Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-22
Campaign Directors to Meet.

Three weeks from today. April Is, the
first meeting of the central committee of
representatives of citizens organizations
and of departments of the District govern
ment, which is to direct the campaign,
will be held in the bOardroOm of the
municipal building. At this meeting an
executive committee. which will receive
and act on complaints concerning nuis-
ances and places about the city that need
cleaning up, will be appointed. The cam
paign will get under way two days later.
Monday, April ID, and will continue
through the entire week.
In urging residents OF Washington to
devote the three weeks prior to the open
ing of the campaign to cleaning up their
own premises DR.. Woodward has in view
an object in addition to the one already
mentioned. 1t is his belief that breeding
thus be early removed. and that the effect
of this alone will be much reduced fly
population in Washington during the COM
ing summer.
Dr. Woodward is enthusiastic over the
results accomplished last summer by The
Stars Swat the Fly campaign and he
is convinced that, with the city cleaning
week to be held at the time the first crop
of flies is due to put in its appearance.
such sanitary conditions will be brought
about that the insects will find it difficult
to exist
An extended account of The Star $
Swat the Fly campaign of last sumIper
is contained in an article by Frank
Parker Stockbridge of New York, pub
Iished in the April issue of the World S
Work. The article is accompanied by
Illustrations. among them being a picture
of DIR. Arthur L. Murray of the health
department. who. supervised the CAM
paign,. counting the bodies of a day S
slaughter of the disease-spreading insects.
Explains 'Swat-the-Fly" Campaign.
This year. states Mr.. Stockbridges
article. THE Star opened its campaign in
February. The necessity for making the
campaign complete to the point of utter
determination was impressed on Wash
ingtonians by statistics published during
the contest by DR.. Howard of the bureau
of entomology. He pointed out that in the
climate of Washington twelve generations
of flies are produced in a single summer.
AS one fly will lay 100 eggs. the result,
if all of these should hatch and reproduce
their kind in like ratio, would be appall-
ing. The progression carried out by rails
ing l20 to the twelfth power gives a
possible progeny from a single fly
of 1,DD6 Isl. 249, 80 40, 900 O0o, 900 900. And
as each female fly usually lays four
patches of eggs, their unchecked develop
ment through twelve generations would
make a mass of flies that would measure
PCS IT'S 1f:,, SOL cubic miles, consider
ably more than the total mass of the
earth. Such figures these are calculat-
ed to emphasize the necessity of not
stopping when only 7,UU0,o00 flies have
been killed. AS a matter of actual ex-
perience and observation, it is estimated
that from each pair of flies surviving the
winter some 5000, 900 living insects are
propagated during the summer"
Outlining the method of The Stars
'Swat the Fly" campaign, Mr.. Stock
bridges article says:
Zone of the most successful of the
anti-fy campaigns of 1911 was that con-
Quoted in Washington, ID. c.. under the
direction of a leading newspaper, The
Evening Star with the cooperation OF
the local health department, the Asso-
ciated Charities and a few public-spirited
business men. More than 1900 boys and
girls took part in a two-week fy-catchins
campaign, which resulted IN the destruc-
ton of more than 100000 flies and In
developing many valuable methods and
devices for their eXterminat on. The
Immediate stimulus was the prize money
offered by The Star-sl00 in all, ranging
from a first prize of SO down to twenty
prizes of 81 each
Several pages of the article are taken
I'D with a description of the traps used
for catching the flies and of methods en-
ployed for DISCRIMINATING the insects after
they were caught Ment on is made OF
Layton H. Burdette. the thirteen-year-Old
bow who won the first prize offered by
The Star for having destroyed the great
est number of flies