VITAL ASSETS.

Comparison of vital and physical assets as measured by earning power, show that the vital are three to five times the physical. The facts show that there is as great room for improvement in our vital resources as in our lands, water, minerals and forests; and furthermore, this improvement must come first for through human life only is natural conservation possible. The dead past may bury the dead, but living and strong men, not the weakly and sickly, must do the work of Conservation.

ILLNESS.

From our vital statistics, which constitutes the bookkeeping of humanity, we learn that fully 100,000 people in Indiana are sick at all times, 25,000 of whom are consumptives. Not less than half of this is preventable, and three-fourths may be prevented by strong effort. Eighteen experts in various diseases as well as vital statisticians, have contributed data on the ratio of preventability of the ninety different causes of death into which mortality may be classified. From this data according to Fisher, it is found that fifteen years at least could be at once added to the average lifetime by practically applying the science of preventing disease. More than half of this additional life would come from the prevention of tuberculosis, typhoid fever and five other diseases, the prevention of which could be accomplished by purer air, purer water and purer milk. Let the business men, who are in the saddle and who run our affairs, thoroughly consider this. They surely know that disease and premature death are drags to business. Fifteen more years of life to each citizen means an enormous increase in the strength and happiness of the people, with consequent betterment to business.

Minor Ailments must be thoroughly considered in any steps toward the conservation of vitality. They are far more common and farther reaching than is generally realized. They are chiefly functional disorders such as of intestinal canal, heart, nerves, liver, kidneys, etc. These disorders are gateways to the more serious disorders. Those who neglect colds, or what seems to be colds, will prepare the tissues of the respiratory tract for pneumonia and consumption.

Benjamin Franklin, wise and practical, successful as merchant, scientist, and statesman, said—“The having of colds is a great drawback. I notice when I have one my efficiency is greatly decreased. Thought, judgment and understanding are clouded. Furthermore, I notice that colds follow excess in eating and drinking and the much breathing of bad air. They are quite unnecessary.” The losses due to mistakes in business and in the general conduct of life on account of minor ailments cannot be estimated except perhaps as time lost. A study of the matter shows that the time lost cannot be less than four days annually to each supposedly well man. Applying this to the wage earners of Indiana, counting one wage earner to each five people, making 500,000 in all, and we have to pocket an annual loss of 2,000,000 days or 5,470 years. In dollars, counting the average wage at $500 per annum, the loss amounts to $2,735,000 annually. This is certainly a prodigious loss to suffer in Indiana because of minor ailments, all of which can practically be avoided by proper public and private hygiene.

Neurasthenia, so common in the United States, is one of the most serious and insidious introductions to grave disorders, which may be due to depraved nutrition, to needless worry, or failure to have adequate recreation.

Patent Medicines. A source of drug habit, ill health, disease, inefficiency and race poisoning, militating against business is the horrible patent medicines. Medicines at their best, given under skilled medical direction are very dangerous things. (Applause.) The drug addicts, made so by a certain kind of practitioners, by self doctoring, and the taking of patent medicines, are numbered by hundreds of thousands. A large proportion of drunkards are started on their way by taking tonics. It is mostly the alcohol in tonics which produce the seeming improvement and which give temporary relief, but which invariably make the last state worse than the first. Alcohol, and all other drugs, are more dangerous than dynamite, and trade in them should be restricted more severely than trade in dynamite. (Applause.) The earth has been ransacked for drugs to cure. Everywhere we see emblazoned advertisements of medicines which the ad says will cure every disease from corns and ingrowing toenail to syphilis and gonorrhea; and yet, sickness and disease grow apace with our civilization. The world has been fine-combed from the equator to the poles for a something with which to bring health and prolong life; and lo, and behold, like the blue bird, these blessings are in every household patiently waiting to be called. At present, we are in the patent-medicine stage of ignorance, from which we must emerge before real conservation of human life and energy can be realized. (Applause.)

SCHOOL HYGIENE.

In conserving vitality, the child must have physical defects removed as far as possible, then he must be brought up amidst healthful surroundings and itself trained in all that conserves health. This great State of Indiana has already taken steps in this direction. The 67th General Assembly ordained that the schoolhouses hereafter built shall be sanitary in all particulars. This means, that waste of money and waste of child strength and happiness, shall cease in this fair State so far as this one matter goes. The same assembly has given permission to school authorities to institute medical inspection of school children that they may be relieved of morbid physical conditions which cause pain, inefficiency, illness and early death. It was a marked forward step to grant this privilege but it was a mistake of the Legislature in favor of loss of vitality not to make this practical care of children compulsory. Physical strength is the fundamental requirement for the making of children into educated and moral citizens. There is now a world-wide movement led by Switzerland and heathen Japan to save children and make them strong. A Japanese physician traveling in this State said—“We have relatively fewer short graves in our cemeteries.” The intelligence and business sense of a community could be accurately measured by determining its relative number of short graves. Youth is the time to serve the Lord. We must train the body in youth as well as the mind or the opportunity to conserve vitality is largely lost. A far better business scheme than securing more factories would be for the business men to turn their attention to the conservation of human vitality. The returns would be immense, failure to score in such an effort is impossible.