The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-30
EVIL OF GREAT CITIES
MUCH HARM DONE CHILDREN BY
THE SALE OF IMPURE MILK.
Nathan Strauss Appeals to Mayors to
Adopt Means to Save the Babies
Address by Josiah Quincy.

COLUMBUS, o., Sept. pa feature of
the morning session of the national con-
ference of mayors and councilmen that
aroused great interest among the delegates
was the reading of a paper contributed by
Nathan Strauss, of New York, the in
fluence of a pure milk supply on the death
rate of children. The paper was read by
Mr.. Ford of New York, and it's opening
statement that there is practically no milk
delivered for general consumption in cities
that is fit to be fed in it's
natural state to young children
was sufficiently startling to chal-
paper closed with the following appeal: Il
think 1 have fairly demonstrated the prop
osition that many thousands of infants
lives are annually sacrificed by the neglect
to supply for the nutriment of children
milk which has been subjected to the pro-
cess of pasteuriZation. l hold that neglect
to be criminal, and | leave it to you to fix
the responsibility for it. We punish murder
with the penalty of death, and yet we allow
murder to be committed by the wholesale
in every populous community of this land
with no thought of its punishment and lit
tie thought of its prevention. The most ex-
asperating of all forms Of opposition to
public we'll doing is that which comes from
those VINO pervert the trust Of public office
to the satisfaction of a personal grudge or
the pursuit of a temporary partisan advan-
tage. / have had enough experience of this
in New York to force me to the conclusion
that the man who sets himself to the task
of doing good must be schooled into indif-
ference against the shafts of obloquy and
Misrepresentation. l appeal to you gentle
men, who are charged with the response
bilitieS attending the government of cities
great or small, to study the conditions
under which this work is done and carefully
note the results which attend the doing Of
it. appeal to you as If you were standing
beside a great river in whose current were
constantly swept past hundreds of drown
ing infants. This stream is a very real
thing ii people would but recognize it's ex-
is paid because you of the public neglect
some of the simple precautions for the saw
have the means under your control bv
which these drowning babies can be saved
| ask you, will you not apply them? Men
are found capable of acts Of heroism in
presence of danger less threatening and
i nissd r surely tnf fatal alton., All that
tivity of local boards of health into
sphere which is legitimately theirs, but
which they have so far, lacked the con-
not have spoken in vain if | have sue
ceeded IN impressing you with the fact that
the uictateS OF humanity and of public duty
combine in demanding that this backward
ness should exist no longer"
The appearance on the platform of Hon.
Josiah, Quincy, mayor of Boston, was
greeted with a welcoming applause ac-
corded no other speaker so far His address
scheduled as Municipal Affairs as
Administered in Boston" but its scope was
much wider. 1t presented a clear analysis
of the differences between federal state
the posi- bilitieS of municipal public sery-
ice almost limitless. He said that the ques-
tons whether city life has not already
proved TOO powerful magnet in attracting
people from the country to the town: Wheth-
er large numbers of those who to-day earn
scanty, sometimes precariouS. livelihood
in cities would not be materially better off
IN the country; whether municipalities will
not yet be forced, IN self-defense to omen
up some regular channels through which
those who become dependent upon the pub
he may De returned also TO speak to the
soil, TO earn their own support from its cul-
tyation, raise problems for the future
Wnlch can only be suggested at the present
time The practical fact with which we
have to DEAL. he said, lis that this ten
dency toward a relatively greater growth
of urban than of rural population does not
yet seem to have suffered any check and
that the good or bad administration of
municipal governments affects a far larg-
er NUMBER OF people and a greatr fraction
Al the same time the different kind of pub
lie service either directly undertaken or or
dinarily controlled by the modern city are
more numerous important, costly and COM
pick than have ever been expected in the
past or any kind OF local administration
After the noon adjournment there was no
further session of the mayors convention
to-day. 2 &c afternoon and evening were
given over to sight seeing and the enter
talnment of the delegates When the con-
vention meets Tomorrow the report of the
committee on permanent organization is
likely to cause sharp discussion. Friends
of &. f. Gilkison publisher of City Gov
eminent, are making a persistent canvass
for his selection as salaried secretary of the
permanent organization, but as both he and
MS publication pronounced ad
of municipal ownership Of public service
plants, much opposition to his election is
developing. The conservative element in
organization that may be effected should
not be operated in the interest of either
side of this question