By 1908, impurities in food, milk, and water had reached hazardous levels. The municipal candidate in this cartoon expresses his horror at drinking the city water which was, nevertheless, all right for the voters; he prefers the mineral water tucked in his back pocket. While wealthier people could afford to be discriminating in their purchase of food and drink, the working class mother was forced to buy whatever she could afford. Although typhoid, TB, and diptheria attacked the whole population, the working poor suffered from such diseases up to four times as often as middle and upper-income citizens.
