Front Page News Des Moines, Iowa

     The following is transcribed from the Iowa newspaper, The Des Moines News, 10 October 1918, pages 1 and 4.  This is conjunction with the Roberts Roots and Branches newsletter about the Flu pandemic of the 1918.  
     Des Moines is where the Sarah Ann Roberts (11) and Joseph Jones family lived in 1918.  Sarah Ann is the daughter of Hugh Roberts (1) and Margaret Roberts (2).  
     Joseph Jones (19) died of the flu in Des Moines six months after this quarantine was established and these articles were published.  On his certificate of death it states that he died of heart trouble with contributory of  "influenza"  and the doctor attended him from March 28, 1919 until his death of April 19, 1919.  Joseph was 57 years old.
     Joseph was one of three family members who died in this flu pandemic.

The Des Moines News

10 Oct 1918

“Gauze mask as a protector against Spanish Influenza which is sweeping the city and country is advocated by health officials.  Mayor Tom Fairweather, Chairman of the Board of Health of Des Moines, posed for the News, in a demonstration of the proper manner to wear the germ proof mask.”

 Under Quarantine

Schools, theaters, movie picture houses, dance balls, public dancing places, pool and billiard halls, skating rinks, outdoor athletic events, public congregating places, churches, Sunday schools, colleges and all private schools, conventions and public assemblies, including lodge meetings.

Street cars loaded to seating capacity only.

Organizations and auxiliary prosecution of the war asked in reduce attendance at sessions to a minimum.

How to Make a Flu Mask

Masks of gauze have been recommended by city health officers to stop the spread of Spanish influenza. 

Here are the specifications for making masks:

Gauze can be purchased at any department store.  It should be cut 11x18 inches for one mask.  The material should be laid down with selvage side to the right.  Fold left side in about 1/2 inch; then bring left side over to meet selvage, so edges are even.  Fold in rough edges at top and bottom about ½ inch.

Sew around close to edge with small running stitch all around mask.  Then sew another time with running stitch about 1/3 inch from edge.  Sew four tapes about 14 inches long to the corners, fastening securely.

Complaint Committee

Complaints, inquiries and misunderstandings will be taken care of at a meeting every morning at 9 o’clock each day during the quarantine, by the “flu” committee, in Sup. Ben Woolgar’s office at the city hall.

Go there for information.

Don’t call city health office by telephone unless absolutely necessary, as the lines are tremendously busy.

Traffic Suggestions

To facilitate conditions caused by the quarantine, city railway officials make the following suggestions:

Working people make an effort to catch the car to town earlier in the morning.

Persons who do not work should walk, or wait until late in the morning.

Shoppers and housewives should be home by 4 p.m.

Street cars and all vehicles of public conveyance may be loaded only to seating capacity.

Flu Facts

City Health Dept. Thursday summed up Spanish influenza epidemic:

1,000 cases in Des Moines

6,000 cases at Camp Dodge

50 patients at Ft. Des Moines hospital

The Des Moines News, pages 1 and 4

27 flu victims at Drake University

56 cases Thursday morning

One death Wednesday.

Total of four deaths during epidemic.

Department stores to open at 9:30 a.m. close at usual time.

Censorship on Camp Dodge flu reports continues.

Flu Quarantine Established

Health Board Takes Steps to Combat Influenza

Plan Rigid Enforcement

Schools, Amusement Places and Churches Closed

The Spanish influenza quarantine which closed down on Des Moines Thursday morning will be absolute and complete, the city flu committee decreed at their meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday.

“There is bound to be much indecision on whether to close or not to close, said Dr. W. C. Witte, chairman, “and the only thing we can say is that the public should do the patriotic thing and call of all meetings where there is the least division of opinion.

“There is no use in taking halfway measures if the quarantine is not complete, it becomes a joke at the expense of those who are losing hundreds of dollars by closing.”

Settle Questions

Ralph Faxon was named secretary of the committee at the morning meeting, at which questions still pending were settled.

The order closing schools and other public places to check the epidemic of Spanish Influenza, was made by proclamation of Mayor Fairwather.

It includes school, all places of amusement, theaters, moving picture houses, dance halls and public dancing places, pool and billiard halls, skating rinks, outdoor athletic events and all places subject to unusual congestion.

Any crowd of undue proportions is under the ban, and police have been authorized to step in and disperse such gatherings, and to prevent jams of all sorts.

Churches and Sunday schools, private schools and conventions or assemblies and lodge meetings have been discontinued.

Meetings Postponed

(not transcribed)

Stores Open Late

Department store managers met Thursday morning and decided to open their stores at 9:30 am and close at the usual time, in order to bring their clerks down later than the morning rush.

A sub-committee was named, headed by Ralph Faxon, with Ben Woolgar, and Dr. R. (unreadable) Parker, which visited department stores and the 10-cent stores in particular, to investigate crowded conditions.

A committee of pool-hall, billiard and bowling alley owners called on the committee and stated that two weeks closing would bankrupt them entirely.

Committee Stands (unreadable)

Since it is not possible to discriminate, however, the committee ruled that these places, coming under the head of amusements, must close.

Elevators also must be kept as free from crowds as street-cars, and must carry only a few passengers at a time.

Persons coming into or leaving Des Moines will have no restrictions placed on their movements.

In order to facilitate traffic movement, auto owners have been urged to pick up, persons waiting for street cars, to the limit of their seating capacity and help move car riders down to work.

The reference department at the city library has placed itself at the disposal of the public during the quarantine, and will give any information on preventing, treating or care of the disease, over the telephone.

Teachers to Aid

In order to facilitate reports of illness, school teachers will be put in work this week, as soon as the city has been (unreadable) by a subcommittee, including Dr. Fred Moore, Z.C. Thornburg and Marshall Miller.

                Secretary Faxon was delegated to address a communication to military authorities at Camp Dodge, asking that officers allowed to come in and out of Des Moines be kept away from hotels and public places.

                Another note will go out to insurance companies asking them to close between 4:30 and 5:00 in order that their employees may be out of the downtown district before 5 p.m. when the rush begins.

                All women shoppers are emphatically requested to be on their way home before 4:00 pm. at latest.

                “Handling the necessary traffic is hard enough, without unnecessary congestion,” said Dr. White, “and women should make it a point to shop early.”

Red Cross to Work

Meetings of the War Savings Stamp Committee, and the Red Cross executive committee will be permitted, because these meetings are essential to the carrying on of the war, and only a few persons will be present and utmost precaution taken.

Spare beds at Methodist Hospital are now full and room in other hospitals and in the nurses’ home will be asked by Supt. Woolgar’s Hospital Committee.

The special flu committee met at 2 p.m. Wednesday and chose in detail the places to be closed, and their report was contained in the proclamation.

The committee includes:  Dr. W. C Witte, acting city sanitarian, Z. C. Thornburg, superintendent of schools; Corporation Counsel H. W. Byers; Ralph Faxon, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce; C. L. Herring, Greater Des Moines Committee; Marshall Miller, Trades and Labor Assembly; Charles Saverude, county board representative; Dr. R. L. Parker and Dr. T. F. Duhigg.

Fear Epidemic

               According to Dr. Witte’s statement before the meeting, only six cases of influenza were found at Camp Dodge Sept. 30, and within two weeks this number has grown to 5000.  In Des Moines, 206 cases have been reported with four deaths.

                Only 65 percent of enrolled pupils attended schools Wednesday, Supt. Thornburg reports indicating much fear of the epidemic on the part of parents.

                John Getchell, of the theatrical firm of Elbert & Getchell, urged that care be taken not to discriminate, but to make the quarantine complete.

                “I regret to to (repeated word) a dead calm come to Des Moines, but it must be entered into willingly,” said Ralph Faxon.

Ban on Sales

                Special sales in department stores must not be held, and any congestion in stores must be stopped, particularly in the 10-cent stores.

                Supt. Ben Woolgar made a strong plea for business houses to flush their sidewalks every morning in order to do away with all stray germs.

                “I don’t see the need in John Budd’s street flushers cleaning the pavements when the sidewalks are filthy.” Said Woolgar.

               Woolgar has also instructed police to enforce strictly the ant-spitting ordinance.  Anyone seen spitting on sidewalks, street cars, or in any public building will be arrested and no excuses received.

               All who can are urged to wear face masks.  The Red Cross surgical dressings shops will make 20,000 masks this week, thru clubs and Red Cross auxiliaries.

 (page 4)

City Flu Proclamation 

                WHEREAS, the Special Committee, appointed to investigate and report the extent of Spanish Influenza in this city and community, and in suggest methods of combating and preventing the disease, has reported that the epidemic is spreading at an alarming rate among the civil population and in the military camps of the country.  That already large numbers of the people of this city and community are afflicted or subject to exposure, and unless immediate action to be taken to prevent further exposures, the lives of many of our people will be endangered or lost; and

                WHEREAS, the Local Board of Health, upon the recommendation of the committee and with the approval of the physicians of the city and the American Public Health Association, has concluded that a general quarantine thruout  (sic)the city should be declared in order properly to protect the public health and safety; and by resolution has directed the Mayer, as Chairman of the Local Board of Health, to proclaim the quarantine in effect commencing October 10^th, 1918, NOW, THEREFORE.

                I Thomas P. Fairweather, buy direction of the Local Board of Health and by virtue of the power vested in me as Mayor of the City of Des Moines and by order to prevent the spread of Spanish Influenza and to protect the public health and safety, do hereby ORDER and DIRECT that all public places of amusement, including theaters, moving pictures houses, dance halls and public dancing place, pool and billiard halls, skating rinks, outdoor athletic events, and all public congregating places subject to unusual congestion, be closed; that all churches and Sunday schools discontinue their meetings; that all schools, public and private, suspend their work; that all conventions and public assemblies, including lodge meetings, be postponed or adjourned; that street cars and all vehicles at public conveyance be boarded only to their seating capacities, and that organizations, auxiliary to the prosecution of the War retain attendance at their sessions to the minimum, consistent with efficiency.

                If Des Moines is to be spared the danger and sorrow that other communities have undergone, those charged with the task of conserving  the health of our people should have the sympathetic cooperation and active support of all good citizens, and that such support and cooperation will be given in the work there is either doubt nor apprehension.

                IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand and cause to be fixed the official seal of the City of Des Moines.

               Done at Des Moines, Iowa, this Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred eighteen.

THOMAS P. FAIRWEATHER, Mayor