The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-17
ID ORGANIZE FIGHT
 ON TUBERCULOSIS Dr. Minor Suggests Association
 in Birmingham THE NEED IS APPARENT Says Few Cases of Yellow Fever Would Arouse Community and Yet Tuberculosis Claims More Vic
 tims Than the Fever
THE NEED IS APPARENT

To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 At the invitation of your medical society l I last week had the pleasure of calling the attention of the doctors and citizens
 of Birmingham to the urgent necessity
 of beginning an active fight against tu-
 berculosis in your city, and showed them
 how this could be done. I am very
 busy man, and can i'll afford the time and
 expense of going far from home to urge
 others to take up such crusade, but if, by so doing, T can waken the people
 to action, l will feel more than repaid;
 while if my trip to Birmingham. and my
 address are to be followed by no active
 steps, it is but natural that I should re- 1 gret it as a waste of time, money and
 energy.
 l l know from experience how hard 1t l is to waken people to a realization of l their duty in fighting a scourge, whose
 advance is so insidious that they do not l fealize it's danger fully. Were there one | tenth, or even one-hundreth as many
 cases of yellow fever in your city as there are cases of tuberculosis, there would be no difficulty in arousing your citi-
 zens to action. and money and time and
 thought would be freely given to fight the trouble, because It's more spectacular course draws general attention and be- cause it makes a greater appeal to the fear of the public.
 But tuberculosis carries off every year many more people than does yellow fever, and in doing so creates far more misery and poverty and crime, and l do not like to believe that in so enterprising city as Birmingham the appeal I made week ago can fall flat, or that 1t can fail to eventuate in prompt and efficient ac- ton.
 Too many good causes fail because everybody waits for somebody else tc take the first step, and because the right
 man does not chance to become inter ested. That you have plenty of the right | sort of men in Birmingham, both in med 1 cal and business circles, does not admit
 of question. What you need Is to wake I them to take the first steps. | AS I said the other night, organization l is essential to the success of any move | ment, and an organization to fight this l trouble must be composed of fully as
 many laymen as of doctors, even though the scientific part of the fight will need the direction of a physician
 l Knowing that you have deeply at heart l the best interests of Birmingham, I am writing to ask you to try. through the columns of your powerful journal. to
 waken the citizens and doctors of your town to action. Since there must be some
 
 suggest that the city health officer, Dr Hardness, with your assistance, call
 meeting of a selected list of active, ener-
 getic men, both doctors and laymen, not
 so many as to cucumber action, and pro ceed at once to the organization of Birmingham anti-tuberculosis association, | affiliating it in the start with the great | national association, whose executive sec | retary, pr. Livingston Farrand, of 105 East Twenty-second street, New York,
 can and will gladly give you great as- l sistance.
 1 Once organized, and the interests of your best citizens aroused in it's pur l poses, such an association will be as pow
 erful In your city for good as similar 1 ones have been In many other towns.
 and it will finally form the nucleus of
 a statewide movement which will put | Alabama abreast of her sister states ip
 this great crusade.
 Only by such action can words of in- terest be crystallized into deeds of kind | ness; only thus can you successfully fight | a plague far worse than smallpox in the 1 effects which it has on the efficiency, 1 happiness and health of your citizens, and l to your great journal will accrue deserved 1 credit for awakening to a sense of their duty in this matter the doctors and lay men of your town. Very truly yours, 1 CHARLES l.. MINOR. n. D. l Asheville, N. C., March 30, 1910.