Arizona republican., 1911-07-26
CONGESTION or CITIES
DANGEROUS TO HEALTH
irrigation Congress Will Give City
Cwellers Opportunity to Take
Up Land.

Chicago, H.. July 23-(Special Cor
respondence of The Republican DIR.
w. a. Evans, former commissioner of
health for the city of Chicago, and
a member of the board of control of
the National Irrigation Congress,
which has its nineteenth annual
meeting here Dec. to 9 this year,
is greatly interested in the reclama-
ton of lands and has analyZed the
.unoccupied land situation, swamp and
arid, as it relates To the national
health and to the food supply and the
elements which rule the prices there
of. Having for four years served the
city of Chicago as commissioner Of
health, DIR. Evans is one of the most
prominent medical authorities of the
United States, and at various times
has been mentioned as the most
suitable appointment to the post of
National Commissioner of Health
should such an office be established
at Washington. OF the efforts of the
National Irrigation Congress to fur
Their the work of land reclamation, he
says:
The irrigation of dry lands and
the drainage OF wet lands are health
questions as well as economic ques-
tons. For it is not healthy for hu
man beings to live one thousand or
more to the acre, as they live in our
cities. They cannot get their share
of sunshine or air. With them there
is not the proper balance between
IN
lack Of balance is always prejudicial
to their welfare. They become un-
healthy and disconnected and every
health officer is interested in the
movements that offer out-of-dOors op-
portunities for the jewellers in cities.
In time our millions of unoccupied
acres viii have been put to use. When
this has been done, and the now
unused areas no longer act as safety
valves for our cities, we should have
learned the science and art OF city
life, something we do not know now.
Cities with us now are great breed
crs of disease and discomfort. Event
ually we will learn the proper spirit
of them. There will he greater free
dom Of the individual through Iimita-
ton Of his selfish liberties, more
planning. more cooperation, more CO.
pleasure Until then health officers
will be for decentralization.
Something is wrong when wheat
is piled high in one locality and the
people Of another are without bread.
our transportation, icing and storage
industries are now so developed that
ffgr r1r-
over all parts of the country. The
surplus Of the summer is carried over
to the lean days of the winter and
so seasons as well rs space as factors
in supply and demand have been
when we come to people the
evenness stops. There are acres
where fifteen hundred people live;
there are other parts of the country
in which in one hundred square
miles there will be but a few human
beings. The people have not piled
mp in the one because they wanted
to. They had to. or thought they
did, which amounts to the same
thing They have not left the other
vacant because they wanted to. They
thought they had to. They thought
the land would not support life.
Paradoxically. this land is the most
fertile in the world. The nOurish
ment is there to support more life
than any other land will support.
"An the fertility in the world counts
for nothing if the water to dissolve it
is not just right.
Since time began the wind and
weather have worn the rocks. The
shale is the fertility of the
soil. Each rain dissOlves some of this
richness and the solutions made ar
taken up by vegetable roots and built
into leaves. flowers and fruits. The
stream that runs Muddy to the ocean
robs the soil in a wild riot of waste.
1T is different in the arid regions.
Here nature is found in an ecOnomi-
,al mood Here the rocks have added
their richness to the soils since the
world began and there has been little
oss. Here is nature leading the con-
servation way-nature's great savings
bank Nor does the reign of reason
stop when water is put upon the
soil, because, when this is wisely
lone, the fertility put in solution is
to the needs of useful ,
plants, and the run-off is low in soil
chemicals.
Where the lands are in swamp |
lreas the process is different but the |
'esults are the same. The fertility |
If the hills put into solution has !
spread out over the swamps. Some |
If it has been deposited there. Plants |
rave sprung up wildly. They have |