The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1904-08-19
DEATH IN THE COACHES.

DEATH IN THE COACHES.
There is now under way in England widespread
movement that may well find an energetic and dc
termined counterpart in the United States lh'
English travelling public has been aroused to the
serious menace involved in the unsanitary condition
of railway coaches which, in their uneleanllness ano
in the manifold Inconvenience of their construction
have become recognized agents for the dissemination
of disease Travellers associations are being organ
led the Endorsement of physicians, men OF affairs
and the public generally has given unquestloned Dig
nity to the campaign of reform, and representations
strong enough to demand attention, will be made to
the TRANSPORTATION companies to correct the evil.
If conditions in England warrant so emphatic a
discussion, it is palpable that in the United States,
where the travelling public is much greater and
where the movement of all classes and character OF
people is practically without supervision, the urgency
of protection is immediate. The menace of railway
coaches as carriers and distributors of disease has
been subject of desultory consideration in Amer-
can medical journals but while the existence of the
evil has been accepted no popular nterst designed
to suppress it, has been aroused.
First-class transportation in the United States Is
such generally speaking, only from the point of
view of fare not accommodation. Provision is yet
to be made for ordinary comforts and the common
decences of intercourse between men and women
Efforts have been made, in warnings earnestly and
repeatedly made to protect travellers from the germs
Of tuberculosis, but nothing further has been done
The railroads will not take the initiative and the
public, victims of unsanitary, crowded, dark and
dust-laden coaches, seem not inclined to do so
Common sense, fortified by the conclusions of
medical science, dictates that railway coaches should
be well lighted completely ventilated and so con-
structed to be subjected in every interior part to
sunshine. Draperies cushions and all the unneces-
sary gmcracks of ornamentation that collect and
hold dust should be replaced by comfortable, durable
washable stuffs. The dust of railway coaches is
germ-laden and its burden is disease, inhaled by the
susceptible.
Another feature of reform in American travel,
and one that sooner or later will be recognized as
absolutely vital, is the separation of passengers un-
fortunately afflicted with infectious disease from
travellers not so conditioned One of the transcon-
tinental railway companies has suggested such an
arrangement in its service but the proposal has met
with the apathy of the public That the evil is in
sidous and in its discussion cause is so difficult to
trace from effect are not sound reasons why the
matter should not be one of immediate public con-
cern
Travellers associations should be formed in the
United States, communities should interest themselves
in affair intimately associated with their health
transportation companies should be asked to remedy
evils easily overcome, and if necessary legislative
action should be invoked to accomplish the result