The Good-Health Seal

THE GOOD-HEALTH SEAL Each of our national holidays brings to us its own peculiar message. The Christmas season, as no other, is associated in our minds with the gospel of good will. Whatever our religious beliefs or ethical convictions may be, we all respond at this time to the spirit of unselfish service, epitomized in the simple words, "Merry Christ- mas." Our generous impulses reach out to embrace those who are less fortunate than we. That is why we welcome the advent of the Christmas Seal — it gives us an opportunity to say "Merry Christmas" in a practical, helpful way. When Einor Hoelbell, an obscure Danish postal clerk, originated the Christmas Seal to finance a hospital for tuberculous children, he little dreamed that within two decades the American people would be using annually 450 millions of seals, and that the proceeds from their sale would furnish the sinews of war for the most successful volunteer health movement in the United States. Nor did Hoelbell foresee the startling revolution which would be brought about in our public health thinking, as one of the indirect results of the Seal. Twenty years ago no one would have associated tuberculosis, its misery and despair, with the holiday spirit of Christmas. To inject depressing thoughts of plagues, disasters and disease into the Christmas season would have been considered impolite and out of place. Today we cheerfully support the Christmas Seal campaign as an integral part of the Christmas season. To us in Utah, it is as indispensable as the turkey and the pudding. It does not seem out of place to us because we have undergone a remarkable change in attitude; we have developed entirely new concepts about public health. For no longer do we dwell on the horrors of disease, but rather do we stress health — exuberant, robust, expanding health. The Tuber- culosis Seal has become a Health Seal. There has come gradually a new concept of public health which emphasizes positive health-building rather than a passive defense against disease. What could be more fitting to the Christmas season than to associate it with the priceless gift of health? Let the people of Utah get behind the Christmas Seal sale and show the Nation we are in the campaign against this dread disease, tuberculosis. — Utah Public Health Association.