A dangerous virus closes churches and schools closed, but alcohol sellers are still open. No, it's not the Coronavirus, it was the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918, and the Committee of the Clergy in Watertown, Wisconsin wrote a letter to the State Board of Health urging a change in policy.
Watertown, Wis., Dec. 4, 1918.
Dr. Harper, Madison, Wis.
Dear Sir:
Our city is suffering from a severe epidemic. Many are sick. Not a few have died. The present reports are not encouraging. The number of cases have increased. The clergy of this city deeply sympathize with the sufferers and are vitally alive to all measures taken for the community’s relief.
We are eager to cooperate with the health department in every rational endeavor to protect the health of our citizens. So much so that we unprotestingly submitted to the closing of our churches for four Sundays; practically one week more than either schools, pool rooms, or motion shows were required to close. We readily submitted then, we will now, providing we are assured that our sacrifice Is not made futile by lack of restrictions in other places where people often resort.
We beg to remind you that as an alleged health measure, the churches and schools are closed practically. The clergy of this city submit, but we protest against closing churches and schools when places of public resort of less civic value and greater hygienic menace operate without restraint. Recently Watertown built a new high school. It cost much. It is the last word in ventilation and sanitation. This school, like the churches, has been officially closed, while any shack with a saloon license is left open. Fifty-seven saloons, one for every kind of pickle, are open seven days a week. [Poorly] ventilated and cleaned; a wet ring around the cuspidors from [poorly] directed expectorations; glasses dipped into water and given to consecutive customers. Saloons are open. Churches and schools are closed.
The clergy realize the severity of this epidemic. It has been our sad duty to encourage the dying, comfort the bereaved, perform the last rites. We understand the seriousness of the epidemic and promise our support in any sane measure for the control of the disease. But we are convinced that merely closing the schools and churches while saloons are left open is of no protective value. It savors of politics rather than hygiene. It is false in principle, biased in application and unjust to our best citizens.
The clergy here are ready to cooperate with the public health department if the department’s acts are worthy of cooperation. But when you close the churches and yet leave other places more menacing to the public health open, the legislation is not only futile, but implies a sad ignorance of the function and value of the church. We therefore bring to your attention two unquestioned facts.
Many, in the time of fear and distress are dependent on the church for consolation. Their morale is impaired if not destroyed because of a closed church.
The morals of a community are admittedly nurtured by the churches. But you have closed the churches and opened the saloons, to the detriment of the city’s morale and moral life.
The clergy make two requests:
In any future legislation please make the measure efficient, rational, through from the start. The present measures are evidently tentative and experimental. They are not worthy of your high office, sir. We request therefore that in [the] future the churches be closed only when the city is efficiently quarantined.
Kindly inform us where the closing authority is vested. We are at times informed that all orders come from you. Sometimes the local health officer apparently issues the order. Lately the press has issued orders in the name of the mayor. Kindly inform us, who has the last word in local matters affecting the city’s health?
We desire the courtesy of an early answer. We have not received the satisfaction from your office which you previously promised. We therefore advise you that this letter or other similar will be given to the press at our option. A letter from you, which was before promised us and failed of delivery, may obviate this action.
We remind you that to close the schools is to stultify the mental development of our future men and women; close the churches and you stop the moral and spiritual education of the community. But in addition you not only put us out of business, humanly speaking, but you prevent us as priests performing our duty to Almighty God. Yet ironically you open the saloon which if closed would do what hurt?
Yours obediently,
Committee of the Clergy
It was a letter written in December, 1918 that is as relevant in May, 2020 as it was back then. It is, in every sense of the phrase, a letter to a future pandemic.
Kudos to the Watertown Historical Society for this incredible find! Follow them on Facebook here and check out their website here.