The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-07-30
The Man Milwaukee Has
Borrowed from Uncle Sam
fRx Dorothy pale.l

tional Importance was set by the
Socialists of Milwaukee when they
brought DR.. VIM. Colby Rucker, an
officer of the United States public
health and marine service, to take
charge of the health department
here. 1t is the first time that a
city has called on the government
for help in health matters except
in time of disease epidemic.
The appointment was the first
step in carrying out the policy o.
the Socialists that a city govern
ment is a great trust that shoule
be run with all the benefits to the
people, and that it should be cap
tanned by experts, just as other
trusts are, who can get the best
results economically.
"But economy does not mean
neglecting the needs of the people
in any way" explains Mayor Sci.
del. 1.-THE last health Officer
turned $4,000 back into tht
treasury, while the sanitary condi
tions of our hospitals, where poor
sick children are housed, are in a
frightful state"
DR.. Rucker was stationed at San
Francisco when the Socialists
ing out yellow fever. He had
served at New Orleans in stamp
inc UnlInur
gone through two bubonic plague
epidemics in San Francisco, and
after the last had been the dis
coverer of the California ground
squirrel as the carrier of the dread
disease. He was determining the
squirrel infected area when the
call from Milwaukee came. 1t
was only by carrying his demand
past Surgeon General Wyman to
President Taft that Mayor Seidel
succeeded in getting DR.. Rucker.
DR.. Rucker is young man who
is not addicted to office-chairism
He's up pointing things out on a
map, producing the records, or
taking you to the spot of discus
sion while he's talking. He goes
right out to look for things him
self. That's how he found the
ground squirrel that has become
as great a menace to California
as any plague-suffering crew that
ever dropped into San Francisco
bay from the ports of the orient.
In the short time he has been
In Milwaukee, DR.. Rucker has
looked into almost every corner of
the city, and he has set right to
worg getting wrongs righted.
Although not Socialist, he be-
lieves that the betterment of a city
can come only through co-opera-
ton. He has found it. He sent
letter to Milwaukee physicians
that the city's laboratory for max
Ing blood cultures, the quickest
way to determine typhoid fever,
was at their disposal. AS are
suit, the number of cases of dis
ease reported had doubled, and he
knows what the real conditions he
has to fight are. The typhoid
condition means filtration plant,
he says.
In one of the isalation hos
pitfalls found the crowding so ex-
IRENE that the day nurse in the
scarlet fever ward had to sleep in
the room with PATIENTS" he said.
sanitary conditions were so bad
that there was only one toilet for
IL children. The suffering of the
poor little tots on account of 1t
was pitiful. I also found the chill
dren had to use a bath that was
used by patients with other com
municable diseases. Windows were
also not all screened. We are
going to have repairs made at once
and a shower bath put in for the
use of suspicious cases, SO there
VIII be no danger of communica-
tion."
While he talked he was get
ting ready to start out investi-
eating.
Inc rag sheds were in the heart
of good Milwaukee residence
district on the West-side. That's
what alleys do for a city. The
sheds were piled with gunny-
sacks. Out of them stuck hoofs
OF animals, scraps of old iron
and rags of every kind. But
there were no women or children
working in the basement, lighted
only by trap door, as there had
been a few days ago.
GOOD" Said DR.. Rucker.
That much accomplished" And
he climbed up a ladder to a loft
where women with children al
most babies, tumbling around
among the bales. were. sorting
away with at least air and light
to help them.
Its just the same in the bag
factories" he said. "Girls work
six months, and then droop with
incipient tuberculosis. The dusty
air they have to breathe is GO
ing to be moistened by the right
kind of ventilation hereafter"
DR.. Rucker is going to get out
bulletins for the public that will
teach people how to take care of
their homes and themselves.
There will be one of these every
month. These bulletins will tell
how to prevent and care Off
typhoid fever, tuberculosis and
children's diseases.
Then there viii be special ones
on the fly and the rat as disease
breeders.