The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1882-01-05
THE GROWING sCOURGE.

Ithas been one OF the blessings that TINS
country has enjoyed for years past that no
general pestience has ravagcd our homes.
Certain localities have indeed, suffered,
and greatly, too, but heretofore the pop
ulation has been so widely scattered and
intercommunication has been so meagre
between different localities, that unless
there were peculiar local causes for the
termination and spread of an
epidemic, the various commu'
mites haze been singularly healthy. Now
things are changed. The States have be-
come thickly populated, railroads and
mails penetrate every known quarter al
most and continuous and remarkably
close intercourse has sprung up between
the many sections until Maine is now as
practically near Texas as Mississippi was
fifteen or twenty years ago. Distance
and formaiity have hcen annihilated
and we are now really one family Such
progress has, it is of course true. its graf
fving features and is Indispensable to high
DEVELOPMENT, but It carries along with II
| its dangerous possibilities. 1t increases
crime and multiplies paupers, outlines with
sadder tlnts the discrepancies in mans con-
dition. but IFS chieiest evil is the imminence
aud opportunities for the propagation oil
deadly diseases. Some maladies in-
deed nature has built climatic
wall around. but others go wher-
ever man goes and flourish most
violently where civilization is brightest. OF
these none are more contagious and loath-
some Than the snall-pox, -and it is the open
secret OF the Union that it is growing in OK
! tent and viralence all over the land. lthas
already gone 10 Americas four points OF
the compass, and we think it is now about
time every State and town were taking ac-
tive precautionary measures. Our own
State and Dallas should at once
set to work TO put themselves
and citizens IN II condition o
to meet the desolation II IL should. That u
will appear in Texas, has already in fact, !,
eyond doubt and it would be childi.hly
1 foolish 70 wait longer to note results. The
New York Herald mas sounded the true
alarm and we commend the following clip
ping from that great journal TO the aiten'
ton Of our State and municipal authorities
"The announcement that the cases
smallpox in tue city this year, as COMPARED
with those OF last year are as eighteen e
one, should warn every one to take proper
precautions against the loathsome diseasc
Vaccination is the only known preventive
for avoidance of the germs OF the disease i
simply impossible wherever cases arc nu
merous. The operation of vaccinaiins
in short, cheap and almost painless; ss
there 1. no possible excuse for neslecting It.
Prevention on large scale can be secured
BY vaccination OF every immigrant who en-
tiers an American port, and Congress should
make such prevention compulsory. A sin
gle case Of smallpox in stcerage fall o.
Immigrants may cause the disease to break
cut in a dozen different States. even II the
people who carry the infection in theii
clothing are not themselves stricken down
A compulsory vaccination law should Be
passed, If only for the benefit ofNew York
for the worst Of the Immigrants always re-
main here and iini their way into tcne'
rnents almost a. closely packed a. shiP''
serrare ana zrenf deal dirfier."