340 
State  Control  of  Diseases. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1910. 
our  people  to  the  cardinal  virtue  of  cleanliness,  and  to  lead  the 
ignorant  and  disaffected  to  appreciate  that  the  state  government, 
so  far  from  desiring  to  oppress  them,  is  their  best  friend,  ever  ready 
to  protect,  advise  and  help  them  in  their  illness  and  misfortunes. 
Convinced  of  the  cardinal  truth  that  the  greatest  defence  against 
tuberculosis  is  a  sturdy,  vigorous  human  system  which  in  turn  can 
only  be  built  up  by  an  adequate  supply  of  wholesome  nourishing 
food,  it  undertakes  to  instruct  the  mothers  of  families  in  the  selec- 
tion of  foodstuffs  so  that  the  greatest  amount  of  nutriment  may  be 
procured  for  the  least  expenditure  of  money,  and  how  the  food  may 
be  cooked  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  most  easily  digested  and  have  its 
nutritious  properties  most  thoroughly  conserved. 
Thus  through  the  physician  and  the  nurse  the  state  government 
comes  very  near  to  the  unfortunate  consumptive.  Instead  of  being 
a  cold  and  heartless  abstraction,  relentlessly  working  out  its  func- 
tion of  ruling,  regardless  of  the  suffering  which  may  follow,  it 
enters  in  a  very  real  way  into  his  life. 
Heretofore,  misled  by  the  propaganda  of  the  foreign  anarchist, 
he  has  regarded  the  state  with  jealous  suspicion  as  his  natural 
enemy,  whose  principal  object  is  to  impose  upon  him  oppressive 
laws  and  regulations,  interfering  with  his  personal  liberty  and  taking 
his  little  all  in  exorbitant  taxes.  Now,  to  his  surprise,  he  wakes  up 
to  find  in  his  hour  of  trouble  that  the  government  is  his  thoughtful 
friend,  ready  to  instruct  him  in  better  ways  of  living,  how  to  get 
good  wholesome  food,  and  how  to  make  his  money  go  as  far  as 
possible  in  buying  it,  nay  even  when  sickness  has  robbed  him  of  his 
hard  earned  store,  ready  to  furnish  him  the  food  best  suited  to 
restore  him  again  to  health  and  usefulness.  It  will  be  strange  indeed 
if  such  treatment  does  not  take  the  kinks  out  of  his  warped  and 
twisted  consciousness  and  lead  him  to  become,  instead  of  an  anar- 
chist, a  friend  and  supporter  of  the  state. 
i 
