The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-03-28
MOVEMENT DRAGS IN KENOSHA
DR.. w. A. Evans, Health Commissioner
of Chicago, Shows Importance of the
Smaller Towns Taking up This Cues
ton and Providing for Filtration.

Following public meeting held at
Waukegan on Thursday evening mem
bers Of the commission in charge of
the government Of that city are plan
ming to seek a union of the cities
along the north shore on a plan to
secure purer water and Kenosha Of
fcials have already been asked to take
some part in the organization. The
problem of Ke1osha and the Difficult
ties at WauBegan are about the same
and the officials Of the two cities be-
Iieve that united effort VIII aid in
solving them with profit to both cities.
Waukegan has been threshing out sev-
eral plans to secure purer water and
in the meantime members Of the Ke-
nosha city council have been going
Aully into the problem of filtration.
The main trouble at Waukegan seems
to be the large number Of cases of
typhoid fever in that city. The same
condition exists in Kenosha and while
Ao special mention has been made of
typhoid here it is a well known fact
that there has been steady increase
Of the number of typhoid cases in the
past few years. The struggle over the
election of city engineer and illness
among the members Of the council has
badly handicapped the Kenosha special
committee in its work and while a
number Of filtration plants have been
inspected the committee still has a
large amount of work to do before
any report can be made to the com
mon council.
The members of the committee have
been asked to investigate the proposed
use Of hypochlorite of lime for purif-
cation of the waters, but they seem
to regard this plan as only a make
shift at the best and it is certain that
the large majority of the members of
the committee are regarding the in
stallation of a good filtration plant as
the best way to solve the question of
purer water for Kenosha. DIR. w. A.
Evans, commissioner of public health
in Chicago, was the principal speaker
at the Waukegan meeting. He stated
that he was primarily in favor of fl
tration as a means of securing purer
water but declared himself in favor
OF the hypochlorite of lime treatment
of water, saying that it is no longer
in the experimental stage. He spoke
of the former high per cent. of
typhoid fever cases in Chicago, when
he said that city was doing just what
Waukegan is doing now-emptying
sewage into the lake and drawing it
back into its water mains. He assert
ed most positively that the situation
there will not get better automatical-
ly. The high death rate of typhoid,
he said, is taking money out of the
city and decreasing the value of prop
erty, to say nothing Of causing many
manufacturing concerns to steer clear
of the city as soon as they learn the
health conditions. Not until these
conditions are met will there be any
hope for the city, he said, adding that
nothing has blighted the city so much
in the past or will blight so much in
the future as the neglect of health
conditions.
He explained that all cases of
typhoid viii not disappear as soon as
the hypochlorite Of lime treatment is
installed, as some of the typhoid cpl
demic viii stay for some time. Then,
zoo, he says, that there will be cases
of typhoid which develop from some
other cause than drinking water. He
stated that in his opinion it would
be the most foolish thing in the world
for Waukegan to refuse to install
hypochlorite of lime treatment in
view of the high rate of typhoid.