Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-10
Rush the Filtration Planti

Making all due allowance for the embar-
easements and difficulties of those in charge
of the filtration plant work in this city, there
remains feeling throughout the community
that the utmost diligence has not been dis
played nor the greatest enterprise shown
In pressing the work to the earliest possi-
BILE conclusion. IL has been known posi-
lively to the bacteriologists for seasons
that the Potomac water is In summer dele
terious 10 health under certain conditions.
Abandoning the former theory OF river self
ratification and reliance upon the fact
that no typhoid germ has ever been isc-
lated from the Potomac water, SANTA
Rams have agreed that the prevalence or
the disease In Washington season after
season can be due to no other main cause.
while they do at the same time indict the
milk supply and the raw vegetables In GER
tain distinct cases.
Here. therefore. was one of the most
powerful reasons for making the utmost
haste on the filter plant construction. Yet
there does not to appear to have been any
especial hurry. There have been failures
among the contractors and one fire has oc-
Cured and yet the public is assured by
the officer in charge of the work, through
yesterdays Star, that no extra-hour gangs
are being employed. The construction is
proceeding upon normal single days
basis.
Each day of delay in the completion and
use of the filter is adding to the sick roll
of the city. from five to dozen cases
swelling the list every twenty-four hours.
Of,these cases added daily some will almost
surely prove fatal. Thus if the filter should
besturned into use. in whole or in part, five
days. a week, or. better still. two weeks
ahead of the scheduled time, the commu-
nifty would probably be saved many cases
of the fever and eventually many deaths
from this cause. assuming that the majority
of the cases are contracted from the river
water.
The Commissioners urgent request that
the filter work be FASTENED and that the
plant be turned into service section by sec
ton deserves the most speedy considera-
ton, and should result in vigorous action
by the War Department. This Is matter
in which there should be no red tape The
fixed program should not be followed
merely for the sake of formalty of proce-
dure a rescue work is in hand. just as
important. just vitality necessary. as that
conducted by relief parties in the case of
wrecked train a collapsed building. The
workers in such emergencies take no
thought of regular hours. Those in charge
do not stop to count cost. They even hire
special trains to bring supplies or tools.
Here is entire community exposed to
a deadly peril. and there on the hill south
of Soldiers Home is a bit of engineering
work the completion of which will lessen
that peril. The end is within sight. but by
cutting in half the lapse from the present
to the finish the Districts sick list from
typhoid will be materially reduced This
would surely seem to be a case to have
called for extraordinary exertions in the
past few months to make all ready for the
season of assured typhoid menace, and
even more distinctly to demand the exhaus-
ton of all possibilities for the saving or
days and fractions of days now that the
fever outbreak has assumed almost cpl
demic proportions.