The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-21
NON PARTISAN MICROBES.

Mayor Clarks administration OF
municipal affairs does not seem to give
that general satisfaction its friends
predicted, and those who were largely
responsible for it are among its Sc
verest critics now.
The non-partisan committee COM
posed of p. II. Lannan, John Henry
Smith, c. C. Goodwin ct al. pledged
themselves to select none but officials
of approved fitness and experience, -
and declared in their signed address to
the public that the city's servants and
employees should be selected for these
qualifications and no others" Then
they nominated John Clark for mayor
and pledged him to that platform
What was the result? John Clark
was elected mayor. He made his ap-
pointments-forced them upon the
council with the aid of the combination
schemer and bulldozer who was his
chief hacker in the campaign
He named John T. Game as superin-
tendent of waterworks.
He appointed James W. Ure sanitary
inspector.
He appointed DR.. Keogh health COM
missioner.
He named the present board of health
for Salt Lake City
Mayor John Clark made all of these
appointments.
Mayor John Clark is also eX-officio
chairman of the board of health.
Is there any question as to where
itary condition of the city?
Scarlet fever is here. 1t is spreading
Twenty-six cases are known to the
health officers now. How many are
hidden no one knows. Four deaths have
been reported within a few days. And
the worst of it is. that diseases like this
prevail where the sanitary conditions
are poor; where the health of the pub
lie is neglected; where reasonable pre-
cautions are not observed. Scarlet
fever. like typhoid. is preventative, and
there is no excuse for the alarming hold
it is taking upon this ordinarily health
full city.
What is the matter? In the language
of the non-partisan address upon which
John Clark was elected mayor and ex-
officio chairman of the board of
health
1T is better TO tell the truth now,
even at the cost of advertising our mis-
fortunes, than by concealment and in
activity to rush swiftly on to further
suffering
The water is full of microbes; the
system is inadequate to the needs OF
the city; the work of Improvement has
been stopped by an injunction: the men
who helped put the superintendent of
waterworks into office claim now that
he is incapable of discharging the
duties of that office; the non-partisans
are accusing each other of incompe-
tency; the sanitary inspectors duties
are neglected; the board of health is
not devoting as much time and atten-
ton to the welfare of the public as it
is expected to; Mayor Clark seems ut
terly helpless; he fails to show even
an intelligent appreciation of the grav-
ity of the situation In the meantime,
officers are kept busy mailing up quar-
antine flags ard enforcing quarantine
regulations, little children are suffering,
parents are grieving, and the dread dis
ease, whose worst effects are not al
ways covered up in coffin, continues
to spread.
An exchange is authority for the |
statement that the increase in this |
malady is 125 per cent over two years
ago, or before the present health Off |
GERS were installed.
Mayor Clark, as ex-officio chairman |
of the board of health, and his ap- |
pointees-Ure, Keogh, Fisher and |
Brooks-should see to it that the sani- |
tary conditions of the city are improved |
at once. Heroic measures to prevent |
the contagion from scattering may be /
necessary. Then those capitalists who
are interfering with the construction of |
improvements should with
draw their injunction suit, give the la
boring man a chance to go TO work to
earn money with which to pay his doc
tor bills. and premit the city to finish
the undertaking before summer comes
again with its dust and short supply Of
water.