The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-08
A WISE POLICY.

The advance of public intelligence,
especially in matters of sanitary regu-
lation, is finely illustrated by the ac-
ton by the New Orleans health author
tiles in proelaiming the occurrence
there of a case of genuine yellow fever.
1t is not so many years ago that the
announcement of such a fact would
have caused the persons making it to
be mobbed by the people. Instead of
giving to the press the account of the
affair, and warning all persons of it,
there would have been hurried meet
ings and anxious consultations among
leading physicians and public authori-
ties to see how the news could be sup
pressed most effectively. Every pre-
caution would have been taken to pre-
vent the escape Of a rumor of the
truth; and when it became bruited
abroad, as it inevitably must, that yell
low fever had made it's entrance into
the city, the statement would have
been denied with vigor and violence
by every citizen who knew it to be
true
This was the evil method of an igno-
rant past; the method that assumed
cCncealment of the facts to be the pol
icy best adapted to the public interest,
and catered to the selfish fears of the
multitude at the expense of encourag-
ing and almost assuring a dreadful
epidemic. When this dread disease by
reason of this policy, had secured some
weeks of practical non-interference in
which to burrow its way into all parts
of the city, it became almost impos-
sible to stamp it out, or even to keep
through the agency of innocent and ig-
norant parties, been carried from city
to city and from state to state, and the
result was that the whole gulf coast
might be desolated by yellow fever be-
fore the coming winter would enable
the authorities to put it under control
penalty of this insensate practice,
which has not died out entirely in
other communities.
1t is still true in many cities of the
North that the existence of one or
more cases of smallpox will be siren
uousIy denied, and pressure will be
and newspapers to conceal the truth if
possible The South, at least, after
several encounters with her dread foe
has learned better. She knows that
publicity, with the most rigorous san
itary control possible, is the only
means by which yellow fever can be
controlled or its dissemination pre-
vented. Therefore, although there is
reason to suppose that the death of
the young man reported from New Or
leans of yellow fever is the only one
that has occurred in the city, and it is
believed that he contracted the disease
elsewhere, yet the authorities and the
pGCple SNIS llilCl lIACo lilSto1AIiS u IAlC
situation The probability is that this
prompt and intelligent action will en-
| able the people of New Orleans to pro-
tect themselves fully against the dis
ease. 1t is probable that sanitary and
quarantine regulations will be put into
effect with such stringency that the
yellow fever will be excluded from the
city, and possibly confined to the small
area in Southern Mississippi about the
bay of Biloxi, where alone it seems to
have established itself.
The unreasoning terror of infectious
disease, the feeling that to admit its
existence is a species Of disgrace, and
the unwillingness to submit to rational
sanitary control are among the strong
aet indications of a low state of civil
lization. They are also difficult and
slow of eradication. The community
is to be congratulated upon such "a
growth of intelligence as has finally
nut an end to the policy of conceal
ment in all except the most henighted
sections of the country. and has con-