Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1909-03-05
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

OuC from lcOO 70 1854 the average NOR
tality. for whites .in Charleston was
f26 n per thousand, for blacks, 43.29
per thousand. The outcome shows the
inevitable cost Of freedom. It is .
struggle for the survival Of the fittest.
Through ignorance, improvidence, and
hard conditions the majority Of the race,
perhaps, is poorly housed, underfed,
and inadequately clothed. Their power
Of resistance to the ravages Of disease
is thus weakened. Their homes in cities
are often in unsanitary sections lin
alleys or low-lying flats. So also in the
country, where Impurities drain into
their wells and sources of water supply.
There is slight apprecia ton of the laws
of health, Typhoid and malarial fevers
hold sway among them. Contagious
diseases and epidemics find easy victims.
Because Of low moral standards, lack
Of knowledge and loose family discipline
LEGITIMACY is comnen among the lower
classes. The effects Of diseases, not to
be named, on infant mortality is mark
ed.
The scourage Of to-day is tuberculosis
that "ghastly tragedy Of race"
On high authority it is stated that Of
the seventy-fve million living Ameri-
cans, at the least eight millions must
inevitably die from this cause, II il
the greatest drain On the nations rs-
sources. Among the slayes eonsnmp-
ton was 10 rare tii&t physicians even
declared that the Negro was immune
from its deadly power. It is now the
scourage Of this race. The death-rate
among the Negroes from tuberculosis
lis lat the present time) more than three
times that Of the whites from the some
disease. Since the one prevailing
source of tuberculosis is through infec-
ton, and the races, in the South espec-
tally, are closly bound togather, the
the menace to the health of the nation
is serious. In the South the Negroes
are, and will continue to be, helpers in
the homes. They cook the food, nurse
the children, care for the sick and wash
the clothes mostly in their own unsani-
tary cabins. It is evident that if train
ed physicians are not available for the
instruction Of the people in hygiene and
sanitation. and for the arrest Of this
infectious plague, the results must be
in the future even more alarming than
to-day.
In some cities even at the North, the
Negroes are dying off faster than they
reproduce themselves. DR.. Furniss,
the noted colored physician Of Indianar-
oils, gives statistics showing that in no
month in the last ten years has the
birth-rate in that city equalled the
death-rate. When the proportion
should be one to eight, tuberculosis is
the cause of half the total deaths Of
Negros in Indianapolis. The fact that
consumption mortality in New Orleans
lis three and one-third times greater for
colored than for white. and in st. Louis
and Chicago over three times as great,
should sound the alarm. Y
In view Of these conditions. peculiar
significance attaches to statistics as to
the training of the colored physicians.
In 1907 the total number Of medical
students in the United States was "a, :
ZIG. The total number Of graduates
was 4, $50, the smallest number since
1890.
There are seven medical school for
colored people Howard University
School Of medicine at Washington, Me-
harry at Nashville, and Leonard at
Raleigh, being most prominent and
fairly well equipped. The total num-
Der Of professors and instructors in
these schools for 1907 was 143, students
691: graduates 167. On the basis OF
seventy million whites and ten million
blacks in the United States, there is
one student in medicine to every three
thousand whites, and one to every four
teen thousand blacks. s.