The San Francisco call., 1908-03-07
Il / +
Citizen Tells of Awakening to the Menace
of the Plague Bearing Rats

needed The resident consuls have
based their reports TO their respective
countries upon the Judgment or this
physician. How these reports affect
our maritime trade is common knowl-
edge.
Now. if we are being delivered from
ALI the horrors of quarantine and
plague to whom do we owe debt of
gratitude? Do we owe this 70 the
labors of the federal physicians. backed
by the city medical men? IL So do the
citizens of greater San Francisco real
ize and appreciate what has been done
and is being done for US? The fed
eral physicians are salaried men,
They do not depend upon the future
Of our city for a livelihoOd-as / un-
derstand it. Yet, because their knowl-
edge embraced the true status Of the
plague condition. and in addition the
precautionary measures necessary to
prevent an epidemic. they seem TO
have shouldered the responsibility
In heart to heart talks with Indifferent
businessmen they taught the lesson
that sanitary conditions when plague
threatened was not merely civic or
state affair but a matter OF federal
concern. They pointed the startled
gaze of the businessmen, the property
holder, the union man, the clubwoman
to the future The lesson they taught
was from the book of exact science.
The man who had spent his life in the
laboratory and field had an accurate
knowledge of the impending danger
What will you do when the warm
months arrive" he asked them, when
100 cases of plague exist where the
past summer produced one; when 10000
rats are affected where we find one
now? Can you conceal the facts OF the
situation then? Through your ignorant
indifference will you allow greater San
7-4F -
quarantine? To absolute commercial
stagnation%'
At last it dawned upon the civic mind
that there could be but one side to this
question, and we began to feel things
move. The movement, we are daily told,
came none too soon, and there is barely
time to avert the threatened disaster.
We must work IN harmony with the
leaders OF this movement This Is no
time to talk about graft or TO deny the
facts laid before US by these sanitary
experts These men are our friends.
working for us without thought OF per-
sonal gain. Let US aid their inspectors
in all possible ways The householder
should fight the rat and keep the back
ways clean from principle and not be-
cause ordered TO do so.
Some people claim that the rat can
not be greatly reduced The other day.
having stepped into a store-it chanced
STORE a
question: How are the Fats7 Got any
around here?" Rats" the man ex-
claimed, mot on your life. can't afford
to have rats around my place. Let me
show YOU" / was shown into a back
room where the shelves were filed with
candy boxes which represented a con
siderable Investment A few rats could
ruin the stock in a night. Therefore
the rat nuisance was excluded from
that mans premises. II each house
holder were as equally bent on his eN-
elusion the rat would surely be on the
run
We are further taught in this cam
paign that flies carry disease We know
that a fly is not particular where he
Dimes He Will partially dine on a dead
bubonic rat and finish his meal at Your
Sunday table We are further taught
that animal refuse is his breeding
place. Therefore it stands TO reason
that no more of such filth means no
more flies Now along the curb in
nearly every street we see piles and
piles of such stuff. We look at these
streets and wonder IL they will ever be
cleaned out We know that this move
ment has only begun We know that
only now these sanitary experts have
led the people out Of this desert OF
filth to their Kadesh- -Barnea and point
ed out city beautiful In its cleanliness
1t belongs to u.s. Let US enter and take
possession A CITIZEN.