DICTATORSHIP AND SOCIAL REFORM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
feorrespoudents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most;suitable length is that of one of Eiur News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference , over those bearing a pseitelanym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and ,address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.] [To the Editor of TAE SPECTATOR.] Sni,—Mr. L. H. Tripp,. in his eulogy of German social services, states that their progress is merely a continuation of a process -which began under the Erilperots, and that the child-welfare activities' were organised on" such admirable• lines that the War-babies and • War-children • of 191411919 are the athletic
youths of today." ' -
• Ever since Mr. Lloyd -George imported from Germany - the principles of national health insurance, it haS been the
' custom to extol • the health services of that country, yet the vital statistics • do not justify this attitude, particularly in
relation to 'child welfare. Here, for instance, is a comparison of the rates of infant mortality (i.e., deaths under one year per thousand live births) for selected years :
Germany. England & Wales.
• 1901-12 (average) .. 184 • - 121
1011-13 „ . 164 • 111 1919 1�5 89,
1923 132 ' • 69' 1934".. 66 '59 : It will be ' seen that under the Emperors " the rates were appalling, and it was not until 1924 that progressive and material decline in the death-rate began. If German youth today is exceptionally athletic, it is presumably due more to the severe natural selection of the War and post-War years than to admirable welfare services."
AnOther useful index of sanitary efficiency is furnished by .the case-rate of typhoid fever and allied diseasei. In England and Wales the number" of cases of typhoid and
paratyphoid fever notified in 1934 was 1660 ; in Germany, with a population of 65 millions as, compared with our 40 millions, the number was 6,421.
Mr. Tripp then raises the question as to whether the adoption of Fascism pr National Socialism would improve social condi- tions. in this country. But already our public health services ,
are adMinister4d by central and local authorities' on purely Soeiallist Mies. On the usual anti-Socialist theory this should result in lack of initiative," &c., in administration, while the staffs being paid by salary should have no incentiVe to do their best work. Nevertheless, the British Public. Health Service is probably the most efficient in the world, and the keenness of the staffs on their work is shown by the excellent Annual Reports issued by Medical Officers of Health and the many valuable papers which they and their other profeisional colleagues read before scientific societies for. no material reward, As far as public health is concerned, German methods do not seem to offer any advantages over our own.—Yours faithfully, WILLIAM A. BREND. 14 Bolingbroke Grove, S-W. 11.
P.S.—The statistics are quoted mainly from the Annual Epidemiological Report issued by the -League of Nations for 1934.
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