Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1916-08-23

EVERY PERSON IN ELKO who
has the good OF the town at heart, or
who values human life. should obtain
a copy of the Saturday Evening Post
of August 10 and read every line of
the story entitled, Uncle Sam Cleans
Up Springfield" by Herbert Quick
The article is life-saver. Ii will
actually save hundreds of lives
throughout the country, perhaps. as
you will say after reading it. 1t ap-
plies, like porous plaster, To the
town of Elko. and to hundreds of other
towns.
Springfield. says the story. is rich
town in rich country. inhabited by
the ordinary American. who is very in
dignant about the treatment of the
Belgians. but ignorant as to the lives
of the people living down across the
track; town which would repel with
horror the suggestion that it lives
filthjly. INDEPENDENTLY, and, from the
standpoint of health, barbarously. 1t
points with pride TO it's beautiful
lawns, its quiet homes. it's prosperous
factories, its country trade. its conser.
vatiFm in business, its fairgrounds"
etc
Speaking of the advantages of her
town, Springfield club-woman in the
story piously says: The most graft
Tying thing TO me Is the sense of free
dom from the denominations in which
we used TO live without knowing il. I
can imagine living voluntarily in a
leper colony, although l never could
understand how the holy men of the
past could consent TO be absolutely
GRAVITY even for the sake of saving
their souls, but they at least knew
something about what they were do
ing, while we were in dreadful state
OF ignorance. and that, tGo. IL q county
where the percentage of illiteracy is
gratifyingly low"
Among themselves, the characters of
the story. boosting their beloved town,
blow about their superiority, the free.
dom and bigness of the great open
spaces"
Comes then Good Samaritan, who
reminds Springfield of its sins against
sanitation, and urges them to write TO
DR.. Leslie Leon Lumsden. of the u. $.
Public Health Service in Washington,
to get him to make one of his free
rural sanitary surveys in the county
DR.. Lumsden is an epidemiologist
who with a sort of apostolic fervor Is
teaching the people of the United
States the elemental facts as to the
disposal of the wastes of the human
body
This is a task which did not much
bother our nomadic forefathers. foi
several reasons. They followed their
flocks, seeking pasturage, and did not
remain long in one place To poison the
waters or to contaminate the soil
Their hirth.rate was high; and eight
children out OF ten might die OF enter
ocolitis, or several persons out OF
every hundred might be annually gath
cred to their fathers by typhoid, dysen
terry or hookworm, and still theil
tribes might increase like Abou Ben
Adhem's. Anyhow. when person
died. IL was because God took him
But when Moses had the task of pilot
ing the lsraelites through the wilder
ness. he was obliged to look after sew
age disposal--the camps were so large
and the halts so long. SO Moses pro.
mulgated sanitary rules (Deuteronomy
%, IL, 10. and 40, which Code, had
our armies in the Civil and Spanish
wars had the sense TO follow It. woult
have saved us hundreds Of thousands
Of lives and hundreds OF millions o
dollars in pensions-so far was Moses
ahead OF our famous generals.
Now, however we know the cause o
typhoid and dysontery and enteroco
litis and hookworm and II there 4
any outbreak of the old zymotl
sCourges of the camps in this prescn
excursion to the Mexican border
sc,nconc ought to he shot at sunrise
For II will be someone's fault. ant
cannot be attributed to any divine dis
pleasure. We make our own typhoi,
and dyseniery and cholera infantun
and hookworm. just as definitely a.
We make our own coffee
Uncle Sam, through the publi
Health Service, is bringing thes,
truths home TO the Nation. Thu
Springfield, progressive city, hat
a sanitary survey by Dr. Lumsden.
The story tells in thrilling style cx
actly what he found. of the drawback,
he encountered. which are common Il
every town
When the federal expert came ia
Springfield, the first thing he asked