Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1915-03-24
MAKES PLEA FOR HUMANITY
Death Losses From White Plague
and Pneumonia

EDITOR CENSOR: / am, in behalf Of
humanity, interested in the proposed
tuberculosis sanatorium. When pre-
sented to the county board, was op-
posed to the construction of sanatori-
UNI. l reasoned, perhaps as did the
members of the board, that the county
has enough taxes to bear at present,
and that a sanatorium would cause an
extra burden without sufficient compen-
sation. l did not take the facts, which
| have lately gathered, into considera-
ton:
Twenty to thirty nersons die in our
county every year from tuberculosis.
No other one disease causes the death
of so many persons among US. Pneu-
monia, a disease also affecting the lungs,
q close second, causes the death of %
or % yearly in Vernon. Approximate
~ one half the victims of tuberculosis
die between to age of twenty and thir-
ty. The death rate in children up to
five or six years Of age is very high in
case of pneumonia.
There are at least rs active cases of
tuberculosis in Vernon county at pres
ent Very probably there are from
100 to 125 cases. The proposed new
sanatorium win not be too large, capa-
city so.
Persons afflicted with tuberculosis at
present must remain II their own homes
until they die. Remember, that tuber-
culosis germs ravage weak lungs. Per.
sons in contact with this disease are
easily susceptible to it when they have
q cold or when their system is weaken
ed by any illness. There are thirty to
forty persons in Vernon county in the
prime of life who should be an aid to
their community and to their families;
but these families have a bill of ex
pense, and worst of all, the assurance
that some day they, too, will go down
to an early grave. What must the chill
dren do when the father or mother
leave them? Oh, yes, we kave a state
school And were you reared at state
school? Yet your cry has always been
give the boys and girls an equal
chance. When the mother or the
father is gone he no longer has an
equal chance He has no chance at
all, when his little lungs begin to sur
render to the pc verful disease which
was thrust, yes thrust upon him.
am speaking to you who are trying
to 'thold down your taxes. to you who
hold that the sanatorium is Just scheme
to get a doctor a job. The doctors have
their jobs, and they can charge more
now for carirg for eonsumptives, with
less results, because they have to run
all over the country as conditions are.
Do you have a patient in your home in
this condition? If you have not, re-
member that continued exposure to tn.
berculosis day after day, month after
month. and in some cases, year after
year, is what some families have to en-
dure.
We must vote upon this question this
spring. We built $l2, 900 Jail which
generally has an occupancy of one o.
two. The state will help support the
sanatorium. About all the expense
taxpayers will have to pay will be the
cost of construction
Possibly some rs. wonder why
mentioned pneumonia If the sanato-
rum be placed upon the right basis
with the co operation of the people in
the county, there is no reason why the
influence of the institution should not
tendto spread throughout the whole
county more intelligence concerning
hygiene of the lungs The number of
deaths from both tuberculosis and pneu-
monia could easily be cut in two. This
is our chance to rescue many a child
from a death by inches Will we do it?
ONE INTERESTED IN HUMANITY.
Rockton, March 10, 1915.