The Challenge to the Voluntary Health Agency *

As soon as several of the inhabitants of the United States have taken up an opinion or a feeling which they wish to promote in the world, they look out for mutual assistance; and as soon as they have found one another out, they combine. From that moment they are no longer isolated men, but a power seen from afar, where actions serve as an example and where language is listened to .. . Americans of all ages, all conditions and all dispositions constantly form associations ... If it is proposed to inculcate some truth or to foster some feelings by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association. Democracy in America -Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835 What de Tocqueville perceived so clearly in America early in the nineteenth century has had a remarkable flowering in the Voluntary Health movement in the twentieth century. It has grown to its present large proportions because of newly acquired scientific knowledge in an age that brought the comfortable accompaniments of wealth and leisure and good-will toward the less fortunate. The pioneers who saw that much sickness and death could be prevented were not content until they had done something about it. A Flick, a Morrow, a Sanger, a Cleveland, a Wald, gathered about them groups of citizens, lay and professional. The cause was movingly set forth, meetings were held, goals were set, money contributed, and a voluntary health agency was born.