The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-06
FROA OTHER PENS
COST OF UNCLEANINEss.

COSI OE' ESS.
A news item appeared the other day
showing that the cost to the city OF
Pittsburg during the last fiscal year
from typhoid fever was more than
$721,000. Commenting on these figures.
the New York Tribune capped them
with the figures contained in the latest
report Of the health commissioner Of
20, 600 cases of typhoid in that state an
nually, or one case to every 425 persons;
that the average number Of deaths is
1000. and the loss to the state, express
ed in dollars, is estimated at $1,000, 900.
Yet. If there is anything clearly
established 1t is that typhoid Is a pre-
ventable disease. which can be exter-
minated; that all cases Of typhoid
fever with resultant deaths and losses
are due to filth, chiefly to the pollution
Of water supplies with sewage. The
New York health commissioner in his
report says, however. that the present
policy Of the state government will In
the near future put stop to the pollu-
ton Of the streams and lakes from
which the main portion Of the water
supply Is drawn, and will thus reduce
the burden Of typhoid to small frac-
ton Of its present weight.
It Is often observed cynically that
human life is about the cheapest thing
in the world. There is a tendency to
so regard 1t. Yet nothing could be
falser, even when the value Of human
life and health is measured merely in
terms Of dollars and cents. Prevent
able sickness and premature death both
impose enormous pecuniary burdens
upon the community as a whole, out
Of all proportion greater than the
largest suggested expenditures on pub
lie account for the protection and the
preservation Of the public health
Seattle Post-Inte1ligencer.
OUR INDECENT BOOKS.
We are gravely invited to consider
the need of q national censor with q
commission to prescribe books ana
peric ideals that may be adJudged IN
decent But what are We to offer as
the guide for this official? Is he to
use his own judgment. taste or will !
How will he be appointed or elected
so that we may be sure 70 get an
office into which graft could not come
by the keyhole? Have we agreed on
what would be indecent? The demand
for an expurgated Shakespeare was
met by the grave plea that the Old
Testament was worse; several of the
Waverly novels have lately been re-
moved from the shelves OF public IL
been cast out; but is Hardy in the
same class with Eden Phillpotts?
New York has her Comstock; ID i
not admitted that the worst In thii
| country flows like q stream from the
presses of the city OF Comstock, and
are not his agents now in court fol
many sins of omission and commits.
| sion?
The loosest period known in thu
| history Of our race was that OF Cnarie'
II, but did not Immortality produces
| foul writer's rather than the reverse
After all, did the unclean literature
of the time poison the real people o.
only serve as proof that portion o.
a class had adopted new Language
as an expression for thoughts and act
| already common? Would the "snaar
set of Pittsburg be cleansed II denied
indecent books? Would 1t even 81
possible to cut off the supply OF indec
eut books BY DENYING them the ~
Of the malls f-H1ogfde Time Inseo-