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Show -nnwv -' ij.... Mso in SUMS OP RECORD 0F12HS After suffering a week's Illness (George Shorten the retiring city sani Itary inspector was back at. his desk I today ready to turn over his office to his successor. Dr. J. M. Elliott, whu was appointed to the office by the city commissioners yesterday. "This, I suppose is the fortune of city servants," said Mr. Shorten this morning, "but I can very sincerely wish the administration and my successor well. For twelve years 1 have enjoyed the work of this office When I entered it there were two of us who were supposed to look after all the detail of the city's health which now- commands the attention of seven idistinct divisions of this department. , I can truthfully say that I have had a j good deal to do with the growing pow-j 1 er and efficiency of the department ' of public health because from the very j I first I have wished to understand thei I city's needs and meet them. Many are me cnanges mat nave come aoout. I have seen mnyors and commissioners commission-ers come and go, but I have remained, if not forever, then for a long time. LTnder Mayors Brewer, Fell, Heywood. Browning and Francis I have seen the work of this department grow more efficient as tho years rolled by. "Today we have completed the vital statistics of the city of Ogden from jthe year 1891. The demands of the war period, during which we were tasked for copies of birth certificates I by hundreds of people, enlightened us to the necessity of making the vital statistic department as accurate as it possibly can be. "I have not always been a well-liked person probably because I have had to tell people to stay in their homes when they have been quarantined for some contagious sickness. I have seen a great many epidemics, most of them slight, but the influenza epidemic of a year ago was tho most trying time we ever passed through. However much people criticized us at that time 'we did our best and I think, judging from what I know was done elsewhere, we did very well. . "It was given to me to organize, equip and ruanage the emergency hospital hos-pital which opened its beneficient work a.t the First Congregational church and which, towards the end of 1 the epidemic was transferred to tho Elks' home." 1 At the present time, as for the past 1 four years. Mr. Shorten is secretary and treasurer of the state dairy and food bureau which ha3 been instrumental instru-mental In getting valuable legislation both with regard to dairy and food conditions, and in the matter of weights and measures. "When I entered this office," concluded con-cluded Mr. Shorten, "the public had to pay for having weights and measures adjusted. STow it Is done at the city's expense and I may be pardoned if I claim some credit for the bringing about of that reform." oo |
