The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-14
Rebellion ON LONG ISLAND.

The refusal of the inhabitants on Long
Island TO ALLOW the officials of the State
of New York to occupy the buildings
bought on Fire Island, as lodging for
passengers brought to this country in in
iected ships, is the latest attempt 20 assert
he supremacy of local prejudice over law
and right. The State Of New York had a
right to buy the Fire Island hotel. II aving
bought II, it had equally good right to oc-
cupy il rs place of reception for steamsh ip
passengers who, though well themselves,
had crossed the ocean in ships which con-
tanned victims of cholera, and who were
therefore deprived of their natural liberty
in order to prevent the possibility OF the
spread of contagion. Such occupation in
volyed little danger to the Long Islanders,
for the nearest town or village or farm
house is separated from the hotel on Fire
Island 10y many miles Of distance and q
large body Of water known as the Great
South Bay. Yet the terror of the inhabi-
tants of Suffolk County was aroused by the
thought that any one who has been on a
cholera ship was going to set foot on their
shore, and they refused TO let the women
and children from the ships in quarantine
land. In the same spirit which prompted
the Russian peasaniry to fire the cholera
hospitals, the Long Islanders drove these
wTetched wanderers back into the bay.
The time has passed when locality can
subordinate the public welfare to its own
local fears and preiudices. Among thought
full men it is an axiom that a common
wealth like New York cannot afford to
have its laws and its officials set at defiance.
Americans fully realize as a matter Of
theory that this is a land Of law and order.
But in practice small communities are apt
to assert their own will when their passions
are reused and to deny the right of major
tiles to rule. That is an error. If the laws
are bad, machinery is provided for their
amendment or repeal. Neither COM
munties nor individuals can be suffered to
take the law into their own hands and to
say what statutes they will obey and what
statutes they will disObey, or what officials
they will respect and what officials they
will not respect. 1t is difficult to frame
laws which shall be equally satisfactory in
every part of a country with an area Of
three million square miles and population
Of 65. 600 souls; but there is but one rule
to fOllow-majoritie must govern and
minOritieS must submit.
1t is of the essence of organized society
that individuals must yield something of
their rights for the safety of the whole
body of citizens. La cases of pestilence pas
seagers in vessels from infected ports must
submit to the inconvenience Of quarantine.
and some spot on the Seashore must be oc-
cupied by the well and the conyaIescent.
No traveller can claim the right OF spreading
cOntagion among his fellow-countrymen be-
cause he dislikes being cooped up in an
infected ship. nor can any dweller on the
seacoast prevent the landing OF passengers
from ship in quarantine at a spot which
the proper authorities have designated as
safe and convenient. If either Of them
rebel against the regulations which the
public health requires the authorities must
be supported.