The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-12
Tuberculosis,
 The Disgrace
 of Civilization.

The modern world is awakening to the realization of two facts. first. that tuberculosis is infectious; second, that it's development can be prevented As to it's communica bi1ity, the rigorous anti-spitting ordinances and the rigid Board of Health requirements that tuberculosis be reported as must any other infectious or contagious dis ease, attest our knowledge.
 The splendid work of Dr. Evans of Chicago, in publicizing knowledge on this vital subject has stimulated emu- Iation from physicians, health boards, district nurses associations, and civic improvement societies all over the country, and effective work is being accomplished in stamping out this Disgrace of Civilization, the Great White Plague.
 But (and here's the rub) while we know, how to prevent and how to cure Gin the early stages) the death rate shows no perceptible diminution.
 Because we haven't attacked the basic cause of tuberculosis, poverty and mal-nutrition. The wealthy do occasionally die Of it, but in propor- tion of one to seven, the poor over worked underfed wage-slave pays tribute to this modern Minatur-de- vouring the fairest and most promis- ing of our youth. Of what avail the physicians counsel to rest up," sleep in the open air, force feed upon rich nutritious diet, and live wholesome natural life, to a poor shop girl or mill operative, toiling 12 hours a day in vitiated, lint-laden, su- per-saturated atmosphere, from which the greater portion of oxygen has long since been extracted and replac- ed by carbon n-dioxide?
 What sardonic cruelty, (devilishly ri n Greek Mythology or Dante's Inferno) to show this doomed victim the beau tiful vista of life, hope, health, hap piness, a continued loving sojourn among the quick, and then dash the cup to the ground, shattered in a thousand fragments and proffer him instead the bitterness, futility, and hopelessness of his lot under Econ omic Determlnlsm.
 For his faith is predetermined by his economic condition. If he is able to carry out the rules of health laid down for his guidance, to play the game fairly and squarely with un- sta cked cards, the chances are ex- tremely favorable for complete re- covery, and restoration to uSeful pro- ductive activity.
 Old Mother Nature is not malign. She takes no unfair advantages. Her hand is played above board. The rules of the game are brutally slm- pie. Hive in conformity With my laws, or die" That's all, But what an |An"!
 Tantalus, agonizing with thirst, inn mersed to his neck in pure limpid water. which recedes as he attempts to drink; Sisyphus laboring in vain to roll the stone over the top of the hill; The Daughters of Danae, striving pit fully to bail the seas with sieve; they typify the inexorability of the doom of the tubercular wage-slave un- der present economic conditions.
 Laerte's pitiful appeal ''and may no more be done?" is apropos Much may and shall be done. First the heartless brutes who control the cost of the necessities of life, and con demn thousands to an untimely end, will be scorched with the lash of pub lie ownership of utilities.
 No longer will an apathetic railroad corporation force the farmers to let thousands of barrels of apples rot upon the ground, because the prices they may bring would not pay the ex- orbitant freight charges, while ty- the available ice supply, sit idly by and contemplate unmoved the death of scores of children from lack of this summer necessity.
 No longer will the Cold Storage Trust, in savage indifference, pitch tons of fish upon the fertilizer heap, with human beings starving within rifle shot, in order to maintain prices and avoid glutting the market
 No longer will the Shoe Machin- cry Trust exact it's blood tribute on every pair of shoes manufactured in the United States whilst a dying con sumptive trudges through the snow literally lon his uppers.'
 sNo longer will the toiler produce