The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-07-29
CAPITALISM WORSE =.
49, THAN paralysis

=
There is, perhaps. nothing that
brings out more clearly tho anarchic
and chaotic condition inherent in
| modern society than an epidemic of
disease. Such a situation sets every
mans hand against his fellow much
more plainly than when normal con-
ditions exist.
New York today, as a center Of in
fantile paralysis, affords q striking
Illustration Of this truth.
Not only has the jangl!ng and con-
fusion Of tongues within the city in
! creased enormously, but the same
condition exists in neighboring cities
as to what attitude should be taken
| toward infected New York.
Hundreds, of physicians and health
experts are suggesting practical meth
DDS Of isolating and controlling the
disease, while thousands of profit
! mongers are protesting against their
plans, lest their profits are interfered
with. There may be thousands of
children paralyzed, but there must be
no paralysis Of business. Hence bust
ness strives to leave the impression
that the epidemic is grossly exagger-
ated, that the people are beig worked
into state Of panic, and, as Mr.. JOS
eph P. Day. the well-known real estate
dealer, puts it in his letter Of protest
to the mayor, 1.-THE tremendous prop
erty damage will be inestimable."
On the other hand, those who place
human life before property indig-
nantly deny that they are exciting the
people to panic, but assert that they
are simply awakening them to the real
gravity of the situation, in order that
they may combat the epidemic sue
cessfully.
Well-to-do people take their chill
dren by thousands out of the city, and
the outsiders at once hastily decide to
take measures to protect themselves
from the invasion. But again busi-
ness steps in and confuses the issue
in these places.
These well-to-do people bring with
them money, which is spent in the To-
callty, and the greater the desire to
| absorb their cash in any locality, the
less the measures taken to quarantine
| them.
At the seaside resorts in the neigh
borhood of the great city opinion is
clearly divided. The residents who do
not depend directly on the patronage
Of the tourists and visitors are unani-
| mously against their coming; on the
other hand, the hotel men, bathing
resort proprietors, store and restau-
rant keepers and local steamboat COM
! panies are all willing to take a. chance
with the disease. If they can only get
at the purses Of the crowds; and
where these latter are the most influ-
entail they usually get their way,
their motto being "business as usual"
and forget the infantile paralysis.
The result is that the quarantine
against New York becomes utterly alb
surd and futile. Where one place
bars children under Is, another, not
five miles away. has no prohibition
Of any kind. You cannot bring child
rem under that age, for example, to
Seabright, which is an exclusive resi-
Dental community on the Jersay
coast. but you can take them five
miles farther up TO Long Branch, and
from there invade Seabright at your
leisure for the cost Of a scent trolley
ride. Long Branch, with it's associate
resort. Asbury Park, needs the patron
Oea.
bright doesn't. That is the explana-
| ton.
Society has undoubtedly made
much progress in the knowledge of
combating disease, but it is capitalism
and business consideration that pre-
vents the effective use and applica-
ton of such knowledge. With them
removed, society has nothing to fear
from plague, pestilence or epidemic
Infantile paralysis would be no
scourge were it not aided and allotted
by the adult mental paralysis that, for
business considerations" not only
prevents it from being eliminated by
scientific hygiene, but actually takes
part in deliberately spreading it
abroad.-Ne-I York Call