Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND SOCIAL WORK-BETTMAN I73
benefits which are accruing to our people from this rapidly spreading, popular outdoor life can scarcely be estimated. We should strive to secure the benefits for every
grade of our population. The other interesting development is the growing number of
people who are coming under continuous health supervision. We are gradually developing a new type of physician. He practices preventive medicine on an individual
scale. The periodic physical examination and attention to all the details of personal
hygiene replaces the classical pills and powders. It is true this new type is scarce, but
the medical leaders of our country are awaking to the possibilities of such service. This
is positive-health work of the most valuable kind.
We have followed the evolution of health work from the negative to the positive
phase in a rather sketchy manner. It would be unfair to leave you with the impression
that the speaker advocates the junking of all the machinery which we have built for the
suppression and prevention of disease. These are invaluable in many ways. He does,
however, wish to point out that in this new positive phase that we have at last recognized the value of health promotion as a means of disease prevention.
The problem of health and disease is a complex one. It can only be solved by the
use of all the resources we have at our command. So if we are to reach that golden age
when vigorous health will be the rule, and old age the principal cause of death, we must
have real alliance of all of the agencies interested in social welfare.
THE LAW'S DELAY
THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND HIS
RELATION TO SOCIAL WORK
Alfred Bettman, Attorney at Law, Cincinnati
By "metropolitan" community is simply meant the very large urban American
community. There is no necessity for fixing a population figure at which a community
becomes entitled to the resounding designation metropolitan or acquires the advantages
and disadvantages of metropolitan characteristics. Every such community possesses
characteristics which are recognized as favorable to the growth of crime and which
intensify the difficulties of both punishment and prevention. Both the number and
variety of crimes committed place a great strain upon the law-enforcement machinery.
The expression "district attorney" will, in this discussion, be taken to signify the
officials or group of officials who have charge of the prosecution of criminal cases before
the courts. As was elaborately pointed out in the Cleveland Survey of the Administration of Criminal Justice, the division of prosecution of crime amongst different,
independent, and uncoordinated groups of officials is a serious weakness in our lawenforcement machinery and a great impediment to the efficient administration of criminal justice. The Chicago Crime Commission listed the "maladministration of criminal
justice" as one of the ten great causes of crime. The reduction of the inefficiency of
the apparatus with which we control crime is therefore an important method of crime
prevention; and one of the most practical and necessary steps in this direction would be
the concentration into one highly organized office of the whole field of the prosecution
of all types and grades of offenses before all courts within the same metropolitan area.
To complete the definitions of the terms of our subject, we must not forget "social
work." Almost any definition of social work is either too much or too little. In its