Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-28
ENEMIES OF HEALTH.
The Ladies' Association Discuss and
Strongly Denounce
EXPLOITATION IN STREET CARS.
Stout Opposition to the Proposed Garbage
Ordinance.
ABITTNG THE BLACK PLAGUE OF SMOKE

The pestilential garbage pile and the
dense clouds of smoke that doom Pittsburg
and Allegheny to an existence OF sickness
and darkness must go.
Such was the forcible declaration and i'm
port of the annual meeting of the Ladies'
Health Protective Association held yester-
day afternoon at the home of Miss Denny
at 412 Penn avenue, and attended by the
Mayor-elect of Allegheny, DR.. W. j. Hol-
land, Chancellor of the Western Pennsyl.
vania University; Dr. j. B. Murdoch, At
torney Edward SculI, DR.. Eton, recently OF
Boston, and half hundred prominent So
ciety ladies of Pittsburg and Allegheny.
The object of the meeting was to discuss
the menacing question to the beauty of the
two cities, OF smoke and the disposition of
the garbage.
As early as o'clock the carriages of the
ladies of the society began arriving, and
when the meeting was called to order at 2:30
o'clock by Mrs. William A. Heron, the
President of the society, the cozily y-ap-
pointed parlor of Miss Denny was well
filled.
An Aggressive Band of Ladies'.
There was well developed spirit of ag-
gressiveness permeating the atmosphere
that had occasion to make the ladies look
more stern and decided than is their wont.
This agrressiveness was made more mani
fest as the time wore OIL and additions were
made to the little bevy of ladies who dis
cussed the awful nuisance of smoke and the
dread danger that lies in the garbage heap
and the obnoxious habit of expectorating
upon the street and in public conreyances,
for all were most emphatic in their denun-
Citations.
The first report was made by the Secre-
tary, Mrs. John NJ. Oakley, the most active
member of the society, and to whom the
society is really indebted for the progress
they have already made. Mrs Oakley's re-
port was most ably prepared, giving clear
and concise expression of the beliefs and
desires of the society. The report says:
This National Health Protective Associa-
tion is simply protest of housekeepers
against the filth of our American cities. They
can keep neither their families nor their
houses in that state of cleanliness which IS
next to godliness when SCOT rains In through
every door and window, and dust from deSs1-
Gated garbage sifts in at every crevice.
When they look around at streets whose
condition inspires only loathlng and disgust,
they cannot as mothers lnstil into their chill
dren that pride of citizenship which Is the
safeguard of the Republic,nor can they train
them to ''honor and obey the civil author
ity," when laws are openly dlsregarded Dy
those who have sworn to uphold them. The
health associations in other cities began with
abating specific nuisances, but here there are
two general nuisances which dwarf all
others into insignificance; these are the
steadily increasing clouds OF smoke and the
absence of a garbage law. 1t Is these two
nuisances which the Health Association of
Allegheny county has been examining into
with the view of discovering q remedy.
First as to the smoke. We have conducted
an active correspondence with the friends
OF pure atmosphere in ST. Louis, Buffalo,
Cleveland, Chicago and England. We have
found everywhere a steadily growing irrita
tion against smoke and an increasing inter-
est in the subject of smoke consumption.
No Perfect Smoke Consumer.
We have learned from the testimony of ex-
perienced engineers what degree of success
to expect from smoke preventing devices
when applied to different kinds of firing.
We have found that there is no device as yet
Snvented that will successfully prevent
smoke in the manufacture of iron, steel and
glass. So far as these industries are
concerned smoke consumption is still an
experiment, though in certain stages of
manufacture the smoke can be materially
lessened, as has been proved in this city by
the results obtained by Oliver & Roberts and
by the Spang Steel and Iron Company, who
have told US that they have succeeded in
reducing their amount of smoke by large
per cent.
of steel and iron, smoke consumers are q
proved success when applied to stationary
boilers. There are several devices now in
operation in this city which with intelligent
handling are guaranteed to prevent from
70 TO 80 per cent of smoke 1t is
freely admitted that no device as yet
Invented has secured absolutely per-
feet combustion, but 90 per cent or
or even IS per cent of smoke consumed is a
very radical improvement on no per cent at
all. When the best devices do not prevent
is n of a 4 lie to 90 lasc
dremen or to overcrowded boilers, both of
which can be and ought to be renedieu.
The best of these devices, moreover, if prop.
erly managed, effect quite a saving in the
amount of coal consumed; yet. even if there
were no such saving, the prevention of
smoke should commend itself to the thrifty
producer, for the simple reason that any re-
duction in smoke means q corresponding re-
duction in the amount he pays for labor,
clothing and household furniture. Pitts
burg is one of the most expensive cities in
the country to live in, and one reason is the
enormous amount of personal property
ruined every year by the all-pervading SCOT.
Laws Against the smoke Nuisance.
We have found upon the statute books
three ordinances against the smoke
nuisance, one absolutely prohibiting the
use of bituminus coal by the juno
ton railway; one prohibiting all locomo-
tives from using bituminus coal within GER
tain limits, and one forbidding the erection
of coke ovens within the city limits alter
the year lS6f. IneSe ordinances nave been
practically dead letter since the dav they
were passed. By publishing the ordinance
against the junction road in the daily pa
pers, and following it with a long list of
engines that had continually violated the
law, we succeeded in bringing the matter to
the attention of Chief Bigelow. He promptly
took measures to enforce the ordinance and
since last May no engines on that road have
burned bituminous coal We have just laid
before Chief Bigelow q list of engines on the
other railways that have been viola ting the
law by making dense smoke within the
forbidden limits, and he has promised to see
that the law is enforced.
Pittsburg shares with Allegheny the un-
enviable distinction of being the only large
city in the United States, and, conse-
Quently, in the civilized world, without
garbage removal law. Other cities, East
and West, have a garbage removing service
in connection with the street cleaning de-
partment, by the operation of which the re-
fuse and ashes of every household are daily
carted away. The well-to-do OF Pittsburs
and Allegheny can avail themselves of the
services of a refuse company, but what are
the poor to do with their accumulation of
garbage?
Lives Saved by Heavy Rains.
We have no way of learning what the
city government expects them to do, but
we know what is done. All the refuse of
thousands of families is deposited in cellars
or back yards in side streets and alleys.
Heavy rains wash the street accumula-
tions down our hills and into the sewers, so
hills and sends US rains, we seldom have
severe epidemics, but u hot, dry summer
would speedily make of every garbage heap
a hotbed for disease and convince our
optimistic government that Providence
cannoS be relied upon to take exclusive
charge OF the street-cleaning department.
The absence of a garbage law is a dis
grace to tlese cities and to the age we live
in. We have prepared an address to the
Mayors of PlUtsburg and Allegheny on
tnis subject; we will endeavor to per-
suade some influential Councilman to
introduce ordinance regulating the daily