The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-11-17
GOVERNMENT IS
ON TRAIL Of RAT
NAY SOON UNDERTAKE TASK or
ExTERMINATINo THAT d.
sTRucTIvE RODENT.
IS DANGEROUS TO SOLDIERS
.1nfsstlns the Camps and Trenches, u
Devours and Ruins Their Food and
Carries Dlsease-War Department
May Send Scientists Abroad.
BY EDWARD .. CLARK.

BY EDWARD B. CLARK.
Washington.-The United States
government Is on the trail Of the rat.
It will confine Its exterminating cam
paign for the present to the United
States, but SOC II Is believed that the
government officials will undertake the
work Of killing, or at any rate driv-
ing from the trenches of Europe into
q retreat from which there is no re-
turning, all the rats which today are
making the soldiers lives miserable.
and which any day may become a Sc
rious menace to the health Of the fight
ers.
The war department has been told
that American scientists stand ready
to formulate q campaign against the
rats In the trenches In Europe. There
II hope that later an order will be Is
sued sending a detachment of soldier
scientists to Europe to make var on
the most destructive and dangerous
animal that the world knows.
Members Of the biological survey Of
the government have given thought
to the rat and Its problems. Already
they have started a campaign for the
destruction of the rats which rapidly
are multiplying in and about the can
tonments In which soldiers of the
three armies. regulars. National Guard.
and draft, IN Quartered. The dif-
nculty Is that the scientists must
depend upon state and local effort and
all that the Washington experts can
do Is to give advice from a distance.
Neglected by Congress.
Congress declined to include In the
proper supply bill an appropriation
suficiently large to enable the govern
ment to undertake the saving of the
food supply in America from the a v
ages Of rats and what Is much more
vital the saving Of the soldiers In
France from the discomforts which
rats bring In their wake.
So 1t Is that so far as present ef-
fort Is concerned 1t must content IT.
self largely with the urging of state
and local authorities to combat the
rat at the environments. and must give
0ver until a later time any thought
Of entering on a crusade Of concen-
tration against the pest In the trenches
At the front.
It Ii something to know, however,
that the war department has under ad-
visement a plan Of campaign to rid
the trenches and the environments here
and abroad Of the rat which has made
for destruction Of property and OF mis-
cry to the fighters.
A short time ago there came to
Washington, II. @. Dugmore. a British
scientist Of international fame. When
the war broke out Mr.. Dugmore vol
unteered, went to the front, and there
was wounded. He 10 now In this coun-
try telling people about the war and
doing what he car to recover his
health.
In the trenches Soldier Dugmore
met the rat face to face. and body to
body. He has told the Washington
authorities all that he can about the
critters and their multitudinous iniqui-
ties In the field. While Mr.. Dugmore
Il known as an exact scientist, he was
willing to exaggerate q bit to make his
point when he said that the trench raj
n bigger than a "hound dog"
Destructive and omnlvorous.
In books written by men who have
served in the trenches the rats figure
On almost every page. They u over
the faces Of sleeping soldiers and fire.
quently bite them. They steal food. moi
0nly from the camp kitchens, but from
the storehouses, and In these latter
they ruin ten times as much as they
ct. The rat Ii omnivorous. and when
this Is thought on 1t Is possible to
know, without more direct suggestion
q one Of the atrocities which this
loathsome creature commits on the
field after a battle.
The trench rat OF western Europe II
the brown rat of the United States
However originally It was neither .
European nor an American rat. II
was unknown In western Europe un'
IA the eighteenth century except In
the cities on the coasts to which II
was brought by ships. The brown raj
4 . parasite. II II can It follows mai
wherever he goes. Sometimes 1t IL Z
long ways behind man In the latter'i
miRrations, but Il always catches up