AMERICAN IDEALISM IN THE WAR BY HON. JOSEPH I. FRANCE, Member of Committee on Conservation of National Resources Victor Hugo's old republican, one of the great characters of fiction, as he sat dying, paused in his impassioned utterances and, with a strange, new calmness, said to his Bishop: "Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions but, when they are over, this fact is recognized: the human race has been chastised but it has advanced.” Thus he carried the last and innermost intrenchments of the Bishop who in turn replied: "But Progress must believe in God;" and then these two great souls, high, fine conceptions of a master mind, met, touched and at last they were agreed. If this present tremendous process of mutation in the world's affairs may not be properly called a revolution, yet we must have the faith and vision to perceive that it is but one of those vast and violent stages of evolution through which the race moves on resistlessly toward better conditions and to higher stages of physical, moral and social development. We must realize that we are living in an unprecedented period of political and social nascency. We must believe that within the huge and fateful alembic of this war there are taking place elemental changes in the structure of our civilization which mark the everlasting finality of much which must no longer be in the established social orders of the world, and that at the last, there will come forth that new, more highly coöperative and efficient democracy which shall more closely approximate that ideal of government of which the statesmen and the seers of every age have dreamed and for which so many sacrifices, through all the centuries, by earth's devoted martyrs have been made. First, pioneers in the vast isolations of the bleak shores and pathless wildernesses of a discovered continent; then colonies expanding over the silent wastes, hand touching hand; next a confederation, hands clasped in fellowship, mutually sacrificing, coöperating for liberty; then a federation of sovereign states, with liberty achieved and secured, slowly cementing into a more nearly perfect union; and now, at last, the long awaited consummation of the plan, the true and final integration of these states into that mighty nation which, with her full found and invincible powers, now so valiantly puts on her armor and assumes this weighty responsibility for the welfare of the world; may this be our national evolution. Scholars and members of these great academies, officials of states and nation, men in the armies, men and women in all our industries and at home, must catch a vision of this process and of this plan and strike strong, unceasing, shaping, fabricating blows in order that in these fires America may be welded into that new and more nearly perfect symmetry and unity which will assure to each and to all the utmost safety and the highest liberty. We must call not alone the army but the nation to this task. Let us away with the false doctrine that inefficiency means liberty. Avoidable sickness and illiteracy know not the boundaries of states and locally allowed they place the whole in peril. The bacilli, the cocci, the spirochetae, the parasites of communicable disease have not yet generally profited by their courses in constitutional law nor do they make all of the fine distinctions of state and federal sovereignty. The hour has come for us to smite from the men of the nation the heavy burdening shackles of preventable illiteracy, injury and disease which have for too long. bound them. Let us learn to think greatly and to act nationally as we now face permanent and uncomputed international responsibilities. It is now time for us to blend and merge our individualism into a great common, national purpose. In America the new temple of liberty is not yet builded but it is building and it is for us, for each living American, an hour of opportunity and of destiny in which we all must rededicate ourselves unreserved to sacrifice, to toil and to unwearying service until the nobler and more lofty fane is fully complete. MILITARY HEALTH DEPENDENT ON CIVIL HEALTH BY J. C. PERRY, M.D., Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Public Health Service. This article is limited to a discussion of the close relation between the health of the civil community and that in the military camps adjacent, as well as that in industrial centers in its relation to military productiveness. As the health and the resultant efficiency of our military forces are closely related to the health of our population as a whole, it becomes pertinent to show this intimate correlation between the two, both in its immediate and remote effects, and a brief consideration of remedial measures, both of a preventive and curative nature, is warranted. Questions that naturally arise are what will be the effect on the national health as a result of the large number of doctors that will be required for military service, and will this drain leave insufficient aid for the care of the sick in the different communities. In answer it can be stated that due care is being exercised by the authorities in calling the medical reserve officers to active duty, in order that a sufficient number will be left in each community to care for the sick and maintain the national health at a satisfactory standard. Many doctors suffering from minor physical disabilities, sufficient to debar them from the strenuous life of a military officer, and others, will be left to provide this care and their work will be as patriotic as that performed by their more fortunate confrères. There would seem to be no need for alarm on this score because if 22,000 are called to active military service the number will be only about 15 per cent of the total number of physicians in the country. However, the war and the consequent activities have brought about radical changes, especially in the industrial centers, that require a more active prosecution of preventive measures for maintenance of health, and the burden thrown on the health department and physicians of certain communities will tax the available medical force to the utmost. In this connection, it may be pointed out that many of our trained sanitarians have joined the colors, and as the science of public health is young and it has been only in recent years that proper study and attention have been given this subject, many of the trained workers in this activity are of an age that subject them to call for military duty and, consequently, it is probable that there may be an insufficient personnel in this particular phase of the health problem until the gap can be filled with female physicians trained in public health work. National health as a factor in national efficiency can be properly considered both in its immediate and remote relation. Under immediate there are embraced: 1. The health in civil communities in relation to the troops in adjacent camps and cantonments. 2. The health in crowded industrial centers as a factor in national efficiency. 3. The safeguarding of the health of workers in the war industrial plants. COMMUNITY HEALTH US. HEALTH IN CAMPS The protection of the soldiers from diseases in the civil communities deserves first consideration as its importance is paramount. The efficiency of a body of troops is largely dependent on the health of its individual members and a large sick list from preventable diseases is a reflection on the sanitary condition of the camp's environment, either within the camp or in the extra-cantonment area. The soldier deserves relaxation and entertainment but the place in which he seeks amusement must be in such a satisfactory sanitary condition that his pleasure will be free from a menace to his health. Owing to the exigencies of war requiring a large number of trained soldiers with the least possible delay, camps and cantonments were rapidly erected throughout the country and filled with men before it was possible, in many instances, to sanitate thoroughly the adjacent towns and villages which would be visited by the men when on leave. This created at once a health problem of national importance and one of intimate bearing on national efficiency. In most of these places the local health organization was unable to cope with the situation because of insufficient funds and lack of personnel, and as the necessities arose on account of national activities it was proper that federal aid should be extended through the U. S. Public Health Service. Realizing that an improvement in sanitary conditions was essential for the national health and that the occurrence of disease in these areas might result in impairing national efficiency in a most vital spot, that service has practically taken over sanitation around thirty-six camps and cantonments and two large government in⚫dustrial plants. This action has been to assist, supplement, and develop the local health agencies, assuming direction of activities when requested, in order to establish a live and adequate health organization in the different extra-cantonment areas, so that all necessary sanitary work could be executed and maintained, not only for the protection of the civil population but especially to safeguard that of the soldiers by making the places they visit for amusement safe, in so far as concerns their health. MEASURES TAKEN TO INSURE THE PUBLIC HEALTH As the health of the nation is dependent on the health prevailing in the different units that comprise the total, and as the activities executed in specific areas affect the whole in this respect and have an important bearing on national efficiency, a brief enumeration of the measures being carried out to conserve the public health in these strategic centers may be permissible, because the results accomplished have an important bearing not only on the national health but also on national efficiency in protecting the health of our fighting forces. Particular attention is directed to the report and control of communicable diseases; the prevention and control of venereal diseases; and the active prosecution of anti-malarial measures. It seems proper to point out that the successful prosecution of the activities mentioned constitute the important measures for maintaining health in the civil communities to a standard that will minimize the danger of lessened efficiency in our military and industrial armies. This is especially true as regards social diseases, and now that the veil of secrecy has been lifted a mention of this subject is permissible. No other diseases so impair the efficiency of a fighting force as this infection. The control of social diseases is of paramount importance to the military establishment as they are the greatest cause of disability in the army. A solution of this problem is difficult, and sanitarians and social workers approach it from different angles, but the curse of this infection is so far-reaching in its effects, that the ablest thinkers in many walks of life have become aroused to the necessity for a more active prosecution of measures |