Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-02-25
PHILIPPINE PROBLEMS. =II.-Teachng and Cleaning Up
BY FREDERIC J.. HksKIE.

educaton has been the way it spread the propaganda
OF the bureau of health. The health bureau work n
the Philippines as fundamentally important as 'he
same work in the Canal Zone and the results
have been as great found the islands in a state
Of almost unbelievable uncleanness. swept periodically
by all the plaques Egypt, and every step FORWARD
against of ignorance and superstition
There few educated and intelligent natives VINO
needed bettrring but that was
about as far as they got
The health service fought cholera until instead
o sweeping away third of city, the plague -
only a few hundred victims occasion the peV-
pie Manila would believe cnoiera was among
them because the deaths few. There ara stR!
outbreaks intervals, machinery fighting
the disease is SO well organized that the old pancs
at its approach are thing OF the past The ouDonlc
plague has been put down by campaigns of rigorous
sanitation, and strict quarantine systen All this
work is being among people who used to close
every window tightly highland still do. very often
because they believe in evil spirit that wanders
around in the darkness
The work against smallpox has been carried on by
of extensive bet
ter than hoped for. the hostile Of
the wild tribes by of cures that
seemed to them miraculous. whole of san
itary work is United States to proud
but it cannot be regarded finished. 1t has
reached the stage where it will along it's
momentum,
Philippines used to be considered a particularly
unhealthy place to live. Our army 1898 suffered
hundred times from sickness than from bullets
Mindanao, southeVmos of large islands. home
the Moros used called the only white mans
country" in the archipelago. That is, you could
escape being sliced with bolo barong the
that you wouldn't die of fever. the
the Philippines were cassed with the African West
Coast
Nowadays that theory is thoroughly exploded
took some medical and sanitary work of
the century to do it, and it takes of the
maintain it, When the Filipinos take tiller
hands, Of their biggest responsibilities
be to prevent the islands from slipping back into
the state killed of thousands under the regime
of the Spaniards.
Two problems in. the sanitary and medical cam
pagn remain which the health just begin
ming attack All the work done on cholera plague
and small -pox is regarded by Of more en-
thusiastic Americans preliminary great
losis. which is fearfully prevalent and fighting the
infant mortality.
Half Philippine babies die before they are a
year old This is due partly lack stamina on ac-
count of early marriages and partly Ignorance
mothers. The child of twelve-year-old mother
and hfteen-year-old father cannot be expected to
have much of constitution When the mother feeds
him boiled rice when he is two old does not
help much.
The health service working n hand with the
bureau of education, has made progress in cor
rectng such conditions is great deal still
be done The work among the wild men still calls
for infinite tact and patience and again the tribe
is stampeded by some supersttous fear or takes UP
some miraculous healer of its who is a good deal
worse than useless One healer, the celebrated
Queen of Taytay, started cholera epidemic by dis
tributing water full of the germs specific
If We turn the Philippines to native govern
ment, they will carry with them among many others
these two great tasks and santa
tion; nation Of eight million people, oneeighth of
them savage, must be kept the toward inte
gent fgoyerpment An archipelago with land area
Of 10000 square miles must be kept free from dozen
xiruient diseases that raVaged years ago
and free from the Nth that long an inev
liable concomant of the Orient. big contract