Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1908-11-26

the preventive measures that
} are possible.
The situation is concisely as Gov
ernor HUI hes has expressed it. Al
a Nation, tate by State, City by Cit,
and indiv Rual by individual we hav,
been Regarding the matter with al
indifferenef as calm as it has beer
lneXplicabH Physicians have yeai
after yea been giving us figures
on the waite and the desolation. but
we have seemed to be of the mind
that 1t was a thing far removed
from us-that in some other State
or locality the situation might be
as grave as it had been represented
to us, but that we individually stood
in no danger from it,
The tubFoulosis exhibit now be-
ing shown lin Fort Worth and the
tigureso and comparisons made are
sufficiently Startling to bring us all
to an alarmed sense of the gravity
OF the situFion just here in Texas.
Consideringhhat the State thorough
out its entare area has climate
particularly lantagonlstic to the dis
ease and at the same time one
friendly to .the effecting of cures.
besides the fact that we have no cit
les of congested population, nor
great mills where the disease is most
likely to breed, from the figures
given, which put the deaths last
year at SAB, it becomes evident
that something must be done and
done quickly. The State health au-
thorities have made an estimate in
dollars OF what this number of
deaths cost the State and placing
each life at the minimum estimate
OF $4,000 and accounting for the
wage earning capacity, the medical
care and burial expenses, Texas lost
2,5OO,O 900 by last years tubercu-
losis victims
AS Governor Hughes has said, il
this loss OF life and productive en-
ergy to the State had come from
any other cause we would be ap-
palled at the awfulness of it, and
would at once adopt urgent meas
ures to meet the situation. That
is what must be done in fighting
AS has been pointed
out, the Federal Government during
the past few years has spent S4O.-
600, 900 to investigate and eXter- |
inmate the Texas fever tick in cat
tie, cholera in hogs and the pests !
and blight of one sort or another
which attack the agricultural inter
ests, yet to cure and prevent this
disease, which last year claimed as
many as to make the average town
of the State, and cost $2,500,0OO.
Texas has done practically nothing.
The medical associations and the
State health department at whose
expense the exhibit is being made in
Fort Worth, both deserve unlimited
appreciation by all who are thus
privileged to add to their knowledge
OF the disease, but it must be seen |.
that their work must fall short of
what must be done in
an educational way to stamp out
Thaexhibit being made :
here should be made in every COM !
nunity in the State People ether
wise intelligent know very little of
The origin, prevention and cure of
They must be educat-
I'd, and such exhibits as we are
1ow having are the most effective
ind quickest means TO that end.
the physicians of the
state, interested, earnest and unset
ish as they have shown themselves
n tnls matter, can go but little fur
her than they have already gone,
IN account of the great expense. The
State provides no funds with which
he State health authorities can car
y on the work. The newspapers
nave been ready and anxious to do
whatever lay within their power in
on the educational work,
'ut, unfortunately, since tuberculosis
S a disease most liable to, have an
origin among the poor and ignorant,
he newspapers are not able to reach
hose most in need of knowledge.
The State must take the matter
n hand. There is no other means
by which the work can be done. The
State should prepare for the care
and cure of all those who are finan-
,ially unable to bear their own ex-
penses The State provides for its
insane and imbecile, and the CON
sumptive, while being more danger
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