CONSERVING THE NATION'S MAN POWER 



Disease Weakens Armies, Cripples Industry, Reduces Pro- 

 duction. How the Government is Sanitating the 

 Civil Zones Around Cantonment Areas. 

 A Nation-wide Campaign for Health 



By Rupebt Blue 



Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health Service 



IN SPITE of the remarkable ad- 

 vances which man has made in the 

 creation of devices for the taking of 

 human life, in spite of the wanton man- 

 wastage of the past three years, it has 

 been apparent from the beginning that the 

 vital factor in the winning of this war is 

 man power. Therefore, hand in hand 

 with the plans for human slaughter, op- 

 erations have been put in force for hu- 

 man conservation. 



Long before the entry of our country 

 into the war, those who were giving 

 thought to the matter realized that, should 

 the United States be forced into the 

 conflict, it would be necessary to encom- 

 pass not only the fighting man with every 

 health safeguard which modern science 

 has devised, but, what was perhaps even 

 more important, that it was absolutely es- 

 sential to maintain at the highest state of 

 efficiency the health of the farmer, the 

 industrial operative, the transportation 

 employee, and all the rest of the general 

 public upon whom the soldier must rely 

 for food, clothing, and weapons. 



If the soldier and the sailor are to be 

 kept well, the civilian with whom they 

 come in contact must not be permitted 

 to have a communicable disease, and the 

 civil environment which the fighting man 

 enters in search of recreation must be 

 kept in a clean and wholesome condition. 



The problem naturally divided itself 

 into two sets of responsibilities : First, 

 those devolving upon the strictly military 

 authorities. This comprehended all those 

 measures which would be exercised by 

 medico-military and line officers, for the 

 reduction of the health hazards of the 



combatant forces. Their food, drinking' 

 water, clothing, and environment, whether 

 afloat or ashore, required careful atten- 

 tion ; the disposal of waste, the destruc- 

 tion of noxious insects, the maintenance 

 of bodilv cleanliness, the sanitation of the 

 zone over which the military exercised 

 jurisdiction — these were the duties de- 

 volving upon the medical departments of 

 the array and the navy. 



The second set of responsibilities rested 

 upon the shoulders of the health wardens 

 of the general public. The U. S. Public 

 Health Service and the health organiza- 

 tions of the States, the municipalities, and 

 the counties, working in cooperation and 

 by the utilization of all the forces at their 

 command, had to perform a similar func- 

 tion for the civilian population, but over 

 much larger areas and without the ad- 

 vantage of the stern authority of military 

 discipline. 



Rural communities, which for genera- 

 tions had employed only the most rudi- 

 mentary methods of excrement disposal, 

 had to be led into the paths of sanitary 

 righteousness ; areas whose names were a 

 local byword for malaria had to be ren- 

 dered free of mosquitoes ; the water sup- 

 ply, sewage disposal apparatus, and scav- 

 enging systems of large cities had to be 

 put in an efficient state. 



THE PRELIMINARY SL T RVEY 



As soon as the entry of America into 

 the war became imminent, a plan of oper- 

 ation was laid before the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, the Hon. W. G. McAdoo, the 

 nation's health representative in the Cabi- 

 net, and received his approval. When 



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