AND PUBLIC OPINION.

WE machine, live in an

the age wireless,

of miracles. telephone,

The the

automobile, phonograph,

the moving

flying machine, the wireless, telephone, the phonograph, moving pictures, all would have been looked upon as "black magic"

only a few generations ago. Now they are the commonplaces of our every day existence. With the luxuries and amenities has come also a security from illness which our forefathers knew not. Typhoid seems almost a thing of the past; diphtheria is now a problem depending for its solution not on the finding of a new remedy, but on the more careful organizing of methods available Tuberculosis diminishes. Infantile diseases are vigorously fought - Venereal Diseases are at least recognized - and in many parts of the world stories are written of other diseases gradually being eliminated from the scheme of things.

The millionaire brusque and business like bustles in with his money bags. His heart wrung with anguish - or perhaps his vanity or his conscience stung - he piles his money bags on the counter and sees lofty monuments to his benevolence rise. Clean wards - white uniforms - long rows of beds appear. He lifts his hat and retires, his fancy and his conscience both appeased.

And yet - and yet. Still the pestle and mortar are busily plied. Still the patent medicine manufacturer peddles his fatuous wares. Still even with the physician too often the ideals of a century ago persist. Hospitals increase in number that the ailing may be succoured. Blind pity and stupid charity hand in hand stand weeping, their doles in their poor hands.

And yet - and yet. The wards are full, and the toll of the dying is high. They die in comfort often - Thank God - but too early and too often. Ay, there is the rub, too early and too often still. And what shall we do about it?

Stand blinking! accepting calamity as fate and disaster as the dispensation of providence - or be about our business that life and happiness may be the lot of the many instead of the few and that the everlasting weeping of Rachael for her children may cease. No dream is that but a glorious and certain achievement of the future if we the people but will it.

284

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THE PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL 285

But if the ideals of the past are to be replaced by a loftier sort knowledge must be broadcasted, not stored forever in the brains of brooding specialists. Let public health assume the place it de- serves as first and foremost in the minds and hearts of public spirited men and women. Even millionaires, who after all are generally only particularly wise in the field in which they have succeeded - must learn from specialists how to spend the money they have made to the best advantage. Newspapers must learn to discriminate between sanity and insanity in the public health field and politicians must learn that the furthering of the health and welfare of the average man is a statesman's first duty, a duty which implies that saving the lives of children is a more important thing than the building of a dry dock or promoting the breeding of hogs or race horses, or even building a transcontinental railway. All of which achieved will make a long story. And the achieving thereof, withal, will mean a longer story still of new public health methods and new get together methods and a confiding in the pub- lic and an advertising of public health wares which have been un- known in the dim and unhealthy past.

MORE CO-OPERATION.

IN Meeting Round-table

a later of issue

the of the

will Canadian

various

appear Public voluntary

resolutions Health

organizations

passed Association

by

dealing

the and

Annual by with

a Meeting of the Canadian Public Health Association and by a Round-table of the various voluntary organizations dealing with

the desirability of forming an Advisory Council to co-ordinate the work of the various nationally organized agencies engaged chiefly in public health work in Canada. It seemed to be the general feel- ing of the St. John meeting that public health interests would be furthered by some such definite step which would prevent over- lapping and give the various associations the opportunity of con- sulting with one another in order to stimulate general public health activities more effectively.

The necessity for such a step in districts in which some par- ticular phase or various phases of public health work may other- wise be neglected is obvious. The exact method of going about the process of co-ordination, however, is a little more difficult and will require considerable attention from the committee appointed to put the proposals of the St. John Meeting into effect. One sug- gestion brought forward was to the effect that voluntary agencies might pool their financial interests. The value of such a step at

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