Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1918-11-22
''cLosINc ORDER THAT DOES
NOT CLOSE"

We
ticle that appeared in recent issue
of the Little Falls Daily Transcript,
signed by one r. B. Willard, and at
lacking the recent influenza closing
order, and especially the enforcement
thereof. The article does not deserve
to be answered because it has been
written by one who, has been preju-
diced against this closing proposition
from the very beginning. But it con-
tains 50 many misleading statements
that deem it proper that the public
should know the true facts.
The closing order was not adopted
in haste. The mayor and health Of
f1cer had for several days before the
meeting on October IA considered the
question OF closing and had secured
such information as was available to
us on the question; the order was
drawn up after a public discussion Of
the matter of closing and complied
with the sentiments and. wishes ex-
pressed at said meeting, except that
Of r. B. Willard, whose lone voice
was heard opposing closing at all.
The order closed all public places. 1t
did not attempt to close private bus
mess places. The writer of the article
above mentioned does not seem to
understand the difference between
public and private places. Pubic
places can be closed any time by the
public authorities for the preserva-
ton of order or the checking of the
spread of a communicable disease,
but private business places cannot be
closed except in the case of enforce
ment of martial law, or quarantine
regulations closing the whole con-
munity. The reason for this differ
ence is very clear. The people can
get along without schools, churches,
theatres, libraries and pool halls for "a
time without suffering any serious i'll
convenience, but they cannot ge:
along without the drug store, the
butchershop, the restaurant, the hotel
or any store selling necessaries Of
life. Now it happens that saloons
come in the same class and are gov
erned by the same laws as other bus
treated in the same way by the auth
critics.
The trend of Mr. Millard's article is
to show that these business places
have been favored; that the order
was faulty in not including all bust
ness places. AS above stated it was
impossible to make such an order,
and if any such order had been made
/ should have been Obliged to disre-
gard it so far as to closing places OF
business absolutely. The restrictions
put upon business places were cheer
fully complied with by the business
men, no matter what business they
were engaged in, and the only com
plant on the closing order or it's en-
forcement that has been brought be-
fore the mayor is from the gentleman
above referred to because it closed
his institution. AS to the unfair en-
forcement of the order, the charge is
so unjust and i'll advised that it is al
most unnecessary to answer it, ex-
cent to say that the very fact that
this gentleman could not open his
school after repeated efforts to &C.
cure the consent of the mayor to do
so, shows on it's face that the order
was impartially enforced and that
every citizen in Little Falls and all
who came under the provisions of the
order were treated alike.
The assertion that people from the
country caught this disease in Little
Falls because of the places left open
IS an unqualified SANDER upon the
good name of the-city and is not sup.
ported by the facts. The facts are
that the country was full of this dis
ease before it took hold of the city,
the city in proportion to it's popu]a-
ton that there have been in the
country; out of a population of 1000
people there have not been over 600
cases and only q deaths from the dis
ease, and this is splendid record.
know OF no other city in Minnesota
where the preventive measures have
worked so we'll as here. This is due
to a certain extent to the splendid
spirit in which the rank and file OF
our people accepted the closing order.
Our people are law abiding and will
ing to obey any reasonable law or or
der and they have done so in this
case. Before the adoption of the clos
ing order l was requested by large
number Of people to close the schools,
but so far I have had but very few re-
quests for the opening of the schools
or anything else. This is a credit to
the city as it shows the people are