p. 12 | Preventable Loss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 24, 1912

Preventable Loss

Of the large amount of waste and loss arising from preventable causes the Lutheran of Oct. 10, 1912, speaks as follows:—

The annual fire loss in the United States is about $198,250,000. The loss through floods, drought, and frost is not possible to compute. The Mexican boll-weevil in a single year destroyed $30,000,000 worth of cotton. Rats, we are told, are the cause of an annual loss of $20,000,000; flies cause about as much loss, while ground-squirrels destroy half as much as the flies. About $4,000,000 worth of cows are condemned by the government because of tuberculosis, while the total loss through this cause is estimated at $13,000,000. By proper sanitary arrangements, the value of the cow and cattle products could be increased by at least $17,000,000, says an expert. Here is a total, therefore, of $24,000,000 going to waste in the cow- and cattle-yards of the country. A leading medical authority says that not less than 600,000 people die annually from preventable causes, and that each year 3,000,000 people have some illness or accident that could have been prevented. The economic loss thus caused is approximately $1,500,000,000. If all of this could not be entirely prevented, there could at least be great reductions effected. And we have only scanned half the first page of the ledger of losses through what might be called American wastefulness. If but ten per cent of this enormous waste were to flow into the missionary coffers of the churches, how these would overflow! Is it not time to plan for scientific conservation of our resources?