Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-13
Fighting the Plague
ON the Pacific Coast

FzznaEIE menace due to the continued
IX~>& presence of bubonic plague on
lIX ks the Pacific coast seems not to
III have been adequately presented
IA Iii in the daily press. There is.
uszl4l of course, no reason for alarm,
but it is certain that a policy
| of neglect or a refusal to acknowledge
| the facts may cause serious results. In
the Journal of the American Medical
| Association Chicago, December 14) a
special correspondent writes at length
of the history of the plague on the coast,
its present extent and its future possi-
bilities. The existence of bubonic plague
in San Francisco, he tells us, was first
| discovered in 1900, but 1t was at once
decided, and for several months the local
4 and state authorities, instead of adopt
| ing measures against the disease, spent
| their time in loud assertions that there
was no plague in California The city
board of health and the federal author
tiles realized the situation and did what
they could, which appears to have been
very little. Not until 1902 over two
years from the appearance of the dis
ease, was the systematic trapping of rats
| begun In Chinatown. The Chinese six
| Companies" of course, did what they
could to prevent the proper carrying out
of sanitary measures. In February, 1904,
however the disease appeared to have
been wiped out, but it was brought back
by the insanitary conditions following
the earthquake, and at present there is
much of it in the city, the total cases
since last May amounting to 100, of which
66 have been fatal. This time the au-
thorities seem fully alive to their duty.
Says the correspondent of the journal:
when plague was first found, in May,
the city government was in turmoil. The
mayor was being tried for boodling; he
| NAA-
mayor, DIR. e. r. Taylor, appointed to
fill out the unexpired term. In November
DR.. Taylor was elected. The board of
health, which had been for some six
years or more a mere tool of Schmitz
and his boss, Ruef, was incompetent.
Through some fortunate accident they
had. however, appointed a capable, hon
est and energetic man as health officer
DR.. James 7. Watkins. He urged On the
board the plan, which has subsequently
been carried out, of dividing the city into
districts, each to be in charge of an
inspector, who in turn is to be held re-
sponsible for his district, and with suf-
ficient men at his command to do the
required work of cleaning up, rat-kllling,
etc. But the board, being incompetent,
talked much-and did almost nothing
The County Medical society then stepped
in investigated the matter thoroughly,
and by resolution called on the mayor
to turn out the board of health and APP
point board that would really do some
thing. On this the board resigned and
the mayor appointed a board consisting
of Drs.- Thomas w. Huntington, William
, Ophuls. Dudley TAFT, T. G. McConkey
and Guy Manning. At the same time
the mayor telegraphed President Roose-
welt, asking that the United States public
health and marine hospital service be
placed in charge of the plague work;
this was done, and DR.. Rupert Blue,
passed assistant surgeon, was detailed to
take charge of the work
"Anti-plague work was theoretically
continued and extended; the supervisors
were alive to the situation and appro-
priated from the almost bankrupt city
treasury all the money demanded by the
officials in charge of sanitary work. A
bounty was placed on rats, alive or dead.
The refugee camps were broken up and
| the nearby districts thoroughly cleaned.
i Where cases occurred in shacks or poor
| buildings these were destroyed, and
| every effort was made to wipe out each
focus as it was found. So far as San
| Francisco is concerned there seems to
be nothing which the sanitarians in
charge of the work ought to do that
they have not done. But they are handi-
capped. In the first place available city
funds ran out; this was remedied by the
| federal gove4ment providing funds,