Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-01
SANITARY SAFETY AND ITS COST.

SANITARY SAFETY AND HIS COSI.
The report of the president of the Board
of Health TO the city Legislative Council,
given in the APPEAL yesterday, merits the
special attention of every resident. 1t is
worth rejecting what another visitation of
yellow-fever would cost the city. There
would be the immense loss from the suspen-
sion of,business-the city would be univer-
sally quarantined against. There would be
wholesale fight, and flight not made as read
lily as formerly, on account of the fears of
the surrounding country, and what horror
would it be for women and children to be
shut in where disease was ragingi There
would be the loss of citizens who are settling
among Us under the expectation that the city
is taking complete measures to ensure safety
from any future visitation. There would be
the paralyzing of the industrial enterprises
now obtaining footing among US. How
much further we could instance
reasons for continued sanitary care
and improvement in Memphis those who
have resided here in yellow-fever times well
know. Yet, with all this knowledge, with
all the CHASTITY occurrences of the past star
ing us in the face, we have not yet completed
the steps necessary to insure safety. The
president of the Board of Health solemnly
says: 81 am satisfied that the present death
rate can be greatly lowered by further i'm
provement of our sanitary condition" This
means that more people are dying in Mem
phis than would die if the city took the
proper steps to keep as many as she could
alive; in other words, that people are now
dying that would be kept alive If we took
the proper precautions to preserve health;
that the sanitary condition of the city comes
hort of what it can be made to be. 1t is the |
life, the precious life Of our dear ones and |
our best; it is the prosperity of the city, its |
commerce and its manufactures, that are at |
take. Under such circumstances only
IDIOTS could sit still and do
nothing. And what does DIR. Thornton tell |
Is must be done? Just what we all acknowl-
dyed, after the two fever years, must be
lone without delay, and vowed and pledged
ourselves to those who had helped us in our
Jour of agony and woe, and to the whole
lation, should be done, and it is yet left in
omplete. The sewer system, with the SUBJ
oil drains, must be made an entire and
erfect whole, not left an uncontrolled
tempt as at present. The Bayou Gsyeeo
nd the ground that borders it-breeders of
isease and spreaders of contagion-must
,ceive those improvements which careful
lvestIgation has shown to be indispensably
Delay is danger, and il the {
anger became realized how could Memphis I
ce the reprobation that would be cast upon (
city that, after enduring what Memphis
as endured, still failed to provide, s
the very uttermost, against a re-
I'm of the dreadful agencies that have
,aves, and Frustrated our hearts with agony,
those loved more than our own life fell t
fore the fearful visitant summoned by filth .
ID neglect of sanitary care? But to carry h
It all we engaged to perform and to heed p
the warning of the Board OF L
ealth would be costly. This is the real
use of procrastination, but the allegation y
false. To make the needed Improvements d
'uld be economy, not cost. When ship n
IS on the rocks so that the next wave will L
eak her up and the seas engulf her pre- Z
Jus cargo, is it costly to have her safely
urned to the waters along which she can v
ELY proceed the voyageH Is it not "
lnding by and permitting the wild waves n
compass destruction that would be costly? "
silly to save the lives of our family and IL
ose OF our neighbors? Costly to save our 81
de, our traffic, our factories, and our
rkshops? Count the cost of completed Of
vers and wholesome bayou, put all a.
y would cost in one scale, and all that one n,
gle season OF epidemic would cost in the st
Ter, and seeing the vast preponderance of p
'ss of wealth, with the loss of life added, Il
/ then talk OF the costliness of relief, of
ETY., of health, of prosperity, of extended i,
de, OF increase of manufactures, of higher to
ne of estate, OF the accumulation of W
alth steady and unchecked. Put the few y
usands expended beside the wondrous 10
n, gain in happiness as we'll as wealth,
never, never will there be a complaint Sc
,ut costliness, for salvation from yellow AZ
er epidemic should induce every citizen IN ~
to pay literally for the precious co
N, with ready hand and a willing heart, be
while the death rate in Memphis is co
her than it should be in the nature of co
ngs, not the unlimited act of good but the w
ed and Indifference OF men are the causes "a
co
of