The area that had to be drained and properly supplied with sewers comprised 37½ square miles and 700 miles of streets, and it is claimed even by outsiders that this undertaking was the largest public work of this character ever put through at one time in the United States.
That the women of New Orleans have not voted since that occasion is no evidence of their discouragement at their first vote. Municipal bonds are not issued at every election and these alone entitle any of them to vote. Suffrage conferences are held in New Orleans and the agitation for a wider suffrage in Louisiana is being carried on by the same women who so ably fought to secure pure water for New Orleans.
This would seem like the most direct kind of health work, for we learn that “the death rate has been reduced 20 per cent., business confidence has been restored and New Orleans is today one of the healthiest and most delightful cities of the country,” according to one of the lovers of the city.
One of the papers on the Pacific Coast, the _Pasadena Star_, recently reported that:
[United States] Surgeon-General Blue pays a handsome, but deserved, tribute to the efficiency of women in practical aid in making cities sanitary, referring particularly to the excellent work of women in San Francisco, in their invaluable assistance in eradicating the plague from the bay city, a few years ago.
From the southern extremity of the continent we pass almost to the northern, noting on our way many a successful attempt of women in towns and cities, to improve water conditions.
In Woonsocket in the dry region of South Dakota the women of a club requested the Town Fathers to supply them with pure and more abundant water. Regret was expressed by the fathers that they could not comply with the request. The women, nothing daunted, organized an Improvement Association, collected money and hired an expert to drill an artesian well. When plenty of pure water gushed forth, the town officials consented to lay mains through the streets and allow the people to receive water from this excellent source. The women were then successful also in persuading the fathers to plan a beautiful park, or accept their own plans for the same, with a charming artificial lake as the crowning pleasure.[12]