454 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



done in an appropriate and practical manner for other classes of 

 society, the mechanic, the miner, the laborer, according to their special 

 needs ? 



It should further be the duty of the Department of Public Better- 

 ment to systematize and consolidate, in the interest of efficiency and 

 economy, all efforts now being made to convey to the people a knowl- 

 edge of how to live better. Many states, for example, spend large 

 sums annually to support a State Board of Health which does much 

 work that is merely a repetition of that done elsewhere, and most of 

 which could be done better and more economically by the Department 

 of Public Betterment. 



There is ample excuse for the existence of such a department in this 

 government. There are many odds and ends left over from the work of 

 other departments which could more properly and more satisfactorily 

 be centralized in the department suggested. Much of the work of the 

 existing departments does not properly belong to them, and is, there- 

 fore, imperfectly done or periodically neglected. All this should be 

 turned over to the Department of Public Betterment, which should, 

 when properly developed, attain a position of first importance in the 

 federal service, for the extent of the field to which the activities of 

 such a department might be legitimately applied is almost limitless. 



It may be urged that we already have local boards of health and 

 health officers, seaboard and other quarantine regulations, general and 

 insane hospitals, laws governing the questions of factory and school 

 sanitation, child labor, the liquor habit, and the like. Praiseworthy 

 and helpful as are the present efforts to preserve the public health, 

 they are entirely inadequate to meet the demands of an ever-progress- 

 ing civilization. 



The officers who have in charge these agencies for the prevention 

 of disease, and upon whose vigilance we are each dependent for our 

 personal safety, even though selected for their good moral character and 

 fitness, are not given the necessary authority and funds to enforce 

 adequate preventive measures, are underpaid and are constantly 

 hampered and humiliated by the intrigue of political meddlers. This 

 is not a suitable system of preventive medicine for a self-respecting and 

 highly civilized republic. 



Expensive as may be the execution of the plan herein outlined, its 

 possibilities as an economy in the administration of the state, in its 

 prevention of crime, insanity, costly physical suffering, and the main- 

 tenance of the public institutions which these things entail, far out- 

 weigh the consideration of the cost of its installation. 



It must be remembered that the accomplishment of all these things 

 would not only result in great saving in individual, city, state and 

 national expense, but would further create a more intelligent citizen- 



