Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-01-17
WORLD WAR ON RATS.
zusehIas's Lifetime Campaign Against
the Pest.

Zuschla9's Lifetime Campaign Against
the Pest.
A society in Copenhagen, aided and
abetted by the Danish government and
legislature, is perfecting the machin-
cry for war which will ultimately
embroil the whole civilized world. 1t
will end only with the utter extermip-
alton of the enemy. 1t will be fought
with all the aids that the ingenuity OF
man can supply; the enemy will be
shot, trapped, poisoned, and price
] will be set on his head.
That, at any rate, is the avowed OBJ
| ject Of the society engineering this
] war. It's title is "L'Association Inter
rationale pour la Destruction Ration
] ellie des Rats" Though 1t has only
been in existence a few years it has
already exercised great influence not
!-only in Denmark, but also In other
countries.
1t Is not so very long ago that even
, in Copenhagen the seriousness Of the'
problem was far from being under
T, stood by the man in the street. But
| one man did understand the rat and
all its evil ways, and worked the bet
ter part of lifetime to make them un-
derstood by others. He was civil
engineer, called Zuschlag, whose hob
by was the study of economic zoology,
in particular the life history Of mans
enemies in the animal world. He not
ed that while other pests special
ized," as it were. combining their unso-
licited attention to certain circum-
scribed spheres, the rat was ubiqui-
tous. Agriculture and shipping, in
dustries and trades, country mansions
and farm cottages, palaces and slums
all suffered from the depredations OF
the rat. He began to gather statistics
and found that the rat appeared to be
everywhere, to eat everything. to de-
stroy everything, excepting stone
and iron. His information told of
whole acres of corn laid low, of raids
made upon poultry farms, of nightly
devastations in grocers', bakers, and
butchers shops; of water pipes gnaw-
ed through, and places in consequence
flooded, causing hundreds of pounds
of damage. He was enabled to state 7.
that the rats cost his country every
year at least 9400,O00 IN preventable
damage.
The last count in Zuschlag's indict-
ment against the rat is the terrible
part played by 1t in the dissemination
of bubonic plague. He published his
views in 1903 in book which may be
regarded as the standard work on the
subject, and the official declaration of
the international war against the rat.
A few weeks ago he had the great
satisfaction Of seeing this theory ac-
cepted in the report issued by the
plague committee appointed by the
Secretary of State for India.
To provide an object lesson for the
people at home and abroad in the ra-
tional destruction of rats the commit
tee selected Copenhagen and the
neighboring Fredericksburg The, to-
tai bag" obtained in eighteen weeks
amounted to 100000 rats, at cost of
1926 kroner (about s736), paid for
premiums and cremating, or 1 1-2d a
rat. Now" said Zuschlag and his
committee, you will all agree that
each rat eats and destroys each day at
least one farthing's worth of food and
material. One hundred and three
thousand rats would have cost you T,
about $4,000. Having spent a736 |
on killing them, we have saved you
e38,000 odd"
This way of reasoning appealed to |
the economical Dane. Campaigns |
were undertaken in other places with |
similar satisfactory results, and so |
much had Zuschlag's scheme impress
ed the public mind with its practica-
bihty that in the following year first |
the Farmers Union, then the Property
Owners Society, and then all the bor-
ough councils presented petitions to
the government and Riksdag asking
that Zuschlag's proposals should be
embodied in law without delay. Sew
eral bills were subsequently brought /
In and dropped, but last year the
home secretary introduced a measure
which was passed unanimously by
both Houses of Parliament and be-
came law last March.
This rat law is now in full swing.
Under the act the state undertakes to
spend e1,600 annually for three years
and compels teh county and borough
councils to spend S. Sd. a year for
each 100 Inhabitants, on the society
having given the undertaking that
they will spend at least $500 each
year. In return for this expenditure
the society is intrusted with the en-.
tire working of the act.-London Daily