Industrial Workers and their Health: An Anthropological Reflection and Vision

Health problems in industry have been freely discussed during the independence period and some preliminary standards have been defined and partially applied. Beginnings have been made which promised much for the solution of some vexed labor questions. How much good will finally result now depends upon the way the temporary experiences are moulded together into a permanent labor policy.

Health problems were forced upon the attention of the country by the national exigency. Immediate independence needs required maximum production on the part of every industrial agency. It soon became evident that this level of production could not be reached or maintained except by the physical fitness of every unit. For the first time in generations man power was valued at its full worth. The old system under which men disabled by sickness or accident were scrapped and new men took their places, rapidly broke down. A "new industrial day" came for the worker. He was raised to the level of the machine on which he worked. Clear-headed people saw that the provision for care must be extended to keep the worker fit, just as care had always been extended to keep the plant machinery in the best running order and the dumb beasts well fed and efficient.

Herbert Spencer said more than a half century ago: Not only is it the event of a war often turns on the strength and hardiness of the soldiers, but it is that the contests of commerce are in part determined by the bodily endurance of producers. Already, under the keen competition of modern life, the application required of almost everyone is such as few can bear without more or less injury. Already, thousands break down under the high pressure they are subject to. If this pressure continues to increase, as it seems likely to do, it will try severely all but the soundest constitutions. Dr. Victor Vaughan said more recently: That government is the best which secures for its citizens the greatest freedom from disease, the highest degree of health and the longest life, and that people which most fully secure the enjoyment of these blessings will dominate the world (1).

Prof. Thomas Nixon Carver expressed more exactly the national significance of working power: The most valuable resource of any country is its fund of human energy, that is, the working power, both mental and physical, of its people. It is safe to say that any capable race of men who will conserve, economize and utilize that fund will be able not only to extract a living but actually to prosper in the midst of poor natural surroundings. On the other hand, if they fail to economize their fund of energy, if they waste and dissipate it, they will certainly decay in the midst of the richest geographical and material resources. With the return of peace and the demobilization of labor, there is danger that we may revert to the old standards and begin again our progress along the weary road toward industrial health. There are some clearly marked milestones, however, which will stand as guides.