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Back in 1936 the government made a national health survey, covering three million people in 84 cities. Here are some of the facts discovered.

1. Each year, 70,000,000 sick persons lose more than one billion days from work.

2. Industrial workers die at least eight years sooner than non-industrial workers.

3. At least 62% of the workers do not have the proper health protection on the job.

4. Fifty million Americans are in families that have less than $1,000 a year income and sickness and death rates go up as income goes down.

5. Lack of facilities for maternal care was reported by 40 out of 49 health offices in states and territories. In some counties the death rate for women in childbirth is more than 200 for each 10,000 children born. In 1936, nearly one-quarter of a million mothers did not have a doctor's care during childbirth.

6. One-third of the 35,000,000 children in the United States under 15 years of age are in families that can afford little, if any medical care.

As the result of such figures as these the U.S. Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare called a National Health Conference to discuss what should be done and Senator Robert F. Wagner wrote the Wagner Health Bill, which was introduced into Congress.

Health Bill Ditched

The Wagner Health Bill called for the expenditure of $850,000,000 with the national government footing half the bill and the states the other half. This money was to be spent for public health, maternal and child care, hospitals and aid for the medically needy.

This bill was shelved and never got to the floor of Congress.

Washington's refusal to take significant action for the defense of the nation's health contrasts strangely with the

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present armaments profiteering program now being carried on in the name of "defense." The real necessity of the people for defense from disease and starvation has been pushed completely into the background by the plea of necessity for the protection of Denver from enemy bombing planes.

Commissioner Harriet Elliot of the Defense Commission suggested that the fact that some 45,000,000 Americans do not get enough to eat should be a vital concern of a legitimate defense program. She was curtly brushed aside with an observation by the President that "defense" couldn't be bothered with the problem of hunger, a problem which, he intimated could well be attended to "50 years from now."

[[image: Sketch of bald man in three piece suit pushes away a sad-faced scroll of paper marked WAGNER HEALTH BILL with one hand while accepting with the other hand a money bag from a man in a top hat.]]

The American Public Health Assn., has declared that inadequate health protection has created a major hazard in new military and industrial areas.

From Detroit, where war orders have caused a boom in the automobile industry, come reports that the industrial accident rate is rising sharply and that the Michigan bureau of industrial hygiene is completely unable to cope with the situation.

Of the men drafted for the army, at least 25% of