Office of the State Board of Health and Vital Statistics, To His Excellency, A. O. Eberhart, Governor of Minnesota. Sir: In accordance with the law which requires that the Minnesota State Board of Health "shall report its doings and discoveries to the legislature at each regular session thereof, with such recommendiations as it shall deem useful," I herewith submit to you a report for the years covering 1913-1914. Respectfully submitted, H. M. BRACKEN, Secretary and Executive Officer. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEMBERS OF THE MINNESOTA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH AND VITAL STATISTICS. Introduction Matters pertaining to public health are receiving more and more attention throughout the country. There is a call for a national department of health, and this will undoubtedly bring results in the near future. The state of New York has reorganized its entire system of public health organization, and now has six well organized divisions working under its executive head. Still further, the state has been divided into sanitary districts with a whole-time health official presiding over each. Maryland has more than doubled its appropriations during the past year, and that state, too, has been divided into sanitary districts with wholetime sanitarians in charge of each district. Massachusetts has reorganized its entire public health system. Minnesota, which has been in the foreground of public health for years, is apparently falling back, for the last few legislatures have refused to take any great amount of interest in this subject. The work in Minnesota is well organized from an executive point of view, but is deficient in funds. The people throughout the state are demanding more and more attention along the lines of protection and prevention in dealing with disease problems. During the fiscal year ended July 31, 1913, the Minnesota State Board of Health had about $84,000 to use in public health matters. During the year ended July 31, 1914, the amount was $73,500, while for the year which will end July 31, 1915, we have but $68,000, a reduction from that of two years ago of about $16,000. The action of the last legislature in thus reducing the possible efficiency of the State Board was a great disappointment to all those interested in public health problems. Naturally, various lines of work had to be either discontinued or curtailed. The same legislature that cut down the working capacity of the State Board of Health, as shown above, increased the appropriations for the public school fund from about $750,000 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 1913, to $1,500,000 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 1914, and $2,000,000 for the fiscal year ending July 31, 1915. In addition to this greatly increased appropriation for schools, there is a school fund of $2,000,000 per annum, thus giving for the public schools during the present fiscal year about $4,000,000. This sum is for the benefit of about 400,000 school children. It would appear from this action of the legislature that it considered the education of the child of more importance than its health; otherwise it would not have provided such an enormous amount of money for the public schools to benefit 400,000 children, as against $66,500 for the care of the health of over 2,000,000 people. The education of the child is very import ant, but its health is more important, for education without health is of no value whatever to an individual. |