Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-11
CLEAN CITIES MEAN LONG LIFE
Municipal Progress in Recent Years
Adds Much to Health Of City People.


In thirty years the death rate q
the country has gone down one hal
in round numbers 1t is steadl,
dropping. Experts say that in les:
than twenty years it probably vii
have fallen tn half what il is today
1.-THE average human life in America
lasts eighteen years longed than ii die
at the close of the Civil War. This
astounding situation is due, not Il
Whatever advances have been made in
medicine and surgery but To cleaning
lup cities and better living conditions
lgenerally.
| Saving human life and the great
ihealth questions in general are being
recognized now as economic instead OF
medical problems. Pure water and
food, plenty of fresh air and clean
houses and stores and workrooms
check disease. 1t is only a question
of money spent in prevention. In
1909 about sS,0U0.H 200 was laid out in
the fight against tuberculosis; last
year nearly double that amount was
spent. and i'll 1911 even more Will be
raised by private subscriptions and
appropriated by cities for that pur-
pose. But this dread disease is
yielding and growing less. Half It
century from now it probably will be
almost abolished. The more money
| that is spent, the quicker ii will
vanish. Typhoid. which used to be
even a greater scourge than tubercu-
IloSis, does not cause hall as many
deaths now as it used to. The same
/ is true of almost every other disease.
| Rockefeller, Ryan or Morgan could
take any city in the United States. and
simply by cleaning it up, relieving
the overcrowdng and making it sani-
tary, so that there would be an
abundance of fresh air and sunshine.
pure water and food and improved
| hygienic conditions generally, could
add from five to twenty years to the
| life of the inhabitants All that
would be necessary would be plenty of
money for the employment of experts
in sanitation and housing an indus
| try, and the carrying out Of their
plans along ordinary business lines.
By the time the place was cleaned up
there would be few germs left. 1t
has not been figured out as yet just
how many lives would be saved or
how many prolonged for each million
dollars invested in this way. 1t
would depend on the size and condi-
ton of the city in which the work
was done. But even now, in many of
the cities throughout the United
States experts in sanitation and by
eiene and housing are at work map
ping out plans and executing them
along these lines. In some cases the
city itself is footing the bill, and in
others the expense is being borne
partly by private subscription. In
every case, however, the results can
be calculated with accuracy from the
beginning. These experts are a good
deal like the business efficiency engi-
neers that have become common OF
late years, and are called into great
manufacturing plants to rearrange
them so the employees may work under
better conditions and accomplish more
during their hours of labor. Doctors
are consulted but little by those who
are making over cities. Business men
and experts on engineering problems
have almost complete control.
Thirty years ago yellow fever was
the scourge of New Orleans. 1t con-
tinued to be until a clergyman, the
Rev. Beverley Warner, who died only
the other day, cleaned up that city
He is was who organized the various
districts so that all made a concerted
tight against the unsanitary conditions
which We're causing the trouble
Warner did not know anything about
medicine, but he was a good business
man. He fumigated houses. screened
cisterns and oiled gltters. Not only
did he wipe out yellow fever in New
Orleans, but he spent only about half
the money that was subscribed for
that purpose. 1t was common
saying in New Orleans that the Lord
made Warner to order for the job"
AT any rate, he succeeded where gem
erations of physicians had failed.
Typhoid is the least excusa BILE of all
diseases, but, reckoned by mortality,
mt long has laid a heavy burden upon
our American communities. Not only
is it long, tedious and grave Illness,
often leaving in its wake lifelong
disabilities, but it is also one of the
most expensive of ailments. The
average city OF 100000 inhabitants
wastes perhaps half Il million dollars "a
year on the luxury of having it, and
land probably a hundred thousand
dollars more in efforts to avoid it.
That amount of money properly spent
would practically eradicate the dis
ease. 1t has been done in the princi-
pal European cities, yet only of late
| are those in America beginning TO
| cease to poison themselves and each
other.
| Give me a few million dollars and
| the power to enforce the laws and I'll
| make any city in the world typhoid
proof" said a distinguished sanitary
engineer the other day. Pure water
and the equipment to keep it pure is
the principal thing. 1t is SO simple.
so saving of grief, pain, and even of
leash, that it is a source of wonder
lWhy modern civilization has not made
Typhoid obsolete. All typhoid is
itraceable to polluted water. If the
world were to stop drinking diluted
sewage for a year typhoid would van
ish from our vital statistics. Nine
. tenths of all infection comes direct
from bad water, and the other tenth
would disappear if the principal
cause was eliminated Nearly all of
ttne large cities in Amarian aro p,nra