In New York City alone ten thousand die annually of
tuberculosis; and this is the result largely of tenement conditions.
Statisticians estimate that the annual money loss in the United States
from tuberculosis, counting the cost of nursing, food, medicines, and
attendance, as well as the loss of productive labor, is $330,000,000.
Mr. Hunter instances a case where an entire family was wiped out by this
disease within two years and a half. In spite of his efforts to get the
father, who was the first one infected with the disease, to go to a
hospital, he refused, saying that as he had to die, he was going to die
with his family. The Health Board said it had no authority forcibly to
compel the man to go to a hospital; and the result was that the whole
family died with him. This plague "is the result of our weakness, our
ignorance, our selfishness, and our vices; there is no need of its
existence, and it is the duty of the state to stamp it out." That is Mr.
Hunter's conclusion, with which we heartily agree.
_V. The Cry of the Children_
[Sidenote: Peril of Child Neglect]
Another peril of the city, and of the entire country as well, that comes
through the foreigners is child neglect and labor; which means
illiteracy, stunted body and mind, and often wreckage of life.
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