Salt River herald., 1878-03-02
SALT RIVER HERALD.
Saturday. March 2.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

There Is no county In Arizona, with the exception of Maricopa, but that when invaded by pestilent ep- idemic disease the authorities have taken prompt and effective meas ures to check the contagion and pre- vent it from spreading. That such measures have not been adopted in this county is the fault of the coun- ty Board of Supervisors.
 It seems to us that the health of the people so far as he same is un- der their charge should be q matter that must take preced nee over everything else that comes within the jurisdiction of the County Su- pervisors. It is a lamentable fact that it is not so in this county, as it is in this direction that our sapient Board exercises its principal efforts at retrenchment of expenses. No matter how trivial a thing may come before them, its consideration and an order to meet its expense is promptly attended to, while mat ter so important as the public health is entirely overlooked and uncared for.
 At this writing we have two or three cases of smallpox scattered into as many different houses and localities in the county and the con tagion is liable to spread among any chance callers or obsequious friends as the patients are all perfectly ac- cessible to any who may desire, or happen to see them. In the other counties pest houses with medical attendants, nurses and quarantine regulations have been provided, while here the loathesome disease is at perfect liberty to spread as it may. During the last winter our schools have been dismissed, all reli- gious and social assemblies sup pressed, and business stagnated, simply because our Supervisors have not proper regard for their duty in this matter of public health.
 It is to be hoped that the Board will now awake to a sense of their duties and that the proper meas ures in this important direction will be taken at their meeting next Mon day so that the spread of the dis ease may be stopped. Should chilly damp weather set in, and it is not unlikely at this season of the year, it might grow into a raging virulent epidemic as 1t now is in Messilla valley New Mexico, where six thousand persons have perished with this plague ill the last few weeks. It is no time for shirking the responsibility gentlemen of the Board, and if you now begin to show that you have a little care for the health of the taxpayers under your charge, these same taxpayers will be the more inclined to look over the errors you may have com mitted in your administration of other affairs.
 In addition to the sanitary meas ures already demanded, it would be we'll to organize a chain gang of the prisoners in the jail and make a thorough police clean up of the filth within the town before the warm weather sets in. Many of the adobe holes, alley-ways, and even in places on the streets are simply pest heaps where rotten filth and garbage send up efluvia engendering disease. Such an employment of the prisoners will lessen the ambition of rowdies and hard characters, towards get ting good board and quiet quarters in the county jail and thereby we shall save expense to the county and have more orderly town.
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 TREE PLANTING.