|
200 feet ( ... feet) of source of water supply | 1 | ...
|---------|
| 100 |
----------------------------------------------------+---------+-------

It is a great pity that we Americans have taken so long to learn that
laws do not enforce themselves, that even good motives and good
intentions in the best of officials do not insure good deeds. Thousands
of lives are being lost every year, millions of days taken from
industry and wasted by unnecessary sickness, millions of dollars spent
on curing disease, the working life of the nation shortened, the hours
of enjoyment curtailed, because we have not seen the great gap between
health laws and health-law enforcement. In our municipal, state, and
national politics we have made the same mistake of concentrating our
attention upon the morals and pretensions of candidates and officials
instead of judging government by what government does. Gains of men and
progress of law are useful to mankind only when converted into deeds
that make men freer in the enjoyment of health and earning power. In
protecting health, as in reforming government, an ounce of efficient
achievement is worth infinitely more than a moral explosion. One month
of routine--unpicturesque, unexciting efficiency--will accomplish more
than a scandal or catastrophe. Such routine is possible only when
special machinery is constantly at work, comparing work done with work
expected, health practice with health ideals. Where such machinery does
not yet exist, volunteers, civic leagues, boys' brigades, etc., can
easily prove the need for it by filling out an improvised score card
for the school building, railroad station, business streets,
"well-to-do" and poor resident streets, such as follows:

TABLE V

SCORE CARD FOR CITIZEN USE

=======================================================+=======+======
|Perfect|Allow
-------------------------------------------------------+-------+------
_Schoolhouse_ | |
Well ventilated, 20; badly, 0-10 | 20 | ...
Cleaned regularly, 20; irregularly, 0-10 | 20 | ...
Feather duster prohibited, 10 | 10 | ...
No dry sweeping, 10 | 10 | ...
Has adeq