645PRIDE

Action: Congress starts debating the Pellagra case Conclusion: The South couldn’t survive on a single cotton- so they had to diversify. Knowledge of Pellagra was denied till the South could justify action through secondary reasons. The denial spread in a systematic form starting with elitist public outcry which lead to denial in small beaucratic arenas (health centers) followed by businessmen, concluding with politicians. ss
 * Q: What methods were taken to deny existence of Pellagra on the basis of pride?**
 * Research Method:** The Butterfly Caste by Elizabeth Ethridge.
 * Findings:**
 * Action:** Goldberger compares ways of South to Chinese famines. Blames government for not taking action at home, making the South seem as if they needed maternal care, similar to that of lesser civilized peoples.
 * Reaction:** Southern newspapers ignore the reports. Ignoring can be judged in comparison to the North, where New York Times put Pellegra on Front Page.
 * Action:** Public Health Service pledges $18,000, although $140,000 are needed. Realization sets in on the economics behind the problem. Something that is already threatened in that year due to loss in cotton sales. Cotton sales are based on slave labor. The importance of cotton can be seen in the history of Georgia: “Georgia's cotton economy peaked on the eve of World War I (1917-18). Georgia produced a record 2.8 million bales on 4.9 million acres in 1911.” However at the time that Goldberger along with President Harding deciphered the economics behind the disease an “insect reduced the state's cotton yields an average of 29 percent from 1918 to 1924.”
 * Reaction:** Respected families spoke out against the famine. An attack was launched against the President by the editor of the Daily News.
 * Action:** Comparisons are made to hookworm. Similarities include: 1) Symbols of poverty 2) Both found in tenant farmers and croppers 3) Both had increased as slave labor increased (without which the textile industry could not survive)
 * Reaction:** Politicians who supported funding Pellagra took back their word. Example: Senator N. B. Dial and Congressman James F. Byrnes.
 * Reaction:** Oklahoma and other states brand famine reports as “malicious propaganda” and proceed to export food.
 * Reaction 2:** Increased effort to raise cotton revenue although it was dropping.
 * Reaction 3:** Health offices of 6 Southern states denied the increase of Pellagra… some even stated that it was decreasing.
 * Reaction 4:** Georgia Senate passes a statement “damming” the report of Pellagra.
 * Action:** Government had established a Pellagra Hospital in Sartanburg, S.C.
 * Reaction:** Spartanburg mayor reported that there was no poverty in the city. These biased reports existed for another 50 years.
 * Action:** President states that diet of salt pork, corn bread, and molasses led to Pellagra
 * Reaction:** A statement was made appealing to patriots, which proclaimed that for 4 years that was the diet of Confederate soldiers, and they were fine.
 * Action:** Many different people including lawyer, teachers, lumbermen, and patients wrote individual letter to the Public Health Service crying out for the existence of Pellagra.