Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-10-31
The Growing West
V.-SEEKERS FOR SUNSHINE.
BY Frederic j. Haskin

]. Haskin
fering on the part of people of this
class which local charity alleviates as
best it can, while admitting it's re.
sources to be wholly inadequate.
Efforts to keep out the INDECENT sick
are almost foredoomed to failure.
National advertising for health seek
ers generally carries the recommen-
datiOn that no person shall come to
the southwest without enough to live
on for at least a year. But the SICK
man who sees the advertising is likely
to note only the prospects for cure,
and disregard the warning. He is
ready 10 take chance on making a
living, when a living means life.
1t has been suggested here that east
ern physicians should take it on them
selves TO prevent INDECENT health
seekers from coming to the west SO
far as lies within their power. But
the physician, after all. is not finan-
cial adviser. His business is to make
a diagnosis and indicate treatment.
1t is up to the sufferer to consider
ways and means. The most that the
southwest can hope to do in this line
is to spread knowledge of the fact
that the moneyless health seeker is
likely 10 have hard time OF 1t.
The element of uncertainty in the
game will always keep the stream
flowing. Some men who came here
able to be up and about have not been
well enough to work week in five
years. Others, taken off the trains
on stre;chers, have been earning their
living six months after their arrival.
One man who came here to die twenty
years ago made failure Of 1t and is
tramping twenty miles day through
the hills as prospector. Such cases
, inevitably attract others, whether the
others have any money or not.
The stipulation that years capital
lis necessity is probably sound, as 1t
has been backed up by the opinions
of most men thoroughly familiar with
the problem; but it is not being heed
ed, apparently. Any local charitable
organization. no matter what it's or
iginal purpose, soon finds itself wag-
ing hopeless fight against this spe-
cial problem of the moneyless tuber-
cular patient. Such an institution, for
example, is the Civic Betterment
league in this city. which started out
with aims as broad as it's title. The
records of the league show that it is
rapidly being narrowed down in spite
of itself to an attempt to cope with
this one charitable problem.
An organization such as this is de-
pendent on local contributions, and
when you consider the size of the
town and the size of the problem it is
wonder that the league stays in the
game instead of getting discouraged
and quitting entirely. They are quite
unable to care permanently for all the
INDECENT health seekers who arrive. In
many cases. along with similar organ
izations in scores of health resort
towns, if the sick man cannot work
and has no money they help him as
well as they can. and finally help him
to the next town. The next town may
at the moment be better able to care
for him, or to give him work he can
do. As a result of this system, some
of the unfortunate strangers have re-
markable itineraries behind them. The
league keeps track of them when pos
sible One mans route shows Bir-
|
Trinidad, Denver, Las Vegas. Albu-
querque. Ell Paso. Tucson. Phoenix.
and back to albuquerque again. In
each of the western towns he was
helped for time and then sent on to
the next.
Such system is obviously made
quate, but it is the best that the
southwest can work out. This is
large hearted country, and if man
lands in desperate need, it will see him
through, though it probably doesn't
want the fact advertised, because
there are enough of that sort here al
ready tc strain the resources Of the
charitable Not alone in the cities,
but out on lonely ranches you often
hear of instances where some helpless
stranger was tended for months until
he recovered-or died.
Out here they think the problem is
a national problem. There is bill
in congress appropriating money for
the care Of INDECENT consumptives on
condition that the state concerned APP
propriates similar sum. That bill
is regarded here with doubt because
they are afraid that the state legisla-
lure W II. llpt pass iic
and when the national bill passes
stream of new patients will arrive.
They would prefer a straight national
appropriation, or failing that, they be-
lieve that the state Of which the suf-
ferer is native should keep him on
the charity benefit rolls after he has
left it: since the state where he con-
tracted the disease should help him
rather than the one where he is look
ing for q cure.
The health seeker of means. no mat
ter how moderate. is an asset to the
southwest. The health seeker with
out means is a liability. Unfortunate
ly. the people who bear the liability do
not always get the benefit Of the asset.