Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-25
1ue SANITATION OF CUBA

IHE ShNtIhiiON VI SeOo'
The statement of health conditions IN
Cuba recently issued by the insuiar oi-
vision of the war department, resume
of which was given in the news col
rmns of this newspaper OF March 20
&c in itself a complete justification OF
American occupation of Cuba If such
justification were needed. The report
shows that when the United States
tool, charge of the health department
of the city of Havana deaths We're &C
curing from yellow fever every month
In the year and the annual number OIL
deaths from all causes footed up the
appalling total of 21,252. Not single
CAGE of the fever has occurred within
the three months previous to the repors
and the death list has been cut from
the figures above to an annual death
rate Of 1923. A virulent smallpox cpl
dennic has been controlled and the dis
ease stamped out, not a case having APP
peared in the city for the past eighteen
months. There has been little typhoid
and diphtheria and the death rate from
tuberculosis has markedly decreased.
The island has been practically res
cued from the yellow fever epidemics
so prevalent for 200 years and Cuba to-
sday is freer from smallpox than Iowa.
II has been a magnificent work and
splendidly accomplished. The rigid
rules of a military occupation made
possible a sanitary reform that was be-
yond the power of science unaided by
the dictatorial discipline of the soldier.
Had the United States army during its
invasion and occupation of Cuba ac-
complished nothing more than the sani-
tation of the island, the price in men
and money this country has expended
for Cuba's deliverance would have been
well expended. 1t is true that peace
has her victories and in its police work
that followed the Spanish evacuation
the army won victory wider in its
benefcence to the world at large than
any triumph gained fri battle by land
or sea. The island fer centuries had
been culture where the bacteria of
yellow fever and smallpox were propa-
gated. It lay less than a days sail from
our southern sea line, u cesspool of in
lection 1t was a perpetual menace to
the entire south, the cause of frightful
epidemics that devastated the cities of
the gulf states and slew thousands and
tens OF thousands. Cities again and
again lay helpless calling for assistance
and hundreds of northern physicians
and nurses went down into the pesti-
ience, fought the plague and ministered
to its victims until death found them
at their work. The south during yell
low fever visitation became plague
spot and horror. The days roster of
dead read like the death list after a
great battle. All who We're able fled
north or hid away in villages or country
the north quarantined against the
south. And when frost came to aid the
efforts of the physicians and the health
commissions and the epidemic was
finally conquered, each recurring sum-
mer put the entire southern seaboard
in tremors of panickv fear.
The fault was Cuba'i. The insanita-
ton of the island was abominable.
There had always been smallpox and
yellow fever and ignorance and laziness
combined to make it's recurrence iney-
table. The island was sty. When
the members of an Iowa regiment
landed at Havana they noted the de-
composing body of an infant lying I'M
disturbed and unburied by the wharf,
side. Open sewers, hit from sight by
covering Of flagstones, spread typhoid
and malaria. The combined stenches
were Neapolitan. The entire city was
vile with carton that was kicked about
the street and bred contagion and dis
case.
But all this has changed. The army
of occupation has in so short time.
wrought a sanitary reform of incalcu-
liable value to Cuba and the United
States and to the entire world. 1t has
made Cuba field for immigration and
a country that may be visited without
fear. Instead of a plague spot it may
become an ideal winter resort 1t has
rendered an epidemic of the dreaded
Yellow Jack unlikely in Cuba and al
most impossible in the gulf states SO
long as the present sanitary conditions
prevail Who shall say the results ac-
complished have not repaid the expend-
iture required?
THE PRESIDENTS ARMY ORDER.
The presidents order urging temper
ance reform in the army makes it the
duty Of the officers of the regular army
to teach by example ;as well as pre-
cept the lessons of abstinence from