Such a situation seems appalling. It is appalling. It borders upon the monstrous that a people who have at last learned how to prevent the great diseases should not be permitted to apply their knowledge. That the people endure such a condition can be explained only on the theory that they realize neither the ease with which modern science could extend their lives, nor the identity of the few who put dividends above life. In order that there shall be no doubt concerning the power of present knowledge, if applied, to destroy some of the great diseases and cripple others, I shall set down here a question that I asked of Professor Irving Fisher, Dr. Woods Hutchinson, and Dr. J. N. McCormack. Dr. McCormack is an eminent physician, who devotes his entire time to lecturing throughout the United States, under the auspices of the American Medical Association and the Committee of One Hundred. His topic is the advisability of applying modern knowledge to the public health problem. Here is the question: “If you had the power of a czar, could you destroy tuberculosis and typhoid fever, and also greatly reduce the number of deaths from pneumonia?” Professor Fisher and Dr. McCormack replied promptly in the affirmative. Evidently, I might as well have asked Dr. Hutchinson if, having a glass of water, he could drink it. He was most matter of fact. Without a doubt, tuberculosis could be destroyed. So could typhoid fever, which is solely a filth disease that no one can get without eating or drinking matter that has passed through the stomach of a typhoid victim. Parenthetically, I may say that I heard Dr. Hutchinson tell a committee of the United States Senate that if a National Department of Health were established and properly administered, half of the crime would cease in twenty-five years. Dr. Hutchinson also said that it was entirely possible to save the babies that died from preventable diseases—dysentery, for instance. The lowest estimate of the number of babies who die every year from preventable diseases is 100,000. Ask the same question of any physician in the country who is worth his salt and he will give the same answer. Thus well known are the methods by which the great diseases might be destroyed. The way to wipe out tuberculosis quickly, for instance, would be to destroy every habitation that is known to be hopelessly infected—and there are many such—permit no habitation to be erected without provision for sufficient sunlight and air; permit no factory or other workplace to be erected without sufficient provision for sunlight and fresh air—and destroy such workplaces as now exist without this provision; reduce the cost of living so that the millions who now cannot afford to live in sanitary homes and buy adequate food could do so; isolate the infected and educate the people with regard to the necessity of sleeping with their bedroom windows wide open.