New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-26
OUR SANITARY POLICY.

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Our honorable Common Council should
we think, regard the sanitary condition O
our city and its health reputation abroa,
as OF the highest importance. We know
that in former times the health reputatio,
abroad Of the city was of small conse
quence. New Orleans was the outlet ani
inlet OF the Mississippi valley. No com
merce could be conducted by any othe,
route. Now artificial lines Of trade con
duct. according to the report of the Sen
ate transportation Committee, TWENTY.
four-twenty-fifths of the commercial ton.
mage across the valley of the Mississippi
70 and from Eastern and European ports.
The travel and financial intercourse pur.
sues the same route in a still greater pro-
portion than the trade.
1t follows, then, that the transfer Of
foreign commerce which could once have
only been conducted at New Orleans NAV
now be carried on elsewhere. If, then, a
merchant wishes to deal in tobacco, cot
ton or Western provisions; if he wishes to
sell goods to the inhabitants of the Mis-
sissippi valley, he may now do SO at one
hundred places, when previously he could
have conducted that business only at New
Orleans.
New Orleans has many attractions to
the immigrant. 1t has one cause of pre;u.
dice to the immigrant. It is liability
to cpl demic yellow fever. Acclimated
persons may say what they please,
but there is a great dread abroad
OF this epidemic, and if people
can do as well elsewhere as here thew will
give elsewhere the preference. Before the
year 1850 there was no city in the United
States which increased SO rapidly MS New
Orleans in population and property.
Since that period St. Louis and Chicago.
and Louisville have become
centres Of trade and population, while
New Orleans has been almost stationary |
in both respects. New Orleans has still |
immense advantages in Offering the most |
direct communication between the upper
country and the tropical markets.
The sanitary system Of New Orleans
should, then. be such as to give the COM
nercial interests entire confidence AZ a
'lace Of residence and Of business. Men
md women should be satisfied that thew
an live as cheap, as comfortably and as
ong here as elsewhere, and that they can
ear children with the same advantages Of
ealth and constitution as in other loca-
ions.
Ihe establishment Of this conviction |
equlres, in our opinion, the maintenance
sanitary system of drainage, clean
ness, with abundant and free water for
ne poorer claSses. The Common Conn
i can spend no money, SO wisely as in |
romoting this object. No expenditure 7
= ditching and pumping, no cost of :
can be too great for this {
,ject. 4
In former times there was no time omar. +
ltine imposed upon vessels coming from a
infected port. Then the law was o
ade positive that when such ports should b
proclaimed in quarantine every vessel n
ming therefrom should be arrested at
9 mouth of the river. It's passengers I,
mpelled to expiate amid mud, mos Al
itoes, a burning sun and marsh miasma, lie
, imprudence of having selected New Ct
leans as point Of debarkation. 81
The policy Of the State Board Of Health m
some years past has been in con- G
lance with the ideas Of modern hygiene ra
commerce. A practice of quarantine of
been introduced perfectly original. fu
masters of the regular steamers
ming between this port and those of
q Cruz and Havana have placed on se
ir vessels orders which are obeyed as a.
plicitly as marine commands ALWAYS -e1
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. The vessel. while in the foreign At,
t. pumps out her bilge water and re- M