Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1911-06-21
'FR|GHTFUL TOLL
OF C0NSUMP TON
1t Is in Large Measure Re.
sponsible for High Cost
of Living.
CLIMATE IS THE ONLY CURE
That Is Why the Rich Survive
and So Many of the
Poor Die.

Denver. Colo, June 21.-What vic.
tins of the great while plague cost
the community, the family and the in
dividual, in hard dollars and cents.
was told the National Association for
the Study and Prevention of Tubercu'
losis today by Doctors Edwin A.
Locke and Cleveland Floyd of the Bos-
ton Consumptive Hospital Depart
ment,
The figures we're based on a careful
study OF the cases of five hundred
male patients, and are claimed to be
as accurate as it is possible to figure
the cost of this disease to the COM
munity.
OF these cases, 2i4 dead cost the
community $177.56 each, or a total OF
s31,O72. The 256 living cost S2S4.1S
each, total of $42,912, total COM
munity loss for the 500 of $729S4.
The cases showed an individual
loss in wages of $426,039. Four hun
dred and twenty-five the victims
were heads OF families with an aver.
age weekly earning before stricken
with the disease OF $3.50.
Their average earnings decreased to
s7,S6 after they were taken sick.
Death left 161 families entirely with
out means of support, with the other
two thirds are reduced to an income
of about $40 per week.
DR.. Edward F. McSweeney in
lengthy address told graphically of
the enormous cost of consumption to
the United States, the cost being
borne by all, even though indirectly
for every waste must be paid for by
the community. He said among other
things:
The total deaths from tuberculosis
in Massachusetts for 1909 were 5,99S,
and the percentage 1870 per 10000 of
population. These figures approx.
innate the latest figures of Germany
$3.50, Norway 19.6) and Switzer-
land uS.S), where statistical work is
done more Systematically and with
definite, Interior, scientific aims.
"Massachusett is an industrial,
manufacturing and agricultural state,
with conditions making for good
health as"favorable as in any of the
state in the national registration area
The tuberculosis mortality in some Of
the states most favored by climate is
the highest of any. In the southern
states the negro mortality from tuber-
culosis is admittedly excessive, SO we
may assume that the recorded statis-
tics of deaths from tuberculosis in the
state of Massachusetts, 1870 per TO-
900, may fairly be applied to the pop
ulation of the entire country, which
would make the tuberculosis rate for
1909 for the whole nation, based on
the 1910 census, as 165,549 deaths.
Ten Millions Doomed.
Ten million persons now living in
the United States will die OF tubercu-
losis unless prevented by the adop-
ton of wise laws, strictly enforced.
One-half of this number, more than
the total negro population of the Unit.
ed States before the Civil War, can
be saved. If each of these i0,O00,000
possible deaths cost only the $2.24o.
20, the actual loss in wages, the cost
of sickness and burial, the final cost
to the nation for those now living who
will die of tuberculosis will be S22,.
402, 100000, a sum approximating
one-fifth of the combined debts of all
the nations of the world.
Despite our vaunted civilization,
our general prosperity, our extrava-
CANT charity and rapid progress in
the arts and sciences, We are still liv-
ing in the middle ages as far as the
prevention of disease is conce:n"l.
In all the cities Of the United States
the sanitary CO 'Giticns among the
poor are so bad and the failure 10 en-
force health laws SO flagrant that
even were we 20 Increase ou' sana.
tc rum facilities fo. cCnsumptiyes ten
fold we would still NJ; be little imlrea-
sicn on the disease.
why should England have tuber-
culosis death rate of 12.1 per 10000
as compared with the 1870 of Massa-
chusetts? THE death rate of England
and Wales, if these figures are true
as reported, applied to the whole
United States would show a saving Of
54,263 deaths in this country every
year.
1.-The Civil War lasted less than five
years, with a recorded loss of 10000
lives and money loss of $5,OOO,.
100000. Fifty years after the Civil
War, and three decades after an.
nouncement of the discovery by
Koch of the tubercle bacillus, and the
announcement BY Pasteur that tuber-
culosis is preventable disease, the
death loss from tuberculosis in the
United States for every five year
period is almost twice the total NOR.
tality on both sides of the Civil War.
"The average family income Of the
country is less than $500, but, accept
ing as the maximum average, the toll
of tuberculosis exceeds the total in.
come of 77S,142 families.
':There losses are from tuberculosis
alone. When we consider the loss
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