The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-26

seningftis, is having the fight of his -Sife in Cleveland. The city has gone Swat the fly one better and carried through an early spring Head 'em orr campaign with results that are nothing less than sensational
 Cleveland has already been pro- claimed a "fyless city. It is hardly that yet. But thousands of house. holders have found it possible to dis 1 -pense entirely with screens at doors and windows and lone fly creates more excitement now than a swarm of dfes would have a few years ago. In a recent inspection of the city mar kets where quantities of meata and provisions are exposed, only two flies were found Two years ago there were myriods.
 The Head 'em off'' campaign was tried last year with such good effect that this year, with improved methods and a notable marshalIing of forcess l the war was a still greater success
 The present attitude of the com mlfnity is pretty well expressed in this sentence from a letter by Mayor B&- l ker to the city council: s'The anti-hy campaign is a movement of more far reaching importance, and more prom ising of prolonged life and freedom from disease than perhaps any other single activity going forward in the community From the beginning the movement has been under the leadership of Dr. Jean Dawson, Pro l lessor of Civic Biology at the Normal l School
 The big emphasis has been on the elimination of breeding places. To be sure hundreds of3thousands of flies have been ''swatted'; but countless millions have been prevented, which is better. Miss Dawson began with 1 the claim that ninety per cent of housefIies come from unclean stables. | Owners xhroughout the city were fo1c- ed to clean up their stables and keep them clean. Public opinion focused sentiment, the Board of Health pass 1 ed rules and the Junior sanitary po- iicef' saw that they were enforced.
 The junior sanitary police" are boys recruited from the sixth, sew l enth and eighth grades of the city schools. Tn each school district the l force is officered by a chief, assist ant chief and four inspectors. The principal of the school appoints the entire force Needless, to say, it is l considered no small honor to be ap-l pointed a member of the junior sani- 1 tary police.'' The official badge is | prfzed highly. The girls have part 1 too, some of them being made 'fsani- l tary aids"
 The school district is sectioned off l and each member of the force made | Eesponsb1e for one section. He must make rkguIar inspections. When he
 
 back yard, heap of fermentihg lawn clippings or a leaking garbage recap l tacle he has. of course, no powerl to l compel the owners to clean up; but In nine csses out of ten he can persuade 1 them 10 do so. And the children are proving splendid educators. Now and then persuasion fails and the abuse is uncorrected. Then the case is referred to a boy inspector and la- ter to the boy chief. If the courteous
 .-a I-a f,TeS 5o1es II prove tnavailing, the report goes to the Board Of Health and a threat of 9 suit brings the offender sharply to time. He discovers that the alert Consciousness of a whole city is back Of these badged children.
 The schools were further utilized as distributing stations for fly pam phIets and circulars. Each bit of educative literature as it came out was placed in the hands of every child in the schools of Cleveland and thence carried into the homes.
 The striking fact about all this cam paign vas that 1t was waged not dur ing the 7y-season, but before it! Dur ing a Mastering March and a wild, weeping April. while flies were as scarce as straw hats, the battle was at it's height It was directed against the winter fies'-the few which had survived the cold season and would soon begin laying eggs.
 The reason for these tactics was set forth in "hy-catechism'' issued by Miss Dawson. One question and its answer read:
 How many flies may breed from a pair in sprfng2"
 Allowing six patches of eggs, of 150 each, supposing all to live and find filth to breed in. the number would be 1e1s01O, 100000. 900, 100000. enough ts bury the entire earth AT feet deep- Why not kill the fly in the win ter or early spring ??
 Even if the actual progeny of a fly does not nearly approach the pos abilities it is apparent that the kil1- ing of one sluggish winter fly means the prevention of thousands of sum 1ner infesting insects.
 An enterprising ice cream company contributed 100000 'eswatters'' and all the school children of the city, wheth- CT they were members of the ssjunior sanitary police or not, were armed. bounty of ten cents a hundred was offered for all flies brought to Miss DaWson's office at the City Hall. The campaign was financed by popular subscription At first there was com plafnt that no flies could be found Y but sharp eyes soon sought them out in attic windows, barn lofts and odd out-of- -the-way corners, and they be- gan to pour in at headquarters at the rate of 10000 a day.
 C1ergymen were urged to preach ''f1y sermons' and many responded picture film, The Life of the F|Iv.'' was used to good effect in many churches and theatres. In addition to Head 'em off" and Swat the hy'' a triple slogan ran Clean yoHr yard Make garden-Swat the hy," and in many a back yard gardens began to blossom where hy-breeding rubbish heaps had been.
 When the winter campaign closed May fifteenth, 49O,s33 flies had been accepted and paid for-and this be- fore the beginning of the season and in a city which had suffered very little annoyance from flies during the preceding summer, thanks to the anti fly campaign then in progress.
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