The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-06-30
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Health and Morals,

| Important as are health and morals
they seem to travel together but short
distance in the public mind. Disor.
ders that spread physical, mental, NOR.
al, and spiritual contagion, and which
produce ruin, woe, poverty, crime
shame and death are practically ig
nored whenever such disorders spring
from money-getting schemes, regard
less of consequences to these mighty
interests.
Rigid regulations of health boards
and arbitrary invasion of personal
rights by health officers, are authorized
and permitted in the interest of health
| For instance, steamer entering our
port from foreign land where some
contagious disease is prevailing, al.
though laden with passengers of wealth
and position, and freighted with treas
ures of gold and merchandise, may be
detained at quarantine, subject to the
will of one man. instead of allowing
passengers to land, the health officer
may detain them on shipboard, or send
them in charge of an armed guard to
some lonely island, as was done dur
ing the cholera epidemic of few years
ago. The constitutional guaranty of
" liberty and the pursuit of happiness
may be arbitrarily set aside, and the
weary, anxious traveller forcibly pre-
vented from completing his journey,
joining his friends, or attending to his
business interests. Again, streets are
blockaded in city or town and no
person is allowed to pass certain
points. Houses are quarantined, their
occupants forbidden to leave them,
even to attend to urgent business mat
ters, and loved forms are forcibly car
ried from the home to the pest hos
pital. Again, an established business
is considered menace to public health
and ordered to be removed; if not,
the health officer takes possession, per-
sonal property is burned up, buildings
removed, business interests destroyed,
and vested rights forced to give way
to public health.
The question arises just here "Why
are not disorders which destroy health,
and in addition thereto wreck morals,
as rigidly quarantined?" Instead of
applying remedy, the slightest oppo-
sition to the criminal infections of the
liquor traffic and social evil, or to the
immoralities and crimes arising from
evil reading, gambling, betting on
horse races, lotteries, policy, and kin
dred vices, meet with derision and hos
tile assault. Politicians sneer, crimi-
nails curse, and respectable citizens,
Christian people, and patriots stand in
different.
Setting aside the question of morals
for moment, who can frame salts
60 10 EAno
ton? "Why should health regulations
halt at the door of the bar room and
brothel?" These places combined are
causing more disease, suffering and
death than any other contagion known
to medical jurisprudence. Unhealthy
chemical connections, perpetually sold
as beverages in these places, in thou
sands of instances each year, dethrone
reason, wreck character, poison the
blood, burn up nerve and tissue, dis.
ease the brain, derange the various
functions of the body, and fill thousands
of men and women with wounds and
putrefying sores. In addition thereto,
misery, poverty, squalor and death are
carried into thousands of homes.
According to the last census, there
are about one million habitual drunk
ards in the United States. This means
that proportion of about one to thirty
three of the adult population are ha-
bitual drunkards. Every physician
knows that men are daily falling upon
every side from the drink curse. That
households of children are being reared
from these tainted sources to curse the
future of this nation no sane person
doubts. Advocate.