Evening star., 1918-07-11
zoo IN ALEXANDRIA
CALLED TO COURT
Property Owners Required to
Explain Failure to Con-
meet With Sewer.
STATE ORDER, FILTRATION
eciai Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
ALEXANDRIA. July 11.-Nearly two
hundred property owners of Alex
andria have been summoned to ap-
pear in police court and explain their
failure to connect homes with the
sewage system abutting their prop
erty.
Orders have been issued by the
Virginia state corporation commits
sion to tho Alexandra Water Com
pany to install Immediately a ultra
tion plant in connection with Its
water supply.
The company Is the main distribu-
ter of water in Alexandria and the
orders followed the last of q series
of hearings yesterday before the COM
mission relative to q petition Of citi-
zens of Alexandria asking better serv-
ice and rates. The company In return
requested of the commission the right
to charge higher rates.
Hasten Filtration Order.
The state board Of health has for
some time advocated the installation
Of a filtration plant and yesterdays
orders are Understood to have been
hastened because Of health conditions
in Alexandria,
The foregoing are the latest devel-
opments in the Alexandria clean up"
campaign.
Hearings in the first of the court
cases will begin at o'clock this
evening before Justice Luther H.
Thompson. and will continue each
evening until all have been heard.
This action was taken in compliance
with law which has been in opera
ton more than two years.
The summoning into court of prop
erty owners falling to obey the law
relating to connecting homes with the
sewage system Is the first drastic
move made by the crusaders against
insanitary conditions in Alexandria,
where already forty-eight cases Of
typhoid are recorded.
Last night DIR. L. L Lumsden of the
United States public health service.
who Is in direct charge Of the clean j.
up; Sanitary Engineer Streeter of
the same service and A. 8. Holway.
acting chief engineer of the Virginia
state health department. met in con-
at the Alexandria Hospital. The in
vestigators sought the views of the
physicians and. IT 10 understood. OBJ
tained Information which will help
them in their work.
Directions by Health oficial.
The first orders of DR.. Lumsden
within twenty-four hours after his
arrival in Alexandria, were issued to
the public. and urged boiling of
water before 1t is used, the home
pasteurixation Of milk, and inocula-
ton. These. he urged, are preventives
against typhoid fever.
Health officials have obtained the
names of persons who have contract
ed typhoid fever, and a strict watch
Is being kept on them with view to
determining the causes Of the dis
will be learned within a day or two.
When these have been discovered.
according to DR.. Lumsden. prevent
ives against further spreading Of the
disease will be enforced. and from
that quarter there will need to be no
further fear.
On the other hand. there is to be fol-
low a general cleaning up of the city,
with the cooperation of the police,
city health officials and the public.
Dr.; Lumsden has announced that he
lie with the plan that he will follow
out in cleaning up" the city.
Campaign Against Flies.
1t is expected the campaign against
flies will play the biggest part in the
crusade against filth and insanitary
conditions. 1t has been shown by
state health officials that the fly plays
an important part in the spreading
of the disease, and to eradicate this
danger Alexandria will find itself en-
gagged in a swat the fly" campaign
perienced.
Such a campaign. however, will fol-
low an investigation Of the water and
milk conditions. The summoninH of
the property owners into court is
directly connected with the water and
fly conditions.