Oral History Program Dr. W. Glen Garner Interviewed by Mike Sanders 20 May 1972 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Dr. W. Glen Garner Interviewed by Mike Sanders 20 May 1972 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Garner, Glen W. Dr., an oral history by Mike Sanders, 20 May 1972, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Dr. W. Glen Garner. The interview was conducted on May 20, 1972, by Mike Sanders, in Garner’s home in Ogden, Utah. Dr. Garner discusses his experience as a Doctor of Science, and his involvement in the Ogden City-Weber County Health Department. MS: Dr. Garner, how long have you lived in the Ogden area? GG: With the exception of the years when I was away to school and a few years in Wyoming, I have lived here since 1909. MS: Were you born in Ogden? GG: No, I was born in Idaho at the foot of the Teton Mountains. MS: You obtained your PhD in micro-biology? GG: SCD, Doctor of Science. MS: When was this? GG: In 1937. MS: Where was this obtained? GG: I first started a course of study at the Physician and Surgeon's College in microbiology in Chicago in 1926, and I finished practically all of my work there for a bachelor's degree in micro-biology. Then I had to quit for lack of funds - if you know what that means, and I didn't get back to it again until during the early part of the depression. Then I went to the University of Utah where I took all of the courses that I needed to make up for what I had missed, transferred and then continued on with studies in micro-biology, taking 1 every course that was available at the University of Utah and five courses outside of the University to make up my work for a master's degree in micro-biology, I then continued at the University of Utah in the School of Medicine as chief assistant to Dr. Oren A. Orgelby, who was professor of micro-biology and clinical pathology at that particular time, I was his first assistant in teaching there and at the Wasatch Laboratories, the Holy Cross Hospital, St. Mark's Hospital, the Salt Lake General Hospital and the old Veteran's Hospital in Salt Lake City. During this time I was studying on my work to full the requirements for a Doctor of Science Degree in micro-biology. Finally after what seemed like many, many years, I completed this in 1937. MS: When did you first become associated with the Weber County Health Department? GG: Well, the Weber County Health Department didn't come into being until about 1950's, I have forgotten the exact year. I was originally with the Ogden City Health Department. There was no County Health Department other than in name only, and by the way this was true of Ogden City too. It was a health department in name only. They performed some functions and services too, but not very many. Weber County at that time, had a county physician, and if my memory serves me correctly, Dr. Rich Johnston was the county physician at that particular time. They did some treating of county patients, indigents and so on, but that was about the extent of the work they did. Everything else was done through the Ogden City Health Department. County services such as that required for the control of venereal diseases, etc., was conducted through the Ogden City Health Department. MS: When did you first become involved in this? 2 GG: In 1941, the spring of 1941, the first of June as a matter of fact, Fred Abbott was the Mayor of Ogden City at that particular time, and when he came into office one of the first things he attempted to do was to establish a workable, full-time health department in Ogden City. He came over and interviewed Dr. Orgelby and later that afternoon myself and Dr. Orgelby combined. He wanted me to come over and go to work for Ogden City and set up the beginnings of a health department of Ogden City that would be a functional working health department rather than a health department in name only. This we did. Things were in a rather deplorable condition, as Mayor Abbott recognized at that time. He had one individual who by the way, was recruited from Twenty-Fifth Street. He was a bartender on Twenty-Fifth Street and they had assigned him as the sanitarian for Ogden City. I don't know what he did, very little if anything. He would go out and collect samples and find a tree and go to sleep, then come back in before quitting time, turn in the samples to what they called the city chemist at that time. Instead of doing the job as he should have by examining these samples for wholesomeness and purity, he performed what was commonly referred to as the "sink test". That means they took a look at them then dumped them down the sink and wrote some figures down on a piece of paper. That was about the extent of the work that was done. They did some superficial examining of prostitutes from Twenty-Fifth Street. They had a "red light district" that was operating more or less in the open at that time and these were supposedly examined for the presence of venereal disease to ensure their so-called clients that they could engage in this practice with some degree of safety, which of course was a fallacy. 3 MS: What was the worst problem found at the time when you first began working with the Health Department? GG: Well Mike, I might mention this, that before any community can grow and develop to any size at all, there are a few fundamental requirements which must be met. The chief one is an adequate, wholesome water supply. This is essential. It must be adequate to meet the needs of the residents of the community and for any industries that are operating in the area, and for industries that are contemplating coming in the future. We must have an abundance of good wholesome water. Another is that we must have safe and adequate waste disposal. By waste disposal I mean all sorts of waste, not just sewage, but industrial waste, household waste, garbage, this sort of thing. This must be adequately disposed of in a safe manner, one that would permanently dispose of it rather than transferring the problem from one place, one locality to another. This was the chief practice throughout the State of Utah at that particular time. Sewage disposal for instance. All of Ogden city's sewage was conducted through the sewage system to an outfall on the north banks of the Ogden River west of Ogden. All of the sewage from Ogden City was dumped into The Ogden River. This produced a rather deplorable situation. The bacterial content of the sewage was high. In order for these organisms to degenerate, these organisms required a lot of oxygen. They required a lot of oxygen in the water. As a result the oxygen supply of the water was depleted, making it impossible for aquatic life to survive. Besides the contamination along the banks of the Ogden River, the water that was drawn from the river beyond the outfall of the river was used for the irrigation of vegetable crops, radishes, onions, asparagus and all sorts of things. They didn't make for a very healthful situation either. 4 MS: Did it ever lead to a serious health problem? GG: Not that we could trace. We had some cases of dysentery. Each year there was always dysentery, but this was very difficult to trace. It was suspected that perhaps many of these originated from the use of vegetables like radishes, onions and carrots that were eaten raw and were perhaps not sufficiently or adequately washed and sterilized before consuming. We know that a few cases were traced to this source, but the extent of it we do not know. There were no specific studies made as we did not have the force or the equipment at that particular time to chase down all of these problems which arose. MS: During the time you were working for the city at that time, was Ogden ever faced with a serious epidemic? GG: I don't recall any real epidemic other than the childhood diseases which we ordinarily run into. Common colds, of course, were extensive, but no more so than they are today. These could not be attributed to any water source or food supply or anything like that. The childhood diseases like measles, mumps, scarlet fever, were common and perhaps due to the inadequacy of nursing services provided in the public schools. In other words, being unable to detect these diseases in the very early stages contributed to more cases in relation to the numbers of persons living in the area than would be present today percentage wise. Nursing services and health services within the school system have been dramatically improved since these early days and are quite effective now in controlling the childhood diseases. This along with the vaccination program for measles, polio and so on, we don't have too much to fear from this standpoint. MS: You mentioned at the first of the interview about a water problem. Was Ogden ever faced with a serious water problem? 5 GG: Not from a real health standpoint, Ogden City, prior to the 1940's had a very wonderful water supply in the Ogden Basin arterial system. The arterial wells supplied a water that was wholesome. You will note that I did not use the word pure because there is no such thing as pure water. In spite of the fact that we hear many people nowadays say - “this is an absolutely pure water" there is no such thing as absolutely pure water. When it is pure it has to be rendered pure by various processes that will remove not only the bacteria and harmful living organisms, but chemicals too. We don't have a real problem. In about 1945 and in l947 particularly, we began to have some complaints from women who were washing their clothes in washing machines using Ogden City water. They began to notice brown stains on white clothing that were very difficult to remove in any process they could think of. This seemed to persist and they brought me some samples for analysis to determine if possible what the nature of this contamination was. I determined that the trouble was due to the presence of a micro-organism commonly called a cremophrax, which is an iron loving bacteria that utilizes iron in its metabolic processes. It stores iron in a little sheath which surrounds their body and the presence of these organisms with all this iron around their sheath in the water supply, produced the brown stains on the clothing. Once a water system, which was our deep wells, becomes implanted or infected, it is almost an impossibility to get rid of it. The only recourse is sooner or later abandon it and drill new wells or seeks a new water supply, if you want to rid yourself of this particular problem. MS: How does it develop? Is it man-induced or is it something which nature does? GG: No, this is produced from nature; it is not man-induced. It is an organism which is found quite widespread in nature and when it comes in contact with waters which have iron in 6 sufficient quantity to supply its biological need, then does it approach a situation where it becomes a real problem. This was true because the iron content of the water supply through the years seemed to gradually increase from the minute traces up to several hundred parts per million in some instances. I know one well which was producing up in the Ogden Valley, a privately owned well, that ran 280 parts per million in iron, I have forgotten just what our wells ran, but it was common I think, around 52 to 58 parts per million. Since the iron was present and the organisms had found their way there, they utilized the iron for their growth and development. MS: I am curious about the prostitution problem. Was this a big health problem during the Second World War? Was there a Venereal Disease Program? GG: Venereal disease, I suppose in every community of any size, poses a problem. It probably always has and always will pose some problem. This was in a period of time during the early years of World War II and a few years prior to that when prostitution was practiced rather openly on Twenty-Fifth Street. It did pose a problem because many of the soldiers who were in transit and had some layover time Ogden, and also came in from the various places, from Hill Field Air Force base, the Arsenal and Supply Depot, contracted venereal disease and it became rather widespread. This made it necessary to instigate some control program that would be effective. Of course the process is to try to eliminate the practice of prostitution, which is a difficult problem. Usually it results in moving the prostitutes from one location to another. You can drive them out of the cheap hotels and rooming houses on Twenty-Fifth Street, close them down, but they simply move out into the residential sections, rent a house and set up all over again. 7 MS: Did venereal disease ever reach the very serious level in this area? GG: I think the venereal disease level at the present time is about as serious as I have noted it during any of my years of experience. Promiscuity and sexual freedom as is engaged in by individuals even in junior high school and senior high school and colleges is high. The freedom and promiscuity in sex activities believe at the present time, is responsible for most of it. There was a time during World War II when the venereal rate increased rather rapidly due to the influx of military personnel and wide-spread practice of prostitution in Salt Lake City, Ogden City, Brigham City and surrounding areas. It was necessary through the vigilance of police and public health workers to close down these places of prostitution. This decreased the rate somewhat, but as I say, it resulted in simply moving the prostitute from one location to another. MS: Was there any attempt made to find out if the prostitutes did have venereal disease? GG: Yes, when I came here in 1941, they had a regular lineup of prostitutes each Thursday evening. They were given orders by the police department to be in the Health Department at 7:00 PM each week for their checkup and vaginal smear to determine whether or not gonorrhea was present and a visual examination was made for the evidence of syphilitic lesions or cancer which is one of the first noticeable stages of syphilis. The assumption being, I presume, that if they had a weekly checkup they were considered relatively safe and they could go on practicing their profession, if you want to call it that, which is a fallacy as there is no truth to this. A prostitute may, by smear or examination be determined to be free from venereal disease today, but tomorrow they may be infected and infect anyone with whom they have sexual contact after that. This is not only true here, it is true anywhere. 8 MS: How has the Ogden City-Weber County Public Health Department stacked up against the rest of this area? GG: At the beginning of this interview I believe I mentioned that there were two primary essentials necessary for the growth and development of any community. These are an adequate wholesome water supply and an adequate safe disposal for wastes, sewage, industrial wastes, garbage, etc. There are other factors which are necessary for the development of a community and this is, of course, safe adequate food supply. Now since milk is one of the best foods particularly for young children, it is absolutely essential that milk be free from harmful bacteria. Many diseases can be transmitted through handling of foods and particularly milk, which, because by its very nature it is a very good culture for the growth and development of most bacteria, particularly if temperatures are permitted to rise to a degree where they can grow rapidly. Bovine tuberculosis particularly can be transmitted from cows, bangs disease, typhoid fever, undulant fever and many others that I can think of, can be transmitted from the animals themselves to human beings, or from the individual who does the milking and handles the milk up to the time that it is distributed by contamination by the individual engaged in the milking processing. When I first came over here I found that the milk shed or the areas supplying milk to Ogden City was in deplorable condition sanitation wise. I thought perhaps the best thing to do would be to call upon the United States Public Health service and ask for a survey of the Ogden City milk shed, which I did. I believe it was in the early spring of 1943 that the first milk survey was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Department representative in this area. After the survey and the total averages were determined, we wound up with a rating of 38% which I believe was one 9 of the lowest in the State of Utah at that particular time, as noted on any particular survey. This pointed out more than ever the necessity of some drastic changes in sanitary processes and in the production and care of milk and milk products, both on the dairy farm and in the area processing plants. One of the first things we did to correct this problem was to hire two very efficient individuals as milk sanitarians. One was Mr. Herbert Pinton who received his training in dairy science in New Zealand and came to the United States and through his diligent sanitary inspections and instructions to dairy producers, and Mr. Wayment, who was hired at about this particular time, and had a great deal of experience in milk processing, the situation improved. In the fall of 1944 we called for a new survey by the United States Public Health service on our milk shed, and to show you the great, improvement which had taken place, we made the honor roll for the first time in the history of Ogden City in that particular time, which meant that our rating was above 90 percent, Ogden City and Weber County has maintained this every survey, which is every two years, since that period of time. We obtained one of the highest ratings in the State of Utah due to the diligence and good relations with dairy producers and processers. Courses of instruction were given throughout the area and full cooperation which was rendered our inspectional services worked to maintain this rating through a period of years to the present time. MS: The Ogden-Weber county is fairly well off as far as the area of public health is concerned? GG: This is very true. Not only in milk, but we did very poorly on the first United States Department of Public Health survey of our cafes and public eating places in the area. Of course this is the way we determine, through these surveys, just what the situation is 10 and where the problems lie in the food service program. We held schools throughout the various areas of the county, we instigated a food-handling training course which was conducted at the Weber County Public Health Center, and it was required by ordinance that all people who were engaged in the handling of food take this course and possess a food-handlers service card guaranteeing that they had successfully passed a written examination in the preparation and handling of food. Sanitary practices improved as did the proper storage of food to inhibit the growth and development of bacteria, some of which could be harmful to humans. After this program was initiated we have been on the honor roll as far as our food service is concerned from that period of time to the present, which I feel is quite an accomplishment. Ogden City has one of the best sources of food supplies from a wholesome standpoint of milk and food served in the restaurants, as any place in the western states. MS: Sir, I thank you very much for your time. GG: Anything else I can tell you Mike. If there is anything else I'd be glad to do it. MS: I'm afraid that I am taking up too much of your time. GG: Well, it is a great pleasure. If I can be of any further assistance, or if there are any other areas in the field of public health that I can familiarize you with I'd be most happy to continue this at a later time. MS: Thank you very much, sir. 11