Influenza Lid To Go On City Today

• Dr. B.F. Simon, City Health Officer announced that closing orders for St. Paul will be issued today to prevent the spread of influenza following the recommendation of the Citizens’ Committee• The Committee decided almost unanimously to recommend the closing of all places of amusement, the churches, the schools, soda fountains and saloons and to enforce such other restrictions as deemed necessary in the judgment of the city health department• Dr. Simon said, “Our department will carry out the recommendation and after an intelligent investigation will include every place in the closing order where it is shown there is a six-foot contact between persons”• Chairman S.W. Dittenhofer added the provision in the resolution making it possible for the city health department to enact a sweeping closing order affecting any meeting, business or industry where the health department decided the six-foot rule was being violated• Representatives of the motion picture theaters and the churches agreed that the recommendation of the committee would be carried out voluntarily on their part• Representatives of amusement places insisted that the order should be sweeping and include all retail stores, as well as other places where the public congregates • S.O. Hartwell, Superintendent of Schools, voted for the closing and said he believed if the closing was to be effective it should include everything• Dr. B.F. Simon, City Health Officer opposed any closing regulation. He attended the Citizens’ Committee meeting prepared with data to show that closing accomplished nothing• There will not be a ban on war work meetings• “Dr. H.M. Bracken, head of the State Board of Health, declared he did not believe closing or any other measure would prevent the epidemic from reaching its crest and burning itself out. He characterized the closing order in Minneapolis as a joke and said it had accomplished nothing”• Some members of the Committee asked that the closing resolution be laid over until after the medical association had given its opinion, but withdrew their request and voted for the resolution when physicians present said no concerted opinion could be expected from the physicians• Hundreds of persons applied at the different emergency quarters yesterday seeking inoculation and hundreds of masks were given out • Dr. B.F. Simon, City Health Officer said that with only thirteen inspectors the department is having difficulty keeping an absolute check on the many cases • 8,000 of 27,000 school pupils are out of school either from illness or illness in their familyNewspaper article1,