The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1911-08-26

physician murderer, and
.,ned him into prison for life And n
p apa during the Spanish-American wa-.
sas twenty-five hundred of the boys b
~ shah were needless1y slaughtered.
w. ~ them by typhoid. we denounced
p4. .,etbing terms those officials whose N
..s,essness and incompetency caused III
e. tragedy. But we hear with abso-
n, Indifference the statement that
ass,lv the pollution Of our water
.srcas needlessly causes more than
exam typhoid illnesses and $1,000 n
s.aths. We pay no heed to the fact
M year after year in the United
caas seven times as many people are
,sadlessly Ill of typhoid fever as there
sara soldiers wounded in the battle of b
aetysburg and three times as many -
,a,sons needlessly die from typhoid
iuar as met death in that tragic strug.
da
II ID the old, old story OF the mote l.. ~
md the beam. We do not see the enor.
pIy Of this terrible wrong. because we
ne ourselves the authors of it. We are Just
responsible for those 1900 yearly deaths
4 our army officers were for the tragedies
II cur Spanish war camps. And our motive
/, lust as mercenary as was that OF the physi-
din who gave typhoid germs to gain her
like For we, too, are actuated by financial
pasons we are unwilling to pay the price
Il water publication. So we continue to smite
6e rock Of polluted water supply and there
nshes forth sewage And when our children
dix for water we give them poison.
10 be suitable-that is, to be potable and
ii fol domestic use-water must be practi-
nant. odor, taste and turbidity. Hardness
makes laundering difficult Iron spoils linen.
Carbonic-acid gas turns water pipes brown.
llgae make water taste bad Water supplies
Infer widely as human beings, Pure, whole
zone water" the term set forth In SO many
water contracts, Is, then, wholly relative
term Really pure water Is rare thing, be-
cause there hardly exists In nature water that
does not contain some foreign ingredients.
Not all Of these are harmful, however, so that
water that Ii fit to drink Is as common as
really pure water is rare. So that, generally
speaking, the question Of a good water supply
d merely question of being willing to spend
ths money necessary to obtain 1t. Hence
here ought to be no community In the United
States that does not have a plentiful supply
1 If perfectly wholesome water
ANYTHING but wholesome. however, is the
I auality of the water that all too often we
aesrally gat. Dr.. n w. shlmway, reporting
1 % water conditions In Michigan says In part:
'M the ninety-nine replies received, 70 per
cent reported the water as good, II per cent
g fair, and 10 per cent as Of bad quality.
The replies from 124 localities indicate that
b 4S per cent of these localities the public
water supplies are In danger Of contamina-
ton' DR.. @. o. Sutherland, discussing water
conditions In Wisconsin, says that In his state
nearly every stream used for any kind of
suppy Is contaminated to some extent by
sRage." Health Commissioner G. A. Bading,
peaking Of Milwaukees water supply, says
! nat most of the city's water comes from Lake
Michigan, but that there are still 5000 wells
existence. o. per cent of which have been
aoEn to be contaminated. Lake Michigan
the source Of water for many other towns
near It, One OF tae tributaries of Lake Michi-
] gao is the Grand Calumet river. And here is
! Raat Health Commissioner w. A Evans, OF
4 cnlcago, has to say of the Grand Calumet:
i ine greater part of the sewage from the
BUSINESS and residential districts (of Ham
aoaQ lnd) empties into the Grand Calumet,
i Sach, IS 1t flows through Hammond, Is al
] aoss unspeakably vile and putrescent. And
\ Wy ". stream empties into the lake only 5000
Ivy rom the waterworks intake" Dr. Ed
ssFd Barlow, analyzing conditions in Illinois,
d sass mat an examination of the untreated
4 s aAe water shows that unsatisfactory water Is
! Asqaenliy delivered at Evanston, Lake For
ss Giencoe, North Chicago, Waukegan, Will
a 8, 80 ana Wlnnetka. And that the wa
i Z, y supplies of all cities which use unfiltered
\ ~ q. water are shown to be impure at times"
a aua TINS condition of the water supply may
= saken as typical Of the entire country. A
Il LUZ considerable proportion of our drinking
/ taa. ' oAA' Ao' nuillS'n Guns u'Ap
enninal negligence is the sole and only
a ~. @ase OF such a condition. We dig a cesspool
~ ! !. Z wen in the same yard, and the contents
Il u ~ one seep through the earth into the
,asr' we place privy vault few feet from
j ~ " wen hole. and the rams wash the filth
49, ~ he former into the latter. We defile the
,4ace OF the ground so that every rainstorm
81 Y, ,assps Inc defllement into our streams. Did
- - syef stand at the edge of barnyard and
Il b,s Na Tue rain falling from the roof Of the
u A. NJ ahu pig pen to the manure piles below,
8 a. ny accumElating in pools of reddish black,
I uaning away into nearby stream, and
- INTO some ones drinking water? Or
,s sou ever stood by river bank and
8 n a..uea sewer belchng forth its infinitely
D ~ harmful human corruption? The idea
n Nj. 'IAihg such nauseating stuff Is not pleas
u n =, pas mat Is exactly what millions of us
a. sohg' Lake the dog, we have turned to
NJ ~ ~, vomit. For, to quote Theodore Hor-
ss,,. SAef Engineer Of the New York State
IA 49, Department 1--WE pump filth into