NUMBER ONE CHALLENGE
Number One Challenge THE war has brought a rude awakening to the shocking state of the nation's health. At last there is dawning an understanding of what happens when we neglect the human resources...
...As Dr...
...He asks that Germany be sliced into three portions, and that East Prussia should be given to Poland...
...In time of peace, likewise, the nation's progress and prosperity rest upon the basic natural resource —its people...
...The unemployment and poverty it brought to additional millions of American families meant malnutrition, inadequate medical care, and dangerous risk of permanent injury to health...
...At last there is dawning an understanding of what happens when we neglect the human resources of the country and allow a third of our population to remain ill-fed, ill-clad, and ill-housed...
...There is something naive in the notion that enduring peace can be based on partitioning and plunder...
...Parran, the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, pointed out to the Senate Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education, good medical and hospital care are in themselves insufficient unless there is also full employment at decent pay, with decent housing conditions and sound nutrition...
...Hershey, the Director of Selective Service, Col...
...The medical profession has a great opportunity to contribute to a solution of this vital problem...
...WPA wages were not much better...
...SOMETHING drastic must be done, and when the tumult and shouting of this political campaign die away, this is one challenge that must be accepted by all Americans without partisanship and without quibbling...
...For war and peace alike we cannot afford to have an ailing, sickly people...
...In areas where medical care has been more available the rejection rate has been considerably less...
...If we are finally to solve the problem of public health, we are going to have to solve the problem of distribution of public wealth...
...Rowntree, the medical director of Selective Service, and other high Government officials have been giving testimony this month before the Senate Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education that ought to shock every American into action...
...THE more fortunate Americans were not brought face to face with the inevitable results of the national policy of neglect until the country had to call its manpower to arms in this war...
...Gen...
...The strength and vigor of a large number of American men, women, and children were worn away on the breadlines in this country when we should have been providing them with full opportunities to work for a decent livelihood...
...There is the number one challenge to the postwar planners of America...
...But the fundamental solution goes even deeper than that...
...Historically, the redistribution of territory without regard to ethnic roots and folk traditions has not lessened, but multiplied wars...
...Problems In Division FORMER Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles in his book, "The Time for Decision," co'mes forward with a peace formula calling for the dismemberment of Germany...
...This means not only a multiplication of hospitals, clinics, and doctors, but it also means the perfection of a sound system under which low income groups can secure the essentials of medical care as a matter of right without depending upon charity...
...Certainly something must be done to provide more adequate medical care for the great numbers who are unable to get it under our present system...
...What is needed in the world of the future is a concept and a program of equity and security universally accepted by all common men, regardless of lines drawn on a map by muddled cartographers...
...Production must be achieved through the physical endurance of its workers on the farm and in the factory...
...All the while the health of this unfortunate group was slowly but surely eroding away, lost beyond recovery for at least a generation...
...During the years of the so-called prosperity of the '20s, it was assumed that health was an individual matter and that each citizen was fully able to look after his own health...
...Despite the great advances in medical science there was no general understanding of the lack of proper care for millions of our citizens...
...Inadequate medical care has been one of the chief causes of this state of affairs...
...The Welles formula of division would not divide, but would multiply evil...
...Whatever that program may be, it will be doomed in advance by the reckless dismemberment of conquered territory...
...Col...
...Rowntree disclosed that eight out of every 10 men examined had at least one physical defect...
...There is a direct connection between low income and ill health...
...The health and welfare of the American people and the happiness that goes with them—that is the greatest objective and the ultimate justification of a broad and courageous program which will bring the great masses of the people within the orbit of economic justice and social security...
...The Progressive hopes they will not miss the boat by insisting on a reactionary position and refusing to participate in the formulation of a sound, adequate, and workable plan...
...Over four million draft registrants between the ages of 18 and 37 have been rejected as unfit for military service...
...The high rejection rate in certain rural areas where doctors and hospitals are available only to« fortunate few has been most significant...
...It is stupid economy to save dollars and lose the productivity of useful lives...
...Then the startling fact became apparent that disease, malnutrition, inadequate medical care, and poor living conditions had made over one-third of the men of military age unfit for service...
...Many more have been accepted only for limited service...
...That was a long way from the truth, for there were millions of underprivileged Americans then just as there are today...
...Odd that men like Welles, who dream of a unified World State, should help scuttle their own schemes,by carving the map into yet more brawling boundaries...
...Then came the economic crisis of the '30s...
...The relief diets were seldom better than enough to keep body and soul together...
...This erosion of the nation's human resources through malnutrition, inadequate medical care, and improper living conditions is a capital loss to the nation just as is the erosion of our precious topsoil from which we must grow the nation's sustenance...
...In time of war the nation's security rests upon the strength of its human resources, both military and civilian...
...Battles must be won through the physical prowess of its soldiers...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 32
