Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-02-20
ABSURD SUSPICION.

The legislative correspondence of the
San Francisco CoR has this remarkable
paragraph
The following is an amendment to the appro-
priation bill offered by May and adopted and
which may be interpreted as another attack
upon the Restriction Act, and intended 10 fur
niSh means OF unloading Chinese upon this
State
For the Use of State Board of Health to es-
tablish quarantine stations, and 10 maintain the
same in case Of imminent danger from invasion
by cholera, or yellow fever, and to protect the
State from contagious and infectious diseases
s91No1, exempt from the provisions Of Section
of this Act and no portion of the same 20 be used
except with the written approval Of the State
Board of Examiners first obtained"
1t IS readily seen that if Il quarantine station
was established on the Bay of san Francisco all
That would be Necessary 10 effect the landing on
it of cargo Of Chinese would be to inocuiate
one OF the pagans with small pox and the whole
shipload would Toe landed in quarantine to be
supported By the STATE until such time as they
might be turned loose. At the present time the
steamship companies are obliged to take care of
their caTgoes Of infected pagans and if neces
Sary return them to China.
As a curiosity in the annals of low sus-
picion this bit of writing is entitled to the
palm. The State Board Of Health has for
number Of years urged upon the Legs
lature the grave, almost vital, necessity of
locating quarantine grounds. Year after
year the matter has been presented; year
after year its necessity and high import
ance have been admitted Only the over
loading of legislative calendars, and the
wariness of political managers in making
records for party in tho matter of assumed
economy, has prevented the location of the
station. The Federal Government has
over and again urged California to select
grounds. 1t even went so far as to appoint
from the War Department Commission
of officers to act with our Board of
Health. Finally that body fixed upon
a site, and had maps of it prepared
With all the impressiveness it could
command ii urged the Legislature to Sc
cure the plat, and the Legislature was will
ing enough, but calendar maneuvering pre-
vented No politics entered into this
measure-only the welfare of the people,
and that trivial matter, the public health
In his last report to the War Department,
the Surgeon-General of the United States
refers to the California quarantine ques-
ton, and with pardonable acerbity COM
ments upon the folly of our delay and the
false economy we have been practicing
Now, when The cost of the land will be
greatly more than it was when first pointed
out, the Legislature proposes to locate the
station Il is wise Act. No appropria-
ton is more defensible; none is more ur-
gently demanded or justly pushed. AT
this juncture it remains for public jour
nal to permit its legislative correspondence
to appeal to anti-Chinese preiudices by
suggesting that the quarantine measure
may be scheme to undermine the Restric-
ton Act. That is to say, California must
have no quarantine station because, posi-
bly, there might be detained there, on land
or on anchorage, shipload of coolies Was
anything ever written that was more alb
surd The REcoRD-UNIoS is widely
known as vigorous friend of the Restric-
ton Act. and an opponent 10 unrestricted
importation of that non-aSsimilable ele-
ment, the Chinese; but it would insult the
intelligence of every reader and deserve its
own contempt, if it permitted in any of its
columns such an assault upon = measure so
vital 10 the public health and so urgently
needed, as the section of the law providing
for the purchase of proper quarantine
grounds. Whenever hereafter our San
Francisco contemporary desires to cite an
illustration of recorded stupidity and mean
suspicion, let il refer to the instance we
have quoted from its own columns.