A POLICY 305 



VI. Health and Sanitation. 



In matters of health and sanitation our urban communities 

 have long worked on a definite policy looking to the protection 

 of public and private health. The state departments of health 

 have thus far concerned themselves almost wholly with the wel- 

 fare of cities. No policy or program especially applicable to the 

 rural districts has been adopted. As a result of this negligence, 

 it has come to be true that preventable diseases are largely rural 

 diseases. Rural districts should be the most healthful in the 

 country. The national Public Health Service should establish 

 forthwith a rural health bureau, and each state, if not each 

 county, should have a similar bureau, with physicians, sanita- 

 rians and nurses in connection therewith. 



VII. Country Life. 



After all the spiritual and social side of rural life is the im- 

 portant side. Opportunity for better living, leisure for appre- 

 ciation, wholesome recreation, community activities, social and 

 intellectual, must be contemplated by makers of an agricultural 

 policy. We should aim to create a proper appreciation of agri- 

 culture as a business not only among those who are not engaged 

 in it but among those who are engaged in it. Agricultural 

 problems are not different from other problems except as made 

 so by the isolation of the people. 



VIII. Government Relations. 



It is very essential in any agricultural policy that the relation 

 of the government to various phases of agricultural and agri- 

 cultural activities should be definitely stated. In general the 

 definition of government relationships should be crystallized in 

 law. But it is clear that no agricultural policy can proceed 

 very far without taking into consideration the attitude of the 

 government toward the various items in the program. A num- 

 ber of these governmental relationships, perhaps all of them, 

 have been indicated in the outline. They are grouped together 

 under this heading in order that they may be viewed as a whole. 

 The relationship of the government to agriculture and to 

 farmers should be clear with regard to: 



