Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1913-12-16

#N west Pause at the equator
H "a and note a small dot about
two degrees south of the In
tersection of the two lines. The name
attached to the dot, If the map be
large enough, will be Guayaquil,
Ecuador.
Only those who have visited Quay
aquil or who have noted recent Ecua-
doran news dispatches have any idea
Of the sanitary conditions existing
there. Ecuador, according to mag
azine writer's and travellers who have
touched merely on the higher por-
lions of the country, has climate
second to none In the world.
But 1t Is not because of its climate
that the attention of the United
States has been called to Guayaquil,
nor is 1t because of the death OF the
tuberculous patients that the hand OF
| the state department is appraised to
fall on Ecuador.
| 1t Is because, according to nealtn
authorities who have visited the city,
I Guayaquil is the most unhealth1ul,
/ the most uuCl6du anu INC iS"Se $780,
tary port in the world
| 1t is because of the danger that
yellow fever. bubonic plague and lep-
rosy-all of which live and thrive in
unWashed Guayaquil-may spread to
Panama and through the canal to the
gulf ports and eastern cities of the
| United States
It is because a United States naval
officer, Commander Levi G. Berto-
lette of the gunboat Yorktown. was
stricken with yellow fever while in
the performance of his duty in Quay
aquil a few months ago and died with
in two days, while II of his men fell
from the same cause.
And. finally, it S because Guaya-
quill is in the hands Of one OF the
best organized, most rapacious and
utterly inscriptions Tweed rings"
which ever dominated and all but
throttled an entire country while
menacing the commerce of the world
for their private gain.
Only Promises.
The parental eye of the United
States government has long been on
Guayaquil Twenty years ago reports
from this port indicated a disregard
for sanitation and health regulations
which threatened seriously to disrupt
commerce, and the United States
then intimated that something must
be done to clean up the port or
more rigid order would be issued The
Ecuadoran authorities, after promis-
ing to comply with the international
health code. allowed the matter to
lapse, and the American government,
TO, some unexplained reason. took no
further action.
Anothe~ cutlery against Guayaquil-
an fifth was made IN 1902. when yell
low fever claimed Thomas Mast, the
American cartoonist. then consul gen
eral of Ecuador, who, despite elabo-
rate precautions against the yellow
scourge. contracted the disease and
died within a few days, Again the
municipal and federal authorities
promised to clean up the pesthole of
the Pacific"-and again they failed to
do So
An indication OF the Ecuadoran
lack of appreciation for the dangers
of yellow fever may be obtained from
the message sent Secretary Of State
Root upon the occasion of his visit to
South America a few years after
Nast's death. Guayaquil was at first
included in the Root itinerary, but
he secretary, being informed of the
lack of sanitary Grecautions there,
Cancelled his engagement. The Quay
aquilan authorities, upon learning the
reason for the secretary's action,
wrote him "regretting that a few
cases of yellow fever, sporadic, should
prevent Secretary Root from visiting
the premier port of Ecuador"
The death from yellow fever of DR..
William M. Wightman, U. s. P. H.
and M. H. s., stationed at Guayaquil.
again caused an cutlery against insani-
tary conditions there, particularly
since Doctor Wightman was supposed
to have been immune to the disease.
Ever since the Panama canal pro-
ject has become an established fact
health officers in the canal zone
have made repeated demands for the
sanitation of Guayaquil, but the re-
cent death of Commander Bertolette
goaded the United States to decisive
action, and the state department has
determined that Guayaquil must be
cleaned before the opening of the
Panama canal, otherwise drastic ac-