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Editorial and City Life Section Hearst's Sunday American, Atlanta, Sunday, June 1, 1913
Here Is the Enemy for the Nation to Fight
T is not very inter
esting or exciting
to talk about flies.
They are not a3
romantic as venom
ous serpents.
They are not as huge and im
pressive as wild elephants or roar
ing lions.
They are not as mysterious and
awe-inspiring as the plague or the
“Black Death.”
But the fly is more poisonous
to-day than all the snakes of the
world combined, infinitely more
dangerous than all the ferocious
animals.
And here in our civilization and
so-called perfect science the fly
destroys life on a scale that may
fairly be compared with the rav
ages of the plague in days when
the population was smaller, igno
rance and indifference greater.
* * *
The fly kills tens of thousands
of children every year.
The fly causes more blindness in
children than all other causes com
bined.
The fly spreads every known
disease to children and to adults,
for it. frequents every disease
breeding spot and hunts purposely
for filth.
Early in the season KILL
FLIES.
In the middle of the Summer
KILL FLIES.
And in the Autumn and in the
Winter, if you can find them, still
KILL FLIES.
Treat the fly as our ancestors of
the old days treated the red In
dians and the wolves.
First shut them out of your
house, make sure that they won’t
get in, then kill them off as rap
idly as possible and pray for the
day when you will no longer have
to protect your house against
them.
Screen your windows.
Screen your doors.
New fly screens made of wire
netting that will not rust are more
important than a new coat of paint
or a new automobile, for fly
screens mean protection for chil
dren.
Protect your house from the flies,
and as absolutely as possible, or
nearly so, protect your food sup
plies and protect your babies’ faces
separately.
As the child lies asleep keep mos
quito netting over it.
Keep your sugar bowl, butter
dish and food supplies covered.
Flies Will Kill This Year More Americans Than Will Ever Be Lost
a Battle.
We Talk About the Japanese Invasion and Prepare for It, Wisely.
Why Do We Tolerate and Ignore the Annual Invasion of an Enemy More
Deadly and Dangerous Than All the Yellow Men of Asia?
Copyright. 101.1. by the Star Company. Great Britain Rijjhta Reaerved.
This talk about flies published to-day
in the various Hearst newspapers will go
into more than two million different
homes of American families. It is only
by the earnest, intelligent co-operation of
those families and the others in the coun
try that the fly can finally be abolished.
The citizens should combine, the na
tion®*, C*ate, city and village governments
aho-ild ‘Cop'bine with them, to wipe out the
Facts About the Fly
Scientists nave been studying the housefly
several years, and ah of them unite in saying that
this insect is more deaefiy and more dangerous to
human life than the tiger or the cobra It 's the
most dangerous insect on earth
In New York City alone the fly causes thou
sand of deaths from typhoid fever.
It causes more than seven thousand deaths
annually in this one city from other intestinal
diseases.
Every Autumn there is a rise in tne death rate
from typhoid.
This rise is traced by the scientists directiy to
the fly,
An expert recently examined a fly found in
South street It was carrying on its legs and in
its mouth more than 100,000 bacteria.
It had been walking over filth on the water front
The expert caught it on the edge of a glass of milk
Don’t forget that if_you see flies their breed
ing clace is nearby filth. It may be behind the
door, under the table, or in the cuspidor.
if there is no dir-t or filth there will be no flies.
If there is a nuisance in the neighborhood
write at once to the Health Department.
Do not allow decaying material of any sort to
accumulate on or near your premises. All refuse
should be removed at once or covered with lime
or kerosene.
Keep all receptacles for garbage carefully cov
ered and the cans cleaned or sprinkled with oil
or lime, .
See that your sewerage system is in good
order. Pour kerosene into the drains.
Cover food after a meal. Burn or bury all
table refuse. Screen all fooa exposed for sale.
Buy no food that has been exposed to flies.
unseen enemies of man, the flies that carry
all the diseases, or very nearly all, and the
mosquito that alone infeetshnen with ma
laria and yellow fever.
THE THING CAN BE DONE, for it has
been done by governments in Cuba, in
Panama and in New Orleans
The trouble is that the country will not
take the matter seriously.
We look with pity and contempt upon
the ignorant Egyptian woman who allows
the flies to gather in black clusters on the
poisoned eyes of her sleeping child and
who tells us that it. is wrong to take their
lives.
And we laugh at the ignorant Hindoos
with their vile monkeys of Benares, and
their ridiculous religion that protects even
the vermin on their bodies.
But our indifference and carelessness are
as stupid and as harmful as their religion
and without religious excuse.
Every manure pile should be covered,
on the farms and everywhere else. The
intelligent farmer knows that this in
creases the value of the fertilizer more
than thirty per cent. It, decreases the
breeding of flies to a greater degree. The
manure pile, the heap of filth, such are the
breeding places of the fly.
No accumulation of filth in stables or
elsewhere in a big city should be permit
ted to stand more than six days. It takes
the common fly nine days to hatch.
Compel by law the removal of ma
nure from stables every six days—
and you remove the unhatched fly
from the city.
* * *
This should be worked out by
government through pressure of
public opinion. When we have
some slight threat of smallpox or
of Asiatic cholera, we are all ex
cited, health boards become active*
and quarantines are established, al
though there is very little danger
now in such diseases.
Yet, with the buzzing flies every
where, carrying disease germs on
their spongy feet to the faces of
the children, depositing these dis
ease germs on food of all kinds, to
be eaten later, and although these -
flies cause annually tens of thou
sands of deaths that are unneces
sary, WE REMAIN CALLOUS
AND INDIFFERENT.
If the foot and mouth disease
oreaks out among cattle, the county
and State are quarantined. Hog
cholera, sheep diseases and other
cases are watched and suppressed
with all the energy of the Govern
ment.
And in the meanwhile we have
in every city the billions of disease-
carrying flies hurrying from the
accumulated filth to the table, and
there is no effort for a change.
And we have the swamps breed
ing their endless billions of mos
quitoes to keep alive malaria in the
blood of human beings, and there
is no real war against tiia„ plague.
It is useless except for the protec
tion of the individual family to
suppress the fly nuisance in one
place or drain the swamp or cover
the cesspool in another.
Darwin told us that one single
pair of flies in forty-eight hours—
the quick breeding African fly—
will lay enough eggs and breed
enough maggots to devour a lion,
leaving nothing but the whits
bones.
A few flies surviving through the
Winter start the plague afresh tho ’
following year.
And one careless citizen leaving
a breeding ground for mosquitoes
supplies enough to infest the wholo
country.
Fortunately, for two or three
years the people have been alive to
the fact that their enemies are the
tiny fly and mosquito and the in
visible disease germs — enemies
more deadly and dangerous than
ever were the great monsters of
prehistoric times or the wolves and
lions of our day.
Discussion has begun, newspa
pers have taken it up and offered
A few public officials have
TRIED to do something. But
prizes,
at least
only a beginning has been made.
The country must realize the danger
and the duty. Children must be taught
that the killing of flies is a good and neces
sary act, painful as it is to take life.
Do what you can to arouse public feeling
/or the sake of the public safety.
And in the meanwhile DO WHAT YOU
CAN INDIVIDUALL x.
Kill the flies!