202 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



from $500 to $2,000 a year, and is available to nearly all 

 counties. 



There are certain counties that should employ whole-time 

 health officers, but the contract or unit system of county health 

 work is better adapted to a variety of county conditions, and 

 will be, in all probability, far more effective than the whole- 

 time county health officer plan in reducing the state's death- 

 rate. The unit system of 'county health work is important as 

 a stepping stone to the whole-time county health officer. In 

 leading up to the whole-time count}^ health officer, the unit sys- 

 tem standardizes county health work, so that, when a whole- 

 time county health officer is employed, an effective plan of 

 county health work will have been established. 



The unit system of work or proposed contract submitted by 

 the average state to the county should not call for an appropria- 

 tion of more than $1,000; $500 is better. The smaller the cost 

 of the unit, the greater is the probability of securing the funds 

 with which to start county health work. After one appropria- 

 tion is obtained the responsibility is then largely with the state 

 for making such use of it as to pave the way for easier and 

 more liberal funds. The game of sanitation, like the game of 

 life, to use the other fellow's grammar, "is not in holding a 

 good hand but in playing a bad hand good." Even the novice 

 can get results with plenty of money. The intelligent health 

 officer never loses sight of relative values, and the real fun of 

 the game is in getting big results with little budgets. "We shall 

 be able to handle the county contagious disease problem for 

 the average county for $300 to $400 per year. We will carry 

 out the school unit for from $500 to $600 a year for the average 

 county or for fifteen cents per pupil. We will have vaccinated 

 50,000 people in ten counties by September 11, for a cost to the 

 counties of about ten cents for each person immunized. 



