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ambulator, while the other is playing by its mother. The woman is not a widow, but her husband cannot leave the work at which he toils for a mis erable pittance, or the family would starve. BLAME POLITICS FOR DEPT. OF HEALTH CONDITION Insufficient appropriations due to politics was given as the reason for the inefficient way the Department of Health is conducted by Dr. Benj. H. Breakstone and Dr. W. P. Von Zelin ski, chairman and secretary, respec tively, of the committee on the Abuse of Medical Charities of the Chicago Medical Society. The doctors claim that the school and health inspectors and the disin fectors are paid too little to expect them to do their work properly, and most of them are young graduates who take up the work for the few dol lars there is in it, and leave it as soon as they have built up a practice. Also that their private practice interferes with the ciy work, and it is the lat ter that suffers. It is a well-known fact among the medical fraternity that several hospitals have rules pro hibiting health and school inspectors from their staffs, because these doc tors in some cases spread disease in stead of warding it off, according to both of them. "Well," they were asked, "what is the remedy?" "The remedy lies in reducing the staff, putting them on full time, not allowing them to attend to private patients while working for the city and paying them decent salaries.. "Here is the proposition," Dr. Breakstone continued. "A school in spector goes to a school. While he is examining the children he is called away to a private scarlet fever pa tient. He gets through, and, wanting to get to the school before it closes, he rushes back without disinfecting himself, thus endangering all the children. "Also, these inspectors learn how to graft. For instance, if the child has tonsils, and if he thinks that the parents are able to pay, he will tell the child to come to his office with her mother and bring some money, or else he will have them go to a doc tor friend of his and divide the fee. "The disinfectors, during an epi demic, are often given eight or ten houses to disinfect. They do this work between private calls. Now, it is a physical impossibility to disinfect eight or ten houses in the time de manded, especially if one or two hap pen to be private residences. Well, the consequence is that the work is done imperfectly, which is just the same as not doing it at all. "Then we have the abuse of the Health Department, which ought first " to attend to the poor and needy. Two years ago, during the epidemic, the contagious hospitals were filled by people able to pay, while the sick of the' poor were quarantined in their homes, the bread-winners not allow ed to go out, thus producing uncalled for hardship. "The hospitals of the poor should be well taken care of. Health and school inspection are specialties in themselves, and should pay enough to induce capable physicians to enter the .service. And the poor should get this service without any red tape or heckling." o o GIRL BLAMES LACK OF WORK Hamilton, Ont., Dec. 15. "I tried for five weeks to get work. I had to get money some way. I was starv ing." Mary Bremen, arrested on a charge of vagrancy, told this story to the magistrate. "I did wrong, I know," she sobbed. "But what was I to do? I can't get work. The woman who brought me to this country from Scotland promised to get me a good position, but she did not keep her promise. I tried and tried to get something to do but it wasn't any use," Mary is to be deported to Scotland. Mfmffliviti mi niiBiirtnn iti iiin-fciifititmMrfniitoiHihifiHiTiMiiifiiin itii fnfimnm gfSjyj