The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-10
THE SOUTH FEARS NO ISLANDER

That New England is beginning to feel
the drain Of withdrawal of capital and in
dustry is indicated in a number Of ways,
among them the greater effort to demon
strate that regions fanced industrial su-
periority over the South whittier many of
the textile mills are removing. For exam
pie, DR.. Donald B. Armstrong, executive
officer of the national health council of
New York, recently before the Boston
chamber of commerce, asked the question:
"In the production of cotton goods, for in
stance, is it better to pay high wages to
group of workers two per cent. of whom
are i'll at any one time, or is it better to
take a chance with low wages in malarial
and hookworm ridden Southern population
with temper cent. continuous-illness and
the coincident low production of efficiency
and time loss? The message to the young
New England business man today, at least
until Southern hygienic conditions improve,
might we'll be young man, stay north.
Such ignorance on the part of one holding
a responsible position in public health work
is inexcusable. Undoubtedly DR.. Armstrong
has in the files Of his office an abundance
of documentary information on Southern
health conditions that disprove his statement.
There is indication that he was endeavoring
to please his audience rather than to give
the South square deal Yet, to the extent
that his words misrepresent actual condi-
lions, to that extent does he sacrifice his
reliability as an authority on health in the
South or anywhere else. For if he makes
bald misstatement as to health conditions
in the South for the purpose of detracting
from the South's appeal, may he not, in the
same degree and for the opposite purpose,
be inaccurate as to New England's health
statistics?
Because of the tendency in some quar-
tiers to misrepresent the South it is all the
more necessary for Southern journals and
Southern communities to publish the truth
in telling manner. The South has nothing
to fear from industrial competition with the
North, either from the standpoint of health
or in respect to raw materials, fuel, power,
labor and transportation. On the contrary,
careful and honest comparison will show for
certain industries certain essential items in
which the South is preferable to any otaer
section. In reply to DR.. Armstrong, DR..
W. S. WEIGH, state health officer of Ala
bama, cites figures to prove that the South's
deathrate is very much lower than New
England's from such diseases as scarlet fe-
yer, diphtheria, tuberculosis and goitre
Such diseases commonly attributed to the
South, as pellagra and hookworm. no longer
prevail IN enlightened communities, and in
deed are discussed by the ignorant ana pre-
JUDGED with much exaggeration. 1t is we'll
known among those who care to inform
themselves that the South has learned how
to throw off the menace OF malaria and is
annually spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars in a successful fight against this
disease. Ten years more of that battle will
witness the practical elimination of malaria
in the South
Dr. WEIGH quotes in our behalf Alabama's
famous son, who led the world farthest
along the road of disease prevention:
General Gorgas is authority for the state
ment that it costs less money to protect
human beings from disease in the South
than it does to buy coal to keep them warm
in the North. There is but one answer:
Capital and industry will recognize and obey
this natural law of economies" Capital
and industry are now doing that very thing,
and no incorrect or inaccurate statement
can halt their Southwark march.