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Health is the most valuable of all possessions, for with health one can attain anything else within reason.A few of the great people of the world have been sickly, but it takes men and women sound in body and mind to do the important work. Healthy men and women are a nation's most valuable asset.

It is natural to be healthy, but we have wandered so far astray thatdisease is the rule and good health the exception. Of course, mostpeople are well enough to attend to their work, but nearly all aresuffering from some ill, mental or physical, acute or chronic, whichdeprives them of a part of their power. The average individual is ofless value to himself, to his family and to society than he could be.His bad habits, of which he is often not aware, have brought weaknessand disease upon him. These conditions prevent him from doing his bestmentally and physically.

This abnormal condition has a bad effect upon his descendants, who maynot be born with any special defects, but they have less resistance atbirth than is their due, and consequently fall prey to disease veryeasily. This state of impaired resistance has been passed on fromgeneration to generation, and we of today are passing it on as aheritage to our children.

About 280,000 babies under the age of one year die annually in theUnited States. The average lifetime is only a little more than fortyyears. It should be at least one hundred years. This is a veryconservative statement, for many live to be considerably older, and itis within the power of each individual to prolong his life beyond whatis now considered old age.

Under favorable conditions people should live in comfort and health tothe age of one hundred years or more, useful and in full possession oftheir faculties. Barring accidents, which should be less numerous whenpeople fully realize that unreasonable haste and speed are wasteful and that life is more valuable than accumulated wealth, human life could and should be a certainty. There should be no sudden deaths resulting from the popular diseases of today.

In fact, pneumonia, typhoid fever,tuberculosis, cancer and various other ills that are fatal to the vast majority of the race, should and could be abolished. This may sound idealistic, but though such results are not probable in the near future,they are possible.