Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-04

|
afternoon by Dr. W. A. Evans, chiel
health officer of the city of Chicago, ano
known the country over as one Oh .Iie
highest authorities on matters pertaining
TO health and sanitation. -,
The chamber was comfortably 1lled
with members of the council members oil
the charter revision commission. members
of the bond commission physicians anu
others interested in the subject OF better
sanitation, and among those present were
| a number of Atlanta's most prominent
women.
/ In a short but impressive speech, Mayor
Maddox introduced DIR. Evans. The may
or, who had been instrumental in bring
ing the doctor to Atlanta and who had
entertained him at luncheon earlier In the
Afternoon related how DIR. Evans hau
fbeen centered on by both Democrats and
Republicans as the greatest authority on
health subjects in Chicago. he staten
that the administration, realizing mat
| the position of health officer was one o.
the most important in the city had ue
cided TO remove it from politics and haG
| left 1t to the members of the medical pro-
fession to choose a man. DR.. Evans. he
said. had been unanimously chosen by his
| fellow physicians.
The mayor then exulained that. since
DR.. Evans had been ChicagOs chief
health officer, the mortality had been re-
| duced to Sucn an extent lndl II Aau
| astounded the whole country
Is a SOutherner
DIR. Evans prefaced his remarks by
calling attention to the fact that al
| though he lived in the city of Chicag"
and had been living there for twenty
years, he was a southerner, with all of
the southerner's sympathies and natural
instincts and that he felt an especial in
terest in Atlanta as the Empire City of
the South. II was born in Alabama,
said DR. Evans, but l lived a number
of years in Mississippi. My parents were
| both Georgians. My mother came from
Wilkes county and my father from Nor
gan county.
! II believe Atlanta is not realizing its
manifest destiny; that it is being handi-
capped and limited by the neglect and
Indifference of it's citizens. I mean no re-
Election on the local health department.
for l believe 1t is doing the best it can
with the machinery at its disposal
! 1--WE have been taught in Chicago that
/ it pays to be healthy. Our city was built
in a marshy morass. In the city's early
days it was one of the most unhealthy
cities in the world. The city level was
raised, the drainage was perfected and
proper sewage disposal was installed.
The result has been that an empire city
has grown UP there.
4 'There can De no community WedlI1
without health, and no imperial city
without provision for that health. 1t
pays to spend money and spend it ever
in the end that a city may be made
healthy, for it can not afford to neglect
it's health duties.
| "Since we have accomplished a proper
sewage disposal in Chicago we are giving
a great deal of attention to the education
of the masses along sanitary lines. The
L 20 hat nN
ileast two practical and forcible health
lectures are delivered each day. These
lectures are delivered in the shops, fac
tories and other places where the people
are gathered. Nothing has helped the
Health crusade so much as the praise
worthy attitude of the press. The news
papers publish our weekly bulletins in
full. Some of these bulletins are pre-
pared for and sent to doctors, lawyers.
| preachers and teachers. We manage to
get our health messages in the papers
of all tongues and in the labor union or
gans. The crusade is bringing forth
abundant fruit.
IT would suggest that in submitting the
proposed bond issue proposition to the
lpeople of Atlanta that you thoroughly
Impress upon the voters what it means TO
lthem-how a better sanitary system means
longer life, greater security and moro
dollars and cents.
1--WE recently held bond election for
100000 to be used for the handling of the
| tuberculosis situation in our city. The
election carried by vote of five to one.
The ministers of all denominations took
| occasion in their sermons to call atten-
/ ton to the health as we'll as the spiritu-
al needs of their congregations. They in
dorsed the bond issue and it carried
| overwhelmingly.
1.-The tuberculosis question is one which
is more important and means more to
the people of this country than the tariff
or any other question OF a political ma
ture.
! tuberculosis Record Here
| According to statistics at my disposal,
find that in the year 1905 the death
rate from tuberculosis in Atlanta was
241 as compared to that of 1873 for Chi
/ cago If Chicago had Atlanta's death
rate from this disease it would have cost
that city during the past ten years $685.
900. 900 more than it has cost 1t.
1.-The typhoid fever death rate in At
| lanta in 1905 was 1876. Since these records
were compiled the rate has been reduced
| in Chicago to 1876.
| eve begun our drainage canal about ten
years ago. This is the first year that
all of the sewage has been diverted from
lake Michigan. We figure that by es-
|
annually save $40 lives
| Fearful and far-reaching are the eff
| fects and influences of malaria and hook
worm. This section is particularly sus-
ceptible to these diseases The great
majority of those who die from tubercu-
losis Consumption are women of family
! They not only become a burden to their
loved ones, but during the three or four
| years that they linger they are serious
menace to the health of those about
| them.
1.-THE records show that one-fifth of the
| consumptives of Chicago die in the
poorhouse. This does not mean that
consumption is a disease of paupers, but
it does mean that it is pauperizing dis
ease. With the bread-winner of a fam
| lily lingering along in illness for years
even the members of a thrifty family
find it hard to get along.
Consumption is a result of commun-