The Survey, Volume 30, Number 3, Apr 19, 1913Various
History
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 3, Apr 19, 1913
Various
Charities -- Periodicals; Social problems -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
Such was the spirit of the members of the Dayton Bicycle Club, when they
met as the waters receded from their club-house to consider what service
they could best render to their stricken city, and volunteered to remove
the dead animals strewn it the streets. Such also was the message
reiterated by the Ohio State Board of Health, the city health officials,
the representatives of the national government, the Red Cross, the
Relief Committee, the Ohio National Guard, and every one of the splendid
organizations that are working shoulder to shoulder to clean up Dayton
and to prevent conditions more costly in toll of life than the deluge
itself.
One of the remarkable features of the handling of the relief work at
Dayton was the entire absence of red tape, the lack of conflict, and the
universal evidence of harmonious co-operation between the various
organizations at work, notwithstanding that there was no complete
centralization of direction and that some of the organizations were
proceeding practically independent of the others. “Results, not credit,”
was the watchword, and the results were such as to reflect the most
lasting credit upon all engaged in the work.
The Dayton Bicycle Club showed wisdom in volunteering to remove the dead
animals from the street. Nearly every horse in the more than seven
square miles of the city that was under water—and this area contained
all the important livery stables—was drowned, and quick action was
needed to remove the bodies to prevent serious results. A sanitary
department was organized, and as rapidly as automobile trucks and wagons
were volunteered, they were pressed into service. Over 100 vehicles and
about 600 men were engaged on this work. A rendering company, which
handles all the garbage collected in the city, agreed to take care of
the horses and did so as fast as they came for a time. When the
carcasses came so rapidly that it was necessary to heap them up on the
grounds of the plant, and then on a vacant field nearby, the plant was a
grewsome place indeed. Up to the night of March 31, 1,002 had been
received. A number were picked up the next two days, so that the final
total was probably in the neighborhood of 1,100.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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