Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-10-14
FIGHTING THE WHITE PLAGUE.

Illinois is planning great Crusade II,
against the white plague. IL VIII ps
an educational campaign, and one VI
the means of raising funds Will pc
through the sale Of Red Cross Christ
mas stamps. BY this means $1,000 was
raised in Chicago alone. This year Ell
forts will be made to raise S20,0Oo,
and the sum secured will be used for
educational and publicity work, for
public lectures, for organizing socle-
ties and for legislative work.
The Illinois state conference Oh
charities and corrections at Peoria de-
voted yesterdays session to discus
sion OF the great white plague ana
heard presentation of the deadly
toll collected by tuberculosis, In an
address by DIR. j. w. Petit, an author'
ity on tuberculosis. DR.. Petit SAID
that the cost of tuberculosis may pc
classified under four separate heads
the cost in lives, cost in disability,
cost in unhappiness and cost in mon
ey. He continued.
1.-THE cost in lives in the United
States is estimated at 100000 annual
w which is more than the combined
deaths from typhoid fever, smallpox,
diphtheria, cancer, diabetes, append
citis and meningitis. If a forecast OF
the deaths Of the future is computed
on the basis of those now living, and
the death rate in the past, it is safe
to say that 100000 persons now liv-
ing in the United States are doomed to
die of tuberculosis unless present con-
ditions are changed.
s"The cost of tuberculosis in money
consists Of actual money expenditures
and loss of earnings. The cost to the
patient and his family consists of ex-
penditures for physicians, medicines,
nursing, travelling and usually burial.
Prof. Irving Fisher, in notable paper
presented at, the international con-
gress, held in washington, D. c., last
year, gave thorough and conserva-
tive estimate of the money cost OF tu-
berculosis, based upon data which can
not be reasonably questioned, and con-
Guided that the actual loss IN the
United States to consumpt1Ves them
selves exceeded $500 100000, and to
others s44O, 0OO, 900, making total an
nual loss Of $1,10O,000,O00, and said
IL this annual loss should continue in
definitely it would represent, capital
lied, an Offset against or deduction
from our natural resources OF $22,-
000,000,000.
"There is more than enough money
spent in one way and another which
If properly directed would cure the
durable and make harmless the incur
able. Almost every consumptive who
dies has actually cost more in dollars
and cents than 1t would have taken to
cure him if the disease had been dis
covered and treated in time.
'The National Association for the
STUDY and Prevention of tuberculosis
has recently called attention in an Of
fetal way to the cruel and inhuman
practice of sending dying cases of
consumption to the southwest. Fully
7,180 persons hopelessly diseased with
tuberculosis annually go to die in the
4 states Of California, Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas and Colorado, most of
them by order of their physicians, and
many of them too poor to afford the
trip.
Consumption can be cured if ar
rested in any section Of the United
! states, and the percentage Of cures In
the east and west is nearly the same.
Any physician, therefore, who sends a
person to the southwest, without suf-
ficient funds or in an advanced or dy-
ing stage of the disease. is guilty of
cruelty to his patient. Renewed eff
forts are being made to stop this prac-
tfce and to encourage the building of
small local hospitals in every city
and town in the country"
Iowa should not allow itself to be-
come lukewarm in its fight on tuber-
culOSia Thara has haan too much Of
a disposition shown to throw the bur-
den on the legislature of providing
the money to push the fight. Why
should not Iowa begin a campaign for
funds to increase the facilities of its
state tuberculosis hospital in order
that more incipient cases might be
treated or to make possible the build
Ing Of small local hospitals in the
towns and cities of the state?