The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-11
DR.. Drummer WILL
ATTACK The HEAD
OF STATE HEALTH BOARD.
HIS LETTER To DIR. WESTMoRE-
LAND AND THE DR.'S REPLY.

tee, VIII Be Answered in no I'm
certain Terms-Dr. Drummer Says
DR.. Westmoreland Occupies Unen-
vinbIe Position of Either Being
Ignorant, or Not Wanting to State
Facts.
The sensation of the Municipal
League convention will come this
morning, when DR.. W. F. Drummer, Sa-
Vannahs health officer, reads his paper
on THE Smallpox Situation in Georgia
and the Remedy for It's Suppression"
DIR. Drummer proposes to answer in no
uncertain terms statements made by
Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland of Atlanta,
president of the State Board of Health.
before the Committee on Appropria-
tions of the lower branch of the Legis-
lature, when the latter asked for an
increased appropriation for the state
board Gin order to stamp out small
pox in South Georgia" incidentally
DR.. Drummer will probably say some
rather caustic things about the State
Board of Health.
Dr. Drummer was present at the
meeting of the committee in Atlanta,
when the statements were made, and
asked to be allowed to answer DR..
Westmoreland, but the chairman of the
committee declined to allow him that
privilege on the ground that he was
member neither of the State Board of
Health nor of the Legislature. This
was July -. DR.. Drummer upon his
return to Savannah Immediately wrote
to Dr. Westmoreland asking him to
correct his statements.
Drummer Wrote WestmOreIand.
The correspondence, which gives a
clear insight into the situation, is as
follows
Savannah, Ca, July II, 19O4.-Dr.
Willis F. Westmoreland, President
State Board of Health: Dear Doctor
When you appeared before the Com
mittee on Appropriations of the House
of Representatives, at Atlanta, on
Tuesday, July II, in your official ca
pacity as president of the State Board
of Health, l could not correct your re-
markabIe statements in reference to
the history of the smallpox situation
in Georgia, for the reason that the
chairman of the Committee on Appro-
priations informed me that he would
not have been able to permit me TO
reply to you as I had no official con-
nection with either the committee or
the State Board of Health. 1 assure
you, would have been more than glad
to have brought to your attention the
deadly inaccuracies of nearly every
statement made by you, in reference
TO the smallpox situation in Georgia.
I listened carefully to what you said
and the substance of your remarks,
and they were made in no uncertain
way, was that the State Board of
Health asked for an increased appro-
priation in order to stamp out small
To- l, haE
had prevailed ten years, and, finally,
that it did not exist in North Georgia.
I take it that you We're misinformed,
and yet it is not clear to me how you
could not have been well-informed,
when, for nearly one year, you have
been president of the State Board of
Health, and certainly must know that
smallpox has not prevailed in this
state for ten years. except, possibly, in
its sporadic form.
It is the knowledge of every one who
should know, that the origin of the
present epidemic of smallpox in this,
and every other state, was due to the
assembling of troops at different sec
tions of the United States and on their
return from Cuba and Porto Rico, dur
ing the Spanish-American War, years
1S9S-1899.
Smallpox in Atlanta.
prevailed in every county, in every
state, in the United States since the
years mentioned above, and that the
five states bordering on Georgia; name
ly: South Carolina, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Florida and Alabama, have
had thousands of cases which must
have infected other sections of our
state, had they not already been in
fected.
The history of the disease in the
state in which you live should be so
familiar to you as to preclude the
statements made by you to the Com
mittee on appropriations. / say this
because I live in Savannah, and I
have a pretty thorough knowledge of
the prevalence of smallpox in Atlanta
and I may add how much of dis
tributing point for smallpox, Atlanta
has been.
To sum up, you asked for an in
creased appropriation to eradicate
smallpox and hookworn disease IN
South Georgia and denied the preva-
lence of the first mentioned disease
in North Georgia and the body of
gentlemen to whom you made these
statements, with few exceptions. be-
leved that they were correct. / ask
you, in the name of fair play, that
you correct said statements to the
committee.
nave no desire TO engage IN
controversy, nor do I wish to inter
fere with any state institution. I be-
lieve that the Legislature should ap-
propriate more than your board ask
ed for. to fight smallpox in this state,
Tor believe, IL practical men, using
intelligent methods had necessary
funds to fight the disease, that it could
be mastered. I say this, although the
nve states mentioned in this letter and
although each and every one of them
having state boards of health. have
been unable to cope with the disease.
believe. and know, that each state
ment that the disease is confined to
any one section of Georgia. is wrong,
ana when my section Of the state is
put forward as that infected section,
and held up as the only one so infect
ed. 1t is my duty and my right to dem
onStrate the error. / am thorough
" conversant with the history of small
pox in this state. and in the country,
but 7 forbear from going before the
Committee on Appropriations or max
Ing public this knowledge until the OPP
portunity be given you to right the
wrong.
would kindly ask that you answer
this letter at your earliest convenience.
Very respectfully.
w. F.. Drummer. NJ. d.
Westmoreland's Answer.
July %, 1904.
Dr w. F. Rrunner. Health OaHcer