USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of the activities of the people of Lackawanna County in the world war : under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
157
from influenza and pneumonia, up to the close of November 30th, is about 1700.
The estimated shortage of physicians in Lackawanna County below the number before the war is 38 per cent. This means that we had only sixty-two out of every one hundred doctors with whom to cope with the disease. The estimatel shortage of nurses within the County is 40 percent.
The estimated capacity of permanent hospitals in Lackawanna County is 600. The estimated capacity of permanent hospitals due to the present emergency enlargement to cope with the epi- demic is 850. The present estimated capacity of all hospitals, permanent, emergency, and enlargements for emergency, is 1500.
These statistics were kindly furnished by Dr. J. C. Reif- snyder, representative of the State Department of Health. on November 30th the worst of the epidemic was over.
Commissioner of Health Dr. Royer, in issuing mandatory or- ders that saloons, theatres, and motion picture theatres be closed, left it to the option of local Boards of Health whether the Churches should be closed, and to the action of the Boards of Health and School Boards whether the schools should be closed In the cities of Scranton and Carbondale and in all of the larg- er and some of the smaller boroughs, the schools and Churches were promptly closed. It was soon foreseen that the epidemic was going to be much more serious than a good many of the autho- rities of towns that were not touched by it early were willing to admit.
For this reason, three days after the schools were closed in Scranton, since the County Superintendent of Schools did not think that he had the authority to do so, I wrote a letter to every school board whose schools were not yet closed, which went to the extent of almost commanding them, by the authority of the Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safe- ty, immediately to close their schools. They instantly complied. and the future frightfulness of the epidemic proved that the action was justified.
At the same time I issued an earnest request that the Churches throughout the County be closed, which request was also complied with; also a strong statement insisting that Commis- sioner Royer's order prohibiting public funerals be obeyed. This order was not well received at first, but was adhered to more closely a week later.
Conditions in Lackawanna County outside of Scranton were so bad that the people were, through carelessness and neglect, run- ning into danger themselves, and at the same time rendering the fight against the epidemic much more difficult within the City. At a conference between Mayor Connell of Scranton, Dr. Reifsnyder and myself as representative of The Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety, it was considered advisable that I go into the boroughs of the Valley, invested with the authority of Dr. Reifsnyder and as representative of our Council, to per-
-
1
158
suade the borough authorities thoroughly to support Dr. Reif- snyder in his efforts to curb the disease before it assumed un- manageable proportions.
The epidemic had seized upon the Borough of Throop, even before it became dangerous in Scranton; but Dr. Reifsnyder had persuaded the authorities to take hold of the situation system- atically. We inspected the conditions within some of the households, helped the State Constabulary to enforce the saloon order, gave advice and helped the borough officials to estab- lish a clearing house to which people could send for doctors and
nurses. It was the headquarters, with officials always on duty, of the fight against the epidemic. Later, under our advice, but without requiring our direct help, an emergency hospital was established in another part of the same building. One of the main difficulties was the extreme dearth of doctors and nurses. Dr. Reifsnyder was able to relieve them somewhat by sending them physicians, and we were able to give them the services of some practical nurses. As soon as the crisis became apparent, Bur- gess McNulty handled the situation with marked ability.
In Dickson City very early in the days of the epidemic there were about five hundred cases reported and a much larger number unreported. Dr. Reifsnyder arranged for a meeting of the principal citizens of the town and spoke in favor of placing some responsible person or persons in charge of the epidemic situ- ation. I spoke in favor of appointing a dictator or committee of public safety to take full charge of the police powers in the emergency. Action along this line was eventually taken and made the handling of the situation much easier.
In Olyphant we addressed a meeting which resulted very for- tunately. The burgesses and representatives of six towns were there, and resolved under our advice to temporarily enlarge by the use of tents, the Mid-Valley Hospital for the use of patients from Throop, Olyphant, Dickson City, Blakely, and Archbald. In Throop they also established a hospital and another in Olyphant.
The Borough of Winton, comprising the towns of Jessup and Winton, was being hard hit and was physically unprepared for the epidemic. Local complications were also a handicap. We had many discussions with all parties concerned and the officials finally placed a considerable sum of money at the disposal of the Board of Health, which enabled it to do effective work.
In the twon of Simpson, with a population of 4500, the ex- treme distress of the people there was so very evident and the dearth of help so great that we could do nothing, under the dic- tates of the rules of common humanity, but take off our coats. forget every other part of the County and all other duties for the time, and work as hard as possible to alleviate the general suffering. It was here that Miss Mullen, of this office, par- ticularly distinguished hersmåf in bringing practical comfort to the women and children. It would be very difficult for the person who had not been in the homes of Simpson to imagine how much suffering existed there.
The few doctors available, having come from without the toyh, could merely rush from house to house attending the sick
159
and passing judgment on the possibility of saving individual lives. They were totally unable to report all the cases, but ultimately reported about 700. £ Quite early in the epi- demic at least 1300 of the town's inhabitants were attacked by influenza.
After conference with Dr. Reifsnyder, and with every- body's consent, we formally placed the Reverend Mr. Steeves of Carbondale, in full charge until the epidemic could be controlled. With our advice and approval, Mr. Steeves, Mr. Rowland, and Mr. Hiller established on the premises of Mr. Rowland's welding company, a soup kitchen from which all the people of Simpson who needed help were fed within their homes. This alone was very efficacious, because in many of the homes there was no person up and about to feed the sick family.
At the same time the disease was taking root within the City of Carbondale, and spreading rapidly in Mayfield and Car- bondale Township. With Dr. Reifsnyder we met a dozen Car- bondale citizens and arranged that the armory in Carbondale should be fitted up for use as an emergency hospital for the sick of Carbondale, Simpson, Mayfield, and Carbondale Town- ship. There were objections and various complications but finally this plan was put through. Because of the many difficulties and the reluctance of the officials to see that the law was obeyed, I was obliged to go so far as to threaten to have militia brought into the County. £ The threat was
sufficient. We did not have to establish the hospital in the armory personally, but Dr. Reifsnyder was of great assis- tance in supplying the nesessary equipment, doctors, and nurses.
On this trip I consulted with a number of nurses and doctors and administrators, and inspected all the hospitals. We found that everywhere the basis was being laid for a sen- sible organized campaign against the disease.
I may say on behalf of our organization, that our Execu- tive Committee, its Chairman, Colonel Watres, my Secretary, Miss Mullen, who accompanied me on several trips and who helped us continually, did all that we were expected to do and could do in giving aid to the department of health during the epidemic of influenza in Lackawanna County.
( Signed) Eugene H. Fellows.
November 30, 1918.
Chairman Pepper also asked Colonel Watres to forward him a list of twenty men and women of Lackawanna County who had been most active in rendering service during the epidemic. The Execu- tive Secretary prepared the following list:
160
1. Dr. J. C. Loifsnyder, Representative of the state Department of Health, has devoted every moment of his time to establishing omergoney hospi vals, supplying them with material, stimulating care, precaution and activity in every locality, and acting generally as administrative head of the fight to stamp out the disease in Lackawanna County. His
efforts have brought about great results.
2. Colonel Louis A. Watres, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety for Lackawanna County. Since its existence the Committee of Public Safety has had no greater responsibility thrown upon it than that of standing back of the physicians in their efforts to allay the influenza epidemic. Commissioner Royor left certain mattors to the option of local authorities. litical organization places no real executive at the head of
a county. At the beginning of the epidemic the Committee assumed authority and closed the schools, Churches, social and other meetings in the County outside the City. Executive Secretary travelled over the whole County and in some places assumed the authority of a Dictator, presuming that the saving of lives justified such assumption of authori- ty. Results, at any rate, justified such action. Colonel Watr s not only advised, directed, and commanded the Secretary in a general way; but gave him invaluable morel support. Colonel Watres alone made the activity of the Committee ser- viceable and possible.
3. Honorable Alexander 2. Connell, Mayor of Seranton, by his own energy established and manned an immense emergency hospital at the Seranton City Armory; turned all the City's power toward fighting the epidemic; called into council the burgesses of all other towns In the County; furnished an a example to other towns in obeying orders and health regulations, and in every way has proven himself a strong magistrate.
4. Dr. S. P. Longstreet, Director of the Bureau of Health of Scranton, ,has conducted the Bureau in a wise, ener- getic, and broad-minded manner during an up-hill fight.
5. Dr. H. W. Albertson, has dropped his personal prac- tice and has taken charge of the Armory Emergency Hospital, Working there night and day with help largely amateur.
6. Dr. F. J. Bishop has assisted Dr. Albertson. £ There have been times when these two physicians have cared for two hundred patients.
7. Colonel Frank M. Vandling, capitalist, has devoted all his time to general supervision at the armory; doing managerial and janitor work with equal generosity and vigor.
8. Tudor R. Williams, Fuel Administrator of Lackawanna County. , has brought the coal companies into close touch with the epidemic situation; and drafted help from them, both finan- cial and practical. Mr. Williams has also been able to import army doctors to the assistance of Dr. Reifsnyder.
161.
9. Right Reverend M. J. Hoban, Bishop of Scranton, without a murmur of dissent, closed his many Churches at the very beginning of the epidemic. This is a more striking
illustration of the sterling citizenshi of this great churchman than it may appear at first sight, as it is the first time that any Roman Catholic Church has ever been closed to its members in this community. Bishop Hoban has encouraged the priests and sisters to help in giving fight to the epidemic, in solacing the disheartened, in giving food and money to the poor and neody of all denomi- nations, and the Bishop has at all times been in the counsels
of the leaders. In com ending Bishop Hoban's usefulness in time of trouble, the writer wishes to strongly advance the opinion that the people owe an immense debt of gratitude to the Catholic Church.
10. Miss May Y. Hill, Superintendent of the West Side Hospital has during the past few years kopt a strong hand on the organization of her hospital. In this crisis, so well had she trained her assistants, that she was able to leave her own hospital without danger to its effectiveness, and assume charge of the entire mirse proposition at the Armory, where she has proved herself a magnificent help.
11. Dr. Charles F. Hoban, Superintendent of Schools of Dun ore, has devoted all his energy to philanthropic work among the poor people of his town. He and Mr. Campbell of Sim son are two educators who appear to have displayed extra- ordinary strength and effective sympathy.
12. Mr. E. J. Dynett, owner and editor of the Seranton Times, has not only turned over the use of the news columns and editorial page to the dissemination of instructions to the public, but has sat constantly in the counsels of the leaders of the campaign to preserve the lives and health of the people. His newspaper has helped the Comittee of Pub- lic Safety in its plans to help the civil authorities and in its efforts to compel obedience to the law.
13. The Reverend Warren L. Steeves, Baptist clergyman of Carbondale, at the very beginning of the trouble went into the neighboring town of Simpson and single-handed attempted to cope with the situation there. Simpson is not a municipality but a thickly populated foreign settleront contiguous to Car- bondale, and part of Fell Tomship. It is without adminis- trative civil leadership; and there was no organization ith
which Mr. Steeves could deal. He gathered bedding, clothes, medecine and food, and distributed them among families where every member was sick. He was taunted, even by the sleek,
untouched, "while" people of Carbondale. By the time the Executive Secretary had reached there Mr. Steeves had won the financial backing and moral support of Mr. Rowland and MY. Hiller. The Executive Secretary assumed full charge and also placed Mr. Steeves in the position of supreme director in Simpson under the supervision of the State Board of Health. It is estimated that 1500 out of a population of 4500 were ill at one time. The misery can br imagined but not des- cribed. Since being placed in power, Mr. Steeves has opened a soup kitehon, established an emergency hospital in a school
3.62
house, efectually closed the saloons, and brought some degree of order out of confusion. The health of the town is improved. Mr. Steoves has both a soft hand and a
heavy fist. He is one of two persons in this report whose conduct appears to have approached the heroic.
14. Mr. Charles L. Rowland of Carbondale, general manager of the American Welding Company of Simpson, has ans ported Mr. Steeves with money, judgment, and moral backing.
15. Mr. N. H. Hiller of Carbondale, Manufacturer of Simpson, has supported Mr. Steeves in the same manner that Mr. Rowland has.
16. Mr. James McNulty, Burgess of Throop, seems to have boen the only burgess in the County willing and able to forgot polities and place his town, a bad one, in a position to fight the epidemic. His institution of a clearing house in the Borough Building, to which people could telephone for any kind of help, medical, food, nurses, has been adopted by other touns.
17. Mrs. P. F. Lonorgan, wife of Dr. Tonerran of Dickson City, kept things going as straight as she could in Dickson City until the Commiteee of Public Safety came to her arsis- tance. Politics has done more damage there than in most other towns, and their burgess hes been removed. The councilmon wore either wrangling or being arrested for keeping their saloons open. Mrs. Lonergan established in her husband's of- fice a clearing house, slopt little, and eventually aroused the respectable citizens into organizing a committee to a sunc charge of the town, rather than to allow the Executive Secre- tary to come in and assume control, as he threatened to do. Mrs. Lonergan's energy and wisdom saved every one a great deal of trouble.
18. Br. P. L. Van Sielle, of Olyphant, with the help of Dr. Reifsnyder and the Committee of Public Safety, enlarged the Mid-Valley Hospital, and established emergency hospitals at six other places to care for the six boroughs of Throop, Dickson City, Olyphant, Blakely, Winton, and Archbald.
19. Ralph E. Weeks, President of the International Correspondence School and Executive Head of the American Red Cross Organization of Lackawanna County, has personally and officially devoted his judgment and energy to the cause of allaying the epidemic. He has travelled and inspected; and he has direc ed the Red Cross in the wonderful work it has done to provide supplies for the needs of doctors, muirses, and the sick.
20. Miss Helen M. Mullen, first assistant in the war office. In travelling over the County by automobile to as- sist Dr. Reifsnyder and the Executive Secretary, she was an invaluable help. She took stenographic notes of all meetings and conferences, entered the homes of the afflicted, intors viewed men and women for the purpose of gathering information, and proved herself extremely capable where a woman was needed rather than a man. It must be said, too, that Miss Mullen
163
ran into great danger at a time when almost everybody was in fear from contagion; and that she never showed the slightest hesitancy or doubt, at all times displaying rare courage . At one time when a meeting of citizens was angry. raised a disturbance and almost resolved itself into a dangerous mob, she. the only woman present, was not even nervous . Her good judgment, ability, and coolness place her name high in this honor roll.
This visitation of disease -- this plague, for that is what it was -- did not dampen the ardor or cause a halt in war enthusiasm and in war work. Right through the epidemic war movements, although somewhat crippled, went right on. We must finish the war!
Housing Problem.
Those who engaged actively in helping the people who suffered from disease had brought home to them most for- cibly a matter that had often before been discussed .- housing conditions in Lackawanna County. Some time after the war was over, as part of the new and vigorous campaign for Ameri- canization, several meetings addressed by experts on the question, were held to arouse public opinion in favor of a cleaning up of the small towns and to promote an improvement
in housing conditions. An attempt was made to get capital to build more houses in the County so that congestion might be relieved and that people might live under better conditions. The Executive Secretary of the Committee wrote a pamphlet on the subject, called Reconstruction Bulletin Number Three. The Housing Problem, and nearly two thousand copies of it were called for. The subject has aroused public interest on con- stantly recurring occasions, the boroughs and small towns are now better policed by the sanitation officers, but no whole- sale building of dwelling houses has as yet been begun. To-
164
gether with Americanization, of which it is a very important element, the Housing Problem should be taken up by the wealthy corporations and philanthropic citizens. It is a most vital matter for future consideration.
Chapter IZ.
Conclusion.
Thus the war came to Lackawanna County and went from
it. The gates of the Temple of Janus are again closed. The honor and credit of having done a duty well belongs not to the leaders of thought and action, but to all the people of the County. They will ever hold this memory -- they could have done no better.
The war has left its aftermath. Industry and business have felt its i petus; labor was never so prosperous. High wages and a more equal distribution of money have brought to many luzuries that were myths to them before.
But the war, too, brought sorrow to homes, permanent disability and disease to veterans, bereavement by a pestilence that was an outcome of war conditions. The war also brought seeds of discontent, grown into weeds of social unrest even in the over-warm atmosphere of unprecedented prosperity.
An era of reconstruction must follow such a war. It is not so much the case because four million men went into the army, served there for a number of months, and returned again to civil life. That is a small part of it. These ex-service men are a help in the period of reconstruction, not a detriment to social re-organization. Many of the eleven thousand who went forth from Lackawanna County have become members of the American Legion; and in the course of a few years most of then will have joined. One of the primary principles of the American Legion is to lend its influence to all sensible programmes for the read- justment of conditions. The American Legion of Lackawanna Coun-
166
ty is a strong factor in the movement for practical American- ization; and it is one of the strongest organizations in op- position to all forms of anarchy.
The unsettled conditions of the time do not come from the fighting forces at all. They owe their origin lo the inius- trial and commercial conditions that existed all over the United States during the war. They come from the exorbitant vares that
were paid by the Government itself; which wapos hail to be .et
by private and corporate industries. They come from the anset- tled spirit that lives in all men -- employers and employees. An indefinable, elusive, intangible reaching out of the mind to grasp a some thing unseen, hardly even imaginable. Reconstruction
theory has no panacea for this grasping after the unknown. The
wisdom and coolness of men, however, will in the course of time gradually restore practical conditions to a more nearly normal ba- sis; and then perhaps the unsettled spirit will leave us.
Perhaps the most striking result of the war in Lachawan- na County was the development of the use of public opinion and public spirit. All of the successful movements mentioned in these pages and many others, were successful only because they were sip- ported by public o inion and wore carried forward with a strong public spirit. Movements that were unsuccessful during the war or since the war were unsuccessful because public opinion dis not favor them and because public spirit could not be aroused in their favor. It became almost a profession to use public opinion advan- tageously; and woe to the man who tries to cheat public opinion. It has been said that Lackawanna County is a field for the operations of those who would Americanize our people. It must be then a field for the operations of the unscrupulous agent of disloyalty, anarchy, traitorism. Such has it proved to be.
167
Little outbreaks of bolshevism there have been in Scranton and the neighboring towns. But the public opinion of Lackawanna County, fostered by the war and proved by the war, was so ably led by Colonel Watres and his colleagues, that bolshevism has not yet been able to get a single foothold in this County, which of all others would seem to be a breeding place for it. Public spirit in Lackawanna County simply throws bolshevism without its bounds.
Before the war our people did not know what a strong public spirit thay and their neighbors possessed. Since the war it has been used for all kinds of good enterprises. Our charities are taken care of with better supplies of money, our public insti- tutions are supported more generously, our community services of all kinds are better led, better organized, better conducted, and more generally patronized. Our Churches even, are in better finan-
And toleration more nearly prevails. cial and spiritual condition. It would seem from what has just been written that we look back upon the war as having been an advantage. Certainly it is a question that is hard to answer -- it truly was not an unmixed disadvantage. Certain moral tendencies have been loosened by the
war; that is, there is in regard to some matters a moral careless- ness, a little bit of a condition like that which prevailed in Paris during the French Revolution -- a very, very, slight tendency of that sort. It is shown, perhaps, as an illustration, best in that people's taste in entertainment has deteriorated. People are pretty well judged by the entertainment in which they indulge them- selves. War always cheapens life, too; and when it is attended, like it was in Lackawanna County, by the visitation of a disease that took so many more lives, perhaps people's sympathies and sensibili- ties were somewhat dulled by the experiences of 1917-18.
1
168
It is always said during and after a war that the morality of the combatants is injured by their war experience. The writer can not agree that this has been true to any great de- gree during the late war; but he must admit that this war, managed as it was to counteract that very deterioration in morals, has been an exception to the rule. In fact, it ded many of the boys good.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.