{"id":8487,"date":"2015-02-16T00:16:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T05:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=8487"},"modified":"2021-01-05T09:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T14:56:31","slug":"1918-death-on-the-home-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/1918-death-on-the-home-front\/","title":{"rendered":"1918: Death on the Home Front"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Philadelphia<\/a>
Deaths from Influenza in Philadelphia, 1890-1930.. February 17, 1931. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September had been tough, especially the middle of the month, when more than a quarter of the soldiers at the Frankford Arsenal had been hospitalized with the \u201cSpanish Flu.\u201d On October 1, as the corpses were counted, The<\/em> Inquirer<\/i> grasped for a positive tone, pointing out the number of new cases had actually fallen off toward the end of the previous month. Commander R.W. Plummer of the Fourth Naval Reserve District also tried to offer hope, that maybe, just maybe<\/em>, \u201cthe crest of the epidemic of Spanish Influenza has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk of cheerful things instead of disease,\u201d advised the Inquirer<\/i> on October 5. Why close down \u201cpublic schools, theatres, churches, and many other places. \u2026 the authorities seem to be going daft. What are they trying to do, scare everybody to death?\u201d The<\/em> Inquirer<\/i> took a position about as reckless as that of Dr. Wilmer Krusen, head of the City’s Department of Public Health and Charities. Until two days earlier, Krusen insisted citizens were in no danger.<\/p>\n

In October 1918, Philadelphians had little time for public health; there was a fundraising parade to put on. Citizens had been ordered to do their share and buy half a billion dollars\u2019 worth of Liberty Bonds to support the war effort, and to do so before the end of October. No way would this be possible in a city scared and shuttered.<\/p>\n

On September 28th<\/sup> the parade on Broad Street took place as scheduled; 200,000 turned out.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of this strain of influenza began as soon as a day after exposure. On September 30th<\/sup> and October 1st<\/sup> the city hospitals had 466 new cases on their hands. Twenty-four hours later, The<\/em> Inquirer<\/i> reported<\/a> an additional<\/em> 635 cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin seventy-two hours after the parade\u201d writes John Barry, in The Great Influenza<\/a><\/i>,\u201cevery single bed in each of the city\u2019s thirty-one hospitals was filled. And people began dying. Hospitals began refusing to accept patients. \u2026 On October 3, only five days after Krusen had let the parade proceed, he banned all public meetings in the city-including, finally<\/em>, further Liberty Loan gatherings\u2014and closed all churches, schools, theatres<\/a>. Even public funerals were prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too little; too late.<\/p>\n

From October 4th<\/sup> through the 20th<\/sup>, the city recorded<\/a> 22,051 new cases. More than 3,900 died during those 17 days. During its most virulent four-week stretch, 47,094 cases of influenza were reported, writes James F. Armstrong<\/a>. Still, denial of city officials and the Press persisted. An Inquirer<\/i> article of October 9th\u00a0 <\/sup>carried the headline<\/a> \u201cSigns Of Epidemic Wearing Itself Out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1918 influenza pandemic and the related complication of pneumonia<\/a>, cost Philadelphia something like 1%<\/a> of its entire population, nearly 12,200 citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its 10-month duration between 22 and 40 million people perished worldwide,\u201d writes Armstrong, who estimated “the death toll in the United States at over 675,000 with over 22 million” cases.\u00a0 That death toll was more than five times the total number of American casualties<\/a> in World War I.<\/p>\n

Bad all around, but no American city had been hit harder than Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Life on the home front? In 1918 Philadelphia, it was more like stubborn ignorance and needless death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September had been tough, especially the middle of the month, when more than a quarter of the soldiers at the Frankford Arsenal had been hospitalized with the \u201cSpanish Flu.\u201d On October 1, as the corpses were counted, The Inquirer grasped for a positive tone, pointing out the number of new cases had actually fallen off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}