CHAPTER II 

 HEALTH AND BUSINESS 



EVERYONE knows that business is subject to a constant 

 ebb and flow. This year there is a boom. Everyone 

 expects to make money; credits expand; factories work 

 full time ; wages rise ; new railroads are built ; ocean freight rates 

 increase; prices show an upward tendency; and all but the more 

 thoughtful — and the dyspeptic — are full of overflowing optimism. 

 A few years later despondency is the rule. Credit is so shortened 

 that even well-established firms are hard pinched; factories work 

 on part time; men walk the streets in search of employment; and 

 their families starve even though prices have dropped. Such 

 economic cycles occur in all countries, but most of all in America. 

 Why should there be such a constant ebb and flow.? A recent 

 writer estimates that there have been two hundred and thirty 

 distinct answers to this question. Some are fantastic, but the 

 great majority contain some truth. All can be grouped under 

 three heads — economic, political, and psychological. Which 

 group is more important? Let us look briefly at each, and then 

 turn to health, which we may call No. 231. We shall find that 

 it occupies a surprisingly high place. 



The economic causes of business cycles include crops, which are 

 the most important and most variable of all man's material re- 

 sources. How often the financial page of the newspaper contains 

 articles on the crops. No ^^ide- awake business man feels that he 

 can safely estimate next winter's business unless he takes some 

 account of the probable buying power of the farmers. When 

 crops are good the farmers may have a billion dollars more to 



