The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-13
CITY NEWS
COST MANY LIVES
Smallpox Kills 189 Persons in Cleve-
land Where Compulsory Vacci-
| nation Is Abandoned.
The Sum Of $50, 900 Is Spent in Post
Mortem Fumigations- The
City's Record.

- =.
Smallpox is more or. less prevalent all
concern among the public health authori-
ties Of the country except at Cleveland.
Cleveland is the stronghold of the anti
Vaccinationists. It Is the home of Tom
Johnson, who as mayor Of the city urged
the citizens to refuse vaccination. Cleve-
land is also the place where 100000 was
spent last year in modern and rational
methods of combating smallpox cpl
denies. Compulsory vaccination was
abolished and the 100000 was burned UP,
! the money being spent In fumiga ting the
town. When it was all over a clever lit
tie brochure telling how smallpox was
stamped out in Cleveland was issued.
I The last number of the government
health reports shows that Cleveland from
June 1 to Nov. % of the present year had
| LOB cases Of smallpox from which there
were 1S9 deaths with the very high death
rate of 1924 per cent. The total number
Of cases in the whole state which includes
such large cities as Cincinnati. Toledo.
Dayton and Columbus, and scores OF
smaller ones was 1925 and the number OF
deaths was 24S. Thus Cleveland had al
most half Of all the cases and large ma
jority of all the smallpox deaths In the
big state Of Ohio.
Chicago, a city several times as large
as Cleveland, and a city the sanitary
conditions of which arc VIGOROUSLY bad
had in the same time seventy-f1ve cases
of smallpox and two deaths. New York,
a port of entry and ten times the size Of
Cleveland had 1873 cases and fifty-four
deaths.
Minneapolis had in the same period
twenty four cases and no deaths.
The Sanitarian, an authority in it's field
says:
1.-THE Cleveland Medical Journal for o.
tober refers to Health Officer Friedrichs
task as a most arduous one, and the more
for his time ard money wasted upon
formaldehyde that should nave been
sedulously devoted to vaccination, be
cause he has now to contend against the
'bigpox votaries-the mayor. who does
not believe in the efficacy of vaccination,
and who advises his acquaintances not to
be vaccinate certain portions of the
city's population refusing. the vaccina ton
and other portions too ignorant to be rea-
soned with while secure in their faith
| that force cannot be employed: quarantine
guards who allow all the people Of a
neighborhood7 to: come and so at then
will to and from affected houses; the
manifest difficulties of caring for a pest
house containing from 100 to 200 patients
parents and physicians CD who siren
! ousy object1to the new vaccination rules
Of the school council that were initiated
| by the committee on public health Of tbs
Academy of Medicine; preachers ( who
weekly llarangue their congregations In
opposition to. vaccinations; agents anC
partizans of the accine manufacturers de:
manding that he buy this or that make Of
vaccine and with the omnipresent specie,
Of charges of extravagant expenditures
facing him. This is. the common result
of neglected smallpox known to all prac-
teal observers for the last hundred years
+" Vaccination and vaccination only
can be depended upon for the prevention
of smallpox .-~- : ,-i.,.>~ - t,.,.. -,