Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-02-19
...EditOrial...
"The Flu"

Scarcely q home in CALEDONIA cOun-
ty but what the "fu" has visited in
some form or other these past few
months with more or less sad results.
The influenza has been the great
cause Of sorrow next only to the war.
Truly the past year has been time
of great trouble "such as there never
was since there was a nation" And no
more interesting figures have been
compiled in the present generation
equally those Of the toll of war and
pestilence through which we have
undergone. Because both have come
home to US, these figures cease be-
ing mere tables and computations and
become vital actualities.
The war has slain its thousands and
the "hu" it's tens of thousands, at
least so far as American lives are
concerned; for $4,000 soldiers killed
in France, we have hundreds of thou
sands killed at home by the epidemic.
In the world at large the London
Tmes estimates of G,O00,000 d2"d
J :"om influenza and pneumonia does
not fall short of the estimate, also
sent out from London, of 6,396,5O4
men killed by the war. These last
figures are, however, admittedly in
complete. The New York Times
doubts "whether the whole truth will
ever be known about the sacrifice of
life, the manning of men doomed to
2e remnants of humanity, and tn"
many lost to view and never to be ac-
| counted for.
] For months to come, casualty tab
les will figure in the newspapers, and
The Times is not alone in believing
that "when all the returns that can
be gathered are in, it will be found,
doubtless, that 10,00O,000 men laid
down their lives in the greater war"
But even this, we read elsewhere, will
probably not be half the total loss
Of life for which the Prussian authors
OF the war may be held responsible.
! As the Atlanta Constitution reminds
Us, 'mllion3 Of civilians died in
France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Ser
via, Roumania and in the enemy coun-
tries from starvation from overwork
while cnslaved, from Hun barbarities,
from disease brought on by conditions
which would not have existed but for
the war, from exposure and from
broken hearts," 1t is still too early,
the Georgia editor adds, to try to foot
up the number of deaths in these
classes, because "evely day thousands
of helpless men, women, and little
children are dying somewhere in Eu-
rope and in Asia from sheer stalva-
ton as a direct result of the devas-
tations of war, and for years chill
dren of today who may survive the
existing post-bellum famine period
will be dying one by one as result
of constitutional weaknesses being
brought on now by malnutrition."
Some call the influenza epidemic a
by-product and charge it's fatalities to
The war. Our own total of battle
deaths will probably reach about 50,-
600 as noted below. The Federal
Census Bureau gives 1928 as the
inhuenza-pneumonia mortality total
in forty-siX cities of the United
States up to January 4. These cities
contain only one-ffth of our popula-
ton, the Kansas City Times reminds
US, and the Springfield Republican
considers the figures absurdly small.
The Massachusetts, daily notes that
from October to December "a insur-
ancc companies received 100000
claims due to influenza or pneumo-
MIA, and expected 10000 more for the
same period. Using these figures as
Il basis and checking up by other sta
tistics, the writer in The Republican
comes to the startling conclusion that
! tie nationl loss of life from the ep-
idemic up to the end of last month
is between 1,312,0OO and 2,262,000.
; But it docs not seem incredible when
attention is called to the ravages of
, this plague in other lands:
"The loss in India has been estima-
ted as more than 100000. In the
South Sea Islands people died in such
numbers that the bodies had to
be burned in huge piles. In Mexico
it is said the plague caused $4,000
deaths. It's ravages in Germany and
among German soldiers has been
pointed out as not negligible factor
in the dsintegration of the Hohen-
zollern Empire. In France, in Eng
land, in Spain, in Italy-in fact, in
nearly every land on the globe-it
has taken enormous toll. An out
standing feature of the plague is that
it has been even more destructive
among southern peoples than it,has
been among peoples dwelling in
northern countries"
In an editorial discussion of war
and mortality The Republican OBJ
serves that the total wastage of hu-
man life from starvation--even if
Russian and other figures may have
been exaggerated-"must run far in
L. L. IA