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Show &ClTf1SiLT WHILE YOU WAIT Fourth Largest Town In Alabama Full Grown In One Year.. -HAD A MODEL, GOVERNMENT Permanent Settlement Around U. S. Nitrate Plant Presented Unusual Problems. j By GARRET 8MITH. Tho fourth largest city In Alabnmn, peopled with 25,000 souls of diverse races nnd religions, uprooted from fur scattered communities In ecry pnrt of tho United Stntcs nnd Canada sprang Into being almost oicrnlght around tho great new government am mbtilum nltrnto plant down on tho open cotton nnd corn fe!da at Muscle Shoals on tho Tcnnesseo River during tho Inst jenr of tho World War. Ilcro was a problem In city bulld'ng, municipal munic-ipal government rind commulty welfare wel-fare (hat has seldom been equalled and the success of Its isolutlou hss never been exccllod. &. The Job was In the hsnls of the Air Nitrates Corporation which had been organised under the direction of the Ordnanco Department to build plant nnd city at Muscle Shoals. Early In. January, 101B, this new town had a few temporary buildings nnd a population popu-lation of 300, This had Jumped by the middle of August to more than 21,000. A population multiplied by TO In 7 months. In tho management of tho new towns and tinny cantonments that sprang up during the war tho old-tlnio old-tlnio ovlls that attended the growth or mushroom cities liiuo been avoided by the application of modern welfuro sj stems. But now hero were conditions condi-tions more dlfllcult than nt Muscle Shoals. Hero was a malarial region threatened at tho snme time with other deadly disense epidemics'. Transportation Trans-portation Was lurking. No neniby labor was available and tho general labor shortage was nt Us most ncuto stage. Costs of labor and supplies were leaping over night. Furthermoro, MiiKcle Shoals differed from all tho other new war towns Inasmuch ns it was to be pernmnunt. New Government Devised. Tho nmnnpew, bcxhlcs city government, govern-ment, had to handle tlio entire retail busbies of tho town, A cuinp super-vIsor'HSlepmtmcnf super-vIsor'HSlepmtmcnf was put In charge of the maintenance of nil buildings, flro protection and .sanitation. The ennip Cupel lsor' looked nfter evciy thllig irnmjho mending of n" lock to the. remodeting1 of groups. oTiuihlhig or lujlng sewers or steam nift'lnsTlfar 4lie,huchelnr ,c.ontingcit acommlssnry department was necpssftryl "" T1iq business department managed the stores, cuuteens, motion picture theaters, pool pnrlor, tailor shops, dry gleaning establishments, barber shops, newsMnudy, n hotel, u vegetable farm nnd it hog farm where 3,000 hogs were raised on tho wnfteS from eating eat-ing place. It mnhjtulned a slaughter Mouse where these hogs were put through JJio regular pncklpg houso course. It operated a laundry which denned T,4VV1 pieces a day. Then there was u real estate department that rented and managed the family quarters and n Jmuslng department which assigned to quarters ever) body excepting "the families. Under separate Jurisdiction frpm Its community director were the police. Tho health department, In charge of a plijslclnn from New York city, started with a small ofllco In ono of tho temporary buildings, and Wns man full grown and splendidly equipped. Conditions were favorable to dlienae, The winter was the sevuitfst on record In northern 'Alabama. 'Ala-bama. The men wore compelled to work either In deep Snow or mud nbovn their knees. As u tcsult u pneumonia epidemic developed among the Negroes that spring. Later In tho enr u fjphold epidemic was threatened. Moreover, the situ o( thu phuit was in tho heart of the malaria district. Hut tl.e pneumonia epidemic was checked, tho typhoid threat nipped In the bud, and malaria stamped out. A Health Record Established Thq llttlu flrat-nid hospital presently present-ly grew to n complete modorn Institution Institu-tion with a nurses' homo nnd n scp-arato scp-arato dispensary for dental, eye, car, nose, throat, gouito-urluary clinics and n surgical dispensary fur Qrst-nld work. I During tho eight months when the denth rate was not -ffected by tho Influenza In-fluenza and pneumonia epidemics the general health rate w us. 12,4 per thousand thou-sand per year, which is lower than In most cities In. tho snme latltudp nnd climate, and the pneumonia death rate (luting tho epidemic was lower thnn In most army cantonments. Much of tlio &UCCVBS of the health ndmlnistrntltui Is duo to the eitablUti, ment of tho Amxilo Shoals sunltnry district by the United States Public Health Senile. v Tho education nnd welfnre department depart-ment also had n vital work to perform There was a school population of over 1,000. The Seoreln'y of Mar created the community rrgnnlzutlou branch of the Oidnnnee Derailment which, with ndwa; and .) of some of thu greatest schoul men of the country, prescribed tho loitnivs of study aud K'crultcd toachris from thy best e tablishcd ttystvms. ir . |
