The wageworker., 1910-01-22

secretary Nebraska Society for the
Study and Prevention of tuberculosis:
Charles Dickens. in mis- famous
novel, Nicholas Nickleby, says this;
! There is dread disease which so
| prepares it's victims, as it were, for
death; which so refines it from its
grosser aspect and throws around
familiar looks unearthly indications
of the coming change-a dread disease
in which the struggle between soul
and body is SO gradual, quiet and sol
emn, and the result so sure, that day
by day and grain by grain the mortal
part wastes and withers away so that
the spirit grows light and sanguine
with it's tightening load, and, feeling
immortality at hand, deems it but a
new term of mortal life-a disease in
which death and life are so strangely
blended that death takes the glow and
hue of life, and life the gaunt grisly
| form of death-a disease which medi-
| cine never cured, wealth warded Off,
or poverty could boast exemption from
which sometimes moves in giant
strides and sometimes at a tardy pace.
but, slow or quick, is ever sure and
certain"
This is the disease, tuberculosis,
and in the time when Dickens wrote
thus of it, in common acceptation it
was hereditary disease, in SO involv-
ing and depreciating the health his
tory of family. was held to be a
deep disgrace. That this feeling of
shame and the consequent effort to
hide the disgrace from the knowledge
of men was a most active factor in
be denied. Today, happily, we have
graduated from this erroneous posi-
ton. and the individual who has to be
told that he cannot directly inherit
consumption. is more or less rare. On
the other hand We perceive a great
| undertaking of the danger from infect
| ed surroundings, ill-ventilated apart
ments, poor food and overwork; all Of
which are cOntributary causes, sup
posing one to have inherited from tu-
bercular parents, not the germ of the
disease, but a lessened power of re-
sistance, which of itself opens the
door and invites infection.
Be it understood at the outset that
the purpose of this paper is neither
to create nor foster foolish fear of
this terrible slayer of life and hap
piness All the world knows that
fear or other craven instinct ingram
in nature tends to lower the resisting
IOlCC, SOIue vi Tie WOTlu SO
far forgets itself today as to claim
that fear NAV actually give birth to a
specific disease germ. 1t is within
the experience of most of us that
those who talk the loudest about their
courage are the ones who most fear
their personal inability to remain fear
less; a case of whistling to keep ones
courage up as it We're. The danger
is here and the danger is real and
We are here, not to become hySterical
and run from it, but to face it and
| fight it. 1t is responsibility. indi-
vidual. fraternal. civic. national No
man nor set of men may back down
| from it, 1t is as insistent as the con-
slant drop of water and sooner or
| later will be reckoned with. Ellen La
Motto. of Johns Hopkins, says: IF
tuberculosis were a little more sensa-
| tional in its development, then educa-
tional preventive work would show
better results" But on the contrary
as already quoted, it is "a disease in
which death and life are strangely
blended; hence. if your child next
year develop it, have you accurate in
| formation that the tuberculous school
teacher of last year infected her? No.
| you have not You only know, and
too late, perhaps, that politics, pig
| headedness or prudery have blocked
medical inspection in your schools. Do
you also know that such inspection is
maintained in all Europe, extends to
South America, and even to what we
are pleased sometimes to designate as
semi-civilized Japan?
| During the recent campaign of the
Red Cross Christmas stamp, sold for
tuberculosis prevention, one of the To-
cal papers in an editorial put the
question very neatly. In this matter
OF the great white plague. it said we
are all more or less directly interest
ed. AS Blaine said of Andersonville,
some of us had relatives there, many
OF us had friends there. all of us had
countrymen there, and where Ander-
sonville or coal mines or Fourth of
July risasters have slain their thou
sands, consumption has slain it's tens
OF thousands. With a casualty list so
great, it could not fail to affect most
of us. If there is one point about the
white plague which may give us more
uneasiness than its past ravages, it is
it's future possibilities. We do not
know how it will deal with our de-
scendants. We plant trees for them,
establish homesteads and libraries, but
what do we to safeguard the health of
those who if crippled in this wise, will
not rise up and call us blessed? 1t is
up to us-in the parlance of the day
to deliver those to whom we are re-
sponsible from the clutches of the
great white plague.
| Nebraska stands at present in
about the same position Illinois stood
twenty years ago. in it's relation to adj
vancing civilization, and its allied
l Ayxx1x, rly. I,<,r
a superb climate, high rate of health
and the lowest percentage of illiteracy
Of any state in the Union. Should it
mean great deal of talking to make
| Nebraska understand that If she does
mot take hold she may twenty years
hence stand in the unenviable position
Illinois occupies today with respect to
the invasion of tuberculosis? Illinois
| is making most strenuous efforts to