Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-24
DIR. c. A. |. REED SCORES WATER
POLLUTION
OVER 1900 DIE IN OHIO RIVER
DISTRICTS
Pesults of Statistical Inquiry by the
Commission of One Hundred on
National HeaIth--Typhold
Is King

Panama in 1JO0 ana preSlueHl VI tiio h"
tional legislative conference OF the
American Medical association, warmly
advocates the work of the committee of
one hundred on national health.
In an interview regarding the work OF
the committee of one hundred appointed
by section / of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science on the
federal regulation OIL public health, twice
approyed by President Roosevelt, DR..
Reed STATED in reply to the following
questions:
Are you still in favor of stronger fed
eral control of public health interests?"
II am certainly in favor of some KIND
of control that will control" was the en-
phatic reply. "The states that now have
Jurisdiction over the many phases of the
public health problem are not exercising
their authority as they might and ought
to. And if they continue to fall in their
duty their power in this particular ought
to be transferred to the federal govern
ment-provided, of course, that the fed
eral government equips itself with laws
and agencies to do what ought to be
DONE"
"Will you give an eXample?'
Typhoid Reigns Here
Certainly There's the Ohio river
BASIN "A thousand miles of river and a
thousand miles of typhoid. was my
characterization of conditions in that val
ley year ago. l spoke then simply as
matter of general knowledge. But
few weeks ago / sent out about 200 let
ters of inquiry-one to each city, town
and hamlet on either bank of the river
itself-not its tributaries. I asked for
Information as to period of prevalence
and number of cases of typhoid; also as
to the source of water supply and athe
character and ultimate destination of
drainage AS result of that inquiry. l
now emphatcally and authoritatively
reaffirm my former statement. And If
we consider the whole watershed, there
can be SID that there are not thousand,
but three thousand miles of river and as
many miles of typhoid.
'Now, do not misunderstood me. I do
not wish to imply that everybody has
typhoid fever all the time, nor even at
it's epidemic, in the ordinary sense of the
word. over this entire area of considera-
bly, over 200L.J square miles containing
population today of probably more
than 100000 l do mean, however, that
typhoid fever is perennially prevalent as
it ought not to be, and that there are
frequent endemic outbreaks-some of
great severity-and that this condition
obtains all over the watershed. In round
numbers there are 1900 persons in this
area who are thus invalided for an aver
age of six weeks a year. This means a
loss of productive>energy represented by
Il, COO weeks or nearly 1400 years for one
person. Add to this the money value of
nearly 1000 persons who die from
the disease annually, and we shall dis
cover that we are paying tremendous
price for our lax laws and filthy habits"
"In what way could the federal gov
ernment improve this condition.
How to Improve 1t All
I'm coming to that. But first look at
the causal conditions. To begin with,
everybody that knows anything about the
subject at all knows that typhoid fever is
q water borne disease-that its chief me-
dium of dissemination Is the water we
drink. And everybody knows. too, that
the cities in the Ohio watershed for the
most part derive their water supply from
that stream or its tributaries. Now the
city of Allegheny had nearly 1900 cases of
typhoid last year-the discharges from
which-a ha.f million of them-went into
the Ohio river. Pittsburg with larger
population and a higher death rate from
typhoid, probably contributed twice as
much. Cincinnati had about 1000 cases,
and consequently drained million ty-
phoid dejections into the river. Louis
Vile reinforced the pollution with pro-
portionately large contribution. And
what is true of these large cities is pro-
portionate,y true of the hundreds of
smaller cities and towns in the watershed.
Is it any wonder typhoid is prevalent at
all times in this great area?"
why is there not more of it?"
1.-The question may we'll be asked. In
the first place the human system. under
normal conditions, has great powers of
resistance. Not every person who swal-
lows typhoid germs comes down with the
disease. In the next place, streams for
tunately have the power of se.f-purifica-
tion to a certain extent. And finally some
of the cities have an extensive plant for
precipitation and liberation of the water.
and these help some to purify 1t. If 1t
were not for these factors there would be
no typhoid in the Ohio valley for the
good and sufficient reason that the people
would have died of the disease. AS 1t is
thousands of them die every year that
ought not to die, for all the preventive
facts that I have mentioned taken to-
gether do not and cannot prevent the dis
ease as long as the fragrant contamina-
tion that l have only limited at is per-
mitted to continue. For, understand, ty-
phoid fever defects represents only one
of the countless forms of filth that are
drained into the Ohio river. And what is
true of the Ohio river is true of the ma
jcrity of all the other rivers of the United
States. We are simpl' making sewers of
our streams and then squandering mil
lions in futile effort to cure conditions
that ought to have been successfully pre-
vented for a tenth of the money"
"But you have not yet told what the
federal government ought to do in the
matter" Y
Laws Not Sufficient
"That becomes apparent when we con-
slider what the states are not doing. OF
the states that help to form the Ohio
watershed only New York and Pennsylva-
mia have sufficient and practically uni
form laws governing the contamination
of streams. Philadelphia has received or
ders to build sewage disposal plants and
turn all sewage from the river by Janu-
ary, 1910. and it Is understood that Pitts
burg and Allegheny are soon to be
placed in the same position. But neither
West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana.
Illinois nor Tennessee has a single law
on the subject worthy the name. Who
ever heard of a sanitary survey or the
sanitary patrol of a single stream in any