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country of the malarious section of the South is beyond com- 

 parison greater than that caused by any other disease — any two 

 or three diseases, including typhoid and tuberculosis combined. 



I am not speaking at random. Do you know of the prevalence 

 of typhoid fever as a determining factor in the location of 

 industrial plants? At one place where power from a hydro- 

 electric plant was abundant and very cheap, the manager told 

 me that a number df options for cotton mills, wagon factories, 

 etc., had been taken up on account of the cheapness of the power, 

 but had been abandoned on account of the prevalence oi malaria. 



Has the presence of tuberculosis ever prevented a real estate 

 transaction? I know of a deal involving the purchase of a large 

 tract of land — about a half million dollars' worth— for coloniza- 

 tion, not consummated on account of the existence of malaria in 

 that section, and there was not much either. You have not seen 

 homes abandoned on account of either tuberculosis or typhoid. 

 I have seen them abandoned on account of malaria. 



The importance of the problem — its comparative importance 

 to that of other preventable diseases — has not been recognized. 

 And the reason is plain. The sections in which malaria is not 

 prevalent are partly from that reason the most progressive, and 

 hence have the best paid and naturally the most efficient health 

 organizations. These sanitarians, then, are naturally the leaders 

 in sanitary thought for the United States. Malaria is not among 

 their problems, or if so, is a minor one, and they lay stress on 

 other problems. Influenced by their writings, the comparative 

 importance of health problems for the South and Southwest has 

 not been rightly appreciated by the sanitarian of these sections. 

 I say has not. It is being appreciated now. 



Another thing which has also obscured the sanitary import- 

 ance of malaria is that the most progressive local health officers 

 of the South, and indeed everywhere, are those of the cities, 

 Richmond, Jacksonville, Wilmington, Nashville, etc. These men 

 write and speak in conventions — and they write and speak well — 

 and profoundly influence the sanitary opinions of those who meet 

 them. Now, malaria is not a civic disease, and is not one of their 

 problems, and these men in the South itself, to whonn others look 



