The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1916-05-11
Noblesse Oblige

are badly in debt. They ar;
scrupulous in the discharge o.
their financial obligations, but
they owe big moral debts, and
it's bad policy to owe such bills
for sooner or later a good many
of them come out of the bank ac-
count anyway.
The laws of Florida provide
several 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, restau-
rants and boarding houses in the
state must screen their kitchens
and dining rooms against flies, to
prevent the ingress of these infec-
tion-carrying insects. They de-
clare that all surface or earth
closets in the cities and towns
must be carefully screened, but
they don't make this requirement
outside of the cities and towns,
excepting those used in connec-
ton with the rural public schools.
These laws do not require the
screening of residences in cities
or out of them, whether these be
occupied by the owners or by
tenants, leaving it for the individ-
ual to protect himself and his
family from these danger-bearing
pests, or not, as he may choose.
Now, a very considerable por-
lion of the residents of Florida.
particularly of the wage-earning
classes, occupy their homes as
Most of them are I'M
lble financially to make the de-
lrable improvements in these
ZONES which the landlords have
allied, neglected or refused to
make. Probably most such ten
lnts don't appreciate the necessi-
y or the wisdom of screening
heir homes. considering that
cience foolish which declares
hat flies and mosquitoes are not
mere nuisances, but menances to
health.
They don't know,-for they do
not read the public prints-that
hese insects having free access
o the home increase typhoid and
malaria sick rates by large per-
,entages; they don't know that
careful screening actually in
'reaseS the personal efficiency of
he working man, whether he
earns his living with the sweat of
lis body or by his brain.
The often used quotation-nob-
esse oblige-which declares in
fleet that responsibility rests up
~ those who are able to meet it,
seems to have been translated by
| good many people in less ele-
CANT language-"them as has
yitS.
No Florida statute requires
that the owner of property occu-
pied as a residence shall
screen its doors and windows,
whether within or without incor-
porated municipal limits. Yet
such screening of every house in
side or outside any city, would re-
duce the sick and death rate in
any community by good sized fig
lres. Increasing individual work
ing efficiency would increase the
aggregate producing capacity of
The community. 1t is estimated
hat the annual loss in wages in
he United States from sickness
.otalS two hundred and fifty mil
ion dollars.
1t is the moral debt that every
,wner of a residence that is rent
'd to make that property con-
'erve the health of the occupants.
Phe obligation is due the tenant
is well as the community. Scat
cred through the state are many
arge manufacturing establish
nonts outside incorporated cities.
md these are not governed by the
health rules that prevail inside
he cities. Because owners of
such property are not compelled
o do it, many of them don't do a
hing more than they have to for
]. ~ III L--..-.. = IL l.