The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-19
LETTERS TO EDITOR
RELIEF MEASURES NECESSARY

To the Editor of the Age-Herald.
 May be allowed to use your columns to express the confident hope which per vades social workers throughout the state with regard to various relief measures already before the legislature Or presently to be submitted?
 The Kilby administration should go down in history as the great point of departure in promoting those measures which stand broadly for the reconstruc- tion era. Three of these stand out in my mind as a group, the bill for larger appropriation for the health depart ment, the mental deficiency bill and by no means least, the bill for an appro- priation to secure income for the Ala bama tuberculosis commission A wave of popular enthusiasm on behalf of these measures should be felt by all the legislators. I woll not afflict you with a long argument but will simply say that reconstruction must begin at home, that is, in the homes of the peo- pie and in their bodies and minds. To this every one will give assent.
 Adequate care of the feeble minded for example, will not be accomplished in a day, but there will be a great be- ginning when state home for them or even for some of them. is established at a central point Those who enter it will no longer be in grave moral peril nor likely to propagate their kind to | the moral peril of the community. Further, the thousands of homes suf- fering from various forms of sickness or in need of guidance concerning sani- tation, appeal to the whole community ! for a state wide renovation of all health activities.
 Particularly the tuberculosic nrn- 1 blem requires means close at hand for 1 the relieving of homes and families 1 of dangerous active and dependent cases in which tuberculosis or "con- sumption" bids fair to destroy every m em Der by it's su btle and constant in | lection. It is these last that will be served by the tuberculosis commission ] when it obtains funds with which to operate.
 May I especially therefore request | you and your readers to urge upon your | representative and senator their most active support of the bill appropriat- | ing the small annual sum of six thou sand dollars for this commissioa? This will enable us to employ an agent | whose activities should result in es- tablishing many hospitals of an mex pensive type and adjacent to every sec tion of the state for the care of these ] dangerous cases.
 
 may be brought to condition wherein the disease will not be active and there | fore not dangerous, and in which they l may be able to return home with safety to their friends and moderately able to discharge light services and even to | continue and establish their recovery. but their closing days may, well enough l be relieved of the humiliation and an guish created by the knowledge that their condition constitutes a crushing burden on those they love best
 Behind all this is the fact that when l ever a case of active tuberculosis is placed in hospital environment it is one the less to distribute this most fatal of all diseases among the people of Alabama. Our war experience fore ed home on every patriotic mind the | terrible fact that conquerable tubercu- loss is greater disaster to us than in foreign foes for it saps the very sources of our effective manhood and woman l hood.
 May therefore say to your readers, do not delay but write at once. ex- pressing hearty support of this, the only measures before the legislature in Alabama. expressly directed against tuberculosis. Yours sincerely,
 GEO. EAVES. Secretary.
 Alabama Tuberculosis Commission. Birmingham, July IA. 1919.