The evening Republican., 1902-08-18
THE EVENING REPUBLICAN
me Republican Printing
and Publishing Go.
h eEnLIShED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY
rs. =, COR. THIRD AND KING STREETS.
Entared 1t the Post Office at Wilmington
II Del. as second class mail matter.
!.KlUNDAf, AUGUST IS. 1000.

ACCORDING to Secretary Wigsles-
worth, this city is as healthy as 9th
~ cities and as free from typhoid
fever. To this Prof. Chester takes
exception and in communication
TO the Star he says I'VE have sutfi
Gent grounds for all that was stated
otherwise we would have remained
silent" He then publishes figures
from so cities, of over 100, 900 popu-
/ lation, for the past year. OF the 30
cities given in the list, Wilmington
stands eleventh, and its typhoid
rsts was higher than for Philadel-
phia forthe same period He thinks
therefore from figures computed
that the typhoid fever death rate
lin Wilmington for the last 10 years
has been high.
Furthermore if such is the record
Of typhoid mortality for a people
drinking filtered water, then we
have one of the strongest argu-
anents against the efficiency of our
Aystem Of filtration He then gives
the death rate from typhoid fever
i Ia Berlin, London, Hamburg, Bres-
lau, The Hague and Zurich.
Berlin obtains its water from the
Haver and the Spree which are
4 grossly contaminated; London from
two small polluted rivers, the Lea
and the Thames; Hamburg, from
Il the notoriously polluted Elbe; Bres-
n Ian from the Oder, which is charged
with sewage Of the mining districts
sOf SILICA and Gallicia. The Hague
and Zurich use comparatively pure
water before filtration: the former
collected from drains in the sand
danes, the latter from Lake Zurich.
The low typhoid mortality in the
scities Of Berl,n, London and Ham
burg using glossy contaminated low
y water shows furthermore that water
much more polluted than that of the
BrandyWine can be rendered compar-
! atiyely safe for human consump-
\ ticA.
With a modern system of tilterl-
ton the typhoid fever de ath rate in
Wilmington could be reduced from
I so TO 10 per 100000 of population,
which on the boss Of $1,000 inhabi-
Stants would mean the saving OF 80
lives annually.
II The cost Of the new Albany tiltra-
ton plant for city somewhat larger
than Wilmington was appropriately
half a million This cost is however
mo proper estimate of the expenses Of
ssinstalling modern plant Winning
ton, since the Albany filters are COW
,ered. while the Wilmington filters
would probably not have to BE-, AM
although am not an engineer, ! am
perhaps safe in saying that suitable
plant could be installed here at Il cost
iOf 1920, 900 to $3.50, 600.
In water shed as populated as
that Of the Brandy wine It's waters are
open to constant pollution. and its
Hise cannot be considered safe without
efficient filtration. AS a low water if
1T is of its type as good Or Of no worse
than that of any upland stream, ana
for better than that Of hosts Of other
streams whose wal crs are to day DO
ing efficiently purified by proper sand
filtration.
There is one thing certain ard that
It's that for neariy two weeks past you
had to hold your nose with one hand
while yon drank the city water. 1t
even smelled too rank to bath with.
But on top of this the physicians Of
the city say that while there are
many cases Of typhoid in this city,
there were no more than as usual at
this time of the year.
We had from small boy been told
what good pure, wholesome water
the people Of Wilmington hal TO
drink, that the people Of THIS com
munity were fortunate III llaVlng such
excellent drinking water, Now all
this illusion has bCen dispclIel by
Professors Chester and Robin Of the
Delaware College Meteorological
Laboratory.
The Philadelphia Evening Tcle-
graphs correspondent from Oyster
Bay says: "President Roosevelt will
hold aloof from the RepubIlran
squabble in Delaware Rather than