First general report
1922-05 1922 1920s 55 pages : illustrations Extracts from Speeches delivered at Meetings organised by The People's League of Health. Reprinted from THE TIMES, May 12th, 1920. THE WILL TO HEALTH. A new note was sounded yesterday at the Mansion House meeting of the People's League...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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London : People's League of Health
May 1922
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/84444FD0-433E-458A-8491-FBA552677979 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/E4F238F1-5095-44E4-B525-847093F0DC9A |
| Summary: | 1922-05
1922
1920s
55 pages : illustrations
Extracts from Speeches delivered at Meetings organised by The People's League of Health. Reprinted from THE TIMES, May 12th, 1920. THE WILL TO HEALTH. A new note was sounded yesterday at the Mansion House meeting of the People's League of Health, when COLONEL BOND, who is vice-chairman of the Medical Consultative Council to the Minister of Health, declared that it was wrong to be ill if ill-health was avoidable. This attitude is a contrast to bureaucratic methods of promoting health by compulsion, which some have feared were likely to lie before us. It is a wise appeal to that health conscience which is the guarantee of a strong and vigorous people. Health can be promoted by Government ; but the will to health must come from the people themselves. If it does not, Government effort, whether local or central, will fail. Reprinted from THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, May 25th, 1921. A CRUSADE FOR HEALTH. "Health and good estate of body," we are told by Ecclesiasticus, "are above all gold," but no one seriously believes that statement to be true until sickness has crossed the threshold. Health is, however, the best form of wealth, because without it life has little attraction. There is an Italian proverb to the effect that "he who has health is rich and does not know it." Men and women are unconscious of most of their greatest blessings until they lose them. In the confidence of youth they give little thought to keeping themselves "fit" —in thousands of cases bestowing far more attention on the care of a motor-car than on the care of their own bodies. Yet all the wonders of physical science are dwarfed by the structure of the human frame, the inter-relation of the various members to each other, the nerves, the bones, the muscles, and the tissues, everything being so beautifully adjusted that under ideal conditions the whole of the organisms perform their functions with little effort. The adjustment is so exact that the medical man of profoundest knowledge stands dumb after years of study before the perfection which is to be seen at any time of the day in any town or village — a really healthy man or woman. And most of us are supremely careless of "the tabernacles of the flesh" of which we are masters, as every student of vital statistics is forced to confess. It was the realisation of this dangerous indifference — dangerous alike to the individual and to the community at large — which led Miss OLGA NETHERSOLE to found some time ago the People's League of Health. At an early stage the movement enlisted the cordial support of the Countess CURZON of KEDLESTON, with her keen sympathy for suffering, and she has now accepted the onerous position of Appeal Director; for the League needs ample funds if it is to achieve its purpose. If it be asked what that purpose is, the reply can be compressed into a few words. "The purpose of the League is to multiply the sources of public information and education to such an extent that no mother shall lose her child through ignorance; that no man or woman shall be stricken with disease for lack of knowledge." This cause has already enlisted the support of leading physicians, surgeons, oculists, and dentists, who are reminded day by day in their consulting rooms of the wide-spread ignorance which exists as to the causes of disease, not in one class only, but in every class; the clergy, who go into the homes of the people, have been foremost in encouraging this educational work, as well as philanthropists, captains of industry, and the most far-seeing of the representatives of Labour. Under the patronage of the KING, a great crusade in favour of national health has been inaugurated, and all that is required is adequate financial support to enable it to make this a happier and more contented, because more healthy, nation. For the wealth which pays the highest dividends is good health, reacting on every intellectual and physical activity. As was made clear at the reception which the Countess CURZON gave yesterday afternoon, The People's League of Health is not to be regarded as an organisation of busybodies. A glance at the names of the members of the medical and lay councils suffices to show that it is a practical body, which has been formed to achieve a very practical end. It is dominated by men and women of knowledge and experience in many spheres — those who have been accustomed to labour with their hands as well as those who work with their brains. It is an education and co-ordinating organisation; it aims to spread, by means of lectures and demonstrations, knowledge of health — how to obtain and preserve it — and to co-operate in every possible way with the public authorities, as well as with the voluntary bodies which are already engaged in what may be described as the by-paths. That there is room for the People's League of Health, the recruting [recruiting] records of the Great War, as well as the sad testimony of social workers throughout the country, amply proved. The physique of the nation is not attuned to the greatness of the Empire it is its duty and privilege to maintain. The passage of 43
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