The Washington times., 1905-01-09
MONDAY, JANUARY 9. 1905.
A Disgraeeful Leadership.

"A OISgidCClu LGdQ GlSliip.
With the exception only of Los
Angeles and Colorado Springs-re-
treats for dying consumptives-Wa
iEgton has the highest city death rate
from tuberculosis in the United
States.
1t is not some town in a swamp or
poor district surrounding some group
OF factories, but the National Capital
that is SO distinguished And this
dreadful condition exists in spite of
the activities of an efficient health
Office and the direct responsibility of
Congress
The amazement which this state
ment must excite when read for the
first time is lessened by the dis
closures made recently by Jacob Riis
It IS easy enough to understand when
the conditions are known No one
can pass through some of Washing
tons alleys and blind streets and won
der that disease of every kind thrives
there
In one building, set up as tene-
ment where ground costs less than
twenty cents a foot, three consump-
tives have used the air shaft for a
spittoon, and thrown infected rags
down it to the food, towels, bed
clothing and wearing apparel of half
dozen families. Germs sown in such
soil invariably take root Taking root
in such soil they invariably thrive
Thriving in such soil they invariably
separate, each to- SOW seed again in
some other such miserable shack,
built for the sake OF profit paid for
in the long illness and pitiful death
OF human beings
Ii is not the air of Washington that
is at fault. The sewers are abundant
and the water supply is good 1t is
the alley landlord And Congress has
already tied his arms behind his back
by prohibiting him from constructing
any more such homes for the sake
OF his profit of eighteen per cent. and
his levy on the health OF his fellows.
But there is still work TO do. The
alley tenements built before this
law was passed. still shelter human
lives, and many OF those lives are
still threatened by consumption For
the sake of the tenants still in good
health the consumptiyes should be
taken away For their own sake the
copsumptives should be given better
nursing than they can ever get in
such quarters. And it would be of
financial profit to the Capital if every
. such patient could be taught in some
hospital the lessons of cleanliness and
caution which would help him and
save his family.
To these ends Congress has been
asked TO do two things-to condemn
the unsanitary buildings which foster
consumption. and to erect as the first
ward OF the new District hospital
building for the care of tuberculosis
patients The one work is to be ac-
conplished through a commission of
District officials. TO serve without add
~ CS<ieta , liz OIt1Sl MOulu provide
an asylum for sufferers who are now
barred from all the District hospitals
save one, until the final release is imi-
nent, and, by preventing the spread
OF the disease, would prove itself a
measure of financial economy.
A New York committee on the pre-
yention OF tuberculosis reported. after
a thorough investigation of the mat
ter, that 1T may be found a good
investment to cure tuberculosis in it's
incipient stages, rather than to allow
almost the entire number, as at pres
ent, to become a burden either upon
their immediate family or upon the
public in the last stages of the dis
ease. This is a melancholy and sick
enins argument. But it is because
Congress has failed TO appreciate the
force OF this argument that Washing
ton now stands in its disgraeefuI posi-
ton at the head of those cities which
foster consumption