The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-08
NOBLEssE 0BLIGE

such bills for sooner or later gooo
many of them come out of the bank
account anyway.
The laws Of Florida provide sew
eral things for the protection Of the
people within incorporated cities and
towns that they don't demand for
rural communities. They insist that
all hotels, restaurants and boarding
houses in the State must screen their
kitchens and dining rooms against
flies, to prevent the ingress of these
infection carrying insects. They de-
clare that all surface or earth closets
in the cities and towns must be care
fully screened, but they don't make
this requirement outside of the
cities and towns, excepting those
used in connection with the rural
public schools.
These laws do not require the
screening Of residents in cities or out
of them, whether these be occupied
by the owners or by tenants, leaving
1t for the individual to protect him
self and his family from these
danger-bearing pests. or not, as he
may choose.
Now, very considerable portion
of the residents of Florida, par
ticularly Of the wage-earning
classes. occupy their homes as ten
ants. Most of them are unable f.
nancially to make the desirable i'm
provements in these homes which the
landlords have failed, neglected or
refused to make. Probably most
such tenants don't appreciate the
necessity or the wisdom of screening
their homes, considering that science
foolih which declares that fles and
mosquitoes are not mere nuisances,
but enmces to health.
They don't know-for they do not
read the public prints-that these
insects having free access to the
home increase typhoid and malaria
sick rates by large percentages;
they don't know that careful screen
ing actually increases the personal
efficiency of the working man,
whether he earns his living with the
sweat of his brow or by his brain.
The often used quotation
noblesse oblige-which declares in
effect that responsibility rests up
on those who are able to meet it,
seems to have been translated by a
good many people in less elegant
language-"Them as has gifts"
No Florida statute requires that
the owner of property occupied as a
residence shall screen it's doors and
windows, whether within or without
incorporated municipal limits. Yet
such screening of every house inside
or outside any city, would reduce
the sick and death rate in any com
munity by good sized figures. In
creasing individual working eff
cheney would increase the aggregat,
producing capacity of the communi
ty. 1t Is estimated that the annua
loss in wages in the United States
from sickness totals two hundred ant
fifty million dollars.
, 1t is the moral debt that ever,
owner Of residence that is rente,
} to make that property conserve tn
health of the occupants. The obliga
tion Is due the tenant as we'll as tn
community. Scattered through tn
) state are many large manufacturing
establishments outside incorporate
cities, and these are not governed b
the health rules that prevail insid
8 the cities. Because owners OF sue
property are not compelled to do II
g many Of them don't do a thing NOR
| than they have to do for the wei
being Of the labor, which by fore
of circumstances, is compelled to OF
cupy these houses as tenant en-
p ployees Of the owning corporation @
firm. Flies have free access to house
and earth closets and no attempt
: made to regulate the breeding place
0 of these winged messengers of pest
o lence and death.
{ There isn't any use to appeal
y such property owners exceptin
u through their pockets. And for the
II information the fact is stated wit
u absolute certainty that experimeI
: Will prove it, that to put their ten,
: ments in good order, to screen the
" carefully and the closets that SUI
- round them. to insist on clea
B" premises and on good repairs, won,
" be money-saving investment, whiC
would show in the bank account ;
the years end. 1t would attract ar
hold the best class of labor and
would discharge a moral obligatic
just as real as the wages that a
paid to labor itself.
iTEnTAETSe, wv 1on1-