Willmar tribune., 1909-09-01
TUBERCULOSIS AND POVERTY
BY Eugene T. LES General Secretary Ca Minneapolis
Read Before the American Publ Health Aoat, Ausut


parts of the world. that the great
majority Of stfese deaths were those
Of poor people as j7al
Every one Of them formed pos
sible center df infection for all
who came near and therefore was
a potential creator of additional
misery and poverty in the world.
the degree of danger depending, of
course, upon the degree Of skill
with which the patient was hand
led. IS
In every instance there was a
long drawnout period of illness, to-
gether with the inevitable gradual
decline in earning ability, and the
expenditure of great sums Of money
for medical service and medicines
and, in the case of the working
man, the early exhaustion of his
own savings and a drawing upon
the savings of his relatives and
friends.
With the decrease in the work.
ingmans income comes the depriva-
tion of the necessities of life for
the other members of his family,
and with that comes their own
lessened power of resistance to the
germs emitted by the afflicted one.
There usually follows also removal
from good living quarters to less
desirable and finally to unsanitary
dark and small rooms, and these
probably in a tenement inhabited
by many other families.
If it is the father of the family
who dies. the wife possibly has to
take employment in order to care
for the children. or some of the
children who, if the father were
living would have deferred the be.
ginning of their working career tc
get more education, must go out as
wage earners. In either case, the
normal family life is disrupted and
possibilities for i'll consequences are
brought into being. Oftentimes
the family is forced permanently
upon charity when the children arc
all too young to work and the mo-
ther is needed for their care. Un.
less the afflicted men are unior
members, outside charitable aid is
in Is per cent of the cases needed
even during their illness.
If it is the mother who dies, the
children, of course, lose from thei,
lives the influences which in most
instances would have aided them tt
selfsupporting, useful careers anc
without which the possibilities tt
the contrary are only too rich. a.
juvenile court and reform institu
tion records show. If the mother
is widow the situation is so much
worse and the children possibly be
come public dependents.
True, death, from any cause, O,
father and mother in poor families
as rule brings these same conse
quences, but l am trying to poin'
out that tuberculosis is one grea
if not the greatest causative facto]
in the creation of these woeful con
ditions. Even during the years O.
illness If father and mother, tn
home becomes a sad place for tn
children and they receive less thai
the full care necessary to rear then
properly.
Moreover. in the homes of tn
poor, these children are in constan
danger of infection. Indeed, ther
are many instances on record of tn
determination of whole families il
such, life for years becomes a long
wearisome. dragged out process O
money loss, sorrow and terribl
woe.
Consider two cases only
skilled cabinet maker fell victir
of the dread disease. His faithfu
wife, who nursed him, after tw
years was also buried from the sam
cause. AS result four of the 81
children had to go to work early
thus cutting them off from possibl
lofty careers and fine service, fo
one was destined to become
clergyman, another teacher, ar
other an engineer, another an al