The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-01-24
OUR GREATEST MENACE


removed when armies are demobzed in Europe
and in the United States.
Flu is pandemic That is an epidemic which
spreads throughout the world. 1t enclrced the
globe this winter It is almost certain to appear
again next winter 1t may not become lighter
Some authorities are convinced it will be more
dangerous in the coming winter OF l9l9-l92o thar
it was in the present winter OF 191o-1919
Flu bacilli gather vrulence in whatever coun'
try people are worn down by famine, or, for other
reasons, are low in vitality. Having gained
strength from weak victims, the bacil sweep
across continents deadly menace even to the
most healthy individuals in a nation so well fed
as the United States.
Flu killed more Americans this fall than were
killed in all the American battles with Germany.
American children were made fatherless by war.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children were
made both fatheress and motherless by flu.
Flu comes in the innocent guise OF cold. 1t
creates little terror. A large proportion of its
victims recover. The length of the death list is
explained by the fact that it attacks nearly half
the population There is no guarantee that any
individual will be immune if the epidemic recurs
next winter in the United States.
Every dollar spent in the effort to isolate the
bacillus of flu, to find way to prevent the dis
ease or to combat it best, is dollar spent to
protect the life of every person in America.
ssn Flu vaccnes used in the present epidemic car
ried no guarantee They were experimental.
There is no way of knowing whether they were
effective or not.
The value of such vaccnes depends on expert
ments which require time and on results which
cannot be obtained hastily. Research of this sort
requires both time and money. 1t is being car
ried on by individuals and by endowed institu-
tions which frequently are handicapped by lack
of funds. But on the result Of this scientific
research will depend the lives of thousands Of
Americans.
The United States will be in danger again, not
only next winter, but in the winter following. The
last flu epidemic here, though less deadly than
the present epidemic, lasted from 1889 to 1893.
Saving lives which will be menaced by return
of flu should not be left to Individual scientists,
or to private and semi-public institutions. 1t
should be financed by the government at Wash
ington.
Z Research can't be undertaken after the next
epidemic Of flu has arrived. To find cure, or
to determine the best way to combat flu next WIN
ter, researches must be started quickly. The
Daily Tribune proposes, and urges earnestly that
congress finance such researches by an appropria-
ton of S., 100000.
A part of the appropriation should be at the dis
posal each Of Surgeon General Merritte w. Ire
land of the army, Surgeon General w. G. Brais-
ted of the navy and Surgeon General Rupert Blue
of the United States public health service.
The remainder of the appropriation should be
placed in the hands of the president for subsidiz-
ing what experimental stations may seem to him
best adapted to this work.
The entire amount should be spent in isolating
the flu germ, experimenting with the best meth
DDS of treatment to find, if possible, serum that
will diminish the danger of attack, if it does not
ward it off.
In lives, loss to workers, and in other ways,
this winters epidemic has cost the nation not
less than $2OOyOOO,0OO.
congressional appropriation would be well
risked, even if not preventive is found after
government scientists have spent the entire
$5,OOO,OOO.
American lives are not alone at stake. The
fIu has been as bad in South America as in the
United States. It is as bad in France as in Eng
land. It has been yet worse in Asia and in some
countries of central Europe.
Discovery Of real flu preventive might be this
nations best gift to the world, besides saving
HIVES Of thousands in the United States
ANYHOW. there's no constitutional amendment
against women and song.
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