The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-09-17
A Woman Who Is Cleaning Up Amer.
can Cities.

In the September American Magazine
appears an article about Mrs. Caroline
| Bartlett Crane, who is a professional
Municipal Sanitarian." She is hired b,
cities which gladly pay her 500 day
for her services, furnish funds for al
expenses, secretary, automobiles
theatres and halls for meetings, oflicia
Lauthority to conduct her investigations
and an escort to accompany her. Fifty
| two cities in the United States have al
ready hired her. She calls her visit:
Sanitary Surveys" When city de
sires her services it calls upon her as Q
professional municipal expert, and places
the keys OF the municipality at her dis
posal She personally investigates the
city's resources, and everything that
concerns community life. She stirs NJ
public opinion, and in this manner
makes her work effective. The follow
| ing extract from the article gives some
idea of the results of her work.
"The practical results of Mrs. Cranes
surveys all over America present a sum
total of improvement that is inspiring
Sometimes she has appeared as a
prophet of warning. In 1910 Mrs. Crane
told Erie, Pennsylvania. that it ran the
danger of a terrible epidemic unless il
purified its water supply: in 1917 Erie
had one hundred and three deaths from
typhoid, untold suffering, and munich
pal expense of twelve thousand dollars
At Sea Breeze, Florida, great hotel
was condemned for lack of fire escapes
and proper fire protection; the hotel
burned to the ground two weeks later,
and the guests barely escaped with their
lives, some by jumping from the win
dows. A Rochester, New York, school
building, the twin of one condemned by
Mrs. Crane. was also burned before that
active city could put through various
improvements upon which it had deter
mined after her visit. At Harrodsburg,
kentucky, where an angry official sued
Mrs. Crane but afterward found his case
quashed the contract system of caring
for the poor was abandoned and new
almshouse built. A tuberculosis sani-
tarium rose at Paducah, Kentucky, and
at Valley City, North Dakota, a beauti-
full new infirmary replaces the old poor
house. At Albert Lea, Minnesota, the
citizens boast a new municipal hospital;
at Big Rapids, Michigan, fine new
aDdlIOlIs NJ INONhtoNti- VIC
father of child in one of the public
schools altered whole classroom to
demonstrate Mrs. Cranes system of sci
entific lighting, while at Mankato,
Minnesota, the bakeries and market
places went through a thorough clean
ing and securing to get upon the white
list suggested by Mrs. Crane.
"Of equal if not greater value are the
general results. In some twenty cities
which Mrs. Crane has surveyed, perma-
nent civic leagues have been begun, I'M
der various names, to work at various
tasks. During the year after her survey
of Kentucky that state secured more
advanced health legislation than in all
its past history, including an appropri-
alton of thirty thousand dollars annual
ly for state meteorological laboratory,
an annual school for county and city
health officials, and law forbidding the
importation of any but tuberculin- test
ed cattle. Her Minnesota report, vol
ume of two hundred and forty pages, is
being used by women's clubs as a hand
book on sanitation. Health officers and
faithful officials have found their first
public recognition through her keeneyed
vigilance, and have gone to work with
renewed courage, while careless officials
have been awakened TO some sense of
their grave responsibility.
Long after she has left them, her