Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1920-08-18
RATS.

ties and people generally, are prone TO
look upon threatened epidelnics ana
evils as dangerous to some other fell
low, but not sufficiently 50 to them
selvse as to require even ordinary pre-
cautions to avert them. Aftcr the
horse is stolen they begin to con
slider the advisability Of getting a pad
lock for the barn door.
Last week Dr. Pike, Ottawa's health
officer, called attention to the advisa-
bility of taking proper precautions
against diseases carried by rodents
and gave publicity to the warning is
sued by the health department Of the
measures to rid the community or at
least our own premises OF common,
everyday rats. Tha. the warning
went over the heads" of the majority
OF us would be a safe ten to one bet
We don't look for any bubonc plague
in Ottawa; neither did we look
for infantile paralysis to hit the com
munity hard The flu we thought
might visit us, but it took number
of deaths to make us realize how Sc
riously Ottawa was affected,
The rat proposition does not strike
us very forcibly, yet here is IA propo.
sition that hits us all, even If we have
never been visited or never are Wis
tied with plague on account OF them.
AS an economic proposition we are
paying for the upleep of these yermu
every day. AS high an authority as
the Youths Companion devotos much
space to the subject and says among
other things;
Mans chief foe the cause Of
more deaths than all the wars of his
tory the most destructive animal III
the world are some of the phrase
that the bureau of biological survey
applies to the common house rat. #
they seem to be exaggerated, it is
only because we do not know the facts
ern hemisp here we are accustomed to
reckon the destructiveness of rats in
terms or money or other material
things; but in the east they reckon
it in terms Of human life. 1t is the
house rat that harbors the flea that
transmits the bubonic plague that
causes the black DEATH which in the
fourteenth century destroyed twenty
five million people in Europe, and
which under the name Of plague is al
ways pandcmic in Asia, Africa, Aus
traasia and South America, Since
1896 it has killed nine millions Of the
people of India alone.
"The economic loss owing to rats
no one can reckon, for there are no
accurate statistics, but investigations
among the older cities of the Atlantic
seaboard show that it Is in very close
ratio to the population. If we figure,
as the biological survey figures, that
every rat destroys at least two dol
lars worth of property a year, the bill
Tor the whole country is two hundred
million dollars, Tina. does not in
elude the cost of traps, Of poison, Of
maintaining cats. or any other item
or the expense OF combating the evil;
nor does it cover the cost of the work
of the public health service, through
which alone the plague Is kept out
of New York, Boston, San Francisco.
Seattle, Hawaii, New Orleans and
Porto Rico.
AS with so many other evils, the
remedy is preventive rather than cur
alive. Buildings must be so con
structea as to be rat-proof. which l.
not at all difficult; and then streets.
neighborhOods and communities must
be rid of rats and kept free of them
by cooperative work under intelligent
and ample authority. One-half the
money That now goes to feed and FIGHT
rats would do it in a few years. But
until such cooperative work begins,
let every farmer and every house
holder look after his own premises
with traps, shotgun, rifle. poison AMI
the assis ance of Thomas II. Cat"
So don't wait for the plague to APP
pear in Ottawa, for it may easily be
brought here by rats arriving in goods
shipped in and arriving every day
from the cities named above, but get
after the rats if there are any on
your premises, and if you are not har.
boring any see that conditions are
O mayors proclamation or special or,
ders from the health officer.