The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-09-04

and without avail, delegates and pc
l@titions poured in upon congress every
liyear from every state, pleading for
such legislation as would avert it.
And with the object lessons Of Cuba
and Manchuria constantly held up
before the country and at
every session since these wars, we
have failed, a weak, e~masculated bill
passing only recently, and should a
war occur with any first class ma
ton before this complete legislation
is had, and which we have no earthly
interests except as citizens having
special knowledge, u armies must
again face pestilence, n our
country needless danger of defeat
and disgrace, because a large per
|cent of u soldiers would be in the
hospitals and cemeteries instead of
upon the firing line. If time per-
United facts of the same kind, almost
without number, from both civil and
military life, could be produced to
show that, except in the emergency
|of { ilemics. and in the recently en-
acteI pure food law, where our ma
1tional government has ATTEMPTED
|anything in this field, the authority
was given to those who had no train
ing and those who had the train
ing were given no authority.
Bad as is this record for the ma
tion' that for your own state is no
better. Fully one-third of those sick
land of those taken to your Gene
@teries last year, and every year, were
sick and died of diseases which ought
never to have occurred. About one
of every ten of your deaths were
from consumption, and you now have
ia very large t%ubercular population.
Many intelligent people believe that
this is an inherited disease, but all
|should know that even If both par
tents died of this malady, at the worst
Ionly the kind of constitution can be
transmitted which make the child
Especially liable if exposed to it.. Ii
all of the expectorated matter and
lother INFECTIOUS discharges from g v
iary s now In. your state could
be collected and destroyed..as. your
health authorities are earnestly try.
ing to have done. until all those now
sick OF 1t recover or die. and prop
Ter attention could be given to. ven
tilation. open air exercise. the .nour-
ishment of those in any way predis.
posed to It,. and the tuberculat. cows,
there need never be another, case
here unless it be an imported. one.
You have a large sick and death. rate
from typhoid fever every year: This
is not only a preveutable but the
most typical of the Nth diseases,
for no one can have 1t except by
getting into the, mouth and stom-
ach something from the discharges
from the bowels or kidneys; OF some.
lone who has it. This is not a nice
thing to think or talk about, but
1T is 81 much worse to do 1t tina,
nice people ought to think and talk
about it until they can plan to STOP
doing it. In cities infected water
is the most common carrier. of the
germs, as in Plymouth, Butler and
Scranton, Pennsylvania, Ithica, New
York, and many other places where
the source was ascertained. 1t is
often carried in milk, but in. small
towns and country districts it is yer,
largely carried by the ordinary house
fly, as was proven clearly at Chica.
manga and other military camps dur.
ing the var with Spain. You also
have q large sick and death rate
EVERY year from diphtheria, measles
dysentery, scarlet fever and. other
like diseases, to say nothing of the
fndiscriminate slaughter Of babies
every year from these diseases caus.
ed by the 8 of adulterated. dirty
or spoiled milk. Under inspiration
from MI. Straus, the great Jew phil.
anthropist, Rochester and many 9th.
er cities, after careful trial, have
found that it is actually cheaper to
save babies than it is to bury them
After advocating as a cure for this
condition of things the establish
ment of a great health department
at Washington with branches in ev-
Jerry county of the several states, the
doctor went on to say:
We realize fully the magnitude
lof the reform we have undertaken.
We know that the obstacles are not
only woven into our laws and the
very fabric of our governmental sys-
tenn, but, ever more than that, into
the fixed habits of thought and mode
of life of the people. They have
always trembled and paled at the
report of cholera, yellow fever,
plague or other exotic or unusual
epidemic, from which they have