The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-23
SAN FRANCISCO 5 CRIME
Observation-Disclosures SEVERE
ARRANGEMENT
Charges the Golden Gate City with a
Conspiracy of Untruth Which
Hesitated at no Injustice,

The following, referring to the Off
Cial statement from Washington re-
gardng 81 cases of bubonie plague in
San Francisco, is published by the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer under the
heading of THE Truth is OUT"
The truth about the bubonic plague in
San Francisco, as told in our special
dispatches yesterday, and as previously
reported by the Observation-Disclosures, re-
fleets most discreditably upon the Off
Gals of that city and the governor of
the state. II is not a disgrace, only a
misfortune, for any city to find itself
invaded by this horrible disease. 1t was
not necessary that telling the truth
should involve serious consequences for
the California city. The plague was of
type which it is believed, yields to
control and could be stamped out easily
by proper measures. At the same time
it is also true that there was danger, if
proper measures were not resorted to,
of its general diffusion and it's assump-
ton of more menacing form.
In the face of these well-known facts,
San Francisco has been engaged, for
more than a year, in attempting to con-
ceal the truth behind repeated and spe-
Cific denials. Fear of losing a certain
amount of business was stronger with
her than any consideration for the pres
ent safety of others or for her own flu
ture. Still worse than that, her public
officials Joined in a bitter and public
asSauu, upon representatives of the
federal health department.; and the dis
grace and retirement of able and COM
petent men for no other reason than
that they dared to do their duty was
thought a small price to pay, and was
demanded in order that the guilt of To-
cal officials might be concealed and
might accomplish its wicked purpose.
We recall few episodes more dscredit-
able to a city or less worthy of a civiliz-
ed community.
Within the past year according to the
report of Supervising Surgeon General
Wyman, thirty-two cases of bubonic
plague have been reported in San
Francisco, and all of them proved fatal.
The committee that was to brazen the
matter out has thought better of it,
and agreed at last to unite in suppress
sive measures. Sanitary work is being
organized, and there is little doubt that
the disease can be kept within control.
Infected houses are to be disinfected,
houses of detention and hospital ac-
cOmmodatiOns for patients are to be
provided, and the Chinese quarters,
where the trouble undoubtedly has
its center, are to be subjected to rigid
sanitary measures. These are the steps
that ought to have been taken when
the first case of plague was reported to
the local authorities. Although the
danger is by no means over, there is
good reason to hope that the spread of
this horrible contagion may now be
prevented.
There is no possible censure severe
enough for the authorities who have
lent themselves to the policy Of con-
cealment and denial. They have been
as belligerent as they were unprincipled.
They have assailed the character and
professional reputation of every man,
and the reliability and the motives of
every newspaper that dared to hint at
the truth. They have lowered them
selves to the level of the sort of gov
ernments that we have been clearing
out of the cities of Cuba, and that we
think sufficiently iniquitous to be pro-
hibited by special arrangement with the
coming Cuban government They have
stopped at no assault on individuals
and at no exposure of the public to one
of the most dreaded diseases of
modern times, for basely selfish and
sordid reasons. And they yield to civil
lization only after desperate resistance
has failed. and under the strong COM
pulsion of the federal power. The truth
is out; and an epidemic of bubonic pla-
que in it's worst form could not be more
damaging to the material interests of
San Francisco than this revelation is to
her moral standing.