Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-10-21
COLONEL Il G ADVICE
BY DR.. W. A. EVANS.

A. EVANS.
=, floor would be solidly covered. There
would not be room to turn over. A 200
! pound man will occupy all of 6x2 feet
4 inches
There are me- Individual lockers for
clothes, n the men eat in the rooms
where they sleep. Things were dirty.
How could they be otherwise. It was
among the men who live in these bar
racks that the heavy death rate was
found.
At the KliIsprint mine the men are
housed in tho huts. one family to a hut.
The men a. that mine have a death
rate no higher than that of the negroes
in the cana: zone.
Here Colonel Gorgas restates his ad-
vice thai one family huts be built and
that the men be encouraged to bring
their families along. AS it is. the labor
er is dissatisfied. disconnected and dis
posed to leave n so back to their halt
savage life.
The companies spend about $4,000
600 a year recruiting new natives to
replace those who quit and go back.
Colonel Gorgas advises that this be
spent on better housing instead. The
presence of the families of the men
will prevent them from falling INTO
some of the excuses of which they are
now guilty.
The ration of the natives Colonel
Gorgas thought faulty. The principal
ingredients were two pounds of mealie
meal and $50 ounces Of meat. The
British army ration consists of 16
ounces of bread. IL ounces of meat and
s cents worth of vegetables and fruit.
The native laborer. Gorgas thought.
should have at least as much meat as
the British soldier, as his work was
harder. He thought the scurvy he
found was due to the excess of mealia
meal.
Beri-beri results from eating rice
from which all of the outside layer has
of the outside layer is polished from
the grain. Gorgas quotes DR.. McCau-
lay as holding that 1T is this lack that
results In scurvy among those who
1 v largely on mealie meal.
In h earlier days at Panama the
food question was a problem. There
was no particular disease among our
but they seemed to be underfed and
there was constant complaint. The
way the matter was settled was as fol-
lows:
The laborers were encouraged to
bring over their wives to cook for them.
Company stores were established ut
which the men could buy food at low
Ako SliCJ MCIS W GU va
then left to the wife. The plan worked.
Read thoughtfully his remark of
Colonel Gorgas:
1.-THE object Of this (plan) is to give
him an abundant food supply in such
a way that he can vary it as his tastes
suggest. If you attempt to make Il
profit on food you by so much defeat
the object of your measure"
AS to the liquor question, Colonel
GOrgaS thought n closed cnmnO1lpI
better for the men. They were more
efficient. they a less sickness: they
were more peaceable. and they enjoyed
life more. Alcohol for the native, I
believe. is an unmitigated evil.
On the 5O-mile stretch of the 18TH
milan zone there was no uniform liquor
policy. AT first there were saloons all
along the zone Every little while some
engineer would petition to have sa-
looms abolished in the district where he
was responsible for the digging These
requests were complied with
even of prohibition Any mar who
wanted to go out and get liquor and
bring it back to his home was priv
LEGGED to do so. 1t was a straight busi-
ness proposition The engineers want
ed h work done, and they could get
1T done better without saloons than
with them. Gradually the zone became
dry" In 1912 liquor selling was abol-
ished on all the zone.
Colonel Gorgas III that there were
62 mine hospitals. The average num-
Der of patients a year to each was
about 400. This method of hospital SER
vice he thought wasteful and ineffi-
cient.
Instead he advised n large hospital.
maintained by the 62 mines on the
basis Of the number of men employed
by each. The amount of money wasted
row in duplication would be ample to
give this hospital a full modern eouip-
ment. The men would get much better
service than is now possible. The ANAL
gamated hospital could afford a grade
Of nursing service not now possible.
The employment Of the attending
men at the hospital and also at he
sanatorfum for the mines should be by
the chamber of mines and not by the
Individual mines. In this way a uni
form standard of sanitation could be
maintained I'm all the mines. A mine
which was disposed to be neglectful
and which therefore was entailing
undue expense could be forced to
come up to the standard.
Colonel GorgaS says that the sthnu
had a pneumonia rate of 43.41 per 1000
In n month in 1906. This rate was
higher h any rate in any month on
the Rand. AS it a been possible to
reduce the fsthmian rate. it should be
possible 10 reduce the Rand rate.
Prior to 1906 things in the zone were
going pretty much as they now are 90
ing on the Rand. When we took
charge at Panama we started in to
botch the job. We were not taking
to heart what we had learned in Cuba
and the Philippines.
The workers We're housed in bar
racks. TIE windows were not screened.
or only a portion Of them were. We,
issued quinine. but not enough. We
talked about mosquito prevention. but
we were slow in undertaking ompre-