The review., 1918-12-12
THE FLU SITUATION PRO AND
CON.

Al d SU0C1cL1 M00L1AS "a (AO OAIy
Council Friday night, after some lit
tie discussion pro and con, it was
decided to leave the lid off here, as
regards the influenza epidemic. DR.. D.
A. Stanton, a physician and mayor OF
the CITY, is adverse to putting the lid
on He seems to be OF the opinion
that most c. the cases have resulted
from factory operatives bringing it
home and the factories could hardly
be closed as the people must live.
Others brought out the fact that a
half a loaf Of prevention is better
than no loaf and that the schools and
moving pictures, perhaps, could be
closed and help to decrease the num-
Der of cases. A very prominent ply
s4cian tells the editor that it is not
the factory operatives to any great
extent that brings the disease home,
but on the other hand the school chill
drCn do and he cited fifty odd cases
of flue (to prove his assertion) where
the children had brought it to the
homes and even one family caught
the disease from opening a box o.
clothes sent by a soldier in France.
One of the editors children had the
s. that time, evidently this school
We asked an undertaken Sunday
"who was dead" He replied, don't
know l have so many and later re-
piled, "seven, four children and three
grown people, Mr.. c. J. Muse and ="
he went on TO name them. Seven in
one day handled by one undertaken
and yet everything is wide open.
City Physicians in good many
towns stand pat on holding the lid on
and says the only way the disease can
be stamped out is by removing the
chance through the closing process.
We do not desire to take issue with
any official but our candid opinion is
that the people should be protected.
Leave things wide open and they will
not, in large measure, protect them
selves. Perhaps later the wisdom of
this will be clearly shown. Too many
people are dying here, who If they had
been properly protected would doubt
less be living today. Upon whose
shoulders will the blame for the great
loss of human LIE rest? Already the
flu has cost this city over a quarter
of million dollars in loss Of time, doc.
tors, medicine, muses., undertaker's,
etc, bill, to say nothing of the value
of human life. With the disease baf-
fling the wits of the best doctors as
to how success sfully to treat it and
with the loss of life appalling through
out the country. it does look like we
should cooperate with them and do
everything possible to prevent furth-
er needless loss of life. The best
s,n sic a rs in the world recognize the
,errihleness of the disease and use
every precaution possible and it looks
plain that the people should be made
to cooperate. Certainly these learn
ed physicians know as much as the
ordinary laymen here. It is not what
we think as individuals, as a scoun-
Gil or as an organization, but what
are the real facts in the case and ex-
Derience of those who know reveal.
Shall we continue to die because we
do not get the protection vuchsased to
us by the city, county, state and ma
tional governments?
Candidly, we believe the schools are
doing more to spread the disease than
any other thing and the moving pic
ture theatres second. We would not
be true to ourselves, our readers. our
profession or eur city if we did not
express our convictions, whatever the
result.