Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-21

the physician, the surgeon, the sani-
tary engineer, and the layman, in a
momentous crusade against the raw
ventable diseases.
Zone by one the majority of these
enemies of mankind have been sub
dued. The rout of some. such as lep-
rosy, yellow fever, malaria, smallpox,
diphtheria and typhoid fever. has been
almost complete; and because of the
methods used and the quickness of
the defeat-spectacular in the extreme.
But there still remains stalking about
in our midst that ancient, implacable.
insidious foe-consumption, or the
great white plague.
1.-THE year which has Just passed
has been marked by great progress In
the campaign in tuberculosis all over
the United States. Never before have
so many different groups OF people
been working together for enc COM
mon end. At the present time schools,
women's clubs, labor unions, churches,
state legislatures, municipal bodies, In
surance companies, fraternal organiza-
tons, bill posters, newspaper writer's,
magazine editors, laymen, nurses, doc
tors-of every creed and color-are all
banded together In one effort to rid
this country Of consumption.
Campaign of Education.
THE campaign is, first and fore
most, a campaign of education. Pri-
vate organizations are looked to to
take the lead in this educational work.
q % ~
show that wherever an aggressive cam
paign OF education has been carried on
by private organizations, states and
cities have been induced to make lib
eraI appropriations for the cure and
prevention Of consumption. Illinois
well exemplifies this principle. Money
expenditures follow a little behind ed
ucational work This year and next
year the state wifi reap the benefit of
educational work done during the past
two or three years. The state, which
has hitherto been somewhat backward
in it's duty toward the poor consump-
tive, is now becoming thoroughly |
aroused. and its last years expendi- |
lures will easily be doubled or trebled |
this year from appropriations already |
made.
at IS hardly necessary for me to /
say that tuberculosis is too often an /
other word for tragedy, when It tight
ems its clutches about the throat of /
It's victim. There IS scarcely q person |
within the sound of my voice within .
whose circle it has not come and /
snatched away before his time some /
are stopped, one person out of every
seven now living is destined to die Of
his disease. The last four years have
claimed three times as many victims
rom consumption in the United States
IS died in action or from wounds re-
seived in action during the four years
If the civil war
Or. A. c. Mueller, your health CON-
missioner, tells me that you had q
Ieaths from tuberculosis in Rock Is
and last year. Nor does this tell the
Whole story. A most conservative es-
imate would place the number Of liv-
ng cases in Rock Island today at $50.
It's Cost in Money Great.
"And think of the money loss in
-oIved. Consumption is sometimes
allied disease of pauDers. The fall
acy of this statement lies in that it is
lot so much a disease of paupers as
is pauperizing disease. It takes
consumption an average Of two years
o run its course. InasmUch as It usu-
lily attacks a bread-winner or a home
laker, the earning power gets grad
ally less and less, until by the end of
he first year its victims have ceased
D have net earning power and have =
ecome a family or a community ia :