The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-03-13
Is TIA USELESS LAWi
LawsTYhat,s the need of them

The Florida Legislature at the
session of 1915, at the urgent sug-
gestion of the State Board of Health,
enacted a law-Chapter 6953, Laws
of Florida-which is, or should be.
one of the most important Acts ever
enrolled on the statute books of the
State for the prevention of disease,
and it has a meaning for every citi-
zen of Florida, permanent or trans
lent.
1t provides that it shall be mis-
, demeanor to operate a hotel, board
| ing house, restaurant or lunch
counter without screening every
door, window or other opening in
the dining room, kitchen of passage
leading to them, with wire netting
of mesh small enough to prevent
the admission of flies.
1t makes it misdemeanor to sell
or expose for sale food in any meat
or butcher shop, grocery, fruit stand,
bakery or other place, which is to
! be eaten or which is to be consumed
without cooking, and to operate any
! dinging car within the state with
out screening such eating places with
wire netting which will prevent the
admission of flies.
Tho penalty upon conviction is a
fine not to exceed fifty dollars, or
imprisonment not longer than three
months for each proven violation.
This law, while it might possibly
have been better. is vast improve
ment on any previous attempt to
protect the people of the state
through these channels from the in
lection of typhoid fever and some
other filth-produced diseases, if
(nOte the if)-it shall be enforced
Florida's State Board of Health
has been working for more than
twenty-five years to make the state
a better place to live in, to prevent
disease and to bring to all the peo-
pie an intimate knowledge how to
help themselves to longer life. to
better sanitary surroundings and
more efficient working days in each
year. The board has succeeded fairly
well in its never-ending labor, and
1t is shown by the fact that when
epidemic threatens, the people throw
up their hands and surrender in
blind faith to its leadership ont of
the emergency into which their own
disregard of its warnings has
plunged them.
True it is that the business of the
board is to take charge in emer-
2encies that threaten disaster
through disease, but it is equally it's
mission to advise and warn when no
immediate danger menaces, in order
That emergencies may not come. In
times of stress, municipal and coun-
ty authorities, solicitors of criminal
and circuit courts, sheriffs and all
the rest, willingly use their full
authority to aid the board in it's en-
forcement of law and safety meas
ures,( Why are they not as ready
to back the board in its work of pre-
ventlon when no danger is in sight?
IL is fact that, with few rare ex-
ceptions, they are as Indifferent as
a Georgia rabbit to the war in Eli
rope.
The deaths in Florida, from ty-
phoid fever alone each year. exceed
those from yellow fever in any epi-
dmic in the state of which there is
any record, This disease is carried
TO the new victims by flies, which
founder in the extreta of the pa-
tient and deposit the germs of ~
pnold IN or on the food which is
eatel by healthy persons, who there
by arc doomed to suffer with pretty
strong chances of death. Disgusting
lSn 1t? Yet it is the purpose of
this Chapter $3.50 to aid in stopping
this cycle of disease, and the Board
Of Health is asking the people of
Florida to insist on its enforcement /;
Tor their own preservation.
Regulations on the statute books
OF Florida for the preservation of
health are just as really laws as
those that provide for the punish
ment of the murderer. The private
citizen has the inalienable right to
demand of the proper authorities the
enforcement of any law. and the Of
hcial who deliberately or carelesssly
neglects to perform his duty NAV
be removed from office.