The City Water Crisis
While typhoid fever spreads in Tacoma, a bureaucratic breakdown leaves the Health Officer unaware he was even ordered to investigate the tainted water supply.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
When asked about the investigation into the city water supply ordered by the council to determine if it was the cause of typhoid fever in Tacoma, Health Officer Dr. Schug expressed confusion, stating he had received no notice. Physicians suggest the water from Clover Creek is clearly impure and recommend avoiding it. Two lumbermen from a camp near Electron recently fell ill with typhoid after living near the creek. While cases in the north part of the city, supplied by a different source, remain few, the district serviced by Clover Creek is seeing the majority of the city's typhoid patients.
“Anyone who wants to spend 25 cents can go to Parkland on the Spanaway car and see the facts for himself.”
Public health failures in the early 1900s often stemmed from infrastructure oversight and a lack of clear communication between city leadership and technical experts—a persistent theme in municipal governance.
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