Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1885-10-03
THE CONTAGIOUS ANIMAL
DISEASES QUESTION IN
THE UNITED STATES.

disease, supposed to be pleuro-pneu.
monia, has broken out in this State,
the following article, from contributor
to the National LiOe- Stock Journal,
will be read with interest by cattlemen
Of Nevada: / see by the papers receiv.
ed from America, that it is regarded i'm.
possible to stamp out contagious dis.
eases on account Of opposition based on
the principle of estate rights" 1t is
useless to attempt this SO long as the
doctrine Of State rights has any recog-
milton where questions Of this are con-
cerned. All questions Of public health,
or animal hygiene, are Of a public,
hence Of a political nature. The ques.
tons of internal politics are to become
the test by which American statesman.
ship is to be proved in the future. l
make bold TO say that we can not elect
statesmen to do our work SO long as
party lines and principles exist as they
do now. Statesmen are not made, they
are born, and events make them. Every
cause creates its own advocates, when
it has itself become important enough
to attract public notice. So it will be
with animal hygiene.
The breeders have not yet felt the
sting Of this contagious bee sufficiently.
When they feel it sucking the honey
from their pockets, individually, then
we may look for some rational action on
the part Of our representative bodies,
and some men Of sense among them to
represent, not the breeders interests,
but the interests of the country.
We want statesman with intelligence
enough to see that a part is part of
whole, and not a distinct individuality.
No one organ Of the body can become
diseased without the whole suffering.
So it is with the State; | mean the
whole country. No one influence or in
terest can b. materially injured without
its spending reactive action upon
the whole. The doctrine OF Sta.e rights
| Is an absurd inheritance from the past.
| County rights would be as sen5eless as
individual rights. Conditions occur
when all such ideas must b. stamped
out" State rights anil individual rights
are exactly alike. Every citizen has
the right to the fee US: OF his faculties
as long as such trse apss not Interfere
with the action or use OF the same fac
ulties in another person. This is the
alpha and omega of our American prin :.
ciple. Transferred to States, every
State has the right to make and execute
its own laws SO long as it in no way
comes in direct conflict with other States,
TO the injury of the people of those
States. The minute the latter occurs,
the Washington Government comes in
as the supreme authority. That is what
we have it for, and not for an ornamentt?)
Before pleuro-pneumonia had attract.
ed any attention in this country, save
the small outbreak in Massachusetts, |
discussed these questions in the press,
and II have been constantly doing so ever
since The subject is taken up at length
in my book, "Relation Of Animal Dis.
eases to the Public HEALTH" of which
you made mention in the Journal for
last August.
England has the same dificu lilies TO
deal with that we have. There the
"rightS OF the British freeman" and
"local authorities" have also made it
impossible for the government to COM
pletely stamp out contagious diseases.
With our British iuheritances have come
much nonsense we could have done very
well without. Fleming says:
The losses from only two exotic bo-
vine mnladies contagious pleuro. pneu.
MONA, and the so.called "foot.a and.
mouth disease"), have been estimated
to amount, during the thirty years that
have elapsed since our ports were
thrown open to foreign cattle, to $780,
$50 head roughly estimated at e85,oI6,-
S54. The late invasion of seattle
plague" which was suppressed within
two years of its introduction, has been
calculuted to have caused money loss
from five to eight millions of pounds.
But these examples and estimates, after
all, give but slender idea of the de-
vastation, misery, embarrassment, and