Vol. XII JANUARY, 1921 No. 1 OHIO'S HEALTH (Formerly the Ohio Public Health Journal) ISSUED MONTHLY BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH COLUMBUS, OHIO Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Columbus, Ohio, under the Act of PUBLIC HEALTH INVENTORY 1920, Ohio's Greatest Public Health Year; Ohio's Honor Roll of Counties (Title page and Index for 1920 volume are bound in this number) St. Dept of Health PAGE Accomplishment — the Keynote of Ohio's 1920 Health Record.. The Things That Prove the Value of the New Health Organization... Nation Looks to Ohio as Health Organization Develops. Our New Name and the Magazine It Designates. . . . . University Offers Evidence of Flaws in School Health Work.... District Budgets as Evidence of Growing Interest in Health Protection.. Physical Defects Numerous in Ohio State University Freshmen.. The Ohio Public Health Association and Its Work. By Harry E. Roulfs.... PUBLIC HEALTH NOTES FROM OVER THE STATE: 12 More Com- missioners Give Full Time Service - Youngstown Protects Children from Disease Model Rural Health Service Is Installed - How Dayton Checked Diphtheria Outbreak - Promote Birth Registration - Ohio Ohio Takes an Inventory of No. 1 An inventory is a desirable procedure to be carried out in a business organization at the close of a year's work. It is just as desirable in the public health organization of the state of Ohio. For the investment of public funds in health protection is essentially a business undertaking; it must produce results commensurate with the expenditure if it is to be considered justifiable. With this idea in mind, we have devoted this magazine largely to a "stock-taking" of our public health resources. We have sought to formulate an answer to the questions: "What health benefits are the people of Ohio enjoying today as the direct result of the public health work of the year 1920? Are these benefits an adequate return on the money spent on public health in 1920?" Any fair-minded person, after reading the account of benefits derived from the year's work, will say that we have acquired these benefits cheaply. Moreover, it must be remembered that much of the 1920 cost consisted of initial outlay incident to the setting up of a large new organization. We may expect, therefore, to derive even greater benefits from our public health outlay in future. Accomplishment -the Keynote of Ohio's 1920 Health Record Never before in Ohio's history has it been possible to set down at the close of a year such a record of accomplishments in the field of public health as we present in this magazine. For never before did Ohio have a public health organization that could accomplish such things. We believe the statement of outstanding, concrete results of the year's work, as presented by a group of health commissioners in this issue, should serve as a final, clinching argument in support of adequate public health organization. The money we were spending in past years on township and village health organizations was largely wasted. The money we are putting into our county health departments today is giving value received for every penny expended. The facts the health commissioners present bear out the theoretical arguments which convinced the legislators of Ohio that better health protection was desirable. They should remove the last vestige of doubt in the public mind as to the wisdom of the Assembly in enacting the Hughes-Griswold Law. * The Things That Prove the Value of the New Health Organization Better control of communicable diseases, better protection of child health through organized school health work- these are outstanding accomplishments of Ohio's new public health administrative organization during its first year. As a result of these and other accomplishments, the new system has found popular favor in many quarters where a year ago it was faced by much doubt and opposition. The Hughes-Griswold Act health district organization has sold itself on its merits to a very large section of Ohio's population in one year. The general principle that public health is purchasable and that expenditure of public funds in health protection is a sound investment is accepted by thousands more people in Ohio today than a year ago. If any proof of this statement is needed, it is provided by the fact that forty-five of the eighty-eight counties in the state will have whole time health commissioners in 1921. When the mortality statistics for 1920 are compiled, we feel sure, the results of better rural health protection in Ohio will be evident. Fifteen years hence, when the little ones now receiving adequate physical care and training in the public schools reach manhood and womanhood, the same record will be read, not in ink, but in healthy bodies and happy faces of a sturdy young Ohio citizenry. But the past year's work can not be appraised in these concrete terms at this early date. We must accept the statements of the men and women who have done the work and of their neighbors who have watched them with growing approval. Adequate health protective organization has come to stay and to grow in Ohio. And on the basis of its first year's record it deserves to stay and to grow. Real Economy - Getting Health Service You Pay For The best answer to charges of extravagance in local health administration under the Hughes-Griswold Act is to be found in the statement of county budgets for the past year, showing that the eighty-eight general health districts spent less than $450,000 for the year's work. An estimate of health expenditures in villages and townships in 1918, made two years ago, indicated that the total for that year, for the same territory as is now included in the general districts, was in the neighborhood of $200,000. The impossibility of arriving at an exact total under the organization which prevailed then is in itself an indication of the inefficiency and disorganization of local health administration in the state at that time. In 1918, when government, like everything else, cost less than in 1920, Ohio villages and townships spent $200,000 on a health protective system which didn't protect. In 1920 they invested under $450,000 in at system which afforded real health protection. We maintain and we believe justly that it is better economy, whether in government or in personal affairs, to spend a little more and get your money's worth, rather than to spend less and get nothing. We believe the intelligent populace of Ohio judges governmental procedure by this same standard, and is entirely satisfied with the return on its health investment of 1920. The healthy, voluntary increases in many county budgets for 1920 indicate that, in these counties at least, the people were well enough satisfied to desire a little more of the same kind of health protection in 1921. * Nation Looks to Ohio as Health Organization Develops To those who have been in a place where they could "watch the wheels go 'round" during the past year, it has been a source of gratification to native pride to note the interest with which public health developments in Ohio have been watched in other parts of the country. It has sometimes seemed that residents of other states appreciated more than did many Ohioans themselves the far-reaching importance of the constructive work which was in progress here. The improvement of the state's public health protective facilities has done as much to advertise Ohio as anything which has taken place. in recent years. The counties which have been trailing in the movement toward better health conditions should take this viewpoint and appreciate more fully the practical value of health. When they do that they will quickly seize the opportunities which the Hughes-Griswold Act offers, |