RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 239 



This resolution was passed on May 9. Three days later the secre- 

 tary of the conference reported that the Government had already 

 accepted the services offered, and that twenty members of the con- 

 ference were then met in Washington. 



In regard to land development and public health, we have had 

 a regrettable tendency in Canada to emulate the United States in 

 many respects that have proved to be unsound, but appear to have been 

 slow in deriving profit from her example when it has been good. 

 The importance of civil organization and conservation of economic 

 and human resources for purposes of the war, and as a means of 

 averting bad times after the war, require to be more strongly realized 

 in Canada. 



Of all countries engaged in the war Canada has probably most to 

 gain from an active and comprehensive conservation policy, since her 

 vast natural resources are so much out of proportion to the capital 

 and human energy she has available to convert these resources into 

 exchangeable wealth. 



Whether in regard to peace or war conditions, the main objects 

 of any improvement in government organization, of rural and of 

 urban conditions, must be to conserve life and to stimulate pro- 

 duction. To achieve these objects it is essential, above all other 

 things, that greater activity be shown by governments in protecting 

 public health, in promoting sound systems of education and in con- 

 trolling land speculation. 



The economic loss, due to preventable death and disease in Can- 

 ada, is briefly alluded to in Chapter VI. An extract from an article 

 by Dr. Chas. J. Hastings, Medical Officer of Health, of Toronto, is 

 given in Appendix D, as a further illustration of the extent of this loss 

 on the continent of America. In addition to the figures quoted by 

 Dr. Hastings we have the further estimate from United States sources 

 that feeble-minded children cost the United States Government 

 $90,000,000 and that crime costs $600,000,000 a year; on this basis the 

 Canadian ratio would be $7,000,000 and $46,000,000, respectively. 

 The feeble-minded child produces the strongest link that connects 

 neglect of social and health conditions with crime. 



While these figures are of value in conveying some impression 

 of the importance of the problem of public health, they are, of course, 

 of no value as an indication of the extent of the government responsibil- 

 ity, since the factors necessary to show the proportion of the loss due 

 to individual neglect and the proportion to maladministration must 

 continue to be unknown. Nor are they any guide as to the respective 



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