The Washington herald., 1911-03-19

cago and the lenEtheninC and saving OF
hundreds OF thousands of lives there
through providing pure water for the in
habitants was largely the work of a big
business man there. Mccormick. of the
famous harvesting machine family.
In Boston and in other cities thou
sands of children are organized into clubs
for the purpose OF spreading Civis hy-
giene Prizes Of 80 each offered for
the best answers to questions that re-
late especially to matters of sanitation.
Each one of these children has become
an individual refOrmer at home, and
their influence has grown to such an eN-
tent that in Boston the politicians are
afraid of them.
The milk supply Of the cities. if it is i'm
pure. causes more deaths of children
under one year of age than nearly all the
other agencies put together. For a long
time medical scientists COntendcd that the
paSteurizatiOn of milk was essential in
order to make it safe. This means that
the milk had to be heated to a certain
temperature and kept there for a certain
number Of minutes People discovered
that while this process kept the milk
from souring it turned slowly from sweet
to bitter and began to decay before the
change was apparent 1t is now reCOG-
niZed by many cities that the healthfUl-
ness of the milk supply depends entire
ly upon healthy cattle being kept in clean
stables and the milk being handled in a
clean way from the COW to the consumer.
This is the view of the Rochester health
bureau, which gets out circular in five
languages on how to take care OF babies
in warm weather. The principal rules in
this circular would apply, with some
modification. to the taking care of grown
up people in any sort of weather. They
call for pure air day and night. plenty OF
sleep, not too much clothing and a bath
every day. The death rate in Rochester
among children under five years of age
was cut almost exactly in half in less
than ten years. 1t cost 81. 600 a year for
season of two months out of each twelve.
Sanitation Not ALL
Sanitation is not the whole thing that is
necessary in proIonging life and in keep
ing the death rate down. although it is
the basis of the work. Industrial condi-
tions have a great influence upon human
life also. For instance, more babies
die in Fall River in proportion to the
population than in any other place in the
United States except Biddeford. Me. Both
these places are great factory towns. in
which more than half the women work
in the mills. AS the babies are born
they are left comparatively uncared for
by their mothers because these mothers
must work to the. last moment before the
stork comes and must get back to the
mill as soon as possible afterward. There
fore, the children die in these mill towns
like flies in frosty weather. The women
do not live long either. They used to
work an average OF nearly fourteen hours
a day, but now, according to the State
law. their hours of labor are less than
sixty d week. But the ceaseless grind OF
toll. lessened though II IS, keeps the
death rate up in the manufacturing cities
OF Massachusetts, even though a great
deal of money is being spent on sanitary
betterments. This question of industrial
labor and its influence on the death rate
is also a purely business and economic
one. Doubtless some day either women
will be debarred from industry or in
dustry will be made fit for women.
II has been estimated that 642.600 out OF
the 1.530 900 deaths in the United States
each year. which represent an annual
loss OF more than 81, 600 100000. could be
prevented or postponed. 1t is asserted by
students of the subject that this preven-
tion runs far back. and that the day is
coming when 1t will be everybody's busi-
ness to learn who made the man or wom-
an sick and why the children should
carry all their days the marks of the city
that made them sick. For II is the city
in the end that is to blame especially the
I'll kept city. where life seems cheap
because humanity Is spawned like frogs
I'm rainy weather and the gap Of the sick
ness of one season is filled by the fecun-
dity of the next.