The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-08
WHY A SEWER?
State Board of Health Has Or
dered One Built
I'm the Second Ward of the City
of Topeka.
PEOPLE DID NOT ASK FOR IT.
Boards Action Based on I'm
sanitary Conditions.
Statistics Show Its Claim Has
Little Foundation.
PEOPLE DID NOT ASK FOR IT.

under orders from the State Board OF
Health is going ahead with plans for
the construction of sewer in that
part of Topeka roughly defined as
bounded on the east and south by the
city limits of Topeka, on the west by
the right-of-way of the AtchiSon, To-
peka & Santa Fe Railway company,
and on the north by the Kansas river
a survey has been completed and the
plans and specifications will be ready
to be submitted to the State Board OF
Health for approval within SIX weeks
or two months. After they have been
approved, then the program of pro-
cedure is for the city commission by
resolution to order the sewer con-
structed and apportion the cost as a
tax against the property in the dis
trict. The city has been so ordered
by the State Board of Health
And right here the city dads and
the State Board of Health are ex-
pected to strike a snag, for the people
living on the East Side have not asked
for the construction of a sewer, and
most of those who have expressed
themselves, say they do not want, or
cannot afford to pay the expense of
it's building. Other sewers built in
Topeka have been upon petitions rep
resenting a majority of the property
owners in the districts. None of them
has been constructed by order of the
State Board of Health, although the
board, since a state law made such
approval necessary.
Some harsh statements have eman-
ated from the State Board of Health
concerning this district. 1t is the most
populous unsewered district in the
state. Approximately fifteen thousand
people live there. 1t has been referred
to as plague spot" and a breeding
bed of pestilence," and it is on some
such grounds as these that the State
constructed there, holding that in its
present unsanitary condition it is a
menace to health.
They Have a Good Case.
But if any of the property owners
offer legal resistance to the building
of a sewer system there, the state
board of health will have difficulty in
maintaining its position for the rec
ords of diseases and deaths in this dis
trict show it to be just about as
healthy as the severed districts of the
city
The city health department has
made a very painstaking- investigation
of all the contagious diseases and
deaths in the city during the years
1913 and 1914. When the investiga-
ton was started, the expectation was
that the facts revealed would show a
bad condition of affairs in the Second
ward, the boundaries of which are APP
proximately the same as proposed in
the new sewer district.
But contrary to expectations, the
Second ward showed up favorably in
comparison with the other wards of
the city. The death rate was found to
be a trifle higher than the average,
but to offset this difference, the birth
rate was found to be very much higher,
and when the fact is taken into con-
sideration that more than one-tenth
of the babies born in Topeka die be-
fore they are a year old, this being the
case for the entire city, the Second
ward appears to be just as healthy a
place in which to live as the rest of
the city.
So there will be some very obstinate
figures to overcome in forcing a sewer
on the property owners of the Second
ward. The figures are set forth in
pamphlet form in the first annual re-
port of the sanitary department of the
city. 1t was prepared by r. M Nc
Cav, who made thorough investiga-
ton of every death in the city, and of
every case of contagious disease COW
ering period of two years. The CITY
records. physicians reports, and those
of undertakes were dug into and
even the hospitals were visited Every
death in the city covering a period of
two years was investigated. 1t will
be difficult to disprove the statements
set forth in the report.
The following statistics are taken
from the report:
Death by Disease