The Red Cloud chief., 1911-08-24
v grossly Inconsistent

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We are! When. Tor the
sake Of gain. q Missouri 4
physician administered ty.
lDV~ " phOid germs to some Of
q his relatives. thereby
IN 4NMy causing six or eight Ill.
Y NT y nesses and one death. we
stood aghast. called the
physician a murderer. and
clapped him into prison for life And
when. during the Spanish. American war.
some twenty-five hundred Of the boys
In khaki were needlessfy slaughtered,
many Of them by typhoid. we denounced
In scathing terms those officials whose
carelessness and incompetency caused
the tragedy. But we hear with abso-
Lutte Indifference the statement that
yearly the pollution Of our water
sources ncedlessy causes more than
$4,000 typhoid illnesses and $1,000
deaths. We pay no heed to the fact
that year after year In the United
States seven times as many people are
needlessly III OF typhoid fever as there
were soldiers wounded In the battle of
Gettysburg, and three times as many
persons needlessly die from typhoid
fever as met death I'm that tragic strug.
gle.
It is the old. old story of the mote ~
and the beam. We do not see the enor. W.
nifty of this terrible wrong, because we
are ourselves the authors Of It, We are just
as responsible for those $1,000 yearly deaths
- our army officers were for the tragedies
IN our Spanish war camps And our motive
10 Just as mercenary as was that OF the physi
clan who gave typhoid germs to gain her
itage. For we. too are actuated by financial
reasons: we are unwilling to pay the price
Of water publication. So we continue to smte
the rock Of a polluted water supply and there
gushes forth sewage And when our children
ask for water we give them poison
To be suitable--that is to be potable and
at for domestic use-water must be practi.
cally free from pathogenc germs. color. sedi.
ment odor. taste and turbidity. Hardness
makes laundering diflcult. Iron spoils linen.
Carbonic-acid gas turns water pipes brown.
Algae make water taste bad. Water supplies
diher widely as human beings. Pure. whole
some water" the term set forth in SO many
water contracts. is. then. wholly relative
term. Really pure water Is q rare thing, be-
cause there hardly exists in pature water that
does not contain some foreign ingredients
Not all Of these are harmful, however, so that
water that Is ft to drink Is as common as
really pure water is rare So that. generally
speaking, the question of a good water supply
10 merely a question Of being willing to spend
the money necessary to obtain It. Hence
there ought to be no community In the United
States that does not have a plentiful supply
Of perfectly wholesome water.
Anything but wholesome however, ia the
quality Of the water that all too often we
actually get. DR.. F. w. Shumway. reporting
on water conditions In Michigan. says In part:
"Of the ninety.nine replies received. 70 per
cent reported the water as good. II per cent
- fair. and 10 per cent as OF bad quality :.
The replies from 124 localities indica'e that
in 4S per cent Of these localities the public
water supplies are in danger of con'amina.
ton." DR.. @. o. Sutherland. discusslra water
conditions in Wisconsin. says that in his state
nearly every stream used for any kind Of
supply 10 contaminated to some extent by
sewage" Health Commissioner @. A. Bading.
speaking Of Milwaukee's water supply says
that most of the city's water comes from Lake
Michigan but that there are still 5000 wells
in existence. 81 per cent Of which have been
shown to be contaminated. Lake Michigan
70 the source Of water for many other towns
near II. One Of the tributaries Of Lake Michi.
gan IL the Grand Calumet river. And here is
what Health Commissioner w. A. Evans. of
Chicago. has to say OF the Grand Calumet:
'SThe greater part Of the sewage from the
business and residential districts (of Ham.
mond. lnd) empties into the Grand Calumet.
which, as It flows through Hammond. Is al.
most unspeakably vile and putrescent And
this stream empties into the lake only 5000
feet from the waterworks intake" Dr. Ed
ward Barlow. analyzing conditions in Illinois
says that "an examination Of the untreated
lake water shows that unsatisfactory water IL
frequently delivered at Evanston. Lake For
est. Glencoe. North Chicago. Waukegan vii
mette and Winnetka. And that the wa
ter supplies of all cities which use unfiltered
lake water are shown to be impure at times.
And this condition Of the water supply may
be taken as typical Of the entire country.
very considerable proportion of our drinking
water Is absolutely unfit for human consump
tion.
Criminal negligence Is the sole and only
cause Of such condition. We dig cesspoo
and we'll In the same yard. and the contents
Of the one seep through the earth into tn,
other We place privy vault few feet from
our well hole. and the rams wash the hltl
from the former into the latter. We defile tn,
surface OF the ground 80 that every rainstorn
sweeps tho defilement into our streams. Dit
you ever stand at the edge Of a barnyard an,
watch the rain falling from the roof Of tn
barn and pig pen to the manure piles below