New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-10-01
NON 10 FIGHr TIE PEsIILESOA.
GOVERNMENT CONTROL IMPERATIVE.
PLAN FOR GIVING THE NATIONAL AUTHoRI
TIES ABSOLUTE POWER IN CASE OF PLAGUE.

TIES ABSOLUTE POWER IN CASE OF PLAGUE
TO me Fdifor 81 me frfOnne
Sir: While local authorities throughout the South
dealing best they with yellow fever, It
bchooves the cooler and safer sections Of the Union
10 consider to prevent recurrence Of the
plague and rs attendant rights People Will differ
TO the Constitutional power OF the Government to
take entire control Of the machinery necessary to
crush restrain epidemic few Will deny that
It IS beyond the power of corporations and
communities acting within limited spheres and under
the conflicting demands Of charters and State and Ma
t0na laws. to insure safety TO themselves or 10
others. The question arises whether IL IS not best
the General Government having already been called IN
surrender to # entire control and II necessary, a.
may appear, vest with extraordinary powers in time
OF epidemic.
Disease that threatens the whole people Is Ma
tonal enemy. more dangerous and difficult 10 com
bat than hostile fleets and armies Surely the necos
sity that gives 10 the General Government the sole
right TO combat the latter, II foreign, and 10 enter
cities within the Union and suspend the civil pro
ccsses In order to stamp out disorders that are
domestic but threaten the peace Of the Union, is
not stronger than the necessity that appeals for
the defence Of health and life and quiet
The experiences of this summer have again demon
strated how weak and inefficient, at their best,
are the local precautions to prevent the spread OF
yellow fever From few cases at Plant CITY we
have now ephlemics at jacksonville Gainesville and
Fernandina Fla Decatur, Ala, and Jackson, Miss,
with alarming developing among refugees else
where and frost probably forty days of. Vigorous
wise and relentless measures in the beginning would
have controlled the evil there would have been but
little and Interruptions to the mail service
and TO business
Vigorous and relentless measures even now would
control the plague, but the problem is a much larger
There IS only power that can exert this
control If in the beginning the United States Gov
eminent had seized Plant City, mere village, and
arrested every person in It subject to the fever and
placed them all in isolated camps prisoners under
care Of the physicians and surrounded with all
reasonable comforts there would I'm all probability
have bcen no fever elsewhere. II the Government
had entered Jacksonville when the fever was pro
noLncc1 an epidemic, and moved ifs inhabitants into
numerous small and separate camps in the plney
woods. there is little doubt that tie disease would
have been crushed out But the duty Of the Gov
eminent would carry It further, II
We admit its right in the beginning
It would put city empted under strict guard. and
the hands of competent sanitary engineers to deter
mine wherein lay the cause Of disease, and this ascer
tanned, such changes in the existing methods OF
cleaning drainage and would at once be made
by authority temporarily In control at the expense
OF the city collection 70 be made afterward by the
assessment Of special tax. Cities liable to such
assessment and seizure In time Of epdemics would be
kept clean and there would be marked Improvement
in the health Of many that suffer every year from
mder fevers tracesble to the causes that breed The
present prevailing typo. People familiar with Jackson
Vile know that the place was ripe for disease, and
the question arises whether such carclessness As has
marked the course of It's local government in this
respect does not make IL amenable 70 the people
elsewhere whose peace and health and business have
thereby been disturbed
II will be said that the measures suggested are
aF.Ia fIpv1
with bitterness towards the Government, that 1t
would be impossible 10 suspend the business of city
without ruin 10 its merchants. There IS than
grain OF truth the objections But If harsh, are the
measures harsher than those which Southern communi
ties have already, and not always successfully adopted
Train service only infected but healthy points
sis pended coIons Of police surround hundreds Of COM
nDunlte the refugee hungry weary or sick though he
may be- has no place to lay HIS head. Trsin-load
after trlinoad OF people free from disease has been
hauled OF Florida TO points five and six hundred
miles away with the doors locked and no provision
made for food or attendance upon the sick But that
there were people along the way venturesome enough
to feed the hungry through car windows they would
have starved In their cages. SO far as travel ana
ntel-com munIcation IN sections are concerned,
each castle with rs feofs called fl and drawbridge
up. And the shotgun rules the highways. Perhaps
# were better that the people should feel bitter
ness toward the General Government for while than
that the contempt and hatred which have been en-
and be nonrished yearly
VIII any sensible deny that tho country
would be better OF with the people Of Jacksonville in
tuenrv five We-Orierrd camps. supported and
guarded By the General Government, than with the
whole southern section disturbed and the trade inter
rupted for sixty days at the very season for COM
merce depend upon The possibility Of fever
at savannah has already cost that city trade. II
las also Brunswick. Pensacola Mobile and Interior
points. The great exposition IN Augusta has been
pos tpOned. that Macon abandoned. New YORK
merchants hold cancelled orders for goods from tho
South and Southern merchants arr more nan ANXIOUS
about their collections. Is n not better that the bust
Of city should be entirely suspended than tlat
whole section be put 90 loss and confusions Nor
does IL follow thar such suspension means ruin. Laws
touching contracts and limitations ctuld be devised
that would operate IN the favor Of creditors, and We
may be that all possible help otherwise would be
given by creditors since 70 is from these az last that
the greatest help IS derived.
Tie question Is National one; nor can # be said
that the south only IS threatened by the operations Oi
such a system OF defence has been suggested. TIE
North and West vitally Interested In the matter
They TOO. have unciean cities and know what u is 20
yellow yer and cholera cOrpses hurried 10 burial
through gloomy They viii lend their
sistance To any plan that Promises good results. 4
system that VIII crush our epidemic IN the begin
hing and stimulate municipal authorities everywhere
70 clcanlnes. is what the country needs.
New York. sept -. less H. :. EDWARDS