Digging to the Roots of a Dying Tree 17 



public men, sociologists and economists throughout the 

 United States. 



The study as a whole was at least eager and pains- 

 taking, and its conclusions so clearly in accord with 

 obvious social tendencies as they must appear to the 

 mind of any thoughtful observer, that there can be 

 little doubt of their general acceptance. 



It is a natural and widespread belief that life in 

 the open country is far more healthful than life in 

 crowded towns. So it ought to be, and so it would be 

 if country life were properly organized, and kept pace 

 with modern scientific knowledge and thought. That, 

 however, is precisely what it has not done, and precisely 

 what it can not do, unless radically reformed. The 

 city, on the other hand, is marching to the music of 

 science, and keeping step with the Twentieth Century. 

 This fact bears distinctly on several of the questions 

 raised in Secretary Lane's inquiry ; and especially on 

 the question of public health. 



There are certain diseases indigenous to the old forms 

 of country life — typhoid fever, for example, which is 

 transmitted by bad water and flies. The remedy is a 

 pure water supply and the abolition of flies — at least 

 from the homes. This is within the reach of science, 

 which modern cities faithfully invoke, but which the 

 old-fashioned farm generally ignores, together with 

 other sanitary precautions essential to health preserva- 

 tion. It follows, as a logical consequence that typhoid 

 fever is a greater menace in the country than in the 

 city. 



Impure milk is another medium for the transmission 

 of certain diseases. To say that the milk supply is 



