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Show I rT-AIN SPEAKING ON I SANITARY MATTERS I As the education of the public progresses in sanitary matters, the tendency to criticize officials responsible for conditions that are not as they should be be- comes more pronounced. This is a hopeful sign, and means, 7 inevitably, improved conditions. As examples of Dlain speaking on these matters, two instances j may be cited. The headline over 7 an artiicle in a daily paper pub- lished in a large western city ( reads: "One More Baby's Life i i Forfeited to the Game of Poli- ( 1 tics." The article contains an i 1 account of an epidemic of scarlet ( m fever which was traced to a i i certain dairy. It specifically j 1 attributes the death of a 5-year- j I old child to the milk from this j 1 dairy, and goes on to say: "The j 1 milk inspection department, dur- ( 1 ing the time that a milker at the j m farm was developing scarlet fev- ( er, was playing politics. The inspectors were out soliciting ( 1 votes among such of the dairy- j men as lived within the gity j 1 limits, and had a vote May 21. , 1 On their shoulders is laid the j I blame for the infection spread , 1 through the city." The other , I instance also concerns the milk- , I supply, this time in a large east- 1 em city. The chief inspector of I creameries of the state board of 1 health made an inspection of I creameries and dairies in the I city and found only three out 1 of the twenty-seven that were 1 not up to the standard. He 1 stated to the local board of health 1 that he had no doubt that the I impure milk was the cause of jj the death of many infants, and E that if the board did not take pmmediatecnjlatejioard T would step in and force the local W board to do its duty. With all W the agitation and legislation con-m con-m cerning milk it is scarcely possi-R possi-R ble that milk-producers and dis- tributors do not know the role of impure milk in the production of disease and death in infants. A conscience so defective as to permit such conditions to exist 1 in the face of that knowledge, E says the Journal of the American Medical Association, requires g drastic criticism and vigorous K action to penetrate it and get it in a normal working condition. B Fearless speaking by the news-H news-H papers and the public will surely improve the health situation. |