Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-08-14
THE NATIONAL BOARD OF
HEALTH,
Ornamental But no Longer Needed
Its Duties TO BePerGOrnled by the
Marine Hospital Service.
Special to tho Cincinnati Commercial.

Special to the Cincinnati Commercial.
WASHINGTON. August II. = The
National Board of Health may be
said to have received its death blow.
The Treasury Departmentreceivedto to.
day from Secretary Folger a decision
on the contest between the National
Board of Health and the Marine Hos
pital Service for the possession of the
special epidemic fund, giving it to the
Marine Hospital Service. Inasmueh
as the National Board of Health got
nothing from Congress except its own
salaries and not quite enough money
to pay its running expenses, Judge
Folger's decision practically ami
hilates it, and transfers its functions to
the Marine Hospital Service, so that
an organization created by special
act, aud by it rendered Independent
practically of every other department
of the Government, is ignominiously
destroyed without even the courtesy Of
a special act of Congress.
Congress crippled its wings so that
it could no longer fly, and when it tried
to soar as before, above everything and
everybody, Folger's decision broke its
back.
Of course the National Board of
Health is very sorry for itself. 1t is
not probable that any one other than
Harris of Tennessee, and Reagan, of
Texas, who have shared its patronage,
will sympathize with it in its dire
misfortune. AS Senator Beck said to-
day, it overleapt itself, Ifit had been
content to take what Congress was
willing to give for the suppression of
disease, always more than it asked for,
it might be still in control OF the
public health without fear of rivals.
But its vaulting ambition was not
content with this. 1t sought to mag
nifty its powers and to elevate itself
still higher above the rest of the
world.
1t asked more and did less than It's
modest neighbor, the Marine Hospital
Service, and when it was sharply
brought to book it could give no
excuse for its own existence. So
Congress clipped its wings by giving
to the President the control of che
Sl00 600 Epidemic Fund, which the
National Board Of Health expected
to handle. Probably Congress knew
very well that the money would be
placed in the hands OF the Marine
Hospital Service, and rested satisfied
with that assurance. No one has any
difficulty in finding out what the
Marine Hospital Service is, and what
it has done. Its record justifes its
claims. The only difference that the
country will ever know between the
work Of the National Board of Health
and the Marine Hospital Service,
should another epidemic occur, will
be that.the work of the Service will
be better than the work of the Board.
Surgeon General Hamilton has
already taken steps to render prompt
and efficient assistance to the State
authorities in the South should the
need arise this year. He is able to do
everything that the National Board
could have done, and much more.
He is able, accomplished, vigilant and
energetic, and all well informed men
here, not Immediately connected with
the National Board of Health, agree
that the President and Secretary of the
Treasury have acted wisely in placing
the special epidemic funds in his
hands.
The National Board of Health re-
fuses to believe that 1t is dead. 1t has
appealed from Folger unto Brewster.
1t thinks that the Secretary of the
Treasury is wrong when he says
that the plain intent Of the law,
making the special appropria-
ton for an Epidemic Fund Of
500 900, was as manifestly to place it
entirely in the discretion of the Pres
ident as it was to exclude the Ma
tional Beard Of Health from its con-
troll. 1t thinks the Attorney General
will agree with it. Meanwhile, since
the President, in whose hands the
money is expressly placed by the
statute, and the Secretary of the
Treasury, in whose charge be has
transferred it, agree that it ought to
be handled by the Marine Hospital
Service it probably will be, should
the necessity for its use arise. The
National Board of Health might as
well succumb to the ineyitable grace
fully while it can. Soon it may not
be able to.
The President and Congress agree
that it has outlived its usefulness, and
it might as we'll put itself away in a