ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes the parallel task of commenting on Federal and State organisations in relation to American problems of Public Health. The history of American government presents features of exceptional interest and it has continued to be democratic for nearly three half centuries. The executive of the Federal Government, except when inter-State matters were concerned, until recently has contented itself in the main in public health matters with advisory and consultant services and medical research. The Federal Public Health Service has increasingly become a centre of public health guidance and information, though without power except in matters affecting inter-State and international hygiene. The Sheppard-Towner Act enabled the Federal Children's Bureau to give grants in aid of child welfare work in each State; a very few of the States refused the grants as infringing on their sovereign position. In 1935 similar difficulty arises in the Federal Social Security Act concerned primarily with insurance for provision during unemployment and in old age.
