The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-12-05
and cooperate" but it must take tho

lead In CllS important duty.
The islands of the West Indies, which
are the principal endemic foci OF the dis
ease, and which have been the habitat of
yellow fever for over three hundred
years, do not send out armed men-of-war
to land troops upon our seacoast and
amid the ''pomp and circumstance of
war" destroy human lives, and lay in
waste our fair land; but silently theik
vessels come, lib @ "ships that pass In the
night" or like Greeks bearing gifts, and
the foul plague plants it's banners of
death, desolation and disaster upon our
shores.
IL an armed body of foreign soldiers
should disembark on our coast and
threaten an invasion of our soil, the ma
tional tocsin of war would be sounded
the Federal army would beat the wars
alarm, and who, in all the land, would
be jealous of "Uncle Sam in such
crisis?
If our States rights brother is not jeal-
Gus or the Federal power in treating with
physical, visible, booted. spurred and
helmeted foreign foe, why should he he
jealous of 1t in dealing with u foe which
has come from beyond the seas, fiftyseven
times within the present century, and
though microbic, invisible, unhelmeted
and unheralded by the trumpets-of war,
has brought more death and disaster to
us than all the foreign enemies of the
government con" ined? Let us not at
tempt the officer OF scavenger in the port
of Havana, as suggested bv prominent
journal, but rather set our own house in
order. Local sanitation and national
quarantine should be the battle cry
against yellow fever and other foreign
plaques. Le there be no jealousy of Fed
eral power, hut rather let us have conf
dence in and give support to the general
government as the only competent power
to deal with so formidable Il foe. We
should bear in mind that the Consttu-
ton of the United States was framed to
provide for the common defense. pro-
mote the general welfare and secure the
blessings Of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity.''
Congress should at once radically re-
wise the present quarantine laws. and
should provide ample means to enforce
rigid seacOast quarantine. Vessels suit
able for such service should be set apart
for quarantine duty. Ample funds should
be provided, and as San ounce OF pre- YEN
tative is worth pound of cure" yellow
fever and other contagious diseases
should not be classed among our i'm.
ports. If perchance contagion should
obtain foothold, the national govern.
vigorously as to inspire confidence in it's
ability to prevent its spread. Cam ps OF
detention and isolation should be estab-
lished and the infected locality should
have absolute non-intercourse, except
under regulations provided by govern
| ment experts. Local guarantees should
not re allowed to interfere with inter
state traffic and local rules and regula-
tions, like the State laws on other mat
tiers, should not be permitted TO contra.
vene the Federal law.
Any private citizen is possessed of the
inalienable right to "wrap the drapery of
his couch about him and lie down. and
die of apprehension, but he has no right
either natura. or acquire while suffering
from the delirium of apprehension, to
stay the pulse of the universe, to stop
the entire planetary system from revolv.
| ing in it's accustomed orbit. Therefore.
the Federal statutes should be so revised
as to prevent the pandemonium of local
| quaratines whose very inei,ici ency beget
| fear, disorder and lawlessness Human
| lives are far above all other considera-
| tions, and yet all conversant with the
facts will agree that the local shotgun
guarantees, which obtained al! through
the South during the late yellow fever
scare, brought mtrc of suffering and dis
aster to the toillng m asses than The fever
itself
The chambers of commerce Df promi-
nent Southern cities should, acting in
concert. by committees. frame bill on
the subject of national quarantine and
urge its passage by he next Congress.
G.. w. AGEE.
Memphis, Tenn, Nov. %, 1897.