Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-28
A BAD YEAR FOR RATS.
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.
Special Correspondent Of The Argus


nationwide organized warfare against them.
and thousands more of them are doomed to
die, a. the warfare spreads from city TO city.
It is estimated that between thirty and forty
American towns and cities have conducted
campaigns against the rats or are now con-
Quoting them.
The determination Of the rat is one OF the
most important problems the country faces,
and the rat IS the hardest animal on earth to
eIterminate He is hardy, shrewd and above
ALL prolific. Rats breed six eight times
year and begin their conjugal life at the age Of
about three months. Eight to ten young rats
are born in each litter. Some statisttcian at
the biological survey has figures out that at
this rate one pair of rats in three years would
have established a family containing 35s,7o9.-
1872 individuals If you don't believe this, work
out the arithmetic for yourself
This rat campaign was started by the bio
logical survey and is under the special gen
eralship OF DR.. Bell and Dr. Fisher OF that
bureau. These are the men who cleaned all
the prairie dogs out of several western states
often leaving whole counties literally without
prairie dog. DR.. Bell says he went out and
lived with the prairie dogs" until he had
evolved a dead sure method Of killing them,
and then he put that method into operation
on a large scale and thoroughly organized. -
He had intended to do the same thing with
rats 1t would not be possible to exterm1nate
the rats as completely and clearly as the prai-
mated, but it would be possible TO save the
country millions of dollars and to reduce the
danger from several fatal diseases.
The first thing was to find a method Of
killing rats that was thoroughly practicable.
The survey found such a method in systematic
poisoning with barium carbonate. II wrote
bulletin about it, and instigated several cam
paigns, but because OF lack of funds, the sur
Vey had not intended to launch its main as
sault on the rats until next year
Meantime, various commercial concerns and
city governments seem almost to have taken
the rat-killing business out of the hands OF
the government. Not only have all the manu-
facturers of rat poison and rat traps in the
United States suddenly taken a new lease OF
life, and on advertising spaces, but in addition,
several concerns have been organized for the
sole purpose Of exploiting the new rat poison
which has been made popular by the govern
rlent-barium carbonate, The biological sur
vey appears to be somewhat embarrassed.
therefore. by the fact that whenever it boosts
barum carbonate it is boosting the business
of Sundry shrewd commercial operators. New
ertheless the survey capnot very well desert
its pet poison, nor give up its well-laid plans
for a grand rat-War next year. Accordingly,
It has adopted the seemingly successful policy
OF working with the private operators. and
exercising a sort of informal government
pervisfOn over them.
The real king of these rat killers Is a mid
dle aged travelling salesman who happened to
pick up copy of the government bulletin ex-
planning how rats could be killed with barium
carbonate, and who instantly saw the great
commercial possibilities of that government en-
dorsement. He forthwith went into the mar
ket and bought barium carbonate at a price
Of about $50 ton. and had il put up in two
ounce packages which were to be sold at 20
cents each. In this way. the ton OF poison
which cost him $50 would retail at a gross
price of $4,000. OF course the cost of packing
and selling had to come out of that but 1t IS
easy to see that this rat-kiler was allowing
himself reasonable margin Of profit.
Having prepared his poison, he now went
out and lived with the rats, DR.. Bell had
lived with the prairie dogs. until he knew all
~ AErT- AA4
personal peculiarities. and had his poisoning
method down fine He then organized a rat
exterminating company with statesmen and as
sistants, and tackled a large and important
southern port city.
He broadcasted this city with government
literature about the frightful ravages of rats
and about the barium carbonate method of
killing them. He did not say that he repre-
scented the government and doubtless did not
intend to produce that impression. but none
theless that is what many people believed in
Guiding some city officials. He got the news
papers on his side and the mayor and the city
government. He is a wonderful talker He
made these gentlemen see that their great duty
TO their city, their nation and their God was
to exterminate rats. And he further madeSft
clear that he was the boy VINO could kill rats
In order to demonstrate this latter fact he
offered to clean the rats out Of the municipaI
wharves and markets at no expense to the
city, furnishing his own poison. No one could
criticise a proposition like that And he did
the thing He put out his poison in the way
that he knew to be most effective one night
and the next morning he hired boys to gather
up dead rats and rats were brought forth by
the barrelful The city officials were i'm
pressed and grateful And it didn't cost them
cent But all the time, statesmen were SELL
ing that barium carbonate all over the CITY at
- cents box, so that this modern pied piper
did not go without his reward He is said to
have remarked that he would like to take
Job in the cabinet, but that he couldn't afford
to do