The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-09


We cannot afford to wait until we have
fed it and strengthened it with the
lives Of our people. The necessary re-
forms will call for costly works even
now. But every months delay will
make them more costly and more i'm
perative. We can set about these re-
forms now calmly and judiciously.
Later, under the impulse of a panic,
we should work at far greater disad-
vantage"
Colonel Warning suggested the follow
ing improvements as absolutely essen
t1al to make Havana a healthy city:
1. Organize Immediately a depart
ment of public cleaning under the full
control of a single commission expe-
rienced in the conduct of such work,
and with authority to do all that the
occasion may require. This depart
ment, Colonel Warning urges, should
have for its chief function, the MAIN
tanning of constant state of cleanli-
ness in all streets and public places.
in all public buildings and places of
public resort and about the public mar
kets and abbattoirs 1t should also con-
troll the disposal of all wastes except
sewerage by cremation and otherwise.
2. Construct a system of sewers to
receive the liquid wastes of all houses
of the main city as far as Belascoain
These sewers should serve separately
the different districts into which The
verious slopes divide themselves and
each should discharge directly into the
gulf or into the harbor, as the case
may be. Before such discharge the
eff1uent should be effectively clarified
by one of the various well-known meth
DDS, so that it would carry only its
dissolved impurities. The amount of
sea water flowing into and out of the
harbor at each tide is about three
thousand times that of a days dis
charge of the clarified sewerage of
the harbor slope of the city, SO that the
dllution will be immediate and more
than complete.
). Fill up all the private and kitchen
waste vaults and supply every house
with an adequate water closet con-
nected with the public sewerage sys-
tenn The closets so furnished should
be only what is adequate and necessary
for the purposes now served by the
vaults. Anything beyond this to be put
in by the householder under proper SUI
pervision at his own cost.
4. Pave or repave all the streets in
the best manner with asphalt.
D. Provide a completely appointed
abbattoir for large and small animals,
adequate for all the needs of the popu-
lation.
&. Provide a suitable and sufficient
incinerating furnace for the complete
and inoffensive destruction of gan baye
and other refuse, including street
sweepings, also of all dead animals,
including horses and oxen.
Z. Reclaim all the marshes, at least
those between the Calzada de Viver
and Regla, about 500 acres, which will
involve the care of the drainage from
about $50 acres. This reclamation to
be made after the Folder method
of Holland by dyking out the hal bor
and the water courses and moving The
water by pumping.
s. Establish an electric power plant
sufficient for this pumping, for pump
ing sewerage where necessary and for
propelling the machinery of the abb
battoir, say three hundred horsepower
in all
Colonel Waring states that it is not
possible from the data now available
to estimate the cost of all the work in
dicated above more than to say that it
will not exceed ten millions of dollars.
1t has been estimated, continues Col
onel Waring, that single epidemics in
troduced to the United States from Ha-
vana have cost in the Mississippi VAL
ley alone one hundred millions of dol
lars in loss to industries and to COM
merce, aside from the loss of life.
amounting in 1878 and 1879 to 1871,
in addition to the enormous cost of the
sickness of those who worked Colonel
Waring further states that in his judg-
ment the complete execution OF the
work above indicated would completely
eradicate yellow fever from Havana
for all time and would reduce its nor
figure (not far from 80 per thousand)I TO
about 20 per thousand. He says that if
these Improvements are to be made
there must be no delay and no half way
measures. All that is indicated must
be done in the best and most complete
manner, and it must all be done be-
fore June l, 1899. If it is not all done,
there is every reason to fear that yell
low fever will be rife in Havana next
season, because of the large number OF
unprotected persons who would go
there trusting to the efficiency to the
partial carrying out of the work. The
mortality of the city of Havana for the
week ending October g. 1898, was 535.
an annual rate of 139. SO per thousand.