Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-30
Will Salute Gorgas Foe of Pestience on Birth Date

cally no control. The great medico was
tied hand and foot by superiors. Author
tiles became alarmed The Canal Com
mission was asked to resign; the chief
sanitary officer remained under the ju-
risdiction Of the canal governor. But
mosquitoes stung and bit; yellow fever
gripped higher officials and several of
them died
In June. 1905. the governor and chief
engineer recommended to the Secretary
OF War that Gorgas be removed, and
that men of practical views be APP
pointed in his stead" The doctor
has visionary" ideas, they said.
But President Roosevelt stood firmly
with Gorgas and upheld visionary"
icas man of vision. The President
would not sanction any such removal.
WITH Gorgas in complete charge of
w sanitary work. and responsible
only to himself and the Nation. condi-
tons in the Panama lazarette saw change.
Within another six months the fight
against disease was won. One case
of yellow fever occurred In Colon during
May, 1908. But between that time and
1914 not one case has been known
to originate in the Isthmus. And to-
day the Canal Zone is healthy spot.
Representative Lister Hill Of Ala
bama said recently in the House:
Some Virgil will weave the in
comparable story Of Gorgas' triumph
into a new epic-an epic Of the jungle,
Of the fury and fatal power of its
denizens = the courage of its hero
handicapped by his own Government,
opposed and thwarted by officials CT
that Government whose lives lay in
his hands and whose help should have
been his stanchest support. ."
For four centuries white mans
grave, the Isthmus lowered into re-
nowned watering place. Gorgas was
made a member of the Isthmian Canal
| Commission, In 1907. and in 1915 Con-
gress gave him and his associates
vote of thanks.
One year before the World War the
Army boosted ABS medical officers. In
| November. 1918. there we're $4,000 doc
| tors in active service. Besides, there
we're 100000 men and $4,000 nurses
under the direct control of the surgeon
general. All this under Gorgas' super
vision He ordered construction of one
| hospital in France with a capacity of
| $1,000 patients. In this country there
were military hospital accommodations
| for 100000 men.
Early in 1918 Congress, goaded by
popular opinion. started its famous in
vestigation into the conduct of the War
Department. The Armv's surgeon gen.
eral WIS net imr1ura to attacks. and
he. with other high officials, was called
| to testify before committees. The legis-
lators wanted to know why so MANY
recruits had succumbcd to the rigors
of camp life.
| Gorgas visual:zcd the transition of
| his CORPS from a sr,aIl unit of Regular
| Army physicians tn q huge wartime
| force of $4,000 mod res. 90 per cent
| of whom were unt-c nj civilian doc
tors six months sc@ H told Of the
| effort to constru~' ramps on sci
entif1c principles: ca~h room mad
| so many winGo'"'
How many win asked one IN
| terrogator.
IT can't rc~av from memory" said
| Gorgas. but tn r'rnber would be
| familiar to any number of my assist
ants"
Shouldn't you BE- REQUIRED to know
these details personally"
ut might be convenient" said the
sanitarian, but / an convinced that
I am already carrying about too many
| details.
Gentlemen" Gorgas said. in a dis
Greet voice. mistakes are inevitable in
such a great expansion of a small or
ganization Of experts to an organiza-
ton of this size, with many inexpe-
rienced men.
However, while we have made mis-
| takes and may make other mistakes, I
shall assure you that we shall endeavor
| not to make the same mistake twice"
That was the code of a man OF hon.
or: To mistake was human. To re-
peat a mistake was criminal.
He once said at an Army canton
ment, where he was guest Of honor,
during the war:
II have had every honor my profess
sion could give me. Yet / am not
satisfied. have one ambition. wish
it were possible for the President to re-
! duce my rank as major general to
that of brigadier general and put me
in command in France of this brigade
Of splendid alabamians here"
MO sooner than released from strenu-
Gus duty by the Nation. the serv-
ices of Gorgas were demanded by
! Ecuador. Peru, Colombia. Brazil. Vene-
zuela, South Africa and others. He
was made chief of the Rockefeller yell
| low Fever Foundation at the age Of
| 81, and in that position mapped posi-
tions and planned barrages by which
he could end the peStilence for all
time
When. in 1920. he was called by
the British government to visit Lon
don and received his commission to
take charge of yellow fever control in
South Africa dominions. Gorgas left
America. He died on July 4, and the
English said OF Gorgas:
And the other day he rode up Lud-
gate Hill, sleeping his last sleep on
earth. wrapped in the Stars and
Stripes. There were thousands of men
and women and children standing STILL
there were thousands of men in khaki
passing by. there we're ambassadors and
other great people, and the lonely wom-
an who was on her way with her hero
to conquer disease, when death took
him from her.
And there was the riderless horse!
"All these came up Ludgate Hill. and
as the sun poured down on this ancient
way, hearts and ears throbbing with
the solemn music of the Dead March,
we knew that We were looking on the
passing Of man whose name would
shine for ages in the history of our
race"
The body was brought to America,
and near Washington. at Arlington
Cemetery. he was laid beneath the silk
en- folds of Old Glory. He sleeps on
the banks of the Potomac. among a
band of gallant. deathless men.
Gorgas had made possible a Panama
Canal. dream of the Gauls. But the
Gauls bore him no malice; he was a
man of many nations Ambassador
Jusserand. emissary from France stood
near the spot where the memory of
Gorgas is forever enshrined. and said
to those assembled for a memorial
service. January Is. 1921
Il consider it a high privilege 10
bring the homage of France to a great
memory. France. whose contribution
to medical science goes back to the