Public health at the fair

In the days before television and radio, one of the most popular ways to inform and entertain the public on the prairies was through the summer fair. This was a mass medium full of noise, color and excitement, providing a welcome relief from the toil and drudgery of everyday life. It is not surprising that Dr. Maurice Seymour, head of the Saskatchewan Bureau of Public Health, should take full advantage of this opportunity for public education. This was the man who later articulated “The Seymour Plan” for combatting the major communicable diseases of the day: a co-operative, concentrated campaign of public education to the fact that these diseases were communicable and preventable. He firmly believed that “disease is the ally of ignorance, dirt and disorder.” He and his staff therefore took their message to the people where they could be reached in greatest numbers, beginning at the 1916 Provincial Exhibition in Regina. As an accompaniment to the novel “Baby Welfare Conference”, the Bureau erected a display dealing with the causes of infant mortality and showing mothers the correct methods of feeding, clothing, healthy conditions of related to child care.