Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-11-12
EndcrJes Bishop Gamblers
Utterance on the Hook
Worm Fund PROPOSITION

From News and Observer, Raleigh, n. C.
The statement by Bishop Gambler that
southern people will not be taken in by
Mr.. Rockefeller's vermifuge fund and
hook worm commission" published in
yesterdays News and Observer, was all
the talk in Raleigh yesterday. The bish-
op is one of the ablest men in the south,
was an educational as well as religious
leader before he was elevated to the bish-
opric, and is a man of large common
sense and big brain. Last April, writing
of the $50, 100000 fund given to education
by Carnegie and Rockefeller, Bishop Can
dler said that money was given Ito dom
mate the educational interests of this en-
tire country, and by the bride Of this
enormous sum of money they have al
ready partially succeeded" In this opin-
ion the bishop voiced the sentiment Of
many of the best men of the south, and
there is much approval also of his vigor-
Gus protest to the actions of "self-appoint-
ed philanthropists who have taken upon
themselves to discover and proclaim con-
ditions in the south calculated to create
further prejudice against the states and
the people of the south as to divert immi-
grafton and to alarm the resident popula-
ton"
Many of us in the south are getting tir-
ed of being exploited by advertisements
that exaggerate conditions. They are
most harmful. Some weeks ago a state
ment was published all over the country
to the effect that in North Carolina pei
lagra is epidemic, over 900 cases having
been discovered in one week. The board
of hea4h found only six cases. The pub
LEGATION of 1000 was widely disseminated.
The truth of only six cases will never
overtake the falsehood. Bishop Gambler
points out how the pellagra panic failed
because the country learned that it did
not originate in the SOUTH but was i'm
ported in the person of immigrants. The
south is dealing with pellagra-not shut
ting its eyes to it-but the damage to it
by the exaggerated publications cannot
be measured
AS to hook worm, this paper has ac-
copied the statement of the widespread
prevalence of that disease with many
grains of allowance. DIR. Stiles, DIR. Lew
Is and DIR. Rankin are convinced that
the disease exists and that it can be Grad
icated. We cannot doubt that they are
right in their diagnosis and we think the
people and the local and national au-
thorities should do everything in their
power to eradicate it. But the state
ment in the letter to Mr. Rockefeller
two millions of our people are affected
with this parasite" is a wild guess that
few southern people believe has foun-
dation in the real conditions That one
person in every u in the whole south
/ is affected with the hook worm is an
exaggeration that may have Influenced
Mr.. Rockefeller to give his millions, but
it is one that southern men and women
do not for a moment believe. Nobody
can know. No statistics have been taken.
In certain communities, some doctors
have found large percentage and this
. 100000 estimate is guess based upon
those places where it is most prevalent.
In the absence of accurate information,
the wide publication that "2, zoo, 0O0' people
in the south are affected with hook
worm" was a wrong that ought not to
have been printed. The doctors who are
seeking to enlist the cooperation of all
the people in the eradication of the hook
worm will be injured rather than helped
by such exaggerations as was contained
in the letter to Mr.. Rockefeller So far
as this paper is concerned while tired of
! the propaganda that Injuries the south by
exaggeration, it is so much impressed
with the need of a sanitary and health
campaign everywhere that it will CO.
! operate with any and every agency that
is warning against disease -
BISHOP NduuitI fuldSlOSiS Ol INOChC-
fellers motive is correct, his plain spo-
ken condemnation of self-constituted eX-
ploiters of the south who first exaggerate
it's ills and then claim to have done all
| that has been done was needed at this
| time; his clarion call to the southern peo-
pie to resent "officious disposition" to
| take charge of both our heads and our
stomachs, and purge our brains of igno-
rance and our bowels of worms" Is
| timely. Let us not shut our eyes to any
! evil that exists, and let us eradicate dis
ease and ignorance, but let us not canon
! ize Standard Oil Rockefeller by putting
! laurels on his head because he seeks to
buy the appreciation of a people whom
| he has been robbing for a quarter of a
century. The hook worm is bad enough.
but to crawl on our bellies and praise
Rockefeller and other rich trust robbers
would despoil the south Of its charac-
ter, it's best asset. '