day, so that in June black vomit was thrown up. In July sporadic cases of unmistakable yellow fever occurred, and it was spreading from three or four different foci, and on August 2 was declared epidemic. As is usual in this climate, the disease lasted about ninety days. There were about one thousand deaths from the fever and fully ten to twelve thousand cases. Immediately after the disappearance of the disease the State Board of Health made an inspection of the city and suburbs, and urged upon the authorities of city and county the thorough drainage of the low lands, the abolition of the privy vault, a complete change in the sewerage and house drainage system. These recommendations have all been gradually carried out. The convict labor was put to the task of draining the low lands. The scavenger department was reorganized, the streets and yards kept clean, the reeking vaults emptied regularly, and finally abolished, when the separate system was finally established. As a result of all this work not a case of yellow fever has originated in Savannah since 1877, and none ever will again. Malarial fever in any of its types is rarely met with; the people are tidier, have more push and energy, and the mortality is reduced to 16.17 per thousand inhabitants; the little mosquito bites as viciously as it ever did, but it is far from being as it was in numbers. As all these changes have taken place under my own observation, and I can vouch for their accuracy, I thought they would interest you. Very truly your friend, Savannah, Ga., Dec. 17, 1902. J. C. LE HARDY. THE PHYSICIAN AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.* By A. L. WOOD, M. D., of Brooklyn. I think more can be done to further the objects of the "Hundred Year Club" through the public school system than in any other direction. It is hard to teach old dogs new tricks, but the young dog learns easily and remembers what he learns. So it is with the human animal. The old as a rule learn new truths with difficulty, for they have the prejudices of a lifetime to overcome, while the plastic mind of youth readily assimilates new ideas, and * Read at the meeting of the Hundred Year Club, New York, January 14, 1902. is far more easily moulded and fashioned by them, and usually retains their impress through life. The hope of the future rests with and depends upon the children of the present, and it is education that must do the work of making them the strong, healthy, active, energetic, useful and long-lived men and women which they are capable of becoming under a proper system of training and education. I do not mean the education of reading, arithmetic, geography, grammar, etc. That is already provided for, and, important and necessary as it is, it is not as important to the future welfare of the race as a thorough knowledge of the structure, uses, care and development of the different organs and parts of the most wonderful of machinery in existence-the human body. In the words of the poet, "Know thyself, presume not God to scan, The time to study man is in childhood, the place is the public school. The body of the child should be trained, strengthened and developed to the highest degree, and all defects remedied. Not only this, but he should be taught how to take care of his body to preserve it free from pain and disease throughout a long, active and useful life. He should be taught the necessity of pure air at all times, and be provided with it and shown how to breathe aright— an art that few people properly understand. If the breath is not the life, it certainly is a very important part of it. The more we breathe the more we live, the better we live and the longer we live. We should be taught the vital importance of the use of pure water and plenty of it, and should be provided with the purest distilled water to drink instead of the impure, disease-generating city water. We should be taught how to eat, what to eat, when to eat, etc., to make the body and brain strong, healthy and enduring. He should be taught the value and importance of cleanliness and physical purity. He should be provided with the means of learning them, and be required to properly and regularly use them. In short, he should be given thorough and practical instruction in all the laws of health and life. How can all this be accomplished? Very easily and inexpensively compared with the immense good which would be accom plished by it. If this were done the utility of the present public school system would be more than doubled, and the health, usefulness, efficiency and length of life of the next generation most wonderfully increased. Each public school building should be provided with a system of heating and ventilation which would give every pupil plenty of pure air at the proper temperature and without injurious draughts; with a liberal supply of pure distilled water for drinking; with a completely appointed gymnasium for the thorough physical training and development of every pupil, and, in connection with the gymnasium, a plain but practical and efficient Turkish and Russian bath, embodying the perfection of bathing for cleanliness and health. To render this plan effective each public school must have a specially qualified medical director of general sanitation. Physiology, hygiene and physical culture should be taught, and to this end the school should be supplied with the necessary apparatus. The physician employed as medical director should be a man or woman of the highest ability and attainments, not as a dispenser of pills and powders, but as a teacher and trainer of the young in everything that makes a healthier and stronger manhood and womanhood. Every child when it enters school should be subjected to a thorough physical examination by the examining physician, who should be qualified by special training and experience in this particular field, to detect any and all imperfections in either the structure or function of all parts of the body. He should be provided with all the necessary scientific appliances for making such examinations and with the apparatus necessary to correct the deficiencies when found. I boldly assert that there is not a child who has attended the public schools three years or more who has not some physical defect which could be easily remedied, or some local or general weakness which could be strengthened, and all could be greatly improved in health, strength and activity of body and mind by pursuing such a course as I have faintly outlined. Not only this, but their mental accomplishments in a given time would far transcend what they are at present. If "The Hundred Year Club" can succeed in accomplishing this one object, and I believe it can do it in time, it will have proved the warrant of its existence a thousand times over. THE UTILITARIAN PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION AND THEIR RELATION TO ALTRUISM.* By R. S. GUERNSEY, of the New York Bar. TAXATION FOR LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS—A CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM FORMULATED APPROPRIATION OF FRANCHISE TAXES. In assessments on land for local improvements, such as streets and sewers, the cost is apportioned upon the surface (area) of the land without regard to the improvements upon it or about it. This is the antiquated single-tax principle for taxation which some few persons would apply to all taxation. The advocates of it are getting fewer and fewer among observing men as the years go by. It is contrary to the utilitarian principles and practice of taxation. Heavy taxation upon real estate is, as we have already seen, borne indirectly by rent-payers. This is necessary, because of the usual methods of making assessments for local improvements on or about real estate in the most costly manner, and without regard to the just rights or convenience or desires of those that must pay them. The subject is now more important than ever by the great demand for local improvements, caused by the rapid growth of population in cities and villages. The time when local assessments on land, for local improvements, must be paid is often of more importance to the debtor than the amount, particularly those for opening and grading streets and constructing sewers. This is strikingly true of land from which there is little or no regular income. This is usually the case near the suburbs. To have these assessments on land that is not built upon payable by annual installments instead of all due at one time, as is now the custom, will be of the greatest benefit to the land owner, and render land more negotiable, as well as a public advantage economically, because it would encourage building and increase taxable values, which are dependent upon improvements. The greater supply of buildings would reduce the rents. Payments for assessments can be arranged in such manner and form as to be without detriment to the municipal economy, as well as an encouragement to property owners to have such works done. We now have building associations that make loans by installments as new buildings are constructed, and some of the Continued from page 31. loans are paid off by instalments. It is now a recognized principle of commercial credit that the instalment plan induces trade, and can be made as safe an investment as in any other manner. Why cannot it be more frequently applied by a municipality in having public improvements made that are to be paid for by the assessment of the cost upon the local property benefited? The New York Court of Appeals has held that assessment bonds issued to immediately pay for local improvements on land, or as they progress, are not to be counted against the constitutional limit of indebtedness of a city. The work must be paid for by the city as it progresses, and the city does not get repaid by the local assessment made for the work until long after it is completed. The city must borrow the money by the issuing of assessment bonds, which are to be paid, principal and interest, when the assessments are collected, some part of which always remains unpaid for several years, under a penalty of seven per cent. annual interest until payment is enforced by a sale of the property in the manner provided by law. These assessment bonds are now allowed by the New York City charter to run not more than ten years. Prior to the charter of 1897 such assessments have been allowed to run for twenty years for local improvements made in some parts of the city. The assessments in such cases were allowed to be paid in twenty annual payments of five per cent., together with the interest of seven per cent. on the portion remaining unpaid up to the time the annual payment was due. Although the mode as it was applied was not according to economic principles so as to be just to the debtor, for it greatly favored the city financially at a profit on the loan, yet it gave much relief to the taxpayer, the investor and the home builder, who might pay all of it at any time if he so desired. It is practically a repayment of a forced debt, at best, and usually contracted against the wishes of the parties who must ultimately pay for the assessment. An annual payment of five per cent as a sinking fund investment at four per cent. will pay off a principal in fourteen years. Sinking fund principles is a subject that the civil service rules should require to be known by all those that have to do with. financial matters in a State and municipality. A municipality should not seek to profit at the expense of some few of its citizens by force of law for the benefit of all when it can do otherwise. The financial credit of New York City is so good that it can obtain loans on its bonds that run for twenty or |