The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-10-16
CAMP No. 2, CHERRY VALLEY,
A PLACE OF MOURNING.
Criminal Negligence and Filth
Breed Death.

Breed Death.
Monday evening october 13, para
graph in the Herald gave notice that
one Dennis German, aged "a, died
Sunday morning at the Providence
hospital, after a brief illness with
typhoid fever.
But the Herald does not say how
the fever was contracted nor does it
state that four more humble lumber
jacks" lie dead from the same dread
cause, and from the same camp.
There could be no other denouement
to this working-class tragedy than the
one now in progress. Nearly all of
the sixteen men now in the hospital
with virulent typhoid are doomed.
They must die. Why? How came
they by this terrible disease?
Why do five of our fellow wage
slaves lie cold in death, in what should
be the very prime and blossom of
their useful lives?
Hereby hangs a tragic tale Of filth
and criminal negligence.
Fifty cents worth of mosquito net
ting and screen doors on the cook
house and dining-rooms of Camp No.
2, Cherry Valley, costing less than five
dollars, all told, would have saved the
lives of all these men and boys.
The owners OF that mill know full
gsol' thu lses s-r aangerGra car,.ers
of filth and breeders of fatal diseases.
They know also that the open toilet
of that camp was not forty yards dis
tant from the open, unscreened win
dows and doors of the cook house
and dining-room, and that thousands
of flies flew from the privy, with
filthy death-dealing feet, into the din
ing-room and there alighted on the
food these poor men had to eat.
They knew that the pig sty was
not far off from the kitchen and that
the swiu barrel was allowed to stand
constantly at the kitchen door, at
tracing and breeding man-killing flies
by the thousands.
And yet the windows remained I'M
screened, the doors remained un-
screened, and the devasting work of
the filthy flies went on unchecked.
If this, in our age of scientific en-
lightenment, is not criminal negli-
gence, what is?
The toll of death will go on, in all
probability, until the lives Of nearly a
score Of strong young men shall have
been heartlessly sacrificed to the great
god Mammon.
Shows Need of Organization.
It is too much to expect that the
profit mongers should themselves look
after the health and comfort of their
wage-slaves.
They should worry!
But the men themselves, had they
been organized in an industrial union,
could have protested in a body against
the unsanitary conditions, and forced
the owners to put in screens.
Are the lives of a score of fellow
wage-slaves not worth the necessary
effort to preserve them?
Is there so little class solidarity
among the timber workers and woods
men that life itself can be snuffed out
without a united struggle for self
preservation?
Clipped Dishes Dangerous.
Another thing.
The owners of Camp ., Cherry Val
ley, should be forced to provide dishes
that do not harbor germs in Clipped
places whose rough surfaces are a
prolific breeding ground for germs
also for clinging soap-powder. Soap
powder does not kill, but it does not
improve the flavor of food or drink.
And it is not always removed from
broken cups and plates by merely
throwing at random a bucket Of hot
water over a pile Of dishes.
Boys, stand together; organize;
then tell the bosses on what terms
and conditions youll work.
Don't let the deaths Of those fel.
low wage-slaves be in vain.
Let their martyrdom be a lesson
and an inspiration 20 those who have
escaped the Grim Reaper
II viii be found an unjust and IN