The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-11-13
INTEREST Uf CITES
IS FAST INCREASING
degeneration with State Boards
Of Health and Public
!. !. 80 .ss... ..ss Health Service =

81 T. washington, NOV. 13.-The U. g.
public Health service report that the
interest Of the municipal authorities
az the 444 largest. cities in the coup-
try in the methods, by which the
great Red Plague may be stamped out
In rapidly increasing as the time
draws near for making, with the>co-
;operation Of the State Board OF
Health, the second survey or census
zjof the work done by Individual cities.
I, I'm the first survey, made last
February" says Surgeon Gen. Cum
gmines Of the Public Health, service,
5..the cities were marked according
to the vigor of their fight against
the plague, being awarded SO many
points for various medical measures,
40 many for preventive educational
work, SO many for restrictive laws
and their. enforcement, and so on,
with total possible maximum OF
1000. The cities were then divided
into four classes according to their
pop1lation and each class was grad
ed according to its aggregate mark.
"The results of this first survey.
however, were brought to the knoWl-
edge of the municipal authorities
only and were not made generally
public: for it was feared that the
relative standings Of the cities would
be taken to indicate relative freedom
from the great Red Plague and not
iyieor of attack upon it and might be
used to discredit cities that stood low
on the list.
: Such differences might easily be un-
fair. The grading was for combative
measures against the plague and not
for freedom from It,; and strong
fight might indicate an effort to drive
out a strongly intrenched invader or
a mere preparedness against IAN enc
my that had not yet obtained seri-
GUS foothold. Similarly, lack of fight
might indicate either utter submis-
sion or entire freedom from invasion.
= Knowledge Of the facts shown by
this survey, however, though con.
fined to the municipal authorities OF
the cities concerned and to medical
men has had q tremendous effect, for
it has aroused the competitive spirit
Of the authorities, melting those OF
cities that stand low in the list to
improve their rank, all, Of course, In
preparation for the second survey,
the. results of which, as announced,
are to be made public.
ut also brought home to many city
governments, formerly Indifferent,
the alarming prevalence Of the great
Red Plague. . It also emphasized the;
fact that the twin diseases of the
plague were not considered to be the
greatest single factor affecting public
health, causing vast amount of in
vaiidism among married women and
killing or binding for life an appal-
ling number of children, besides
working mental and physical havoc
on thousands of men whose suffering
only few years ago would have been
ascribed to other causes.
+ Letters to the Public Health Ser
Vice from city authorities in all parts
of the. country show that mayors,
councils. city boards Of health and
Others ara all anxious for their cities
to show marked Improvement since
the first survey. Many writers confess
that they have known the seriousness
tof the problem and had regarded the
movement against he plague as war
measures that was not supposed to be
continued in time Of peace. Many
also mention steps that have now
been taken, or that will soon be TAX
en-, to put the preventive measures
adopted by their cities on a perman-
Ont budget basis,-that is, to class
the fight as routine work and to pro-
vide for it as regularly as for the
cleaning Of the, streets, the mainten-
lance of the fire department, or any
other city function.
e. publicity is OF course very i'm
2portant part of the. fight for better
protection against this insidious enc
my, To this end 1t is hoped that the
result Of subsequent surveys made in
cooperation with the state health au-
%thorities, may be widely disseminat-
ed, with particular stress ION the pro-
S'kress made since February. Wherev-
er action is taken in regard to the
future surveys there will be held in
Washington, Novem Der % to Decent
Der, 4, as incidental to first survey,
an institute organized by the Public
Health Service, which will offer to
physicians and administrative peci-
sAlis1sfree ten-day courses in the lat
est and best control curative methods
how used against the twin diseases.
The session of the institute will inn
imsdiately DC, followed by the meeting
on December 6, of a great All-Amer-
lea conference, at which the most EN-.
inent physicians, administrators and
social workers of the western hernis-
phere will gather for a >six-day ses.
sion to exchange experiences as tc
the best methods, both social and
medical, Of combating the plague
characterization SCHOOLS
1 9E-.5.. - 10. 49, IL ID. IL. :