Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1930-07-10
THE INFLUX OF MEXICAN
AMERINDS
BY c. NJ. Goethe

Treefern greenery. blending Win
blazing bougainvoellia blossoms made
the patio Of Mexican inn at Cordoba
most cnIorfuI. Passing its iron-grllled
door could be seen sombreroed poems
urging forward oxen tugglng at cruelty
heavy loads. Two American honey
mooners were enthusiastically discuss
ing, at breakfast, the joys OF wander
lusting south of the Rio Grande, where
SO. much of the Medieval persisted.
Three nights later the young bride
Law tossing with an alarming
temperature. Outside her bedroom
door the doctor told the almost frantic
bridegroom III is typhus fever. But
it cannot be" the bridegroom objected.
I'VE have been only in the cleanest
hotels See how scrupulously neat our
quarters here are, tiled floor and ALL
! Yes replied the physician; but peon
/ servants like this chambermaid, Mer-
cedes Ramirez are only ito often con-
| tagion carriers.
4 The doctor was careful 10 distinguish
! between the Castillian (white) Mexi-
can, and the peon or Amerind lAmeri-
can Indian) blood It is doubtful
whether 10 per cent of Mexico's, say
$4,000 900, are free from Amcrind blood
EugenicalIy as iow-powered as the
Negro, the peon is. from sanitation
standpoint. menace. He not only does
not understand health rules; being :
superstitious savage, he resists them
Vicente Espinosas case is typical. Two
Espinosa children contracted smallpox
Their home was quarantined. Vicente
had. however, the Mexican passion fol
gambling. Despite the quarantine he
slipped out to the poolroom. Two mer
contracted the disease from him. Both
died Before dying, ~they passed the di-
sease on to ten others Of these three
more died Vicente was sentenced t.
thirty days in Jail.
Los Angeles pneumonia outbreak i
also significant herein. The write
passed through Manchuria's pneumonia
plague area some years ago. The eli
rnate resembled. say, Iowa's, Wiscon-
sins. An American surgeon there de-
clared, God made this plague to xii
people. Nothing could do the job bet
ter" Had this same epidemic when i
ragged in Los Angeles once crossed tn,
Rocky Mountains into the Middle West
the death toll would have been awful
DR.. S. J. Holmes, University of Cali
fornia, discussing Los Angeles epidem
ic, said "Thirty-two cases of pnue
monic plague with thirty deaths, sever
cases Of bubonic plague with fiv
deaths were confined exclusively t
the Mexican quarter. Fully 145,00O rat
{ were exterminated, 2473 buildings de
molished, and 1880 buildings were rat
proofed, cost $2,777 600"
Venereal disease is widespread
among poems In our border countie.
the commercialized brothel has, unde
red-light abatement acts, practically
disappeared South of the line it per
sists as an institution. 1t is common t
find Mexican sitting outside one unit
daughter, forced therein, has earne
enough for his coming spree of pull
que. There could hardly be a create
/ gulf between the poems attitude towar
I his womenfolk and that of the typics
{ American. The formers being Amer
! ind, it is still that of an Indian buc
I toward his squaw.
Amoebic dysentery has gained foot
hold on Mexico's West Coast Thos
who know it in the Orient shudder ;
! unrestricted Mexican immigration Sal