The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1918-10-24
DISEASE MORE DEADLY Than WAR
More American Fatalities from New
Epidemic Here Than FiOm Ger.
man Guns in France.

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spread so widely and rapidly that
Americas death roll here at
nome is greater than that of all
of her huge armies in Europe.
Moreover, the number of pros
trations from this disease from
day to day in America is prob
ably greater than the combined
casualty lists of all Of the fight
ing forces engaged in this great
World War. The number of
cases in New York City alone
has increased from a total of AZ
cases and no deaths reported to
and including September Goth,
1918, to 1928 new cases and 49S
deaths in a single day. More
over, the statement is said to
have been made by a prominent
physician-Dr. GOldwater- that
the actual number of cases in
New York is about half amillion.
This is not intended as an
alarmist statement but i5 simply
a brief summary of facts cur
rently reported in the daily press.
While their is still no reason for
panic there is every reason for
swift action in the erection Of
effective barriers against tn G
spread of this malady.
Only yesterday the writer,
when about to attempt to enter an
over-crowded street-car, baked,
upon hearing someone in the car
execute an utterly unsurpassed
sneeze, and decided to walk; and,
as he walked, he pondered over
New York's frightful congestion
in surface, subway and elevated
cars; on wharves and ships; in
stores, factories, sweatshops,
hotels, restaurants, and even in
the many thousands of other
places. sometimes improperly
called homes, where people never
really live but merely exist, and
where thousands of them are
now being derprined by death, of
even that questionable privilege;
and as he pondered he wondered
whether, when the big death
roll of this epidemic is finally
counted, people will still think
that New York-with its huge
waste of mechanical force, man
power and even human life it.
self, due to its monstrous con-
gestion of humanity at a point
where there is economic justifi-
cation for only a small city-is
really worth while.
Ofcourse, the disease is spread
ing elsewhere, but only where
there are overcrowded conditions
equivalent to little New Yorks
are its ravages of a deadly ma
ture.
In the interest Of national eff
cheney and safety the Federal
Government has recently extend
ed its ownership and control in
a manner scarcely dreamed Of by
even the most radical. Perhaps
this matter of Government con-
troll has gone too far in some di-
rections; but there is obviously
one direction in which it has
fallen far short of the goal which
it should reach in the interest of
the general welfare, and that is
in the matter Of providing for
the security of the public health.
The fact that the happiness,
strength, and even the very ex-
istence of the nation depends abb
solutely upon the maintenance
of the public health and the pre-
vention of all conditions which
menace it, is by this epidemic
being demonstrated more clearly
than ever before; and, terrible
as is the deathroll of this plague,
it awakens the American peo-
pie to a realization of the fact
that the preservation Of the pub
| lie health by a perpetual warfare
against disease is as clearly and
absolutely a function of the gen.
eral government as is the con-
troll of the army and navy in this
Great War for the preservation
of democracy, the results will
fully justify such cost.