The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-21
THE PLAGUE
HAS FULL SWAY
IN INDIA 1T MUST RUN IT'S
COURSE UNCHECKED.
The English Find Themselves Help
less in the Face of Passive Resist
ance to Sanitary Measures The
Native, Both There and in Manila,
Avoids Most Elementary Practices
of Cleanliness.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.

] hols AAOolo IloDS.heIlOCTdI.
From England's great empire in the
orient comes the disturbing news that
| the plague Is raging there more fierce
! ly than at any moment since it's APP
pearance seven years ago and that the
British government has resigned itself
to allowing the fell disease to run its
course unchecked. Altho more than
100000 people have persisted Of the
plague In the Deccan since its out
break, and the whole Of midas trade
and industry have been gravely at
fected by Its ravages, the exports from
Bombay, for instance, having fallen
off to the extent Of some 80 per cent.
yet the English authorities seem to
have no alternative in the matter. A
mere handful in the midst Of a teem-
ing population of over 300,000,000 of
natives, they find themselves helpless
IN the face Of the more or less passive
resistance of the whole people to en-
force those measures which are neces-
sary to arrest the spread of the pest.
Isolation, segregation and incubation
have been in turn tried, without sue
cess, and have merely served to arouse
the discomfort of the natives and to
damage the prestige of the govern
nent by demonstrating its powerless-
ness to enforce its commands. And
SO the authorities have resigned them
selves to the inevitable, and, infected,
perhaps, by the tmosphere OF fatal
ism which prevails turnout the orient,
have given up the fight against the de-
crees Of Providence in so far as the
plague Is concerned.
The action of England in the mat
ter is of profound interest to every
maritime power, especially to those
who, like the United States, possess
colonial dependencies in the orient
For 1t will be necessary to increase
the precautions against the pest at
every foreign port doing trade with
India, which now being more than
ever regarded as the home Of the
plague, Is destined to witness a still
greater decline Of her commerce, and
consequently also Of her industry than
she has suffered until now. More
over, now that the British. who are
past masters in the art Of dealing with
orientals, and whose experience of the
latter extends over a period OF more
than 200 years, have virtually given
up the struggle of endeavoring to in
still the principles Of sanitation into
the Asiatics, and to protect the latter
from the pestilences which periodically
carry off by millions the surplus pop
ulation. 1t Is probable that other colo
NAL powers, such az Germany, France.
Russia and Holland, will follow suit.
and that in the Philippines Uncle Sam
will abandon the hopeless task Of in
culcating his dusky lieges with dis
tasteful western notions Of sanitation.
1t was but the other day that was
reading a letter dated from Manila,
published in the New York Evening
Post, a graphic account by one Of the
United States officials there of his
own efforts and Of those of his asso-
ciates to arrest the spread OF cholera
and Of other epidemic diseases by the
introduction of some OF the most ele-
mentary rules of Notwithstanding
to our western ideas. The entire let
ter, from the opening sentence to the
last line, breathed the same spirit of
absolute hopelessness that has led
the British authorities In India to
arduous warfare, all further fight
against the progress and the spread
of the plague. It was letter that
will have appealed to every one who,
like myself, has lived in the orient,
and who has learnt by experience that
toms, the mode of life and, above all.
the pronounced tendency Of the Ash
alto of every cline and creed, consti-
tute insuperable obstacles to the sue
cessful application in the far east OF
the rules of sanitation OF the occtdent
OF all the vehicles Of contagior
there are none that play greater
role in the spread of the various cpl.
denies than water. Yet it seems i'm.
possible to get even the most intelli-
gent Of the orientals to understand
the necessity of keeping pure the wa.
ter supply. High caste Hindus, whe
regard contact with even the very
shadow of a pariah az contamination
will not hesitate to Quench theil
thirst from the pool where the corpse
Of some cholera-stricken native o,
low degree has a few minutes previ
ously been subjected to its last ablu
lions. Peasants think nothing O.
drawing their drinking water from
the same pond that receives tn
drainage Of their entire village, ane
in Damietta, prior to the British oc
oupation of Egypt, I can recall tina
the intake Of water for the various
fountains and city reservoir was stu
ated a few yards below the spo
where the open sewers, such as the.
were, emptted their unsavory con
tents in the River Nile.
Worst of all are the porous earth
enware jars and the mussacks, O.
goat skins, in which the water is car
infected until the crockery gets bro