10
The Man Who Made It Safe
To Take a Drink
By FRANK M. CHASE
THIS is the story of the man who madi it sate to
take drink. He is Or. Samuel J. Crumbine.
who banished the common drinking COS from
Kansas, the first state to legislate it out of tWMtncil
He alto originated the "Swat the fly" slogan, as well
as the movement bearing its name, both of which have
gone around the world.
Pr. Crumbine was bom ID Emlenton, Pennsylvania.
September 17, 1862, and was educated at the Cincinnati
College ol Medicine and Surgery He went to Kansas
in 1885, For a location he chose the frontier settle
ment of Dodge C -v. then notorious throughout the
Weal ai probably the most lawteti town on the whok
long cattle trail iron- Texas to the Dakotas. The
yip-yip-yippy of the cowboys was still heard there when
fhe young physician hung but his sign, and Boot Hill
the ipecial burying ground -'.ear the city for the men
who died with their boots i ti still received its victims.
Crumbine, however, blessed with the ense to mind his
own business, .cot along without trouble. Despite its
trials, too. he came to en; the strenuous lite of the
region, developing a self-reliance and knowledge of
Western ways thai have stood him well in the battles
that were to come. Meanwhile he prospered, marrying
Miss Katherine Zuercher. ot Springfield. Ohio, in 1890.
He aNo became the health i nicer ot his county, and
in 1898 was appointed a member of the State Hoard
of Health. On the death of the board's former secre
tary, I)r I". B Swan, in the summer of ll02, Crumbine
was offered the position.
Salary Only $1,200 Then
DR. CRUMBINE w a not certain that it would be ad
visable to accept it. for the secretary's position was
then small indeed The salary was but $1,200 a year,
this being for part time services, the incumbent devot
ing the remainder of his time to private practice. Ac
of the offer thus meant the abandonment of
an established business at Dodge City and the itarthttj
of a new one at Topeka a matter not to be decided
offhand. After delaying his decision two years, how
ever, and at the urgent solicitation of the board, he
accepted the secretaryship, taking up its duties July
i, 1904
On becoming secretary, he realized at once the hope
less inadequacy of tne work of the State Board of
Health. He had but one assistant, a Stenographer, who.
like himself, served only part of the time. Nor was
the pitiful appropriation of $2.XH)a year the only reason
for the lack f action. The real reason was that the
Statute book- contained almost n laws concerning
health, so that the secretary was practically powerless.
Crumbine accordingly planned to obtain laws granting
his office more authority, and in 19i7 the legislature
adopted several -uch measures. Among them were two
pi ring very important, the f"d and drug law and
the water and sewage law. both ot which have been
copied by I merous states.
Meanwl he went ahead with a great deal of new
work vrstl u having specific legal authority. In
1905 he b Ught samples of many foods on sale in
Topeka, at d sent them to the University of Kansas for
analysis. This investigation revealed astonishing cases
of adulteration and use of preservatives, the findings
helping materially toward obtaining some of the d -sin
d legislation. Later he kept numerous pens of do.
at his home. s.me of which he fed "embalmed beet
and meat preserved with benzoate ot soda, comparing
the results with those trm the dog! receiving equal
quantities of less questionable meats.
Posting the Public
IN THE same year he began to publish the monthly
I Hi-tin of the Kansas State Board of Health, the
pur; e being to inform the public of the work of the
secretary's office; and in the issue for January, 1906.
printed the results of the food analyses. Tl caused
a sei latsost, and headed Crumbine into his first big
fight It not only aroused the first state -wide interest
in the hoard of health, but likewise the war dogs of
the fo d interests affected. Influential business men
waited on the governor, with the obvious intent of
having Crumbine 'hred."
But the secretary, backed b the governor and the
r suits of his own investigations, stood his ground, and
after a hard fight in which the hand of the "interest '
was plainly seen, the legislature passed the food and
drug law. As a result of this and other legislation,
the seeretary's office was jut on a full-time basis and
permitted to employ six food inspectors and a clerk,
while the passage of the water and sewage bill enabled
I)r. Crumbine to add an engineer, to be stationed at
the state university, to enforce that law. The office
force thus quickly increased from the se retary and
his stenographer, both on part time, to nine persons
on full time.
By passing the food and drug measure in 1907. the
same year as th 1 d ral food and drug act beeame
law. Kansas assumed the lead among the stat I m
tackling the false claims made for patent medicines
It wa while working on ?h. adulterated food prob
lem that, in the spring ol 1906, he laid the foundation
for the vigorous warfare against flies in which we .ir,
still engaged. Of course. se fought flies fa those days
but not so pointedly and persistently as now; we
weren't then aware ol the long list of sin- that ait
now placed at the door or more properly, the feet
of the rly. So, in preparing the copy for the pril
issue of the Bulletin, winch was to be I special hV
number, he planned, as usual, to emphasise the screen
ing ot homes to keep tins out, targe!) J a matter o(
personal comfort. But he was also thinking of the
discovery, made during the Spanish-American War.
that the fly carries disease, and. still interested m pure
ooi, came to the conclusion that to protect it against
flies is quite as important as to insure its freedom
from adulterants. All these ideas were to be presented
in the next Bulletin, so that lor the time his thoughts
were well seasoned with flies.
Origin of "Swat the Fly"
TOPEKA was then in the Western Baseball l eague,
and while he was engaged in writing his issue
the first game of the season occurred. Nearly everybody
in town went to the opening game and Crumbine, a
deep-dyed enthusiast for the sport, was there, of course.
The teams were evenly matched, and in the last half
of the eighth inning the score Stood two to two. To
peka was at the bat. with one man out and one on
third. Naturally the fans were an excited lot at this
point, and many of them yelled, as the next batter
Stepped to the plate. "Sacrifice fly! Sacrifice fly!" At
the first ball pitched, the batter struckand missed.
Then, during that lull which always accompanies dis
appointment in the bleachers, some stentorian voice
boomed out. "Swat thtU ball!" Crumbine didn't see
the next play, for he was engaged in pulling an old
envelope from his pocket and jotted down the slogan
destined tO circle the globe : "Swat the fly."
For a day or two he forgot about the notation, but
when the COpy for the Bulletin was ready he placed it
on the front page. This in itself, of course, did not
make "Swat the fly" famous, but succeeding events
brought it quickly into prominence. Annual clean-up
campaigns were then being started in many places, and
in connection with the one at Weir City, Kansas.
teacher had the idea of using the Hoy Scout organiza
tion in this work. This ide a he put in a letter tO Dr.
Crumbine. Crumbine instantly saw the value in the
plan and could scarcely wait tO write the teacher tO
compliment him on his vision. The teacher also had
asked for suggestions concerning the kind of work
which the boys might do. In answer the secretary sug
gested an anti-fly campaign, and sent the teacher a
copy of the current Bulletin, He also wrote the teacher
a long letter giving details for arranging such a project,
and urging particularly that stable refuse piles, the
special breeding places of flies, be removed from the
town. The teacher acted immediately on all these sug
gestions. This was perhaps the first instance of Boy
ScotltS engaging in eivic work.
From this beginning the dean-ttp and anti-fly cam
paigns spread apace and with them the slogan, except
that "Swat the fly" traveled faster because of its brief
ness and epigrammatic form. Soon it was known from
t to coast, and then taken up across the seas.
Aboard a through train to the Southwest one day
HEALTH
Br DR. S. J. CRUMBINE
UEALTH is a atate of physical,
mental and moral equilib
rium, a normal functionating of
body, mind and soul. It is the state
when work is a pleasure, when
the world looks good and beautiful,
and the battle of life seems worth
while. Health is the antithesis of
disease, degeneracy and crime.
The laws of health are as inex
orable as the law of gravitation,
as exacting as eternal justice, as
relentless as fate, and their viola
tion is the beginning and cause
of all disease, suffering and sin.
Health is the most desirable of
earthly blessings. When finally
lost it cannot be purchased by
uncounted millions, restored by the
alienist, nor returned by the pulpit.
Health is that state of happi
ness, faith and love whose proto
type was the first man Adam;
whose ideal is the Christ.
DK. S. J. CRUMBIN1
Srcreitr kantat Slate Board of Health
in 1008, Hr. Crumbine noticed two persons obviously
Suffering from tuberculosis in its later stages, drinking
from the CUp at the water fountain, while shortly
afterward their fellow travelers men. women ar.d chil
drenused the same cup. Dr. Crumbine had just beeti
studying the methods of disease transm
watched the foregoing procedure, became deeply con
cerned over the danger involved. The insincl to in
vestigate then arising, he strolled casually through the
train, on which he found 11 persons who were obviously
tubercular. Here, he saw, was a situation challenging
his attention; for. inasmuch as every tram bund for
the Southwest passed through Kansai I several hun
dred miles and each was probably carr j or more
tubercular persons, the drinking cups on these trains
were a potent means of seeding the -tate with tuber
culosis. He Proved It hy Evidence
PLACING his facts ar.d oh fcioi ' :ion$
before the State Hoard of Health at its next meet
ing, he asked that it tSSUC an order abolishing the com
mon drinking cup on railroad trains, in schools and in all
public places. But those were the days of tremendous
railroad influence and the board, while previously giv
ing Crumbine excellent support, balked at this request.
The secretary, now faced with the n cessity of prov
ing the wisdom of his stand to the b lei 1 Ut for
evidence that would convince the most skeptical At
the state university he obtained the set CS oi a bac
teriologist who. under Crumbine's direction, took cul
tures from all the drinking cups on trains running fata
the old union station at Kansas City during one week.
The results showed thai a great v of diseases
was being passed around by this medium, some of the
worst known to science among them.
So conclusive was this evidence that Dr. Crumbine
did not wait for a meeting of the board, but mailed
copies of the report to the managers of all railroads
operating in Kansas, asking them whether they would
agree tO abide by a board ot healtl Utttd,
prohibiting the use of common drinking cups on trams
and in other public places. In every isi where the
matter was referred to the medical d s ,: tu'
railroads, there was hearty agreement. Hlis won the
battle for Crumbine, and at the next meeting of the
board the order was issued This i ffective
September 1. VW, since which Federal ai I State WS,
as well as public opinion, have rapidl) removed one
of our national terrors the common drinking cup.
Drives Out the Common Towel
THAT other arch-spreader of disease, the common
towel, was the next to receive his attention Herv!;
method of attack was similar to that on the pUDHC
drinking cup. the material adhering tO the towels JUlUV
ered in the public places of li Kansas towns being
analysed at his direction. Twenty-five per cent oi tne
towels examined were found to be contaminated wn
fecal material, their haard tO health thill
enormous. This evidence convinced the I
the State Hoard of Health of the danger urinJz!
d mmon towel, and they at once decreed that its -"in
hotels, railway trams, railway itati 1 ;t )11C'
private schools" should cease, the order taking en
September I, 1911. . twt.rcu-
Dr. Crumbme'i work toward the control UD
los.s has not only placed Kansas bu;
most states for intelligent handling ol !r it
has also established htm as i leading th?nS
He organised the Kansas Tuberculosis - oi
serving as its first president He if now JJ ' r
the National Tub rcttlosil Association, and n-
a number ol other important org-ww.-
- . . .t I V I IIV -
h,Kh capacitiea. Early 13 Health Coond
dfctr.l Mcrctarjr of the National Heaii 1h
luper-organuation of nearly i down natw n .
ancirv his Mkctioa for Ull - y-u be. f
compliment to Mi ah.l.ty ana
The work of Or. Criimbinr has been BMtW
kind that s.t. Il world ahead.