The age-herald., 1897-10-28
ETCHINGS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS,

power to enact and enforce quarantine regulations ie one of the healthiest indi-
 cations in this psHod of epidemies. It
 has been demonstrated that the most
 alert and intelligent state quarantine
 laws are inadequate to prevent the in-
 troduction of yellow fever into Alabama
 or any other commonwealth, which is cont glous to communities which insist
 upon calling typical cases of yellow fey-
 CT mild form of dangue." It is inn possible for any state or body of state
 officials ito battle successfully against
 the mental density of some of the south ern boards of health. Between the ef- fonts made by many medical men to suppress the real facts in regard to pronounced cases of fever, and the in-
 dignaton of certain self-constituted reg l relations of public conditions. every state 1 in the south, bordering on the gulf, has had serious time. The strong arm of the government is needed to grapple
 with the germs of fever, when they first
 make their appearance upon The coast and to institute such quarantine meas
 ures that will prevent the introduction ! of the yellow plague into any city or vil- lage of the country. Only the nationaf government with the vast resources at l its command of men, medicines disinfect- | ants and unlimited and unquestioned power, can prevent the spread of th.s
 
 | foolhold on American soil.
 Besides the prevention of the spread of yellow fever, over the fairest portions of the south, by the timely interven- ton of the national government. the
 people would hail with unalloyed pleas ure a condition which would put a peri cd to the unfortunate discussions, and
 useless bickerfrgs of citizens, divided upon the question of the advlsability Of the present quarantine laws. When sickness and death menace people, they are not in a mood to read or hear the opinions of men who place their views of quarantine regulations in d. rect opposition to those of the greatest medical experts of the day. Only dn
 times of absolute peace, safety and tram quility are the people willing to grant even a fruitless hearing to men who seize every opportunity to force them selves before a weary, exhausted pub lie. When death threatens, and the yell low plague knocks at the dcor of nearly every southern city, the public mind is outraged, that precious time and needed energy are wasted in long columns of philippics, and in miserable small quar- reliings which are even more hurtful than dozens of cases of fever.
 
 At a time when the lives of the men, women and children of the south are
 endangered; when every breeze may
 scatter Heath over this entire land, it should be rendered impossible that
 Gividual opinion, contrary to the best medical authorities of the world can
 force itself upon the atention of peo- pie which already has all it can bear, patiently. The present epidemic has
 compelled the majority of the citizens of Alabama to the belief that there are several evils existing in the state,
 which should be quarantined against as vigorously as yellow fever There are certain indestructible germs of poltti- | cal ambition which should be stamped
 out by the power of the governm; nit at Washington. The efforts of the citi- zens of Alabama in this direction on several notable occasions, have proven unavailing.
 Like other plaques, when certain at- | mcspheric conditions present themselves, the same old symptoms reappear, each | time more violent and more saffron hued than before. It doth appear as difficult a matter to destroy tine political l aspirations of some men-aspirat.ons which never had an excuse for existing as it is to check the threads of yellow fever, or stay the march of the bubonic plague. Alabama cries aloud for govern
 meBt aid it's citizens appeal for protec- ton against the dangers now abroad l within the limits of the commonwealth. -
 Alabama needs the best fumigating i apparatus att Washington for hundreds of it's citizens are victims of yellow fever,
 and uho,isands are weary of even a more deadly plague, that of the petty malevo- lence of disappointed politicians who l have seen fit to air their political griev- ances over the sick beds and coffins of fellow citizens. Let the government henceforth have charge of the quaran- tine regulations and protect the people from deadly disease and the manifestoes of men. who have broken an enforced silence with the accumulated disappoint- ments of years to add to The agitation of the present time. Alabama needs an occasional rest from politics and politi- clans, and while she watches by the bedside of the sick and dying, she de- maiads an immunity from an exhibition