The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-08
STRICKEN CITY FEARS FEVER.
SAN FRANCISCO TURNS EFFORTS
TOWARD SANITATION.
Chinese Camp mo CIeanest and the Easiest
60 M~anase-City 10 Aid Cheap Restau"
F~ants-TIPeat of Oriental Merchants
Relief Finances In Uetter shape.

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Relief Finances In Detter shape.
OAKLAND, Cal, May THE chief task
before the local and Federal authorities In
charge here IN to save the people, not from
each other and from tho fury OF the ele-
ments but from themselves.
With the danger OF typhoid fever whis-
pered everywhere, ii Is practically lmpos-
sible. in spite Of public proclamations and
public advice, to get people to boil their
drinking water.
Red Cross agents are now going through
the camps Of refugees and through all the
quarters where the poorer people live. bog
ging the people to observe this simplest Of
all precautions against the epidemic.
This Is not the only problem of hygiene
which troubles the Red Cross. The camps
are too scattered. People are living not
only In the great parks and the smaller
private squares but also in vacant lots and
In places where a space among the ruins
gives DON for a tent or a hack.
Many of them live without the least at
tention to, hygienio precautions. Their
camps are surrounded with filth, which Is
polluting the air. 1t is comparatively easy
to police the big camps, although there. too,
certain people have to be watched care
fully to see that they do not become filthy.
1t is probable that the Red Cross and the
committee on housing will bring this mat
ter to the attention Of the authorities,
urging that all campers and refugees be
concentrated in the Preside, Golden Gate
Park, and the special camp on the open
ground about Fort Mason.
Here they can be watched, a special
guard can be placed about the water supply
to see that only boiled water is used for
drinking, and the camps can be kept clean
by police regulations, strictly enforced.
A few more cases of sickness, which may
be typhoid fever, are reported, but there
are not enough OF them to indicate a gen.
eral epidemic from the uee Of polluted water
on the first day Of the fire. Still the fear Of
an epidemic hangs over the spirits Of the
authorities.
Now that the rush is over and the authori-
ties are developing some system the dis
tribution Of bedding, cots and clothing
will be on a more equitable basis than be-
fore. There has been a great deal Of I'M
avoidablo waste. Now the distribution will
be handled with all the method of a great
retail business. In fact the Crocker school.
the chief distributing point, resembles
nothing 80 much as a great department
store.
The relief committee is seeing what can
be lone to put a lot Of cheap retaurants on
their feet 20 workmen and their families
who are independent enough not to relish
being public charges can find food at prices
within their means. Even with the capital
to start up these restaurants will find 1t
hard to get supplies. The relief committee
may possibly sell them their daily excess OF
%perishable goods at cost.
More and more, it looks as though the
Chinese would remain at their old stand
ON the coveted hill site between the business
district and Mob Hill. They hold the
cards on the people OF San Francisco,
and show no disposition to be blufred.
Now, when the city needs to retain every
business interest it possesses, San Francisco
could not afford to lose the silk trade.
the tea trade. the rice trade. even the
sweat shop manufactures. which have been
the support Of Chinatown,
Yet the Chinese merchants persist in
their threat that II their wishes are not
needed they will take themselves and their
interests to Seattle or Portland. This
might nave been lightly regarded before
the time Of the Chinese boycott; but in that
time the merchants OF San Francisco
learned the oohesiveness Of a Chinese
agreement. Certainly, the Chinese will
not stand a removal to the remote and
unattractive region Of Hunters Point.
1t may be that they will consent to find a
new site somewhere on the slopes of Tele-
graph Hill, which will probably continue
10 be the tenement region Of San Francisco.
1t is certein that they will go no further
out.
Choud Elng, a leading Chinese importer
and a ma informed in the financial ways
Of the whites as well as the Chinese, said to-
day;
I'VE will reestablish ourselves in the old
quarter, where our property interests are,
or We will SCI! out and forget that San Fran
cisco wasever or the map, There are other
places on the Pacific Coast besides San
Francisco, and sc are not forgetting that
Portland, Seattle and Tacoma, which have
already large Chinese colonies, would forget
their prciuctcss against the Chinese in
their desire to get the millions which We
would invest and the Chinese trade which
follows our big merchants.
I'VE are in a measure anticipating such
q move aS the removal OF the CnlneSS 10
Hunters Point. In order to he prepared
we have sent agents to Portland and the
, Puget Sound cities to interview their cham
bers Of on all points involved.
Our messengers have been well received;
and when we start to rebuild we will have
some place where we van to be or We will
not stay at all
1t is certain that representations have
been made TO the Chinese legation at Wash
ington regarding this question, and some
OF the Chinese. merchants say they have
Federal assurance that their interests will
not be allowed to suffer. While on this
subject it ia Of interest to note that the
Chinese camps are the places. where the
authorities have the least trouble in enforc-
ing the rules Of hygiene.
One nuisance has been done away with by
an order issued yesterday. Hereafter no
dynamite will be used to level walls. Be-
sides being dangerous to life 1t probably
destroys more than 1t caves. The Mint,
which was only scorched by the fire, has
been damaged $40, 900 by the effect Of dyna-
mite used to fell walls in the neighborhood.
Since the workmen began to take down
walls by slower methods, they have found
ANNA ciIrious effeCtA of the earthquake and