Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-09-27
SAFETY OF THOUSANDS y
IN PURE, SANITARY MILK
Address by Nathan Straus, Founder
Of Pastearization Laboratories.
EXERCISE AND HUMAN ENERGY
Age Problems in Industrial Hygiene
Explained-Other Topics-Many
Sections Of Congress Con-
clude Sessions.

All the various sections into which the
hiteenth international Congress of Hy-
slehe and Demography is divided. with
the exception of one, held their closing
sessions today, and the scientists who
gathered in Washington from the four
quarters or the globe are concluding their
work that called them here and making
preparations to leave the city. The final
session of section VIII, on military
naval and tropical hygiene, will be held
tomorrow morning. The sessions of the
remaining sections held this afternoon
completed their programs, some of the
sections finishing at the morning session.
Popular interest centered in the ad-
dress delivered this afternoon In section
VI on state and municipal hygiene by
Nathan Straus of New York, founder
of the Straus laboratories for pasteuriz-
ing milk. Mr. Straus address. which
came under the general head of The
SANITARY Betterment of Milk Production
and Distribution was on the subject,
The Function Of Voluntary Organiza-
tons in the Campaign for the Better
ment OF Milk Production and Distribu-
ton, and was a ringing plea for protec-
tlon for the babies and a demand for
WIDER application of the proved truth that
In pure. sanitary milk lies the salvation
or thousands Of infants, who without
such food supply must perish within
their first year Of existence.
The babies cry for protection against
disease" exclaimed Mr.. Straus Their
mothers lift their hands in frantic sup
plicatlon for their little ones. Disease
and death throw their shadow over the
cradle and ingulf the mothers of the
land in an inextinguishable sorrow that
could so easily be prevented
His Interest in the Work.
The New York philanthropist sketched
the birth and development Of his interest
in the problem OF supplying pure and
wholesome milk for babies, and deplored
the Indifference of municipal authorities
to a subject which, he declared, is OF
more vital Importance to humanity than
almost any other phase of the broad
field of public hygiene.
When a grown man or woman dies,
ne said, I'VE know that total has been
struck of that persons ability and worth
to the community. We have an adequate
idea of that individuals value as hu-
man unit. But when baby dies we do
not know but that the world has lost a
possible Lincoln, or potential Grant. or
dorado Taft. We may believe that the
infant that dies in its first year of life
might have developed into a genius of
literature, of art, of Statecraft or of any
one of the hundred branches of science.
THE betterment Of milk supplies and
distribution is not properly the function
of voluntary organizations, Mr.. Straus
declared. 1T is a work for the public
authorities-it is their duty. But when
such authorities fail to see their duty,
and to perform 1t. then the voluntary or
ganiZation must step in and do the work,
II the lives of thousands of babies are not
to be wantonly sacrificed each year
Mr.. StrauS spoke of the proved fact that
tuberculosis is implanted in a childs sys-
tenn through the medium of milk from
diseased cows, and of the fact that such
unsafe milk may be made pure and whole
some by proper treatment and handling,
and concluded his address by an urgent
appeal to his hearers to exert their ut
most influence in their own communities
and elsewhere to the end of supplying
the babies of the nation with milk that
will not poison them or set up in their
systems disease conditions that will end
their lives before they have fairly begun.