The War on Flies
Richland's high school students join the Ladies' Civic Club to systematically combat the local pest population.
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Richland, Jan. 20—Last summer the Ladies’ Civic club waged a good warfare against the fly pest in this town. Besides regular extermination methods, they stimulated boys and girls by paying a small sum for measured amounts of dead flies. It was noticed that the crusade caused a marked decrease in the numbers of the pests, and the work will be carried on this year. This season, the civic club will be aided by high school pupils who are giving the subject systematic and scientific study. They started the campaign last Tuesday at the high school auditorium with a chart talk. Medical men have warned of the danger of disease through what was formerly considered the innocent fly.
“Medical men have warned of the great danger of disease through what was formerly considered the innocent fly.”
In the early 1900s, public health campaigns often relied on community-wide 'bounties' on pests to curb disease, reflecting a pre-antibiotic era when insect-borne illness was a real fear. This organized student involvement shows the intersection of the Progressive Era's scientific education movement and grassroots civic action.
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