The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-12-29
THE CANAL ZONE AN
IDEAL HEALTH RESORT

4 - =
!. Again the report of the Department
Of Sanitation Of the. Isthmian, Canal
Commission leads one to marvel at
the almost incredible result of trained,
scientific eff ort to control disease, as
well as 1.-The dense stupidity of a peo-
pie who. with. such an object lesson
before them, will not profit by it to
save their own lives and those of their
wives and children. Cold figures in
official reports are inadequate. One
must visualize the facts and clothe
them with flesh and blood in order to
realize their meaning. The report of
the Department of Sanitation for Oc-
,tober, 1911, shows that during that
month there were 37,496 colored and
12,316 white employees at work on the
canal and railroad. Thirty-ttree col
ored employees died of disease and
six from violence, total of thirty
nine deaths, or an average annuel rate
per thousand of 1913. This is the
death-rate for October for nearly
thirty-eight thousand negro laborers,
the. pest-hole of the tropics. The
Journal of the American Medical As
ISOLATION says that the death-rate for
the United States for 1910, for all
classes and climates, was 1871, nearly
deaths per thousand higher than the
death-rate for the poorest class of Ia
borers in the canal zone. Among the
white employees, numbering 1876,
five died from disease and two from
violence, a total annual death-rate Of
$50 per thousand. Returns from the
1910 federal census show that the
American city having the lowest
death-rate in 1910 was West Orange,
V J., where the death-rate was S.5,
while the highest death-rate, that of
,harleston s. c., was 1911, or over four
times the rate among white en-
ployees ON the Isthmus. 1t is true
that in any city infants and the aged
not to speak of the chronically dis
eased help to swell the death-rate,
whereas the employees on the Isthmus
are men in the working period of life;
urogress that has been made since
the Isthmus came under control of
American sanitary officers. A survey
of the death-rate among the white
American population, including wo-
men and children. gives even more
Of the seven white employees who
died in October. only one was an
American, q man aged A. who died
Of chronic nephritis. The only other
death among white American men,
women and children in the Canal Zone
during the month of October was that
Of child, aged Is months. who died
If peritonitis. Think what this means!
Nearly twelve thousand white men.
women and children from the United
StateS-ll,SSS, 10 De exact, LneSe HS-
ures including about four thousand
Of the white employees previously
mentioned-are living happily, COM
eortably and safely in what was, a few
years ago. a hot-bed of disease-and
the annual death-rate among them, as
indicated by the deaths for October,
was 2O3 per thousand. And yet the
League for Medical Freedom, headed
by Senator Works. demands that the
President revoke his order limiting
the right to treat disease on the 18TH
mus to properly educated persons, and
that the wonderful results secured by
the toll and sacrifice of devoted clear
headed scientific men be surrendered
at the behest of deluded and unin-
formed religious enthusiasts. Truly,
the physicians who have made possl-
lie such results in the Canal Zone
would have q far better right to call
themselves christian Scientists" than
have the persons who masquerade be-
'ore the public under this name, since
the life-saving work of Colonel Cor.
gas and his assistants is, in the high
est sense, both Christian and scien-
tific.