New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-09-03
THE DUTY or OTR NEIGHBORN.

| The public authorities of Newly Orli are gen.
| orally responding with energy and intelligence
to the urgent demand that this city shall be
fortified against an invasion of cholera. 1t is
even now in better condition than If COM
monty has been in years past to resist and re-
strict pestilence. There is still much to be
done there are some natural breeding places
of disease in streets and buildings, and the
water supply is not adequately protected against
pollution. But though the city is foul in spots
and otherwise imperfecty defended. there is
reason to believe that the measures which have
been adopted to improve the means OF escape
will leave our own citizens and other com
munitieS little cause to complain that great
and obvious duty has been neglected in New
York.
Under these circumstances, therefore, we
have a right to ask what our neighbors are
doing in the same direction, and to demand
that they shall evince similar determination
and efficiency in dschargins their own obliga-
tons. 1t is of comparatively little use to make
New York clean and wholesome in all its parts,
and to put in operation here every approved
agency for combating disease, il contiguous
communities are lax and listless. II, unhap
PLY, cholera germs escape from the Bay to land
they will not necessarily develop here. They
NAV begin their fatal work at one or many
points in the vicinity which are unprepared by
the adoption of safeguards to resist them.
From such centres of infection they might
readily invade New York, borne hther upon
the human tide which is constantly pouring into
the metropolis from the surrounding territory.
Many cities and towns near by are badly gov
erned and poorly supplied with the requisites
of health Are their officials and their people
making strenuous endeavors to put them in
good order? This is a question which New
York can now ask without audacty or shame.
Public sentiment here is aroused. and our
prela,at0ns arc in a forward state. II is much
to be feared that this cannot be said OF some
of our neighbors. Brooklyn is peculiarly ex-
posed. and is not well equipped to defy ex-
posura. The Brooklyn water is of superior
| quality, but in most other respects that city il
( i'm a wretched condition Its streets have long
| been VIGOROUSLY vile. its sewerage system is
| deplOraby inadequate, and the administration
| of its public affairs in many departments is
| conspicuously inefficient The same thing
| can Faithfully be said of other communities
| stretched along the East River. and similar
| conditions prevail along the further margin
| of the Hudson. Most fortunately. the con-
scenceless ring which for many years ruled
Jersey City 10 its disgrace and injury is no
longer in full power. A Republican Mayor of
intelligence and honor and energy Is now in
office there and we have no doubt that Mr.
Wanser will prosecute the work OF publication
with all the resources at his command. Going
little further into the interior in all direc-
tons are to be found numerous deficiencies
which need to be supplied and many foul places
which need to be cleansed.
For their own safety. and for the safety Of
their fellow citizens, near and remote we
earnestly entreat the inhabitants of the sur
rounding country and the public officials who
are directly responsible for the health Of the
communities under their care to take up the
indispensable work which now confrontS them
with zeal and devotion 1t is Of the utmost
Importance that pervading sense of insecurity
shall not produce panic Here. But certainly
there is grave danger that the state of alarm
which most surely predisposes to infection will
seize the people if proofs Of negligence surround
them. The best possible way to avoid panic
is to convince the public that its safety is the
subject of constant sOcitude and WatchfuneSS
and that every precaution which knowledge
and experience suggest has been taken for the
common good