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Show ; The Smallpox and Public Doty. . There has been some question, on the part of i a number of our readers, whether The Telegram is j justified in publishing the alarming facts concern-! concern-! ing. the prevalence of smallpox in Salt Lake City. It is argued that such publication is likely to keep visitors away and thus interfere with business. When The Telegram published its first article on the epidemic it was fully prepared to receive just that sort of criticism. But its duty to the people - and this-paper is nothing, if not the Peoples Paper . '' was so plain, we felt it impossible to suppress the ' m news and maintain any self-respect as a newspaper. The whole town was talking about the smallpox. - The press associations, sending the facta to all the paper east and west, acquainted the whole country with the dangerous situation here. It would have . been worse than folly for us to keep silent. If every I person knows of the prevalence of the disease and the liability of infection, he' will be on his guard for his own protection. He will act as a self-appointed 1 quarantine officer to see that no smallpox victim " stalks about the streets to contaminate others. He . will appreciate the need of vaccination. He will b earnest in th matter of sanitation. In a word he is likely to do all in bis power to stamp out the pestilence. pes-tilence. It is the pest itself and not the newspaper that is likely to hurt Salt Lake City, and the sooner the disease is eradicated the better it will be for all of us. As one of our leading physicians says, public pub-lic sentiment is one of the most potent aids in preventing pre-venting the spread of the disease and is the real handmaid of the Health department. The Telegram suffers loss with the rest of the business community, but it will continue to do its duty just the same and It will be thanked for its courage, too. There " are too many antique residents who want to dominate domi-nate modern public intelligence men who, like our correspondent, J. Jones, in yesterday's Telegram, 2 haven't yet learned that germs are germs, and that the inflammation of fever is not produced by fric-; fric-; tion, as he sagely remarks, but by germs, and that Z th09e germs are as plainly visible as the nose on I your face if you have two eyes to look through a - microscope. These antiques, or mossbacks, always X shut their eyes to the God-given light of science S and would like it better were The Telegram not to publish disagreeable, though truthful facts. !Not- withstanding these, let us hope that the people will assert their right to protection against walking pes-1" pes-1" tilence and that the people will insist that victims of smallpox shall not be permitted to wander abroad on our streets to afflict their fellow beings. The " sooner vigorous measures are .adopted the better it will be for everybody. |