The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-01-28
HARRISBURG LETTER
To Ask Aid for Tuberculosis wor

bill which is about to be intro
duced to the present session of the
Pennsylvania Legislature on behalf
of the Pennsylvania Society for the
Prevention of tuberculosis.
This bill provides for the estab-
lishment by counties or groups of
counties, of tuberculosis hospitals.
The act is not compulsory. 1t reads
that on petition of five per cent. of
the voters in any county or group of
counties, the question of the estab-
lishment of a tuberculosis hospital
be submitted to a vote at the next
general election in the county or
counties affected. The vote for the
hospital carries with it a vote for a
bond issue to be used for securing
a site and dwelling.
The management of the hospital is
placed in the hands of a board of
five directors, one of whom shall be
a woman and two of whom shall be
reputable physicians. The Board
is appointed by the Governor, who
may receive nominations from per-
sons in the county affected. The
bill has been introduced in order to
prevent the spread of tuberculosis
by dying and bedridden consump-
tives.
1.-The great problem in the pre-
vention of tuberculosis" said Karl
de Schweinitz, Executive Secretary
of the Pennsylvania Society for the
Prevention of tuberculosis yester-
day, 'is the dying and bedridden
consumptive. He is weaker than a
typhoid fever patient. He is scatter
ing literally millions of germs and
H. t., 4N~ ;n1r DO
injecting his family. He needs con-
that the wife who must work for
money to take the place of her hus-
bands earnings cannot give.
Such a consumptive may be bed
ridden for a period of from three
months to year, and all this time
he is filling his home with the
germs of his disease. Remove this
source of contagion from our midst
and tuberculosis will be reduced to
a minimum.
But patients in these advanced
stages of consumption will not
leave their homes to go to sanatoria
at distance. AS a matter of fact
they are too weak to travel far. The
only feasible way of treating them
is in hospitals where they can be
near their families.
" The legislatures of New York,
New Jersey, Massachusetts, Wiscon-
sin and Missouri have enacted laws
enabling their counties to establish
such hospitals.
" In Pennsylvania the only local
care afforded to the bedridden con-
sumptive who has neither money
nor strength to travel one or two
hundred miles is in the almshouse-
and no self-respecting man or wom-
an wants to be classed as a pauper
and lodged in a poorhouse simply
because he or she is sick. That To-
cal hospitals are needed is shown
| by the fact that wherever there are
such institutions, they have always
been filled.
Such hospitals make the last
days of the dying consumptiye com
! Portable, relieve the wives and the
families of the proper patients from
the impossible burden of caring fol
their sick, and protect relatives
friends, neighbors and others from 6
prolific source of contagion.
1t is in recognition of these
facts that the tuberculosis hospita
act has been drawn. This bill gives
the counties of Pennsylvania the
right to establish tuberculosis hos
pitfalls if they so desire. 1t is mo-
compulsory. 1t simply grants the
people privilege of which they are
in great need"
Harrisburg, Jan. 27.-Member!
of the present Legislature who are
interested in the proposition to pu
the road building campaign il
Pennsylvania on substantial basis
say that the suggestion offered a
a conference of Changers here las
week, that an additional mill o
taxation be levied on corporation
does not offer the best solution o
the problem, for several reasons.
Admitting that such a tax woulc
produce $S,000,000 a year revenue
which is as much as the State High
way Department could intelligent.
eXpend in its building campaign, eX
perienced legislators say it would
be impossible to hold that none.
for road making, because the assur
ance of such an increase of revenu
would food the Senate and Hous
with demands for more money 70
local charities and other purposes
Legislatures in the past have in
Variably appropriated more none
than was available out of the reve
nues, leaving the Governor to par
down the expenditures to meet tn
income.
Another argument against the ta
method is that the corporation
would undoubtedly make a har
fight against such a levy, on tn
ground that they are already con
tributing the bulk of the State rev
enue, as admitted by Secretary Jer
ONE T. Altman of the State Grang
this week. The thing could be pu
through only after a long and har
fight, and the possibility of defea
at the end of the session would pu
the whole good roads program i
} jeopardy. 1t is pointed out tina
anyway a tax on a corporation
only an indirect way of taxing tn
people, as the corporations NEE
such things by making the consume
a. L