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Show SHAKING PUBLIC MORALE One cardinal principle of our kind of government is that public officials should treat the people with perfect per-fect frankness. American citizens are entitled to all the facts, except those which constitute actual military secrets. se-crets. Are the American people being accorded frank- V i ness? The gasoline and automobile situation raises this question. The American motorist is completely up in the air as to the future of car transportation. He has heard countless varying reports. He has read conflicting statement after conflicting statement from high Wash- ington officials. He is told, on the one hand, that gasoline gaso-line rationing is necessary because lack of various means of transportation makes it impossible to deliver normal supplies. He then hears that the storage ranks are running over with gasoline even in rationed areas, and that civilian consumption is really being reduced in j order to conserve tires and cars. Next he reads an official offi-cial statement that the government may soon have to requisition his tires and his car. Before the ink is dry on that report, he hears over the radio that such drastic action is not contemplated. Then to top it off, the next news report from Washington says it is hoped that experiments ex-periments now under way will produce a tire" that will keep the cars rolling, etc., etc. The citizen is lost in a welter of confusion. He doesn't know whether he is going to have gas or even a even a car next week or next month or next season. He doesn't know whether the synthetic rubber and the rub-ber-reclaiming programs are going well or badly! And nothing is harder on public morale than this kind of indecision, in-decision, because it undermines confidence in leadership . and governmental management. The American" people don't want to be pampered They are sending their boys to war and financing its cost to preserve liberty at home. They don't want to be treated like children. They don't want to be kept in the dark concerning matters vital to their welfare. What they do want is for their government to tell them the truth, explain the facts, adopt only policies which are in accord with true conditions, and stick to those policies. poli-cies. HOW HEALTHY ARE YOU? A periodic health examination may add years to your life. Through the recognition of physical changes at the earliest possible moment the progress of menacing degeneration and infection may be stopped, and a suitable suit-able plan of living devised to mantain continuous health. That invaluable advice is given in a recent editorial in v. Hygeia. Too many of us never go near the doctor unless we suffer definite illness. We'll go on feeling "poorly" for weeks and months and even years. During those weeks and monhs and years disease may progress to the point where even modern medical science can't check it. Medical authorities recommend that complete physical phy-sical examinations be taken every year, and twice each year after we pass middle age. Those examinations should cover the entire physical system lungs, heart, blood, the intestinal tract, teeth, feet, etc. In addition to the physical tests, the doctor will inquire into habits of sleep, rest, outdoor exercise, diet, and so forth'. When that is done, the doctor will be able write a health prescription. pres-cription. That prescription may not involve the taking of medicines. It may, instead, deal exclusively with such matters as rest, work, social adjustments and recreation. rec-reation. In any event, it will probably lengthen life ,and make it healthier, happier, fuller. |