RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 267 



to the children that are left fatherless and motherless. As Prof. Fisher 

 expresses it, ''Poverty and disease are twin evils, and each plays into 

 the hands of the other, and from each or both springs vice and crime." 



Of the 690,000 who die annually in Canada and the United States 

 from preventable disease, a fitting epitaph for a large percentage would 

 be "Poisoned by sewage-polluted water"; for a still larger percentage 

 "Poisoned by milk," and for a still greater number "Victims of the 

 white plague," resulting from poverty and ignorance. 



(X the $1,650,000,000 loss to these nations, over $250,000,000 

 are expended on medical attendance and medicine in endeavoring to 

 cure diseases that never should have occurred. The United States and 

 Canada are squandering $200,000,000 annually on patent medicines, 

 and less than $5,000,000 on public health and prevention of diseases 

 they are only tinkering with the problem. 



I venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that, if the amount 

 of money spent in the attempt to cure diseases that should never have 

 occurred, plus the amount spent annually on patent medicines, was 

 spent in the organization and administration of a national army of 

 health, in less than one decade preventable diseases would be prevent- 

 ed. 



These are hard facts, referring only to the monetary loss. They 

 are black clouds, but it is gratifying to see evidences of clearing all 

 around the horizon, revealing the dawn of the health era, when the 

 money that is now being squandered in endeavoring to cure diseases 

 that never should have occurred is being spent on their prevention. 

 Pasteur assured us years ago that it is within the power of man to rid 

 himself of every parasitic disease. This can only be hoped for by means 

 of efficient appropriation, efficient organization and efficient adminis- 

 tration. 



21 



