The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-06-14
Report on Thirty-Two Munich
pal;ties Read at Meeting of
Insurance Presidents
GREAT IMPROVEMENT
IN PAST TWENTY YEARS
Formation of a League Of SAM
tary Clubs in Every City of the
United States of More Than
$4,000 Is Suggested

American cities are given in re-
port made to the Association of Life
Insurance Presidents at its meeting
here TO-DAY. The investigation was
made by Hiram ]. Messenger actu-
airy, of Hartford. Conn. The report
is being considered by the life insur-
ance managers in connection with
their campaign for life conservation.
Conditiins were investigated in the
following cities: Lynchburs, Roam
oke, Knoxville, Chattanooga. Nash
Vile, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indiana p
oils, Bloomington. Springfield, st.
Louis Memphis. Little Rock, Nicks-
burg, New Orleans, Mobile, Mont
gomery. Birmingham, Atlanta. Ma
con, Jacksonville. st. Augustine. Sa-
vannah, Charleston, Augusta, CO.
umbia, Charlotte, Evansville, Rich
mond Baltimore, New York and
Hartford,
The report states that on the
average only 20 per cent of the in
habitants of cities Of 10000 and over
use the public water systems and
that only so per cent occupy houses
connected with sewer systems. I'm
general continues the report, lit can
be said that it is possible to ind
many cities in the country that have
spent millions OF dollars for sewers
and for extending the city water sys-
tens, and yet from quarter TO more
than half of the inhabitants live in
houses that are not connected with
the sewer, and in great number of
such cases the situation is closet
with no sewer connection and nearby
a we'll furnishing surface water and
constant danger of COMMUNICATIONS.
and it cannot be said that these are
entirely in the new sections Of
growing city where sewer and water
mains have not been extended.
large number of these cases are on
streets that have been severed ana
have been furnished. with water
mains. and frequently in the coolest
and INST thickly populated parts Of
the city
However. the report states the evil
dercc showed that everywhere, par
ticularly through the southern s.IteE,
there has been most wonderful
Improvement in the general sanitary
conditions during the last ten orr
twenty years.
ut was found that as rule most
of the cities visited had d fairly good
supply of city water states the re-
port. In only a very few cases was
there any reason to think 1t was
bad. and in many cases il was most
excellent In probably dozen OF
the cities visited new water system
had been constructed within the last
ten years, with an elaborate and up
on the whole very satisfactory SNs-
lem of tiltcration--usually accom-
panied by sedimentation and purlt-
cation by alum, lime or some other
chemical method; and in nearly
eveIt one of these cases these cities
ten years ago were taking impure
..ater direct from some large, un-
protected river and drinking it just
as it came from the river The de-
crease in the amount of sickness
and number of deaths from typhoid
fever as the result of these recently
constructed water systems has been
very noticcablc The method of pur-
flying water by chemical treatment is
more common in the south than in
the north The usual method in the
source of supply. This method Was
adequate in most cases years ago,
but the rapid increase in our popu-
lation and the great multiplication
of manufacturing plants has made
the securing of pure water supply
bv simply protecting the source very
difficult; and it is difficulty which
is -apidly increasing from year to
year, so that it is only question
of time when other methods must be
adoptcd, except where city is for
tunatc enough to have an unlimited
supply of artesian water
IN regard to the disposal Of gar
bagc. conditions in most cities were
unsatisfactory. The most sanitary
way Of disposinS of garbage is prob
ably TO burn it. About hair dozen
of the cities investigated had incin-
Grafton plants and as rule these
plants were working in reasonably
satisfactory mannor-dnd II they
were not, it was generally because
the work of collecting the garbage
for burning was subject TO political in
Auenccs with mfaVorable results In
the great majority of cases tho
garbage is dumped ON vacant lots,
frequently within the city limits,
and sometimes not far from the
heart of the city ordinances for in
snertiOn Of milk. meats and perish
able provisions were quite general,
ana it is clear that they are peing
enforced with increasing effective
ness every year, but successful work
cf this kind depends mainly upon
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