The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-02-07
THE GREAT VALUE OF CLEANLINESS
DISEASE RESULT OF FILTH AND IGNORANCE

ar but suppose that near YOU there
j IS a nome where such cleanliness is
! not known. Think you that You are
safe? Typhoid, tuberculosis or ans
other disease Will find a thousanc
roads by which, 1T can travel from
that home 10 yours. Somehow the
seed Of death gets from the consump o
tive of that home and fastens itself
upon Your daughter. The health OF
the child in the Governors Mansion
or in the mllionaire's homo is insep-
arably bound up With the health OF
the poorest Waif on the streets AS
!ong as YOU neglect the waif you
neglect your homo. Typhoid may
start in the negro'S laundry and may
claim q Mark Hanna and others OF
like prominence, even though an Oslo,
! fights It. Unless all are aroused t,
live under proper conditions each OF
| us lives in danger. God never created
part Of us to call life away, anoth-
| er part to burn up with fever. and
| still another TO choke to death, Then
I.but for universal neglect of hygenf,
laws? Nature, if left to herself makes
things clean. Man tends to create
, filth, which breeds disease. We must
/ learn how to avoid this tendency
! Given filthy surroundings with q peO.
! pie fed and too closely housed, ane
| your death rate jumps up, and at the
| same time the moral and physica
| stamina Of your whole race declines
| P,: a man WhtknOWs what needs tc
| be done, and with authority to SCI
that it is done, in Havana or Panama
! and a death hole becomes place o
! life and Vigor.
! Somebody must be given anthorit,
| to go into every backyard, to eXanin,
| every back kitchen window and ever.
| closet to see what is needed to b1
done, TO order that it be done, anc
| having ordered, to see that it is done
| We do things by halves. II screening
! kitchen is good why not have every
/ kitchen screened? II you prevent file!
! being bred in a stable why not hole
/ every man ansWerable for these flies
! If splitting is dangerous, why not for.
/ bid spitting--unless one carries hi:
sputum with him to De burned. Die
/ you ever think Of this? We forbid spit
! ting on sidewalks and in public build
! ingS but one may cough and spit al
/ day long if only he shoot it over the
/ curb That law is. l suppose, fo1
| looks and to protect silk petticoats
| Germs fly just as readily from the
! street as the sidewalk. Is not mans
| life worth more than q petticOat
| Why not forbid splitting altogether?
| When l think of this it becomes
| to me q most serious question. Here
| the world, they do not ask us to come
! here. We actually throw them into an
unequal battle to fight with all sorts
Of diseases, perhaps to become wrecks
in every sense of the WOru. knowing
by experience and actual observation
how great are the odds against them
we sit still and do little or nothing 70
help them in this fight, and then when
they fall victims to some disease we
wonder al the providence of God. II
we knew no better all this might be
excused, but knowing better it becomes
a crime To put it straight, the neg
lect of the physical conditions Of life
and the failure to provide the proper
conditions in which our people live, is
our one great State fault. In truth
the care of the public health is the
very highest duty Of the citizen.
And. finally, we must understand
that we must do this work ourselves.
We are too far along in ciYil-Za ton 10
shove off our diseases and untimely
deaths on the providence of God. Why
pray God to keep us in health when
we create the conditions which make
us sick, or why ask God to cure our
sick, when a little common sense m X
ed with fresh air and plenty of soap
and water will do more than all our
I'd t2l ra nf
individuals who refuse to take care
of themselves. but God and the State
should welcome a care that protects
the mass Of humanity from negligent
personalities.