4. Health 



There are many movements in Rural America having to do 

 with the physical health of the people. Two of these will be 

 considered at some little length : the Rural" Sanitation Move- 

 ment initiated by the North Carolina State Board of Health 

 and the County Hospital Movement started in the state of 

 Iowa. 



A. Rural Sanitation Movement 



North Carolina provides for rural sanitation by two meth- 

 ods : the county unit system under state direction and the 

 county health agent system under local direction. The former 

 costs annually from $500 to $1,000 and the latter from $3,000 

 to $4,000 per county. The former is considered preferable 

 in the beginning, even in rich counties, as it is sure to prove 

 a stepping-stone to the latter. Two concrete illustrations 

 will give the reader an idea as to what is done under the 

 former method : 



First, the North Carolina Board of Health contracted some 

 months ago with ten counties, for a county appropriation of 

 $500, to administer free typhoid immunization to those citizens 

 of the ten counties who wished to be immunized. In the first 

 set of five counties complete treatment was given to 26,537 

 persons, and it was estimated that the number in all the coun- 

 ties would reach 50,000, or one-eighth of the total population. 



Second, for a county appropriation of $10 per school the 

 State Board of Health arranged, through the county authori- 

 ties and with the teachers, a program of constructive Health 

 Days for quite a number of the schools of the state. Two 

 weeks before the Health Day the teacher receives from the 

 State Board of Health hand-bills announcing the date and 

 program for Health Day, which are distributed through the 

 whole school and community. The representative of the 



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