THE ECONOMIC ADVISABILITY OF INAUGURATING A NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

This is an age of progress, intellectual, social and, above all, material—of progress so colossal that the eternal forces of Nature are gradually abandoning the long fight and one by one surrendering to the mind and hand of man. But with all that has been wrought there yet remain broad gaps in our organization which, if left unheeded, may blight the civilization itself. In the present paper an attempt is made to point out what may be regarded as the most serious hiatus in our social system and to consider a possible remedy based on more efficient organization. Societies, like skillful capitalists, should strive to invest their revenues so as to yield maximum returns. When returns are direct and may be charged for, experience has shown that the management in many cases may be judiciously entrusted to private individuals. When social investments produce conditions rather than commodities, indirect services impossible