The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-19
POLITICS AND SANITATION.
Address by Hon. viii Cumback Before the
State Sanitary Convention.
Special to the 1ndianapoIis journal.


LAFAYETTE Nov 1S.-The sanitary conven-
ton under the auspices of the State and local
boards of health held a meeting here to day,
which was well attended and exceedingly inter
esting and instructive. Judge H. w. Chase, of
this city, presided, and an address of welcome
was delivered by President Smart, of Purdue Uni
versity. Addresses and papers on sanitary
topics were presented by Hon VIII Cumback,
Dr. James F. Hubbard, Dr. e S Elder, DR..
James R. Weist, DR.. Joseph Spalding, Prof. H.
II. Huston and others.
Hon Will Cumbacks address had as its title
politics and Sanitation, and was as follows:
Mr. President Ladies and Gentlemen The
programme dscloses so many interesting topics
for this afternoon that am admonlshed by 1t to
be very brief. The committee have assigned to me
for a subject, Politics and Sanitation" and in
so doing can but think that they concluded,
that if were not well posted i'll hygiene, |
might know something of politics, and credit
them with a broad and liberal disposition to
help me out But to discuss the two together
and successfully, show that thtre is logical con-
nection between the trout and rear of my sub
iect may be SO difficult that may loose in the
end all that was gained in the beginning. l
heard of preacher. once, who took for his text
Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou
art i'll the way with him, etc" He said he would
first try to impress his hearers with the neces-
Slty OF agreement. SsfO0nlN ne WuulQ Snow That
the adversary is the deviLand thirdly and finally,
he would make practical application of the
first and second propositions. His plea in favor
of harmony was admirable, and even peetical,
and he made great success out of his secondly,
the adversary is the devil; but when he came to
tounite the two and make his practical applica-
tion he found himself very Unexpectedly advo-
eating agreement with the devil The situation
was embarrassing, and he invoked the prayers
of the pious or he would fail on his thirdly. l
NAV make a like unfortunate ending
The real purpose of this meeting is to discuss
and consider the best means TO promote the
health of the physical body, and not the disor-
ders of the body polite. feel warranted1n the
belief that am to be permitted to wander out
Of the path the Board of Health has made, and
roam around in larger field, and discuss polit-
zeal health. The assignment Of such topic is
my license to do so; and yet that part of the
subject is too broad for the brief time that is al
lowed me- That the health of the body-politic
is bad, all will concede that the political atmos-
phere is charged with malaria. and that we are
constantly inhahEg the poison, cannot be de-
MED; that there is no improvement in this re-
snect over former periods will also be admitted,
and the hope for better state Of things is
exceedingly faint An Indiana statesman some
years age gTaNely said to q large audience OF his
eountrymen, on public occasion: Things are
in a very bad condition in this country, and if
there is not q change. things will remain about
rs they are" fully agree with this
truthful and profound remark When a
eontagion comes, and the public health is
threatened with epidemic by quarantine and
pest-house regulations the diseased may be sep
aFated from the healthy; the garbage may be
buried the filth may be carted off, and the pes
thence breeding pond may be drained. and the
board of health may be able to head off the dis
ease and arrest the epidemic All of that is
only a recent discovery. 1t has not been many
years since that the presence of an epidemic was
universally regarded as the undoubted evidence
of the displeasure of the Almighty, and to battle
against it was not TO be thought of, beyond in
voking his mercy But the reign Of law is now
better understood. The human race having
learned that the causes of disease are natural
and not supernatural they have come founder
staIN that if the cause IS removed the effect will
cease, and health will take the place of disease.
We have not learned the way to heal our po-
litica disorders, or if we have learned anything
we have not tried the remedy. We have an cpl
demic every four years. We have just come out
of one The fever was broken the 4th of
this month but the public pulse is vet weak and
irregular. Everybody has been feeling the
public pulse and it is exhausted The public
tongue is still heavily coated with the poison of
the campaign, and the general condition of the
:Sody-pohtic is very much worse than it be-
fore the contagion appeared; and if some life
giving tones are not promptly and intelligent Y
applied it will not reach its normal condition be-
fore another quadrennial attack.
During the existence of the epidemic you can
nave no quarantine or pest house, for the reason
that all take the disease at once You cannot re-
move the garbage, for the partisan press dump
an additional quantity on your doorstep every
morning, and the public speakers come and
scatter these heaps of filth among the people,
and then the people put some Of it on poles and
tr;lnsparencies, and carry it through the streets,
so that the political atmosphere becomes
so poisoned that morbid appetite is created for
Islander, and good men actually relish filth and
enjoy lie. The blood becomes so corrupted
that the ugly and health destroying ulcers of
fraud at the polls appear on the body -politici
sores that never heal but continue to poison the
which
health.
And right here may I not begin to tie the two
ends OF my subject together; to establish a sort
of connection between them; one that is not al
together imaginary either! The relations be-
tween the mind and the body are mysteriously
and ineomprehensibly intimate. If you touch
one you affect the other. If one is hurt, the
other is wounded by the same blow If the man
who for the time being inhahits the body allows
his manhood TO be soled he will in some measure
cease to care for the cleanliness of his body. If
men spend whole campaign in throwing dirt at
their adversaries, each finging as much as he re-
eeives, so that all covered with the black
1nire of defamation, they will conclude that they
cannot be clean any way, and will neglect the
bath tub and tie body will soon become as
filthy as its nhabitant, and physical disorder
will be begotten by moral disease. When men
are conscious that they have acted the hog in
politics, they are apt to conclude to be
a hog, and be done with it. am sure have
seen men whowere once neat and clearly but who
became active in politics for few years. doing
the dirty work for the party, and they became as
filthy in their persons as the work they were en-
gagged in. man who will soil his mouth with all
the campaign SANDERS of red hot political con-
test will cease to have so little respect for
that opening in his eountenance that he will
make it the receptacle of other things the odor of
which cannot be suppressed with cardamom seed
or burnt coffee And if this proposition be true
the converse cannot be false dirt viii strike out
it will also strike in. If a man never washes his
body, he will not be careful to keep his spirit
klean; so that dirt will reinforce dirtand disease
will reinforce disease. and the propriety of the
discussion of politics and sanitation becomes
dimly apparent
Our fathers in Indiana twenty years ago had
rather an unhappy time. Ii they could not raise
a good crop of corn they had a fine yield of ma
laria, from the timber as well as from the cleared