Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-30
HOUSING LEADER SEES
DANGER OF EPIDEMIC
McCrudden Says City Will Be
Lucky if 1t Escapes Through
Summer
NEEDS MORE INSPECTORS
Twenty-Five Men, lie Declares, Would
Guard Health and Collect
$4,000

The want Of sufficient housing and SANTA
tion inspection lays Philadelphia open Z"
deadly wartime contaEion.
Possibly 10000 persons mostly negroes
from the South, have cont to Philadelphia
this year because Of stories about high
wages in the big industries, These people
| are constantly on the move. When they
do not find what they expected they move
| on. They live IN several sections Of the
city before finally settling down. For this
season they must be watched and there
| are only FIVE inspectors in the whole city
to keep an eye on them.
James f. McCrudden. chief of the Divis.
| ion Of Housing and Sanitation, has asked
| Councils. through the Department Of Health,
| for an appropriation sufficient for the en-
! ployment of additional inspectors several
| times Thrty-fve new ones will be asked
| for again this fall
To relieve the situation. however fifteen
men are now available and will be used to
| cope with emergencies az thoroughly as
| possible
The Housing Association and similar
! bodies, which are in touch with the dangers
| that may grow out Of present housing con-
ditions and the fact that there are not
enough inspectors, say that something
special should be done to prevent what may
prove n city disaster. All Of them call upon
the public TO assist by being cautious,
we will have a severe summer with re-
CARDS to health" declared Mr. McCrudden
| today. II cannot say that any one epidemic
Will strike the city. but we must keep
careful watch lest one does break out. We
might get through without any difficulty,
| but II any serious contagious disease broke
out II would he likely to get beyond con-
troll owing to the great floating population"
SMALLPOX OUTBREAKS
Mr.. McCrudden also cited the two recent
outbreaks Of smallpox TO show how out
siders are bringing disease TO the city. The
health condition OF the city is also being
gradually dsorganized by the draft on
| physicians. great many physicians who
| have had their fingers thoroughly on health
| conditions in their neighborhoods are going
| 10 war and other physicians will take their
| places.
Europe has furnished an example of the
\ danger Of letting down the bars owing to
| war Now most of the countries are more
| strict with respect to the enforcement of
| their health laws than they were before
| the war started but this was not put into
| effect until after laxness had caused sew
| eral serious outbreaks which threatened
| disaster
| while II is realized that $4,000 people
| live in small alleys and courts in this city,
| and that they are all subject TO deadly dis
| eases owing to their living conditions. the
| inspections cannot be made thorough under
| tne present system. Inere are Simply not
| enough inspectors TO go around This is ap-
| parent from the fact that one inspector
| covers the whole Of West PHILADELPHIA
| south Of Market street and west Of the
| Schuylkill. II is apparent that this man
| can only touch here and there i'm his dis
| trict once a year. Another inspector has
! Germantown and Chestnut Hin. with a
! combined population Of more than $4,000,
| more than the city Of Reading has and in
| addition has the whhle Of the Forty-second
! Ward and part Of the Twenty-hrst Ward
New York spends more for child hygiene
| alone than Philadelphia does for its entire
Health Department, Philadelphia, spends for
| tho health Of each individual about thirty
| FIVE cents a year, while New York and Chi
| cago, which top Philadelphia in health con-
| ditons, spend siXty-one cents a personseach
| year
CITY WAKING UP
The Health Department and all of its
branches are doing all they can. with the
funds on hand. An illustration Of the wax
| ing up in this city is apparent from the fact
| that in 1916 the division of Housing and
| Sanitation prosecuted about 1900 persons for
| violations Of laws on sanitation as compared
| 20 100 to 100 the year before. This year the
prosecutions have been running close to 100
| a week, which will bring the total up TO
| 1000 or 5000 unless property, tenement and
| roomng house owners and other indvid-
| uals heed the laws.
| Chief McCrudden this morning explained
| that II he had twenty-five new inspectors.
| whose salaries would cost the city about
| $40, 900, he could return to the city between
| $50 900 and $4,000 year, which would he
| collected by the men in license fees for
| tenement and rooming houses. This would
insure more than 100 per cent on the dollar
| for the use OF the money. Money advanced
| for closing open wells, connecting houses
| with sewers and paving small streets is also
| invariably returned in full Yet the depart
| ment always has trouble getting an appro-
| priation and never gets anything like the
| amount Of money needed for the vital health
| work which Is always ahead
The public must take hand in this mat
| ter, the associations say In order that
! Councllmen shall take enough interest
actually to investigate the health situation
| In Philadelphia.