ORGANIZATION AND METHODS 51 



associations on its directorate, thereby giving to these organiza- 

 tions a more controlling interest in the national program and 

 policies. The thousand or more State and local associations are 

 affiliated with it, but are entirely autonomous. The National 

 Association has endeavored through the Christmas Seal Sale and 

 in other ways to secure funds for the support of State and local 

 work and because of this has sought to secure the wisest possible 

 expenditure of such funds, but it has always deemed it the func- 

 tion of the State and local organization to determine the general 

 way in which its funds should be spent. 



The program of the National Association in general includes the 

 organization of a local unit for the control of tuberculosis to cover 

 every section of the United States. Such local communities will 

 not be uniform either as to their administrative control or as to 

 their size. Some of them will cover large areas, some of them 

 relatively small areas. On the other hand, the National Associa- 

 tion realizes that tuberculosis is essentially a local problem, and 

 that the people must be reached through local channels. The 

 National Association may furnish the ideas for organization, the 

 standards of work, suggestions regarding program and methods, 

 but the ultimate achievement of the work must be local. 



Recognizing that tuberculosis in its various social ramifications 

 reaches almost every avenue of industrial and community life, the 

 National Tuberculosis Association has adopted as a general policy 

 the broadest possible cooperation with public health and social 

 agencies that are seeking to relieve human suffering and promote 

 community betterment. With this idea in mind, formal policies 

 of cooperation have been worked out between such groups as the 

 American Red Cross, the Conference of State and Territorial 

 Health Authorities, the National Organization for Public Health 

 Nursing, and others. 



In line with this policy, the Association has become a member of 

 the National Health Council and the National Child Health 

 Council. In April 1921, it moved into new quarters and became 

 associated in certain common services with the American Social 

 Hygiene Association, the National Committee on Mental Hy- 

 giene, and the National Organization for Public Health Nursing, 

 all these organizations occupying adjoining offices on the same 



