Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-21
GARBAGE AND FLIES

dSkeu me 10 WFlIe SoHlStHlnB OH lhS
above subject, and It is but reluctant
ly that l comply. You see, have said
so much about this the past several
months that there are some who have
intimated that l have grown prosy
and have shown a marked disinclina-
tion to listen. And you can't blame
them, can you? 1t is most disagree
able subject at the best, and If your
readers are not pleased with your page
this week it will be because the medi-
cal subject Is a little too nauseating.
Many will remember that the whole
contention lately given so much space
in the daily papers centers around the
location of the garbage transfer sta
tion at Also and Anderson streets.
But, frankly now, the question is a
deeper one than that and instead of
being a purely local matter covering
the homes of few hundred mechanics
and laborers, it is one that strikes deep
into the health of the whole city.
The present system for the collection
of garbage is a vicious one, and the
contract on which it is founded and
has life of five years is proving un-
popular because of the methods con-
sidered necessary by the contractor
under it's provisions.
Any system of garbage collection,
safe and satisfactory, must embrace
absence of leakage, odor and mimi
mum offensiveneSs to the eye, and the
results disposed of in such manner
that no putrefying residue shall be left
to be carried about by flies, animals,
winds or soil seepage. No one can
contend that the present system, IN
which the garbage is allowed to de-
compose in the family receptacles,
emptied into an open wagon covered
by a rag of canvas, handled and re-
handled, finally falling upon the ground
as good for hogs meets any of these
requirements.
OF the systems that have as their
ultimate object the total destruction
of the waste gathered are two-reduc-
tion and incineration.
That these are impractical cannot be
much longer entertained by those really
having a higher interest in the pubic
health than a political one. 1t is con-
tended that the former conducted on
business principles will yield revenue
for the city. That the old inclnerator
was constructed with such ignorance
and incompetenc it has no sewer con-
nections and the fluids banked the
fires, does not prove that incineration
is a failure. Mrs. Won Wagner, ex-
pert for the housing commission, has
shown that individual incinerators are
practical in the house courts under her
charge and are operated with COM
paratively no expense. What can be
done privately on a small scale can be
done by the city on a larger one. The
present method is crude, offensive ana
a public nuisance from the doorstep
to wherever it may be dumped upon
the ground in the country.
The garbage when gathered twice
week is stale, fly blown and often
contains well grown maggots, which,
unless destroyed, become full grown
flies. Flies gather around the garbage
can, flies follow the wagons, and q
nerfect plague of flies gather and
hatch at Anderson and Also streets.
This except when the wind blows then
the neighborhood is fairly free from
flies. for flies do not like wind. They
travel in the direction of the prevail
ing breeze until an opportunity pre-
sents itself to bring their filth into the
homes in all parts of the city. And
there is nothing more filthy than
fly.
The question of war on flies, mos
ouitoes and other disease bearing in
sects is now well established in science
and literature is prolific and further
research is still being vigorously car
ried on. While this scientific investiga-
tion has been carried on for several
years it appears that only the edge
of the wave of this has but recently
taken hold of the popular attention. In
the Review of Reviews for July and
Technical World for August there are
some very comprehensive articles upon
this subject.
Bv means of flies a typhoid epidemic
may be started from single de-
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