Dr. Betty Cleans Up

The company doctor was a 33 -year-old woman, and good-looking; her name was Betty Hayes. Last July Dr. Hayes looked over the sanitary conditions in the company-owned mining villages of Force, Byrnedale and Hollywood, Pa., and decided that conditions were bad. The water had to be boiled before it could be used; sewage overflowed into yards and streets; the streets were mud bogs.

The state health officer told Dr. Hayes to wait until there was an epidemic before she made a formal complaint. The Shawmut Mining Co. said they could do nothing: they had been in receivership since 1905 and in another six years the mines would be worked out and abandoned. But her father had doctored the 400-odd miners and their families for 40 years before her time and she felt responsible for them. Dr. Betty resigned.

The miners struck in sympathy; they wanted Dr. Betty back. During the long deadlock, which lasted all summer and fall, Dr. Betty gave emergency medical care. The mine operators, who were losing a lot of money (probably enough, says Dr. Betty, to have cleaned up the sewage), locked up Dr. Betty's office, on which she had paid the rent, took out some of her medical supplies and books and put a policeman at the door to keep her out. She haled the mine managers into court.

At this point, Federal Judge Guy K. Bard, who has jurisdiction over the receivers, stepped in. The judge made a visit to the towns to look and sniff for himself.

Said he: "Pure water should be the first requirement of a community. I think it would pay in the end to clean up. It is economically wise to make a better community." He appointed new receivers, who agreed to fix up the wells and the sewage. The miners were expected to go back to work. Dr. Betty is already on the job.

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