Milford chronicle., 1942-11-27
@TO GUARD is BETTER THAN
TO HEAL"

TO HEAL"
On hot, sultry July day in 1907
a young health officer, travelling on
a trans-continental train through
Kansas, went to the water cooler
to get a drink. AS he stood in line
waiting his turn he saw five-year-
old girl, and a man obviously suf-
fering from advanced tuberculosis,
drink out of the same cup.
Upon checking he counted thir-
teen detachable cases of TB on that
train-all using the same drinking
cup with other supposedly healthy
passengers.
While no health officer or doctor
in the United States had heretofore
become concerned over the matter
of transmission of infectious germs
from mouth to mouth, via a COM
monty used drinking cup-Dr. Sam
uel j. Crumbine Immediately start
ed a one-man crusade to have this
menace to public health abolished.
In doing this he had to combat
custom and tradition-he had to
fight against bigotry, ridicule and
closed minds. There was no law
anywhere saying that scores of
people couldn't drink from one and
the same receptacle; in fact no one
ever thought about doing anything
different in public places. Vital sta
tistics of thirty-five years ago in
dicate the high rate of disease and
deaths due to the spread of germs
during those "unconscious" days.
After struggling for two years
DR.. Crumbine finally obtained
enough. legal support to outlaw the
common drinking cup menace in
the State of Kansas. Eventually |
other states followed suit, until this
disease-carrying scourge was ban
ned from use everywhere in the
United States.
Subsequently drinking-fountains
and paper cups were invented as
means of eliminating the possibil-
ity of mouth-born germs being car
ried from person to person.
It was also because of DR.. Cdum-
bine's work as a frontier doctor
and health officer that the old COM
mon "roller towel was outlawed
in trains, schools, restaurants and
hotels. In those days it was said
that there was mo law west of
Chicago, and no God west of Dodge
City"
Recently, on the 35th anniver-
sary of the start of DR.. Crumbine's
crusade against the common cup
and his eightieth birthday-the
Kansas Society of New York gave a
large testimonial dinner in his
honor.
Public health officers, sanitary
engineers, doctors, statesmen and
friends came from all over the
country to pay homage to the great
est sanitarian of his generation.
Speakers at the banquet included
Charles P. Taft, assistant director,
Defense Health and Welfare Ser
vices, Washington, d. c.; Honor
able Payne Rather, Governor of
Kansas; Osa johnson, information
ally-known explorer; DR.. Earl
Brown, Commissioner of Public
Nassau County, l.. l., New
York, and Mr.. Lloyd Stratton, as
sistant general manager of the As
,ociated Press. The toastmaster for
he occasion was the Honorable
Henry ]. Allen, former Kansas Gov
srnor and Senator.
F., In his remarks Governor Rather
observed that although the COM
non drinking cup no longer exists,
| new and just as dangerous haz-.
lrd has come to the fore in the
public eating and
thinking establishments throughout
he country. l refer to the germs
which are passed from mouth to
mouth because glasses, dishes and
Utensils are not properly cleaned
md disinfected between uses. San
tary inspections by health depart
nents have disclosed fragrant
lbuses of sanitary codes, and many
titles have had stringent cleanup
lrives, filming and closing hundreds
If establishments -. :
II urge you to keep in mind,
constantly, wherever you go, that
and millions of
lurking. in public wash :
'ooms, restaurant kitchens, soda
and on the edges of :
,ating and drinking utensils, many :
# these dangerous to health, wait :
ng to do their job of sabotaging :
he war effort"
Mr.. Charles Taft announced that
today we are losing more than :
i00,000,000 man days year from
in industry. One
seventh of it is due to accidents :
md oceupational diseases, and the
balance (57,142,757 man days. to
lealth factors outside the plant"
Yes, good health for civilian and !:
ioldier alike will do as much to- :
yard winning this war as anything.
Use. And this means proper sani-