The Cordova daily times., 1919-12-20
PAYSTRIBUTE TO CLIMATE
 OF ALASKA


 lives in New York City, wrote the following for the New York Times as an aid to the Red Cross Christ mas Seals sale:
 Are you in favor of sun light, fresh air, good food and plenty of it? Of course you are.
 Then you are also in favor of buy ing as many Red Cross Christmas Seals as you can afford, with possibly a little bit more for good measure. Because Red Cross Christmas Seals are sold to raise money for anti-tuber- culosis work. As l understand it, clean to it's core. Anti-tuberculosis work means the distribution of Gods sunlight and fresh air to all the peo- ple-not excluding the little children of the tenements whose world is so shamefully lacking in these glorious necessities of life. And if the peO pie have sunlight and fresh air which they deserve they will be able to provide the nourishing food which they need.
 After all is said, the prevention of tuberculosis and the treatment of those already unfortunate enough to have contracted the disease consist in a general effort to make sane living popular-and within reach of all. That is why I am a strong sup porter of the present campaign of the National Tuberculosis Association and it's 1000 affiliated State and local organizations. The campaign will culminate in the Red Cross Christmas Seal sale, when more than $6,500,000 must be raised to carry out the plans to fight the White Plague during the coming year. The size of the sum is based on a carefully con- sidered budget but the outstanding fact as seen by layman is that 15O,- 900 died from tuberculosis in the United States during the last twelve months. Anybody who buys Red Cross Christmas Seals is helping cut down the death rate, and I venture to predict that every man, woman and child who understands the situation will wish to be among the buyers of the seals
 It happens that my experience in tfe Arctic as we'll as in the tropics have proved to my satisfaction that every word which the medical men say regarding the fresh air and sun- light as a preventive and cure of tuberculosis is correct. In Alaska where the winds sweep down from the polar ice fields as clean and pure as they were in the very morn ing of the world, I have seen entire villages of Eskimos, where it seem- ed that every inhabitant was Hunger. The reason was that these Eskimos and Aleut Indians, who min gle with them, herded together in their huts or igloos, where there is really no ventilation, and where thev depend upon the heat of their bodies for warmth. On the other hand, the white men, who live in the open and whose homes have windows and doors which they are not afraid to open for purposes of fresh air, are free from tuberculosis in that climate. In deed I know of many cases of white men who were suffering with lung or stomach trouble when they went to the vast northland and who re- covered their health as a result of living out of doors
 The point l am trying to make here is that the native Eskimo and h. dians in a climate and environment unequaled anywhere else in respect to building up the human animal, have managed to contract tuberculo- sis because they deliberately cooped themselves up in filthy kennels. I am speaking of conditions as know them beyond the range of the medical missionaries who have been working so valiantly during the last few years to teach the natives how to live.
 It is far cry from the glaciers of Alaska to the coral keys and reefs of the Caribbean, and geographical distance is no greater, in manner of speaking, than the differences be- tween Panama and Columbia. I wis. ited the homes of the natives in the two places. I have in mind particu- larly the San Bias Indians who live on the coast at the boundary line be- tween Panama and Columbia wis