The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-20
Duty OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE

Every measure snort OF Lue burning
of Chinatown is merely palliative. We
may get the people away from there
but the bacilli of the plague viii re-
main, multiplying in the filth and
threatening a new outbreak in future
or the gradual spread Of the old NAL
ady. What good fumigatiOn would do
where the earth is poisoned may be
judged by ones common sense. 1t is
I not even certain that fumigatiOn would
/ cleanse the houses Of bacteria seeing
/ the flI-success the Board of Health has
/ had in its experiments with merchau-
I disc. Nor could the town be saved by
the extension of the sewers. Sewer
pipe will not take away a polluted soil
and the reek OF plague-smitten floors
and walls. 1t will have its function
with other things in the great work Of
making Honolulu a wholesome and
sanitary place in future but it cannot
meet the emergency now. Only the
torch and the coal oil can do that
The Council Of State will convene
again to-day to consider the appropria-
ton of 100000 or more to settle mer-
chandise claims; for recent cases Of in
lection show that merchandise from
Chinatown, however fumigated II may
be, is one of the most dangerous
sources of disease. BY such means the
plague has crossed Fort street and en-
tered the residence districts. Unless
this property goes up in smoke along
with the buildings that have housed ii,
We shall not get rid of the Black Death.
Every doctor who knows anything
knows that; every Inspector who has
seen the goods from Chinatown must
believe IL.
There are those who grudge the cost
among them, apparently, the able Min
lister of Finance, whose cherished sur
plus is in peril. But We urge the Coun-
ell of State to remember that the de-
struc,ion OF a single cargo of island
sugar at port of entry because OF the
plague would cost Hawaii more than
all the Chinese merchandise is worth |
If 1t gets out on the Coast that the
authorities here. for the sake of keep
ing an extraordinary sum in the public !
treasury, have neglected one of the |
most obvious Of safeguards, woe betide
us. We shall then have to meet a
quarantine barrier more insurmOunt- !
able than a Chinese wall; sugar stocks |
will sink below sea level: our tourist |
trade will stop for long time to come;
trans-Pacific steamers will avoid us; !
we shall he isolated and accursed. The
duty good citizens owe Hawaii is to |
spend every dollar of the surplus ifI
need be in subduing the pestilence, a
thing that has already done more
harm to us than the surplus, If turned |
over intact, with Mr.. Damon's COM
pliments, could do the Treasury of the
United States.
The Advertiser in appealing for thor
ough work has the backing, so far as It /
can find out, of every citizen save
few of those who own shacks or goods
in Chinatown and those to whom
healthy surplus is dearer than a healthy
city. In this case thorough WORK
means four things: the stoppage of the
and transfer of infected mer-
the burning of that mer-
chandise; the obliteration of every
thing in Chinatown that has four walls l
and a floor; the complete disinfection
of the site. And the necessary antece-
dent to ali this is haste. The Council |
of State should not forget that the
bacilli Of the plague may be increasing
by thousands every day as they did once
upon a time in Milan where neither
those who journeyed to the mountains
nor laid off shore on ships were able
to escape their ravages. Breeding fast
in festered pits the deadly germs were
carried here and there on every wind
and on every article of merchandise
until more than half the Milanese were
dead. The bacilli Of the plague arc
breeding the same way here. Shall 1t
be said that the statesmen OF Hawaii
weighed dollars against the chance of
destroying their breeding-places ana
extirpating them.
Tank about the cost of destroying all