OFFICIAL PREVENTION 291 



Theirs to see that schoolhouses and other public 

 buildings are kept so clean and sanitary as not to 

 become breeding places of disease. 



Theirs to throw such kindly protection over 

 school children that they may not contract disease 

 because they go to school. In the United States 

 20,000 school children, or more, die every year of 

 the four diseases, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles 

 and whooping cough. 



This slaughter of the innocents is a disgrace to 

 modern civilization. 



Wipe it out. Raise and widen the standard of 

 qualification to teach. Require the teacher to pass 

 thorough examination in bacteriology in all its re- 

 lations to health, to be able to explain the na- 

 ture, trace the cause, tell how to prevent every con- 

 tagious and infectious disease. 



Then let the guardians of health, see to it that 

 the teacher puts this knowledge into practice in 

 the schoolroom. 



By such means may the innocents be spared, and 

 mothers no longer tremble when they send their 

 children to the schoolroom. 



All in all, as health officers neglect or faithfully 

 perform duty, so ebbs and flows the tide of health 

 and life. 



Shield not inaction with the excuse of underpay. 

 If you cannot afford to act, down and out. It is 

 a matter of life and death. Acceptance demands 

 faithful action, pay or no pay, nothing or a mil- 

 lion! 



