Medical inspection of schools is a new and valuable aid to health. Epidemics of childish diseases which sweep through the schools with a fearful record of illness and a lesser one of death, may often be checked entirely by the close watch of the medical inspector, who removes the first patients from the schools when the disease is in its beginning.
Public playgrounds for children in cities have an influence that it is as good for health as it is for morals, providing, as it does, fresh air and active exercise for children. Open air schools for tubercular children are being operated in several cities with excellent results in health and school work.
Many states are making an organized effort to fight tuberculosis by establishing fresh-air colonies where, with pure air, rest and plenty of the most nourishing food, patients are restored to health.
Care of epileptics and the insane by the state, with proper hygiene and treatment, accomplishes many cures.
The nation is doing excellent work in a few lines, notably the Pure Food Bureau and the Marine Hospital Corps, but perfected organization of all the forces is lacking. The Department of Agriculture has done a wonderful work in investigating and curbing insect pests that injure farm crops and trees, and in stamping out disease among live stock. Forty-six million dollars have been spent and well spent in the work in the last few years, but it is a matter of reproach that more pains are taken to save the lives of cattle and farm crops than human lives.
There should be a strong central Bureau of Health with power and money scientifically to investigate disease, to distribute information as the Department of Agriculture does to farmers, and to carry out their ideas, as do state and city boards of health.
We have dealt with only one side of the question—the suffering and sorrow; but in a work on conservation, we must consider also the money question, the loss to the nation in time and money of these great wastes of health and life.
There are no trustworthy statistics as to wages. The average yearly earnings of all persons, from day laborers to presidents, is estimated at seven hundred dollars; but as not more than three-fourths of the people are actual workers, three-fourths of thisamount, or five hundred and twenty-five dollars is taken as the average wage.
From these figures the money value of a person under five years is given at ninety-five dollars; from five to ten years, at nine hundred and fifty dollars; from ten to twenty years at $2,000; from twenty to thirty at $4,000; thirty to fifty years at $4,000; fifty to eighty at $2,900 and over eighty at $700 or less. The average value of life at all ages is $2,900 and the 93,000,000 persons living in this country would be worth in earning power the vast sum of $270,000,000,000. This is probably a low estimate but is more than double all our other wealth combined.
Now let us see how much of this vital wealth is wasted. As the average death rate is at least eighteen out of each thousand, we have 1,500,000 as the number of deaths in the United States each year. Of these, forty-two per cent., or 630,000 are classed as preventable—so that a number equal to the entire population of the city of Boston die each year whose deaths are as unnecessary as is the waste of our forests by fire.
If some great plague should carry off all the people of Boston, not the people of the United States only, but of the whole world would be roused by the appalling calamity and every possible means would be employed to prevent other cities from sharing such a fate; but because these preventabledeaths are not in one city, but are widely scattered, we have long remained indifferent to this terrible and needless waste.
Then there are always 3,000,000 persons ill, 1,000,000 of whom are of working age. If, as before, we count only three-fourths of them as actual workers, we find a yearly direct loss from sickness of $500,000,000 in wages. The daily cost of nursing, doctor bills, and medicine is counted at one dollar and fifty cents, which makes for the 3,000,000 sick, a yearly cost for these items of more than $1,500,000,000. What should we think if nearly all of the people of the city of New York were constantly sick, and were spending for doctors, nurses, and medicine as much money as Congress appropriates to run every department of the government!
It is estimated that sickness and death cost the United States $3,000,000,000 annually, of which at least a third, probably one-half, is preventable. Is it not well worth while, then, from a money standpoint alone, to use every effort to conserve our national health? Conservation of health and life, going hand in hand with conservation of national resources, will give us not only a better America, but better, stronger, happier, more enlightened Americans. What a new world would be opened to us if we could have a nation with no sickness or suffering! That is the ideal, and everything that we cando toward realizing that ideal is a great step in human progress.
Report on National Vitality. Committee of One Hundred. (Fisher.)
The Nature of Man. Metchnikoff.
The Prolongation of Life. Metchnikoff.
The New Hygiene. Metchnikoff.
Vital Statistics. Farr.
The Kingdom of Man. Lankester.
Cost of Tuberculosis. Fisher.
School Hygiene. Keating.
Economic Loss Through Insects That Carry Disease. Howard.
Report of Associated Fraternities on Infectious, Contagious, and Hereditary Diseases.
Conservation of Life and Health by Improved Water Supply. Kober.
Backward Children in the Public Schools. Davis.
Dangers to Mine Workers. (Mitchell.) Report Governor's Conference.
Tuberculosis in the U. S. Census Report 1908.
Industrial Accidents. Bureau of Labor Pamphlet, 1906.
Factory Sanitation and Labor Protection. Dept. of Labor, No. 44.
How Insects Affect Health in Rural Districts. Dept. of Agriculture. Bulletin 155.
Public Health and Water Pollution. Bulletin 93.
America has another resource that differs from all the others, and yet is no less valuable to us as a nation, for it is upon natural beauty that we must depend to attract visitors and settlers from other countries, and also to develop love of country in our own people, and to arouse in them all the higher sentiments and ideals.
The love of romance and poetry is awakened only by the sight of beautiful objects, and that nation will produce the highest class of citizens which has most within it to kindle these lofty ideas. The savage cares only for the comfort of his body, but as civilization advances, man devotes more and more thought to those pleasures that come only through his mind and the cultivation of his tastes.
The United States is particularly fortunate in this respect, for here is everything to inspire a love of beauty. There is the beauty of changing seasons, of our wonderful autumn forest coloring, of rivers, mountains, lakes, sea, and shore.
In addition to the beauty of our landscapes,which is everywhere to be found, there are many special beauties which are among the world's wonder-places, and which are visited yearly by thousands of sight-seers, and each year they attract a greater number of visitors from other lands. Some of the most remarkable of these are Niagara Falls, the Yosemite Valley, with its crowning glory, the Yosemite Falls, the Hetch-Hetchy Falls, Mammoth Cave, the Garden of the Gods, the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, the Agatized Forests of Arizona, Yellowstone Park, The Natural Bridge of Virginia, Great Salt Lake, and dozens of others, less wonderful, but scarcely less beautiful, and equal to the most talked-of beauties of Europe, such as the Palisades of the Hudson, Lake Champlain, the Shenandoah Valley, the Dalles of Oregon, Pike's Peak, Mount Rainier, Lookout Mountain, the Adirondacks, and the entire Rocky Mountain region.
To these must be added the relics of ancient civilization, the homes of the Cliff Dwellers, the work of the Mound Builders, and such fragments as still remain of the occupation in various times and places of certain Indian tribes, and of the Norsemen and the Spaniards.
All these are to be valued for their beauty or historic interest, and are also valuable as a source of wealth to the community.
The money spent on tourist-travel in Europe issaid to be more than half a billion dollars a year. This vast amount is spent because in Europe there is so much to delight the eye, because the cities are made beautiful with artistic buildings filled with art treasures, because historic places are carefully preserved, because the villages are neat and well-kept, and the intensive farming which is practised almost everywhere leaves no waste places to grow up with weeds, and lie neglected.
There are parts of Europe, of course, where this is not true, but they are not included in the line of tourist-travel, and in general it may be said that Europe is visited almost solely because of its beauty:—the natural beauty that man has preserved, the beauty that he has created, or the relics of past greatness.
Modern Greece would attract few visitors for its own sake. It is the ruins of a mighty past,—the Acropolis at Athens and the places made famous in mythology and literature draw thousands to its shores every year, and add greatly to the wealth and prosperity of the country.
The same thing is true of America wherever we have preserved and made beautiful our natural scenery. During three months in the summer, the New York Central Railroad derives about $200,000 in fares from its Niagara business alone. Since it became a state reservation in 1885, more thanseventeen million persons have visited Niagara, and the amount of money that has been spent there at hotels, for carriages, automobiles, side-trips, souvenirs, etc., is almost beyond calculation.
In the Adirondack Park there is between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000 invested in hotels and cottages. The 15,000 clerks and helpers receive about $1,000,000 in wages, the railroads receive another $1,000,000 in fares, and hotel guests spend between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. All of these advantages to the region are entirely apart from the practical uses of the forest.
These are examples which show the great amount of wealth which can come from preserving our natural beauties, and the same conditions exist everywhere, not only in the state and national parks, but wherever some beautiful spot has been set aside by a city, a railroad company, or some private enterprise. People flock to these resorts in large numbers for rest or recreation, and to satisfy their love for the beautiful, and the result is a gain in health and morals, more desire on the part of those who visit them to make their own surroundings beautiful, and at the same time a great gain in money value to the city or company that promotes such an enterprise.
Most of the larger cities of the United States have given particular attention to the subject ofpublic parks during recent years. They are the breathing places for the dwellers in the city, often the only place where children can have fresh air and plenty of exercise, and the parks constitute one of the greatest attractions to draw summer visitors to the city.
Nearly all steam and electric railway companies own some park or pleasure resort from which they derive a large income in fares, and many steamboat companies find their largest profit from their excursion boats.
All these facts show clearly that if we consider only the gain in money, it is altogether a wise policy to include natural beauty among our national resources, and to conserve it carefully, while if we look at it from the larger standpoint of preserving for future generations the same beauties that we enjoy, the need of such conservation is still more urgent.
In our future development the United States will largely be made over. We shall no longer have the same natural conditions that we have had in the early years of our history, and the physical appearance of the country will grow better or worse each generation.
It is possible for us to make America the most beautiful land the world has ever seen, for we have the natural beauty, and greater knowledge in settingabout the work of building than has ever been possessed by any other nation during its time of greatest growth.
We shall go far toward realizing our ideal of a beautiful America if we understand that the conservation of our resources means beauty, and that waste means ugliness. Proper conservation of our mineral resources will include the removal of the ugly, unsightly piles of culm, slag, and other refuse that lie about the mouth of the mines, and disfigure some of our most beautiful mountain scenery, for, as we have shown elsewhere, this should be used and not wasted. The proper use of coal would solve the smoke problem of cities, one of the worst foes of cleanliness and beauty, and the use of water-power would serve the same purpose. The complete utilization of our water resources that has been suggested would make all our waterways contribute greatly to the beauty and attractiveness of the landscape.
In conserving our forests we not only increase our timber supply, but add one of the greatest of all beauties, the trees which give variety and tone to every picture that our eyes rest upon. We shall have the shady roads, the long green hill-slopes, the quiet woodlands, the glory of autumn coloring, the delight of blossoming orchards.
Conservation of the soil, and utilization of everypart of the land mean even more. Picture the contrast between a country where the hillsides are worn into gullies, where rocks are everywhere to be seen cropping above the barren soil, where the crops are scanty, the vegetation stunted; and one where every field yields a rich harvest, where the grain hangs heavy and golden, where every wayside nook holds a flower, where there are no neglected fence-corners, no piles of rubbish,—what we truly call "a smiling landscape." Lastly, in conserving health, we do more toward promoting personal beauty and advancing the standard of the race than in any other way.
We should not be content, however, with the beauty that comes only from the conservation of our other resources, but should have a definite plan for the conservation of beauty as a valuable resource in itself.
The city of Washington should be made the center of this movement toward national beauty. There is now an organized effort on the part of those in charge of the erection of public buildings, to make Washington the most beautiful capital in the world, and a model for other cities.
The federal government should set aside as national parks all of our greatest natural wonders, as Yellowstone Park is now held.
The states should follow the same line and set apart in the same way those objects of lesserinterest, either natural or historic, which are to be found in every state—those that are not of sufficient importance to merit national recognition, but that will add interest to the state as a place for tourists to visit.
Few states are visited in this way more than is Massachusetts, and it is largely because not only the state, but the various communities have preserved historical places, buildings and objects so carefully, have erected monuments to commemorate them; and have thrown these various objects of interest open to the public free of charge. These communities in turn have gained the original expenditure many times over from the money spent by the steady stream of visitors.
There has been a great movement toward the beautifying of cities and villages in the past few years. Besides the good work done by park boards in cities there has been a great improvement in the matter of cleaner streets, better sidewalks, the planting of more shade trees, and a far greater attention to the beautifying of private grounds. The adorning of front yards and porches with vines and flowers is increasing enormously every year.
Many causes have been at work to produce this result: the broadening influence of travel, which brings people in touch with what is being done in other places to promote public beauty, the work ofschools, newspaper and magazine articles, and more time and money to spend on luxuries,—even the post-card, which makes a souvenir view of every spot of local beauty or interest; but probably no other one agency has produced such good results in public beauty as has the woman's club which has taken up this line of work.
The "cleaning-up" movement, with a public house-cleaning day twice a year when all refuse is carted away, and streets, alleys and back-yards cleaned, had its origin in this way. The care and beautifying of cemeteries is another branch of the work.
In many places, flower and vegetable seeds are distributed free or at a nominal cost among the school children, prizes are offered for the best garden, the largest vegetables, the most attractive back-yard, the best arranged flower-bed, and other good results; the work is examined by a committee, and the prizes awarded at the end of the season either by the club or by merchants who have become interested in the contest.
This provides the children wholesome outdoor work and exercise throughout the summer, and promotes a pleasant rivalry among them, besides increasing their knowledge of plants, and the results have been found to be far-reaching, for not only the pupils, but their parents as well, are interested inneater, more orderly methods of living, and in beautifying their homes.
In the movement for public beauty, as in all other progress, it is the work of individuals that counts most. Every house that is built with a thought for its beauty, every home, farm-building and fence kept in good repair, every neat back-yard and flower-surrounded home has its part in making America more beautiful, and this influence in countless homes is certain to count in the making of better citizens.
A country where beauty meets the eye at every turn will invite the tourist and the home-seeker, will be deeply loved by its own people, and will be an inspiration to poetry and art. It rests largely with the people of to-day to decide whether we shall make of our own land such an ideal place.
No one can read the record of facts presented in this book without being impressed by two things: (1) How these resources depend on one another and that proper care of one results in the saving of another, and, (2) the fact that every one of our most valued resources is decreasing so rapidly that its end is in sight, even though far in the distance. When the end comes we know that it will mean the end of progress for our country in that direction.
It is also plain that the great, in fact the only, reason for this scarcity lies not in use but in waste. And lastly we see that there is yet time to prevent serious shortage in most directions if we set about a general system of good management and thrift.
In the meantime we are sure to have higher prices, for the supply is growing less and the demand greater for almost every material. In many lines, unless something be done to check this shortage, prices will rise so high that only the rich can afford what are now considered the necessities of life, and the lives of the poorer classes will become like thoseof the peasants of Europe:—a scanty living on the plainest food, poor homes, hard work, less opportunity to develop mind and body.
Let us sum up how the various resources may be used to conserve one another.
The soil is saved from erosion by the planting of forests, and by the storing of the flood waters of rivers. Waste land is made fertile by proper control of the rivers through drainage, storage and irrigation. Farm crops and also the forests are increased in value by insect control.
The insects are largely kept in check by encouraging the nesting and increase of certain birds. Birds play a large part in the conservation of the crops, by destroying insects, weeds, and small mammals. The birds themselves are sheltered and thrive only where trees are abundant.
The grazing lands are conserved by proper forest control, and the supply of animal food depends largely on the grazing lands.
Fisheries are dependent on proper care of the waters, which in turn depend on forest control, and on proper care of the by-products of factories.
Coal is conserved by the use of lower-grade fuels, by using waste from the forests, and by substituting water-power.
Gas and oil will also be saved by the greater use of water-power.
Coal-mining is made safer to human life and much saving in coal is effected by the use of mine-timbers, which involves the planting of forests. Forests regulate to a great extent the stream-flow of rivers.
Beauty can only be conserved by the planting of trees, by keeping the waters pure and clear, by using waste products so that there will be no unsightly piles of refuse.
Health depends, among other things, on pure water, air unpolluted by coal smoke and poisonous gases which should be used as factory by-products.
And lastly, the life, happiness, and prosperity of man is conserved by all of these things.
The first step in this system of conservation must be education on this subject, education not only of the children but of the men and women also, on the need and methods of saving. There would be no danger of a scarcity of coal if manufacturers all knew the value and economy of electric water-power or low-grade fuels, and of smoke-consuming devices. There is no reason why insect destruction should cost the nation so dearly if the birds were protected, and a few simple methods of prevention understood. All the various water problems could be met and solved if one general plan were adopted and carried out, and so all along the line.
We have taken note of the great natural wastes:how two-thirds of the wood cut is wasted, and how insects and fire destroy the standing timber; how the soil is washed down into the valleys, taking the best from the farms; how we are steadily robbing the soil of its most necessary elements; how our waters are unused and we pay for this non-use by the use of other resources that we can ill afford to spare; how millions of acres of land which might be profitably farmed lie useless for lack of water and other millions are useless because they are covered with water. Consumers pay high freight rates and the railroads are so overcrowded that they are unable to care for all the business, while the rivers, the cheapest of all carriers, flow idly to the sea.
We have seen how one-fourth of the coal is left in the mines, and how small a part of that which is mined is actually turned into heat, how gas is allowed to escape unchecked into the air. And greatest and most serious of all, the useless waste of human life and health.
But there are scores of other wastes and extravagances that all growing boys and girls should think of, so that when they enter active life, they may do their part to prevent them.
It is going to be necessary to learn to economize in every department of life as all the European peoples do. We must learn, in this new country,to do things more with the idea of the future in mind. In all European cities, there are hundreds of houses that have lasted many centuries, but there are few houses in America that are built in an enduring way. This building up and tearing down taxes not one, but many, resources heavily. As the housewife learns that a good kettle that costs a dollar and lasts five years is cheaper than a poor one which costs fifty cents but will wear out in one year, so people must learn the lesson that in building poor light houses of wood which will last a comparatively short time, they are really paying the higher price; that in putting in poor roads, cheap bridges, badly-constructed public buildings, that cost less heavily in the first place but that will need to be renewed in a few years, they are really paying much more than if these had been substantially built in the beginning.
The fire loss of the United States amounts to over half a million dollars a day, and all insurance men agree that most of this might be prevented.
The remedies are to build fewer wooden houses, especially in crowded districts, to exercise greater care in the building and management of chimneys, greater care in electric wiring, and general watchfulness in handling matches and lighted cigars.
For the forest fires which mean so much to all of us the remedy lies in forest patrol. The amountusually set aside for fighting fires was not allowed by some states in 1910, and the fires which cost hundreds of millions of property and many lives were the result.
Much of the most fertile land in our country is used for raising tobacco, and grains that are made into alcoholic liquors. As these can never be considered necessities it is well to think to what better uses the land might be put.
The yearly bill of the United States for pleasure is gigantic, and a large proportion of the pleasure tends to lower rather than raise the standard of American life and morals.
The greatest of all wastes is the waste of time and labor. The waste of time by drunkenness, by poor work that must be done over, and by idleness, makes a large item of loss in every line of business.
Proper education will teach every child to work neatly and with perfect accuracy, will teach eye, hand and brain, will teach the value and pleasure of work, careful management and economy and a regard for the general good.
A study of the great facts of our national possibilities that have been gathered together in this book should arouse in the heart of every American, old and young, the feeling that here is a work for every hand and every brain, not only to save, but to use wisely; to develop all the possibilities of ourgreat resources no less than to conserve them. In searching for new by-products or machinery for checking the waste and adding to the usefulness of these resources there is a field for invention that will not only bring wealth to the inventor, but prosperity and length of life to the nation.
FOOTNOTES:[A]Department of Agriculture bulletins are free unless a price is indicated, and may be obtained by application to The Department of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. Postage is free in the United States. These bulletins contain the latest scientific information and result of research work by the government.[B]All Bureau and Commission reports are free.[C]Some of the Yearbooks of the Dept. of Agriculture contain very instructive reports on Insects and on Birds. Reprints on various subjects have been made from them which are available in pamphlet form, or the entire Yearbook may be had in many cases.
[A]Department of Agriculture bulletins are free unless a price is indicated, and may be obtained by application to The Department of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. Postage is free in the United States. These bulletins contain the latest scientific information and result of research work by the government.
[A]Department of Agriculture bulletins are free unless a price is indicated, and may be obtained by application to The Department of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. Postage is free in the United States. These bulletins contain the latest scientific information and result of research work by the government.
[B]All Bureau and Commission reports are free.
[B]All Bureau and Commission reports are free.
[C]Some of the Yearbooks of the Dept. of Agriculture contain very instructive reports on Insects and on Birds. Reprints on various subjects have been made from them which are available in pamphlet form, or the entire Yearbook may be had in many cases.
[C]Some of the Yearbooks of the Dept. of Agriculture contain very instructive reports on Insects and on Birds. Reprints on various subjects have been made from them which are available in pamphlet form, or the entire Yearbook may be had in many cases.