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% Editorial and City Life Section Hearst's Sunday American, Atlanta, Sunday, June U 1913 Here Is the Enemy for the INation to Fight T is not very inter esting or exciting to talk about flies. They are not as 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 nfearly 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. «T 4 * 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- ti'-nsk, fSate, city and village governments iho jld combine with them, to wipe out the Flies Will Kill This Year More Americans Than Will Ever Be Lost in 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. 1913. by the Star Company. Great Britain Right* Reserved About Scientists nave been studying the housefly several years, and ai of them unite in saying that this insect is mere deaeby and more dangerous to human life than the tiger or the cobra. Ii 'S the most dangerous insect on earth In New York City alone the fiy 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 the 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 Fly Don’t forget that if you see flies their breed ing olace is nearby filth. It may be behind the door, under the table, or in the cuspidor. If there is no dirt 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 food exposed for sale. Buy no food that has been exposed to flies. 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. unseen enemies of man, the flies that carry all the diseases, or very nearly all, and the mosquito that alone infects men 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 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 tilth 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 that 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 fiy—- will lay enough eggs and breed enough maggots to devour a lion, leaving nothing but the white bones. A few flies surviving through the Winter start the plague afresh the following year. And one careless citizen leaving a breeding ground for mosquitoes supplies enough to infest the whole 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 prizes. A few public officials have at least TRIED to do something. But 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 for the sake of the public safety. And in the meanwhile DO WHAT YOU CAN INDIVIDUALS*. Kill the flies!