The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-01-03
MORE WORK DONE
THAN EVER BEFORE
tuberculosis Campaign Makes
Great Progress
DURING THE YEAR 1908
Every Means Possible Is Being Used
To Bring the Gospel of Health To
the People of the
United States.
DURING THE YEAR 1908

New York, January 2.-(speciai )-wfth
the opening of the new year, the cam
paign against tuberculosis in the United
States exhibits the most remarkable prog
ress that any movement for social better
ment has ever shown in this country.
During the past year, the amount of
activity and the number of people who
have been reached by this activity has
been far in excess of similar work that
has been carried on during the four years
previous.
Measured by dollars, the campaign
against tuberculosis in the United States
during the year 1908 has cost we'll over
million. Measured in the number of
workers, the campaign has enlisted hun
dreds of thousands in its ranks. Meas
ured by the number of institutions and
organizations that have been established
during the year 1908, more work of this
sort has been accomplished than during
the entire period before january l of the
year just closing. For instance, before
january l. 1905, there were only 10 dis
pensaries in the United States providing
special treatment for tuberculous cases.
Up to the year 1903, this number had in
creased to slightly over 1OO During the
year 1868 alone. over 100 dispensaries pro-
viding special treatment for tuberculous
patients have been opened. The number
of tuberculosis sanatoria and hospitals
opened in the year 1908 is more than so,
a figure which is four times that of the
amount of progress shown in this line In
any other year before 1908. The number
Of associations having for their object
the study or prevention of consumption,
established during the year 1908, totals up
to 40. which figure again IS more than
the entire number which had previously
been established in the United States.
But not only in the number of inst-
buttons but also in the variety of people
interested and in the increase in work.
ers, can the progress of the anti-tuber-
culosls campaign be measured. Never be-
fore in the history of the United States
have so many movements co-operated and
allied to fight the common foe, the white
plague. Never in any single year have
so many different organizations and so
many different ranks of people been
stirred to activity in a movement for
the betterment of the condition of man,
as during the year 1908. For instance,
during the past year from one end of the
country to the other the. labor unions
and workingmen have been startled to
a realization of the fact that consump-
ton is disease which affects them, and
they have been arming from east to west
for the fight against this common foe.
Hand in hand, the movement of the labor
unions has been the stimulus given to the
clergymen and the churches throughout
the country. Never before have SO many
Md
from the pulpits of the various churches
of the country. The schools, too. have
been aroused both through special in
situations for the treatment of tubercu-
losis children and by means of special
istruction to the children in the regular
grades in the schools. Hundreds of chill
dren have been instructed on the dam
gers of tuberculosis. State legislatures.
government officials. business concerns,
factory owners, social workers, men and
women of all sorts of classes have dur
ing this past year been aroused to re-
newed interest in the campaign against
consumption.
OF the influences which have contributed
to produces this result, probably the most
weighty, has been the International con-
gress on tuberculosis which was held in
Washington during>the latter part of Sep
TENDER and the first part of October, Mt
tracing as 1t did, the attention Of men
and women in every state in the union.
Representatives were present from almost
every section OF the country, and the BEN
eft derived from this inspiring gather
ing has doubtless given the greatest inl-
petus to activity in the fight against cvn-
sumption that this country has ever ex-
perienced. The National Association for
the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis
by means of its constant propag anda and
its two travelling exhibits, has also helpad
to contribute to the success of the CAM
paign. Particularly is this so in regard
to the work being carried on In the SOUTH
The Red Cross stamp campaign, with It's
25000.O00 stamps. has been one of the
greatest mediums of education on tuber-
culosis as well as a means, of raising
money that has ever been used In this
country.
The managers of the campaign against
tuberculosis are realizing that they have
hard fight ahead of them, and every
means that will bring hime TO the ig
norant the gospel of health is being en-
ployed. 1t is safe to predict that with
the present rate of increase in aetiv..v
against tuberculosis maintained, the
white plague will be ranked in a class
with some of the least dangerous of the
infectious diseases within less than 90
years.
WKp uEQ0EC WITT