Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1919-12-11

told a terrible story, but l know it
is tame in comparison with the ac
tual facts, a good deal of which you
have had to suppress" He declared
he had known of such work going
on for a long time and held there
must be a cleanup of the entire
medical ring) ****'
"*This heading is supplied by US
so the reader may not mistake it for
an account of the Middle Ages.
Edward j. Moore Sons, 101
Beekman Street, New York.
Additional copies supplied, upon
request"
1t would seem, otfhand, that an at
tempt has been made, possibly very
deliberate one, TO give wrong i'm
preston of conditions here in the ar
ticle. The first statement, which
makes clever crawlout for the
author, calling attention as it does
to the population ten years ago, max
ing no mention, and giving no room
for speculation that Alma has grown
from a city of less than 5000 pop
ulation according to Golfers latest
atlas of the world" to one of nearly
three times that size. Thus figures
which would be correct for Alma at
it's present size would be distorted
and hopelessly misleading for
"little city of Alma, Michigan" hav-
ing such a population as ten years
ago. There would appear to be no
question, but what, if the author
knew of the conditions being told of,
that the size of Alma today would
also be known. That true, it should
have been given, if there was to be
an attempt at fairness.
Then follows a statement which is
entirely wrong, if reports of local
officials are to be taken as true, and
there is no question but what they
are true This statement is "Yet
over one hundred young girls of that
community have in the past few
months been railroaded to detention
home" Reports secured on the re-
suits of the social work in this COM
munity reveal the fact that only
twenty-five girls have been sent to
detention homes for treatment Two
of these were recommitted, making
twenty-seven cases in all.
The statement that some of these
were not more than fourteen or fif-
teen years of age is regarded as
correct, and seemingly shows a need
of social workers and such work,
that conditions of this kind may be
corrected, as they are highly danger
Gus to community and to future
generations.
That "some of them were not only
innocent of any disease, but thorough
~ good girls" is statement in the
article that must be open to question,
as it is highly doubtful if thorough
ly good girls would be in company
picion of having such diseases.
Neither does it seem probable that
the state would be willing to pay for
their keep in detention home if it
was not known that there was reason
for it.
No knowledge is at hand to allow
the telling Of the conditions at the
detention home, but it is regarded as
possible that some of these remarks
might be and possibly are almost as
wide of the mark as those regarding
the size Of Alma and the number of
girls, who had been sent to the de-
tention homes.
The words medical degenerates"
probably are used to cover doctors
here and at the detention home, and
knowledge of those here, to Alma
people, at least, needs no comment.
They are too we'll known and too
highly regarded.
Mayor Murphy of this city and
number of others have talked with
"the creature called nurse" and state
that girls names have not been men
toned to them at least. 1t is GER
tain, however. that one or two have
become known from other sources
AS near as The Record has been able
to ascertain there has been every
possible endeavor by the health de-
partment here to withhold these
names from the public, that the rep
utation of such girls might not be
impaired when they returned to
Alma.
All in all, the article reflects
seriously upon the moral tone of the
community and cannot but lower
Alma in the eyes of all who have
read it, regarding which the printers
announce in small type Additional
copies on request" The more GER
tain does this small printed line