The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-06-26
Topeka WILL
BLAZE THE Way
Plan Is Worked Out for Com.
batting Dread Disease.
Publicity and Quarantine Are
the Main Features.
CITY TO PAY FOR TREATMENT
Where Victims Are Unable to
Bear the Expense.
for the Purpose
to Go Into Budget.

Welfare work of a kind different
from that undertaken by any other
city is to be attempted by the city of
Topeka. If program now under
consideration by Mayor House, and
the members of the city commission,
is adopted, practical quarantine and
compulsory treatment of clandestine
diseases will be the result. When the
city budget for the year 1916 is passed
upon by the city commission next
month it will include an appropria ton
for the handling of cases of a kind
which heretofore have never been the
subject of municipal oversight.
The city guarantees persons hav-
ing smallpox, measles, diphtheria,
scarlet fever and even mumps, but
heretofore Topeka, and in fact no city,
has made any attempt to control dis
eases of a more serious nature. The
plans of the city commissioners are
not worked out in detail, for it is only
since the revelations of the last few
days, that the matter has received
their attention.
The plan outlined roughly, will call
for the passage of new city ordi-
nance to carry out the purposes of the
budget appropriation. The ordinance
as prepared will contain provisions
compelling all physicians practicing in
the city to report to the city board
of health the names of all persons
known by them to have diseases COW
cred by the ordinance. They will also
be compelled to report whether or not
in their opinion such persons are ex-
erciSing proper precautions against
the spread of the disease. Cases in
which there is reason to suspect lax
ness on the part of patients will be
reported to the board and by the board
to the police and isolation or quaran-
tine will be enforced as a police meas
ure for public safety.
Not only will physicians be required
by ordinance to report the names OF
l. f11- - fro,
them, but they also will be required to
report the names of others as learned
from their patients.
To Establish Free Clinic.
For persons who are not able to
stand the expense of private physi-
clans a free clinic will be maintained
at city expense. Mayor House has
learned that this can be done. Two of
the leading physicians of the city spe
ciaiizing in such cases have offered
their service on a basis which will call
for no greater expense on the part of
the city than the salary of one police
man.
In acting on this matter the mayor
and commissioners are consulting the
physicians CT the city and expect their
hearty cooperation.
TN tackling this problem many
people tell us we will be trying some
thing which can not be done. But I
believe it can be done. and Dr. S. J.
Crum pine or the state DOarQ OF nealCn
believes it can be done. Anyway, we
are going to find out, and as a matter
of fact we are doing it now" said May
or House.
DR.. A. B. Jeffrey, who has given
much study to the question, and who
secured the evidence making it pos
sible for the city to take what action
has already resulted, believes the plan
most practical for Topeka.
There was a time when great OBJ
lection was made against quarantine
ing any disease. but that time has
passed. said DR.. Jeffrey. Diseases
of the kind in question have been side
stepped in the matter of regulation be-
cause they are not nice to talk about.
But merely closing our eyes does no
good. Education is needed and when
once the right plan is adopted the
public will approve it.
Worse Than Tuberculosis.
1--WE have societies organized to
fight the white plague or tuberculo-
sis We sell stamps to aid such pur-
poses and collections are raised in our
churches and at the same time nothing
is said of other diseases many times
worse in their nature and more nu-
merous in victims.
Disease is eating the very life out
of some of the prominent homes in
Topeka. Some OF these people know
what is the trouble and some do not.
/ know of one fourteen-year-old boy.
diseased in the worst possible way.
The parents life plans for this boy
have been wrecked.
THE present situation in Topeka