The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-11-16
COUNTRY LIFE REVIEWED,
President Roosevelt's Comm;s-
sion On Country Life Holds a
Conference at Raleigh.


sion On Country Life Holds a
Conference at Raleigh.
President Roosevelt's commits
sion on country life held a con-
ference in Raleigh last Thursday
at the Agricultural and Mechan-
ical College at Raleigh, two
members of the commission
Editor Walter H. Page, of The
Worlds Work, a native of Wake
county, and Mr.. Henry Wallace,
a well-known newspaper man
and editor of an agricultural pa
per-being present. The COM
mission is composed of five
members and it has divided in
order to cover all the States in
the time allotted before report
ing to the President the result !
of its Investigations into the
conditions that surround coun-
try life. More than $50 persons
were present at the hearing
Thursday and a number of
speeches was made during the
conference, which lasted six
hours.
DR.. Stiles, an eminent author
ity in the archaeological world,
who was one of the speakers,
said that his Investigations Show
ed that an astonishingly large
number Of persons in the coun-
try and in the mill settlements
have the hook-worm disease and
in general their blood vitality
was very low. He has been in
a great many farm homes in
North Carolina and finds that
the inattention to sanitation,
great enough among whites,
is appalling among negroes,
much more than 80per cent. of the
homes of the blacks being with
out any sanitation whatever. He
declares that the negroes are
the prime promoters of disease
and that, left as they have been
without proper instruction in
this important NATTER they are
a menace to the whole peo-
pie of the State, of whom
they form third of the
the population. DR.. Stiles spoke
of the great prevalence of ty-
phoid in North Carolina, this
State standing 18th in the census
list in this respect. DIR. TAFT
Butler, State veterinarian, con-
frmed the statement that this
disease, which causes so many
deaths, is worst in the mountain
districts, where the natural con-
ditions favor the most perfect
health. In that region the peo-
pie use spring water, which too
often is polluted. DR.. Temple
ton, of Cary, made some state
ments supporting strongly much
of what DR.. Stiles had said, and
he says that in the country dis
tricts not one house in fifty was
screened against flies, which are
} such terrible purveyors of dis.
ease, notably typhoid fever. An.
! other thing he said which tend
ed to lower the vitality of the
people was the constant use Of
greasy foods, fat meat and soda
biscuit. DR.. Stiles said that the
United States had in Porto Rics
practically stamped out the hook
y worm disease, and that it seemed
Z to him that what the govern
l ment had done there, it could d,
= in the United States proper
~ and it ought to do it.
Mr.. Clarence H. Poe, editor 0
3 TheProgressive Farmer, Raleigh
! was called on for his views. H
u spoke about the great necessit
. of teaching the laws of healt
e e in the rural schools; the need 0
" postal savings banks, and tn
% % parcels post, and the necessit
H for the general governmenr
which appropriated money fc
4 the liquid highways, to do tn
~ ~ same thing for the solid one
~ ~ In other words that the govern
= ment should pay one-third of tn
70 70 cost of building the main road
1I rI the State third, and the con
~, munity the remaining third. 1
y said that one of the things to |
combated as a menace to inform
ton, proper life in the COUNT
ad homes and higher ideals, is isol
re ton, now so prevalent. MIR. r
in said that improbable work
'r- the farm and isolation had be,
We two of the great drawbacks. =
n. direct statement was made tn
10 the conclusion not to be avoid
en- is that the death rate in t
8, South today and certainly in t
is. recent past is largely due
Of unsanitary conditions among t