Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-11-05
The South and the Hookworm

Great enthusiasm prevails that Mr..
John ID. Rockefeller has opened his
ample strong box and promised to give
81 goo, 900 for the purpose of extermina-
ting throughout the South that some
what weird and as yet unfamiliar pest.
the hookworm. The hookworm, we
are assured, is a terrible animal of
microscopic proportions, responsible for
much laziDess and general "cussed-
ness'-heretofore so called-in Dixie
land.
The hereinbefore mentioned 'sgreat
enthusiasm" we hasten to add, seems,
strangely enough, confined largely to
communities north of Mason and
Dixon's line. Below that celebrated
limit there appears to exist a marked
hesitancy in accepting the oil kings
indicated philanthropy hesitancy,
indeed, that suggests a decided inclina-
ton to look this particular equine thing
of gift persuasion its buccal muscles be-
tween somewhat suspiciously and with
cAttcDlb CdublOu.
Far be 1t from us to say the hook
worm is not the most pestiferous and
depraved organism known to bacter-
iology. Perhaps it has been rushing
around seeking whom it might devour
all these weary years down Carolina,
Tennessee and Alabama way. 1t may
have been responsible for the free silver
craze, the boil weevil, and near-beer,
for aught we know to the contrary. TO
tell the truth, we suspect it is guilty of
all sorts of high crimes and mis-
demeanors. We admit our relative un-
i'm Importance in the premises, however,
the while we arise to inquire Does
Dixie quite appreciate MI. Rockefel-
ler's benign intent? Alas, we fear
Dixie has misgivings.
Says the Macon Telegraph:
''This new Islander on the South ought to be
resented by every Southerner that has red
blood in his veins. Those that no have blood
or resentment, why, let them take the
kerosene oil cure, If they want to
Europe has her peasant and pauper
Mexico has her poems the cities of the North
have their slums-every lane and every sec
ton has its own human derelicts. That the
South is any worse off than the balance of the
world is the rottenest kind OF rot! The truth
Is there is no land of greater health and vigor
in the world than this Southland.
~'Seriously, the whole blooming farce is a
libel on the South, calculated and intended to
keep desirable immigrants from coming "a
mong us. 1t is a stratagem of the enemy.
at is a part of that warfare that began
more than fifty years ago, but more insidious
and dangerous because it comes in the guise
OF friendship, bearing gifts Away with itr'
The Charlotte Observer smells-or
thinks its smells-a strong odor of oil
about the proposal, and says:
"Toward Mr.. John ID. Rockefeller's gift of
Sl,000.OO0 to fight hookworm ravages in the
South we ave no ungracious words. 1t may
}De wefr meant, At WI dodbtlesg- do Some
good. But thanks TO Mr.. Rockefeller are
quite another matter. If our request or ac-
ceptance had been necessary the gilt would
never have been made. Mr.. Rookie
Teller, with s3o,O0O,0OO already given or set
aside, is In a splendid way to take over the
South. At the present rate there will soon be
very few people left in this section who can
decently open their mouths about him or the
things he stands for except in praise"
The Birmingham Age-Herald views
the matter with something akin to
mild interest and considerable tolerance,
saying
If Mr.. Rockefeller desires to spend s. 100000
In an effort to trace the hookworm to its lair,
no one need object; but it is scarcely just to
the South to assume that the parasite is con-
fined to this section OF the country. = = We
need not, however, admit that the habitat of
the hook worm is the South. Its ha bitat is, in
fact, the wide, wide world"
The Nashville American says:
Through the honest but hasty benevolence
of Mr.. John ID. Rockefeller the South is given
another undesirable exploitation before the
world. By the gift of Sl.OOO,O 900 from Mr..
Rockefeller's ample store emphasis is given
to the exaggerated statements and erroneous
conclusions of a sensational ~penny-aline
magazine writer who set out to prove a GER
tain theory, and who, like the man who said
the horse was sixteen hands high, when he
wasn't, is determined to stick to it. =
"If Mr.. Rockefeller, instead of wasting
81 100000 chasing an ignis fatuus, would de-
vote that sum and and a few million more to
the establishment OF county agricultural
schools in the South, where children, even the
adult farmers, could be shown how, with no
more labor, to make two blades of grass grow
where they have been growing only one, he
and the Investigators at the Capital would
not need to worry about the ravages of the
hookworm. That will cure ITSELF"
The Charleston News and Courier
merely notes Mr.. Rockefeller's state
ment that he may ''be drawn on, with
in five years, for a sum totaling not
more than 81, OOO, O00,n and suggests
that drafts be made at once, adding
"Five years is a mighty long time"
Through all of this we imagine we
see the outcropping of one ingrained
Southern characteristic hat ought to
be tolerably easy of perception by all