where our past successes give us a par-
ticular feeling of confidence and security.
More recently, as we ventured into areas
of accident prevention, the control of
cancer, heart disease, and other major
health hazards of today, we have had
to hew out new paths and develop new
tools and working relationships in these
important fields.
The opening symposium will deal with
our working relationships with other
major agencies and groups in the attack
on "the most wanted public health ene-
mies." And the closing symposium will
concentrate on what is being done and
what more can be done right now to
control the ravages of heart disease.
As a most forceful reminder of our
multiple relationships in public health
it might be mentioned that there will be
53 related organizations meeting with
us during the week. In order to lessen
the conflicts which have occurred during
the past few years with the sessions of
these related organizations, the section
secretaries this year agreed to eliminate
section meetings during Wednesday af-
ternoon and Thursday morning.
The scientific and commercial exhibits
will again be a major attraction. One
new kind of service will be added among
the former exhibits-a consultation
booth on field research. This will be
sponsored and manned by our own Re-
search Policy Committee in cooperation
with the Public Health Research Study
Section and the Bureau of State Services
of the Public Health Service as well as
the Research Committee of the Associa-
tion of State and Territorial Health Of-
ficers.
The preliminary program of the At-
lantic City meeting appears elsewhere
in the Journal. After having browsed
through it I am sure that our readers
will all wish to attend. With full recog-
nition of the limitations necessarily im-
posed by budgeted time and finances,
we hope that most of you will be able
to do so. See you at Atlantic City!
1190
Water. Water ..
RECOGNIZING the tremendous part that
water supply plays in the health and
well-being of people everywhere, and see-
ing the difficult and dangerous conditions
under which most of the people of the
world get their drinking water, the 12th
World Health Assembly took an impor-
tant step to remedy the situation. The
assembly endorsed a global community
water supply program, and approved the
granting of first priority to this activity
in the organization's environmental sani-
tation program.
The problem of providing safe and
adequate water supplies is not essentially
a problem of rural areas. As Dr. M. G.
Candau, WHO's director-general, pointed
out, "It is disheartening to record that
in 1959 in many major cities and their
densely urbanized satellites many mil-
lions of people are still dependent upon
individual wells, springs or itinerant
purveyors for this life-giving commodity.
Cities, ranging from two to seven or
eight million people, not only fail to fur-
nish water through pipes to households
of several hundreds of thousands of their
inhabitants, but even to those directly
connected to the system they supply an
unsafe water, often on a rationed basis
of a third of each day or less. This sig-
nificant fact is often ignored in deter-
mining environmental sanitation pro-
grams."
Furthermore, Dr. Candau said, "the
labor involved in drawing water and
transporting it for a long distance, a
task which often falls to the lot of the
women, results in their virtual enslave-
ment. Frequently as much as one-half
of their time, day after day, month after
month, is taken up with this essential
chore. A very simple calculation will
show that there is no more efficient
means of transporting water than by a
pipe.
"A small pipe- one inch in diameter
-will deliver in a day, without human
VOL. 49. NO. 9, A.J.P.H.

effort, as much water as can be carried
by 150 women working steadily for eight
hours. Even in the most advanced coun-
tries there are still great deficiencies."
Clearly, the problem of community water
supplies has social and psychological as
well as health implications.
The new emphasis given by the assem-
bly to its environmental sanitation pro-
gram is interesting in still another
respect. Historically, progress in environ-
mental sanitation has moved outward
from the urban to the rural areas and
not in the opposite direction. Further-
more, large and important areas of en-
vironmental sanitation come into play
concomitantly or as sequels of commu-
nity water supply and sewerage services.
For various reasons, international pro.
grams during the past decade or so
tended to reverse or to redirect these
patterns insisting that first things come
last, either functionally or geographi-
cally. By overemphasizing the rural as-
pects of environmental sanitation large
blocks of population were ignored, and
many attempted improvements failed of
their purpose because of their inappro-
priateness to the area covered. The new
emphasis is a corrective because it rec-
ognizes the need for certain basic ele-
Social Security for Doctors Poll
The AMA News, weekly newspaper
of the American Medical Association,
reports the result of a poll of members
of nine of their constituent associations
on compulsory social security coverage.
Of a total of nearly 29,000 physicians
in eight states and the District of Colum-
SEPTEMBER, 1959
EDITORIALS
ments, such as a strong administrative
and financial foundation.
It is intended that WHO shall devote
more attention to the development of
assistance to governments in the legal,
financial, and administrative planning of
waterworks programs. There are two
great obstacles to the provision of water
systems, namely, unsuitable existing
legal and administrative systems, and
unsuitable systems for providing capital
funds for construction. But such sys-
tems are not beyond change. While de-
tails will differ from country to country,
there are certain controlling principles
which apply in most cases, and through
which WHO may be involved. First, it
can help to obtain trained personnel.
Second, it can provide assistance in the
legal, financial, and administrative as-
pects. Finally, it can assist govern-
ments in problems involved in the opera-
tion, maintenance, and management of
waterworks.
During its initial year, the implemen-
tation of this program by WHO will de-
pend upon contributions to a Community
Water Supply Special Fund, but it is
expected that for this important purpose
adequate funds will be available volun-
tarily from member countries of WHO.
bia replying, the poll favored coverage
by nearly two to one. In the two states
voting no and representing fewer than
10 per cent of the replies the voting was
nearly two to one against. Among the
remaining seven, the majority ranged
from 82 to 57 per cent in favor.
1191